Hey — I'm Craig.

I've been installing and fixing vinyl deck membranes for about twenty years. Started out as a carpenter's apprentice, picked up membrane work when one of the contractors I was with needed an extra pair of hands on a rooftop deck in the rain. I was hooked. It's quiet, precise work — heat welder in your hand, rolling out membrane like you're finishing a wood floor — and when it's done right, the thing lasts thirty years without anyone thinking about it again.

Most of my work has been across Western Canada, with a stretch of jobs down in Washington and Oregon over the years. I've pulled up and re-installed just about every brand of vinyl deck membrane out there at this point — the good ones, the average ones, and the ones that should never have been sold in the first place.

Here's the thing I kept seeing on job sites: a homeowner staring at one quote from one contractor who only carries one brand, paying whatever that contractor's markup happens to be, for a product that might not even be the right fit for the application. And the homeowner has no real way to know any of that. The manufacturers' websites all say the same things — premium membrane, industry-leading warranty, beautiful colours. The reviews online are mostly sponsored content or one-star rants about a single bad install. There's no honest apples-to-apples comparison of what you're actually buying.

So I started writing this site.

I do it for fun. I'm not trying to build a media company. I'm not a marketing guy. I write the way I'd talk to a friend who was about to drop thirty grand on a deck and wanted to know what to look at — what matters, what doesn't, what the sales rep isn't going to tell you. I test every membrane against the same six things. The things that actually matter after ten years of weather. Then I tell you which one I'd put on my own deck. Simple.

If you're a homeowner, I hope this helps you make a better decision and spend your money on the right thing. If you're a dealer or a contractor who stumbled in, I hope it sharpens your conversations with customers. If you're a manufacturer and you disagree with something I wrote, my email's on the contact page — I read everything.

That's the whole story.

— Craig