Hospital administrators are dealing with a myriad of changes and uncertainties from healthcare reform to worker cutbacks to liability concerns. Designing and constructing higher performance buildings is one way to help them meet the growing pressures of a difficult industry. On the facility design and operations front, finding ways to reduce building and operating costs, while still ensuring quality, is especially critical.
Healthcare facility designs have advanced dramatically in recent years, resulting in more aesthetic and comforting environments, yet the underlying structural systems have remained much the same for decades. To improve energy efficiency and indoor air quality, lower interior noise, reduce building cycle times, and cut-down on construction waste, design professionals are looking more closely at the building envelope. Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) are one advanced building technique many are now using to meet these needs in community hospitals, private clinics, long-term care facilities, and other low-rise healthcare buildings.
SIPs background
Structural insulated panels provide many benefits compared to other light commercial construction options such as stick-built framing, concrete masonry units (CMUs), and tilt-up concrete. They are engineered components composed of two outer sheathing layers, or “skins,” laminated to a rigid insulating foam core. These structural units take the place of individual wall studs and floor or roof joists, as well as blown-in or fiberglass batt insulation.
SIPs are strong, and in most applications are structurally self-sufficient. Designers can use them to bear high loads (including those from gravity, snow, high winds, and seismic forces) in wall, roof, and floor applications in place of other structural elements.
Design professionals can incorporate SIPs into typical exterior walls, as well as shear walls to resist earthquakes and high winds. Extensive testing has proven that SIPs work well in high-risk earthquake areas, including seismic design categories D, E, and F.
