Flattening edge curl in a loose lay

[highup]

Tight budget says I'm going to loose lay over an old 3/4" fir floor. It's all fit and laying in place. I don't recall ever loose laying a glass back vinyl. The customer says the room is where he'll be growing his medicine.
The material is a wide, wood grain pattern and is fairly thick, friendly to work with and feels pretty durable. It may be Armstrong, but I don't know. The room is just 10x13. The material is just over 13 feet so it went down in one piece.
Before I made a pattern, I back-rolled the material fairly tight from corner to corner like a croissant. Backrolling that way seemed to work better to reduce the curl than rolling it straight backward. I backrolled it that way two times and from opposite corners for about 10 minutes each time. It made most of the curl go away, but not quite all of it.
It' an old house with a basement, so it's hard to get the outside wall edge warm. I'm sure the floor has no insulation. I could take it back out of the room and backroll it for a longer period of time.
What's your best tricks other than waiting for a warm summer day and laying it out in the driveway for a half hour?

 

[Jon]

Tried bending the vinyl ends on to itself like Marmo. Not back rolling the whole cut
Try a heat gun with a wet rag, not damp, Wet
Most of these vinyls take heaps of heat
What about running some double sided masking tape on the ends?
A Releasable glue which you could lift later if needed

 

[highup]

The heating system design in this house is poor. The is just one heating unit in the living room that heats the whole house. It's a brand new kerosene heater, but poorly located to balance out the heat flow. I'm going over today to install carpet in a small bedroom. I'll take a space heater with me and put it in that room with the vinyl. For even more heat, I can add some additional heat to the room by placing a 500 watt halogen lamp in there with it to turn that room into an oven.

 

[Floorist]

Just build a fire in the corner.

 

[DarisMulkin]

Hair dryers can warm things up also. Things like vinyl, rooms carpet, oh and hair.

Daris

 

[Jon]

Hair dryers can warm things up also. Things like vinyl, rooms carpet, oh and hair.

Daris

Daris thats the only way to go as there is no point in heating the whole room unless there are wobbles in the whole length of the vinyl
You just need to heat the ends of the vinyl
We use hot air guns when we pencil cove these timber look vinyls and to get the end curl of the cut lengths but we are also placing glue under the vinyls

 

[highup]

Daris thats the only way to go as there is no point in heating the whole room unless there are wobbles in the whole length of the vinyl
You just need to heat the ends of the vinyl
We use hot air guns when we pencil cove these timber look vinyls and to get the end curl of the cut lengths but we are also placing glue under the vinyls

Pencil cove............ that's a new one to me. How and why would you cove a pencil?
Heat gun seemed to work fairly well by carefully heating the back side a few feet at a time.

 

[Jon]

Pencil cove............ that's a new one to me. How and why would you cove a pencil?
Heat gun seemed to work fairly well by carefully heating the back side a few feet at a time.

You don't heat the back
You heat the top
Give it heaps of heat as it takes a lot to burn
You need a large wet rag to cool the vinyl quickly into the new shape you want
I don't think I have ever burned the vinyl unlike using a gas bottle
Found by using a heat gun against paint on commercial vinyls you can give it heaps and not damage the paint or vinyl unlike the gas bottle
Don't forget we us aychlic glue and lay into it wet and the ends will lay flat with heat
Also try bending the ends on to its selve diagonally about 6 inches to see if that gets rid of the end curl
Grab a scrap of the vinyl and see how much heat it will take. It takes heaps
You want me to come and show you how?

 

[highup]

You don't heat the back
You heat the top
Give it heaps of heat as it takes a lot to burn
You need a large wet rag to cool the vinyl quickly into the new shape you want
I don't think I have ever burned the vinyl unlike using a gas bottle
Found by using a heat gun against paint on commercial vinyls you can give it heaps and not damage the paint or vinyl unlike the gas bottle
Don't forget we us aychlic glue and lay into it wet and the ends will lay flat with heat
Also try bending the ends on to its selve diagonally about 6 inches to see if that gets rid of the end curl
Grab a scrap of the vinyl and see how much heat it will take. It takes heaps
You want me to come and show you how?

Hmmmmmm. intelesting ....velly, velly intelesting.
I was heating it slowly (so nothing burned) from the back until the heat transfers to the surface, then sorta backrolling the edge as I lay it to the floor. I will test it as you say to find the scorching point..... Then I will use my hair dryer.
I have other stuff going on at the job, so I'll mess with it again when I put on some base shoe.

 

[Jon]

Hmmmmmm. intelesting ....velly, velly intelesting.
I was heating it slowly (so nothing burned) from the back until the heat transfers to the surface, then sorta backrolling the edge as I lay it to the floor. I will test it as you say to find the scorching point..... Then I will use my hair dryer.
I have other stuff going on at the job, so I'll mess with it again when I put on some base shoe.

Well what happened here?

 

[Floorist]

The suspense is killing me.

 

[highup]

Well what happened here?

How would I know? ...there's a bed and an inversion table in there now.
I think it's finished flattening itself just from laying there for a week and a half. I've been rebuilding/repairing the floors in the dining room kitchen and hall to make them good enough to install the other vinyl and fitting the wood transitions for the carpet I'm gonna start installing the $8.99 a yard carpet in the living room tomorrow and finish some of the vinyl.
The base shoe is being stained tonight. I'll look to see if the curl is gone when I install the shoe.

 

[Jon]

Have you tried a heat gun on a piece like I told you yet?
Trust me
I am a Kiwi

 

[highup]

Have you tried a heat gun on a piece like I told you yet?
Trust me
I am a Kiwi

A Kiwi that installs Kiwi vinyl............. How come you know so much about vinyls to the far north?
............OK, OK, I'll give it a shot if I can find a scrap of it laying around. I'll even record the temp when it turns bubbly.

 

[Jon]

A Kiwi that installs Kiwi vinyl............. How come you know so much about vinyls to the far north?
............OK, OK, I'll give it a shot if I can find a scrap of it laying around. I'll even record the temp when it turns bubbly.

You want me to show you?
Have found that using a heat gun set hot works well on commercial, 2mm thick, as well without burning the paint on the skirting board
Trust me
Honest Jon