I'm building a house in Maine and a regional contractor specializing in SIPs for decades erected the shell for me with jumbo Insulspan EPS panels, which seem like a nice product. Lbear mentions an excellent point about subs in the industry, but in this case a six-person company crew did the work, and several guys had been on the job for many years. I have no experience with SIPs, and I'm looking for advice about two aspects of the finished job: -- Some sections of the exterior OSB hang as much as 7/16" off the plate below it; others float a quarter inch above the plate inside and out. What's a reasonable degree of misalignment for SIPs? -- Daylight can be seen in places between the SIPs and the 2x plate below the insulated panel rim. After completion of the shell, but before house wrap, rain water entered the house through roof and wall seams. What sort of interior/exterior sealing would be best before I install #15 felt and 1x3 rain-screen strapping? Thanks for your help.

It looks seriously out of square and I think the assembly was botched but I will let the SIP experts chime in and see what they have to say.

Remember, even though a company is around for 20 years, they hire out SUBS to do the job and these workers come and go. There is sometimes heavy turnover rates and the newbie workers are coming and learning on the job. I've seen companies take on a large amount of jobs and the head GC cannot keep an eye on everyone and every project. The result is that they hire out and get poor tradesmen who cannot be supervised properly. This results in mistakes on the build.

Ask anyone who has built their own custom home and you will hear of horror stories and frustration when dealing with the on-site workers that they sometimes send. Not to disparage all of them but these guys are usually the grunts who are getting minimum wage to swing a hammer or do whatever they are told to do. The "experts" are the ones running the company, not actually doing the work. Although they should be supervising them but that doesn't always work out like it should.

Let's go over the basics quick. The sub-floor is layed and 1/2" from the outside edge, a 2X is glued and screwed to the subfloor. Sealant is applied to the sides and top of the 2X. The panel wall is placed over the 2X flush with the sub-floor and nailed to the 2X. There should be no gaps, leaks or other problems like that. I do strongly recommend that the subfloor is flat and square and as close to the plan as posible, and we can make the panels easily fit. A SIP panel gains much of it's weight supporting strengh from having both sides of the panel resting on the 3/4" subfloor. If part of it is hanging off the subfloor, the supporting strength is compromised. Personally, I would have an Insulspan rep inspect the installation and if he say's it's OK, I would have him put that in writing as a Insulspan rep and have Insulspan responsibile for any future problems. Then call your city or county building inspector inspect it and I might even call a structural engineer inspect it for structural stability. If all agree that it's structurally sound, finish the project.

Steve
GrandCountySIPs.com

m.mccain.
It's been about 2 weeks since we heard from you, and I just wondered how things were going, and if you have had any resolution to your problems.

Thanks, Steve

GrandCountySIPs.com

Posted By trigem1 on 18 Sep 2013 06:07 PM
m.mccain.
It's been about 2 weeks since we heard from you, and I just wondered how things were going, and if you have had any resolution to your problems.

Thanks, Steve

GrandCountySIPs.com

The SIP Godfather paid him a visit and he hasn't been heard or seen since...