How can I fix messy caulk job?
by
Ohiorn
+9
I had a corner on my vinyl siding replaced. Let's just say a middle of the night trip to the hospital ended up with a dented corner and dented car. We had a hairline crack in one piece of siding. Today I noticed that the workers had caulked it and caulked over a nail, but the job was really bad-uneven and too thick. As the vinyl siding is fragile, I would appreciate any ideas on how to fix this mess without damaging the siding. The guys did a great job on the siding, but not so hot on the caulking.
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If the siding was cracked, it should have been replaced. Understanding that you can't always find an exact replacement and some types of siding are not easy to remove sections, you can swap out a lower piece and replace that with something that is a close match even if it is not a perfect match and it won't be that noticeable. You can swap out just a small section and not the full length. If that seems too much to take on, you can buy a patching kit online. It might be tough to find a perfect color match and you may need to do some touch up painting, but it is an easy repair. You would have to remove the bad caulking as well.
Why didn't they just replace the piece that got cracked?
They might have did that to keep the water out
They should have replaced the cracked piece. Guess they were just lazy. Call them back and complain.
Since they didn't replace the siding piece...
First, remove the caulk. Wipe siding so that area is clean, let dry.
Buy a good silicone caulk that is for exterior and paintable. I use DAP Alex plus all purpose latex caulk plus silicone.(easy to work with) and buy a caulk gun.
Insert caulk tube into gun, cut tip at a 45° angle and run a small bead of caulk along cracked area. You can then use your finger and a damp rag to gently push into crack and smooth it out where needed.
Let cure (dry) a few hours and then touch up with paint.
P.S. turn caulk handle presser foot upside down to stop caulk from comming out of gun when not using. Put nail or large screw into tube hole and you can save your caulk for other projects.
You can use something plastic like a credit card to scrape the caulk off. Use 100% silicone caulk to fill the crack and a wet finger to smooth it out.