Let the Caulk jokes begin!

WARNING: This post is for mature audiences only. Parental Guidance is required.

This next project definitely brought out the 12 year old in me. You'll see why in a bit. Around my bath tub, I've noticed a crack in the caulk between the tub and the tile and some parts looked pretty icky.

Eww.

Double Eww.

I knew I had to do something about this because A) it was gross, and B) I was afraid that water would seep into the crack and get inside the wall. Can't you just hear Jeff Foxworthy now, "You might be a homeowner if...." Yep, I probably wouldn't have thought twice about it if I were still renting but I own those walls now, I own that tub, I own those tiles, and I even own that nasty crack (hehe). Time to say buh-bye to that nasty crack and hello to new, white, shiny caulk!

Before I even began this project, I thought of this commercial, and yes, it makes me giggle.

Just so you know, I've never removed caulk or re-caulked before but I watched a few different videos online and I referred to the master, my dad. This is usually a project I would have on his daddy-do list, but I thought I could take it on.

After watching some videos online and talking to my dad, I knew I needed the following items:

• A utility knife to cut out the old caulk
• Some Clorox to clean the crack......haha.
• Silicone caulk
• A caulk gun
• Frog tape
  

After I made my list, I headed off to Lowe's. I grabbed the tape, the caulk, and the caulk gun. I can't really explain it but for some reason when I picked up the caulk gun, I felt pretty bad @$$. When I told my mom this. She responded with, "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Oh mom.

So the only other thing I needed was a utility knife. I asked the friendly Lowe's man if he could point me in the right direction. I told him what I was using it for. He asked me if I saw the tools made specifically for removing caulk. He showed me this tool made of plastic that he says he always uses to remove caulk because since it's plastic, it won't scrape the tile or the tub like the knife would. My dad mentioned to me that I would need to be careful with the knife because it could scratch. If anybody could scratch up the tile and tub, it would be me. So I took the man's advice and bought the tool which also came with a caulk finisher which means I wouldn't have to use my finger (and mess up my nails) by smoothing out the caulk. Oh by the way, they also had the Pro Caulk tool and it was hard difficult to pass up but I didn't buy it.

Once I gathered all of my supplies, I popped a squat in the tub and started scraping away. I won't lie....it wasn't easy. I kept scraping my knuckles on the tile and I didn't feel like it was getting all of the caulk out of the crevices.

I got about half way around the tub and decided that I should've bought the knife. So I took a break to help my friend with another project (which you will see soon) and went back to Lowe's and bought the knife.

Ahhh! Muuuuuch better. I was really able to get to the old caulk that was under the tile. Call me crazy but it was actually kinda fun and I didn't want to stop. Do you remember when you were a kid and you would spread Elmer's glue all over the palm of your hand and then peel it off after it dried? Yes, it was THAT fun! Can you now see why it was hard to stop?

Once I forced myself to stop removing the caulk, I pulled out the vacuum and sucked up all the excess. Then I put a little bit of Clorox in a Tupperware bowl and filled the rest with hot water.


Then took a toothbrush and started scrubbing away. [Side note: I didn't measure out how much Clorox I used. I just poured a bit in there which looked to be about a tablespoon or so.]

After it dried, I taped around the edge to guarantee that extra clean caulk line.

And for your viewing pleasure....

Caulking was even more fun than using the knife to get the caulk out. I'm sorry I didn't get an action shot of applying the caulk but I couldn't maneuver the caulk and the camera at the same time.....That's what she said. :)

Then I used the caulk finisher and smoothed it out. It cleaned it up so well that I probably didn't even need to use the tape. But it's better to be safe than sorry! Oh, and just like with paint, I peeled off the tape before the caulk dried and waited at least 24 before I took a shower in that tub. Thankfully I have another shower.

Check out my handy work!

I gotta say, I wasn't as immature with this blog post as I thought I would be. So with that said, I'll end with this. When I woke up the next morning and saw my good work, I said out loud, "Look at the pretty caulk!".......then I realized what I had actually said.