How long do building components last?

The Building Cost Information Service (BCIS) new report provides answers to the most difficult question in whole life costing.

New report provides answers to the most difficult question in whole life costing Whole life costing allows anyone involved with the design, procurement or management of buildings to make decisions about their building and its related costs.

However, it is vital to know how long building components will last, because without this information, the whole life costs are not known.

The answers depend on a number of factors including level of exposure to the elements; quality of materials and installation, maintenance regime and frequency of use.

According to chartered building surveyors, a new external door can 'typically' be expected to last for around 30 years.

In actual fact, the life expectancy of the same door can be anywhere between five and 100 or more years.

This wide variance could be due to a number of factors ranging from the quality of the local air, timber and installation, to accidental impact damage and vandalism and quality of joints between window frame and wall.

The Building Cost Information Service (BCIS) of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has recently updated one its most popular publications; Life Expectancy of Building Components: A practical guide to surveyors' experience of buildings in use*.

The guide is based on research carried out by BCIS directly with RICS Building Surveyors.

This unique approach exploits the experience of Chartered Building Surveyors to uncover what is really happening to building components rather than what might be happening under laboratory conditions.

The guide includes:.

* Information on over 300 building components.

* Checklists of the factors to be considered when assessing the life expectancy of each component.

* Checklists identifying causes of early deterioration for each component.

* Invaluable assistance for anyone involved in condition surveys, private finance initiatives (PFI) and building design.

* Practical information not currently available from other sources.

The new revised edition is almost twice the size of the original reflecting the need, in an increasingly complex market, to capture information on a much wider number of components.

Andrew Thompson, General Manager BCIS said: 'It's the Chartered Surveyors out there in the real world that get to know how long things out in the field will really last.

For whole life costing to be of value, the assumptions about how long components last need to be sensible.

By helping us with this research, RICS Building Surveyors have helped us take the whole field a step forward'.

The revised 2006 edition contains information on Substructure, Superstructure, Finishes, Fittings and Furnishings, Services and External Works.

The survey builds upon work first conducted in 2001.

*The Life Expectancy of Building Components: A practical guide to surveyors' experience of buildings in use is available from BCIS .

Back to top