TIL that caulking before painting is a waste of time if you do it wrong

My neighbor Bill told me to caulk all the gaps in my trim before painting, so I did a messy job and painted right over it. Now the caulk is cracking and peeling off because I didn't let it cure for 24 hours first. Has anyone else had caulk fail like this after rushing it?

3 comments

3 Comments

margaretramirez1mo ago

Oh man I did the EXACT same thing on my baseboards and it peeled in giant ugly strips. What worked for me was sanding off all the bad caulk, wiping it clean, and using a paintable silicone caulk instead of the regular acrylic stuff.

james_bell1mo ago

Is it just me or does it feel like half the battle with home improvement stuff is figuring out which products are actually worth the money versus just good marketing? I swear half the stuff at the hardware store is designed to fail so you gotta buy it again.

logan5251mo ago

Wait, are you sure the paintable silicone caulk is the fix though? I tried that once and the paint still wouldn't stick right because it's just too slick for a lot of latex paints. The real trick is using a high-quality acrylic latex caulk that's actually labeled as paintable and letting it cure the full 24 hours before you even think about painting over it.