Hi. I’ve just purchased my first house and the previous owner had installed some cupboards in the laundry (we suspect it is an Ikea laundry). As with the rest of the house every thing is quite nicely done and there is very little else that needs to be done to it. However he’s left a piece of board that fills the gap between the top of the cupboards and the ceiling unpainted. Luckily he left paint formulas for all of the rooms so getting paint to match is not an issue. What I’m having trouble with though is that where this board joins the wall there is some kind of rubber sealant and the paint I’m using refuses to stick to it. It just beads and runs away.
Is there a solution to this? Do I need a special treatment for the sealant?
Silicone based sealant is almost impossible to paint over. I don’t have personal experience but one solution is to apply a layer of acrylic sealant over the top, and then paint this. You could also remove the entire caulking and do the same thing, but it’s a difficult job to get right. Alternatively (and thinking off the top of my head), you might have luck mixing the paint with PVA glue and applying this (obviously test on a small area to see if it works). Clean the silicone with meths or similar prior to giving it a go.
Sounds like the previous owner used bathroom caulking to seal it up. I’ve run into that before, it’s awful. When I ran into it I just removed it, but it was easy because it was all small holes in the walls.
This is a bit of a zombie, but as Captain_Awesome said, the quickest way to get paint to stick to silicone caulk is to get some paintable silicone caulk. Spread a thin layer of it over the silicone, let dry, and you should then be able to paint successfully.
It’s far easier than trying to scrape off silicone caulk, and if it’s on a porous surface like wood, you usually need to remove a thin layer of the surface in addition to the caulk.
kills spray primer brand name. 40years exp.
LOL …40 years eh?
It’s actually called KILZSpray Primer. You can buy it at almost any hardware or building material store.
Previous owner should have used paintable caulk.
I’d do it the hard way, remove the silicone and replace it with the right product.