Architect's MEMO No.126 Durabilty revisited

摘要

Warranties,as are being offered in the market,have raised their collective heads again with respect to how valuable they are as a document.I think that it is fair to say that the major manufacturers have got the hang of making paint,selecting resin binders that have good adhesion properties,long term flexibility and the ability to transmit water vapour.Even though they may not contain all of the’bells and whistles’available to modern technology,when applied to a well prepared substrate,paint should stick and failure by cracking,flaking or blistering should be a thing of the past.A warranty that only warrants against cracking,flaking and blistering is akin to having life insurance cover which will only pay out if death is due to scrofula,scurvy or bubonic plague! Realistically,for typical paint specifications,the area of concern is’what time to first maintenance can be expected?’And general appearance is the major yardstick used with gloss and colour changes generally being the parameters of concern.However,people's tolerances to acceptable degrees of change vary widely.