Should You Caulk Before or After Painting the Exterior of Your Home?
Don’t paint yourself into a corner; caulk before you start
Highlights
Caulking first helps seal your home and prevents pests from entering.
Applying caulk after painting can show caulk lines.
Wait at least 2 hours for the caulk to dry before painting, but ideally, you should wait 24 hours.
Avoid painting over silicone-based caulking, which will crack paint over time.
Imagine you’re looking to put a fresh coat of paint on your home, but you’ve noticed a few areas that could use some caulking. Instead of picking your favorite exterior house paint color, you’re now left wondering if you should caulk before or after painting. When it comes to where caulking should be in the home-painting process, there’s no room for debate: Caulking should always come before painting. Trying to caulk after painting would leave you with a bunch of spots that don’t match the rest of the home, plus it’s not a great idea for a few more important reasons.
But why should you worry about caulking? And what is the process of spot-correcting old caulk on your home? Explore the wonderful world of home exterior caulking below.
What Is Caulking?
Caulking is a broad term used for a variety of different sealant materials. You use caulking to repair cracks or holes that are relatively small. According to the United States Department of Energy, these repair types should be no wider than 1/4 inch.
Different caulking materials tackle certain repair jobs better than others. So while you might use household silicone caulk for faucets and tile in the home, you wouldn’t want to use that same material outside. Instead, for repairing cracks and holes on your home’s exterior, you’d want to use a polyurethane or latex base, which always performs well outdoors.
The most common caulking compounds that you’re likely to come across at your local home improvement store include:
Butyl rubber
Latex
Oil
Polyurethane
Resin
Silicone
Water-based foams
Before you waltz up to the register, make sure the caulk you pick up is good for outdoor use. You can typically find it written plainly on the tube if it’s an outdoor caulk; you’ll likely see some combination of the words “window, trim, door, and outdoor sealant.”
Why Caulk Before Painting?
Now that you know the definitive answer of if you should caulk before or after painting (ALWAYS before), let's look at why it’s so important. The reason you caulk before painting the exterior of your home is so there’s no opportunity for paint to get into the home itself. It also saves you time down the road, as you would want to paint over the caulk anyway to avoid having visible caulk on your exterior. Caulking beforehand means you don’t have to paint the same area twice.
Also, caulking before you paint ensures the paint creates a protective layer over the caulking itself, extending the lifespan of the material and further protecting your home.
Besides keeping paint out of your home, you should caulk your exterior for these reasons, as well:
Keeps water from seeping inside
Prevent insects from entering the home
Enhances insulation
Prevents condensation from building in the cracks and holes
How Do You Caulk Your Home Before Painting?
To apply caulking, you’ll want to clean and prepare the area first. Here’s a quick step-by-step on prepping your exterior for caulking:
Scrape any old paint, caulk, or debris that may be in cracks or holes across your exterior.
Make sure the area where the caulk is going doesn’t get wet (so don’t save this for a rainy day).
Ensure you have the right type of caulk for the job.
Apply the caulk.
Wait for the caulk to dry—at least 24 hours before painting.
If you’re unsure of what type of caulking to use, how to properly caulk, or simply don’t have the tools necessary, consider hiring a local exterior painter or handyperson to tackle the job instead.
Matt Marandola contributed to this piece.
Frequently Asked Questions
While caulking is handy for quite a bit of jobs, it’s still limited. Any crack or gap larger than 1/4 inch is best left for a more intensive repair job. When you hire house painters, they should run a thorough check to see what they need to repair before they start the job.
Large repairs that caulking typically won’t do well with include cracks or holes larger than a 1/4 inch, rotted wood, or metal surfaces, such as garage doors.
Caulking is an easy process that most DIYers can tackle on their own, even if they’ve never touched a hammer before. It’s essentially heavy-duty gluing with a few extra steps. Plus, the materials you need to get started are relatively inexpensive.
However, this only applies to small caulking jobs. If you know there are gaps in your home that you don’t feel comfortable caulking yourself, it’s always best to bring in a handyperson.
If you caulk after painting, a few things can happen that you definitely don't want to happen. For one, caulk is messy and can make for an equally messy finish. Second, applying caulk after painting might not provide proper insulation because the paint is underneath the caulk and doesn’t add the same protection as caulk. Third, if you caulk after painting, you'll see the caulk line, which can really detract from the look of your home.
You’ll want to wait at least two hours before you paint over a freshly applied caulk. This time frame is the bare minimum, however. If you live in a humid region or a cool climate, you’ll need to wait even longer. A good rule of thumb is to wait a solid 24 hours for the caulk to dry to be on the safe side.
Some caulk shrinks during the drying process, leading to cracked paint and a less-than-ideal appearance. Not all caulk cracks when painting, but it’s important that you read the label on your caulk container before painting to ensure that it’s actually paintable. There are four main types of caulk, and acrylic latex caulk is one of the most reliable caulking materials for painting over without fear of cracked paint. Avoid painting over silicone caulking.