Unpopular opinion: caulking around baseboards doesn't always look better

My painter buddy told me last week that leaving a small gap actually lets the wood breathe in older houses like mine from the 50s, and after seeing how my trim cracked after I sealed it tight, I gotta wonder if he's onto something. Anyone else notice their caulk lines splitting after one humid summer?

3 comments

3 Comments

reese_nelson1mo agoOG Member

My 1920s craftsman had me totally convinced that caulk was the answer to everything until last fall when I watched a three month old bead of silicone just peel right off the baseboard like a strip of old bacon. I saw @joelt70 mention the cracking problem and that's exactly what happened to me - every single corner split open after the first real heatwave hit. My dad used to swear by the old latex caulk that stayed flexible for years but I guess that stuff is impossible to find now. It makes total sense that a rigid seal in a house that's been settling for seventy years is just asking for problems. I finally pulled all my caulk out and switched to that paintable acrylic stuff that stays soft and my trim actually looks better even with a small gap left at the bottom.

joelt701mo ago

Oh man, you're spot on with this. I did the same thing in my 1960s ranch house last summer, sealed everything tight with that expensive paintable caulk. Come August, every single seam had hairline cracks running through them. My next door neighbor's an old school contractor and he laughed at me, said modern caulk doesn't stretch like the old stuff and older houses are always shifting. I ripped it all out and now I just leave a tiny gap and use paintable filler that stays soft. The house seems to settle way better without those rigid seals popping everywhere. Your painter buddy knows what he's talking about for sure, these old places need room to move.

lee.drew1mo ago

My buddy Mike re-did his whole 1940s bungalow bathroom two years ago, caulked every single baseboard seam with that high-end stuff from the hardware store. By the end of that first humid summer, three separate sections had these ugly little cracks and one piece actually lifted right off the wood. He showed me a photo on his phone and it looked like the caulk just gave up completely. He ended up scraping it all out and now just paints the gap with a flexible caulk that stays gummy even after it dries. His bathroom looks way cleaner now and he hasn't touched it since.