EIFS Stucco Inspection
An Exterior Insulation and Finish System Inspection should be done before you buy a Synthetic Stucco home.
Everyone knows to get your home inspected before you buy it, but there are a lot of people that do not know if you plan on buying a house clad with Exterior Insulation and Finish System you should have it also inspected by an EIFS professional to make sure the system is up to par and if it is not you need to know how much it is going to cost to fix it. Essentially, there are 4 things that every buyer should do before purchasing the home.
To Do Before Purchasing
- Have a professional do a visual inspection of the cladding. A simple visual inspection for the well trained eye can find many things on the exterior of a home that are missing or not done right.
- The person preforming the work should be trained in thermal imaging, so he can do infrared thermography on the home to find any moisture anomalies.
- The inspector should have an invasive moisture meter to confirm any moisture anomalies found by the thermal imaging.
- The guy that comes out should be able to put together a quote for the cost of repairs.
Home Buyer
As a buyer those are the four things I am looking for when I call someone to come out and look at a house I plan to buy. I have had some people suggest this is a conflict of interest as the guy doing the inspection is also the guy doing the repairs which has some merit, but for me I am an honest guy just giving the buyer what they need. If you call me to come out to inspect the home you will get a guy (me) that has over 30 years experience in the industry with extensive training in moisture testing and trained in thermal imaging. I have been repairing this product for over 15 years. I know when, why and how this product fails. You would be hard pressed to find someone more qualified to inspect your home.
Third Party EIFS Inspector
That being said, I am not a 3rd party EIFS (aka Dyvit or Synthetic Stucco) inspector because I do the repairs. To properly do repairs you have to be able to test the moisture behind the system. For that reason I own the moisture meter and thermal imaging camera and use them on a daily basis. Here is a list of my certifications. It is one thing to read the books and take the classes, but having three decades of hands-on experience is something you just can learn in a book or classroom. Before doing repairs I always like to inspect the house with a visual inspection and then thermal imaging and lastly I confirm any anomalies found with the thermal imaging camera with my invasive moisture meter, which will read the moisture content of the substrate behind the system. By doing this I can get a pretty good idea of how much the repairs are going to cost.
In Conclusion
I am NOT a 3rd party Exterior Insulation and Finish System inspector. I am an EIFS repair guy. I have 30 years hands-on experience. I have training in Infrared Thermography. I have been using a Delmorst Invasive Moisture Meter on Exterior Insulation and Finish System houses and buildings for over 15 years. You will be hard pressed to find a more qualified guy to evaluate your Synthetic Stucco home. I suppy a report and estimate cost of repairs.
More Resources
Watch These Two Videos on EIFS Stucco Inspection
In this video we walk you through the process of self inspecting your sealant around the windows of your EIFS Stucco clad home. This is a simple thing anyone can do.
The video above goes into detail on what your Exterior Insulation and Finish System inspection should include.
- A visual inspection by an experinced professional
- Thermal Imaging
- Invasive moisture testing with a probe meter