One of the constant comments that you hear about EIFS is that “it” is leaking. The “it,” in this case, is the EIFS itself. In the more than 20 years I’ve spent dealing with the technical aspects of EIFS, I can count on my hands the number of EIFS projects I’ve seen where the EIFS coatings themselves were actually leaking. Such occurrences are exceedingly rare. The leaks almost always occur where the EIFS meets another material, such as at a caulking joint, or via an adjacent wall component, such as a window.
However, there are times when the EIFS coatings themselves do leak. You may want to guard against this possibility for the future, or fix an existing problem. This article will give you some tips on how to deal with this commonly brought-up, but rarely true, situation.