DIY Bathroom Caulk Gone Awry
We just recaulked our bathtub/shower today. It’s one of those one piece, Bathfitter type tubs. That said, it’s one big loop of caulk. The caulk is silicone, GE advanced in almond. We did the whole painters tape trick, damp paper towel to smooth. Caulked the whole thing at once. We removed the tape immediately after we were done with the whole tub. In most spots, it looks fine. Maybe even great. But there are some sections where there is a ridge that pulled up when we removed the tape (or the caulk was too thick on the edge?), so it’s not flush with the surface. But there’s one section that just looks like a globbery mess. Naturally, it looks worst in the most high visibility areas on the front of the tub/shower. The previous owners of this house were not great, so there are a lot of things that require TLC (without completely ripping out walls, etc.) The Globby stretch was extra wide (probably 5/8”) and so we had larger than desired gaps and had to cover some drywall edges that were peeking through. We put down backer rod in the gap. But had to lay it on thick and wide to cover. We tried to carefully smooth and flatten the pulled edges but it didn’t work always and now we have lumpy caulk. Here are my questions: 1) I know silicone does not adhere to itself. Can you cut out a section of caulk and redo it without redoing the WHOLE tub? My concern is the connection points from the “old” (but veryyyy freshly cured) caulk. 2) if yes to the above, do we cut out the two foot section? Or is it better to cut out the whole side of the shower, having the connection point of caulk be at the top corner? 3) when removing tape, did we wait too long? Work too slow? Remove it as you complete a stretch? 4) did I tape too wide with too much overhang on the surface? submitted by /u/taynuh [link] [comments]
| | We just recaulked our bathtub/shower today. It’s one of those one piece, Bathfitter type tubs. That said, it’s one big loop of caulk. The caulk is silicone, GE advanced in almond. We did the whole painters tape trick, damp paper towel to smooth. Caulked the whole thing at once. We removed the tape immediately after we were done with the whole tub. In most spots, it looks fine. Maybe even great. But there are some sections where there is a ridge that pulled up when we removed the tape (or the caulk was too thick on the edge?), so it’s not flush with the surface. But there’s one section that just looks like a globbery mess. Naturally, it looks worst in the most high visibility areas on the front of the tub/shower. The previous owners of this house were not great, so there are a lot of things that require TLC (without completely ripping out walls, etc.) The Globby stretch was extra wide (probably 5/8”) and so we had larger than desired gaps and had to cover some drywall edges that were peeking through. We put down backer rod in the gap. But had to lay it on thick and wide to cover. We tried to carefully smooth and flatten the pulled edges but it didn’t work always and now we have lumpy caulk. Here are my questions: 1) I know silicone does not adhere to itself. Can you cut out a section of caulk and redo it without redoing the WHOLE tub? My concern is the connection points from the “old” (but veryyyy freshly cured) caulk. 2) if yes to the above, do we cut out the two foot section? Or is it better to cut out the whole side of the shower, having the connection point of caulk be at the top corner? 3) when removing tape, did we wait too long? Work too slow? Remove it as you complete a stretch? 4) did I tape too wide with too much overhang on the surface? [link] [comments] |
