Ask This Old House

Kevin

Today on "Ask This Old House"...

Roger

These trees not only provide flowers and shade. They give you edible fruit.

Julia

That's going to be amazing. Thank you so much, Roger.

Tom

It's one of the most versatile tools you'll ever own, and I'll show you the key to great cuts with any circular saw. All right, so what I've done is I've just made two 45-degree cuts. I put 'em together and I have a nice 90-degree corner.

Kevin

I love it.

Richard

And I'll show you everything you need to know about replacing your tank-type water heater.

Kevin

That's next on "Ask This Old House." Hi, there. I'm Kevin O'Connor, and welcome back to "Ask This Old House," where the guys are working hard to answer questions about your house. We'd love to hear from you, so keep 'em coming. Hey, good morning,

Tommy. -Tom

Hey, Kevin.

Kevin

How's that in-box looking over there?

Tom

Actually, pretty good. We're getting a lot of questions. People are writing in about which saw to buy. So I'm going to go down to my truck, get a couple, and we can see if we can help 'em out.

Kevin

Why don't you get a couple coffees, too, while you're at it? Morning, Richard. How are you?

Good. -Kevin

Water Heaters 101 today?

Richard

Yeah, we're going to talk water heaters. You know, there was a time that a water heater was just a straightforward replacement, takes a plumber about an hour, but there's some new regulations that are going to make these water heaters more efficient.

Kevin

That's good for homeowners.

Richard

It is, but it can make the installation a little more tricky. We'll talk about that today.

Kevin

Looking forward to it. Thank you. Roger, look -- whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa! What do you got here?

Roger

These came from a backyard orchard. We've got Granny Smith, Cortlands, and Macs. Aren't they beautiful?

Kevin

They are. All these came from the same orchard?

Roger

Right, and you can plant a tremendous variety of trees, and that's what I'm going to do today, is I'm going to go help a homeowner put in an orchard.

Kevin

Oh, man. I cannot wait for that.

Roger

Don't bite it! Ugh.

Julia

Roger, thanks for coming out. I'm really excited to meet you and also excited to show you my garden.

Roger

It has a real English feel to it, doesn't it?

Julia

It does. I think that the people who installed the garden were trying to, you know, play off the feeling of the house, which is also pretty English.

Roger

Thanks for arranging the flowers and the lilacs.

And the smell is great. -Julia

You like that?

Yeah. -Julia

Yeah. I think they heard you were coming.

Roger

So there was some planning done in this garden.

Julia

Yeah, and we've been here a couple of months, but the plans were really quite ambitious, but the last owners didn't really follow through too much on it. So we're really excited to keep going with the original plan and even go maybe a little further with it.

Roger

What happened out here?

Julia

Well, this is why I wrote to you. Um, this was my vegetable garden, or a vegetable garden. It was really more mostly bittersweet and wild raspberries and voles. Uh, so after a couple of weeding sessions, I just gave up on it and I decided we needed to start over again with something else,

so we just tore it all out. -Roger

Good idea. Because it's so far away from the house, it's going to be hard to maintain. When you're cooking, you just want to walk out the door, grab a handful of oregano, and go back to cooking again.

Julia

Right. Right. Well, what I had in mind, I mean, with all the wonderful things in this garden, it still lacks an edible component. So I was thinking maybe a couple of apple trees.

Roger

Oh, what a great idea! An orchard would fit in here very nicely. But it's not just about a couple of apple trees anymore. Come take a look, see what I brought you.

Julia

Oh, okay.

Roger

Not everyone has the area to have a orchard like you do. But if you have a flat wall, maybe the side of a house or a fence, you can take an apple tree like this. This tree has been espaliered, or flattened, and you can see how it's been trimmed neatly.

Mm-hmm. -Roger

It could grow and give you apple trees even in a small space.

Julia

Yeah, well, I can see using that decoratively. I mean, I think -- I think it's beautiful. It's kinda sculptural.

Almost like a sculpture. -Julia

Yeah. Exactly.

Roger

Here we have another one that grows really tight. Look at this. This is just the way it grows. This is perfect. It's going to have a smaller climate of space, needs sunlight, and you'll have apples on this one.

Julia

Can you put that a pot or a big container on the deck?

Roger

I think that'd be a great idea, huh?

Julia

Yeah. Yeah,

that's cool. -Roger

But over here, we have what we're bringing to your house today.

Julia

Ah, I was hoping you were going to tell me this is what we were talking about, because I really like this one.

Roger

We have several trees that we're going to be planting. We have a mix of apples and pears.

Okay. -Roger

And the important thing is we have different varieties. We want to make sure we have cross-pollination here. We get cross-pollination, we'll get more fruit and sweeter-tasting fruit.

Julia

Excellent.

Roger

But we want to lay these out, but I don't want to move 'em around. They're really heavy. I just want to bring 'em over once and put 'em in place. We're going to take some flags, put out their location, okay it, and then we'll put the trees in place. We're going to leave room for these trees to grow. We're going to place 'em 15 feet apart. That'll also leave us room to get in and do our maintenance. Okay. Bring it up to me. This tree dolly really makes it easy to move the trees around.

Julia

Okay.

I got it. -Julia

Yeah. Okay. Good. Magic.

Roger

Okay. We'll just let it sit. So, what do you think of the placement, Julia?

Julia

I -- I like it!

Roger

Good.

Now comes time to plant. -Julia

Okay.

Roger

The first thing I'm going to do is draw a line out so that we have a hole that's probably two to three times as big as the actual ball is.

Julia

It really needs to be that much bigger than the ball?

Roger

It really does. It'll be happy later on.

Julia

No cheating. Okay.

Roger

That's beautiful. Garden soil, right?

Julia

Garden soil.

Roger

Okay. I don't want to dig too deep, Julia, so let's check the root ball on this. I'm just going to cut open like an observation hole, and it'll allow me to find the root flare.

Julia

So what's a root flare?

Roger

That's where the stem comes down and flares out, and that's where the roots begin, and that should be right at ground level or a little above.

Julia

Okay.

Roger

So I found it here, but it corresponds to -- we want to be right there for the top of the ball. So that means we're going to have to dig a hole that's going to be about 14 inches deep.

Julia

So we only have to dig a hole that's 14 inches deep.

Roger

Correct. Take that across and step on it. There you go. You want to take a measure down right there in that opening? What do you got? Go to the hole part, yeah.

Julia

Yeah. Well, we're about 12 inches down right now.

Roger

So we've only got to take out a couple more inches and we're good to go.

Great. -Roger

Yeah, watch out.

Julia

All right. Want some help with that?

Roger

No, no,

no. -Julia

Okay.

I'm a professional. -Julia

All right.

Roger

That look okay?

Yeah. -Roger

Yeah?

Julia

I like where it is. It's cool.

Roger

All right. Now we're going to cut open the ball. We're going to add some compost and loom and fertilizer and backfill it. Ah, there we go. All right. Let's uncover the root flare and loosen this ball up. All right, you ready to plant?

Julia

I am.

Roger

Let's get some soil. All right, Julia. You got your shovel?

Julia

Yeah. Right here.

Roger

Don't go anywhere without it. This is topsoil and compost mixed together, and it's really great for the plants

and they'll grow beautifully. -Julia

It's gorgeous.

Roger

So take and mix it together and then we'll backfill it. So we're going to give it a good soaking, which will settle the soil, get rid of the air pockets, and help the roots get established. We have a 2-inch round post and this chain lock material, which are going to hold the tree in place so that the roots can get a chance to get established. And then we put this hardware cloth around the trunk. Once we get all the trees in place and watered in, we'll come back and mulch 'em. Then we'll put down some grass seed and before you know it, you're going to have your own backyard orchard.

Julia

That's going to be amazing and so pretty. Thank you so much, Roger.

Kevin

Circular saws, Tommy. A lot of questions and e-mails about 'em, and one of your favorite tools because it is so versatile.

Tom

It's very versatile, and I would say, if someone is going to buy a saw, this is the first saw that you should buy, because you can do just about anything with them.

Kevin

All right, and there are a bunch of different kinds and a bunch of different price points, right?

Tom

Absolutely. I mean, it starts off with a small battery-operated saw like this, with probably a 5 1/2-inch blade on it.

Kevin

Yeah.

Tom

Up to a big boy here that we use a lot of. These are worm drive saws, which means there's a worm gear in here that turns the blade. You sit behind the blade so you have a lot of control. A lot of guys don't like those so they go to the sidewinder type, which it has a blade that's direct drive. You can get it on the right-hand side of the motor or the left-hand side of the motor. It's really a matter of your preference.

Kevin

And in terms of price, what is the range we're talking about here?

Tom

Well, the prices let's say start at $50 up to $400.

Kevin

$400, really?

Tom

Yeah. They're all versatile, depending on the size and the quality that you want.

Kevin

Can I get away with a $50 one?

Tom

You can, but it's very important that you buy a high-quality blade

for that cheaper saw. -Kevin

Really?

Tom

It'll make all the difference in the world. So let's look right here. There are carbide-tipped blades.

Kevin

Yeah.

Tom

This one right here has a lot of teeth on it so it's going to give me a finer finished cut. If you want to know the size of that blade, it gives you the size of the blade and the amount of teeth that are on the blade and it'll also tell you that it's a finish blade.

Hmm. -Tom

All right. Now look at the teeth on this blade. This is a combination blade, and this is a blade that we use a lot for framing. It's a 7 1/4-inch blade. It has 24 teeth around, so it's going to give me a much rougher cut.

Yeah. -Tom

In most cases, faster.

Kevin

So, different blades for different uses, and not all just for wood. I mean, we've seen Roger cut masonry

with these blades right here. -Tom

Yeah. This is great for cutting concrete, granite, brick, or even tile.

Kevin

This is a diamond tip all the way around the edge right there.

Tom

Yep, yeah, and you can get a carborundum blade for cutting metal or plastic, all kinds of different things.

Kevin

And you can do a lot with these things. I mean, you guys frame houses, obviously, with them, but I've even seen you make furniture with this thing.

Tom

Build the furniture. I mean, let's look at, first of all, the adjustments that are on this blade. Here's the plate that's on the bottom of the saw.

Yeah. -Tom

There's an adjustment right here on the back, so you can set the height, so you can cut whatever you want, whether or not you want to cut all the way through the board or bring it up so you can just cut a notch or a groove in the board.

Kevin

So if you were putting a dado or a rabbet in the board, you'd do that, and we've also seen you use this to put a miter on a cut.

Tom

That's right. Right here on the front of this saw -- it's usually on the front of the saw -- you can turn this knob here, set the angle of the bevel to a 45-degree angle, which will give me a 90-degree box. And like any tool, you want to make sure that you use safety equipment, eye and ear protection, and then make your cut. And I'm going to use a guide to run my saw to get that cut nice and straight.

Kevin

Want me to get that for you?

Tom

All right. You got that?

Kevin

I do.

Tom

Okay. All right, so what I've done is I've just made two 45-degree cuts. If you stand it up like that, you can see the bevel there. Put 'em together, and I have a nice 90-degree corner.

Kevin

I love it. So, versatile and great to have around on the job site, just like you.

Tom

A must.

Kevin

So we're first-time homeowners.

Richard

Congratulations!

Kevin

Thanks. And we're thinking about home maintenance.

Richard

Okay. Everybody is, I think.

Kevin

Yeah. Well, one of the things we're worried about is the water heater.

Okay. -Kevin

We're a two-unit, so this one here is ours on the right.

Richard

You're on the first floor.

Yup. -Richard

Okay. Well, water heaters fail someday, and it starts with understanding how old they are. So when I look here, this installer did us a nice favor. He actually told us the day he installed it. It was '06, so this is now ten years later. But there's always a rating plate somewhere on the water heater that's going to tell you the date of manufacture. So here's the model and serial number, and I would guess that this was made in November of '03, so this looks like it might've been on the shelf for three years. Now, there's also a listing of the warranty, how long they expect it to last, which is six years. So you've got a 13-year-old tank in use for ten that they expected to last for six. So most people wait for the water heater to fail and there's always a big hubbub, get us right over, flooded basement, everything else. This might be the best day you could ever have to change this water heater out, all right? Let me go to the truck, get some tools. To get started, I need to shut off the water supply, the gas supply, and drain the water heater. I'm also going to remove some of the old gas piping and the overflow from the temperature and pressure relief valve. Okay. We also have this gas line in the way. I'm just going to swivel this pipe out of the way just enough to ooch the water heater out. This should do it right here. Next, I break the galvanized flue gas connection at the top of the water heater. I'm going to reconnect to the hot and the cold copper water lines, so it's a lot easier to clean them in place and then cut them. Once they're cut, we're ready to take this water heater out of here. Kevin, say hello to your new water heater.

Kevin

Hello!

Richard

All right. So you are one of the first homeowners that come under the new energy guidelines from 2015. The government wanted to reduce the amount of energy that was lost from a water heater, and most of that loss happens in what they call standby loss. Here's this 40-gallon tank. It wants to give off its heat all day long to the basement. So they did it by making more insulation. So if you look, it's the same height, it has the same cold water line right here with a dip tube that goes to the bottom. Hot water leaves right here. Same flue connections. Gas piping is the same. The one thing that's changed is the dimension. So you can see, the old tank was just over 19 inches. This is 22. So it means you've got a total of three inches wider, which means an inch and a half more insulation all the way around and at the top, and that's a good thing. So you've got a wide-open basement, no big deal. But there's a couple of people that this new law is going to come into effect for that's going to be some issues. Anybody that's got a water heater that's jammed in a tight little closet or the people that have condos, sometimes I see them jammed tight in the closet. You're not going to fit 'em all. The other thing is that if you have a 55-gallon or larger water heater, they now have to be so efficient, you can no longer vent 'em into a chimney. You have to use a nonmetallic plastic vent that sometimes that can really add to the installation. But, you've got plenty of space, so it's no big deal for you. We also got you a ten-year-warranty water heater. This was a six, this one's a ten,

so it should last a lot longer. -Kevin

Great.

Richard

All right. You ready to put 'er in?

Kevin

Yeah. Let's do it.

Richard

Why don't you take this end? Follow me. Let me just dance it in. I got it. All right, so look at this now. Remember I said it was no big deal, you have plenty of space? Look at this. The flue doesn't line up, the hot and cold don't line up because the extra width gets in the way of this concrete pad that's sticking up above the floor. So it just means a little more re-piping.

Kevin

Okay.

Richard

So I'm going to start by reconnecting the gas, so I'll just dry-fit the old connection to the union. And that tells me that I need about inch and a half. That's perfect. So I'm just going to put a little pipe dope on the threads. Okay. That should be that. A little bit of pipe dope on the face of the union, like that, not too much. And this is the drip cap that goes into the bottom of the T. This is a vacuum valve that would allow -- if I was ever trying to drain the tank, it would allow air in so it wouldn't let the tank collapse or implode. So with this flue pipe, we have a crimped end, and that has to fit inside this fitting, so I'll hold this up, and this part has to go over this crimp, so this mark should be perfect right there. All right, so this is the overflow, and that comes from the temperature and pressure relief valve. This is a really important safety device. If the tank ever got too hot or too much pressure, it would relieve, and they wouldn't want that relief to go onto somebody, so it has to be down to within 12 inches of the floor. All right, so we are done. It's now time to put the water back on. Listen for it.

Water running

Richard

Okay, and while that tank is filling, I'm going to turn the gas back on. Okay, now that's on. And now I want to do a leak test on all those new connections. If there was a leak, you'd see a bubble coming up. There it goes. All right, gas is back on, water's heating up. I've labeled the first floor, I've got the date of installation,

and you are good to go. -Kevin

Awesome. Thanks, Richard. You mind throwing your autograph on there, too?

Richard

My autograph?

Kevin

Yeah.

Richard

Really? That might drop the value of this thing. All right. I don't think I've ever done that before. I'll see you in ten years.

Kevin

Thanks. We'll see you then.

Richard

All right. Thanks for your help.

Kevin

Your signature, really?

Richard

Really. Silly. I'm sorry.

It's just -- just silly. -Kevin

I love it.

Richard

Let's talk water heaters. You know, the new energy regs came in. I'm thrilled about 'em. They're going to make more insulation, make 'em a little bit bigger. In that case, I had to add a little more piping because it hit that concrete on the bottom.

Kevin

But if it didn't hit the concrete, you would've been fine, right?

Richard

Yeah. It would've lined up, been fine.

Okay. -Richard

All right? Now, inside these things, they're increasing the amount of insulation, as I mentioned, from 3/4 to inch and a half, and that's great, both here and here. But it's not going to make this huge difference, because, inside of a gas-fired appliance like this, it has a burner at the bottom, a tank filled with water, and coming through the middle is this flue pipe right here that has the flue products, right? So think about it -- hot tank of water, ice-cold air from the basement coming up through it, it's just going right up the chimney. Much of the standby loss is not from here, but up the chimney.

Kevin

So it's basically a thermos bottle. They've doubled the size of the insulation, but we still have a hole running right through the bottle.

Richard

It's like leaving a tent flap open, you know? All the air's going to come out.

Okay. I get it. -Richard

So if the -- if you go up over 55 gallons, you can no longer use this style of water heater. You can't use that conventional burner and chimney. Now they're going to make it so that you have to vent it through some nonmetallic piping to outside, not into the chimney, and bring a second line in to bring air into -- for combustion.

Kevin

And that's a good thing, though, because the reason that they're vented is because the burner's that much more efficient.

Richard

Super efficient, and then when the burner's off, it shuts off, which stops some of this off-cycle loss through the chimney.

Kevin

So we're going to pick up some efficiencies there, but it's still a big tank.

Richard

That's right. And electric, not much change here in the small units. Here's a standard electric water heater. You've got a -- an electrical element here and here. You've got increased insulation. It's much like a coffee maker. You're trying to heat the water, okay?

Kevin

Right.

Richard

So not much change here up to 55, but over 55 gallons, you can no longer use this style. You have to use a heat pump water heater.

Kevin

So you can no longer use the elements, those two elements. You have to use this monster right here?

Richard

So this is a tank underneath here, and then above it is a heat pump, and the heat pump is really like an air conditioner in reverse, where it's going to find heat inside the house, inside the basement from other sources, deliver it efficiently into here, and reduce the electrical cost by about 60 percent.

Kevin

What's this guy, though, for? This is an element, isn't it?

Richard

This is the backup element in case -- to make sure you always have hot water, and that should be there as a backup. This should be -- most of it done this way.

Kevin

So that's super efficient.

That's right. -Kevin

So does it affect all water heaters? Everything's changing?

Richard

Well, the thing that doesn't change is if you have a tankless or an instantaneous water heater. This sits on the wall, gas-fired, and when you don't use hot water, it uses nothing. You can't get much more efficient than that.

Kevin

No standby loss. This one's as good as it gets.

Richard

And when you do want to take a shower, you could do it for 24 hours a day.

Kevin

I'm going to start thinking about if I'm getting pushed into a model like this, I might start thinking about putting something like that in there. Cool. Now, so how do you get a ten-year warranty? I mean, are you buying a ten-year model versus -- I mean, I want a ten-year warranty.

Richard

A lot has changed, you know? In the old days, you had a five-year unit and you had a different ten-year unit, and the ten-year unit had a secondary anode rod, it was built a little bit better. Now it's one unit, six years warranty, and then you can buy an additional warranty from the manufacturer, and some manufacturers, to get the additional warranty, insist that you buy this secondary anode. Now, an anode is a sacrificial rod that sits inside. This used to be an anode right here, okay? And once that goes, this is what happens, it goes south.

Kevin

So that's how you get your extra insurance, in some cases, you're saying, but what do the others do?

Richard

Some you're just going to buy an additional insurance policy for a couple hundred bucks.

Kevin

So it's basically just a six-year tank

with a ten-year label on it. -Richard

Exactly.

Kevin

If it fails, they'll replace it.

Absolutely. -Kevin

Huh. All right, cool. Well, good information. And before you go, would you mind signing my arm?

Richard

No. I'm not signing your arm.

Kevin

Come on. Please?

Richard

Get outta here. How silly!

Kevin

Next time on "Ask This Old House"...

Scott

Fan,

lava lamp. -Man

That's it.

Scott

Devices, everything plugs in here.

Man

Everything plugs into there.

Scott

And she runs cords everywhere.

Man

Cords everywhere.

Scott

I've got a brand-new way to add wiring to a room and dress it up at the same time.

Man

I discovered this issue right here.

Tom

Oh, yeah. That's not very safe. I'll repair this deck hazard before anyone gets hurt.