Is your Home Crumbling Around You?
It's happening to new homes across the country!
Find out more from a 'Dateline' investigation.
NBC NEWS Posted: March 22, 2002
You spend a lot of time looking, do all the legwork, invest your heart and soul in it, not to mention your
savings. And finally, you own a piece of the "American Dream" - your own home. But what if the brand new
house you worked so hard for begins to crumble around you? It's happening to new homes around the
country. Is it just a case of, "they don't build 'em like they used to?" Or is there more to the story? Chief
consumer correspondent Lea Thompson reports with a "Dateline" Investigation. Even more surprising was
what they say was the cause of the damage - the type of stucco on their home.
FOUR YEARS AGO, Howard and Janice French moved to Wilmington, N.C., to spend their golden years. With
their retirement money, they built the house of their dreams. Howard French: "The home represented to us
our, hopefully, our final house that we were going to buy." But just a few months after moving in, the Frenchs
discovered their brand-new home was hiding an ugly secret. French: "On the outside of the front bedroom
window, we noticed a mold coming out from under the lower part of the window. In that same bedroom was
a very strong odor that we never could identify the source of." When they had the wall stripped away to see
what was wrong, the Frenchs were in for a shock.
French: "The sheathing was totally rotten. With your fingertips you could peel the heathing away. Insulation
underneath was soaking wet. You could squeeze water out of it." The French's dream home was falling
apart. French: "This isn't what you want to see in your house, especially one year after you just had it built."
Even more surprising was what they say was the cause of the damage - the type of stucco on their home.
The Frenchs didn't have a traditional stucco home, which is simply a house with solid, thick cement walls.
Instead, they had bought something very different - a synthetic stucco system. With synthetic stucco, after
the wood sheathing has been attached to the framing and the windows are installed and sealed, a layer of
Styrofoam is glued onto the wood. A basecoat of the cement-like stucco material goes on top, then wire
mesh and finally, a finishing coat of stucco.
This system is supposed to provide a protective envelope against the elements. But the Frenchs say instead
it was trapping moisture behind it and rotting their house away - inside out. And the Frenchs aren't alone.
From the southeastern United States to the Pacific Northwest, people are discovering the structures under
the surface of this type of stucco are decaying. Dave Miles: "You can see here that the wood is actually just
rotting away, and just falls right away." As homeowners like Dave and Shelley Miles of Wilmington have
discovered, fixing the damage is neither cheap nor easy. Because their insurance policy won't cover
repairs, the Miles say they had to come up with over $100,000 to fix their home. Shelley Miles: "This is our
dream house and we haven't even been able to enjoy it for two-and-a-half years because this has been
hanging over our heads." Synthetic stucco houses first became popular in the U.S. in the mid to late 1980's
today there are hundreds of thousands of these homes all across the country. The trade name for synthetic
stucco is EIFS - for Exterior Insulating and Finish Systems. Although EIFS costs about the same as brick or
wood sidings, the industry touts it as a lightweight, low-maintenance exterior that also provides an easy
insulating system for a home. But that system, in some houses at least, appears to be a double-edged
sword. Pierre Gallant: "It lets water in. And it doesn't let the water out." Pierre Gallant is with Morrison
Hershfield, a building science company in Vancouver, Canada. Gallant: "Any failures of this outer coating,
any breaks at joints, windows, etc., will allow water in. As soon as water gets in, it can't get out. And so, if
you're against water susceptible material, like gypsum board or wood, you're going to have damage."
Gallant says EIFS can make homes more vulnerable to moisture problems. That's because unlike other
sidings, synthetic stucco is glued to the surface, so if moisture does get in, it remains trapped." Gallant:
"Unless it drains, you're going to have a problem." Gallant's firm has investigated dozens of EIFS failures in
Vancouver - like this condo building. Gallant: "You can see how easily the gypsum board is crumbling. And
you should not be able to do that. These are rust stains. That means water got in behind the gypsum board
and is now starting to rust the steel stud." But what about places that aren't as wet as Vancouver or
Wilmington, N.C.? We wondered if homes built in an area of more moderate rainfall could also have this
problem. To find out, we decided to visit the Washington, D.C., suburb of Great Falls, Va. We picked out
recently built synthetic stucco homes at random.
Omar Hilmi's synthetic stucco house was built three years ago by a well-known national builder. He allowed
us to bring in a specialist qualified to test for moisture levels in a home. The inspector uses a special probe
to penetrate the wall. Inspector (testing the wall): "Oh, yeah, you can see that's above fifty percent, which is
certainly an indication that there's damage behind the system." Unfortunately, the only way to truly find out if
the wood is damaged is to cut out a section of the wall. Inspector: 'This is certainly degraded. See that? See,
that's your two-by-four framing structure." Omar Hilmi: "Yeah." Inspector: "That's the studs in the walls
right here and that's totally deteriorated. See that? Look at that." Hilmi: "Wow. It doesn't make me feel good,
that's for sure. I wouldn't have known about this. This is really rotted." We chose another synthetic stucco
house at random in the same area. Amy and Pierre Nedelcovych's four-year-old home was built by a local
builder. Lea Thompson: "Have you had any problems with this house as far as moisture is concerned?"
Pierre Nedelcovych: "Yes, we've pretty much had problems since the contract and purchasing this house
with moisture and cracking."
Once again, the inspector finds high moisture levels, and when the stucco is cut away, more rot. Inspector:
"This is really still wet." Nedelcovych: "That's completely rotten." Inspector: "This whole area I would
suspect along the edge of the door has just turned to mulch. You can see." Nedelcovych: "My gosh." Amy
Nedelcovych: (Crying) "This is the stuff I put on the ground." Inspector: "It's molded and mildewed." Pierre
Nedelcovych: "Just falls right apart. Amy Nedelcovych: "This is not right. This product should not be used if
this is the damage that it's doing." And here's a third house in the same area, also chosen at random.
Owner Charlie McMillan had heard reports of potential problems with synthetic stucco homes. But he was
sure his house was okay because he says he personally oversaw construction and was on-site everyday.
Lea Thompson: "Have you had any moisture problems with your house since you built it?" Charlie McMillan:
"Not to my knowledge." McMillan and his family looked on as the inspector checked for damage. It was
more of the same. Inspector: "Just from this one small cutout, you can see we've got dry rot, a lot of mold
and mildew. You can see it just continues right up behind this band. You see, this is actually in the structure
of the house at the floor line." Thompson: "So you actually have problems with the structure in this case."
Inspector: "Exactly." Thompson: "You didn't expect to see this?" McMillan: "No. I expected maybe a little
moisture had gotten in and maybe some damp wood, but I certainly didn't expect dry rot in a house that was
four years old." McMillan went on to have his entire house tested and found there was widespread moisture
damage.
Steven Klamke: "We're delivering to the consumer a product that works exactly the way it's supposed to
work." Steven Klamke is head of the EIFS industry's trade association. Klamke says all this rot has nothing
to do with synthetic stucco - he blames it all on shoddy construction. He says water is getting in behind
walls because builders are installing poor quality windows and aren't sealing joints properly. Lea
Thompson: "None of this is an EIFS manufacturing problem?" Klamke: "Absolutely not." Thompson: "Can
this EIFS system be put on a home under normal construction methods - not perfect construction methods -
and not cause homeowners any problems?" Klamke: "Absolutely. Absolutely." Thompson: "You're
convinced of this." Klamke: "Yes I am." While some high-end contractors say EIFS can work if it is
meticulously installed and maintained, the National Association of Home Builders told us synthetic stucco
isn't "compatible with the existing wood frame construction methods in the United States."
The Association, which represents over 60,000 home builders nationwide, says "homes with EIFS can
develop moisture intrusion problems even when properly constructed according to industry standards."
Klamke: "If, in fact, the problem existed with the product, it would have manifested itself 20 or 25 years
ago." Klamke argues the rotting has only occurred on relatively new homes, which he contends were built
in a shoddy way. But "Dateline" has obtained an internal memo - written eight years ago - from an EIFS
manufacturer named STO. It admits that one of the "inherent flaws" of synthetic stucco is that there is no
back up system that allows it to "tolerate moisture penetration, without damage to the system." STO wrote
"Dateline," saying the memo "did not mean that EIFS products were defective" and that the company stands
by its product.
There was an even earlier internal memo, dated 1984, from Dryvit, the largest EIFS manufacturer. A Dryvit
technical manager wrote: "failures are inevitable," and "the inevitable" leaking "which will deteriorate
sheathing will soon be upon us." Dryvit responded by saying at the time, company officials disagreed with
the points raised by the technical manager. Dryvit also told us "Dateline" is unfairly targeting synthetic
stucco homes, and Dryvit asked us to contact a building engineer named Russ Kenney. Russ Kenney: "We
have our own system and own standards and we have no problems. We make sure that it is done correctly.
If it's done correctly, it can work. Unfortunately, it's not real world all the time." While it's still unclear exactly
what percentage of synthetic stucco homes have rotting problems, the federal government and the state of
Georgia have placed restrictions on its use. North Carolina has banned it outright.
And two synthetic stucco manufacturers, USG and Senergy, have stopped selling the product for use on
homes. The companies have replaced the original synthetic stucco technology with a new one that provides
a way for water to drain out. Ironically, other manufacturers have also introduced drainable synthetic
stucco. But most continue to sell the older version as well. The trade association still contends there's
nothing wrong with the original system. Thompson: "Do you think most of the manufacturers will eventually
ease out of the old system?" Klamke: "Absolutely not. Absolutely not." Howard French: "It's banned here in
the state of North Carolina, and to me, it should be banned all over." The Frenchs and other homeowners all
over the country now know that if a problem is found, it often involves structural repairs, and they can't wait
because the damage will only get worse.
Howard and Janice French say they had to take tens of thousands of dollars out of their retirement savings
to replace the stucco with a wood siding. They just can't believe that the older synthetic stucco system is
still on the market. "My simple message to anybody considering buying a synthetic stucco home right now
would be doing. I think you're only buying yourself problems down the road," says French. If you think your
house might have moisture problems, have a qualified inspector test for excessive moisture levels. If
there's wood damage, take care of it immediately. The longer you wait, the worse it will get.
It's happening to new homes across the country!
Find out more from a 'Dateline' investigation.
NBC NEWS Posted: March 22, 2002
You spend a lot of time looking, do all the legwork, invest your heart and soul in it, not to mention your
savings. And finally, you own a piece of the "American Dream" - your own home. But what if the brand new
house you worked so hard for begins to crumble around you? It's happening to new homes around the
country. Is it just a case of, "they don't build 'em like they used to?" Or is there more to the story? Chief
consumer correspondent Lea Thompson reports with a "Dateline" Investigation. Even more surprising was
what they say was the cause of the damage - the type of stucco on their home.
FOUR YEARS AGO, Howard and Janice French moved to Wilmington, N.C., to spend their golden years. With
their retirement money, they built the house of their dreams. Howard French: "The home represented to us
our, hopefully, our final house that we were going to buy." But just a few months after moving in, the Frenchs
discovered their brand-new home was hiding an ugly secret. French: "On the outside of the front bedroom
window, we noticed a mold coming out from under the lower part of the window. In that same bedroom was
a very strong odor that we never could identify the source of." When they had the wall stripped away to see
what was wrong, the Frenchs were in for a shock.
French: "The sheathing was totally rotten. With your fingertips you could peel the heathing away. Insulation
underneath was soaking wet. You could squeeze water out of it." The French's dream home was falling
apart. French: "This isn't what you want to see in your house, especially one year after you just had it built."
Even more surprising was what they say was the cause of the damage - the type of stucco on their home.
The Frenchs didn't have a traditional stucco home, which is simply a house with solid, thick cement walls.
Instead, they had bought something very different - a synthetic stucco system. With synthetic stucco, after
the wood sheathing has been attached to the framing and the windows are installed and sealed, a layer of
Styrofoam is glued onto the wood. A basecoat of the cement-like stucco material goes on top, then wire
mesh and finally, a finishing coat of stucco.
This system is supposed to provide a protective envelope against the elements. But the Frenchs say instead
it was trapping moisture behind it and rotting their house away - inside out. And the Frenchs aren't alone.
From the southeastern United States to the Pacific Northwest, people are discovering the structures under
the surface of this type of stucco are decaying. Dave Miles: "You can see here that the wood is actually just
rotting away, and just falls right away." As homeowners like Dave and Shelley Miles of Wilmington have
discovered, fixing the damage is neither cheap nor easy. Because their insurance policy won't cover
repairs, the Miles say they had to come up with over $100,000 to fix their home. Shelley Miles: "This is our
dream house and we haven't even been able to enjoy it for two-and-a-half years because this has been
hanging over our heads." Synthetic stucco houses first became popular in the U.S. in the mid to late 1980's
today there are hundreds of thousands of these homes all across the country. The trade name for synthetic
stucco is EIFS - for Exterior Insulating and Finish Systems. Although EIFS costs about the same as brick or
wood sidings, the industry touts it as a lightweight, low-maintenance exterior that also provides an easy
insulating system for a home. But that system, in some houses at least, appears to be a double-edged
sword. Pierre Gallant: "It lets water in. And it doesn't let the water out." Pierre Gallant is with Morrison
Hershfield, a building science company in Vancouver, Canada. Gallant: "Any failures of this outer coating,
any breaks at joints, windows, etc., will allow water in. As soon as water gets in, it can't get out. And so, if
you're against water susceptible material, like gypsum board or wood, you're going to have damage."
Gallant says EIFS can make homes more vulnerable to moisture problems. That's because unlike other
sidings, synthetic stucco is glued to the surface, so if moisture does get in, it remains trapped." Gallant:
"Unless it drains, you're going to have a problem." Gallant's firm has investigated dozens of EIFS failures in
Vancouver - like this condo building. Gallant: "You can see how easily the gypsum board is crumbling. And
you should not be able to do that. These are rust stains. That means water got in behind the gypsum board
and is now starting to rust the steel stud." But what about places that aren't as wet as Vancouver or
Wilmington, N.C.? We wondered if homes built in an area of more moderate rainfall could also have this
problem. To find out, we decided to visit the Washington, D.C., suburb of Great Falls, Va. We picked out
recently built synthetic stucco homes at random.
Omar Hilmi's synthetic stucco house was built three years ago by a well-known national builder. He allowed
us to bring in a specialist qualified to test for moisture levels in a home. The inspector uses a special probe
to penetrate the wall. Inspector (testing the wall): "Oh, yeah, you can see that's above fifty percent, which is
certainly an indication that there's damage behind the system." Unfortunately, the only way to truly find out if
the wood is damaged is to cut out a section of the wall. Inspector: 'This is certainly degraded. See that? See,
that's your two-by-four framing structure." Omar Hilmi: "Yeah." Inspector: "That's the studs in the walls
right here and that's totally deteriorated. See that? Look at that." Hilmi: "Wow. It doesn't make me feel good,
that's for sure. I wouldn't have known about this. This is really rotted." We chose another synthetic stucco
house at random in the same area. Amy and Pierre Nedelcovych's four-year-old home was built by a local
builder. Lea Thompson: "Have you had any problems with this house as far as moisture is concerned?"
Pierre Nedelcovych: "Yes, we've pretty much had problems since the contract and purchasing this house
with moisture and cracking."
Once again, the inspector finds high moisture levels, and when the stucco is cut away, more rot. Inspector:
"This is really still wet." Nedelcovych: "That's completely rotten." Inspector: "This whole area I would
suspect along the edge of the door has just turned to mulch. You can see." Nedelcovych: "My gosh." Amy
Nedelcovych: (Crying) "This is the stuff I put on the ground." Inspector: "It's molded and mildewed." Pierre
Nedelcovych: "Just falls right apart. Amy Nedelcovych: "This is not right. This product should not be used if
this is the damage that it's doing." And here's a third house in the same area, also chosen at random.
Owner Charlie McMillan had heard reports of potential problems with synthetic stucco homes. But he was
sure his house was okay because he says he personally oversaw construction and was on-site everyday.
Lea Thompson: "Have you had any moisture problems with your house since you built it?" Charlie McMillan:
"Not to my knowledge." McMillan and his family looked on as the inspector checked for damage. It was
more of the same. Inspector: "Just from this one small cutout, you can see we've got dry rot, a lot of mold
and mildew. You can see it just continues right up behind this band. You see, this is actually in the structure
of the house at the floor line." Thompson: "So you actually have problems with the structure in this case."
Inspector: "Exactly." Thompson: "You didn't expect to see this?" McMillan: "No. I expected maybe a little
moisture had gotten in and maybe some damp wood, but I certainly didn't expect dry rot in a house that was
four years old." McMillan went on to have his entire house tested and found there was widespread moisture
damage.
Steven Klamke: "We're delivering to the consumer a product that works exactly the way it's supposed to
work." Steven Klamke is head of the EIFS industry's trade association. Klamke says all this rot has nothing
to do with synthetic stucco - he blames it all on shoddy construction. He says water is getting in behind
walls because builders are installing poor quality windows and aren't sealing joints properly. Lea
Thompson: "None of this is an EIFS manufacturing problem?" Klamke: "Absolutely not." Thompson: "Can
this EIFS system be put on a home under normal construction methods - not perfect construction methods -
and not cause homeowners any problems?" Klamke: "Absolutely. Absolutely." Thompson: "You're
convinced of this." Klamke: "Yes I am." While some high-end contractors say EIFS can work if it is
meticulously installed and maintained, the National Association of Home Builders told us synthetic stucco
isn't "compatible with the existing wood frame construction methods in the United States."
The Association, which represents over 60,000 home builders nationwide, says "homes with EIFS can
develop moisture intrusion problems even when properly constructed according to industry standards."
Klamke: "If, in fact, the problem existed with the product, it would have manifested itself 20 or 25 years
ago." Klamke argues the rotting has only occurred on relatively new homes, which he contends were built
in a shoddy way. But "Dateline" has obtained an internal memo - written eight years ago - from an EIFS
manufacturer named STO. It admits that one of the "inherent flaws" of synthetic stucco is that there is no
back up system that allows it to "tolerate moisture penetration, without damage to the system." STO wrote
"Dateline," saying the memo "did not mean that EIFS products were defective" and that the company stands
by its product.
There was an even earlier internal memo, dated 1984, from Dryvit, the largest EIFS manufacturer. A Dryvit
technical manager wrote: "failures are inevitable," and "the inevitable" leaking "which will deteriorate
sheathing will soon be upon us." Dryvit responded by saying at the time, company officials disagreed with
the points raised by the technical manager. Dryvit also told us "Dateline" is unfairly targeting synthetic
stucco homes, and Dryvit asked us to contact a building engineer named Russ Kenney. Russ Kenney: "We
have our own system and own standards and we have no problems. We make sure that it is done correctly.
If it's done correctly, it can work. Unfortunately, it's not real world all the time." While it's still unclear exactly
what percentage of synthetic stucco homes have rotting problems, the federal government and the state of
Georgia have placed restrictions on its use. North Carolina has banned it outright.
And two synthetic stucco manufacturers, USG and Senergy, have stopped selling the product for use on
homes. The companies have replaced the original synthetic stucco technology with a new one that provides
a way for water to drain out. Ironically, other manufacturers have also introduced drainable synthetic
stucco. But most continue to sell the older version as well. The trade association still contends there's
nothing wrong with the original system. Thompson: "Do you think most of the manufacturers will eventually
ease out of the old system?" Klamke: "Absolutely not. Absolutely not." Howard French: "It's banned here in
the state of North Carolina, and to me, it should be banned all over." The Frenchs and other homeowners all
over the country now know that if a problem is found, it often involves structural repairs, and they can't wait
because the damage will only get worse.
Howard and Janice French say they had to take tens of thousands of dollars out of their retirement savings
to replace the stucco with a wood siding. They just can't believe that the older synthetic stucco system is
still on the market. "My simple message to anybody considering buying a synthetic stucco home right now
would be doing. I think you're only buying yourself problems down the road," says French. If you think your
house might have moisture problems, have a qualified inspector test for excessive moisture levels. If
there's wood damage, take care of it immediately. The longer you wait, the worse it will get.
EFIS / SYNTHETIC STUCCO
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