Safe Caulk and Preprimed Wood
QUESTION:
1) I’m needing to do some caulking on the outside of my house, but near my bedroom window so I want to use a safe one. You mention, in Home Safe Home, there is a safe brand. Could you disclose that to me? I’d appreciate it.
2) The contractor wants to use a pre-primed wood instead of priming the wood and then painting. My fear would that this pre-primed wood will be treated beforehand. Have you had experience with something like this?
I hope to hear from you soon. It’s always scary to do something to my house for fear of reacting to whatever it is. Thanks.
POSTED BY S. J. :: CALIFORNIA USA :: 09/05/2006 1:35 PM
DEBRA'S ANSWER:
The brand I was referring to in my book was DAP, which at the time did not list hazardous chemicals on their MSDS sheet for DAP Acrylic Latex Caulk, DAP Acrylic Latex Caulk with Silicone, or DAP Dow Corning 100% Silicone Sealant. However, since (researched in 2003--this is part of the problem when publishers take a year to get a book in print) then they have apparenetly changed their formulas and now their MSDS lists chemicals like formaldehyde and ethylene glycol. So I no longer recommend them.
Check the search results for caulk on my on-site search engine. A few of the natural building websites have caulk. See what they recommend.
About the pre-primed wood, I would think that wood that is pre-primed is only wood and primer. And pre-primed woood would be less toxic than priming wood on-site because there would be more time to allow the primer to dry before you are exposed to it. Also, primer is often pretty toxic--moreso than paint--so I think it would be better for you to not be around primer if you can arrange that.
The only way to know for sure what else might be on the wood is to find out the specific manufacturer and contact them.
Debra :-)
I just checked the MSDS list today and DAP sells two products that sound interesting. My husband easily found the Painters Acrylic Latex Caulk in our local hardware store and is bringing home a tube for us to test our reactivness. Maybe the company changed the recipe back to the original.
DAP Painters Acrylic Latex Caulk
Ingredients from MSDS/Label
Chemical CAS No / Unique ID Percent
Calcium carbonate (Limestone) 001317-65-3
Water 007732-18-5
DAP Alex Plus Acrylic Latex Caulk Plus Silicone
Ingredients from MSDS/Label
Chemical CAS No / Unique ID Percent
MSDS: Proprietary or trade secret additive/ingredient(s) 000000-00-8 1.0-5.0
Calcium carbonate (Limestone) 001317-65-3 55.0-65.0
Water 007732-18-5
Acrylic acid polymer/copolymer 999999-63-1
COMMENT FROM DEBRA: Thanks for looking this up and sharing this information. DAP has so many caulks and not all of them are nontoxic. A good thing is that DAP caulks are very easy to find in major home improvement and hardware stores.
POSTED BY JUANITA :: ALBERTA CANADA :: 09/09/2006 6:25 PM
We used some preprimed trim in our renovations and found it to be benign for us. I wished that all our products had been so safe. I was frightened when my husband talked about trying it as I thought primer in any form was dangerous. His logic was the same as Debra Lynn's. Priming done elsewhere with a good drying time could only be positive.
POSTED BY JUANITA :: ALBERTA CANADA :: 09/09/2006 6:29 PM
