Under normal construction a blue print may have the spec to use EPS foam for the trim package. The details are very limited and the stucco contractor can get away with a lot since this is for trim details only and nothing to do with structure.
I have been in the EPS foam market and I have seen all the failures you can imagine.
When not done properly the cost of a failure can sometimes put a small contractor out of business, leaving you stuck. The cost of this trim and exterior finish system is not worth the high price to have it replaced or repaired.
Removing a EPS foam system and replace it with an exterior cast limestone system, which is expensive, it's sensible to use our product in the first place. Everyone has heard the phrase (you get what you pay for). There is a very limited use of EPS in our business for a finish exterior product. We all know wood can rot when EPS foam is bonded to the sub-straight wall. If this EPS ever gets water penetration, there is going to be serious problems. It will becomes a sponge and sucks up the water. Because most of the system is coated the moisture has a hard time escaping. Therefore, mold, mildew, and bacteria start to grow.
Much like wood the EPS foam will decompose. The Foam will start to become heavy and the problem is going to get worse. You will start to see mildew and mold growing out the bottom of the molding. In time your sub-straight is also going to have water damage, not to mention the damage that woodpeckers have done to the buildings in Florida
When they strip the land of all the habitat the wildlife moves to the outer sides of the development. I have seen houses in Florida damaged by woodpeckers before the houses are even complete. Come spring time the woodpecker needs to build their nest and they find that foam is much easier to build their home in rather than in a trunk of a tree. They are now ready for the babies and they also now live in paradise. The foam is clean, well insulate, beautiful view from the corbels, crown molding, and columns. They have no sap from the trees getting on the beautiful feathers. The woodpecker is a very beautiful protected bird and once they hit your home there is nothing you can do but keep repairing the holes. When the woodpeckers make there holes in the foam this causes the possibility of more water damage. This is the last thing you need to happen to your home or business.
Eight years ago I was selling the raw foam to the stucco contractor in Florida so I have seen the problems first hand. I was smart to get out of that business. I prefer to use a product that can have the longevity required for the exterior of a building. I have seen it to the extent of moss growing on the bottom of columns. If coral stone is to use EPS on an exterior project we first seal and waterproof the raw EPS foam. Then we apply a coat bonding to give the adhesion. This is done on 100% of the raw foam so that no water can get into the EPS foam.
Our belief is that if you can keep the water and moisture out of the EPS foam then we have prevented the problems and failures due to the use of raw unsealed EPS foam trim.
Next is to make sure that the surface is also made of a product that can prevent damage from woodpecker or teenagers doing vandalism and stabbing your foam trim with a knife.
These systems are not available by a stucco contractor. This is a seperate business level that stucco contractors don't have the skill or want to make an investment in.
The Early Bird Gets The Styrofoam
What Would Marlin Perkins Do?
Grown men have been driven to madness by a one ounce bird. There is a street in a little community in Bonita Springs, Florida with twenty two homes. Some of the homes have Styrofoam faux flower boxes on the front of them. These cottages are just adorable, or rather, were adorable. It seems that there are a couple of little rascals flying round there that like Styrofoam and have turned them into Swiss cheese.
Woodpeckers are holy terrors and cause thousands of dollars worth of damage. There are many remedies available and most of what is sold commercially as a repellent is a total bust and it’s expensive. Mostly it’s an expensive experiment that fails. Most of the home remedies include hanging rubber snakes on your house, putting fake owls on ledges and a couple of other stupid ideas that just make a person’s home look like the Beverly Hillbilly’s live there. The best repellent that’s been discovered so far and lasted about six months was adding Tabasco sauce to the paint. It turns out that wood peckers don’t like hot sauce or maybe they just don’t care for the idea of home remedies. You can’t kill them but I guess you can give one a burning beak and an ulcer. There you have it, woodpeckers don’t like Tabasco.
So you’re thinking why would any Bonita Springs home owner investigate how to “nicely” get a woodpecker to go away - for good? It turns out that the stinkers are protected. You’d need a special permit granted by the Department of Fish and Wildlife to catch or relocate them. Color me logical, but I’m thinking they don’t pass that little permit out to every owner of real estate in Bonita Springs just because they ask or just because they don’t like birds. Imagine Marge and Harry Homeowner applying for a hunting permit for a woodpecker. Recreational, do it yourself bird trapping? I’m thinking they have to have reached some sort of skill level before they’re allowed to start bird trapping.
Read also: Woodpecker Damage Control (I wish you could hear me laugh right now) This helpful, handy manual will teach you the ins and outs of sharing your little piece of Bonita Springs with nature.
You probably drive by homes and businesses every day that are hosting the wood peckers and their nests. Next time you go to First Watch, the Bonefish Grill or any of the buildings adjacent to San Mirage on US 41 look for the tell tale signs of Swiss cheese foam and bird poo running down the side of the building. The last time I had breakfast at First Watch it looked like it was snowing outside. The woodpeckers were having a field day on the foam right above the window.
This could be your lucky day and you didn’t even know it. If you’re a Bonita Springs home owner and you don’t have wood pecker issues, your house wasn’t made out of Styrofoam. Consider yourself lucky and go buy a lotto ticket!
