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.