Buildings that Pass the Test of Time

Reader Contribution by Paula Baker-Laporte
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Building Biology advises us to look for a successful history of use when choosing building materials but in our ever changing product-based building environment we seldom have the luxury of evaluating track record. This becomes quickly apparent when vetting new products for client’s homes.

I recently called a major manufacturer to find out what was in a new product developed to prevent mold growth on framing lumber. I wanted to avoid the use of biocides for this chemically sensitive client. The rep said with great pride that the product had now been out for six months and that they hadn’t received even one warranty complaint!  When Building Biology addresses the principle of history-of-use it is looking at a bigger picture…not six months but decades and centuries!

In the brief history of building with petrochemical-based products, centrally produced by a handful of very powerful corporations, we must often put our trust in new products expecting them to do what the manufacturers have claimed they will do. Time-accelerated lab testing can help us to project how a material may behave over time but it is not an exact science and nothing can surpass the real test of time.

New “smarter” products for building our homes are being invented all the time and while advertising campaigns continually grind out tantalizing lists of benefits for the latest and greatest, the manufacturers are silent about the millions of homes that were built on yesterday’s promises…those products that failed to become the “super endurables” they were initially advertised to be: waterproofing materials that have been conveniently re-named “water resistant”, construction tapes that lose their “stick” over time,  foams that get tunneled by insects, insulations that shrink away, products that leach chemicals, and so-called harmless chemicals that are found to be harmful.

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