UniBond Sealant Re-New 181g by Unibond

I bought this product to seal around my shower base. Looked like it would be nice and easy. I cleaned the old sealant with mould remover and thoroughly dried the area. Applying the sealant was easy enough at first but you need 2 hands, and once you've used 40% of the tube it becomes almost impossible to squeeze it out - worse, if your hands get tired and you can't maintain pressure, it can suck back the sealant! I finally completed the job with some difficulty and had to use two tubes for just 10 linear feet as more than half the sealant in each tube was unusable. But much worse was to come ............. The sealant is supposed to dry in 6 hours, but after 8 hours it was still like toothpaste. The next morning, 20 hours after laying, the sealant was still soft. It washed out completely after 2 showers.Unibond should be prosecuted under the trades descriptions act. This product is absolutely useless!

I received a sample of Re-New from The Insiders for a free product trial. I was particularly interested because the product, it was claimed, could be applied quickly and easily over old sealant in bathrooms, toilets and kitchens by DIY novices. The instructions are clear and uncomplicated although rather difficult to read. The packet suggests that it is easy to apply, clean and correct but although this was true for uncomplicated short, straight runs, it was messy and difficult to control around taps or in tight corners. It is actually difficult to use the tube because the sealant is runny, is full of air bubbles that spoil the finish and it is quite difficult to get the knack of squeezing accurately and so avoiding a mess. It is certainly not as easy as using a highlighter as claimed and it will take you far longer than the five minutes suggested. The sealant came out in blobs so I had to use my finger and a damp cloth to get a smooth finish. Not easy and not ideal! Indeed, you will likely spend more time cleaning up than you do on the application itself! Frankly a sealant gun is easier to use because of the long thin nozzle and the less runny sealant provided. Re-New’s nozzle does not work in tricky corners. It needs to be longer and frankly should be re-designed to help produce an even finish. Standard sealant delivered via a sealant gun is likely to be more cost effective because Re-New has a shelf-life of only one month once opened. This makes it expensive and not very cost effective.So there are cons. The smoothing tool is ineffective, it is not easy to use if you are not competent at DIY and the product is relatively expensive and has a short shelf-life. Note too that you do have to get rid of pre-existing mould. This is no easy task unless you use HG Mould Spray. Nothing else really works. There seems to be no way of getting rid of any air inside Re-New so note that you may end up making quite a mess.There are pros too. Despite the mess, results can be good on an uncomplicated or straight-run. Touching up can be done fairly quickly without any need for further equipment. So if you need to tidy up unsightly and mouldy sealant quickly before the family or friends descend, Re-New can be useful. It comes in “ice white” and this is indeed a sharp, fresh white but of course I do not know for how long it remains so. So good for very small and easy jobs but I would not want to use it on more adventurous tasks.

The media could not be loaded.  As you can see the before and after in my picture it really work and is easy to use just be sure you got a piece of cloth to clean after, i ending using my finger It was easy and faster for me

I bought this to try and cover up some dodgy bathroom sealant that was forever looking grubby with the occasional spot of mould in a bathroom that's always humid, and I really couldn't be bothered to arrange to have the sealant replaced entirely.In terms of the finished result, this stuff looks good. With some practice, you'll get a smooth, clean-looking result that is difficult to distinguish from the original white sealant, even if you only touch up patches rather than going round the whole bathroom. Having said that, it's only really any good for straight, unobstructed lines. I've some sealant that runs behind a tap and the bottle is too unwieldy to get behind the tap, so I ended up having to take a DIY approach with a butter knife to apply the sealant to that difficult spot.However, to get there, you may need to practice a little. The applicator allows for a smooth finish but it takes some getting used to - you'll need a couple of tries to figure out exactly how much pressure to apply to the bottle, and the speed of movement. Consistent pressure and a smooth, steady movement along the join is key - otherwise it'll look splotchy and require a lot of clean-up. I'd suggest arming yourself with plenty of paper towels and doing a couple of short test runs, then immediately wiping it clean, just to figure out the ideal pace and pressure.All in all though, this is a good product. Leave it to dry for as long as you can - I left mine overnight - and the results should hold up nicely. I used this a month ago in my bathroom and it's still looking great.

The problem with this is, the packaging makes it sound like a sort of all-in-one, ‘just use the built-in smoothing tool, wipe around with a damp cloth’. I did do that, and it made a terrible mess. The smoothing tool is rubbish, flimsy and wobbly, and because the product is quite a bit more watery than standard sealant, you constantly have to go back over it to fix the wobbles, which makes a dent, which you then have to... and so on.The sealant backs up behind the smoother, because it’s got sharp edges, and that leaves a stripe of sealant above and below, which if you’re me you don’t notice until you’ve done quite a bit of it. Then be careful with your damp cloth, because the slightest touch or drip and there’s a chunk gone again, so back over it with the smoothing tool. Palette knife doesn’t work because it’s too runny and slightly sticky. Doesn’t do corners either, as others have said. And remember to dry the smoothing tip bit after you’ve rinsed off the build-up, or the drips will ruin the line again.All that said, this would probably be a great product if you knew to treat it like real sealant. Get a proper smoothing tool, masking tape above and below. Use a nozzle instead of the terrible plastic attachment. But they had to have the ‘all in one solution!’ hype. And that doesn’t do anyone any favours. I, too, am vowing to just use regular sealant next time I have a seal to fix.