This Old House

Kevin

Our project house is in Manchester-by-the-Sea, one of four towns that makes up Cape Ann. So today, I've come to learn more about the area and about the industries that have made it thrive.

Tom Ellis

We've had uninterrupted fishing industry here since 1623.

Kevin

What happened to all this plumbing here?

Richard

I've never seen anything like this before.

Roger

There's already rot going on in that trunk.

Kevin

So what have you found up here?

Tom

Well, a bit of a surprise.

Richard

It's really the classic plumber's lament.

Kevin

Nice.

Richard

It's five bathrooms, it's a kitchen, it's a full new mechanical. It's -- It's gonna be a biggie.

Kevin

It sounds like you guys have a plan.

Molly

I think we do.

Laughs

Tom

The money's in the detail.

Kevin

That is beautiful. Hi there. I'm Kevin O'Connor, and welcome back to this old shingle-style house, built in the 1890s up here in Cape Ann, Massachusetts. Now, for the past couple weeks, we've been doing demolition on the house, and there are some places, like this front entryway, that are gonna be lightly touched. But then there are other places, like the upstairs, where it's a whole different story. We tested positive for asbestos. In an old house like this, lead is always a problem. So that demolition actually became a full-blown abatement. Now if you come back here, in the back of the house, this used to be the kitchen right in here. This whole space, this is gonna become a family room, and this is gonna be moved over here so that the kitchen is now made up of what was an old porch out here and then the dining room, which is this space in here. And, Tommy, so the dining room, which is gonna become the kitchen, is actually now gonna get moved to what was a three-season porch.

Tom

Right, so now this is gonna be living space. And the porch actually stepped down when you went outside, but the homeowner wants the floors to be level.

Kevin

Makes sense. It's gonna be the dining room, a little breakfast nook. Why not?

Tom

Absolutely. So, the original idea was to frame on top of the existing frame

that was way down here. Kevin

Yep.

Tom

We thought about it and then said, well, by the time we take up the old and then sister and frame to the old with new, it's easier to rip out the old and install new engineered lumber, making it nice and flat.

Kevin

Bring it up to the level we need at the same time. And you like your engineered lumber. I mean, you get the benefit of the fact that it is strong, that it is straight and true.

Tom

Right, and you can do a lot with it. I mean, this is equal to... It's actually just a little bit bigger than a conventional 2x10.

Yep. Tom

Alright? It's a little wider, and it's a little higher. Now, you think about this -- it has a 3/8 piece of core. If this core is higher or the flanges are further apart, that means the distance that they can span is greater.

Okay. Tom

Alright. Now, you have a lot of flexibility with this material. You can drill big holes in this for running plumbing. We don't have to worry about that here, but we have a floor that we know is gonna be straight. When we're framing with conventional lumber, you take the lumber, and you eyeball down here to see if there's a crown there. So you flip it up the right way, so the crown always goes up. With this material here, we don't have to deal with that. We know it's straight no matter how we look at it. Straight. We set it in hangers.

Kevin

And so as I look over there, you can see the hangers going in. So, there's a hanger right here -- a little different than a traditional hanger.

Tom

Yeah, this sits on the top of, let's say, the beam that we have on the other side. That sits on top like that. So if you're gonna frame 16 on center, you mark it off 16 on center, you take the joist hanger, just lay it down like that, and you put it up tight on the top of the beam right here. You line it up, and these little pieces of steel that stick out like that, you tack it down. And that holds it on the line here. You eyeball it on this side. You tack this down there. Okay, so once those two little tabs are in, that holds the hanger into position. Then you would drive some hanger nails or hanger screws in place. Once you have those fastened to the beam, you take your I-joist, and you drop it into the hanger. Now if you notice right here on each side, these little clips -- you'd bang that down hard with a hammer. That would snap into place. Those little clips stop the floor joists from coming up

and lessens the squeaking. Kevin

Okay.

Nail gun hissing, firing

Tom

Alright. Now we're getting the adhesive on there, and we actually have a limited time before we can get this sheet down, because the adhesive will skin over. Now, not only are you putting it on top of the joist, but you need to put a little bit of a bead right in the groove of the tongue-and-groove system.

Kevin

Because?

Tom

Well, that does two things. It allows the sheets to go together easier, but it also stops the floor from squeaking.

Okay. Tom

Alright. Now we got a good bead down here where the two pieces are gonna come together, and we want to keep a gap at this connection here on the end, about an 1/8 inch. Drop it down. Put your foot on top so it doesn't bounce up.

Right. Tom

Alright. Let it go. Alright. Now we got to tap it over to me, just to here. So, you're gonna use a block so we don't damage that groove, and you're gonna tap it in gently till we get it in. Tap that right in. A little more. Tap it. Give it a little...

Banging

Right. Tom

Go ahead. Go ahead.

Bang

Right. Tom

One more.

Bang

Right. Tom

Yeah, you got about... Just give it one more. So you got about a 1/16- to an 1/18-inch gap there. Alright. So now you're ready to nail. And you see how these marks line up with those joists all the way down? So you're gonna start on this side here, and you're gonna nail into those marks, right, like that, all the way down. A lot of people don't know that the nail gun won't pull the material down. It will just hold it there. You want to make sure that the material is tight to the joist, so what you want to do is stand on each side of the joist right here, pushing down. Then you nail it, working with it. If you reach out, it won't go tight.

Kevin

How do you feel about that?

Tom

That looks pretty good. So stand on each side and nail away.

Jenn

Last time, we discussed where the mudroom and garage will be sited, but clearly, this bedrock is in the wrong place. We need to remove it, and today, we're gonna start doing that. Charlie, how are we gonna do that?

Charlie

Well, we really had two choices. We could either drill and blast, or use an excavator with a hammer on it. We chose to use an excavator with a hammer on it opposed to drilling and blasting. And we didn't drill and blast for one main reason. We'd have to get all the houses within 250 feet have a pre-blast survey done, and that entails a company coming in and documenting any crack on your foundation you might have, crack in your plaster, something off with the door, a cabinet might be out of line. So they have to really record all of that, write a report with pictures.

Jenn

That sounds completely overwhelming.

Charlie

It does, and, you know, and the amount of ledge that we're taking out of here, using an excavator with a hammer on it really will get the job done. Right here is the corner of the garage. This is probably the level of the garage floor, so we're gonna have a wall here. We're gonna go down about 4 feet below the earth here and pin our new footings and foundation to the ledge and across the whole... And this is the front of our garage right here, and we'll carry that same line down to the depth -- probably going around 3 or 4 feet here. And we don't have to go down too far below the frost line, because we get to pin to the ledge here.

Jenn

Alright. So we don't have to remove that much here, but just enough to get the foundation in.

Charlie

Correct, and the side of the garage follows this orange spray line all the way to this point here, which is the back corner of the garage.

Jenn

Mm-hmm.

Charlie

And so we're gonna carry that same line, hammering down the ledge to set our footings into the ledge.

Okay. Charlie

And, Jenn, you're actually standing in the middle of the mudroom right here, and in the mudroom, I actually want to go down about 3 feet clear space finish for our mechanicals to fit.

Jenn

Alright. Well, let's get this process started.

I cannot wait to see it. Charlie

Let's go.

Jenn

Charlie, this thing is a beast.

Charlie

It is. This is our excavator, where normally you would see a bucket on the end, but this is where we have our hammer. And these are our hydraulic lines that feed a reservoir of hydraulic fluid that gets pressurized and drives a piston that drives our point. Gives us pinpoint accuracy to do whatever we have to do and put the pressure right on it.

Jenn

That's so awesome. Let's get this started.

Charlie

Let's go.

Kevin

Our project house is in Manchester-by-the-Sea, one of four towns that makes up Cape Ann. So today, I've come to learn more about the area and about the industries that have made it thrive. Just east of Manchester is Gloucester. It is America's oldest seaport and is the birthplace of the U.S. fishing industry.

Tom Ellis

It's had a few names, but it settled in on Gloucester, and we've had an uninterrupted fishing industry here since 1623.

Kevin

It's the thing that I think of most about Gloucester, is the fishing industry.

Tom Ellis

Yeah, well, in the mid-1800s, it was the biggest fishing port in America.

Kevin

And what makes Gloucester such a great place for fishing and for sailing?

Tom Ellis

I think it's the proximity to Georges Banks, which is, like, the richest -- one of the richest fishing places in the world. And, but then there are all kinds of other little banks. There are shallow areas of the sea that come up, and all the nutrients from the sea come up.

Kevin

And so today, people are coming here for what?

Tom Ellis

There's a lot of cultural tourism. There's a lot of people that are coming here because of our history. The whale watching is a big attraction.

The beaches are spectacular. Kevin

Right.

Tom Ellis

And they come for big events. In June, the last week of June is the St. Peter's Fiesta. St. Peter is the patron saint of the Italian fishing fleet.

Kevin

What's the festival like, St. Peters?

Tom Ellis

Probably the most entertaining thing is the greasy pole, and these guys all dress up in all kinds of costumes. They're trying to walk out this 40-foot telephone pole that has about a foot of grease on it, and at the end of it, there's a flag, and you got to walk out to the end and get the flag.

Crowd murmuring

Announcer

Boom!

Tom Ellis

Nobody's ever gotten seriously hurt, which is a miracle. And then at the end of the summer, we have this Schooner Festival. This year is our 35th time running this. It's now a three-day event, and boats are coming from as far away as Panama City, Florida, and Canada. We've kind of brought this history back alive of these great schooners that used to sail out of here. 23 years ago, we built this schooner, and I thought that it would be kind of fun to be able to show people what it was like

to be on a boat 100 years ago. Kevin

Yeah.

Tom Ellis

And it's really been fun for me to have people, like, lay on the deck and look up at the sails while we're going along and say, "Wow, this must've been what it was like 100 years ago." And so it really has happened.

Loren

The light, the harbor, the fishing, the rocky shores, how it all merges together, it's just dramatic. People that really love arts and culture want to come here and feel the aliveness. This is Rocky Neck Ave., and there's over 20 galleries. And there's potters, painters, jewelry. They're all right on the line of the harbor with the ocean right behind them. Everything is five minutes from the water, so everything's influenced by the water and the light, the changing tides. The fact that it's always moving and that it's always changing -- I really think it draws creative people here.

Kevin

Who are some of those folks that it's attracted over the decades?

Loren

Winslow Homer spent summers here on Rocky Neck. Homer captured the spirit of the fishermen, the houses, the hilly, rocky shores. After Winslow Homer and Edward Hopper, there was Nell Blaine and Stuart Davis, Milton Avery, Marsden Hartley. They all spent time here, painting here.

Kevin

Where are we now?

Loren

This is Stephen's Cove, and the artists call it the Breezeway. They've been painting it for years. It's perfectly partly shady, partly sunny.

Kevin

Mm. And as you said, I mean, the art is still very much alive and going on.

Loren

So alive. Artists are still living and working and painting here. They're following the tradition of all the people that have been painting here since the 1800s.

Kevin

Right. Just east of Gloucester is the coastal community of Rockport.

Paul

Rockport's been around as Rockport since 1840 when it split away from Gloucester.

Kevin

Oh, it used to be part of Gloucester?

Paul

Yeah, used to be part of Gloucester. It used to be what they called "the fifth parish."

Kevin

Yeah.

Paul

And they broke away from them in 1840, and then after that, the fishing business took hold. And then after that, the granite business took off.

Kevin

That's what I think of when I think of Rockport.

I think of the granite. Paul

It is amazing. The granite business was huge, just huge. We had 50 to 60 granite quarries --

Kevin

Wow!

Paul

...all spaced in the back here of Cape Ann. Somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 quarrymen worked there. Started with dimension stone, the giant blocks of granite that you can see all around the wharfs around here. They also made paving stones -- literally, millions of paving stones.

Kevin

You say paving stones -- I mean, we're talking cobblestones, right?

Paul

Cobblestone, exactly.

Kevin

This size, right here?

Paul

Yeah.

Kevin

I mean, people probably didn't realize, but a street like this would be nothing but cobbles.

Paul

Absolutely, absolutely. They made millions of them. They shipped them all over the country, as far as San Francisco, the streets of San Francisco, the streets of Havana, Cuba, and even in Paris, France.

Kevin

The cobblestone is a very humble piece of stone, but, I mean, there have been some fantastic pieces pulled out of here used for some pretty important buildings.

Paul

Mm. In Boston, for instance, the Custom House is all Rockport granite.

Kevin

Iconic.

Paul

There are four eagles at the very top of that building, 16-foot eagles that were sculpted, and the granite came from Rockport here. Philadelphia City Hall is made out of Rockport granite.

Kevin

That is an iconic image right there.

Paul

It sure is. Yep. That's called the Motif Number 1.

Kevin

Because?

Paul

It's been there for years. The story behind it is, there was an art teacher here in town, and every year, his students would come back with paintings of the same thing. And he'd throw up his hands because he'd try to get them to find something else to paint, and he kept saying, "Ah, once again, motif number one. Back again."

Kevin

But it does speak, in some respects, to the artists' influence here in this town.

Paul

Absolutely, absolutely. This whole building was lost in the 1948 storm and blown right off of the pier there, and the town rebuilt it. It's used as storage for the fishermen here. They keep all of their equipment in there.

Kevin

So, still a working building.

Paul

It sure is, yeah.

Charlie

So, we hammered the ledge down to where we need to be, and as you can see, the outline of our garage, is starting to be formed.

Tom

Right, now the garage is gonna be 24x24. This side of the foundation is gonna sit on the ledge. Over here, we had to come down and follow the slope of the ledge, and we're at the low point down there to be below our frost line. You dig down. You put a stone in there. You level the base for the dirt. Then you put your forms in place, and then you pour your concrete. Because of the slope of the land, we have to put a series of dams in. So we have one dam there. As we turn around the corner, we come around, you can see there's another dam. And that is so that the foundation will sit on a stepped footing, but the top of the wall will be level.

Charlie

That's right, and to secure the footings to the ledge, we're gonna drill it and install rebar into the ledge. But this will also help the footing

from sliding on the ledge. Tom

Right. You don't want it to move because of the hill going down. To drill holes, we're gonna drill holes into the ledge itself, and they're gonna be actually bigger than the diameter of this rebar because when you put it in the hole, you want to have epoxy in there, and that's gonna glue it in place.

Drill whirring, chattering

from sliding on the ledge. Tom

Alright, so you can see that that hole is bigger than the rebar, and that will make room for the epoxy. And they'll fill that right up. Alright, so you can the epoxy coming up inside the hole there. Yeah, it's right up there. So now, before the epoxy sets, and it's gonna set pretty quick -- on a cool day like this, it sets a little slower -- I just push it right into the wet epoxy. And then we'll do the next one. Alright. So the dowels are into the ledge with the epoxy. Next thing is we have to run horizontal rebar, three pieces, across here like that, and we're actually wiring them to that. They want to be in about the lower third of the pour. That's the weakest part, so we want to make sure it's reinforced. Alright, so that's gonna be wrapped there. In the bottom of the footing will be these three pieces of rebar. Now to hold the forms from blowing out from the weight of the concrete, I'm gonna use this strap right here, slide it underneath the forms, and then we'll bend it up on the sides. Eh, pull it tight. Pull it tight. There you go. Nail that in there. Now that takes care of the bottom, and these 2x4s, we'll run a series of these across the top, nailing in from one side to the other, and that will stop the form from blowing out from the weight of the concrete.

Charlie

Yeah, and once we have all the forms set, we have concrete hopefully coming tomorrow afternoon.

Tom

That'll be great.

Kevin

So, off of this kitchen, we've got that family room space back in here, and there's gonna be... Well, there's gonna be a whole new configuration in here -- a little office space right here, a little storage space right there, and then out to the mudroom. Now, this doorway, which leads to the front of the house, well, it's in line with the stairs. But the idea is, if we took this and we moved it left, Tommy, then the doorway right here would be almost in line with the front door, which is what you'd see when you walk into the house.

Tom

Right, you look down the hallway and into the family room. Perfect.

Kevin

Yeah,

so... Tom

So what we're gonna do is, we're gonna make an opening here that's gonna be about 3'8"x6'8".

Okay. Tom

Alright? Now, here's a wall that I'm gonna cut into, but I don't have to worry about anything, 'cause this is not a load-bearing wall.

Kevin

And you know that because...?

Tom

Well, if you look at the structure up above, see these joists? They're all running parallel to the wall.

Kevin

And that one doesn't even land on the top plate.

Tom

That's right. The only thing that's holding this wall to the ceiling are these furring strips right here. So, technically, I could take this whole wall out.

Kevin

Okay. But we're not going to. We're just gonna take out enough for the door?

Tom

Right. Let me show you on the other side. I've marked out where the door is gonna go.

Kevin

Okay,

so... Tom

And you can actually see the condition of this old plaster.

Kevin

Oh, yeah. So, on the other side, we saw the plaster coming through the lath. Here, a little bit of wallpaper, but that's all plaster.

Tom

Yeah, this has all been patched. This is actually drywall up here, it looks like.

Kevin

So, here's your... What, is this your door opening? From here to here?

Tom

Here, and all the way up here is the opening, and then that gets closed in with trim. So there's such little plaster left. I've got a little section here, a little bit over here, and this is all split and cracked. We're either gonna strip this wall right back to this corner or to this corner.

Kevin

It all goes,

okay. Tom

And then new plaster.

Kevin

Want to start on the other side?

Tom

Yeah, we're gonna start on the other side and put our header in and cut for our jacks. We're gonna put these 1/4-inch fillers on here because the rough-sawn 2x4s that are in the wall are thicker than these newer ones. Push this all the way over.

Kevin

Clear?

Tom

Alright. There you go.

Kevin

Boom!

Tom laughing

Kevin

That is super satisfying.

Tom

Yeah, see how easy it is if it's not a load-bearing wall?

Kevin

That is a nice, clean opening right there, Tommy. Nice job.

Thanks. Kevin

Alright. So, what do we got on tap for next time?

Tom

Well, next time, we're gonna be taking that flat ceiling in the playroom

and making a cathedral ceiling. Kevin

Alright. So plenty more work here at our shingle-style on Cape Ann. So, until next time, I'm Kevin O'Connor.

And I'm Tom Silva. Kevin

For "This Old House."

Kevin

Next time on "This Old House"...

Tom

We're gonna remove this 2x10, and we're gonna replace it with three pieces of LVL, engineered lumber, 18 inches high.

Kevin

Holy mackerel! What a difference.

Mark

I'm gonna try to break the mortar and try to loosen the stones, and then just whatever I have to use to kind of get one out at a time.

Kevin

We're working on a way to bring natural light into otherwise dark spaces.