SIPs, SIPs and more SIPs

It seems all we have done for the last two days is unload SIPs!!! But I am glad they arrived without a hitch and that we have all of them unloaded and up near the house.

My son and I went up early on Friday to meet the first truck. As it turned out the truck hauling the SIPs was delayed but the Skytrak lift had arrived. So we spent a little time familiarizing ourselves with it before the truck arrived.

Being as we had a few hours before the truck arrived we started to do some more work on the deck. We managed to get all but a dozen joist left to put in place and then we will put some temporary sheeting over it.

The first truck arrived about 1:00 PM. It was a couple from ND that had driven it down. They had been driving together for 7 years. She said that she was sick and tired of always hearing the stories that her husband would share with her the little time that he was home. So she said with a lot of patience he taught her how to drive truck and then have been traveling together ever since.

To my surprise there were no spacers separating the stacks of SIPs. I could not figure out why they would do this. It made for a lot more work unloading due to the fact that you could not just slip the forks underneath the stacks of SIPs. Well after thinking about it for a while the reason is height. They were just a few inches under the the height restrictions as it was. Spacers would have put them to high.

Thankfully they helped us unload. It took about two hours to get the truck unloaded and that was only setting the SIPs along side the road. By the end of the day we had a couple of loads moved up to the house. We had received word earlier in the day that the second truck would be arriving early Saturday morning.

Sure enough, about 5:30 AM the second truck arrived. I told him that I would be down with the forklift when it got light enough to start unloading. He said he would work at getting the tarp removed during that time.

This load was mostly roof SIPs as well as all of the dimensional lumber, screws, mastic and foam. We did a little better on this truck, taking about a hour and half to get it unloaded, again just by the side of the road.

The rest of the day was used to get all of the panels up near the house. 139 panels in all, and it seemed like we hauled each one individually up the driveway. By 4:30 in the afternoon we took our last load up.















One thing for sure is it will be hard to return the Skytrak which we used to unload the trucks, and will be used to unload the timbers once they arrive next week. What a great piece of equipment to have on a project like this. It is very easy to run, and will more than handle the wait of the SIPs. The boom extension really comes in handy for handling the SIPs as well as the other material we will be dealing with.

A little bit longer

Well we found out this past week it will be another week longer than we originally thought before the frame raising. It was not what we wanted to hear but I trust that Alan has been doing his best to get our frame completed, shipped here and raised on time.

So our new frame raising date is now the week of December 4th. Actual raising of the frame won't begin until probably that Wednesday. In the interim we have started work on the front deck. We are doing this because originally the front bent posts were going to sit on the deck front girder. As it turns out it won't but we can still get the deck framed out and temporary sheeting on it for easier access in to the house.

Also this week we will take delivery of at least one of the truck loads of SIPs. The second truck is still in question due to shipping difficulties. Friday we are expecting the first truck as well as the Reach All fork lift. This will I am sure take a fair part of the weekend to get the truck unloaded and the SIPs hauled up near the house and placed on timbers.

Back to the deck. We got the plate bolted onto the foundation and and the joist hangers attached. We could have proceeded further but given the fact the 2x10x16's looked more like something that could be screwed into the ground verses a girder so we were kind of stopped at this point. I could see the moment we arrived they were both twisted. So as it stands now I am picking 2 more up in Phoenix tomorrow so as I can see them prior to this weekend and we can continue framing out the deck.

Since starting this latest post have had to make two trips to the same wholesale lumberyard here in Phoenix to finally get 2 passable 4x10x16's. And when I say passable I mean just passable. They are straight and not twisted but the are somewhat rough but will do. The other alternative was to have them shipped from CA and then I am not guaranteed those will be straight. The biggest thing these have going for them as they are pretty well dried so they should be stable.

I received word today that are SIPs have been picked up in South Dakota and are on their way down for a Friday and Saturday delivery. We are looking forward to their arrival and they should probably take a good part of the weekend to get unloaded and organized.

Here are a couple more pictures of our deck work this past weekend.

Back filled and ready for a frame

Friday and Saturday were devoted to backfilling and general clean up around the site.

Besides backfilling around the pad we also installed an additional 1" and 3/4" conduit along with the already 2" conduit leading to the garage and back filled this trench as well. The 2" will be for the feed to the sub electrical panel in the garage and the other to conduit will be for cable and possible internet feed in the future.

Some huge rocks were excavated when this trench was dug so backfilling had to be done a little more carefully so as not to crush any of the conduit. It made for a lot more manual work to just to get the area cleaned up.

This week will be geared towards getting the
SIPs delivered according to my schedule. Right now it is looking like the day after Thanksgiving which would work out perfectly. This may be a long shot right now but I will no more as the week progresses. I have actually brokered my own truck through SWIFT trucking. If I can in fact make this work it will save us a considerable amount in shipping.

The SIPs are from Enercept out of Watertown SD. I could have purchased them locally but when it came right down to price and my vote of confidence in the local supplier I had to go with http://www.enercept.com/

We received the contracts and shop drawings and have all of them approved so they should begin this week manufacturing them. As I mentioned it may be a long shot for a week from Friday delivery but who knows. Along with the possible Friday delivery I will also need to get a 6000 pound fork lift with a 42' reach delivered to the site to off load the SIPs as well as have it for installation of them. This will most likely come out of Flagstaff. I have done a lot of calling around and just have to confirm the delivery date at this point.

Our hopes are still for a raising of the frame the week of the 27th of this month. I will be speaking with Alan this week to get a better idea if this is still holding true. So far the weather has been cooperating, I just hope the trend continues. Here are a few more pictures of the backfilled pad.

Finally we get a concrete pad!!!

It seems like it has taken forever to get to this point. Thursday I left work early in an attempt to beat the inspector out to the site so as to make sure my pex tubing was up to pressure for inspection.

fortunately I had spoken with the plumber and asked him to check it for me as soon as he arrived on site. I figured that it probably had dropped off due to the wide temperature swings we get up there this time of year.

I ended up arriving about 2 minutes prior to the inspector arriving. I spoke briefly with the plumber and he had re-pressurize the line back up to 50 pounds. As expected it had dropped because of the temperature changes.

The plumber was just doing some double checking prior to Friday's pour. Making sure all of the drain lines and water lines fell inside the walls!!

Inspection went well. The pex passed with flying colors as well as the added piers and footing that were dug on Tuesday. We were set for the pour tomorrow!!!

I was aware that we were going to have extra concrete. This was necessary due to the fact that the batch plant was about 45 minutes away, and we could not have a break in the pour with radiant floor heating. The project manager estimated we would need 49 1/2 yards of concrete for the pad, 7 piers, and one footing.

I hated to see any waste seeing as the cost of concrete has risen to a premium. So I purchased 4 2x6x8's to form up a pad for a pump house that may be needed down the line depending how we finally end up running the water system. I got it started about sunset Thursday night and finished it by the light of the tractor Friday morning at 4:30 AM.

The pumper truck arrived right on time Friday morning at about 5:45 AM.

By 6:30 the concrete crew of 9 and the project manger were waiting on the first truck of concrete. The pumper truck was set up and ready to start filling the pad with concrete.

The first truck had a flat tire on the way so was delayed but the second truck arrived at 6:45 and we were under way.


In all we would have 5 trucks of concrete delivered with the 5th being only about 3/4 full. I will be the first to admit I held my breath throughout the whole pour that no one would accidentally put a hook or a rake through the pext tubing. I must have checked the pressure at the manifold 2 dozen times throughout the pour!!
Plastersizer was added to each truck. This was about a five minute process before each truck could start to pour. This made the mix act runnier for ease of pumping and so as not to let it set up to fast.


The pumper truck I was told weighed about 70,000 pounds. Needless to say I pointed out where the drain field and septic tank were at. They are also marked with yellow caution tape but one can never be to careful.














This particular truck also had a reach of 90 feet which when it came time to pour my 8x8 pad would come in handy!!

I was relieved to see the last of the pex disappear under the concrete.

At least at that point I did not have to bear watching nine workers with rakes and hooks walking all over it!!


It took a while for it to harden up before the power trowels could be set up on it. So there was about a half hour lull in the action. But once it had hardened up enough everyone was back at it!! The pump house pad that I had framed up was the last to be poured. With the boom fully extended we were just able to get the concrete in the front half of the form and rake excess to the back of the form. Later on this pad will be picked up with the forklift and re-located. I hunted for just about every piece of scrap rebar I could find on site to put in the concrete. I would say it is a 50/50 mix of steal and concrete!!

By noon the pad was really starting to shape up. Both power trowels were on the pad and everyone else was working on the edges or finishing off around the plumbing.

We could not have asked for a better day!! Just a light breeze and low 60's for highs. By 1:30 everyone was packing up and ready to head out.

We finally have a pad poured for our timber frame home!!!!





Our attention now turns to coordinating the next steps in the project. We will need a large fork lift delivered on site to handle the construction of the frame as well as the off loading of the timbers and the SIPs. My hopes are to have the SIPs and fork lift arrive late in the week of the 13th. This will give me time to get them arranged and under cover and at the same time it will not hinder Alan and his crew when the arrive to erect the frame on the the 27th.

Also being as next weekend is a three day weekend my hopes are to complete back filling and also have sheet rock and some of the dimensional lumber delivered.

I figure we will need a forklift with at least a 42' reach. This should cover us on getting all of the wall SIPs in place. Obviously a crane will be needed for the roof SIPs when we get to that stage.

My hopes are to have a couple of Alan's crew stay behind to help with the wall SIPs. I am thinking a couple of days with the three of us working at it should complete them.

After the walls are complete we can then start work on the 3200 sq. ft. Of Aspen that needs to be put in place on the roof prior to the SIPs being put down. My thoughts are that my wife, son and I can complete this task. Once this is complete my hopes are to get a couple of Alan's guys back to help install the roof SIPs. Hopefully this will take place just prior to Christmas but time and weather will tell!!!