How to solder linoleum?

Linoleum is a common and rational flooring for apartments and houses. The variety of sizes (width of the canvas) and patterns allows you to get wear resistant and extremely easy to clean floors in rooms of almost any quadrature. However, sometimes it happens that one piece of linoleum cannot be dispensed with. If the room has a complicated configuration or is too large, then you have to join the seams. Let's try to figure out how to solder linoleum so that the joints are invisible.

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Soldering linoleum - the main methods

Linoleum coating is represented by a huge number of modifications, differing not only in color or texture, but also in wear resistance, heat and sound-conducting characteristics. The main classification goes into categories:

• B - household.
• P - semi-commercial.
• K - commercial or industrial.

The choice of one or another method of adhesion of linoleum depends on the type of material, the availability of tools and the ability to handle them:

• The use of electric soldering iron is applicable for domestic varieties.
• A universal method suitable for all types of flooring is cold welding.
• Hot method - used for products of the “commercial” class.

Important! An electric soldering iron is used to solder linoleum at home with a small length of joints. With a long seam duration, it is quite difficult to achieve a strong and beautiful connection.

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Soldering Iron Technology

The essence of the method is that a heated soldering iron melts the edges of the flooring. Stiffening, they form a single whole:

• To make the seam invisible, high-precision cutting is needed. The most common method of cutting is overlapping, with cutting both parts at once.
• Soldering iron requires special training. His sting is bent at right angles, polished and sharpened so that the tip thickness does not exceed 0.2 mm.
• The heated soldering iron tip is smoothly moved along the joint so that the edges evenly melt.
• After this, the resulting joint is rolled with a rubber roller.

Important! The strength of such a seam leaves much to be desired. In addition, not all modern coatings melt easily. Therefore, this method is gradually losing its relevance.

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How to solder linoleum at home? Cold welding

This method was named so because the connection of the parts of linoleum occurs without exposure to high temperatures. For joining seams, special glue of classes A or C is used. Under the action of the composition, the edges melt chemically with solidification. The result is strong enough and lasts a long time.

Important! The advantage of cold welding is efficiency and utmost simplicity. This method does not require special skills. The main plus is that you can connect joints of any shape.

The choice of type of adhesive depends on how wide the seam is:

• Glue A is liquid. It is used to join sheets with a very small gap, it easily penetrates into a perfectly cut seam.
• Category C glue has a thicker consistency. It is used where the seams are wide, the quality of the cut is worse. A wide gap is filled with a thick mass. After polymerization, a solid layer is obtained that reliably connects two canvases.

The adhesion of linoleum is performed in the following sequence:

1. Masking tape is glued to the joint of the coating so that the seam is located in the center of the tape.
2. Cut the tape with a construction knife, exactly along the seam. To make the cut accurate, the knife is immersed in the depth of the seam. Linoleum does not allow the knife blade to go sideways.
3. Using a needle-shaped tip, the composition is introduced into the gap between the webs and smoothly moved along the joint.
4. After 20 minutes, the glue will completely harden, and the adhesive tape can be removed.

Important! Glue vapor contains toxic substances, so you need to work with it in a well-ventilated area, using safety glasses, gloves and a respirator.

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Hot welding

This method is used for commercial flooring, mainly in spacious rooms. A complicated technique cannot be called, but it requires a professional tool - a hairdryer to connect linoleum to complete. A special PVC filler cord is used in the work, which heats up and connects the flooring together. The connection is solid, but it requires careful preparation of the surfaces to be joined and subsequent processing of the seam to give it the proper aesthetics.

The procedure is as follows:

1. Lay out the canvas. Withstand them for 2-3 days, and then glued to the screed so that the joints do not move.
2. After the glue has dried, the seams are cut through ⅔ of the full thickness of the coating. The width of the cut is slightly smaller than the diameter of the landing cord.
3. The seams are cleaned of dust and scraps of material with a vacuum cleaner.
4. Cut the cord to the desired length and lay its end in the hairdryer.
5. Spend along the joint nozzle additives hairdryer. As the nozzle moves, the groove is filled with a heated cord.
6. Without waiting for the material to cool completely, cut off the protruding part of the cord.
7. The last stage is to grind the place of the cut to remove small roughnesses.

Important! It is especially important to do everything very carefully if the shade of the filler cord contrasts with the color of the coating itself. Any negligence will not look like a designer refinement, but like a mistake of the masters.

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Stock footage

If it comes to how to solder linoleum at home, the best option is cold welding. This method allows you to connect paintings with complex shapes or different shades.