Hi
I had replacement windows installed before Christmas. The company has agreed that the installer shouldn’t have used clear sealant. Not attractive. They have agreed to come out and replace it with a coloured sealant. I’m not sure if it would better to match the mortar or the window trim? Some of the gaps are large. I’m afraid if it matches the trim it might make the window frame look distorted.
Thanks for the help.
Gray mortar is sort of easy to match up. Getting a 100% match is not reasonable. I don't like the spill over of color matched to the window frame or capping color to the mortar area as much as matching with a sanded grout like sealant. The very large flooring stores in my area carry sanded kitchen/bath siliconized sealants and I keep a physical color swatch in my trucks. It's made for wet environments and I've only used for stucco and stone and mortar applications and I've not had any failures that I know of in an exterior application. The stuff can be expensive and is very messy, but in my opinion, produces an almost mason like mortar application result.
I can't argue with DM, however I've been burned too many times by "discerning" customers to not go with a programmed match. The only way to do so is to match to the new trim. This is by far the most common way to do it, at least in my area.
While a mortar match may look nicer if everything matches like it should in theory, often you will find discolored mortar on on opening, faded mortar on another side of the house, etc. Same when it comes to siding. Sure, I can use the closest red caulk to match your siding, however you won't like how that looks on the faded south and west faces.
OSI Quad is probably the most common window/siding sealant used by pros, but it's not textured. Vulkem is pretty commonly used when a textured caulk is desired.
