DIY Flexible Caulking Tube Nozzle Extension

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Danny Lipford: How can an ordinary drinking straw and a roll of duct tape help you out on your caulking chores? Well, Joe will tell you how.

Joe Truini: How you doing, Danny?

Danny Lipford: Good.

Joe Truini: In this case I’ve got a large gap behind this exterior door trim. So I need to fill it with some caulk, because water’s been running down there and blistering off the paint. But if you use a typical gun with a cartridge, you can’t reach in there because this light fixture is in the way.

What I’ve done is I’ve modified the caulking cartridge by adding a flexible drinking straw—simply duct taped it right to the nozzle. What that allows me to do is apply caulk directly into the crack. Not only can I reach it now easily, but you can see I can now feed the straw all the way in there and deliver caulk way back there where you really need it.

Danny Lipford: Now I can think of a number of applications where you can use that on the interior as well.

Joe Truini: Yeah. I’ve used this to apply caulk behind windowsills where it would have been impossible to reach from the inside because it was back four or five inches.

Danny Lipford: Now one of the things Joe had to do in modifying the actual end of the tube, is he had to cut the end of the drinking straw a little bit to allow it to position over the caulking tube itself. Then the duct tape held it in place so that it would flow real easily.

Also, another great tip, anytime you’re caulking, make sure your caulking tubes are at least at room temperature or a little warmer, and that will allow the caulking to flow a lot better and make your job a lot easier.