Clean surfaces/choose right glue

bouicca21

I suspect these are fairly basic questions, but I genuinely don’t have a clue (in my day girls just did needlework and cooking at school).  

I have a draughty door. It’s obviously had a draught  excluder strip at some point but it’s rotted away.  What do I use to clean the surfaces before applying new strip?

The trim to my kitchen worktop has come off.  I have some PVAC glue - will that be ok to use or do I need something different?  Google tells me to use evostik but there seem to be several different sorts.  Also presumably I should clean the surfaces before gluing.   Can I use the same stuff as I get for the door? 

Bendy_House

Hi Bou.

I presume the draught strip has left a thin band of sticky stuff? Ie, the actually adhesive strip - that's very annoying.

Firs, see if you can remove it physically, by either rubbing it (very firmly) or by gently scraping it with a slightly blunt tool. Or, can you raise and edge and peel any as if it were sellotape?

Really try and remove as much of it as you can, because to use a solvent for this will likely be tedious and messy.

What to use to clean up the residue? I guess - if it's sticky - then try White Spirits, or sticker-remover. Possibly even some nail-varnish removers, but read the instructions to see what it says about painted surfaces (which I presume you have?)

Or, see how you get on with Cif and a cloth, but it'll likely need some firm rubbing.

Try what you have, and come back with the results - hopefully we can advise further.

For the worktop trim, PVAc won't work as this is purely for wood (and wood-based products - hardboard, MDF, cardboard, chipboard, etc). The Evostik mentioned is a 'contact' (or 'impact') adhesive, and is probably your best bet. You get any existing lumps of glue and debris off both the surfaces - just give it a crude scraping - it doesn't have to be perfect at all - and then follow the instructions for use. It essentially involves giving BOTH mating surfaces a coat of the adhesive, allowing it to go 'off' (touch-tacky) and then pressing them together. Please note that it sticks as soon as it touches, so make sure you fit it accurately - worth doing a dry-run, and working out HOW you will bring them together. Eg, the metal trim has a top edge that goes over the w'top, yes? Well, you'll want that as tight to the top as you can, so if you accidentally bring the glued surfaces together with a 5mm gap there, you're stuffed! So, perhaps, experiment with bringing the strip down from above, laying that top return on the top, with the rest of the strip angled away from the w'top end, and - once accurately positioned - bring the strip down to make gluing contact.

Just experiment first!

bouicca21

Ta.  The draught excluder residue isn’t sticky - it must be really old. It opens onto a communal hallway so I wasn’t bothered before but with energy prices rocketing and realising during a storm last winter just how draughty it is, I thought I’d better do something.

Thé trim is just a bit of laminate, no metal doodah, it’s just to seal the end of the worktop.  There’s a sort of sandy feel to where the old glue must have been, so I presume it’s some sort of residue.  I will look out for impact evostik.

Bendy_House

bouicca21 said:

Ta.  The draught excluder residue isn’t sticky - it must be really old. It opens onto a communal hallway so I wasn’t bothered before but with energy prices rocketing and realising during a storm last winter just how draughty it is, I thought I’d better do something.

Thé trim is just a bit of laminate, no metal doodah, it’s just to seal the end of the worktop.  There’s a sort of sandy feel to where the old glue must have been, so I presume it’s some sort of residue.  I will look out for impact evostik.

Ok, if the draught-excluder residue is nicely secure, then just give it a wipe over with, say, a damp cloth with a little household cleaner to remove any dirt, then a final wipe with just a damp cloth to remove any detergent residue. (Now't personal - but where air currents flow through tight gaps, you WILL get dirt building up. At least, I do - my door jambs are filthy - must go clean...)

Once clean and fully dry, just stick the new stuff over it. Don't stretch the strip as you apply it, but just make sure you tension it enough to remove any wrinkles. And - nan-sucky-eggs - don't try and bend the strip around corners, but cut the ends neatly and start the new run butted up.

Yes, the roughness will be old glue residue and particles of the chipboard from the worktop end. Best scrape that off as much as possible so that the surfaces get as close together as possible, with little obvious gap-line visible. Do you have a paint scraper? Even a chisel used gently. (with both, lay the strip face-down on a safe flat surface, hold the strip's end nearest you, and scrape away from you.) You don't at all need to fully clean the surfaces off old glue and debris, just remove the 'obvious' lumpy bits!

As before, do some dry runs as to how you'll align the top & front edges of the strip with the worktop. Place it very gently to begin with - barely make contact - just in case you do need to realign it, but try not to get in the position where you have to! And, if you do need to remove it, don't pull one end away or the strip might snap - try and get a flat blade between it and gently slip it along.

(Just for info: when fitted by kitchen installers, they first fit the strip - quite nicely aligned - but then trim the excess away until it ends up flush-bevelled with the worktop surface. They often use a special trimmer for this. But shouldn't be needed here.)

Scary? Nah...

bouicca21

Brill, thanks a lot. And you are right, the door jambs are filthy.