Four Benefits Of Caulking Your Home

Caulking is a method of using a sealant to cover cracks, gaps, and holes in the home’s exterior before painting them over. This is a way to repair minor irregularities and flaws to maintain the house’s aesthetic and present a finished product that is even, uniform, and clean. It is also important for filling in cracks and spots that can trap moisture and air, which can be breeding grounds for mold growth and causing structural damage. In the wider span of maintaining the home, these can improve your utility costs and reduce the need for additional heating and cooling equipment. Here are the benefits of caulking your home.

Reduce Utility Costs

Cracks and gaps in the home’s exterior can cause hot and cold air loss from the interior to be a critical issue. Caulking is a way to seal off that opening and prevent this from becoming a bigger issue. In addition, drafts are common in borders around doors and window frames, wall panels, and baseboards. This could cause serious problems during the summer and winter seasons, where colder air can escape during the hot periods, and warmer air could seep out during the cold periods. As a result, you will need to crank up your heater or your air-conditioning unit to compensate for these losses, driving your utility expenses up significantly. Therefore, caulking your home before entering those peak summer and winter periods is one of the most critical maintenance works you should prioritize.

Prevent Further Degradation from External Elements

Emphasizing the last point, drafts around the trims and seams of windows and doors are a critical issue that caulking could resolve. Sealing these gaps can hastily fix any dust and dirt entering the home. When water from thawed snow and ice enter these openings, it could expedite the structural degradation of your home. Moisture can cause structural framings such as wood to warp and rot, wallpapers to peel, leading to mold and mildew growth. This could affect the home’s interior, causing an unpleasant-smelling odor that could spread to carpet floorings.

Air-tight, Waterproof Seal

Caulking with sealants like polyurethane can create an air-tight, waterproof seal that stops water leaking from showers and taps from entering cracks of the wall and floors. Without sealing these openings, the water can cause irreversible structural damage in the walls and flooring that can be extremely expensive to repair. It can also cause damage to the countertop of the sink, causing and expediting mildew growth in these areas. Therefore, the areas around sinks and faucets are caulked to prevent these damages from happening.

Pest Prevention

Pests such as termites and ants will often enter your home through uncaulked cracks and openings and can inhabit the interior structures of your home. In some horror stories, they can build their nests and colonies within the walls of your home. This can cause gradual but severe structural damages to your home, and before you know it, you might be too late. Additionally, calling a pest exterminator isn’t going to be friendly to your wallet. As prevention is better than cure, caulking is a better solution to this issue, preventing your home from further erosion.