A question about products sold on here

[TheCakerator]

My husband and I were looking at the products sold on this page and we were wondering what the pro's/con's are to using the adhesive in a spray can while doing underbelly repairs vs using the belly mend tape while doing repairs .. is one better to use then the other?

[Greg]

I have had good luck with the belly tape, JD uses a spray/tape combo that works well for him. You can do a search and see if you can find his method.

Greg

[ponch37300]

I've had decent luck with the belly mend tape. You have to really clean the area good first. Then dry it good. When you tape it up a heat gun or hair dryer can help it stick better. One thing I do also is to make an "X" out of tape across the cut. So if you have say a foot long cut or tear I run a piece of tape about 20" long perpendicular to the cut. This helps hold the pieces together and adds more support so it won't pull apart again. Then I run a piece of the tape over along the cut to seal it up. I've personally never used spray adhesive on it. I've read about JD doing it, think he just sprays some on both sides to help the belly mend tape stick. I've been meaning to try it some time but usually when I'm making a repair I just want to get it done instead of running to the store, I already have the belly mend tape so just use that.

[TheCakerator]

Thanks for the replies .. I watched the video that was on here somewhere, where he showed how to fix a hole in the underbelly .. he just used the spray adhesive .. we have no personal experience with either product but the spray stuff seemed pretty quick and easy to use ..

[JD]

Small to medium holes and tears can be fixed with the spray adhesive alone. The trick there is to use construction grade adhesive like Sta-put or 3m 90 Heavy duty. Any large areas or if replacing total sections, it is good to use mechanical fasteners (screws, staples, etc.) with the spray adhesive. I often use 1 1/2" strips of 1/2" plywood or furring strips on large pieces, especially if the underbelly is holding the weight of the insulation.

A roofing staple gun, now called a lath gun, works great for this. They can be rented pretty cheap at tool rental places. Saves a lot of time and effort.

[TheCakerator]

Thanks for the reply. I'm not real sure what the rips look like under the house .. I've never been under and my husband swears he is too large to fit by the hitches to really check things out .. I'm assuming there might be some larger sized holes in the underbelly so we might need to do the fastening route in those spots ..

[Steve-WA]

I find it ironic that there is a big Quadrant Homes banner ad on the site lately.