Lido Wall Systems is no stranger to Mississauga. The big EIFS contractor, based in Concord, Ont., has installed EIFS on plenty of buildings, including six notable highrises in the quickly changing centre town that is developing in Toronto’s largest suburb.

The bulk of the EIFS work was done from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., after the construction day ended for most contractors. It was the only period that the EIFS contractor could secure the tower crane for the job, says Lido’s Oscar Chiarotto, noting that about 90 percent of the EIFS was prefabricated panels.

But working after hours in low light or no light conditions isn’t unusual. “The big trials and tribulations were interfacing the EIFS with a composite of products specified for the project.” For example, Lido had to devise a “moving connection” where the EIFS panels and the precast spandrels join. At the same time, how to make and maintain a water seal was paramount. “These panels are engineered for the job; they aren’t something that just come off the shelf.”  

“On a building this size,” adds Chiarotto, “even the interface between the windows and the EIFS panels is a major concern because the taller the building, the more wind pressure you get at higher floors.”
Typically, window walls are installed in residential towers below 50 floors but heights much higher often require an engineered system such as a curtain wall to withstand high winds. But even at 37 storeys high, the building cladding systems require details not typical of buildings less than 10 floors tall.

For starters, Chiarotto says the subframing of the EIFS panels has to be “much beefier.” By beefier, he means the stud gauges for the panels gradually increase from an 18 gauge at 16 inch centres at the building’s base to a 12-gauge at 12 inches on centre at the top of the tower. Jams are completed with double and triple studs.

Erection on the site was hampered by weather, particularly wind. The area in Mississauga is known to be “very windy” and EIFS is light “like a sail” so erection is limited to calm days.

Erection was also slowed by the horizontal band at the roofline (a cornice) which overhangs the tower by about eight feet. To install the EIFS panels on the top five floors was a complicated process. The first step was to hoist the panels to the concrete overhang on the 32nd floor where they were detached from the crane and temporarily secured. Next, a secondary line attached to the crane pulled the panels into position. “It was very time consuming and the rigging and hoisting was a challenge to put together,” explains Chiarotto.

Another issue that required planning was how to secure about 100 feet of rope lighting to the EIFS that makes up the architectural surrounds of the tall arched windows near the top of the building. The window surrounds, which project out about 16 inches from the base of the panels, had to be framed in steel before cladding with EIFS, just as was the case with the dentils on the underside of the tower cornice. The framing was prefabricated at Lido’s suburban Toronto plant in Concord.

As with any large projects, problems crop up along the way. At Chicago Mississauga, a notable one was a design fault that was a safety hazard to children. The horizontal reveals that turn back into the balconies on the first five floors proved to be a ladder of sorts for children to climb up on putting them in a position to fall off the balcony. The reveals were filled in to prevent any mishaps. “It’s a little things like that the consultants and even our company don’t always catch at the design stage,” says Chiarotto.

Lido typically retains two consulting engineers to draw up detailed specifications on complicated projects like the Chicago Mississauga. The contractor would be taking a potentially costly risk if it didn’t hire engineering help. “The only thing we get from the designers of the project is the perimeter slab layout and what they intend the building to look like. We have to come up with our own details for the interface with all these different products.”

While Chicago Mississauga doesn’t incorporate a rain screen, all projects requiring an architect’s stamp of approval (as of Jan. 2010) in Ontario require them in accordance with the Ontario Association of Architects (OAA). EIFS with rain screens takes longer to install because additional components are required, says Chiarotto. The products are more expensive as well largely because the insulation board features a geometric pattern on the backside to allow for drainage.   

While many experts commend the OAA for its move to promote rain screens because it provides an extra measure of protection against moisture infiltration, Chiarotto says that while rain screens work, if not designed and installed properly they can cause an EIF system to underperform.

Lido mostly specifies Dryvit Systems’ rain screens but Chiarotto says there is nothing wrong with a dual barrier or face seal system, providing it is put together correctly. “They require a little more forethought. You have to work with the suppliers, designers and so on to make sure you achieve a proper interface.”

The proof is in the pudding. “We have millions of square feet of EIFS that are up to 30 years old that still don’t have any problems.”

It took a crew of five EIFS mechanics about 45 days to enclose Chicago Mississauga with prefabricated EIFS. Typically in one shift a crew of about five can install 15 to 20 prefabricated panels (up to 200 square feet each). Covering the same square footage with field-applied EIFS would require 40 to 50 installers.

The benefit of field applied EIFS is price. It is less expensive because there are no erection costs, minimal transportation and engineering costs. “The thing is that for the owner of a big building like this, time is money. He might have financing costs of $50,000 a week. The sooner he can get people moved in the sooner he cuts out his financing costs,” explains Chiarotto.

At Chicago Mississauga, Lido also did textured wall and ceiling coatings for the indoor swimming pool. The contractor is also doing a 10-floor Fallsview Plaza in Niagara Falls along with two hotels in Vaughn (a suburb north of Toronto) and a nine-storey boutique hotel in Kitchener-Waterloo. Interestingly, both municipalities have been shifting away from approving buildings clad with traditional EIFS because it has become ubiquitous. To meet the municipalities’ demands for something different Lido has selected a custom EIFS cladding with Dryvit TerraNeo panels that have a concrete aggregate-like or granite-like finish – far from the typical beige stucco look associated with EIFS. TerraNeo incorporates mica and natural quartz into the acrylic polymer matrix.