Crowded Field of ICC Approved Fire Resistant Deck Coatings Becomes More Crowded

Browsing through the ICC list of tested and approved deck coatings, the addition of Londeck Fire Retardant Roof and Walking Deck as an approved product caught my eye...
so I looked it up and found a Japanese company, Lonseal Inc. with a vinyl type coating that utilizes cement underlayment to help it achieve fire resistance.
I've requested literature and samples from their US based division in Carson CA.
We'll report more on the product once we receive their samples and booklet.
In the meantime, take a look at the ICC reports on file at ICC's website by clicking our headline above...
Or click here to go to Lonseal's website

CENTEX Announces sale of lots in Atascadero, next door at Southside Villas, the project is at a dead halt

So the Tribune had an article in Sunday's paper that CENTEX, a publicly traded national homebuilder has sold their remaining unfinished lots at Dove Creek in Atascadero to another developer.

At least that's a better thing than closing down the project like so many others have done...next door at Southside Villas, a condo project that started several years ago, is dead in the water. Stopping by on Sunday, there are 2 finished buildings, and one unfinished 3rd building partially dried in, yet not dried in. Roof tiles started to get put down over the roofing paper which was left out in the sun for what seemed way to long...the decks and stairs are dried in with Desert Crete (I know because I sold the job through a previous employer, who still has the contract), the walls are covered in buiding paper that went on black and has now faded out to a light gray from UV.
Right next door to Dove Creek is Southside Villas and here is the all to familiar conundrum when it eventually starts back up...the underlayment weatherproofing that has no UV resistance to speak of is damaged now by UV. Will the paper and sheathing be torn off where damaged by weather? Or will a sub contractor simply go right over it? While the decks look ok for now, damage could happen due to contiguous building materials being damaged and water getting into the substrate beneath.
If the developer isn't careful, they could find themselves in trouble too.
Remember the 80's? That's when a lot of condo's and homes that were built had problems in construction, we had a big downturn then...and what do we have right now?
All I can say is that it won't be bad for my business...

Elite Crete Los Angeles Division offers Training Classes on their Product Line

Just opened my email this morning to find an invite to Elite Crete LA's intensive 2 day training class being held on Saturday and Sunday, April 26th and 27th.
Click the headline to go to their seminar info pdf. It looks like a great training seminar, covering decorative finishes, including acid staining, thin overlay stamping, epoxy and more!
If you are a concrete or deck contractor, this may be a big help to your bottom line in expanding your business to include decorative overlays and flooring. It's $250 to attend, but what you'll get from it and with the offer of free estimating software (a $300 value right there), it's a great deal!
Contact Michael Wagner at 310-612-2502 or by email at wagner@elitecretela.com (copy and paste if not highlighted)
I do have one criticism though, in the sample sales lead generator letter that was included in my email, the contractor hopefully isn't from California, as the payment terms outlined in the sales letter violates California law in that contractors can only take a deposit of 10% of the value of the job as a down payment, not the 50% as described in the letter. It also seems that the contractor is offering to finance the other 50% until the house sells...who would want to crimp their cash flow with those terms?

Life Paint Updates It's Website and Life Deck Line of Deck Coating Packaging

I was at Miners Ace Hardware in Atascadero CA on Saturday browsing the paint department and I noticed new labels on the Life Deck products that they carry. Curious, I checked out the new labels and logo (very nice looking BTW)
and then bought a gallon of cement modifier and a bag of white texture to experiment with.
This morning I went to Life Paints website to look at something and lo and behold, a new website has been launched to go along with their new packaging! It's better than the old site and gives you a list of places where you can buy Life paint products, including their lines of paints and coatings.
Check it out and see for yourself.

A Review of JLC Live's Conference Programs and Building Clinic's

So I got my copy of the schedule of events at JLC Live Long Beach next month. There's a whole host of great clinics and seminars, including of course with all due modesty, my program...but seriously, there are some great things to see and do here. I've decided after looking through my brochure, I'm staying for 3 days minimum to soak in all I can...
For me, I'm interested in seeing Michael Byrne's clinic on waterproofing a Tile Shower, and then I want to attend Waterproof Windows and Doors (I'm interested in the doors more than windows) by Mike Sloggat. I'd also recommend for many of you to attend the Managing Moisture at the Exterior by Andy Engel. Remember, decks and buildings all must be weatherboard built!.

The all day 8-3 sessions have some intense subjects that are very releveant-Automating Your Office With Quick Books and Project management is on Tuesday, on Wednesday the toss up for me is between Managing The Business End of Your Construction Business by Leslie Shiner, or Accurate Estimating and Job Costing by Dennis Dixon.
Then there's the conference sessions like mine, a shorter 1 1/2 to 2 hour event that crams in more with less detailed infor on the bigger subject...can't cover everything in 2 hours, but-Essential Contract Elements is a good one for every contractor great and small, Dealing With Difficult Clients is another and the best one for all of us is Understanding The New Building Code in Ca, including q & a with actual live building officials!

Make sure to save time at 430 pm on Thursday to attend the best ever seminar (sic) my Art of Waterproofing Decks! Forgo the Welcome Party starting at 5 to learn about waterproofing, who needs beer when a subject this interesting comes along?

Friday features a quickbooks short course and then I'll be heading back home to SLO town.
Sign up today for full day courses, it's by reservation.

Deck Drains-Deck Expert Recommends Thunderbird Products

In my many inspections of decks throughout the years as an estimator, I have seen many failed methods that were used in an attempt to install a drain through the floor of a deck coating. I often see drains that came from Home Depot type stores, and also see professional type drains that came from a plumbing supply house.
The drains you buy at these places are not manufactured with deck coatings terminating into them as part of their function. Because of that one flaw, the decks are doomed to fail. The picture above shows a plastic drain system with overflow. The deck guy had the right idea but executed the job with the wrong drain. The plastic deteriorated over the years, the flange is flexible and stepping on it probably damaged it too. As a result, water leaked by the flange and into the ceiling below. We removed that drain and installed copper drains with overflows on them.

The only drain systems I use are from Thunderbird Products, Inc. of El Cajon, CA. They have specific drains for decks and roofs, including tile deck systems, that allow the proper termination of the drain with the deck coating/waterproofing materials. Click the link above to see their online catalog of drains and scuppers or call them at 800-658-2473 to place your order. Tell them Bill Leys sent you their way!

Deck Expert Buys .info extensions of major deck manufacturer's

Seeking to establish our presence even further on the web, Waterproofdeckcoatingadvice.com has purchased ten additional web addresses ending with the .info extension. "
"We hope that with these purchases we will generate even more traffic to our site and increase awareness in the market place that consumers have choices and now have good information available to them to make good decisions when buying waterproofing." Said Bill Leys, owner of the firm.
Our purchases included www.desertbrand.info, www.westcoat.info, www.pacpoly.info and several other major manufacturer's of deck coatings
While some manufacturer's won't like our owning their domain name in an .info extension, buying .info extensions and using them actively is a protected use. We're not going to squat on them and hope to sell them back to a manufacturer for a profit. We will use them to help increase our presence on the web and direct traffic to us when someone is searching for information regarding their products. Any one could have bought the .info extension url's names, including the manufacturer's themselves...

www.deckexpert.com now points to our website

Completing the last stage of the transfer of www.deckexpert.com to Waterproofdeckcoatingadvice.com's ownership, we have finished pointing the DNS servers to our website.
Previous readers of deckexpert.com will find a completely different website, filled with valuable information, advice and links to manufacturer's. We welcome you to our community and hope you'll come back!There is now substance and an actual deck expert behind the name, not just a company reselling a web site name.
New readers probably won't know any difference so welcome to our site as well...

Why amateurs should not try to waterproof decks

So these pictures are from my vault of horrors...what you are looking at are pictures of a job that I bid to do the waterproofing for a tile deck. The contractor decided he could do it himself in Avila Beach and this is pictures of the results.
Metal lath stapled down with what looked like an Arrow T-50 staple gun, Pac Poly rolled into the lath and whole areas just missed. Flashings, well, that's a joke. A competitor of mine took the redo of the job from me when they apparently agreed to not insist that the flashings all be removed (hope they got a waiver on flashing and leaks) and replaced.
Then there's a picture of the job when after it was exposed to UV for about 6 months, it started to fall apart.
This is another example of a million dollar defect waiting to happen and I'm glad I won't have to have my insurance deal with it, my competitor can.

Picture of the Week-Cracked Magnesite and What Lies Beneath

Today I drove to Monterey to see a client whose decks we'll be starting in on in a couple of weeks. We needed to meet the contractor, agree on the final scope of worka nd coordinate the trades involved-a sheet metal man who will be doing the flashings and the contractor doing the repairs to the buildings. I had looke dat it before last year and it was pretty rough looking Magnesite then...

I walked up the stairs at this apt building and the Magnesite didn't look any better after another year of use. I could then see a couple guys working on the walkway from underneath. Walking down the stairs to where they were, I had just walked over this nightmare. Here's the pictures of the top and what it looks like from down below!

The cracked Magnesite has leaked for years, allowing mold mildew and dry-rot to totally detsroy the framing. This work will cost tens of thousands to repair. Lesson, don't let Magnesite go unselaed and cracks un-fixed or it'll cost ya...

Pacific Polymers is Sold to Illinois Tool Works

Saw a search term for Pac Poly that caught my interest, so I dropped on by their website and true enough, they have an announcement that they were acquired by Illinois Tool Works, a publicly traded firm.
Can't find any news about it at Illinois Tool Works site...
It says they have 850 decentralized business units...maybe meaning that each is a separate entity.
Anyway, it seems the industry is rife with big changes yet again. We'll see what changes come in at Pac Poly...

Building Downturn effecting the deck coating manufacturer's and contractors

Having spoken with a fair number of companies, both manufacturer and installers, they are all saying here in California that business is slow. One manufacturer told me confidentially that the manufacturing line may be halted until materials already in inventory are sold..another told me that they aren't seeing any new construction to speak of and that their business has dropped by 40% since last year.

A contractor told me that they were dead down in San Diego county...

Locally, I'm seeing some low bids from my competitors who due to their staying local nature, have to get work here. Fortunately I travel all over and my core business hasn't slowed down on rehab and maintenance work.

I am always grateful to my many repeat customers who remember me...you help keep us going and in turn, we take care of you.

Are the dead condo projects of today the defect nightmares of tomorrow?

Having read in both our local papers and statewide/nationwide publications the dire news of homebuilding sputtering to a stop amongst production builders; I read about several such local projects that was infamously featured in the Tribune when a local hard money lender went belly up, causing numerous projects to come to a screeching halt due to a lack of funding.

This one particular condo project in San Luis Obispo has been framed out, windows in, paper for stucco up and decks just starting to be dried in when it seems the money stopped coming in.

Now it's been sitting for months out in the weather- rain, heat cold, sun all being thrown at OSB siding, plywood and waterproofing materials that aren't designed for long exposure to the elements.

On some decks, there is plywood, delaminating, splitting, checking. On others, OSB, exposed where the work stopped with lath and cement down on most but not all areas.

All these areas and materials-what will be done when this job eventually starts back up again? These waterproofing materials are all compromised by weather and exposure. Mold, mildew and fungus dry-rot spores are all probably about, starting their mayhem.
Will a builder pull the materials off and start anew? Probably not, there's not going to be enough funding to do so-investors wnat their money out of the project, they already have to much in and the builder wants to "get 'er done" as I rip off Larry The Cable Guy's line.

It will be interesting to see what evolves when and if this project gets going again. What will the subs say about the weatherbeaten materials? Will they accept them and go over them? There's a saying in the industry of "You cover it, you own it."

If I was the deck guy on this project, I wouldn't be covering over any of the materials I saw yesterday on this job...

My prediction-today's construction projects like this one will become the new construction defect suits of tomorrow.

Waterproofdeckcoatingadvice.com aquires domain name deckexpert.com

We are happy to announce that as of late afternoon today, we agreed on terms with Web Inceptions, Inc of San Diego to acquire the domain name deckexpert.com.
"This will help strengthen our rankings on web searches and bringing in viewers to our website" said Bill Leys, President of the firm. "Having assumed the nickname "Deck Expert", and a specialty license plate as marketing tools and now owning the more popular dot com extension rather than just the dot info extension is a key aspect to growing the business."
Web Inceptions is a seller of internet websites and domain names, located in San Diego CA. The terms of the sale will not be disclosed, however, we were pleased to aquire the domain name for signifacntly below the asking price of $4,997.00.
We expect to have the name transfer done today and by Monday the web address should point to www.waterproofdeckcoatingadvice.com's website. It was a pleasure doing business with Web Inceptions, they are a very effective and responsive company to make this transaction happen so quickly.

"CONCRETE EXPRESSIONS" Magazine Features a Direct Bond (Metal Lath) Miracote Waterproof decking install

In what is a probable precursor to Crossfield Products Dex-O-Tex introducing a metal lath system, the magazine of www.Concrete Network.com has an article in their most recent issue.
Written by Bill Palmer, a Concrete Network columnist, the article covers a demonstration of the install procedure done at the American Society of Concrete Contractors convention in North Carolina last fall.
A couple of criticisms, the article glosses over the install procedure, making it seme very simple and with the exception a couple of "watch out for's" would make one think after reading the article that they could just go out and do themselves. That's deceiving, because this is a concrete magazine, not a waterproofing magazine and waterproofing is wholly different from concrete decorative overlays.
Miracote rep Trevor Foster is quoted as saying that "flashing is one of the critical elements to making the system work." No Trevor, flashing is the number one critical item to making the deck waterproof. Period. No argument.
The Miracote system as a direct bond system is an interesting install procedure...
The first step is to install the metal lath with 22-28 staples per square foot (the more the better, some systems call for only 15-20) then, prior to troweling in cement into the lath, they prime the lath and plywood with a diluted polymer resin first. Then they Mirecote RM III polymer-modified concrete underlayment fills the lath. Two coats of single component fluid applied waterproofing is then applied at 25 mils wft, drying to 12.5 mils. (Sounds like a Tufflex type product to me)
They say nearly any sort of docorative overlay can be placed over it and at the demo did a 1/2" topping of Miracote's MPC.
I have several concerns and/or questions to get myself answered; one being why the primer of polymer to the lath and plywood? Are their adhesion issues with their cement to the lath and plywood without that step... or is their something they see as advantageous to that step over their competitions methods? Hmmm. Then I do have an issue over the 1/2' of stamp mix-maybe on smaller decks that will work without much cracking, but what about larger decks with a long span of joists. How will they prevent cracking the stamped surface?
Other questions come to mind too such as fire ratings, ASTM testing and such if any has been done and how proven is the system? If it's new, Miracote will need to show why this should go down in lieu of tried and true decking systems.Showing it to a convention of concrete contractors who probably don't understand the nature of waterproofing at all isn't a good move in my mind...Miracote is looking to open new markets up and needs to spend a lot of time making sure their new market can do the waterproofing part of the job.