I’m sure it varies by home, but I’ve only really lived in apartments as an adult.
Examples I mean would be like
every 20 years, the roof must be replaced
every 15-20 years, the HVAC system needs to be replaced
Fridge and kitchen appliances replaced every 10-15 years
stuff like that. Is there a rough list somewhere of expected timelines?
I don’t know a list, but I figure about every 20-25 years decking and other pressure treated lumber needs replacing, and maybe every 15 years the well pump, maybe 15 or 20 years for fencing, maybe around 30 years for all the plumbing.
That must be some really crappy roof! Mine’s 140 years old
Unlike a car, most of home maintenance is correction, not preventative. So it’s not every 5000 miles or so it’s time for an oil change. As such you get a very random happenings of things, however it comes down to it’s always something - that is dependable (law of large numbers). So it’s good to have a way to pay for these ongoing expenses, as it doesn’t matter what it broke, but it doe matter is there will be expenses. So instead of what is going to be next, concentrate on the money side.
A roof can easily go beyond 20 is the good news, but once it hits 20 it is a detriment trying to sell the house. Especially in any state with disclosure policies.
Metal & Slate Roofs will most likely outlast you.
Appliances use to last 15-20 years. I keep reading and have some experience that many now last only 7-10 years. A Stove should still last until you’re sick of it at least. New front loading washers are on the low side at 7 years. Fridges seem to be down to 7 years also. Dishwasher should still be 10+ so it varies.
HVAC 15-20 is optimistic, depends somewhat on the brand, but I would say 12-15 years.
So much of it varies by region too, Lots of wintery weather is hell on driveways and walks. Lots of wind is rough on roofs. Extreme heat has some issues too, but I’m not sure what those are.
I posted this on another thread. Maybe it’ll be helpful here (PDF):
National Association of Home Builders / Bank of America Home Equity STUDY OF LIFE EXPECTANCY OF HOME COMPONENTS
I think there is a lot more variation in appliances. I’ve been in my 60 year old house for 20 years. I think the oven and range are original: they look just like the ones we had in other houses in the 80s, and they weren’t new then. I’d like new ones with more bells and whistles, but these are simple technology. If you wait until they break to replace them, you wait a long time.
On the other hand, we are on our 3rd dishwasher: the one in the house when we moved in crapped out at some point, we replaced it, and later the replacement crapped out. I think if you get 10 years out of a dishwasher (or garbage disposal), that’s pretty good,
Fridges, washers, dryers, hot water heaters probably ideally last 15-20 years, but there are a lot of lemons in the industry, so it’s not at all unheard of to have them catastrophically fail in that 5-10 year range. Also, being even a little bit mechanic makes a big difference: there’s a lot of things that can happen to a fridge or a dryer than can seem prohibitively expensive to have fixed, but a handy person can fix themselves.
Plumbing should NOT need to be replaced every 30 years. My house is 60 years old and while we’ve had a lot of plumbing repairs over the years (50 year cast iron does not handle a shifting foundation well), we’re no where close to complete replumbing. Throw the whole house out at that point.
Some other things that I don’t know the lifespan of:
There’s also flooring and paint. Both of which are highly dependent on how much you care.
Electric water heaters supposedly last about 12-15 years. We just replaced ours pre-emptive because we’ve been in the house for 17 years and you know it would fail at the worst possible time. I was shocked when the plumber told me that according to the tag on the old one, it appeared to be the original install from when the house was built… in 1975!!
On the other hand, we’ve replaced a fridge and a microwave that we got new shortly after moving in, and the dishwasher is sounding bad…
Yeah, it varies.
My house was built in 1959. I bought it in 1997. The hot water heating system is original. The pumps and some of the plumbing have been replaced. When i bought the house the inspector said, “it’s past its expected lifetime, but i don’t see anything wrong with it.” When i replaced some plumbing this year the new plumber expressed surprise that it works, and i probably need a new one.
The hot water heater gets replaced every… Maybe 7-10 years?
We’ve bought several dishwashers.
I bought a new washer and dryer when i moved in. Recently replaced the dryer.
Replaced a lot of the plumbing as part of a bathroom remodel. That was at least partly because the plumber wasn’t willing to work with cast iron, which is what the “out” pipes were. (Water comes in via copper, and none of that was replaced.)
Installed AC long enough ago that i expect to need a new compressor soon, but so far I’ve only had to replace parts the chipmunks damaged over the winter.
The fridge I bought new when i bought the house is doing fine. I have a friend who went through 5 fridges in three years. There are lemons on the market.
I don’t remember why we replaced the stove. I think just because it didn’t hold a steady temperature and it was hard to bake. The new stove shows no sign of needing to be replaced.
Houses need to be painted regularly. (exterior). I need to find a painter.
I’m on my third house and no paint. Asbestos siding, mix of brick & vinyl and now vinyl. I do not miss painting the outside of the house. All I have to worry about is garage door frames. Last house the garage door too. Oh and Bilco doors.
Speaking of which, Bilco doors if maintained can last a very long time. At my new place, they weren’t maintained and I’ll need to replace them within a few years. The maintenance is only about 2 hours of work every 3-5 years, but some things just don’t get done. Same story with Iron railings.
It would be nice is Bilco Doors were made out of aluminum instead. I wonder if those are available and how much the cost?
What is a “bilco door”? I’ve never heard that term.
Bilco doors are the heavy duty metal doors just above the ground leading into the basement. I guess this is a Kleenex situation. Might be called cellar doors.
Oh, i call those bulk head doors.
What maintenance do you do on them?
I’m pretty sure mine are original to the house.
Basically inspect for rust, wire brush or sand away the rust and paint with something like Rust-Oleum. Pretty simple.
You might also need to caulk around the frame where the base sits on the cement.
All this varies by how damp the place is. For Arizona or New Mexico it is probably barely a problem. For Washington State I would think it is a frequent issue.
Ours is at least 15 years old. So far, two things have broken it:
What’s it made of?
Roof shingles commonly in use in the USA last about 15 - 30 years depending on the quality you buy. The rafters may be 140 years old, but the shingles won’t be, unless maybe the roof is stone slates.
ETA: 140 years ago, the roof would probably have had wood shingles. I’m not sure how long those lasted, but I’ve lived in a house in which they’d deteriorated and were removed and replaced with then-modern shingles. We used the old wood ones for kindling in the wood stove. When I saw what excellent kindling they made, I was really glad they weren’t on the roof any longer.
And this tells an important story. Most housing components don’t gradually decay. They suddenly fail. Yes, the paint looks shabbier and shabbier and eventually you replace it. But one day you wake up and one of the heating zones in the house is about 90 degrees, and you realize the thermostat is broken and needs to be replaced right now.
Thermostats are cheap and easy to replace. Most other things aren’t.
I’m coming up on 16 years in my house and you guys are making me nervous. I haven’t had to replace anything yet but the hot water tank.
A common rule of thumb is that whatever your monthly mortgage payment is, expect to spend that much again every year on something aging or breaking. So budget for 13 of those payments per year, not just 12.
That also means that if you’ve gone 10 years with zero repair/replace expenditures, you ought to have the equivalent of about 10 mortgage payments set aside for when the outbound gold rush hits next year, or the year after that. Because hit it will.
Was the house new? That makes a big difference. Do you have Central Air? What type of heating? What style Washer & Dryer? Etc.
But yes, 16 years and one major repair/replacement is doing very well.