Avila Beach Client of DeckTech Says G'Bye to Granite Deck and Buries It Under a Tested & Proven Coating System

In September I inspected a large roof deck in Avila Beach for some possible maintenance work. It had Decktech's Granite Deck system on it, along with a "Annual Deck Maintenance Agreement" cost that was in the owners estimation, high in cost and low in value.

I found a Granite Deck system that was rapidly in decline-it got a lot of UV exposure up on a roof and it got a lot of use from guests and residents of the property.

                                                        Failing Granite Deck system

                                 Hard to clean and impossible to clean are two repeated complaints

Life Deck Al covers stairs of property

My discussion with the owner was to either maintain what you have until failure really sets in or consider an alternative. The owner set about calculating costs-Decktech's maintenance costs, doing it himself using Life Deck clear sealers bought at Miners Ace like Decktech does, or having the failing Granite Deck system buried (encapsulated, haha, away from the deleterious effects of the environment) under a new decking system.

After making those calculations, including costs of possible loss of use, rent, time etc, this owner quashed his Granite Deck costs by using another contractor besides Decktech to install a Life Deck AL system over the existing system. The Life Deck AL and other systems like it are good alternatives to the Granite Deck, being able to be stapled right through the thin Granite Deck membrane and the polymer concrete adheres well to the Granite Deck.

Once all the applications of Life Deck AL's system are down, the result is a concrete based system that resists UV far batter than Granite Deck ever hoped it could, is actually really fire resistant unlike DeckTech advertised Granite Deck is and has FAR LOWER costs to maintain than Granite Deck costs. Actually, the owner can easily CLEAN the Life Deck AL surface with nothing more than a broom, some Simple Green and warm water.

Life Deck AL, Westcoat ALX, Pli-Deck Fire system, Desert Crete etc are all concrete based systems that attach mechanically to the deck via stapling metal lath and then acrylic cements are troweled down. They are tested and evaluated pedestrian traffic coating systems, with ICC-ES reports behind them proving they are what they say they are. See if you can find any reports for Granite Deck, I can't! I will pay $100 to the first person who can produce a report on Granite Deck showing it is Class A ASTM E-108.

Corners are especially vulnerable to wear and damage, unlike real deck systems. 

Owners stuck with Granite Deck should start making their own calculations-like what happens when/if DeckTech's license is suspended or revoked? Who will maintain my DeckTech warranty then? If I'm paying $650 a year for an ADMA agreement like Doug Snyder is or $385 a year like Robert Miles is, both in Oceano, that's the cost of a new deck over 10 years time, $6,500 for Snyder...actually they should call this plan the Annual Sucker Agreement, because that is what you are when you pay an annual fee to them for them to "maintain" a piece of crap deck system.

Slowly but surely owners are coming to the round to accepting that they need to replace their Granite Deck system, either due to continued failures (or warranty repairs per DT) at seams in particular and that their ADMA is a costly luxury that would be better invested into a long term solution rather than keeping a dead deck system on Life Support.

Your turn to decide is coming soon!