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Jim LeRoy of Panel Pros is a distributor,
fabricator, and builder of Insulspan® structural insulated panels.
A committed SIP builder for nearly 20 years, Jim joined the Insulspan
team in 1998 because he believes that quality products attract quality
builders, and he wouldn't build with anything but Insulspan®
panels.
September 2001
Rural Builder Magazine
Reprinted with permission.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that
Jim LeRoy is a committed user of structural insulated panels (SIPs).
Now in its 19th year, his Panel Pros Inc. erects from 65 to 80 buildings
a year using SIPs and prefabricates another 120 buildings in his
shop using the panels.
"What we do in the SIPs world is buy the
material raw from the manufacturer. That gets us his code approvals
and marketing. Then our clients come in and design the building
they want, and we cut the panels to create the building and send
them to the site," says LeRoy.
That "raw material" is generally 8-ft. x 24-ft. blank
SIPs which arrive at his shop in Westmoreland, N.H., on tractor-
trailer trucks from Great Lakes Insulspan in Blissfield, Mich. An
average of three of the truck loads make the trip each week.
LeRoy's crews cut window and door openings,
prepare connections, cut panels to length, and shape the edges where
they will meet the floor, roof, or the panel next to them.
Doing this work in-house, in a controlled environment, reduces the
amount of time his workers must spend on the building site. "Site
time is the most valuable thing there is," says LeRoy, "and
site help is hard to come by."
Often, his shop is customizing these panels
for other contractors or home buyers.
All of which makes LeRoy and his Panel Pros a somewhat unique distributor/fabricator/builder.
Using
a crane, large roof panels can be quickly fitted into a strong and
energy- efficient assembly.
As strictly a builder, Panel Pros often orders
SIPs precut from Insulspan and delivered to its job site. "But
we are trying to let the public know that they can buy a package
from us, that we are distributors, fabricators, and builders,"
says LeRoy.
From a finished set of house plans, Panel
Pros claims it can deliver a complete shell to the job site in two
to three weeks. "Then it's usually a day a piece for walls
and the roof. For a ranch on a slab, we are out of there in the
same day; floor systems take the longest," says LeRoy.
 Panel
Pros framers manhandle a piece of a gable-end wall up to the second
floor deck of a custom home in White Plains, N.Y. (Ted Cushman photos)
He is able to use SIPs in the roof about 90
percent of the time, unless the design or the client holds our for
regular roof trusses. About 30 percent of Panel Pros' business is
enclosing timber-frame structures, most of them homes, a few commercial.
Another 30 percent is stand-alone SIP homes, an additional 30 percent
is SIP commercial structures and schools, with the final 10 percent
a mix of the other three and including some small building additions.
He calls his marketing territory the
"greater New England area," taking in Eastern New York
State and Northern New Jersey. Unless they are built close to home,
structures shelled with panels are usually finished by a local builder.
LeRoy's company also has installed SIP skins on steel-frame riding
arenas, which are then finished by another contractor.
Skilled
framing carpenters can assemble SIP walls and roofs using the tools
they are familiar with from conventional wood-frame construction.
And although they are gradually changing, other
contractors in LeRoy's territory have not been quick to adopt the
use of the panels. "It's human nature not to change,"
he says.
"There are now two manufacturers within 15 miles of me, and
there are other contractors erecting SIPs. And we are trying to
get other contractors erecting our product; looking for allies."
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