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Edges of caulk pulled up from surface (midwest.social)

submitted 9 months ago by catfishsushi@midwest.social to c/diy@beehaw.org

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I'm (obviously) not great with caulk but needed to re-caulk where our kitchen counter meets the outside wall as it has a crack all along the counter. House was built about 20 years ago and it may be original and just settled.

Anyway, I watched a video and the person put down painters tape on the wall and along the counter so you could get a straight edge. They showed pulling off the tape pretty quickly after applying the caulk. I did so and the caulk pulled up from the counter (and, to a lesser extent away from the tile on the wall.)

Is this an OK technique to use, generally? What could I have done to keep this from happening? I had cleaned the surface well. Should I have pulled the tape off with an angle closer to the counter? I think I pulled it off about 45 degrees. Would it hurt to wait a little longer for the caulk to adhere to the surface a bit? I'm concerned if it starts to cure much at all that it will be harder to pull off the tape without pulling the caulk away from the wall.

Going to wait until it dries, then scrape it out and try again. This is a small section that I'm using to work on my technique.

Thanks.

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[–] JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca 10 points 9 months ago (4 children)

The caulk should definitely still be wet when you pull up the tape. The tape should be a quarter-inch/half-centimeter away from the wall.

Did the method you watched include the wet finger trick to push in the caulk and smooth it?

Personally I would skip the painters tape and just do a small bead of caulk plus wet finger.

https://youtu.be/Wjd2jC0Lupk?si=kWIkOnCD6uvzanvs

[–] catfishsushi@midwest.social 2 points 9 months ago (3 children)

When I try without the painters tape in the past I'd ended up with something not quite as bad as the example on the left here. (Not my photo)

I'm sure I could get good enough to do it properly that way. Seems like using just the right amount of caulk, and no more, is likely the key.

[–] JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)

So did you do the painters tape plus wet finger?

[–] catfishsushi@midwest.social 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yes, and when I pulled the painter's tape up it pulled the caulk away from the counter. Trying to understand how to NOT do that.

[–] JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca 4 points 9 months ago

You have to pull the tape up almost immediately. If the caulk starts curing, you'll pull it away with the tape.

And make sure the surfaces are clean and dry before you start.