I have noticed that many of the post to this forum seem to deal with price and the search for the cheapest SIP product.  I am curious, are posters requiring the SIP's they purchase to be ICC certified?  The International Code Council (ICC) is the certification agency for SIP products and the manufactures of those products.  In other words, the SIP and the company that manufactured it are both tested and inspected to ensure conformance to the requirements. 

Is price more important than quality?
What is the price of peace of mind?
Does the SIP come with a warranty or guarantee?
Do ICC certified SIP's cost more? 
Do mortgage or insurance companies require the use of ICC certified SIP's? 
How does the buyer know if the SIP that is delivered to his job site is of the same quality as the one the salesman "sold" them?
How do the use of SIP's effect he resale value of the home?
 
I would really appreciate hearing from as many people as possible on these issues.

Thank you,


Matt Phelps 

Is price more important than quality?
I think both are about equally important, with quality taking the edge. I would be more inclined to purchase a higher quality product for a little higher price. Finding a high quality, certified SIP for a reasonable price should get you the most bang for the buck.

What is the price of peace of mind?
What’s the price of a good night’s sleep? Would you put the cheapest tires on your car and take your family on vacation? Doing it right has it’s own rewards.

Does the SIP come with a warranty or guarantee?
I believe that all quality SIP manufacturers offer 20 year or more warranty on their products. If the SIP manufacturer doesn’t offer a warranty, look elsewhere.

Do ICC certified SIP's cost more?
As a rule, yes. Getting the certification is a long and expensive process, not to mention testing the panels to destruction resulting in loss of product.

Do mortgage or insurance companies require the use of ICC certified SIP's?
I don’t think so, but I believe that state and county building codes do.

How does the buyer know if the SIP that is delivered to his job site is of the same quality as the one the salesman "sold" them?
All the panels will have the certification stamped on them.

How do the use of SIP's effect he resale value of the home?
I believe that as the price of heating and cooling continues to rise, the demand for efficient homes and buildings will also rise, resulting in higher resale prices for SIP homes.

Steve

GrandCountySIPs.com

Matt,

To me, it's not a competition between cheap and quality SIPs as much as it is between conventional framing and SIPs.  What are the costs and risks of each approach.  Unfortunately, I've not yet found a validated answer.  I found that the new Means residential book has SIPs in it, but I've not had a chance to find a copy to review.  That might answer the cost issue.

My impression (as yet, with no data to back it) is that SIPs will cost more to build than conventional.  What I'm less confident on is how much it would cost to have sufficient detailing added to conventional framing to yield approximately the same result.  The Building Sciences Corp site has a number of articles that discuss what needs to be done, but they've not costed the additions (at tleast that I found).  So my working assumption is that SIPs will be marginally more, but I have no feel for how big the margin is, especially after the details are added to conventional framing.

That leaves the risk issue.  I currently live in a conventionally framed house that was on the high end of quality when we bought it in 1984 -- I'm very dissatisfied with it.  And virtually all of the issues that I have with the house are features that SIP construction should markedly mitigate:  Drafts both from air infiltration and from thermal convection; walls that aren't flat; significant differences in the temperature and comfort between the floors and rooms; noise; and cost to opperate (which is a sweet bonus if the others are taken care of). 

So, yes.  The features that you identify are all important to me; but they're rule out features rather than competion features. 

Very respectfully,
Larry

Matt,

It should cost no more to build with ICC certified SIP's than to stick build. The real problem is most folks, builders, have to buy their panels and when the multiple markups are done, the price has moved the home 3%-5% above the cost of a stick built home. In El Paso we compete both commercially and residentially on price, but we make our own panels and sell them to ourselves at a price point that provides us with the ability to be competitive with stick. As most on this site have so rightously stated many times, that includes the savings assoicated with less mechanical, less insluation, and quicker time to get out from under construction financing. All of these are hard dollars not soft dollar pie in the sky stuff. And we have not yet begun to talk about cost savings over the long period of home ownership.

You should not even consider using a non-certified panel. But still, you cannot know whether the quality of the panels are the same regardless of the stamp. There are savory charactors willing to risk their certificatiions by sending sub-standard product to site and hoping to get away with it. Most do not know or undersatnd what SIP's are or do so your recoupoing any exptra money on resale is unlikely. But if your home is built on a competitive price point that is not a concern anyway...

I read with amusement the explanation as to why panels cost what they do based on start up costs someone posted on this web site. I have since built a start up business plan given our desire to build plants in various parts of the country. I can tell you the numbers used by that poster were way off. We can do it for a fraction of that cost and thereby enter into a market competitively from the start. The manufacturing of SIP's, in order for them to be price point competitive, have to be part of your overall building process. Otherwise you may as well go buy a new car at the dealer, mark it up, and then try to sell it to your neighbors while trying to compete with the dealer from whom you originally bought the new car.

Greg