Caulking a bathroom

Feb 07, 2004 12 Replies
N

I just bought a 16 year old townhouse and the caulking in all the bathrooms around the vanity counters is cracking. Additionally, the grout around the perimeter of the floor where the floor tile meets the tile on the bottom few inches of the wall has a crack running all the way around the room that I assume needs to be caulked.... Anyway, any words of advice? This seems like it should be fairly straightforward: Remove old caulk, match color, recaulk, run finger through caulk to smooth it out.... Please offer whatever advice you have, I've never done it before. Thanks.



Scott


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B

Use good caulk, the price difference is negligible. Practice a bit on an easy spot, you can always clean it up and redo it. Keep a LARGE damp cloth nearby to clean your finger.

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C

Good advice and I'll add one thing. Wear a pair of disposable latex gloves. They'll be a big help in keeping the caulk from under the fingernails.

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S

There was a "reader's tip" in a recent issue of Family Handyman. It was to "use masking tape (or painter's tape) to keep the surrounding area clean. Position the masking tape so that your finger will plow all the excess caulk onto the tape when you form the bead."

8^)~~~ Sue (remove the x to e-mail) ~~~~~~

"I reserve the absolute right to be smarter today than I was yesterday." -Adlai Stevenson

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A

Tape is for weenies, if you can't caulk a seam give it up and hire a pro.

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B

Make sure it's 99% isopropyl rubbing acohol. Anything less than 99% contains oils and will leave a residue behind.

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W

That's your opinion but it did not contribute anything to the discussion.

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D

Even better than isopropyl rubbing alcohol would be to grab a can of denatured alcohol from home depot.

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A

Yeah, that's pretty much it. Cleaning off the old stuff is 90% of the work. There are a couple of tricks to keep in mind. (1) Always *push* the bead, not pull it (2) if you're caulking with silicone, keep your finger wet with rubbing alcohol when smoothing.

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