Tuff Decks

He said he was unsure of the condition of the stingers underneath my deck I installed 23 years ago. They were off the ground, but about 10 years ago I had to repair a few. Well when they had the deck off, we decided to replace them all, they were badly gone. That took an extra day, but I knew it was worth it. I took a day to lay the wood and sand and clean. They came back on a Monday to paint it with a coat of non skid paint. A special paint with crushed walnut shells. They had over 50 different shapes of color. They were able to complete the job in two more days and within 48 hours we had a beautiful strong deck. When I had the final inspection with Mike, he did not like a gap in the wood that was left, so he said he would come back the next week and replace the board and repaint it. He did exactly as he said he would. Now I am very pleased with the deck.

UPDATE: Mike, the owner, personally came back to our home in June of 2013 with one other worker and sanded down the multiple area's where the original coating was lifting/peeling and reapplied a new coat of the NEW product he is using on our deck floor and tops of handrails only, but at his own expense. He informed us that this single coat of coverage will last us until next summer, and will at least make our deck look more like what it did when we originally had the Gaco Shield applied, but we will then need to pay for two more coatings to be re-applied, which he says will then last 5-7 years. Mike was kind enough to work with us, instead of just brushing us off, which we appreciate. He could have easily just told us to go the manufacturer in order to address their failed product and to pursue the product to be reapplied under their warranty, since it was their product and not the installation that failed (which we know would not have gotten us anywhere) but he chose instead to take the high road and to offer us good customer service. That says a lot about his business ethics. We are not sure how the new coating will hold up, but we will consider working with him again next year in order to keep our deck protected with what we hope will indeed be a low maintenance product. ================================================================================================== 09/01/2010 My husband and I had heard good things about Tuff Decks and we liked the idea of having a practically zero maintenance deck, so we decided to have them come out and apply a deck coating. The contractors who came out were very respectful, clean and timely. They performed the work as described, and upon completion, the deck looked amazing! There were a few things we wanted touched up that they did without complaint. The brochures they provided at the time of application said the seal would not fade, crack or peel. We were told that it would be zero maintenance for up to 50 years with the exception of having to reapply the coating in high traffic areas every few years. After several months, we noticed the coating was peeling off in a few spots on the deck flooring. We contacted the company, and they told us that they had had a few teams who did not apply the coating correctly and that they had had multiple complaints about peeling. She told us that there had even been a few people who had to have their entire decks redone. She said those specific crews had been let go, and sent someone out in a timely manner who inspected our deck and (free of charge) reapplied the coating in two places on the deck floor. At that point, we still loved our deck and we were still satisfied with the product and service that Tuff Decks offered. At close to the two year mark, we noticed that the deck was peeling again, (but this time in many places and even on the handrails, and on the deck furniture that we had had treated as well). Additionally, the deck surfaces had faded considerably. We called the main number on the Tuff Decks web site but could not get through to anyone. No one ever answered the phone, and there was no option to leave a message. We finally found a phone number for one of the men who actually worked on the deck, so we called him. We explained that the deck had faded and we had noticed that it was starting to peel off in a multiple places. The man explained to us that the phones on the website were down because the company was in the process of being bought out. He told us that we needed to buy a specific Tuff Decks cleaner in order to clean the deck, and that it probably wasn't faded but was simply dirty. He informed us that we had to clean the deck annually in order to keep our warranty in good standing. Unfortunately, that is one specific point that was never brought to our attention. The man we spoke to was going to look into getting us some cleaner but since the company was in flux, he wasn't sure what he could do for us. We never heard from him again, and after trying to reach him with no luck, we finally quit trying. Since the man never got back to us and the website was down, we couldn't find a way to order the deck cleaner, as Tuff Decks was the only company in our state that sold the Gaco Shield product so we eventually cleaned the deck on our own with water, a mild dish soap and a kitchen broom hoping that it would bring back the original look of the coating. The deck looked great again until the water dried and we were back to the same old peeling, faded deck. Since then, we have reapplied the coating ourselves in many places in order to keep the deck protected, but new paint here and there is highly unmatched with the faded coating that covers the majority of the flat surfaces. We are not happy with this product or the customer service that Tuff Decks has offered us. We would not recommend this product or this company.