Monday, May 18, 2015

Caulk Is a Cost-saving Ally Around the Home

When it comes to protecting and maintaining your home, there are few products that offer as many benefits as top quality caulks and sealants. What’s more, these multipurpose materials cost very little, yet they can help you save a ton of money.

Here are just some of the ways these budget-friendly materials can make life better for you, your family, and your bank account:

Improving your insulation. Caulks can be used to seal cracks, gaps and holes in the exterior of your home to prevent the loss of costly heat and air conditioning. At the same time, they can help eliminate drafts and air infiltration from outside the home. The result? Careful application of caulk can make your home more comfortable to live in, and less expensive to heat and cool.

Protecting against exterior moisture damage. Rain, snow, even dew, can damage masonry surfaces, cause wood to rot, and accelerate paint failure if there are even small gaps and openings in your home exterior. But you can easily prevent these problems with caulk. Applying a top quality siliconized acrylic caulk to gaps and open joints in exterior wall surfaces will seal out moisture and help to head off potentially costly repairs.

Protecting against interior moisture damage. In the same way, you can apply caulk around sinks, bathtubs, countertops, tile, and many other areas in your kitchen and bathrooms to protect against moisture damage inside your home. Siliconized acrylic or silicone caulk will create a watertight seal in any wet area; as a bonus, siliconized acrylic caulks have excellent resistance to mildew growth.

Finishing interior walls. You can save time, money, and effort by using water-based acrylic caulk – rather than drywall compound or spackling — to fill seams between drywall panels. Unlike those other products, acrylic caulk doesn’t have to dry completely before painting; nor does it have to be sanded after it dries.

Filling gaps in woodwork. There’s a good reason caulk is often called “the carpenter’s best friend”: By sealing mitered joints, seams, and gaps between molding and walls, you can greatly enhance the appearance of wood trim and wainscoting with caulk. Save the carpenter’s labor charges, and bring on the caulk!

Glazing. Quality caulk can even be used in place of glazing compound to seal glass panes to frames in windows, doors, skylights, and light fixtures.

A tube of the highest quality caulk costs about the same as an inexpensive movie rental, but it has the potential to save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars in unnecessary energy expenses and home repairs. And because top quality caulk is so versatile, it can be used in place of many other types of sealants, saving even more money.

To get the best performance when applying caulk to the exterior or interior of your home, make sure that you use a top quality product. For most applications, top quality water-based acrylic or siliconized acrylic caulk works best. But it’s always wise to check the label on the caulk tube to make sure it’s intended for the job you have in mind.