The average lifespan of any concrete building is between 75 to 100 years and that too the expert opines in ideal conditions. But the average age of a house is 40 years but the average age of an apartment in a building is close to 60 years. However the expert notes that the lifespans can be increased and there are instances that a house has lasted for three hundred years too or even more.

One of the worry of a house owner is the degradation of the house or the apartment. No wonder climate and the environment play a vital role in degradation of homes. The construction surely matters as the expert says that durable and ecofriendly materials can make a building stay sturdy for long or last longer. Regular maintenance and painting and cleaning also do matter a lot.

The experts opine that the design of the house makes a lot of difference too. Few houses may require lesser maintenance due to proper design and another may require more maintenance and any negligence or delay may increase the wear and tear of the house at a faster rate. As the experts think that the fundamental reason for the degradation of the house is the interaction with the external environment and the abuse caused by the inhabitants too. In areas like the coast line there is more salt in the air due to which the walls can dampen faster with rust of the iron bars happening at a quicker rate.

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There has been a research conducted by the National Association of Home Builders (USA) and few other researches conducted in this area unearthed few materials that can be used to make the house more resilient from wear and tear thus making it more long lasting. We enumerate those below.

Walls and ceilings

Walls and ceiling are expected to last for the full length of the life span of the home. Proper rod bindings are advised to be used for a longer duration.

Windows and Skylights

Windows and skylights are made of aluminum or wood. Aluminum ones are expected to last for 15 to 20 years while the wooden ones lasts up to 30 years or more if they are properly maintained and painted regularly and are guarded from extra exposure to rain and sunlight.

Roofing

The expectancy of a roof depends on the weather conditions of a place, its design and the maintenance being carried out. Clay/ concrete roofs with slate and copper have the longest of expectancy which is over 50 years. Roofs made of fiber cement shingles lasts for 25 years while those of asphalt shingles have been noted to last for 20 years or more. The roofs made of wood shakes have been noted to last for 30 years.

Doors of garage

Garage door openers are expected to last for 15 to 20 years with the light inserts’ life can be expected to be 20 years.

Flooring

The flooring has a more life expectancy with the natural wood floorings having a life expectancy of 100 years and the same is true for the marble and granite floors. The expectancy can go less because of lack of maintenance and improper use. Vinyl floors last up to 50 years and linoleum lasts about 25 years. The carpets last about 8 to 10 years depending on the frequency of maintenance, cleaning and assuming that the usage is with normal traffic.

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Electrical and Lighting

A copper plated wiring, if not aluminum or other metals have life time expectancy but the electrical appliances are expected to last for 10 years or even more.

Doors

The longevity of doors can be expected to be as long as the house exists if it is made of fiber glass, wood or steel. Vinyl and screen doors have a life of 20 and 40 years respectively.

Concrete and masonry

Masonry if constructed with proper materials and the proportion of the cement to sand and other materials are proper can be expected to be the most durable component of the house. If there are chimneys or fireplaces as in the hill stations or brick veneers or the walls have a life expectancy of 100 years or more. This can obviously increase with regular maintenance and paints.

One can follow this list of durable components of a home and consult with the civil engineer and the architect and use such materials while constructing your home. This will make sure that one’s home lasts for a longer time and would support generations to come.

22 Responses

  1. Arjith

    Most of the people are trying to increase their life span by changing food and practicing some health tips and exercises but all are not concentrating on the life span of their living home. The life span of home is depending on the foundation, quality of cement sand and bricks used while construction. Apart from these maintenance plays major role in life span. So everyone has to follow some guidelines for maintenance. All these guidelines are explained in this article are nice. This article definitely helps to increase to life span of the buildings.

    Reply
  2. Sivappa

    The life span of a human depends on his food and his exercise. Similarly the life span of a house is depends on the material used to construct and the way of maintenance. If we use the quality cement and sand in a reasonable ratio this construction will be strong. We need to maintain house by cleaning, painting, changing the electrical arrangements frequently. Then the life span
    Of a house will increase.

    Reply
  3. John

    For Electrical and Lighting, we have to use a copper plated wiring instead of using other metals like aluminium. Copper plated wiring life span more compare to the other metals.

    Reply
    • Pruthvi

      Earthing is very important to protect the home and electrical goods like TV, refrigerator and computers etc. from the lightning. Copper plated wires are very good conductors and they have more life span compare to the aluminium.

      Reply
  4. Vishwanath

    After gone through this article I came to know the importance of the maintenance of home. Now I’m taking care of regular maintenance of my home to increase its life span.

    Reply
  5. Madhan Mishra

    Those who are wishing to live their home for a long time, for them there are many useful tips. If we follow those tips, we can increase our home’s life span with a proper maintenance.

    Reply
  6. Mahadev

    I got an excellent information about how the architecture of home makes major role to increase the lifespan of the home. Here they are differentiated materials those which having short lifespan and long lifespan. It is very useful to the every person to make their home strong with long life.

    Reply
    • Vidhya

      Here they are listed some very useful tips to increase the Lifespan of home. If they describe some safety tips like fire safety in kitchen and electrical earthing then it will be more useful. And you can also protect your home.

      Reply
  7. Udhay

    Whatever the good quality materials used also home’s lifespan will decrease, if you fail to maintain home in a proper way. So there are some tips in the article to how to maintain the home to increase the lifespan.

    Reply
  8. Jayaram

    Here I got some useful description for building my home and maintaining a home. Almost Everyone will get their home or flat through builder or through some contractors. Whatever the builder taking care to construction of our home, we should know the basic things like what type quality materials and architect design of a home.

    Reply
  9. Shrinivas

    Every home maker should read this article, i.e. everyone like to live longer time in their home but they don’t know how to fulfill their wish by them easily by doing some regular maintenance, for such people here they explained how to maintain home to increase life span of your home.

    Reply
  10. Ramesh Khalal

    It doesn’t mean if you think building a home with good quality of material will increase the lifespan of the house. After building a home, you should need a home properly. if there is not proper maintenance the lifespan of your home will decrease. So better go through this article you may know how to maintain home to increase the lifespan.

    Reply
  11. Divya Singh

    Here they are described about to use the best quality of material, and after completion of construction, how we should maintain the home to increase the life span of our home. the life span of the home depends on the way how you maintain the home.

    Reply
    • Haridwaj

      Hi Divya, is that enough of using the proper material to increase the life span of home?
      Here they are described about the design of home. If there is no proper design of architect, that require more maintenance and time. So better take care on architecture of your home to increase life span of your home.

      Reply
  12. Veerendhar Bhatia

    Everyone wish to live in their beautiful home for the longest time. But they don’t have a knowledge on their home’s lifespan and how to maintain a home to increase the lifespan of a home. but here are there some useful tips to increase your home’s life span.

    Reply
  13. Manjunath

    This article have a very good description about the what we should do “Before and after buying/building a home”. Those steps were clearly explained. The life span of the home depends on the which type of materials were used for the construction & after construction how we will maintain is also important.

    Reply
  14. Gajendhra kesar

    Architect design of the house is very important. If you build house with proper materials along with proper design, your can use the space of house looks beautiful and it requires lesser maintenance.

    Reply
    • Krishnoji Rao

      Yes Gajendhra your right, Due to improper design, I was facing improper light and ventilation problem. Once I was changed the little modification there is good light and ventilation. and now I’m getting less electricity bill aslo. Now I’m happy after the little modification of home.

      Reply
  15. Bhushan

    It is very useful information, we should have the knowledge of the construction material quality is very important. We should use good quality materials to increase our House life span.

    Reply
  16. Shradhanjali

    Really a needed article , all the homemaker should read this once before starting their home making. How a sweet home will stand up more than 100 years. Because nature is only thing who can damage it but here we can get some additional information , how your home will fight against all this .

    Reply
  17. Sneha

    Yes , its a wonderful information for a home maker. Who else will read this article , they must appreciate and will give their valuable feed back. Now a days we can make beautiful home but maintaining its beauty is very difficult.

    Reply
    • Manishkumar singh

      Hi Sneha, nowadays we can make beautiful home and even we can do maintain our home easily by the design. Before constructing home we should plan and design properly, and very important thing is we should use good quality for construction, and then we don’t feel difficult for maintaining.

      Reply

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