Silicone caulk won't setup - what went wrong?

15 years ago

OK,

This shower is the about to do me in. If you read my earlier post about the shower leaking, my visiting BIL found a crack along the curb where the marble threshold meets the tile. He fixes that, everywhere else looks great, no problems.

So he reinstalls the shower door, silicone caulks the sides/bottoms etc. Looks great, says you can use it in a day or two when the caulk is set.

It's been 24 hours and the caulk feels like vaseline. Before he left and the caulk had been on an hour or two, it felt so greasy, so I asked him what he used, and why it was taking so long to set. He pulled out the caulk tube - mildew resistant, 100% silicone caulk for bath and kitchen use. Nothing out of the ordinary. He said maybe because it was really warm and humid out it's taking longer to cure etc. My house is air conditioned! It's not that humid inside that caulk would still feel sticky like freshly applied caulk almost 24 hours later???

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Comments (3)

MongoCT
15 years ago
If there is latent water behind the crack, I suppose a latex or maybe even a siliconized-latex could taking a while to set up.

For silicon, the only time I've heard of it not setting was when it was an old tube, a bit past its prime.

Even if the crack wasn't cleaned well, the silicon might lose it's grip, but it should still cure.

Sorry I don't have better info for you, fortunately it's not something I've had to deal with.

Mongo
jlcjlr
15 years ago
I'll bet the caulk had expired. The same happened to me. I had used a tube and 1/2 for a project and part of it didn't set up. I noticed the tube that was still in the caulk gun had expired about a year prior. I took it back to HD and got a refund. Nothing to do but clean it out and re-caulk.
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jhbrandt51_aol_com
12 years ago
Same problem. I am in Las Vegas and my truck gets to somewhere near a million degrees F here. I think that is the problem. I use the tubes within 30 days of openning. I have had the problem a few times. If there is no setup caulk in the nozzel I throw it away.