WHAT ARE SIPS?

Alternative Building Concepts specialized in panels manufactured by Premier Building Systems, North America 's largest manufacturer and exporter of Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs).

Panels are produced by laminating an inner core of expanded polystyrene (EPS) between 2 outer sheets of engineered wood. The engineered wood used in Premier panels is oriented strand board, or OSB. This creates a solid, one-piece component that provides the 3 necessary ingredients of structural framing, insulation, and exterior sheathing all in one building system. The result is a high performance building system that is exceptionally strong, energy efficient, noise deadening, while using much less of our natural resources. Panels are remarkably straight and warp resistant as compared to conventional framed structures, go up faster, and are easier to use.

These engineered building products are used in walls, roofs, and floors to build anything from high-end residential homes to affordable and multi-family housing. They are also ideal for many types of commercial construction such as schools, hospitals, retail centers, wineries, and retirement facilities, up to 3 stories. SIPs are used on over 60,000 structures each year. As an engineered wood building material, rather than a modular home, panels work easily with many plans. Alternative Building Concepts will work with you and your architect to customize virtually any home or light commercial design.

System thinking has been around for a while (Buckminster Fuller), and so has panel construction. The first panel house was built in 1937 by the Forest Product Laboratory in Madison , Wisconsin , and is still in use today. Today's system thinking has the advantage of combining with modern, innovative technologies to make old concepts obsolete. The postwar norm of stick-framed, fiberglass-insulated buildings is quickly becoming a common example. More than 60,000 structures are built every year using SIPs. SIPs produce a structurally superior, better insulated, and more environmentally friendly structure than ever before possible. Featured on Bob Vila and Habitat for Humanity, Premier panels are the next generation of engineered building systems.

More about Sips - Links - SipsWeb

Books on Sips

Building With Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) -- A comprehensive, full color book on building with energy efficient SIPs. Veteran home builder, Michael Morley spent a year and a half writing the book which includes over 140 photographs and drawings, that detail how to design and build with SIP technology.  "It's so much better on so many levels that I think this system will be the preferred method of construction for all home builders in just a few years. Learn how to install wall and roof panels, run mechanical systems, select the tools you need, fabricate panels and components, choose the right panels for the job.