May Issue of Professional Deck Builder is Out!

Deck builders, architects and specifiers should all be reading Professional Deck Builder on a monthly basis. This month's articles again lend reason to do so, with varied content discussing using steel and concrete poured into pans to make hurricane resistant decks in storm zones and new colors to Duradek's line of decking systems. I recommend you subscribe and get your copy every month.

May Issue is Here! 

SIXTY CONDOS Damaged/Destroyed by Smoldering Cigarette Disposed of In Plant on Condo Balcony - Causes TEN MILLION In Damages

One balcony
One potted plant
One cigarette disposed of into potted plant
One fire
Ten Million dollars in damages
Sixty condo's destroyed or severely damaged.
Hundreds of people lose homes, possessions.

Zero loss of human life
Zero loss of fur kids.

Cheap building construction blamed by some-vinyl siding and OSB and defective fire walls to blame?

Time to ban smoking on balconies? Or plants?

From CTV News Edmonton

Julia Parrish, CTV Edmonton
Published Wednesday, July 23, 2014 12:55PM MDT 
Last Updated Wednesday, July 23, 2014 7:22PM MDT

A day after a fire broke out in a west Edmonton condo building, causing millions of dollars in damages; officials with the condo board were releasing plans for residents to get their possessions back.

In a meeting held Tuesday evening, the condo board said an initial engineering review of the building, located at 1520 Hammond Gate, was underway. Once that was completed, owners and tenants of units in areas deemed safe to enter would be allowed to book 20 minute blocks to access their units and gather essential items for the next week.

Read more: http://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/damage-estimate-for-condo-fire-increases-to-10m-1.1928218#ixzz38Ot0dd9p

Bill Leys Presents Seminar at JLC Live in Providence RI

The room filling up before the start. 

Our seminar is scheduled and ready to start!

Over 30 east coast contractors from New Jersey, Maine, Rhode Island, Massachusetts New Hampshire and New York filled the room at the Rhode Island Convention Center on Thursday March 20 to hear me present a 3 hour seminar on Best Construction Practices in Building and Waterproofing Decks.

Attendees learned about the various Division Seven Pedestrian Traffic Coatings available, their differences, pro's and con's and how to select the proper system for the job at hand.

The Powerpoint based seminar also reviewed construction methods for building a decks framing and substrates for tile and pedestrian coatings.

Several editors from Hanley Wood's JLC magazine also sat in on the presentation.

The presentation at JLC coincided nicely with the publication of the new issue of JLC, which featured our new article on deck drains and scuppers.

I received a nice round of applause  at the end of the session. I thank the attendees and JLC Live staff, especially Julie Clifford and Olivia Espinosa for having me at JLC in Providence! I hope to see you at JLC in Portland again next year.

Contact us for scheduling a seminar on building and waterproofing decks. Custom seminars based on the audience-architects, builders, homeowner association managers and more are available. Call Bill at 805-801-2380

Found This Good Slide Presentation at the Oregon Association of Home Inspectors

This slide presentation by Jim Katen of the Oregon Association of Home Inspectors discuses waterproof decks and their issues.

Take a look by clicking here to OASHI.org's website page

ICC-ES Lists Non Rated Deck Coating in Division 7 Traffic Coatings Section

It appears that Skyline Building Systems Inc of Alberta Canada has become the first manufacturer to get an ICC-ES report on a non rated deck system.

What's a non-rated deck? A non-rated deck is one that doesn't meet any fire resistance classification requirements.

ICC-ES recently changed AC-39, the acceptance criteria that regulates/guides the decking industry. It used to be that one had to have a deck coating that was at least Class A or B, now with ICC-ES' new AC-39, they have opened the door to any manufacturer bringing in traffic coatings that are only tested for Durability, Wind Uplift Resistance and Impact resistance.

Read Skyline's ICC report here; pay attention to 1.0 Properties Evaluated 

Now read Desert Brand's ICC report here; pay attention to 1.0 Properties Evaluated.

See the difference? One is fire rated, one is not. Which would you rather have on your deck?
ICC-ES is just looking for more income; the more manufacturer's they can "sell" a report to, the more $ they make. Only makes sense to open reports up to non fire rated products for them.

But it makes no sense whatsoever for the public. Unethical manufacturer's (I can think of one who might fit that description, in my opinion) could mis-use this type of report. More likely unethical or unknowing contractors could use this type of report to dupe a client.
 Non-rated products will certainly find their way onto walkways and decks that are supposed to be rated. Whose ass will it be when a person loses their life because of that? Walkways and decks are supposed to be rated for fire in almost every case I am aware of.
We'll see... 

Contractors-Save Money and Get Job Leads From McGraw Hill With this Offer I'm Passing On

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Leak Blamed on New Decking Found to Be Not From New Decking...but From the Drain Pipe Itself!

A leak blamed on my new deck coating is actually from the cleanout on the drainpipe...it's cracked and drips when the line is full of water!
Bill leys

Railing Base Rusted Out

here lies the remains of a railing base on a ocean facing condo in ventura ca. rip ole friend!
Bill leys

Hey Deck Expert-My installer wants to put "crickets" in the corners of my deck. I have a hard time sleeping now, won't crickets keep me awake?

Dear Reader,

Thanks for your question about crickets.
To help ease your mind about being able to sleep, the crickets your installer wants to put in are the silent type of crickets that don't chirp all night long, so you'll get plenty of rest.

So what are these "crickets" that our reader is inquiring about? Quite simply, in the parlance of the deck coating world, a "cricket" is a method used to provide reverse slope, or move water in a different direction than where it wants to go.

Water seeks it's own level, so when a deck is pitched 2% from the wall out to the edge,
the water will run out to the edge and run off. That works fine in the case of an open railing system. But often times, a stucco or wood sided solid wall will be built at the edge. As seen above in the picture, water is trapped in a corner, mere inches away from the scupper (not visible in pic). By building slope into the corner across from the outside edge to the scupper, water would move off to the scupper instead of being trapped in a low spot.

Ponding water on a deck is not a good thing, ponded water can over time damage the waterproofing membrane and causes dirt stains and is unsightly.

Installing crickets in corners and in between drains or scuppers helps eliminate ponding water.

So in this case reader, get your self some crickets in those corners and get a good night's rest too!

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...

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 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...

Removing Old Urethane Coatings at 6th & Pine

I sold this very large job in Long Beach; we have a courtyard of apx 14,000 square feet with old failing urethane coatings. In some areas they sloped the deck and the urethane is 1" thick. Tough stuff!
So it was time to call in the big boy toy's, thanks to Sunbelt Rentals, who consistently stepped up to the plate after a competitor of their's in Anaheim dropped the ball on us several times.

Here is our first video post of a ride on scraper taking off the coating on part of the job. Uncut, raw hard hitting footage! Sic More footage shows a grinder taking off an old texture overlay and a cutter is featured last.

After scraping, scarifying and then we had Dyna Guard come in and bead blast the deck clean. Victor and his crew from Dyna Guard are great! I recommend them for your concrete prep work and will be using them again for mine. I'll post up a movie with Dyna Guard beadblasting....

Call Bill Leys, the Deck Expert, for your next big job.805-801-2380

My Meeting With Mer-Kote

I had a nice meeting yesterday with the new management of Mer-Ko, the division of Parex/LaHabra that manufacturer's and sells deck coatings. You probably have seen my emails back and forth with Susan Foster, their business manager.

Well Susan was kind enough to extend an invitation to come in and sit down with her and Buck Buchanan, VP of Sales and Technical Director.

So off I went yesterday, meeting with them at their offices in Torrance.
We had a great discussion on decking and waterproofing, I got some of the history of the purchase of Mer-Kote and subsequent management consolidation, the business goals of Parex for Mer-Ko and vision for the company..

Mer-Kote got some good information from me on the industry, the past history of Mer-Kote from my viewpoint and what I do and all.

All in all, a productive meeting that leaves me feeeling better about Mer-Kote's future and it's goals and aspirations. The old guard is gone (Dave Krubinski) and the new guard has it's work cut out for themselves, but I see it all for the better.

Mer-Ko has new ideas, goals and a business model that will make them a stronger company. While I still don't like the Weatherdeck and Shurdeck system compared to it's competitors, improvements to the products are coming, as well as some new lines.

Stand by for improvements and new focus from Mer-Ko!

Great Article on Balcony Repair

I subscribe to several professional HOA magazines; one being the Florida Community Association Journal ( a deal at $18.00 for a subscription).
This months (February 08) issues has a great article by Ashley Kizzire on Balcony Repair-specifically concrete balconies, which are almost always found on the many high rise structures in Florida.

Salt water, salty air, wind whipped water, they all attack unprotected concrete, infiltrating into the structure, attacking the rebar within, causing it to rust, expand and cause spalling of the concrete, often causing thousands of dollars of damage to each balcony, add them all up and many buildings have half a million or more in repair costs.

Same message I've been preaching is in Ashley's story-regular inspections, regular maintenance, don't put carpeting down (even on concrete balconies!)will help save your decks...

Read the article by subscribing to Florida Community Association Journal, click on the link and they'll start you up with a subscription too. See what others are doing around the country, expand your horizons!

I'm hoping that Ashley or FLCAJ will share this article with us in the future for posting at our website...

Compilation of significant construction defect cases

From the law offices of Castro & Associates, comes this list of top construction defect cases...

very interesting reading for those of you looking for knowledge and information.

Sheet Metal Association Contractors (SMACNA) newlstter warns about deck coating and flashing problems

From a 2001 newsletter, still relevant today though...

Most Residential Construction Defect cases start as a result of actual leaks in roofs, walls, decks, doors or windows. Some cases get started as a result of a clever attorney convincing a homeowners’ association that they might have leaks later on. Regardless, if you did any exterior sheet metal work, they want you. Short of not doing that work, your best protection is to do it right and to document your work with photos and written correspondence concerning flashing details, including any and all suggestions you might make as to improving flashing, especially those buried in deck or hot-mop roof assemblies. If you see a bad detail in the plans, discuss it, document it, suggest your improvement and price it. Any documented rejections of this type of proposed improvement could be your ticket out of a lawsuit if that flashing is questioned later on. Also document with photos and correspondence any problems with the work of related trades that touch your work, i.e., roofing, siding, stucco, deck coating, windows and doors.

We were pleasantly surprised to see...

That our article on SB-800 and it's effects on deck coating warranties, is the feature article for ECHOJournal's September 2007 issue.

Kudo's to Oliver Burford for the fantastic cover picture and the lead in for the article! It's so perfectly an illustration of what Associations have (and other properties too!) laying on their decks-MONEY!

Spend a little maintaining them, or spend a lot replacing them.

Subscribe to ECHOJournal today, even if you are not in Nor Cal; ECHO's magazine brings it to the HOA community...Call them today at 408-297-3246 for your subscription. Tell Dorothy I sent you.

Check your CC&R's, see if you need to do inspections and documentation, call us if we can help-805-801-2380. We can help you write rules/regs for deck use, care and maintenance guidelines, inspections, we will save you money.