Caulk ’til You Drop
There are certain home maintenance jobs I do not particularly enjoy. Re-caulking the bathtub is one of them. I especially dislike this job when I have to do it twice in a 2 week period!
I had the perfect scenario a few weeks ago: The family was away, and I would be joining them for a few days, leaving the house empty, and more importantly the tub and shower unused, for several days. A perfect chance to recaulk the tub and have it perfectly cured when we all returned. Or so I thought.
I went to Lowes (because it’s closer than Home Depot) to buy a new tube of caulk. My preferred brand and variety, a GE Silicone with an anti-mold additive, was not to be seen. I bought something else which seemed like a perfectly reasonably substitute.
In about an hour’s time I had removed the old caulk and had applied the new caulk. It looked wonderful. Bright, clean, and more importantly, done for a good, long time.
Sadly, and much to my chagrin, when I returned from the weekend away, I was greeted with my worst caulk nightmare: shrinkage! I knew that a re-do was in the offing, but when to do it…?
As luck, circumstances, and vacation planning would have it, another opportunity presented itself last week to re-caulk the tub. The family was away again, but this time I wasn’t going anywhere to meet them. This meant that I had to find a time where I could do the job early enough after I had used the tub and before I’d use it again the next day to allow the new caulk to properly cure.
I made a mental plan that I would attack this problem last Wednesday. This time I went to Home Depot and acquired a new tube of the right product, GE’s Silicone Tub caulk with the anti-mold additive.
On Wednesday I awoke at 0530, showered, and dressed. By 0600 I was removing the defective caulk, and by 0700 I had once again re-caulked the tub.
It looked wonderful. Bright, clean, and more importantly, really, really, done for a good, long time.
By 0700 the next day, the caulk was properly cured, and this time, without shrinkage!
