Caulking Siding Before Painting

Caulk has to cure before it becomes waterproof.

Caulking siding before painting. Acrylic and silicone are the types of caulk you re most likely to use on windows siding and outdoor trim because they are waterproof and flexible. Caulk is a substance designed to seal a joint between two surfaces and to fill small holes. Latex caulk is great for indoor projects it expands easily with temperature change can be painted comes in colors and easily cleans up with water. With caulk on the paint you ll have to remove the caulk only and replace it with a new one when necessary.

The next place would be the soffits or the plywood underneath. Caulking first under normal circumstances you can apply caulk before priming. Hardie plank butt joints and corner trim areas should be caulked to seal up any exposed joints. Caulking them is a mistake and the caulking is likely to fail prematurely.

Choose the right caulk for the job. The places on the exterior of the house that need careful caulking before painting would be the fascia board joints of the overhang. Caulk adheres very well to clean bare wood and vinyl. The tiny hole lets out just enough caulk to fill typical small to medium size cracks.

Also any butt joints and joints at the peak of diagonal fascia boards. The time to caulk is after you have cleaned and repaired any damage to the walls and millwork. Unfortunately it will not stick well to stained surfaces. Particularly at the corners where they are mitered together.

So it is good to do the painting first and then caulking to ease future maintenance works. John burbidge author of the book watching paint dry shows how to properly caulk windows doors and cornerboards on the exterior of a house prior to pain. A common mistake is to cut off too much of the caulk tube tip leaving a hole that s way too big for most interior caulking work. Because you ve to remove paint first before the caulk.

Be sure to work with a reputable and professional painting company in your area to complete this project. However if you re working on certain surfaces the caulk will not stick without a primer base coat. Bottom of siding boards should not be caulked water is meant to exit through the bottom of each board. When you re filling small cracks to prepare for painting cut the tip carefully to keep the hole tiny about 1 16 in.

Filling cracks and holes with caulk in your home s trim and siding before painting not only makes the paint job look better but also makes the paint last longer. When you take special care with caulking siding before painting you can count on your exterior paint job lasting longer. With the benefits there are some drawbacks of this method as well.