All the Ways You Should Be Using Caulk Around the House but Aren’t

Caulk is one of the greatest tools of illusion ever invented. We’ve been using it to stop leaks and hide gaps for centuries, and it remains one of the most useful things you can have in your toolbox.

Not only is caulk one of the easiest construction materials to use, you can use it in a surprisingly wide range of projects that will repair and beautify your home. All you need is a caulk gun, a little patience, and the right kind of caulk. Here are all the ways you could — and should — be using caulk around the house.

As a good old-fashioned sealant

First and foremost, caulk is ideal for its main purpose: Sealing gaps. No matter how carefully measurements are made, there will always be gaps where edges meet in your home. Sometimes sealing those gaps is an aesthetic issue and sometimes it’s essential, but in either case caulk is your saviour. You can use caulk to…

• Put a stop to drafts. If you feel a breeze coming through your windows, doors, or walls where pipes enter the home, caulking the gaps around them is an easy way to solve the problem. You can even caulk around electrical wiring coming into the living area if you use fire-rated caulk.
• Keep out bugs. If your home is being invaded by ants or other critters, one way to stem the tide is to figure out where they’re entering the house and caulking any holes or gaps you can see. While critters are pretty inventive (and determined) when it comes to getting inside your home, a little caulk can sometimes make a big difference here.
• Manage crumbs and spills. If you have gaps between your countertops and walls or appliances in your kitchen, a bead of caulk can prevent an endless rain of spills, crumbs, and other debris from slipping behind your cabinets and attracting those aforementioned bugs.

As an adhesive

All-purpose caulk also makes for a great flexible adhesive in a pinch, so any time you need to stick something to your walls or floors, think about caulk. This is ideal in places where you can’t or don’t want to use fasteners like screws or nails. If you want baseboards on your walls but you know there’s a water or heating pipe right behind the drywall, sticking your trim on with some caulk is a better idea than firing some nails in there and hoping for the best.

Caulk is also good for spot repairs on flooring, like sticking a loose tile back into place or repairing linoleum or vinyl floors that have started to peel up. Caulk dries to a flexible, rubbery texture which gives it a good amount of stretch, so it won’t crack and snap when you walk on it like more brittle adhesives.

For wallpaper repair

If you’ve got wallpaper that’s peeling off the wall in spots, a little clear caulk under the edge will adhere the paper back to the wall. Once it dries, a bit of caulk over the seam will help hold it in place. While you wouldn’t want to use caulk to stick on all your wallpaper, using it here and there when the old glue fails will keep it looking finished while you wonder why in the world you thought wallpaper was a good idea to begin with.

For quick wall repairs

Speaking of repairing walls, if you have some minor imperfections in an interior wall — small cracks, old nail holes, or a gap opening in a corner where two walls meet, caulk can be a fast and acceptable repair solution. A bead of caulk can fill a hole, and caulk can actually be a better choice for repairing a thin crack in the wall (once you’re sure it’s not the harbinger of a bigger, more expensive problem) because of its flexibility; sometimes using joint compound or spackle to fix a crack results in … more cracking as the forces that created the crack in the first place continue their nefarious work, whereas caulk can shift and stretch a bit more.

Caulk can also be used as a spot adhesive for a popped tile on a wall. If the tile is undamaged (or if you have a spare salted away) a few lines of caulk will have it back in place with zero fuss.

For roof repairs and maintenance

If you have a minor roof leak and you’re not prepared to replace it, a little roofing caulk might be your saviour. While roofing caulk isn’t going to fix big problems, sometimes all you need to do is caulk along old flashing that has started to come loose, or fill in gaps here and there in an older roof. Caulking your roof might buy you some time, at least, and aside from getting up on your roof in the first place it isn’t any more difficult than caulking anything else around the house. If your roof is suspect, head up there and caulk anything and everything that looks suspicious and you might have a much drier experience.

During painting prep

The difference between a good paint job and a terrible one is all about the prep work and the attention to detail. Painter’s caulk will make your next paint job much, much easier. It is a fast-drying (typically within an hour) caulk that has a surface that will accept primer and paint. It’s perfect for filling in thin gaps and small imperfections in your walls before you paint so the end result is a smooth finish without dings and gaps.

One thing to note is that if you’re filling a gap larger than a quarter-inch with painter’s caulk, you should invest in some foam backer rods and stuff those in there first. This reduces the amount of caulk you need to use and makes it a lot more stable and less likely to fail.

For a quick siding repair

If you have vinyl siding on your house and you have a hole or cracks, rain and other moisture is getting in between the siding and your home’s exterior wall (bugs can also use these gaps to get in; carpenter ants, for example, love these sorts of gaps to make nests in). You can patch these using a piece of scrap siding left over from the project and some colour-matched exterior caulk. Just cut a piece of siding slightly larger than the hole and adhere it using caulk. Then caulk around the edges of your patch.

You can also use exterior caulk to fill smaller holes or cracks directly if you don’t think a patch is necessary. A few minutes with a caulk gun could be the difference between water damage in your house and a dry, carefree existence.

To add bumpers

Bumpers are the small, soft beads you stick to things to prevent them from scratching or banging on floors, cabinets, or walls. Caulk can be used to create or replace “bumpers” on just about anything:

• Cabinet doors. Do the cabinets in your kitchen or bathroom bang thunderously every time you slam them shut? Put a bead of caulk on the top and bottom outside corners, let them dry, and boom — your cabinet doors will now shut much more quietly.
• The bottoms. Anything you don’t want scratching a floor or that you need to stop from sliding around can use some caulk bumpers. The bottom of chair legs, under ceramic pots, or on the bottom of a soap dish are just a few examples where a bead of caulk can prevent scratches or unwanted movement.
• Picture frames. To protect your walls from scratches or other marks from your picture frames, dab a bit of caulk on the corners. Once dried, these bumpers will hold the picture frame just slightly away from the wall, preventing damage.

To turn any rug into a nonslip rug

If you have a rug that keeps sliding around on your floor you can purchase rug pads or carpet tape to hold them in place. But if you don’t have those and need a solution fast, you can flip the rug over and apply some silicone caulk around the edges. Once dry, it will act as a grippy edging that will hold that rug in place as well as any specialised product you might buy for the purpose.