Choosing the Right Caulk or Sealant

[Music] in today's video I want to provide you with an introduction to and sealants I'm sure many of you have gone to the store and you've been faced with this it's daunting the number of products that are on the market and it's difficult to know which one is the right one for your project they all claim to be the best for certain applications but it's really hard to know without a little bit of knowledge to arm yourself before you make your decision there are three things that I typically take into account when I purchase or choose a caulk I look at the temperature range that's what sort of temperatures will a certain caulk withstand once it's applied I look at if it is waterproof some applications absolutely require it to be waterproof and I also look at reliability that's how long is it going to last and how's it going to hold up under certain conditions things that you might also care about our paint ability if you want it to match let's say an interior paint or an exterior paint that's that's going to matter to you if you're not going to paint it then you might also care about UV resistance some costs and some sealants tend to turn yellow when they're exposed to UV rays over time caulks are generally broken up into three different categories there's acrylic latex caulk there's silicone caulk and there's polyurethane call there are also many specialty caulks and sealants out there that may not fall in these three categories let's start with acrylic latex here's an example of an acrylic latex caulk this is a product by DAP it's called Dyna flex 2:30 it says you can use it for flashing trim doors windows siding molding indoor/outdoor waterproof and paintable what I like about acrylic latex is very easy to work with you can shape it and smooth it easily if you get it in the wrong spot it's very easy to clean up you can generally take a wet rag and wipe it off and that's because it's a water-based caulk the downside to water-based caulks is that they're generally not waterproof so this one claims that it's waterproof and I'm sure it is for some duration but generally I would not use acrylic latex where you want your application to be waterproof also I don't like to use acrylic latex on the exterior I find that they do crack or they disappear from the material where you've applied it I see it used around Windows on the exterior a lot and they generally have to be recalled every year so I tend not to use it for the exterior applications I limit it to things like filling gaps between trim or molding here's an example where I would use it [Music] next up we have silicon these are commonly used where waterproofing is necessary most of you have probably seen silicon caulk sand you may have even used them especially in a bathroom around a bathtub that's a very common application here's an example of some silicone we have a DAP 3.0 this is a silicone base car I don't know everything that's in this because they don't even tell you that it's silicone I had to look that up I do find it frustrating when companies don't put the material on the tube because then it makes it hard for me determine if it's the right product for me to use so if you pick something up and you can't tell what it is you just might want to think twice about that or go spend some time on the Internet look up the datasheet make sure you find out what you need to know before you commit to that particular caulk I do believe this one is not 100% silicone because it has a very low temperature range or should I say a tight temperature range 20 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit which is not very good silicone one of the other advantages is that it does have a broad temperature range under which it can be used for example this GE product says it's service temperature is minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit to 400 degrees Fahrenheit so very good product can withstand extreme temperatures you can use it outside without any concern in the winter or the summer another advantage to silicone is that it doesn't discolor under UV a disadvantages it's difficult to work with silicone is tacky it doesn't clean up very well you need to run a good clean bead the first time because it will be difficult to shape with your finger it gets messy if you do need to clean it up mineral spirits will help but it will still be a challenge some applications for silicone as I mentioned bathrooms around backsplashes bathtubs anywhere in showers where you need to provide a seal to keep water from getting to a place where you don't want it you can also use it on the exterior I've used it where I have a gap between my window casing and my glass I've used the clear very thin beat of it couldn't even see it and it provides a nice waterproof seal so water doesn't get inside there and start rotting my wood here's another example of where I might use silicon [Music] so we've covered acrylic latex and silicone next I'd like to cover some hybrid clocks these are combinations of the first two so here we have this acrylic latex with silicone this is another DAP product this has all the same applications as acrylic latex what you get with this is improved waterproofing and a little more flexibility so where I might use this is on the exterior because now with the improved waterproofing I'd feel more comfortable using it and I get that flexibility so when I apply it let's say around a window where I need some waterproofing the expansion and contraction that may occur with that window material isn't going to cause cracking as easily as it would with just an acrylic latex so I do think this is a much better product to use on the exterior than just plain acrylic latex I wouldn't however use it around trim or baseboards where I need to seal some gaps just because the silicone makes it less easy to work with and just plain acrylic latex so I would just stick with this for exterior applications or where I need a little bit of waterproofing along that same vein there there is paintable silicone this is relatively new I've only used this a couple of times but so far it's had very promising results so you basically get all the benefits of silicone but you have the ability to paint it so that it can match the material that you're applying it to here's an example where I would use the paintable silicone [Music] next up we have the polyurethane sealants these are excellent sealers for exterior applications an example is this sauna lastic np-1 this sealants used by a lot of construction professionals that's how I learned about it I've used it for a number of different different applications and I've had a lot of success it provides waterproofing capabilities it also has a lot of flexibility this product will expand up to 35% so if you have an application where you're trying to seal some exterior gaps and I don't mean the small gaps between let's say your window trim and your siding but like more substantial gaps between say some wood siding and some brick this is a good product the downside is that is not paintable so you'll have to try to color match it there's maybe seven to ten different colors available on this so you can usually get pretty close but I do think that you'll have a lot of success with this I use it on metal to metal applications metal to concrete metal to stucco wood to stucco those kinds of applications here's an example of how I've used it [Music] now that I've covered the major types of and sealants I do want to briefly mention specialty sometimes you'll see in the store such as this where you're not really sure what it's made of but you do know the application based on what the manufacturer is telling you on the tube this particular product is used for roofing applications I did not have good luck with this product not because there's anything wrong with this product but it just didn't work for me so the point I want to make about these specialty that you don't know much about is take the time to do the research to make sure it's right for you this is a clear product that I used to seal a metal seam on a roof and ended up turning yellow which apparently has no UV resistance so you know that was my bad but to your homework it'll pay off you don't want to have to do it twice because the hard part about this was getting it off to apply a more suitable product another specialty caulk is this sanded ceramic tile caulk all this is is silicone caulk that has sand added to it and it's been color matched typically is color matched to the grout colors that are made by the same manufacturer so don't think in a shower or bathtub application that you're only confined to the silicone that you see in the caulk section of your home-improvement store you can venture over to the tile section or go to a tile store and find a product like this here's how I would use this product you so that covers the coughs that I wanted to go over today I have in no way included all of the products on the market but I hope I've given you enough information so you can go make the right decision and get your project done right the first time one last piece of advice I have on application is that you buy a high-quality caulking gun the cheap ones will break or you will find that they're rather strenuous on your hand after long-term usage another handy tool or tools are these epoxy syringes these are syringes with a plastic tip you can cut these tips to whatever size that you want besides opening that you want it makes it very handy to put caulk into tight places if you can't find epoxy syringes you might find glue injector sets which are very similar I find these to be quite useful although when you use them with some products like the polyurethane sealants or the silicone you can't get them clean so you pretty much use it and throw it away so that's it for my introduction on Cox and sealants I hope this has been useful thanks for watching [Music] you

Channel: ToolboxDIY

Views: 167,319

Rating: 4.9202189 out of 5

Keywords: #toolboxdiy, acrylic, bathroom, caulk, caulk gun, caulk sealant, caulk vs sealant, caulk vs silicone, caulking, caulks, cracks, diy, do it yourself, epoxy syringe, gaps, glue injector, home improvement, how to caulk, how-to, kitchen, latex, metal, painting, polyurethane, roofing, sealants, sealing, seams, siding, silicone, silicone sealant application, silicone vs caulk, specialty, toolboxdiy, trim, trimwork, tube, types of caulk, uv resistance, windows

Id: j_I0bhZ6jrc

Length: 12min 30sec (750 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 05 2016