Sealing a floor's expansion joints or a stone wall's cladding when caulking is used!

And other issues with caulking and sealers.

Flooring expansion joints and/or caulking:
See below about caulking and sealers in general.

Stone cladding and caulks:
To remove concern over compatibility of the sealer and the caulk, pre-sealing may be the best technique. This way you can achieve "deep penetration" of the sealer and accomplish the "glue down" of the potential flaking portions.

Some contractors have had very good success by using a shallow galvanized pan to dip the slate face for a few seconds, then stack on edge to dry. By dipping only 1/16th to 1/8th of an inch into the liquid, the sealer is drawn into the slate by natural absorption. This will achieve good sealer penetration, but edge contact is minimized so that the caulk will have some unsealed surface for maximum bonding.

Caulking and sealers in general:

Usually the concern is bonding. Will the caulk bond to the sealer? Will the sealer bond to the caulk?

• A sealer repels things, therefore, a caulk may not bond to a sealer very well. Testing is the only way to determine this issue.
• Some caulks bond to other materials and some do not. For instance, a silicone caulk will probably not bond with a sealer, but another type of caulk designed to be successfully painted may bond with a sealer very well.