Linoleum attracts with its high performance, pleasant price, durability, and an abundance of design options. However, if the cut of the roll does not cover the entire volume of the room and you have to combine several pieces, the seams spoil the picture. Even with the highest quality and professional installation at the junction of the material, it begins to ride up. To eliminate this unpleasant moment by creating a solid surface, cold or hot welding of linoleum will help.
Types of Welding: What's the Difference?
Connection options for linoleum joints:
- Cold welding. It is carried out using a special glue that melts the edges of the canvases, which, when dried, are combined into a single whole. It is used mainly to get rid of unaesthetic joints that appear during the laying of household linoleum. Adhesive types "A", "C" and "T" are used depending on the size of the gap and the type of material. This method is suitable for repairing damaged coatings.
- Hot. The role of the welding tool is played by a building hair dryer, which heats the material during operation to 350–400 °C. Due to the high cost and complexity of implementation, it is rarely used at home, it is used to connect commercial linoleum in public and industrial premises with high traffic.
When deciding how to weld linoleum, you need to rely on the characteristics of the coating, the complexity and geometry of the joints.
The specifics of hot welding
Hot welding for linoleum involves the creation of a hermetically sealed seam. To ensure a smooth connection, the coating strips are overlapped, cut with a sharp knife along the line.
Welding should begin after the linoleum material is securely fastened with adhesive to the floor. Due to the need to quickly complete the procedure, some experience and skill are required from the master. Trimming and grinding of the docking cord is carried out even before it cools, otherwise the resulting surface will look unpresentable. An ordinary soldering iron, as in the old fashioned way, is indispensable in this case.
Advantages of the technique:
- High tightness of the resulting connection.
- Greater reliability than cold welding.
The limitation of this bonding is that it can only be used for rigid types of coatings, the decorative appeal of which will not decrease under the influence of elevated temperatures. Usually it is commercial linoleum, including felt-based. Also, the disadvantages include the need to use a specialized tool.
Tools and materials
In addition to the flooring itself, you will need:
- Welded cord to fill the seam, similar in composition to linoleum. Under the influence of high temperature, the edge melts, the rope penetrates into the material. To guarantee a quality result, you should purchase the cord in specialized stores.
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- Cord (bar) for welding
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- Using a cord to match the color of the coating
- Building hair dryerequipped with a thermostat to control the heating temperature. High-quality models of hot air guns can heat the air up to 600–700 °C.
- Special nozzles for hair dryer.
- Groove chisel.
- Sickle knife. Can be replaced with scissors with arcuate blades. The tool is used to remove excess deposits.
In the absence of experience in "communication" with a hot air gun, it is recommended to give preference to cold welding, which is suitable for both domestic and commercial linoleum.
Hot Welding Process Technology
Work order:
- We carry out careful laying of the material, so that a uniform seam of minimum thickness is obtained. We expand the joint with a chisel, using it to prepare a groove for the subsequent laying of the cord.
- Using a powerful vacuum cleaner, carefully clean the place of the future joint from debris.
- We install a special nozzle on the hair dryer.
- We fill the welding rod, after which we connect the tool and heat it up to 350-400 ° C.
- With the tip of a building hair dryer, we press the cord into the groove made earlier. The formation of a monolithic connection takes a couple of seconds.
- Similarly, we fill the entire docking line. With the right speed, the cord will melt and fill the groove evenly.
- Having completed welding, we remove excess deposits using a sickle-shaped knife and special nozzles designed for cutting the cord.
- Carefully monitor the removal of deposits. In order not to deform the surface of the canvas, the nozzle is installed parallel to the floor material.
- Having removed the excess cord, we proceed to the process of grinding the seam. For this purpose, a “null” sandpaper is used, pasted on a wooden block.
To understand the principles of hot welding, we recommend watching the training video.
Expected difficulties
Having familiarized yourself with the main stages of the hot connection of linoleum, you can decide that this process is a very simple event. However, professionals point out some difficulties:
- Low prevalence of welding cords. The sale of such building materials is carried out in a limited number of outlets.
- A specialized tool (heat gun) has a high cost (from 20 thousand rubles). For one-time procedures, it is more reasonable to rent it.
- The probability of damage to the coating due to ignorance of the principles of operation of the equipment, lack of practical experience.
Given the above, let's summarize: it is not recommended for beginners to take on hot welding with their own hands, without the help of a specialist, even after watching the training videos. Indeed, without proper experience acquired over the years, there is a risk of simply spoiling the flooring.
