"Problem with transition," in the Hardwood and Laminates Q&A forum, begins: "I have installed a laminate floor over concrete. The transition strips are held by plastic "U" channels. I cannot find ..."
I have installed a laminate floor over concrete. The transition strips are held by plastic "U" channels. I cannot find an adhesive that will hold the plastic to the concrete (despite what the folks at HD claim), and there is no room between the transition and the plastic channel for screw heads. It looks like it's made for using a very small countersunk wood screw.
An epoxy would bond to the concrete, but probably not to the plastic. Silicone doesn't seem to work, nor any of the construction adhesive I've tried.
The wood dowel suggestion is interesting. Epoxy would hold them fine.
The Durabond 818 talks about gluing down tack strips. Most tack strips are wood, have you used this product on plastic?
I couldn't find a Chemrex product that looks like it would work, except perhaps the one to bond rubber and vinyl basebords. Could you be more specific about which product?
I have used d-815 for a long time and on a lot of different applications. Including gluing tackstrip to clean concrete and I have powerstretched off of it. I have glued thousands of feet of viny reducer to several different substrates and it has always held. The trick is to apply it like you would contact cement. Apply on both surfaces and let it dry, then set it. Let it sit for an hour or so and it will not go anywhere.
D--815 will work very well in that application guess it works very well with tack strip. Chris I never thought of using it like contact cement all have to try that someday. Here's another secret that works with that urethane product I found what you put a little bit down for your tack strip missed it with a little water. And put your tack strip in the adhesive. It will grab immediately, and you don't have to wait two hours to stretch off. On the other and 3M makes a very good epoxy product that works like $1 million. You can also do with the manufacturers don't want you to do forget the vinyl rail and glue that transition direct to the concrete I have done that in the past. Quite often with great success. I have also found that the MDF product that they make the product out of will eventually breakdown in the vinyl track. And you will return the fix it by putting a new transition piece to replace the old one. I have had that happen on my job sites. I have also followed the manufacturers, suggestions to put a bead of the manufacturers laminate glue in the vinyl channel, which is supposed to stop the movement so it will not break. I have been on numerous inspections for the same problem where it breaks at the vinyl channel. So I just had my installers glue the transitions direct.
I don't use the track on concrete either, just glue with the best urethane glue you can find and weigh it down overnight. Could use gorilla glue not much tho as it grows. I wish they would make that track wider sometimes so you can get a driving pin in there to sink the nail. The aluminum track is nicer than the plastic ones.
.........
