One way to prepare for the costs of owning a home beyond the mortgage payment, insurance and taxes, is to know the expected life expectancy of your home's components.

Such knowledge doesn't supersede the use of a home inspector when buying a home, new or old, but it can help you develop a savings plan so you are prepared for the inevitable.

Sooner or later you'll have to repair or replace many of your home's parts -- inside and out.

Knowledge of components' life expectancies is what homeowner associations use, in part, to build a reserve fund designed to spread, over time, the cost of the inevitable.

When the roof goes, the appliances conk out, or the paint begins to fade, it's a lot easier to come up with the cash if you've already got some socked away for just this kind of rainy day.

Last year, the National Association of Home Builders, along with the Bank of America developed the "NAHB/BoA Home Equity Study of Life Expectancy of Home Components" to help you take the guess work out of preparing for the worst.

The report suggests you use the timelines as a general guideline. Local weather conditions, use habits, regular maintenance -- or the lack of it -- can all affect the life expectancy of many components.

Personal tastes for contemporary upgrades, remodeling needs and other factors may also dictate replacing parts before their useful life time is up.

In any event based on a comprehensive telephone survey of manufacturers, trade associations and researchers NAHB developed information about the longevity of housing components.

From the foundation to the rooftop, here's a quick look at how long, on a national average, some of the most common home components are expected to last.

Published: January 10, 2008

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A journalist for 35-years, Broderick Perkins parlayed an old-school daily newspaper career into a digital news service offering editorial content and consulting services. Perkins' San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews Group includes the flagship news site, DeadlineNews.Com, offering real estate, personal finance and consumer journalism, and a backshop, the Deadline Newsroom.