Painting - painting over caulk-HELP

My bathroom is being totally remodeled by a friend of mines brother(he is a professional contractor) He has already put up new greenboard,replaced all of my plumbing in the house with pvc, put in the ceramic tiles, the tub, toilet and everything looks real good. But yesterday before he left he told me to paint before he put in the med. cabinet and vanity. when I started I noticed he had already caulked around the tub surround. He used a thin but 1/2 in wide strip all the way around and it is silicone. I tried to paint the primer around it and it wont cover so I got the tube of caulk out and it says "can not be painted paint surfaces before applying caulk" What Can I do???? Thanks ahead of time to anyone with idea!

The silicone caulk needs to be replaced with a "painters caulk". It should come out pretty easily since it's new. Recaulk with a latex caulk, let it sit for a day, then paint.

Any time you want to paint a caulk, look for the word "paintable" on the tube. If it ain't there, you can't paint it. :)

Call him and tell him the caulk is not paintable
Ask him if he wants you to pull the caulk and paint, then he can recaulk
Or pull the caulk and replace it with paintable
He may have a preference
And it was his mistake so maybe he'll take care of it for you

:p The tub surround needs to have silicone and not painters caulk,at least around the area where the tile meets the tub. The area where the tub meets the wall does'nt get as wet and painter's caulk works ok there. If you want it perfect it would have been better to paint first then caulk last but most contractors only consider their work and not anybody else's. Paint up to it and not over it. There was a post awhile back on how to paint silicone caulk.

I think that previous post had something to do with this

Painting Silicone Caulk


I just wanted to thank you for the great web site and maybe give you a tip:

I noticed a posting about the problem of painting silicone caulk. I have been a painter and handyman for 20+ years and have run into this problem many times. I have found a good alternative to digging the nasty stuff out. If you clean the old caulk and apply a thin layer of good quality siliconized painters caulk it works great. It only takes a very thin layer and it solves the adherence problem.

I saw this in a number of places

I prime silicone caulk with alkyd or oil primer. Then coat it with the latex finish.

thanks everyone, I ended up scraping it all off in the middle of the night and priming it then painting over it. It looks just like the rest of the wall now. What a Pain.... I hope any contractors who read this have consideration for people and wait to caulk until after they paint!! I know thats not realistic but it would be nice. Thanks!! :)