In many installations, the field material is flashed directly up the wall as a cove.

When it's installed in a wet area, such as a shower or bathroom, the coving height must be at least 150 mm.

Depending on the radius of the curve at the base, a heat gun may be used to make the floor covering more flexible, particularly at corners.

Some installations specify a cove former and capping strip.

Others require a cove former only, with no capping.

If you are joining a coved sheet to a resilient wall in a wet area, there are two possible ways of finishing the joint.

Both methods are allowed in AS 1884.

The first is the welded method, which is finished like a welded seam in the floor.

The second is the overlap method, which involves lapping the wall sheet over the coving and filling the space with a diminishing strip.

This is the preferred technique in shower cubicles, because it provides more protection to the join.

Internal and external 'butterfly' corners

AS 1884 does not permit vertical welds in the corners of coved sheets in wet areas.

This is because the weld could become a weak point if there is any movement in the substrate, which would reduce the corner's water resistance.

Instead, the joints must be cut at 45 degrees to the corner.

An easy way to do this with an external corner is to insert a V-shaped piece of material that wraps around the corner.

This is called a full butterfly. The back of the butterfly piece is grooved to make it fold around the corner more easily.

Internal corners are also finished at 45 degrees. In this case, the triangular piece that wraps around the corner is called a half butterfly.

The link below goes to a video clip produced by Altro Flooring that demonstrates how to form butterfly corners.

Note that it is called 'Alternative methods', because there are other clips in the Altro series that show how to cut and weld mitred corners with vertical joins. However, these techniques are not approved in AS 1884 for wet areas.

Altro Flooring - 'Alternative methods'

Mitred corners using a 'make-out' piece

In areas where water resistance is not a priority, it's possible to mitre the corners with the aid of a separate make-out piece.

However, the end result is a corner with a vertical join, so you must make sure that it will be acceptable in the project you're working on before you decide to finish the corner in this way.

The video clip linked below shows the process for fitting internal and external mitres with a make-out piece.

'Altro handy hint - Fitting to an internal and external mitre':