under floor polystyrene
 

I have whinged before about access and repair issues where a layer of
sound reducing foam has been laid on top of original flooring.

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.

We have spare vinyl but need to stop further movement to avoid a
recurrence.

The foam is obviously compressible and 8 stone applied close to the
flooring edge gives several mm of differential movement. There is only
enough spare flooring to tackle 300mm or so. Prising up the chipboard
for a proper job not practical within her budget.

Thoughts so far after taking off the damaged vinyl:-

prise up one board and slide a stiff steel sheet under. Problems
with getting it back under the second sheet, some holes might help.
Difficult to spread the load very far and the polystyrene will already
be compacted at the fault.

cut a strip off the edge of one board and trim the foam away.
Insert an inverted *T* shaped wood support to carry the load to the
original floor. This could be assembled from two pieces on site so
should be easy to do.

or? routing grooves or rebates is probably outside my skills.

regards
--
Tim Lamb

under floor polystyrene
 

Tim Lamb wrote:
Thoughts so far after taking off the damaged vinyl:-

prise up one board and slide a stiff steel sheet under. Problems
with getting it back under the second sheet, some holes might help.
Difficult to spread the load very far and the polystyrene will already
be compacted at the fault.

cut a strip off the edge of one board and trim the foam away.
Insert an inverted *T* shaped wood support to carry the load to the
original floor. This could be assembled from two pieces on site so
should be easy to do.

or? routing grooves or rebates is probably outside my skills.


What I did, and it probably not allowed or not good practice, was to
cut out a section of chipboard, remove a slice of the polystyrene down
to the (concrete) subfloor,insert a wooden batten (or two) and replace
the section of chipboard so that that particular part of the floor was
solid. I actually used ply instead of chipboard as I was going to tile
over with ceramic tiles.

under floor polystyrene
 

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.

--
Tony Bryer SDA UK 'Software to build on' http://www.sda.co.uk
Free SEDBUK boiler database browser http://www.sda.co.uk/qsedbuk.htm
[Latest version QSEDBUK 1.12 released 8 Dec 2005]

under floor polystyrene
 

In message , Tony Bryer
writes
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.

Ah. This sounds the sort of lateral thinking I need.

regards


--
Tim Lamb

under floor polystyrene
 

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.

under floor polystyrene
 

In message , The Natural
Philosopher writes

Stroke of genius that one.

Yes:-)

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.

Umm.. I'd worry about adhesion to cheapo chip though. Smell in a micro
flat is going to be interesting as well.

I think I'll go with the *stitching* suggestion using plated stemming.

regards



--
Tim Lamb

under floor polystyrene
 

On Tue, 28 Mar 2006 12:47:40 +0100, 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.

As an alternative how about a fix similar to what is used to join
kitchen worktops ,you know the threaded rods which sit in a recess
with the ends shaped to take the rounded sections .You'll again need a
router for this and depends how much room you have to use the real
joining parts but maybe you could adapt one (2) or just use threaded
rod and a couple of washers to take the strain ..

Stuart

under floor polystyrene
 

Tim Lamb wrote:
In message , The Natural
Philosopher writes

Stroke of genius that one.

Yes:-)

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.

Umm.. I'd worry about adhesion to cheapo chip though. Smell in a micro
flat is going to be interesting as well.

Don't. It works well. Smell is not too bad with epoxy. I rather like it.


I think I'll go with the *stitching* suggestion using plated stemming.

As you will :-)

regards

under floor polystyrene
 

In message , Stuart
writes

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.

As an alternative how about a fix similar to what is used to join
kitchen worktops ,you know the threaded rods which sit in a recess
with the ends shaped to take the rounded sections .You'll again need a
router for this and depends how much room you have to use the real
joining parts but maybe you could adapt one (2) or just use threaded
rod and a couple of washers to take the strain ..

The only easily available router is just about capable of the slots. The
job is planned for tomorrow pm so I'm trying to keep it simple.

There might be an issue over how wide a gap the vinyl will span without
dimpling.

regards


--
Tim Lamb

under floor polystyrene
 

In message , Tim Lamb
writes
In message , Stuart
writes

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.

It worked!

At least it looked OK yesterday evening:-)

The dowels were 6mm plated roofing bolts with the heads removed.

Issues arising. Scattering saw dust on a sticky floor, failure to
realise how much resin would be needed (old chipboard is like blotting
paper) and not anticipating that resin is thin enough to flow through
tiny cracks.

I look forward to some future make-over program unearthing this patch
and discussing the parentage of the perpetrators:-)

Regards to all who contributed

--
Tim Lamb