Thanks for the reply, MSG, I appreciate it.

You are sure right about having to educate nearly everyone regarding SIPs. I am getting really tired of using an ice cream sandwich as an example of what I'm building my house out of.

My kit will be arriving in two loads, a week apart, because of the availability of a forklift. That's just one example of how they've tried to accommodate my needs in this very rural area.

It does concern me a bit how hard it is to find any information on the 'net from previous customers. I spent several months looking for info on this company before dealing with them, and couldn't find anything. And, as you mentioned, your previous posts (which I never saw) seem to have vanished. Such things kinda tug on the conspiracy theorist inside me, making me wonder if there is an ongoing effort to remove any such info by the company.

When I ordered my kit, it was six months after I'd talked to them the first time, and brushed away the "have we got a deal for you!" hype and talked to the salesman in a more professional manner. Once they got my deposit check, we had a businesslike relationship, without the pressure and hype.

The two things that I didn't like about the company were the sales tactics and the lack of info on the 'net. If our posts disappear, we'll have some work ahead of us to make posts faster than they can have them removed.

Grumble-
I have to agree with you that the company must spend a lot of time scouring the internet trying to remove any negative comments about their company. Although the sales reps. do have customer references availible if you ask for them; once again though, they only give you access to the most positive experiences.
With your kit being so large make sure that you get a copy of the "bill of laidings" from your materials order rep. before the trucks get there (it will allow you to lay out your job site ahead of time in terms of where to place all of the materials and have a lot of scrap lumber available to stack the materials on up off of the ground since some of it will not come on a pallet). I only had a little problem with not being provided a proper Simpson hanger in my delivery, but it was quickly resolved with a phone call to the company. So their cusomer service is good only once you make your down payment on the kit, as you have mentioned several times.

That's an excellent suggestion, MSG, and one I'll follow. I expected everything to be on dunnage or wooden pallets. Last thing I want to do is chase around looking for scrap lumber during the unloading process.

Having them provide the bill of lading in advance is also a very useful tip.

I've built a couple of metal buildings delivered in kit form, but this is my first house. I'm amazed at how much planning and research is needed, and I still know that there will be things I overlooked. Makes me appreciate all the other houses I've lived in over the years with no thought as to what it took for them to be there for me to move into. :-) Hard to imagine how anybody could do this in the days before the internet!

Many thanks for your tips!

I received the home kit as scheduled last week. Everything went pretty smoothly and was well-coordinated by the folks at Valubuild.

The only real problem was with one of the contracted delivery companies, beyond the control of Valubuild. This company used a tilt bed truck to unload the materials. The driver raised the bed and as soon as the load started to shift, he popped the clutch and smashed the entire load on the rear edge, popping the steel banding and breaking several of the bottom sheets of flooring and sheeting. It was a drop of about four feet, and will require replacing some of the material. Won't know the full extent until we work through the stack to get to the bottom and see how much was broken.

Sorry to hear about the delivery issue. Boy, I have never heard of a company delivering materials the way that this driver did to you. I suspect that driver will no longer work for that company anymore. It sounds like he created quite a mess on the spot that required at least an hour of restacking materials. I doubt that any of the SIP panels were damaged (if they were delivered), and I would just count all of the damaged edges on the sheathing (floor and roof)and have Valubuild send you more, because the busted edges are almost impossible to work with on T&G OSB subflooring. Hopefully this is the worst of your issues for this project.