How to Caulk the Bathroom Sink

How to Caulk the Bathroom Sink

Caulking your bathroom sink is a DIY project that everyone can do by himself. A broken caulking can cause serious damage to your bathroom. This damage is certainly much more expensive to repair than caulking a sink on time. Repairing water damage required professional work, which can cost your several thousand dollars. Caulking a bathroom sink, on the other hand, costs not more than a couple of dollars.

The damage caused by a leaking bathroom sink can be twofold. The first problem is the mold. Mold needs humidity to grow. The normal level of humidity in a new bathroom is not enough for mold to grow. But a leaking bathroom sink is the ideal condition to make mold grow. Mold is not only esthetically unpleasant, but also a health hazard. On top of that, once you have your bathroom full of mold, it is very difficult to get rid of it. The second problem is the damage done by the water directly. When water seeps into a creek, or below the tiles, it makes the cement soft and can cause problem to the neighbor below your house or to your basement.

Obviously, the information above is enough to re-caulk your bathroom sink, doing it consist only of some simple steps. For this DIY project, you’ll need caulk (obviously), and some simple tools (a putty knife, cleanser, a screw driver). The tools that you need depend on the kind of bathroom sink that you have, since not every sink has the same bolts.

Caulking a bathroom sink is as simple as taken the sink apart, cleaning it, and fitting the parts together. One step that many DIY enthusiasts forget is to clean thoroughly all elements and to wait until everything is dry. Pass some sand paper on any part of the new sink. Remove any old caulking with the putty knife, since old caulking is prone to accumulate mold.

Clean everything with alcohol or any other strong solvent. Gasoline is also useful for it. Soap is not strong enough. After fitting the pieces together, check to see it has no water dropping or leaking. New tubes are completely secure if fitted properly. Normally it’s enough to twist the bolts and screws until they are tight, but not putting too much pressure on them, since that could break them.