What Is The Average Age Of A House?

All things living and non-living wear out with age, your homes included. There comes a time when the building starts losing its structural strength and outer sheen.

What is the average age of a house?

Ideally, the average lifespan of any concrete structure is 75-100 years. But, it is considered that the average life of an apartment is 50-60 years while of a house it is 40 years. Independent home ages much slower than an apartment building, where the amenities and common services are shared among the society residents.  Their lifespan can be improved by carrying out regular maintenance.

Why do homes age?

A house is a structure made of a combination of elements that degrades with time. Put together, the environmental impact and the human usage both do their share of damage. Apart from this, poorly designed homes degrade faster anyway.

Things which are under constant usages like water pipelines, power cables and other allied services gets degraded over time and worn out after a fixed period of time. Apart from this, window and door openings, poor construction quality, waterproofing, painting, layouts of plumbing also result in ageing of a home before time.

However, independent home ages much slower than an apartment building where the amenities and common services are shared among the society residents.  

How can you increase the lifespan of your home?

Here are some measures that can help you improve the lifespan of your property:

• Regular cleaning and proper segregation and disposal of waste material are quite important.

• Furniture maintenance and regular whitewash are mandatory, and so are annual checking for termites, damp walls and plinth.

• Weather conditions play a key role in deciding the lifespan of the building. For instance, cities near coastal areas such as Chennai face intense heat and humidity factor. This can cause degradation to the building exterior facade. Similarly, areas which receive high rainfall will face water seepage, dampness and cracks in the concrete structure. This also heavily affects the average age of the structure. Prepare your property well to fight the weather conditions.

• Always choose a sustainable material which can be used efficiently in designing the home. It is preferred to buy locally built things as they are designed keeping in mind the local conditions. This can in a way increase the lifespan of the structure.

• Avoid using metal elements in your home if you live close to the coastal area as the salt content in the sea breeze is quite high and can rust the railings and fabricated façade material.

• Using right kind of material for construction can increase the average age of your structure by manifold. Once built, regular maintenance, proper up-keep can make your house healthy for years.