Am I the only one who got burned by that 'just use construction adhesive' advice?

My buddy Carl kept telling me to just slap some PL Premium on my baseboards instead of nailing them. Said it would save time and look cleaner. So I tried it on a bedroom in my 1950s bungalow here in Edmonton last month. Three days later the trim started popping off in the cold because the wood moved. Now I have to scrape off all that sticky mess and redo it with a finish nailer. Cost me an extra $40 in adhesive and a whole Saturday fixing it. Has anyone else had that PL Premium trick backfire on them in a cold climate?

2 comments

2 Comments

nancy_owens20d ago

Funny you mention that, because this kind of thing happens with a lot of "quick fix" shortcuts I've seen over the years. In my experience, the advice people give online or from buddies often skips over the part about temperature and humidity, especially here in a cold climate where wood moves like crazy. Your mileage may vary, but I've learned that anchoring trim with adhesive alone just doesn't hold up when things shrink and expand, and that goes for a lot of those "just glue it" projects in general. The extra time scraping off the mess is a hard lesson, but at least now you know for next time.

carter.julia20d ago

Exactly, glue alone never holds up when the seasons change and the wood starts shifting.