U.S. Inspect Home Inspection:

Advisory Report

October 2000

Builder Sued Over Stucco
One of the country's most reputable builders has been found guilty of fraud against one family in Virginia for coating their home with an EIFS (Exterior Insulation and Finish System) synthetic stucco rather than real (conventional) stucco, as planned. There are at least two dozen similar suits pending against the builder.

According to the Washington Post (September 30, 2000), Toll Brothers Inc. of Philadelphia has been ordered to pay the family nearly $1 million in damages. The family alleges that they paid for conventional stucco. Instead, they received an EIFS synthetic stucco cladding, Class PB (Polymer Based) EIFS, which has caused a multitude of problems with their home and continues to wreak havoc on homeowners all across the United States.

Two years after the family moved into their home, they received a letter from Toll Brothers informing them that the siding on their home was synthetic stucco, alerting them to the fact that the synthetic stucco may cause water retention in the walls of the home. According to the family's attorney, a hired inspector inspected the home and received a 99.9 percent moisture reading in the home's wood framing, indicating that the synthetic stucco had allowed for moisture retention, in fact, due to severe moisture penetration.

Toll Brothers attorneys claim that the builder did not defraud anyone. It was reported that one of the family's own experts testified to the jury that there was "no evidence that Toll intentionally put a bad product on this house."

A typical EIFS exterior cladding is composed of an adhesively or mechanically fastened foam insulation board, plastic or glass reinforcing mesh, a base coat, and an outer finish coat. EIFS stucco cladding is available in various colors and external textures designed to look like traditional stucco.

In many homes clad with a barrier EIFS stucco, water that enters behind cladding does not evaporate, or “escape,” quickly enough to allow structural members to dry out. The moisture content and temperature inside the wall cavities of these homes often promote rapid growth of wood destroying fungus, leading to deterioration or rot of the sheathing/substrate and the structural members (framing) of the house. Depending on the size of the home, EIFS repairs can range from tens of thousands to over one hundred thousand dollars.