Jelly:
SIP means Structural Insulated Panel and that's exactly what the wall system is about. It is built using 18 & 20 gauge steel to be structurally sound. The floor joists are hung directly from the steel members. The walls can be made as high as 4 stories or up to 24'. There is also a roof type insulated panel that can be made. Please email me directly and I will send you construction details in full. The walls are approved for hurricane force winds up to 150+ mph!

Looks similar to this system? 

ROYAL FOAM

Fortisteel wall, which looks like it is still in early stages of development and even though based out of Jax, FL. has not secured Florida Product or ICC approvals
The website does not indicate that there is a roof-type insulated panel yet?

 

 

These things are indeed structural, and insulated, and they're panels.  But the term SIP customarily refers to a particular type of structural insulated panel, namely stressed-skin sandwich panels, which these are not.  However, they are a viable alternative to traditional SIPs, and can be used in similar ways.  But they are more closely related to stick framing than to SIPs from an engineering perspective.  There is no stressed skin.  (Which may be considered an advantage, of course.)

It does not seem to me that EPSFOAMCENTER is actually a direct manufacturer of any such panels, nor of any of the other of dozens of EPS applications mentioned on their website, from coffee cups to surf boards.  It's not clear to me exactly what he/she/they/it do/sell, except that it has something to do with EPS.  I would like to hear more about the exact products and services provided by him/her/them/it.

rnortman:

Thank you for the questions addressed. We are an e-distribution company that helps link home owners, builders, contractors, general contractors, other small businesses to any and all types of EPS foam products produced. We are parntered with manufacturers and work directly for them to help them move their products. Our service is to distribute any type of EPS foam product need you might have. This includes EPS Blocks, geofoam, EIFS sheets, Wall Panels, Packaging, Roofing insulation, Surf Boards, Architectural  Shapes, Flotation, Props, Coatings, and much more.

Rnortman: If there are any products you are seeking specifically we will be mor than happy to help you find them.

 

'About' does not = 'Is'. This is a SIPS forum.

If you want to peddle your products, please do it elsewhere.

The contractor doesn't know what he or she is talking about.  SIPs are a highly effective, fast way of building whether for "custom" homes or more mass market solutions.  Stucco isn't at all "too heavy" for SIPs - what planet has your contractor been living on?

A word of advice.  Don't listen to contractors or "designers" who tell you that Stucco has to have Portland Cement in it.  Its doesn't and shouldn't.  All you need is lime putty and sand- the traditional mixes that were used for several thousands of years prior to the Portland Cement Association's insistence that every single bit of mortar or stucco had to have Portland Cement in it to improve its strength.

If you are building with SIPs take the time to make sure that the construction details (soffit, slab, deck, windows, inside and outside corers etc) are very well explained and drawn out for your contractor and his subs.  Its no good just putting metal lath onto the exterior face of the SIPs and flinging 3-coat stucco onto it.  Think of the wall construction as a series of layers that are designed to let your wall structure breathe.  The last thing you need is to seal in moisture or entrap it with an impervious external render, which Portland cement-based stuccos will do all the time.  Your external face of the SIP panels should have a breather membrane over it to allow for moisture in the structure to get out (such as Tyvek).  Ideally you should place vertical battens (1 x 2) at 16: or 24: centers or small-section galvanized steel "top-hat" sections on top of which should be a layer of wood-wool slabs or OSB sheathing.  This will give you a 1" air cavity to ensure that your construction breaths properly (you will need to detail the ground and soffit details to show how the vented cavity is protected from insects (i.e.a fine air mesh) etc.  On top of the Wood-wool slabs or OSB sheathing you should then apply a drainage mat (Stuc-O-Flex, or RADMAT for example).  Some of the Geotextiles - as these drainage mats are often called - have a nylon mesh on the front surface and a dimpled surface to the polyethylene matting material.  You won't need metal lathing on top of this.  Lime stucco can be applied directly.  You can also apply Lime stucco directly to a lthing material if you have this kind of constructin build-up for your exterior walls.  The drainage-mat/lathing combination just provides extra rain and moisture protection.

Hope this helps.

Phil

Phil, is it not true that traditional lime stucco requires more routine maintenance? Another question, is it possible to modify traditional lime stucco with polymers?

I haven't seen any research evidence of Lime Stucco needing more maintenance.  On the contrary, it appears to need far less.  On Cumberland Island off the coast of Georgia, my wife restored an 18th century house with lime stucco (no Portland cement whatsoever) 11 years ago for the National Park Service.  The house had been previously "restored" using Portland cement-based stucco and had failed badly.  Water had been entrapped behind the impervious Portland cement skin and had rotted sub-structures (studs and boarding).  As the building moved (a natural occurrence), it had cracked the Portland cement render creating excellent microcanyons for rain water to pour into.  Lime stucco has a property called "Microcrsytalline Bridging".  This means that when a building does its inevitable micro-movements ober time and with climate changes, the lime, which really never sets to total hardness like cement or concrete, actually bridges the micro-gaps created by the substructure's thus closing off what would be an open microcanyon for water to pour into.  Also, lime has a more porous structure which allows surface water to be absorbed but this is also an advantage because the absorbed water (a millimeter or two below the surface) can evaporate quickly due to the enormous surface area that the lime stucco's porous structure provides for.

Coincidentally, the National Park Service emailed my wife (a tenured professor in historic preservation) a few weeks ago telling her that in the 11 years since the restoratin was complete, no maintenance whatsoever had been required on the lime stucco render to the exterior of the retored house she did on Cumberland Island, Georgia.

I'm not familiar with the effect on lime stucco's performance when polymer additives are included in the mix.  I do know that some companies are trying it out.  Presumably its to enable a single coat or two coats at most to be applied instead of the traditinoal three.  Maybe its more to do with labor cost savings than improved liongevity of the stucco finish.

Phil

Thanks Phil for the answer. I saw a lot of lime stucco used in Europe when I lived there, placed even directly on to styrofoam with fiberglass mesh, seemingly to good effect. But I've read a lot about washes being routinely applied, though, and also about it never really "drying out." I don't know about all that, and didn't witness that first hand. But when I did see problems it was usually bubbling or flaking toward the bottom of exterior mass walls, I assume where collected moisture was trying to escape. It seemed to happen on the buildings that had several layers of paint, though, and oftentimes were centuries old buildings.

Your observations on old buildings that had several layers of paint over the stucco were giving you an accurate picture of what happens when you cover a breathable stucco with an impervious paint.  It will bubble as moisture attempts to migrate out of the structure but gets trapped under the paint layer.  In warm weather the moisture vapor expands creating the bubbles under the paint.  Paint way back then was probably hyped the same as vinyl siding was sold to home owners in America in the 60s and 70s as the maintenance free finish.  All it did was to cause the same sort of substructure rotting from enrtapped moisture as painting over stucco.

Lime washing is also a traditional way of adding some additional breathable coating to the stucco surface.  I haven't read about problems with Lime stucco not drying out.  I guess in extremely wet climates, stucco isn't a great solution.  Clay tile hanging or brick might come to mind more, but even in England's sodden climate, lime stucco seems to stand up very well.  Certainly the old "black and white" timber frame buildings one sees on chocolate boxes at Christmas seem to stand up OK to the very wet climate.  Again they use a combination of drainage mats, an integral lathing mesh (usually nylon) and lime putty and sand for the stucco/infill render.

For a good book on lime, its manufacture and application you should try and get hold of "Building with Lime: A Practical Introduction" by Stafford Holmes and Michael Wingate.  Revised Edition, 2002. ISBN 1-85339-547-1.  ITDG Publishing, 101-105 Southampton Row, London WC1B 4HL, UK.  www.itdgpublishing.org.uk

Hope these thoughts are a help

Phil

Jelly;

At one time EIFS was banned in North Carolina because most jobs were improperly installed the attached link explains more

http://www.homeinspect.com/Template1/NextPage.asp?OrderId=136&SuppId=245101&LanguageId=0&FileName=syntheticstucco&LinkId=syntheticstucco&MultiPage=1

I still am uncomfortable with those systems especially over OSB

Dear Friends,
Can any one help me providing the rough price idea per square feet for the shop drawing of structural insulated panels.(Just the drafting work, No Engineering, NO Testing,No Construction training etc.) Hope you will do the needful.Thanks for all your help.
Regards,
John