If you’re considering building a prefabricated home using Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs), you’ve no doubt wondered how much they cost and how they compare to more conventional approaches such as double brick and timber framing.

The recent housing and building boom in WA has been fuelled by government grants and unprecedented low interest rates. Given the sharp rise in demand, supply (materials and trades) has struggled to keep up and so costs have dramatically risen for some core materials for conventional building methods.

Two of the key materials that have rocketed up in price are bricks and timber. It has been reported that bricklayers have doubled and tripled their prices. Couple that with a rise in unqualified trades who are taking on work and delivering poor outcomes it has been a recipe for disaster.

Here at SipForm, our high performance building envelopes are built using Structural Insulated Panels which are essentially a EPS core which is sandwiched and bonded to a high density substrate. Our core materials have not been as dramatically affected as the other materials mentioned. We are able to manufacture the panels in our factory in Malaga and deliver them to site with minimal wastage to keep costs down.

As with any other building project, there are many factors that contribute to prefabricated home prices. For the purpose of this article, we’ll discuss factors that will affect the price of the envelope rather than inclusions. These can be discussed with our building partner, FORM Homes. Some factors that can influence the price of our panels include:

Type of panels Thickness of panels (105mm or 135mm) or upgrading to Super Graphite for greater insulation. Different choices of cladding such as Fibre Cement, Weathertex or MgO board are available.
Site and Location. Depending upon your particular home site, any access challenges and the distance from the factory may result in additional costs such as craneage and transportation.
Size of the project Larger homes will lead to lower prices per square meter compared to tiny home projects.

If you’d like to use our system for your next project, get in touch with us so we can work together to build you a custom proposal and quote based on your precise requirements.