Stick-framed vs. Component-framed: Wall Panels

Framing the American Dream conducted two controlled experiments to allow for apples-to-apples framing comparisons. In 1995, and again in 2015, two identical houses were framed side-by-side. The only difference between the two homes was one house was entirely stick-framed, while the other home was framed using structural components, including roof trusses, wall panels and floor trusses.

What We Learned

According to NAHB, 90 percent of all exterior walls are site built. However, these experiments clearly indicate there’s a better way to frame walls in that it takes considerably more labor, and more skill, to stick-frame walls:

Additional Benefits:

• One factor that contributes to the swift installation of wall panels is that framers don’t need to construct rough openings.
• As the building codes push for a tighter building envelope, the need to have rough openings built precisely to specification becomes more and more critical.
• Wall panels built in a controlled manufacturing environment with the help of computer-aided machinery and a rigorous quality control program ensure rough openings are built correctly every time.