Structural adhesive for bonding furring strips to steel wall

[strux0r]

I am in the process of designing a living space from a steel shipping container and am exploring options for attaching interior paneling. I am wondering if there is an adhesive that would be appropriate creating a permanent bond between the container's steel walls and vertically aligned steel furring strips? Ideally, this could be applied to the ceiling as well. There is no strict requirement that the furring material be steel, so if there are materials other than steel on steel that could potentially work in this scenario, I would be interested to hear of those as well. Apologies, for the less than technical phrasing as this is not my field. I will happily provide any additional details required to fully answer the question.

Thanks in advance!

 

[berkshire]

Provided the joints are clean, and any paint is tight, type II silicon rubber works quite well.
Allow the material to cure for 48 hours before placing additional loads on it.
B.E.

You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.

 

[MikeHalloran]

The best structural adhesive for steel, is steel, deposited molten on clean surfaces, IMHO.

My experience with structural adhesives, even on well prepared surfaces for use in conditioned spaces, has been all bad. For me, the stuff sticks great, and might even get through a one year warranty, but after that, one fine day, it just decides to let go, with no warning.

I found steel furring strips of 7/8" depth and 1-1/2" depth, and thin enough to penetrate with self-piercing screws.

http://www.cemcosteel.com/steel-framing/interior-non-load-bearing/accessories/furring-channels

Both are hat-shaped, and could be tacked to a steel wall with a MIG welder.

Before that, I thought of Unistrut. You'd need to buy clips and bolts and such to attach to it. Again, you could tack it to a steel wall. It's pretty heavy duty stuff, so it would be appropriate where you intend to cantilever furniture or appliances off the walls.






Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[strux0r]

berkshire: Thanks for the type II silicon rubber recommendation. I'll do some more poking in that direction.

MikeHalloran: I am hoping to avoid any external penetrations (water infiltration) or welding (specialized equipment/skill), but it may come to one of them in the end. Thanks for sharing your experience with structural adhesives. I wonder if you can recall which ones you have had issues with? Thanks for the link to the hat channel as well. Since I will be applying closed cell insulating foam to the interior of the container I was thinking to use resilient channel. It would allow me to spray the foam behind the channel, increasing my R value and adding to the stiffness of the channel. I guess that's a discussion for another thread though...

 

[MikeHalloran]

I have had good results with RTV silicone, provided the surfaces were generously sized and clean _and_ it had 24 hours to cure before any load is applied. Because of the cure time, I don't think of it as a production structural adhesive, but it could do a good job adhering hat channels to insulated walls. Use some blue tape to hold it in place while the RTV cures.
... I would add a little insurance and rest the bottom of the channels on the floor, or on a steel plate adhered to the insulation bonded to the floor.
Or on a steel plate adhered to a layer of pressure treated plywood applied over foam insulation on the floor. Don't be tempted to use OSB or MDF or any other such crap.

Which structural adhesive? ... all that are advertised as such, plus VHB tape.
All good for a week, none good for a guaranteed year.




Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[berkshire]

Be wary of VHB tape It has a micro encapsulated adhesive and if insufficient pressure is applied during its installation , it has a tendency to creep and peel off.
B.E.

You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.

 

[MikeHalloran]

I recently threw together an external air conditioner for my travel trailer, comprising a wooden frame around a window air conditioner, some dryer hose, and a few odd shaped plenums to adapt the hose to the windows and to the air conditioner face, made of coroplast and square fir dowels. It all works fairly well, except that I used Loctite Power Grab adhesive. It's marked 'indoor use' or similar in fairly fine print, so my bad.

It does work just fine, indoors, for molding and paneling and such, and it develops handling strength in short order, and I had a fresh tube on hand.
Outdoors, and especially with condensate forming all over it all the time, it more or less dissolves and runs out of the joints, so the whole assembly is being held together by the staples and ty-raps that I intended as temporary fasteners, and by the duct tape applied over the joints.

Condensation is a likely occurrence in a steel container's interior, so I could not recommend that particular Power-Grab product for your application. My own revision B will probably use RTV silicone instead.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[CoryPad]

In my experience, epoxy is the best adhesive for metal to metal joints. 3M Scotch-Weld products are good, and so are a variety of other products from Loctite, Sika, Devcon, etc.