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Stesso

Caulk Gaps and Cut Ends

17:19
22:47
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Flawless Interior Trim Prep & Paint | Pro Tips for Airless Sprayer Finish (New Construction)

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What happens here

The final step before priming is caulking. Load your caulk gun with a high-quality caulk. Apply a bead of caulk to all joints where trim meets the wall, and importantly, to any exposed cut ends of MDF (Medium-Density Fiberboard) trim. MDF cut ends can swell and become rough when exposed to water-based paints. A good technique to prevent this and ensure a smooth finish is to use a wet sponge (or a wet finger) to smooth out the caulk immediately after application. This action pushes the caulk into the porous MDF, sealing it and preventing swelling, resulting in a much cleaner, smoother appearance than just priming and painting over rough MDF cut ends. Work systematically around each door jamb and trim piece, cleaning the sponge as needed to avoid spreading excess caulk.

Goal: Apply caulk to all gaps between trim pieces and walls, and specifically to the cut ends of MDF trim, smoothing it with a wet sponge for a seamless finish.

Tools and materials

  • Caulk Gun
  • Wet Sponge
  • Big Stretch Caulk Big Stretch

What they say

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[Music] some cocking. you know, this door jam just and I'm going to give you a little tip. When this is MDF, which you know, when you spray it with, you know, your paint, especially a water-based product, it swells up, kind of gets rough like sandpaper. Um, you could prime it, you'll brush it, and it's kind of like a pain in the neck to deal with. You know, that's the the carpenters, that's just how they leave it. A good little tip, method to deal with it is just put some cocking on the end of it. Smear that cocking. The cocking is going to smooth it out. It's going to seal it from your water-based paint and keeping that from swelling up. Now, I just take my finger, you know, smooth it out the best you can so it actually looks smooth like the rest of the trim. And now that's going to be sealed and it's going to look so much better. Like once if you were to prime it and then paint it, sand it and you can brush it again, it's not going to look nearly as good as actually doing this caulking method. So just a simple little tip dealing with cut ends of the MDF that the carpenters you haven't put a nice reveal on. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]

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