Best way to attach tongue & groove to a wall

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Morning folks,
About to start adding tongue and groove cladding to the lower half of the bathroom walls as the next part of our never ending house refurbishment once I get the flamin' tiling done - but that's another story..... The walls are fairly flat and if possible I'd like to avoid removing the radiator and was thinking "can I just adhesive the cladding direct to the wall rather than fix horizontal slats every 2 foot and pin the claddinng to that....
Sooooo - can I get away with that?? And If I can what kind of adhesive shouls I be looking at?? Not over happy with pink grip when I've used it in the past - although I guess I can use it again at a push - just seems a bit weak unless you use a load of it.

as I sauid I'm trying to avoid removing / moving / rehanging the radiator if I can so if I can get away with using adhesive that would be a lot more straightforward - is it wise??? I'm also guessing if I'm cutting meter stips of cladding that I can use 3 or 4 dabs of adhesive and that'll hold - again any pointers would be appreciated :)
 
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I would recommend that you fix battens to the wall horizontally to get the best finish on the job. No need to take off the radiator as long as you can fix battens above and below the radiator you can slide the T&G behind and fix it onto the battens, notching around the radiator brackets. As long as you have a fixing top and bottom there should'nt be a problem.
 
several advantages of battons

if you have skirting in situ this acts as the bottom batton without the need to remove
any deviations are evened out over a larger area
if you have the top batton level with the top of the t n g and a bit of 9mm quad parralel in front you then have enough support without brackets to hold a 3 by1 planed shelf for light items to finnish the top without additional support
 
can I just adhesive the cladding direct to the wall rather than fix horizontal slats every 2 foot and pin the claddinng to that....

I did that in my daughter’s bedroom. I didn't fancy using battens because I didn't want it to stick out too far from the walls.

There were a few problems mind. If the T+G isn't perfectly flat and is bowed then when you put a few pieces together you get a slight wave effect where the joins seems to come out further from the wall (it's also hard to get them to stick to the walls when they're aren't flat). If you can find it, use T+G that has grooves cut into the back side of it - this allows it to flex along its length and makes fitting easier. I got mine from B&Q but they didn't have enough, so I had to mix it with the ordinary stuff. I used "Grabs like nails" to stick the boards down (5 biggish dots was fine).

I fixed a piece of wood to the wall that sat on top of the T+G and for the really awkward pieces that kept jumping off, I used screws (screwed upwards to catch the face of the T+G) to hold in place until the adhesive had cured.
When finished I fitted a piece of dado to that top piece of wood.

It was quite fiddly to do and obviously took longer than using battens but it is possible.

Good luck,
Gcol
 
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Hmmm - cheers for the advice folks - starting to lean towards fixing battens up and attaching the tongue & groove to that now.... And it'll have the added benefit of covering up the rubbish sirting in there leaving me free to fit new stuff over it and earn brownie points with my better half - bonus!!! :D
 

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