Re-Caulk & Seal Package
The re-caulk and seal package is the whole-bathroom version of a tub or shower re-seal — every horizontal and vertical bead in the wet zone, plus the vanity, plus the toilet base, plus the floor-to-wall transitions, stripped in one visit, mildew-treated, re-bedded in fresh 100% silicone, dry-tooled, and water-tested before we leave — starting at $2,500 for a single bathroom and running to $12,000 for a whole-home package across three or four bathrooms with heavy mildew remediation. A 10-year-old bathroom does not have one failing bead. It has 18 to 25 joints, all of them past their service life, mildewing on the same calendar, pulling away from the substrate at the same rate. Spot repair on three of them is a six-month fix. The package re-does every joint at once, resets the seal life of the whole room for the next 7 to 10 years, and ends with a low-flow water test against every sealed joint — the proof the work is done. Most single-bathroom packages finish in one full day on site plus a 48-hour cure window before normal use.
Service
What Does a Whole-Bathroom Re-Caulk Package Include?
The re-caulk and seal package is the one-visit reset of every silicone joint in the bathroom — not just the wet zone, but the vanity, the toilet base, the floor-to-wall transitions, and any window apron exposed to shower steam. Every old bead comes out, every substrate spot is treated with hospital-grade disinfectant, every joint is re-bedded in fresh 100% silicone with the bead profile matched to the location, dry-tooled, and water-tested before we leave. The package is the right call when the bathroom is 5 to 10 years past its last full re-caulk, when more than 30 percent of the visible beads are showing mildew or pulling away, or when a previous spot repair has already failed and a different joint has now started.
Every Joint in the Bathroom, Inventoried First
A single full bathroom has 18 to 25 distinct caulk joints: tub-to-tile horizontal, tub-to-wall front and back, all three or four vertical shower wall corners, shower pan-to-wall, soap niche perimeter, grab-bar mounting flange, ceiling-to-wall coving on steam showers, vanity backsplash horizontal, vanity-to-wall side joints (both sides), toilet base bead (the perimeter where the toilet meets the floor), tile floor-to-wall transitions (the four sides of the room), and any window apron in the wet zone. We inventory every joint on arrival and tape both sides of every one before any silicone gun comes off the truck.
Full Substrate Mildew Remediation
Visible mildew on the substrate under a failed bead does not die when you cover it — it grows through. Every spot where the existing bead came off black, stained, or with visible growth gets a quaternary ammonium treatment (Spartan NABC, Diversey Virex, or hospital-grade equivalent) on the full ten-minute label dwell, rinsed, and dried with a heat gun on low until a moisture meter confirms substrate-dry. Bleach alone fades the stain but does not kill the organism in porous substrate (drywall paper, cement board pores, fiberglass gel-coat); the new bead will mold through inside six months without proper remediation prep.
Substrate Press-Test — Soft Spots Surface Before the Bead Goes Down
Before any new silicone, we press-test every section of substrate we can reach. Soft drywall behind a fiberglass tub flange, swollen MDF behind a vanity-adjacent wall, delaminated tile backer board behind a re-caulked corner, soft subfloor at the toilet base — any of these means the structure behind the joint is compromised and a cosmetic re-caulk is a 90-day cover, not a fix. We tell you on arrival, route the work to substrate repair (tile, drywall, or subfloor), and re-caulk after that work lands. The honest call now saves the much-bigger repair later.
100% Mildew-Resistant Silicone, Every Joint, Profile Matched
Every joint gets the same product family — GE Supreme Kitchen and Bath or DAP Kwik Seal Ultra, both 100% silicone with mildew-resistance built in. Bead profile varies by location: a smaller concave bead at vertical shower wall corners, a heavier bead at the horizontal pan-to-wall and tub-to-wall seams where standing water collects, a thin precision bead at the vanity backsplash where the joint is between countertop and tile, and a clean perimeter bead at the toilet base that does not break the wax-seal vent path (we leave a half-inch gap at the back of the toilet base so a future leak shows up on the floor instead of being trapped under the toilet).
Low-Flow Water Test Before We Leave
After the final bead is tooled, the silicone gets 60 to 90 minutes to skin while we clean up the bathroom and pack out. Before we leave, we run a low-flow water test against every joint in the shower and tub — handheld showerhead at low flow, directed at each corner and seam — and watch for any visible failure (a bead lifting, water creeping under it, a thin water track running along one edge, a pinhole defect). The skin is firm enough at 90 minutes to take this test without damage. Anything that fails the test gets touched up on the spot. Standing-water exposure (the actual shower) waits the full 48 hours.
How a Whole-Bathroom Re-Caulk & Seal Package Works
Seven sequential steps from joint inventory to the final low-flow water test against every freshly sealed joint — the actual sequence we follow on every re-caulk and seal package.
Inventory Every Joint in the Bathroom
Walk the room and count every caulk joint — tub, shower, vanity, toilet base, floor-to-wall transitions, window apron. A typical full bathroom has 18 to 25 distinct joints. We tape both sides of every one with blue painter's tape before any silicone gun comes off the truck so the lines are clean and the cleanup is fast.
Strip Every Old Bead with a Utility Blade and Solvent
Every bead comes out with a utility blade plus a silicone-specific solvent (3M Caulk Remover or equivalent). Stripping all 18 to 25 joints is the bulk of the visit — 90 to 120 minutes on a typical bathroom. The substrate underneath gets a denatured-alcohol wipe before any disinfectant goes on.
Treat Every Mildew Spot with Hospital-Grade Disinfectant
Quaternary ammonium cleaner (Spartan NABC, Diversey Virex, or equivalent) on the full ten-minute label dwell at every visible mildew location. Bleach alone fades the stain but does not kill the organism in porous substrate — the new bead molds through inside six months without proper remediation.
Dry the Substrate with a Heat Gun
Rinse the disinfectant residue and dry with a heat gun on low until a moisture meter confirms the substrate reads dry. Fresh silicone laid on a damp substrate fails inside weeks because the moisture under the bead prevents full adhesion to the wall.
Press-Test the Substrate for Soft Spots
Press every section of substrate we can reach. Soft drywall, swollen MDF, delaminated tile backer, soft subfloor at the toilet base — any of these means the wall or floor behind the joint is compromised and a cosmetic re-caulk is a 90-day cover. We route the work to substrate repair first when needed.
Lay 100% Mildew-Resistant Silicone, Profile-Matched per Joint
Every joint gets GE Supreme Kitchen and Bath or DAP Kwik Seal Ultra with bead profile varied by location — smaller concave bead at vertical shower corners, heavier bead at horizontal pan-to-wall and tub-to-wall seams, thin precision bead at vanity backsplash, clean perimeter bead at the toilet base with a half-inch leak-tell gap at the back. Dry-tool each one with a Cramer profile tool.
Run the Low-Flow Water Test Before Leaving
After 60 to 90 minutes of skin time, run a handheld showerhead at low flow against every joint in the shower and tub. A properly-adhered bead beads water uniformly with a flat wet line at the silicone edge. Anything that fails the test gets touched up on the spot. Real shower use waits 48 hours.
Re-Caulk & Seal Package Pricing
Final pricing depends on the bathroom count, the number of joints per bathroom, how much mildew remediation prep the substrate needs, and whether the toilet base bead and any window aprons are included. Whole-home packages cost less per bathroom than the same single-bathroom packages booked separately. Request a free estimate for an accurate quote.
Tell us how many bathrooms and the last time they were re-caulked — we will quote the whole package.
Why Handis for a Whole-Bathroom Re-Caulk Package
The honest case for the package over the spot repair is simple math. A spot repair on a 10-year-old bathroom is $200 to $400 and lasts about 60 days because the unmolested joints are 60 days from their own failure. Three spot repairs across a single bathroom over a year is $600 to $1,200 and the bathroom still has 15 joints overdue. The package re-does all 18 to 25 joints in one visit, resets the seal life of the whole room for the next 7 to 10 years, and ends with a water test against every bead. We have done this enough times to know — the customer who called us for a third spot repair in eight months is the customer the package was built for.
Every joint at once — no return trips for the next failure
Wet-zone caulk joints fail on roughly the same calendar because they all see the same water exposure, the same daily cleaning chemicals, and the same daily expansion-contraction from hot water. Stripping only the visible failures leaves the unmolested joints 60 days from their own failure — and you end up paying for three separate visits over six months. The package does every joint at once.
Quaternary ammonium remediation across every mildew spot
Bleach fades the stain. Quaternary ammonium cleaners (the hospital-grade chemistry used in OR disinfection — Spartan NABC, Diversey Virex, or equivalent) kill the organism in the porous substrate on the full ten-minute label dwell. We dry with a heat gun until a moisture meter confirms substrate-dry, then lay the new bead. The mildew does not grow back through.
Profile-matched beads, not one-size-fits-all
A vertical shower corner takes a smaller concave bead than a horizontal pan-to-wall seam where standing water collects. The toilet base bead leaves a leak-tell gap at the back so a future wax-seal failure shows up on the floor instead of being trapped under the toilet. The vanity backsplash bead is thinner because the joint is between countertop and tile and a heavy bead looks wrong. We profile-match every joint to its location and its load.
Substrate inspection — we will not cosmetic-cover a rotting wall or floor
Before any new bead, we press-test every section of substrate we can reach. Soft drywall, swollen MDF, delaminated tile backer, soft subfloor at the toilet base — any of these means the wall or floor behind the joint is compromised and fresh caulk is a 90-day cover. We tell you on arrival, route the work to substrate repair first, and re-caulk after that work lands. The honest call now saves the much-bigger repair later.
Water test on every shower and tub joint before we leave
Handheld showerhead at low flow, directed at every joint in the shower and tub after the silicone has skinned 60 to 90 minutes. Any joint that does not bead water uniformly gets touched up on the spot. The skin is firm enough at 90 minutes to take this test without damage. Standing-water exposure waits the full 48 hours.
Estimate
Tell us how many bathrooms (one, two, or whole-home), the approximate age of the existing caulking in each, any visible mildew or substrate damage you have already noticed, and whether any of the bathrooms have a steam shower with ceiling coving. We will quote the package.
Customer Reviews
Recent re-caulk and seal package reviews from verified Handis customers.
We had called twice in the previous year for spot re-caulks — once for the tub corner, once for the shower vertical seam. Both held for about two months and then a different joint went. Tech arrived for the package, inventoried every bead in the bathroom (he counted 22), stripped them all, treated three mildew spots, re-bedded everything in one day. Eight months later every joint is clean.
1995 build, three bathrooms, none of them had ever been re-caulked top to bottom. Handis booked it as a two-visit job — master and hall on day one, kids bath on day two. The tech tested every joint with the handheld showerhead before he left each room. The whole house feels like the bathrooms got a service-life reset.
Master bath steam shower with the ceiling cove that always grew mildew within a year of any re-caulk attempt we had done ourselves. Tech did the full package plus the ceiling cove with the heavier bead profile, treated three substrate spots, and told us to run the exhaust fan five extra minutes after every steam session. A year later the cove is still clean.
Master plus hall package on a 12-year-old home. Tech worked through them in order so the cure timing did not stack — one full day, two water tests at the end, two bathrooms back in service the next morning after cure. The toilet base bead in the hall bath had been a hairline path for water and we never noticed; he caught it and built in a leak-tell gap so it shows up on the floor next time.
Whole-home package across three bathrooms before we listed the house. Handis did the inventory walk first, gave us the exact joint count per bathroom, quoted the package as one number with the heavy-prep surcharge listed line by line. Two visits across the same week. The listing inspector did not flag a single wet-zone joint.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about the Handis re-caulk and seal package.