Is my EIFS failing or just faded? How to read a synthetic stucco wall in Joliet

A faded EIFS wall needs a recoat. A wet EIFS wall needs remediation, and recoating it makes the damage worse by sealing the water in. Everything else, chalking, cracks, failed sealant, dents, sits between those two and is fixed as part of a recoat. The six conditions below cover nearly every call Joliet Stucco & EIFS takes across Will County, with the test that separates each one and the line it adds from our published pricing.

Six EIFS problems and how to tell them apart

Start at the worst looking elevation, usually south or west, and work down the table. The first two rows are cosmetic, the middle two are repairs, the last two are water, and water changes the job.

Prices are the ranges from our published table. Wet and delaminated sections are priced after a probe test, never from the driveway.

How do I know if my stucco is wet behind the wall?

You look at the places water enters, then you probe. On a face sealed EIFS house from the 1990s the entry points are the sealant joints at window and door frames, the roof to wall joints where a kick out flashing should be, deck ledgers, and any spot where a light, hose bib or dryer vent passes through the wall. Stand under each window and look for a dark stain or a vertical streak of algae in the finish below the sill. Press the finish with your thumb near the bottom corners of the window; sound EIFS is hard, wet EIFS gives. Then a moisture meter goes across the surface and a probe goes into the sheathing at the suspect spots. InterNACHI, the home inspectors association, puts a healthy reading below roughly 15 percent and treats readings above 30 percent as damage in progress; see their note on water damage and EIFS. Our guide to moisture inspection before recoating shows where each probe goes on a typical Joliet two story.

This matters more on synthetic stucco than on any other siding because a barrier EIFS wall has no drainage plane: water past the sealant sits on the sheathing. The federal Whole Building Design Guide describes exactly this in its EIFS wall system entry, which is why drainage EIFS with a weep track replaced it.

Should I recoat my EIFS or does it need to come off?

Recoat if the wall probes dry, remediate the sections that probe wet, and tear off only when the wet readings cover most of the house. On a typical Joliet or Plainfield two story we find one or two wet window sections and a dry remainder, so the job becomes remediation of those sections at $4,000 to $12,000 each, then a recoat over the whole house. That is a fraction of a whole house tear off and reclad, which runs $30,000 to $60,000 on a full wrap house and should never be sold from a first visit without probe readings to back it. The remediation page covers how a section gets opened, dried, resheathed and rebuilt so the recoat has something sound to cover.

1. Meter every elevation and probe the suspect spots. Photos of every reading.
2. Any section above 30 percent is scoped as remediation, with the sheathing checked once it is open.
3. Failed sealant joints are cut out and replaced at every opening, wet or dry, because they are the leak.
4. Cracks, dents and holes are patched. Hairlines are included in the recoat.
5. Chalking elevations get bonding primer. Then finish coat over the whole house, so patches and rebuilt sections disappear.

Who should not recoat

A recoat is the wrong answer more often than the trade admits, and we would rather say so on the quote visit.

• A wall with delamination or soft, crushed foam. Recoating a wall that is letting go buys a season, not a decade. That wall needs a section rebuild first.
• Any section with a probe reading above 30 percent in the sheathing. The section comes out and is priced as remediation; the recoat covers the dry rest of the house.
• A house you are selling in the next 60 days with known wet readings. Buyers in this market order EIFS inspections, and a fresh coat over a documented wet wall reads as concealment. Get the inspection report and price the fix into the listing instead.
• Hard coat cement stucco with widespread cracking from foundation movement. That is a structural conversation before it is a coating conversation.
• Late season work. Finish coats need the wall above roughly 40°F for a day after application. A recoat started in mid November around Joliet will not cure right, and we will tell you to wait for April.

Red flags when hiring a stucco contractor

Illinois has no state license for stucco or EIFS work, so the checking sits with you. Six things that should end the conversation:

• A recoat quote with no moisture meter and no probe. Nobody can tell you a 1990s face sealed EIFS wall is dry by looking at it, and coating over a wet wall seals the water in.
• A quote that names "elastomeric paint" and nothing else. Paint over chalk peels; paint over failed sealant hides the leak for two seasons. Ask whether primer and joint work are in the number.
• No answer on the type of system. Barrier (face sealed) EIFS and drainage EIFS with a weep track behave differently, and a contractor who does not ask which you have is guessing at the rest.
• A push to tear off the whole house from the first visit. Most Will County EIFS houses have one or two wet sections and a dry remainder. Whole house tear off is a $30,000 to $60,000 decision that should follow probe readings, not precede them.
• No certificate of insurance and no Joliet or Will County references you can call. Illinois does not license stucco contractors at the state level, so insurance and local references are the check.
• No photos of what they find before they patch it. You should see the sheathing behind any section that gets opened, whether or not you hire them for the fix.

If the meter and probe do not come out on the quote visit, the number you get is for coating whatever is there, wet or dry, and you find out which in about two winters.