www.tufflexpolymers.com
www.polycoat.org
www.carlisle-ccw.com
www.deckote.com
www.multicoat.com
www.polytuffus.com
Urethane coatings are the ultimate waterproofing system; 100% impenetrable by water, they will keep an occupied space free of water intrusion. However, let people walk on it, use it with grills and tables and chairs on it and it's weakness becomes apparent; it can't resist much use and abuse.
There are basically two types of urethanes used for waterproofing decks; solvent based and water based. Tufflex is a well known water based urethane, utilizing plain water to set up and form a heavy layer of flexible materials. Pacific Polymers is a well known manufacturer of solvent based urethanes that cure by absorbing moisture in the air. After the waterproof layers are applied, sand is often broadcast into the pigmented sealer for grip.
Solvent based urethane systems in particular have been hit hard by tougher and tougher VOC standards in the state of California; they have been notorious for using chemical formulations that have links to known carcinogens. Today's urethanes are substantially different than those of years past. They require high amounts of maintenance to protect their tender under layers-think of a rubber band on the dashboard of your car on a hot day. It will become brittle and break easily with just a few hours of exposure. Urethanes have the same problem, lack of UV resistance. Their life depends entirely on being protected from UV with pigmented sealers-sun-block if you will to keep damaging rays from burning up the waterproofing layers. Just like your skin, when the sun-block stops being effective after a period of time, you start to get sunburned.
While inexpensive compared to other waterproofing, the long term maintenance costs and risk of being easily damaged outweigh the benefits of cost. An HOA would be probably better off with other alternatives.
We recommend that you use our Questions to Ask list that we developed that will help you understand the different deck coatings you might be presented with
- Maintenance Instructions for Pacific Polymers - These instructions also apply to most other solvent based polyurethane coatings.
- Maintenance Instructions for Tufflex - Instructions for the care of water based urethane deck coating systems.
- Maintenance Instructions for PolyTuff - We've never seen any as tough as this before! We wonder why they call it PolyTuff?
