How to chalk
Hello everyone:
When I was a single-again, I needed to have my bathtub chalked. The old stuff was old enough to be peeling and my 2-year-old son loved to splash bathwater. I didn’t want to baptize the kitchen of my condo, which was directly below my bathroom, so it became necessary to chalk. Sadly, I hired a teen-aged boy to do it and he really messed it up. By the time he was finished, the chalk looked like whipped cream on my bathtub joints. Either learn how to do it yourself or hire a professional.
You might ask: what is caulk for? Well, it serves a couple of purposes, one of which is to seal up your house so that unwanted critters can’t get in. Bugs and the like can get into your house using the smallest of openings. It also serves to keep water where it should be- in the bathtub and not on the ceiling of the floor beneath the bathroom.
By sealing things up, you can prevent critters from entering and increasing in number inside your residence. It also covers up a multitude of poor joints, hiding the fact that those two pieces of wood along the baseboards did not align exactly as they should have. Caulk makes a nicer-looking finish, as well as helping water stay in the bathroom where it belongs.
Do not try to cut corners with the type of caulk you buy. Get the DAP, 50-year warranty product. If you get the 5 or 10-year guaranteed caulk, you will need to eventually re-do what you spent hours doing. Pay for the 50-year caulk and you won’t find it cracking and peeling off a few years from now. Follow the instructions on the tube carefully; understand that this is a wet job and it needs to be done carefully.
If you have any chalking stories to share, I would love to hear them.
Best,
Dr. Sheri