My friend Nick is building a structural insulated panel Minim tiny house and last weekend I filmed while Nick and crew raised the walls. Long time tiny house builder and sales person for Premier SIPS, Patrick Sughue was there to direct the action.
I can’t really decide how I feel about structural insulated panels and from everything I’ve read it seems like kind of a toss up between the advantages and disadvantages of sips versus mindful stick framing.
The efficiency enthusiast in me loves those R values, but environmentalist in me feels a bit queasy looking at all that polystyrene. The builder in me sees a bit of weakness in the joints although I’m sure they are plenty strong for the job. Watching the walls go up like legos is obviously massively expedient, but the miser in me would have a hard time paying for that privilege! Finally the curmudgeon in me just hates OSB for rational and non-rational reasons.
Overall it was just good to get some hands-on experience with the product and to be peripherally involved with this project.
Being a dedicated single-story guy And also someone who is highly skeptical of 8 ft wide tiny houses (even though I just built one), I feel a sense of connection to the Minim designers. It will be interesting to follow this project as it progresses and to have a first-hand opportunity to experience the finished space.
I’m mixing down a YouTube video right now showing the details of the floor assembly because I know that putting a wide house on a narrower trailer is something that people have a lot of questions about. It will probably be a couple weeks before I have it up on the channel. I also shot some video of the raising which I’ll share tomorrow.
-Brian
