Ordering Our T42 SIPs Kit

A month ago today I sent the model for T42 (the tiny house Isha and I are building together) to Patrick of Artisan Tiny House so that it could be turned into a SIPs kit. Patrick knew this project was coming down the pipe so he was ready for it. When I said it was on the way he said, "Great! Let's get this wrapped up today or tomorrow!" I was all for THAT!

But we had some back and forth and it was finally Tuesday, almost a full month later, that we signed off on our shop drawings and sent our SIPs into production. This was due to three main factors:

• The construction season is ramping up again and Premier, the SIPs manufacturer we work with in this area, is getting busier each week. They also had a couple people out due to unforeseen circumstances like jury duty and illness, so their turn around time slowed down.
• Despite all I know about SIPs - which helps me make simple designs for my clients that are more affordable and easier to build - I can't seem to resist designing more complicated structures for my own tiny house projects. The Lucky Penny's walls went up in just an hour and a half on my SIPs Wall Raising Day, but the complicated curved roof with a skylight took another 6 weeks to complete! With T42, we have a set of windows high up in the wall, so Patrick, Matt, and I all spent time back at the drawing board figuring out how to turn my design into a set of SIPs panels. "SIPs aren't magic, just the next best thing," Patrick reminded me. Lesson remembered! The easiest way to get a SIPs kit is definitely to use one of the Artisan templates. (And, of course, it's always fun for me when my clients want to work with me to ensure that their tiny house shell will match their interior layout and suit their lifestyle!)
• Just before we were about to order the SIPs, I spoke at the Tiny House Conference in Asheville, NC and I sang the praises of SIPs for tiny houses on wheels (THOWs) as I usually do. As usual, I had several people ask about toxicity and I explained that despite the fact that SIPs have one or two chemicals listed on the Red List (depending on the composition of the panels), even the Living Building Challenge - the world's strictest green building standard - approves SIPs for use in green buildings because they provide such good energy efficiency and the Red Listed chemicals are currently required by law to meet fire safety standards. But it got me thinking critically about this building system I love again and I pressed Patrick to get me some updated information about our options.

Fortunately, Patrick shared an update that Premier has introduced a new SIPs option that uses GPS (graphite polystyrene) foam, which has a higher R-value per inch AND has swapped the previously used toxic halogenated flame retardant that was Red Listed for a poly flame retardant. (Stay tuned for more info on this product, but for now, please check out Neopor, which is the U.S. version of a product that has been used in Germany for many years now and read this post from Energy Vanguard). We also confirmed that the flame retardants are a hazard to us only if they're burning. We know that we can use a respirator when cutting the SIPs to accommodate the wheelwell, so that concern is easily addressed. (And if the house itself is on fire, we've got bigger fish to fry!) So we all breathed a sigh of relief and specified the GPS foam for this project. Patrick even agreed to cover the price difference for this one project since we agreed to be his guinea pigs for a new product. Despite the frustrations, we're both appreciative that we've had some learning opportunities. This is why I continue to do projects with Patrick: he's a generous and upstanding guy who wants to do right by people!

Patrick and Matt also figured out a solution to address my crazy SIPs layout and Patrick offered to come help us puzzle-piece it together during our SIPs Wall Raising Build Blitz. It will be great to have his expertise for this exciting wall raising scheduled for mid-May, which is just under 5 weeks away! If you'd like to join us, too, please claim your spot in the T42 Build Blitz!

My SIPs Wall Raising

Yesterday we put the SIPs walls up for my gypsy wagon! My Tiny House Build Began last Friday when we picked up My Custom Vardo Trailer and started on Floorbox Lessons Learned. Then the Floorbox Continued because I was thwarted by supply issues and rain on Sunday. I also changed my mind (again) about my wall and floor attachment systems, eventually going back to Iteration #37 with Patrick’s help.

So yesterday morning I figured it would be a piece of cake to put the sill plates down in their proper place, stand the walls up, and get them secured. And it would have been – if the sill plates were in their proper place. It took us nearly 3 hours yesterday (in the drizzle) to get the sill plates just where they needed to go. Fortunately, I had a great crew of Tiny House Helpers: Patrick Sughrue of Structures NW, John Labovitz of Polymecca, Laura Klement, Deirdre, and Eric.

The trailer was square but the flanges were not, so when we measured off of them we came up with ¾” variation from front to back. I had already ordered my trailer when I decided to have SIPs made for me instead of trying to make them myself. If I had it to do over, I absolutely would have taken Patrick’s advice to do a SIP floor, too! That way we would have a perfectly square and 8-foot-wide starting point. The trick was Patrick’s idea of marking the centerline and working off of it – no matter what. Once we did, things came together really quickly. Patrick was an excellent crew leader, showing us how to install his panels properly.

We put sill seal down underneath the bottom bottom plate (a 2 x 6) and then sealed the top bottom plate (a 2 x 4) on top of it with Prosoco’s Joint & Seam, nailing the plates together as necessary to make them easier to work with. We secured the bottom plates to the trailer flanges with 4” long ¾” bolts and added self-tapping metal screws along the front and back of the trailer since there were only two bolt holes in each of the flanges which we could screw into for these sills. We did have to drill a couple more holes in the flanges and with a good bit this wasn’t horrible to do, so in the future I’d probably not have them pre-drilled by Iron Eagle Trailers.

Once the sill plates were down it only took us an hour and a half to get the walls up! We lifted the panels, rotated them as necessary, and set the edge down on the trailer floor. Once we were lined up, we applied spray foam to the bottom plate and scooted the panel off the edge of the floor and into its proper place. Laura held the first wall in place while we got the second and third panels up, securing them together with long screws. We connected the two panels on the long walls with a spline, which we spray foamed on both sides and the bottom. The front panel was the only one that caused us any trouble and that was because we hadn’t quite gotten the two back end panels all the way to the back panel. That 1/8” matters! We used ratchet straps to pull them as tight as we could and chipped away a little bit of the sill plate at the front and then realized we were being held up by the bolts. So cut away a bit of the stud on each side of the SIP so that the front panel could nestle into its spot.

Hooray for four walls! We celebrated with a picnic lunch in the future kitchen of my tiny house!