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Around the House
Written by Jeffrey Wadsworth
Eeek - EIFS
Nothing can turn REALTORS® stomach, or deal sour, faster than EIFS. Relocation companies won't touch it, most buyers are
extremely wary of it, and many current owners end up spending thousands of dollars to tear the system off their house. What went wrong?
Sometimes better known by the brand name DryVit®, EIFS stands for Exterior Insulated and Finishing System. The system was developed in Europe after World
War II as a way to finish the exterior of a building in a durable, water tight cladding system that had the added benefit of insulating the building. On paper,
and in practice, the system worked very well. The system consists of an insulation board that is mechanically fastened to the building, a reinforcing mesh, and
several layers of scratch and finish coat to give the look of traditional stucco, but with more flexibility in design. U.S. designers and architects picked up
on the product and began incorporating it into their buildings. There was one problem, a fatal flaw. European construction is mostly masonry; U.S. construction is mostly wood. If water gets behind the system and lands on masonry, it is not really an
issue. If wood gets repeatedly wet, and can't dry out in a reasonable amount of time, significant problems arise. The problems didn't stem so much from the system itself. The system works. The problems came from improper detailing during installation. As a great
American architect once said, "God is in the details." Every effort must be taken to ensure that water does not penetrate the system. That means no flat
surfaces; proper flashings at all windows, doors, roof to wall intersections; proper control joints; properly tooled caulk joints, proper clearances, and
proper maintenance. Sometimes it isn't even the system that fails, but a low quality window frame that fails and allows water in. Once water leaks behind the system, especially the older systems that did not incorporate drainage, the jig is up. There is no way to tell from the outside
that there is a problem. Serious damage can occur in as few as 3 months. If the areas are small they can usually be repaired. Steps can be taken to eliminate,
or at least greatly reduce, the chance of the damage occurring again. It is not cheap, but it is not as bad as tearing the entire system off and starting over. So what to do? Do you not show a house with EIFS? If your client in seriously interested in the house, then schedule an EIFS inspection. Many home inspectors
offer the service in addition to regular inspections. An EIFS inspection is an invasive process and depending on the inspectors schedule may or may not be able to
be performed at the time of the home inspection. Since it happens on the exterior only, most of the time no one needs to meet the inspector to let them in. The inspection starts with a visual examination of known problem areas to evaluate the detailing. Next, suspect areas are surfaced scanned with a tool cleverly
called a WWD - Wet Wall Detector. If elevated readings are detected, then the area is probed to determine the relative amount of moisture present. A reading under
19% is considered normal since that is the relative moisture content of kiln dried lumber. 20 - 29% is considered elevated, and anything over 30% is considered
wet. This test will not determine the extent of the water penetration, only that certain areas have elevated readings. Once areas are suspected they are then
probed to determine the relative amount of moisture in that area. If necessary, the sheeting can be probed to determine if it is damaged. Once complete, the
probe holes are filled with a sealant that hopefully closely matches the color of the house. Unfortunately, the only way to determine the actual extent of the damage is to open up the suspect areas. The WWD can give an approximate size of the area,
but because water can flow up, down, and sideways, the amount of penetration can be greater than what the scanner shows. There is some good news, though. There are warranty companies which, after approved repairs and corrective steps are taken, will warrant the system.
To keep the warranty in force, regular annual or biannual inspections are required. These are at the homeowners' expense, but the follow up inspection
is usually less expensive than the initial survey. Many older homes with EIFS are suspect. The quality control during installation just wasn't there and the problems are going to keep piling up.
Properly retrofitted and repaired systems can perform quite well. EIFS is making a comeback. Commercial properties use it all the time. The
residential market has been slow to come back because of all the documented problems. New installation procedures and guidelines, initial quality
control checks and recurrent inspections can help ensure that the system continues to perform as it was designed. About the author:
Jeffrey Wadsworth is a licensed home inspector with Windy City Home Inspection, Inc. Mr. Wadsworth does home, commercial and EIFS inspections.
He is also a field trainer with the American Home Inspectors Training Institute.
