Fix Moldy Silicon Shower Caulking & Get Perfect Caulking Lines Every Time

hello everybody and welcome to well my bathroom so because of the whole quarantine and lockdown situation that's going on around the globe I figured I would do some videos about simple home repairs that you can do while you're well stuck at home this first one just happens to be in the bathroom so let's get into it if your tub or shower is anything like mine it's probably covered in sloppily applied silicone caulk not only does it look bad but because it was applied so sloppily it's also the perfect place for mold to start growing so in this video I'm going to show you how to properly caulk a tub and shower and I'm also going to give you a great trick for getting perfect caulking lines every time so we're we waiting for let's get started the first up of this project is gonna be just to get rid of everything unnecessary in the bathroom [Music] [Applause] and then we're getting it everything nice to clean and dry before we move on in order to remove the old talking you're gonna need some sort of sharp knife I like to use these little razor blades and then I also have this holder here that I can just slot the razor plays into that make it a little easier to hold a box cutter might also work pretty well for this you just want to make sure whatever knife you're using it's a bear's in blades as far as I know there's no easy surefire way to remove silicone caulking basically you're just trying to get the knife between the tub and the cocking and then the tile and the caulking and slowly cut it off what I like to do is to try and get one area started and then if you're lucky once you get it started you can grip it and pull long and get it to come off always one but doesn't always work so it's a pretty labor-intensive process you're gonna want to be diligent and make sure you get all the old caulking this is actually kind of a pet peeve of mine if you have properly grown in tile and a properly waterproof shower enclosure there's no reason to be caulking the corners of a shower hey it looks bad and B it just gives you another place for mold to start growing if you can avoid it don't the corners I think the reason that they caught these originally was because some of this ground is starting to chip out so I'll probably have to recall these ones but I'll show you how to do much nice it's probably also a good idea to have a vacuum cleaner around help clean up late work [Music] okay so that took a little bit longer than I thought it would I know it was really easy in the video with the silicon was just coming out right away but what happened was there was a lot of residue stuck and I really had to work it with a knife to get every last a little bit of the old silicon out of there before I comply the new stuff thankfully we're done now and we can move on to the next stage so for this part of the project you are gonna need a little bit of painters tape okay so oh it this is cramped this is really cramped what we're gonna use this painters tape for is to mask off all the areas where we don't want the silicone to go so just freely applying the silicon and then smearing it with your finger we're gonna first lay down the painters tape all the way around the perimeter of the top and up the walls too and what you want to do is make it so that the tape is about 1/16 away from the grout line on the deck of the tub and then we're gonna go to the wall and you're going to do the same thing on the wall you can come up a 16th off the depth of the top then you're gonna apply the tape and then you're gonna do that the whole way around [Music] get down low so you can see what I'm talking about behind me here I have masked off the entire perimeter of the tub using the painters tape and we are ready to start applying a little bit of silicone so the painters tape is basically just like training wheels for applying the silicone you put it everywhere where you don't want the silicone to go and then you can just peel off the tape afterwards this project is a little tough because I don't really have a good working area like this is my work bench right now the edge of my tongue so a quick note on silicone I really like to use clear silicone because I find it takes on the color of whatever surface you're applying it to whereas when you use a white silicone it's just going to be the color it is and there's a 99% chance it's not gonna match your tub exactly it's not gonna match your grout color exactly so it's always gonna be a little bit off so for that reason I almost always just use clear silicone and then the other thing I want to say is that don't get the cheapest silicone you can get the kitchen and bath stuff and get one a higher grade ones because in my experience there actually is a pretty sizeable difference between bad silicone and good silicone in terms of how much antifungal resistance it has so that being said you don't have to cut the tip of your silicone tube I wish I had a better knife to do this but what are you gonna do so basically what you're trying to do is cut the opening to the same size as the line of silicone that you're trying to apply now time to apply the silicone you're just gonna squeeze it out into the corner don't be too hard on yourself if it's not a perfect application because that's exactly why we laid down the masking tape I forgot to mention this before but you're gonna want to have a rag that you don't mind throwing out at the end of the project just so that you can wipe your finger and your caulking gun on something now you're going to take the most important tool in this project your finger and you're just going to press that silicone caulking into the corner I think to do at least two passes everywhere [Music] kind of a time-sensitive job yeah that's a rush or anything but I wouldn't apply the caulking and then go and have lunch because if you try and come back - it's gonna be drying it can be a mess [Music] so now that we've wiped most of the excess caulking off it's time to peel the tape [Music] not quite done yet so clean your hands and then give that bead of caulking one last good run with your finger and make sure you wipe away all the excess does it work [Music] Wow so that's it for the time perimeter I'm gonna let this dry and then I will do the verticals and as well as the base of the tub down here okay I prepped the cornice the perimeters dried so uh silicone up these corpse now part of the reason that I'm hopeful that this new silicone won't mold up is because I'm using a higher quality than what the original builders will use but also these thinner lines are going to be a less hospitable place for the mold to grow in the first place and because I know some of these corners have cracks in them a little gaps being a little bit more generous with my application of the silicone just so I can make sure I really fill those gaps into the watertight but again in an ideal world these corners would be properly crowded from the beginning and I wouldn't have to be talking them but you don't live an ideal world so what are you gonna do good just using my middle finger here to kind of squeegee the silicone and what do you really really really really try to push it in so I fill any of those cracks but we can't forget our final pass just to smooth out the edges of the sole [Applause] [Music] for any reason you do happen to end up getting a little bit of silicone on your tub or on the tile you want to clean it off as fast as possible is it's really a lot easier to get [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay all that silicones in and it's nothing left to do now except for word let it dry so why don't I take you guys on a quick tour and you can see the difference and then you can maybe do it in your own bathroom all right so let's get you guys in close so you can see the difference here and right away you notice that a it's a lot cleaner there's not that harsh line or the white caulking transitions into the tub it's just a nice gentle blend and that's what you get with a clear silicone because it tends to take on the color of both surfaces that it's applied between and then over here all of that mold and nasty caulking is gone and we're replaced with just a clean line if anything it kind of just calls attention to these really ugly hard water stain right ones so maybe I'll do a future video about how you can repair it thread lines all right so that is it for how to recall your shower enclosure hopefully you guys enjoyed this video if you did please give me a like and maybe consider hitting subscribe button and if you have any other home improvement projects that you'd like me to show you how to do just let me know down in the comments and I will try to put that together for you alright everybody see in the next video peace [Music]

Channel: Zac Builds

Views: 72,702

Rating: 4.9139271 out of 5

Keywords: how to, do it yourself, home improvement, caulking, shower, tub, repair, caulking tips, silicone sealant, home repair, diy, moldy caulking, moldy shower

Id: ZKDntNDBzX8

Length: 10min 3sec (603 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 17 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/BehrmanTheBeerman]

Hot tip: Fill the tub with water before applying the silicon. That way, the tub won't separate from the silicone over time due to the weight of the water.

[u/atlas_nodded_off]

Good content and presentation. Well done and I'll do mine next week month. Some day.

[u/StealsGod]

Denatured alcohol works really good with removing excess caulk as well. As long as it's still wet

EDIT: silicone caulk. Latex cleans up easier with water and a sponge

[u/4touchdownsinonegame]

This is absolutely one of those "how the hell did I not think of doing it like that" videos.

I've watched a few other caulking how to's and I've always ended up with lackluster results. I'll for sure be doing this way next time. Nothing else to do today, might go look for something to caulk around the house.

[u/Agentreddit]

Hmmm. In the video he suggests not to caulk the corners. But I believe the proper way is to caulk where there’s a change in plane. Ie definitely caulk corners.

[u/allabootdatnublyfe]

Amazing!!! I desperately needed to know how to do this. You are a saint among mortals

[u/ilvr09]

Isn't he the guy from Home Alone?

[u/healthybowl]

Pro tip. Put a little water on your finger. Glides smoothly along the silicone and doesn’t pull as much material off. ALWAYS silicone the corners!

[u/AltothTheMighty]

Not even any swearing? What kind of sorcery is this?