Building walls

There are of course, numerous ways of enclosing the frame and one that we considered early on was using Structural Insulated Panels (SIPS). These are panels made of foam sandwiched between two sheets of particle board. They provide excellent insulation and are also strong enough to be used structurally. They are usually made in a factory to specific sizes from the house plans, and the walls can then be assembled very quickly on site. The problems with them are that they are quite expensive, they use petro-chemical products, and not many contractors in Canada know how to use them. I have read several stories where the build ended up being a nightmare because all the panels had to be modified on site, adding lots of extra time and expense. They may work well for the roof as standard sized panels could be bought and trimmed down easily, as there will be no (or few) windows in the roof. Because they are strong they can be laid directly on the roof joints to make the roof, then all we need to do is tile the roof or use coloured metal (prob green).

A better solution for the walls may be to have the frame builders construct a plywood skin around the walls which is then filled with a cellulose insulation. This is basically made from old newspapers and has exceptional insulating properties. Cellulose is also very green as it uses recycled paper and an average sized house will use up the equivalent amount of paper that a person uses in 40 years. Also, because the frame builders make the walls they are guaranteed to fit properly which is really important in order to get as airtight a fit as possible. We will have to check out the total cost, but it seems like the best idea so far.