Buying a Stucco or EIFS House:
What a Home Inspection Can and Can’t See
Stucco shows its problems at the edges: the bottom of the wall, the tops of windows, the corner where a roof meets it. What’s behind the finish is a job for a different specialist.
Stucco covers everything behind it. That’s the point of it, and it’s also why buying a stucco house comes with more open questions than buying one with lap siding.
Stucco isn’t common on Portland-area houses. It shows up in only a handful of Russ’s last 269 inspection reports, and the two with the most stucco findings were Lake Oswego homes. When it does, the findings land in the same few places: the bottom of the wall, the tops of windows, and anywhere water runs onto it.
None of those spots tells you what’s going on inside the wall. They tell you where water has a way in.
Hard-coat stucco or EIFS?
People call both of these stucco. They behave differently.
Traditional stucco is a cement plaster, usually put on in coats over metal lath on the wall sheathing. It’s hard, heavy, and a little porous. Water can soak in and dry back out, and a properly built wall has a water-resistive barrier behind it and a weep screed at the bottom so water that gets through can drain.
EIFS (exterior insulation and finish system) is foam insulation board with a thin, flexible finish coat on top. It looks like stucco from the street. Tap it, and it sounds hollow. Press on it, and it may give a little.
The EIFS buyers ask Russ about most is the older barrier type. It was built to keep all water out at the surface, with no path for water to drain once it got behind the finish. Newer EIFS on framed walls has a drainage layer behind the foam. From the outside, the two can look the same. The post on buying a 1990s home covers why that decade’s EIFS houses get extra attention.
There’s also a third thing that gets called stucco: a cement coating troweled over a foundation, a chimney, or a short framed wall above the foundation. In one Portland report, Russ found gaps and cracks in that kind of coating over a wood-sheathed cripple wall, where water could reach the wood behind it.
Why the 1990s EIFS houses got a reputation
In the mid-1990s, investigators in the Wilmington, North Carolina area started opening up EIFS-clad houses. An industry task force study looked at about 2,000 homes there. Most showed some degree of water intrusion.
The foam wasn’t the main problem. Water was getting in at windows, door frames, missing flashing, and failed sealant joints. Barrier EIFS had no way to let it back out, so it sat against the wood sheathing. Lawsuits followed, and North Carolina moved to require drainage behind EIFS on houses.
The model residential code now calls for EIFS on framed walls to go over a water-resistive barrier with a way for water to drain. That’s the newer drainage type. Plenty of barrier EIFS houses from before that change are still standing, including some around Portland.
What Russ finds on stucco houses
These all come from recent reports on Portland-area stucco homes:
- Cracks and fine hairline fissures in several areas of the cladding, plus spots of local damage where the finish had broken down.
- Stucco running down below the soil and gravel instead of stopping above it. Stucco in contact with soil can wick moisture up into the wall.
- Too little clearance at grade, with rust staining along the bottom screed. The model residential code puts the weep screed at least 4 inches above soil and 2 inches above pavement.
- A caulked gap between the stucco and the metal head flashing over a window. That gap is there so water behind the stucco can drain out over the flashing. Sealing it can trap water in the wall.
- Patches that didn’t match or seal properly.
- No kick-out flashing where a roof edge dies into a stucco wall, with water staining on the wall below. Without that small diverter, roof runoff runs down the face of the wall and can get behind it.
- An air conditioner condensate line draining onto the stucco, and rain splashing up onto the lower wall from a roof dripline.
- Staining on a stucco patio ceiling directly under an upper deck, which pointed to water getting past the deck above.
Russ can see all of that from the outside. The report notes each spot and who should look at it, usually a stucco contractor and, for flashing at the roof, a roofer. The posts on roof flashing problems and what to look at on the exterior cover the same weak points on other siding.
Stucco in a wet climate
- Portland-area rain comes in long wet stretches, so water has time to work into cracks and open joints
- The wettest spots are usually the lowest: the bottom of the wall, behind shrubs, near sprinklers
- Moss and green staining on the lower wall usually means that area stays wet
- Wall areas under a roof-to-wall corner without kick-out flashing take a lot of runoff
Real Inspection Photos
Stucco Findings From Russ's Inspections
A few of the stucco conditions Russ has written up on Portland-area houses.
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Staining and breakdown along the bottom edge of the stucco, where water collects and runs off. -
Stucco that runs down below the gravel. The report recommended clearing it so the bottom edge sits above grade. -
The gap above this window's head flashing was caulked shut. That gap is meant to let water behind the stucco drain out. -
An air conditioner condensate line draining right onto the stucco, with staining below it. -
Green staining low on the wall from rain splashing back up. The report pointed to roof drainage as the fix.
What the inspection can’t tell you
The inspection is visual and non-invasive. Russ can’t see the sheathing behind the stucco, and he doesn’t drill into the wall. A clean-looking stucco wall can still have wet wood behind it, and a wall full of cosmetic cracks can be dry.
That’s why staining, rust at the screed, soft spots, or cracks at window corners lead to a recommendation for a specialist. A stucco or building envelope consultant can do invasive moisture testing: small holes drilled at the likely leak points (under windows, at roof-to-wall corners, near the bottom of the wall), probe readings of the wood behind, and then the holes get sealed. It needs the seller’s permission, since it puts holes in their house.
If the house has EIFS, that same specialist can usually tell you whether it’s the barrier or drainage type.
Living with stucco
A stucco house that’s kept up can last a long time. Most of the upkeep is keeping water off it and keeping the openings sealed:
- Keep soil, bark mulch, and gravel below the weep screed.
- Point sprinklers away from the walls.
- Keep gutters clean and downspouts extended, so the lower wall isn’t getting splashed.
- Reseal around windows, doors, light fixtures, and pipe penetrations when the sealant cracks or pulls away.
- Patch cracks with a material that matches the wall. Stucco and EIFS take different repair products.
If the inspection report lists a lot of stucco items, a stucco contractor can tell you which are maintenance and which point to something bigger.
On a stucco house, the inspection finds the openings, not the damage behind them. Cracks, missing clearance, sealed flashing, and staining tell you where water can get in. A specialist with a moisture probe is the one who can tell you whether it has.
To get a stucco house inspected, you can book online any day of the week.
Stucco and EIFS FAQ
