So Cal Roof Consultants have a Great Plaza and Deck Waterproofing Symposium Set for June 2nd in Long Beach

Waterproofers and those interested in the tarde should attend this RCI sponsored event in Long Beach on Monday; click the link to go the RCI website for your
registration form.

Experts Rick Norris, Jim Strong, Paul Goetz, Chris Nelson and Tom Butt are all on tap for this day long event.

If your a serious contractor, you;ll be there...

Construct2008 Just Around the Corner...June 3-6th in Las Vegas

Wow sometimes things are happening so fast I miss something big...and this is BIG!
Architects, specifiers, Contractors, Facility managers and many more come see all the big boys at the show...and the big boys are the only ones here at this one that I see.
Dex-O-Tex, Pac-Poly, Mer-Kote, Tremco, Polycoat, WR Meadows, DuraDek and Lonseal have come to play, stepping up with the big fees that it takes to get an exhibit space-$3,000 for space alone! on a 10' x 10' booth, and looking at the floor plan, some of these guys have stepped up to a whole level beyond that.
Why? Because these guys and gals attending are the money baby! They'll be the ones who see these companies here, and start specifying and using their products...instead of those products that aren't represented here.
If your in the trades, you should be there too.

Parex Lahabra/Mer-Ko announce traing schedule for applicators

If you want to be a currently listed applicator for Mer-Ko decking and waterproofing products, attendance is required at their training seminars at the Torrance facility.
They put on a great demonstration of decorative finishes last time I was there and coming up in June is their decking systems application process. I look forward to seeing you all there!
Click the link above to go to the website and register...tell them I sent ya.

Mer-Ko Demonstration & Educational Seminar Schedule — 2008

June 19 Mer-Ko Fundamentals of Seamless Decking & Waterproofing Systems
September 18 Mer-Ko Decorative Coatings & Accents
December 11 New Product Highlights, Contractor & Applicator Round-Table/Focus Group
Location: 501 Van Ness Avenue, Torrance, CA
Time: 8AM to 4PM

Excellent Coatings Installer Training Classes for 2008

# August 7 & 8, 2008
# October 16 & 17, 2008
# December 4 & 5, 2008

these dates above are what's listed at their website for upcoming training dates at their facility in San Diego. Check directly with them to confirm...

Great Article in Proffessional Deck Builder magazine on Deck Construction, Plus get a free download on Deck Construction

Those who frame out and build decks for a living will be wise to read and understand the article by Glen Mathewson of Westminster CO in the May/June issue of Professional Deck Builder magazine on "Using the Prescriptive Residential Deck Construction Guide".

Glen compares the guide with the current International Residence Code and the shortfalls he's found in the IRC.

Must read material for the deck builder/framer!

You can also download the Prescriptive Residential Deck Construction Guide free at www.afanpa.org

Build safely and confidently with the right tools in hand, and we're not talking Skilsaws here...

Oops! May is (was) National Deck Safety Month

Direct from NADRA, North American Deck & Railing Association's web page on deck safety...this applies to wood and waterproof decks-check 'em for safety and life issues!


The number of deck failures and resulting injuries has been increasing at an alarming rate. Between 2000 and 2006, there have been at least 30 deaths reported as a direct result of deck collapses and more than 75 percent of people on a deck when it collapses are injured or killed, illuminating just how important it is for homeowners to check their deck. There are 40 million decks in the U.S. that are over 20 years old. At a conservative 1 percent, that means 40,000 decks are currently in need of repair or replacement. Taking that estimate to 10 percent brings the total number of unsafe decks to 4 million.

Its time to Check Your Deck! Homeowners should visit NADRA�s website at www.NADRA.org for the Check Your Deck - 10-Point safety checklist. �May is a great time to make your deck-check,� Beaudry says. �In parts of the country where there�s a lot of snow and ice, your deck could have developed a trouble spot over the winter.� Beaudry adds, �If you�ve never had your deck professionally inspected, make that appointment. A professional inspection will examine every inch of your deck, educate you on your deck�s capacity limits, identify any problem areas, and give you a map of what to keep your eye on in the future. If your deck is older, this might include a regular deck inspection schedule.�

If you find your deck is not safe to enjoy, NADRA advises taking immediate action to have it repaired or rebuilt as necessary and recommends the following tips to choose a deck builder.

* Ask friends and family members for referrals and contact state and local licensing authorities and trade associations such as NADRA.
* Meet with and carefully evaluate all potential deck builders. Ask to see a portfolio and some samples of the decking and railing materials they prefer to use. Good builders take pride in their work and will be enthusiastic about the possibility of creating a relationship.
* Pay attention to the deck builder�s experience, licensing, insurance coverage and professional references.

A key element of enjoying your deck for years to come is making sure it is safe and code compliant. When hiring a deck builder, there is more to consider than just price. In addition to the tips above, NADRA recommends homeowners contact their city or county building department to speak with an inspector with knowledge in deck construction.

For more information on Deck Safety Month, the Check Your Deck program and finding a reputable deck builder, visit www.nadra.org.

Elite Crete Announces June Training Dates

Elite Crete Los Angeles announced their June training schedule; click the headline to go download their brochure/registration form.
Two day intensive training plus an optional job day in the field at a private residence.
Free to attend plus they'll give ya lunch...register today to expand your business opportunities!

Bill Leys' Seminar Attracts Thousands to JLC Live Show!

Mobs where waiting at the door at 4:15 pm, eagerly waiting for the doors to open to the Art of Waterproofing Decks seminar, presented by deck expert Bill Leys...the Long Beach police had to be called in to restore order after the PowerPoint handouts ran out...
well the reality was they had to promise not to break into a keg and hold it back for all the folks who came to the 4:30 seminars, instead of going to the free happy hour that began at 5 pm.

I was pleased to see about 25 persons in the audience when I started up my seminar, including representatives from Mer-Kote-Parex LaHabra. The audience seemed engaged and asked me lots of questions, obviously because they had problems in the past.

I wound up around 530, with time for questions and answers...one guy who was from Nor Cal came up and said he was a deck coating installer, thought I did a pretty good job instilling the process of what deck coating installers need from their contractors.

My best feather that went in my cap so to speak though was editor Dave Frane of JLC Magazine who emailed me saying my presentation was interesting and most importantly, not boring, quite a feat for such a boring subject... ;) and then invited me to write an article on deck coating!
So look for an article sometime down the road, not sure what the magazine's turnaround is from receipt of article til publication, but I will be doing an article! Thanks JLC!

Reporting On JLC Live Residential Construction Show at Long Beach

The just ended JLC Live Residential Construction Show in Long Beach seemed to be well attended by my estimation on Thursday, May 15th, the day I attended the show.
Getting in early to check in as a speaker, I wandered down stairs in the seminar area, where the office of JLC staff is and where the speakers lounge is too.

I met Sherri Daniels, a dynamo who was making decisions and introducing me to staff and telling me about my seminar and room assignment all at once and never seemed out of sorts the whole time. "Just another day" Sherri deadpanned.

Leaving me off, I met up with Dave Frane, a senior editor at JLC magazine. We struck up a conversation on waterproofing and enjoyed some banter before heading up to the show floor.

Tons of peole milled about on the floor, a mix of trade show booths with live demo's of installations of windows, tiling, stair building and vendors selling tools and various software-estimating stuff mostly.

Wandering the floor, I met a number of vendors/manufacturer's with interesting products and ideas..including Landon Innovations of Moorpark CA's "Gorilla Gripper", (www.gorillagripper.com )a handy tool that allows one with ease to handle sheets of plywood and drywall materials with an ingenious handle that grips the piece. Simple Man Products booth had some ingenious "why didn't I think of that" products that makes life easier on many construction tasks; an electric box finder that one slips into the elec boxes, then puts up the drywall and you can easily find your placing to cut out the hole for the box. Check out their line of stuff at
www.simplemanproducts.com

Shower and bath waterproofing products were represented well, the market for easy to install and waterproof tile showers and baths is ripe for change, leaks in these areas contribute to a lot of construction defect issues like decks do. Nobel Company amongst others has a line of foam cast tile ready forms and pre-sloped floors along with their all in one waterproofing sheet membrane for tiling, which also integrates a crack isolation membrane in it as well. They claim it will work with exterior tiled balconies too. I'll have to do some research...the material looks interesting.

Wandering further on the show floor, I came across the only actual deck coating manufacturer to smartly buy a booth and meet 100's if not thousands of potential customers who may need deck coating on one of their projects (pretty dang likely they will!)and now are on Westcoat Specialty Coatings mailing and contact list. I met Curtis at the booth who had some of Westcoat's cool water based stains and other flooring finishes, along with their deck coating lines and waterproofing.

I watched Michael Byrne do a live tiling demonstration for a while, then went in search of lunch at the speakers lounge.

Down at the speakers area, I met a local from Atascadero-Turko Semmes, of Semmes & Co Builders, who was giving a talk on green building. Then as I'm sitting across from a guy, Tim Faller, who sports a JLC Live badge that says "Westerly, RI" as his hometown...I find out that a couple of Rhode Islanders are out here for the show -stair guru Mike Kennedy is giving demo's on the floor. Being from RI, it was funny to hear the other speakers, many of whom are on their 3rd or 4th show, ribbing us on "are akshents". (our accents)It was nice to see that an accent on bringing in California based speakers was made with great success. I joined an esteemed group of caring craftsmen, including Dennis Allen of Allen Associates in Santa Barbara, Michael Byrne of Los Olivios, Jay Elbettar of Newport Beach, Gary Katz, Reva Kussmaul, Michael McCutcheon of Berkeley, Turko Semmes of Atascadero and Bill Robinson of Arroyo Grande.

I walked around the show again before heading over to my hotel, the Queen Mary, for a quick refresh before my seminar at 430.

Free Download of ICC Residential Inspectors Guide Based on 2006 IRC

Yep, you read it right, a free download of the 189 page Residential Inspectors Guide based on the 2006 International Residential Code is available by clicking the headline to go to the ICC website.
I downloaded mine today, get one before the offer is gone!

Whew, All Posts are now Labeled!

As a newbie to blogging, I never labeled a lot of my posts. Well I went back through and have labeled nearly every post with a key word or two to help you find subject matter of interest.
For instance, any articles I've read and recommend will now be labeled "Recommended Reading" and may be labeled under "education" as well. Specific manufacturer's are all keyworded and as you'll see in the labels column, there's many a key word to search with.
Happy reading

Gotta watch the Gutter Guy

So after seeing my third job damaged by gutter installers who hacked up our flashing, cracked our deck coating and caused the owners to get hit with a change order to repair our work, it's time to send out a caution to everyone to watch out for the gutter guy...
First job it happened on was in Marina Del Rey, our copper flashings and deckc oatings were done, everything is nice and then I get a phone call that the new deck is cracked at multiple places...a ride on over, climb the 60' ladder to the roof top decks and we find the gutters have been forced into position, causing damage.
Our extra work order at this job cost the gutter guy a charge back of $9,800.00 against his bill. More than all his work combined...
A job we are doing in San Luis Obispo just cost the gutter guy $1,100 for us to remove and replace 40 feet of flashing.

Luckily in these 3 cases I caught the problem in time, before it became a leak and a court case. I wonder how many more are out there?

Maybe California and the US needs a "Weathertight Homes Tribunal" like they have in NZ

In New Zealand, condo's, or apartments as they call them down under, have a Ministry of Justice Weathertight Homes Tribunal they can turn to for help in leaky building problems.
Read this article on a long drawn out case over leaky decks and buildings...

Interesting Arbitration in Oregon and another reason why all contracts need to be in writing

Here's an interesting case that was arbitrated up in Oregon, but should serve as a lesson learned for all of us to establish a written contract, a scope of work and a written warranty that combined with proper construction techniques, will hopefully allow you to avoid a huge headache on a million dollar home being built. Click the headline to go to the webpage where the whole dcument is to read it all...

BREACH OF CONTRACT

Sometime in February 2004, the parties entered into a verbal contract. Neither party recalls the exact date of the contract or the specific terms of their agreement. When presented with a verbal contract, it is not possible; without a detailed, accurate presentation of the contractual agreement; for a fact finder to fully and accurately determine the specifics of the parties’ promises; their performance; and the extent of their compliance or breach, which ever the case may be. The only provisions of the verbal contract for which the parties provided credible evidence were that the claimant agreed to provide a waterproof membrane on a deck and that in return the respondent agreed to pay $980. The evidence in the record supports, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the claimant provided a waterproof membrane on a deck and that the respondent paid the claimant in full. Neither party breached the only contract provision that the parties were capable of recalling with credibility.

IMPROPER WORK

The claimant contracted with the respondent to have a waterproof membrane installed on a deck. The claimant explained to the respondent that the deck area would eventually be covered with concrete. The respondent informed the claimant that the waterproof membranes he installed were designed to be open and exposed to the elements as roofing material for flat or low-sloping roofs; he had no experience, prior to working with the claimant, installing a waterproof membrane under a concrete slab. The claimant told the respondent to, “Do whatever it is you do.” The claimant also told the respondent in the same conversation, “not to worry because concrete does not leak.” After a leak was discovered and both parties investigated, they learned that, in cases where concrete is going to cover a waterproof membrane, industry standards require that the membrane itself curve up or “flash” the vertical wall for a distance of at least eight inches. In this case, it did not. In addition, they learned that industry standards require that a protective layer or “protection board” separate the waterproof membrane and the concrete. In this case, it did not. Neither was aware of these requirements prior to the work being performed, nor did the claimant require that the respondent adhere to those standards at the time of performance. Yet the claimant contends that the respondent should be solely responsible for improper work. The claimant’s contention is in error. The claimant directed the respondent to “do what it does” to install a waterproof membrane. The respondent did exactly that. The claimant did not ask or direct the respondent to investigate the procedure for placing a waterproof membrane under a concrete slab. In fact, the claimant implied by its statement—don’t worry, concrete doesn’t leak—that it did not require the respondent to do anything other than that which it regularly did when installing waterproof membranes on a roof.

The claimant served as the general contractor for the residence constructed at 1949 Cheryl Court, Lake Oswego, Oregon. The claimant visited the site daily. As of the date of the hearing, the claimant had been working in the Lake Oswego area as a general contractor for over 36 years. The house the claimant constructed is valued at over $1,000,000. Taking all of these factors in consideration, the claimant knew, or should have known, that it was ultimately responsible for quality and workmanship. Nevertheless, the claimant inspected the respondent’s work and made payment-in-full without ever mentioning improper work. What’s more, the respondent’s work was open for inspection and viewing by the claimant for a period in excess of four months. During that time, the claimant did not raise the issue of improper work. Without any indication that the respondent’s work was improper, the claimant directed another subcontractor to pour concrete over the respondent’s work, making any necessary repairs to the respondent’s work exponentially more difficult and costly. Therefore, the claimant alone bears the responsibility for the high cost to make repairs.


The claimant contracted with a concrete subcontractor to pour a slab of concrete over the respondent’s waterproof membrane. The waterproof membrane was flashed to a height of no more than three inches. The subcontractor poured a 4.5 inch slab. Industry standards require that concrete pours not exceed the height of any flashing. The concrete contractor’s work was improper. What’s more, it is highly likely that the fact that the concrete rose above the flashing contributed, if not caused, the leak at issue.

Finally, during the period between the installation of the waterproof membrane and the discovery of a leak, several intervening events took place, any of which could have either caused or contributed to the leak. Construction workers walked and performed construction work directly on the waterproof membrane, concrete was poured directly on top of the membrane without the benefit of a protective barrier, and the claimant removed and replaced a post that had been flashed by the respondent. The claimant’s evidence did not eliminate any of the above factors as the cause of the leak. Similarly, the claimant failed to establish that the respondent’s work was either the sole or a significant cause of the leak. Rather, the claimant proved only that the respondent’s work was one of several possible causes of the leak.

Read it all, click the headline!

Anothe example of why metal lath decks need fiberglass over the lath

Still on memory lane row, I found these pictures of a deck in Ventura with an ocean front exposure (at about 200' above sea level, but not fog level)that are of a metal lath coating, brand unknown, with a rusted out lath. This deck system has no waterproofing apparent, no fiberglass, no seal guard, nothing, just relying on slope to run water off before it could percolate down...it didn't work.

Bozo the Clown Applied Urethane on This Job

Nostalgic for a trip down memory land, I'm going through old pictures of jobs I looked at. This one at Justin Vineyards in Paso Robles I didn't redo, it went to a suit I heard over the leaks and application process...but here's some pictures of the job, it's a pathetic looking mess that is a urethane system, brand unknown, that was put down over a damp substrate is the way I heard it, and it's outgassed.
A lesson in making sure your applicator is trained and experienced...

Decks In the Line of Fire" a good article on deck building in CA fire zones

I found this article in Professional Deck Builder online regarding the new fire codes for decks in wild land interfaces. Written by Santa Barbara author and deck builder Bill Bolton, there is some good info here to know and implement into your building strategy.


First 100 Words:
Decks in the Line of Fire Deciphering the code behind fire-resistant construction Bill Bolton As a deck designer and builder on the West Coast, I occasionally build decks in what's called the wildland-urban interface. The geography here is a little different from, say, the woodlands of New England. Winter rains on the California coast support plentiful vegetation, which then dries out in the summer to become a tinderbox (Figure 1). This large fuel source, coupled with high winds in the surrounding mountains and canyons, creates an environment ripe for the wildfires you see on the evening news. Despite the danger,

Click here or our headline to go to the article at Professional Deck Builder online

Picture of the week, a couple weeks late

So I'm looking through a cd I burned of pictures of old jobs; came across this job on the water in Cayucos that I did a few years ago.
As you can see in the first pic, the house is on the water, subject to very harsh conditions.
The deck has urethane on it that burned up from UV and has split and allowed water in. I opened the bubbles on the deck to find salt underneath! Here's the pictures that show it...
after fixing plywood, flashing, and sloping, the deck was redone with the Desert Crete decking system from Hill Brothers.
Pretty amazing sight to see, crystallized sea salt...