I am a homeowner who uses caulking sporadically. What is the best way to reseal the tube for use in 6 months or even a year later? Is there an industry agreed upon method?
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2Does this answer your question? What is the best way to seal caulk tube? & also How to ensure silicone gun products last as long as possible– TetsujinCommented Jan 29 at 9:19
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Great. Thank you!– pkoutCommented Jan 29 at 21:09
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2 Answers
The "Industry Agreed Upon Method" you seek is buy a new tube in 6 months to a year. Industry hasn't got much reason to spend worker time and storage space on saving an expendable product that is always better and more reliable when fresh. Of course, industry also typically has another job less than a week away where it can be used without taking too many precautions. So methods for saving caulking for a long time come from homeowners and similar small-time users.
Noting first that success is far from guaranteed, my personal approach is to tie or tape a bit of plastic bag over the nozzle and then pump out enough caulking to fill the small pouch of plastic bag. I'm looking for something in the golf-ball size range, not a marble and not a tennis ball. I do this because past experience with capping the spout is that the stuff in the end of the spout always hardens - the blob over the end of the spout makes the amount that has to harden to get where it's difficult to remove from the spout greater, and gives a handle to slowly stretch and pull out if it's not hardened too far into the nozzle. It's a balance of wasting some caulking to hopefully be able to use the rest.
If you happen to live in a market where screw-on spouts are standard, you may have better options. I had some specialized Aquarium silicone that had managed to plug up the nozzle, BUT it was one with a screw-on nozzle (not standard in my market area) and the base of the nozzle was not yet hard, so I was able to get it out by unscrewing the nozzle.
As a last gasp after the nozzle is irretrievably plugged, you can cut the tube open, where you may find the whole tube has hardened and you throw it away, or you can do one more job by spreading the caulking with a puttyknife, and then throw what's left away.
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You make a good point. Professionals never need the tube for 6+ months. For us homeowners, sometimes we use the tube once before it ends up drying out. I'll try the golf-ball size ball option. I understand what you mean by balancing wasting material and buying extra time. Thank you!– pkoutCommented Jan 29 at 2:34
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2"Professionals" FREQUENTLY have use for expensive specialty caulks/sealants that may be called for again only 6 mo.s, a year, or two years down the line, and therefore will be interested in preserving their leftovers. Wrapping the tips in some sort of air-and-moisture-impervious tape is about the best I've come up with, with generally sad results. Perhaps contractors could combat this loss from another angle: only give customers 2 or 3 choices of grout color, instead of the 40 or 50 which have their own matching caulk colors. Commented Jan 29 at 3:25
One trick is to unscrew the nozzle, put some cling flim/saran wrap around the end of the tube, and then screw the nozzle back on. This will seal the tube, and slow the rate that it goes off. Placing a nail into the nozzle will slow the rate that the nozzle gets gummed up, but it may need to replaced before using the tube again.
