Caulking

[chopnhack]

Old credit cards can be cut to size and work just as well as the commercial version. Its just plastic! Wet fingers have caulked miles for me, but siliconized caulk can be a bear. You just can't work it the same way as latex. The best way i have found so far is to run the bead with a wet finger, but before your finger gets too much build up (which with latex you could always keep running without it messing up your bead) stop, wipe off the excess, rewet the finger and continue. Bead comes out just as nice as latex, but has all the benefits in a wet area of silicone type caulks.

[Bigbit]

I kept after him and bribed him with a bag of fresh cookies my wife had just baked. He broke down. The solution was half water and half denatured alcohol.

I now carry a small bottle in my tool bag at all times. It allows me to smooth every caulk line perfectly. I also learned that old dogs can learn new tricks from the young pups!

My brother taught me to lay the caulk, then spray it with a spray bottle of Windex, then run my finger over the bead to smooth it out. This technique has worked well for me. The blue Windex color lets you see where / how much you've sprayed.

[430752]

I vote for the wet finger and damp paper towel mehtod. Luckily, I have 5 fingers (well, 4 digits and a Supervisor) which give me near infinite profiles with which to smooth out the caulk. When a finger builds up, wipe it off on the towel. For really showy areas, I break out a small bowl with warm water to get a better rinse of the finger. Don't forget the "final run" of one, long, uninterrupted swipe since several smaller finger runs interrupted by wipes on a towel will lead to a series of stutter-step indentations every foot or two. Yep, spend more time on the freakin' caulking job than installing whatever is being caulked!