Ask This Old House

Kevin

Today on "Ask This Old House"...

Mike

Okay, well, here are the stairs. And I think they're just begging for a railing. I have two kids. They come barreling out the door.

Mark

I'll show you how to install a metal railing the right way.

Richard

So, check this out. The tag on the boiler says 1963. JFK was president back then. That's more than 50 years ago. Now, there's not many devices in any home that are expected to last as long as this steam boiler.

Tom

And I'll show you how to replace this cracked tile without damaging any of the ones around it.

Woman

That's fantastic.

Kevin

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

Jenn

Look at these.

Roger

Got some, huh? Those are perfect.

Kevin

Hey, Jenn. Hey,

Roger. Jenn

Hey there.

Kevin

What are you guys working on here?

Roger

We're splitting wood. Actually, we're splitting kindling. Watch this. You ready? One, two, three.

Boom. Kevin

Oh, no way.

Jenn

It's getting cold out there. We're getting ready.

Kevin

Wow. That is super satisfying. You could just take any of your old scrap wood, turn it into kindling.

Yeah. Kevin

Although, you do know that that's Mr. Silva's scrap woodpile. You know, he makes jigs out of this stuff.

Jenn

He's not going to care. He won't miss it.

Roger

And it's getting cold. We need kindling.

We're getting prepared. Roger

No, no, no.

Kevin

Come on. If you guys are going to take the heat,

I want a shot. Jenn

I'll let you go first.

Kevin

Oh, look at this.

Jenn

It is addictive. Can I try?

Kevin

I could do that all day long. What?!

Mark

Hey,

Mike. Mike

Hey, Mark.

Mark

How you doing?

Mike

Great. Thanks for coming.

Mark

Yeah, thanks for having me out. Listen, I love the neighborhood, lot of great brickwork in the neighborhood.

Mike

We love it, too. You know, we've never had a brick house before.

Mark

Well, I'll tell you, you got pretty lucky because you see those brick right there that kind of stick out of the wall?

Mike

I do. Yep.

Mark

Well, that is what we call a clinker. It's just an over-fired brick that became distorted, discolored, but at one point, became a design element that people just fell in love with. So, you have a random pattern right here, Mike, but I did notice that your neighbors right across the way here, in the chimney, they have a little design with the clinkers, which is great stuff.

Mike

I think it's very cool. I love it. It really adds character, I think, to the house.

Mark

Nice. Nice.

Mike

Well, why don't I show you around the back? We can look at the steps that I talked about.

Mark

Let's go. Great.

Mike

Okay, well, here are the stairs, and I think they're just begging for a railing. I have two kids. They come barreling out the door. I'm afraid one of them is going to take a header off the edge, and, also, I cook on the grill there. And I have a big plate of burgers and dogs, and I open the door, I feel like I'm going to take a header.

Mark

Yeah, kind of looks like it. I get you. Anyway, so you're 20, 21 inches off the patio here.

Code requirement is 30 inches. Mike

Okay.

Mark

But, as we always say in the business, safety first, so I kind of agree that you need a railing here, but as I was poking around, see this patch right here?

I see that. Mark

Yeah, I don't think this step went exactly this way. I think they kind of fed you out that way. But as you wrap yourself around, look at that paint right there.

I see it. Mark

Again, that indicates to me that that's where the tread was facing, so, again, more evidence, and that post was wrapping this way, coming down this way, and feeding you out to the patio that way, which was probably safer at the time.

Mike

Well, you know what? This was like this when we bought the house, but that makes sense to me.

Mark

Right. So, I agree -- You need a rail. Let's go get you one.

Mike

All right. Let's do it.

Mark

Okay, so, here's the rail I picked up from a local welder. It's custom-made, so made to fit.

Mike

It looks nice. You know, sometimes I see railings like this, and I'll grab onto it, and it'll feel kind of flimsy.

Mark

Right. Well, that's why we went to a local welder. Just take a look at this steel. You can see how thick and beefy that is.

Mike

Oh, I see that. Definitely substantial.

Mark

Right. Well, if you take them off the shelf, you're going to find that these posts are hollow, going to rust a lot easier, going to become flimsy quicker, but not our case here. That's why we bought it from the welder. All right, Mike, so, the first thing we want to do

is take some measurements. Mike

Okay.

Mark

I want to be about 4 inches off this back wall, so if you drive me back a little bit, that'll be great. Keep coming.

Right there is good. Mike

Okay.

Mark

Now, from the edge of the tread, I want to be about 4 as well, so if you hit me with that. Great. Now let's do the same thing over here. Bring me right in. Great. Let me take my pencil, and I'm going to outline the post. All right. let me just do the back one. All right, let's get the drill and get going.

All right. Mark

All right, Mike. This scrap piece of bluestone is going to act as a template to keep the drill aligned. Since a regular drill would bounce around and possibly ruin the granite, I'm going to use a coring drill. Once we get the hole started, we can remove the bluestone and get down to our depth. The coring drill leaves a plug behind, but I'll use a regular drill to clean it out. All right, so, let's make sure these rails fit nice and tight. All right, great. Mine are in. That fits great.

Mike

Mine looks good,

too. Mark

Right. Okay. So, as you remember, the post is probably the most important thing in the job that we're doing. The other main component is going to be how we fill these holes. We're going to use anchoring cement, which is a type of hydraulic cement, except it's much stronger. It actually sets up in about 10 minutes, so we're going to work nice and quick and do one hole at a time. We're going to want to get a sponge on this other stuff soon, as well.

Mike

Yeah, it looks like it started out frappe, and now it's peanut butter.

Mark

Exactly. You got it. That's great. Okay, Mike. Can you pick me up a little. And I'm going to shim you. All right, so, we've given it about a half hour, and it's set up pretty well. You can just touch and know that it's set up, but one of the issues that we have, granite, steel, concrete block that's under the granite all kind of moving at different rates. So, what we're going to do right now is actually install a shock absorber, which is just caulking, but it's going to allow for everything to move at different times, and it's not going to crack. So, essentially, we're going to waterproof the set of stairs, and we'll be good to go. All right, what do you think?

Mike

Looks great. Looks like it's been here for years.

Mark

All right, do me one favor -- Just keep the brick in place for another 2 or 3 days, keep the boys off it a little bit, let it cure, but other than that, you'll be ready to go.

Mike

Great. Mark, I really appreciate you coming out.

Mark

All right, my pleasure.

Kevin

Oh, that's a nice fix, Mark. Looks good. So, if you go custom, did you consider going across the platform and then down the stairs, as well, add a little extra steel?

Mark

We did, but it gets pretty expensive as you make that turn down, so, again, to be cost-effective, we decided platform is all we needed, so that's what we did.

Kevin

Okay. So, answer me this. Why are these things always so flimsy? It seems like every one of these metal railings that I grab, the thing is ready to go. I mean, not this one, but most of them.

Mark

Yeah. Well, most of them are, again, that hollow metal that we've been talking about, but most importantly, I think it's the topical application that those railings are installed with.

Kevin

Topical meaning what?

Mark

The rail sits right on the stone, bluestone, granite, whatever it is, and then it's a bolt application.

Kevin

Right. So, instead of sort of setting it in cement, you're actually relying on, you know, a 2 or 3-inch bolt that's 3/8 of an inch. That's not the good application.

Mark

No. Again, you saw what we did. We actually went through the stone into the step itself.

Kevin

Yep, and you used, I think you called it, anchoring cement.

Mark

Correct.

Kevin

How does that differ from hydraulic cement, which is what I'm sort of familiar to hearing?

Mark

So, hydraulic cement is usually a patch, say, for a water leak. Hydraulic would expand, so clog more of the hole up. The anchoring cement, you can see, has more of a flow to it. It's a bit of a self-leveling material, and it just happens to work great with that application.

Kevin

Well, it doesn't look like it's going anywhere, even with those two boys crawling all over it.

Mark

Yeah, right, right.

Nice fix. Thank you. Mark

All right. You got it.

Richard

When looking at prospective homes, many buyers overlook the mechanical systems that heat or cool them, but energy cost is the second largest expense for most homeowners behind the mortgage, so it's really important to know what type of heating or cooling system exists in that house before you make an offer. As soon as I walk in this house, I can see it's a heating-only system because I see radiators. Now, they could be hot water, or they could be steam, but I can see right here that there's one pipe, so it means it's a steam system. Steam enters into the radiator and work its way across, and air will hiss out of this vent, and the radiator will get hot. Now, a well-maintained steam system can be comfortable and efficient, but it's only one zone -- one thermostat, for the entire house, so some rooms may be hotter than other, and, oftentimes, houses with steam heat don't have air conditioning, and that can be tricky and expensive to retrofit. Another thing about a steam system is it can be loud -- very loud.

Loud knocking

Richard

Hear that? It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the system, but it can be annoying. So, if you come to look at a house, even if it's summer, have them turn up the thermostat and listen. All that being said, just knowing you have a steam system is not enough. You also want to check out the condition of the boiler, and that means a trip to the mechanical room. So, check this out. The tag on the boiler says 1963. JFK was president back then. That's more than 50 years ago. Now, there's not many devices in any home that are expected to last as long as this steam boiler. So, what do you do if you walk in and see a boiler this old? Well, a properly maintained steam boiler could last 100 years, so you're going to be hard-pressed to negotiate a lower selling price based on this. And, to be honest, unless that boiler fails, there's not much reason to change it out because the new boiler will have to do the same function, heating up water, making steam on and off, filling every radiator, so you're not going to save as much energy as you might expect. So, if you don't have to change out the whole heating boiler, the last discussion is how important comfort is to you. If you can't live without air conditioning or zone heating, you're going to have to factor in the cost of those upgrades into your budget, but if you want a steady heating system, steam heat is not a deal-breaker.

Tom

Hi,

Kate. Katie

Hi, there.

Welcome. Tom

Thank you.

Katie

It's good to see you.

Tom

It's a great neighborhood. A lot of old houses in here.

Katie

Yeah, our house is one of the youngest houses in the neighborhood. It was built around 1940. And when my husband and I were buying it, we looked at a map, and it looks like our house was the side yard to the house next-door, and you can actually still see some stairs back there leading down to our property.

Tom

They're all grown over with hedges, so I guess you don't use them too much.

Katie

No, not at all.

Tom

So, you wrote me about a tile problem.

Katie

Yeah, come on into the kitchen.

Tom

All right,

lead the way. Katie

Thanks. All right, Tom. Here's the tile that needs repairing.

Tom

Oh, yeah. Look at that, a broken tile. Well, you know, people love tile in the kitchen because it's easy to clean, but it can be fragile. So, if you drop something, you can do one of two things. You're either going to break the dish that you drop, or you're going to break the tile. In some cases, you're going to break both things.

Katie

And that's exactly what happened here. We dropped a jar. The jar broke, and the tile broke.

Tom

Oh, not good. All right. So, one of the biggest hurdles with this job is trying to match this tile. We don't know where it came from. We don't know how long it's been there, and there's hundreds of tile stores and home centers around here. So, we're going to have to do our homework to try to find it and match it.

Katie

Well, actually, in this instance, that's one hurdle that we've already overcome because the previous owners left some tiles in the basement for us.

Tom

Well, that's fantastic. Okay, so, that hurdle is crossed. All right, so, why don't I get some tools, and we'll get that out and see if we can get your new tile in.

Fantastic. Tom

All right. Okay, now, the first thing we need to do is try to remove the grout from around the perimeter of the tile, and the grout is old, and it could be pretty soft, so I want to try cutting it out with the utility knife because the utility knife blade is nice and thin, and now keep the knife tight to this one so it doesn't wander on that one. Nice. All right. Now go back and do it. Just keep going over that. Yeah, see, that's grout is kind of powdery.

Katie

Yeah,

it's pretty soft. Tom

Yeah. That's good. All right. So, that's pretty good there. All right. Now let's try dragging it on this side.

Katie

Okay.

Tom

Again, stay close to the broken piece.

Katie

Got it. This one is easier.

Tom

Nice. All right. So, what we've created is a thin gap right here on this grout line and this grout line.

Mm-hmm. Tom

And this tile is loose. So, what I want to try, before we get too carried away with cutting, is I'm going to take a small chisel or a nail set or even a small bar, and we're going to try to fracture this tile and pull it up. But when we pull it up, I want to watch the grout lines to see if we're stressing the tile on the other side of the grout.

Okay. Tom

All right? So, first thing I'm going to do is take a cold chisel, and I'll just try to pop it in under this broken piece.

Katie

Awesome.

Tom

Now look at that. Go in. As I'm going in, I can feel the bottom of the chisel hitting the floor underneath, so it's going to slowly come in, but I have to watch this side of the chisel right here, making sure I don't damage this tile.

Katie

Mm-hmm.

Tom

So, now I'll tap it, pry it up gently. I don't want too much stress on it. Work it back and forth. See how it's coming up?

Katie

Mm-hmm.

Tom

And we're looking around. I don't see any cracking. Look at how that grout is lifting right up. See that?

Katie

Yeah, that's fantastic.

Tom

So, that's giving us room for the tile to move, which is a good thing. Okay. So, I'm going to lift it up just a little.

Mm-hmm. Tom

Look at that.

Katie

That's fantastic.

Tom

All right. Just slowly take it up. Pull it out. Now, this piece is nice and loose. Pop that right away. Now I'm going to go for this big one. I'm just going to slowly pull it up. Don't want to rush it, as I said.

Mm-hmm. Tom

Okay. Good. It's loose. And put that away. Okay. Now what we're going to do is we're going to remove all this old loose adhesive, get it all cleaned up. Now I'm going to wipe the area with a damp sponge to clean up all the dust and dampen the wood just a little bit so the adhesive doesn't set up too fast. All right. Good. Now I'm not going to use a traditional thin-set to set the tile. Because this is such a small area, and we're going over plywood, I want to use an acrylic base that's really meant for small areas like this. All right, now I'm going to use the straight or flat edge of the trowel and just spread it around onto the plywood. Now I want to use the notch side of the trowel, and I want to try to stand the trowel up as straight as I can to get the maximum out of the notch.

Katie

Got it.

Tom

Going to do the same thing this way, only I can do the edge of the trowel. Again, stand it up, drag it across. Over here. All right. So, why don't you hand me the tile.

Katie

All right.

Here you go. Tom

Okay, good. Now I'm just going to set the tile on top. All right. So, I just want to force this in, make sure I have a good, solid connection with the underside of the tile and the top of the floor. I also want to make sure that I check the level of the tile with the ones beside it. Good. It's good there. It's good there. I want to clean it off, get rid of all the excess acrylic and let it dry. All right, Kate, it's been a few hours, and our tile is set and ready to grout.

Katie

Great.

Tom

And we're going to put it on with this float. Do you want to try it?

Katie

I'd love to.

Tom

All right. Here's the float, and here's the grout.

Katie

Okay.

Tom

So, you're going to take it out of there, put a little bit on the trowel, tip the tip of the trowel into the bucket.

Katie

Take it out with the trowel.

Tom

Yep, just like that,

yep. Katie

Okay.

Tom

So, what I want you to do is force it right into this joint. I don't want you to push down real hard. Go diagonal with your joint. We're never going to be able to match this grout exactly because it's been down for, what, maybe 15 years?

Katie

Yeah.

Tom

So, over time, the grime in the air and if you spill things on the floor, you know, everything gets a little bit of a stain in it, so I picked a color of premixed grout -- so we don't have to mix it -- as close to the color that exists right now.

Okay. Tom

Now you got the hang of it. That was quick. I'm going to take something round like the handle of this trowel that we're using and drag it right across. See how that just forces it right in there?

Katie

Yeah, cleans it up.

Tom

Cleans it right up. Going to go right across, just like that. So, now I'm just going to take our float, and I'm going to lightly drag across the joint, again on a slight diagonal because I don't want to pull any out of those joints.

Katie

Okay.

Tom

Pull it out, pull it off. Now we've got it cleaned off pretty good, so I'm going to take a wet sponge, and I'm going to wring it out. I'm going to put some pressure. I don't want to push down too hard because I don't want to make a divot.

Mm-hmm. Tom

Okay. All right, Kate, we broke out the broken tile, and we replaced it with a new one, or should I say a new old one?

Katie

Yep.

Tom

And grouted it all in there.

Looks fantastic. Tom

Okay, so, now this grout is going to take about 24 hours for it to really set up.

Okay. Tom

So, I would really like it if you could put a chair over here for tonight or something just to keep somebody from walking on it.

Okay. Tom

All right?

Katie

Keep two little kids from walking on it.

Tom

Exactly. Now, if you notice, there's a little bit of a haze on the floor. So, sometime tomorrow, just take a coarse cloth like a towel or something like that, wet it just a little bit, wipe the floor, and then use a dry one and buff it away.

Sounds good. Tom

All right? So,

you're all set. Katie

Fantastic. Thank you so much for coming over and showing me how to do this and really making it look fantastic.

Tom

Well, it was my pleasure.

And thanks for your help. Katie

Thank you.

Kevin

Nice fix,

Tommy. Tom

Thank you.

Kevin

And not to suggest that it was an easy job, but the hardest part of that is sometimes just finding the right tile. I mean,

you guys got lucky. Tom

Absolutely. That's why I was so happy when she said she had tile because we would have had to take -- The best thing is to take a piece of tile out, take it to a tile store with a reputable store where they know tile.

Yep. Tom

And lots of times, the owner there or the salesman would be able to tell by looking at the back of the tile.

Kevin

This one very faintly says, "Made in Italy." It's got a distinctive pattern, so you might get lucky again.

Tom

Yeah. And if he doesn't have it, he may suggest a store that does have it.

Kevin

Okay. So, you would not, if you were laying a new tile floor, ever put it right on plywood, a plywood subfloor?

Tom

I don't like to lay tile on plywood. I like to lay it on a subbase made for tile. Now, there's a few different kinds out there. This just happens to be a cement board that we have right here, comes in different thicknesses. I would glue this entire system down to the plywood.

Kevin

Thin-set troweled down?

Tom

Notch trowel and screw it probably 8 inches on center, let it set and then put the tile on top of that.

Kevin

For a patch, in this case, doesn't make sense, and certainly that'd give you too much thickness.

Tom

Absolutely.

Kevin

Were you surprised that her grout was as soft as it was, that she could go after it with just a utility knife?

Tom

Well, you know, when I first walked into the kitchen, I could actually see a couple of spots where the grout was missing, so I knew that it was old, and I knew that it was dried. So, that's why I suggested, just before I left her, I said, "You should get yourself a grout knife like this, it's a carbide knife, and go in, Saturday would be a great trick, go in there and just drag out all the grout, vacuum it, damp sponge, let it dry, and then grout it."

Kevin

All right. I love the fact that you told her that

Laughs

Kevin

Good information, Tommy. Thank you. So, if you got questions, we'd love to hear from you. Keep your letters and your e-mails coming. Until next time, I'm Kevin O'Connor...

Tom

And I'm Tom Silva.

Kevin

...for "Ask This Old House." "Here's a list of things to do while I go."

Tom

While I'm going, yeah. While I'm going, why don't you drag all that grout out?

Kevin

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

Richard

What do you do if your main water shutoff doesn't hold? You freeze it.

Jenn

In Tennessee, I'll hide this unsightly garage door with a unique planter. You guys want to help me spread this?

Kevin

And you can buy wall art like this at the store, or with a few simple materials, you can make it yourself. And our friend Jimmy Diresta is going to show you how to build it.