Wall panels are the staple of our prefab panel offering, and are involved in all of our prefab packages.

Collective Carpentry wall panels are always designed with high performance building principles of energy efficiency, durability, health, comfort, and embodied carbon in mind.  They typically far exceed requirements from local building regulations, and always take into account local climate factors, client desires for insulation performance, and optimization for the prefabrication process.

While we are well known for our flexibility in collaborating on the wall panel design, and in building any custom wall panel that meets our standards for the above high performance building principles, we have also found two main approaches to be the most successful, cost-effective, and efficient wall panels we can build:

1. The “I-Joist” wall

The I-joist wall uses an open framed structural wall followed by a layer of airtight plywood and a cavity of densepacked cellulose encapsulated by 9 ½”, 11 ⅞”, 14”, or 16” I-joists, and finished with a ⅝” layer of wood fiberboard insulation, an airtight, monolithic, vapor open housewrap, and a layer of ¾” to 1 ½” rainscreen strapping.  

In this wall, the structure sits on the outside edge of the building’s footprint, while the I-joist is an “outrigger” that hangs outward from the building.  This wall is efficient to build, and only marginally more expensive than our Gutex wall for a lot more R-value.

Inboard to outboard:

• 2×4 or 2×6 framed structural wall on 16” or 24″ centers (batt insulation optional, on-site, and by others, R-14 or R-22)
• 5/8″ plywood, taped airtight (primary air and vapour control layer, and for racking strength)
• 9 1/2″, 11 7/8″, 14” or 16” I-joists, with densepack cellulose (thermal bridge-free continuous insulation layer), R-35, R-44, R-52, or R-59
• 5/8″ Agepan DWD wood fiber insulation board (optional, to hold cellulose), R-1.14
• Pro Clima Mento 1000 airtight monolithic WRB (secondary airtightness, weather protection) / Pro Clima Mento Plus airtight reinforced monolithic WRB (to hold cellulose), taped airtight
• 3/4″ – 1 1/2″ vertical rainscreen strapping (& optional ¾” to 1 ½” horizontal rainscreen strapping)

Total R-value: R-35 to R-82

2. The “Gutex” wall

The Gutex wall uses a “closed” structural wall filled with densepack cellulose insulation and having a smart vapor retarder on the interior, a layer of plywood on the exterior, and a layer of wood fiberboard insulation outboard, followed by an airtight, vapor open, monolithic housewrap and a layer of ¾” to 1 ½” strapping.  An optional 1 ½” service cavity can be installed in the shop, or installed on site by others if the depth requirement is greater.

 This wall is more challenging to install, but offers an R-value more reasonable for more temperate climates and a vapor control strategy more suitable to challenging climates.

Inboard to outboard,

• 1 ½” (2×4 on the flat in the shop) or 3 ½” (2×4 on edge, by others on-site) (strapping for services, typically uninsulated, but optional to insulate on site, optional), R-6 or R-14
• Pro Clima Intello Plus airtight reinforced smart vapour retarder (primary air and vapour control layer, holds cellulose)
• 2×6, 2×8, or 2×10 framed structural wall on 16” or 24″ centers, with densepack cellulose, R-20, R-27, or R-34
• 5/8″ plywood (for racking strength)
• 2 3/8″ (60mm) wood fiberboard tongue and groove insulation board (thermal bridge-free continuous insulation layer), R-8.5.  Option to increase thickness to 4 3/4″ with no lead time increase, or other sizes with increased lead time.
• Pro Clima Mento 1000 airtight monolithic WRB (secondary airtightness, weather protection), taped airtight
• 3/4″ – 1 1/2″ vertical rainscreen strapping (& optional ¾” to 1 ½” horizontal rainscreen strapping)

Total R-value: R-29 to R-57 or greater

While our wall panels are designed with windows, exterior finishes, interior services, and interior finishes in mind, these items are not included in Collective Carpentry wall panels and are installed on site by others, with the exception of windows and doors which are sometimes installed on site by the CC install team, on a case by case basis.  ¾” plywood bucks and approved headers and additional structure for windows and doors are always installed in the shop, integrated into airtight layers, and included in CC wall packages.

Interested in diving into more details?  Contact us to request a set of standard details for our panel systems showing assembly bulidups and typical connections both within and outside of our scope.