Consider Climate and Top Coat Type

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Should You Caulk Cabinets Before Painting? When to Caulk and When Not to!

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What happens here

The presenter explains how environmental factors, specifically the climate, and the type of top coat significantly influence the success of caulking. In very dry climates, like Idaho's high desert, there is minimal wood expansion and contraction, making caulking more stable. However, in wet or humid climates (e.g., coastal areas), significant wood movement can cause caulk to crack. Additionally, the choice of top coat is crucial: a flexible, water-based poly-urethane (PU) is less likely to crack than a rigid lacquer finish when wood movement occurs.

Goal: Understand how climate and top coat characteristics impact caulking durability.

Tools and materials

Lacquer — As a less flexible top coat that may crack if used over caulked panels that move
Water-based Poly-urethane — As a more flexible top coat that is less likely to crack over moving panels

What they say

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not as expensive of a cabinet so you know you just got to take every situation you know and look at the situation and determine you know what should you do in this situation also climate has a lot to do you know with um should you your panels or not caulk your panels so our climate here in idaho is an extremely dry climate and so you don't have a lot of expansion and contraction and you don't have a lot of moisture it's very very dry very area we live in boise believe it or not is high desert so um you know it's we do have success caulking them if you lived in a really wet climate like down by the coast you know maybe caulking the panels wouldn't be recommended so you really have to look at where you're at the climate you're at and um you know what type of doors you're dealing with what type of wood species you're dealing with and um do the panels actually float or not grab these panels even on these doors here i can grab i showed you this panel tight does not float i can grab this panel try to move it around and that thing is tight it is not moving around there's not going to be any expansion contraction in any cracking of the caulking and also your top coat if you're using a lacquer as a top coat if there's any expansion and contraction the lacquer would be more likely to uh crack and break than if you use say like a water-based renner coating that's more flexible like a pu you're gonna have more flexibility less likely that it's going to crack so you it's really just you know every situation you just have to take

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