The Ugly

Well, it's not always sunshine and roses and happy midnight paint parties here.  Sometimes, nasty projects like replacing the old dried caulk need to happen.  This is the story of how much I hate that.  The opposite of a love story.

While working on the kitchen, removing caulk from around the countertop and sink was a fun Friday night that Alex hung out with some friends, and I was totally fine with that.  It was at a comfortable height and the surfaces involved were a single slab of granite and drywall. So much easier. I found a product made by the folks of Goo Gone that is a caulk remover.  It is not extremely noxious, and not evil to the planet, and Nyobi and I found it at our hardware store for less than $10.  For three rooms that have plumbing, that's fine. It was best suited to the dried up seals around the sink and faucet, so definitely paid off.

The bathroom project was made apparent to me while I sat on the floor to paint the cabinet, and realized that the seams between the floor tile and cove-shaped baseboard tiles were caulked and it was not looking nice.  It was also a great time to observe that the flippers had painted the grout on top of the baseboard tiles gray, sloppily, as well as everything else in this place, and ratcheted up addressing this highly important area of our home as quickly as possible.  Studying, who needs that?

Once physically loosened, the GG made the work easier and has actually cleaned up some spots I have been unable to address on our floor since moving in.  Um, what was going on in here anyways?  I also bought a tool for this purpose, but was unable to find it because we live in a high-traffic, low sense of putting things away home/work environment.  I did find it and will be able to use it for the guest bath, which is on the caulk radar for sure.

So, a tool like a utility knife, with a nice sharp blade, and a "scraper", or razor blade housing, is the best friend for a project like this.  If it's possible, give a good slice to both edges of the existing caulk line with the knife.  See if it can be pulled out at all.  After you have pulled out 2" of caulk, usually all that behaves at once, you can use the razor blade to scrape the tile surface and remove the remnants from both sides of the joint.  It will be so fun.  You will be so happy you decided to do this. 

The GG spray can come in when you have caulk that does not want to be cut loose from its surface because it has dried up and is awful, and you can let it work for a bit then repeat with the razor blade. You will want to have more than one razor blade, and also the removal tool has a hook on one side to pull down, through, and away from the joint.  Over two afternoons (and evenings...), I removed from the three walls, the sink, the toilet, and also the edge of our bathtub.  Also I hate our bathtub, and that it had so much caulk on it for a reason I do not understand.  It's important after removal to clean the surface thoroughly, and walk away and let it dry fully and get your irritation under control.

If a large part of why you're redoing the caulk is that you cannot stand the current hodgepodge of colors and attention to detail, you need to do these things right or you are no better than the last.  I am not at all convinced anyone else will notice these things, but that's not the point - agewise, it's time to be done in a best case scenario, and I am not certain of the quality of the original job anyways.

In a very, very short summary of what to look for in caulk, there are silicone based ones, latex based ones, and mixtures of the two.  Silicone should be used in areas that would receive lots of water, latex ones should not.  We cannot have too many products floating around, so have limited myself to a clear silicone and a white latex. The latex is paintable so I have used it in areas like where the counter meets the painted wall in the kitchen, where we shouldn't have liquid but probably will because I cook like a crazy person.  There are cheap versions and good versions.  For how awful this process is, I, and many men on youtube, think you should get the antimicrobial one that is supposed to last ten years.  It may not, but the longest time you can possibly get out of this endeavor should be your goal. For the kitchen and bathroom sinks and our toilets, I chose a clear silicone that is going to be the death of any moisture trying to find a new home under our home.  If you are doing painting projects, there is a much less expensive latex caulk available, and we can talk about that when I am doing one of those projects.

There are a number of tools and contraptions that can be used to help smooth the "bead" of caulk, and I am not an expert or anyone who has done this in a paid environment, but I think they're only useful so far.  The best trick I have learned/seen is to use painter's tape, blue or green or whatever color of the rainbow you love and don't care about, and to create a guide for the caulk with two sides.  It is important to take care to not make this too wide, and my method is not great because I end up letting it dry and repeating the process multiple times because I am afraid to screw it up with too much caulk.  After a short dry, you can wipe up the excess not in the joint with a wet sponge, or use your finger dipped in water to smooth the line.  If there are gaps, I would rather go back and fix them after a bit of drying when the tape has been removed, but you are your own person and I am a fussy girl.

Or sometimes, I want it to be done before I go out of town, and bang out two walls so Alex could theoretically resume showering in here if he chooses.

If you made it to the end, I reward you with a silly cat picture.  In a poll of our readers, exactly one person expressed an interest in more cat pictures.  It was myself.