EIFS installation in Brooklyn, mostly on new construction, rear extensions and the detached housing through Bay Ridge and Gravesend. On a landmarked brownstone front it is not an option, and we will tell you that before you get further into it.
Brooklyn is the borough where EIFS most often gets ruled out. A large share of the brownstone housing sits inside a historic district, and a synthetic insulated cladding is not going onto a designated front facade. That is worth knowing at the first conversation rather than after a scope has been drawn up.
Where it does work here is specific and worth being clear about. New construction, where the system can be detailed from the start. Rear extensions, which are usually later additions built out of frame or block. And the detached and semi-detached housing through Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Gravesend and Marine Park, where there is no designation and the walls are often already clad in something.
Four situations, and the first one is the reason most Brooklyn enquiries stop there.
Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights, Fort Greene, Cobble Hill and Stuyvesant Heights are all designated. On a front elevation in any of them, EIFS will not be approved, and no amount of detailing changes that.
The extension behind a Brooklyn rowhouse is usually a later addition in frame or block rather than original stone. That makes it the one part of a designated house where insulated cladding is often workable.
Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Gravesend, Marine Park and Canarsie are detached and semi-detached houses with no designation. This is where most EIFS in Brooklyn actually goes.
On a new Brooklyn build the system gets detailed before the windows go in, which removes the hardest part of every retrofit. It is the cleanest version of this job we do anywhere.
On a new Brooklyn build the sheathing and water-resistive barrier go on first, and window flashing is lapped into that barrier rather than taped over it afterwards. Getting the trade order right is worth more than any product choice.
Insulation board goes onto a wall that is already weatherproofed, so nothing depends on the finish coat to keep water out. On the two and three family infill common across southern Brooklyn this is the whole advantage of building new.
The base of the system is stopped clear of where the finished ground level will end up, which on a new Brooklyn build means agreeing that level with the site before the wall is closed rather than after.
Two questions settle most of it. Is the building in a historic district, and is this the front elevation or the back. If the answer is a designated front, the conversation stops there and we will say so on the phone rather than after a site visit. If it is a rear extension, a new build, or anything south of Prospect Park, it is usually straightforward, and the sooner we are involved on a new build the better the detailing gets.
Most of this work sits south and east of Prospect Park, through Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Gravesend, Midwood and Canarsie, where the housing is detached and undesignated.
See stucco contractor Brooklyn for our other stucco work in the borough, or EIFS installation NYC for the system specification in full.
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Not on a front elevation. Designated districts cover a large share of brownstone Brooklyn, including Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights, Fort Greene and Stuyvesant Heights, and a synthetic insulated cladding will not be approved on a facade the designation exists to protect. Rear elevations and later extensions are a different question and are often workable.
Stucco is a cement based coating applied straight onto the wall. EIFS is a layered system with insulation board behind the finish and drainage behind that, so it adds real insulation where stucco adds almost none. On most older Brooklyn houses that difference is the entire reason to consider it.
Yes, and it is the best case for the system. On a new build the barrier and the window flashing are integrated before the windows are set, which removes the detail that causes most failures on retrofits. It also means the finished grade level can be agreed before the wall is closed.
Usually yes. Extensions behind Brooklyn rowhouses are typically later additions in frame or block rather than original stone, they are uninsulated, and they sit away from the street. That combination makes them the one part of a designated house where insulated cladding is often the right answer.
Per square foot it costs more, because you are paying for insulation as well as a finish. What changes the comparison is that it does a second job. On an uninsulated Brooklyn house you were recladding anyway, the extra buys something. On an insulated one it does not.
