Historically, normal lumber construction utilizes lumber members and nails that are used to construct a building structure, such as, for example, a house. Lumber constructed structures are built by hand, but the process is slow and requires skilled labor such as highly trained carpenters and other skilled professionals. Such construction can require many hours of work in the outside elements (such as rain, snow. etc.), use a natural resource that can be of limited supply and may result in a structure that is less energy efficient because of inconsistencies in the quality of the build. An alternative approach employs steel studs. This approach also suffers from limitations in that the steel studs are difficult to work with and are good thermal conductors of heat through walls and roofs.
Structural insulated panels (SIPs) are a modern building material used in home and other modular building construction. Several factors have hampered the wide-spread use of SIPs in current building construction. SIPs require a substantial amount of pre-planning in order to result in an efficient construction process. This is because SIPs are not easily handled or customized in the field at a construction site. For example, in order to cut or otherwise modify SIP, special tools are required that may not be easily utilized in the field. Also, more precise planning and building techniques may be needed because SIPs are difficult to modify in the field. A further complicating factor is that SIPs are usually heavy and generally require the use of heavy equipment such as cranes.