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Discussion Forum

Material Costs

User avatar
Ricks503 | Posted in General Discussion on October 17, 2006 08:27am

Does anyone know of any studies/reports on the cost/yr of various materials over their normal expected, real life, life expectancies given normal proper maintance.

An example would be siding:

for 100′ sq st

how long would Vinyl, hardi plank, and cedar sidings last, how much would the install cost nof each be, what would maintance over the life span cost.  adll all that up and then divide by the life expectency to come up with a cost.

I was think of things like siding, roofing, plumbing and other materials.

 

 

 

 

” There’ll be no living with her now” – Captain Jack Sparrow

Reply

Replies

  1. rez | Oct 20, 2006 03:54am | #1

    bump

    when in doubt add garlic

  2. HammerHarry | Oct 20, 2006 04:09am | #2

    What you're talking about is life cycle cost, and I have no idea if anyone has done that for building materials.  A simple google on "building material life cycle costs" turns up a lot of hits....

    1. User avater
      Ricks503 | Oct 20, 2006 05:35am | #3

      My curiosity was peaked when a friend asked which roofing material would be the least expensive to have on his house. Not the initial cost, but on a cost per year basis.  Composition, metal, tile,  or slate.  I started to give an answer and had to close my mouth when I realized what he really wanted to know and that I could not answer it without a lot of research. 

       

      " There'll be no living with her now" - Captain Jack Sparrow

      1. MikeHennessy | Oct 20, 2006 02:50pm | #5

        I was in a HD (or maybe Lowes) a year or so ago and happened to glance at the shingle display. They actually had the price per-square-per-year posted for each type. I guess that was to get the buyer to spring for the higher grade/more $$ shingles which had lower cost/year than the cheapos.

        Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA

  3. IdahoDon | Oct 20, 2006 05:55am | #4

    Americans are so short minded that few people want to think about life cycle costs.

    Check out the latest info from Habitat for Humanity since they are no longer encouraging building cheap houses, but rather houses that are the least expensive over the long term.

    Habitat encourages Hardi siding over vinyl, hardwood floors over carpet, highly energy effience shells over bare code requirements, and steel roofs over asphalt shingels.

     

    Beer was created so carpenters wouldn't rule the world.

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