Using Silicone to Seal a Tub or Shower

When it comes to sealing a tub or shower, silicone is one of the most effective and easy-to-use materials available. To get started with this project, you'll need a tube of silicone caulk that's specifically designed for bathrooms and kitchens. It's best to start by cutting off the tip of the tube, as this will give you the right size hole for the space you're working with.

The key is to not make the hole too big, as it can't be made smaller once it's been cut. Most people prefer to start out with a smaller hole and then expand if necessary. To achieve a straight line, many DIYers use tape to mask off areas that don't want silicone on. This will give you a crisp, clean edge and make it easier to remove the excess silicone.

Once you have your tub or shower surface prepared, you can begin applying the silicone caulk. It's best to leave a small gap along the tile or tub top, as this will allow the silicone to bond properly with the surface. The amount of space needed for bonding will depend on the type and thickness of silicone being used.

To pre-fill any gaps, you'll need to apply the silicone caulk before filling in the area where it was applied. This ensures that there are no air pockets or bubbles in the silicone, which can cause it to not work properly. In most cases, a little bit of saliva on your finger is all that's needed to tool out the first little bit and smooth it out.

To get around corners and other tricky areas, you'll need to use some finesse and patience. Many DIYers prefer to use their fingers to tool out the edges, as this allows for more control and precision. If you're worried about getting your hands dirty or don't want to use a finger, there are also plastic tools available that can be used to smooth out the silicone.

In general, it's best to work in small sections at a time, especially when dealing with corners and other complex areas. This will help prevent the silicone from drying out too quickly and ensure that you get the desired results. By taking your time and being patient, you should be able to achieve professional-looking results without breaking a sweat.

One final tip is to make sure you remove any excess silicone carefully, as this can smear into the area you're working on if not done properly. To do this, it's best to pull the tape away from the surface at an angle, rather than pulling straight up. This will help prevent any silicone from getting smeared onto the surrounding area and ensure that your job looks clean and professional.

In most cases, it's recommended to complete a tub or shower seal all at once, as this can make the process easier and less prone to errors. However, if you only need to fix one section, using silicone caulk is still a great option. With just $5 worth of silicone caulk and half an hour of your time, you can transform your old tub or shower into a shiny new surface that's free from mold and mildew.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi I'm Shannon from house improvements.com and in this video I just want to show you how to remove old silicone from your tub or shower and then to uh install new silicone so uh this particular tub really is in pretty good shape it isn't really needing it but we're we're just going to do it here in a in a small area to just give you the idea what you need to do so typically you know you're going to have some mold or mildew or maybe it's loose and coming off uh so you want to keep it up that's part of the maintenance of your tub keeping moisture from getting in in Back to the wall in our case we've got a a tile surface and a a metal tub and you can see the bead of silicone in between the two right there so to cut it out you just want to use a uh utility knife the sharp blade just go along with your blade and and make a bit of a cut in the area that you want to remove we'll go back here and just go around the corner a little bit too okay so I made that cut and then along the tub just be careful not to scratch your tub especially if it's uh acrylic or something like that it may scratch a little bit easier I can't remember how far I came on this top one come to that Dr line okay so after you do that you should start to be able to see it basically wanting to come out of there so just keep working along until you get that all removed this one there's a pretty good space underneath there because of the tile this was a pretty healthy bead of uh cocking be careful your blade doesn't break off and you cut yourself keep your other limbs back most cases yours might be in a little worse shape so it could come out a little bit easier but usually this is pretty typical it's going to come out in some pieces so just keep working the way at it until you get it all out of there so once you get the bulk of it all out just have a real good look back in there make sure you got it all always some little bits and pieces okay once you have all the big stuff out you usually end up with a little bit of uh residue down on the tub or maybe even up on the tile so you just want to carefully work away at getting that off and again without scratching the tub razor blade can help then just take a piece of towel or something kind of try to wipe off all the all the little fine bits that are kind of Left Behind clean up any little extra pieces that you find key is getting off as much of that old stuff as you can so you can start out fresh and clean and that mold and mildew doesn't come back right away okay we should be pretty good there now so I'm not sure if you're really low enough to see that but you can see we've got pretty good space there so uh the next thing you want to do obviously you want this to be dry uh you need to cut your cocking off your Silicone I should say off so you have appropriate size hole for the space you're kind of dealing with and uh for the most part I'm going to be probably all right with this size I can always go bigger if I need to so I always like to start out smaller than than to get too big right away because I can't can't make that hole any smaller once I've cut it off so so uh most people to get a nice straight line a lot of times they'll want to uh use some tape to mask off the areas you don't want silicone on so you can just uh run some tape at this point oops it'll give you a nice uh nice crisp line and you go to pull it off and I'm just using painters tape so it comes off easy okay so I did the tub surface and I'm going to do the bottom edge of the tile through you still want to leave a little bit of a just a even a 16th of an eight of an inch there along the tile or the tubstr whatever you've got up top you want to be sure the silicone is actually bonding to that face of that surface so now we can uh in this case like I said I've got you know you can tell by the thickness of cocking or silicone that was there uh you know it goes back underneath there about a/4 or 38 of an inch so kind of got to pre-fill that first so I'm just going to get make sure that's getting shot back in there actually it's filling up pretty easy I'm just running the silicone gun along there till I get to the end where I left off I got to go around this corner too okay so I'll just do that and uh like I said that actually filled up a little quicker than I thought it was going to so I'm going to just tool that off with my finger a little bit of uh saliva on there just to Tool out that first little bit and kind of see where you're at just kind of work your finger around that corner and I'm just going to get my head down the way and have a look make sure I filled that up and we're actually pretty pretty good just uh need a little bit more back there where it was a little wider so I'm just going to go over that same area again I don't want to get too crazy something like that should be real close I'll just tool it with my finger again there are little plastic tools out there you can use to do that if you don't want to get your finger in it okay so we're really quite good across that back wall I just need a little bit more around the corner to make that corner look good tool it in okay so then once you're happy with uh how it's finished off just carefully pull your tape away and I try to pull it away at a bit of an angle so cuz you're going to have some silicone down on it if you pull straight up sometimes it just smears into what you just did so I try to pull it out and away from what we were just working on like that and now if there's any spots that need a little touchup you can kind of go back with your finger and just give a little bit of a rub usually the corners are the toughest part to get looking real good just like that got a little bit of a smear there where I joined into the old silicone that was there but you can see from there that uh you know it just seals it all right back up nice and good obviously in in most cases you really probably want to be doing your whole tub or shower or whatever you're working on at once uh in this case it really didn't need it so we just did a demonstration by doing part of it but you can see we got nice clean lines there's no silicone smeared all over the place it doesn't look like you used a a spatula to put it on there and smooth it out so um so hopefully that sends you in the right direction as far as fixing up your own tub and uh you know it's it's really not difficult you know $5 tube of silicone and and half an hour you can pretty much redo your tub and make it look better there's nothing worse than seeing moldy gross uh silicone line around a tub so so anyways uh hopefully that helped you if you uh come across any questions on any other DIY projects you might have going on uh you can post your question on my forum and uh from there I can uh easily read it and answer it and uh get a response back to you pretty quickly um also if you want to you could follow us on Facebook and we're also on Twitter as well I hope this was informative and and will help you on your next project and thanks for watchinghi I'm Shannon from house improvements.com and in this video I just want to show you how to remove old silicone from your tub or shower and then to uh install new silicone so uh this particular tub really is in pretty good shape it isn't really needing it but we're we're just going to do it here in a in a small area to just give you the idea what you need to do so typically you know you're going to have some mold or mildew or maybe it's loose and coming off uh so you want to keep it up that's part of the maintenance of your tub keeping moisture from getting in in Back to the wall in our case we've got a a tile surface and a a metal tub and you can see the bead of silicone in between the two right there so to cut it out you just want to use a uh utility knife the sharp blade just go along with your blade and and make a bit of a cut in the area that you want to remove we'll go back here and just go around the corner a little bit too okay so I made that cut and then along the tub just be careful not to scratch your tub especially if it's uh acrylic or something like that it may scratch a little bit easier I can't remember how far I came on this top one come to that Dr line okay so after you do that you should start to be able to see it basically wanting to come out of there so just keep working along until you get that all removed this one there's a pretty good space underneath there because of the tile this was a pretty healthy bead of uh cocking be careful your blade doesn't break off and you cut yourself keep your other limbs back most cases yours might be in a little worse shape so it could come out a little bit easier but usually this is pretty typical it's going to come out in some pieces so just keep working the way at it until you get it all out of there so once you get the bulk of it all out just have a real good look back in there make sure you got it all always some little bits and pieces okay once you have all the big stuff out you usually end up with a little bit of uh residue down on the tub or maybe even up on the tile so you just want to carefully work away at getting that off and again without scratching the tub razor blade can help then just take a piece of towel or something kind of try to wipe off all the all the little fine bits that are kind of Left Behind clean up any little extra pieces that you find key is getting off as much of that old stuff as you can so you can start out fresh and clean and that mold and mildew doesn't come back right away okay we should be pretty good there now so I'm not sure if you're really low enough to see that but you can see we've got pretty good space there so uh the next thing you want to do obviously you want this to be dry uh you need to cut your cocking off your Silicone I should say off so you have appropriate size hole for the space you're kind of dealing with and uh for the most part I'm going to be probably all right with this size I can always go bigger if I need to so I always like to start out smaller than than to get too big right away because I can't can't make that hole any smaller once I've cut it off so so uh most people to get a nice straight line a lot of times they'll want to uh use some tape to mask off the areas you don't want silicone on so you can just uh run some tape at this point oops it'll give you a nice uh nice crisp line and you go to pull it off and I'm just using painters tape so it comes off easy okay so I did the tub surface and I'm going to do the bottom edge of the tile through you still want to leave a little bit of a just a even a 16th of an eight of an inch there along the tile or the tubstr whatever you've got up top you want to be sure the silicone is actually bonding to that face of that surface so now we can uh in this case like I said I've got you know you can tell by the thickness of cocking or silicone that was there uh you know it goes back underneath there about a/4 or 38 of an inch so kind of got to pre-fill that first so I'm just going to get make sure that's getting shot back in there actually it's filling up pretty easy I'm just running the silicone gun along there till I get to the end where I left off I got to go around this corner too okay so I'll just do that and uh like I said that actually filled up a little quicker than I thought it was going to so I'm going to just tool that off with my finger a little bit of uh saliva on there just to Tool out that first little bit and kind of see where you're at just kind of work your finger around that corner and I'm just going to get my head down the way and have a look make sure I filled that up and we're actually pretty pretty good just uh need a little bit more back there where it was a little wider so I'm just going to go over that same area again I don't want to get too crazy something like that should be real close I'll just tool it with my finger again there are little plastic tools out there you can use to do that if you don't want to get your finger in it okay so we're really quite good across that back wall I just need a little bit more around the corner to make that corner look good tool it in okay so then once you're happy with uh how it's finished off just carefully pull your tape away and I try to pull it away at a bit of an angle so cuz you're going to have some silicone down on it if you pull straight up sometimes it just smears into what you just did so I try to pull it out and away from what we were just working on like that and now if there's any spots that need a little touchup you can kind of go back with your finger and just give a little bit of a rub usually the corners are the toughest part to get looking real good just like that got a little bit of a smear there where I joined into the old silicone that was there but you can see from there that uh you know it just seals it all right back up nice and good obviously in in most cases you really probably want to be doing your whole tub or shower or whatever you're working on at once uh in this case it really didn't need it so we just did a demonstration by doing part of it but you can see we got nice clean lines there's no silicone smeared all over the place it doesn't look like you used a a spatula to put it on there and smooth it out so um so hopefully that sends you in the right direction as far as fixing up your own tub and uh you know it's it's really not difficult you know $5 tube of silicone and and half an hour you can pretty much redo your tub and make it look better there's nothing worse than seeing moldy gross uh silicone line around a tub so so anyways uh hopefully that helped you if you uh come across any questions on any other DIY projects you might have going on uh you can post your question on my forum and uh from there I can uh easily read it and answer it and uh get a response back to you pretty quickly um also if you want to you could follow us on Facebook and we're also on Twitter as well I hope this was informative and and will help you on your next project and thanks for watching\n"