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!
The experts on pedestrian traffic coatings brings you the information you need on one website! We have information on all pedestrian traffic coatings manufacturer's, including Pli-Dek, West Coast Specialty Coating Systems, Desert Brand, Life Deck, Tufflex, Mer-Kote and Dex-O-Tex systems. Browse our website for articles, videos, news stories and more. We'll be updating and adding more pages soon so bookmark this site and come back and visit!
Monday, January 21, 2008
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
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.
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.
Monday, January 14, 2008
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
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.
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.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
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!
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.
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.
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