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!

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.

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.

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.

Why not use traditional stucco?

C.

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.

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.

The Long Beach Historical Museum, is located
in this 1909 two-story Craftsman-style house, one
of the original Estates of Long Beach summer residence villas.
Source: Long Beach Historical and Preservation Society

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.