Installing rubber cove base - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

J&J Home Imp. · 01-19-2007, 08:09 PM

ok so how many of ya'll do this quite often? I just did about 300 ft. today and lost my shirt plus it looks pretty bad. Not all of which is my fault but it went pretty bad. Had a really hard time getting it stick and most of the corners I ended up brad nailing which really sucked. What kind of glue do ya'll use and are there any good tricks for doing inside and out side corners? I know I am going to get called back on this job and I am not sure what I am going to do to fix it.

PrecisionFloors · 01-19-2007, 09:45 PM

A heat gun, top set gouge , and a vinyl tile cutter are your best friends for doing alot of cove base. It truly is an art, it takes practice and patience to do it right. Contact cement works well for outside corners.

J&J Home Imp. · 01-20-2007, 09:09 AM

Do you use pre made corners or wrap them?

PrecisionFloors · 01-20-2007, 07:23 PM

I wrap mine. Pre-made corners are cost prohibitive and not necessary imho.

J&J Home Imp. · 01-21-2007, 01:51 PM

What is your process for wrapping them?

PrecisionFloors · 01-21-2007, 10:39 PM

I use a gouge to remove material from the back side at the corner point where the piece actually wraps around. You need to remove just enough material to get it to "fold" around without puckering. Then heat the toe up a little bit with your heat gun and stretch it out by pinching it with your thumb and forefinger. Contact cement them on and thats is. On a big job I will usually do all of my outside corners first and then run off of them. I usually have my helper gluing them up after I make em. Its not as time consuming as it sounds once you get a feel for it. The quality of the base makes a big difference in the outcome as well. Hard, brittle stuff is a pita to work with compared to the nice pliable ones.

J&J Home Imp. · 01-22-2007, 10:05 PM

Well I will have to try some things on the next one. I always use Berke Mercer base and its pretty good stuff.

**Floorwizard** · 01-23-2007, 11:01 PM

I have also heard Mercer is preffered by installers.

J&J Home Imp. · 01-28-2007, 12:04 PM

Well the job that started this post is about beyond help. My install of the base is only half the problem, the rest of the problem was the hacks that did the floor so my base wouldn't cover. I told the owner that I would be willing to eat the labor on the base and do whatever is needed to make something look good even if tearing the rubber off was needed. Not sure what is going to happen but it was a good learning experience.

turner flooring · 02-04-2007, 04:25 PM

A Hot glue gun for the corners. Fater fix and is clear. But if you don't cut them right on the backside it looks like crap normally anyhow. Base installation is a hard thing to master. Finding someone who really knows this is far and few. Even the guys who know this don't know enough..http://turnerflooring2.com

csheafer · 06-08-2008, 08:30 AM

Go to fcimag.com and subscribe to CFI - Floor Covering Installer.
It is a magizine for installers that your going to find VERY helpful.

Next, go here...
Here

Step by step instructions with pictures for a professional installation.

Tear out your installation and install with new procedures you just learned.

Demonseed · 06-08-2008, 05:53 PM

It depends on the gauge of the base (and composition, I deal mostly with vinyl wall base), in general for outside corners we use a razor knife to pierce the backing without cutting all the way through, notch it out, then we use a torch to heat it up, let it cool and it acts as a custom made preformed corner (yet on a very thin base, this will not work and generally torching should not be neccessary), like others here, we generally work on the outside corners first and work off of them. The inside corners are generally just a matter of marking, scoring, and miter'ing the toe. Yet in some cases, especially with concrete walls or walls out of square, you have to improvise.

Mostly we us Henry 440 cove base adhesive. I have seen people use a hot glue gun for outside corners, I have seen guys use power tape ( I would not recommend that). The premade outside and inside corners, aren't really worth the money, we did a job last month with them and they do not make the job go any faster and i do not think it looks any better. I would remove and replace all of the base, 300 lf is not that big of a deal, but we score the top of the base at an angle down with a razor or utility knife, then use a clean putty knife downward to remove it from the wall. You won't have to worry about any of the paint, wall paper, etc ripping using this method.

Now, I am guessing you mean the base is not covering the flooring, meaning you can see a gap between the flooring and the toe of the base? If that is the case there is a way to 'quick fix' that.

oskoo · 08-22-2008, 07:16 AM

Here is a suggestion, what i do on corners, without glue, wrap your cove base around corner, and with a new sharp blade, follow your corner of the wall and cut down on cove base, following the corner, you will have a real nice corner that matches the cove base along the floor. Practice with pieces of scrap cove base first, all my customers like it better than the wrap, it give a nice point at each corner. Instead of a flat wrap. If you'd like some sample pics, let me know

Floordude · 08-25-2008, 02:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oskoo

Here is a suggestion, what i do on corners, without glue, wrap your cove base around corner, and with a new sharp blade, follow your corner of the wall and cut down on cove base, following the corner, you will have a real nice corner that matches the cove base along the floor. Practice with pieces of scrap cove base first, all my customers like it better than the wrap, it give a nice point at each corner. Instead of a flat wrap. If you'd like some sample pics, let me know

Hahahahaha!!!!!

You have got to be kidding.... Right?

Seriously???

We have got to teach you about a Crain corner press, or preformed corners.

GoodHouse · 08-25-2008, 05:40 PM

I'd like to see some pics Oskoo if you have them. I cant remember what company made a tool for cutting outside corners but its similar to what your talking about. Its more like an outside miter cut like on a wood piece of base/trim. I've never done a corner like that nor seen one, but interested in what it looks like. thanks

Floordude · 08-26-2008, 09:11 PM

What area of covebase takes the most abuse???

The outside corners. Cut corners don't last long on commercials buildings. Just a vacuum bumping it, trashes the good looks of that cut outside corner.

PrecisionFloors · 08-28-2008, 05:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Floordude

What area of covebase takes the most abuse???

The outside corners. Cut corners don't last long on commercials buildings. Just a vacuum bumping it, trashes the good looks of that cut outside corner.

Absolutely agree 100%. Then again most commercial crews could give a crap less what it looks like after the 31st day

Sir buildsalot · 06-19-2009, 03:08 PM

I use a simple $8.00 electric carcoal lighter. The kind that has the looped heating element to make outside corners. This works so much better I acually gave away my gouge. The element is the perfect diameter and makes really quick work of it. Just be careful as the thing gets up to somewhere around 1000 degrees. It only takes about a second to score the line with it and because it has the heat you don't need a heat gun. I don't even bring one along anymore. This WILL make PERFECTLY Square corners. As for inside corners don't bend the covebase for it. I just stop at the corner, miter the toe and start a new piece. Works great. I don't use a vinyl tile cutter either. I just use a scrape piece of plywood w/ one straight edge, a speed square and a utility knife. I set the covebase on the edge of the plywood, use the speed square over that making sure the edge of the cove and the plywood butt up against it and cut it. Perfectly square. I'm a small time repair guy. I can't afford the newest and greatest tools out there and really most of them are just junk and don't work better then some ingenuity.

BKM Resilient · 06-19-2009, 11:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by J&J Home Imp.

ok so how many of ya'll do this quite often? I just did about 300 ft. today and lost my shirt plus it looks pretty bad. Not all of which is my fault but it went pretty bad. Had a really hard time getting it stick and most of the corners I ended up brad nailing which really sucked. What kind of glue do ya'll use and are there any good tricks for doing inside and out side corners? I know I am going to get called back on this job and I am not sure what I am going to do to fix it.

***************************
Believe it or don't but I've hung easily over A HUNDRED MILES of rubber cove base.

Under typical conditions a mile is just a tad over a weeks work so what I'm saying is that in the course of my 30+ years on the floor I've spent way over a hundred weeks slinging base. I hung base all day today and yesterday----just under a quarter mile in an elementary school. As an apprentice I worked on projects where all I did was hang base for 3-4 months. So that's got to be 10-15 miles right there and we're not even out of the 1970's

Man, my knees hurt just thinking about it!

Anyway, trying to paint this picture takes more than a thousand words but if you watched me do it for 10-15 minutes there's not much more I could teach you. It's really that simple.

ian@prosource · 07-08-2009, 12:58 PM

Back in the Uk we tend to use a semi ridged PVC base in 6'6 (2m) lenghts, too stiff to wrap around so all internal & external corners are cut and mitered, as a trainee i spent years doing this, practise makes perfect and if done right the externals do not gape open, fixed with contact adhesive,

over in canada used Rubber base, much more flexible and comes on a roll so able to wrap around corners, very easy.

all base comes with fitting instructions so just follow them and you should be ok.

a point to note, some people on here have said about using heat to help mold the base around corners ect, this is never a good idea, all base be it rubber or PVC has a memory, over time it will always return to its natural size & shape before you applied heat, this is when the joints start to show and gaps appear and the adhesive start to fail, this can happen over hours/days or months/years depending on how much heat you applied.