- So listen up folks,
this is what you're going to need.
A caulking gun, check.
Some caulk or silicone, check.
A spray bottle with some diluted dish washing liquid, check.
A utility knife, check.
Some scraps of old newspaper, check.
And last but not least,
my secret weapon, check.
Good day folks,
Uncle Knackers here
with a dodgy knee keeping me out of the workshop this week,
I thought it would be a great idea
to do a few simple jobs around the house
that don't require much movement,
with one of those jobs being to caulk that gap
between the tiles and the top of the vanity basin.
Now, in today's video,
I'm going to show you how to easily apply caulk or silicone,
no mess, no fuss,
just like a pro in a few simple steps,
let's get cracking.
Now, before you rush off and purchase your caulking,
you need to know that it basically comes
in three different varieties.
You have your latex based caulking,
you have your silicone based caulking,
and you have your butyl rubber based caulking.
Now, keeping it nice and simple,
a latex based caulking is good for dry areas
and is used for things like gapping around baseboards,
skirting boards, architraves and things like that.
Now, a silicone based caulking
is used for wet areas such as inside showers,
on tops of vanities,
like we're doing today,
kitchen countertops and things like that.
And the butyl rubber based caulking,
that's mainly used for exterior type applications
where you're dealing with a lot of expansion
and contraction type issues.
And just very quickly,
if you wanna see more videos just like this one,
do yourself a favour and hit that subscribe
and notification button down below, good stuff.
Okay, we're now ready to caulk that gap
between the tiles and the top of the vanity basin.
Now, because this is a wet area,
I'm using a silicone based caulk.
Now, the first we need to do,
and I know it sounds obvious,
is we need to cut the top off our silicone tube.
And to do that,
just use your utility knife to cut the end off.
Watch your thumb,
just like that.
Now, the next thing we need to do
is to cut the end of the nozzle with the utility knife
on roughly a 45 degree angle.
Now, most nozzles come with these pre-designated lines,
so all you need to do is to follow one of them,
and you're good to go.
Now, a good tip is cut the nozzle closer to the tip
for a narrower caulking bead
or further down toward the tube for a wider caulking bead.
Speaking of caulking,
just very quickly did I mention
that a couple nights ago,
I watched a really good movie about a guy on death row
who in a previous life was a professional caulker.
Yeah, true story,
I think it was called "Dead Man Caulking,"
or something like that (laughs),
good movie, should watch it.
Alrighty, I'll see myself out, okay.
Now, to apply the caulk or the silicone,
take your time.
There's no mad rush and there's no trophy
for coming home first.
Now, what you need to do
is to place the flat part of the nozzle on the joint
and then hold the gun,
the caulking gun,
at roughly 45 degrees.
Now, some people when they're applying caulk or silicone
like to pull the caulking gun along,
which is what I'm doing here,
whereas others like to push the caulking gun,
which actually forces the caulk right into that joint.
Now, I think there's arguments for both methods,
but for today's demonstration,
I'll be pulling the caulking gun.
Okay, let's do this.
Gently squeeze the trigger
and start pulling that caulking gun along,
making sure that we get constant contact
between the tile and the vanity top.
Remember, take your time,
there's no mad rush and we don't want any gaps.
(upbeat music)
Beautiful, now, to smooth and profile that caulking bead,
you can actually go out
and buy a caulking smoother outer tool thingy
like one of these gizmos here,
which is an actual silicone or caulking profiling tool.
Or you could go old school and use my secret weapon.
So what's this secret weapon I speak of?
Mmm, chocolate Paddle Pop, delicious.
It's the ice cream stick,
and this is what I'll be using
as my caulking profiling tool,
no fingers required.
So in other words,
don't let your fingers do the caulking (laughs),
that was a joke.
Like the "Yellow Pages" ad
where the fingers do the walking,
just similar, play on words, so yeah.
But in all seriousness,
professional caulkers use these,
so if it's good enough for them,
it's good enough for us.
Now, before I attack this with my profiling stick,
I just wanna give it a light spray
with that diluted dish washing detergent.
And then just simply with your profiling stick,
run that along the bead
and the caulking comes straight off.
Look at that,
that is perfect.
And then you can wipe the excess
on these scrap pieces of paper.
How good is that?
Now, I reckon that little ripper deserves a,
"Great tip, Knackers."
Okay, if you wanna see more videos
like the one you just watched,
make sure you click on one of my playlists
that'll be popping up over there very shortly.
Alrighty, after all that,
I think I need a cup of tea,
so till next time,
be good, be safe and I'm out of here, cheers.
Now, today's bonus tip is if you wanna save that nozzle
for a future use down the track,
grab yourself an old glove,
a rubber glove,
cut one of the fingers off, won't hurt,
and then just simply place this over the end of the nozzle
just like that
and then wrap a band or an elastic band
a few times around it just like that,
and then pump it full of silicone
so that expels all the air just like that.
It all blows up a little bit,
keep that safely stored away
and that should be good for a couple of months, great tip.