Mike and Derek, I applaud your apprehension to caulks.  I recently met
with a painter, and told him that "everything that needs to be caulked
is caulked at this point".  He sort of looked at me like a had three
heads, saying "But it cleans it up so nice".  So, as for this
flushboard, there are both horizontal and vertical T&G boards, that have
opened up.  There is the "need' to make it look nice, so the knee jerk
reaction is to fill with caulk.  So if we have these 1/4" gaps between
boards, how can the be filled, or made to look "nice" after a paint job?
 They want every joint cleaned out and filled with caulk, ugh.  Or
should we convince them that it already looks "nice", and clean it up,
treat it, prime it and finish it?  Can we have some historic
justification, or perhaps literature to oppose or support such
treatments?

Curious in RI

Rob Cagnetta