EIFS has become one of the most thoroughly tested wall systems ever produced
The enormous popularity of the EIFS product’s commercial application made it much easier for the product to rise to the top of the american commercial cladding industry. The products transition from the commercial industry to the residential industry brought unforeseen issues, which invoked a series of tests to prove the validity of the EIFS cladding.
The DOE – The Department of Energy contacted the EIFS Industry Members Association (EIMA) to combine resources to have an EIFS study to confirm the performance of EIFS for insulating ability and moisture resistance. Field research was conducted on a specially made test building constructed with various cladding materials and fitted with sensors to record moisture content, humidity, temperature and other variables. EIFS walls are compared to stucco, brick, cement board and concrete block. A hygrothermal model is being developed, which is a computer simulation that predicts wall performance from the field data.
The Oak Ridge National Laboratory – Engineering Science and Technology Division
The hygrothermal performance of the net exterior insulation walls
The Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ATLANTA, Oct. 28, 2006 — EIFS “outperformed all other walls in terms of moisture while maintaining superior thermal performance.”
Read The Oak Ridge National Laboratory full report
