Cost of side extension?

Doozergirl

FreeBear said:

ComicGeek said:

Doozergirl said:

GDB2222 said:

We would want to hang kitchen unit cupboards on the walls. Are Structural Insulated Panels strong enough, or would they need a lot of help to spread the load? 

Plenty strong enough.  They're structural timber.  OSB facing inside so you have your strength there.  

Although you'll want to batten internally to create a services void for running cables etc. You can't chase into the SIPs like you do with blockwork.

One would plan ahead and have conduit put in at the factory - Requires some serious thinking and detailed drawings well ahead of time. If Huf Haus can manage to do it with their flat-pack homes, I don't see why a UK SIPS manufacturer can't.

It's just a matter of battening the walls before the plasterboard goes on and then you can put anything where you want to on the entire wall.  You just use longer screws so you get to the OSB.  

Hung some new pictures last week and it was so easy.  Nice screws, nothing going anywhere.  

Doozergirl

ComicGeek said:

Doozergirl said:

GDB2222 said:

We would want to hang kitchen unit cupboards on the walls. Are Structural Insulated Panels strong enough, or would they need a lot of help to spread the load? 

Plenty strong enough.  They're structural timber.  OSB facing inside so you have your strength there.  

Although you'll want to batten internally to create a services void for running cables etc. You can't chase into the SIPs like you do with blockwork.

If you're looking at brickwork as an external finish, I don't see that SIPs gives a significant reduction in overall wall thickness against traditional masonry construction. The saving in wall thickness is more to do with flexibility in external cladding systems.

We have lots of projects that start off as SIPs but quickly change to traditional timber frame or masonry by the time they reach site. Mainly down to lack of builders willing to engage with it, it massively reduces their own profits and slice of the pie. Can work for true self-builds or where people manage the different contracts themselves, but difficult finding anyone in our area that will take on a SIPs scheme - particularly when large amounts of money have to be paid out to the SIPs companies before delivery, with a risk of them going under and all the money lost. 

You don't need to use brick as an external finish, it's surplus to requirements.  You can have brick slips if you want, but even with our house I'm quite happy that I could totally transform the front if we wanted to in the same way that people currently do it inside ☺️ 

ComicGeek

Doozergirl said:

ComicGeek said:

Doozergirl said:

GDB2222 said:

We would want to hang kitchen unit cupboards on the walls. Are Structural Insulated Panels strong enough, or would they need a lot of help to spread the load? 

Plenty strong enough.  They're structural timber.  OSB facing inside so you have your strength there.  

Although you'll want to batten internally to create a services void for running cables etc. You can't chase into the SIPs like you do with blockwork.

If you're looking at brickwork as an external finish, I don't see that SIPs gives a significant reduction in overall wall thickness against traditional masonry construction. The saving in wall thickness is more to do with flexibility in external cladding systems.

We have lots of projects that start off as SIPs but quickly change to traditional timber frame or masonry by the time they reach site. Mainly down to lack of builders willing to engage with it, it massively reduces their own profits and slice of the pie. Can work for true self-builds or where people manage the different contracts themselves, but difficult finding anyone in our area that will take on a SIPs scheme - particularly when large amounts of money have to be paid out to the SIPs companies before delivery, with a risk of them going under and all the money lost. 

You don't need to use brick as an external finish, it's surplus to requirements.  You can have brick slips if you want, but even with our house I'm quite happy that I could totally transform the front if we wanted to in the same way that people currently do it inside ☺️ 

Agreed that you don't need to use brick, but the vast majority of the British public prefer it. I know a few of the SIPs companies have had problems with bonding brick slips so that's caused issues with warranties recently.

ComicGeek

FreeBear said:

ComicGeek said:

Doozergirl said:

GDB2222 said:

We would want to hang kitchen unit cupboards on the walls. Are Structural Insulated Panels strong enough, or would they need a lot of help to spread the load? 

Plenty strong enough.  They're structural timber.  OSB facing inside so you have your strength there.  

Although you'll want to batten internally to create a services void for running cables etc. You can't chase into the SIPs like you do with blockwork.

One would plan ahead and have conduit put in at the factory - Requires some serious thinking and detailed drawings well ahead of time. If Huf Haus can manage to do it with their flat-pack homes, I don't see why a UK SIPS manufacturer can't.

That's never going to happen in the standard SIPs factories, you're fortunate if it's built to the right size. You're also not going to get conduit within the insulation layer as that's injected at high pressure and no one's going to give certification for another object in that zone.

I can speak with experience on this, having produced the supporting calcs and info for one SIPs manufacturer  for their BBA certification.