The numbers on the report decide everything. Here is what they actually mean, and what a buyer can demand.
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.
A moisture report looks like a wall of numbers and codes. Almost nobody explains what those numbers actually require. That is exactly the gap this page fills.
An EIFS inspector reads moisture as WME, wood-moisture equivalent. It is the meter’s estimate of how wet the wood sheathing is behind the cladding, expressed as a percentage. The wall itself is not the point. The wood behind it is. That is what rots, and that is what the number is tracking.
Every reading on your report is tied to a location. Under the left second-floor window. At the northwest roof-wall corner. Below the deck ledger. The map of where the numbers are high tells you as much as the numbers themselves, because it points straight at which detail is letting water in.
There is no single magic number, but inspectors work in bands, and your report will sort readings into roughly three responses.
Dry wood typically sits in the mid-to-high single digits. Readings in that range mean that spot is doing fine. The wall is keeping water out where it was checked.
As readings climb into the higher teens, the wood is holding more moisture than it should. This is the range where the report starts recommending you monitor, investigate, or make a targeted repair at that location. Elevated does not automatically mean tear the wall off. It means water is getting in there and the clock has started.
Once readings hit the high twenties, thirties, or the meter pegs at saturation, the wood is wet enough that rot is likely already underway. This is the remediate band. At those numbers the question is no longer whether there is damage behind the board, it is how far it has spread.
Your specific report will state its own thresholds. What matters is understanding that the number is not a grade on the wall’s looks. It is a measure of how wet the hidden wood is, and it sorts each spot into monitor, repair, or remediate.
Not all readings are taken the same way, and this is where reports get misread.
Here is the trap. A non-invasive scan can come back clean while a probe two inches away finds saturated wood. If your report is non-invasive only and the home is on the coast, a clean result is reassuring but not final. The most reliable reports probe at the high-risk details, not just the open field of the wall.
A moisture report is a snapshot, and snapshots expire. There are two clocks running.
If a seller hands you a report from last year, it is history, not a current condition. Do not treat stale numbers as a clean bill of health.
If you are buying and the report shows elevated or critical readings, you have real leverage, and it comes down to two paths.
We walk through that decision in detail in buying an EIFS home in Wilmington. The report is your negotiating document. Reading it right is the difference between a fair credit and a five-figure surprise.
A buyer got a seller’s non-invasive report showing everything normal and nearly waived further inspection. A probe check at the roof-wall corners, the spots the design says to worry about, came back critical at two of them. The wall that read clean on the surface was rotting at the junctions. The numbers that mattered were the ones the first meter never took.
The readings decide what your wall requires, not the finish and not the asking price. Send us your moisture inspection report and we will tell you what it actually requires, in plain terms, before anyone spends a dollar.
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.