Weather was not on our Side

Listening to the forecast for this past weekend it did not sound too good for installing SIP panels. Unfortunately the forecast held true.

Although it was not a complete wash out it sure seemed to slow things up. We were fortunate enough to arrive a little earlier than usual so we were able to get a start before sunset on Friday. As it ended up, we worked past dark but managed to get the 20 foot panel that we had stood temporarily in place to support the sheet rock last week permanently in place.

We new that the wind was supposed to pick up on Saturday so we got an early start on the next tall panel, which was a 21 foot panel. By the time we had the panels that we were going to need for the day and also rearranged some sheet rock to get to the moisture resistant sheet rock that we were going to need, and got the panel measured out and cut, the wind was already starting to pick up. Fortunately, we got it into place before it really started to blow. Even with the wind we had, the panel was very difficult to handle. The rest of the day was spent putting up sheet rock and somewhat shorter SIPs.

One thing I was finally able to test out this weekend was the Prazi saw attachment that I had purchased a couple of months ago.

I had thought I would give it a try on cutting the SIP's. It would mean making one single cut versus cutting one side and then flipping it and cutting the opposite side.

I was leery at first thinking that it would make a very jagged cut along the edge of the OSB. As it turned out it worked flawless. It made a very clean cut in one single pass. The only down side is it creates a pretty good cloud of Styrofoam beads when cutting the SIP.

I had spent this past week cutting Styrofoam splines that are placed in between the SIP's to act as a spline to interlock the SIP's and also as added insulation at that point. They really seem to work well. We put the splines in place with the mastic supplied by the SIP company prior to raising it and setting it in place.

This next week will be spent coming up with a platform to lay the 12' pieces of sheet rock onto so we can raise them in an upright position and screw them into place on the frame. I was pondering this early this morning, as it seems we have a relatively good way of hoisting the larger SIP's into place. Hoisting 12' sheets of sheet rock into place by hand will not only be time consuming but will probably result in a few getting away from us, not to mention any kind of wind factor that we may have to deal with.

I think I have come up with a pretty simple and relatively inexpensive design which will allow us to use the platform and the Skytrack to get the sheet rock into place, especially on the second floor areas. I will post my results as soon as I have it constructed.

I have also included some overall pictures of the frame which we never had a chance to get last weekend. As you can see, along with the windy weather on Saturday we received a light dusting of snow over night.