Service
Joint sealant replacement for Aurora commercial buildings
Failed exterior caulk cut out, joints rebuilt with the right backer rod and depth, and new movement-rated sealant tooled in. Quoted in linear feet against published pricing.
From Buckley Joint Sealants, a commercial caulking contractor in Aurora, quoted against published pricing.
How to tell the old sealant is finished
Exterior joint sealant fails in three ways, and you can spot all three from the parking lot. Adhesive failure is the bead pulling away from one side of the joint, leaving a hairline gap you can slide a putty knife into. Cohesive failure is the bead splitting down its own middle, usually after it has hardened and lost stretch. Weathering failure is the surface chalking, crazing and going brittle, which on a south or west elevation in Colorado happens years before the north side looks tired.
Any one of those on a masonry control joint, a CMU wall, a metal panel seam or a concrete expansion joint means water is already getting behind the wall. The freeze and thaw cycles between October and April then do the expensive part: water in the joint freezes, expands roughly nine percent, and pries the joint edges apart a little wider each time.
What a proper replacement includes
Buckley Joint Sealants replaces sealant the way the joint was designed to be sealed, not by laying a new bead over the old one. The failed sealant is cut out to clean substrate. Joint faces are ground or wire brushed, then solvent wiped. New closed cell backer rod is set to the depth that gives the bead an hourglass profile, roughly half as deep as it is wide, which is what lets the sealant stretch instead of tear. Primer goes on where the manufacturer calls for it, and the sealant is gunned and tooled in one pass so it bonds to both faces.
We install polyurethane or silicone sealants rated to ASTM C920 movement classes, chosen for the substrate and the joint movement, and we write the product name and batch on the quote and the closeout sheet so the next facilities manager knows what is in the wall.
Spot repair or the whole elevation
If the sealant is all the same age, spot repairs buy a season or two while the rest fails on schedule. On buildings past year ten we price the full elevation and the per foot rate comes down, because the mobilization, the lift and the setup are the same whether we run 200 feet or 2,000. On newer buildings with one bad run, a spot repair is the honest answer and we will say so at the survey.
How a sealant replacement job runs
- 1
Joint survey on site: we measure every joint run by elevation, photograph failures and note substrate, joint width and access.
- 2
Written quote in linear feet against the published price table, with the sealant product named and any joint repair listed separately.
- 3
Scheduling in a dry weather window with substrate temperatures above 40 degrees, coordinated with tenants and parking.
- 4
Removal of the old sealant to clean substrate, joint face preparation, new backer rod set to depth.
- 5
Primer where specified, sealant installed and tooled, adhesion pull tests on a sample of joints after cure.
- 6
Closeout: photo log by elevation, product data sheets, and the warranty in writing.
Pricing for this work
| Job type | Typical range | What moves the price |
|---|---|---|
| Masonry, CMU or concrete joint recaulking, ground reach | $4 to $9 per LF | Joint width and depth, how the old bead comes out, sealant chemistry |
| Same work from a boom or scissor lift | $9 to $18 per LF | Lift days, height, staging around tenants |
| Joint edge repair before sealing (spalls, sheared edges) | Quoted per joint | Shown at the survey, never discovered on the invoice |
Full table and worked examples on the cost guide.
Sealant replacement questions from Aurora building owners
Can you just caulk over the old sealant to save money?
No, and we will not quote it that way. New sealant does not bond to weathered old sealant, and it hides the gap where water is getting in. The bead looks fine for a season and fails from behind. Removal is roughly half the labor in the price, and it is the half that makes the other half last.
What is backer rod and why does it matter?
Backer rod is a closed cell foam rope set into the joint before sealant. It controls the depth of the bead so it cures in an hourglass shape that stretches with the joint, and it stops the sealant from bonding to the back of the joint, which would make it tear. A joint sealed without backer rod, or with the wrong depth, fails early no matter how good the sealant is.
How long does replacement sealant last on the Front Range?
Plan on 10 to 15 years for a properly installed polyurethane and 15 to 20 for a quality silicone. Altitude UV, hail and the daily temperature swings here shorten the numbers manufacturers publish for mild climates, so we quote the conservative end and put it in writing.
Do you need a permit to replace exterior caulking in Aurora?
Sealant replacement on an existing building is maintenance and does not normally need a building permit. Structural concrete repair or parking structure expansion joint systems can, and we confirm with the Aurora Building Division before those jobs start.
Related work: Tilt-up and precast panel caulking · Window and curtain wall perimeters · EIFS and stucco caulking. Where we do it: Denver, Centennial, Greenwood Village, Englewood and all service areas.
Get this priced for your building
Free survey, written quote in linear feet, no obligation.