The building materials market is replenished quite often with some new products. The fashion to build houses from SIP panels came to us quite recently. This is a very interesting material both in its design and performance.
Panel Arrangement
SIP panel consists of two OSB (Oriented Strand Board) boards and rigid polystyrene foam laid between them. OSB, in fact, is a more modern, environmentally friendly analogue of chipboard. The difference between the two materials is that OSB is made from thin wood chips that are glued together with high-pressure resin, rather than from waste products like chipboard. Unlike the latter, Oriented Strand Board (translated as a board with oriented wood chips) contains no more harmful formaldehydes than a regular solid wood.
Despite its light weight and apparent fragility, SIP panels are a very durable material that can withstand enormous loads. If you put such a plate vertically, you can put a load weighing up to 10 tons per 1 m2 of the panel on top. Imagine a five-story building, in which the first floor is made of such panels, and the rest ofbricks one and a half meters. This is approximately the mass they can withstand.
In a horizontal position, SIP panels are also quite durable. The weight that they can hold without deflection is two to three tons. However, in this regard, their characteristics are not distinguished by anything special. In addition to strength, they are distinguished by excellent thermal insulation qualities and a high level of sound absorption. In addition, OSB is not afraid of moisture and mechanical damage.
Application
The construction of houses from SIP panels primarily involves the use of this material for the construction of external and internal walls. Sometimes they are used as ground and attic floor slabs, as well as roof finishing. You can not make interfloor floors out of them. The fact is that these panels pass direct shock noises very well (like a drum). For zero and interfloor ceilings, they are also used quite rarely. To prevent the panel from bending, it is made narrower than the wall panel and placed on beams. Therefore, most often it is more appropriate to install conventional floors.
The convenience, for example, of zero overlap from a SIP panel can only be that there is no need to arrange a subfloor. Laminate or other finishes are placed directly on the OSB board. For walls, this material is ideal. The house can be assembled in 2 - 3 weeks by only two people. A strapping beam is stuffed onto the foundation, then corner panels with level control are installed. Then they put everythingrest. They are fastened with ordinary screws. All joints and cracks are sealed with mounting foam. You can cut the plates with a jigsaw, and polystyrene foam with a thin wire drawn parallel to the cuts on the OSB. From the inside, the walls are usually finished with drywall without using a guide profile, and then pasted over with textured wallpaper.
Many have already built houses using SIP panels for walls. Reviews about them are most often positive. For example, even in places where in winter the air temperature reaches -50 gr. Celsius, in buildings made of this material, heat is retained very well. In addition, such panels are lightweight and do not require the construction of a powerful foundation under the house.
