Warranty Liability

9 Months Ended

Sep. 26, 2020

Product Warranties Disclosures [Abstract]

Warranty terms vary from one year to lifetime on certain window and door components. Warranties are normally limited to servicing or replacing defective components for the original customer. Product defects arising within six months of sale are classified as manufacturing defects and are not included in the current period expense below. Some warranties are transferable to subsequent owners and are either limited to 10 years from the date of manufacture or require pro-rata payments from the customer. A provision for estimated warranty costs is recorded at the time of sale based on historical experience and is periodically adjusted to reflect actual experience.

An analysis of our warranty liability is as follows:


(amounts in thousands)	September 26, 2020		September 28, 2019
Balance as of January 1	$	49,716	$	46,468
Current period expense	16,793		15,180
Liabilities assumed due to acquisition	—		79
Experience adjustments	1,831		1,090
Payments	(17,162)		(15,937)
Currency translation	(145)		(68)
Balance at period end	51,033		46,812
Current portion	(20,763)		(20,035)
Long-term portion	$	30,270	$	26,777

The most significant component of our warranty liability is in the North America segment, which totaled $45.3 million at September 26, 2020, after discounting future estimated cash flows at rates between 0.69% and 4.75%. Without discounting, the liability would have been higher by approximately $2.6 million.