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Are you one of those homeowners who see silicone caulk as a pain in the neck? I bet you are! If that’s the case, here are the three simple ways to clean silicone caulk.
Painters rarely rely on products in cleaning silicone caulk, but they exert extra effort in scraping and cutting off dried sticky silicone caulk using a sharp knife or a scraper. As someone who owns a house and into home renovations, cleaning dried walls or Silicone caulk has always been a struggle. It takes a lot of time and effort, pulling and scraping it off the wall. Not only this, but it will cost a lot of money to hire someone to do the job.
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Silicone caulk is a great sealant either for sealing the hole in your roof, preventing water leaks around your sinks, bathroom, kitchen and anywhere around your house. However, this silicone caulk may wear off after a couple of years, which will eventually need to be removed and replaced with a new one. Asides from the stress of removing and replacing it with a new one, people like me and you are also struggling in thinking of a way on how we can easily remove the silicone caulk clinging on the surfaces.
In this article, I will share the 3 easy ways on how you can easily clean silicone caulk stress and cost-free.
Cleaning silicone caulk, especially the old ones is not easy. But there are easy ways to do it. All you have to do is know the products that can help in carrying out the job. You can use all-natural products or commercial products. Expect that the latter contains chemicals that may be harmful to health.
Read more: What Happens If Caulk Gets Wet Before It Cures?
Vinegar has always been beneficial on skin, hair, and on our body, but to my surprise, this condiment from our kitchen can provide a lot of benefits to other aspects specifically in cleaning.
Step 1: Wear latex gloves as a protection on your skin.
Step 2: Pour 2-3 cups of vinegar into the bowl and dip the wall scrubber to the vinegar.
Step 3: Place and hold the scrubber towards the silicone caulk and let it sit and absorb for a while.
Step 4: Try pulling off the silicone caulk and use warm water to remove the residues.
We have always known alcohol for eliminating bacteria and treating wounds. Alcohol can be beneficial not only in medicinal use, but it helps in cleaning silicone caulk as well.
Here’s the step-by-step process in cleaning silicone caulk using alcohol:
Step 1: You may use an empty spray bottle and pour Alcohol into it.
Step 2: Spray an amount of alcohol onto the silicone caulk until it sits in.
Step 3: Scrape it using a scraper or an old card and use warm water to remove the excess.
If you’re more in a hurry kind of person and want the easiest way to clean a silicone caulk of your walls or tiles, a store-bought silicone solvent is the right one for you! Silicone Solvent helps the caulk loosen its bonds clinging on surfaces.
There are a lot of silicone caulk remover products that we can buy either from online or hardware stores. However, what matters is choosing the right silicone solvent that suits your choice and convenience at home. For some silicone solvent products, there are eco-friendly silicone solvents and of course, there is a chemically strong solvent that is present.
Advantage of Silicone Solvent
Do your kids play around your house? Are you a pet lover? Or does your house have poor ventilation? If yes, they make these types of silicone products for you. Some eco-friendly solvents are primarily formulated not only to easily and instantly remove those corrosions, dirts, inks, and hardened silicone caulk around your home but it can also handle complicated type of cleaning without damaging the exterior surfaces of your wall, ceramics, and even on your automobile. What’s more amazing about these eco-friendly formulated silicone solvents is, they also formulate it as having a fresh-scented aroma that is friendly to your pets and kids at home.
Disadvantages of Silicone Solvent
As mentioned above, there are also some silicone solvent products that are chemically strong and hazardous to human health. The silicone solvent is strong enough to remove silicone caulk around surfaces where it clings and it cleans its excess dirts as well, either on wall, on your broken ceramics, and even the old caulk of your boat and automobile. Chemically strong silicone solvent products should be used with a mask, gloves, eye covering, or any safety protection gear needed.
Now before your surface caulk hardens, let’s get to these step-by-step processes on how to use silicone solvent.
Step 1: Some of this silicone solvent is in a spray-type or a bottle type, first spray or spread an amount of silicone solvent towards the surfaces of your wall where the silicone caulk is clinging.
Step 2: After putting in an amount of silicone solvent, let it stay for a while or you may leave it for an hour for a easier removal process of silicone caulk.
Step 3: After waiting for a couple of minutes, check it and try if the silicone caulk already loses its bond and is soft enough to peel off. If it’s already smooth enough, you may just pull it using your hands without exerting extra forces.
Step 4: After pulling off the loose silicone caulk out of your surface wall, it is considered that silicone caulk excess may still present at your surfaces, to handle the excess dirt, you may use a knife, an old card, or even a scraper to scrape off the old silicone caulk.
Now that you already know the straightforward ways on how to clean silicone caulk on the surfaces, it would be easier to do the job your own.
