Caulking Moulding-to-Cabinet Joints
Ways to get a decent color match with caulk and nail-hole filler on painted cabinet trim. September 11, 2006
Question
We pre-finish most of our jobs. Most are stained. Some are painted with glaze. The crown and other molds look fine on the stained and paint/glaze jobs without caulking. The color putties usually are acceptable for the pin nail holes. But when we do pure white or any solid light painted jobs, the crown needs caulking and the puttied holes aren't acceptable. What are others doing to touch these things up after install?
Forum Responses
(Finishing Forum)
From contributor D:
You have to go back over the puttied nail holes with the paint and a small artists' brush. Quick dry vinyl spackle makes for good putty doing this. As for the caulk? Next one we do, I'm going to mix some color with the caulk, maybe let it dry out a little, and try to get it back in the tube or into something new and see how that works.
From contributor K:
Red Devil makes a caulk kit called Create A Color which includes a mixing system where you just add latex paint into the tube and mix it right in the tube. I have been using it for years and it is great, but remember that it dries much darker than the color in the tube.
From contributor R:
We assemble a lot of marble and granite pieces. A lot of the time we need to make a matching caulk by mixing latex caulks together or with paint or tints. Clean out a tube and reuse it or you can buy empty tubes from marine supply houses that are used for applying epoxy.
From contributor V:
I use translucent silicone. It just makes joints kind of disappear and blend in. It's quite inconspicuous on fairly tight joints; takes a good eye to even know it's there.
From contributor W:
Where do you get that? What is the product name and number?
From contributor V:
Nuflex 302 general purpose silicone 302 translucent by Nuco.
