I use construction adhesive for laying all cork. Why you ask? Allow me to tell you in the following rant. [swg]
I always have lots of half tubes of GP construction adhesive and subfloor adhesive left over from various jobs (I’m a general contractor). So I said to myself: “Self, if this stuff can hold down a construction site, why not cork to plywood.” Self to Self: “well good golly gosh! I think I need to sit down. All this deep thinking gave me a headache!”
In all seriousness though, i use construction adhesive/subfloor adhesive for all my cork laying. Benefits include: super strong adhesion, never needing to tack cork strip curves (seriously, it’s instant grab), water clean up, no worrying about bubbles in cork sheet, just smack it down and apply pressere with hands ONCE, no weights needed.
I have done this for several layouts of mine and several of my friends layouts. Results guaranteed! No, really, this works super well. Never had a single problem. Well, I take that back. If you ever have to pull the cork up, it won’t. Period. Trust me. So that super adhesion is a bit of a doubled edge sword. Overall though, 10/10.
Yep, rolled cork wants to lift. And if you use wood as the weight and the glue is thinned too much, it will seep through the cork and glue the plywood to the cork. Then lifting it up becomes a huge mess and a failed project. Personal experience.
Someone suggested wax paper as an intervening barrier. That should work.
Getting a large enough flat weighting surface that isn’t made of wood could be a challenge. I didn’t happen to have any spare steel plates stored in the basement, LOL.
I like to use Alex Plus caulk on any sub-roadbed yard or track applications. It holds quite sufficiently for modeling longevity but is forgiving unlike permanent adhesives. Just in case you ever want to make changes in the future. The products easy release makes those changes simple.
Two words: “Strategic tacking.” Assuming good adhesive the tacks or nails can be removed later
One thing about sheet cork, which I sometimes use for yards, is that it “inherits” any little variation in the surface below it, whether that is plywood, homasote, or as has been mentioned above, irregularly applied adhesive. Prep the area first with some sanding. And once the cork has been glued onto the base surface, use a hard roller such as wallpaper needs and really press down. And then the cork itself will benefit from some sanding afterwards.
Tom, I have a package of thin cork sheeting, and it is 1/16" thick. I bought it to use as strips of cork to step down from the mainline to the yard. I used Woodland Scenics Scenic Glue to bond the strips of cork to each other and to the plywood subroadbed. It holds just fine.
I guess I will always be a curmudgeon but cork has been around at least since the 1940s. Eventually it will dry out harden and create dust and more noise. I would experiment with vinyl flooring underlayment. Comes in a roll. Lays down nicely. Doesn’t age and keeps noise down. Just my two cents
True but not true, there have been many grades of cork used over the years, in the early years I beleive they used bottle cork, very different from the stuff we use which is made up of the outer shell of the cork tree where bottle cork come from the inside of the bark. The nature of the outside bark is what gives our current cork its durability and there is a real difference between brands. I use Midwest but avoid some that more black in it as about 20 years ago they experimented with putting more impuritys into the roadbed due to a cork shortage, that stuff was almost impossible to sand.
Thanks for all the suggestion and ideas, everyone!
Just to close this out, I laid all the cork using full strength yellow glue, spreading it with a putty knife for tha main blulk and a foam brush to cover the edges. I weighted each section down as I applied it.
Here’s one cork section just before installation, showing the yellow glue more-or-less evenly coating the surface.
Here’s the completed sheeting in place (except for the far end, where I still need to work out the curve away from Thermopolis), with track sections laid roughly in place to see what track I need. I also still have two turnouts to build.
Thanks again for all the ideas! They were all helpful; even the ones I didn’t use.
I would apply white glue or caulk. Apply in a back and forth pattern. Set your cork down, then roll over it with a wallpaper roller. This will spread it evenly under the cork.
I have had good success using double-sided tape - the heavy grade stuff used (here in UK at least) for sticking down carpet tiles to chipboard floors. I ensured my plywood (good quality birch) was clean and smooth first, then applied tape with one side still protected with its waxy backing paper, all over the surface I wanted to cover. Then used a roller to bed it down.
I then laid my cork sheet over the area to get the alignment right, held one end in place with something heavy, then gradually worked off the backing paper from the tape, pressing the cork in place as the sticky bits were exposed.
Once down, another good workout with the roller. It has been down for over a year with no problems and, when I recently needed to do some track mods, it was easy to cut through cork and tape and peel off the unwanted bits with a scraper, leaving a blemish-free surface.
As an aside - I have stuck down my Peco flex track to the cork with wood glue (here in UK sold as Evo Stik in big blue bottles). Again, no problems, but could get track and switches off undamaged when I needed to.
I use Glidden Gripper acrylic primer to glue both cork and foam. Works GREAT, and is very easy to spread with a small roller for large areas. Put it on a little thick.
I did this in several large areas on my layout. I spread the wood glue on the plywood with a fine-tooth tile trowel. Gives a nice even and thin coat of glue. Roll the cork out over the glue, and weigh it down. Use wax paper between any large weights or they’ll glue to the cork.
