What is this black caulk-like stuff ?

[Mick_VT]

I would not assume that this stuff has been there since the house was built. It might have been, but it also may well have been added later as a fix for drafts or leaks

[Willa]

I would not assume that this stuff has been there since the house was built. It might have been, but it also may well have been added later as a fix for drafts or leaks

The previous, and previous-previous owners were excessively frugal, which left most of the house alone since it was built, with the exception of the kitchen and bathroom. Plumbing, wiring and the roof was upgraded (sad because I find chunks of slate in the yard, so I know the slate roof was trashed). Aluminum storm windows and doors were added sometime between the 50's - 70's.

The heavy goo is around all the windows and exterior doors, so I am guessing this was done when the house was built. Late 1800's builders would have had some type of caulk like putty or paste (paintable) that was used around wood frame doors/windows installed in brick houses ? Some of the bad things like the 2x4 over the front door and false threshold seem to have been added by the aluminum storm window/door installer. The look of the mystery goo is the same on all surfaces, and has all aged identically. Late 1800's homes in this part of Ontario had exterior window trim and sashes painted a characteristic very dark green almost black color. I wonder if this color was chosen to hide the black goo, or if black goo was the least visible with this dark paint color ?

I don't know anything about the history of caulking materials, but I assume that whatever was used in the 1940's - 70's was probably petrochemical, then the 80's or after would be silicone type ?

I mean, this was the furnace the house had when I bought it. A blower test was done in 1960, which is probably when it was converted from coal to gas:

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[Mick_VT]

Generally windows in brick houses were not sealed with a caulk as far as I have seen or read, rather the joint sealed with something akin to Oakum and were pointed in. Of course this may not have always held true everywhere

[Willa]

Hmmm, what is oakum ?

This city has many particular eccentricities for modest houses built in the late 1800's - like sash windows don't have ropes and weights, and the proportion of the window is in thirds. There are many houses similar to mine with variations in stories, and exterior detail, but with the same floor plan. I haven't been up close to inspect other intact houses surfaces around the door, but I wonder if this may be a regional thing ?

I am guessing it would be challenging to get a brick house to fit a wood framed sash window or door frame snugly enough to not need something caulk-like to stop drafts.

[heartwood]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakum

a good product to fill the void at different substrates is sikaflex 1a...last time I used it, the product required a week of skin over time before painting...that said, it does not require painting and comes in many colors...the product is especially flexible...wood and brick have different expansion and contraction rates so flexibility is important... http://usa.sika.com/content/usa/main/en ... aflex%201a

...jade

[Willa]

wood and brick have different expansion and contraction rates so flexibility is important...
...jade

Jade - I was hoping you would see my query. Thank you for responding.

Okay - whatever is going on around the door and windows is definitely not Oakum.

Jade - since you have years of experience dealing with old windows, do you have any guesses what this stuff is, and what I should do ? (ie leave it alone and paint over it, dig it out and replace it with a modern product). The stuff is hard to the touch but will yield slightly to a fingernail, at summer temperatures. Whatever it is would be particular to a south-eastern Canadian climate with extremes of temperatures.

Since it is malleable with heat I feel most inclined to strip the paint off the surface then use the putty knife to rework and smooth it to fill in the cracks. I am also inclined towards the "leave well enough alone" school of thought since it isn't in terrible shape, seems to have been reasonably applied, and is painted a similar color to the yellow brick. The drafts around the door are due to the poor weatherstripping and the fit into the jamb. The interior area that would correspond to the goo areas is covered by window or door mouldings.

[heartwood]

willa...I sent you a PM a couple of days ago...maybe you didn't get it?

I would say the best practice is to remove the old caulk-like seal...it has surpassed it's useful life...score the 'caulk' on either side and use a stiff putty knife to get behind and lift the old stuff off...if you really want to go to town, use a scraper to remove residue from brick and wood http://www.tools-plus.com/bahco-625.html my favorite scraper! the blade can be sharpened over and over again...if the depth of the void is more than the thickness of the caulk (1/4"), you can use backer rod available at any hardware store https://www.grainger.com/search?searchQ ... 03112739:s

to make a neat line at the brick, use tape to form a straight line about an 1/8" onto the brick....

your bare wood trim looks great!
...jade

[Willa]

willa...I sent you a PM a couple of days ago...maybe you didn't get it?

Jade - that's odd, your PM did not show up. Could you try again ?

[phil]

i was sort of wondering if the vicinity to ports and shipping might ave caused different materials to be available in some areas but not so common in other areas. could it be some form of pitch?

I haven't' seen any sealant used anywhere in my house ever. Ok other than oakum used in plumbing maybe but nothing like that near doors or windows.

the layers of paint can sometimes let you know what was there first and help iron out a sequence of events, bit it doesn't always give you a date really. if it is under what you believe is original paint that would date it to the build date.

I guess another thing you could do is just try a little test and burn a bit of it and see if it melts or flames up or if it wont' burn or maybe turns into a tar like substance when hot, then maybe you could smear it out and see what the color is like?

I chopped a big fir tree up last year and realized that sometimes I hit sap lines, at first I didn't' think much about it but then realized stuff might be easy to collect and use as such? I started saving pieces that had a lot of sap. it's really good for starting the fire. I can pretty much just put a match to the sap and the whole chunk starts burning , no kindling needed, so If I see it now I put it separately and use that to help light the fire. the stuff really burns well.

on saw blades I often have to deal with remnants, it's sap, only if they cut softwoods is it bad. I've tried quite a few solvents to remove it to clean blades and such , most don't touch it. its tenacious stuff. I use a blade cleaner which is a strong solution made for that, with gloves, that works. I'm sure lots of people must have used the sap in different ways as a binder, or filler or sort of a sticky glue, could it have discolored to black? the pitch in my floor turns black sometimes but if I go digging through into it it's just the original sap. still sticky like glue even after all these years. I guess that's close to rosin I'm not really sure what the difference is , of course they use rosin on violin bows. I don't know what tree they would favor. sometimes I use just a tad of sap on radios when the string to move the tuning dial starts slipping. it's very grippy stuff and doesn't loose it's tack easily. I know some who have gone to a violin shop to get it and say it works really well.

[Willa]

I've been digging the goo out. On one side the doorframe fits quite tightly - on the other there is nearly a 1/4" of space. The backer rod (never knew the name for this - thank you, Jade)will be a requirement for that side, for sure.

I've been picking up chunks of the goo and smelling it (I'm sure neighbours think I'm nuts)but it doesn't smell strongly of tar/asphalt or like woody resin (which I'm guessing is what pitch smells like ?). It is blackBLACK, with a slightly oily sheen. In a few places there was a layer of white stuff on top, that looked similar to glazing compound or earlier non-silicone caulk. That was very blobby so I blame the aluminum screen door/storm window installers for that.

There is a line of black stain on the yellow bricks. Online advice suggests mineral spirits, kerosene or even gasoline as a solvent for tar (also benzene which is very toxic). Some sources suggest that the oily solvents will penetrate the brick, thereby making the stain worse and more diffuse.

What will I have to do to get paintable caulk to stick to the black surface ? I have been scraping as much as I can off (scraping inwards towards the crack not dragging the molten goo outwards). I am guessing I will need to caulk over the stuff, then use a paint color as close as possible to the bricks to minimize this, then cut in the trim color over this ?

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