Means and Methods
GO Logic Installs Largest Panel To Date
Panelized construction has a lot of virtue. Buildings assembled inside a shop, out of the weather, tend to have better material longevity and less water intrusion than stick-built structures. For carpenters, working on tables instead of ladders can be much safer, and easier on the body, which often means the performance of the structure improves based on ease-of-access to the carpenters’ work area.
That said, panelized construction is a different animal than stick-built and requires optimizing the shell design for panelization. Some key criteria that determine how to break a building down into panels are based on the materials in the wall assembly, site access, and structural requirements. As a company working to continuously optimize our practices for panelization, we are learning that building entire exterior wall facades (corner to corner) in a single panel can reduce materials required, improve water resistant barrier (WRB) continuity, and reduce construction time.
The latest opportunity to deploy this methodology came into play on our recently completed shell-assembly in Western Massachusetts where we installed the largest panels that the company has ever built; 35 feet long by 10 feet tall! Panels this size come with their own complexity, as accommodations must be made at every stage of production and installation from the size of the tables in the shop, to the length of the trailer bed for shipping, to picking them with a crane to set them on the foundation but, even at this size, we found that the benefits far outweigh the challenges. Larger, corner-to-corner panels have helped us expedite construction, while improving the quality of the high-performance envelope that we deliver. A win-win for all.
This home in the Berkshires was contracted as “shell-only,” meaning we provide the walls, floors, and roof structure; windows and exterior doors installed; the shell is verified airtight, and a local GC is responsible for site work, foundation, additional framing, utilities, roofing, and finishes. In this case GO Logic’s build process took approximately 6 weeks in the shop, and 2 weeks onsite.
