Hello,
I am looking at different cladding materials for LCAs and am trying to determine the lifespan of one which boasts a 50 year warranty. Would I assume that that means it has a 50 year lifespan? And thus it would be replaced once in a 60 year building life? I couldn’t find further information on the website for the material, so I’m not sure if there’s a default 60 year lifespan on EPDs unless otherwise mentioned, or if I should go off the warranty. Any and all thoughts are appreciated!
Hi Olivia,
I have generally thought of warrantied life as a pretty suitable stand-in for technical lifespan. That doesn’t work for all materials (especially those that will get refreshed well ahead of the end of their technical life like interior finishes - [not sure many pink or avocado green sinks/toilets from the 1970s would have been kept until failure]) but it does for some.
That does mean it would be replaced 1 time during the In-Use phase of a building’s lifespan. Also, as the majority of EPDs are A1-A3 only (with some including A4/A5 or C1-C4) I am not used to seeing a lifespan defined - the EPD is just for 1 product.
In my experience warranties are only covering manufacturing defects and are not for the full expected service life. As a general caution read the fine print in the warranties, typically they somewhat difficult to enact, for example we once were offered a warranty on galvanized steel for 50 years with the proviso that we deliver the steel to the galvanizer’s baths, which would have required deconstructing portions of the building.
Warranty and lifespan are two completely different concepts. For example, think of a car: a new car may come with a 5 year/50,000 mile warranty. But you may be able to keep driving the car for 20+ years and well beyond 200,000 miles.
Warranty is simply a promise by the manufacturer to cover the costs of repair/replacement if a defect is found that can be traced to be their error. That always comes with a time limit because it is expected that within that time, any such errors would be discovered. It goes without saying that warranties are only available for manufactured products. There is no warranty to be had for natural stone, for example.
Lifespan is, obviously, related to how long a material/object can stay in service. Natural stone, if used correctly, could stay in service for hundreds (thousands?) of years, as evidenced by historic and pre-historic architecture around the world.