Q & A
Tooling the Caulk - Acrylic Latex
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onIf you are applying our Tile & Grout siliconized acrylic latex caulk, you will find it is one of the easiest caulk to tool smooth. As with most caulks, never overfill the joints you are caulking. Try to just fill the caulk to the top of the joint and move along your path. With latex caulks you can caulk all three sides of a tub at once without tooling them independently. Latex caulks give you plenty of time to tool without “skinning over” right away.
Have a small bucket half filled with water and a sponge. A soft sponge is the best. Now use your wet finger to lightly but firmly slide all the way around the tub joint you have just filled. Every foot or so, you will probably have to wipe the excess caulk off your finger onto a paper towel. Keep fingering the entire caulk joint until you reach the end. Now with your wet sponge slightly wrung, wipe the caulk joint with a long sweep, then flip the sponge over and continue. Wring the sponge out clean, then keeping it semi wet, continue on. This usually will clean the surfaces on either side of the joint and also better smooth the joint.
There are tools out there for smoothing latex caulk and some people like using a wet cotton cloth with a spoon or a plastic caulk tool, but we have found the finger method and sponge to be the easiest application for smoothing acrylic latex caulk.