Tag Archives: exterior insulation finish systems
Protected: The Next Chapter in EIFS Finish Coats
Stucco Home Insurance: How Does EIFS Affect Insurance
Stucco (or more accurately, EIFS) is enormously popular on homes in and around the Greater Toronto area due in large part to it’s great aesthetic appeal and it’s ability to insulate, thereby reducing heating and cooling bills. It’s become a “hot topic” (pun intended) for insurance companies – moreso in the U.S. than Canada – over the past few decades because of problems if improperly installed. Problems which range from moisture intrusion and entrapment to the combustibility of it’s components and decorative accents.
Before starting any home improvement project, it’s a good idea to call your insurance provider to check whether or not it will affect your home insurance policy. Failure to contact them and update your policy when changing something as drastic as the exterior walls on your home could actually void your home insurance warranty.
Think about it… let’s say you retrofitted your home with stucco in July of 2012 at a cost of $12,000 and were happy with the contractor – he was polite, on time, did everything according to the contract and finished on a good note. 3 years down the road (it’s 2015 now) you have a building inspection completed for termites because it’s been an issue in your neighbourhood. During the inspection, the home inspector doesn’t find any termites, but notes that you have moisture trapped in your walls – around the windows, wherever. Remembering that mould is somewhere in your insurance policy, you contact your insurance provider who sends someone out to investigate and they’re shocked that your home doesn’t match what’s on the paperwork. Your insurance company won’t cover the damage any more, because what you’ve been paying for does not have EIFS-related coverage. Let’s take a look at some of the damages you’ve incurred:
- Insurance: 36 months x $200/month = $7200
- Removal of EIFS: $4,000
- Removal and repair of mould/moisture damaged wall section: $7,000
- Reinstallation of EIFS, done properly: $13,000
Total: $31,200
That’s $31,200 out-of-pocket expense that is related to your one forgotten phone call to your insurance company. Note that properly installed EIFS usually is slightly (give or take 10%) more expensive than the shmuck who cut his costs by cutting required material out of your home. Good luck finding him too – the average “stucco contractor” is in business roughly 2 years before closing it down and opening another or going to work with a friend.
If properly installed, and done in accordance to local building codes (following fire code where necessary), EIFS is a worry-free system that will last decades and save you thousands of dollars in heating and cooling bills. The trick then, is to find the right contractor – one that has a proven track record and can be vouched by manufacturers and previous clients. Services like Stucco Toronto can put you in touch with multiple contractors, are provide a neutral – 3rd party approach to your project.
The takeaway from this article is this:
1. Make sure you contact your home insurance provider to include coverage of EIFS, which may or may not affect your policy.
2. Compare quotes and get recommendations from suppliers/previous-customers, but don’t try to force a contractor to lower their prices to the point where they are going to cut corners – you’re the only one that will suffer in the end.
Toronto Sun Article: Toronto Housing Stock
Article on Toronto's Housing Stock from the Toronto Sun
I was wondering where I could find this sort of information the other day.
Excuse the bad picture. Transcript below.
Homes in Toronto are aging. That typically means they need repairs or full retrofits depending on the original quality of the construction. Even homes with ultra-durable brick cladding are beginning to see the wear-and-tear of the fluctuating Toronto weather that ranges from -40 to (especially recently) +40. Our winters are colder and our summers are hotter than most other places across Canada (and the states), meaning our buildings are subject to a range of different forces and building to deal with them all is at times, difficult.
The typical lifespan of brick from the 80s and earlier is roughly 50-80 years depending on how well it was maintained. This could be shorter due to the builder using cheap bricks that aren’t as dense or well manufactured. What’s important to realize is that upwards of 50% of Toronto’s brick homes (the period before 1980) do or will soon need some sort of maintenance.
Home owners that have brick that is decaying have a few options. The first is tuckpointing, which will fill in places that the mortar has begun failing early. This helps in situations where the damage is isolated, and is typically exasperated by running or dripping water. Tuckpointing is like applying a band-aid to a staph infection, it temporarily covers the problem but it’s only going to spread and get worse with time.
The second option is to replace the brick in sections where it’s really beginning to become a problem. Slightly better than tuckpointing because the brick is being replaced as well, but still costly when considering the quantity of work that is being done. Not only is it costly, it only addresses the portion that needs work NOW – the rest of the walls will be due in another 10 years anyways. Replacing sections of brick on your home is akin to putting a new door on your ’95 Corola when the rest of the body is about to fall apart.
The final option is to re-clad your home. This can be done by tearing down the existing brick (time consuming and costly) and putting something new up, or by going directly over the existing brick with a new cladding. New brick can be put back in place of the old brick if required. The advantage to going about re-cladding the brick before it’s in such bad condition that you can’t use it as a substrate, is that you can avoid the expense of tearing it down and disposing of it. Re-cladding the brick is also a more environmentally-friendly alternative because the waste doesn’t end up in landfills, nor is fuel used getting it there.
There are dozens of recladding siding options – vinyl siding, aluminum siding, cedar siding, hardie board, EIFS (“stucco”). The only ones that are designed to incorporate insulation boards to help reduce heating and cooling bills are vinyl siding and EIFS. Of those two options, EIFS is the only one that uses trowel-applied cement that can seal in and protect the brick from further decaying.
EIFS (Exterior Insulation Finish Systems – what is commonly called “stucco” in Toronto) incorporates a monolithic styrofoam layer that helps reduce heat lost or gained through the walls of a home. This can have an effect of reducing heating and cooling bills by upwards of 30% depending on the original state of insulation within the walls. In addition to protecting and therefore preserving the existing brick so that it does not need to end up in a landfill, EIFS represents an environmentally responsible option for re-cladding.
The outer layers of EIFS include a cement coating embeded with a fibreglass mesh to prevent cracking, and a beautiful finish coat available in any colour. A manufacturer’s colour chart can be supplied by the stucco contractor, or if the home owner already has a colour selected from a paint sample, EIFS manufacturers are capable of doing an exact match.
Head over to Toronto Stucco Contractor to request that your home be reclad with EIFS today.
Transcript from Image:
Image: Housing Stock
Built before 1946: 12%
1946-1960: 13.6%
1961-1980: 31.3%
1981-2000: 28.5%
2001 and later: 14.6%Housing stock and energy efficiency
High energy costs, notably for gasoline and ome heating, are damaging consumer confidence, purchasing power and spending. Rising prices add urgency to the need to reduce household energy consumption, Adrienne Warren of Bank of Nova Scotia writes in a special report.
“From the perspective of households, reducing energy consumption, or at least slower it’s rise, could generate significant long-term cost savings.
But new construction – which can integrate major energy-saving measures – takes a long time to have an effect on the aggregate housing stock, she points out.
Meanwhile, Canada’s housing stock is aging. Most homes were built before the 1980s and are far less energy-efficient than recent construction, and data suggests that over one-third need repairs.
Energy-efficient renovations and retro-fits have the potential to make a bigger impact in driving improvements in the housing stock, she says.
The looming higher cost of borrowing and more subdued outlook for home sales could put a damper on renovation spending, yet there are affordable cost-saving options, and programs and incentives provided by the different levels of government, she writes.
Supplies Required for EIFS / Stucco Installations
All of this equipment and supplies would be familiar to an Exterior Insulation Finish Systems contractor, however a home owner looking to do their own shed or garage might not realize they need many of the tools required. While we do not recommend EIFS as a DIY project, we would still like to be a resource for the home owners who have a difficult time finding the information. Some typical tools required include:
- EIFS Materials
- Mouldings and Trim
- Clean, potable water
- A power mixing tool and power extension cord
- Trowels and finish-coat float
- Hot Knife
- Scaffolding and polyethylene
- Safety Equipment (gloves, eyewear, hardhat, steeltoe shoes, respiratory mask)
We won’t get into the procedures and techniques in this article, but will touch on the various tools and equipment required.
EIFS Materials
The EIFS materials are the basics of the supplies. Typical providers of stucco in Toronto include Durabond and Durock, depending on what part of the city you’re from. Both companies supply high quality, reliable material that if properly installed will last decades.
The materials will cost you roughly $4 per square foot, but will not come with a warranty unless installed by a skilled applicator. While an experienced contractor might take a week to complete 1,000 square feet, you can expect to take a month or two to learn the basics and complete the installation.
Mouldings and Window Trim
When renovating a home or a smaller building (such as a shed or detached garage), you have the opportunity to not only drastically change the look with the EIFS material, but also with decorative items. There are multiple suppliers of varying quality in Toronto who manufacture trim and mouldings specifically for EIFS. These mouldings are manufactured from the same components as the wall itself – styrofoam, fibreglass mesh and base coat. Because of this, they are light weight, attractive, affordable and most importantly durable. Unlike wood trim which will rot and degrade over time, the stucco trim is made from inorganic composite materials which means that they do not support organic growth.
Moulding and trim will cost around $30-$40 per 8-foot piece from a supplier such as Decoramould Exterior Mouldings. The average window will cost anywhere from $60-$100 in material, and 8-foot stacks of quoins for the corners of your walls will run you around the same price.
Clean, Potable Water
The water is simple to acquire if you’re working on your own home. It will be used for the adhesive/basecoat, floating the finish coat and for cleaning your tools.
The cost likely won’t even be noticed on your water bill.
Power Mixing tool and Extension Cord
A power mixing tool will be required to mix the basecoat and the finish coat if it has been sitting for too long. Because you’re mixing cement, a regular drill will not be up to the task. A heavy duty drill is required to effectively mix and not burn out the motor.
Heavy Duty Drills will run about $200 brand new, or can sometimes be found at re-use hardware stores. A favourite brand of our applicators is Makita. While the re-used ones might not be reliable in the long term, you should be able to get your money out of it and complete your job. Alternatively, you could rent one from Home Depot, but be wary about the project taking longer than you expected.
Trowels, Rasps and Finish Float
Trowels are the tools of the EIFS / stucco trade. They are used to scoop the supplies and plaster them onto the wall. A little bit of experience is required as far as the technique goes and you may want to start on a less-noticeable area of your project until you get the jist of it. Expect a lot of the material to fall off the sides until you get used to dealing with the viscous material.
Rasps are large tools used to sand or “rasp” the styrofoam. Rasping is required to ensure the walls are smooth so that odd shadows are not created. It creates a LOT of tiny bits of styrofoam, that will spread all over your property as well as your neighbours. It might be a good idea to purchase or rent a small portable vac to do cleanups after rasping.
The finish float is not the same as the steel trowel – it is typically made of plastic and has a more textured face to it. Many contractors work in pairs – with one picking the finish coat up with a steel trowel and globbing it onto the wall, while the more experienced contractor smooths it to cover the surface with the desired texture. How to smooth the material and the installation is beyond the scope of this article, but if at any point you are willing to pay an expert to do a part of the installation, let it be the finish coat. Aside from being the most expense component of an EIF system, it is also the one that affects the final appearance the most.
Trowels run between $20-$30 from the hardware store or a specialty supply store. Rasps will cost $60-$80 and can only be found from the specialty suppliers. You should be able to pick these up from the EIFS supplier themselves.
Hot Knife
A hot knife is a tool used to cut clean lines into styrofoam. It will be required if you’re doing a 2 storey home, or if you have particularly long walls. Hot knives are used to cut control joints into the insulation to prevent the wall from cracking in the wrong location. More information can be found in our article on Hot Knives.
These could possibly be rented, but the author has never seen a place that has them for rent. A hot knife will be around $200 to purchase brand new.
Scaffolding and Polyethylene
How are you going to reach your bungalow/garage soffit, or the top of the wall on your 2-storey home? You weren’t planning on using a ladder were you? Leaning a ladder on styrofoam will damage it, even with the fibreglass mesh and base coat already on. Scaffolding or a lift of some sort (whether it’s an all-terrain scissor lift, or a boom lift) will be required to get at those high places. Either of these are typically rented, and a home owner would likely be safer going with scaffolding.
Polyethylene is thin sheets of plastic. Large quantities are required to cover windows, vegetation/landscaping and even to protect materials.
Scaffolding rental would cost about $100/week from a place like Stevenson’s Rental for the quantity required to do your home yourself. Be careful about getting EIFS materials caked on it, as the rental location might charge you for cleaning it. An enormous role of polyethylene will cost about $20 and last you the entire project.
Safety Equipment
While it goes without saying that you should take all possible precautions when working with liquid materials, many people take this aspect lightly. I won’t lecture, just say to be cautious. Pails of finish coat that have been sitting around for a while might have gases trapped under the lid that could make you nautious. When pouring the dry cement into a bucket of water to be mixed, a lot of the powder will billow up like smoke. Aside from having the inside of your lungs encased in cement being a bad idea, there are tiny fibers and acrylics in the basecoat (that help the durability once on the wall) that can also cause problems. Even without inhaling, cement itself is a corrosive material, that will irritate skin and cause serious damage to eyes and membranes.
All together, an investment of about $100 will protect your health and keep you from visiting the hospital. WHMIS labels/documents should nonetheless be read and be on-hand.
Overall Costs
While you might be saving yourself hard-cash going out of your pocket to pay for labour, the tiny expenses required to complete a DIY EIFS project add up to a not-so-tiny amount. Depending on the size of your project, it can actually turn out to be cheaper to hire someone who has all the necessary tools and equipment to do the work for you. It will without a doubt however, take much longer (and more frustration) to do it yourself than to hire someone, but can be a rewarding experience.
Are you considering or have you done your own stucco renovation? If so, please feel free to share your experience here!
EIFS “Panels” Using Reveals
I was driving through London, Ontario a while back and saw what looked like panels on the London Fire Department Station. When I got closer however, I realized that it was just cleverly disguised EIFS. The architect has specified reveals to be cut into the EIFS to segment it into panels, and black spots to be placed where the screws should be holding the panels up.
EIFS Fire Department, London
Aside from providing valuable insulation, EIFS is a much less expensive material than panel products like Alucobond and Fibre-C, which can run $20-$40 per square foot. EIFS on the other hand, should cost around $10 per square foot with minor reveals included. the effect is nearly identical, but at 1/2 to 1/4 of the cost.
London EIFS Station
The material works extremely well with the reflective glass, traditional fire-hall-red bricks and stone skirt around the base. It’s a great modern re-imagining of what fire stations should look like.
London Fire Station
I can’t help but laugh however, because of articles I have seen from cities in the states where EIFS has been ignorantly outlawed. Cities and citizens alike have hired poor quality contractors who have installed an inferior system, which has either failed or caught on fire, prompting fire chiefs to speak out against the product. In Canada however, our Architects and building professionals are educated on the facts about EIFS and the improvements that have come along over the past decade. The styrofoam is treated with a fire-retardant, the system is approved for use anywhere (even meets non-combustible requirements, albeit some modifications are required at times) and it’s insulating properties fit our climate needs.
Definitely an eye-catching design.
