this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2024
21 points (100.0% liked)

Do It Yourself

7724 readers
1 users here now

Make it, Fix it, Renovate it, Rehabilitate it - as long as you’ve done some part of it yourself, share!

Especially for gardening related or specific do-it-yourself projects, see also the Nature and Gardening community. For more creative-minded projects, see also the Creative community.


This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I'm (obviously) not great with caulk but needed to re-caulk where our kitchen counter meets the outside wall as it has a crack all along the counter. House was built about 20 years ago and it may be original and just settled.

Anyway, I watched a video and the person put down painters tape on the wall and along the counter so you could get a straight edge. They showed pulling off the tape pretty quickly after applying the caulk. I did so and the caulk pulled up from the counter (and, to a lesser extent away from the tile on the wall.)

Is this an OK technique to use, generally? What could I have done to keep this from happening? I had cleaned the surface well. Should I have pulled the tape off with an angle closer to the counter? I think I pulled it off about 45 degrees. Would it hurt to wait a little longer for the caulk to adhere to the surface a bit? I'm concerned if it starts to cure much at all that it will be harder to pull off the tape without pulling the caulk away from the wall.

Going to wait until it dries, then scrape it out and try again. This is a small section that I'm using to work on my technique.

Thanks.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] catfishsushi@midwest.social 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yes, and when I pulled the painter's tape up it pulled the caulk away from the counter. Trying to understand how to NOT do that.

[–] JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca 4 points 9 months ago

You have to pull the tape up almost immediately. If the caulk starts curing, you'll pull it away with the tape.

And make sure the surfaces are clean and dry before you start.