Finish Line<br>EIFS History 101

Bob reintroduces basic concepts, features and operations in EIFS.

Here's some useful information for a common question about EIFS: "Where did it come from?" This question comes up constantly at the Q&A session of my EIFS seminars, and no doubt will help you too in various conversations you have about EIFS.

The concept of insulating a building's wall by putting the insulation on the outside face of the wall goes back hundreds of years. This manner of insulating, as opposed to putting it in a wall cavity, can be seen many places around the world using, for instance, a form of stucco over straw. The technical merits of doing insulation this way, however, were not well known in the architectural community until the 18th century, when the science of the physics of heat and moisture flow became better understood. Basic EIFS-type technology, by the way, is used in many other applications, including insulating liquid storage tanks by spraying insulation onto the tank shell, and for various techy applications, such as the ceramic tiles on the underside of the space shuttle.