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A Backcountry Installation
Verified Purchase
Self-installed in
Backcountry warming hut
Anonymous
from
Mt. Spokane State Park, WA
wrote...
I installed 6 rolls of 4' X 16'X 1/4″ rubber rolls on a plywood floor by myself with a 4 gallon can of poly adhesive using the specified 3/32″ trowel to make sure I got the right thickness. This was a tough job that took me about 11 hours but I am pleased with the results. I did not purchase the cleaning solution which meant I had to do the entire job in one session and then discard the trowel at the end. It is very hard work to spread the adhesive and I wish I had had help. I also ordered the rolls too long, which meant cutting over a foot off each one. I made the mistake of unrolling each one first to cut them to what I thought was the correct length. They never ended up the correct length, so I always had to cut them again. When you unroll them, you can't re-roll them straight so they are much more difficult to lay out tight against the previous roll. I wish I had only unrolled them once after I had put down about 2' of adhesive at a time (contrary to the instructions). Then I would have pressed a long straight edge against the wall and cut them. Since I used a 1X4 for baseboard, I was able to cover up a 3/4″ gap for poor cutting anyway. The other problem I had was not getting the adhesive close enough to the edge of each roll. It's very important to spread adhesive into the area for the next roll. If you don't, your edges won't stay down. But this also means you can't re-roll it for any reason because you will end up with adhesive on the top side and it won't come off without the special remover. So I ended up with areas of seams that were loose. I solved that problem by getting a 10oz tube of Locktite PL Premium Polyurethane Construction Adhesive for 6.98 at Home Depot and, using a caulking gun (after pulling out the seam sealer I had already put in), squeezed some under each spot where I didn't get adhesive. Then I set 2 courses of bricks on top of the seams, walked on them repeatedly, and removed them the next day. I was able to scrape off excess construction adhesive with a putty knife. This worked well and I now have very tight seams after applying more seam sealer. My only real complaint is that this stuff really shows dirt. My application was in a day-use winter warming hut in a state park where there is no power or water, so sweeping with a broom is about the only option for cleaning. While this works reasonably well, you just have to get used to not having a nice shiny black floor after the first person walks on it. The material has been successfully used in the ski lodges and it really holds up well to heavy boots and lots of water, which is the main reason why we chose it. I also think the instructions should be more detailed and that the ends of the rolls should be cut straight from the factory.