Ask This Old House

Kevin

Today on "Ask This Old House"...

Ross

In "Future House," I'll explore some ways that home landscaping may be done automatically.

Joe

What you see in the garden right now is a little robot that I invented that prevents weeds from growing in your garden.

Ross

Really? How's it work?

Mark

I'll show you a few different ways to make driveways and walkways a little less slippery during the winter.

Kevin

So those are all gonna help us melt. And then over here, you're talking about traction, so I'm looking at sand.

Mark

Basic sand. You're not gonna get any melting out of that, but you are gonna get some friction.

Tom

And this solid wood bench can be used indoors or outdoors, and I'll show you how to build it. Looks pretty good, huh?

Kevin

I think it looks really good.

Ross

Our landscaping can be beautiful, but it can take a lot of work. When maintained properly, lawns require fertilizer, reseeding, and lots of mowing. To keep the garden from growing out of control, plants regularly need to be pruned back and weeds should be pulled before they choke the rest of the garden. Depending on where you live in the country, plants and lawns may require daily watering.

While some of that work can be rewarding and therapeutic, a lot of it is tiring and time-consuming. Could a future landscape automate those more tedious tasks? Today I'm taking a look at a few different technologies that are doing just that. This is an auto-mower.

It can automatically mow lawns up to an acre in size. Every day, it cuts a little bit of the grass, and those clippings fall to the ground, decompose, and provide nutrients to the soil to help the lawn stay healthy. The mower has built-in sensors to avoid things like feet, kids, and other moving obstructions. To set it up, run low-voltage wires around the perimeter of the yard.

That way, the mower never leaves the property. The wires also go around obstacles such as boulders or trees so that the mower always avoids them. Finally, connect the wires to a docking station and plug it in. After that, the mower takes care of the rest.

Auto-mowing has been around for almost 20 years. But recent advancements in the last couple years have allowed mowers to last longer and cut more efficiently. No matter where you live in the country, lawns and gardens require a certain amount of regular watering. Irrigation systems have been installed to automate that process.

Only recently they've been upgraded to include a smart-home component. With smart-home irrigation, the system is connected to the Internet, so it collects historical weather data. The system can then adjust itself regularly to apply the right amount of water to your property. Most systems are installed with a local sensor to determine what the weather is like in your yard.

If it detects rain, it won't turn on. Smart irrigation systems install the same way that regular irrigation systems do. If you already have an irrigation system, it's as simple as replacing the heads or adding a smart irrigation valve. Not only does a smart irrigation system work automatically but it also conserves a significant amount of water across the life-span of the landscape.

Every garden at some point or another has to deal with weeds. Now, getting on your hands and knees to take those weeds out, it's not the most fun task, but Joe has set out to solve that problem. Hey,

Joe. Joe

Hi. How you doing?

Ross

Good. So, what do you got here?

Joe

What you see in the garden right now is a little robot that I invented that prevents weeds from growing in your garden.

Ross

Really? How's it work?

Joe

Well, basically it lives in your garden all season. It goes out every day and searches for weeds. So, the way that it works is it gets all of the energy that it needs from this solar panel on top. And it uses that to power a little weed whacker on the bottom.

So whenever it detects a weed, it turns it on to chop the weed down. Another way that the robot kills weeds is basically through the action of its wheels. It turns out that when a weed is sprouting from a seed, it goes through a really vulnerable stage where any disturbance in the soil tends to kill it. And since the robot is running around all the time, it tends to kill weeds before they even sprout.

Ross

So it's really killing weeds two ways -- one through agitation of the soil with the weeds and the other one with the weed whacker.

Joe

Exactly. Yeah.

Ross

Okay. I assume it's got some sensors in it.

Joe

It does. People usually ask, "How does it tell what's a weed and what's a plant?" And the way that it does that is there's a couple of sensors right behind the shell here, and any plant that's tall enough that touches this part of the robot makes the robot turn away. But anything that's short enough that it goes under the bumper of the robot activates the weed whacker, turns the weed whacker on so it kills the weed.

Ross

So it's the plant height that's establishing whether the weed whacker is on or off.

Exactly. Ross

Got it. Okay. If we're gonna set it up in a new garden, can I see how that would work?

Joe

Absolutely. I've got one right over here if you'd like to help.

Ross

All right.

Joe

So, the robot is designed for an area up to about 200 square feet. There's two different procedures here. First off, if you have a large plant that you're transplanting, then it'll be fine just by itself. So we dig a hole and we'll put the plant in the hole.

That looks fine.

Ross

Sound good to you?

Joe

Yep. Okay. So this plant is all ready. But if you had something like seeds or little seedlings, then let's make a little row for about three or four seedlings, and I'll show you what you have to do to make that work.

Ross

Okay. What do you want the spacing on the seedlings here?

Joe

Oh, about four inches or so.

Ross

Okay.

Joe

So, these plants are short enough that the robot might mistake them for weeds.

Ross

Okay.

Joe

So in order to stop the robot from doing that, what you need to do is to put these row guards on either side of the row that you just created there.

Ross

Okay.

Joe

And you need to push that down all the way to the little step on the bottom of the guard there. Exactly. And now all of these plants should work fine with the robot.

Ross

So that's the most important step here, is to make sure we protect the seeds like that?

Yep. Exactly. Ross

Okay. Cool.

Joe

Now we can start the robot.

Ross

Let's do it. That is really simple and easy to use.

Joe

So, that was our idea, to make it as simple as we possibly could, and one-button press is about as simple as you can get.

Ross

But you can get into more detail, right?

Joe

You can. There is an app that accompanies the robot, and it'll give you some information about how the robot's working and what's it doing, but you don't need to use the app to take care of your weeds.

Ross

Nice. Nice.

Joe

So, in this garden, you can see there aren't any weeds, but it just started off. In another garden next door, I can show you the dramatic difference. So, in these two gardens, I started them about a week and a half ago, and when I started them, I put about 20,000 surrogate weed seeds, 10,000 seeds on either side, just so that you could see the difference. And over here, I've had a robot running the whole time, and I didn't do anything on the other side.

And you can see the difference that it's made.

Ross

Yeah. You might be the only gardener I know that purposely adds weed seed to your home garden.

Joe

Normally I wouldn't do that, but for this purpose, it makes sense. We're pretty pleased with the way it works.

Ross

Joe, thank you so much for showing us this. Now, what do you see is the future of home gardening, maybe 10, 20 years out?

Joe

So, what I think is gonna happen with home gardening, with landscaping, and with a lot of applications where robots can help is I think the robot will just become invisible. I think you'll buy a robot to do a service for you. You'll put that robot in the place where it's supposed to work, and you'll forget about it. You won't see it do its job, but what you'll see is the results.

So you'll have a garden, you don't have to do any weeding, and it won't have any weeds. The same thing for landscaping areas and all the other applications that robots are gonna do.

It'll just be invisible. Ross

Awesome. Thank you so much, Joe. I appreciate your time.

Awesome. Joe

It's been great fun.

Ross

Thank you.

Jenn

That was awesome.

Ross

So cool, right?

Jenn

Very interesting segment.

Ross

Well, first off, how'd I do on planting?

Jenn

You did great. You didn't bury it too deep.

I was proud. Ross

All right. Do you have the same kind of viewpoint as Joe does for what the future of landscaping might be?

Jenn

Well, I don't think little robots are gonna take over that connection that people need with their landscape and the environment. People need to touch the soil, love to watch things grow and nurture. But I think this will be very beneficial to people who can't bend down and weed or if you are just lazy -- as I think I've heard you mention before.

Ross

I'm definitely lazy, and I do like to make sure the robot can take care of things like weeding.

Jenn

But if you could set that little guy up in the garden and figure out how to navigate, I think it's pretty impressive.

Ross

I'm excited about this technology. I'm also excited about, like, smart irrigation systems. When you're driving around town and you see irrigation systems running when it's actually raining out, you're like, "Such a waste of water." I think that type of technology in addition to this and some other ones hopefully will be a part of the future.

Jenn

Right. The sensors to shut them off. You could even bypass that. You could have an app on your phone and you could just shut it off if you're away and you get the phone call from the neighbor, right?

Ross

With connected devices. Yeah.

Jenn

And landscape lighting, the same. You you could do different scenes. You could turn it down to one light. You could have a whole scene of lights.

There are so many different things that I think technology and the environment can come together.

Ross

Yin and yang, right?

Jenn

Yeah. We'll play it together, okay?

That's right. Jenn

But you know what? Overall, I think it's really spectacular, so nice job.

Ross

All right. Thank you.

Kevin

Hi,

Mark. Mark

Hey, Kevin.

Kevin

Ooh. Plastic cups,

ice. So is it 5

00 somewhere?

Mark

No, not quite, but what I wanted to talk to you about was frozen driveways

and frozen walkways. Kevin

Okay. How do you want to start?

Mark

We basically have two ways of doing it. We have salt that'll melt the ice, and we also have sand that acts as an abrasive and will give us traction.

Kevin

All right. Let's start with the salt. You got a couple here. What's the first one I'm looking at?

Mark

That is what we call rock salt, which is very, very typical. I'm actually gonna spread some for you over here.

Kevin

And, you know, rocks -- I mean, it looks exactly like salts.

Mark

Yeah.

Kevin

Bags of it at the home center. Cheap, right?

Mark

You can get it anywhere. It's cheap as heck. We can find it. You actually can go to your highway department -- basically in any town, any city in this country -- and get free rock salt.

Kevin

No kidding? All right. What do you like and dislike about the rock salt? I mean, it's cheap, so we like that.

Good to know. Mark

We like that.

But works pretty fast. Kevin

Yeah.

Mark

And it's also -- It'll take you to zero degrees. After that, what we have over here is a calcium mix.

Kevin

Yeah. So, you see this a lot too. These look like these little white beads right here.

Mark

Very typical. Go to your hardware store. You'll see a bag as soon as you go in. That's gonna be the calcium chloride, which is a great melt.

And it actually melts at lower temperatures, so if you're at 20 below, that's the stuff to use.

Kevin

And not as cheap, right? 'Cause I like this stuff. I buy it, and I look at the rock salt next to it. I'm like, "Man, this stuff's like three times the price."

Mark

Well, to me, everything's relative. We're only gonna use a small amount, so we're only gonna buy a small amount. We're gonna get a few snowstorms. So it might be worth the money.

Kevin

Calcium chloride. And this last one right here?

Mark

That is magnesium chloride, and it's actually the most expensive one, so I don't know if people want to go for that one. But it is pet-friendly, it is environmentally friendly, which is very important, so that's why we would use the magnesium.

Kevin

I got a pet, so I'm gonna just put a little bit over here and see how this guy works as well. So, less aggressive than the rock salt. Okay. So those are all gonna help us melt.

And then over here you're talking about traction,

so I'm looking at sand. Mark

Right. So, traction, right off the bat, we're gonna use the sand.

Just basic sand. Mark

Basic sand.

Kevin

No magic to that.

Mark

You're not gonna get any melting out of that, but you are gonna get some friction, okay? You can almost see that it just grinds into the ice a little bit, so if your foot goes into that area, you're not gonna have too much slippage.

Kevin

So, that'll give you traction immediately, right? You got friends coming over for a dinner party.

You throw it down right there. Mark

That's right.

Kevin

But the next time you get a snow, it's not gonna do any melting, and as soon as it gets covered up, it's useless to us.

Mark

Exactly. So you have to reapply. Or we have something else. These two cups right here contain a mix of a salt and an abrasive.

Kevin

This looks like the rock salt and the calcium, the little round beads. Is that what that is?

Mark

That is. So we're gonna get, again, some immediate traction out of that, but we're gonna get heavy melting with that mixture.

Kevin

It's not gonna be as expensive as the pure calcium chloride.

Mark

Which is another reason we like to mix.

Kevin

Which one is this?

Mark

This is actually my favorite. That's a mixture of the rock salt and the sand. So you're giving me a melt and you're giving me traction at the same time.

Kevin

Gotcha. So you're cheap. You want the two cheap things together.

Mark

Right. But I think it works the best as well.

Kevin

I know if Jenn Nawada were here, she'd say go easy on the salts around the plants 'cause they don't like it.

You're the mason. Mark

She's told us that.

Kevin

How do you feel about this stuff around masonry? Can I use it on asphalt?

Mark

Asphalt all day, and that's where we love to see it. But once you start putting this type of stuff onto your concrete, it immediately affects the concrete. People don't think it does, but it does. And it doesn't show up until springtime.

When you're cleaning off those steps, you're gonna notice that there's some delamination, and it's caused by the salt.

Kevin

Okay. So, asphalt yes, concrete no. What about my bluestone walkway or my granite steps? Thoughts on that?

Mark

I love it on granite because granite is a very tough product. I don't like it so much on bluestone. I hate it on limestone as well. But even if a granite step had a masonry joint, you do have to put it down on cement or mortar, and once that happens, you're now a masonry unit, so if you add salt, it's gonna damage it.

I do love the granite. It's very hard, and this stuff will have no effect. But if you introduce masonry to it -- again, just a simple joint -- you've now put it in a little bit of peril.

Kevin

Good info, Mark. Thank you.

Mark

All right. Thanks, Kevin.

Kevin

Okay, Tommy. What are we thinking about building today?

Tom

Well, I'm thinking about building a bench, something like this right here, with open slats, on the contemporary side. Something like this. And to hold them together, I'm gonna have four pieces -- one about here and then another one here and then one down the end.

Kevin

Right. And then for the legs, something taper, in keeping with that contemporary aesthetic?

Tom

Yeah. I'm thinking about a trapezoid frame, like. So there'll be a long piece across the top, and then the legs will come down on an angle and then a short piece across the bottom

to hold the legs together. Kevin

Right. And ip, right?

Tom

Yeah. Also known as ironwood. The nice thing is we can use it indoor or outdoor.

Gotcha. Okay. Tom

So we can get started. We're gonna rip these down in half. I want to get the most yield out of each piece. We'll rip it in half, and the bench will be about an inch and three-quarters thick.

Kevin

All right. Let's get to it.

Tom

All right. All right. That should be all of the slats that we need with a couple of extra pieces. Now we're ready to rip down the boards for the legs.

Those are gonna be wider. I'm gonna rip them in two passes. Gonna rip once to take the bevel off of one side, adjust the fence, and rip it again to take the bevel off the other side. All right.

So we're ready to build the legs. And as I said, the legs are gonna be built with a trapezoid, like that. Four pieces. It's gonna look similar to that.

So, when you're making a trapezoid, obviously you can't set your saw to 45 degrees or you'll end up with a 90-degree corner, like that.

Yeah. Tom

Okay? So, to angle that corner, these two angles up here will be 47 degrees.

Kevin

So steeper than your 45?

Tom

Right. And these two angles will be 43 degrees.

Kevin

It's got to add up to 90.

Tom

Add up to 90 so we have a good corner, a nice, tight corner, and we have our trapezoid.

Kevin

Okay.

Tom

To hold the legs together, we're gonna use a mortise-and-tenon joint so you don't see any mechanical fastening. All right. Before we start assembling, I want to give these pieces a quick sanding, clean them up.

Kevin

I like these miters, Tommy.

Nice and tight. Tom

Nice and tight. And those tenons will hold them for a long time. All right. So we'll let these dry, and then we can start working on the seat.

All right. So, let me have those. These are the slats that we ripped down right in half for the decking. So I'm gonna put it in this clamp that I made.

Lay them in here. This is gonna hold them all together so we can cut them all at once. By cutting them all at once, we will ensure that they will all line up exactly right. Okay.

So let me slide it to you a little bit. What we're gonna do is we're actually gonna put, like, a dado right across here. And that dado is gonna go halfway through. Now, we're gonna cut that dado with a router.

So, what I have is a sled that I've made up that's adjustable. And right here, on my router, I'm gonna use a templating guide that I put in the plate of the router with a half-inch straight-cutting bit. And this templating guide, right here, the edges here will ride on the edges here.

Router humming

Nice and tight. Tom

All right. So now we're ready to cut the pieces that are gonna hold our slats together and equally spacing them over the width of the seat. We want to have it spaced out like this. So basically what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna use the same jig, but on the other side of the jig, on this side of it, I've actually positioned a stop.

And that's so when we take these slats, which I cut all at the same time -- First one I'm gonna put in there, and I can position it where I want it. But we'll slide it up against it and make a stop. Then I'll make a slot here in all of the pieces, pick them all up and drop it on, make another one, pick it up, drop it on. It's a lot like making a box joint for a drawer.

Just keep going around like that till we have all of our slots all the way across, and all of our slats will be spaced equally over the width of the seat.

Kevin

Getting a lot of use out of this jig.

Tom

Oh, yeah. The jigs are very handy.

Router stops

Tom

All right. So now we just pick it up. I'm gonna slide it over and hopefully line those up so they go in the slot. Drag it over a little bit.

Ready to cut the next one.

Router humming

Tom

All right. Everything's sanded, and I think we're ready to start assembly. So we're gonna put some glue inside each one of these notches and put it together. Now I'll just take my saw and cut off all of the overhanging ends and make them flush.

Now I want to mount the bench to the legs. We could mount the legs right to the underside of the bench. I don't want the legs to be too wide. But I also want to catch this outside slat, so I've made a piece to go all the way out with a slight angle on each end, and I'll mount the legs on top of that.

All right. Want to flip it over?

Kevin

Here we go. There you go. Ooh. Look at that, Tommy, huh?

Tom

Looks pretty good, huh?

Kevin

I think it looks really good. I love the lines. I love the way it crosses over here.

Terrific. Tom

Very contemporary. Now, this is ip, so you could use it outside or inside.

Kevin

And if you use it outside, would you bother finishing it or not?

Tom

Well, it'll weather a nice gray, but you could put a finish on it. But if it's inside and you want to varnish it, stain it, seal it, whatever you want to use on it, it's up to you.

Kevin

All right. Well, it looks good already. Nice job. All right.

So, until next time, I'm Kevin O'Connor.

And I'm Tom Silva. Kevin

For "Ask This Old House." This is a bit of a modern kick for you, Pops.

Tom

Yeah. You want to give me a hand putting it in my truck?

Kevin

Oh. I see. Next time on "Ask This Old House"...

Mark

We'll reface this concrete wall.

Jenn

With a beautiful natural stone.

Mark

So, this is that great Connecticut fieldstone that we were talking about. Obviously it's cut thin, which is what we wanted.

Tom

In Nashville, I'll show you how to turn an original door into a Dutch door.

Woman

Oh, wow. This is great! Thank you so much, Tommy.

Tom

It was my pleasure.

Richard

And I'll take you through the step-by-step of an installation of a garbage disposer.