In This Article
These are the questions St. Augustine homeowners actually ask us about EIFS, answered from twenty years of doing this work in St. Johns County. If you only read one answer, read the one about sealant.
What exactly is EIFS?
Exterior Insulation and Finish System. It is a layered wall cladding: foam insulation board on the outside of the sheathing, a reinforced base coat with fiberglass mesh over that, and a synthetic finish coat on top. It insulates as well as it clads, which is why it spread quickly through Northeast Florida residential construction from the 1980s through the early 2000s.
Is EIFS a bad system?
No, and the reputation comes from two specific failures rather than from the material.
The first is installation. Windows, doors, and roof-to-wall junctions on early EIFS homes were frequently detailed wrong, and the cladding got blamed for what the flashing did.
The second is the era. Most EIFS installed here before the turn of the century is barrier EIFS: it was designed to stop water at the surface, with no drainage plane behind it and no way out for water that got past the surface anyway. Newer drainage EIFS puts a water-resistive barrier and a drainage path behind the foam so water that gets in gets back out. A barrier system on a well-maintained house performs for decades. A barrier system with a failed sealant joint rots sheathing quietly for years.
Maintained properly, an EIFS home in St. Augustine is a solid house. The maintenance is not optional.
How do I know whether I have EIFS or traditional stucco?
Press your palm against the wall. EIFS has a slight give to it, because there is foam behind your hand. Traditional stucco is hard and unyielding, like the concrete it mostly is. EIFS also usually shows thin expansion joints or reveals at regular intervals and around openings.
If you are still unsure, a contractor can identify it in seconds, and it matters, because the two systems need different materials and different repair methods. Our comparison of EIFS and traditional stucco goes through the practical differences.
How do I know whether mine is barrier or drainage EIFS?
Age is the first indicator. If the house went up before the early 2000s, assume barrier until somebody proves otherwise.
The reliable check is at the bottom of the wall. A drainage system has a track or weep detail at the base and above openings that lets water escape. A barrier system has a sealed edge and nothing to drain through. Any opening cut into the wall during a repair also answers the question immediately.
How often should EIFS be inspected?
Every two to three years for a house in good condition. Annually for anything over 20 years old, and annually for any house that has had a moisture problem before, because the sheathing that was repaired is not the sheathing that will fail next.
What does an EIFS moisture inspection involve?
More than looking. The inspector taps the wall to find hollow spots, which indicate the base coat has delaminated from the foam and usually means water. At suspect areas, small holes are drilled through the system and a probe measures moisture content in the sheathing behind it. Some inspectors also use infrared thermography to spot temperature anomalies where moisture is trapped. The probe holes are sealed afterward.
That probe reading is the whole point. A visual assessment tells you where the finish looks bad. Only a moisture reading tells you where the wall is wet, and those are frequently not the same wall.
Does Stucco Home Repair charge for EIFS inspections?
No. We offer free EIFS inspections for homeowners in St. Augustine, Jacksonville, Ponte Vedra, Nocatee, Palm Coast, and the surrounding area, including visual assessment, tap testing, and moisture probing at suspect areas. Accurate diagnosis is what makes a repair estimate mean anything, so we would rather do it properly and free than guess. Call (904) 526-2075 to schedule.
What are the warning signs?
Soft or spongy areas when you press the wall. Cracks wider than 1/16 inch. Gaps or splits in the sealant around windows, doors, and penetrations. Water stains on interior walls that back onto EIFS. A musty smell near an exterior wall. Bulging or bubbling sections of finish.
The full checklist, split by what you can see, what you can feel, and what shows up indoors, is in our post on signs your EIFS needs repair.
Can EIFS be repaired in sections, or does the whole wall have to go?
Sections, in most cases. Water enters at a specific point, usually a failed joint, and the damage radiates out from there. Removing and rebuilding the affected section restores the system without disturbing sound wall.
Full wall replacement becomes the better answer when damage covers the majority of a wall face, at which point rebuilding piecemeal costs more than doing it once.
How long does the work take?
A sealant replacement across a typical house is one to two days. A localized moisture repair at one or two areas takes three to five days. Extensive work involving several wall sections and sheathing replacement runs one to three weeks.
Weather is the variable. Summer afternoon storms interrupt exterior work constantly here, so scheduling in the drier months from October through May generally means fewer stop-start days.
What happens to the sheathing if water gets in?
It rots. Trapped moisture behind EIFS creates a warm, wet, dark cavity, which is exactly what plywood and OSB fail in, and mold follows. The sheathing loses strength gradually and silently, because nothing about the outside of the wall changes while it happens.
During repair we take the EIFS layers off, assess the sheathing directly, replace anything deteriorated, treat for mold where present, and rebuild the system from the substrate out.
Will the repaired area match?
That is the part of this work we are known for, and it takes both halves: the texture pattern and the color, with the color adjusted for how much the surrounding finish has faded under twenty years of Florida sun. Matching to the original specification produces a patch that is obviously new. Matching to the wall as it is today is the skill. Read more on texture matching and color matching.
On a badly faded elevation, the honest answer is sometimes to finish the full wall face to a natural break rather than spot-match. Anyone promising an invisible patch on a sun-bleached wall is overselling.
How much does EIFS repair cost?
It ranges from a minor surface crack repair up to a full wall section rebuild with substrate work, and most residential repairs land well below the top end. The driver is how much hidden moisture damage sits behind the surface, not how bad the finish looks. Our EIFS repair cost guide breaks it down by repair type with the published price ranges.
Will homeowners insurance cover it?
Depends on the cause. Wind damage from a named storm is typically covered under the windstorm portion of your policy. Gradual moisture intrusion from deferred maintenance is generally not. Sudden water damage from inside, such as a burst pipe saturating the wall, may be.
We provide documentation and detailed reports to support insurance claims on storm-related EIFS damage.
Is financing available?
Stucco Home Repair does not offer in-house financing. Homeowners here typically fund larger projects through a home equity line, a personal loan, or a promotional-rate card. We provide detailed written estimates that break the scope out clearly, which is what a lender wants to see.
What is the single most important thing I can do?
Maintain the sealant joints. Replace the sealant around every window, door, and penetration every 7 to 10 years, or sooner if you can see cracking or separation at the bead.
Do it properly. The old sealant comes out completely, backer rod sets the joint depth, and the new polyurethane bead is tooled against clean substrate on both sides. A new bead squeezed over a failed one looks fixed and leaks anyway.
Sealant failure is the leading cause of EIFS moisture intrusion in St. Augustine homes. This one item prevents most of the expensive repairs on this page.
Can I pressure wash EIFS?
Only at low pressure, under 600 PSI. High pressure damages the finish coat and drives water behind the system through any small opening, which turns a cleaning into a repair. A garden hose and a soft brush handle routine dirt. For algae or surface mold, a low-pressure application of diluted bleach works.
Should I keep sprinklers off the walls?
Yes. Repeated wetting at the base of an EIFS wall is a common contributor to moisture problems and a completely avoidable one. Turn the heads so they do not hit the wall, and keep a gap between planting beds and the cladding so air can move.
Can I do EIFS repair myself?
Filling a small cosmetic crack with an elastomeric sealant is within reach for a handy homeowner. Anything that involves removing EIFS layers, judging substrate condition, or rebuilding the system is not, and a repair that traps moisture inside the wall is worse than the crack you started with. The layered construction only works when every layer is restored in the right order with compatible materials, and a patch that skips the mesh in the base coat will crack again along the same line within a season.
What warranty do you provide?
We provide written warranties on EIFS repair work. Terms vary by the type of repair, since sealant work, structural rebuilds, and cosmetic repairs are not the same job, and we set the specific terms out in the proposal for every project.
Stucco Home Repair holds Florida licence CGC1534920 and has been doing EIFS work in St. Johns County for over 20 years. If something on your wall is not covered above, call (904) 526-2075 or read what our EIFS repair and installation work involves.