Recessed area: Which wrapping technique is the best? | TeckWrap

Recessed areas are common for vinyl wrap installation. Some are shallow and easy to handle, while others are severe and difficult to tackle. Installers have developed different techniques to deal with these areas throughout time. But which one works the best? Here are a few common wrap skills for recessed areas. Read till the end to find the result.

Bridge and jam

Many wrappers are familiar with this method. They will bridge the vinyl wrap film over the recessed area, squeegee from the flat part and work it as close to the recessed area as possible. Then, apply heat, and form the material into this area. Thus, the method is to work from the flat surface towards the deepest part of the recessed area.

Jam from a bit farther away

For this technique, you will squeegee the vinyl wrap film in the middle of the recessed area right at the beginning. Leave yourself for about 20 centimeters of material, apply heat, and form it into the recessed area. By doing this, the stress of the middle section should be decreased.

Squeegee and feed

This technique requires you to apply heat on the part away from the recessed area, and squeegee the vinyl wrap film into the deepest part of the recessed section incrementally. Then, squeegee the flat part outwards from this area.

Pick up and squeegee

The last skill is picking the material up from the recessed side with your free hand, and using the other hand to gradually squeegee on the flat section towards the recessed area. Feed the vinyl film out when you reach the deepest part of the recessed section.

These are four standard techniques that installers will use to handle recessed area. Sometimes it is hard to tell which one gets the best result from a short time. But if you take four of the same pieces of vinyl, and install them on the same surface with the four methods, you can tell it right away.

If you take an experiment in this way, put the four pieces on a clear window after you tackle them in the methods mentioned above, you will see how the adhesive look:

• Bridge and jam: The adhesive on the material handled this way becomes very thin. Thus, there is a massive amount of tension on the vinyl.
• Jam from a bit farther away: The adhesive on this piece should become thin as well. Although you start working farther away from the recessed, you are still forming the material into the deepest part, which leads to this result.
• Squeegee and feed: The piece approached this way is uniform, and the material has little stress.
• Pick up and squeegee: It is entirely uniform as the third method. But this technique can be a bit more advanced than the first three methods, as feeding the vinyl out from the deepest part of the recessed area can be challenging.