THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 16, 1996 TAG: 9603140228
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 18 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: About the Outer Banks
SOURCE: Chris Kidder
LENGTH: Long : 106 lines
I've been researching exterior insulation and finish systems (EIFS) for the past two months because of a growing number of moisture-related problems with EIFS used in residential construction. Almost all the experts agree that many, if not most, of these problems are caused by improper installation.
EIFS is one of the newest and fastest-growing classes of synthetic stucco siding in the residential housing market. It has an impressive resume: waterproof, impervious to salt air, fade-resistant, easily shaped or curved. And it has a near fatal flaw: Its installation must be perfect.
Perfection doesn't come cheap. What EIFS homeowners are learning is that corners cut to save money on installation are coming back to haunt them.
Is penny-pinching - and the resulting lack of quality - the homeowner's fault? The building contractor's? The EIFS installer's ? Does it matter?
Finding fault won't change the fact that, in North Carolina (the only state to recently conduct a study of EIFS construction), 98 percent of over 300 EIFS-sided homes inspected had unacceptable levels of moisture in at least one exterior wall. Mounting evidence suggests that similar problems can be expected in other states.
As one EIFS expert said at a recent meeting of the Tidewater Builders Association, ``There's no need to be pointing fingers. There's enough blame for everyone to have some.''
Perfect EIFS insulation requires two key things: proper flashings installed everywhere another wall, a roof or some other building component intersects EIFS; and proper caulking.
Unfortunately for just about everyone involved with an EIFS house - from building inspectors to the homeowners - both of these requirements can be fudged or skipped with no immediately visible consequences but considerable savings in cost.
The North Carolina study showed that EIFS installers took short cuts - in spite of manufacturer instructions. I can only surmise that installers were worried about being low bidder or needing to make a profit. Or that they were pressured to get jobs done faster than a job should be. Or, in some cases, simply didn't care about or were incapable of doing a good job.
Whatever the reasons, faulty installations have cost a lot of EIFS homeowners - and builders and EIFS manufacturers who have stood by their work and shouldered the repair bills - a lot of money.
I'm fascinated by the mind set that gives rise to the EIFS problem. Doing less than one's best work is a work ethic that affects far more than the construction business. But it really hits home when you're building a house, as I am, and find yourself questioning the contractor about price and deadlines every step of the way.
I've been constantly pulled between price and quality. Sure, I want a well-built house. But as the dollars began to add up I found myself waffling on priorities. Over and over again I found myself asking for ``cheaper'' options or questioning the cost of my contractor's decisions.
I was just as relentless about time: How long? When will this be done? Why can't it happen faster?
My unspoken message to my contractor, no doubt, was time and money were my biggest concerns. At times, thinking of only the short term, I thought they were. But stepping back to see the big picture of this house and me changes my perspective.
One of three trim carpenters working on my house bent my ear the other afternoon about his personal need to do good work and how often he was asked to do less than his best. ``I can't do tacky work on one job and then go to another job and do it well,'' he said. ``I just won't work like that.''
He pointed out details that were important to him. He glues and hand-nails the mitered corners on window trim even though skipping the glue and using a staple gun would be faster.
Few people appreciate the difference when he's trimming the house, he says. At first, it looks good either way. But in a few years, after the house settles, after summers of hot sun expand the wood and winters shrink it, stapled corners will pull apart.
He showed me the doors he'd been hanging. They come from the factory already framed and hinged but he insists on putting up his own facings because he wants to be able to shim the door frame to make it perfectly square. He has other tricks that keep a door swinging freely, sealing tightly, long after he's paid and gone.
This kind of craftsmanship takes time; it costs money. Some builders want you to just nail a finished door and frame into the opening and leave it at that, he says. ``I tell them if that's how it has to be done, then I can't do the job.''
My general contractor says that customers rarely ask what kinds of building components he'll be using in a house. Few urge him to spend more money to hire better craftsmen to do the work. ``I wish more of them would pay attention to what we put into a house,'' he tells me. ``Then they'd really see what they were getting for their money.''
Instead, he says, customers are more interested in the cosmetics of a house.
Maybe our interest is limited by what we understand. Maybe it's because we don't stay in one place very long (houses these days, on average, change hands every seven years) and see no need to pay for quality we won't be around to appreciate.
I'm not sure what causes the disparity between what we want and what we get. It could be miscommunication, mistrust, misguided efforts to save money or any one of a hundred circumstances that thwart our best intentions.
I'm only sure that the construction business is like any other business in America: Setting out to reduce the bottom line exacts its own price. Good work costs money; short-cuts involve compromise. Ask any EIFS homeowner: We're all going to pay the piper one way or another. MEMO: Send comments and questions to Chris Kidder at P.O. Box 10, Nags Head,
N.C. 27959. Or e-mail her at realkidd(AT)aol.com
by CNB