Methods for joining plywood for baseboard / wainscotting

[Jonathan Jung]

How to quickly and smoothly join 1/2" bamboo sheets together?

Have a customer wanting to wrap a the interior of his music studio with 1/2" bamboo 3ply, as a 16" high baseboard / skirting. Almost like wainscotting, it's so high. The grain will be vertical so I'll be crosscutting 16" lengths of the 4x8 sheets, then joining them along the short end, along the long grain. On some walls there will be 5 sections to edge glue together. The joint need be seamless and flush. I am considering using a solid surface seamer, like the Bessey PS55, which uses suction cups. I plan to have the joint with 3 dominos. I'm looking for speed, there's 4 big rooms to do.

See photos for the mock-ups.

https://www.bessey.de/en-GB/BESSEY-Tool/Products/Clamping-Tools/Assembly-and-laying-tools/Seaming-tool-PS55

Does anyone have a better approach for joining?

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[Keegan Shields]

Will you be glueing and/or nailing the plywood to the wall? How about a ship lap joint?

[Jonathan Jung]

Screwing the material to the wall, covering the screwheads with the 1" wide trim you see in the picture. The joint needs to be tight.

Anyone know if the seaming clamps will be able to pull strong enough to overcome the friction of a few 4mm dominos?

[Dan Cameron]

How to quickly and smoothly join 1/2" bamboo sheets together?

Have a customer wanting to wrap a the interior of his music studio with 1/2" bamboo 3ply, as a 16" high baseboard / skirting. Almost like wainscotting, it's so high. The grain will be vertical so I'll be crosscutting 16" lengths of the 4x8 sheets, then joining them along the short end, along the long grain. On some walls there will be 5 sections to edge glue together. The joint need be seamless and flush. I am considering using a solid surface seamer, like the Bessey PS55, which uses suction cups. I plan to have the joint with 3 dominos. I'm looking for speed, there's 4 big rooms to do.

See photos for the mock-ups.

https://www.bessey.de/en-GB/BESSEY-Tool/Products/Clamping-Tools/Assembly-and-laying-tools/Seaming-tool-PS55

Does anyone have a better approach for joining?

486534
486535


I believe that ply will shrink and expand with humidity. How will you implement expansion gaps?

[Jonathan Jung]

I brought the expansion/contraction issue up with the customer. They want to proceed anyway for a seamless look...they said if it ends up messing itself up we'll just redo it.

[andrew whicker]

Are you attaching it directly to the drywall or you adding an MDF sheet for depth? Maybe you could pre-build a MDF + bamboo at your shop (vacuum press or mechanical press). Scribe them at the room and fit on site? You have quarter round or similar at the base for some play? It looks like the trim cap and base pieces are all custom.

How level is the floor?



I personally don't like the idea of attaching directly to drywall because that could turn into a shimming nightmare if I'm thinking of this correctly.

[andrew whicker]

I've used this tape for veneer: https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/b40067055/

per the following veneer video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AY1PIG9MhQ&list=FLDtY6QDzxIkAMv6eLF6ftEw&index=10&t=3s


It works like a clamp to a degree.

[Kevin Jenness]

I question whether suction cups will hold on the bamboo surface - I would beg or borrow one to test before investing in those clamps.

A simple method would be to fasten some clamping ears to the plyboo edges (or screw rabbeted ears (rabbit ears?) to the backs) and use f- or c-clamps to pull the sections together. # of dominos would depend on the panels' flatness.

[andrew whicker]

This is a cool project. Just a few more thoughts that come to my mind:

- Make the top and bottom trip pieces hold the bamboo sheets in place with clamping pressure, not w/ hardware. Hardware in the top and bottom pieces, but not in the bamboo.

- Let the bamboo / bamboo + MDF grow one way toward a room corner. Cut out drywall in that corner to give 1/2" or so of movement. The perpendicular bamboo butts up against this piece and has 1/2" movement on the other corner. Each wall piece gets 1/2" of room for movement, but it is invisible to the naked eye.


- If you use bamboo + MDF, you could have the MDF longer than the bamboo so at site you can add a bamboo sheet that butts perfectly. Attach these two pcs (bamboo + mdf) to themselves, but not to the wall. You still are giving the total assembly room to move the length of the room while also getting your perfect joints. Assuming the MDF and bamboo ply grow and shrink at similar rates.

[andrew whicker]

Or use the fancy Lamello connectors.

[Jonathan Jung]

The panels will be fixed to the wall through 2" of wall coverings: 3 layers of drywall and a 1/2" airgap. The entire building is soundproofed like this for acoustics. So I have to use quite big screws, 4" long, to reach studs. So I'll be fixing the panels to the wall at the top and bottom edges with screws, covering them up with little trim at the top and scribe trim at the bottom. This will also eliminate the need for scribing the panels to the floor. So these trims will be applied after the panel is fixed to the wall.

Putting ears on the edges of the ply is something I thought of, but was thinking suction clamps would be faster. Andrew, I wonder of the Lamello connectors would pull it tight? Then no clamps needed while the glue dries. I was intending to layout the panels for edging-gluing on the floor, orientated such that bowing is facing up (convex side of the panel is upwards) to ensure the front sides of the panels are joined tightly.

[Jonathan Jung]

Andrew, the idea with cutting the drywall back in the corners is a fantastic idea.

[andrew whicker]

So you are slotting the screw holes?

Thanks : )

I had to do the drywall growth trick for a countertop I built because the sapele came in w/ higher Moisture Content than I expected. So I did a bit of the opposite: a stuck it under the drywall a bit (the customer was using that silly stick on backsplash...sigh) to let it shrink.

[andrew whicker]

The panels will be fixed to the wall through 2" of wall coverings: 3 layers of drywall and a 1/2" airgap. The entire building is soundproofed like this for acoustics. So I have to use quite big screws, 4" long, to reach studs. So I'll be fixing the panels to the wall at the top and bottom edges with screws, covering them up with little trim at the top and scribe trim at the bottom. This will also eliminate the need for scribing the panels to the floor. So these trims will be applied after the panel is fixed to the wall.


Cool idea. So it's a fairly even floor? Not a basement floor : )

I've never used the Lamello.. I've heard good things from the cabinet guys.

[Kevin Jenness]

I wonder of the Lamello connectors would pull it tight? Then no clamps needed while the glue dries. I was intending to layout the panels for edging-gluing on the floor, orientated such that bowing is facing up (convex side of the panel is upwards) to ensure the front sides of the panels are joined tightly.

The Tenso connectors "should" work. Only one way to find out for sure- you know you want that $1600 Zeta P2.

The panels aren't flat? How far out are they? How are you going to cut the joints accurately? What is the moisture content? Is the storage/ installation space climate controlled? What is the expected movement in service? Are you going to be able to pull the panels in against the wall without breaking the glue joints? Sounds fraught... I would want a bomber edge joint if there were any significant cupping or expected movement in the assembly.

[andrew whicker]

The Tenso connectors "should" work. Only one way to find out for sure- you know you want that $1600 Zeta P2.

The panels aren't flat? How far out are they? How are you going to cut the joints accurately? What is the moisture content? What is the expected movement in service? Are you going to be able to pull the panels in against the wall without breaking the glue joints? Sounds fraught... I would want a bomber edge joint if there were any significant cupping or expected movement in the assembly.



Yeah, I really really like the idea of making the assy at the shop and installing it and trimming it out on site. You did say 3 sheets of drywall... so maybe it's pretty straight?


How thick is the ply veneer? I'd be concerned about getting faces within veneer thickness of each other. Otherwise you can't sand them flush.

[John Goodin]

I would worry the Bessey would lose suction through a tiny pore or imperfection. What about creating and using a very long pipe clamp? My first thought was a shiplap or tongue and groove but that is a lot slower than a domino.

[Jonathan Jung]

The 1/2" material is 3 plies of bamboo of the same thickness, so the faces are quite thick. Assembling the runs in the shop sounds nice but I don't want to transport 25' long pieces. That Lamello is cool, but for one job? Hmm...

I'll ask a couple local countertop places for a solid surface seaming clamp to try.

[Tom M King]

I would stick them up with Powergrab, and use clean removable duct tape to hold them together. With not too much Powergrab, it's not going to move anyway. A battery powered caulking gun helps a lot.

I've built coffered ceilings out of MDF and Powergrab with no fasteners. I didn't want to have to putty so many holes.

[Jim Becker]

Tom brings up a good point...some of today's quick acting adhesives are a boon for projects like this, especially with limited person-power to do the work. One has to be spot on with placement, however, because they do "grab" and don't let go. :)