A family company on West Main Street.
ACME Panel has been pressing structural panels in Radford, Virginia since 1980. Same town, same family, and for the last decade and a half the same solar array running the plant.
Radford is a small city in the New River Valley, about an hour southwest of Roanoke. A truck leaving our yard is in New England the next day.
We make panels for exterior walls, roofs and floors. Around forty people work here. We are large enough to run a full size press and small enough that the person who priced your job is the person who picks up when you call from the jobsite.
Over the years our panels have gone into more than five hundred structures certified to Energy Star, LEED, Passive House and EarthCraft. Some of those are eight hundred square foot cottages. One is an airport terminal. The panel does not particularly care.
Three hundred and sixty panels on the roof, running the presses underneath.
We are, as far as anyone in the industry knows, the only structural panel manufacturer in the United States whose plant runs on its own solar generation.
It was not a marketing decision. We sell a product whose entire argument is that buildings waste too much energy. Running the factory on grid power while making that argument never sat right.
| Founded | 1980 |
|---|---|
| Ownership | Family owned |
| President | Joe Fortier |
| Operations | Kevin DiPietro |
| Plant | 1905 W Main St, Radford VA |
| Team | Around 40 people |
| Territory | The East Coast |
Audited by a third party since 2010.
We started working with NTA, now ICC-NTA, in 2010 under a quality system verification program. In 2013 that became a full product certification, which meant our panels carried rated performance values specific to ACME rather than the generic values every SIP manufacturer shares in the code.
That distinction is dry and it matters. It gives engineers and building officials a much wider set of conditions in which they can use our panels, and it means an unusual detail does not automatically become a special inspection.
We are very excited to take this large step with NTA and continue our long term partnership. Joe Fortier, President, ACME Panel Company
Four things we do the same way every time.
Model before we cut
Every project gets a 3D model and a complete panel plan set. Nobody starts a saw until the customer has signed those plans. It costs us a few days up front and saves everybody a change order later.
Engineer in your state
We keep a network of engineers licensed across our territory. Your drawings get stamped by someone your building official already knows, which is the single fastest way through a plan review.
Design out the waste
Layouts are drawn to get the most building out of the least material. Less waste is cheaper for you and it is the reason our offcut pile is smaller than it has any right to be.
Answer the phone
Small crews set panels for the first time all the time. When something on site does not look like the detail, call. That is what the number at the top of this page is for.
Member and website sponsor of the Structural Insulated Panel Association.
SIPA is the trade association for structural insulated panels in North America. We are a manufacturing member and a website sponsor, and our panels are covered under the SIPA code report as well as our own.
If you want a neutral source on how panels compare to stick framing, their true cost tools and technical library are a good place to start.
Come see the plant.
We are at 1905 West Main Street in Radford. Call first and somebody will walk you through the press line.