Ask This Old House

Kevin

Today on "Ask This Old House"...

Richard

Swapping out a radiator isn't too difficult, but there are some tricks to getting it exactly right. Now, there's not enough room to get a wrench on here, so you'll notice there's two little tabs on the inside.

Roger

If you work outside, there's one piece of safety gear you need to have in your tool box, and I'll show you why it's important.

Mark

And repointing brick can be easy as long as you follow all the steps. I'm going to Milwaukee to show you how to do it.

Summer

Sounds like a bigger job than I was anticipating.

Mark

Not at all. By the time we're done, you're gonna be a pro.

Kevin

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

Tom

Hey, Kevin. What's going on?

Kevin

Hey, Tommy. How are you?

I'm good. Kevin

Check this out, huh?

Tom

Oh-ho.

Kevin

That's outside the barn. I just installed a security camera.

Tom

Why?

Kevin

What do you mean "why?"

Tom

Are we gonna watch raccoons?

Kevin

Out there, I've got this thing right here, right? So check this out. It has got this mounting bracket, right? You put that on the wall wherever you want, and it connects to that.

Tom

Ooh,

a magnet. Kevin

Yeah. And, then -- now this is all weather-proof -- boom.

Tom

Look at that.

Kevin

And you can point it any way you want. The cord is just for power. That image is actually working over your wi-fi.

Tom

So you can get it on the phone. Hey, who's that?

Kevin

Oh, that's McCullough, our mason. He's doing an "Ask" remote for us today.

Tom

Wow. Wasn't he supposed to be on an airplane?

Kevin

Yeah, he's supposed to be in Milwaukee. Whoa, watch this. You can talk to him as well.

Tom

Oh, you can talk. Oh, neat.

Kevin

Hold this button right here. Hey, Mark, over here. No, no, over here.

Tom

Hey, what are you doing? You're supposed to be on an airplane, aren't you, sonny?

Kevin

Airport is the other way, fella.

Tom

Get going. We're watching you.

I like this. Tom

I like it, too.

Kevin

Keep going.

Tom

Richard, thanks for coming over today.

Richard

Glad to be here. What a beautiful old house.

Tom

Oh,

thank you. Richard

Spectacular.

Tom

Up here, we have four bedrooms.

Richard

Okay.

Tom

One of them we're using as an office right now. But we're gonna be moving my son in because we're expecting another baby.

Richard

Awesome! That's great!

Tom

Yeah, well, thanks.

Congratulations. Tom

Appreciate it. But before we move him in here, this is the room that is not comfortable. It gets a little cold here in the wintertime.

Richard

Well, I tell you, as I look around the house at all the other bedrooms here, all the other radiators stand that standard height of about 38 inches. There's three columns. And this one is definitely not that. It looks like somebody in the past probably took out the original radiator, spun it over, spun the valve over, and put a smaller one here probably so they could put a bureau right here. But what we got to do is find you the right-size radiator in order to get this thing to heat right.

Tom

So actually, one of the radiators I took out of the kitchen downstairs, I still have it, and I think it would work.

Richard

It's the regular height?

Tom

Yeah, I think it would work well here.

Richard

Let's look into that because it's really important to have the right-size radiator in every room. Now, you've got a steam system. That means that there's a boiler down in the basement, half filled with water. Think of it like a giant lobster pot. When the system is off, the pipes and the radiators are all filled with air. When the thermostat calls for heat, a flame in the boiler ignites and begins to boil the water. As it gets hotter, the water turns to steam and rapidly expands to 1,700 times its original size and fills the pipes to each radiator. An air valve on each radiator allows the air in the system to vent until the steam is sensed, at which point the valve closes, and the radiator fills with steam. And as it loses its temperature, it turns back to water. The water drips back down the same pipe to return to the boiler and be reheated. Now, what's really important with a steam system like this is to have balance, the right-size radiator in every room. It's a single-zone system. Single thermostat comes on. All the heat comes up into the radiators. Now, in your case, this one is too small, which means it's gonna give off less heat to the room, but it's also gonna cool off faster than the other ones, and you're gonna have this condition. So I think what we're gonna do is to break this connection, remove this old radiator, spin the hand valve, and put in your new, old radiator right here. Now, people see radiator and think that it's filled with water. It isn't. It's a steam system. So right now, it's filled with air. And I could break this connection -- it's a mild day -- and not have any risk of steam coming out. But just to be safe, let's start by turning off the service switch. All right, before I break this connection, I just want to talk about steam radiators in general. At the least case, we would like the radiator to be installed in a way that it is level, so any water that was inside the radiator when switched from steam to water would drip back this way. So in old houses, the floors often settle, so you can see what's happened here. They've got some shims right here to try and pitch that radiator a little bit, and there's no shim here. So all that's holding this radiator in place, really, is this nut right here. Now, to break this nut -- this is the hand valve, and this has a large union nut right here. We're gonna try to break it, and when we do, this part, called the spud, will remain on the radiator, and this part, it breaks away. Now, anytime I work on old work, old piping like this, the steam has expanded and contracted a bunch of times, I want to be careful how I use the wrench. If I put this wrench onto the nut like this and only bit here and here, what could happen is, as I tighten or loosen, I could take this nut and take it out of round and turn it into an oval, and that would wreck it. So what I always do is do what's called a 3/4 bite. You notice that we touch here. We touch here, but as importantly, we touch on the back side right here. And that effort will keep it turning 'round. Let's see how we do. That was easy. Good. Okay. So now the union nut is broken. Let's just wiggle this out of here. So let's be careful of the floors. Any water?

Tom

Just a little bit.

Richard

All right. So careful, lift it with me. Let's put it right onto the pad. Okay. Good. So let's get this one out of here and go find your new, old radiator.

Tom

All right.

Richard

All right, get skinny coming through the door there.

There you go. Richard

Good. This is so great you actually saved this thing.

Tom

Yeah, it was all part of the plan.

Richard

Okay. Yeah? I don't think so. Now, careful of the floor. Yeah. Good. All right. So now we have to spin this hand valve this way, and if I'm gonna spin it, I might as well replace it and give you a new one, okay? And if we replace the hand valve, we'll also do the spud on the new radiator. So we're gonna do a couple of wrenches here, 3/4 bite on the pipe and then on the valve. Now, come on in here, Tom, and I want you to try pulling that with us. Ready? Okay. Let's try a little persuasion on it.

Tom

All right.

Richard

Stick that onto the black. One, two, three. Hold back against me. Oh, ho, ho,

ho. Tom

Oh, ho, ho.

Richard

Leverage.

It's all about leverage. Tom

That's right.

Richard

All right. So here is our old hand valve. It has a rising stem. And at the bottom, it has a gasket, but that thing is all worn. Originally, it would have been leather. I'm not sure what that is, but it would never hold back steam. So you can see the difference with a new one. Again, it's a rising stem, but this has a brand-new high-temperature rubber gasket, so when you close this off, at least it'll hold back steam. That's only half of it, though. The other half is this thing called the spud. It has the union connection. Now, there's not enough room to get a wrench on here, so you'll notice there's two little tabs on the inside. They make a special wrench called a spud wrench designed to go in this way. We'll catch those two tabs. It'll allow us to loosen the old one...

Tom

Oh, wow.

Richard

...or tighten in the new one. The good news is, this existing nut actually matches up, so I don't have to change the spud, and they don't always come out easy, so we're gonna go for just reusing that with a new hand valve.

Very cool. Richard

All right. Now, we got to put our new work together with some old piping. Anytime I do that, I use pipe dope and a thing called single-strand wicking. I want this stuff to not leak. So early on, I use adjustable pliers and then use two wrenches to snug it up. Not quite. I think that's it. Let's try it. Let's try it. All right. New hand valve is in place. But when we bring the radiator in, people see this nut, and they think that's the watertight connection. It isn't. The nut only brings this spud so tight against the hand valve that this is the watertight seal, so what I'd like to do is to apply a little bit of pipe dope right on the face. All right, one more thing to muscle, my friend.

Let's go Tom

All right.

Richard

So let's do it. Let's come in for one second. Okay. Just snug this up a little bit. All right, let's snug it up with the big black. Thank you. Great. That should do it. Open the valve. Turn on the system and give it a test.

Tom

All right.

Richard

All right. Thermostat is on. You should be feeling some heat.

Heat is coming up. Richard

That's good. You know what it looks like?

Tom

What's that?

Richard

It looks like it's always been there.

Tom

Well, I can't thank you enough.

Richard

It's my pleasure. You were a great help.

Tom

Oh,

thank you. Richard

Good luck with the baby,

too. Tom

Thank you, sir.

Great. Tom

Take care.

Kevin

Hey,

Roger. Roger

Hey, Kev.

Kevin

Packing a bag?

Roger

Yeah, packing my safety equipment. I got hearing protection, eye protection, skin protection.

Kevin

Safety equipment? Roger, this is sun-- You're -- Sunscreen, you're going fishing, aren't you?

Roger

No, no, no,

no. Kevin

You're going fishing.

Roger

No, but the sun is causing problems with a lot of people, namely contractors. You got roofers, landscapers, carpenters. They're in the sun all day long.

Kevin

So, no offense, Roger, but you do not look like a guy who was wearing suntan lotion all your life. Not that I do either, but --

Roger

Well, because I didn't, I had a problem. I've had a couple things removed from my face that were precancerous, but I also had a melanoma on my back.

Kevin

Wow,

you had melanoma. Roger

Yeah.

Kevin

Well, that's nasty stuff. I mean,

it's very deadly... Roger

Right.

Kevin

...although very preventable, too.

Roger

Right, It's caused by exposure to the sun, strictly. That's it.

Kevin

So you know something about this, huh?

Roger

I do. So I want to show you something. Have a seat.

Kevin

You want to show me something, huh?

All right. Roger

I have a UV camera.

Kevin

Uh-oh.

Roger

You're gonna love this.

Kevin

This is not gonna be good.

Roger

This is gonna show us if there's any damage done.

Kevin

And so what am I -- Oh, wow.

Roger

Take a look at this.

Kevin

What is all that? That's not very flattering.

Roger

All those dark spots are where you've had some damage done.

Kevin

Really?

Roger

Right. If you didn't have damage on your face, it'd look nice and smooth like a baby's skin.

Kevin

Wow.

Roger

But you've got a little bit of stuff going on.

Kevin

Fellas, it's been good to know you, huh? That's not very flattering.

Roger

What I want you to do is try... Take and put some of this on, and let's see what it looks like afterwards.

Kevin

So if I apply sunscreen, we're gonna be able to see that in the UV?

Yeah. Kevin

Holy mackerel.

Roger

You see a difference?

Kevin

It's like when I put my makeup on in the morning.

Roger

Yeah.

Kevin

You've got to be kidding me.

Roger

This is really protecting your skin.

Kevin

So this is how sunscreen works, huh?

It...That's amazing. Roger

Pretty amazing, no? You're using SPF 30, and that's the minimum SPF

they want you to use. Kevin

Okay.

Roger

But the other thing is this has to be done repeatedly. It can't just be done once a day.

Kevin

So that's the thing, Roger. I mean, there's a lot of guys who work on the job site, even homeowners. if they even do put it on, which I know most of them don't, they're not gonna reapply it. I mean, right? Isn't a baseball hat good enough? It's gonna keep it off my face, isn't it?

Roger

No. You've got to remember that, especially with melanoma, your ears are the biggest problem area. And you have no protection there at all. What you have to do is add something physical like this that snaps onto the back of the hat.

Kevin

Really?

Roger

That'll protect your ears.

Kevin

Something to wear like this?

Roger

Yeah.

You look good. Kevin

You know what?

Roger

This is my old garden cap that I wear when I'm doing my work in the garden.

Kevin

You look good.

Roger

Some of the shirts they have now have UV protection in them, so that helps your body to do it.

Kevin

Well, you know what? I guess looking like this is a lot better than looking like I looked on there and having something cut off.

Roger

Yeah, hopefully, we help some people, maybe get everyone to go to the doctor, skin doctor once a year. Hopefully, we'll help some people.

Kevin

All right. Good information, Roger. And I'm glad to hear that your thing worked out well.

Roger

I'm doing great. I'm gonna be here for a long time.

Kevin

When are we going fishing?

Roger

Tomorrow.

Mark

Milwaukee is a city that's made for masons. Look at this neighborhood. Practically every house on the street is made out of brick. And if you head downtown, you'll see something pretty unique. It's called Cream City brick, and they were made here locally in the mid-1800s. The high amounts of lime and sulfur in the clay, when fired, gives the brick its bright, yellowish color. It also makes it very porous and very hard to clean. Cream City bricks haven't been fired since the early 1900s, although they still remain an icon of the city. In fact, one of the nicknames of Milwaukee is Cream City. Summer?

Summer

Mark.

Hi. Summer

Nice to meet you.

Welcome to Milwaukee. Mark

Well, thank you.

I love the house. Summer

Thanks. I've lived here about three years. It was built in 1929, 1930.

Mark

Okay. So 1929, that's not a Cream City brick then.

Summer

No,

it's not. Mark

Okay. Because I know that they actually stopped firing that brick maybe about 30 years before this house was built, so...

Summer

Yeah,

I think so. Mark

Yeah. I can still tell, though, it's a Midwestern brick. I can tell because of the color. The sulfur and the lime that's in the clay gives it that color. So you e-mailed in because of some particular problems that you have with the brick.

Summer

Yeah, I did. I'm a teacher, and I'm off this summer, so I have some time to do some projects, and one of them was I wanted to replace some of the mortar in my bricks. It's crumbling in places and cracked, so I wanted to repair that before winter.

Mark

Okay. Why don't you show me?

Summer

Sure. There's some spots in the backyard.

Mark

All right. Great.

Summer

All right, Mark. So around the corner, underneath the window, is some spots that I noticed.

Mark

Okay.

Summer

So here's the window, and then I noticed that there are some few cracks in the mortar, and some of it's missing entirely.

Mark

Right. So you see this joint right here?

Yeah. Mark

We call that a head joint.

It's in between the brick. Summer

Okay.

Mark

We call this a bed joint. Okay? We have problems with both of them, as you can see. Mortar is completely falling out of this head joint.

We're gonna correct that. Summer

Okay.

Mark

If you look at this bed joint under the sill... You see it?

Summer

Yeah, it's starting to crumble,

too. Mark

Yeah, it's very crumbled. It's gray, wrong color. You can see that we had a guy come in here. He matched the color pretty well. The guy before him, though -- not so well. You see this gray mortar?

Summer

Yeah, I wondered what that was.

Mark

Yeah, it's just a sloppy guy doing a sloppy job. We're not gonna work like that, of course. But over here, we have some of the original joints.

Summer

Yeah, it seems a lot smaller.

Mark

It's a lot smaller. So what you and I are going to do is we're gonna take all that out, take that head joint out, take everything out from under the sill, and then we're gonna come back with the right tools, the right color mortar, and we'll be good to go.

Summer

All right. Sounds like a bigger job than I was anticipating.

Mark

Not at all. We're gonna go step by step, and by the time we're done, you're gonna be a pro.

Summer

All right. Sounds good.

All right. Let's go. Summer

All right.

Mark

Okay, Summer, so here are the tools that we're gonna use to clean the mortar out. This is a brick hammer, and this is a pointing chisel.

All right. Sounds good. Mark

So have at it.

Summer

So what do I need to do first?

Mark

What you're gonna do is you're gonna take this point. You're gonna get it into the top of the joint.

Okay. Mark

You're gonna be pointing it down, just as you are.

Okay. Mark

And then you're gonna start tapping that with the brick hammer.

Summer

And do I use -- Which side of the brick hammer?

Mark

This end,

flat head. Summer

This end?

Okay. Mark

Yep. There you go.

Okay. Pull that out now. Summer

All right.

Mark

Reset at your angle. Exactly. Now go back down on that hammer. Great. Pull out. Start again. See how you're doing that?

Summer

Yep. So just keep pulling it out and moving it down further?

Mark

And moving it down. Yeah, yeah. You're halfway done. That's great. Great. Now, don't be afraid to reverse direction. Now, to get that little bit, don't be afraid to go up at it.

Summer

Go up?

Mark

Yep. Just be gentle. You don't want to damage the brick. Okay. You're doing a great job. Now, just remember, you want to get that joint exposed at least 3/4 inch, which you probably just did.

Summer

Okay.

Mark

And we like to do that because mortar does not stick to mortar. So if we smeared mortar onto that joint, it would just eventually break off. So mortar does stick to brick, and that's why we like to go in at least 3/4 inch.

Summer

Okay, so the more brick that's exposed,

the better it is. Mark

The more exposure -- Exactly. Okay. You're doing a great job. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take a thinner chisel. I'm gonna go behind you, the ones you've already done. I'm gonna clean out just a little bit more, and you can continue on and do the rest of the head joints in front of you.

All right. Mark

Okay? We're gonna do all the head joints first. That'll weaken the bed joint and make the bed joint easier to chisel out. Now I'm gonna go clean out all the extra mortar with this clean-out tool. Okay, so now what we want to do

is brush out all that dust. Summer

All right. should I start at the top and work my way down?

Mark

Start at the top and work your way down. Exactly. Don't be afraid to use a little muscle with that. See how much you're getting? Now, we're gonna wetten the brush. It's gonna do two things. It's gonna pick up some of the extra dust, but it's also gonna dampen the brick so the mortar bonds better. All right. Great job.

Thanks. Mark

Yeah. Oh, yeah, you did really well with that.

Mark

Okay, so, the most important thing that we're trying to do here today is match the mortar.

Okay. Mark

So what we did is we took a chip out of the wall, went all the way down to our local brickyard, put it up against some already premade swatches. We found a color. Yours is called moccasin. It comes premixed, which is great for us. Portland cement, lime, sand, the color moccasin, and all we have to do is add water. All right. So what we want to do with the water

is add it slowly. Summer

Okay. Is there a certain consistency that we're looking for?

Mark

Yeah, I'm thinking oatmeal

if that makes any sense. Summer

Yep.

Mark

That's a nice consistency to work with. So we're just gonna want to add and twist. We're gonna do just another little dab. Okay. Let's try to put some on the wall.

Summer

All right.

Mark

I'm gonna feed you a little mortar right on top of that finish trowel.

Okay. Mark

Very good. You're gonna put that right up to the wall.

Summer

Like this?

Mark

Great. Now you take that tuck pointer...

Okay. Mark

...which is that, and you just push that mortar right into that joint, empty joints.

Summer

So just cut a little piece off and push it in?

Mark

Exactly. And make sure you get nice and deep. That's great. And that's the action. You just want to continue that throughout the joint.

Okay. Sounds good. Mark

All right. Does it matter how thick I put it in there or...

Mark

Well, you know what? Just like we talked about before, you're gonna want to stay off of the edge of the brick right there.

Okay. Mark

So right now,

you're looking really good. Summer

All right. So just keep going down the line?

Mark

Just continue that. Yeah. Nice.

Summer

And try to keep it off the brick?

Mark

Keep it off the other brick, right. Remember, neatness counts. Oh, that's great. Okay. Keep sliding to your right. Yeah. You can see how the mortar is staying consistent, and it doesn't look like it's dried out.

Yes. Mark

Yeah, that's because you wet the brick before. Now, if the brick were completely dry, they'd be sucking the water right out of that mortar.

Summer

Okay.

Mark

And that would make the mortar brittle. Nice. That's it. You're doing a good job, pushing it all the way through. Okay, so now we're gonna want to go over the head joints. We switched trowels on you, which is fine, right? But now you're gonna take your joiner, and you're gonna try to flip that mortar up on the back side of your joiner, stuff it right into the head joint, and pull it down. Oh, nice. Yeah, that's it. Same thing as the bed joint. You're gonna want to work it all the way back.

Okay. Mark

There you go. Nice turn. Nice turn.

Summer

Thanks.

Mark

The final step is to use a horse-hair brush, brush off all the excess, and blend the mortar. All right, Summer.

Looks great. Summer

Thanks.

Mark

Oh, man, I love the way you stayed off the edge of the brick, just like the original work. That is great. Don't worry about the color. It's all gonna cure. Four, six weeks, it'll all cure together. I can already tell that it's -- We have a great blend going. And, you know, what do you think? You did your first masonry project. I think you did a great job. What do you think?

Summer

Thanks. It was a lot easier than I thought it was.

Mark

Yeah. So, again, you spend 75 bucks on some tools and material. You'll get a day out here. Do what we did, and you got something behind you. I Think you did a great job. Yeah.

Summer

Thank you. Well, I had a great teacher. Really appreciate it.

Mark

Well, I appreciate you saying that, and thanks for having me out.

Summer

Bye.

Kevin

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

Roger

This tree is leaning and potentially dangerous. I'll show you how to take it down safely step by step.

Richard

I'll teach you the science behind some common water filters. This is actually one of the cartridges that was in for about 30 days.

Kevin

Never ceases to amaze me when you see this.

Tom

And you can use electronic tools to find some studs in the wall, but I'll show you some other ways to do it.