Exterior Painting Step 3: Caulking the House 

Good luck with your paint job! Remember not to scrape TOO hard at the caulk, i.e. don't do damage to the siding or trim when digging it out. If it's still adhering and can't be scraped out, you can still do a thin layer of caulk on top of the old caulk and smear it in with your finger to smooth it, just to help seal up the old caulk and fill any small fissures.

That depends on the house , I restore 1700's and 1800's homes . Some of the gaps underneath the clapboards can be up to 1/4 to 3/8 wide due to the previous 8 hack painters who never re-nailed the siding to tighten it up so instead kept adding paint to the gap making it impossible to re-nail tightly . I typically re-nail and caulk all these old homes tight otherwise they look like shit . Leaving these large gaps allows insects and exposure from weather to enter the home , In NH a 1/4 gap allows a ton of cold air into a home as well . I've been doing this for 25 years and have revisited previous work that I've completed over a decade ago with no issues . Alo the caulking that this painter is using is 100% garbage , it's the cheapest crap you can buy which is typical of most painters that will buy a $60 gallon of paint but use $1.99 caulk .

@@manchesterexplorer8519 I'm about to address this on my own home. What caulk would you recommend?

@@stefan8491 Dap Dynaflex 230 or better . I also recommend renailing any loose trim and clapboards prior to caulking as no matter what type of caulk you use is pointless if the boards are loose . This guy re-nailed nothing as all those large gap's that he caulked will come right back in no time .

TheWarrior831 Sorry, I haven't tried those. I think using a wet finger is going to give the most control, but it does tend to tear up the skin and make it sensitive after a while, at least until a callous forms. Tight latex gloves might help, although they will get torn pretty easily. If you don't like abusing your fingertip(s), by all means try one of those tools, who knows it might help.

I was always told not to. It will trap water if you do.

It's any home

No siding is 100% water tight. The bottom of every siding lap should never be caulked. No caulk allows water to escape with gravity AND ventilates the small area between siding & vapor barrier. With no source of cool dry air even w/ vapor wrap siding will develop mold and/ or rot depending on material. It's like any vent or pipe base, ect. on a roof.. caulk Left, Right, & top edge but never the bottom edge. To allow water that gets under an easy escape back on top of the shingle course below. Install specs for Hardie, LP, any vinyl- all state not to caulk under bottom edge of laps and explain why. As for issue you mentioned additional sections of VB (beyond what's against sheathing) or thin metal behind each lap extending slightly over top of the lap below (but not visible) would suffice at shedding water away from exterior wall at bottom of course it likely entered at, while protecting against insects. As well as mesh below starter strip behind bottom of lowest lap, that combination allows increased cool dry air to enter, while keeping insects out. Starter strip, prevents bottom of lowest lap from being flush w wall- which looks terrible as lap would have different profile than every lap above and would prevent any water from escaping.. why often times lowest lap of masonite or wood siding looks far worse than anything above even when sufficiently above the ground.

After

Heidi Gronke I don't usually sand exterior trim unless it is already painted with a shiny/glossy coating--then it will need to be sanded, especially the windows and door jams. But if it's rough wood and a non-glossy surface it shouldn't really need to be sanded.

Those openings allow the house to breathe. Without them, moisture would get trapped behind the boards and cause problems with your siding

So if water gets behind it's not trapped and won't rot out the house

TheBostonFern of course, and this can always be done. But on lap siding on a 2,000 sqft house, that would be a LOT of caulk. Small houses can take 4 or more cases just on trimwork, and just as much just on the trimwork outside

Manuela Baez bro your genius lol

fck i just caulked all my windows and did the bottom...i means its water tight I used PL. or am I screwed?

Thanks. Thats very good information. None of my windows are caulked underneath. Now I know why.

THANK YOU! I thought that was the case, and went reading in the comments to verify that. Funny that he caulked the whole thing. Do you caulk the top? Should I caulk the top of my door?

Same. That stuff cracked every time I used it.

sonny woo Boy, I don't really have a recommendation for that...if I were you I'd go to a paint store (a real paint store) and ask the owner/manager what products they sell for that. Sherwin-Williams used to make a good oil-base exterior filler for siding holes and damaged wood. Not sure if they still do. Maybe check with them.

howtopaintahouse John. Thank you for taking the time to reply. i ordered the epoxy, bondo. Good luck with your writing.

Yes, I think that's video 2

I completely depends on the condition of the paint. For a typical house where maybe 10 or 20 percent of the paint is peeling, I'd say about 8 hours. However, if peeling is more severe than that, it can take several days. Just make sure you've got a radio to listen to!

+doobysnacks Interesting comment...I've had great luck with DAP Alex. I've used it on my own house and never had it crack or dry out.

+howtopaintahouse I've always had great luck with it too. Like the music too. Classy. On a side note OSI Quad is good stuff, but you have to wait a few days before painting it or it will crack. DAP Alex works well enough and you can paint the next day. Great videos

I was told to use lifetime warrantee calk - sure its a gimmick but was told to use the best you can afford. Sherwin Williams has some good stuff for $4 a roll. I got some lifetime at Guries paint store for $2.50.

Jacana Productions y

also caulking gun is important too, use a better one or the right one for the job

I was taught that way too many years ago. I haven't found modern caulk to dry out when applied directly on wood. There is nothing on the tube (DAP brand) about not applying to bare wood. The reason I caulk before priming is because caulk can "shine" through a coat of latex paint, and priming after caulking helps prevent that. This is particularly applicable when caulking new wood trim on an interior job--I don't want caulk shining through the finish coat, so I caulk first, then prime, then paint. Really I think it can be done either way, this is just the way I do it.

Makes sense. I visited a couple forums, and painters of every ilk caulk both ways. Thanks for the response. By the way, I've learn a lot from your videos. Thanks for taking the time and effort.

+jill roeder Very difficult situation. Pressure washing will remove a lot of it if it's flaking really badly. Or sandblasting. The problem is that the paint is not adhering to the coat underneath (probably due to dirt or chalking). Once that situation is created, full removal of the topcoat is the only solution for a true fix.

Thank-you.. I think i'm actually going to try vacuuming it. But yes, I think i have a lot of work to do.

I believe that's because, theoretically, if any water were to get behind the siding, it needs to be able to escape out the bottom. It may also have to do with moisture in the house escaping. I think that's what you'll find if you look-in to it more

😂🤣😂

Mark Varna , I use the Lexel , around the shower doors as recommended.

They get dull and gummed up. I like to use a very sharp plastic razor knife for a clean cut.

Yeah you're right it is a cheap gun but I like those yellow dripless guns...they've always worked well for me. But I'd be curious to try one of those Cox power flows you mention. As far as cutting the tubes... since a razor knife is an essential tool on any paint job anyway, it's easy to cut the tips of the tubes with it. But as always with painting, there are many ways to do it and everybody develops their own methods.