Where will you be when mold strikes?

Let me preface with this. I'm going to be saying caulk quite a bit, take it how you want, but I will be laughing my ass off writing this with some of the phrases I have (or want) to use.

The worst thing about bathrooms is keeping them clean. With all the moisture from steam, it becomes a playground for mold and other nasty things. This is why caulk was invented. The caulking around the tub is meant to keep moisture out of the hard to clean places in-between the tub and the wall or the tub and the floor. Over time the caulking starts to breakdown and gets really nasty. So you should probably redo it.

Here is a list of the things you'll need

• A caulk gun
• Bathroom caulk (Make sure it is the color you want. Caulk usually comes in clear and white, and sometimes other colors)
• A utility knife
• A razor blade scraper

Now this is one of the messier household projects that I've taken on. Some people have a gift for it and can get it done with relative cleanliness.

What you'll do first is remove all the existing caulking. Take the utility knife and run it first vertical along the caulk all the way around the tub, and then horizontally along the bottom. This should leave you with a long strip of old caulk that will pull off easily.

Then take the razor blade scraper and take off any remaining caulk that is stuck to either the wall or to the tub. Doing this will ensure when you put on the fresh caulk, there won't be any bad caulk underneath that prevents it from getting a good seal.

Then you take the tube of caulk and put it in the caulk gun. This link has pictures on how to do it.

Once you start to get to caulking, put a thin bead along anywhere the tub meets another surface.

Then take your finger and with barely any pressure run your finger along it to press it into the seam and to make a smooth line of caulk.

This takes a little bit of practice as you learn how much caulk to lay and how much pressure to put on the caulk to make it smooth.

And in that process, you will probably get caulk all over the place. A good practice is to lay down some plastic or something so that it doesn't get where you don't want it to. It should go without saying but wear something you don't mind getting messed up. If you do need to get it off your clothes, remove it as quickly as possible and use WD-40 to remove the remaining residue.

But once you get all the caulking smooth just let it sit and don't mess with it. The caulk will need about a day to dry to be safe. If you get any water on it, the water will get underneath the caulk and mold, causing you to have to replace the caulk quicker than you wanted to.

I hope this post was as fun for you to read as it was for me to write. And if not, you don't have to tell me I have the mind of a child, I already know.