Rolling carpet tiles immediately?

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johnlanou

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I'm laying down self-adhesive carpet tiles and want to know if I have to roll the seams immediately after laying the tiles down, or can I wait several days until i'm done all the tiles and then roll. Will the adhesive have dried all the way after several days and make the rolling useless?

Many thanks,
John
 
Most likely it's a pressure sensitive adhesive. It will always be sticky unless it gets crud in it. You should roll it with a 100# roller after install.

Now there's been times I have forgotten my roller. I just made sure to run my hand over each tile to make sure it was set in the adhesive. No issues
 
Yeah, what Tom said. Pressure sensitive adhesive isn't something that "dries up" and loses it's tackiness over any short period (weeks or months). Establishing the best bond possible with a 100 lbs roller or anything that firmly seats the backing to the substrate will prevent dust/debris from in between the backing and substrate which will inhibit/degrade the bond. As Tom says you could do this by hand or with anything heavy pressing down thoroughly and firmly on the carpet.

From demo of...........approx. 10 hundred zillion square yards of carpet tile in every sort of commercial application I can tell you MOST installations are not "to specs". The carpet tiles will just lay there if nothing heavy rolls or twists the tiles out of place. We can generally just pick them up and stack them onto furniture dollies and roll away. When done by the book; to specs they will be well stuck as long as the substrate was prepared........to specs.
 
I think I installed 10 hundred zillion and one yards of carpet tile. Never used a roller. Sheet goods always, carpet tile never.

Only time I ever had a problem was when the PVC backed tiles started curling up. Manufacturer paid to replace that one. Heck I remember some of the first carpet tile I ever saw (somewhere in the 80s) the specs called for a “ grid spread”. Heavy vinyl backed tiles, didn’t even have to glue the whole floor…. Of course that didn’t work out too well if you rolled anything heavy across it.🤓 Soon after everything changed to full spread.
 
I think I installed 10 hundred zillion and one yards of carpet tile. Never used a roller. Sheet goods always, carpet tile never.

Only time I ever had a problem was when the PVC backed tiles started curling up. Manufacturer paid to replace that one. Heck I remember some of the first carpet tile I ever saw (somewhere in the 80s) the specs called for a “ grid spread”. Heavy vinyl backed tiles, didn’t even have to glue the whole floor…. Of course that didn’t work out too well if you rolled anything heavy across it.🤓 Soon after everything changed to full spread.
We installed 1000's of yards of Interface using the grid pattern until we did a whole floor over at AC Spark Plug. Did the job on the weekend and on Monday got a call the tile had shifted when rolling mail cart over them. My boss sent us back the following weekend to full spread the floor. Interface argued they would guarantee the job, Boss said whats to warrantee, its all glued down. After that all Interface jobs were full spread. C and A had the 5 dot P sized glue system.
 
That’s funny, wonder how many jobs that happened on before they admitted they were wrong…lol

Tried the “5 spot” system once. Takes too long. I’d rather just spread the glue… As long as I’m not paying for the glue…😎

We used to cheat a bit with the glue. Rather than teeth or a roller we’d double stick tape or glue a piece of carpet tile to an old patch trowel (fuzzy Side out). Faster than rolling, saved on glue and made clean up easy… Stuck just fine.

Advantage to rolling was you were off your knees for a while. Never thought much about that when I was young…😔
 
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VERY close to zero percent of commercial carpet tile installations are rolled with a 100 lbs roller. I dont even recall seeing that in the specs until maybe 10/15 years ago where they also wanted you to get into the glue "tacky" rather than fully set.

Even on those installs no one was lumping the roller around for carpet tiles. I would use more glue and get into it a little quicker. There was a period where the acrylic glues they were transitioning to so as to eliminate VOCs really WOULD kinda lose most of the tack. It reminded me of the white cove base adhesive.
 
I don’t remember ever being asked to use the acrylic stuff on carpet tile. Vinyl planks yea. And yea if you wait too long it won’t grab too well. Had to be careful how much you spread.

With the pressure sensitive we’d spread hundreds of yards at a time. If the tapers were done, and dust was at a minimum we’d even spread areas to be installed the next day. The other side of that coin is if you put the carpet tile in the pressure sensitive too soon, while it’s still wet, it becomes a very permanent installation. Removal will be tough.
 
I don’t remember ever being asked to use the acrylic stuff on carpet tile. Vinyl planks yea. And yea if you wait too long it won’t grab too well. Had to be careful how much you spread.

With the pressure sensitive we’d spread hundreds of yards at a time. If the tapers were done, and dust was at a minimum we’d even spread areas to be installed the next day. The other side of that coin is if you put the carpet tile in the pressure sensitive too soon, while it’s still wet, it becomes a very permanent installation. Removal will be tough.
I wish I could remember the brands/specific adhesives but I was quite surprised when they wanted the 100 lbs roller AND laying into it without fully setting up. They'd ask for the transfer test. It wasn't many buckets of that crap I'd even tolerate. I find out they're trying to deliver that sort of glue and I blow a gasket. On a bigger job I'd send the truck back to fetch "the good stuff".

If there's not adequate ventillation on those night jobs where the HVAC shuts off on a timer we'd sometimes have to just get into it ASAP. You can ony drag fans around with you to a limited degree around the system furniture cubicles. Yeah, I'd fight off the guys as long as possible. And some guys were plenty willing to set their butt on a bucket and hope for some overtime. Weekends and nights I didn't even want to be there in the first place. The guys dragging their feet became my worst enemies. The guys who were just slow and sucked................well I'd get a little frustrated there as well,
 

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