How to Caulk and Seal Around Windows and Doors

Gaps around windows let heated and cooled air escape and increase your energy bills. See some easy tips for how to caulk and seal gaps and cracks around windows and doors.

Check this out, you can see our trim has separated from our window and believe it or not this tiny little gap can cause a lot of the inside air to escape. That means the heater or the air conditioner is going to work overtime and a lot less efficiently. What we’re going to do is seal the gap and in this case because it is so small were just going to use some nice quality exterior latex caulk. All we have to do is run a bead into the gap, we’ll come back push that in place, smooth it out and once these cures up we’ll be able to paint this. And we want to do that around all of the windows around the house. Now if you have a gap that’s a little larger than a quarter of an inch say it’s a half an inch or so, what you want to do is run down to your hardware store, the home center, pick up some bone back of rod push this into a gap first then you can caulk on top of that. Now you will have some gaps that are even larger than that, it maybe around the dryer vent possibly some plumping pipes you want to fill that too and what you want to use is an expandable foam. You just quirt this into it, it expands as the name applies and once it’s cures and you let it cure because it will be messy otherwise, you come back and just trim it down flush with the outside of the house you can actually paint even stain it to match the exterior and then you’re ready to go.