Applying Silicone



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Job
Description
Labour
1If you wanted a bloke to come in and do this to your shower cubicle he should charge you £60 including the silicone and tape but he’ll use your toilet paper!
£60

Information Sheet on Applying Silicone and Mastic


This site isn’t about showing you how to “Do it Yourself”  BUT…

We assume you are sealing around a bath, basin or in a shower cubicle and that the wall is tiled or gloss painted.

First you need silicone. Silicone not painters mate or acrylic filler, but the most expensive mould resistant “sanitary” stuff you can find. You also need an applicator gun (make sure it’s the right size for the silicone tube).

Tools…
You need a sharp chisel, Stanley knife, masking tape, scissors, toilet roll, a large self-supporting waste bag and most important of all your finger!

Process…
Remove all the old silicone. This will take time, is best done with the chisel and be careful, the chisel can mark the surface.

Dry the area and then rub down with the toilet paper to make sure there is no grease or oily deposits adjacent to the area because the masking tape won’t stick.

Very carefully apply the masking tape in nice straight lines alongside (parallel with) and on both sides of, each intended run of silicone, about 5-8 millimetres away. Essentially this distance depends on the existing gap width, the wider the gap, the further the silicone needs to extend either side of it. You can even depress the tape into each grout line you hit if you like. Cut it with the scissors, you can make daft little angles at corners if you must, it depends how fussy you are!

This can be immensely fiddly, especially inside a shower cubicle and involve you using your “wrong” hand a lot more than you want to and also lying on that horrible little ridge at the bottom of the doors, which seriously bruises you ribs after about half an hour. I suppose it’s possible to spend too much time on this but half an hour is about how long it takes to correctly mask every seam inside and outside a cubicle.

Right, now for the scary bit. Cut the top off the screw thread of the silicone tube (not the whole of the thread) and also the nozzle. (Now, there’s a word I DO like).

Cut the nozzle so there is quite a small hole for the silicone to come out, you can always go back and apply a bit more, if the hole is too large you will foul up.

Set up the rubbish bag so it’s wide open and wont fall over (up against the toilet bowl is good) and keep the toilet paper very handy indeed.

Now go for it with the silicone, apply it carefully to every run you have just masked and hope you didn’t forget any. After about 3 feet you will be an expert, try not to run too much in, it doesn’t matter if it goes over the masking tape, that’s what it’s for but too much silicone can make smoothing it more complicated.

Don’t panic, it can be left for at least ten minutes before it starts to skin over and ideally you should get it all done in around 2 minutes.

Put the silicone gun down, (make sure it’s stopped coming out), the get your finger ready. Quickly run your finger along the most accessible length. As soon as you feel that it’s building up too much wipe it all off with toilet paper and chuck it in the bag. Don’t try to conserve paper, use the whole roll if you have to, you’re saving £50 by doing it yourself.

When you start again go in gently, just above where you left off and you won’t see the join. Finish the length, wiping you finger as you go then immediately start the next easiest run. You’ll be an expert by now, so the more fiddly areas that you get to last, won’t be a problem.

When everything’s done and you’ve gone back over that bit you didn’t quite put enough silicone in and you’re happy with the result, peel the masking tape off. Start with a few short bits, and flick them into the bag. Keep the longer bits at arms-length, lower them into the sack and hope the opening doesn’t close on you. Silicone can very quickly get everywhere so get rid of each bit as fast as possible.

When it’s all off, try and resist attempting to perfect that bit in the corner. You won’t be able to stop yourself though and you will mess it all up, believe me.

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