This Old House

Kevin

Today on "This Old House"...

Norm

I got some help re-hanging an old door.

Roger

You've heard of mobile homes. How about mobile stone walls?

Troy

These are each about 6,000 pounds.

Tom

And we saved this old corner cupboard, and now it's time to bring it home.

Kevin

What happened to all this plumbing here?

Richard

I've never seen anything like this before.

Roger

There's already rot going on in that trunk.

Kevin

So, what have you found up here?

Tom

Well, a bit of a surprise.

Richard

It's really the classic plumber's lament.

Kevin

Nice!

Tom

This one right here is right on.

Kevin

A family that paints together stays together. Nice job.

Richard

Where will a slab like this be used?

Tom

The money's in the detail.

Richard

That is beautiful.

Kevin

Hey, Mauro, how are you? Good morning. I'm Kevin O'Connor, and welcome back to "This Old House" here in Newton, Massachusetts, where we have a young couple who is trying to turn this century-old home into a comfortable house for three generations of their family. And along the way, they are trying to save as much money as they can.

And so for them, that means throwing in with our crew. So, up here on the second floor, Joe is actually working with Norm, putting a new door into the master suite, which is off the back of the house here. Hey, Joe. Hey, Norm.

Norm

Hey,

Kevin. Joe

Hey, Kevin.

Kevin

Oh, look at this, huh? So, we've got a new opening, but an old door.

Joe

Yeah, so this door used to be the closet door in Liz's old bedroom, and it's in great shape, so we figured we could reuse it in the master.

Kevin

Do you concur?

Norm

Oh, yeah. We have to trim it a little bit, but it's gonna work.

Kevin

All right. Sounds like a good idea. Well, I got to meet Roger in the backyard, but this one here, that looks like a keeper to me.

Norm

All right, Kevin, see you around. All right, let's put the door in the opening and see how it looks. Make sure it's up against the side of the jamb, nice and tight.

Grunts

Norm

Okay, now, if you look at the top, you can see it's tighter here than it is here.

Joe

Yep.

Norm

The sides look pretty good. I think all we have to do here is take a measurement. Put a mark at 3/4. Do the same thing over here.

3/4. Because the door might have lead paint, we're gonna use respirators. Okay, let's put it in the opening. Make sure it's tight to that side.

Push it up. Perfect. All right, Joe, so, now we're gonna do the hinges. Now, this door, the swing is gonna change.

It's gonna be just the opposite, so that's why these Dutchmen were added in to fill in the gap. So, we're gonna re-mortise for the new hinges. These are the new hinges, the part that goes on the door. So we're gonna locate it right about here.

So, what I want to do is keep the same margin of the mortise they had before, so I've taken my combination square and set it to about a 1/4 inch. And I'm just gonna draw a line right along this edge, go a little bit further than I need. Now, the mortise is a little bit bigger in length, so we'll just center this approximately halfway between, get it right on that line. And then take a utility knife and just score the top and bottom of the hinge.

So, now we have to make the mortise, and we could do that with a jig and a router, but I like to do it with my chisel. You know, give it a couple taps. And we go to the other side, and you get to set it. And then I like to just go across the back.

Across the grain is tough. With the grain is pretty easy. All right. So, now I'm gonna go across and just make a whole series of cuts.

Like a couple taps, move it a quarter of an inch, a couple taps, all the way across. Now, doing this makes the depth of the cut consistent and easier to remove the material for the mortise. Be careful when you get to the ends. Give it another hit.

So, it's really just patience... and taking your time. All right, how's it going?

Joe

Good.

Norm

Think you're there?

Joe

See how it looks.

Flush. Flush. Joe

All right.

Norm

Think we're ready to put some screws in. Can you hold it?

Joe

Sure.

Norm

Okay. Now, when I put the screws in, I like to favor this side of the hole so it pulls it tight to this and not away from it. So, if you go on that side, you know it's gonna be nice and tight. All right.

Okay. We get it in the jamb again. And now we want to shim it so we get the right space at the top of the door. All right.

Yeah, that's good. So, now we want to mark the location of the hinges.

Okay. Norm

So, I'm gonna do -- utility knife comes in handy again. Just gonna go right at the bottom edge of the hinge there. The top. Mark there.

Laughing

Okay. Norm

Just hold the door so it doesn't fall on me. And we'll mark this one. All right, Joe. These are a little tricky, so you guide the bottom in, and I'll guide the top one.

Good?

Joe

Yep.

Norm

All right. Drop it down. Let's see how we did. Nice!

Joe

Perfect.

Norm

Came out well.

Nice job. Joe

Thanks.

Norm

Now you know how to hang a door.

This is great. Norm

Right.

Kevin

Since our first day on the project, we have known a retaining wall was needed behind the new garage. Roger has found a company with a unique way of building stone walls.

Roger

We're here to meet Troy. He's gonna be building the stone walls for our project house.

Good morning. Troy

Hey, Roger. Morning. How you doing?

Roger

Good. I'm impressed. When I build a stone wall on-site, I have stuff everywhere. It looks like you have a really efficient operation.

Troy

We got an extremely efficient process here. So, for a job like yours, which would probably take you

two to three weeks at least... Roger

At least.

Troy

...on-site, we're gonna be able to come in and install it that morning.

Roger

Well, that's gonna save some time and money.

Show me around. Troy

All right, let's go. So, we've got some beautiful bulk fieldstone and other quarry products here always on-site and ready to go. We've got Vermont Chesterfield. We've got a nice Moose Creek, which is a little more tan.

You see the Rockport granite. We've got New England flat. We've got your Goshen stone. And what your client picked was the New England round fieldstone.

Roger

What some people don't understand is this was a free-standing stone wall.

Troy

Yeah. We use completely natural bulk fieldstone from old farm sites, new developments. They save all the old walls.

Roger

Really nice-looking stuff. Now, how about our walls? Are they built?

Troy

Let's go check it out. Well, Roger, this is your wall. And this is actually the back of it.

Roger

Well, how do you build it differently than I do?

Troy

All of our walls are built with molds and forms. It's a patent process, so I can't tell you all the details, but the masons, they come in, they set your stones facedown. We set a grid of number-five rebar, and we pour a 4,000 PSI concrete, which you're seeing here. You can see here the nice, natural stone top of the wall.

And this is the geo-grid, which will be pulled out at time of install.

Roger

How much does each section weigh?

Troy

These are each about 6,000 pounds. That's why we've got a custom lifting frame that we developed that lifts the walls from the back. Nothing ever touches the stone face or top. Well, here's your wall,

Roger. Roger

Look at this. It still has all its moss and patina left. It's a really nice-looking section of wall. I can't wait to see it on-site.

Laughing

Kevin

Roger. Stone wall day, and normally you are back here with an army of guys and a mountain of boulders. And here you are, raking all by yourself.

Roger

I'd take every inch of this site if I was building these walls myself. But they're gonna come in, and within an hour, we're gonna have a whole wall set in place.

Kevin

I cannot wait to see this process.

Roger

Neither can I.

Kevin

And so, in terms of prep, what did you do, and did you do anything different than if you were building this in place?

Roger

No, the same as if we were building it in place. We dug down 2 feet, we put in 3/4-inch stone, and we really compacted it. That's gonna give us good drainage, and this wall's not gonna move.

Kevin

Let's do it. Let's get the other six in.

Roger

What do we got left to do?

Troy

Not much. The walls are in. All that's left is a few pockets that we leave open. And you can see here in this entire stone wall that we've brought, we only need two or three of these to get rid of the joints.

Roger

Oh, you're gonna push it right up in here.

Troy

We save the stones for each wall. It's designed for that little hole there.

Kevin

Homeowners will never know.

Troy

Yeah, seamless application.

Kevin

Yeah, I'll be honest with you -- while this thing was going in, we had a bunch of trades come up, and they were thankful that Roger wasn't here

for two weeks... Roger

At least two weeks.

Kevin

...with piles of boulders buggering the whole site. I mean, this is amazing.

We keep it nice and clean. Kevin

Yeah. Well, I think the homeowners are gonna love it, man.

Thank you very much. Troy

Really appreciate it. This was fun.

Kevin

All season long, we've been talking about the gap in the building trades. There are plenty of carpenters, plumbers, and electricians who are over 50, but there aren't enough young people. And that means that jobs in the trades go unfilled. Our Generation Next initiative is part of an industry-wide effort to solve that problem.

And that's why we have come today to the Bolton Fairgrounds just outside of Boston. Here, industry leaders are making their pitch to hundreds of high schoolers. It is a large event, and it was organized by Michelle Glassburn. Michelle,

nice to meet you. Michelle

Nice to meet you.

Thanks for being here. Kevin

Thanks for having us. So, tell me about the event.

Michelle

So, we have several hundred students coming today from schools around the state of Massachusetts to learn what it's like to be a remodeler

when they get out of school. Kevin

And what's the idea? They're going from station to station and they're meeting the different trades and contractors?

Michelle

There's interactive building activities. They can learn how to do tiling, shingling, framing -- anything that you can imagine.

Kevin

So, how many exhibitors are you expecting to have here?

Michelle

We've got 35 different exhibitors throughout the event today.

Kevin

All different types of things to show off?

Michelle

Absolutely. This is a CNC machine.

Kevin

Do you think some of them are seeing this technology maybe for the first time?

Michelle

In some cases, it's for the first time. In others, it's a reinforcement of what they've learned in class in a real-life, practical application.

Kevin

You've got instructors that will prep the site, and then students come in in waves.

Michelle

Exactly. Very much hands-on. That's the point of today -- is for them to get their hands involved, get dirty, and experience what this is like to do for a living. So, here we have a demonstration for plumbing.

We have two students who are in a contest. So, connecting a toilet is a regular, everyday activity. But these folks are in a race against time to install a toilet. And we're gonna see who's gonna be the winner.

Kevin

Time is money in this business, right? They got to learn that. And you've got all sorts of classes going on.

Michelle

We sure do. Down here, we've got one on framing. You can see the kids are getting really involved, hands-on here to build the flooring of a mini mock room, and the walls are going up, and then, eventually, they'll have a roof.

Kevin

What a great experience.

Michelle

So, this is our environmental area. Students are coming here to learn about mold remediation.

Kevin

They are. Ron Peik. Good to see you.

Ron

Kevin, how you doing?

Kevin

I'm doing all right. Boy, we are used to seeing you in our basements and attics, doing our demolition and our remediation. You actually just helped us out a couple months ago with a mold.

Ron

Right,

right. Kevin

What are you doing here?

Ron

Well, we're enjoying the fresh air. A little better up here than it is down there sometimes.

And we're also looking for help. Kevin

Really?

Ron

We are having the hardest time now in the last 28 years I've been doing this business trying to hire and recruit. We have jobs open and waiting and having a hard time filling them.

Kevin

Boy, that says something, huh? And so, if you do end up picking up one of these kids, what does their career path look like with you?

Ron

Come in entry level, and, again, it is a true career path. If you're a little bit aggressive, within a couple of years -- maybe two or three years -- you could be a supervisor making good money. And then you move on up to management. All my management team, they all started with me.

Some have been with me for 25 years. And you could be making good, solid money -- as much as six figures.

Kevin

Wow! Six figures?

Ron

Right.

Kevin

And they don't have the college debt.

Ron

No college debt. Yeah, yeah.

Kevin

Boy, that says it all right there, doesn't it?

Right. Sure. Kevin

All right. And so what's the demonstration you're putting on today?

Ron

What we're doing is we're simulating the removal of mold off of an attic sheathing, but we're using paint -- a little bit safer for the students. This is a dry-ice blasting process. What we're doing is like sandblasting, but using dry-ice pellets. They blow the mold right off the sheathing.

It takes it right down by the roots -- nice and clean, no chemicals. It's easier, less labor, and a very nice, efficient job. Leaves the plywood looking almost brand-new.

Kevin

And this is a student doing the work?

Ron

Yes, it is.

Kevin

Well, I think you've probably got one of the most exciting booths right here, Ron.

Ron

And the noisiest one, too, Kevin.

Kevin

Always good to see you. Thanks. So, Michelle, how do you guys measure success for this event?

Michelle

So, the idea here is to connect these students with the jobs that are out there that we need so desperately, and so the idea is to get them into co-ops and apprenticeships and onto entry-level positions.

Kevin

Well, you did this last year. I mean, did that actually happen?

Michelle

We did -- in a number of cases, the students who attended the events went on to a co-op position with the exhibitors.

Kevin

Boy, that is great to hear. And you know what -- seeing all these kids out here,

that is great to see as well. Michelle

Absolutely.

Appreciate the tour. Michelle

Thank you.

Kevin

And thanks for organizing it.

Michelle

Thank you.

Saw buzzing

Michelle

Kevin

We are following the progress of our idea house in Rhode Island, and up here on the third floor, this is where the kids are gonna go. Hey, Ryan. Hey, Jeff. How are you?

Jeff

Kevin, how are you?

Kevin

All right. So, a little bit of a bedroom up here tucked away.

Jeff

Yeah, this is a bedroom. We've got a built-in bed going here

with some drawers underneath. Kevin

Very nice.

Jeff

And they're gonna slide into these compartments here, which we've bookended with this shelving.

Kevin

Yeah, some built-ins right there. You got shiplap on the wall.

Jeff

Yep, and we're gonna put mahogany on the ceiling.

Kevin

Oh, very cool. Ready to do that now?

Jeff

Ready to go. All right, next, we're gonna install a valance in front of this bookshelf. So to do so, we're gonna clamp on a couple of blocks to help us hold it in place.

Kevin

All right, coming to your side, Ryan. Yeah. Up.

Jeff

We're gluing the back of this cleat, and that's gonna support a plywood top for the bed to sit on. You like it?

Ryan

Go ahead.

Jeff

All right, we got the base to the bed

that we made in the shop. Kevin

Okay.

Jeff

We're gonna slide this into place. Slide this in. Then we're just gonna go about a 1/4 of an inch past that stile.

Kevin

A little bit of a recess.

Jeff

Yep, a little bit of reveal there.

Kevin

So, the design is obviously two drawers underneath.

Jeff

It'll accommodate drawers. And we're just gonna fasten to the rail with some screws. All right, we'll set the top in. Ryan, you're gonna go low.

Kevin, you'll go high.

Watch your fingers. Ryan

Yeah.

Jeff

All right. Just lower it down. Catch it from the bottom, and that's it.

Kevin

Look at that, huh? All right, so one of three?

Jeff

Yep. Two to go.

Kevin

Nice. Good job, guys. Looks great here.

Jeff

All right.

Kevin

Back here at the Newton house, we've got some built-ins of our own -- some of them which are original to the house, like this china cabinet right here. And, believe it or not, Liz's grandmother's china is still in it. And, Tommy, now that the hardwood floor is down, this one was able to be set back in place. You think that was original, too?

Tom

I think it was original also, but we had a little bit of a challenge trying to set this back in place because the house is leaning in. This wall is out of plumb by about an inch and a half.

Kevin

Old wall here, new wall there.

Tom

Right. New wall here, that wasn't too much of a problem. So, we actually took the casing off of the outside perimeter of the cabinet, and we put a miter on it, giving this a 45-degree piece right here. We added a new piece and scribed it to the wall.

That gave us a piece that was straight all the way down. We scribed it tight to the wall. And it gives us a board 90 degrees off the wall and makes it easy for the baseboard to end.

Kevin

Okay, so that one can be tacked in. And then this side over here?

Tom

On this side, as I said, the house is out of plumb, but it's out of plumb

an inch and a half. Kevin

Wow!

Tom

So, the filler on this side had to be a lot wider, and it had to be tapered much wider on the bottom

than it is on the top. Kevin

Okay.

Tom

So, now when we put that in, we scribe it to the wall. So now we have a nice tight fit. We'll tack that off. All right, looks pretty good.

Get some paint on that, it'll look like it was always there.

Kevin

A lot easier to install when the china's not in it, right?

Tom

Yeah, definitely.

Kevin

All right, so, I know next time, Roger's got a big problem out front

that he's gonna be addressing. Tom

And Liz, our homeowner, is gonna start helping with some tiling.

Kevin

All right. Well, until then, I'm Kevin O'Connor...

I'm Mattie Forde. Tom

And I'm Tom Silva.

Kevin

...for "This Old House." Next time on "This Old House"... So, you don't like this Norway maple?

Roger

I don't like this Norway maple. We looked at the trunk, and there's some damage to it, meaning it could fall. We'll take care of this tree before it takes care of those houses.

Kevin

Our homeowner gets a lesson in tilework.

Tom

Great.

Kevin

The young apprentices who have been with us for much of this job, well, today, they cast off to their future projects.

Tom

And no matter where you are in your lives, you are now and forever part of the "This Old House" crew.

Norm

That's next time on "This Old House."