Caulking was the sealant between two things that did not quite fit. The gap between the window frame and the wall. The gap between the bathtub and the tile. The gap between the siding and the trim. Caulking filled the gap with a flexible material that moved when the building moved. The building moved. Every building moves. The wood expands. The concrete shrinks. The foundation settles. The caulking absorbed the movement the way a shock absorber absorbs the road. The building was always in motion. The caulking was the only part that admitted it.

The caulking gun was a ratchet mechanism that pushed a plunger into a tube. The tube was a cartridge of sealant. You cut the tip at a forty-five degree angle and you squeezed the trigger and the plunger pushed the sealant out of the tip in a bead. The bead was a rope of caulk laid along the joint. The bead had to be continuous. One gap in the bead and the water found it. The caulker laid the bead and then tooled it with a wet finger. The finger smoothed the bead into a concave profile. The concave profile shed water. The convex profile held water. The direction of the curve determined whether the joint worked.

The old caulking was oakum. Tarred rope fiber hammered into the seam between planks on a ship. The ship caulker packed the oakum between the planks with a caulking iron and a mallet. The mallet struck the iron and the iron drove the oakum into the seam and the seam swelled when the water hit it and the swelling sealed the hull. The building caulker learned from the ship caulker. The building was a ship that did not move. The water was the ocean. The caulking was the hull. Keep the water out and the building floats.

Caulking failed. All caulking failed. The silicone lasted ten years. The latex lasted five. The butyl lasted three. The sun broke down the polymers and the polymers cracked and the cracks let the water in and the homeowner recaulked and the new caulk lasted the same number of years as the old caulk and the cycle repeated until the homeowner sold the house. The new homeowner recaulked. Caulking was the most temporary part of the building applied to the most permanent parts of the building. The window lasted a hundred years. The caulk around the window lasted five.

They make paintable caulk now. Caulk that accepts paint so the bead disappears into the trim. The bead is invisible. The joint is invisible. The building looks like one continuous surface with no gaps. The gaps are still there. The caulk fills them and the paint covers the caulk and the paint hides the fact that the building is made of pieces. The caulk is the building lying about its own construction. The old oakum was visible. The tarred rope between the planks was a stripe. The stripe said this ship is sealed and here is the proof. The paintable caulk says this building has no joints. The building has joints. The building is hiding them.

See also: Pointing, Scribe