Ask This Old House

Kevin

Today on "Ask This Old House"...

Tom

Load-bearing walls are vital to the structure of your house. If you want to remove one, I'll show you how to identify it so you can.

Kevin

Did you build this?

Tom

I did. I built it because I figured it's real easy to explain if you can see something. So now you get to look at the foundation. You get to look at the carrying beam right here and the joists resting on it with the lally columns in the middle.

Mauro

And I'll show you the correct way to paint a radiator cover. This is the paint that I have for the radiator.

Ashley

Okay.

Mauro

It's an organic zero-VOCs paint. There's no chemical on it, and it can take the heat, and it's specific for radiators, but we can also use for the covers, too.

Perfect. Mauro

Alright?

Kevin

Hey, Richard, how you doing? Finally going for that plumber's license.

Richard

Look, I flunked 25 times.

Kevin

After all these years.

Richard

No, actually, we got an e-mail from a homeowner that had a shower valve that they wanted repaired. And I had never seen the valve ever before. I've searched everything. I've sent this to every friend of mine in the industry.

Kevin

A valve you've never seen?

I have not. Kevin

That says something.

Richard

I think we're -- we're doomed. We're gonna have to go there and replace it.

Kevin

And where is there?

Richard

Salt Lake City. Right on the way home. You must be Jordan.

Jordan

Richard, welcome to Salt Lake City.

Richard

Nice to be here.

Jordan

My family and I have lived in this house for about two years. I've got a 3-year-old and a 6-year-old.

Richard

Oh, boy, that must be exciting.

Jordan

It's very exciting. We've got a couple of problems we want to show you.

Come on in. Richard

Alright, let's go. Place looks great here. Have you done any of the work?

Jordan

Yeah, we've done all the painting in the house and a few other small projects throughout. It's a 1944 bungalow. Bedrooms are right here on the left. Kitchen's here on the right. But the real issue is our bathroom that I want to show you. So what we have here is a couple problems. The showerhead is really short, but the valve -- what we're having is it's leaking. And we had a plumber come out. He looked at it, said it might have been from an RV unit. And to fix the leak, they wanted to take $3,000, rip everything out, the surround, replace it with -- with brand-new stuff. And we just felt like that was a little bit too much. So we wanted a second opinion.

Richard

Alright, let me peek in there. Why don't you jump out for a second? That plumber was probably right about one thing. I bet you this was an RV unit, 'cause I've never seen it from the standard plumbing industry, you know. There's no markings on it to say it's a name brand. And what it is, is a conventional two-valve, it looks like. So it's got hot and cold pipes that probably come in this way. You just mix the hot and the cold, and it comes down to the tub spout or goes up to the showerhead. Now, I could try to repair it. You know, it's probably got a washer inside. It's probably got a seat down below. But the thing is 70 years old, and you mentioned you got two young kids, right?

I do. Richard

This was installed before the invention of a single-lever pressure-balance shower valve. And this has got a balancing spool inside it to adjust for changes in pressure inside the building. That means if somebody flushes the toilet, you can't get scalded. So now the challenge is, how do you put it in here? The standard plate comes like this, but look what happens. It's not big enough to cover the old opening. So what the manufacturer makes is this really cool plate. And that would allow us potentially to open up the fiberglass right here to potentially have enough room to get in there and make the connections and put a new modern valve in without having to replace this fiberglass. What do you think?

Jordan

That sounds great.

Richard

Alright, well, let me run down to the basement and turn off the water. Alright, the water's shut off, and I've learned a lot about your house. Somebody has replaced almost every inch of the piping in this building with PEX, and that's good, except for one spot. Can you guess where?

Jordan

Right behind the shower here.

Richard

Exactly, so here's -- Right behind us is that bathroom. Here's the shower, and right underneath us is this. This is original galvanized steel piping. That was only used in this country for a short period of time right around the '40s. You said 1944 here, right?

Jordan

Yep.

Richard

During the war effort, they moved from threaded brass to save the precious metals for the armaments. And they went to this. As its name suggests, it's a steel piping with a galvanized coating both on the outside and on the inside to keep it from rusting. And over time, that coating would wear away, and it would start to rust, and it would rust from the inside and actually start to create a layer inside there. And it would impede the flow and ultimately clog the line. And then it could also leak at the thread. Now, this was also -- could only be connected by cutting and threading and using two wrenches, okay? So this is no longer used. It's been replaced by copper. And that's what we have to do here. The combination of this access panel and that remodeling plate on the other side means I can get you 2/3 of the way, right? We can do the copper, but right from the existing valve up to here is probably galvanized steel like this. And how am I gonna tie onto that? I can't get two wrenches to tie onto it. So I'm saying, "What are we gonna do? How can we do it?" I thought we could open up a wall, right, but not what the plumbers were thinking about. Right behind this cabinet is that shower arm. And if we can get this kitchen cabinet off the wall easily -- see the screws here, here, here -- and we take it off, it means we could open up the wall. It would give us full access to the back side. We could put that showerhead at any height you want, right? And then we put it right back up and cover the hole. You up for that?

Jordan

Yeah. Let's do it.

Richard

I could do it for maybe $2,500.

Sounds great. Richard

I'm only kidding. We'll start by scoring around the edges of the cabinet on all four sides. This will ensure a clean break when we remove it. This. Little more. Lovely. I've traced out the outline of the new cover plate and also marked out a buffer zone so when I cut the fiberglass, I don't risk cutting too much of it away. Here's your valve. Put that in your memory drawer. Then we cut access panel on the other side of the wall in the kitchen. There we go. Look what we found. There's a piece of the galv, so look inside the pipe, you can see the rust forming on the inside. That is the last of the galvanized. It's gone. Now it's time to start putting the new stuff in. It's gonna be easier to make most of the soldering connections outside the wall and then slide the entire assembly into place after. Alright, we got a new hole drilled for the new height of the shower arm. Here's the old one right here. Alright, Jordan, I'm gonna drop this whole valve assembly down to you. Try to get it into the pipes, down into the holes where the galvanized pipes used to be.

Jordan

Alright.

Richard

Nice, nice. Okay, a little more. Excellent. Alright, now hold that valve body in the center of that new opening, okay?

Jordan

Alright. Give me just a second. Alright.

Richard

Now, there's a tub spout with a piece of pipe.

Stick that through. Jordan

Okay.

Richard

And have it rest on the bottom and push the spout tight. And let me just mark that. Okay, now pull that tub spout back and cut the pipe at the mark, please. And then clean the pipe.

Jordan

Okay, here comes.

Richard

Thank you. Hold on. Okay, now push that all the way in.

Okay. Richard

Alright. We're gonna have to solder pretty close to this wood. I want to soak it really well. Alright, so here's our new shower arm. I've drilled a hole way up here. That's about 12 inches higher. But to block off the old hole, I'm gonna use a thing called a cock hole cover. Normally, this is used on a stainless-steel sink to cover the hole where a spray hose might go. I've got a little caulking in the back. Alright, Jordan, I want you to catch that nut on the back. Okay,

go ahead. Jordan

Got it.

Put the nut on it. Jordan

Okay.

Richard

I'm gonna feed this riser down to you. Just get it into the top of the shower valve. This piece will run from the valve up to the showerhead.

Okay. Richard

Good. Put the shower arm in temporarily to catch the thread. So put it up through and spin. You caught? Good.

Jordan

Got it?

Richard

Yeah. Now we have just one more solder connection to make in the bathroom. I don't want any of these pipes banging around when the water's running, so I'm gonna add some blocking between the studs and then secure the pipes to that. Finally, we connect the hot and cold supply lines from the basement back up to the shower. So here's our cover plate. It has a diverter dial down here that picks between tub spout and showerhead, and on the back, looks, there's a nice gasket. You don't have to put caulking. We stick it on here. Line up the diverter. Okay. There's a nice cover cap right here. And we hold it with two screws. Okay. Let's get it caught on the top of the tile.

There we go. Richard

Alright. I'll hold it in place. You get the screws, please. Alright, homeowners always get the first shot at it. Go ahead, turn it from cold. Now spin it around a little more is hot. And then there's a diverter slide at the bottom. That takes it from the spout up there. And you have a pressure-balanced shower valve. You don't have to worry about getting scalded anymore.

Jordan

Thank you so much for coming out to Salt Lake City to fix this problem.

Richard

I couldn't have done it without you. You were awesome. You were great.

Ashley

Hi,

Mauro. Mauro

Hey, Ashley.

Nice to meet you. Ashley

Hi. Nice to meet you. Come on in.

Mauro

Thanks for having me here.

Ashley

Of course. Thank you for coming.

Mauro

Alright, is this the radiator cover that you'd like to have done some work?

Ashley

Yes. Yep. This is the one I was telling you about.

Mauro

Alright. So what's the idea here? What exactly you want to do with that?

Ashley

Yeah, so when we moved in, we painted the rest of the area. But as you can see, we didn't really touch this. We weren't quite sure how to do it. There's, you know, all the vents and some bumps and stuff. So we weren't sure the right way.

Mauro

Right. Right. I see some drips. I see some runs, so definitely we can fix that for you.

Perfect. Mauro

But let me ask you this. How old is your house?

Ashley

Yeah, the house is from 1952.

Mauro

Okay, anything before 1978, we're gonna have to test for lead paint, okay? I have a kit in my truck. I'll go get it and I'll be right back.

Ashley

Yeah. Perfect. Thank you.

Mauro

Alright, Ashley, ready to do the test?

Yes. Mauro

Alright. This is what we're gonna do. This is part A and part B. We're gonna crush both of them and we're gonna shake it real well. Once those two chemicals get shaked nice, they will be able to detect lead by turn pink or red right there.

Okay. Mauro

Okay. Alright, Ashley, we're gonna scratch the surface, but I have to go all the way down to the first coat of paint.

Okay. Mauro

Alright. This is how we're gonna do it. Alright, that's good enough. So we're gonna crush part A and part B.

Cracking

Okay. Mauro

We're gonna shake really well. Squeeze a little bit. And let's see if we have lead paint or not.

Ashley

Alright, looks red. What does that mean?

Mauro

That means we do have lead paint on this radiator.

Ashley

Okay, are we still able to do the project with the lead?

Mauro

Absolutely. Every time when you disturb lead paint in someone's house, you have to be certified -- lead paint certified. I am. We're gonna do this work for you. But I'd like to get this outside and work it out there.

Ashley

Okay, perfect.

Mauro

Okay, Ashley, we're in full PPE. Because we're working with lead paint on this radiator, we have to wear suits, N100 mask, goggles, gloves, booties, and also we have to protect the working area. We have tarps. We have plastics. So ready to go here?

Ashley

Yes.

Mauro

Okay, sounds good. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to grab this five-in-one. I want you to go in between the vents and try to get rid of all the drips and runs.

Ashley

Okay.

Mauro

And I'm gonna get my sander and I will do this area here.

Ashley

Okay.

Mauro

Alright, Ashley, let me give you a hint.

Okay. Mauro

Instead of going forward, go backwards with this sharp edge here.

Ashley

Okay. Oh, got it.

Mauro

Alright, cool. Now I'm gonna sweep my cinder and we're gonna vacuum the surface really well. And then we're gonna use a wet cloth to wipe everything out.

Okay. Mauro

And this is good because you can pick up all the little dust particles. I think we're all set with the cleanup. And now it's time we follow up all the lead paint protocol. Now it's time for us to dispose of everything

that is on the ground. Ashley

Okay.

Mauro

Alright. Throw this trash bag. This bag goes right inside of this one. Then we're gonna do the same thing.

Ashley

Okay.

Mauro

Alright, now we can take all the protections off.

Ashley

And gloves last?

Mauro

Gloves last always.

Ashley

Can this be disposed in the normal garbage?

Mauro

The best way to find out, check with your town. They will tell you exactly what to do with that.

Ashley

Okay, perfect.

Mauro

For the bare spots, I'm just gonna hit it with a metal spray primer. This is the paint that I have for the radiator.

Ashley

Okay.

Mauro

It's organic zero-VOCs paint. Actually called radiator paint. Okay, there's no chemical on it, and it can take the heat, and it's specific for radiators, but we can also use for the covers, too.

Perfect. Mauro

Alright?

I'm gonna do my pass here. Ashley

Okay.

Mauro

And then I want you to come right behind and just brush it on, alright?

Ashley

Okay. Do you have to do more than one coat, or is one coat good?

Mauro

One coat is good, but we'll check in, just in case it needs more than one. But one coat should get a good coverage on it. Zero-VOC paint, what do you think about that?

Ashley

Yeah, it looks great, much better than before already.

Mauro

Totally different from what you had before, huh? Alright, Ashley, let's put this beauty back in place.

Ashley

Alright.

Mauro

Let's put it like that, slide it down. Push a little bit. There we go.

There. Ashley

Alright. Perfect.

Mauro

Beautiful. What do you think?

Ashley

That looks great. What a big difference.

Mauro

Big, huge difference. Okay, let me tell you this.

I know you like to paint. Ashley

Yes.

Mauro

And if you tackle any other paint job around your house, remember that we found lead paint on this guy here. So make sure that you test before you do any work, okay?

Ashley

Okay,

we will. Mauro

Safety first.

Yes. Perfect. Mauro

Enjoy.

Ashley

Thank you so much. Thanks for all your help today.

Thank you very much. Ashley

Alright. Bye.

Mauro

Bye.

Kevin

Wow, Tommy, when you said we were gonna talk load-bearing walls, I was not expecting a dollhouse here. Did you build this?

Tom

I did. I built it because I figured it's real easy to explain if you can see something.

Kevin

This is a question you get a lot, right? Someone wants to renovate a house. They want to open up a kitchen. Their biggest concern is, "I'm gonna take down the wrong wall. The house is gonna collapse."

Tom

Yeah. How do I know if it's a load-bearing wall?

Kevin

So how do you know it's a load-bearing wall?

Tom

Alright, well, it starts with the direction of the bearing joists, alright, what's carrying the floor. Let's go down into the basement. So let's open up the front wall.

Kevin

This here?

Tom

Yeah.

Kevin

Look at you. This comes off.

Tom

Right, so now you get to look at the foundation. You get to look at the carrying beam right here and the joists resting on it with the lally columns in the middle.

Kevin

So two lally columns, and that beam is running in this direction, same direction as these walls right here.

Tom

Exactly, so let's slide this over so now you can understand the relationship with everything.

Kevin

So this direction, which is perpendicular to these floor joists.

Tom

Correct. Now, if you've got a load-bearing wall that runs down here, you've got a load-bearing wall here. If it's another floor, there'd be a load-bearing wall here and so on down the line.

Kevin

And they're on top of each other. So it's transferring it down to the basement.

Tom

Exactly.

Kevin

So if the wall is perpendicular to where we see these joists, it's gonna be load-bearing, probably.

Tom

Load-bearing wall. Load-bearing wall. Load-bearing wall. Load-bearing wall.

Kevin

So that means if they are parallel to these joists, they're not really doing us any good. So they're probably not load-bearing.

Tom

Right, so see that wall right there going in the front door?

Kevin

I do.

Tom

Alright, take that wall and move it away. If you notice, what's happened up above? Nothing. All the load here is undisturbed.

Kevin

It can hold and support all of that.

Tom

Right. Now, this load-bearing wall right here that's over the beam in the basement that comes all the way up, carrying the second floor, what happens if we take that out?

So just knock it down. Kevin

Just tip it forward.

Tom

Right. See how the floor joists sag?

Kevin

Ooh,

yeah. Tom

Okay?

Kevin

So if I did want to take this out -- you take them out all the time -- what's the proper way to take out this load-bearing wall right here?

Tom

Alright, the first thing we need to do is we've established that it's a load-bearing wall. We now are gonna build a temporary wall close to the structural wall but far enough away so that we can work on the structural wall and remove it.

Kevin

And obviously something that we would build when the ceiling was still in place.

We could do that. Tom

Okay, so now it's in place. We can remove it.

Kevin

And what's gonna happen to our ceiling in that situation?

Tom

Well, in this case, our ceiling is temporarily supported.

Kevin

So let me just --

And that's not gonna dip at all. Tom

Right. Okay, so now that the temporary walls are in place, you can remove the load-bearing wall.

Kevin

So this comes out.

Tom

Yep. But what we have to do is we have to make up for the bearing capacity of that load-bearing wall. And we're gonna do that with two posts, and one will go against the bearing wall here.

Kevin

Okay.

Tom

The other one will go on the outside against the stud right here but over the foundation. And I'll put a beam in that has been sized to carry the load above.

Kevin

So let me stick this one underneath that. And with that in place, can we take our temporary walls out?

Tom

Take the temporary walls out.

Kevin

This guy comes out.

Tom

Our floor above has never left us. It's still there.

Kevin

And now if we were to push down on this, it's going nowhere. And as I look into this room, it's a big, wide, clear span. But I do see the beam hanging down. So I got to live with that header there.

Tom

Right. Now, let's say I want a wide-open space

but I don't want a beam. Kevin

Okay.

Tom

We would take that beam and we would position it in a different location.

Kevin

I'll take this out.

Tom

Take that out. Take that post out. Because we're gonna position it differently. Here's the outside post and an inside post. Again, these are over the bearing beam down in the basement.

Kevin

And in this case, this one goes the full length all the way to this top plate here.

Tom

Right, because it's now gonna support the end of the beam that is recessed into the joist system.

Kevin

And again, so as I look at this one, I've got a clear span through the entire room. But now I don't have any drop beam. I've got a flat plane for that entire ceiling.

Tom

Right. Nice and flush on the bottom. It's carrying the load. The engineer has designed the space and so on down the line.

Kevin

So instead of the joists sitting on top of the beam, they are now hanging off of the side. So you've actually cut these away

and tucked this in the middle. Tom

Right. And they're on mechanical fasteners, metal timber hangers.

Kevin

Look at that. Exactly what we want. Load-bearing walls away, and you can't see anything in the ceiling.

Tom

Exactly.

Kevin

Super instructive, Tommy, in terms of figuring out how to identify a load-bearing wall

and how to get rid of them. Tom

Yeah.

Nice job. Tom

Thank you.

Kevin

Alright, so until next time, I'm Kevin O'Connor.

Tom

I'm Tom Silva.

Kevin

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

Richard

Are you sick of your window air conditioner? You are not alone. I'll show you everything you need to know about installing a mini split air conditioner.

Nathan

I'll show you how to install a butcher block countertop.

Kevin

And we'll share some home-inspection nightmares. Oh!

Richard

It was well-intentioned, but they didn't quite get the flue products outside of the building, so they didn't quite cut the hole.