[Calgarian]

EIFS typically uses acrylic stucco, and they can be pre-manufactured panels, or spray applied. Qualex likes the manufactured route as they can be making the panels in a factory and just hoist them into place when the site is ready.

EIFS stands for Exterior Insulation Finish System and doesn't have to be stucco, but that's all I've seen them use. The benefit of an EIFS system is that you get a consistent R value on the wall as opposed to batt insulation in the stud space, where the studs can act as a thermal bridge and lower your effective R value significantly. A good example would be on a house with R20 batt insulation. The mass of the studs will lower that effective R value to be about 14 instead of 20, whereas EIFS is uninterrupted so you get R20.