Shane Moore, an experienced floorlayer from Dover, tests the Stubbi roller and gives his considered verdict on its value.

AS a floorlayer I’m involved in many types of flooring including cap-and-cove, so when Stubbi rollers came out I was desperate to get my hands on them. Once they arrived I quickly found some materials to test them on. Considering how much I’ve come to know about flooring, I’m a true believer in the fact perfect preparation prevents poor performance.

With the rollers I had, it took a while to get a full neat bond with coving. But the Stubbi rollers got around this by coming in different sizes – one for the mini-cove and another for the standard size.

I readied the cove by cutting it, then applied the adhesive. The roller fitted perfectly and rolled along the base – a simple but brilliant design. This meant preparation time was shorter and we achieved a fully bonded cove.

Also with the mini-cove roller, I found it worked well with the capping as it got good transfer. If you do butterfly corners the mini-cove is really helpful, getting the external corners looking fantastic.

But the good points don’t stop there. Once the preparation work has been done and the materials have set, the roller gets the floorcovering fully rolled into the adhesive, ensuring you get perfect transfer of the adhesive.

The third roller is a small edge roller – you might think at first it’s too small for anything, but it fits perfectly into the internal corners to help with the transfer of adhesive. I was also experimenting with LVT with features strips and, once rolled, the strips tended to not get rolled owing to the height difference with the bevel edges. The smallest roller works incredibly well with LVT, getting things spot on. I’m confident these tools are a must for the flooring trade. It made my jobs quicker and neater. Everyone’s a winner!

I’d go far as saying the capping roller is a genuinely brilliant bit of kit; it’s shaped to go round the strip to help get that bond which we floorlayers are always looking for.

In conclusion, I’d give the Stubbi rollers 10/10. If you’re on a job which would benefit from the use of this type of tool, then definitely add these to your toolbox. As far as LVT fitters go, I’d strongly advise you to get the edge roller for your stripping.