Sealant re-new… too good to be true?
An honest product review of Unibond’s sealant re-new that can be applied OVER old & failing sealant.
Why would you need sealant re-new? We’ve all been there; one minute, your sealant is white and shiny bright, and the next, it’s slimy and harbouring all kinds of grossness! I’m all for affordable & achievable DIY hacks, so when I saw this sealant ‘renew’ in the special aisle in ALDI I wanted to try it. Unibond claims you can apply sealant renew OVER the old sealant even if it’s cracked or mouldy , although they recommend treating the mould first. And at £4.99 it was half the price of Amazon & B&Q, another good reason to try it! You also don’t need to use a caulking gun which a lot of people don’t enjoy.
You will need *contains affiliate links
Cleaning sponge like this one
Drying cloth like this one
Unibond sealant re-new available on amazon if you don’t have an Aldi nearby
Masking tape is handy to have
How to apply sealant re-new
Below, are the steps I took to apply on the yellowing sealant around my bathroom sink. It’s six years old and still sound and in good condition aside from the slight yellowing.
- Clean old silicone sealant (especially important if the sealant is mouldy as will need treating with mould killer or bleach).
- Fully dry the cleaned sealant and surrounding area.
- I applied two pieces of masking tape, one either side of the existing sealant, to make the application process easier. I find this is a handy DIY hack and use it a lot. It works for decorators caulk too.
- I shook the tube well, really trying to get the product down into the end to prevent air bubbles.
- I positioned the applicator (the image below shows the shape of the applicator close up) at the start of where I wanted the sealant to go and squeezed the tube so come came out of the end.
- I started slowly moving the tube along the line of existing sealant, while squeezing the tube quite firmly.
- Once the whole line had been covered, I carefully peeled off the masking tape to reveal a neat straight line of sealant renew.
- Now the product needs a few hours to fully dry.
The Unibond sealant re-new application process
On the whole, it was fairly easy to apply, although you have to be careful to apply even pressure & not press too hard otherwise you can end up wiping it off and leaving gaps & I found you get air bubbles quite easily so need to shake hard to get the product into the end of the tube.
The results
Overall, it worked and was cost-effective. It claims to be mould-resistant and long-lasting, but I’ll have to update you on that in a few months. However, I don’t think I would recommend for the following reasons…
– it feels lazy to pile another layer over old silicon rather than replacing it which isn’t a huge job in itself – read my tutorial on replacing bath sealant here.
– The product came out the tube unevenly (you can see at the start of the application that i had to go back over it) & it was quite thin.
– as it’s covering existing sealant, it has to be wider than I would’ve chosen otherwise
– if the sealant below had cracked or was mouldy (as advertised as suitable) it feels like only a matter of time before the new top layer is affected so why not just replace properly now.
– the advantage is it’s quicker than taking out the old sealant first.
Would you use this?
Let me know in the comments.⬇️⬇️⬇️
Other product reviews you might be interested in below…
Remote control plugs for convenience
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