Latex Vs. Silicone

LATEX VS. SILICONE

Latex:

Specifically for:

• casing around windows and doors
• entire door jambs
• 1×3’s for shelving
• cappings
• Baseboards
• Shoe moulding or quarter round
• everything paintable!

Why? Because when latex caulking drys it cuts corners absolutely perfect!

Feel it, its grainy.

The con though is it isn’t flexible. Over a month or so, if that area moves it will instantly crack.

When water pools on latex, it will turn solid to liquid

Cons:

When it cracks and water gets into that crack behind the cabinet, 2 things will happen:

1. It can rot out that cabinet, if you have a spare $500+ in your back pocket. You can skip to the next post and stop reading.

2. That water will soak into the wall and create mold.

Mold remediation starts at $1,125 to $3,439 just for them to knock on your front door.

They have to remove 3 to 4 feet surrounding that molded area just to start. If it’s close to the cabinet, thats $500+ garbage, if the counter is quartz or granite it can be clean and salvaged.

You have to replace the drywall, studs, potentially tile from a shower or floor because that will be damaged? Then you have to pay for someone to reinstall new for you. In total price will generally range $5,000 – $12,000+

Here’s the worst part!

If that tile is a year old, it’s a years worth of fading. Now when you put that brand new tile beside, it will be darker. If you don’t like it,

You’ll have to replace them all. Thats another $5,000+

This can very easily become a $15K+ job.

All because they wanted to cut corners to save themselves money on you.

Silicone:

I recommend for all areas of bathrooms, kitchens & below windows. Thats where it gets messy with water!

Its often installed around tubs that are against the wall and showers

When installed:

• its a 100% water resistant, water can’t penetrate behind.
• Its flexible with many movements
• its rubber

Here’s the price differences:

Here’s todays price for both.

I can buy 3-4 tubes of latex for the price of 1 silicone.

If I’m a builder I’m going to gamble. I’m 97% sure the buyer is too simple to know the difference.

Each townhome they save $100-$175 each home.

Single homes, $200-$350 all this just in caulking.

(Thats free lattes and mochas paid for by you.)

Now if you’re in a new build with warranty, they are required to fix their shoddy work. That means remove all the latex with a flathead screwdriver or chisel and then install silicone.

If they install silicone on top of latex, when the latex cracks, you will be able to remove all of the silicone in 1 pull.

So I wasted this argument and you wasted your time listening.

Just another reason for crooked builders & contractors to hate Bent Nails:

Does water not get on this counter top? Yes of course!

Its time to test this argument!

Run your finger under water for 2 secs.

Slide your finger back and forth only 7-8 times on that caulking.

Now take a look at your finger.

Slide your finger along a dry area, is it grainy or rubber?

The walls have zero protection.

Do the same test at the bottoms of your windows.

Does water not get to the bottoms of your windows? Yes, thats called condensation.

You have to remove all that latex caulking along the bottom with a flat head screw driver or chisel and install silicone there instead.

The best part to all of this, the builders come back irritated because the corner they tried to cut was found. Every time they remove the latex they scratch walls, counters & then they have to repair those as well. All because they didn’t use the proper caulking in the beginning. For new builds, they have no choice to come back and fix this because you’re under warranty!