Have to help-out the little old lady down the block. Plumber charged her $200 to use her fiberglass shower surround as a canvas to do the worst caulking application I have ever seen. Now it all has to come out. Anyone have a magic chemical or technique (or both) to do this quickly and efficiently? Any insight is appreciated.
Bill
Freestanding with boxed stairs, this small deck is full of ideas for a long-lasting entry that will look great for years to come.
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Replies
3M makes a caulk remover that works pretty well, though it takes a few hours for it to soften the caulk. My belief is that it's really 3M's Safest Stripper repackaged in a smaller container so that they can charge more for it. The Safest Stripper is about $22 a gallon, the caulk remover is about $8 a half pint, and the MSDS for both has the same ingredients in virtually the same porportions. So, a gallon of caulk remover is $106 more than a gallon of paint remover -- pretty slick of them. Both are water clean up (they contain 75% water each).
Sometimes you can hook a grout rake (or a sawsall blade) behind the bead of caulk, and peel out long strips at a time. Caulk usually sticks better to itself than to surfaces, so you can often take advantage...
Razorblade used carefully can also be pretty useful on residual.
I have had good results using liquid laundry soap (i.e. wisk) and a razor blade. The film of soap keeps from scratching the surface. Used this technique to clean the paint and caulk off the aluminun window frames in a new house. I think the painters used corn brooms as paint brushes.
(G) Get my eager young assistant to do it, install it I mean, then it'll fall out!If it is to be.... 'twil be done by me.