TIL my cheap caulking gun was why my bathroom trim looked terrible

Watched a pro at the Habitat ReStore demo a Ratchet Rod caulk gun last Saturday, and now I finally understand why my beads always had those gaps and blobs - never going back to the $5 squeeze specials, has anyone else noticed how much simpler good tools make the finish work?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_wyatt28d ago

I was totally the guy who thought spending more than $10 on a caulk gun was a scam. Picked up one of those cheap ones at the hardware store and just accepted that I'd have to go back over every bead with my finger to smooth out the mess. Then my buddy let me borrow his ratchet rod one for a kitchen backsplash and holy crap, the difference is night and day. The rod moves so smooth and stops the second you let off the trigger, no more accidentally squeezing out a giant blob when you're repositioning your hand. Now I actually look forward to caulking jobs instead of dreading them.

susan13028d ago

Ha! I feel this in my soul. I once spent an entire afternoon fighting a $8 caulk gun and honestly I think the caulk won.

the_brian28d ago

That cheap caulk gun is a master of psychological warfare, you know? It'll give you just enough hope to keep going, then betray you with a sudden, unstoppable torrent of silicone right when you're almost done. I've got three of the duds in my basement because I keep thinking "this time will be different" and it never is. The worst is when you're doing a tight corner and the cheap trigger gives you that jerky, stuttering motion that leaves a mess of lumps and skipped spots. You spend more time cleaning up than you do actually laying the bead, and then you notice that one spot where you had to go back over it and now there's a visible line.