I am researching SIPs for our building solution of a new home that will commence in the summer of '09 if everything goes as scheduled. The style of house is a single story craftsman with board & batten siding. We plan to go with galvaleum(sp?) roof as we have had this before and it works great. One question of the many that I will have is, for board & batten siding, I have concerns over the nailing/screwing into the OSB. Specifically if I read the follow post correctly, it seems that the process was to screw directly into the OSB. My concerns are that OSB is highly susceptible to water and was thinking isn't there a chance water could seep through even with felt paper on the walls? Does one put caulking on each screw prior? Wouldn't it be more recommended to have vertical strapping leave a 1/2" between the boards and the OSB sip and screw into the strapping? I guess I am just a little paranoid about water and OSB and really want to ensure I do everything to prevent water penetration. We are planning to wrap the bottom 3 feet with self-adhesive bitumious membrane and to the corners and windows and door openings. The rest will get heavy felt paper. Location of the build will be Eastern Ontario, Canada so one has to consider 2-4ft of snow sitting on the sides of the house and melting in Spring. An no, we have not decided on a SIP supplier yet, we are looking at Insulpan and Thermapan presently in the hope we can get more estimates from other suppliers.


http://www.greenbuildingtalk.com/Forums/tabid/53/forumid/5/postid/26774/view/topic/Default.aspx


Thanks for any input!

For vertical board and batten siding, I would highly recommend the use of furring strips. This allows for proper drainage of moisture, and air movement behind the siding. This is as important for the life of the siding as it is for the SIPS. Don't forget to provide saw kerfs in the backside of the horizontal furring strips so that accumulated moisture can drain. Captured moisture can cause the untreated furring to rot out very rapidly. A quicker and simpler idea is to apply vertical furring strips and then horizontal over these. This would allow for adequate ventilation and drainage.

Thank you Wes! I didn't think of doing saw kerfs on the backside of the furring strips! Even better is the vertical and horizontal option - that is what I will do.

Again thanks!