This Old House

Kevin: Today on "This Old House"... Downtown Asheville, also known as Beer City, and we couldn't resist coming to a brewery.

Cheers.

Brock: Cheers.

Tom: So I hear you are measuring for some shade.

Cat: Yes.

Blackout shade.

Oh, it looks so good.

Kevin: How do we get this prepped so it's gonna look as nice as the house across the street?

Mauro: That house looks great.

This is gonna look better.

[ Both chuckle ] Kevin: Ahh, that's it.

Kevin: Hey there.

I'm Kevin O'Connor, and welcome back to "This Old House" and to our projects here in western North Carolina, where we are working on several houses that were damaged by Hurricane Helene.

We've got one in East Asheville, one in North Asheville, and several in Swannanoa, which is just a couple miles from here.

This is the town of Black Mountain, and like so many towns around here, it has been attracting people for years because it is so beautiful.

Look at the downtown right here -- great Main Street with lots of restaurants, arts and culture.

And we are just surrounded by mountains with glorious views.

Those mountains also make this a natural watershed, and we've got the North Fork Reservoir just up there.

Well, like so many of these towns in this area, this one was hit hard by Helene.

In fact, the locals were terrified that that reservoir, which provides billions of gallons of fresh drinking water to the greater Asheville area, they were afraid that that would fail and wash out this town.

Well, it didn't, but the town was cut off -- no electricity, communications or fresh water for weeks.

Well, they picked themselves up, often meeting right here on the center green, and they got through the storm.

And as you can see, they are back in business.

Those restaurants and breweries and all that arts and culture is back, as it is in many of these towns in the surrounding areas.

And I thought I'd have myself a look around and maybe sample a few.

Nestled in the picturesque Blue Ridge Mountains and sitting on the intersection of two rivers, Asheville is a nature lover's dream where you can hike, bike, and paddle, but you can also taste, sip and toast.

Johanna: Cheers!

Kevin: Cheers to you.

Earlier, we met up with Molly Irani of Chai Pani.

Molly: There's something about the atmosphere of the mountains here in this town that inspires dreamers and creatives and people that really appreciate good quality, exciting ideas.

Kevin: This small city of under 100,000 residents has a food and beverage scene, where those exciting ideas are evident on the plate.

Home to over 250 diverse restaurants, two of Asheville's top spots, Crate and Chai Pani, serve up Spanish tapas and Indian street food -- wildly different cuisines, but both locally sourced.

Meherwan: We have a massive density of small, independent farms within 10 to 15 minutes of every restaurant in this town.

And that's also unusual and unique.

Katie: And they're creating incredible produce, and they also -- we have great relationships with them.

They will grow things that we specifically want them to grow.

Kevin: And the foodies have taken notice.

Both restaurants are prestigious James Beard Award winners, often called the Oscars of the food world.

Katie: It's pretty incredible how many times Asheville has been nominated for a James Beard Award, particularly for the size of city that it is.

It's such a small group of restaurants are recognized in the country.

Meherwan: I knew immediately that this wasn't just about what was on the plate.

It was about the whole package -- about our people, our staff, our team, about our hospitality, our culture.

Kevin: And it's not just world-class food that draws crowds, but also beer, and lots of it.

Boasting more breweries per capita than any other city in the US, it isn't hard to understand why Asheville has earned the nickname Beer City, USA.

You can sample everything from IPAs to stouts at over 50 craft breweries... Johanna: You'll start with your Old Fort lager back there, Hazy, and Oktoberfest and a pilsner.

Kevin: ...places like Highland, the city's very first craft brewery, pouring pints since 1994, or Hillman Beer, a small family-run business near Biltmore Village.

What is it with Asheville and beer?

Johanna: Um, it's actually the water quality around here.

Kevin: For real?

Johanna: Yeah.

So it's -- Kevin: Oh, it's not just like a cultural thing?

Johanna: I mean, it is a little bit of the culture that works in with it, but we have -- Our water quality was like the equivalent of out west in Denver, Colorado.

Brock: So the water is phenomenal.

It comes from a pristine watershed that's bordered completely by the Blue Ridge Parkway.

It's phenomenal.

You hardly have to do anything to it to make really good beer.

You don't have to add that other breweries might have to add in other regions.

So a very cruel irony -- that same water that gives us beautiful beer, um, destroyed our town in ways that nobody could imagine.

Kevin: In late September 2024, Hurricane Helene dumped record rainfall on Asheville and its surrounding communities, leading to catastrophic flooding, triggering mudslides, destroying homes and businesses and infrastructure.

Molly: We all woke up on Friday morning in complete shock.

Nobody was prepared for this.

It was not on anyone's radar that we could have this level of destruction from a hurricane in the mountains of North Carolina.

Katie: Many businesses lost their physical structures of their business.

But then also none of us could operate because we also woke up without power, without water, without cell service, without communication between one another, without internet.

Johanna: So we flooded to about this high.

So it was up -- up over the tables.

Um, and it's not just -- It wasn't just water, it was also mud, 'cause our back -- our whole back river, um, that's what came up and came in the building.

Everything was muddy.

You couldn't even decipher what was what and what it used to be.

Everything was rearranged.

Nothing was in the same spot.

You're finding the safe halfway down -- which was up in the office -- halfway through the kitchen, kitchen stuff down here, brewery equipment outside.

Um, it was just -- just complete, complete destruction.

Brock: The storm ravaged our entire perimeter, and obviously around town, uh, much more damage than what we incurred here onsite.

Kevin: One third of Asheville's residents works in the hospitality industry, an industry that was now facing an unprecedented challenge.

Katie: You know, there are no grant programs for businesses after disasters.

If we have to close, the ripple effect through the community who depends on us for their financial well-being and the economic just cycle that happens in Asheville, it was absolutely devastating.

So that was our number-one priority is like, how do we get the restaurant operating as a restaurant again?

Molly: People started just showing up, and I was thinking, I'm looking over at these guys in the kitchen.

Every single one of them showed up in the middle of the storm response.

These young people that work for us would come in covered in mud, wearing their work boots 'cause they had been like rescuing people from the river and trying to save things.

And they would walk into the restaurant and say, "Put me to work."

Kevin: But then World Central Kitchen, an international food charity, arrived in town.

Katie: We immediately jumped in and connected with World Central Kitchen as a first step, which was us preparing meals for the community.

And World Central Kitchen is an incredible model because they pay restaurants to prepare these meals so that we could then hire employees, start purchasing some product, get that economy going again, but more importantly, be able to hire our employees back to do something during the storm while we couldn't be open.

Molly: We started making food with what we had in-house by filling up five-gallon water jugs, running around town to the breweries who had potable water because they use it in their -- in their brewing process.

Kevin: Restaurants feeding the community.

Recovery here isn't just about rebuilding.

It's about working together, innovating, and continuing to give back.

Yeah, well, when I pulled up, this place looked like a little oasis.

Looked like it was ready to go.

Brock: We were spared a lot of damage.

There's no doubt about it.

And we're thankful for that.

And so we need to give back.

Kevin: You've got a beer on the menu that's helping you give back.

Is that right?

Did I hear that correctly?

Brock: Yes.

Kevin: Tell me about that.

Brock: It's Highland Haze, and the intent is -- It's draft only, and the intent was to partner with our distributors in a four-state region and say, "We have this beer.

We want to support the hospitality industry, but every pint that we serve will go to support the local hospitality industry, which is suffering mightily."

Kevin: It took almost two months to get drinking water back to the residents and businesses of Asheville, and after lots of hard work, these businesses are back.

Now the only missing ingredient is visitors like you.

Meherwan: Our restaurants are open, our music venues are open, our sports arenas are opening.

Katie: We really need people to come visit.

Kevin: People should know Asheville is open for business.

Johanna: We are open for business, and we're ready for it.

And we need it.

[ Laughs ] Kevin: Yeah, yeah.

Meherwan: Yeah, it's really heartwarming to be in town right now and to see what it feels like.

So come be part of this community.

Um, you know, help us recover, help us build and help -- and experience what we have to offer.

Kevin: Cheers.

Brock: Cheers.

Johanna: Cheers.

We're glad to be here.

Kevin: Cheers.

Tom: Hey, Cat, I gotta say, the place is really looking good.

Cat: Thank you.

Tom: I love the paint job.

I love the color in this room.

Cat: Thanks.

This is actually going to be our son's room, and he actually picked out the color.

Tom: He did?

Cat: Yeah.

Tom: I bet he'd like it now that he sees it on the wall.

Did a nice job painting, too.

Cat: Absolutely.

Tom: Alright, so I hear you are measuring for some window shades.

Cat: Yeah.

We want to do some inside-mount shades that are blackout.

Tom: Okay, this can be tricky.

So we want to measure the bottom, the middle and the top, and we want to find out the smallest measurement and use that when we write it down.

Cat: Okay.

Tom: And we have to measure up and down.

We want to make sure that everything is parallel.

Cat: That makes sense.

Tom: Alright?

So I brought something to help you measure.

Cat: Great.

Tom: I like to take two sticks, and I put a little angle like that.

On the other end I cut a little angle like that, and I swing them around so the angle is pushing out on each side.

I lay it down on the window.

I push it tight there.

I drag it over here, push it tight, bring the sticks together.

I want to make sure that I'm parallel with the window.

Let's have that pencil so I can take and just mark this.

Like this.

Put a mark on each stick.

Make sure that the line lines up.

Now, if I take the sticks away and you hold that with the two lines lined up nice and tight so it doesn't move... my long points right across here... ...and I have... 38 3/16 of an inch.

Cat: Okay.

Tom: Now I'm going to take and I'm going to check it.

That's perfect right there.

Now I'm going to take and move it up to the middle.

Much wider in the middle.

So let's check the top.

So slide that ladder over.

Again, I want my lines lined up.

Put it in.

Make the stick parallel with the opening of the window.

And that is on the line, and that's perfect -- no movement at all, okay?

Now, you got a lot of windows to measure here.

So if we take the stick, we'll put this back together.

Hold it tight.

I'm just going to take one quick piece of tape... ...put it on here like that.

And I can walk around to that window over there.

Cat: Oh, that's great.

Tom: We'll check and measure each window.

Once we get that done, we can go to the store and get them cut.

Cat: Sounds good.

Tom: Alright.

Alright.

We got 'em all cut.

Now we're gonna install one and see how it fits.

Cat: Great.

Tom: First thing we need to do is we put the mounting brackets across the bottom of the head stock, and I know that they have to be four inches in on each side, and I want to center them in the opening so that the shade or the blind doesn't interfere with the finger latch when you raise the window up and down.

Inch and three quarter is our center.

Put a mark.

Now we got to find the center of the opening.

So it's 38.

It would be 19... About 19 1/16.

And come out inch and three quarters again.

Alright.

Now that I have the three positions marked, I'm going to take a drill.

I want to pre-drill holes for the screws to go in easier, but actually hold better.

Alright.

Now what we're gonna do is we're going to screw three of these brackets right here.

I drilled a hole for that hole right there.

[ Driver whirring ] Alright.

Let's see how it fits.

Now we have to angle these slightly, push them in like that.

And then we got to twist them up.

[ Click ] Ohh.

[ Click ] Nice.

Cat: Great.

Tom: Look at that.

And you have a new blind.

Cat: Oh, it looks so good.

Tom: Alright.

That's the first of many.

We have them all cut.

Do you think you guys can put them up?

Cat: Yeah, I think Jeremy and I can figure it out.

Tom: Alright.

Cat: Thanks for your help.

Tom: My pleasure.

Kevin: Cat and Jeremy's house is freshly painted.

And to get that nice, crisp, clean look when you're using fiber cement siding and wood composite trim, well, you want to get it right, and there is a technique.

So to help us with Jim and Allie's house across the street, we brought in Mauro.

Mauro!

Mauro: Kevin!

Kevin: Good to have you in Carolina.

Mauro: Glad to be here.

Kevin: So the, uh... the siding and the trim on Jim and Allie's -- same as across the street.

Mauro: Yes.

We're working with two different materials here.

For siding, we have the fiber cement boards.

Kevin: You love this stuff.

Mauro: I love this stuff.

Holds paint really well.

I love it.

Kevin: Okay.

Mauro: And for the trim, we have these wood composite materials.

They have this side with some texture, some graining on it, and over here we have the nice and smooth.

Kevin: And the core is basically just wood flour?

Mauro: It's nothing but sawdust.

Kevin: Yeah, a little bit of glue and sawdust.

Mauro: A little glue.

Put it all together.

Kevin: Everything expands and contracts.

Um, do these expand and contract at the same rate?

At a different rate?

Mauro: This composite material will contract, will expand a little bit and contract a little bit, different from the fiber board.

Kevin: Okay.

So how do we get this prepped so it's gonna look as nice as the house across the street?

Mauro: That house looks great.

This is gonna look better.

[ Both laugh ] Kevin: Game on!

Mauro: Alright.

Um, first thing that we got to do, we're gonna fill up all the nail holes, and we're gonna use a natural wood filler so we can fill that out.

And then for the fiber boards, we're going to use an elastomeric caulking that we're gonna fill up the nail holes.

Nail holes is not that big, but we're gonna sink in the nail a little bit... Kevin: Okay.

Mauro: ...and fill it in with caulking.

And then where the side's butting up with the trim, then we're gonna run a bead of elastomeric caulking all the way down here.

Kevin: Alright.

Mauro: Alright?

That will seal it up nice, and then the movement of the material, the caulking will follow up the road.

Kevin: So maybe I do the nail holes, um, and maybe you do the caulking.

We can talk technique when we're into it.

Mauro: Absolutely.

Yeah.

Kevin: Let's get to work.

We got a house to beat.

Mauro: That's it.

Always on the grain direction.

Kevin: So, Mauro.

Mauro: Yes?

Kevin: You're using wood filler.

I'm using caulk.

Why the difference?

Mauro: Well, here we're dealing with wood composite.

A wood filler works better here.

And then for the fiber cement, the caulking is going to be more like a flexibility and durability.

Kevin: Different materials, different solutions.

Mauro: Different solutions, different fillers.

This we're gonna caulk.

We're not doing anything here.

But we're doing all the sides all the way down.

Mark: The last time I was here, I met fellow mason Don Caldwell to assess the damage that was done to the chimney during the storm.

We did find some brick that was lodged into the flue, and that's when we brought in Alan, a local chimney sweep, to clean the chimney for us so we could get a better assessment.

We did discover some damage and decided it was gonna be costly and take up a lot of time.

We know the homeowners do have some options, and that's why I'm here to see Alan today.

Alan.

Alan: Hey, Mark.

Mark: How are you?

Doing great?

Alan: Good to see you again.

Mark: You too.

So, I can see they made a decision.

Alan: They have.

They have.

They decided to go with a wood-burning, uh, insert.

Uh, you know, the fireplace, it just had a lot of problems.

It was gonna take a lot of money, a lot of work to bring it back to an operable fireplace.

They decided to go for the cheaper option.

Uh, but this is also a more efficient option.

This is going to provide heat for the home as well.

Mark: Yeah, so by using this, that's gonna negate the work that we thought we were gonna have to do.

Alan: Correct, correct.

Mark: Okay.

Alan: We're gonna line the chimney with a stainless steel insulated liner, and that should negate any kind of cracks or gaps or clearance issues inside the chimney.

Mark: Okay.

Great.

So before we're gonna put this pipe in, a couple of things I noticed.

The damper's in the way and so are some of these fire bricks.

So the first thing I'm gonna do is get my grinder and I'm gonna make some relief cuts in the damper.

And then I'm stuck with these two fire bricks that are gonna in the way, so I got my hammer drill with a flat chisel on it and just popped these bricks out.

And I think I've given myself plenty of room to get the pipe in and make a clean connection.

[ Vacuum whirring, shovel scraping ] Alan: Alright, so we've got our insulation rolled out here.

It's a ceramic fiber insulation.

It's a half inch thick.

We've got it rolled out.

We're actually gonna roll the liner into it and wrap the liner with it.

It's required by most manufacturers that their liners are insulated to maintain their warranty.

And also the insulation keeps the flue liner warmer so that the chimney draws better, and also the chimney will collect less creosote.

James: Next, we're gonna install this stainless steel sock or mesh that goes around the liner.

Once the adhesives burn off, the stainless steel mesh will hold everything together.

[ Driver whirring ] Mark: Alright, Alan, it looks like, uh, I'm pretty cleaned up upstairs.

Alan: Good deal.

Mark: You guys are doing good out here.

Alan: We're ready to drop it in the chimney.

We're gonna carry it up on the roof and then drop it in from the top.

Mark: Alright.

I'll go inside and keep my eyes open.

Alan: Alright!

That looks good, man!

You can come on down.

James: Okay.

Alan: Alright, so we're actually gonna elevate the wood stove insert a little bit.

We're elevating it so that it has a more symmetrical look here.

And just that was the customer's preference.

Mark: So we use these firebrick.

That's gonna elevate the unit.

I really like the fact that we're using firebrick.

So that's great.

And this one's gonna go in the back.

Take my next one.

Put that in the front.

So I notice that we have the electrical installed.

That's for the fan?

Alan: Correct.

Mark: That's been put in by an electrician and inspected.

Let's get the fiber cement board in.

Okay.

And why are we using that?

Alan: That's non-combustible.

Mark: Okay.

And now we're ready for the unit.

Alan: Okay.

Mark: Alright, lower it down very slow.

There we go.

Alan: Alright.

Mark: It's in place.

Alright, James, you can come back down.

James: Alright.

Mark: Gotta attach it with screws.

[ Driver whirring ] Alan: I apply the silicone first to the terracotta liner, and then I attach the stainless steel top plate.

It'll also act as a support for the chimney liner.

And the last thing I do is to install this custom fabricated chimney cap.

James: Alright, Mark, you got that last screw?

Mark: Yeah.

James: Finish putting on this last piece of the backing plate.

Alan: Looking good, guys.

I got the chimney cap on, the top plate up there finished.

Got the finished faceplate to go on the backing plate here, and we'll be all done.

Mark: Alright.

James: Alright.

Alan: Alright.

I believe we're all finished.

Mark: Alright.

Guys, that looks great.

I mean, I think we got to have a fire, am I wrong?

James: Absolutely.

Mark: Alright, let's light it up.

Alan: Alright.

Mark: I love the flame, guys.

It's pulling right up.

Alright, guys, this is great.

I want to thank you for letting me help.

Until next time, I'm Mark McCullough.

Alan: I'm Alan Justice.

James: And I'm James Esser.

Mark: From North Asheville for "This Old House."

Alright, guys, let's get warm.

James: Great fire.

Alan: Alright.

Kevin: Next time on "This Old House"... Man: We're gonna build a concrete vanity with an integral sink for Paula's main bathroom.

Kevin: Okay.

Man: What those fibers are, they're like a steel cable, 100 little filaments of fiber, and that's what gives it the strength.

Jenn: I always recommend soil testing just to know what you're working with, what the composition is.

Then you have a baseline, right?

Woman: Absolutely.

Especially in a flood event like this where we don't really know how the soil's been impacted, we'll get information that will help us know how to go forward with that.

Kevin: That's next time.