Just like in high school, I loved going on “field trips” to see competitors jobs after they are completed. See the job, check what they’ve done, how they did it, details, and of course, to see if any problems exist or evidence of problems.

So last week on Friday, Deck Expert went off with a buddy to trip down to Rancho Bernardo to the 4S Ranch, where apartment homes were recently built by Saris-Regis Homes…

Rumor has it that it’s a job with Westcoat on it, so we’re looking for evidence of any failures over wp-40 in particular.

Most of the walkways are well covered with overhangs, protecting them from the heat of the sun, which out here, can easily reach 105 degrees I’m told on many days. There’s also private decks and entry decks too so we check them all out, or at least what we can get on… many of these have some sun exposure so maybe we’ll find something.

Our field trip revealed some interesting observations and strange details, many of which I personally would never have covered over. We found hot water heater closet doors without any thresholds, that are actually lower than the decks, meaning when it rains, water could run under the doors into the closets. Hope they called that out before waterproofing the closets and decks…

We also found the trim on the doors down onto the decks, which can allow water to wick up into the trim and cause rot, edge details where the material is pulling away or never adhered to begin with. We also saw details like the post bases being covered over, the bolts and bases covered with materials, just barely.

Then as it was looking like there was nothing of significance failing, I spotted a big deck at the leasing center on the second floor, looking out over the pool. Totally exposed to the sun, during the hottest parts of the day.

So into the leasing center we went, up the stairs and out onto the deck. JACKPOT!

So here are the pictures of the cracked deck, multiple cracks everywhere. We found areas where the deck sounded hollow, like it wasn’t attached to anything…it moved too, with my weight on the areas…

So is this a Westcoat product job with ALX and WP-40? We’re going to find out for sure, we’re sending the pictures to Sares-Regis and I’m going to ask them who did it and with //www.youtube.com/get_player