A homeowner told me my caulk lines looked like 'a kid with a glue gun' and I had to rethink everything

I was finishing up a bathroom tile job in Columbus last month and the lady straight up pointed at my bead work and said that. Turns out I was moving too fast and not using enough backer rod in the gaps. Has anyone else had a client call them out on something that made you totally change your technique?

3 comments

3 Comments

patkelly21d ago

3/8 gaps are where backer rod really earns its keep, I learned that the hard way too. @grant.jade has a point about leaving some character though, when I stopped trying to make every line look machined the jobs actually felt less stressful.

grant.jade25d ago

Three years ago I had a guy in Akron tell me my caulk work was "too perfect" and that it actually looked unnatural. He said real craftsmen have slight imperfections because it proves its hand done and not some factory robot nonsense. So I actually backed off on the consistency and now I leave tiny variations on purpose. @miles798 I get the frosting bag thing but man, sometimes overthinking pressure control makes it look sterile. Backer rod is solid advice though, cant argue with physics.

miles79825d ago

...and that's exactly why I switched to using a frosting bag for caulk work after my neighbor's kid squirted a line of toothpaste across the bathroom mirror and it looked cleaner than my actual bead work. Honest to god I spent like three hours watching YouTube videos about pressure control and tip angles, even practiced on cardboard boxes before I touched another real job. The backer rod thing is huge though, I used to think it was just extra fluff but now I won't touch a gap bigger than a quarter inch without it. Your client was harsh but honestly, that kind of feedback sticks with you way more than any praise ever does.

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