My email to info@merkrete about their warranties

A copy of my as yet unanswered email to Mer-Kote is below;

Mer-Kote has re-written their warranty program, a big but subtle change is the requirement that a "authorized installer" has to do the resealing according to the warranty issued originally. It used to say the original applicator had to do the work-thereby guaranteeing that applicator residual income for years to come...

There's also a specific mention of the warranty not being fitted in to the Magnuson-Moss act. Very interesting.

HOA's with an old warranty need to speak out and get on Mer-Kote-are you know free to use who you choose to use? Send Mer-Kote and email!

Hello,

I saw the newly written warranties on the website; I wondered if the new warranties have the effect of changing the terms on older versions where the original applicator had to reseal the decks on a certain schedule. The new warranty now says “an authorized applicator” has to do so, which would allow competitive bidding to occur.

Are old warranty jobs now free to competitively bid their resealing work so long as it is on the schedule listed in their warranty?

Thanks, Bill Leys

Waterproofdeckcoatingadvice.com

Excellent Coatings Sold to Tufflex/UPI

From World of Concrete, UPI told us that they just bought Excellent Coatings.

This consolidates three manufacturer's under one roof in an industry that is feeling the effects of the building slow down.

Wishing Gwen luck in her new endeavors!

Notes from my day at World of Concrete

Tuesday morning I hit the show around 930 am; large crowds were already in line to buy their passes. I quickly got my pass having registered before...it saves a lot of time!

Entering the South Pavilion, I went into the first floor.
First stop, UPI/Tufflex booth, where my partner in crawling the show, Dave DiBaggio, was talking with the head of the companies.

Their big announcement was that they had recently acquired Excellent Coatings, Inc of Vista CA. Excellent Coatings is a metal lath/concrete deck coating manufacturer. Their Fire System has an ICC One Hour Rated approval.

Consolidation of the industry's manufacturer's may have some interesting effects on the installer side...we'll see.

We met Multi-coat, where I saw their newish (1 year or so) metal lath and acrylic cement deck system that utilizes their instantly recognizable blue hued waterproofing membrane. The few questions I was able to ask got responses that it wasn't an ICC approved building/decking product in sum. I believe the membrane is a vapor trapping membrane so breathability is a concern. Soffit vents will be essential!

This is a big hall and just walking this alone is asking for a big time commitment. I hit a bunch of booths, ranging from moisture testing companies, to safety equipment, software, sealants, you name it, they are here!

As it got close to 12, Tremco's booth handed me a beer cup, pointing me outdoors to their display, where free drafts were waiting for us...we wandered around the decorative area outside, seeing Mira-Cote's guys do a stamping demo, Elite Crete's guys doing decorative overlays and every other concrete coatings, staining, overlay company represented too.

A stop over at the below grade waterproofing area yielded me my cherished cold one, and nourished me as I we went back for lunch at the hot dog booth.

A lunch with Ron Adams of Hill Brothers was enjoyed by us in the beer tent-italian and spicy sausages go great with beer!

Plunging back inside, I needed to see a software program I'd heard about that lets you do photoshop type stuff to show customers what their concrete might look like after you've redone it...

Westcoat wasn't too forthcoming about anything at their booth, they told me about their new epoxy that is 50% solids, it goes on at 1/4" thick and dries out to an 1/8"...
I did hear scuttlebutt from a contractor that I know who was walking the show that Westcoat staff is busy troubleshooting why their ALX system is experiencing water percolating through the coating system.

Somehow I missed the Excellent Coatings booth, and Pli-Dek was not here this year...

My last stop of the day was at the Life Deck by Life Paint booth, where I met Joe Devlin and several other members of the staff.

Decorative finishes is the big thing today; waterproofing is the secondary at this show for deck coatings. Wow factor is what sells and people apparantly will pay.

I picked up at Depiction software's booth their new Deco_Con V3.0 imaging software. This enables a contractor to take a picture of a clients eye-sore they want to fix up, and with a few mouse clicks, draw up a host of options to show their client on a laptop what their driveway or sidewalk could look like. Take advantage of their show special pricing...

Finally it was time to go, we hit the road back to LA and home at 4:30. I saw bed at midnight...

Faces of WOC

Ron Adams of Hill Brothers enjoys the great weather at world of concrete.

Outdoor exhibits at World of Concrete

Live from woc! the outdoor exhibits.

Here we are at World of Concrete

So I got into Vegas last night in time to go, as I am a Dex-O-Tex applicator, join the many Crossfield Products faithful at a cocktail mixer. When I say faithful, I mean faithful...I met 3rd gen Dex-O-Tex fanatics who carry on the family business.

Over 90 of us mingled and enjoyed Crossfields generous hospitality-great appetizers and beverages and pleasant company.

Today we had a great meeting and left with new ideas...soon it's downstairs to dinner for Crossfields awards dinner.

The exhibits open tomorrow, into the pavilion we go! See you on the floor.

Mer-Kote launches new website

Mer-Kote, the manufacturer of deck coatings, waterproofing and tile underlayments, recently launched their newly redesigned website at . It's done very nicely and contains a lot of information relating to their products from what I saw in my foray's through the site.

Interestingly, the elusive 10 year warranty has shown up right on the new site...so anyone looking for the requirements to get a 10 year warranty is right their for you to make your own decision on after reading them.

BTW- All of Mer-Kote's new warranties are up online to read!

Excellent article on the importance of spacing (gapping) plywood on decks and walls

I stumbled upon this excellent article at www.stuccoguru.com on why plywood panels need to be spaced...read it at stuccoguru.com

ABSTRACT-Plywood Sheathing
In this article, Mr. Geary's discussion revolves around the virtues and versatilities of plywood, if it is "installed and protected properly." He describes the many uses of plywood, as well as the most common problems encountered with its installation: the failure to space panels correctly, which often leads to expansion problems, as well as the related problem of covering plywood, trapping moisture with it, which puts it under unnecessary stress. He offers some solutions to these problems and also gives some tips on choosing plywood, as well as basic installation tips and specific notes about good nail and building paper types to use.

Update On Mer-Kote warranty program listing of authorized dealers

While we haven't received a copy yet of the Mer-Kote "10 year warranty", we have heard from 3-4 large HOA's who have a "10-year warranty" and are learning the hard way that their "warranty" is going to cost them dearly.

One Association I heard from in the Palm Springs area has Mer-Kote decks that are apx 6 years old; their first reseal was done 3 years ago, apparently at a reasonable cost. Now this year, they get an estimate from their installer that is 60% higher than it was 3 years back.

Another Assoc in Coachella got several bids to reseal their Mer-Kote covered decks, the bid from the original installer was 20k higher than a competing bid. Their dilemmma was that Mer-Kote told them they had to use the original installer to keep their warranty. They wanted to know what to do...as they felt very stuck and taken.

One Association I worked with in the Ventura County area was embarking on a deck renovation project and they were going with Mer-Kote; until a Board member stumbled upon my site and read my articles. They started asking questions, I helped them with developing some questions to get answers on before committing and the next thing I knew, they decided that Mer-Kote was not the product they wanted on their 200+ decks.

Why? The installer told them they would have to reseal every 2 years to get the 10 year warranty, or five times in that 10 year period at an estimated cost of $120,000 if the resealing work was being done "today". That's $600,000.00 in maintenance costs folks, over 10 years in today's dollars. Almost double what the original cost was estimated to install the deck coatings.

That would have meant those deck coatings were worth a MILLION dollars in costs over 10 years, or 100k per year.

My opinion, from what I see is that The Mer-Kote "warranty" plan is a big residual income scheme rigged to benefit only 2 parties, the installer of your job and Mer-Kote.

Now if your willing to let go of the illusion that you have to use the original Mer-Kote installer, I would postulate that any other installer would be willing to provide some type of warranty to help cover you you'll reduce your maintenance costs quite a bit.

Below is a list of approved applicators I got a while back from Mer-Ko; if you have to have Mer-Kote then you might as well have choices, so if there's 2,3 ,4 applicators in your area, call them all, pit them against each other.

Contractor Phone Number

A-1 Deck & Coating
Accelerated Waterproofing, Inc. 951-279-6206
Acoustical Concrete Sys Inc. 805-482-3735
All Weather Coating Company COD
American-Oceanic Coatings Corp. 757-490-0445
Angelus Waterproofing 562-941-7676
Arnel Management Company
Benson Marine 310-832-8662
Best Roofing & Waterproofing 310-328-6969
CWI Courtney 949-222-2050
Cadeco 408-292-3435
Cal Dex
CAMPOS WATERPROOFING *COD* 323-269-4436
Capital Coatings 530-644-7137
Concrete Coatings 909-393-2945
D R Waterproofing 949-515-7678
DECKADE *COD* 949-366-1656
Deck Tech 928-855-5406
DeckRite
Dexcote Inc. 818-759-4821
Eberhard Roofing 818-782-4604
Expert Waterproofing 530-273-7599
FN & Co. W/P & Paint Coatings 909-229-9713
Golden West Veranda 951-244-4321
H&R Construction 818-906-2818
J.R. WATERPROOFING *COD* 626-962-2165
Kish Waterproofing 909-674-5155
Lutes Decking 949-589-1285
Lettner Roofing 714-633-0030
LM Waterproofing 619-448-8285
Mark Beamish Waterproofing 714-575-0018
Marvista Construction 626-806-5659
Mastercrete Construction Prod. 817-430-9187
Masters Surfacing Technology 909-350-1522
McDonald Technical Products 310-372-9427
Misc. Contractor
Morales Waterproofing 909-783-2836
Mr Roofer Co 805-407-4905
Mt. Diablo Flooring Systems 925-473-9500
Patrick Geraghty 936-760-7663
Patrotic Roofings and WP 480-649-0748
PCW Contracting 949-548-9969
Provancha Construction Company 619-239-8363
Robert C Metcalf Inc. 949-497-5482
Roger H. Proulx & Co. 562-630-8313
Roys Masonry 310-539-8023
Saddleback Waterproofing 949-589-3422
SealTech WP
South West Caulking 602-268-0567
SouthWest Waterproofing 623-582-5078
Specialty One 661-252-5040
S & W Waterproofing, Inc. 310-320-0752
Sterling Thomas 562-439-3453
Southern California Decking 661-251-1648
Technicoat Pacific LP 714-894-6464
Weathermaster 818-788-7806
Westtern Waterproofing
W.I.C.R. (Wanke, Indust) 888-388-9427
WATERTIGHT 805-529-4105

Paint and Coatings Expo 2008 in Los Angeles Jan 27-30th

Coming right behind World of Concrete isd the Paint and Coatings Exposition, to be held this year in Los Angeles. Click the link to go to their page.

Some interesting programs for deck/coating contractors might include Sunday January 27th's Technical Program-"Importance of Selecting Correct Floor Coatings for Severe Service" Monday's seminars dealing with failed coatings has a program called "Infrared Thermal Imaging-An Aid To Forensic Investigations of Coating Adhesion Problems"

Back to back programs that I am interested in are the Fundamentals of Coating Concrete, Including a "Surface Preparation and Placement Techniques for Concrete Repair" and then immediatley folowing is "Moisture Evaluation & Remediation".

On Wednesday is the Concrete Architectural Coatings, Including BASF's seminar called "Why Buildings Leak"

There are also a ton of business development seminars that look good-including construction law with a seminar titled "Killer Clauses-What Subcontractors Need to Know."

Sales/marketing seminars, health and safety, union contractor programs, there's plenty to fill your days at this expo.
While not really a "deck coating" trade show, most deck coating contractors do other coating work, so there's probably something for you here.

Interesting Powerpoint Presentation on finding leaks

On the Roof Consultants Institute website on their resource page comes this excellent presentation by Donald Kilpatrick.

Check it out and maybe you'll learn something. I did!

Don't Forget-World of Concrete is this month!

Coming up quickly is Hanley-Woods 2008 World of Concrete show in Las Vegas- it's probably the world's biggest trade show on everything related to concrete.

Make your reservations now, the show has lots of deck coating companies exhibiting-
AVM Industries, Crossfield Products (Dex-O-Tex), Carlisle, Excellent Coatings, Multicoat, Pacific Polymers and Polycoat.

Sure to be interesting is the Life Deck booth from Westcoat and the Life Deck & BDC Epoxy Systems booth from Life Paint- my immediate question is will the Life Deck by Westcoat booth be a "manufacturer's booth" or an installer booth? We will be sure to let you know. We wonder because Westcoat also is listed as having a booth...hmm, I wonder what they have up their sleeves? I can't wait to see what reception I get when I walk into their booths.

Appearing to be absent from this years show are Hill Brothers, Pli-Dek, PolyTuff, Tufflex and Mer-Kote or did I just miss them on the exhibitors list?

New to me is the Rhino Deck by Master Mark Plastics...hmm, we'll have to check this out, the exhibitor listing gives no information on what they make or do...

Some specialty concrete coating manufacturer's will be there too-
Concrete Solutions, Arizona Polymer Flooring, Elite Crete, Matcrete, MAPEI, Miracote, Pebble Flex and many more.

This is a great show to go to, don't miss out. We'll be blogging live from the show while we are attending.

HOA's-Make Sure Your Contractor is licensed and insured

Here's a great article by Bob Hunt, a director of the National Association of Realtors, with a clear warning to every HOA and Management Firm in California-make sure your contractors are Licensed and insured!

This contractor wasn't working on decks, however, all the same principles apply, whether it's rain gutter installers, roofers or whoever, don't let them on your property until everything you need is in place-license, insurance, add'l insured endorsements... confer with legal counsel for legal advice on what you need to protect your Association.

HOA Should Be Sure Workers are Insured
by Bob Hunt

California homeowner associations (HOAs) and HOA management companies will want to pay attention to a recent ruling coming out of the state's Second Appellate District. The case, Heimen et al. v Worker's Compensation Appeals Board, involved the claim of a worker injured on association property for worker's compensation benefits.
The petitioner, Robert Heiman, did business as Pegasus Properties, a property management business. Pegasus had entered into a management agreement with Montana Villas Homeowners Association. At an association meeting, Montana Villas HOA agreed with Pegasus' recommendation that rain gutters be installed on part of the condominium building.

Pegasus hired Mark Hruby, doing business as Rube's Rain Gutter Service, to install the gutters. Hruby in turn hired Freddy Aguilera to perform some of the work. According to the court record, "On November 5, 1977, the first day of the job, a rain gutter contacted a high voltage electrical wire and Aguilera was severely shocked and fell and was seriously injured. Hruby completed the job and was paid by check."

Hruby was not a licensed contractor and did not carry worker's compensation insurance.

Read the rest of this article at

It's High Time a Manufacturer Develops a "Green" Deck Coating

Having watched the explosion of Green building products over the last few years and seeing the results, I have to ask our many deck coating manufacturer's-

Where's the "green" deck coating?
Green is the word in building today-from solar and rain collection, to earth friendly building products that are recyclable after their life span has ended.

The first manufacturer to develop a waterproof deck coating that gets LEED credits will probably be, or become, the biggest winner in the battle to get waterproof decking specified on green projects.Installers who can offer that type of deck coating product would come out ahead of their competitors too.

Crossfield Products (Dex-O-Tex) has some coatings for interior uses that can get LEED credits,something that no other manufacturer (that I'm aware of) has. That's a start, but now it's time to develop and market a "Green" Waterproof deck coating.

Who'll be the first to step up and meet the markets demands?