In the May column “Keep it Dry,” I talked about issues to be dealt with when using EIFS that incorporate a water resistive barrier. WRBs are most often used in the increasingly common EIFS with drainage. Most of the discussion in that article was about various design aspects.
Putting your head in the sand has never been a successful strategy for man or beast. As a person who is responsible for both the daily operation and strategic direction of a large steel framing manufacturing business, I have great concerns regarding the future of our industry.
The truth is no designer or contractor wants a leaky wall assembly. Past water intrusion problems into walls have created billions of dollars in damage, struck fear in the hearts of architects and led to some drastic overreaction and insane alterations.
Early in my career, I was among a small group of architects and specifiers invited to Europe to learn about the state of the art in PVC building materials. At that time, the anti-PVC propaganda machine in the U.S. was picking up a lot of steam, preying on the ignorance of thousands of architects and persuading them (myself included) to believe that PVC was the “devil’s material.”
Dimitris Spiliadis’ great-grandfather once owned a hotel in Constantinople, which was lost when the Turks invaded the magnificent and historic city (now known as Istanbul).
Thermal performance of exterior steel stud framed walls has always lagged behind that of wood. This critical difference often overshadows steel’s many benefits such as its dimensional consistency, high recycled content, high recyclability, strength, and mold, rot and termite resistance.
I was a plastering contractor during the last horrible recession of the late-’70s. Work was so scarce that we even bid for one of the more notorious developers in our area. Even knowing this particular developer was infamous for burning subcontractors, running a project site with no regard for proper sequence and avoiding retention payment, we felt we had to bid his work.
In EIFS, water resistive barriers are a layer between the EIFS substrate and the EIFS insulation. They are most commonly used in EIFS with drainage wall assemblies. They are an additional layer within the wall cladding system and present some unique issues that are worth knowing about. Here are some of the issues.
Can cement stucco and EIFS work in wet climates? The answer is yes and we can prove it. A recent study from the NAHB Research Center reported that brick veneer was the most dry of all claddings they tested. They really need to know all the facts.
In my February 2009 article “The Uncertain Future of Green Building,” I made reference to an article by Joe Lstiburek titled “Prioritizing Green-It’s the Energy, Stupid,” in which he shot gaping holes in the analysis made in a USGBC-commissioned report “Energy Performance of LEED for New Construction Buildings” by the New Buildings Institute.
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