Is your home crumbling around you? A Dateline Investigation

[Guest guest]

I can't believe that Dateline didn't even bother to investigate whether or

not the health of the occupants had been impacted by living in a moldy

dwelling!

http://msnbc.com/news/252454.asp

Is your home crumbling around you?

It’s happening to new homes across the country — find out more from a

‘Dateline’ investigation

NBC NEWS

March 22 — You spend a lot of time looking, do all the legwork, invest your

heart and soul in it, not to mention your savings. And finally, you own a

piece of the “American Dream” — your own home. But what if the brand new

house you worked so hard for begins to crumble around you? It’s happening to

new homes around the country. Is it just a case of, “they don’t build ‘em

like they used to?” Or is there more to the story? Chief consumer

correspondent Lea reports with a Dateline Investigation.

Even more surprising was what they say was the cause of the damage — the

type of stucco on their home.

FOUR YEARS AGO, and Janice French moved to Wilmington, North

Carolina to spend their golden years. With their retirement money, they

built the house of their dreams.

French: “The home represented to us our, hopefully, our final

house that we were going to buy.”

But just a few months after moving in, the Frenchs discovered their

brand new home was hiding an ugly secret.

French: “On the outside of the front bedroom window, we noticed a, a

mold coming out from under the lower part of the window. In that same

bedroom was a very strong odor that we never could identify the source of.”

When they had the wall stripped away to see what was wrong, the

Frenchs were in for a shock.

French: “The sheathing was totally rotten. With your fingertips you

could peel the sheathing away. Insulation underneath was soaking wet. You

could squeeze water out of it.”

The French’s dream home was falling apart.

French: “This isn’t what you want to see in your house, especially

one year after you just had it built.”

Even more surprising was what they say was the cause of the damage —

the type of stucco on their home.

The Frenchs didn’t have a traditional stucco home, which is simply a

house with solid, thick cement walls. Instead, they had bought something

very different — a synthetic stucco system.

With synthetic stucco, after the wood sheathing has been attached to

the framing and the windows are installed and sealed, a layer of styrofoam

is glued onto the wood. A basecoat of the cement-like stucco material goes

on top, then wire mesh and finally, a finishing coat of stucco. This system

is supposed to provide a protective envelope against the elements.

But the Frenchs say instead it was trapping moisture behind it and

rotting their house away — inside out.

And the Frenchs aren’t alone. From the southeastern United States to

the Pacific Northwest, people are discovering the structures under the

surface of this type of stucco are decaying.

Dave Miles: “You can see here that the wood is actually just rotting

away, and just falls right away.”

And as homeowners like Dave and Miles of Wilmington have

discovered, fixing the damage is neither cheap nor easy. Because their

insurance policy won’t cover repairs, the Miles say they had to come up with

over one hundred thousand dollars to fix their home.

Miles: “This is our dream house and we haven’t even been able

to enjoy it for two-and-a-half years because this has been hanging over our

heads.”

Synthetic stucco houses first became popular in the U.S. in the mid

to late 1980’s — today there are hundreds of thousands of these homes all

across the country. The trade name for synthetic stucco is EIFS — for

Exterior Insulating and Finish Systems. Although EIFS costs about the same

as brick or wood sidings, the industry touts it as a lightweight,

low-maintenance exterior that also provides an easy insulating system for a

home.

But that system, in some houses at least, appears to be a

double-edged sword.

Pierre Gallant: “It lets water in. And it doesn’t let the water out.”

Pierre Gallant is with on Hershfield, a building science

company in Vancouver, Canada.

Gallant: “Any failures of this outer coating, any breaks at joints,

windows, etc., will allow water in. As soon as water gets in, it can’t get

out. And so, if you’re against water susceptible material, like gypsum board

or wood, you’re gonna have damage.”

Gallant says EIFS can make homes more vulnerable to moisture

problems. That’s because unlike other sidings, synthetic stucco is glued to

the surface, so if moisture does get in, it remains trapped.”

Gallant: “Unless it drains, you’re going to have a problem.”

Gallant’s firm has investigated dozens of EIFS failures in

Vancouver — like this condo building.

Gallant: “You can see how easily the gypsum board is crumbling. And

you should not be able to do that. These are rust stains. That means water

got in behind the gypsum board and is now starting to rust the steel stud.”

But what about places that aren’t as wet as Vancouver or Wilmington,

North Carolina? We wondered if homes built in an area of more moderate

rainfall could also have this problem. To find out, we decided to visit the

Washington, D.C. suburb of Great Falls, Virginia. We picked out recently

built synthetic stucco homes at random.

Hilmi’s synthetic stucco house was built three years ago by a

well-known national builder. He allowed us to bring in a specialist

qualified to test for moisture levels in a home.

The inspector uses a special probe to penetrate the wall.

Inspector: “Oh, yeah, you can see that’s above fifty percent, which

is certainly an indication that there’s damage behind the system.”

Unfortunately, the only way to truly find out if the wood is damaged,

is to cut out a section of the wall.

Inspector: ‘This is certainly degraded. See that? See, that’s your

two by four framing structure.”

Hilmi: “Yeah.”

Inspector: “That’s the studs in the walls right here and that’s

totally deteriorated. See that? Look at that.”

Hilmi: “Wow. It doesn’t make me feel good, that’s for sure. I wouldn’

t have known about this. This is really rotted.”

We chose another synthetic stucco house at random in the same area.

Amy and Pierre Nedelcovych’s four-year-old home was built by a local

builder.

Lea : “Have you had any problems with this house as far as

moisture is concerned?”

Pierre Nedelcovych: “Yes, we’ve pretty much had problems since the

contract and purchasing this house with moisture and cracking.”

Once again, the inspector finds high moisture levels, and when the

stucco is cut away, more rot.

Inspector: “This is really still wet.”

Nedelcovych: “That’s completely rotten.”

Inspector: “This whole area I would suspect along the edge of the

door has just turned to mulch. You can see.”

Nedelcovych: “My gosh.”

Amy Nedelcovych: (Crying) “This is the stuff I put on the ground.”

Inspector: “It’s molded and mildewed.”

Pierre Nedelcovych: “Just falls right apart.

Amy Nedelcovych: “This is not right. This product should not be used

if this is the damage that it’s doing.”

And here’s a third house in the same area, also chosen at random.

Owner Charlie McMillan had heard reports of potential problems with

synthetic stucco homes. But he was sure his house was okay because he says

he personally oversaw construction and was on-site everyday.

Lea : “Have you had any moisture problems with your house

since you built it?”

Charlie McMillan: “Not to my knowledge.”

McMillan and his family looked on as the inspector checked for

damage. It was more of the same.

Inspector: “Just from this one small cutout, you can see we’ve got

dry rot, a lot of mold and mildew. You can see it just continues right up

behind this band. You see, this is actually in the structure of the house at

the floor line.”

: “So you actually have problems with the structure in this

case.”

Inspector: “Exactly.”

: “You didn’t expect to see this?”

McMillan: “No. I expected maybe a little moisture had gotten in and

maybe some damp wood, but I certainly didn’t expect dry rot in a house that

was four years old.”

McMillan went on to have his entire house tested and found there was

widespread moisture damage.

Klamke: “We’re delivering to the consumer a product that works

exactly the way it’s supposed to work.”

Klamke is head of the EIFS industry’s trade association.

Klamke says all this rot has nothing to do with synthetic stucco — he blames

it all on shoddy construction. He says water is getting in behind walls

because builders are installing poor quality windows and aren’t sealing

joints properly.

Lea : “None of this is an EIFS manufacturing problem?”

Klamke: “Absolutely not. Absolutely not.”

: “Can this EIFS system be put on a home under normal

construction methods — not perfect construction methods — and not cause

homeowners any problems?”

Klamke: “Absolutely. Absolutely.”

: “You’re convinced of this.”

Klamke: “Yes I am.”

While some high end contractors say EIFS can work if it is

meticulously installed and maintained, the National Association of Home

Builders told us synthetic stucco isn’t “compatible with the existing wood

frame construction methods in the United States.” The Association, which

represents over sixty thousand home builders nationwide, says “homes with

EIFS can develop moisture intrusion problems even when properly constructed

according to industry standards.”

Klamke: “If, in fact, the problem existed with the product, it would have

manifested itself 20 or 25 years ago.”

Klamke argues the rotting has only occurred on relatively new homes,

which he contends were built in a shoddy way.

But Dateline has obtained this internal memo — written eight years

ago — from an EIFS manufacturer named STO. It admits that one of the

“inherent flaws” of synthetic stucco is that there is no back up system that

allows it to “tolerate moisture penetration, without damage to the system.”

STO wrote Dateline, saying the memo “did not mean that EIFS products

were

defective” and that the company stands by its product.

Here’s an even earlier internal memo, dated 1984, from Dryvit, the

largest EIFS manufacturer. A Dryvit technical manager wrote: “failures are

inevitable,” and “the inevitable” leaking “which will deteriorate sheathing

will soon be upon us.”

Dryvit responded by saying at the time, company officials disagreed

with the points raised by the technical manager.

Dryvit also told us Dateline is unfairly targeting synthetic stucco

homes, and Dryvit asked us to contact a building engineer named Russ Kenney.

Russ Kenney: “We have our own system and own standards and we have no

problems. We make sure that it is done correctly. If it’s done correctly, it

can work. Unfortunately, it’s not real world all the time.”

While it’s still unclear exactly what percentage of synthetic stucco

homes have rotting problems, the federal government and the state of Georgia

have placed restrictions on its use. North Carolina has banned it outright.

And two synthetic stucco manufacturers, USG and Senergy, have stopped

selling the product for use on homes. The companies have replaced the

original synthetic stucco technology with a new one that provides a way for

water to drain out.

Ironically, other manufacturers have also introduced drainable

synthetic stucco. But most continue to sell the older version as well.

The trade association still contends there’s nothing wrong with the

original system.

: “Do you think most of the manufacturers will eventually

ease out of the old system?”

Klamke: “Absolutely not. Absolutely not.”

French: “It’s banned here in the state of North Carolina, and

to me, it should be banned all over.”

The Frenchs and other homeowners all over the country now know that

if a problem is found, it often involves structural repairs, and they can’t

wait because the damage will only get worse.

and Janice French say they had to take tens of thousands of

dollars out of their retirement savings to replace the stucco with a wood

siding. They just can’t believe that the older synthetic stucco system is

still on the market.

“My simple message to anybody considering buying a synthetic stucco

home right now would be don’t. I think you’re only buying yourself problems

down the road,” says French.

If you think your house might have moisture problems, have a

qualified inspector test for excessive moisture levels. If there’s wood

damage, take care of it immediately. The longer you wait, the worse it will

get.

INFORMATION AND RESOURCES

(MSNBC and “Dateline NBC” not responsible for content of Internet

links.)

The National Association of Home Builders: http://www.nahb.com/

Northern Virginia Stucco Home Builders Coalition: http://www.novashoc.org/

Building Online: http://www.buildingonline.com/

USG Corporation: http://www.usg.com/

Senergy: http://www.awci.org/senergy/

Dryvit: http://www.dryvit.com/