Concrete Cat

June 2, 2010

I have learned that my skills in the crafts that I do translate to many other areas of life and maybe other would be interested in learning some of the finer points to some tricks of the trade that I utilize. I hope this can help someone out and make a prospectively messy and frustrating job a breeze.

Popular belief in home renovations will tell you two ways to make the perfect caulking line when working on a corner, be it in a corner of a shower or along some backsplash in a kitchen. the first way is to just use your finger and make sure it is wet, the issue with this is your finger is not uniform and it will be inconsistent. The second way is to take off your joints with masking tape and then use the first technique of using your finger, this helps with inconsistency a bit but takes forever and still is not perfect.

In my line of work all caulked seams need to look perfect and need to be repeatable. So here is how you do it.

1. apply bead of caulking along the joint you wish to seal.

2. Run rounded end of Sharpie over the bead making sure to push hard enough that the tip is making contact with both the vertical and horizontal surface. You should end up with three caulking racing stripes. (corners are a bit tricky may need to go over a couple of times)

3. Let caulking dry and then remove outside strips of it, should peel right off but you can help it along with a razor blade. Remove excess residue with rubbing alcohol or mineral spirits bu be careful not to rub out your good caulking line.

Using this method you can do different radii of caulking bead by using different sized instruments, just make sure they are round so they can be used at any angle.

Hope this helps. And remember for all your concrete design needs in the Edmonton Alberta area be it furniture, fireplaces, or contertops Concrete Cat is there for you.