SealMaxx - Max something?

[Celeste 341]

This product has been brought up before, the one that guarantees the WOOD to last for 25+ years, blah, blah, blah...

Has anyone run across this stuff? My specific question would be.....John Q. Homeowner puts this stuff on his deck in 1995. Sell his home in 1999. Suzie Homemaker doesn't like the way the deck looks and calls someone to strip it.

1 - How would you know if the coating that was on the deck was the 25 yr stuff?

2 - How would you get it off if you found out that's what it was?

We've looked at the website for the company and the information is limited at best. You have to be a franchise to get any detailed information about it.

We're not remotely (or financially) interested in using the stuff but would love to know what to do if we are contacted to remove it.

Any experiences?

Celeste

[Cleveland Mobile 14]

Celeste...there's a product up this way they have been pushing called One Time Wood. Its actually clear coat for cars with a cedar tint in it. Its supposed to last 7 years. I've run into decks with it on and the homeowner wasnt satisfied with the color. Oh well....too bad......I dont even want to mess with it. Its illegal to spray one time wood because its an automotive base ...you have to brush and roll it. i dont think normal strippers would have much effect.

Andy

[Mike Cappa 14]

replace the wood

[Rfitz 14]

Seal Maxx, is crazy, they use a silicone based product, it was originally used to soak telephone poles in in nothern canada, any way here is the problem,

they claim 25 year warranty, they have only benn using this on dipped poles so the whole piece of wood is covered not like decks where just the top of the board is covered so mold, moisture, etc can still come into the wood from underneath, another problem is they charge between $3 and $5 a sq ft and that is for clear based sealer only, it you want a tint added it is another $2-$4 a sq ft, so far a natural cedar color deck you are looking at almost $9 a sq ft so on a 1000 sq ft deck thats $9000, I have a hard time selling at $2.00 a sq ft, ? and one guy I know who is a franchisee, says he has more work than he can handle, I told him, do you also believe in the tooth fairy..? anyway, when they do go out of business in 2-4 years which they will, what are these poor folks/suckers going to do with these decks that are ruined, because you cannot strip this stuff,, oh and I almost forgot, there clear sealer they use, has no UV protection, so what do they do in 1 year when the deck turns grey and black from sun damage..? I know here where I live, they spend approx $5000 to $10000 a week on advertising, I would bet my house that there will be major lawsuits on this company just like there is on Trex maint free decks in a just a few short years, I get on average 10-20 calls a month from trex deck owners they hate their deck and cant keep it clean, but remember it is maint free for life like the manufacturer stated... sometimes people just need to use common sense

[rocco 14]

Interesting read!

I just did a home show as some may know and I noticed both of these companies there.

Seal Maxx had a nice booth showing their process on video and at the least was impressive in how it was applid. however i had a few people come to me complaining about them as they didnt believe it would last for one and some asked what happens when they wanted to change the color or even sell the house and so on. Needless to say I will be giving these people estimates this week.

A guy that sells and installs trex decking was there and did a seminar that was interesting and he had a huge booth (8 times the size of mine)and yet i still had some people come to me and either complain about their composite deck fading and now they are left with a deck that is not the color they wanted and some saying that they are stuck with a failed product that has just turned white and the manufacturer and the installer has refused to help them! I asked this guy from trex about it and he just said that it needed to be replaced as it was a bad batch!

I totally agree with the common sense comment Rfitz.

[Scott Paul 164]

We have the same problem in the Metro Detroit area with a company called Supersealllc.com. What both of these companies are doing is applying a pentrating clear coat sealer (seal-it.ca) that internally hardens the wood. Similar to petrifying the wood. The 25 year warranty is good for only rotting and warping. It obviously will not do anything at all for UV discoloration. This year the Supersealllc.com company is offering One Time (Onetimewood.com) on top of their sealer and telling their customers that it will stop sun discoloration for 7 years. Well after talking to the One Time rep he said their limited warranty does not actually cover sun discoloration and that it is impossible to remove with washing and or stripping. He did promise that it would work and it can be easliy recoated, which of course was after he told me that the wood must be completely bare for maximum penetration. When you apply either one of these products you will forever be stuck with them. They will not come out. These restoration companies are a joke. They lie to the homeowners be not telling them the whole truth. I do know that the MI company (SuperSealllc.com) came from a company called Perma Coat. Perma Coat had a similar 25 year guarantee for houses. They went out of business last year and left all the customers out of luck. I wouldn't be suprised it your St. Louis company had something to do with Perma Coat.

[reed 500]

SealMaxx was at the homeshow I just had a booth in. I had my "spies" go and question them the best they could without giving anything away. Here's what I found out.

As Rob mentioned, it was first designed for telephone poles, then they created/mixed it for concrete overpasses. The premise behind the concrete is that it will penetrate the top layer of concrete filling the open air pockets on it's way to the aggregate level.. At the aggregate level is where it is designed to do it's best work. It is silicone based and will bond together any open air pockets at the aggregate level so NO pieces fall onto passing vehicles. They also state that they do "petrify" the wood. But, now here's the kicker, they recommend that a stain be applied 30 to 60 days after the SealMaxx is put on. This brings up all kinds of thoughts. They also stated that they do not remove any prior stains and they will not put any type of warranty in writing..

There were 4 guys who started sealmaxx and their background is in marketing. Which does show if you ever see or hear their marketing campaign. They came to my booth asking how to remove acrylic and latex. They didn't have a way and were wondering how I did it. I told them we could trade info and I want to know the exact chemical make up so if I encountered one of their petrified decks I knew what I was up against. This they totally ballked at, so I politely said "I can't help you, a trade secret too".

One of my other competitors who were there, SparkleWash, which is a franchise, found out that SealMaxx's pricing to petrify a deck is about 5 times what is normally done, strip/clean/seal. Oh, and SparkleWash Franchisers (?sp) charge .90 per sf for deck work.

SealMaxx has only been in business since 2001 according to the BBB and I want to know how they can state 25yrs on wood. The product has not been out that long and where are the field test results? Their Web Site has a testimonial area with nothing in it.

Reed

[Scott Paul 164]

That's the thing with these companies. These are not deck restoration companies that have learned the ins and outs through years of experience. They are relatively new to the business and there for the quick buck. If you read the seal-it.ca website they will even state that their product will make your stain/tinted sealer last 300% longer. That is a complete joke! Your TWP or Ready Seal will still fade at the normal rate whether or not this seal-it product is used. I feel for all of the customers who buy into their system without really understanding the truth.

[mhpoole 14]

There is a new guy out near me who is using this product who says its the best thing. He has only been in business for 7 months. What a joke, I hope I never run into one of these decks.

[Scott Paul 164]

Here is a picture of a deck that was done last summer with the "miracle" 25 year warranty. Needless to say the homeowner was very upset that he spent $3000 on a 600 s. foot deck. This was done by a comany called SuperSeal and they used the seal-it product from Canada.

www.opwdecks.com/images/supersealed2004.jpg

[reed 500]

That's absolutely horrid looking.

reed

[Celeste 341]

And now the $1M question.......how do you strip that crap off?????