Heard a guy at the supply house say something about backing rod that made me rethink my whole approach

I was picking up some tack strip this morning and this older installer was telling a younger guy that he never uses backing rod on seams anymore, just double cuts and a lot of heat. He said the foam always shifts and creates a hump later. I have been using backing rod for years on busy commercial jobs and never thought twice about it. Has anyone else stopped using it and seen better results long term?

2 comments

2 Comments

joseph_hart28d ago

Hated backing rod for years. Every time I used it on a big glue-down job that thing would slide out of place before I even got the carpet rolled out. Switched to double cuts with a hot iron about a year ago and the seams lay flat way longer. Had a callback on a hotel corridor six months later and the sections I did the old way had a ridge, the double cut sections were perfect. Feels wrong at first but I'm never going back to that foam nonsense.

pat_hall8728d ago

Stick a couple strips of 2 inch wide masking tape down each side of the seam before you roll out the backing rod, @joseph_hart. That foam won't budge once it's got tape holding it in place. I learned that trick from an old timer who did hospital work for 30 years. Saved me more headaches than I can count on big glue-down jobs where the rod wants to migrate with every pass of the seaming iron.