Bob distinguishes the real EIFS and the systems people get confused with exterior insulated finish systems.
How many times have you gotten a phone call from someone moaning that his or her "EIFS" is leaking? How many times has it turned out that this building does not have 1 square inch of EIFS on it? Or how often have you gone to a job site to check on a problem, only to find out that it's not an EIFS job at all, but it is just some textured coating over concrete? It happens all the time. What a pain.
Despite the fact that EIFS has been in North America for more than three decades, some people still do not seem to know what an EIF system is. It's understandable in a sense, as there are quite a few products that, even up close, look just like EIFS. To those of us that are inside the EIFS industry, it's a no-brainer to tell if a wall is EIFS or not, but sometimes it is pretty amazing how little some people know about what their homes are made of. However, I don't know how to sew, either.