Send us the moisture report. We'll tell you what the readings actually require, not what sells the biggest job.
Repair and full remediation, every time. You see both numbers.
Probe data sets the scope - not a salesman, not the finish.
Send your report; we tell you what it actually requires.
You are holding a moisture report with elevated readings and a closing date. The inspector marked probe points around windows and at the roof-wall corners, wrote down numbers, and left. He is not allowed to fix any of it. So now you are searching for someone who can, on a clock you did not set.
That is the position almost every EIFS homeowner on the Cape Fear coast is in when they call us. Nobody plans for this. The house looked perfect the day you listed it.
EIFS is synthetic stucco. Foam board, mesh, an acrylic finish coat. The homes that fail were built roughly 1985 to 2005, and most of them use the older barrier design with no drainage plane behind the cladding. That design has one flaw that matters here: once water gets past a joint, a window, or a flashing detail, it has nowhere to drain. It sits against the wood sheathing and stays there.
The finish can look flawless while the plywood behind it is rotting. That gap between what you see and what is happening is the entire reason moisture inspections exist.
Elevated readings almost always trace back to a specific entry point, not the whole wall.
Moisture is read as wood-moisture equivalent, or WME, taken with a probe pushed through the finish into the sheathing. Dry wood reads low. Wet wood reads high, and a high reading means water is present right now at that spot.
One elevated point at a single window is a different problem than elevated readings across an entire elevation. The numbers, and where they cluster, tell you whether you are looking at an isolated intrusion or widespread damage. We walk through how to read the report itself in reading your moisture report.
This is what makes an EIFS inspection different from a roof or a foundation. There are currency rules. A moisture inspection is generally treated as valid for about 120 days. The moisture readings themselves are usually considered current for about 30 days. The industry norm is a re-inspection roughly every three years.
So the report in your hand has a shelf life. If the deal drags, the buyer’s lender or agent can ask for fresh readings, and the whole thing resets. That pressure is real, and it is exactly why the honest answer matters more than the fast one.
Here is the split, and it is the whole point of this business.
Targeted repair is for isolated intrusion. One bad kickout, a couple of failed window joints, damage that has not spread. You open the affected area, dry it, replace what rotted, correct the flashing, and reseal. Typically 2,000 to 8,000 dollars. See targeted EIFS repair.
Full remediation is for widespread or long-running damage. The cladding comes off, rotted sheathing gets replaced, and the wall is re-clad, often to a modern drainable EIFS that can actually shed water. This runs from around 10,000 dollars to 50,000 or more. See full EIFS remediation.
We are not the inspector and we are not the buyer’s agent. We read the data and quote both paths when both are honest. A 1998 EIFS home in a Landfall-type neighborhood came in with wet readings under two windows and a quote for a full re-clad already in hand. The probe showed the sheathing was sound everywhere except one kickout at the roof-wall joint. We opened that corner, dried it, corrected the flashing. Nowhere near a tear-off. That happens more than the tear-off quotes would suggest.
Do not agree to a scope before anyone has confirmed how far the moisture actually traveled. A visual walk and a sales pitch are not the same as probe data.
Send us your moisture inspection report through the contact form. We will tell you what it actually requires, whether that is a corner repair or a real remediation, and give you numbers you can take to the closing table.
Upload the inspection report or photos of the readings. We tell you what it actually requires - repair or full remediation - honestly, before your closing date does.