Installing Rubber Cove Base

BKM Resilient

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I agree 100%. Rubber base is gravy work as far as the skill involved. The only thing hard about it is if you're off you knees you're not working. The glue you will see everyone using here is Durabond 3001. Don't even talk to me about anything else.

Never used a (hot melt) glue gun or a heat gun. In fact, I've never see a pro use one and I'm pretty sure we'd all get a good laugh if a guy tried to use one on a big job. It's just NOT how we do it. Contact cement is only for little returns that are less then 3/4" where there's not enough wall surface to grab the piece and hold it til the glue dries. On normal corners I paste both the wall and the base. Everything is pre-cut.

Vinyl and plastic base are much more trouble to wrap outside corners with but it's still a matter of gouging and bending correctly before trying to glue. The idea that you should use brads, a glue gun, contact cement or a heat gun pretty much means you really haven't perfected the art of forming and adhering the corners properly. As the Brit pointed out, that's a losing battle. Learn how to form the corner and you don't need anything more than the same glue you're using on the rest of the piece.

Floordude

I use my Crain corner press and make perfect inside and outside corners.

I was going to post a picture, but I can't find it on the website.

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ian@prosource

can you post a link for the corner press, would be good to have a look at it.

never to old to learn more, just because i can do it one way does not mean there is not other ways worth looking at.

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Floordude

They use to have it on their website, but I could not find the picture or anything about it.

It is a V clamp.

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weflyfish2

Check out a tool on the internet called, Top Set Cove Base Gouge. Works great.

TopFloor

That is awesome, BKM.
Anyone who can measure his jobs in miles has done a buttload of base. I'll go way out on a limb and suggest that you probably have a decent technique. You should bill it by the mile.

CUSTOMER: (going over bid) Lets see... Huh? 'Baseboard: 1/10th mile'??

BKM: Oh, yah... *sniffing confidently*... You know... 528 feet=1/10th mile, so, yah...

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soxfan

I Powertape every outside corner. If I had a job with 25 outside corners I'm sure I'd hit 24 just right with only a gouge and regular CB glue; but that 25th is always a pain to fix. Even just replacing that one piece is a mess, the paint gets dirty, the floor gets dirty, etc... 2 4" pieces of Powertape and proper gouging gets it looking sharp the first time, every time, at least for me.

Oh and always roll/rub it onto the wall backwards. Rubbing it onto the wall in the same direction you're moving will always leave it stretched out just a bit which will go away over time. If I had a dollar for every time someone told me the last installers used tile mastic to hang the base which made it shrink, I'd have a good 40 or 50 bucks.

Casemill

Rubber cove base is a pain. Gouge out the outside corners really deep. I use a hot glue gun to stick them. Try to keep the cove base glue as thin as you can so it doesn't show through. If you are using premolded corners, I feel sorry for you. Making your own corners always looks better it you know what you're doing. A scrap piece of carpet works good for pressing it against the wall. It helps distribute the glue. Don't start at an inside corner. Cut the piece that has the inside corner about an 1/8" inch longer than it need to be. That will force the corner tighter against the crappy drywall job. Contact cement also works well for outside corners. I love installing cove base. Easiest money there is.

Floordude

OK, so you have been off your meds today....

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Casemill

Yeah! If I could find enough cove base to install every day, all day, I'd do it. Easy money.

majesticmdg

so do u have a video let me see how u install ur base

construx

Installed some rubber base over the weekend and had a little trouble with the corners, but the main problem is the top just would'nt adhere! Don't know if it was the glue or what the deal was?? "Don't do enough to know what the problem is or a quick fix" Any suggestion would be nice!

BKM Resilient

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Some brands of base REALLY suck in that regard construx. Until you've handled quite a bit of all the major brands you wouldn't really understand the difference but I'll tell you that those difficult brands frequently create these kinds of curling problems. In some cases I suspect the material is past it's shelf life and lost it's resiliency. In other cases it's been mishandled. In some cases you could have a defect in manufacturing. There is also a good chance that you really don't know how to apply the adhesive under these slightly different circumstances and are therefore trying to use a method that works well on the other stuff but NOT in this case. You need to adjust the amount and style of application to make it work.

What we do when it's just a handful of pieces that want to curl off the wall is try to manipulate the curl back the way you would with end curling on a cut of carpet or sheet goods. Just reverse roll it tightly to get that tension out. Then you have to be extra careful to glue every inch right to the tippy top and press the material correctly so as not to push glue and air upward.There' a knack for that after a while handling the more difficult products.

construx

Thanks my friend! We've ran everything & I had that feeling the whole time that the material & the glue was not very professional. The customer bought his choice of material. I think we're going to caulk in everything with matching colored caulk.

johnnyb1

Does anyone have a recommendation for a cove base adhesive that works well on non-porous materials like FRP? Also we're having trouble with water coming in underneath even after it has been sealed with silicone. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Groutface

I would like to aquire a gouge...I make a slice softly and shave the angle on each edge .....gouge sounds better , to hold it in place I use hot glue makes the corner stronger and holds right away.....PRIMO