One of those big jobs around the house that you always put off for too long. Exterior house repairs and repainting on a house the is about 7000 square feet.
I decided to take the summer and so my job started in May of 2009 and finished at the end of July. May and June were wonderful times to be working on the house but, July came down hard with the heat.
I did all the research I could handle through books and on line and I felt that I was ready to tackle the big job. The house hadn't been painted since I first moved in back in June 2000 so, there was a lot of caulking to be redone along with some wood repairs.
The wood work was pretty much a breeze as this was my forte. I had also done all f the wood prep before paint was to start. Sanding, scraping and hand cleaning with TSP. Wood fill was needed in a few spots but it was nothing serious.
The caulking on the other hand was a huge job. Almost every window had to be redone and where ever I had replaced wood the edges and butts had to be caulked. My research pointed me to Acrylic/ Latex caulk as it was flexible and paintable. Off I went to my local H.D. for additional advice and product purchases. One big difference this time though. All of my paint purchases were done through CIL. A company they is a specialist in this area.
The caulking on the other couldn't be that big of a deal and so taking the advice from the H.D. specialist I made my purchase but in a small amount just to be on the safe side.
My first weekend of caulking went well. The product applied quite well and was easy to work with. Used up all of the caulk supplies over the weekend and on Monday I was back to finish my purchase of caulking materials. The week went by very fast and the caulking was working great. Once all of the caulking was applied I decided to take a few days off from the job just to make sure the caulking was properly cured before I painted.
To make this long story a short one. Major product failure. All of the caulking I used shrunk, cracked and curled up. H.D's response was they couldn't understand why the product failed but they will reimburse me for the caulking I bought and said that they would remove the product right away. They did point out to me that they were doing me a favour as this was an isolated incident.
Fast forward to October 2009 and the caulking product is still n H.D's shelves and I have heard from a lot of people who have had the same issue with the same caulking I purchased.
Yes, I did get my money back and the work... my job became much bigger.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $2,500.00