sandable caulk?

caulk:

"caurk" cau as in caught - rest as cork

Jim K

Interesting, the "cau" in caught *is* the same as "cor" in cork AFAIC

Yup, same as I say it too - Jim, how do you say "caught"?!

Matt

in some regional accents it is, in some it isn't.

Catched?

in your accent it may well be

It's pronounced 'cork'.

I've never come across sandable caulk - it usually dries slightly rubbery in texture, although I have used water to 'rub' it down prior to setting, IE along skirtings etc, just go along with the caulking gun as usual, then use a 1 inch brush and water to lightly take off any lumps etc and a smooth finish is easily acheived.

On a related note, you can buy a grouting gun and use ordinary all purpose filler if you need something sandable. These guns are worth their weight in gold and I have used them for pointing paving, but they are sold with several different sized nozzles and they are used for grouting tiles, pointing brickwork etc. They cot about £20 but as I said, they are worth their weight in gold. they are very similar to a normal sealant gun, except the tube is simply a piece of 3 inch plastic drainpipe and the nozzle fits tightly on the end, the plunger has an adjustable rubber seal, so that if you are using something like grout, which is very fine and also quite wet, the seal needs to be fairly tight, if you are using sand/cement, the seal can be looosened off making it easier to pull the trigger. Never used one for grouting tiles but I know a few people who use them regularly and they wouldn't dream of doing it any other way now, there are too many pro's to list but here's a few: you can mix enough grout to do a full bathroom without risk of it setting, it's more economical because 90% of what you mix ends up between the tiles rather than on a sponge, there's less work involved, it's ten times quicker, it's neater and less grout needs cleaning off the tiles.

Not tried that one so don't know. The ones sold as "fine surface" or low density "plaster" filler are usually sandable. TS do a siroflex one that's quite good.

I go with "callk" a bit like in chalk but with a hard c at the front rather than a ch

Really? When I used to sell it me, my colleagues and most of the customers called it caulk.

Yep me too, the 'L' is silent, like in chalk, or the 'P' in bath.

Round these parts the L in chalk is not silent but is voiced with an "ulk" or "alk" sound at the end. (like in "walk" - but perhaps that varies regionally as well)

No, but surely the point of caulk is thats its flexible? The flexibilty would prevent sanding?

Calk as in walk IMO.

That seems to be the consensus here, I think, which is good because that's what I say too ;)

Neither had I. I was reading some very old posts from this group (I had downloaded all headers and hadn't paid attention to their dates) and a post mentioned how rare and how good it was.

That's been my experience too. I've bought a tube to see.In the worst case, it can only turn out to be non-sandabale and be "ordinary" caulk.

A good tip to know, thanks.

Grouting tiles. I hate that job. Never manage to get it where I want it to go. Always over the tiles; never in the gaps! I might buy one just for that ;)

I had seen them advertised for pointing but never knew about using them for grout. I suppose it could be useful for pointing too, rather than having to push the mortar in with a trowel, though I suppose some trowel work is still needed if just to finish it?

Thanks!

I thought caulk was "cork" but now I'm getting confused again ;)

I say "chaulk" as "chore-k" and "walk" as "war-k", no Ls involved, but that's just me. Do you say "wall-k"? I better not ask how you say glass and bath, that might start a war!

gl-arse and barf!

On boats the sandable caulk used is Sikaflex, particularly for caulking decks and below the waterline. I'm not sure if this is what you have in mind.

I've not used one for pointing brickwork yet but I'm itching to. They are a bit fiddly to get the consistency of the mortar right, it has to be fairly wet and contain lots of plasticiser, otherwise the water squeezes out of it behind the plunger and you end up with half a pint of cementy water splashing about, but I've pointed a few patios with them recently and it's much faster and gives a much better finish them trying to do it by hand - the mortar, being wet, goes right to the bottom of the joint and adheres well to both sides, 'dry' pointing tends to crack after a fairly short while allowing ants to make matters worse and then weed seeds to take hold, which push the slabs even further apart.

It will require trowelling over yes, because all it does is apply the mortar in a uniform bead, you'd have to do a few metres and allow the moisture to soak away before trowelling, or using a rounded jointing tool

is that the polyurethane based impossibly sticky (til "dried") stuff?

used something similar to seal frame joints on our hardwood conservatory - very impressive too..

Cheers Jim K

It is, and once it has cured it can be sanded just like wood. It's used to make fake teak and holly inlay decks or simply to caulk joints in decks. Once sanded it's difficult to tell that it is a caulk.