Why can't I use caulk without it looking like a child did it?

MacEntyre

MacEntyre

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I get so frustrated with caulk. When it has to look good, like around a sink or countertop, I cannot make an acceptable bead. I cut the tip carefully, use a tool to dress it, but it always ends up looking like crap. Yesterday, I wiped off all the caulk I did, thinking it will look better with none than with the bead I laid.

What am I doing wrong?
 
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MacEntyre said:
use a tool to dress it,
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This is what you're doing wrong. The best tool for dressing caulk is your fingertip.

ETA: little irony there. If you don't want it to look like a child did it, you have to "fingerpaint" it.
 
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put your bead down. spray the entire bead with the foaming glass cleaner. spray your finger with the foaming glass cleaner. use your freshly sprayed finger to dress it. the glass cleaner will prevent the caulk from sticking to your finger or the areas beside the bead where you don't want it.

skip to 1 min. not my video.

 
Frack N Cylons said:
I love watching the finishing tradesmen and women at work. They cut in with a damn 8 inch wide paint brush. Lay down mud so smooth it doesnā€™t even need to be sanded. Etcā€¦

Have you tried having thousands of hours of experience?

ā€¦but yea, wet finger is the way to go.
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I have thousands of hours of experience with painting, and I am very, very good at it. The smallest brush I use is 2".

Caulk is something else.

DS1911 said:
Smallest hole possible. I use a trim nail. Before that, I sand the tip into a 90 degree corner to get me a good edge.
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This I will try tonight, with window cleaner. I am just like Louise. Thanks!
 
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Catfish said:
If you don't want it to look like a child did it, you have to "fingerpaint" it.
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Well put! I will steal I mean quote you in future.
MacEntyre said:
Wifey is mad at me for the words I used to try to improve the results. They had no effect on the caulk, just on her.
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This is not necessarily a bad outcome. Like love, annoyance is so much better when shared!
Frack N Cylons said:
Have you tried having thousands of hours of experience?
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Word.

I have laid many a mile of caulk. 50% of the time, it looks superb with one pass. The other 50%, see post #1.

I keep a wet-cornered cloth with me, wipe excess caulk off my finger on the dryish part, then frequently wet my finger with the wet corner & "fingerpaint" per Catfish's suggestion. If you haven't removed all traces of fingerprint and made it 7/8 of the way to exposing the muscle tissue on the pad of your finger after 1 room, you're doing it wrong.
 
God bless you weary soul for even attempting to operate a caulking device, I have trekked through the Korengal Valley and will do so again before taking up a caulking device.
 
So Mac. After having caulked more than any human should hereā€™s what I learned.

Before laying your bead of caulk get a few paper towels and a sponge ready.

For acrylic caulk have the sponge damp with water. For silicone caulk wet it with denatured alcohol.

Rub your finger on the sponge and drag it along the bead. If you start to get excess, pull your finger off the bead and wipe the excess on a paper towel. Then wet it again on your sponge and keep going.

You should only do about 2-3ft with each swipe. Wipe, wet and do the next section.

And if you want me to do it youā€™ve got my number. I donā€™t mind at all.
 
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Kspainhour said:
I am so bad at it that I use a strip of tape on either side of the joint. Then make a ugly mess out of the caulk. Then pull the tape up and tell my wife "that's as good as I gets". Still looks bad, but it has straight edges.
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^^this^^

After several miserable shower caulk jobs, I just started masking it all off.
Looks so much better and doesn't make me mad every time I look at it.

Speaking of . . . . time to do the shower again . . . . boo!
 
MacEntyre said:
I get so frustrated with caulk. When it has to look good, like around a sink or countertop, I cannot make an acceptable bead. I cut the tip carefully, use a tool to dress it, but it always ends up looking like crap. Yesterday, I wiped off all the caulk I did, thinking it will look better with none than with the bead I laid.

What am I doing wrong?
Click to expand...
Throw out spreading tool , use finger.
 
Chdamn said:
And if you want me to do it youā€™ve got my number. I donā€™t mind at all.
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That is so nice of you... thank you very much!

But I'm gonna be a real man and caulk me own caulk. Please don't take that to mean I don't want your help or company. If you did come help me, you could help me put together Toilsome Creek Bridge No. 2, a wooden unit that replaces No.1, a brickbat unit that washed away last month. Bridge No. 2 will be a 6' x 20' structure made with pallets and PT 2x10s. It will have one end tethered to a tree so that it will not wash away, but merely swing.
 
MacEntyre said:
That is so nice of you... thank you very much!

But I'm gonna be a real man and caulk me own caulk. Please don't take that to mean I don't want your help or company. If you did come help me, you could help me put together Toilsome Creek Bridge No. 2, a wooden unit that replaces No.1, a brickbat unit that washed away last month. Bridge No. 2 will be a 6' x 20' structure made with pallets and PT 2x10s. It will have one end tethered to a tree so that it will not wash away, but merely swing.
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Let me know when you want to get started on that.

Will @Jeppo be there to supervise and hand us boards?
 
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I had to caulk a mile of baseboards once. I found that if I just barely cut the end of the tip off and made a tiny bead - WAY less than I thought I needed - it cleaned up pretty good with a wet finger without any/much excess. Any excess on the finger was used to go back and fill in the spots where it was too thin.

Every time I saw the word "caulk" my brain said "c0ck". Ya'll need Jesus. šŸ˜
 
Two different types of caulk.

Silicone, for use around water. Paint will not stick to it. You can't wet your finger to dress silicone caulk.

Latex type for anything else, pretty much, especially if you intend to paint on it / near it. You can wet your finger in any number of ways to dress latex caulk.

And has been said, it takes practice.

I learned a lot from this guy.-







.
 
Gator said:
Two different types of caulk.

Silicone, for use around water. Paint will not stick to it. You can't wet your finger to dress silicone caulk.

Latex type for anything else, pretty much, especially if you intend to paint on it / near it. You can wet your finger in any number of ways to dress latex caulk.

And has been said, it takes practice.

I learned a lot from this guy.-







.
Click to expand...

You can wet your finger with denatured alcohol for silicone caulk.
 
MacEntyre said:
@Jeppo is busy separating fly crap from pepper at his house.
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Jeppo has had a project in mind for the 25+ years weā€™ve lived here. Always thought it was too much to tackle until I saw that @MacEntyre had been able at his place. ā€œHell, if he can do it, I certainly canā€.

I started more than a month ago and still donā€™t see light at the end of the tunnel. šŸ˜¢
 
For in or out wood trim I like Sherwin Williams MaxFlex. It doesnā€™t skin over as quick, thus allowing a bit more time to get the surface smooth. I cut the tip small at a a slight angle, then push towards the tip keeping a small bead in front of it to help push the caulk into any cracks. After a couple feet Iā€™ll have a small stack of industrial paper towels torn into ~4ā€ squares and a small bucket of water, dampen a towels and smooth over, throw that piece away. Continue, rinse, repeat.

MAXFLEX Acrylic Urethane Elastomeric Sealant - Sherwin-Williams

MAXFLEX Acrylic Urethane Elastomeric Sealant is a paintable, interior/exterior, mulit-purpose siliconized acrylic sealant.
www.sherwin-williams.com www.sherwin-williams.com

For shower tiles I got my best results ever recently with a water based silicone, a silicone spreader/scraper tool and denatured alcohol in a spray bottle.

If the Amazon link doesnā€™t appear, itā€™s this
IMG_0035.jpeg

I was really pleased with the same caulk he used in this vid, CustomI think I got it from Home Creepo

Grout Caulk - Tile Setting - The Home Depot

Get free shipping on qualified Grout Caulk products or Buy Online Pick Up in Store today in the Flooring Department.
www.homedepot.com

IMG_0036.jpeg
 
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