Sunday, May 5, 2013

Caulk Job

Hi everyone! Here we are at the end of another weekend. Happy Cinco de Mayo and May the Fourth be with you. Okay, I'm done. I'm rather tired, but I'll try to make a good post for you. I did not get nearly as much accomplished around the house this weekend as I intended. I have been meaning to go to Home Depot since Thursday. It didn't happen. Oh well. I did get to see the girls from my old Bible Study this weekend. They all came over on Saturday and we got to catch up, which was really, really nice. I went to see Ironman 3 on Friday with J and one of my coworkers, which was a lot of fun (definitely a good movie). And Saturday night ended up being quite an adventure for a couple of reasons. There are some days where I am just in awe of the way God protects us and today/last night was definitely one of those days.

After all that, I was dragging a bit today. But, I still managed to get some stuff accomplished around the house. One of those things was caulking. I have actually been meaning to do this for a while, but hadn't gotten around to it. I was cleaning the front door today (not pictured) because I want/need to repaint the trim around the door. There were a few spots there that needed some caulking, so I finally got out my caulking gun to get the job done. I forgot to take a picture, so here is a stock photo of a caulk gun. You basically cut the tip off of the silicone tube and apply pressure via the trigger. The important thing with the operation is to screw the back metal piece clockwise when you want to operate it and counter-clockwise to stop the flow. Otherwise, you can end up with a mess.


I'll share the door caulking when I post about the door painting. But, I also tackled the upstairs guest bath. The caulk around the sink wasn't looking too great and was cracked in places.

Before (click on the images for zoom):


The best way I found to apply the caulk was doing the best you can to apply a thin line and then go over the caulk with a slightly wet finger to smooth it out. You'll also want a wet paper towel on hand to clean up any messes. The caulk is water soluble when wet, but is really tough to clean up once it has been set.

After:


Another problem area was around the tub in the guest bathroom. The previous owners must not have followed any of my advice about caulking and it was very uneven and blob-looking. I haven't been noticing any leaks, but it didn't look too good. So, I ended up going over the old job with a new line of caulk and just smoothing out the seam with my finger. 

Before: 




After:



As you can see from the after pictures, it looks much crisper now. It was actually one of the things that really bothered me about this room, so I was happy it was such a fast and easy fix. I only wish I had done it sooner. 

I kind of have 2 projects going on at once, so I will certainly be writing again with whichever gets done the fastest. 

3 comments:

  1. My sink's faucet has a clear-ish caulk around it, and it's chipping/falling-off, etc. If I manage to strip it away, do I just use the same technique here to re-apply new caulk? I'm assuming caulk comes in a few color options?

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    Replies
    1. Yup, you can definitely apply a new caulk line the same way. Just make sure you have a damp finger to run over your caulk line to smooth everything out. I know Home Depot sells clear and white caulks. I have never actually checked Home Depot for colored caulks, but I know you can easily order them online (just google color caulk). I know you can get caulk to match grout as well, but again, I haven't ever searched for these products. I hope that helps!

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  2. I think you can find colored caulk online (if you're not needing to see it in person first to match a color) - I am pretty sure I will need some for our new place, if I remember correctly, there was white caulk that didn't match part of the counter in which I won't be able to look at that every day!

    I hope something didn't happen after we left on Saturday - reading that worries me that something did! It was good getting together that night with you, nonetheless :-)

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