Tony Bryer wrote:
On Tue, 28 Mar 2006 09:46:59 +0100 Tim Lamb wrote :
In this particular case my daughter has a London flat with vinyl strip
wood effect glued to chipboard over a 25mm layer of foam. Directly in
front of the kitchen sink is a join in the chipboard which does not
appear to be tongue and grooved. Needless to say, movement has caused
the vinyl to crack badly.

I had exactly the same thing on our church kitchen floor. The fix was to
cut some narrow slots across the join with a router about 75mm long and
12mm deep. Then drop a suitable dowel (I just used plated wood screws)
in each slot and fill with fibreglass resin. This effectively stitches
the two ends together - no further movement.

Stroke of genius that one.

Another possible way to prevent relative movement is to get a glass
fibre repair kit and lay up some glass fibre tape over the join.and
impregnate with epoxy or polyester resin.

You can keep this all very thin and flat by using a plastic sheet -
polythene - over the join weighted down with old bibles and suchlike, to
make sure its very flat.