Hi. This is Mike with Absolute Painting. I want to talk to you today about caulking the exterior of your home. There’s a couple of different things, three different things, that you need to keep in mind when you’re choosing the caulking for your home.
What kind of caulking are you wanting to use?
Number one: what kind of caulking are you wanting to use? Here’s the thing. You want to use a latex caulking, because it’s paintable, and you want to select a caulking that has a good lifetime warranty and has excellent joint movement. Why spend all the time and effort and money in painting your house and use and inexpensive caulking that’s not going to last? Make sure that you go ahead and spend the money to get some good caulking that has good joint movement and a lifetime warranty.
What are you supposed to caulk?
Number two: what are you supposed to caulk, and what are you not supposed to caulk? On the exterior of a home, make sure you caulk all seams in your sheet siding. Make sure all nail holes are filled and finished smoothly. You also want to make sure that the tops and sides of all windows and door trim is caulked. The one thing that you don’t want to do is caulk the undersides of your trim boards, your freeze boards, or your windows so that if water, by chance, gets into any of the areas, it’ll have a space below to run out. If you caulk those areas, a lot of times, water will be trapped and can actually cause wood rot. The other thing you never want to caulk is the underside of your lap siding. Lap siding is horizontal siding that goes back and forth on your house.
If you caulk the back of this lap siding, any moisture or water that intrudes behind the siding will be trapped. Eventually, the siding will rot and have to be replaced.
Paint After
The other thing to remember is that after you caulk something, within a month or two, you must paint it. Otherwise, dirt and grime will stick to the caulking and build up, causing your house to look unsightly. If you need caulking done before your paint job, and you don’t want to do it yourself, or don’t have the time or the tools, give Absolute Painting a call. We would be happy to come out and give you an on-the-site estimate that will take care of your paint job. This is Mike with Absolute Painting. Until next time, have a great day.
