I'm so agitated. I hear this commercial on a MAJOR Chicago radio show promoting SealMaxx 25 year guarantee deck treatment and CRINGE each and every time.
Well it was bound to happen sooner or later. I go to do an estimate for gutter cleaning for a town home complex. While there, I get to talking to some of the locals. One lady in particular asked me if we do concrete cleaning and sealing. Of course we do, so I gave her a bid (small slab...$50.00 to clean AND seal) Her mouth about dropped....turns out that Sealmaxx was there the previous year and gave her a quote of $1,400.00 dollars!!!
Then she tells me that they cleaned and sealed her deck too and wanted to know if I could look at it because it looked "terrible".
To say the least. The deck looked like it had not been touched for 10 years it was so grayed out and molded up...In fact I wouldn't have believed it was just done except for the very obvious splinters! It was plain to see that the tech that did her did had no clue what he was doing as the entire deck was splintered due to the extreme pressure (cedar)...The latewood had been lifted right off the deck leaving this really nice little ridges across the grain..
UGH! Well, Sealmaxx claims that the deck will be sealed "from the inside" for 25 years and will not incur any water damage at all. I did a "splash test" with the garden hose and really expected to see the deck bead up due to the silloxane or silicone they use to seal it but was amazed that the water sank right in...I mean this deck virtually has no protection on it whatsoever.
This lady actually told me that the sales rep told her that the sealer they used was the same stuff they put on utility poles and that you would not even be able to drive a nail into the wood once sealed!!
LIE! In fact, I used to work for the utilities and know that they use(at least used to use) Creosote (spell check please) to seal the poles against rot.
I talked to the rep that she used last year..he told me that he no longer worked for this company because his conscience would not allow it. He admitted that they even he was fooled by the myriad of lies and was selling these customers a headache.
So beware to all of you that have these vandals in your neck of the woods. What would be awesome is if organizations like the PWNA would band together and shed some light on this fraud (legally speaking). It would first and foremost protect our future customers from being ripped off and secondly, protect us the contractors from dealing with this mess a year or two later.
I'm so agitated. I hear this commercial on a MAJOR Chicago radio show promoting SealMaxx 25 year guarantee deck treatment and CRINGE each and every time.
Well it was bound to happen sooner or later. I go to do an estimate for gutter cleaning for a town home complex. While there, I get to talking to some of the locals. One lady in particular asked me if we do concrete cleaning and sealing. Of course we do, so I gave her a bid (small slab...$50.00 to clean AND seal) Her mouth about dropped....turns out that Sealmaxx was there the previous year and gave her a quote of $1,400.00 dollars!!!
Then she tells me that they cleaned and sealed her deck too and wanted to know if I could look at it because it looked "terrible".
To say the least. The deck looked like it had not been touched for 10 years it was so grayed out and molded up...In fact I wouldn't have believed it was just done except for the very obvious splinters! It was plain to see that the tech that did her did had no clue what he was doing as the entire deck was splintered due to the extreme pressure (cedar)...The latewood had been lifted right off the deck leaving this really nice little ridges across the grain..
UGH! Well, Sealmaxx claims that the deck will be sealed "from the inside" for 25 years and will not incur any water damage at all. I did a "splash test" with the garden hose and really expected to see the deck bead up due to the silloxane or silicone they use to seal it but was amazed that the water sank right in...I mean this deck virtually has no protection on it whatsoever.
This lady actually told me that the sales rep told her that the sealer they used was the same stuff they put on utility poles and that you would not even be able to drive a nail into the wood once sealed!!
LIE! In fact, I used to work for the utilities and know that they use(at least used to use) Creosote (spell check please) to seal the poles against rot.
I talked to the rep that she used last year..he told me that he no longer worked for this company because his conscience would not allow it. He admitted that they even he was fooled by the myriad of lies and was selling these customers a headache.
So beware to all of you that have these vandals in your neck of the woods. What would be awesome is if organizations like the PWNA would band together and shed some light on this fraud (legally speaking). It would first and foremost protect our future customers from being ripped off and secondly, protect us the contractors from dealing with this mess a year or two later.
My 2 cents
-Tom
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