O
15

That time I thought caulk was just caulk and bought the cheapest tube

I grabbed a $2 tube of silicone caulk from the discount bin last spring to seal around my kitchen window in Austin, and by September it was already cracking and peeling off. Turns out there's a big difference between basic silicone and the paintable acrylic stuff for interior use, and now I'm scraping old caulk for hours. Anyone else learned this the hard way or was it just me being too cheap?
3 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In
3 Comments
simonp47
simonp471mo ago
Wound up with a tube of that cheap stuff myself and my bathroom looked like a peeling sunburn by winter. Realized too late that not all caulk is the same when your wife asks why the grout looks like it's molting. Now I'm the guy at the hardware store reading labels like I'm studying for a test. Lesson learned you pay for what you get with sealant.
7
piperb93
piperb931mo ago
Nah, cheap caulk works fine if you know what you're doing.
3
margaret304
Caulk lessons are just part of growing up I guess, right? My first tub of the cheap stuff ended up looking like a sad melted cheese sculpture in my shower. Now I'm the weirdo sniffing different tubes at the hardware store hoping nobody asks what I'm doing.
1