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Posted by hogheavenfarm on April 23, 2008, 9:05 am
Haven't used it myself, but I used to be the Quality Inspector at a
plant that made it, among many other things like fence, siding, pipe,
windows etc. and I was in charge of weathering and formulation
testing. I can tell you that the UV stabilizers help a great deal, and
our weathering tests showed about 10 years (these were accelerated
tests) before any discoloration occurred in the lighter colors.
This is a key factor in PVC. The heat buildup in any colors darker
than 'sand' or light biege may be unacceptable if placed on a
southwest orientation. This causes the product to discolor and shrink
noticeably. Darker browns and dark greens are the worst. It is not
uncommon for a flat lineal, like siding, to shrink up to 2.4 mm per
100mm (thats 0.09" per 4", or 1" in 44") These are maximum figures of
course, but I have seen numbers higher than this (and rejected them).
So, I assume that like siding, some extra allowance must be made for
expansion and contraction, and stay away from dark colors in sunny
locations. One last note, our weathering tests were conducted at 4 or
5 places throughout the US. Moist, humid climate areas, like the SE
and NE had significantly better results. Dry climates seemed to
accelerate the weathering more. (SW)
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