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Bloody bath silicon! Awful stuff! Always end up covered in it, up the walls, on soles of my shoes then all over the floor.
So can anyone offer any advice on how to remove the old stuff, prep for the new and make it look good?
Everyone else's always looks better than mine!
Free beer to anyone who can do it for me 🙂
Skip to 13.20
you can use regular masking tape but the blue 3m tape you see being used (because he's paid to) actually works really well - you can get it in screwfix. While you're there buy a pack of disposable gloves and have a receptical near by to dispose of them in - take them off and replace pretty much any time you touch anything!
See, that looked easy - bet mine won't turn out like that!
I'll see if I can get some blue tape at Screwfix.
Ta muchly.
Have a small pot of soapy water ready for smoothing down, apply half as much as you think you need to then with a very wet finger lightly smooth over.
You’re not trying to force the silicone into the corner and spread it everywhere, just smoothing the bead into one continuous bead that touches both sides of the joint.
usually people apply too much and then end up spreading the excess three quarters of an inch up the wall!
I bought a proper sealant profiling tool this year - £1.99 from Screwfix.
I wish I had done it years ago.
That plus soapy water = really smooth finish and not spread up tiles.
Don’t use a cheapo application gun. Screwfix do an orange on for 10-15 quid and it makes application a lot more controllable
Have a small pot of soapy water ready for smoothing down
I bought a proper sealant profiling tool this year
Those
And have lots of rags handy for wiping your blade/scraper and your hands. Bloke doing our kitchen used a plant spray for the water. He used lots.
From my limited experience, and listening to a builder who fitted a shower for me:
Cut out as much of the old stuff as possible, then use a sealant dissolver, then clean and leave for 24 hours to fully dry out if you can be that long without a scrub-up. This will help make it stick properly.
Buy the most expensive sealant (within reason), it goes on better and lasts longer.
Buy best quality applicator gun you can find. Will be much more controllable.
Cut the tip of tube at 45° and try with the smallest bead you can get away with depending on the gap size. A small bead will dry faster and be more secure.
If doing a bath, especially a plastic bath, fill it with water first as it will sag a little. This stops the seal pulling away when filled with water and person. Leave water in until fully dry.
None of these tips will make it any easier really, it's always a faff of a job, but it'll make it so you don't have to do it again for a long time.
I splashed out £9 on some plastic tools for this from screwfix and some latex gloves. It really makes it much more pleasant.I can't wait now for the next chance to do some more sealing.
Ensure all old silicone has been removed, clean area too be sealed thoroughly (I use Isopropyl Alcohol). Masking tape the bath/shower and wall about 7mm away from the edge.
Use a good quality sealant (I use Dow Corning 785+).
Apply sealant ensuring corner of joint is full, use one of these to smooth bead: https://www.screwfix.com/p/no-nonsense-smoothing-tools-straight-joints/92313
Remove tape (have a couple of carrier bags ready to put tape straight into.
Wear latex gloves.
Can take 24 hours to cure due to size of bead.
The chap who did mine also had some wipes that dissolved the silicone - so any excess could bewiped away cleanly
WD-40 helps remove the old stuff believe it or not. You still need to attack it with plenty of elbow grease with a sharp blade/scraper and obviously the WD-40 will need washing off after.
Allow the silicone to go off for ten minutes before starting to smooth it.
Tilydog's video encourages me to have a go at our bath,
Allow the silicone to go off for ten minutes before starting to smooth it.
...but not if you’re doing the soapy water / scraper thing.
It really does work like that, but you need to keep the tool wet, too. If you end up with gaps then you need to wait until it all dries / sets before going back to fill them.
I've just replaced the silicone sealant around the shower tray with pvc beading. The silicone would go mouldy within 6 months no matter which make I used. £2.50 for a 5 metre length and a tube of waterproof adhesive.
Well timed thread. The chap who installed our new shower in the spring was a bit shit at doing silicone so now I'd going to re-do it having watched the videos.
Never used a silicone tool so that will be the first purchase!
I’ve just replaced the silicone sealant around the shower tray with pvc beading. The silicone would go mouldy within 6 months no matter which make I used. £2.50 for a 5 metre length and a tube of waterproof adhesive.
Where from Rockchic?
Well timed thread. The chap who installed our new shower in the spring was a bit shit at doing silicone so now I’d going to re-do it having watched the videos.
Aye, same here, really pissed me off, as he made a right good job of the tiling, then just flung the silicon in. ****.
Buy a fugi silicone kit. I hate silicon but got one of these this year to do some sealing work and it’s brilliant.
Thanks all, off to Screwfix in the morning!
Don't use it. When I did our bathroom about 10 years ago I was determined to not use any sealant or minimise it at much as possible, so around the bath I used this plastic stuff that had a ready applied bead of sealant, you unrolled it, folded it 90 degrees along its length and stuck it down. There was just enough sealant to fill the grout between tiles and nicely and neatly squeeze out the edge of the tape. You had to take some care and a bit of time to cut the end neatly, especially in the 3-way corner and then had to use a smidgen of sealant to seal the ends of the tape. It's lasted longer than silicone sealant...no mould, no leaks. I'd use it again if I were going to ever do the job again.
Im not convinced about the latex gloves. I always find it easier with a tool, fingers and soapy water. Gloves seemed to stick to everything
Fugi kit or similar us a must. Never use a wetted finger, total bodge that.
Nobeerinthefridge. PVC trim was from The Bishop Auckland Plastic Centre. Quadrant profile.Dirt cheap compared to the normal DIY outlets.
Don't forget to half fill the bath first. I've found washing up liquid on the end of my finger works just fine for smoothing.
Strip old stuff off with a Stanley blade then leave it to dry for at least 48hrs..
Profile tool and Stanley blade to remove scraped excess.
I've found Stanley carpet blade to be best for cutting out the bulk of the old stuff, & Dow Corning 785 silicon for its anti-mould properties.
I've found wet wipes to be helpful for cleaning up.
+1 for filling the bath before applying - it took me ages to find a leak caused by the bath flexing down when loaded.
One trick is to make sure you don't push silicone into a narrow gap. The idea is that the silicone stretches to accommodate movement, so if you have 1mm of silicone, it can't stretch far. It won't fail within the bead, it pulls off the surface. Once it's broken the bond, the crack spreads. So if you're sealing a right angle corner, lay something like 4mm tape across the back of the corner, then silicone over it. A circular smoothing tool is good, because it gives a good thickness at the edges, where it bonds to the tiles, but thinner in the middle so it can stretch.
The "tape" which is ovc or similar with silicone about the consistency of plasticene in the back is pretty good but doesn't always fill the void where the grout between tiles is, so you sometimes have to put a dab of silicone in there.
As others have said, cut the tip at 45 degrees and hold the caulking gun at 45 degrees. Go at least 1/4" up each side of wall/tub to get sufficient caulking to allow for movement. Fill tub.
Bread dough (or just flour and water mixed) is good for getting off old caulk, believe it or not. There are silicone removers which are good. Autoglym intensive tar remover is good for removing residue.
Push the gun,don't pull it. Watch the front of the tip and squeeze out just enough caulk to keep the void filled, with just a bit of "dome" to it. The video that shows the tool above also shows a bead where the void wasn't kept filled. Don't forget to release the trigger pressure with the little tab up near the plunger, otherwise you find a foot long string of caulk dangling from it which inevitable lands on the only thing within a hundred feet that you can't easily wipe uncured silicone off, like the distaff sides best dress or the cat. Smoothing is easiest with a tight fitting latex or similar glove dipped in soapy water (the water stays on a glove better than your finger. You don't want to remove any caulk, and you want a convex not concave finish, that's why a full bead is important. Use the side of your finger to smooth the edges first pushing them slightly in towards the middle. Then very lightly, with the middle of the pad of your finger, smooth the two slight ridges you just made down.
Most people push too much finger too far into the caulked joint and actual remove caulk, leaving a concave joint, which cannot tolerate as much movement and also gets caulking everywhere.
Also, don't rub your eye until you've taken off the glove.
If your caulk is going mouldy, it either isn't silicone, or isn't kitchen and bath stuff, or it isn't mould. Proper kitchen and bath stuff doesn't have things in it which feed mould and have additives which repel it. I've used "silicone" which went mouldy but I realized it wasn't 100% silicone.
If your caulk is going mouldy, it either isn’t silicone
Caulk and silicon are 2 completely different things.
True enough. Although unless you are building a boat with lapped planks, caulking won't help you at all technically. Although even the makers of silicone sealants use the word caulk and sealant interchangeably these days.
OTOH,. trying to seal a bathrub with silicon would be really difficult and utterly ineffective.
Silicone is excellent though.
Pedants untie!