All The Fixings : How Long Can You Expect the Components to Last?

You’ve just coughed up $450,000 for that new dream house in south Orange County--or $169,000 for that 40-year-old starter home in Fullerton.

You scoped out the neighborhood before you bought, of course. And checked the schools, the shopping and the entertainment. You might have even introduced yourself and your family to the neighbors.

You think you’ve answered all the questions.

But do you know when your house will start falling apart?

Most of us ignore that critical area of concern in the excitement of hunting down and bagging a new home.

That’s why it comes as such a shock when the roof starts leaking, the garage door falls and creases the new car or the garbage disposal jams and clogs the sink five minutes before the in-laws arrive for Christmas dinner.

The first fact to know about a house is that most are pretty tough. Unless the builder failed to prepare the ground properly or used shoddy materials or slipshod workers, most Southern California homes have a pretty long life span--as long as owners treat them kindly and practice preventive maintenance.

A word about that life span: All of the numbers used here are averages, based on the experiences of a group of experts. But there are a lot of factors affecting a house that can dramatically alter the life expectancy of any of its components.

That said, the second fact to know is that stuff does break and things do wear out, no matter how well-built and expensively appointed the family manse might be.

And knowing what to expect and how to help prolong the inevitable just might help avoid a bout of high blood pressure some time down the road.

Except for damage from termites, earthquakes, fires, floods or falling airplanes, there is little that can or should go wrong with the basic framing, flooring and foundations of a home.

But wind, rain and sun all affect the life of exterior sidings, and with shifting soils and earthquakes, stucco inevitably will develop cracks that need to be patched.

Be they stucco, wood or masonry, exteriors do need to be painted. And the paint needs to be taken care of to help prolong its life and preserve the siding it is protecting.

Jeff Recker, manager of Frazee Paint & Wallcovering in Anaheim, said that if a homeowner purchases good quality paint, “then preparation is almost everything.”

A clean, dry, oil- and grease-free surface that has been properly primed will guarantee a good, long-lasting finish. Recker said paint generally is a product line in which you get what you pay for.

The rules for a good interior paint job are basically the same, Recker said, although inside paint seldom lasts as long as exterior paint because it is subjected to more wear and tear--and to more scrutiny by the inhabitants.

“Most people change interior colors for decorating reasons long before the paint actually wears out,” he said.

But you can expect five to 10 years from a good interior paint job unless you decide those off-white walls are just crying out to be puce.

The exception, Recker said, is in new homes.

“A lot of builders use pretty cheap grades of interior paint, and some don’t even prime first,” he said. “I’ve seen some new homes that need repainting inside when they’re less than a year old.” Typically, he said, expect no more than three years of life from a new home’s builder-applied paint job.

The roof is one major exterior component that wears out regularly--although that regularity can be measured in spans of many decades for tough, top-of-the-line roofing material like clay tile.

To make a roof last as long as possible, the experts recommend that you never walk on it, or, if tread you must, tread lightly. Walk only on the seams of a flat roof made of rolled mineral-impregnated paper; lay down a ladder or some type of scaffolding to distribute your weight when walking on tiles or wood shingles.

Most roofing material is maintenance free, but with wood it is wise to have a roofing specialist treat the shingles periodically with fire retardant. If individual tiles or shingles break, they generally can be replaced without re-roofing the entire house--but replacement should be done as quickly as possible to minimize water and wind damage to surrounding areas of the roof.

Wood and aluminum window and door frames can be problem spots in a house, either by leaking in rainstorms or by jamming or sticking when operated.

Typically, window and door leaks are caused by poor caulking around the frames and can be corrected by re-caulking with a commercially available sealant. In older homes, leaking can also occur because the frame has shrunk or warped, requiring a bit more expensive repair. Aluminum windows and doors often stick because the channels in which they slide become clogged with dirt or are bent.

Garage doors are another major exterior component requiring periodic maintenance.

A wooden double door can weigh 300 pounds or more, and improperly adjusted springs and door openers can cause an overhead door to jam or, worse, to fall on a car or on the person trying to open it.

Brian Besser, president of Besser Bros. Garage Door Service in Laguna Hills, says garage door springs stretch with use and need to be replaced or rewound for proper door operation. Because of the weight of a garage door, and the fact that the springs and other hardware are under considerable tension, he recommends hiring a professional to do that kind of work.

Homeowners, he said, should regularly oil the pivot points on the garage door lifting arms.

Automatic garage door openers also need periodic lubrication and adjustments to prolong their life and to guard against door jams or other accidents.

(Some manufacturers recommend oiling pivot points monthly, and door opener owner manuals have specific information about lubrications schedules for each brand.)

“And because the opener is tied directly to the door,” he said, “its life also depends on the door being properly balanced. An unbalanced door makes an opener pull too hard and can burn out the motor.”

Inside the house is where most of the wear and tear--and breakdowns--occur. Among the first items to go are plumbing fixtures--faucets, toilets, shower valves and garbage disposals.

Doug Rishco, owner of Rishco Plumbing in Mission Viejo, said that a lot of big plumbing problems can be avoided by repairing small leaks quickly, keeping fixtures clean and dry and avoiding use of harsh abrasives and chemicals when cleaning the sinks and tubs.

But with Orange County’s hard water, problems will arise, especially if your house is an older one plumbed with galvanized pipe. Calcium and other mineral deposits can choke off a three-quarter-inch pipe in just a few years, Rishco said.

Copper pipes don’t jam with deposits, but they can corrode where joined with other metals and, once inside the house, the minerals that don’t cling to the copper pipes do start building up in faucets and even toilets.

“We see toilets all the time that are clogged because of lime buildup,” he said. “And there is no way to prevent it except to put in a water softener that is connected to the entire plumbing system.”

The most common preventable plumbing problems Rishco runs into?

“Damage caused by homeowners who tried too hard to fix things themselves. They tighten threads too tight and damage the pipes or the fittings and then we have to replace everything. Or they let leaks go too long and the faucet gets so corroded inside we have to replace the whole thing because it won’t accept the replacement parts any longer.”

The largest group of breakdown-prone components in a home are the major appliances, from central air and heating systems to dishwashers.

Jim Riddle, owner of Riddle Appliance Service in Garden Grove, said that 25 years in the repair business have taught him that gas appliances last longer than electric ones; microprocessor controlled appliances break more often and are less reliable than their manual counterparts; parts and labor often make repair more expensive than replacement, and many people hasten the demise of their big appliances by needlessly overworking them and by failing to do minimal maintenance.

Specifically, Riddle said, most people don’t read the instruction manuals and don’t follow the manufacturers’ maintenance routines. Hinges don’t get oiled, refrigerators’ condenser coils don’t get dusted, air conditioner and heater filters aren’t changed regularly, and ovens don’t get cleaned.

The most reliable appliance in the house? The refrigerator. “They are as good today as they ever have been,” he said. “They still can be repaired at a pretty reasonable cost, and they are built well. There is no reason a refrigerator can’t last 20 years or more with a little care.”

Robert Boice, owner of MCB Heating & Air Conditioning in Orange, said that the life of most home heating and cooling systems can be prolonged by periodic maintenance and by regular changing of the filters--and by regular, Boice means monthly.

Dishwashers, no matter how expensive, have a fairly limited life because they work so hard under pretty terrible conditions, Riddle said. To make them last as long as possible and clean as well as when they were new, he recommends using powder rather than liquid soaps, an anti-spotting product regularly and “really hot water, at least 150 degrees.”

In addition, Riddle tells customers to purchase either Vanish toilet bowl cleaning crystals or a product designed to clean lime build-up and to run them through the dishwasher on a hot water wash and rinse cycle two to four times a year to keep the interior free of mineral and soap scum that cuts down on the appliance’s cleaning power.

The final word, from home inspector Darryl Metz of 3rd Party Property Inspection in Tustin, is to inspect a property well before buying so you know what you are getting and then continually monitor the wear-prone components to catch little problems before they become big ones.

All the Fixing

Driveway: Concrete: Indefinite Asphalt: 10-12 years

Garage doors Wood: 15-20 years Metal sectional: 20-30 years Springs: 6-10 years Openers: 15-20 years

Water heaters: 10 years Plumbing pipes: Galvanized: 15-20 years Copper: Indefinitely

Clothes washer: 10 years Clothes dryer: Gas: 20 years Electric: 15 years

Porcelain fixtures, including tubs, sinks: Indefinitely Toilet flush valves: 2-5 years Bathroom faucets: Bodies: 5-10 years Washers, valves: 2-5 years

Air Conditioners Window-mounted air conditioners: 10 years Whole-house heating systems: Electric: 15-20 years Gas: (forced air): 15-20 years Gas: (gravity): 25-30 years

Whole-house cooling systems: Electric: 10-15 years Roofing: Tile, clay or cement: Indefinite Fiberglas shingles: 15-25 years Wood shingles: 10-25 years Rolled: 5-15 years Metal: At least 30 years

Carpeting: 5-20 years Vinyl flooring: Indefinite Wood flooring: Indefinite Kitchen cabinet doors: 10-15 years Kitchen faucets: Bodies: 7-12 years Washers, valves: 2-5 years

Garbage disposals: Stainless: 10-20 years Cast steel: 2-5 years

Oven and range: Gas: 15-20 years Electric: 12-18 years

Refrigerator: At least 20 years Dishwasher: 5-7 years Siding: Wood: Indefinite Stucco: Indefinite

Chimneys: Masonry: Indefinitely Metal: 15 years

Aluminum window or door frames: Indefinite Tracks for aluminum sliding doors: 10-12 years Paint: Interior: 5-10 years Exterior, on stucco or wood: 7-12 years Sources: Besser Bros. Garage Door Service, Laguna Hills; Frazee Paint & Wallcovering, Anaheim; Jim Riddle’s Appliance Service, Garden Grove; MCB Heating & Air Conditioning, Orange; Rishco Plumbing, Mission Viejo, and 3rd Party Property Inspection, Tustin

Researched by JOHN O’DELL / Los Angeles Times