EIMA has been informed from a member that Home Depot is selling EIFS reinforcing mesh online. EIMA’s attempt to contact Home Depot to ascertain why the commercial building materials supply house is advertising and selling EIFS reinforcing mesh when it is the EIFS manufacturer responsibility to supply the mesh as a part of the EIFS system.

The potential problem in this instance is Home Depot selling a non-code compliant reinforcing mesh, and like all EIFS components, this mesh must meet requirements of ASTEM E2568. Included in these requirements are requirements for fire testing. One of these tests is NFPA 285 which requires the reinforcing mesh to be tested in situ with the whole EIFS system.

Due to these concerns, EIMA wants to find out:

1)      If Home Depot is supplying EIFS mesh to EIFS manufacturers with an evaluation report listed currently with the International Code Council’s Evaluation Service, and

2)      Why it is touting its advertised reinforcing mess as satisfactory for EIFS applications. To date, Home Depot has not responded to EIMA’s requests for information.

EIMA has a policy that states: “In short, all products used to construct EIFS on a given project should be manufactured or supplied by a single EIFS manufacturer as part of a system of integrated products. While some materials such as reinforcing mesh or insulation board may appear to be generic and interchangeable, in fact, using untested substitutes can result in unknown and, in some cases, very serious performance deficiencies.”

The EIMA Technical and Research Committee discussed this matter thoroughly, at its meeting during the 2014 EIMA Annual Meeting in Las Vegas on March 31, and will keep it as an agenda item until the issue is resolved.