TIL my whole approach to caulking was backwards for 8 years

A painter in Austin pointed out I was smoothing the bead instead of tooling it into the gap, which explained why every bathroom job I did started cracking within 6 months, so which method do you swear by, pushing caulk in or just smoothing it over the top?

3 comments

3 Comments

kim_davis4d agoMost Upvoted

Funny how that works with so many things around the house. It's like learning you've been folding fitted sheets wrong your whole life, or that you're supposed to let a drill bit do the work instead of pushing on it. I've noticed the same pattern with caulking and even with painting - people always think more product is better, but really it's about getting it into the cracks and seams where it needs to be. Like how you wouldn't just spread spackle on top of a hole, you gotta push it in first.

taylor.brooke4d ago

Forget what I said earlier, @kim_davis - I think spackle actually does need to go on top first, not pushed in.

shanes664d ago

See, that's the thing though. You say "people always think more product is better" but I've actually had the opposite problem with spackle. I see people not using ENOUGH and then sanding for an hour. So when you say push it in first, does that mean you're basically pre-filling the deep parts and then letting a thin layer dry before you do the final spread? Because I always just loaded it up and sanded the excess off and that seemed fine for small holes, but for bigger ones I'm wondering if there's a better way.