This Old House

Kevin: Today on "This Old House"... Zack: I'm paddling the French Broad River to see how this major waterway was affected by Hurricane Helene.

Kevin: And... I hear you're helping us out with Paula's vanity top.

Jeremy: We are.

We're going to build a concrete vanity with an integral sink.

So, Jenn, welcome to the UMass extension soil and plant nutrient testing lab.

Jenn: You don't know how excited I am to be here.

Kevin: Hey there.

I'm Kevin O'Connor, and welcome back to "This Old House" here in Western North Carolina.

One of our homeowners, Miah, is starting to think about furnishing her renovated home.

And she is partial to antiques, which means in this area, you come here.

The Antique Tobacco Barn has been an institution in this part of North Carolina, and we wanted to learn more about the business and what Miah is shopping for.

Brittany, you've got quite the operation here.

This place is gigantic.

Brittany: Mm-hmm.

Kevin: What is the history?

Brittany: So this, I mean, it's got a pretty lengthy history, but the last thing it did before it does what it does right now, was it was a tobacco auction house.

And in the off season, the families would trickle in their antiques, and then as the industry started to fade, we just have been strictly antiques now for 40 years.

Kevin: 40 years of antiques.

Brittany: That's right.

It's the 40th year this year.

Kevin: All right.

You're not unfamiliar to flooding because the river is right next door.

Brittany: That's right.

You know, we follow the river level quite closely.

And so we recognize that this was going to be an issue before Helene had hit us.

And we spent three days just getting box truck after box truck out of the building.

We did everything we could.

And then the storm hit, and it was just so much more than we could have possibly prepared for.

Um... Kevin: How bad?

In terms of... Brittany: Total loss.

Kevin: Total loss.

Brittany: Total loss.

Kevin: Well, you are definitely back.

I mean, it looks fantastic.

Brittany: Thank you.

Kevin: And I know one person who showed up is our Miah.

And have you seen her around somewhere?

Brittany: I think I saw her maybe down that way.

Kevin: I'll go find her.

Thank you.

Brittany: Thank you.

Kevin: Miah.

I was told I would find you here.

Miah: Hello.

Kevin: How are you?

Miah: I'm well.

I hope you are.

Kevin: I am too, thank you.

Are you in heaven?

Is this your kind of thing?

Miah: I'm in absolute heaven.

Big antiquer.

Kevin: Oh, really?

Forever?

Miah: Well, I moved to Missouri about 12 years ago, and I just, I got so homesick that I started finding things that reminded me of my grandparents and parents and just been a collector ever since.

Kevin: So you go around, and something that might have been in their house, or might have reminded you of something in your house, you pluck it and you make it yours.

Miah: Yes, exactly.

Kevin: That's awesome.

All right, speaking of making it yours, uh, is this the piece you're looking for or...?

Miah: No.

Not this.

I'm looking for a table for the kitchen.

Kevin: Have you got a spot?

Have you figured something out?

Miah: Yes, I think so.

Kevin: Will you take me?

Miah: Yes.

Kevin: Let's go.

Nice.

Miah: And this is it.

Kevin: That's the table, huh?

Miah: This is the table.

Kevin: Wow.

So what's this style?

Vintage?

Miah: It's mid-century modern.

Formica.

Kevin: Yeah.

Miah: Probably late '50s.

Early '60s.

Kevin: And why this one?

Miah: Well, I've always been a big fan of this style.

My grandparents used to have one.

It was their main table.

And we'd spend all of our holidays sitting around it, eating.

Kevin: So this really brings back memories.

Miah: Yes, absolutely.

Kevin: Sharing a meal, breaking bread at something like this.

Miah: Yes.

Kevin: Oh, that's awesome.

So this is a keeper.

Miah: This is a keeper.

Kevin: This has got to be exciting.

It's sort of a turning point in the project that you can now start thinking about furnishing it and getting back into the house.

Miah: Absolutely.

I've been thinking about decorating and everything since before everything happened.

Kevin: That's true.

You've always been fast on that track.

All right, so this one's going home with you.

Do you need chairs?

Is that something that comes with or...?

Miah: Yes, definitely need chairs, but that's the thrill of the hunt.

Kevin: Well, we can't wait to get you back in and... Miah: Thank you.

Kevin: ...put the old Formica table in.

Miah: Yay!

Jenn: After Hurricane Helene brought record flooding to Western North Carolina, some homeowners, like Jim and Allie, were concerned about the health of their soil.

So I called in the county's local horticultural extension agent, Alison Arnold, to help determine if their yard would be fit for planting.

On any project, I always recommend soil testing just to know what you're working with, what the composition is.

Then you have a baseline, right?

Alison: Absolutely, we always recommend soil testing, new sites, new garden, whatever that is.

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.

So in order to do that, we have a soil probe and a clean bucket.

And we're basically wanting to insert this down into the soil 4 to 6 inches.

In an area like we have here, you're basically wanting to take 10 to 12 samples.

We're really looking for about a cup of soil in the end.

There we go.

Jenn: Nice.

Alison: So you can see there's some root debris in there.

Jenn: And so when you take the final sample, you could even, like sift through it to pull all the roots out.

Alison: Exactly.

So it's really important to get a diversity of samples.

So I'll go around and take samples here to get that sample complete.

And then I'm going to mail them to the state lab in Raleigh.

Jenn: Great, and so based off those results, we'll get a recipe to start the amending.

Alison: Absolutely.

We'll work together to make that happen.

Jenn: Yes.

Awesome.

Thank you.

While Alison sent these samples to the state lab in Raleigh, I headed home to the Massachusetts state lab to see firsthand how soil fertility tests are performed.

Sam: So, Jenn, welcome to the UMass extension soil and plant nutrient testing lab.

Jenn: You don't know how excited I am to be here.

For years and years, I've been telling homeowners, "Get your soil tested.

Know what you're working with."

So tell us why it's important for testing.

Sam: Yeah, absolutely.

When we're talking about testing our soil for fertility, we're looking for things like, is this soil over-fertilized?

Is it under-fertilized?

Either one of those things can be a problem for our gardens and landscapes.

The first step is male.

We're pretty old school in here.

If you want a routine soil sample, which is going to be things like your soil pH, your phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, you're going to go into this bin here.

And we just need about one cup of soil to do that test.

If you also want to add on organic matter then you're going to go over here.

So it's $20 for a routine sample $6 to add organic matter onto that.

Jenn: So for $26 you get a full fertility analysis and it'll put you in a good spot.

Sam: Absolutely.

Jenn: Okay.

Sam: So our next step we're going to go into our drying ovens.

So we put samples in here overnight at around 95 Fahrenheit.

We don't want them too hot at this point.

But what we want to do is get all of the water out of the soil samples, because we don't want to measure water.

We want to measure what's actually in your soil.

Jenn: Okay, I see all the different colors here.

Sam: So the different colors can tell us about things like the soil type and where it came from, or even things like how much organic matter do the different soils have in them.

Jenn: Okay.

Sam: So after we've got the soil all dried out, every single sample is hand sieved.

That gets out any rocks or other debris like plastic or glass that might be in the sample.

It also gets it nice and small and uniform, and that helps us to get a really accurate and precise analysis.

So, Jenn, the next thing that we're going to do after we've sieved and dispensed the soils is we're going to bring them over here to analyze them for pH.

Jenn: Now why is pH so important?

Sam: As pH starts to increase and get closer to about 6.5, we're going to see that our plant nutrients become more available.

Jenn: So available to the plant meaning when it reaches 6.5 it could suck it up like a straw.

Sam: Exactly.

Jenn: Okay.

This machine does two things.

It measures pH, which determines how acidic or basic the soil is, and it recommends how to get the soil into an ideal range.

You do that by adding amendments like lime to raise the pH or sulfur to lower the pH.

From there, another portion of the soil sample is filtered with special chemical solutions to prepare it for nutrient extraction, which will help guide fertilizer amendment recommendations.

Sam: Next, we're going to take this over for our first measurement of phosphorus.

And I have my instrument already going.

This is flow injection analysis.

Phosphorus is actually so important, we measure it twice.

Once on this instrument and a second time on another instrument.

Jenn: So if you have the optimal level of phosphorus, you're going to have a strong root system and an overall healthy plant.

Sam: Exactly.

As this is going, it's creating peaks.

And then this computer is going to turn these peaks into an actually calibrated number that ends up on your soil test result.

So, Jenn, the next thing that we're going to do is we're going to bring these samples over here for their final analysis.

Now this instrument here is going to be three-fold.

We can measure high phosphorus.

We can measure all those other nutrients that you see on your test like calcium, magnesium, potassium.

And we can also measure the heavy metals using this instrument.

We want to see how this thing works?

Jenn: I do, I do.

Sam: So inside we have a torch.

Your sample is going to be introduced here and up into this torch.

When this is running, this has a plasma.

That plasma is cooking at about the temperature of the surface of the sun when we introduce your sample into it.

Jenn: Wow.

That's insane.

Sam: You want to go ahead and light up the plasma?

Jenn: I would love to try.

Sam: Okay.

You can close the door.

Jenn: Like that?

Okay.

Sam: And F5 is lift off.

There it goes.

So, Jenn, this is going to take about one minute per sample.

When it's all done it's going to give us another spreadsheet with all of the individual concentrations for each one of those elements that we measure.

Jenn: Well, I have to say it's incredible the amount of chemistry and information that you get from $26 and a cup of soil.

Thank you for taking the time to show me.

Sam: Absolutely.

Thank you for being here.

And it's a service that we're happy to provide.

Jenn: Awesome.

Hey, Jim and Allie.

Allie: Hi.

Jenn: So last time I was here, Alison performed a soil test, and we got results back.

And do you want to tell us about it?

Alison: Well, the results came back excellent.

Allie: Cool.

Alison: Yeah.

Jenn: We have three major components that we want to talk about here.

And let's start with the pH.

Alison: Okay.

So the soil pH here we're looking at a range between 5.8 and 6.5.

And you tested at 6.1.

Allie: Awesome.

Alison: So you're right in mark there.

Jenn: Next phosphorus.

Alison: So phosphorus, the optimum range we're looking for is between 50 and 70.

And yours came in at 11.

Allie: 11?

Alison: Yep.

It's pretty typical of our soils here in the mountains to have a low phosphorus level.

Jenn: So what you're going to need to do is add phosphorus to your soil.

Alison: And that will be added at the time of planting.

Jenn: And last, we have potassium.

Potassium is essential for plant growth, water regulation, nutrient uptake, and disease resistance.

Alison: For potassium, we're looking at an index between 50 and 70.

And your results came back in at 56.

So you're within that range.

Jim: Awesome.

Jenn: So there's one more test we want to talk about.

Alison: Absolutely.

So some people opted to do a heavy metals test.

And because of your situation, we went ahead and took a sample and sent it to a private lab.

And we tested for lead, arsenic, cadmium, and mercury.

And fortunately, they all came at a low level.

Allie: Nice.

Alison: That tested really fine.

Jim: Awesome.

Well thank you.

Allie: Yeah, thank you for doing this for us.

We really appreciate it.

Alison: We're glad to help.

Kevin: A few weeks ago, I met the folks here at Making Whole.

It's a custom furniture shop that also has a special program to help men in recovery rebuild their lives through hands-on apprenticeship.

The shop was founded in 2018 by Jeremy French, who, after becoming sober himself in 1995, was looking for ways to support others during their struggle with addiction.

Jeremy: I started asking myself the question, "Why do people get better?"

And it's kind of a short list, you know?

I've been at this for 20-something years, and one was, all of them had a story about a person at the beginning, a mentor of some shape -- formal or informal.

And the other thing I noticed is that these people all had, um, either profession or their primary hobby, their principal hobby, and it was something where they had to learn how to solve complicated problems all day long.

So the question becomes, how do you create a format where people are interfacing with complicated problems in a community setting, where there's an opportunity to have a mentor?

And do that in a way that's inviting, where people want to be here, right?

And so that's what this place is built on.

Kevin: Master craftsman Andy Rae has been an instructor at the shop since the beginning.

Andy: We're doing real work, number one.

We're not setting up a program to keep them busy.

We're actual furniture shop.

And we're not only a furniture shop, we're a high-end furniture shop.

So everything that goes out the door is pretty nice.

These guys come in and they've got to work in a real situation, which is like life.

Like, "Oh, my God, there's a problem."

How do you solve the problem?

Go figure it out.

And we let them figure it out.

We let them make mistakes.

And then we learn how to fix our mistakes and move to the next step.

Luke: It saved my life in a lot of ways.

Like, there was pretty much two options for me -- dying or ending up in jail.

And somehow I found a third.

And that was coming here and doing something to, like, change the trajectory that my life was on.

Jeremy: So this is different than a traditional apprenticeship, where the objective is to get somebody certified to be a craftsman.

This is just a place where we use the work we're doing as a language and a dialogue to process through how do you solve complicated problems.

And what that does is it translates into the rest of life.

Marcus: We build furniture here, and that's like the product that you see and that we work on.

But really, like, the product that we're working on on a daily basis is ourselves.

Kevin: Hey, Jeremy, good to see you again.

Jeremy: Kevin, good to see you, man.

Kevin: Yeah, so I hear you're helping us out with Paula's vanity top.

Jeremy: We are.

We're going to build a concrete vanity with an integral sink for Paula's main bathroom.

Kevin: Okay.

It looks like you got sort of a template here.

Jeremy: We've got a template, yep.

So she's hung the vanity on the wall.

And so we took a template of the vanity and the wall space so that we could build a form that will fit exactly.

Kevin: I get this sort of being representing the top with this.

What does this represent?

Jeremy: So that's going to be the sink.

So that's the plug that will create the sink shape.

So when that comes out, we're going to cast around it.

When that comes out, that becomes the shape of the sink.

Kevin: So instead of a space for the sink it'll actually be integral to the whole form.

Jeremy: Correct, yeah.

All in one piece.

Kevin: You're doing it right here?

Jeremy: We're doing it right here.

We're setting up.

We're going to apply some edging directly to this table which is a high pressure laminate table.

And then we'll cast directly into that.

Kevin: Let's do it.

Jeremy: Let's do it.

All right.

So the first thing we want to do is make a good straight edge for the front.

Um, regardless of what the cabinet does, we want the front edge to be straight.

So what we're going to do is just... You're going to hold that.

You don't get paid to look pretty, you got to work.

Kevin: [ Laughs ] If this is considered work, I'm in.

Jeremy: All right.

Perfect.

And we're just going to hot glue this down to the table.

Kevin: So this is actually which were the front of the form is going to go.

Jeremy: This is the front edge of the vanity right here.

Kevin: Okay.

Jeremy: And now we can glue down the rest of the forms.

And we're done with that for now.

Kevin: Okay.

Jeremy: The backside of this has some double-sided tape.

So now we can go ahead and locate this sink.

Obviously the theme all this is about the river.

This is kind of a river stone shape.

It kind of maximizes this otherwise very narrow vanity.

Kevin: Okay.

Jeremy: So our sink's in place.

Kevin: Okay.

Jeremy: So what we're going to do is put Vaseline, which we've diluted in mineral spirits to make it really thin.

We're going to coat everything in that.

And we'll just wipe this in with a paper towel.

And what we want to do is just almost remove everything.

We're going to get it to where there's not much left.

We're going to apply caulk around each one of the transitions in the mold, starting with the sink here.

And now we'll just run this tool right around to create that nice round profile.

All right, now we just need to let this silicone cure for a minute.

And then we'll just be able to peel off all this excess.

Kevin: A lot more ingredients than I was expecting, to be honest.

Jeremy: Yeah.

There's a lot of ingredients that goes into a mix that's going to make a countertop thin and strong and durable and beautiful.

Kevin: Okay.

Jeremy: And so all that begins with we have a blend here that's got cement and sand, which is the aggregate in this mix.

In the case of this countertop that we're doing for Paula, there's going to be a series of mixes that we do, and in all those mixes, we're going to be adding some sand that actually comes from the river that flows right by Paula's house.

Kevin: So this is what makes it personal and sort of adds that memory, good or bad, to the piece.

Jeremy: Correct.

And so what we're going to do is polish that and expose all that sand.

It'll have a similar quality to a terrazzo.

Kevin: And then you got smaller sand here.

Jeremy: Yeah we got a finer sand.

So we're going to break the mix into two different parts to begin with.

In one part we're going to pour into the bottom.

And the second part we're actually going to spray through a hopper gun, and so the finer material will go through the hopper gun won't clog the hopper gun up.

And that's how we'll get the mix to go over the sink without slumping down.

This is a very specific glass.

It's infused with zirconium.

So it's not just your typical fiberglass.

And that will allow it to not break down in the alkalinity of the cement.

Kevin: Okay.

And then why ice in your water?

Jeremy: So if we want the mix to move and flow, cooling it down is the first part of that process.

The second part of that process is that we have a couple of different plasticizers that actually make the mix more fluid without adding water.

The more water you add, the weaker your concrete gets.

And finally, we've got a liquid polymer that's actually going to seal the moisture into the mix.

We don't want the concrete to dry out.

We want it to stay moist long enough for that cement to chemically react and turn into crystals.

So basically what we're doing is making a countertop full of crystals.

You didn't know that, did you, Kevin?

Kevin: I'm struck by how thin the slab is going to be.

I mean, this dimension is tiny to my eye for a concrete slab.

Jeremy: Yeah, well, concrete's got great compressive strength, which means you can't crush it easily, but it's got terrible tensile strength.

The reinforcement we use for tensile strength is glass fiber, which is quite small, which allows us to make it much thinner.

What those fibers are, they're like a steel cable.

If you were to break one of these fibers apart, what you'd have is a hundred little filaments of fiber.

So it has the same kind of strength profile that a steel cable would as opposed to just a single piece.

And that's what gives it the strength.

So tomorrow we'll be able to pull this out of the formwork and begin the polishing process.

Kevin: This is exciting to see it as it is, and it's going to be awesome to see when this thing's flipped.

Jeremy: I'm excited too.

Yeah.

Kevin: Thanks, man.

Jeremy: Yeah, thanks, Kevin.

Kevin: That's awesome.

Zack: The French Broad River is one of North Carolina's most important waterways.

Traversing through the mountains, it's beloved by outdoor enthusiasts, Including Gordon Grant, a lifelong paddler and educator.

Gordon: French Broad is one of 17 major watersheds in the state of North Carolina.

It starts on the east side of the Blue Ridge Parkway up an almost 5000 feet.

It does a big J, and it flows north through the mountains.

So it's a fascinating river that geologists would call an antecedent river, that the river is as old or older than the mountains that it flows through.

And they were uplifted around it.

Zack: But in late September 2024, Hurricane Helene barreled into Western North Carolina, causing this waterway to swell to record breaking levels, cresting over 30 feet.

Gordon: This is the I-40 bridge, and notice the horizontal bars going across between the bridge pilings.

The river was at least that high.

Zack: Oh, my gosh.

Gordon: And there were buildings, tractor trailers, propane tanks coming down the river.

And the river actually smelled toxic, which it was because of all the industrial stew that was in it.

Zack: Here, the Swannanoa, the other river in Asheville, converges with the French Broad, a recipe for disaster in a hurricane like Helene.

Gordon: The Swannanoa comes in from the east, and it regularly flows less than 100 cubic feet per second.

During the flood, it went to 40,000.

Zack: Oh, my gosh.

Gordon: So everything here was underwater.

Everything you can see.

Zack: The River Arts District, less than a mile up river, was hit particularly hard.

So what made the River Arts District so vulnerable that it got so much more damage than other areas?

Gordon: Well, you can look ahead and sort of see the lay of the land.

Look how flat it is.

Okay?

Zack: Right.

Gordon: It's a beautiful place to build.

It's just got one big problem -- When the water rises dramatically, that's where it's going.

Zack: The massive cleanup effort is underway, but will take years to complete.

Gordon: To heal the river, takes about 500 bucks a linear foot with proper reforestation, so that in the next flood you're going to have a network of root systems, trees, and natural plants that the water can flow through but will not rip apart.

And how we rebuild is going to define the next decade.

Are we going to be forward thinking enough to build in a way that the river can sustain itself through its own protective systems.

Zack: Right.

Gordon: That can be done.

It is not easy, but what else are we going to do with our time?

[ Zack chuckles ] Zack: Well, I can't thank you enough, Gordo.

This has been so informative.

Gordon: Well, it's my pleasure, Zack.

And as you can see, the river keeps going, and so can we.

Are you up for it?

Zack: All right, let's do it.

Until next time, I'm Zack Dettmore for "This Old House".

Kevin: Next time on "This Old House"... We are installing under-cabinet LED lighting and we're going to learn about good, better, and best.

And from polyester chips to finished carpet all in two days under one roof, we'll show you the only factor in the world that can do that.

And just out of curiosity, do you know how much length you've got on this roll?

Man: 37 miles of yarn.

Kevin: [Laughing] On each one?

Man: On each cone.