Lifetime Warranty? Whose Lifetime are we Talking About?

The Truth Behind A Lifetime Warranty

Nowadays, every company – large and small, old and new – is offering a “Lifetime Warranty” for their waterproofing system.

As a consumer, you must be thinking, “Ok, great, I’m covered.”

But how true is this? How covered are you?

The typical lifespan of a contracting business – if they make it past the typical 12.5 years (see study below) – is the span of working years of the average owner.

This leaves your life-of-the-structure warranty vulnerable to:

• The contractor going out of business for various financial circumstances – from poor business decisions to external forces such as downturns in the economy or such as the pandemic we currently lived with.
• The owner’s retirement.
• The business being passed on to a child unprepared or unwilling to stick with it.
• The owner simply quitting for the easier life of working for someone else.

In a 2015 study on the “Determination of the Lifespan of Construction Company with Respect to its Market Value” it was found that the average lifespan of large publicly owned construction companies was 40 to 50 years. A family-owned construction business’ average lifespan was 24 years. Other companies, that could include partnerships and sole proprietorships average just 12.5 years.

In a Harvard University study titled, “Achieving Scale in the Residential Remodeling Industry,” stated that “the vast majority of companies are relatively small, single-location businesses that likely will not experience any significant growth over the course of the business’s life-cycle. These small-scale contractors focusing on local markets are thus highly susceptible to failure with each swing of the business cycle.”

In the same Harvard study, it showed that each year between 12.9% and 17.2% of all remodeling contractors go out of business.

Your Lifetime Warranty suddenly looks more like a 24 year at best, a 12.5 year, or possibly even a one-year warranty depending on where in the lifecycle that the contractor is.

This is simply to show that not all “Lifetime Warranties” have the same meaning.  In actuality, a “Lifetime Warranty” really refers to the lifetime of the business offering the warranty!

But not at ’58 Foundations & Waterproofing!

We hold and continue to service the longest running Lifetime Warranties in the business. At 64 years, ’58 Foundations & Waterproofing knows how to succeed – pun intended.

The structure of our business, the bylaws and general practices, have built ’58 Foundations & Waterproofing into a well-oiled machine designed to support its customers across the ages.

Back in the 1950s when we introduced our life-of-the-structure warranty, we weren’t copying anybody to make sales. We didn’t even need to offer a life-of-the-structure warranty at all. In fact, there was no basement waterproofing industry to speak of at the time. We simply knew the capabilities of our system and the manner-in-which to build the business that would keep it running from owner to owner – much like how many franchises operate.

• Did you know we have maintained continuous warranty coverage for more than 64 years?
• Did you know we honor hundreds of thousands of warranties?

Luckily, we understood basement waterproofing way back in the 50’s. We didn’t go with an easier-to-install, on-the-footer system that handles less water. We went with a deeper, more water-volume handling system. Otherwise, we very well may have been run out of business by the weight of our lifetime warranties.

To sum up… The true meaning of a “Lifetime Warranty” is the lifetime of the business behind the warranty.

When you are deciding on purchasing a waterproofing system, know that you are not buying apples-to-apples when it comes to the warranty behind the work.

Choose ’58 Foundations & Waterproofing if you are looking for long-term value and the longest running warranty… with lot longer ahead of us!