although I have been doing inspections for several years now, I haven’t had to inspect a house with a stuuco exterior. Could someone tell me how to determine stucco vs EIFS or synthetic stucco Thanks Tim
Easiest way is to pull a light fixture or exterior plug cover.
Look under the bottom edge.
Tap on the wall EIFS sounds hollow stucco for the most part does not.
For starters.
Carl, here are some pictures from the house I talked with you about yesterday. Thanks again.
From where I sit that looks like stucco with paint.
Post those in the other and we will see what peewee has to say.
Does it have weepscreed?
No weep. The file is too large for the other. but I think I was attaching several pics. I will attach single pics.
Metal casing bead?
No access. Didn’t see anything. Don’t know of you can tell by the pics, but the finish is below grade, and where I can see the wall terminate, it sits on stem wall, almost flush with it. Again, nothing but the finish is visible
Here’s a twist. The house has an original guest house, with one coat and weep. Felt different too. Much harder than main house with that solid feeling instead of hollow.
Carl is a big help on these issues.
Check out his web site , if you have not yet.
I think he is up for website of the month.
I agree…Looks like a one coat brown and Texture job.Not much can be done to repair ths cracks.A very heavy coat of elastomeric paint can help besides tearing it off and starting over.
Thank you peewee. What is the deal with the flex upon pushing the wall? I couldn’t imagine the attachment is very strong.
Look up under the bottom termination. If you see white foam, it’s EIFS. If you don’t, it’s probably hardcoat stucco but not definitely. Watch for the InterNACHI course in this subject coming out on video in late December or early January.
Thanks Kenton. The pics I posted is the best look I had at the bottom. Not much at all actually.
Both EIFS and stucco should have at least 4" clearance from grade. Like carl said you need to find a place to look at the profile of layers if possible.
I alsways disclaim EIFS or if I can’t tell what it is for sure, that’s what i put in the report.
The stucco/EIFS course which will be released soon is being taught by Ron Huffman of the Exterior Design Institute (EDI). Ron’s an inspector and a PE and has been doing stucco inspections for about 25 years and teaching its inspection for a long time. EDI has been one of the big names in stucco/EIFS inspection education for quite a while so I’m looking forward to shooting the instruction segment and learning the answers to the questions you ask. Consider attending the class instruction shoot, which will be video-taped for insclusion in the course. Nick will announce.
In Az.they put a thin coat of hard coat stucco over bead board like what is used for EIFS and they even sometimes call it EIFS.
Look for metal component’s casing bead/corner bead’s/weepscreed/lath/chicken wire.
Kent,
You may want to talk to Ron about this but numerous One Coat Systems are applied over insulation foam board and are not considered EIFS…here’s one of the many examples of this type application
Do you need exterior expansion joints in stucco or EIFS?
What do you have Gary?
What part of town and how old is the house?