Second Skin Wall Systems · Sunport Terrace & Quailbench · Barrier-EIFS specialists since 2009
Your walls are wearing 1994. We can fix that.
Half the stucco-look walls built 1985–2000 are barrier EIFS — foam, mesh and finish with no drainage behind it. Water gets in at every bad detail and nothing lets it out, so the wall rots from the sheathing inward while the finish keeps looking perfect. We probe the wall, map the moisture on a grid, and lay out three roads: seal, retrofit drainage, or re-clad. The map decides — not the brochure.
A moisture map is $390 and answers the only question that matters — is the sheathing still dry? (555) 044-6318 · retrofit@secondskinsystems.example
The Diagnostic
$390flat
- Probe grid, every elevation
- Thermal pass on the suspects
- Sheathing moisture, in percent
- The map and the verdict, printed
Credited in full against a retrofit or re-clad inside 90 days.
The Drainable Retrofit
from $8.40per sq ft
- Vertical drainage grooves cut to the deck
- New WRB behind, terminated right
- Kick-outs and weeps installed
- Base coat, mesh and finish re-applied
The wall keeps its look and gains a way out for water.
The Re-Clad
from $11.90per sq ft
- Old barrier system off to the deck
- Drainable EIFS or cement, your call
- Continuous insulation upgraded
- Ten-year dry-sheathing warranty
For walls the map says are already wet inside.
What the camera sees
Wet foam holds heat longer than dry foam. At dawn, before the sun evens everything out, the thermal camera finds the anomalies — the cooler rectangles behind a shower wall, the plume under a roof jack, the tide line at the deck. The camera does not convict; it tells the probe where to swear.
What the probe reads
Two small holes per grid point, straight through the foam to the sheathing, read in percent and sealed after. Under 15% is dry and boring; 15–19% is a wall on notice; over 19% is rot territory, and everything over 19% goes on the map in red with a photograph. The probe is the witness — the camera only points.
Five days, one wall at a time
How the retrofit runs
The house keeps its weather skin the whole way through — one elevation open at a time, closed the same day.
The probe grid
Readings on a 3-foot grid, every elevation, logged and photographed. The grid is the map and the map is the whole diagnosis — wet, drying, or dry, in percent, in writing.
The test patches
Two or three openings where the map insists: foam out, sheathing probed directly, the WRB condition named. The patches are your evidence and our price basis — nothing larger opens until you have seen them.
Grooves & barrier
Vertical drainage grooves cut to the deck on a plumb laser, a new WRB lapped and terminated behind, weeps at the base and kick-outs where the roof meets the wall. Water now has a way out that is not your framing.
Mesh & base
New base coat with proper mesh weight at every impact zone, corners beaded, terminations sealed to the maker’s detail — the parts of 1994 that failed first get rebuilt first.
Finish & verify
Finish coat matched to the existing wall, then the probes re-read on the same grid. The after-map is printed beside the before-map; the retrofit is done when the paper says so.
Sunport Terrace & Quailbench, 2024 — 2026
Maps from the file
Six walls from the file — three retrofits, two re-clads, and one the map said to leave alone. Every caption is the verdict the probes wrote, not a slogan.
The dry-sheathing warranty
On any retrofit or re-clad we close, the sheathing moisture is re-read free at year three and year ten, on the original grid. If any reading of walls we rebuilt reads above 19% — the rot threshold — the drying, the repair and the re-read are ours. A drainage company that will not re-open its own work is selling paint.
Two contractors told us our stucco was fine because it looked fine. Second Skin probed it in three hours, showed us 24% moisture behind the balcony, and opened a patch the size of a paperback so we could see the grey wood ourselves. They retrofitted the drainage, re-read the grid a year later, and both maps hang in the file we handed the buyer — 8% and dry.
The $390 map saved us a $40,000 re-clad we were quoted off a photograph. The verdict was "seal and monitor" — four penetrations re-terminated, one kick-out, the probes read annually. Four years dry. They talked us out of the big number and we will not forget it.
The before-and-after maps are the review. Same grid, same wall, 22 to 9. Nobody else offered evidence — everyone else offered warranties with asterisks. The crew cut grooves to a laser line and the finish matched so well the neighbor asked which wall was done.
Our re-clad was the sad case — wet sheathing, sistered studs, the works. Second Skin photographed everything, sequenced the demo around the weather, and the house never once sat open overnight. The ten-year re-read clause is the only reason we slept.
Asked at every mapping
The five questions that decide the road. If yours is not here, the map line at the bottom answers daily.
Is all EIFS bad?
No — and anyone who says so is selling siding. Barrier EIFS (roughly 1985–2000) has no drainage and fails by design at its first bad detail. Drainable EIFS, mandatory in modern specs, has the exit channel the old systems lack. We install drainable systems, we retrofit barriers, and we happily leave good drainable walls alone with a clean map.
How can a wall look perfect and be rotten behind?
Because EIFS finish is excellent at its job — it keeps the outside looking flat while the water that entered behind it stays there. Foam holds the moisture against the sheathing, the sheathing stays wet, and rot is patient. That is why the probe, not the eye, writes our verdicts: 31% of the perfect-looking walls we first mapped were already wet inside.
Can we add insulation during the retrofit?
Often, yes — the retrofit opens the wall to the grooves, and upgrading foam thickness in the same pass is materially cheaper than a second mobilization. The map and the code decide how much: we quote it as a line you can strike, never as a surprise you must approve.
What is a kick-out, and why does mine matter?
A small flashing where a roof edge dies into a taller wall — it kicks the roof’s runoff into the gutter instead of behind the stucco. It is the single most common origin on our maps: the wall below a missing kick-out is wet in a plume you can trace with your finger. Every retrofit and re-clad installs them; a $60 part guarding a $40,000 wall.
Does insurance ever pay for this?
Sometimes, for sudden and specific entry — a storm-torn penetration, a failed pipe run behind the wall. Gradual barrier-EIFS failure is maintenance by every policy we have read, and we say so rather than invoice you for an argument. Where coverage is plausible, the map and the dated photos are written to the adjuster’s format from day one.
Get the wall mapped
Year the house was built, what the wall looks like where the roof meets it, and whether anyone has ever probed it. The $390 diagnostic covers the grid, the thermal pass and the printed verdict — credited against any retrofit it recommends. retrofit@secondskinsystems.example