Butyl Caulk

[dennismenace111]

Has anyone ever had any experience with butyl caulk? I was having new gutters installed on my house today and was talking with the installer who told me that's all they use to seal gutters! It lasts for years and remains pliable!

I've got got sone small rebering jobs to do on my old Watkins 29 and hate to buy 50' of butyl tape to rebed some small cleats. I was wonder if anyone has tried butyl caulk for thus purpose.

 

[Brian D]

Sometimes we shy away from things that are too expensive, or too much in quantity. But we have to ask ourselves, is it worth it to use or get something that is questionable or should we just say, the heck with it. I would recommend if you are doing something on the boat, the best bet is the butyl tape Mainesale recommends. Do it right now, or pay the cost later.

 

[Meriachee]

Instead of buying a roll of MainSail's far superior product, you're going to buy a regulation size tube of stuff that you'll use 1/4 of and just like a nice tube of PL300, will be hard as a rock when you go to use it again.

 

[NYSail]

Not to sound uppity but a roll cost $18..... you’ll have it forever and find lots to uses.

Greg

 

[JRacer]

All I use anymore is Mainesails Butyl Bedding Tape. Best stuff for bedding, bar none. And, recommend that you check out his videos on the subject, good lessons.

 

[dennismenace111]

All good thoughts..butyl caulk is formulated from butyl rubber...same as the tape! If it works well on your $500,000 house, it should work well in your $75,000 boat and would be alot easier to apply.

I live in South Florida. This product is used to seal standing seam metal roofs and rain gutters all over South Florida.

I was just curious if anyone had given it a try. I'm going to experiment on two small cleats on a deck area that's not cored. If it leaks, no big deal. A small tube is alot easier to keep on a small boat than a 50' roll. It cones in black, white and bronze.

I'll let you know the results of my test.

 

[NYSail]

50’ roll...... wow
Maine sails stuff comes rolled up in a 6” by 6” box I think..... not much bigger.
Pretty easy to store anywhere.
Greg

 

[Captain Larry-DH]

I’ve used the butyl caulk and it works great, remains pliable forever and does not leak. If you need caulk beneath something you might have to remove again; fasteners, hatch frames, or above-waterline thru hull fittings (when strong adhesive properties are not desired) it is great stuff.
The only downside imho is that it is very gooey, so when you pull the nozzle away it wants to stretch out a long streamer of goo that gets on surrounding surfaces unless you interrupt it with something (I use a scrap of paper towel or a chopstick to disrupt it). The excess cleans up with mineral spirits.

PS - chop sticks are good for lots of things. I also use them as small-batch stirring sticks for epoxy and Marine Tex.

 

[dennismenace111]

Thanks for that feedback! My plan is to do rebed some small cleats in an area where there is no core in the deck...so if it leaks, no harm done.

 

[DrJudyB]

Here’s a link to the definitive article about using butyl tape to bed hardware. Written by Mainesail.

https://marinehowto.com/bed-it-tape/




.

 

[Knot Stressin']

I am going to rebed all the hardware on my boat this weekend. I would like to skip caulk for all the reasons mentioned elsewhere in this topic.
I went to a local roofing company because I know they use this stuff all the time. They gave me a partial roll of 1" butyl tape. (Appx 20 feet) Should work great. The stuff is about like sticky silly putty, but without the mess of caulking.
If anyone is interested....I will share the results.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Should work great

Not all BT is the same. Have you read Maine Sail's description of his product?

 

[NYSail]

I am going to rebed all the hardware on my boat this weekend. I would like to skip caulk for all the reasons mentioned elsewhere in this topic.
I went to a local roofing company because I know they use this stuff all the time. They gave me a partial roll of 1" butyl tape. (Appx 20 feet) Should work great. The stuff is about like sticky silly putty, but without the mess of caulking.
If anyone is interested....I will share the results.

I'll stick with research already done and use my $18 roll I bought from Maine Sail..... good luck!

 

[dennismenace111]

Yes I have. He makes a lot of claims about special formulations. But he's in a "for profit" business and we, as consumers, have no way if verifying them other than to buy and test.

 

[Scott B]

Yes I have. He makes a lot of claims about special formulations. But he's in a "for profit" business and we, as consumers, have no way if verifying them other than to buy and test.

Not necessarily. He provides a lot of free advise on the sailing forums and will answer most questions in his Forum on here. His website has a lot of articles that anyone can read ans ask questions about for free. Sale of the butyl tape is used to support the costs of the website. He does not post any articles without a lot of research and had done a lot of research on the tape.

But, it's your boat, your money and your choice, but there a lot of us on here that have tried and use the tape.

 

[Gene Neill]

Yes I have. He makes a lot of claims about special formulations. But he's in a "for profit" business and we, as consumers, have no way if verifying them other than to buy and test.

Or, you could simply ask around here, or any other sailing website. I think you would get roughly ten thousand character references, telling you that if Maine Sail says it, you can take it to the bank and cash it.

He's not the type who would BS the entire world for $3 profit on a roll of friggin' butyl tape.

 

[Captain Larry-DH]

Yes I have. He makes a lot of claims about special formulations. But he's in a "for profit" business and we, as consumers, have no way if verifying them other than to buy and test.

He’s the real deal, and I don’t think he would recommend something that isn’t good (per his own testing). Your skepticism is misplaced, in this case.

 

[Project_Mayhem]

I’ve used the butyl caulk and it works great, remains pliable forever and does not leak. If you need caulk beneath something you might have to remove again; fasteners, hatch frames, or above-waterline thru hull fittings (when strong adhesive properties are not desired) it is great stuff.
The only downside imho is that it is very gooey, so when you pull the nozzle away it wants to stretch out a long streamer of goo that gets on surrounding surfaces unless you interrupt it with something (I use a scrap of paper towel or a chopstick to disrupt it). The excess cleans up with mineral spirits.

PS - chop sticks are good for lots of things. I also use them as small-batch stirring sticks for epoxy and Marine Tex.

Thanks for the honest feedback. Roofs and boat decks are subject to very similar environment and I suspected that this would work

@dennismenace111 I would recommend the Butyl Tape over caulk for ease of application and the fact that there is virtually no cleanup. No gloves, paper towels, chopsticks, solvents, etc. The box for the tape is about 8x8x1" so it stores pretty easily and can take a beating. I've used butyl thats made for car windows and its sticky, gooey, leaves stains and just plain messy. Not fun to work with. I also prefer products that make things easily serviceable in the future

 

[jssailem]

For MaineSail Butyl Tape. Remember it is a caulk seal with good adhesion properties to clean surfaces. It is not an adhesive. It will require a fastener to hold the item in place.

It is for bedding two surfaces together with a thru bolt holding the surfaces in place.

It is not for sticking one item to another expecting the butyl to hold like a glue or epoxy.

Use it where it works and you will be happy. I bought my first box in 2015 and in every case used, no leaks have appeared after proper applicantion.

Best of luck.

 

[JamesG161]

Key tools needed for all boats...
1) Duct Tape
2) Hammer
3) Screwdriver
4) Knife
5) Chewing Gum aka [butyl tape]

Jim...

PS: The chewy ingredient of Chewing Gum is Butyl Rubber as in Butyl Tape