It's All In The Detail
I know I’ve spoken before in this column about welding, but the calls that are coming in to Altro’s technical hotline suggests that there are still plenty of people out there who are having problems, so I thought I’d address this again.
Welding, though a small part of the total job; is arguably the most important part of the fine detail of any sheet flooring installation. Get it right and the job looks great, get it wrong and often the only option is to rip everything up and start again at great expense – yours.
The welding of coated products or those with a wear layer sometimes gives cause for concern, particularly if you’re using them for the first time. But there is little or no difference in the welding process when using these products provided you follow a few basic rules. Which leads me nicely into my unofficial Altro guide to the welding of sheet PVC flooring.
- Form a neat tight joint between adjacent sheets of floorcovering.
- Always overlap and cut in the seams so they are touching down the entire length.
- Make sure there is no adhesive in the joint.
- Allow adhesive to cure overnight where possible.
- Groove the material to the correct depth (approximately 66% or 2/3rds the thickness of the flooring) Where coated products have been coved it’s important to groove the internal angle prior to hot welding.
- Set the welding gun to the required temperature (about 350 degrees) and allow it to warm up for at least 5 minutes. If in doubt, trial the gun on a piece of scrap material before attacking the main seams.
- Weld at a steady consistent speed, too fast and the weld won’t take, too slow and you may burn the flooring.
- Allow the weld to cool before trimming.
- Trim the weld flush with the floorcovering.
- Don’t work in the dark.
There is a setting normally somewhere between five and six on most welding guns – it will vary from gun to gun obviously - which will melt the PVC flooring but not burn it, however long the tip of the welding nozzle remains in contact with the product. Find this setting on your own gun, and welding becomes much easier and you’ll never scorch the floor again.
Welding mitres is just as easy, but if you have problems turn the speedweld nozzle the opposite way up and turn down the heat a few degrees.
I hope these points will help you to improve your welding and remember that the quality of the installation is only as good as the quality of the welding.
This article first appeared in the October 2009 edition of the CFJ