Caulking Your Home

A Publication of Burbank Water and Power


Where to Caulk

Caulking all of the cracks you can find to prevent heating and cooling loss will save you many dollars.  Check anywhere two parts of your home meet, and where air or moisture has a direct path into the wall cavity:  
 
ü Around door frames
 
ü Window frames, sills, and joints where the siding meets the frame and trim, above and below
 
ü Cracks where siding meets siding
 
ü Between porch and house
 
ü Where chimney meets siding
 
ü Under siding where it  meets the foundation
 
ü At eaves and moldings
 
ü

Areas around vents, electrical outlets, or water faucets

 

What You Need

ü

Ladder
 

ü Scissors
 
ü Caulking gun
 
ü Caulking compound
 
ü Scrap insulation
 
ü Filler (for large cracks)
 
ü Putty knife
 
ü

Areas around vents, electrical outlets, or water faucets

 

Procedure

1. Clean the area to be caulked.  Use scraper or solvent to
remove any built-up paint, dirt, or old cracked caulking.

2. Cut off the tip of the cartridge at a 45-degree angle.  Be sure to snip off only the tip; you can always make the opening larger. Insert cartridge into gun.  You may need to insert a nail in the tip opening to start the flow of caulking material.

3. Caulk must overlap both sides of the crack for a tight seal. Regulating the flow may take some practice.

4. Extra-wide cracks should be filled with a filler such as oakum.

5. Where cracks cannot be filled completely with filler, fill gaps with caulk.

6. Extra-long cracks can be filled with caulking compound that comes in rope form, which can be unwound and forced into cracks with your fingers.

Types of Caulking

Oil or Resin Base

  • Will not bond to wood, metal, or masonry
  • Not the most durable
  • Compatible with paint
  • Inexpensive

    Latex, Butyl or Polyvinyl Base

  • Will bond to most surfaces
  • Compatible with paint
  • More durable and more expensive than oil or resin base

    Elastometric Caulks

  • Most durable and most expensive
  • Includes silicones, polysulfides, and polyurethanes
  • Most are not compatible with paint
  • Important to follow manufacturer’s instructions

    Filler

  • Includes oakum, glass fiber strips, rope caulk, caulking cotton, and sponge rubber

    CAUTION: Lead base caulks should not be used because they are toxic.
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You may be letting a lot of heated or cooled air escape from your home through cracks and crevices around doors, windows and other openings.  Such openings can admit as much air as a 3-foot square hole in the wall.  One way of reducing this loss of conditioned air is by caulking.

The need to conserve energy wherever possible is important. That’s why we created this brochure—to give you as much help as possible in saving energy and money in your home.

Conservation is a Way of Life.