Caulking

Need some help from the experienced members. I noticed some of the caulking cracking & some areas it has separated from the wall. Example, the marker light's caulking has separated and now has a small gap where water can enter. Question: how do you remove the old caulking? What chemical do you use to clean any old residue, so that the new caulk bonds to the wall?

Some areas the caulking actually smears. A friend of mine, who's a contractor, said that caulking smears when you use old/expired caulking. I don't know much about caulking, but I have experienced bad caulking.

Anyway, the help would be great. Please chime in, getting RV ready for a trip next month.

Thank you, in advance.

I use a caulking scraper and a razor blade to get the old stuff out. I use painters tape to keep from smeering and a wet finger to smooth it out, and use Sonoborn NP-1 polyurathane caulking.

jnbhobe said:

I use a caulking scraper and a razor blade to get the old stuff out. I use painters tape to keep from smeering and a wet finger to smooth it out, and use Sonoborn NP-1 polyurathane caulking.

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Wow.. You stole my thunder. You are right on about applying Caulk... I was shown by one of the Heartland tech at Gillette last year and he said I should use the blue painters tape to protect the area around where I want to apply the caulk. I have a blue caulk scraper which works pretty well and any other way I can get it off. As for the caulk the Tech at Gillette gave me a couple of tubes of Sikaflex 521 UV which, when I looked up the specs on it, has a very good adhesive capability with very little preparation. Read the 3 paragraphs at the bottom of the first page of the attached PDF file.

When cleaning up this caulk wipes off your hands very easily but when it drys it still has a good flexability and remains attached to the caulked surface. If you haven't used it you might give it a try. I resently ordered 2 tubes from Ron Hoover RV in Rockport (they didn't have any on hand) and one of the techs that was in the office chimed up and said that this was very good caulk and I had made a good choice.

FWIW
BC

Silk flex caulking is great---and yes if you check the tube on all caulk it does have an expiration date.
al
currently in Kenai, Ak