Which sealant?

Polymer sealant/adhesive is really good stuff, but pretty expensive and hard to apply as it is so thick. We use it for bonding pvc to all sorts. Even works in the wet. Great stuff.

The Dow corning 796 is a good silicone. It is thicker than other silicones, but tends to tool up very well and lasts. It's the silicone I used on my own house and still looking great after a few years. Cheaper silicones tend to fray when cleaned a few times, but this stuff holds up really well. That price is ridiculously expensive, but I guess you dont need much. It does say for outside use, but I have found it works just as well inside when sealing to pvc beading.

For outside i'd recommend using a wooden peg, soaked in soapy water to tool the silicone up.
 
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Have used a lot of Dow corning 796 sealant, as said it's very good.

One thing I've noticed, is the price of quality sealant like Dow corning as gone up a lot in price.
Bought some Plumbers Gold sealant last week at Toolstation £6:22p now.:eek::(
 
If you have a GAP (General allpurpose plastics) store near you, they will do you a good price if you buy from them a lot. I think we pay £1.70 a tube for the Dow Corning sealant.

We also buy Soudal silrub 2 @£1.40 a tube. They used to stock a 'thick' version that was a lot easier to tool up but have stopped selling it now. That one reason we started getting the more expensive DC, as it's better for tooling up outside and doesn't tend to sink in on the larger gaps.
 
That's very much people, ill go for the Dow Corning.

We have a few trades merchants in my town so ill try one of those for a better price, however if it comes to the crunch, I don't mind paying out the full wack :)
 
I always use Dow Corning now. It's the daddy and screwfix sometimes have offers on it. The sanitary stuff is excellent, should you ever find yourselves re-siliconing your bathroom.
 
When I fitted two Velux windows, I popped along to a local window company and got 12 tubes of silicon sealant (white and clear) for £12.

May I suggest you do the same and save yourself some money? :)
 
The pro's use expanding foam to fill the GAP between frame and hole in the wall.

Then they fit beading on the frame butted up to the wall then silicone to wall
 
gillywibble said:
If it's from a window fitting company, it will be better than anything you can get in a hardware store.
Click to expand...

That statement is just wrong. Why do you think the source of hardware store silicone must be so much worse than the source of window fitting company silicone? Where do you think some window fitting companies buy their silicone from? Do you think Screwfix, a hardware store, only supply silicone that is worse than that supplied from your local window fitter?

It MIGHT be better, but not necessarily. At £1 a pop though, I'd be amazed if it wasn't total pap.

Perhaps you could report back in 3 years when yours is gappy and split, and people who bought Dow Corning still have a perfect white bead :D.
 
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Okay it might not be better, but it won't be worse. Window installers have to provide a guarantee and hence they're not going to risk having to replace poor quality sealant in addition to any further liability that could arise.

It hasn't split, leaked or shrunk after several years.
 
You can get every type of silicone from hardware stores, so a window firm wont have super secret stuff that nobody else can get hold of. Really big firms like Anglian use LMN (low modulus neutral cure), but they have had the bottles branded with their name.

It'll be cheapo stuff for £1 a tube though. Or it could be that it was getting towards the end of the shelf life and they wanted to shift some.
 
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Well started work this morning, jobs complete and looks lovely :)

The sealant was UNAVAILABLE from Wickes so I went to see a friend who's a joiner and he sorted me out.

The thing that's struck me the most, is the colour match. You have to look very hard to find where the bead begins and ends.

Anyway, a job well done :)
 
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