If you wish to find out how to seal gap for the exterior of your home, continue reading! As seasons change, gaps around the house become inevitable. They increase your bills, harm your health, and do a lot more damage. However, you can easily seal them, with your own hands!

How to seal gap for the Exterior of Your Home – Easier than You Think

Due to numerous reasons cracks, and gaps can be easily found around anyone’s house. These gaps can be a big pain in the neck and need to be dealt with immediately. Thus, before you learn to seal these breaches, let’s find out where exactly you’ll find them.

Places to Check for Gaps

1. Search around the edges of your door
2. Search around the windows
3. Areas where wires and pipes come into your house
4. Near different types of vents like the dryer, exhaust
5. Wherever two different types of siding materials join
6. Near your porch
7. Search for gaps in the masonry siding

Now let’s find out how we can get rid of these gaps!

Gather all your tools

The best way to seal is caulking. After you’ve located the areas that need sealing. Make sure to have all that you need for this process, with you. This helps in saving time. Additionally, you won’t have to run around the house, panicking. Therefore, this will save you from unnecessary stress and wastage of time.

But what tools could you need? Keep in mind, sealing is done differently depending on the area and its type. Therefore, here’s a list of the equipment required for sealing air leaks and gaps in general:

1. Protective Gloves
2. Protective Glasses
3. Utility Knife/Scraper
4. Soap and water
5. Rubbing Alcohol
6. Brush
7. Paint (Optional)
8. A Painters Masking Tape
9. A Caulk/ Sealant
10. A caulk finishing tool/ a Spoon

Gear up – Stay Safe

Before starting anything, secure yourself. You should put on your protective gloves and glasses. This saves you from any potential dangers that might occur. Furthermore, it prevents the sealant or caulk from sticking to your hands.

Clear the space

After collecting all the equipment required, go to your location, and clear it. Take out the utility knife or scraper and get rid of anything unnecessary. Furthermore, if the said area has old caulking or sealant carefully remove it.

Clean the space

After removing the old caulking and sealant, you will need to further clean this space. Use your soap and water first. This helps in getting rid of any dust, grease, or dirt. Furthermore, you can even use brushes to remove excess dirt or debris.

Additionally, to get rid of all possible residue and have a very smooth surface use rubbing alcohol.

Paint

After doing all the cleaning and clearing, you can paint the area. If you notice any damages that occurred because of the gaps go ahead and paint it.

Furthermore, make sure the area gets dry before you proceed to seal.

Tape – Get Crisp Caulking

No matter what, you always want to avoid sloppy caulking. For this, it’s best to get some tape. For both exterior and interior caulking, you should apply painter tape, this will provide a clear direction. Therefore, you will have to simply move your caulk or sealant right next to your tape in a straight clear line.

Additionally, observe your area, if you think the tape on just one side can still cause a mess, then go ahead apply painters’ tape on both sides to the gap.

Test Your Caulk – Hold Your Horses

Before you dig into caulking make sure your caulk/sealant works well. Go ahead and grab a newspaper or paper towel, then apply your caulk/sealant to make sure it’s working smoothly.

Run your Caulk

Finally, you should go ahead and run your caulk/sealant according to the tapes. Additionally, make sure you fill all the edges while doing so.

Furthermore, you should grab your spoon or finishing tool and then smooth out the caulk/sealant you have applied.

Remove Tapes – Unleash

Now while your caulk or sealant is still wet go ahead and remove the tapes.

And Voila! The gaps around your outdoor windows or doors are sealed. Since we discussed how sealing varies in terms of the area being worked on. Are you looking for ways of caulking exterior brick?

Now that you’ve learned the basics, let’s dig into it!

Caulking Exterior Brick

1. Safety First – Caulking is important but so are you. Thus, make sure to put on your protective glasses and gloves to protect yourself.
2. Clear your workspace – Now cleaning the gaps around your caulk will be done a little differently. Firstly, use paint scrapers to remove old and flaking paint. Secondly, use weed trimmers to weed and also get rid of leaves and any possible obstacles.

Furthermore, if there is mildew present, go ahead and clear it with a mildew treatment and then remove it.

1. Clean Thoroughly – To remove the dirt off your bricks properly go ahead and clean it using a power washer.
2. Cover Unwanted Regions – Now you want to seal the gaps in your bricks specifically, if you see any plants, decks, bushes go ahead and cover them using either painter’s plastics or you may even use drop cloths.
3. Check Temperature and Texture – Before you use your sealer or caulk make sure your surface is dry and has the temperature required. Furthermore, you will have to read instructions for your caulk to know more about when it should be used.
4. Tape – Now to avoid confusion and a hot mess, tape the area around the gap or uneven surface.
5. Caulk Away! – Now go ahead and use your caulk to fill and seal your gap. Additionally, if you have used excess caulk make sure to remove it by wiping.

Conclusion

Now you can go ahead and get rid of the breaches that are harming you and your wealth. However, before you follow these steps, make sure to read the instructions of the tools you use. Additionally, to decide which equipment you should buy, pay attention to the type of