Access and ladders
Most work happens from ladders on the outside. We need the elevation clear and the driveway usable; we do not need to be inside the house.
10 yr
Written workmanship warranty
How a Royal job actually runs
Done once, done right.
What happens when we reseal your house.
No mystery, no vanishing crew, no bead gunned over the top of the old one while you are at work. This is the sequence every Royal job follows, why each step is there, and what you should expect to see at the end of it.
- Old material removed first
- Backer rod where the joint needs it
- Walkthrough before we invoice
300+
Properties sealed & under warranty
DOWSIL
Pro-grade silicone — no big-box caulk
A+
BBB Accredited business
Eight steps
The sequence.
Steps four and five are the ones most quotes quietly skip. They are also the two that decide whether you are buying ten years or two.
Inspection and quote
We walk the elevation and count openings by size, note the substrates, and flag anything that is not a sealing problem. You can skip the visit entirely and send photos instead — for most homes that is enough for a firm range.
Take care of what we are working around
We take care to avoid damaging anything around the work — glass, sills, siding, decking and especially your plants. Removing old sealant is messy work, and the mess is ours: everything is cleaned up by the end of the day.
Remove the failed sealant — in full
The old bead is cut on both edges and pulled out along its whole length. Not scored, not skimmed, not sealed over. This is the slow, expensive part of the job and it is non-negotiable.
Prep the joint
The open joint is scraped and cleaned back to sound substrate — glass, aluminium, wood, brick or stone — so the new bead bonds to the building rather than to residue. Loose paint and friable material come off here.
Set backer rod where the joint is deep
Closed-cell rod is pushed to depth so the finished bead is roughly half as deep as it is wide and bonds to two faces instead of three. Without it, a deep joint tears the bead apart from the inside.
Gun the sealant
Professional-grade DOWSIL silicone, colour-matched to the frame or trim, applied in a continuous pass with enough material to fill the joint properly rather than bridge it.
Tool the bead by hand
Every bead is tooled — pressed into the joint and drawn to a clean concave face. Tooling is what forces the sealant into contact with both faces and it is the difference between a finished elevation and a smeared one.
Clean, cure and walk it with you
Debris and trimmings come away with us, the site is left clean, and we walk the elevation with you before we invoice. The written warranty is issued against what we actually did.
Before the new bead
What a joint should look like before anything goes in it.
Removal is the half of the job nobody photographs, and it is the half that decides whether the new bead lasts. Two frames from other contractors' jobs we were called to look at, next to one of ours at the same stage.
The part nobody talks about
The right product in the wrong shape still fails.
Buying good sealant is the easy half. The half that separates a ten-year bead from a two-year one is joint design — how deep the sealant sits, what it is bonded to, and what it is deliberately not bonded to.
A sealant joint should be bonded on two faces only: the wall and the frame. If it also sticks to the back of the joint, it is being pulled in three directions at once every time the gap moves, and it tears. That is what backer rod is for — a foam rod pressed into the joint that sets the correct depth and gives the bead a surface it will not bond to.
It also controls the shape. The target is roughly twice as wide as it is deep, tooled to that classic hourglass profile — thick where it grips the two faces, thin and flexible through the middle so it can stretch. A bead squeezed flat into a shallow joint has nowhere to move. A bead packed deep into a wide one is wasting material and still cracks.
The numbers we work to come from the industry joint-design standards (ASTM C1193 and C1472): a sealant joint no narrower than a quarter inch, the bead bonded at least a quarter inch deep onto each face, gunned from the back of the joint forward so no air is trapped behind it, and tooled hard enough that the silicone is pressed fully onto both surfaces. A bead that only touches the edges looks finished and fails first.
Tooling is what actually delivers that shape. Running a finger or a proper tool down the bead compresses it into the joint, wets out both faces, and forms the concave surface. A bead laid on and left is sitting on top of the joint, not in it.
- WJoint width — never narrower than ¼″ (6 mm). Wider than 1″ is a different design, not a bigger bead.
- DJoint depth — from the face of the bead to the crown of the backer rod: half the width (2:1), with a floor of ⅛″ and a ceiling of ½″. The rod sets it.
- CContact depth — how far the sealant is bonded onto each surface: at least ¼″ on every face, on both joint shapes. The bead is tooled until it is.
- Bonded faces — two only. In both joints the backer rod plugs the gap and the void behind it stays open, so the back of the bead is free to stretch.
The concrete finish
Silica sand, blasted into the bead while it is still tacky.
On stone, stucco, block and concrete a smooth bead reads as a line of caulk. So on those surfaces the fresh silicone is sandblasted with B&M silica sand before it skins over: the grains bed into the surface of the bead and it takes on the grain of the masonry around it. Same DOWSIL silicone underneath, same joint — it just disappears.
If painting is in scope
Paint first. Seal second.
When a job includes exterior painting, the order changes — and it changes the other way round from what most people expect.
The common approach
Seal, then paint over it
- Coatings will not bond to cured silicone
- Paint peels off the bead in sheets within a season or two
- Or a weaker paintable caulk gets used instead, and fails at the joint
- The repair looks fresh for one summer
- You end up paying for the elevation twice
The Royal sequence
Paint, cure, then seal
- Trim, frames and lintels are prepped and painted first
- Steel lintels are stripped to sound metal, rust-primed, painted and left to cure
- Rot-prone frame bottoms are filled and shaped before priming
- Only then is the joint sealed, with colour-matched DOWSIL over backer rod
- Unbroken paint film, flexible joint, neither compromised for the other
Practical questions
What it is like having us there.
Weather
Sealant needs a dry, clean joint and a workable temperature to cure properly. We will move a day rather than gun a bead into a wet joint, and we will tell you why.
Curing time
The bead is skinned over quickly but keeps curing afterwards. Leave it alone, do not paint it, and keep sprinklers off the fresh joints for the first day.
Your plants and finishes
We take care to avoid damaging anything, plants above all. Old sealant, dust and trimmings come away with us, and the site is clean by the end of the day.
What we find along the way
Rot, failed flashing, cracked masonry or a glazing seal that has gone — you get told and photographed, not sealed over quietly.
What you get at the end
A walkthrough, photos of the work, and the written workmanship warranty covering the application.
The awkward conversations
When we tell you not to hire us.
Sealant fixes joints. It does not fix everything a leak can come from, and pretending otherwise is how a ten-year warranty turns into a callback nobody wants.
- Fogging between the panes is a failed sealed glass unit, not an exterior caulking problem. Resealing the perimeter will not clear it.
- Rotten substrate has to be repaired before it is sealed. Beading over soft wood buries the problem and voids the point of the warranty.
- A brand-new house usually does not need us yet. If the seals are still sound we will say so and note you for a future Royal Seal Check.
- Active roof or plumbing leaks need the source fixed. We will tell you what we found and where it points, even when it points away from our invoice.
Straight answers
Process questions.
How long does the work take?
It depends on opening count, access and how much of the old material has to come out — removal is the slow part. We will give you a duration with your quote once we have seen the elevation, rather than publishing an average that would be wrong for your house.
Do I need to be home?
No. The work is on the outside and we do not need interior access for a standard reseal. We do want you there for the walkthrough at the end if you can be.
What happens if it rains?
We reschedule. A bead gunned into a damp joint will not bond properly, and no warranty is worth voiding to save a day. You get told the same morning, not left waiting.
Will the new caulking match my trim?
That is the intent. DOWSIL CWS comes in a broad colour range and we select against your frame or paint colour before the job. Send us the paint code if you have it.
Can I paint over the new bead later?
Please do not — coatings do not bond to silicone and painting the bead voids the workmanship warranty. If a joint needs to be painted, tell us up front and we will sequence the job paint-first and seal afterwards.
Instant estimate
Count your openings. See your price.
Every window and every exterior door is one opening, priced by its size. Count them yourself for an instant number, add any extras, and book with a $250 deposit (plus HST) — or send us photos of the house and we'll count them and reply with a firm quote.
While we are there
Replace exhaust vent coversCracked or missing exterior vent covers swapped for new ones while we are there — $60 each
Sealant colour requiredFrom the DOWSIL colour chart. White is included — any other colour is one charge for the whole job
- Stand back far enough to get a whole wall in each shot.
- We count the openings ourselves and reply with a firm number — usually within one business day.
- Your photos stay with your quote request and are never published. Privacy.
Openings0
Subtotal$0
Tax (13% HST)$0
Your estimate$0
Prices may change on sight of the job; if we change the price, your deposit is fully refundable. See the terms. Lift or scaffold work is quoted separately. A $250 deposit (plus HST, $282.50) books your date and comes off the invoice.
View cart & book- Written 10-year workmanship warranty
- Deposit fully refundable if we change the price
No payment at this step — you check everything in the cart before you book. Rather talk it through? Call (647) 524-6180
Where we work
Serving the GTA and Niagara.
We specialize in large and heritage homes where the original seals have failed. Proudly serving:
EtobicokeTorontoNorth YorkEast YorkMississaugaOakvilleVaughan / WoodbridgeMarkhamRichmond HillAncasterNiagara-on-the-LakeSt. Catharines
Including The Kingsway, Rosedale, Forest Hill, Lawrence Park, Lorne Park, Mineola, Hoggs Hollow, the Bridle Path, Kleinburg, Old Ancaster, Dundas and the Niagara wine country. Not on the list? Call — routing decides more than distance, and we cluster work by neighbourhood.
Ready when you are
Book the inspection.
One walk of the elevation tells you what is failing, what it costs, and whether it is due yet.