The choice glue for PVC

Summer is (hopefully) here. And as sure as night follows day, many of Ireland’s waterways will be filled with inflatable boats.

But what happens, if upon removing your boat from its winter storage, that a hole or tear is discovered? Scrap the boat or even try a repair using a DIY glue?

Of course not! Scraping the boat will cost you money and using a DIY glue to do the repair, could cost you your life!

What you need is Alpha S1588, available direct from our stores. Alpha S1588 is a special glue, designed for gluing soft PVC and indeed polyurethane materials,  either to themselves or to metals.

In fact, it is a good all rounder, equally at home as a general purpose adhesive for bonding wood, felt and many other substrates. The adhesive film has very good resistance to oil and grease, and above all…water!!

What is the best way to repair your inflatable PVC boat? Read on…..the Glue Guru has put together some details on how this can be done, easily and with confidence. The process is as follows.

• First, make sure that all surfaces are clean, dry and free from dust, grit, loose materials, oil or grease.
• Prepare a circular repair patch (a circular repair patch is better than a square patch, no corners which is often the weakest part of a flexible repair.
• Using a stiff brush, apply a thin, even coating of S1588 to both the repair patch, and the surface to be bonded.
• Note that in some applications, we may suggest two coats of glue, wet on dry. Please contact us for specific advice.
• Allow the solvent to evaporate before bonding the materials. The time for evaporation will depend on the temperature and humidity. Under normal ambient conditions this will take a minimum of 1-2 minutes and a maximum of 10 minutes.
• Bring the surfaces together and bond firmly. Use something like a rolling pin to consolidate the surfaces.
• Don’t go boating until 48 hours after the inflatable has been repaired.

And there you have it. A simple and effective way to repair an inflatable boat.

As Ireland’s leading glue experts, we have a glue for everything…..just try us.

The Glue Guru!