Just found out my vinyl decking has a leak. How to protect over the wet winter?

Question

We just bought a home and as we were in a drought during our inspection and didn't notice any water ingress, we didn’t know that the vinyl coating cracks that were visible had started a leak into my garage. It’s a small drip but I know this can turn into a bigger problem. Most of the information I’ve found suggests that I need to re-surface the deck. The issue is that I’m on the West (Wet) Coast of Canada and we are getting into the damp fall & winter. Bad timing.

Outside of just putting a large tarp over the deck surface for the winter, is there any liquid coating I can use to patch the visible cracks I think the water is coming in through? I’ve read that some coatings won’t adhere to the vinyl surface. I’m not well versed in construction, and our budget is limited so we can’t hire anyone.

Any products that you’d suggest? We would usually have only 2 to 3 days of sunny weather, but with dew in the mornings and the temperatures are in the mid teens (Celcius) during the day, and low single digits overnight.

Here are a few pictures of the cracking. This is a rubber type patio coating that we walk on. Not a roof. Though it is over our garage so it's a roof deck.

Answer 1

How big is the deck? I've had torch on applied to wet plywood. Torch on roofing lasts 35+ years and is a walkable surface. It doesn't look as good as vinyl so people typically put composite or concrete pavers overtop. Vinyl typically only has a 5 year warranty which seems ridiculously short for something over a living space.

As far as sealing a cracked vinyl membrane there are products they just can't be bituminous. Liquid rubber seems like one product that can be applied over a vinyl deck. Seems like you could just buy a tube of their sealant and give it a try - low cost to tide you over.