Caveat: Blog written by a construction novice for dummies! The designers, fabricators and craftsmen who all play a hand in the processor building a SIP wall are NOT dummies 😊
The whole point of using SIPs (Structural Insulate Panels) for our build was to maximise insulation and therefore energy efficiency. To achieve this the panels are precisely fabricated in a factory to 1mm tolerance. When expertly fitted together, as a wall, the panels achieve very high levels of air tightness.
In this blog we show the design features and the steps our installation team took to achieve the very highest levels of air tightness.
There are two joins which need to be air tight and strong. The first is the join between the sole plate, which is attached to the foundations, and the SIP panel which sits vertically on top of the sole plate - as illustrated below.
The second join is between panels. A narrow joining section of SIP, called a spline, is used and fits extremely tightly between two adjacent panels - as illustrated below.
It's one big 3-D jigsaw / lego kit. Assembly is pretty straight forwarded and much faster than a traditional block and brick build.
The following picture shows our house going up after two days assembly - 22 panels at this point.
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