Sewester Homes  LLC

custom homes & structures

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What are SIPs?

SIPs are high-performance building panels for floors, walls and roofs in residential and commercial buildings.  Each panel is typically made using expanded polystyrene (EPS), or polyisocyanurate rigid foam insulation sandwiched between two structural skins of oriented strand board (OSB), but other surfaces are also available to meet your needs.  The result is a building system that is very strong, predictable, energy efficient, and cost effective.

Why do SIP homes outperform others?

SIP buildings are vastly more energy efficient, stronger, quieter, and more draft free than other building systems, such as stud framing with fiberglass insulation.  Fiberglass is sometimes used for furnace filters because air moves through so freely.  Rigid insulation is used as solid component insulation in almost every industry for its inherent efficiency and lack of air movement.  These attributes are built right into a SIP building.  Less air leakage means fewer drafts, less noise, lower energy bills, and a much more comfortable indoor environment.

How much more energy efficient are SIPs?

You can slash energy cost by 40-70%.  Because SIPs create a tighter building envelope than conventional insulation, your builder can actually reduce the size of heating and cooling equipment.  That reduces costs immediately.  Better yet, SIPs keep your cost down from season to season, year after year, for as long as you own your home.

Why are SIPs so much stronger?

SIPs structural characteristics are similar to a steel I-beam.  The skins act like the flanges of an I-beam, and the rigid core provides the web of the I-beam configuration.  This composite assembly yields stiffness, strength, and predictable performance.  Not only do test results show panels are stronger, but natural disasters have proven it time and again.  Homes built with SIPs withstood the Great Hanshin (Kobe, Japan) and North Ridge earthquakes, as well as Hurricane Andrew.  How do SIPs react to fire?  Fire requires three components: fuel, ignition, and oxygen.  SIPs have no air within their solid cores of insulation.  The fire cannot run up the wall cavity even when balloon framed.  SIPs have passed every standard fire test required of wood based or type V construction.  A key element of fire safety is protection of the SIPs and any other underlying structure with 15-minute thermal barriers, such as gypsum wallboard.

Why are SIPs more environmentally responsible?

When you build with SIPs, you're building homes that can save 40-70% on energy costs when compared to conventional stick frame construction.  That means less fossil fuel consumption an less greenhouse gas emissions.  SIP technology provides higher whole-wall R-value, tightens the building envelope, and reduces air infiltration.  That allows you to downsize the heating and cooling equipment.  It's the combination of these systems that makes up the technology of a high-performance SIP home.  You will also enjoy the green building benefits of less job-site waste, better utilization of material resources, and more environmentally friendly building practices.

Contact us for plans and information

Bill & Marti Sewester

# 620-545-8571  office             # 316-761-2655  mobile   

# 620-545-8572  fax                sewhomes@sktc.net       

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