Thread: MDF - new... Waterproof/rotproof for 50 years - FYI

You need to be mindful of the warranty .... 50 years is all well and good but would typically only involve replacement of the product in boards if they fail.

Very hard to get them to contribute to the value add to the product to make it into a functional item. The cost of the replacement board is only a fraction of the cost when you take into account the fabrication by the joiner, painter, installation, removal and disposal of old faulty product ect.

Originally Posted by Sir Stinkalot

You need to be mindful of the warranty .... 50 years is all well and good but would typically only involve replacement of the product in boards if they fail.

Very hard to get them to contribute to the value add to the product to make it into a functional item. The cost of the replacement board is only a fraction of the cost when you take into account the fabrication by the joiner, painter, installation, removal and disposal of old faulty product ect.

Would any warranty cover those conditions?

I doubt the failure of a $4 bolt in a multimillion dollar bridge failure is going get much warranty traction.

For around here, 50 years is two house generations! In my street of 100 houses, more than 2/3rd's of them have been KDR sales in the last 5 years. The speed of replacement is unreal. That shed, wall or whatever, is going to outlive you or the next person, or sale.

Youd need to be a bit of a noodle to try and claim any sort of warranty in 49 years on a product anyway.....

Originally Posted by woodPixel

For around here, 50 years is two house generations! In my street of 100 houses, more than 2/3rd's of them have been KDR sales in the last 5 years.

I think it's just a phase we're going through... just realising that 1 house on 1 block is not viable any more, we need at least 2.
Those KDRs in your street are replacing houses with townhouses, aren't they?

Originally Posted by Spyro

Those KDRs in your street are replacing houses with townhouses, aren't they?

Yes, the fastest slap-em-ups you've ever seen. Three of the tiniest places imaginable on each block. Yesterday, another house 5 doors down was simply bulldozed. Took them 6 hours to mash it up and make the block barren.

They sell each tiny unit for as much as they bought the original house.

It's unreal.

Living in Sydney, I get this - there's a finite amount of land available, and density has to increase as population increases. But in CBR, I am just not sure why, nowhere is that far from anywhere else, and there's still plenty of unused land, so it would still appear on the outside that it'd be cheaper to sprawl than scrape back what has already had value added... but, the market is what the market is...

Originally Posted by woodPixel

Yes, the fastest slap-em-ups you've ever seen. Three of the tiniest places imaginable on each block.

Yep, no storage space and definitely no sheds. All the owners of these places take up a self storage unit at a minimum $200 a month. Some of these things are hardly any bigger than a toilet.

Originally Posted by poundy

Living in Sydney, I get this - there's a finite amount of land available, and density has to increase as population increases. But in CBR, I am just not sure why, nowhere is that far from anywhere else, and there's still plenty of unused land, so it would still appear on the outside that it'd be cheaper to sprawl than scrape back what has already had value added... but, the market is what the market is...

Townhouses are much more profitable for developers.

Also guys in Canberra don't care if their commuting times are reasonable in Sydney... they want them to be reasonable compared to the guys they see everyday at work. Just human nature.

Sydney people will be familiar with Sylvania Waters, I literally watched that get built from my bedroom window and when I drive through it now they are demolishing quality houses built in the 1960's by some very wealthy people. The world has gone mad.

Yes but the website is not convincing. For anyone to consider breaking tradition in respect of structural design you'd need to be dead certain about all aspects.
It's difficult to see just how the average builder might employ such material & I could find zero price info or sheet size/thickness or even if the usual range of framing timber sizes are offered. Reminds me of the Corten experience?

Good stuff. But how about water resistance? Is it waterproof or not?

Originally Posted by rwbuild

50 year guarantee for something that's only just been developed sounds like exponential bull dust to me. .........

Oh Ray,

Why be so cynical? Just consider the commercial realities.

Just imagine this scenario:
You bought a sheet of "proto-tricoya" forty nine years ago in 1971, and it came with a fifty year money back warrantee, no questions asked! After 49 years it fails and you make your warrantee claim. The debate might go like this:
Good morning, Sir, of course we will honour our warrantee. Please bring in the defective product so that we may assess the cause of failure..
Next day: Thank you, Sir, it must have been difficult to remove the wall panel intact; it certainly has failed, most unusual. Warrantee claims are almost unknown with this product. Do you have proof of purchase?
Next day: Oh, you do still have a 49 year old receipt. Your warrantee claim is in order. Here is the promised refund of your full purchase price of $2.75.

There may be very little commercial risk in extended money back warrantees!


Cheers

Graeme