Caulk Skillz

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When we moved into the house, the downstairs windows were terrible. They had gone so long without maintenance that we could literally feel the cold air seeping into the house. Given that it was a particularly cold winter, we were not pleased, especially with our heating bill.

To solve this problem, I needed to re-caulk the windows. This seemed like a pretty intimidating task to me, but the thought of another expensive bill was my motivation. So, off to Home Depot I went, and thankfully they had a display of caulk choices complete with a chart so that I could ensure I picked the right one:  paintable, quick-dry, weather-resistant caulk that is perfect for doors, trim, and windows.

Caulk comes in many colors, and since I would be later painting my trim white, I thought white would be just fine. I began by removing the old, cracking, brittle caulk that existed in the crevices of my windows so that I would have a spot for the new caulk to fill. It came off VERY easily, which showed me just how much neglect these windows have had in the past.

To keep the smudging and smearing to a minimum, I used painter’s tape on both sides of where I wanted the caulk line to be. I then clipped off the end of the caulk tube and pointed it toward the first spot that I wanted to squeeze the caulk into. Nothing.

Turns out, caulk tubes need a caulk gun. Who knew? Probably most of you are thinking “everyone” but I’m willing to admit I’m the singular moron on this planet who didn’t. Simple fix, and I was back to the project.

I kept a wet paper towel on hand to clean up messes and my fingers as I went. All I had to do was squeeze the gun, smooth my finger along the wet caulk line to make sure the caulk went into the crevices of the window, and repeat until the window was done. I had to do this process 4 more times for 4 more windows, so I got the hang of it pretty quickly.

As soon as each window was finished, I peeled the tape off so that the caulk was still wet and wouldn’t come right off with the tape. This gave me a cleaner line than if I’d gone without.

When you learn something new that you never thought you’d have to know and it doesn’t wind up with you sobbing on the floor in defeat, you feel pretty darn awesome. I was happily saying “I know how to caulk! I am the caulk master!” which of course left Scott giggling for the rest of the day.

I have since begun using clear instead of white caulk for these projects to make my work even more idiot-proof. There are a lot of windows in this house and being able to skip the taping step makes things much faster.

After the caulk is dry, we can patch any holes around the window (left as a result of the old blue curtains) and sand it so that painting goes smoother. It is important to let the caulk dry first, so that your sanding doesn’t interfere with your new clean caulk lines and force you to do it twice.

There you have it. The primary bedroom is unfortunately out of commission for now since we had to remove all the blinds, but we will hopefully be done in another day or so. Until then, I will be working on getting my allergies under control as they were an unfortunate side effect of all the paint and dust. Later :)