What is EIFS ?
The beauty of EIFS.
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| Here is a photo from an EIFS tear off we did in 2001. | Pencil poked into flimsy EIFS. It didn't even break the point ! Who could take pride in putting this stuff on the wall ? |
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| New generation drainable EIFS is torn off after 4 years. | Please click here or on the picture for more. |
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| 5 year old drainable EIFS torn off in Takoma Park, Maryland. | Studs removed and replaced. |
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| No rot, but Eifs removed and stucco applyed. We found a garden spade is the best tool for tearing off EIFS. First the plastic cloth can be slit with the spade and peeled off like an orange. The foam is then easily scraped off.. | Birds like EIFS. Whenever you see a round hole in EIFS, about an inch and a half in diameter, it usually is a sparrow hole. Contrary to popular belief, these aren't woodpeckers. This particular house had 22 birds nests in the dryvit before we tore it off. |
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| Photo above shows the igloo effect in EIFS. Usually this indicates the studs have gotten wet and warped or sagged. | More igloo effect on this chimney.. |
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| Electrical panel falls off the rotten sheathing on this recently built EIFS house and has to be supported with 2 by 4's and duct tape.. | This is a remake of a page I published 20 years ago. I upgraded to mobile friendly. We have averaged 1 big EIFS tearoff per year since 2001. |
Please check out this great message I received in 2001:
Hello , MR. Bullard ,I am the plastering instructor here in B.C. Unfortunately E.I.F.S. has not been banned , not yet anyway . The current solution to the problem of leaky condo's ( numbering to date fifty thousand plus ) is " rain screen " , basically peel and stick over the whole surface of the building , prior to the installation of anything else . Never mind that the building is now sealed to the point where it can't breath , and any moisture already in the walls will produce insane amounts of mold , never mind that the B.C. coast receives the same amount of rain as the average rain forest , i.e. where are the proper roof lines and overhangs ? it seems our local architects like things that look good in Arizona ! But enough about that , lets talk synthetic stucco , and lets assume that the author of this article does not have , vast experience , and a fancy title at a reputable trade school , lets talk stucco facts . And when we talk stucco facts , lets not mention that for thousands of years , plasterers have been coating every manner of architecture without any major problems . Lets not name any of the plastering great's like Viturvius , Cennini , Donatello , Michelangelo , The Adam brothers , or Joseph Aspdin and R.W. Keene . Lets not talk about the lifespan of the ancient lime plastered buildings in Greece , Rome , and all of Europe . Lets talk about the last hundred years in North America . Oh , and for the sake of argument lets be very modest about our "conventional" stucco facts .
Fact , a less than average building , with a less than average sand , cement , and lime stucco job , will have a life span of fifty years ,(of course to a plasterer this is unacceptable , our bare minimum is a hundred ), anyway for the sake of giving "synthetic INC " a fair chance , our tried and true product will last fifty years . " synthetic inc" claims that " if properly installed " there product will last twenty five years . Some sales reps even refer to twenty five years as "forever" , I wonder if the siding industry would refer to twenty five years as anything special ? The cost of synthetic stucco is not cheap , an infantile lifespan makes the product virtually useless , and the sales people criminals . Remember that twenty five years is the length of the average mortgage , therefore by the time the duped customer has paid for his building , he will most likely have to re-mortgage his castle to maintain and repair his "properly installed , long lasting synthetic stucco" . That is if nothing goes wrong in the meantime ! On the other hand , properly installed conventional stucco , will outlive a customers mortgage by at least double the time ,nine times out of ten outlive the customer as well , and with an insignificant amount of maintenance .
For those who care , lets talk environment . Portland cement , referred to by most as concrete , is made with limestone and clay . I ask even the most radical environmentalist , is there any building material more basic to the earth as limestone and clay ? taken from the earth , and to the earth it shall return . It can even be recycled if it really has to be. What will be the effect of millions of tons of chemical stucco on the environment when it starts to break down ? And it does break down ! The process starts the day after its finished . " Fire rating "; compared to conventional stucco , this term , is nothing more than a legal sales pitch ! In theory " properly installed e.f.i.s." will , in the installation of the basecoat and fiberglass mesh , provide for itself a " bag" or "membrane" of sorts . This membrane "properly installed" will , in the event of a fire , hold the molten Styrofoam to the wall . So that in theory , all that happens while people are escaping , is there will be a moving, deforming ,membrane of molten plastic on the wall as they pass through the exits . This is the best case scenario . Just one of the major weak spots of these membranes is , above doorways! One does not have to be an environmentalist , to cringe at the thought of a building covered with synthetic products , burning. One does not have to be an Einstein to know about the fire protecting qualities of conventional , concrete stucco.
Damage control ; once the knowledge that there is nothing but Styrofoam behind the product is common , well , children and baseballs , kids will be kids after all . I don't know any contractor that has not run into this , or similar problems , at least once , with the e.i.f.s. system. Woodpeckers also love e.i.f.s . And so does mold and mildew . Concrete stucco , again is , well , concrete . If the applicator adds a higher concentration of lime , the problem of mold and mildew is greatly reduced as nothing grows on lime . In humid climates we can see mildew and mold on e.f.i.s as soon as a year after it is installed . high maintenance .
It would be easy to write a scathing book about the e.f.i.s. system , these points are the tip of the iceberg . e.f.i.s. does have validity for certain applications .Customers as a whole , have never been made aware of these points by "synthetic inc." and why should they , who would want this product if they only knew a portion of the truth.
Gene Zacharias