How long does stainless steel and carbon steel last?
With building projects now demanding 25 year warranties on the products used it is essential that a 25 year guarantee can be met. One area this guarantee can be let down is on the corrosion of fasteners within the building. Ensuring you specify the right fasteners to meet the 25 year guarantee is crucial but how long do stainless steel and carbon steel fasteners last?
Carbon steel fasteners typically come with a protective coating (see, what’s the difference between stainless steel and carbon steel?).
In a typical fastener application, an untreated carbon item would be rusty within a few weeks. However, if the fastener is zinc plated, 10 years would be a reasonable rust free life. Still short of the 25 year guarantee.
Whereas austenitic stainless steel fasteners will give at least 30 years trouble free life for most applications. As with any building element, the quality of installation, local environment, suitability for the application and exposure to sunshine and rainwater will have an effect on the service life of the component.
However, by specifying stainless steel fasteners you are ensuring that the integrity of the fasteners will be kept for the 25 year life cycle of the building. Our products are made from stainless steel to ensure that you aren’t let down by corred fasteners.
Our ‘Rusty Screw’ brochure contains further details about how corrosion occurs and the serious implications it can have on the specifier. A link to which can be found on the left.
We also run regular CPDs that highlight the issue of the corrosion of fasteners in buildings. To book one of our CPDs click on the link to the left.
How can we help you?
For more information contact our technical consultants.