Silicone sealant

[angedup]

Sealant - what a total nightmare. The tiling is easy but using silicone sealant to finish off lets me down every time.

I squeeze it out through the gun in an uneven blobby line, it continues to ooze out the nozzle all over everything while I am desperately trying to loosen the pressure of the gun on the bottle whilst catching the escaping sealant with blobs of quickly grabbed loo roll. Then starts the task of smoothing it - wet finger currently the prefered method but still leaves a lot to be desired. Eventually the increasing amount of silicone on my finger makes me realise none is left on the join. Then there are the several days following of finding sealant glued randomly to most surfaces in the bathroom and various other body parts. This problem is not unique to my little tiling splashbacks above the basins project but also happens if I redo the shower tray, bath etc.

What is the secret??
My sealant looks unprofessional and I look ridiculous during the process.

[david campbell]

are you cutting the nozzle to far back,it sound like you are putting to much into the joint just a thin line of about 2mm should do,you should wipe the excess of your finger often,

[faithhealer]

Try Cornertape, check out the sponsors list, you will still get a bit messy but once you pull the tape off you will be impressed.

[heavytrevy]

Are u using a good gun?
If u want perfect control over ur silicon a dripless contractor style gun is what u need. a 14:1 ratio will ensure smooth application .
Finish the silicon with a spray of detergent and a paddlepop stick to smooth and shape it .

Trev

[dagger]

i personally beleive that siliconing is an art form, it took me years to get to the standard i am today, i no longer tape off (time consuming), i no longer use soapy water (can stop silicone sticking) and i think my results are fantastic, but it is all in the practice.

after trying everyway imaginable my method suits me!

look at the perimiter and corners of this room i did:



second to practice, practice, practice i would chose "CORNERTAPE".

[dagger]

up close:

[angedup]

hadn't thought of taping. good idea, now why didn't I think of that?

[doug boardley]

hadn't thought of taping. good idea, now why didn't I think of that?

sometimes we just don't see the obvious

[Oli]

Get yourself some cornertape mate,

http://www.cornertape.co.uk

[Sean fsy]

siliconing is only as good in the fit of the tiles or other fittings. the better the fitting the better results you will get, what im saying is if you leave to big gaps etc its always gonna be hard to cover up( im not saying your fitting is poor, i mean in general)

[jimbob]

Get a spray bottle with half and half water and washing up liquid. Run your silicone bead as usual, then give it a good spray with the soapy mixture, spray it on your finger also, and run your finger along the silicone to smooth. The soapy solution should stop it sticking to your finger

[Dave]

It's easy with corner tape...


[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsmSQfQBYBs]YouTube - How to seal a bath perfectly with CornerTape (3 way corner)[/ame]

[CDS]

I just use standard masking tape and a wet finger, took me ages at first but can do most jobs pretty quickly now....practise makes perfect and all that and it works for me.

Would highly recommend cheap baby wipes which are excellent for cleaning silicone off your hands - But buy low cost supermarket brands, not expensive ones like pampers or johnson & johnson . I don't know why but its about the only example I can give of cheap and cheerful being better!! They're also good for shining up taps, basins and towel rads etc as you're walking out of the door!

[groucho]

I too struggled at the start but then bought sillicone pads from trade tiler. get a very fine spray bottle sillicone on then just get the pad and scrape it back. get a really good 45o finish on it.ok it does use a wee bit more sillicone but if your struggling it will be brilliant for you. quicker than taping etc. i wouldnt use against mosiacs gets too jumpy over the edges. but your tiles round bath or worktop need to be cut good and accurate. i leave no more than 2mm gap makes it a lot easier. there about a tenner come in a 4, 7 and 12mm only really use the 4. but now I just use my finger. but it really helped me at the start. I found i couldnt use dow corning sillicone bit too runny. once I swapped over to mapei that was a lot better to work with. now im quite good at it I can now use dow corning as my mate said it was the best out there

[whitebeam]

I find one of these is good, when you take your finger off the trigger the silicone stops oozing out

[angedup]

thanks guys. I used a combination of masking tape, plastic cup of soapy water, newspaper to lay the oozing gun on and it looks ok

[Dave]

Pics..we want pics...

[Sean fsy]

newspaper to lay the oozing gun on and it looks ok

This is why they have the pressure release button on the back of the guns