35 year Glazier (caulker) here. IMO, start with a good gun. What's that? ANY gun that is NOT a ratchet-type gun (unless you're a weekend warrior and caulk twice a year). Then look for the pump ratio- that is how far the rod advances with each squeeze of the handle (trust me, when you're caulking 8 hrs a day, 6 days a week, and pumping that gun thousands of times, it matters). Then the next (most?) important thing is when a tube of caulking is in it, and you pump some caulking out and then hit the release tab (at the rear of the gun, that releases the force on the rod/push), the caulking should immediately stop flowing ( when you caulk for awhile and get used to it, when you hit that release tab, you'll (hopefully) get into the habit of immediately pulling the rod back a bit, at the same time). Get THAT gun (not all guns do, even so-called "dripless"). Cox and Albion are the top brands. Top-end Workforce are good too. Now, when I first got into my trade, an old Glazier (who taught me how to caulk) told me that caulking goes to ONE place and one place ONLY- into that joint/void. NOwhere else. If you see people who profess to be caulkers and they have caulking all over their clothes, RUN away.! I've been on caulking jobs, where we caulked the entire job- a 5 story or 10 story business building or school or hospital or whatever and would have to do most of the caulking in man lifts. I've seen guys who would have caulking all over themselves, all over their tools, and all over the basket of that man lift, I kid you not. The best way to avoid that is to develop good habits from the very beginning. As the man says, have PLENTY of paper towels ( and have them accessible- run a wire through the roll of paper towels and then secure it to your belt) but I'll add, have a garbage bag also and have it accessible (secure it to your ladder or whatever, close by) and then USE it. Do NOT throw the dirty paper towels on the floor. Also, have some kind of solvent cleaner (denatured alcohol) and rags. If any caulking gets anywhere other than the void you're caulking, the sooner you clean it up the better. MOST of the time a paper towel will do it. IF not, that's what the alcohol and rags are for. Get into the habit of having a paper towel (or two) for the tip and any time you're not caulking the joint, put that paper towel to the tip. So you're caulking with the gun and a paper towel in your hands. If you set the gun down, have the paper towel on the tip. If you hang it on a ladder to rail or something, MAKE SURE it"s not dripping first. OK, so the next important thing is the tip of the caulking tube. They say to cut the tip at a 45dregree angle (I"ll explain that in a minute), but I'll add, cut it to match the void- if you have a 1/8" void, cut the tip to 1/8" wide. If it's 1/4" cut it 1/4'", etc. OK the tube is only 1/2' wide, so how to caulk a 3/4" void or a 1" void or a 1 1/2" void.? Well, that's why you cut it at a 45-degree angle. In fact, you can cut it steeper to get to wider joints. You simply turn the tip sideways and voila! There's a whole lot more to know (how to pass a commercial "pull test", the rules of caulking joints, how to pass a commercial "water test", how to find and fix leaks, how to avoid bubbles and fails, caulking in different temps and humidities, prepping a joint, taping and tooling, tricks of the trade and tips, etc) but these are the basics. The main thing is to have the frame of mind that the caulking goes ONLY in ONE place- the joint. Be prepared, have everything you need (to stay clean). Take your time- once that caulking comes out of the tube, you can't put it back. Take pride in your work, but know this: there comes a point where you need to STOP and let it go. The more you mess with it, the worse it gets. That's when. If you don't like it, cut it out and do it over. Once you walk away, that is YOU and your reputation.
WOW WOW thanks for sharing. this is some really good information from an expert. Your instructions are really good and to the point. You could make a really good UA-cam Video and I bet it would be really helpful. I am just a weekend warrior, so thanks for sharing your years of experience to help others. Thanks !!!!!! I will pin this comment to the top so people will see this first.
You definitely need a channel - CleanCaulking101 As a DIYer who does it maybe once a year, I’ve managed to make it look really good, but my God, i dread doing it. I’ll go though an entire jumbo roll of paper towels, a large foam sponge with caulk everywhere, paper towels will fall on the ground, I’ll accidentally step on it, I’ll itch my face and smear it all over, I’ll set it down to smooth it down and forget to cover the tip and it’s gets in the floor… and then when I’m done with the beating of doing the job, then I spend even more time cleaning the disaster I’ve made… They need to make throw away clothes on Caulk Day….because when I’m done, I litterally want to just throw everything in the trash 😂
Before buying any caulk gun be sure the penetrating tool on the bottom is actually long enough to reach through the nozzle of a caulk tube . I bought a no-drip caulk gun that was not.
Apparently, even with no-drip caulk guns, if the caulk has poor quality control when manufacturing and gets air bubbles, they still drip…. I guess the key is getting rid of the air bubbles or buy “higher quality” caulk that has better quality control…. What’s funny is I need to do some yearly caulking and was looking at upgrading my gun… I didn’t even realize I had already bought the yellow “no drip”, but last time out, I was covered head to toe in caulk lol…. Which is how i found out about the air bubbles being the issue
35 year Glazier (caulker) here. IMO, start with a good gun. What's that? ANY gun that is NOT a ratchet-type gun (unless you're a weekend warrior and caulk twice a year). Then look for the pump ratio- that is how far the rod advances with each squeeze of the handle (trust me, when you're caulking 8 hrs a day, 6 days a week, and pumping that gun thousands of times, it matters). Then the next (most?) important thing is when a tube of caulking is in it, and you pump some caulking out and then hit the release tab (at the rear of the gun, that releases the force on the rod/push), the caulking should immediately stop flowing ( when you caulk for awhile and get used to it, when you hit that release tab, you'll (hopefully) get into the habit of immediately pulling the rod back a bit, at the same time). Get THAT gun (not all guns do, even so-called "dripless"). Cox and Albion are the top brands. Top-end Workforce are good too.
Now, when I first got into my trade, an old Glazier (who taught me how to caulk) told me that caulking goes to ONE place and one place ONLY- into that joint/void. NOwhere else. If you see people who profess to be caulkers and they have caulking all over their clothes, RUN away.! I've been on caulking jobs, where we caulked the entire job- a 5 story or 10 story business building or school or hospital or whatever and would have to do most of the caulking in man lifts. I've seen guys who would have caulking all over themselves, all over their tools, and all over the basket of that man lift, I kid you not. The best way to avoid that is to develop good habits from the very beginning.
As the man says, have PLENTY of paper towels ( and have them accessible- run a wire through the roll of paper towels and then secure it to your belt) but I'll add, have a garbage bag also and have it accessible (secure it to your ladder or whatever, close by) and then USE it. Do NOT throw the dirty paper towels on the floor. Also, have some kind of solvent cleaner (denatured alcohol) and rags. If any caulking gets anywhere other than the void you're caulking, the sooner you clean it up the better. MOST of the time a paper towel will do it. IF not, that's what the alcohol and rags are for. Get into the habit of having a paper towel (or two) for the tip and any time you're not caulking the joint, put that paper towel to the tip. So you're caulking with the gun and a paper towel in your hands. If you set the gun down, have the paper towel on the tip. If you hang it on a ladder to rail or something, MAKE SURE it"s not dripping first.
OK, so the next important thing is the tip of the caulking tube. They say to cut the tip at a 45dregree angle (I"ll explain that in a minute), but I'll add, cut it to match the void- if you have a 1/8" void, cut the tip to 1/8" wide. If it's 1/4" cut it 1/4'", etc. OK the tube is only 1/2' wide, so how to caulk a 3/4" void or a 1" void or a 1 1/2" void.? Well, that's why you cut it at a 45-degree angle. In fact, you can cut it steeper to get to wider joints. You simply turn the tip sideways and voila!
There's a whole lot more to know (how to pass a commercial "pull test", the rules of caulking joints, how to pass a commercial "water test", how to find and fix leaks, how to avoid bubbles and fails, caulking in different temps and humidities, prepping a joint, taping and tooling, tricks of the trade and tips, etc) but these are the basics. The main thing is to have the frame of mind that the caulking goes ONLY in ONE place- the joint. Be prepared, have everything you need (to stay clean). Take your time- once that caulking comes out of the tube, you can't put it back. Take pride in your work, but know this: there comes a point where you need to STOP and let it go. The more you mess with it, the worse it gets. That's when. If you don't like it, cut it out and do it over. Once you walk away, that is YOU and your reputation.
WOW WOW thanks for sharing. this is some really good information from an expert. Your instructions are really good and to the point. You could make a really good UA-cam Video and I bet it would be really helpful. I am just a weekend warrior, so thanks for sharing your years of experience to help others. Thanks !!!!!! I will pin this comment to the top so people will see this first.
You definitely need a channel - CleanCaulking101
As a DIYer who does it maybe once a year, I’ve managed to make it look really good, but my God, i dread doing it. I’ll go though an entire jumbo roll of paper towels, a large foam sponge with caulk everywhere, paper towels will fall on the ground, I’ll accidentally step on it, I’ll itch my face and smear it all over, I’ll set it down to smooth it down and forget to cover the tip and it’s gets in the floor… and then when I’m done with the beating of doing the job, then I spend even more time cleaning the disaster I’ve made… They need to make throw away clothes on Caulk Day….because when I’m done, I litterally want to just throw everything in the trash 😂
Dripless ETS3000 all the way!
Before buying any caulk gun be sure the penetrating tool on the bottom is actually long enough to reach through the nozzle of a caulk tube . I bought a no-drip caulk gun that was not.
"This gun just seems bigger" - while holding a gun that's VISIBLY significantly larger....
yeah, thanks for watching!!
What is your favorite Caulk gun?
You never demonstrated how the all yellow dripless ones do not drip! Why show one but not the others?
sorry about that, they all do about the same dripless function. Which means they do just an ok job at dripless.
Apparently, even with no-drip caulk guns, if the caulk has poor quality control when manufacturing and gets air bubbles, they still drip…. I guess the key is getting rid of the air bubbles or buy “higher quality” caulk that has better quality control…. What’s funny is I need to do some yearly caulking and was looking at upgrading my gun… I didn’t even realize I had already bought the yellow “no drip”, but last time out, I was covered head to toe in caulk lol…. Which is how i found out about the air bubbles being the issue