It's mid October in Vermont and my house is in the throws of a massive exterior upgrade! We have replaced all of our windows, ripped off 2 layers of awful siding, fixed rotted framing and leaks galore where the flashing (if there was any) was shored up. Although, I fancy myself a bit more adept at some home improvements, the bulk of the work has been done by my husband who is by far one of the best builders/carpenters I know.
With the new siding and insulation as the next steps in our aggressive home improvement plan, which my husband will be the champion of, I find myself looking for ways to help or add value in our home's transformation. So I've looked around and found a project here and there that I feel comfortable tacking. So far, my first experience with my own Do-It-Herself project has landed me in our master bathroom, re-caulking the tub.
Allow me to set the stage a bit. We have an incredibly small master bathroom, which we one year ago made from a 3/4 bath to the full bath. The tub we installed could not have been any bigger, it fit like a glove with no room to spare. We then installed beautiful white subway tiles as the tub surround, but unfortunately due to time, budget or whatever our thinking was at the time, we used silicon caulk where the tiles met the bath. For us, this was not the best solution as silicon caulk can be difficult to work with. Over time, we noticed gaps that needed to be filled, as and you may know, you cannot re-caulk over silicone, it has to be completely removed.
Here's where my part comes in, I spent much of an afternoon digging out as much silicone caulk as humanly possible to give us a clean slate for putting new caulk on the tub.
LESSON #1
Remember to ensure that the tub and all crevices are completely dry.
I rushed to put the new non silicon caulk in and within 2-3 weeks had a gooey mess to clean up and re-do again.
LESSON#2
Do not go with the cheapest non silicon caulk.
I purchased a brand of caulk that does not set hard enough and will have to re-do it again because of consistent water exposure wearing down the texture of the caulk.
LESSON #3
When your father is a plummer, take his advise and use the products he would use.
I'm off the hardware store again after -recaulking the tub twice to get "Poly Seam Seal". This will surely be the winning caulk!
Good luck to those who try this at home!
