OT - Caulking Interior Painted Trim

[Jerry Solomon]

I'd like to hear from some of the experienced painters out there on ways to fill gaps in painted interior trim (baseboards, show molding, crown molding, door casing etc.) using caulk. I use the basic concept of a wet finger and damp rags but sometimes am not thrilled with the results. When you want the bead to be flat it turns out concave due to the roundness of my fingertip. Are there tools or other techniques that will give better results?

[Jason Roehl]

If there are large gaps between the trim and the wall, it may take two to three "coats" of caulk to bring the caulk up to where it's basically even with the edge of the trim. Elsewhere, if the caulk oozes around your finger, leaving a line on either side of where you ran your smoothing finger, or if you end up with a huge glob on your finger, you're putting on too much. If you have a lot of gaps and cracks, then you need to use a little more. Ideally, after running a bead on a 15' run of baseboard for example, you would only have a 1/8" dab of caulk on your finger. For the wet finger, I just keep a wet, but not dripping, rag handy to wipe my finger off on. Then I rinse it out after a couple of rooms. No matter how you slice it, it's messy, but greatly improves the look of painted trim.

Jason
Self-employed Painter who has run MILES of caulk

P.S. Cut the tip of the tube at a 45, but use the gun closer to perpendicular, so that the caulk is forced into the gap, then use a light touch with your finger to smooth, and not do the forcing.

[Jerry Solomon]

Jason - Thanks for the tip. I've heard of guys who can "cover up" pretty bad errors in cutting and fitting trim using caulk. Things like cutting a door casing 1/2" too short and filling the gap with caulk and making it essentially invisible. Guess I just need more pracice. Regards - Jerry

[Jason Roehl]

While I could certainly cover an error like that, I wouldn't let it go without pointing it out to the carpenter (or project manager--"see what we have to fix?"). On jobs like that, we can often be heard saying sarcastically, "Awww, the Painters can fix that!"

I won't even go into pneumatic nails that aren't set............

Jason

[Jim Izat]

They're building many, many houses in my subdivision and I regularly walk through as many as I can to learn as much as possible before they finish up. One thing I have noticed is that the trim carpenters (a term used loosely it seems) routinely seem to cut and fit with later caulking in mind. It's a good thing the fellas that do the caulking are as good as they are or the trim guys might have to spend more than a day doing a house!

Jim Izat

[Perry Schmidt]

I always wondered if that was a 'Texas' thing.

I go through 1/2 finished houses all the time - just enjoy it. And they basically leave 1/16" to 1/8" gap between all their trim joints on baseboards and crown molding. All are filled w/ caulk later. I find it really frustrating b/c I don't think it looks as nice. It seems lately that the 'finish caulkers' are getting more sloppy and you can easily see the joints more and more after a coat of paint. And corners are terrible.

I'm sure it's just the 'time to do the job right'. I've seen some excellent work. But most of it is really shotty in my opinion. I just don't understand why it's not done right. Very frustrating when looking for a house. It's to the point where you almost HAVE to go w/ a custom builder or you aren't going to get quality work now-a-days. And that's significantly more $$$...

Perry

[Dr. Zack Jennings]

ICE Cubes?

You may be curious 'bout what ice cubes have to add to this discussion but I saw this on TV.

I have tried this with F26 construction adhesive in a stacked rock pier and with some sort of caulk around a window. I don't know what all caulks it will work with. In my very limited experience:

An ice cube will smooth a seam nicely and do a better job than a wet finger.

[markus shaffer]

at least in your neck of the woods, painters come in and fix shoddy work with caulk. you should see the work done here in new york. we moved in to a brand new building about 3 years ago and the finish work there was attrocious. luckily the building had a 1 year warranty with the contractor. so when our floorboards started coming up a couple months after we moved in, we were able to have the entire downstairs floor ripped up and replaced. that was something i don't think painters were ever intended to fix. however, the overall finish work of our place left a lot to be desired. all of our neighbors also concur. i did quite a lot of touch up work because it was easier than fighting with the managment company to get them to come in and fix minor things. as miraculous as some painters are at correcting the mistakes of the workers who came in before them, i also feel there is a lower level of quality and craftmanship in trim carpentry these days. admittedly, i'm probably biased though as the housing market here is so tight that the mentality is to just half-ass every job and get it done as quickly as possible so that people can move in.

-markus