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ridiculous how mnany of us don’t like to waste caulk-i bead a bit out of the tube- put in a nail/screw and twist some plastic wrap on it, & tape it if i must. I keep plastic wrap handy to wrap a paint brush or roller, when i need to do touch up or otherwise. When I undo the wrap, I pull out the nail, which is caked in the caulk I usually get to the good caulk again.
But if this takes more than 10mins- the $2 cost doesnt compete with our labor costs.
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Replies
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I just wanted to wade in with my advice...
I've found that cutting the tube open down the length and spreading it flat on the bench (I made a jig for this) allows me to use a small trowel I purchased (just for this application) to scrape ALL the excess caulk out of the tube. It works extremely well.
FYI, you can pick up one of these trowels at only very specialized shops--they run around $52.95--its worth the money because it does such a fine job of cleaning the tube.
Think of the money I save...After only 2,834 tubes (to pay off the time and money invested in the intital setup) I'll be saving almost $.03 per tube.
(sorry for being a smartass)
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I'm now doing service work and keep about 15 tubes of caulk going at a time.
The only thing I have to add to this conversation is a technique particularly good for silicone. I usually need a really small bead when I'm using silicone, so I don't want to cut the tip back to 1/4" diameter to get the plug of cured caulk out. Instead, I cut a slit about 3/4" long from the end of the spout toward the tube. The utility knife blade or a five-in-one will push the rubbery plug out through the slit and if I'm lucky, the tip will work right away--the silicone is so easy to push, sometimes it won't squeeze through the slit, only the original tiny hole in the end. Other times I wrap some tape across the slit to help keep the caulk inside until it gets to the end.
I pretty much agree with you polyseamsealers, but I love silicone for tile, stone, and backsplashes--once I learned to prep (clean) and tool with denatured alcohol, I've always had beautiful and phenomenally durable results with it.
*I closed out a job today and tried to move a small gang box.The problem is that it was pull of odds and ends from this job. You know the left over hardware stuff,(door and hardware job) the 5 lbs of drywall screws that the rocker left........ Now where am I going to put all this stuff at?PS. The plumber was still there and his gang box was empty and unlocked......get the picture?(leave my nice new cabinets dirty will he)
*Doug hows things in the park? Finished a job down the road from you in Riverdale last week for a friend.
*I will try alcohol next time. Thinner was so-so, water a disaster. A fellow polyseamsealer.
*jj,Damn you caught me. I thought straightening out nails was my little secret to higher profit.Rick Tuk
*I just stick an old gutter spike in the tube if i want to save it a day or so.If I try to use a couple days later and it doesn't work I just throw it away.It only costs $3 a tube and if I waste $1.50 of it ,so what.I usually run a magnet over the customers property at the end of a job to gather stray nails and save on flat tires.think of all the money I could save If I saved them all and sorted them out during the winter.Lets see,1 1/4 roofing in this rusty coffee can,bent 8d in this can.......
*No, no, no! The bent ones you save for recyling! I think you get a penny a pound! Not if that isn't profit, what is?Rich Beckman
*Some situations are a little different.I look at it like this... What's the difference between saving the 3/4 full tube of caulk, and putting the lid back on the wood glue (or any other product that we don't use up in one application)?I do a lot of different kinds of repairs. Sometimes I will have 3 or 4 open tubes of various types of caulk, sealants, glues, etc... I may only use a small bit, then need it on another job the next day. I cannot personally justify tossing out the almost full tubes when I may need them in short order. If I have a tube that is getting low, and I don't have a job in the very near future where I will need it, I toss it. I just can't justify running down to the lumberyard to buy a tube of caulk each time I need a little bit. Sometimes I just need a very small amount. (BTW, I buy general purpose caulking by the case, and keep plenty on hand. THESE I toss when getting low. What I save is the specialty type caulks and sealants). I know most people are different about this, but it's just my way, and I will continue to do it. Just my opinion...James DuHamel
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Just spent 1/2 hr. clearing out the caulk that was left in the end of the tube since last week.I have tried everything from nuts to bolts on trying to work the caulk back out of the tube.
Anyone seen a good invention or homemade remedy that can be used for saving the workability of caulk in tubes?
*Depends on what type of caulk, but I usually dip the tube or cartridge into some fluid (latex/water, poly/thinner) to reduce air contact. Then I stick a nail of the appropriate size wrapped with cloth into the hole.
*When I finish with a tube of caulk, I twist on a red wire nut. This works pretty well for a while, sort of like the caps some caulks use to come with. But they are in the business of selling caulk and hardened caulk in the end of a tube just sells more caulk. As for tubes that are already not useable, I have no cure and will watch this post for remeadys.
*The best I've found is duct tape. Tear off a piece 3 inches long and wind it tightly around the last inch of tube and twist it tightly. This works good on latex, etc., won't work on silicone.
*fast eddie the tile guy from cleve. drops off some red caulk tube caps. they're nice, flexible, and many times re-usable. he gets them from a ceramic dealer i believe on the east side. good luck.
*With latex, I found that doing nothing was as effective as tape and quicker. Duct tape is porous, so clear tape might work better. Polyurethane sets up no matter what, so I just keep hacking off more of the tip.... And of course you can stick a nail in there. Now, if you're spending 1/2 hour freeing up a tube of caulk, consider the difference in value between a tube of caulk and a half-hour of your labor!Polyseamseal, my fave again, seems particularly easy to restart.
*I stick a nail in the end. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.This summer I had a tube of liquid nails that wouldn't restart. Then I accidentally removed the entire tip from the tube and there was plenty of good adhesive ready to come out then. That wouldn't work so well with caulk, though.Rich Beckman
*A double headed nail works well..........sometimes.....
*I've used a nail covered with duct tape or clear tape and it works for a while. One additional technique I've used for many years is to store silicone caulk in the freezer after sealing the end with nail/tape. I've found that silicone has an almost endless life stored this way - five years or more. I suspect that this technique only works on silicone because of its chemical makeup and certainly wouldn't try freezing anything with a water base.
*Buy yourselves some Caulk Keepers. These are caps made specifically for cartridge caulk (any type). You can buy the small or large (for large tubes). The last set i bought I paid $2.00 for, and there were two in a package. I now have about 6 or so, and I haven't thrown out a dried up tube of caulk in a long, long time. (Especially useful for those high dollar specialized caulks and glues)You can buy them just about anywhere caulk is sold. (Wally Mart, K-Mart, Target, Sears, Lowe's, Home Dpeot, and most lumberyards)James DuHamel
*Just throw the partially used tube of caulk away or use it up somewhere else on the same job. Damn!!! Buy a new tube for each job.Unless of course each job you go on is not worth .99 to 5 bucks?Sometimes you guys get my goat. Do you also try to straighten bent up pulled nails? Geeesh!I also agree with andrew and the Polyseamseal(and I ain't sucking up!!). This stuff is great to work with and even comes in several shades as well as clear. Easy to work ( a wet finger), water soluble(carry a hydra-sponge and 1 gallon bucket of water). I have come back on it 6 years later and it still looks good, in the joint that is, not the tube.Besides guys, a tube of caulk won't be worth a shit once it has set in your truck or van during the freezing weather---the warranty is void.Ever try to claim "warranty" on that 50 year old Dap?
*jj,Damn you caught me. I thought straightening out nails was my little secret to higher profit.Rick Tuk
*I just stick an old gutter spike in the tube if i want to save it a day or so.If I try to use a couple days later and it doesn't work I just throw it away.It only costs $3 a tube and if I waste $1.50 of it ,so what.I usually run a magnet over the customers property at the end of a job to gather stray nails and save on flat tires.think of all the money I could save If I saved them all and sorted them out during the winter.Lets see,1 1/4 roofing in this rusty coffee can,bent 8d in this can.......
*No, no, no! The bent ones you save for recyling! I think you get a penny a pound! Not if that isn't profit, what is?Rich Beckman
*Some situations are a little different.I look at it like this... What's the difference between saving the 3/4 full tube of caulk, and putting the lid back on the wood glue (or any other product that we don't use up in one application)?I do a lot of different kinds of repairs. Sometimes I will have 3 or 4 open tubes of various types of caulk, sealants, glues, etc... I may only use a small bit, then need it on another job the next day. I cannot personally justify tossing out the almost full tubes when I may need them in short order. If I have a tube that is getting low, and I don't have a job in the very near future where I will need it, I toss it. I just can't justify running down to the lumberyard to buy a tube of caulk each time I need a little bit. Sometimes I just need a very small amount. (BTW, I buy general purpose caulking by the case, and keep plenty on hand. THESE I toss when getting low. What I save is the specialty type caulks and sealants). I know most people are different about this, but it's just my way, and I will continue to do it. Just my opinion...James DuHamel
*I think you guys have been hanging around my father!!! My first introduction to the trades (at 8 years old) was doing just that - straightening bent nails for my Dad when he did his little projects. My Grandfather was a carpenter (late 1920's through 1970's), but my father was not. He didn't want his son to work with his hands, but Dad did "summers" with my grandfather....of course people who lived through the depression saved everything, so I'm sure my Grandfather made my Dad do the same.The last job I did for my Dad was his roof. He was going around the house and saving the 6" cutoffs just in case we ran out of shingles. He probably still has those coffee cans filled with the straightened nails!
*ridiculous how mnany of us don't like to waste caulk-i bead a bit out of the tube- put in a nail/screw and twist some plastic wrap on it, & tape it if i must. I keep plastic wrap handy to wrap a paint brush or roller, when i need to do touch up or otherwise. When I undo the wrap, I pull out the nail, which is caked in the caulk I usually get to the good caulk again.But if this takes more than 10mins- the $2 cost doesnt compete with our labor costs.
*If your in the remodel buiness then maybe someday you'll have to reuse that one tube of yellow caulk or maybe finish up the rest of that tube of gray cement filler. I buy caulk by the case and buy a good brand(IE...not the 99 cent stuff). Use what you need, save what you like in a empty case and one day you'll find a use for all that odd stuff. That is counting that the stuff will keep that long.By the way anybody want a few boxes of mis. nails screws and such. I'll give you a great deal on the stuff. One of these day's I'm going to clean all that junk up.........
*Now Bill, you and I and everyone else knows--well, maybe not our wives, eh?--that as soon as you rid yourself of that "junk", you'll need it the very next day. You'll be feverishly digging through the garbage cans, but alas, the trashman was actually on time that day.Don't say I didn't tell ya'. Me, I'm saving everything for that day.