Caulking Wood Siding Before Painting

A common mistake is to cut off too much of the caulk tube tip leaving a hole that s way too big for most interior caulking work.

Caulking wood siding before painting.

Let the caulk cure for a few days before power washing the exterior. Is the old caulking removed before new coats are applied. Work efficiently by following each step. Before beginning a do it yourself painting project learn the proper preparation procedures or you may end up making the job harder than necessary.

Some specialty caulks may need a primer before paint is applied but most caulking is paintable. A diyer or a novice painter might attempt to achieve a cleaner look by caulking the siding nails but the nail is guaranteed to push the caulking material out within a few months. Similar to paint previous coats of. The nails holding up the siding should not be caulked.

The tiny hole lets out just enough caulk to fill typical small to medium size cracks. The places on the exterior of the house that need careful caulking before painting would be the fascia board joints of the overhang. The different kinds of caulking for your home. When you re filling small cracks to prepare for painting cut the tip carefully to keep the hole tiny about 1 16 in.

Though you can prime before or after caulking under normal circumstances priming first yields better results. If doing so exposes bare wood recaulk all cracks between any two nonmoving materials. There are several different types of caulking on the market. Don t caulk the horizontal joints on siding where the siding courses overlap.

Also any butt joints and joints at the peak of diagonal fascia boards. Old caulking that has failed and allowed water to migrate behind the siding can cause wood rot decay and if left undetected mold will most likely grow in your walls. Scrape away any peeling paint adjacent to the caulked areas. This can cost hundreds to thousands of dollars to eradicate.

The next place would be the soffits or the plywood underneath.