They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In our stucco and EIFS environment, this rings true when looking at the finished product, sometimes its beauty to one and less than beauty to another. But aesthetics aside, does a beautiful job mean it is a sound job, one that will stand the test of time? Do blemishes, bumps and lines mean the job wasn’t done to specs? My fellow beholders, open your eyes while we explore the “beauty” of stucco and EIFS.
Every project has a starting place and for our stucco and EIFS installers, that is the substrate. The first thing all applicators should do, before installing anything, is to check out the substrate conditions (I am not advocating the substrate be beautiful but it should be in plane and compliant with the code requirements). With either cladding, if you start out crooked or out of plane, there’s an increased likelihood you are going to end up crooked or out of plane. Further, with new liquid applied WRBs, it is even more important that the surface be flat and without a lot of planar irregularities. For those more adept at fixing the sins of others, straightening out the crookedness, the “fix” has added costs and if those costs weren’t adjusted for, then your bottom line just got a little smaller.