From the Archives: Interview with Bill Leys (@Deck_Expert) of Central Coast Waterproofing

This interview was conducted back in July of 2011. Unfortunately, during one of several migrations of web hosts, the article disappeared from the archives. Bill Leys is, in my opinion, one of the good guys. He is a true artisan and craftsman, in every sense, but he is also a business leader, an expert witness, speaker, and regularly engages in various social networks. Without further ado, here is my original interview with Bill Leys, the Deck Expert.

Bill Leys – DeckExpert.com, Central Coast Waterproofing

I’ve been active in social media for a number of years. Since most of the early adopters of technology are in the tech industry, most of the early blogs and Twitter feeds were heavily skewed towards technology. As more people from other industries have joined the party, it is hard to imagine a niche that isn’t represented in the social media world.

A couple years ago, as I became more active on Twitter with regards to the construction defect litigation community, one of the first people that caught my eye was Bill Leys, who uses the handle, @Deck_Expert. I quickly noticed that not only was Leys using Twitter to market the services of his firm, Central Coast Waterproofing, but he also ran an information portal covering everything related to decks at DeckExpert.com, he also regularly updates his blog, The Waterproof Journal, and has an active YouTube channel. Don’t forget to check out Leys’ article on California’s Right to Repair Bill SB-800 and It’s Effects on Decks and Their Warranties and Maintenance.

Last month, Bill Leys sent out a tweet that mentioned a new product he was using to make it easier for clients to pay him. That product is called Square, and is a simple device that plugs into an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, allowing the user to accept credit card payments. (For more information about this innovative product, see the CrunchBase listing for Square.) Leys’ mention of the device prompted me to contact him by email for an interview. Here are his answers to my questions about how he, a successful deck/waterproofing contractor and expert witness, uses technology to improve his business:

Q: First tell me a little about your business. How did you get into decks and waterproofing?

A: I was a Homeowner Association Manager of 16 condominium associations. Practically every one had decks with problems. In searching for products and contractors, I met an Orange County CA contractor who did some work for two of my Associations. I liked the work and their product and one day during a lunch with the installing company and their manufacturer’s rep, my becoming a sales rep for their company came up. One thing led to another and a couple months later I was the new manager and sales estimator for the company.

Q: How did you get involved with work as an expert witness?

A: I was invited some years back to give a presentation at an educational seminar for HOA Reserve Specialists in Palm Springs. My presentation was met very well by the audience and after I finished, one attendee came up and asked if I did deck inspections. I answered yes and started doing inspections for several HOA management companies and their Associations. One massive apartment to condo conversion project I inspected had over 140 sliding doors improperly installed. I had to give a deposition when the Association sued the developer and that began my “career” as an expert witness.

The phone rings almost every day with more horror stories of water intrusion into tract homes, high end homes and everything in between. Talk about a stimulus package!

I’m also hearing from attorney’s with massive failures of decks on mass produced tract housing. In many cases we’re seeing these jobs where paying by piece was the norm. Paying employees “piece work” has resulted in number of waterproofing failures. That’s because the employee makes more money the faster he/she works. Piece work does not reward slow methodical workers who have pride in their job. Slam out the work and some piece workers could make $50-60k or more in a year.

Q: Do you work mostly on behalf of owners, developers or deck contractors?

A: I do work for mostly owners of higher end homes installing waterproof coatings that are replacing a failed system.

My expert witness type work is mostly involved with construction defects on tract homes.

I rarely get new construction work as a contractor because “I’m too high” on price.

Q: You are fairly active in social media despite how obviously busy you are as a contractor and expert. How did you get involved in blogging, Twitter, youtube, etc.? How do you manage your time?

A: I got involved with blogging and social media right after my Palm Springs seminar. I decided to put up a website devoted to waterproof deck coatings. I needed a way to disseminate news quickly and I found Google’s “Blogspot” and put up a blog connected to my site.

Since then, I quickly realized that search engine optimization and high page ranking came from being active in blogging and keeping my websites fresh and new. I started using Twitter to quickly post news and interesting tidbits. Now with the cross linked platforms between the social media companies, a tweet will show up on my Facebook pages, my website and Twitter of course.

You Tube provides me with a video media platform that lets people see me and get a feel for us and allows us to demonstrate what we do.

Managing the time to be social is not as hard as it was a couple years ago, mostly due to the cross linked platforms. Using my Android phone to post from has been a godsend, it’s so easy to post to Facebook, post a tweet, put up a video. I use the apps from Twidroyd, WordPress, Blogspot and Facebook to post while I’m out in the field. Often I’ll be waiting for a meeting, in the 5 minutes I have I can post to all of the sites through my smart phone.

Q: How has using the Square device/technology benefitted your business?

A: Square is one of those companies/devices that I slap myself and say, why didn’t I think of this? Getting paid is of high importance to keeping cash flow going; Square lets me get paid instantly by swiping the clients credit card through their card reader app, capturing their signature and emailing them their receipt, all through my smart phone. Brilliant! My money is in my account the next morning. In the past I’d bill a client, wait for the mail to show up with a check days later, take it to the bank and put it in.

Q: What other new technologies and innovations are you looking into?

A: I really like Chase Bank’s “take a picture of a check and upload it” technology. Your check is converted to an ACH and presto, money in the bank. I’m waiting for my small community bank to adopt this technology. They already have a scanner for office use that does essentially the same thing, but I still have to wait for the check to come in the mail. With this, a client writes a check, you snap a pic of the check, upload it securely to the bank and hand the check back to the client… that’s what I like, fast cash flow!

I’m also looking into using Quickbooks through my phone to create invoices, change orders etc. that then syncs to my desktop Quickbooks.

I’m working with an app developer to fine tune a roofing application into a “coating app” that will allow me to input my field calculations and notes and quickly create proposals from the field takeoffs.

In a follow-up email, Leys added, “Oh I forgot to mention Dropbox.com and its instant doc retreival on my phone. Invoices, estimates contracts etc. I couldn’t live without it.”

Q: What is exciting in the world of decks and waterproofing?

A: The exciting thing for me in the world of decks and waterproofing is the staggering amount of work that has been generated for companies like mine through competitors that did cheap poor waterproofing work these last few years that are now beginning to fail.

In the last few months in Los Angeles alone I’ve redone a 2 year old 3500 square foot roof deck over millions in condo units below that leaked right after it was first occupied, fixed a 14,000 sq foot plaza deck that leaked down into the parking garage below, replaced 3 decks for about $22k on a house that was “fixed” 4 years ago for over $50K.

While waterproofing is typically thought of as boring, watch how excited someone gets when water is leaking into their home from their new roof deck!

Thanks again, to Bill Leys for taking the time to do this interview. Decks and waterproofing often times account for some of the largest damages in construction defect lawsuits. To properly construct and waterproof a deck, especially over living spaces, requires extensive knowledge of materials, techniques and standards. Leys is truly a rare breed – an active contractor specializing in decks and waterproofing, as well as an active expert witness.