Interior Vinyls stick or staple?

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narcer

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Hi all,

Anyone had the experience of stretching vinyls onto plywood panels and then stapling it on the backside without using contact adhesive? Just wondering if it will sag over time?

Thanks.
 
I've just done this yesterday and today. These were vertical panels either side of the companion way. The originals were glued on but I decided to just glue the front with the overlap stapled on the rear. Cut a rectangular piece of vinyl(Don't cut to the rough shape - I did and discovered I'd cut it the wrong way round!). Use plenty of contact adhesive on the panel, I used a 2" wide old paintbrush, make sure there are no 'dry' patches. Place the panel on the vinyl and use a roller to press the vinyl firmly onto the panel getting rid of any 'bubbles' - I had to 'prick' a couple of bubbles to allow the air to escape. When dry, cut roughly to shape, leaving about a 2" overlap, then I stretched the overlap over the edge and stapled it, then trimmed off the excess.
I bought an electric Arrow stapler and used Arrow T50 stainless 6mm staples, cost about £25 from ebay, which I considered a good deal as I'm bound to use it for other jobs. One interesting point, Arrow say on their website that 'Stainless staples were NOT for marine use' !! Not quite sure why but they do sell Monel staples at considerably more expense.
 
Foam backed or plain vinyl? For the latter on ply headlining panels I used a wood glue (more forgiving than a contact adhesive) and staples on the back edge - the latter through large (20cm) lollipop sticks as covers/spacers, as I could not get short enough stainless staples. The sticks were actually good in holding a decent length of the fabric in place whilst stapling.
 
narcer said:
Hi all,

Anyone had the experience of stretching vinyls onto plywood panels and then stapling it on the backside without using contact adhesive? Just wondering if it will sag over time?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

As Hydrozoan says and Hawke House recommend and supply use a water based and water resistant PVA wood glue all over . It'll sag like the proverbial Westerly droop if its not stuck on.

No smell, no hazardous fumes and so much easier I did mine on the sitting room floor.

Trim the foam backing off the wrap around part of the vinyl and just stick the vinyl ( it has a fabric backing) to the backside of the ply. I bought some staples but did not use them.


I fastened mine up with some covered buttons and lots of Velcro .


DSCF0854.jpg



DSCF0855.jpg
 
Last edited:
narcer said:
Hi all,

Anyone had the experience of stretching vinyls onto plywood panels and then stapling it on the backside without using contact adhesive? Just wondering if it will sag over time?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Why wouldn't you use contact adhesive? It's a big job and you want it to last! You could use PVA but my experience is that below 18 to 20 degrees temperature it takes too long to set. Staples only on the back will be ok with convex curved panels, iffy with flat and very iffy with concave. Also, lash out and use heavy duty high temperature spray contact adhesive, costly but more cost effective time and waste wise and so much easier to use. Brushing it out of a tin is ok for hard laminates but lump risky for vinyl.
 
Hadenough said:
Why wouldn't you use contact adhesive? It's a big job and you want it to last! You could use PVA but my experience is that below 18 to 20 degrees temperature it takes too long to set. ...
Click to expand...

PVA is more forgiving for re-positioning, and some spray contact adhesives can be difficult to spray evenly in my experience - but I concede that I was doing the panels at home in warm conditions, and they were absolutely flat.
 
Hydrozoan said:
PVA is more forgiving for re-positioning, and some spray contact adhesives can be difficult to spray evenly in my experience - but I concede that I was doing the panels at home in warm conditions, and they were absolutely flat.
Click to expand...

Not this stuff
https://www.cromwell.co.uk/ACN7328750K
Take the nozzle off between sprayings and chuck it in a bowl of white spirit.
 
Hadenough said:
Why wouldn't you use contact adhesive? It's a big job and you want it to last! You could use PVA but my experience is that below 18 to 20 degrees temperature it takes too long to set. Staples only on the back will be ok with convex curved panels, iffy with flat and very iffy with concave. Also, lash out and use heavy duty high temperature spray contact adhesive, costly but more cost effective time and waste wise and so much easier to use. Brushing it out of a tin is ok for hard laminates but lump risky for vinyl.
Click to expand...

I have a 5 Ltrs tin of contact adhesive (high temp resistant) ready to go (spraygun application), but the vinyl I have is not foam backed which results in an imperfect surface when stuck directly on the ply. When stretched across and stapled on the back side it looks smooth without imperfections...however it may sag over time because I know vinyl expands also with heat.
Therefore I think the best option is to stick first 5 mm foam off the roll, then stick the vinyl on this using the contact adhesive to achieve the smoothest results that won't sag.
Thanks,
 
When I did my Tomahawk some years ago, living in Plymouth, I had the advantage of being instructed in the black art by the professionals who do for the famous range of yachts with a name associated with royalty.

Their method was to first cover the board with contact adhesive, stick a product called scrim foam to the board allowing approx. 3mm from the edge allow to set. Cut the vinyl to shape allowing 15-20 mm overlap. Now comes the tech bit. Vinyl is very stretchy in one plane only. Decide which way is the stretch direction and contact adhesive the 15-20 mm turnover to the other (back) side of the board allow to dry well. Contact the back side of the board opposite the one you have just done, now pull for all your might to achieve as much stretch in the material as possible and set in the glue. Finally , form the corners and set the other edges.

I was advised not to use the well known adhesive available from all diy shops but they sold me some in a litre tin at , I think about £8 per tin, this stuff was on steroids! Unfortunately the name escapes me.
 
VicS said:
As Hydrozoan says and Hawke House recommend and supply use a water based and water resistant PVA wood glue all over . It'll sag like the proverbial Westerly droop if its not stuck on.

No smell, no hazardous fumes and so much easier I did mine on the sitting room floor.

Trim the foam backing off the wrap around part of the vinyl and just stick the vinyl ( it has a fabric backing) to the backside of the ply. I bought some staples but did not use them.


I fastened mine up with some covered buttons and lots of Velcro .


DSCF0854.jpg



DSCF0855.jpg
Click to expand...

That's a very neat result for DIY headlining.
 
VicS said:
Thanks

Yes very pleased with the results
Click to expand...

Result looks like a pro finish!

The main question was by how much this vinyl normally expands and sags over time. The ply panels are only 1/2 m x 1m and the vinyl has been stretched hard and stapled on the back side with ss staples around each and every side. It looks now completely flat and smooth...but the question is will it stay like that.
 
narcer said:
The main question was by how much this vinyl normally expands and sags over time. The ply panels are only 1/2 m x 1m and the vinyl has been stretched hard and stapled on the back side with ss staples around each and every side. It looks now completely flat and smooth...but the question is will it stay like that.
Click to expand...

Doubtful, I'd say. It really ought to be glued.
 
pvb said:
Doubtful, I'd say. It really ought to be glued.
Click to expand...

Yes, I agree. I see that my first post was possibly ambiguous, and emphasize that we brushed the PVA wood adhesive on both the back edges (before stapling) and on the main ‘down’ side. Having cleaned the panels after the previous foamed type, I chose to avoid it and am not sorry to have done so – though I think it will be the next owner who benefits most from the lack of foam disintegration and sag!

I don’t doubt that a spray on contact adhesive can work, but we struggled to avoid strings and blobs and found it worse for producing unevenness than brushed wood adhesive – important given that the plain vinyl is less 'forgiving' of imperfections in the substrate than the foam-backed variety.
 
I used Screwfix No Nonsense grab adhesive.

Easy to use, instant fix, very low cost, no solvents.

I only glued the reverse side, if tensioned properly the front doesn't sag at all.
 
narcer said:
Hi all,

Anyone had the experience of stretching vinyls onto plywood panels and then stapling it on the backside without using contact adhesive? Just wondering if it will sag over time?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Use Solvite - seriously, use Solvite. Once glued, stretch and staple before leaving on a flat surface to dry, use weights to apply a gentle pressure while drying. Believe me it works and is easy.

Yoda
 
yoda said:
Use Solvite - seriously, use Solvite. Once glued, stretch and staple before leaving on a flat surface to dry, use weights to apply a gentle pressure while drying. Believe me it works and is easy.

Yoda
Click to expand...

Hi Yoda - I tried that after you very kindly provided me with details a couple of years ago, but found the grip with the Solvite not terribly good (even with some extra PVA added) and got nervous. I would not like you to think that I had not followed up on your help, if you remembered me!

I do not doubt that it has worked well for you - perhaps it was something about the surface of my cleaned-up old ply boards (e.g. some residue of the previous adhesive for the foam-backed vinyl) that gave me the problem with it. Or perhaps I did not lay the Solvite on thick enough (BTW I think like my wood adhesive it’s PVA based, but I may be wrong about that?).
 
Hydrozoan said:
Hi Yoda - I tried that after you very kindly provided me with details a couple of years ago, but found the grip with the Solvite not terribly good (even with some extra PVA added) and got nervous. I would not like you to think that I had not followed up on your help, if you remembered me!

I do not doubt that it has worked well for you - perhaps it was something about the surface of my cleaned-up old ply boards (e.g. some residue of the previous adhesive for the foam-backed vinyl) that gave me the problem with it. Or perhaps I did not lay the Solvite on thick enough (BTW I think like my wood adhesive it’s PVA based, but I may be wrong about that?).
Click to expand...

As you say it has worked well for me on at least 3 boats, being able to leave them with pressure applied for a day or 2 is important.

Yoda
 
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