Overheard a contractor say caulking baseboards is a waste of time if the gap is under 1/8 inch

I just learned that tiny gaps under baseboards actually let moisture escape better than a fully caulked seal, so now I'm rethinking the trim work I finished last month - has anyone else had issues with caulk trapping humidity behind baseboards in Atlanta summers?

2 comments

2 Comments

kelly.dylan6d ago

Dude you are so right about that moisture thing. I did the whole caulk-everything approach when I redid my living room last summer and I'm already seeing the paint bubble up behind the baseboards in a couple spots. It's like the wood has nowhere to breathe so the humidity just sits there. My buddy who's been framing houses for 20 years told me the exact same thing you heard from that contractor, he said if you can't fit a pinky nail in the gap just leave it alone. I actually went back and carefully cut out the caulk from a few sections with a utility knife last week, figured I'd rather have a tiny gap than trapped moisture turning into mold. Atlanta summers are brutal enough without sealing in the swamp air.

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benlewis4d ago

Didn't @kelly.dylan mention something about using a dehumidifier in the crawlspace to help with that?