RV Caulking
Caulk and Paint The Easy Way!
Using a masking tape trick to make caulking easy!
One of the best sealants around, is 3M Marine Adhesive Sealant 5200. Designed to be used
above or below the waterline for boats, 5200 works great on RVs.
Do not use silicone anywhere on the outside of your RV, as it does not adhere well. A butyl
sealant such as Dicor works well as does Sonneborn NP 1 Polyurethane Sealant.
Caulking windows can be a messy job. When you have to paint the caulking, to match your
RV, the job can be very difficult. Masking tape can take all the mess out of caulking, and combine the matching paint portion
of this job into one easy task!
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Here is how this masking tape technique works. In this example, a window is going to be
caulked. Apply masking tape to the window frame. When you mask around the round corner,
apply small pieces of overlapping tape which approximate the round corner. Trying to mask
a continuous piece of tape to a round a corner proved not workable.
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Masking tape is applied to window frame in small pieces, perhaps only 1/2" long each.
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Masking tape on the wall, is applied about 1/8" away from the frame. A big mistake is
made when caulking too wide. Even a 1/4" wide strip of caulk will come out looking messy
and unprofessional. A 1/8" strip is perfect.
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Here the masking tape is applied to the wall along the straight part of the window frame.
Only attach about 1" of tape at a time, moving along inch by inch. Going slowly, will
allow you to align the tape so that you maintain the 1/8" wide gap.
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Apply only about 1" tape at a time, to maintain 1/8" width gap.
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The tape going around the outside corner is applied in small pieces to the wall,
the same as the tape on the window frame.
Small tape around the outside.
Before you caulk the masked off window frame and RV wall, the area where the caulk is to be
applied MUST be cleaned according to the instructions on the tube of caulk. Worrying about
being messy with the caulk is forgotten because the masking tape takes care of all that.
Below is a picture showing the caulk being painted on the masked off window. A spray shield which
is only a cardboard with a rectangle cutout for painting is absolutely necessary.
Using a spray shield.
Be sure that your caulk is completely dry before you paint, and the paint completely dry
before removing the masking tape.
Finished! Two jobs, caulking and painting with one masking!
Click here for more information!
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