Stressed-Skin Panels
by Alex Wilson
Few building products introduced in
the past 50 years have had the impact
of stressed-skin panels. They may
very well revolutionize the way we
build houses. Already, they've made
dramatic inroads into the relatively
small timber-framing industry.
Most timber-frame houses built
today are clad with four- to six-inchthick
stressed-skin panels-a core of
rigid insulation sandwiched between
an inner skin of drywall and an outer
skin of waferboard or oriented-strand
board (OSB). Timber-framers have
found that it makes more sense to
enclose their frames with these panels
than to frame-in separate 2x4 or 2x6
walls and/or sheathe with rigid
insulation.
Stressed-skin panels are also
starting to be used in conventional
houses to replace frame-wall and roof
systems-and even foundation walls.
Unlike