How to Remove Silicone Caulk

LESLIE: Richard in Texas, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you today?

RICHARD: I was putting up some cedar lap siding around the house. And I discovered, after the fact, that in my – I had a basket full of tubes of caulking and one of them turned out to be silicone.

TOM: OK.

RICHARD: I didn’t discover that until after the fact. And I was wondering, is there any way to make that paintable?

TOM: There’s no real way to make it paintable. I suppose if you used a good-quality primer on top, you might have half a chance at it. But how much of it is that obvious? Is it – first of all, is it a different color or is it clear?

RICHARD: Well, yeah. Well, it’s a different color than what I’m going to paint the house.

TOM: I see.

RICHARD: It’s in one corner. I had a hired hand out here helping me and he didn’t realize.

TOM: Well, there’s a way to remove that. If it’s just all in that one section, Richard, why don’t you just spend a little time taking it out? There’s a product called “caulk softener” and it’s basically – it’s kind of like a paint remover for caulk. And you apply it to it and it kind of gets sort of gummy again and you can scrape it out with a putty knife, clean it up as much as you can, especially if you’re going to paint it. You could – I’m sure you can get rid of enough of that to be able to paint and never see it again.

RICHARD: Alright, man. Hey, thank you so much, man. I really love you guys’ show here. You’re real helpful.