When you own your own home, there are repairs and maintenance tasks that come up all the time. If you want to maintain the value of your home, you're going to have to do these tasks in order to keep the house in top shape. One of these tasks that will need to be done every few years is replacing the caulking around your bathtub. This is a task that a lot of people neglect, because they just don't pay attention to the caulking. However, with age it can become dry and cracked which will allow water to seep into joints and seams. When this occurs, other damage will start happening, too, such as tiles becoming loose and mold beginning to develop.
The reason that caulking is effective as a sealant is because it works much like a glue and is flexible as well. Because of caulk's unique properties, tiles stay in place and water is kept from infiltrating them, even in the warm, moist environment of a bathroom. With age, caulking may become dry, cracked, and brittle or mushy, moldy, and soft. If you want to put in new caulking, the first thing you'll need to do is to remove the old. If you try to caulk over old, existing caulking, you're not going to achieve a proper seal, and your work will have been in vain.
Start the job by cleaning the area as you normally would with a standard bathroom cleaner. After it has been cleaned, try to determine what type of caulk was used previously. If it's soft and rubbery, then it's probably silicone. Harder materials will have been made of acrylic or latex. Knowing the kind of caulking that you're dealing with will help you remove it. You can use a sharp knife to remove silicone caulk in possibly only one or two strips. It's more difficult to remove acrylic or latex caulking, though. Some of the methods you can try are scraping it off with a screwdriver, softening it with heat gun, or using a special product on it that is designed to soften old caulking. Once you've gotten all of the old material off, clean the area again. You also may want to use a product that kills mildew.
Once the area is prepared, you'll be ready to add new caulking. Advantages to using silicone caulk as opposed to latex or acrylics include the fact that it's the most flexible product when cured and, of course, that it will be easier to remove next time. On the downside, it won't be as mildew-resistant as the other types of caulk are. You can take care of that problem by purchasing a hybrid siliconized caulk that will give you the best properties of all of the different kinds of caulking. No matter what you choose, however, make sure it says right on the packaging that it was made to be used in bathrooms.
If you only have a small area to caulk, you won't need to purchase a caulking gun. There are squeeze tubes available that will do the job. Don't cut too large of a hole in the end of the tube, because you'll want to be able to control the flow of the caulk. Always work carefully, because if you leave unsightly blobs or squiggles in your work, it's going to mean more work to repair them. You might be tempted to buy roll caulk thinking it will be easier to work with, but it's actually very hard to apply in a straight line. Make sure you have a damp sponge and a roll of paper towels handy in case you have any spills. Work in only a small area at a time, and as you finish with that area, smooth the caulk using a moistened finger.
Make sure before starting the job that you'll have enough time to finish. It's better to caulk an entire area all at once. Read the package to find out how long the caulking needs to cure prior to being exposed to moisture, and don't let anyone use the tub until it has dried. By replacing the caulking around your tub as you see it going bad, you'll be saving a lot of time and money in future repairs.
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