Caulking cracked within days or weeks of application

2 years ago

All of the caulking in our newly built home is already cracking/separating. Trim, baseboards, cabinets, countertops, everywhere. All of these things were done by different tradesmen, so it's not as simple as one person's application error.
One of the guys doing our finish work said he hasn't been able to get the paintable caulk he usually uses (latex?) due to supply chain issues. The tube of caulk he used says it's "acrylic latex with silicone". I don't know what was used on and around the cabinets, but about a week or so after installation when the cabinet installer came to make an adjustment to one of the doors, the caulk at the top of the cabinets had already cracked. He reapplied caulk over the cracked areas, but those and even more areas have already cracked again. The caulk around the countertops and backsplash are silicone, and there are places it has separated from the wall, etc.
We keep our home around 70 degrees. We have an HRV but our HVAC guy turned it off for several weeks to see if that would help (it didn't). I know houses settle, but would that cause the caulk to crack within days/weeks? And happen everywhere in the house, with every different kind of caulk that was used? Could it be a humidity issue? I'm worried all of the caulking will have to be redone by spring at this rate.

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Comments (5)

PRO
PPF.
2 years ago
Pictures?
Matthew
2 years ago
This sound strange considering there would be different types of caulk. It is possible to have a bad batch. I had this happen for some siding and the manufacture had me pull the batch numbers on the tubes and sent me a check, but this shouldn't be the case for you. What is the humidity around?
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If he grouted the corners then covered the grout with a thin smear of caulk, the caulk could just be telegraphing the cracked grout. The issue is not if the grout was cured prior to the caulk being smeared over it. The issue is that there should be NO grout in the corners at all, just caulk. At a minimum, if the corners do get grouted, the grout should be raked out deeper than the joint is wide, then caulked. Changes in plane are where differential movement occurs. One wall moves independent of the other, or the edge of the tub flexes away from the wall when the tub is loaded with water, etc. Grout is rigid and cracks when movement occurs. Caulk is flexible and flexes when movement occurs. And I know, I know, he does this all the time and this is the first time it's ever happened to him. Uh huh.
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6-8 months, I'd say, before it looks like it starting to crack, then it slowly gets worse. It's a very gradual process, but we would like to fix it properly and are stumped. Initially (6 years ago, thought it was 8), there wasn't an issue. The shower space was great for a few years, but then the corner developed a leak/the caulk cracked. When the first leak started, we dug out the old stuff and re-did it with new caulk. My father in law could have glopped some clear silicone in there before re-caulking, we just don't know (he doesn't remember either!). I have used bleach to clean the shower, and while I think that's probably not the best thing to use on caulk, it can't be the reason the caulk job falls apart, can it? Do you have any advice as to how to tackle this issue? What steps would you take to re-do this area? We haven't used the shower for 2 months, so it's definitely dry. Thank you for any thoughts on this Bill V.!
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shead
2 years ago
In my experience, it takes about a year for everything to "settle" as Johnson Brothers said ^^^^. That means you'll experience caulk separating during that time. It's happened to us in every single house we've owned that we built or remodeled. It's not a huge deal, just a bit of an eyesore. Our agreement with our builder was that he'd come back after 6 months to recaulk and he did. It's fine now except in a few places. Still not that big of a deal since I'm pretty handy with a caulk gun.
CeeWhy thanked shead
CeeWhy
Original Author
2 years ago
Thank you. I think the caulk is shrinking more than cracking, so settling may be the issue. I'm not sure what our humidity is, but I assume since it's winter and we're running our furnace, it's pretty dry. I will get some hygrometers and find out. I will also speak to our tradesmen about coming back in the summer to touch up or re-caulk as needed.
ILoveRed
2 years ago
We have humidifiers on our hvac units and still couldnt get our humidity above 38%. this while it was very cold outside and in the midwest. so we bought a portable humidfr and are keeping it now about 48-50%. our wood trim behaves better at the higher humidity level. healthier bodies with humidty a little higher too.

cheap hygrometer from amazon works great.
CeeWhy thanked ILoveRed

Caulking cracked within days or weeks of application

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Caulking cracked within days or weeks of application

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Matthew

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