minivipr

Please help... vinyl won't stick

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Thia weekend I installed a large design on a wall in a dance studio. I had a heck of a time getting the vinyl to stick then. I removed what I could and cleaned the walls really well with the alcohol water mix. That made the vinyl stick better and I was able to get it all up. The customer called and said that some of it was looking like it was going to fall today. I applied 631 and it was all new, to me at least, as of friday. Is there something that I can do to remedy this? I am thinking of going and getting two sided tape and see if that will adhere to the wall and line the back of the design with it where I can to make it stay up. Do you have any ideas?

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some spray adhesive might be in order as a last resort if it is coming off.  I would try to find out why it wont stick to begin with before trying different ways to make it stick. Otherwise you are chancing spending more money on it trying to get it to stick but are still not sure as to why it wont. 

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What alot of people don't know is depending on what type of paint the wall was painted with, it won't stick.

I believe latex paint will not allow vinyl to stick well or at all.

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I believe the same regarding latex paint, especially semi or full gloss.  I've personally never got it to work all that well and if it's textured, forget about it.

I would be very careful about using double-stick tape.  If some of the edges are coming off, eventually all the edges are probably going to come off.  Double-stick tape is going to remove paint when you take it off, guaranteed, which might leave you with the cost of a paint job.

Spray glue MIGHT work if you can get it on there without getting it all over the place.

You can also try warming the vinyl up with a hair dryer and running something like a tennis ball over it hard while its warm.

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I have had good luck with latex painted walls as most interior wall are pained with that type of paint.

I have had problem with oil base though.

You need to make sure the walls are clean and dry and the paint is cured.

Wash the wall with TSP and try not to touch it before the vinyl goes on. Using a tennis ball helps with the texture but you CAN have too much texture and nothing will look good.

$.03

Jon

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I have only had problems with plastered walls that are bumpy. I have to rub and rub to get it to finally stick and it still doesn't look like it is stuck great but stays up.. Good luck!

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Never had any problems with 631. The only type of paint that I know that it will not stick to is paint that has teflon in it.

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Well I did the two sided tape.  It is a more aggressive tack then the 631. I stopped in there today and it was holding still. It was a pain the arse though to put in on every tip of the stars and in every turn of the out lines. I took almost another 4 hours last night to put it all under the vinyl. I never got started til after 9 so getting home at 1:30 was not fun.

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Glad you got it Hung.

Keep your fingers Crossed and Hope your done with it.

Next comment is Not aimed at you, so don't take it that way. :D

This is a Perfect Example of why you don't want to go into a paying job at a lowballers price, hobbiest or otherwise.

Because it can turn around on you Quick and then start actually costing YOU money out of pocket to do the job right.

You have GOT to make enough to pay yourself, pay for the materials, pay the electicity used, wear and tear on the cutter, blades, and everything else too. Your Gas to travel to install it all factors into the price. You NEED to make a PROFIT on Every job to cover those costs and setting money aside to upgrade tools and machinery etc., and also cover the screw ups.  They WILL happen.

I don't mean that every job you are gonna be able to Redo it 2 or 3 times without a Loss but Overall you Should Profit enough to cover a job that goes wrong without loosing your shirt to redo it.

Some say, Oh it's a hobby for me, well it Stops being a "hobby" once you set that first price and except money in return for..... you guessed it, your Work.

I have no idea what minivipr charged for this, that's not what this comment is addressing here, I am just pointing out to people just starting out(myself included) that the Unexpected happens on jobs especially once you charge for it.

minivipr has extra time installing this job right from the start, not sure how many times he ended up having to go back and recut the design and reinstall it in whole or in partial pieces.

Or just lost time messing around with it to get it to stick the first time.

Then had to go back again and try to salvage the job with double sided tape (out of pocet expense to get) and mess around another 4 hours getting it to stick to the wall and hopefully look exceptable.

Keep in mind now, that the Customer is going to be looking at it Daily for quite some time and at first sign of another corner or point coming loose will be calling for that to be Fixed as well.

Will this Customer except the double sided tape if it makes the vinyl look different than the rest that does not have it under it? Will they tell other businesses to give you a call? Will this Customer be unhappy and want their money back? They may want you to reinstall the entire job, or after all your efforts to make it right, they just may want their money back.

All part of doing Business part time from home  full time from home or full time with a brick and mortor storefront.

You have GOT to cover yoursef with a Profit, so that profit can be reinvested into your business or hobby or just plain old fixing a job from hell.

It is ALOT easier to lower your price to maybe meet another bid, but you can never raise your price later once you have excepted the job.

Do this cheap and all your customers will want it even cheaper. Raising prices later down the road will send your customers running to the next cheapest.

Keep in mind doing it on the cheap you will still be Expected to do the job right and fix it if something goes wrong without charging the customer more to make it right.

You can't say on a job like this, oh but I didn't charge you what everyone else would have charged, your customer won't care at that point and expect you to make it right.

Even a one color white rear window decal job can backfire on you and before you know it you are packing up your tools running home and cutting a second one to install without a crease this time.

You don't have to be the most expensive, but don't sell yourself short being the cheapest either.

Sorry minivipr, didn't mean for this to be so long but it was a good example of why you should not do this as cheaply as possible because you need to cover your expenses,time and sometimes your behind when things dont go as planned.

Again this post was not aimed at you, I was just wanting to educate some newbs like myself why you need too charge  the right way. IMO.

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