The detailing of it is very important especially in wet or humid regions. Essentially, it requires a drainage plane behind the insulation board so that water that penetrates it can weep out at the bottom. There are a lot of good articles at the Journal of Light Construction (JLC.com). STO is a good brand to use for information and detailing.

As noted above, an effective drainage plane and the appropriate use or non-use of interior vapour barriers is essential. Don't count on the installer's "expertise". Be sure your architect/designer spells out the order of elements being installed.

The biggest problem with EIFS is keeping it clean. Other than in a desert perhaps--and there are none that I know of in Indiana--rainwater will stain it. If you can't accept a certain "patina," consider a different material. In fact, I recall an Architectural Digest stucco mansion that was deliberately stained to give it that air of heritage.

EIFS is also an easily damaged material. Just one inadvertent bounce of a basketball off the wall will leave you with a big repair and some effort to blend in the colour.

Ditto your kids playing stickball off a wall like my friends and I used to do more than a half century ago!

Here is a link that might be useful: Building Science Corp. on EIFS

I agree that the real con about EIFS is that no one will buy it (at least where I live). Real hardcoat stucco is not much better, unfortunately, because people don't know the difference and it scares them off. There have been (as I am sure you know)huge issues with EIFS and water getting into the framing. I personally wouldn't trust anyone to put this on my house - that is a true leap of faith. How do you know they did it right? They may tell you they did but the risk is too great. I wouldn't want to be pulling the siding off in 10 years.

I don't know what kind of house you are building but thingsthatinspire around here is building a very french house and doing painted brick as her siding. The brick she chose has lots of texture and painted gives a similar look without all the worries.

"Other than in a desert perhaps"

You'd be surprised. The high iron content in the native soils here in the upper mojave, if you have native soils under your overhangs w/o gutters or a landscaping type cover, the rain will stain up the wall starting at the base on up about 18" with a nice orange/reddish stain that is impossible to get off. Sticks out like a sore thumb on lighter colored stuccos.

The only EIFS here was done years ago on the naval base/commercial projects. A local stucco contractor who got the bid along with his crew took classes,(paid by our taxes of course), to get in on the correct install techniques of EIFS. For whatever reasons, maybe the low humidity of the desert or whatever the case, it has not held up well and is cracking/seperating in many areas of the buildings.

In Indiana, imo , you'd be better off with a traditional three coat stucco with the top coat being the newer acrylic/elasomeric topcoats that give with temperature changes. Our build is at 4500' in the sierras with freezing in the winters, hot in the summer, with a mix of drastic temperature changes throughout the year. It's been on four years without even hairline cracking and looks as if it was just recntly applied. It sounds like there might not be experienced stucco/plaster contractors in your area. Whatever route you go, you need that experience, especially concerning the lathing application,( flashings, drainage planes, Weep screeding), done correctly along with correct mixing, applying of the coats or you are asking for problems on down the road.

Run away! Run away!

Although there are good applications using this, the public perception has been so negative that resale will be difficult.

In a 15-year-old development near me (Chicago suburb) only one home was built with EIFS. The house has been on the market twice in the 10 years we've lived nearby. It took forever to sell, and sold for less than its' neighbors. The current owner, a realtor, bought it cheaply. She has had the EIFS removed and replaced with genuine stucco. She also replaced all the windows and doors, leading me to think there had been flashing problems.

Thanks for all of the input! We will definitely not
be using EIFS on our home! We would like it to be
as maintenance free as possible,so brick will probably be what we use.

Mimiddb,

Why not use traditional stucco?

C.

mimiddb, in the 90's when EIFS was first being used, it had many problems and partially because the product works so well. EIFS is a fantastic product for keeping out water and moisture. But it also had the problem of trapping the moisture behind the walls if water did get in due to improper flashing. This is why buildings had significant damage with mold and rot. The water got in and due to poor design, it couldn't get back out.

EIFS works far better than brick and stucco to keep out moisture. When brick/stucco gets wet, it's like a sponge and soaks up a significant amount of water. After the rain when the sun hits that surface, the water can be forced out the back and onto the drainage plane and down the walls behind the brick/stucco and out the weep holes.
Brick and true stucco will be just as problematic as EIFS if the correct flashing and drainage planes are not properly installed.

I built my own home and used brick on the lower basement area and EIFS on the first and second floor. The link posted above by worthy is to "Building Science Corp" and Dr. Joe Lstiburek. Joe is the man in this country when it comes to diagnosing problems, evaluating systems and designing applications that work. Joe evaluated and designed my building envelope plans using the brick and EIFS and it works great. Go to his site and read what he's written about EIFS as its great information.

EIFS was a problem in the 90s due to the way it was being applied but it's not a problem today if properly installed. (As with any product) I used EIFS instead of all brick on my home because it also saved $35,000.00. In this down real estate market EIFS looks more and more attractive.

The pros to EIFS are it looks great and colors and design options are vast. EIFS is flexible and typically doesn't crack with movement of the structure. It also provides insulation to combat thermal bridging with the framing and exterior of the building.

The only thing I don't like about EIFS is it can be damaged easier than other materials. It's a tough product but if your sons friend drops a loaded potato cannon and it accidentally fires and hits the EIFS, you have a repair to make. Yes, it actually happened.

Another con for EIFS is you are limited to little texture choices compared to traditional. With a traditional top coat,(not advisable in the op's area), you can go with light to heavy texture varieties while a traditional with an acrylic/elasomeric topcoat you can get a wide variety of lower profile textures but not heavy.

It's very interesting to hear that EIFS is pariah in parts of the US. (And that staining can be a problem even in the desert.)

For ten years or so, it was considered the premier material for high-end homes ( $1.5 m+) in my market, Toronto. Now, it's back to brick and stone.

Any residual soft spot I have for hard-coat stucco comes from my earliest childhood recall of homes in my native Long Beach, New York.