Bigtime cons. First, it's not water washable when wet meaning you need to tape it off and tool it in order to get a neat and clean looking caulk joint. Secondly, sooner or later ALL caulking needs to be replaced. With the ailiconized latex (or acrylic) caulking, it's a matter of scraping out the old and recaulking with the new. With the 100% silicone, you need special solvents to get rid of every trace of the old caulking. Other wise the new caulking won't stick. Even New silicone won't stick to old.

Use the TEC.

Hey Bill, can you give any tips on caulking? We are also going to use the TEC matching caulk, sanded, in our bathroom.

I have read that using denatured alcohol on cheese cloth is good for smoothing it out, as well as taping- but I don't know exactly in what way to use the tape (I know it may be the obvious way... but if one tapes on either side of the tile edge, does that mean that the caulk goes in just like grout, and doesn't lap onto the tile?)

I really can't say that I have ever seen a good caulk job, so I am hoping mine will be the first :-)

and BTW, what does one use to clean off old silicon caulk once it needs to be replaced, while on topic...

Thanks!!

If you're using the TEC, there's no need for the denatured alcohol, OR the tape. These are the things needed if using the silicone. All you need, is a caulking gun, a piece of cardboard, a bucket of clean water, and a grout sponge.

Lay in your bead of caulk with the caulking gun. Then take your finger, and smooth it out, removing the excess, and wiping it off on the piece of cardboard. then take the sponge, and wring it out well, and then wipe the joint. You'll only be able to go a foot or two with each wipe, and you'll probably have to rewipe it once or twice to get a nice clean uniform joint. But do not wipe more than once with any part of the sponge, without rinsing it out well, first. You may even have to "massage" the sponge in the water to remove the caulking from the face of it, but it WILL come off so you can hit the joint with a clean sponge again.

Oh cool! Thanks for the lesson- just finished up the first tube- I didn't even know what a cool product I had bought! It looks so much nicer than the plain silicon caulk!

DH was laughing, he said, "I didn't even know this stuff existed!"

Now onto the floor leveling... can you tell we have been procrastinating this task? The rest of the bathroom is virtually done except the last few bottom inches and that darn floor.

Just thought I would add my $.02.....when I had my tile all repaired and regrouted, the tile guy was going to use silicone where wall meets tub. No way! I get horrible migraine headaches from the smell of silicone as it cures. He used the regular caulk instead, and 3 years later it still looks good. But then I squeege the walls and use a designated large bath towel to wipe down walls especially where wall meets tub.

The previous silicone job just got so stained and moldy looking and I could never get it clean. It looked disgusting!