Tutorial; Re-Caulking / Sealing / Silicon / Mastic

I´ll take a moment out to demonstrate the process of re-caulking/sealing tile skirting. There may be more methods, but truly this is the correct way of doing it, whether on the floor, back-splashes, showers or bathrooms, where you need any caulking done, this will put you on the right track.

I did approx. 70 linear meters in about 4.5-5hrs. This means that all furniture had to get moved, old silicone scraped/cut out, cleaned, re-caulked and putting all furniture back again. (This will vary on many factors however, but we can all imagine why; eg. Type/Condition of old caulking, surface type, size of furniture pieces etc..)

Tools needed / or at least what I used:

• ·         Multi-Scraper
• ·         Extra Heavy Duty Scraper with blade
• ·         Caulk gun
• ·         Stanley Knife (Cutter)
• ·         Recipient / Bowl with soapy water
• ·         Rags
• ·         Broom/Scoop

Materials needed:

• ·         Caulk. I used Sikasil Construction Mastic.
• ·         Extra blades
• ·         Masking tape. I used blue Scotch painter´s tape.

Protective gear:

• ·         Knee pads (Got to look after yourself)

Steps:
1.       Move carefully all furniture away from work area. I generally only need 1m space from the walls
2.       Remove absolutely ALL existing silicone. Silicone does NOT stick to silicone, there´s just no adherence.
3.       Now clean with dry rag/cloth area and old silicon.
4.       Mask out, have a look at photos below
5.       Start caulking evenly, or try your best. Do not worry too much of it´s uneven, you´ll rectify it later. Inject as deep as possible into gaps Do only one length, let´s say from one wall to the next corner or so
6.       Dip your favorite finger into the soapy water and even out like shown in pics. Dip every 50cm more or less, or until you feel that the mastic is sticking to your finger
7.       Do a stretch of wall-to-wall
8.       Inspect if enough mastic is projected
9.       Immediately after, remove masking tape. Don´t take your time and remove one piece at a time, do both at once, time is money after all. (Seen in photo)
10.   I repeat, remove immediately after a stretch! If you wait for longer than that, you might start pulling the hardening mastic out with masking tape too and destroy those carefully masked lines you´ve tried to achieve – so no time for breaks, let´s get that stretch done first.
11.   Go to eye level with mastic , if you see you´ve caulked too much and there´s a 1mm ridge, dip finger in soapy water and even out carefully, maintain the same masked off area.
12.   Start with next length
13.   Place furniture carefully back
14.   Inspect throughout and if you´re happy/satisfied – everybody will be!

Why? Questions

• ·         Why caulk/mastic/silicone instead of grout?
  
  Due to expansion and contraction of this specific house, I´ll opt exactly why the builders decided on it too. I´ve thoroughly thought options through, especially grouting, but there´s just too much movement of the building

• ·         Why use expensive blue Scotch painter´s tape?
  
  You can use normal masking tape, but generally speaking, the everyday type has a stronger glue which makes it more difficult to remove, thus wasting time once you need to remove it because it sticks like hell and you´ll need a putty knife since it will tear into smaller pieces.

• ·         Why Sikasil?
  
  It´s perhaps pricey, but it´s an excellent quality general builder´s sealant