April 2015 Activity -- DIY Caulking Workshop

Caulk It workshop provided by Moss Building and Design

Dominion Electric Supply Co., Lighting Showroom

14605 Lee Jackson Memorial Hwy Chantilly, VA 20151

Thursday, April 23, 2015: 5:30-7:30pm

Cost: Free

Honing our caulk handling skills.

This workshop was one in a series of women's workshops that Moss offers to teach women DIY home improvement skills. In addition to teaching proper caulking techniques and answering questions, Moss and Dominion provided hors d'oeuvres, wine, goody bags and raffles. And if we learned anything, it's that whenever we do home improvement projects in the future, we're going to insist upon having hors d'oeuvres, wine, goody bags and raffles. 

It's possible we missed the point. 

My friend from high school, Karen, joined me for this activity. Because when I think of someone who has handled her fair share of caulk...it's Karen. 

After mingling and enjoying some great food (some of which actually made it into my mouth after spilling most on my shirt and the floor), we took our seats for the demonstration and Q&A. And there were a lot of Q&A. It's like some of these women had never seen caulk before. Though to be fair, even those of us who were familiar learned a few new things. To wit:

• It's relatively simple once you know how to handle caulk properly
• The more you handle caulk, the more comfortable you'll be
• It is important that you have a good quality caulk
• You can cut the tip off the caulk to make it wider if you need to fill bigger spaces
• When caulking, you may have some shrinkage...it all depends upon the size of your gap.
• When working with caulk, work at a slow and consistent speed. This will make it smoother and make the job much easier
• For most jobs, you do not want a caulk with a glossy finish

The Instructor shows us his caulk.

After the instruction, two women came up front to show off what they learned and compete in a little hands-on caulk competition. 

You're looking at about 70 new caulk experts.

No need for activity recap over food and drink as it was provided during the activity. (And besides, we could not wait to get home and show off our new caulk-handling skills.)