How does the SipCalc calculate?

SipCalc is a flexible tool for calculating the number of SIP panels and additional materials required to construct a SIP panel frame for a future SIP house without interior partitions. The primary requirement for the building site is that it must have a classic rectangular or square shape.

To perform basic calculations, simply enter the length and width of the corresponding floor into the calculator. SipCalc calculates the total surface areas made of SIP panels (floor, exterior walls, inter-floor overlap, walls and gables of the attic floor, roof overlap).

The shape of the SIP house is a classic rectangle or square. There is an option to adjust the second floor area relative to the first floor.

To calculate only the surface areas (walls/overlaps) without determining the number of SIP panels or other materials, leave the SIP panel selection fields empty.

In standard calculations, longitudinal splitting of SIP panels in half for overlaps and roofing is taken into account, but this option can be disabled.

All calculations for the SIP house use meters as the unit of length.

Method 1: How to calculate the area, floor of walls and ceiling or roof.

For calculations, a rectangular or square floor shape is used. To calculate the floor area, it is enough to enter the length and width of the house into the calculator, it is not necessary to choose the appropriate sip panel for the floor.

To calculate the wall area, you will need to enter the height of the wall from floor to ceiling. If you do not enter the height, the calculation will use a height equal to the standard length of the sip panel (for the first floor – 2.5 m, for the second attic floor – 1.25 m).

The ceiling area of the first floor is equal to the floor area by default. If the “cold attic” option is selected for the roof, the roof area will be equal to the ceiling area, which implies the construction of a closed thermal insulation circuit of sip panels (floor, walls, ceiling) without a ceiling, lumber for the roof truss system in this option is not taken into account.

For other roof variants, the closed thermal insulation circuit of sip panels will serve as the roof supporting structure, so all materials for the installation of such a structure will be taken into account by the calculator.

In all variants of roof calculation, except for the “cold attic” type, the area of the gables is added to the area of the walls.

Therefore, the main feature of this type of calculation is the determination of the floor, wall, ceiling and roof areas, it is not necessary to choose the appropriate sip panels for these structural elements.

Method 2. Calculation of the number of sip panels

To calculate the required number of sip panels, dry beams and other materials, you need to select the appropriate sip panel opposite each element (floor, walls, roof).
In this case, the calculator will take the parameters of the selected sip panel (length, width, height, etc.) and calculate the required number of selected sip panels for the floor, walls, ceiling and roof.

The total weight and volume of the sip panels are calculated to select a carrier. The parameters of each type of sip panels selected by the user of the calculator are taken into account.

For a house with 2 floors, it is necessary to include the 2nd floor in the calculator and fill in its length and width accordingly. If the data on the 1st floor is filled in before the 2nd floor is enabled, this data will be automatically transferred and fill in the length and width of the 2nd floor.

If the ceiling height of the 2nd floor is not specified, then the default height for the attic floor will be 1.25 m.

The calculation of the sip panels for the walls and floor of the 2nd floor is exactly the same as for the 1st floor.

How the roof is calculated

The calculation for single-pitched, gable, hip roofs is based on the greatest width and length of the floors of the 1st and 2nd floors. Usually, the length and width of the 1st and 2nd floor slabs are equal. There are cases when it is necessary to take into account the difference between the 1st and 2nd floors, when the 2nd floor protrudes (canopy) over the 1st floor or vice versa, the area of the 2nd floor is smaller than the area of the 1st floor.

If the data on the roof overhang or slope is not filled in, the calculation will use the default data (overhang – 0.5 m, slope – 30 degrees).

The pitch of a single-pitched or gable roof is taken into account only in width! It means that the gables will be located on the side of the house where the user entered the width.

Calculation of the roof area according to the type, angle of inclination, and overhang selected by the user:
cold attic – the roof area will be equal to the floor area of the 1st floor;
flat (single-pitched) – the roof area will be equal to the product of the longest width by the longest length of the roof, taking into account the roof overhangs;
double-skinned (gable) – the roof area will be equal to the product of the longest width by the longest length of the roof, taking into account the roof overhangs, while the area of the gables of 2 gables is added to the area of the walls of the 2nd floor;
hollow (hip) – to calculate the roof area, the roof area is decomposed into simpler elements: 2 trapezoidal areas and 2 isosceles triangles, or 4 isosceles triangle areas, and as a result, all calculated areas of simple elements are summed into the total roof area.

Additional information. Calculation of the amount of timber and other materials

According to the dimensions of the selected sip panels (length, width, thickness), the volume of timber required for each element of the house (floor, walls, ceiling, roof) is calculated. Then these volumes are summed up into the total amount required for the construction of the entire house. To simplify the calculation, the dimensions of the boards surrounding the perimeter of the sip panel are used, which completely fill the grooves of the timbering with their volume. The beam is replaced by a paired board in the calculations, while the volume of the paired board is equal to the volume of the beam.

Sip panels of the floor (floor and roof) are split in half lengthwise, so the consumption of boards to fill the grooves between the divided parts of the sip panels increases accordingly, and this factor is also taken into account in the calculations.

In sip panels, the default depth of the grooves for the beam is 40 mm.
Additional unforeseen board consumption is regulated by an additional reserve (20% by default).
The default specific gravity of dry timber is 0.51 t/cubic meter.

Accuracy of calculations. Where do the standard parameters come from

The purpose of creating this calculator was to speed up the calculation of the estimate for the installation of a sip panel frame of a house. All used calculation coefficients have been tested on real construction projects. The calculation accuracy for sip panels is within 5%, for timber and other materials – 20%. In order to change the standard calculation parameters and use your own parameters in the future, you need to register on this site and use the paid version of SipCalc. To activate the paid version of SipCalc, please contact me, the contacts are on the Contact page. As the author of the idea and this project, I am constantly working to improve the accuracy of calculations. Anyone interested in improving the calculator is welcome to contact me for further cooperation.

What kind of buildings is this calculator designed for?

The calculator I have developed can perform calculations for simple rectangular/square houses from 40 to 200 square meters. For other structures made of sip panels, the accuracy of this calculator will be insufficient.