Ask This Old House

Kevin

Today on "Ask This Old House"...

Heath

If you're looking to buy a new house, it's a good idea to have your electrical system inspected so you know what you're getting yourself into. Next, I'll take a look at the electrical panels. This will give us an idea of how much power we have coming in, what's available for future use, and what's currently being used.

Kevin

We'll show you more home-inspection nightmares.

Look at the chimney. Richard

Oh, that's the chimney?

That's the chimney. Tom

Oh, my gosh.

I thought it was a tree. Tom

I did, too.

Elissa

This is the door.

Tom

Ah, it's a beauty! It looks like the finish is burnt right off of it. Down here, you can see the veneer on this panel is all lifted and cracked. This old door could be original to the house, but it could really use an update, and I'll show you how to restore it.

Heath

If you're looking to buy a new house, it's a good idea to have your electrical system inspected so you know what you're getting yourself into. In general, it's fairly unlikely you'll find anything that should scare you off or make purchasing the home a deal breaker. The point of the inspection is to give you a general awareness of what kind of condition the system is in and, if you want to add anything in the future, what you may or may not have to do. So, the first place I would start is outside at the electoral system where everything comes in. The reason I like to start on the outside of the house is because this is where the power first comes in, so if we tend to see an issue out here, we know that issue might impact what we see on the inside, as well. And we take a look here to see what kind of condition the meter's in, the meter socket's in, what type of wiring is coming into the building. Is it in conduit? Is it bare conductor? What kind of shape is it in? Is anything corroded? Then we'll look at the point of attachment up top. Is it secure? Are the connectors corroded? Is there a potential failure up there? And kind of inspect this overall system to make sure everything's in good condition. So, the overall condition of this outside electrical service is pretty good. The conduit's in good shape. The meter socket's in good shape. There's no obvious corrosion, no holes in the bottom of the meter socket itself. But there is one problem area we did find, and that's up top. The point of attachment that's there to hold the service coming over from the pole to the house isn't attached. The only thing holding that wire up is the wire itself and the metal that's been wrapped around this soffit. We need to make sure we reattach that anchor and open up where the weather head is above the service, as well. Next, I'll take a look at the electrical panels. This will give us an idea of how much power we have coming in, what's available for future use, and what's currently being used. So, here we actually have two panels, and that's because this is a condo. We have two units, one panel per unit. In this case, we're going to focus on panel number two for the unit we're working on. We're going to look at the general condition and see what kind of shape it is, see if there's any obvious signs of moisture getting in here or some kind of problem. So, at a quick glance, there's no rust. The bottom is nice and solid. There are no open knockouts that I'd worry about something falling in. Everything's pretty well sealed up. It looks like a lot of the proper connectors on the wires coming in, and everything feels pretty solid. So, when we start to take a look at the inside, we'll start up top with our main breaker for this. We know we have 100 amps for this unit. And then we'll take a look at the breakers inside and see what we have. We want to see if anything feels loose, feels a little funny, see if any of them are warm to the touch. That's never a good sign, either. That means something may be loose or might be drawing a little too much power and the breaker isn't doing its job anymore. The other thing we want to look for is we want to make sure that the breakers are the proper breaker to be in the panel. You can't just interchange whichever breaker you want with whichever panel it happens to fit in. So, here at the label, it'll tell you the manufacturer of the panel and what breakers are acceptable to install in this panel. If you have an older home, you may find that you actually have a fuse panel in place, and that's an indicator of an older system. That may be something you want to look at having upgraded at some point. One of the last things we want to check now is we want to make sure that we have our grounding electrode conductor in place, and that's the ground wire that comes from our service to either ground rods, your water service, or some kind of other electrode. We want to make sure that's intact and the right size. And while we're in the basement, this gives us a chance to take a look at what types of wiring we have in the building. Typically, we're going to see NM cable. That's perfectly fine. You might find an older, cloth-covered cable, and that could be fine, too, as long as it's in good condition, the insulation hasn't broken down, and you don't see any signs of damage. And then we go back to knob-and-tube. If you find knob-and-tube, you really want to look at having that replaced since a lot of places can't be insured if they have active knob-and-tube in there. That's something you want to have removed and rewired appropriately. And, finally, I'll head upstairs and I'll take a look at the fixtures and the receptacles. For the fixtures, we want to take a quick look and see if there's any physical damage, any parts hanging, obvious corrosion. And the biggest thing to take a look at is, are the lamps the correct size? We want to make sure that they're not oversized so we don't have an overheating issue. Next, we'll take a look at the receptacles. And for the receptacles, one of the big areas we want to focus on are the areas where there might be moisture, such as kitchens, bathrooms, basements, exterior of the home. I want to make sure that we have GFCI protection, whether it's done by a receptacle or a breaker itself. So, GFCI is ground-fault circuit interrupter, and what this does is it senses a certain amount of current coming into the device being used and a certain amount coming back out. If this sees a slight imbalance, something as small as 5 milliamps, it'll turn the power off to help prevent you from getting shocked. It's always a good idea to use a tester to test the wiring configuration to make sure that it's wired correctly and to see if you really do have a ground wire in that three-prong receptacle. And every once in a while, you find something unusual. And in this case, we did. Underneath this blue tape that someone thought was a good idea is actually an old floor receptacle that's -- I'm not sure how old -- that looks like it's still possibly active. No metal plate. Not really held in. Just waiting for something to fall through and hit it. We want to make sure that we de-energize this, take this out, put a nice solid cover plate over it, and make sure nothing falls in here that could cause a problem. And if I can give you any advice when you're looking at the electrical system in a new home you may be purchasing or in a home you may already own it, it's "don't panic." Just because things aren't up to today's current codes doesn't mean that it wasn't built to the codes at the time that the house was done. It's a good idea to update things as you start to renovate. If you make changes, things down the road, then, yes, we want to bring it up to code and bring it up to date. But just because it's not up to today's code doesn't mean that it isn't safe.

Kevin

We get a lot of pictures from home inspectors and from folks just like you about some of the craziest things you've seen around the house or on the job site. Alright, boys. Who's up first?

That's me. That's me. Tom

Alright. What do you got?

Mark

So, this is actually not a nightmare. See how that wraps around that chimney?

That vegetation. Richard

What do you got?

Tom

What are we looking at?

Mark

Look at the chimney.

Richard

Oh, that's the chimney?

Mark

That's the chimney.

Tom

Oh,

my gosh. Kevin

I thought it was a tree.

Tom

I did,

too. Kevin

Well, it is a tree. Where'd this come from?

Mark

So, I was actually driving around my hometown, took a corner, saw that.

Kevin

So this is one of your neighbors?

Mark

This is one of my neighbors.

Kevin

They're gonna appreciate that.

Mark

The reason it may not be a nightmare is because -- people don't know this, but that type of vegetation wrapped around brickwork, not necessarily chimneys, but brickwork, it actually protects the brick, so if I tore that off, I bet you the brick would be in great condition.

Richard

What you do, twice a year, you call the dog groomer in to give it a Poodle cut.

Mark

Yeah, a little trim, trim, trim, trim, trim.

Tom

Alright. What else you got?

Richard

How about this one? Do you see anything wrong with this picture? So, this is from Andy in Adams, Massachusetts. This is a washing machine setup right here.

Kevin

Oh,

okay. Richard

And there's a drain, and there's a vent, and the vent is supposed to continue up through the roof and let the vent products go up.

Kevin

And something magical happens,

Richard

Correct. Correct. So, this -- they put a can of soda in it to act as the cap.

To block the vent. Richard

Correct. And that's not exactly right. It keeps the sewer gas coming up. But if you actually run the wrong thing down that drain, that could turn into a can of pop.

All groan

Kevin

Groan!

Mark

Wow. Do you get that, Kevin?

Tom

Are you writing your own stuff now?

I am. Kevin

Dad joke.

Yeah. Dad joke. Tom

Look at this, huh? Alright, now,

think about this. Richard

Wow. Look at --

Kevin

Wait. What's going on?

Tom

Look at it. Study it well. That's an outside wall, which is now -- There's a divider in it, but that's a carrying wall right there. Look at the structure in that wall.

Richard

What structure?

Tom

Reminds me of an old line that I said on "This Old House" many years ago. I got through this scene like nothing. "When you remove structure, you have to replace structure."

Richard

I was there. It took you 32 takes to get that right.

Tom

Yeah, I think it was 32.

Kevin

Tom, you said "many years ago." You said that yesterday and on Monday and last Tuesday. You say it once a week!

Tom

Pay attention to the picture.

Kevin

Sorry,

sorry. Tom

Look at that. I mean, they beat up that structure so bad that -- What do you do with it? You've got to take it out and reframe it. I mean...

Richard

That door opening has more structure than that wall.

Mark

Is there a header on that entire wall anywhere?

Tom

If there is, Mark, I don't know where it is.

Kevin

Anyway, you can see that we enjoy them, so if you've got them, send them our way. Home-inspection nightmares.

Ben

Hey, Tom. How you doing?

Tom

Hey. Good morning. How are you guys doing?

Elissa

Hey, Tom. Good to see you.

Tom

Ben and Elissa. Is this the door you wrote me about?

Elissa

This is the door.

Tom

Ah, it's a beauty!

Elissa

Yeah, we think it's original to the house, built in 1918.

Tom

Yeah, it could be original to the house. It looks like the finish is burnt right off of it.

Elissa

Yeah, it definitely needs a lot of love. And, you know, we love this door, and we want to restore it back to its original beauty.

Tom

You want to restore it. You don't want a new door.

Mnh-mnh. Tom

Alright. Well, it's a lot of work to restore a door. I mean, this molding detail right here, as beautiful as it is, you can buy something similar to this off the shelf. We could take it off and just replace it.

Ben

I mean, we really love this door. We'd like to keep, you know, everything as is, but, you know, clean it up, make it look brand-new, I guess.

Tom

Yeah, it's a beauty. It's got a nice dental detail down here with a cornice molding and then a slope right here and make up this little pediment. That's a nice little detail. And down here you can see the veneer on this panel is all lifted and cracked. That'll have to be fixed. And over here you can see that somebody patched a hole for a deadbolt, and they put a new one in, but they didn't line it up right. So a lot of work, but, yeah, if you're up for it, I'm up for it.

We're ready to go. Tom

Alright. Well, let's get it off the hinges and we can get started.

Ben

Okay. Sounds good. Let me help you out.

Chuckles

Tom

Alright. Let's set it down right here. Okay, so, now I guess the first thing we want to do is try to get some of this molding off, this off, get the glass out, and then we can go after the hardware. I'll try this little bar. We'll try a bunch of different things, whatever works.

Tapping

Tom

So, that edge of this molding underneath here has a little notch taken out of it so it can sit on the face of the door. So what we need to do is get under there just a little bit.

Tapping

Creaking

Straining

Tom

Nice and easy. Stretch it out. Yeah. See? Now you -- If you can get under there.

Alright. Tom

Yeah. Alright. Let me reposition down here. I just don't want to get under that glass either, so... Come on. There it is. Yeah. Nice.

Ben

There we go. Nice and easy.

Tom

Yeah. Slow and steady, right?

Ben

That's right.

There we go. Elissa

Wow.

Tom

Look at that. Nice. See? There's the little rabbeted edge that I was talking about right there. This part right here sits right on the face of the door, and it wraps around, making that joint more weathertight. Alright. Let's work our way around.

Creaking

Ben

That's a good sound, right?

Tom

Yeah. Just got to watch that joint. Nice and easy. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's coming off nice. Nice. So, now the next thing we're going to try to do is cut this silicone away from the glass. Nice. I'm not a big fan with using silicone to set this window in because the silicone is fantastic for the glass that's non-porous, but when you're dealing with a porous material like the wood, that silicone, when it breaks the connection, will leak. And with silicone and wood, if you try to re-caulk that joint, it won't seal to itself. So that means you've got to remove all of the old caulking before you can re-caulk it. I would recommend an acrylic or a polyurethane-base caulking or even a butyl caulking in a case like this.

Ben

Mm-hmm.

Tom

Coming up.

See if I can pull it out. Ben

Oh. There we go.

Elissa

Ooh!

Tom

Look at that. Nice.

That's it. Tom

Nice. Alright. And I think we've got all the silicone removed. Now, the next thing I want to do is I want to pull the nails out of that molding. We want to pull them from behind, not from the face, because if I tap them down, we could chip the wood and ruin it. So what you want to do is you want to grab the nail tight to the wood and then roll it down gently. Just work your way right down the nail. Nice. You nailed it.

Laughter

That's it. Tom

Alright. Now we're set up to strip off the old residue of the finish on these moldings. We can't really sand it because you don't want

to lose that detail. Ben

Right.

Tom

Now, this is a water-based stripper. You want to lay it on kind of thick. Alright. While you guys are doing this, I'm going to start working on some repairs for the door.

Sounds good. Elissa

Okay. Great.

Tom

Alright. Alright, so, now the manufacturer says we have to wrap it in plastic so that nothing evaporates off of it. Leave it in there for about a half an hour, 45 minutes.

Whirring

Tom

Alright, so, I cut off this veneer that was cracked and lifted, and we'll put some filler in there because we're going to veneer right over this whole panel. Alright. So, let's see how it looks. I just put it in a bucket of water, scrubbed it in the water. And, boy, that's cleaning up nicely.

Yeah. Tom

Look at that.

Incredible. Tom

Yeah.

Elissa

Looks beautiful! So different.

Tom

Yeah, we've patched up everything, and the door is all sanded and ready for the new veneer.

Elissa

Why do we need to add a veneer on here?

Tom

Well, because the veneer that's on the door now

is pretty beat up. Elissa

Yeah.

Tom

Get beat up by the sun. We had to fill the holes and voids and stuff like that. And you'd worry about the glue separating from the backside of the veneer.

Okay. Tom

Now, have you ever seen a veneer in a roll like this before?

Chuckles

Elissa

I have not!

Tom

Well, veneers are pretty common on cabinet doors, floors, and doors just like this. It allows them to have like -- This case, it's a piece of mahogany. As opposed to this piece of mahogany being 2 inches thick, it's 1/16 of an inch thick. And so we're going to cut this veneer in strips so we can do our styles and our rails. It's good to have a nice sharp knife when you're doing this. Now, that piece that we're going to cut off is about a half an inch wider than we need because we'll trim it later. Alright. Now we want to glue this down onto one of the rails. And you notice that I cut it a little bit longer because I want it to overhang that joint slightly. So I want a little bit down here, a little bit down there, and the width is going to be good. We're going to keep this edge even with the inside of the panel. So, the first thing I want to do is I want to peel some of this back to expose the glue. But I don't want to take it all off. I just want to peel it up a little bit like that. Fold it down. Okay, so, now we're going to line it up again. But don't push it down onto the glue until I say "good." I'm overhanging my joint. And you are overhanging yours. Keep it flush right there. Yep. Alright. How's it look? Alright?

Elissa

Looks good on my end.

Tom

So, now we just push this down like that. So now we know that it's straight, it's going to line up because it's not going to move. Now I'm going to pick up, I'm going to pull out the paper off the back, expose the adhesive... and slowly push it right down. Go back a little more. Alright. That looks pretty good. Now we're going to roll it, and I want to start in the middle and work my way out. That way, if there's any bubbles under the veneer, we'll work them right out.

Elissa

That sounds good.

Tom

And now we'll repeat this process for the rest of the veneer. Peel it off. Slide it down. Now we'll go ahead and cut the excess with a knife. So, now what we're going to do is -- We've got a new lock set for the front door, so that means we have to bore come new holes to match up with the new lock set.

Whirring

Tom

Alright. We're ready to install a sanding sealer, and that will help with the adhesion of the finish. I want to put a bit of glazing around the opening so we can set the glass in it. Set it in there nice and gently. And you're going to drop yours down as far as you can before you let it go. That -- Nice fit.

Ben

I know a lot of work went into the detail on this trim, but I'll tell you what -- it looks great.

Tom

Doesn't it look good? Look at that. I mean, it's a fantastic door. It's like a brand-new door.

Elissa

Absolutely. It looks beautiful.

Tom

We'll get them into the opening, and then we're going to nail them on.

Nail gun firing

Tom

Alright. Good. Let's see if it still fits. It still fits. Still fits, and it looks good. Alright. We've got our primer coat on. Now we're ready for one of our final finish coats.

Ben

Okay.

Tom

We're going to roll on our first coat of urethane. This is a semigloss. So, we hung it in the opening so we could do both sides of the door at the same time. But, also, later on this evening, you'll be able to close the door. You want to have a door overnight, right?

I like that. Tom

Alright. So, I'm going to put the hardware on. This is the hardware that you picked. It's really nice.

Elissa

Ah, I love the look of it.

Tom

So, I'm going to get this installed. Alright, guys, what do you think? The door is done and hung. And look at the hardware.

Pretty nice. Elissa

Ahh. It looks great.

Tom

Alright. So, I have some homework for you. What I want you to do is wait for the door to really dry. It's dry to the touch right now, but I want it to dry for about 24 hours. Sand it lightly with some 220 paper, wipe it off with a damp rag. Make sure there's no moisture on the door. And give it another coat. And do that two times.

Can do that. Tom

Alright. Well, I'm going to leave it to you.

Perfect. Thanks a lot. Elissa

Thank you so much, Tom.

Tom

My pleasure. Glad I could help.

Kevin

Tommy, that is just awesome. I love that transformation. It was so cool.

Tom

I love taking an old door like that and giving it new life.

Kevin

So, when it comes to old doors, when people hear a door that's 100 years old or so, I think they're probably thinking it's a solid piece of wood. And it might be surprising to find out that it's not always that way.

Tom

Right. And some doors could be. But most of the time, when you say a solid wood door, people don't realize at the core of the door could be something like this top right here. It could be individual pieces of wood that are glued together. But the benefit to those individual pieces for the core of the door actually gives the door more stability than one solid piece.

Kevin

Right. We actually think that maybe the rail is one piece, that the style is one piece, but that's not necessarily as stable as this. This is more stable, which is why they build it and then they cover it with the veneer.

Tom

They cover it with the species that you want, and that gives you the beautiful door that's stable.

Kevin

So, one question. I know that we always test before we sand when we've got paint that we know is old. If you've got sort of a varnish or a poly or something, do we test, as well? For lead.

Tom

Absolutely. Oh, the old varnishes definitely could have lead in them. So we did test for it. And the good thing is, is it didn't have lead. But the other good thing is the sun had just burnt all of the -- most of the finish off. So we had to fight to get down to the surface because it was just gummy.

Kevin

Well, it was a good fight with a great outcome. Very nice job. Thank you. Alright, well, we love answering your questions, as you can tell, so keep them coming. And until next time, I'm Kevin O'Connor...

Tom

And I'm Tom Silva.

Kevin

...for "Ask This Old House." So, what does this run, if you bought the full sheet?

Tom

A full sheet, 4x8, is about $100.

Kevin

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

Tom

We turn this French rolling pin on a lathe, and we'll show you how to build it.

Richard

Do you have an old kitchen like this and would love a dishwasher?

Nathan

I'll show you how to make room for one.

Richard

And I'll show you how to connect it.

Jenn

And I'll share with you the benefits and uses of mulch.

Kevin

I love the look, right? I mean, all of a sudden, your garden goes -- eh, it's a little scraggly, and then it's just, like, boom!

Mauro

And I'll show you how to paint wood paneling.