Sealant application technique

[Blair]

Is there a technique for adding a neat consistent seal between tiles and a work surface.? Blair

[Funfly3]

[keith]

Use a wet finger, but add a little washing up liquid to the water.

[Blair]

Thanks for your help. Do you remove the masking tape immediately after smoothing or do you wait for a period? Blair

[Chris Bacon]

Masking tape, well pressed down, a tool to smooth the sealant, and removal of the masking tape (pulling away from the sealant) immediately the seal is made.

[Chris Bacon]

Sorry, should have added this:

| | |" |" |" | \

[Lobster]

Yep, what you need is a Fugenboy (!)

See this recent thread here:

(or )

The gizmo is here:

(or )

I've just bought one, and it's great - does seem very expensive for what it is (a couple of bits of plastic) but they're made from a special polymer which doesn't let the silicon adhere to it. Certainly made the neatest seals I've ever produced.

David

[Dave]

)

Is this just a plastic finger so masking tape is still needed?

Dave

[Funfly3]

)

I have tried without tape and its so much work to clean afterwards

[Dave]

I agree, I was asking about the Fugenboy link and whether it still needed masking tape - presumably it does.

Dave

[Dave Liquorice]

That's my favorite but I also aim not to put to much sealant down in the first place, this is the real skill in applying sealant. It starts with cutting nozzle to the correct size for the joint then smoothly applying the stuff to the gap varying the speed such that the gap is filled but not over filled and not moving so fast that the edges don't adhere.

It is a skill but once you have the right amount of sealant down, in one pass, all you need the wet finger to do is smooth off the imperfections left by the nozzle riding over bumps. Again a single smoothing pass, very little sealant should be removed.

[Lobster]

)

Nope, that's the whole point. If you go through the thread above, there was reference made to a video clip of it in action - well, a different version of the same thing marketed by Plumbworld. Haven't seen it myself as it requires Real Player, which I refuse to install, but apparently it explains all.

David

[Rob Morley]

[Ian White]

Surprise, it's in the FAQ:

[Dave]

)

Wow, that's an impressive video. I'll buy one of these gadgets.

Dave

[Séan Connolly]

Have you tried Real Alternative ?

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Lobster saying something like:

There are alternatives, but I've had various versions of RealPlayer playing happily for years. I just gag them with the firewall to prevent them downloading the maker's crap.

Another easy way of disabling the more annoying habits of RP is to remove the files realsched.exe and realevent.exe from the installation folder.

[Stuart Noble]

Version 8 is unobtrusive and can still be downloaded from

Doesn't handle the BBC's video clips but I'm hoping I can upgrade without going into the lion's den. Why are the BBC in cahoots with Real?