Striking caulk beads

[Shawn Prentice]

What do you do to strike your bead? Do you use a bare finger? Or does someone know of some sort of finger cover that is durable enough to smooth the bead without tearing, but still gives the same precision as a bare finger? I've tried latex type gloves, but they tear as soon as you hit anything rough. I was wondering if the medical finger rubbers work. I am talking about the polyurethane, butyl, etc. caulks, not latex. I am sure that it is not wise to make skin contact with these types of sealants because of the danger of absorbing harmful chemicals. Thanks for any info.

[David Meiland]

Learned a good one from the Laticrete guy... use the back of a plastic spoon.

[Mark Parlee]

David

A metal spoon works even better.

You can press a little harder without breakage hassle.

[David Meiland]

Yeah... can you see my wife beating me after I take a spoon out of the kitchen?

[Mark Parlee]

make sure it is real silver; it sticks less :)

[m beezo]

David to keep your wife from beating you head to a Goodwill or similar type store and get some silverware from there. I have bought several things from there to keep the peace at my house including an electric mixer to mix up small batches of powdered drywall mud, stir up cans of paint that have sat around for a while. Much better than asking the wife to make me some brownies with the same mixer I used for mixing up my paint.

[David Meiland]

I came up with a better idea, maybe just grab a spoon from the homeowner's kitchen??

[J.Buesking]

I recently learned how to caulk or seal whichever your prefer.

I found that my finger works the best.

I've gotten great at laying the bead now so it takes very little work afterwards. A little soapy water or spit works wonders also.

I've heard the soap water is a bad idea but I seen the guys that do nothing but caulk use it on several different jobs.

[denboy1]

Small joints with water based or silicone stuff - finger

Larger joints and joints with solvent stuff - metal kitchen spatulas

[bkerley]

Most of the time I lay a bead that looks good as is. For those times when I need to follow a profile or don't want to see a bead, I use a putty knife.

[Mark Parlee]

J

We do a lot of things that work to make our job easier on the front end; soap and water is one of those.
The case can be made against that for the reason that if you are using a moisture cure sealant,it may cure out in a manner that makes the sealant less than adequate in its cohesive bonding properties.That is when it lets go of itself and cracks apart, usually in the middle of the bead not at the edges where it is bonding to the material being sealed; letting go at that point is an adhesive failure.
Not trying to tell you anything you already know.

Regarding laying the bead and not touching it This can lead to premature adhesion failure and more than likely will; a lot of jobs specify you must strike or tool the sealant.

Attached are some of the tools designed for tooling sealants.
I also favor my finger but sometimes these do work better.

[J.Buesking]

I've been caulking for what seems like months Mark.

Last week I finally decided to start mixing it. I got a few buckets of np1 and some die packets. New territory for me.

I found a concrete and masonry supply store that really handles all the sealant contractors around here and bought a nice gun and some tools.

[Shawn Prentice]

Thanks for the input. I've always used my finger, but as I said before, there has to be some adverse effects over time from touching some sealants. I use mostly polyurethanes, terpolymers, etc. and rarely use latex or silicone. Maybe the brain damage or whatever is already done and I shouldn't worry about it:) I like my caulk jobs to look professional and to last. I always strike the bead and feather any edges. You won't find any of my lap siding caulk jobs with the glob of sealant many leave in the corner under each lap. I have seen many problems resulting from the caulk bead just gunned on and not struck. Do the spoon/spatula tooling methods feather the edge very well or do you need a finger to do that?

So, having talked about striking the bead and since many seem to use their finger as I do, how then do you clean the sticky sealant off your fingers when your done? Lacquer thinner or acetone are usually what I have in the truck. Those take the caulk right off, but the chemicals can't be good for the skin.

[J.Buesking]

If you use soapy water it rarely sticks to your finger.

One of my suppliers sells these citrus rags in a bucket. I prefer to use them.

[Mark Parlee]

I have MEK, Acetone, mineral spirits, and a few others depending on what we are using.
i use only four for the most part;

Dymonic FC http://www.tremcosealants.com/filesh...DS-English.pdf

Flexible Seal http://www0.dealtime.com/-flexible+seal+sealant

#900 Solar Seal http://www.npcsealants.com/900.htm
I credit Josh for this addition to my sealants

There really is a lot to learn to do a good job applying these sealants.
They are forgiving in their application and will work well in a variety of application details even when wrong and most are applied in a not so best practice. I rarely use silicone; the others are much better for what most of us are doing in construction.

If any of you are using silicone you are wrong; big statement, broad brush, but I will be more accurate with saying that than I am inaccurate.
Any moisture cure sealant is susceptible to problems with curing and adhesion if the MC is too high in the products that are being sealed; for example if it just rained you could have problems. These problems probably won't show up real soon but had good practices been used the sealant would have properly performed for a longer life. It gets really technical here and most do not want to get this far into the products they use.
One thing do you apply sealant over sealant? depends on what kind.

This is a teaser for further discussion