Wall Cladding with Formica/MDF/Formica

[user 5027]

Hi,

I am cladding some walls and would appreciate any advice/suggestions.

The choice of cladding material will be supplied to me as 8' x 4' sheets - three in total.

On the facing side is Formica F9012 Ebony HGP (Horizontal Grain)
The backing material is 12mm MDF
The balancing material is white Formica

To see the facing product (http://www.formica.co.uk/publish/site/e ... rains.html)

After getting the sheets supplied to me, I will leave for a few days to settle. Then I will cut to size.

I was then going to take some timber cutting it at an angle. Half gets fixed to the wall, the other half to the Wall cladding (non facing side). This should then let me lower the sheets (cut) onto the wall which should then provide a straight guide.

The height of the panels to be hung will be 1200mm with the grain running horizontally. As such I will use three peices of timber to secure the cladding. Top, Middle and bottom - leaving room for maneuvering to top and bottom.

A. My concerns is if 12mm is a thick enough MDF - I am not sure what "commercial" people use. Keep in mind this does have White Formica to the rear to balance - so it should be pretty good. But I will only have 10mm that I can screw into.

B. What techniques can be used to allow minor vertical alterations - just incase - are we just looking at putting simple packers on the wall mount ?

A place called Mitchells Worktops (http://www.mitchellsworktops.co.uk/) are sourcing the Formica and MDF (James Lathams), doing the glueing up and putting into their 8' by 4' laminate press. They are charging £187/sheet. Which I thought was not bad as it's all custom stuff - with finishes / sizes to my spec. I got two other quotes and both were £45/sheet more expensive.

Before anyone suggest, the finish is exactly what I require. I have been to James Lathams new (absolutely massive) new warehouse in Fareham and they did not have a finished product that I liked ! But my god, did they have some stock !!

Paul.
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[wizer]

Sorry Paul I didn't make through all your text. But one thing that sprung to mind. Is formica a fire risk? If it is, putting it all over the walls could be deadly.

 

[user 5027]

Wizer,

It's the same Formica that's used on Kitchen worktops and one of the places it's being hung in is a Kitchen, so I doubt it should be a real concern. Equally, I've got a full house sprinkler system alongside that Heat & Smoke detecters...

Paul.

 

[krismusic]

I was going to say that there are various panel adhesives on the market but actually, i reckon your split batten idea is a good one. Are you going to need to ensure that the edges sit flush? Maybe biscuits?

 

[hpl]

Hi Paul,
Are the panels going to be hung on the wall full size, or there abouts?
My concern with the MDF would be that with only 10mm of screws into it, would it hold the split battens securely? MDF is fine to stick the formica to, and will stay flat, but ply would be stronger for screwing into, and I would be inclined to go up to 18mm just to get a good fixing, unless you know of a good glue to fix the batten to the balancer. The difference in cost will be small compared to the cost of the laminates.
We use split battens for shop fitting jobs and I am told they work well, I don't go to site, unless all else fails :x but I imagine they will require a bit of packing and fiddling to get them right. Sorry, I haven't fitted them before so can't advise.
Price sounds very good to me, if that is the price for a made up sheet. We used the ebony about 2 weeks ago and I think that it was about £155 + vat for an 8 x 4 sheet of the laminate, plus the MDF and the balancer, but maybe we should have bought from Lathams?

Hope this helps,

Johnny B

 

[billbeee]

Hi Paul,
If you are concerned about the stiffness of the finished fixed panel, then you have two choices, use thicker MDF or just use more battens on the wall.
Go to 400 or even 300 centres with your battens.
You mention screws. Surely to fix the sheets after going to the trouble of using split battens, (giving you heaps of time to do dry runs) then you will be fixing with a panel adhesive. If there is an opportunity to temporary hold or brace the panels overnight I wouldn’t even bother with the split battens at all.
If you are using screws to hang something else off the panel, then I guess it depends how heavy it is going to be. If it’s a lot of weight then fix to the wall behind.
Set up a temporary timber straightedge on the wall (legs to the floor) and use or pack off that, or if lower pack up off the floor to get your height. Don’t mess about with packers on the battens, use stuff that you can see and adjust while the panels are in place.
Cheers
Bill.

 

[user 5027]

Guys,

The reason I went down the MDF route was based upon the Tech guys from Formica. Basically, they said because you get a superior surface, you should get no (as long as the MDF is correctly picked) show-through with MDF. However, with PLY, they say, sometimes you can get show-through.

Thing is, I like the idea of PLY, as it's stiffer and lighter. Equally, I would be happy going to 18mm.

I like the idea of direct glue onto the wall too, however, I want a 5mm shadow gap around the edges and would like the effect of it "floating", so I think I will keep down the batten idea. Equally, I am pretty sure the walls are not going to be 100% true - so the battens might assist me. Also, it allows me to have a total sc** up on the wall without any permanent damage - I always like a way out of things !!

As I'm going to have some cut's left over, I can use this to "play with", to see what effects I get - shadows...

Paul.

 

[Jake]

I don't have any experience of actually doing this, but there's loads of wall panelling in our offices - and I've seen them taken off for maintenance etc - all sorts of expensive but quite vile burl veneers.

MDF substrate would be my bet, nice and stable and this isn't exactly a stressful application. It might even be squashed bumfluff (chipboard).

It is half-sheet sized, about 15mm thick with the veneer and balancer (definitely thinner than 18mm +). They rest on two cleats at 1/3 and 2/3 height, and there's a batten underneath the meeting edges to close the bottom of the shadow gap.

HTH

 

[user 5027]

Jake,

Good to see other people also dismatle their office to see how things work !!! I also go into shops and poke around, most people don't mind, as long as the don't think your going to rob them !