So, I’m looking for some advice. We’ve got a bathtub that’s been converted to a large shower with a cover on the tub and a surround for most of the walls. Basically, the only places that need to be caulked are the top of the surround and the join between the tub piece and the surround. The join was full of mildew, so the plan was to remove the caulk, treat the area for mildew, and then re-caulk.
First step went okay. Second was fine. But I made a massive hash of the caulking job. In my defense, it’s a tough angle as you basically have to be caulking straight up. It took five hours to clean up most, but not all, of the silicone overflow. More importantly, the caulk is all ragged and bumpy and, to make matters worse, isn’t a good seal all the way around, so the shower can’t be used.
So I see three options. One: Pull out all the caulk and try again, this time using something a little more forgiving like acrylic and having learned my lesson about masking. Two: Try to apply new silicone caulk over the freshly-cured caulk, still having learned my lesson about masking. Three: Throw up my hands, continue apologizing about screwing everything up, and hire a handyman who can probably do a professional job in less than four hours.
Seeing as how I don’t even know if I could get a good seal with the caulk over caulk idea, I’m asking here, but I expect to go with other option one or three. But I’d appreciate any advice.
I’m not great with caulk, but I know that in any system with water if there is one leak, water will seep through it and onto the ceiling below.
Many bathtub/showers are of the old kind with (as an example) 4 in x 4 in tiles. Finding ‘the leak’ between the connective grout of more than 400 tiles can be quite a task.
My understanding is that the single best way to handle this is to have the tiles where water strikes regularly pulled, have the water damage behind repaired, and then have an old-school tile guy re-install and re grout the pulled tiles.
It is, however, a significant amount of money to have done.
Q: Would you go that route, or just have a bath-fitter cover (one piece & solid) put over everything?
I recaulk my tub regularly (I have hard water and orange caulk is gross looking) You will need to thoroughly remove and clean up the botched caulk. Use one of these and a utility knife. I don’t use any tools beyond cutting the tip of the caulk tube at an angle. I just use a wet finger tip to smooth and seal the caulk. Use a tool though if your fingertips aren’t accustomed to it, it will make them sore. Also, I recommend filling the tub with water when doing the caulking as that will cause the tub to settle a bit expanding the opening around the rim which you want to seal completely (think about your weight in the tub with shower water running over the seal). It’s not a technically complicated job but does require a small amount of easily learned experience to get a really pretty caulk line. I use silicon shower and bath caulk since I’ve found acrylic to have an unacceptable amount of shrinkage and separation when curing.
If you used silicone caulk nothing will stick to it, not even more silicone caulk. You have to remove the caulk and then use a cleanup solution especially designed for silicone caulk to remove all the residue.
Watch several YouTube videos on how to caulk to get an idea of the technique. Silicone caulk takes more special treatment to install compared to acrylic.
The other thing is to make sure the joints are absolutely dry before you start. When removing caulk, it’s common that some water is behind the joints. If you don’t get rid of all that water first, the caulk will fail pretty quickly. Use fans or hair dryers to dry out the water.
I personally don’t like using caulking tools. I think it’s actually easier for a beginner to use just the tip of your finger. With the caulking tools, it takes some experience to figure out how to angle the tool to get a good bead. You have to drag the tool at the correct angle with the correct pressure against the two sides. If the sides have some irregularities, it can interfere with the tool and mess up the bead. Taping off the sides and using your finger should get a pretty good bead.
I do like using a high-quality caulking gun that stops the pressure as soon as I release the trigger. Cheap guns have a ratchet that continue to squeeze out caulk until the pressure reduces.
When using tape, you want to make sure the remaining caulk is not thick on the tape. If it’s thick, then when you remove the tape you’ll see a thick edge where the tape was.
Acrylic caulk is much easier to work with than silicone. If you don’t like the bead, scoop it out while wet and lay down another line.
Yup. Spit on your finger, and make a nice edge. Don’t use too much calk. Have paper towels/rag handy. Or you can dip your finger in a glass of water to wet it before spreading it.
That’s been my approach for ~30 years.
When you don’t get what you want, you get experience.
If your tub is made of fiberglass instead of the old cast iron type it also might help to partly full the tub before recaulking it. The weight of the water might cause a fiberglass tub to bow a little, particularly if the tub was inadequately framed and this can cause a calk seam to separate from either the tub or the surround. Filling the tub while the calk dries helps to avoid that.
pull it immediately. Otherwise you risk pulling up the edge. As mentioned above, make sure it’s very thin along the tape line or you end up with a ridge. If you’re not sure how much to put down it’s probably best to use acrylic or a mix. Pure silicone REALLY does not like to be fussed with. Too much silicone turns into a real mess.
Yeah, pull it wet. Also, pull the tape slowly and carefully so that it doesn’t touch the caulk and glob it up.
Caulking is one of those tasks which is more like an art form than a set of steps. Putting in a toilet is just a matter of following directions. But applying a nice caulk line around the base when you’re done is going to take a bit of experience to get the feel right. Expect a few messups before you get it right.
I’ve done a lot of caulking in my time, but if it’s been a while, I often do a few practice beads first on some scrap. That helps me get the muscle memory back without making a mess on the real thing.
doing a practice strip is a good idea. What you’re looking for is laying down the right amount of caulk. That’s the whole battle. If you lay down the right amount then it’s a simple swipe with your finger and it’s done. The first time I tried using tape was after spending 30 minutes on a single tub edge. By that time I figured out how much to lay down to minimize cleanup so the tape method was 5 minutes start to finish. And it looked better.
I’ve done this a few times. It sucks and I hate it, at least the removal part. I’ve found that I don’t have much use for the tools except the removal tool. I use masking tape or painter’s tape, and yes you should remove it quickly. I made that rookie mistake to let it set and it didn’t end up right. I’ve never messed with silicone.
