This Old House

Kevin

This season, for Generation NEXT, we have partnered with YouthBuild, an organization that helps young people who aspire to improve their lives but lack the resources or the skills. Hey. Bobbi, nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you. Kevin

Jay.

Jay

Hey, nice to meet you,

man. Kevin

Nice to meet you. 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 gonna be a biggie.

Kevin

Sounds like you guys have a plan.

Jenn

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 House" and our triple decker here in this Dorchester neighborhood of Boston. Triple decker, one unit on each floor, and the units are pretty spacious and flexible. In this unit, you can see the middle room right here. It's gonna become a bedroom. Framing in for a closet right there. But you could convert this to extended living space so it connected right here with the front parlor, which is gonna be a nice room with the bay windows. Now, on this floor, the third floor, they have decided to go with three bedrooms and a bathroom. There is a front staircase shared by all three units. And what's great about these triple deckers is, not only are they flexible, but they're efficient to build. And that's because the floor plan for each level is identical to the others. So out back, we have got a deck. Three levels stacked on top of each other. Here's another middle bedroom. There's another front parlor with three windows. And each one of these units has got a kitchen and a bathroom perfectly stacked on top of each other so that the plumbing runs from the third floor down to the basement right in a straight line. Because this is a shared staircase, the one big difference with the first floor is this entry vestibule. Everyone comes through here, including Mr. Silva. Hey,

Tommy. Tom

Hey, Kevin. How are you?

Kevin

I'm feeling all right. How about yourself?

Tom

Pretty good.

Kevin

So this thing needs some love, huh? Original door, probably?

Tom

I think it might be the original door. You know, look at it. It's in trouble. When I open it, first of all, I can't open it all the way.

It hits the floor. Kevin

No. So that one sort of dropped down.

Tom

Right. And it's kind of busted up here.

Kevin

Oh, yeah. It separated right there.

Tom

Yeah. So we got to try to fix that. Now, this isn't part of the insurance settlement,

but we got to fix this. Kevin

Yeah. No, absolutely. Front door and all. And we've got some new help, too, right?

Tom

I've got some new help. You'll see. Come on outside, and I'll introduce you. All right, Kevin, let me introduce you to our new helpers here, Bobbi and Jay.

Kevin

Hey. Bobbi, nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you. Kevin

Jay.

Jay

Hey, nice to meet you,

man. Kevin

Nice to meet you. So I hear you guys came to us from YouthBuild, a local organization here. And do you guys live locally?

Bobbi

Yes, I live in Roxbury. It's about a mile away.

Jay

And I live in Jamaica Plain. Next neighborhood over.

Kevin

Yeah, absolutely. That's cool. All right.

Short commute. Kevin

Short commute. Well, I want to hear more about your story, but we'll learn that in a little bit. Right now, you're gonna be working with Mr. Silva. You're in good hands. But I want to say welcome to "This Old House" crew.

Thank you. Kevin

You got nice tools. Keep your hands on them 'cause this guy's...

Tom

All right. So what we want to do is, it's so cold out here, we want to put a layer of insulation around the bottom, try to keep the dampness down. I mean, it's, like, minus-6 today. It's really cold, and we're gonna do this door. So let's see if we can get the insulation. We're gonna stand it up just loosely. And we'll take it down and bring it inside when we need it.

Kevin

Generation NEXT has been an important initiative here at "This Old House" for the past few seasons, and we are committed to bringing new people into the building trades. Our apprentices have graduated our program and gone on to do great things. Kevin Barker has become a very accomplished finish carpenter. Kathryn Fulton is studying construction management in Florida with a focus on green building. And one of our first apprentices, Nathan Gilbert, has a construction company with his father. And on the side, he got a job on a little DIY TV show. This season, for Generation NEXT, we have partnered with YouthBuild, an organization that helps young people who aspire to improve their lives but lack the resources or the skills. John Valverde is the C.E.O. of YouthBuild. YouthBuild -- tell me about the organization.

John

YouthBuild supports young people aged 16 to 24 who are no longer in school and not working, and we re-engage them in education, construction training, and other career pathways and leadership development so they can become the next greatest version of themselves.

Kevin

So this has been going on for a while for you guys?

John

This is 43 years now. We were founded in East Harlem in 1978, and we asked young people, "If you had adult support, what would you do to improve the community?" And they said, "We'd take back those abandoned buildings. We'd rehab them, and we'd create affordable housing for our community." So youth build affordable housing is how our construction/skilled trades component was started.

Jay

I ended up getting in YouthBuild through my high school.

Kevin

What'd they have you doing? How quick did you catch on? Like, right away were you after it or what?

Jay

I mean, probably, like -- I thought, like, it was a lot of work on the first day, but I'm like, "Nah, you know, this is for me." So probably, like, in the first week.

Kevin

And what do you like about it?

Jay

Just hammering stuff, you know. I was, like -- I don't know. Just, like, building and, like, getting the satisfaction of, like, after you get something done, saying, "Oh, I did that." You know, you really feel proud of yourself.

Bobbi

So first I started off doing security for five years. Started getting, like, depressed with it, like, "What am I doing with myself? What can I do to better myself?"

Kevin

Do you have a preference in which trade -- carpentry, electrical?

Bobbi

So just to take what I learn here to apply for a union job. I actually have an interview, like, next week with one, so I'm excited about that. And just to learn what I can about carpentry and better my skills. And that way, probably 10 years from now, start my own carpentry business in general or probably electrical business.

Kevin

Yeah?

Bobbi

Yeah.

Kevin

What do you buddies say when you tell them you're doing carpentry work?

Jay

"How is it?"

Kevin

Yeah?

Jay

Yeah. And I'm like, "It's good. You should get into it." "I wish I could get into it." And I'm like, "Yeah,

but I wake up by 5

30 every day, so, I mean, unless you're not trying to do that, you know, you got to put your shoes right and, you know, work hard, man."

Kevin

And what do they say when you tell them you got

to wake up at 5

30, put your shoes right?

Jay

"You're bugging. You're bugging."

Kevin

What do they say?

Jay

"You're bugging."

Kevin

What does that mean?

Jay

Like...

Kevin

"You're crazy"?

Jay

Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Kevin

"You're bugging."

Jay

Yeah.

Bobbi

I'm very thankful for the opportunity that I have now. Like, just a couple months ago, I didn't know where I was gonna be, how I was gonna live my life. I thought I was just gonna work forever, struggle forever to now having a set, kind steady job that is, like, "Okay, I can see this going further." Like, it's not temporary. I can see myself staying in it till I'm ready to retire. And I'm just very happy about that.

Kevin

And what's the plan, 5 years, 10 years from now?

Jay

I hope to get experience, enough experience so I could go and find a good job or end up joining the -- what's it called -- union. And throughout that, I just want to gain more experience and more experience. My end goal is to get and build myself a company and expand and grow it. And so, yeah, that's my end goal.

Kevin

Want to run your own company?

Yeah. Kevin

A construction company?

Yeah. Kevin

How long? 5 years? 10 years?

Jay

From now or, like...

Kevin

Yeah.

Jay

I'll give it around 10 years.

Kevin

10 years?

Jay

8, 10 years.

Kevin

Did you ever imagine you'd be maybe running your own business, being your own boss?

I never thought of that. Kevin

Yeah? How's that feel? To have, like, that goal in your head?

Jay

It feels overwhelming. But at the same time, I know I could do it, you know. I'm already starting, and I don't plan on stopping, so...

Kevin

Mm-hmm.

Tom

Bring it around. All right, so we want to get this joint pulled tight. If you look right here, you can see how they tried to fix the door. They actually used these nails right here. If I can get this out. All right. That is a corrugated nail. And that basically is the design. This has been stretched because it's pulled apart. But originally the corrugation will go like that. So when you drive this down, it actually pulls the two pieces of wood together and makes it nice joint. All right. Now I'm just gonna take this and force this into the joint. I'll put some in the crack here. Once I get the glue here, we'll tip it up, and I'll get a little bit on the other side. Okay, so now we're gonna try to clamp this together. And I'm gonna use a strap clamp. All right, so now the benefit to the strap clamp is, you can wrap the door around, and it's gonna put all the force on it and pull it together tight. Oh, yeah. Look at that. See that? Going right back in. Parallel clamp right down there on the floor, that wooden clamp. So I'm gonna take this clamp, and I'm gonna make the two -- two of them just on a parallel like that. All right. I want to open it up so the jar's a little bit wider on the front, so when I slide it in here... All right. So now I'm gonna put this in here, and you're gonna tighten that one right there. And that's gonna push this front up. When it pushes up, the joint tightens, and the clamp is parallel to each side. All right, so now we'll just see if we can clean this off a little bit. And so now what we're gonna do is, we're gonna take a couple of these 8-inch framing screws. Notice how the thread doesn't go all the way down. You don't want to thread all the way down. This is the part that's gonna grab, and this part here is gonna allow this part of the wood to slip individually. So as I screw this through, the thread's gonna pull it through, pull it through. pull it through. Then when it gets into this part, the thread's gonna pull it into -- This is where we want the holding power. It's gonna pull it through, and this is gonna just slip. And then we're gonna pull that down. And then this little washer on the head should hopefully help push this together, and the thread will keep it tight. You ready to do this?

Jay

Yep.

Tom

All right, here's the screw gun. Let me move this over a little bit so you can get in here. So, in the center. Keep it level. Nice and easy. Don't force it. All right. You want to give this second one a try?

Bobbi

Mm-hmm.

Tom

Now, you heard everything I told him about keeping it level, right?

Bobbi

Yep.

Tom

You want to keep it level. You want to keep it lined up, straight line. Now, always check your sight line. Use the pumping action. There. Now -- Oop. Did it seat? Yep. I think you're tight. All right. Good. Now, the only other thing we're gonna do now is, we're gonna do a couple of inch-and-a-half screws into the joint to keep this tight. All right? Drive it down. All right, Jay. You give it a try now. All right, let's bring it in, see how it fits.

Bobbi

Much better,

yeah. Tom

All right. Good.

Kevin

Hey,

Carol. Carol

Hello.

Kevin

I see you found Samantha. Samantha, nice to meet you.

Samantha

Nice to meet you, too.

Kevin

So you're back at it again?

Carol

I'm back at it again. I mean, you just did this, what, two years ago?

Yeah. Kevin

Do you enjoy the process?

Carol

No, I don't enjoy the process.

Kevin

Okay. Did you hear that?

Samantha

Yes, I did. We're gonna make it easy for her.

Kevin

She will make it easy for you.

Carol

Okay,

that's good. Kevin

So we're gonna start with talking about your floor, second floor. The decisions. And this is one of the candidates?

Carol

This is what I picked out.

Kevin

Samantha, what have we got here?

Samantha

So we have a traditional Shaker door. This is a maple wood and a honey stain. And what's nice about this is, it's still a contemporary look with the door style, but the honey stain really warms it up for that traditional look that she was going for. And then I think with the hardware, which we can decide later, we can either dress it up, keep it simple. It helps change the whole look a little bit.

Kevin

This is the decision? We're keeping this?

Carol

Yes. This is what we're going with that.

Kevin

Then let's go on to the knobs, which I see that are down here beside me. This is, I guess, for some people, overwhelming, but for other people, they like the choices.

Samantha

Yeah, I find this one of the hardest decisions to make in a kitchen, because it really can change the look. But I think Carol had a real direction in what she was going with the style. I suggested we maybe do a champagne finish. She wanted something that was a little different, but not too far out there. So we were looking at a champagne finish, a brushed nickel, and then a polished chrome.

Kevin

So I don't hear anything from these two boards right here. Did you rule out these two?

Carol

I sort of ruled those two out.

Kevin

These are sort of heavier and beefier. So if those are out, let me remove those, and we'll focus on the ones that you've narrowed it down to. What do you like about what you see here, Carol?

Carol

Well, I like this color with the honey. It doesn't, like, blend in that much, but it sort of stands out a little bit.

Kevin

Okay, I'm just gonna pull that up there and just see it for myself right there. So similar.

But they will stand out. Samantha

Yeah. And I think this is gonna go great with the granite she chose.

Kevin

So this is what you're thinking? Or this is what you've chosen for the countertops?

Carol

This is what I've chosen because I like the colors. It looks like a yellow, but it comes off looking gold. So it sort of matches the chosen color that I picked with the cabinet and the knobs.

Kevin

And, Samantha, you said granite, so natural material.

Samantha

It's a natural stone. Very durable, though. And I think she's gonna be able to have this for many years to come in great shape.

Kevin

So granite and the honey finish. You're taking us back, Carol. I love it.

Taking us back when. Kevin

Yeah, absolutely. All right. So if that's decided, then we need to move to the third floor, right?

Carol

Yes.

Kevin

Carol, on the third floor, you're not sure who's gonna be living there yet, right?

Carol

No, I'm not sure who's going to be living there. I don't know. It's a tenant or family. So I want to keep it a little neutral.

Kevin

Okay, makes sense, right? You're not quite sure what their tastes are gonna be, so something safe. What's safe and neutral for us?

Samantha

Yeah, so we narrowed it down to this door. This is a painted white Shaker door. And this is our most popular door style in the most popular color, because like you said, a lot of people are doing white, but we feel that this is gonna be a great neutral choice, and it's not gonna go out of style. It's a timeless option. And what's also great is, this is locally made here. We make all the cabinet boxes, the drawer boxes. It's a two-week lead time. So traditionally, yeah, a cabinet would be more of, like, an 8-to-10-week lead time. But Carol can get this in two weeks. And because it's local, any lead time issues,

it's not gonna be a problem. Kevin

Two weeks is awesome.

That's great. Carol

That is great.

Kevin

Okay. So with this, you're still gonna have to pair it with hardware. Are we in this board now, or are we back to this board?

Carol

Well, I looked at both.

Kevin

Okay, and where did you do end up?

Carol

I ended up with two choices -- this one or this.

Kevin

Okay, so more traditional look right here. And that's sort of a brushed mat look.

Samantha

Yeah, that's a brushed finish. Brushed-on nickel.

Kevin

Brushed-on nickel. Versus clearly more contemporary here, both in the shape and the sort of glossy. What do you guys call that -- polished?

Samantha

Yeah, that's a polished finish. Exactly.

Carol

Well, I sort of went with this one.

Kevin

You sort of went with?

Carol

Yeah.

Kevin

You don't seem like a sort of, kind of person.

Carol

No. I thought that out of the two, I like this one better.

Kevin

Okay. Samantha, do you agree?

Samantha

Yeah. I think we're gonna do all the warm tones in Carol's kitchen, and then we'll cool it up upstairs with the white and the polished chrome, and then...

Kevin

And just pulls, or is there a matching knob?

Carol

No. I went with just pulls.

Kevin

So that'll be on the drawers and the doors.

Right. Kevin

Cool. Okay, and decision made?

Carol

Decision made.

Kevin

Gotcha. So what about the countertops for this? How do we go neutral and safe there?

Samantha

I think what we're gonna do is do a quartz top because that's super-durable. And depending on who's gonna live there, you won't have to worry about maintenance.

Kevin

And what have you narrowed those down to?

Two choices. Kevin

The ones behind us?

Behind us. Kevin

Okay. Samantha, what am I looking at here? You said quartz. So this is natural material, but made by man into these big slabs.

Samantha

Yeah. So it's actually a fully man-made material. It's a little bit of quartz mixed in with a lot of different products.

Resins and stuff. Samantha

Resins, yeah.

This is the classic ivory color. Kevin

Uh-huh.

Samantha

And behind you is the Nile. So very neutral in undertones, but this one has a little bit more movement to it, a little bit more pops of color. So we wanted to narrow it down. Couldn't really finalize it yet.

Kevin

So that's sort of a white on ivy.

Yes. Kevin

Very muted. Very safe. And then, Carol, this is -- What'd you say -- Nile?

This is the white on the Nile. Carol

I like that better.

A little bit more color. Kevin

Like it better enough to make a decision?

Carol

Yes. If I had a choice, I would go with the Nile.

Kevin

You do have a choice, but it sounds like the Nile is it, so awesome. All right. Well, I like working with you. You make your decisions quickly. And, Samantha, thank you. Beautiful showroom, lots of information, so we appreciate it.

Samantha

Yeah. Thank you guys for coming down. This was fun.

Kevin

We'll take that in two weeks, please.

Samantha

Okay, great.

Tom

All right. Now -- Yeah. See? Look at that. All right, good.

Richard

This building has three floors. Three sets of utilities, gas, and electric. And it needs three separate HVAC systems. Now, each floor has got, what, six or seven rooms. And typically, there is never any space to hide the ductwork. And this is three floors we got to do it in. So James Bouchard has the task of fixing this system, right?

Figuring it all out. James

Yep.

Richard

You guys do a ton of this stuff

in the city. James

All the time. So we chose a high-velocity mini duct system with modular components.

Richard

So you've used them before?

James

Yep. We use them all the time. So the nice thing is, is the compact size. And on top of that, we can bolt it together in tight spaces as needed and bring them up so you're not lugging large pieces of equipment through buildings and everything like that.

Richard

Yeah. Sometimes you just can't fit them up

through the crawl space. James

Crawl spaces, staircases,

you name it. Everywhere. Richard

So take us through. This is the first section. Air comes across.

James

So room-temperature return air is gonna come through this heating coil here, where it's gonna be heated from a boiler downstairs with these two hydronic connections here.

Richard

So that means heated water is gonna come through here with a pump, pushing it up through back and forth, back and forth back here. And then it'll get heated as it goes into the room.

James

Exactly. And then when not in heating mode, we have our cooling coil, where basically the three condensers that are gonna be tied in outside through line sets on the copper connections will tie the cooling coil in so they'll have full cooling capacity, as well. And then as it passes through the cooling, we have the blower, which is then from there gonna turn the air into high static pressure.

Richard

And push it out to the system.

James

Through the entire mini duct system throughout the house.

Richard

So this is pretty interesting. Now, this thing can actually stack horizontally like this.

James

It's so versatile throughout the city in these small spaces that we can put it vertical, horizontal, anywhere we really need to. It's very beneficial to have a system like this.

Richard

So where are we gonna hide this?

James

Let me show you. So we had this small room that wasn't very useful. So we decided to make it a mechanical/laundry room. And the machine can be hung up in the ceiling above all the equipment. So it's accessible, it can be worked on. The great thing about the size and the weight of this is two guys, a couple of guys, can get it right up in place, no issues, without having to bring in mechanical lifts and also chewing up all of your closet space.

Richard

All right. So there it's hung. Now, I love seeing this. You got these vibration isolation pads. Any time you have a mechanical device that's gonna have a blower, you worry about giving sound transmission through the building. That'll do a nice job. So with a conventional system, the air handler would be larger, but so too would the ductwork, because it has a different air delivery. Conventional has low static pressure, low push, which means the ductwork has to be larger.

James

Instead of having one of these, you would have two 7-inch round ducts.

Richard

What, a supply and a return?

James

A supply and a return for each room.

Richard

The key to the system is the sound attenuator. It's really the last mile before the air enters the room. Down inside you can see this spun nylon fiber, and that acts as a muffler to really eat up the sound of air velocity. Without it, you could have a whistle. And this system, properly installed, is quiet.

James

So the ductwork's complete on the second floor.

Let's take a look. Richard

All right. Great.

James

Awesome. So progress is moving along on this unit here, Richard. We're basically mirroring upstairs. It's gonna be the exact same setup.

Richard

Nicely done. I see the supply coming off here to a T, going out this way, and the return air flex is in.

James

Yep. Exactly. Our return grille's right here. And it's actually gonna sit right above this doorway. And this will be the one common return that they all pull back to.

Richard

With a filter right there. And you can really see now really what happens. You can fit the entire trunk and supply in, what, less than 5 inches. You've got an entire distribution system. Now, the key to this system is to have the right number of attenuators, the right number of supplies for every room. You know, in the old days, we used to have one

for every 8x10 area. James

Exactly. You should do a calculation, but roughly about that number per.

Richard

So you've got two in this room. You've got here on the high side wall right here, coming out here. But they could be out of the ceiling or out of the floor, because when that air is on, it's gonna send a stream of air this way that will make the rest of the air in the room blend together. That really makes the temperature homogenous.

James

Exactly. And on a standard low-pressure system, we've found that you get about a 5- to 7-degree temperature differential. And with this high-pressure system, you get about a 1-, 1-1/2-degree temperature differential. And it also helps cut back on drafts because of that positive pressure. So the space is much more comfortable than a low-pressure standard system.

Richard

Well, thank you for your help. It really seems like the right solution. And it seems like we have the right team to do it. So good. But next week, we're gonna talk about putting fire sprinklers into this building. You won't want to miss it. Until then,

I'm Rich Trethewey. James

I'm James Bouchard.

Richard

For "This Old House." All right, let's get back to work. Come on.

Kevin

Next time on "This Old House"...

Woman

So we're thinking this subway and doing some sort of, like, a mosaic accent

in the middle of it. Kevin

Oh, interesting. Okay.

Tom

All right, guys, now, you're gonna laugh at me when I say these are beautiful floors, but there's holes in these floors, and we're gonna patch them.

Tapping, rattling

Kevin

That's a bad sound. Woman #2: That's a bad sign. This needs to be repaired. You have gotten ahead of us here. Woman #2: I did a little, yes. Here, give this one a tap.

Tapping

Kevin

That's where we want to hear. Woman #2: Yeah.