Are silicone sealants the best answer to caulk performance needs?

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As a contractor, it can be difficult to find a balance between performance and productivity. Water-based sealants are very easy to use on siding and other exterior surfaces – but can they provide the quality you’re looking for? The answer is yes, but you’ll need to find the best exterior caulk for the job.

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What’s the fuss about caulk guns?

Many of us don’t give caulk guns much thought. Typically, they’re the inexpensive throw-away tools tossed in the toolbox at the beginning of a job.

Those guns quickly turn into clumsy, uncomfortable tools that don’t put caulk exactly where you want it. They break often and require frequent replacement, which means they cost you more money in the long run.

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We devote a lot of time sharing what to do to make your business more successful. This month, we’re sharing four things smart business owners should avoid doing!

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It seems insignificant, but some sort of bond breaker — backer rod or grip strip or clear packing tape — is the difference between a long-lasting, durable caulking and chinking job and redoing the work year after year. That bond breaker creates the ideal joint design to keep your caulking and chinking stretching properly over time.

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Backer Rod, Grip Strip, and Log Gap Cap all help you create the ideal joint design for a long-lasting, durable seal. Follow these simple steps or learn more, https://www.youtube.com/c/Sashco.

Step 1: Tape off the areas to be sealed.

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Keeping your log home beautiful and protected is a big deal. You’ve invested too much to skimp when it comes to stain maintenance. Consistent maintenance inspections and routine reapplication of stain or clear coats where needed, when needed, are the key to keeping your dream log home, well, dreamy.

That said, how many times have you thought, “I should really get this project done around the house,” and then put it off another year?

We won’t require you to answer (because then we’d have to admit the same thing ourselves…eek!)

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Outdoor hand rails and spindles, especially those not protected by overhangs, require specialized and more frequent care because of their extreme exposure to weather. A few easy tips are all it take to to prevent rot on log railings.

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So, you did a stellar job of sealing cracks and checks in your log home. Hooray! Now, a couple of years later, you’re noticing that some of the caulk has cracked. After all that hard work? Ugh. So, what do you need to do to fix cracked caulk? Keep reading for all the details.

Why does caulk crack anyhow?

On most log homes, a handful of those logs will undergo extreme movement. This movement is a part of what makes a log a log. Moderate movement is normal, but the occasional maverick log can randomly and unpredictably twist, shrink or warp in response to moisture changes (like the first time the heat is turned on that winter), moving more than any sealant can possibly handle. When this extreme movement occurs, it will cause the sealant to fail either cohesively or adhesively. Here’s how to do repairs.

Cohesive failure

This is where the sealant splits apart down the middle of the joint. There’s still caulk sticking to the sides of the joint. Repairing cohesive failure is pretty simple:

Relieve the pressure by taking a razor blade to finish the job. (Sounds silly, but this is necessary for the repair to work properly.)
Insert backer rd behind the caulk, if there isn’t some there already.
Clean the surfaces to remove dust and other surface contaminants.
Apply more sealant right over top. You can only do this if the product you’re using is compatible with whatever’s already in there. With Sashco’s products, this is no problem. If you used silicone, you’ll have to remove it all. Boo.(Moral of the story: don’t use silicone on log homes.

Adhesive failure

This is when the sealant pulls away from the edge of the logs. In this case, a bit more investigation is necessary. Adhesive failure can be either due to movement or because of an incompatibility between the stain or clear coat used on the logs and the caulking. If it’s only due to movement, here’s the fix:

Remove the sealant completely. You’ll have to cut it out entirely.
Insert backer rod or another bond breaker behind the caulk or chinking, if one is not already there.
Clean the joint, especially at the edges where the new product will be sticking. Make sure there are no loose wood fibers or peeling stains or paints. It may mean you need to break out the sand paper or Dremel® tool. (Power tools. Argh.)
Apply more caulking or chinking over top. Smooth it out, just like before.

If the failure is due to an incompatibility between the stain/clear coat on the wood, you’ll have to do some more extensive work to get the new caulking or chinking to stick: