“Yes, many months have gone by since I came to your office to learn about Vacupor products for the North American market. It has taken the City of Los Angeles almost a year to authorized my project. As a refresher: any product used in residential construction requires a Los Angeles Research Report, and some of the innovative structural details finally became legal on 1 August 2009, so now I can in earnest request estimates for materials. The road ahead will still be long, as after estimates comes the final building review at the Department of Building and Safety. I have a few PDF drawings as a downloadable, but from the drawing I’ve extracted these surface dimensions.
Location, Surface Area
wall panels, 181 sq meters (1948 sq feet)
floor panels, 72 sq meters (770 sq feet)
roof panels, 50 sq meters (542 square feet)
Totals: 303 sq meters (3261 sq ft)
My order for Porextherm Vacupor NT-B2 VIP I’m sure will be lower than the 300 square meters of 25 mm panels since they cannot be punctured and must be placed strategically in between structural supports (my initial estimate would be 200 square meters) What I need to know:
1. The dimensions of Porextherm are made to order? How about angles? I have several sloped roof/wall areas that would require acute angles. What are the minimum and maximum dimensions of the panels? From my design, the typical panel would be 55 cm x 90 cm at 25 mm thickness. After knowing the panel dimensions, I can map out the layout on my 3D model for an exact order.
2. I don’t know how easy is it to get multiple estimates for the Porextherm products, but for a price check and for budgeting, how much would 50 cm x 50 cm Vacupor NT-B2 VIP panels be if I ordered 200 square meters (800 panels)? Could you also estimate the freight costs and delivery time?
As you recommended, I attempted to detail a Vacupor panel layout for my wall assemblies. I propose to install them in between a SIP wall and fiber cement panel siding, resting beside furring strips. If I have done by panel count correctly, this is my initial product requirements. My installers will be trained to hand the panels with “white gloves.” Could you also estimate the freight costs and delivery time? I tried to used the standard metric sizes, but the other components in the North American market (siding) require 16″ or 24″ on center requirements, so i will need custom panels.
Thank you for sharing your expertise and image library from the BioHaus. You are a pioneer in North America.
After reviewing the initial proposal, I am learning more about the manufacturing requirements and sizing limitations of the VIP products. It looks like square shapes are most economical, and slender panels are most expensive. I am going to optimize my panel layout to accommodate 500 mm x 1200 mm or 500 mm x 600 mm panels for wall and roof applications. I do not have the panel layout documentation, but do have a preliminary panel count.
Thank you for taking the time to work with me. Since you probably place orders from Germany on a periodic basis, is there a chance, if I delay or advance my order, to minimize freight to the USA by combining multiple customer orders of windows/VIP/etc? If I did my calculations properly 400 25 mm x 500 mm x 600 mm panels weight around 500 kg, so freight is high no matter what I do. I would like to see you estimate of duties too, which may or may not be egregious.”