Best Caulking for Vinyl Windows. Tower Sealants AU-1 Sealer.

[Music] so i got a project here today we're working on caulking some windows customer had some brand new windows installed to replace aluminum windows with these vinyl windows and um no the trim was replaced but we're going to be caulking these windows now the window installers had two products that they were going to use to and caught the one windows and i grabbed one of each of them one of them was quad and the other is dap caulking and i just told them you know hold on i'll take care of the caulking myself you know i got a lot of experience caulking i wanted it to look super nice so i'm using a method called sponge caulking and i'm gonna end up using a product from tower sealants which is a u1 and i'll talk a little bit about why i use that product and why i wouldn't use uh these two products first off that this was uh alex fast dry caulking one of the problems with dap caulking is it doesn't adhere very well it dries out pretty fast and cracks pretty fast then we're gonna use this on the inside the dap and the quad max on the outside and i would never caulk windows i would never anything for that matter on you know on a house using dap caulking it's a low low end caulking it's not something you know i would high i would recommend it all so on the inside of we're going to be using tower sealants au1 on the inside and outside but i wouldn't use that um sealants for the reasons i said it dries out really fast doesn't bond really well doesn't expand and contract very well either with the house so there's a lot of movement in the house it's going to crack and separate right quite fast quad this is a really good product now this would work well on the outside but the reason why i wouldn't use quad this is not a water-based product so you're going to have to clean up your hands and everything with mineral spirits and i like using a sponge caulking method to get my beads really really well this product it says right on the back of the instructions do not tool the product so you apply it and leave it and so you're not going to get a nice smooth bead and you're not going to get nice corners with it because you can't tool it and once again if you tried to tool it you'd have to use like mineral spirits then you're getting mineral spirits on your hands because you can't really caulk and tool you know with gloves on your hands so you would have to use bare hands with mineral spirits so it's not a great option the best option to me is tower sealants this is a water-based product this will span the gaps of up to two inches so it's going to span large gaps i'm going to be there are some of the windows that have a gap you know about a half inch gap we're using a backer rod to fill it in so you don't fill that whole gap with caulking and just pump tons of caulking in there we've put back a rod in and then go right over the top of it with our au1 i like this product because it is water-based and it bonds better than any product i've ever used before and over the long run versus quad it's going to um expand and contract better and have more flexibility but it is water-based so it's just easy to work with i can sponge caulk use my sponge caulking method it goes in a standard caulking gun which is nice also so i'm just caulking these windows once again these gaps right here these are small gaps i don't have to put any backer rod in and so i can just cut them with just using my sponge talking method and i'll show you what that looks like i just use a caulking sponge just like this i bring it all out cut my tip of my caulking at a 45 degree angle that 45 degree angle is going to lay on my surface flat on my surface and that's what's going to get the caulking down into the crack you don't want your 45 degree angle sideways or up you want it flat on your surface i'm only going to apply enough caulking to fill that gap if you put too much caulking you're going to get you're going to be wiping off a lot of caulking that's going to be wasted material but it's also going to get on your trim and on your window so i'm just going to run my bead on there i like to just watch make sure i'm filling my gap i'm just going to go slow enough just take your time tube clean fill that gap you don't want to do too much caulking at once because if your caulking starts to dry it doesn't tool very well one of the other reasons why i like this tower au1 it tools amazing it's like butter so you can use it comes in big old huge sausage packs you can use it on concrete tilt-ups that's what it was designed for so the large gaps and concrete tilt-ups it's paintable so i'm gonna do two sides wet my finger just press down just enough where i can feel the caulking i'm pressing it down in getting a nice bead trying to keep as much off the vinyl window you want to use a a caulking like this is a construction grade sealant right here and you got these white vinyl windows you want to get a good seal on these windows you want to get a good bond because they're kind of they're a gloss vinyl and so if you buy an inexpensive caulking or a cheap caulking try to save money like that you're not going to get a good bond to your vinyl window and it will separate probably within a year or two so caulking just takes you just takes time you don't want to be in a hurry just pressing down slightly i'll just keep wetting my finger until i get my corner perfect the way i want it now i'll do the other two edges the inside is nice and tight so i'll have to use backer rod now if you could like with quad quad says you can't tool it you would just put it on just like that you'd have to be very particular very slow with your bead to get a nice bead it's going to stay kind of rounded full and kind of like bumpy kind of like a weld but with au1 i can go right over it tool it just like this with my finger and i don't use any type there's like little tools that you were sold that the tool caulking with but it never works as well is the good old-fashioned pattern your finger you see i just keep wetting my sponge over and over those corners i want my corners super smooth nice and tight you want to make sure you go slow enough that you're putting your caulking into that gap and i'm watching it come out of the end of the tube up into the crack i can see it filling [Music] after every window i'm just going to clean my caulking sponge so i keep a bucket of warm water it's got a bucket of warm water here so i don't want to get a lot of caulking built up on my sponge now go outside we'll caulk the outside of the window now so i got my gap on the outsides is bigger than in the inside so i'm going to cut my tube of my caulking a little bit bigger still at a 45 degree angle none of these gaps are big enough that i need to use the backer rod on the other window i had with gap that was big enough i used bachelor rod [Music] it's really hot outside so you can't go very far before your caulking will start to skim over on the top and not be very toolable so you want to be aware of how hot it is how fast your caulking is drying [Music] just like that this window inside and outside is all done got four more windows to do [Music]