Prince George Painters Caulking Tips - <body> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Quality painting is all about prep work.</span> Don't rush your prep work and great results come together in the end. <br> <br> Caulking and how you fill and seal nail holes and gaps, and... (VERY IMPORTANT) cl

Quality painting is all about prep work. Don't rush your prep work and great results come together in the end.

Caulking and how you fill and seal nail holes and gaps, and... (VERY IMPORTANT) clean the gaps (wipe excess caulk) between your trim and walls, cabinets etc... is a big part of why our work and paint lines looks so extra nice. It takes the same amount of time just to caulk new trim as it does to poorly caulk and paint a house so do it right the first time. If you are building a new home, make sure you remember to ask your contractor who will do this for you and if they actually do it good enough so your caulking doesn't open up after a year. That caulking serious, expect a second rate job if you arean't on top of that.
Good caulking makes trim look excellent. Bad caulking makes trim look cheap and poorly cut (real messy). The idea is to fill in the gaps so the bevel or mider edges look tight, make sure the gaps don't re-open 2 months later yes... and don't make a mess while caulking. This stuff dries fast so you literally only have seconds to run a "smooth bead", push it in ( shape it if necessary), wipe clean (Tip: prime before caulking, caulk short runs at a time... (one side of a window or door frame at a time). Also... Finish coats goes on after the caulking... Why? so the caulking is usually not visable and we want it to be smooth. Nice white trim looks like crap if the caulking was applied "after the trim was painted". Caulking holds dust and dirt. This means all the unpainted caulking will hold dust and wet cloths that wipe those areas!!! New homes are full of air born dust so take this serious! Your eyes are constantly seeing the top edges of baseboards and window ledges.

Bad Caulking Results... New wall colour, dirty caulk lines, nice white trim. The obvious evidence shows up months later.

Caulking and painting trim in new homes is a long and meticulous step of great importance. Caulking is usually done by the painter after priming, however, it is my opinion most caulking I see has been done very poorly. I blame this disservice on lack of knowledge from both painters and the "General Contractors" weak budget set out for quality finishing of new homes. Demanding chalky paint and bad caulking is normal practice in new home construction.

Bad caulking usually ends up ruining the possibility to paint my expected lines around all the casings, cabinets, crowns and baseboards forever. Bad caulking opens up in time leaving random gaps and hard-to-paint sloppy ridges. Most painters slap-it-on so fast not realizing how to plan ahead. Good caulking takes time, it adds to the cost but its very important if you want quality trim work to look high end.

Caulking Tips:

never caulk the nail holes!
use highest quality paintable acrylic caulk
cut your tip accordingly for the gaps being filled
immediately after applying, ... push caulking into the gap with a your finger "running both directions" and wipe with clean damp cloth to remove all edges and excess caulking. (Remember... to keep a tiny groove so your paint will have a line (groove) to follow when the painting starts after). Uneven , sloppy caulking is a nightmare to paint clean lines after the fact. Most people have no idea how planned grooves can help you later on!