riverfever
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Woodland Park, Colorado
This is a job that I hate doing and it's entirely because I obviously don't know how to do it properly. That's right. I don't know how to properly lay down my caulk. I've done the tub in our house twice now in 7ish years and it should last longer than that. The last time I did it it turned out ok on the vertical joints but along the tub where it's really critical it sucked. Maybe I'm just not comfortable working my caulk in really tight areas? In my defense...I think the area wasn't clean enough both times as it had a real musty odor to it. I took yesterday to really scrub it clean and even used a bristle brush to get those hard to reach spots that are way back up under the folds and never see the light of day. I also used caulk softener (that's a funny term right there). This time I am also going to fill the tub with water. I read somewhere about the increased weight helping the caulk to bond to the cracks better. The last area that I have a lot of uncertainty in is during the tooling process. In the past, I've used a tool to smooth out the lines on the caulk but I know the pro's just lick a finger or dip a thumb in water and just get after it. I watched one video this morning where a guy used tape to make the lines straight but I'm leery about getting anything adhesive anywhere near my caulk. I'm ready to bend this job over today. I'm using a 100% Silicone product from GE. Any tips from you all that are savvy with your caulks? I know that this is going to be a sticky job and it's gonna require me to take off the gloves, roll up my sleeves, and get my hands on my caulk but that's fine. I just want this caulk to do it's job and stay flexible and definitely not crack and get all dried out and hard like my caulk has done in the past. If I get it right this time, my wife will be sooo happy.
