building with sip's (structural insulated panels)

[uglydukwling]

Sip's seem to be an ideal material to build a camper, if I could just find them.

The problem is that the only sources I've found are manufacturers/builders who want to quote on the entire project. They'll custom-make the panels and build your house or refrigerated warehouse, or turn you over to a sub-contractor to do the assembly. They're not really interested in selling enough material to build a camper. Also, since the panels are intended for building construction where space isn't so critical, they tend to be too thick for a camper.

Does anyone know of a building supply company that sells the panels off-the-shelf like other sheet goods?

The ideal panel would be under 2" thick, faced outside with aluminum or fiberglass and inside with plywood (I could live with fiberglass or osb)

Any ideas?

[bobhenry]

http://www.cranecomposites.com/industries/bp.html

4X8 4X 9 5X10 AND 5X12 IN SOME SERIES

Here is a blast from the past too.

http://www.mikenchell.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=180838&highlight=#180838

[angib]

Frankly, you could make your own SIPs by gluing the sheets together and weighting them down while the glue sets - one guy used a sheet of plastic and then threw dirt on top which was a neat low-cost method.

BUT...... if you're going to use SIPs, you need to come up with a detailed way to make the joints and edges. And when you've done that, you'll realise that geting the SIPs is maybe 10% of the job.

[alffink]

Angibs right about only about 10% of the job being done using SIPS

You not only have to engineer the joints but you will still have to provide support for shelves, doorframes, hinge support.....

If you like the idea of rigid foam insulation, just go with a sandwich constrution; as a example only...side wall of 1/2" ply with 3/4" foam and 1/8" oak paneling

Layout your profile showing the locations of all your shelves, bulkheads, doors then use 1 x 2's or 1 x 3's where you will need inside wall support, then cut the foam to fill the voids

Buiding the sandwich would be a whole lot faster than redesigning the SIPS panels. In a tear I wouldn't think you would have large enough blank walls to offset the initial cost of said panels.

Just my opinion, others may vary.

[eatatjoz]

I used garage doors. 2" insulation 10.25r value and wrapped front and back with 25g steel.

[TD Beej]

I've played with the ideas of making SIPs since I want to curve the walls and would need to laminate anyway. The thoughts I've had about connecting them would be to stitch and fiberglass the joints like they do with that style of boat. If you are going with strait walls etc the easiest way to go would to use a spline. For a radius you could build spline out of layers of ply cut to the curve and glued together. I am sure there are others ways things could be done, curfing the splines on the radius, using dowel segments, steaming and bending wood,...

For making the SIP, weighting would be alright but I would go the extra step of using a vacuum, or just using the vacuum if you know everything is true. The SIPs strength is in the bonding.

- Barry