How to install final VJ panel on a wall?

[chris_con]

 

Hi everyone! 

I have all but one of my panels up. The one that hasn’t been glued and nailed in is marked with a blue arrow. I’m not too sure how to fit this one in because I can’t seem to manoeuvre my fingers to push on the right hand side edge of the panel to fit the groove over the green tongue of the panel that’s already up. The panel that’s up and has the green tongue is marked in green, along the side where the tongue is.

Any ideas how to do this other than to trim the panel a bit more? I’m worried that if I do that, there will be too wide a gap to fill up with “no more gaps”. Even if I trim it though, it still feels like it would be a tight space to work with. All of this is made harder by the fact that I need to prop the board up on spacers to create a 10mm gap with the floor. When I try to connect the panels from an angle and subsequently swing the panel forwards to the wall, it often loses contact with shifting spacers or moves the spacer and that means my panel drops to the wrong level. On one of my dry runs, I managed to get the panels somewhat joined together, but it was not great as I could still catch a glimpse of the green tongue! It’s all just very cumbersome. Any help would be much appreciated! 

[EricL]

Hello @chris_con 

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's sensational to have you join us and thanks for sharing your question about installing your final EasyVJ panel.

I believe you're having control issues due to the limited space available to your fingers. I propose attaching two timber offcuts onto the surface of the panel so that you can lift and push the panel in the direction that you desire. Once the panel is in place and has been secured, you can then unscrew the timber hand holds and repair the holes with filler.

I've drawn up a sample image below to give you an idea of where to install the timber handholds. You can technically add more handles if you wish, just keep in mind that the extra screw holes will need to be filled in as well.

Let me call on our experienced members @Dave-1 and @Nailbag for their recommendations.

If you have any other questions we can help with, please let us know.

Eric

[Dave-1]

Afternoon @chris_con 

Well think @EricL's idea has stollen anything I could come with lol I was going to suggest an angle bracket that you could use to "pull" the sheet into the existing ones but I really like Erics suggestion. Much more controllable for shift the VJ board around. 

btw in case you havnt been using spavcers on the bottom and just keeping it off teh floor, I have used spare sections of plaster board for that space level. 10mm works perfectly.

Dave

[chris_con]

Thank you very much for this great idea! 

[chris_con]

Thank you Dave, I’ll give Eric’s idea a go! 

And thanks for the idea on spare off cuts, I wish I had not bought the spacers! 

[EricL]

Hi @chris_con 

Please keep us updated with your progress, we look forward to seeing your VJ wall fully installed.

Eric

[Nailbag]

I hear your pain @chris_con getting that last sheet in can be very challenging. I recently had a project to install it over head as a ceiling for an old Alfresco deck makeover. Trying to position the panels so they line up, slide together the T & G just about ruined me and my helper. Pics below. But I have also done the same project as you for a feature wall. So here are my tips on top of the excellent one @EricL provided with a few visuals attached below.

It's much easier to join the tongue if the previous panel isn’t fixed the last 250-300mm. So, if you can pry, it out about 15mm and run some Vaseline along the green tongue, which will help it slide into place.

Use a right angle pry bar along the right-hand edge starting at say the bottom and work your way up the edge. You can use a thin bit of timber or plastic in-between the pry bar and wall for extra non-damaging leverage.

I hope this helps. Regards, Nailbag

[chris_con]

Awesome, thanks so much! What a great idea, and thank you for great illustrations. I’ve had a look at the installed panel and I’m pretty sure I can carefully pry off the last 300 mm or so. I’ll give this a crack before I attempt to attach the handholds as per Eric’s suggestion! 

[Nailbag]

Excellent. Looking forward to the final photos @chris_con  

[chris_con]

Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions to help me finish off the panelling! I’d do a few things differently in hindsight but I think it turned out well!