As the industry has evolved, it has adopted for itself the term Exterior Insulation and Finish System, or EIFS, reflecting the unique feature of nearly all the proprietary products, i.e., the use of some type of insulation board applied to the exterior of wall's structural ...

One of the oldest most commonly used materials in residential and commercial construction for exterior wall and soffit surfaces is cement plaster, or stucco.

As a direct cause of mold, the use of wall covering on the interior surfaces of the exterior walls of a building does not pass the "but for" test; only water does. Without the accumulation of water within a wall, mold will not occur. Water within the exterior wall construction ok as is come from three sources...

Buildings stay dry because their interior space is protected from the exterior elements by a barrier separating inside from outside. This barrier must be "weather-proof" as opposed to "waterproof." ...

Perhaps the single greatest challenge in designing and constructing weather-proof buildings is handling the window openings correctly. Rather than a component separate and apart from the weather envelope, windows are an integral part of the weather envelope...

Flashings at the top of windows and exterior walls referred to as "head flashings" will not protect the window from water intrusion without counterflashing...

Flashings are the devices used to keep any water stopped by a barrier or collected in a wall under control until it can be redirected and deposited to the outside of the building...

Counter flashing is the term used to describe that part of the flashing system that collects water from above and ensures that it drains onto the top surface of the flashing below it instead of behind it...

Scuppers are very problematical in construction, very often serving as a conduit for water to get into a building as much as to get off of a building. Scuppers are those small openings in exterior walls that allow water from roofs or decks to drain off through a guard wall or parapet. In multifamily residential construction, they are usually made of small sections of sheet metal tubing, like "drain pipe', four-to six inches across, and three-to-four inches high...

n pre-cast, pre-stressed concrete, a side effect of the constant force in the cables, in effect "squeezing" the concrete together, over time, results in the concrete components shortening, a phenomenon referred to as creep...