Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I'm going to caulk around the holes/tubing in my floor where the water lines pass through, I've already sealed the edges of the plywood. Caulk choices are:

Dap Alex Plus Acylic Latex plus Silicone, indoor/outdoor.

Lexel, petroleum based, indoor/outdoor.

Dap Butyl gutter and flashing (don't laugh, this stuff is great).


or.....??

I've learned here to avoid silicone around windows (used butyl for that).

I used Acrylic Latex plus Silicone. It seams to be holding up good. I used it because I had it for other things on my tear and I could paint it.

Just asking? I really do not know?
What's wrong with using sillycone?

I worked in auto body shops for years where getting things clean was a premium...in our case it was usually silicon spray lubricants but it's the same principle. If anything comes in contact with 100% silicon calk or spray lubricant the surface becomes practically unpaintable. And t's about impossible to ever get it clean enough to take paint. Usually paint will just bead up when applied over a surface that has been in contact with silcon calk. Even if you clean the surface and the paint doesn't bead up it will usually lift off when it dries.
When I do any work on my house or cars I avoid silicon products if the word "paint" is in the future. For my build I used the acrylic silicon...I think the stuff I used was labelled "siliconized"...make sure that someplace on the label the description says "paintable".
It fills gaps and gets rubbery just like 100% silicon when it hardens...maybe not quite as flexible.
The big benefit is that you can paint it and all the adjoining surfaces it gets smeared on.

I'm planning on using Shell Tixophalt. It's a flexible bituman based product in a sillycone style tube. It's supposed to stay flexible & move to accomodate gaps changing size when the temperate goes up or down. On a house it can tolerate being a gap ( I forget what the size limit is ) filler between two planks ( or whatever ) , without any support underneath it. NB It's not UV stable, after 3 months.

Although I suspect that anything similar should do the job.

davidt

really good advice on the paintable bit. Probably should have known about that before I caulked my house's kitchen backsplash and got non-paintable caulk on the painted surface. Oops.

The Dap Alex Plus Acylic Latex plus Silicone, indoor/outdoor, turns out to be paintable and water cleanup. I'll look for something very flexible when doing around the big hoses because I'm sure they will move and break a non-flexible caulk.

For attaching/sealing under a galley hinge, you might try the 3M 5200 adhesive sealant. It's made for affixing the transom tubes on boats, it's submersible when cured and I haven't found anything it won't stick to. Available in small tubes and cartridges for a caulking gun. Thing is, once opened, it's shelf life has begun, small tubes work great on the galley hinge. It takes about 5 days to fully cure, but it's good stuff. For storage, I push out all the air in the tube, put a small piece of saran wrap over the end and screw the cap on. It's not very removable when cured, so tape off your edges and use a finger to smooth, pull the tape for a clean edge. Doesn't say if it's paintable, but I paint it and it seems to hold the paint. Doug

I agree with Doug. 3m 5200 is some strong stuff. I used it on my boat transom and it is holding strong.

I work in the marine industry, and dealwith 5200 often. It is probaly the best adhesive I have ever come across. Anyways, 3M also makes a quck curing version that sets up in a day if thats better for you. One has a red label, the other a blue label, I believe both are labled 5200.

Thanks Mike, didn't know that, I've only used the blue label material. doug