Raising a panel wall |
Welcome builders! This section of our site is intended to provide answers to some of your questions about building a Sunlight home. If you have been contacted by one of our customers about building their Sunlight home, please email or call us if you have further questions.
Our primary service at Sunlight Homes is in custom home design. We design our homes to be very energy efficient and we design specifically for Murus' super insulated urethane SIP panels and Pella's windows. This is one of the reasons why we sell our design work only as a part of our Component Package.
Our Component Package includes, along with several sets of plans (stamped by a structural engineer with a stamp from your state), the rough, structural shell of the home including the custom fabricated polyurethane SIPs, the framing lumber for interior walls and the garage, Pella windows and skylights and exterior doors. The contractor supplies all other materials and all labor needed to build and complete the home. Visit the BUILD section of this web site and murus.com for details and technical information our SIPs.
Our customers contract directly with a local builder of their choice to build their Sunlight home. We recommend that they choose someone who they can communicate with easily, who has received positive recommendations from previous customers and who they feel they can trust.
If you have never built a SIP home before, don't worry! 99% of our builders are new to SIP construction. Fortunately, this building system is straightforward and the learning curve is not steep. Our homes have been built across the country for over twenty five years by builders new to SIPs and their inexperience has never been a problem. In fact, most builders really like building SIP homes and are eager to do more.
Diagonal braces reinforce SIPS in construction |
Murus panels have a cam-lock fastening system that makes joining the panels much easier. Cam-lock keys are provided to operate the hook that joins one panel to the next. The cam-locks are spaced every 2' along the vertical edge of each panel. Some builders find it easier to fasten several panels together while they are lying flat, then raise them into place as one unit.
Standard-sized panels are 4 feet wide and the height of the wall, although there are many custom-sized panels in every home. They are clearly labeled for easy identification. They come stacked and bundled in the order in which they will be used. When unloading, the panels are staged around the pad close to the place where they will be needed to avoid unnecessary hauling later. Panels are erected by number, following Murus' plans.
One critical element in the process is building a square and level foundation. Extra care should be taken to do this accurately. With a square and level foundation, the panels will fit together easily.
During installation, the panels are glued, cam-locked and nailed to each other. Ten inch panel screws toenail into upper and lower plates and connect the corners.
Really Important: Panels must be carefully braced with 2-bys until the structure is completely erected.
Once the wall panels are erected and interior walls are framed, ridge beams are fit into factory-cut beam pockets and roof panels are set in place. We recommend a crane or other lifting device to set roof panels since they are thicker and larger than wall panels and can be quite heavy.
Roof panels go up quickly with a couple workers on the roof fastening the panels together while the next panel is being hoisted into place.
Sunlight homes are designed so that most of the plumbing and wiring is run in the crawl space or through interior frame walls. Plumbing is still needed on some exterior SIP walls and plumbing chases built in where necessary.
Electrical wiring on our SIP walls is done by installing 2"x2" furring strips vertically 16"oc on the interior of the SIPs. The furring strips don't run to the bottom of each panel, instead leaving a space where the wiring is stapled directly to the panel, then up to the electrical boxes. Remodeling electrical boxes are used because they are shallow and don't cut into the panels. Once the wiring is run, the drywall is applied to the furring strips. This method simplifies the electrical work makes future remodeling much easier and meets all codes.
We spent many years building our homes in the Albuquerque area where we are based. Initially we used the standard bidding method. Over the years we had projects that went over and others that went under our bids. We learned that the bidding method, while still being a standard system) is really a crap shoot and doesn't offer predictability or security to anyone involved. When this became clear to us, we decided to look for a better approach and discovered the cost-plus-a-fixed-fee method.
We used this method ourselves as builders and we now suggest this approach to all of our customers and their builders. We like how straight-forward, clear and fair it is and hope you do too.
The way this works is that the homeowner and the builder agree up front on a fixed fee that the builder will be paid for acting as the General Contractor on the project. Several factors are considered when determining the fee— the estimated value of the home, the size and complexity, the weather, the driving time to the project site, and the local building climate to name a few. We can help negotiate this fee if you'd like.
The bottom line is that the builder needs to be paid a fair price for his work. This fixed fee covers it and then the home owner pays the builder's cost for all the labor and materials used in the home. This way the homeowner pays the true cost of the home and pays the builder a fair fee. The homeowner is saved the money a builder would have built in as "fudge factor" if the project runs smoothly and the builder knows exactly what he or she will make from the beginning. It's that simple.
To make this approach work, it's also important to have Open Books.
Rough window opening |
To continue the simple, clean, straight forward approach to building, we also suggest an "open books" approach. When we had our construction company we used open books with our customers and had rave reviews from them. We liked it too! Here's how we did it.
A new checking account is opened for every new project and all of the project's financial transactions move through this account. Both the builder and the customer has access to this bank account as well as to all of the invoices so both parties know where every dollar goes.
Along with this, the customer gets the builder discounts on materials and builder pricing for labor. The builder is being paid a fixed fee and doesn't mark up anything more. As a result, the customer gets the discounts but also pays the extra if there are any problems during construction. In custom home building there are always a few surprises because, unlike tract homes, a custom home is like a prototype in that it has never been built before. We think that the advantage of having a clean, open arrangement that passes on the builder's costs and eliminates the contingency fees more than makes up for the occasional additional costs the customer has to pay to solve a problem during construction. These are, after all, part of the true costs of a custom home.
We appreciate your interest in building a Sunlight home and are available to answer questions at any time before or during the process. If you are currently studying a set of our plans for an upcoming project, please contact us by phone or email. We'd be happy to discuss the project with you in detail so that you can fully understand how the project would work.
We know that we couldn't do our job without you and it's in our best interest as well as yours that the building project is a success for everyone. It's important that you are paid for your time and skills and we would like to talk to you further about how Open Books and Cost Plus a Fixed Fee would work for you in this project. These approaches have been enormously successful to our builders and clients over the years because they are actually a more predictable, honest and "win/win" way to go.
We are here to help in any way we can to assist you in having a positive building experience. We are also happy to pass your name on to future customers who are building in your area since you will then be considered an experienced SIP builder. Good communication is the key, and we look forward to hearing from you! |
