Sky Deck Renovation

There's probably no major reason to replace the SIP floor in the bathroom with a SIP panel, actually. Would be a little lighter and would be fun to try, but not essential. Looking forward to getting back over to work on the RV soon.

I can make a sip panel to fit in those holes in your floor

This has been a great read. Thanks! :)

Sky Deck wrote:

westend wrote:
IMO, these SIP panels are great in a wall situation where compression of the foam isn't an issue but place them in a floor where support is barely adequate or the wood layer could have little tension, and a problem is bound to happen.

I hope I'm not scaring you about your floor. If I owned the Sky Deck, I'd keep what I had for the floor and not give it a second thought, other than to have adequate joists, especially in traffic areas.

No worries. As I said, I'm very interested in SIP panel construction, so I think it's pretty cool that my new home uses SIPs and I might just get to work with them. But I don't know anyone who has a lot of experience building with them. The bottom line, of course, is that all the research in the world isn't as valuable as inspecting the real thing, 10 years later. Now I need to find out where to get panels to replace this one, before I go tearing it out. I am optimistic that they've only gotten better over the past decade.

By the way, check this out: http://www.singloghomes.com

My take is that any part of smaller conventional residential and commercial building construction is going to migrate towards anything that can be manufactured and built in a plant, off site.

I'm up here in a suburb of Hudson's Bay (Minnesota, actually :B), we go to great pains about insulation. If the SIP panel can handle the weather, it will be used. Manufactured homes already exist that use them, not so much in typical mini-mansions that folks crave.

I read some at the Sing site and it's an interesting concept, especially the efficient log use as it uses timber that would otherwise be graded for another use, probably more wasteful.

If you need to use a piece of SIP and can't find an off-the shelf one, you could DIY with a big plastic bag and a shop vac.

westend wrote:
IMO, these SIP panels are great in a wall situation where compression of the foam isn't an issue but place them in a floor where support is barely adequate or the wood layer could have little tension, and a problem is bound to happen.

I hope I'm not scaring you about your floor. If I owned the Sky Deck, I'd keep what I had for the floor and not give it a second thought, other than to have adequate joists, especially in traffic areas.

No worries. As I said, I'm very interested in SIP panel construction, so I think it's pretty cool that my new home uses SIPs and I might just get to work with them. But I don't know anyone who has a lot of experience building with them. The bottom line, of course, is that all the research in the world isn't as valuable as inspecting the real thing, 10 years later. Now I need to find out where to get panels to replace this one, before I go tearing it out. I am optimistic that they've only gotten better over the past decade.

By the way, check this out: http://www.singloghomes.com

That "metal trim" is structural- the floor (and walls and roof) is laminated with the aluminum framing in place, then the cutouts are removed with a router.

I've always wanted to tackle an RV reno, But more than likely I would do a small guy like a boler or bigfoot.

Awesome project, and I look forward to the updates.

I could search for "Jayco soft floor" but I bet you could do that just as easy. I never bookmarked any of them. Usually these threads don't have a good technical discussion but just point out the problems and ask how to cure it.

Yes, I meant a thinner panel. IIRC, the dimension of the failing floors were 1/4" luan, 1" of foam, 1/4" or 3/8" of subfloor. If your floors are all sound after 10 years, I wouldn't sweat it, just thought I'd bring it up so if you do start moving floor sections, you could be aware of proper bracing from below.

The problem about the composite panels in RV floors may be due to the construction culture of the industry. If there's any way to cut a few cents out of the total price, many mfgs will just go with it and suffer the few failures presumed to happen later. So what if the adhesive isn't up to the task or the expanded foam is to thin to support weight over a bigger span and spread weight, just build it and make the cabinets shiny. That's the feeling I get, sometimes, when the threads about failures pop up.

IMO, these SIP panels are great in a wall situation where compression of the foam isn't an issue but place them in a floor where support is barely adequate or the wood layer could have little tension, and a problem is bound to happen.

I hope I'm not scaring you about your floor. If I owned the Sky Deck, I'd keep what I had for the floor and not give it a second thought, other than to have adequate joists, especially in traffic areas.

Good luck with the Sky Deck, I'm following along and really enjoying your progress. I kind of wish I could score one of these unique models.

westend wrote:
About the SIP composite panels: Yours look to be well built but there have been some unhappy owners of RV's with those panels, mostly from delamination or failure of the foam in high traffic areas. Most of the failures I've seen use a smaller foam component and have inadequate bracing.

Westend, can you point me towards any good discussions of SIP delamination in RVs? When you say "smaller foam component" do you mean thinner panels? I would think SIP technology is changing and improving a lot, but I know no way to evaluate this 2003 product, other than the fact that the floors appear sound right now. I could replace it with more conventional construction, but I'm leaning towards going with the lightweight design. I agree the joists should be beefed up.

By the way, I called Thor to ask about schematics or other information for this model, and they say they've got nothing. Although this model is branded "Thor," I think its by a business line of theirs that is out of business.

Yup, it's a game of large amounts of debris and moving things a few inches to get things right.

About the SIP composite panels: Yours look to be well built but there have been some unhappy owners of RV's with those panels, mostly from delamination or failure of the foam in high traffic areas. Most of the failures I've seen use a smaller foam component and have inadequate bracing. You're a tradesman so know what works with joists. I wouldn't cheap out on the joists.