How To Silicone a Bath

in this video i'm going to show you how to install

silicone

now this isn't painters caulk this is real

silicone

this is professional grade stinky stuff and if you don't get it right you're going to make an absolute mess so i'm going to show all my tips and tricks to put it up and make it look nice so we are pretty much at the last stage of our project and this is done the tub, shower, tiles, fixtures were all done now it's time to making the caulking this is the last step we need to do to finish up inside the tub frame and there are some tips and tricks i'm going to share with you so please follow me as we go along. through this when i am doing a shower in the tub i always want to have two types of silicone one is clear and the other is my white or the color that matches my stone if i go with the natural brown stones of course. use the page there are grays and there if you go to a good supply store you can get silicone in about 15 different colors Ok so don't be afraid to shop around and make sure you get the look you want when you're done but since we have a glass mosaic i'll start with my clear silicone and we're going to do all the silicone clear areas at the same time and then we'll switch it all up ok so here we go first we remove the tip now my cocking gun has a cutter on the side makes my life simple boom done right and then i also have this little wand that's attached to it it's a little dirty here but it's used because the tube itself is sealed and i have to pierce the seal so i can release the silicone once finished. the handle put it on the crib align it no i cut it a little bit on an angle and purpose because i find it easier for installation one of the things you need when your silicone is you want to have towels around it ok you want to keep your hands clean and keep your area clean as you go now because you poked it with a dirty stem.

I'm just g I'll start by cleaning it and making sure that what comes out of the tube is exactly perfect, no, because it's a glass mosaic. If I use white silicone here over my grout, I'm going to get a really uneven nasty line all over my glass. I'm going to start right here and run a nice little bead up there, okay, and then I'll put my dry finger on it as soon as feel that I am accumulating a lot, I will throw away. all well done that's simple and in this corner just a little bit of pressure now this particular gun when i let go of the handle but i have to put some fun pressure here and that releases the pressure inside the tube so the cocking stops coming and we'll start with dry finger.

The other place I need clear silicone is on my fixing to my tile wall. tile I have too much texture on the wall and too many grout lines interrupting my ion installation so I want to make sure the water running down this wall can't get behind my wall now I don't need to go all the way around but I want to start at the top top with a dry finger of course wipe that on the towel and then come over to the other side here we go yeah next thing i want to make a new towel show you a little trick here wrap your finger in the towel and place it on your plate use the other finger against the plate pinch your finger and then just run it around the plate ok what this does is make sure it cleans the silicone off the chrome nice and sticks to the wall so it has a good look and finish so also we want to do the same thing to our

bath

tub faucet and here we are again we don't need much there isn't really a space here but i hear a lot of people care a lot about this scenario and try They're probably right you know we have a waterproofing system there are holes in the wall and this is the most common point of penetration around the fixtures just a little pressure here you don't want to put that much pressure they clean it all up I need you at same time you also don't want to leave it there ok i'm going to clean that similar system to clean that just this one time well i'm holding the towel i pinch my finger and i stick out the other finger and use it like i'm typing ok, there we go now remember when you are buying your silicone in the store if i go to the builder store they usually have three types ok they have kitchen and

bath

room silicone and then they have mold and mildew resistant kitchen or bathroom and then they have mold and mildew resistant kitchen and bathroom but it's really amazing and it's going to last 20 years.

I've never seen a bathroom that was built 20 years ago and didn't need to be replaced, so I don't spend the extra 5 bucks on something that tells me it's going to last that long. I only get the 10.-year and the caps snap back on yeah don't lose your teeth it's just plastic oh I mean really yeah there's a lot of debate now about silicone in a bathtub. I've seen people say that you shouldn't touch the inside corners. I would like to do the whole grain to seal it all because when I apply silicone I only do one application.

I don't want to have to put so much silicone in there that it's just making a big mess that I don't want to have to caulk and tape the walls so if I grab first I have a backing for the silicone to cling to so whatever I do is make sure you put your shoes on and do this or you'll slip and your socks will start at your inside corner with the toe at an angle like this so when I apply my and I push it in front of me but I don't scratch it on the top from behind I'm going to leave just enough in there I'm filling the hole and really this takes a bit of practice how to get the right amount of pressure if you're not comfortable with this you can always tape it and then c clean it and then you can remove the tape further late but this is the best way to do it right here ok again dry your finger and i'm really just connecting the ceiling to the wall here and that's it I feel like there's too good I'm going to have my rag with me come back you have to go and come back again come back a couple inches and gently into the corner and slowly apply your pressure again okay BAM okay I'm generally working on my top down is ok i want to be able to clean as i go and start in the corner and pull and clean you can see the difference because the cocking is not where the cocking is it's a visual thing very easy to deal with let me get my advice here we go just run it , move the cocking gun a little ahead of the cocking, no, always clean towards where it was, like you were doing drywall mud in the ceiling joints, so what are we doing here now? this side of the wall because the room was not level and square i have a pretty significant gr outside the gap and when you only sell the oven the grout to the ceiling but not the tile you will really see it show it will always scream at you so I did the top joint and now I'm filling in the bottom while the top is still wet blending them in here okay so instead of my finger at an angle like that I'm going straighter now I'm trying to fill this gap with the silicone up to the tile, it's ok, mmm, and you? pretty pleased with that ok next you're going to bring it down from the ceiling inside the corner and we're going to fill that in concave you know there's tiles cut and different joints here I remember we're clear here so don't run into the clearing what you want to do is use your thumb and just push it back and start right at the joint of the tile ok so visually i want my silicone to start where my tile is ok and even then the grout is ok but no i won't knock it down with a glass that will look really cheesy and scream so now i start upwards at the top with my finger press it and run down dry voila of course keep in mind that always you look to see if the tile has been polished properly, that's ok, if there's dust on there, just take a second and get rid of it.

I don't want to bind your hammering to the dust or it'll just end up rubbing off nice so we're done with the silicon on our walls now with the silicon in the tub but before we get there hands on this remember when we were originally working on this project , if you haven't seen this you should watch the other videos we were removing the wall without damaging the ceiling which is difficult because they had drywall tape now we installed our tile and used silicone on the ceiling that ceilings already finished paint if you are in a situation where you have to paint your ceiling you only have two options you can wait to silicone until you are done painting or if you are just trying to touch it up and you have silicone on your ceiling you actually can when this is done. it's dry you can put painter's tape on top to create a border and then you go to the store and buy a can of kills ki ll Z is in the paint department in a spray can and just a couple shots quick that kills the silicone and you can paint latex paint over that and you won't have a problem ok so the last thing we have to do is silicone around the tub all the way to the tile to create that nice clean joint now remember which isn't part of the waterproofing process but it's part of what makes it look nice now if you're not familiar with acrylic tubs and have only used steel then you can go ahead and do it with a steel tub just seal and stay away but if you have an acrylic tub there is one thing you need to do before caulking and that is to put weight in the tub that's ok and the best way to do that is just turn on the water and let it fill halfway so now the reason we have to do this is because this is a very flexible material and even though it has supports and all sorts of spray underneath if i were to demonstrate any other technique for the vast majority of subs that are sold i mean b very disappointed not all tubs have as much support underneath or as much fiberglass reinforced spray underneath so if you go to the hardware store and buy a tub and get a great price it's probably because when you fill it with water it will sink well and it will pull away from the wall a little bit and so if you add the silicone when it's empty when it comes off it'll break the joint and then you'll get all the water and dirt and behind it and even though it's waterproof it will start to get ugly because I'll catch all the colors from the dyes and the shampoos and the dirt and then before you know it a couple of weeks go by and your silicone gasket looks like crap then you have to do it all over again and that's a lot more work than doing it alright the first time Same kind of process we're going to get our gun in the corner and we're not going to add too much like again I've already grounded that joint and I've grown on the joint because I use a tub that's ref luffed and it has feet and I know it won't move it too much so I'm not going to make it break I took my cloth put my finger in the corner and I felt a lot of silicone in there ok there was too much. what i do is push against the back wall and not the bottom and just clean the edge there we go now a lot of this is just experience but a little bit of practice and you can get really good at this and i would suggest if you are going to do a renovation project like this before you rip it all apart, cut away the existing silicone on your tub and ugly tile and then try to seal it again so you have a chance to get some experience with the product that way when you're ready to do your refinish work , you know what type of pressure to use and how comfortable on the table you are on with this type of process now this is incredibly important here you need a good pressure on the silicone because this joint is part of your waterproofing system .

This is not just for being pretty. wall area here no waterproof joint after the silicone between the wall board and the tub there is a nice light bead it leaves a little bit of a dollop on top of course you know the pressure i am using here i want to really feel the tub and the tile with my finger on both sides sway around the corner here we go good clean look good yeah let's go where i'm going I can't stress enough the importance of having clean towels around toilet paper works too but this it's nice and durable ok so now we're ready to do the last joint which of course is the tub to the tile make sure you vacuum clean make sure there's no dirt and the same thing you want just leave that the cord actually consists here. move and a good consi Stent pace with constant pressure and you'll end up with a great result now this is part of the waterproofing system this silicon here will actually prevent water from getting between the tub and the floor tiles so I'm actually trying to force in the gaps here, that's why it takes a little more effort to get it right because I'm actually forcing it in there really tight.

I'm putting it on the side of the tub wall and all over the floor so like I said it's a little different process here ok this time I'm going to put all the pressure on my finger on the floor and not in the tub just to be able to move that line back you can only do this with your drive finger if with wet fingers it will just smear it and make a mess so remember the last thing you will be doing is lookingthe wall tile and the floor tile and think about the water that will potentially come here especially. if you have youngsters having a the tub here also seal this area just a little bead so it's almost negligible ok and there are two things you are doing here one you are getting rid of the little gaps and cracks and your finishing so it always looks nice this is also it's cosmetic but by filling this with silicone you're also waterproofing this joint ok so that's all you need to know to apply your silicone again the steps are pretty basic lots of pressure make sure you fill in the gaps , make sure the surfaces are good. and wipe off and then let it dry don't be in a hurry most of these silicones want 612 even 24 hours so read the instructions on the can they will all have that info on there let this all sit with the water in the tub overnight sure and then maybe in the morning you can come and drain it and wash it all down and see if you've missed anything if you've missed anything you want the touch ups done within 24 hours it's ok if you make it all perfectly clear and then add silicone over silicone no it sticks really well so the next morning is the time you want to take a look if you have any air bubbles fix them right away and your bathroom will stay nice and dry