EIFSFACTS.ORG

The Real Facts About EIFS  

- What Local Builders are Doing -

By and large, builders in our local area have come around to the idea that there are problems with barrier EIFS. As recently as six months ago many of the builders in our area refused to believe that there were problems anywhere outside of North Carolina. The old "I've been building with this stuff for ten years and I've never had a problem with it" syndrome. As word has gotten around the area and more testing has been done, and they have seen the damage, they have come to realize that this a real problem that affects even the finest builders meeting the highest standards of construction.

Unfortunately, the trend is that when a builder realizes that a client's home has an EIFS-related water problem, they take the "patch-it-up-and-forget-it" approach. They typically call in the applicators, tear off the EIFS in the affected areas, repair framing and replace sheathing, and patch up the EIFS with more of the same. They are totally ignoring the fact that barrier EIFS doesn't work, has never worked and will never worked. It failed once and it will fail again. As discussed elsewhere on this site, builders need only get the home past the Statute of Repose time period to be legally invulnerable.

This, apparently, is the approach that the vast majority of builders are taking all over the country. Home-owners, however, must understand that barrier-EIFS cannot simply be patched-up. Defective products must be replaced in their entirety.

Figure 1: Patch-and-Match, a.k.a. "Routine EIFS Maintenance"

Figure 2: Patch-and-Match, a.k.a. "Routine EIFS Maintenance"

Figure 3: Patch-and-Match, a.k.a. "Routine EIFS Maintenance"

Finally, after the house is patched up, comes the inevitable "For Sale" sign...

Figure 4: The Current Home-Owner's Solution to the Problem