This Old House

Kevin: Today on "This Old House"... Zack: Inside this factory, we'll see how a building comes together from a pile of wood to a structure ready to roll down the road.

Kyle: It'll be to the jobsite in a week.

Zack: That's incredible.

Richard: Then -- Fitting HVAC into any building is always a challenge, but we're gonna show you a solution that tucks right up in between the ceiling joists.

Kevin: Hey there.

I'm Kevin O'Connor.

And welcome back to "This Old House" and to our project here in Walpole, Mass, on a gray, rainy day.

This town is about 20 miles south of Boston and the location of where we are working on this house, built in the 1970s.

It is getting a renovation and a pretty big addition in the form of an ADU, or accessory dwelling unit, that is going on the back of the house.

We'll look at that in a minute, but first let's look at the progress here on the main house.

So, you may recall the last time we were here, our GCs, Kevin and Jared, and their crew were reframing our garage.

And you can see they made a lot of nice progress.

The old garage's foundation needed to be brought up to code, so they decided it was better to take down the garage, repour the foundation, and then build right on top of that.

So we are framed, we are insulated, we are roofed, and we also get some new interior space with that rebuild.

And it starts right here, on the back of the garage.

So, in here there's gonna be a combination mudroom/ laundry room.

You can see they've roughed in for a washing machine here.

And then there'll be a dryer next to it.

Mudroom here.

And then there'll be a pocket door to close this space off from the main house.

There's also a new half-bath in this corner, door to the backyard, and a new staircase going down to the basement.

Now, right here, this is where the old house started.

And so you may recall it was a very small kitchen area right here.

That's gonna be opened up.

And we've even increased the ceiling height.

So the old ceiling height was right about here.

And now it goes up almost an additional two feet to get us some more cabinets.

And what was three discrete areas -- kitchen, dining room, living room -- is now one wide-open space.

So lots of room but also lots of light.

You can see that there's a frame right here for a new glass slider going in.

Hey, Kevin.

How are you?

– Smith: Good.

How are you?

Kevin: All right.

Good to see you.

– Smith: Good to see you.

– Kevin: So what's going in?

-We got three panels?

– Smith: We have three panels.

-We'll have a fixed panel here.

– Kevin: Yeah.

Smith: And then we'll have a sliding panel -- two sliding panels that will all go to the fixed panel to make this a bigger opening.

Kevin: Very nice.

That going in today?

Smith: That will go in today.

If the rain holds up, we're gonna wipe the copper pan down -and we're gonna get going here.

– Kevin: All right.

Maybe I'll give you a hand.

Thank you.

So this is gonna really open up the space, be one big area.

There will be an island right here, which you can see outlined by the tape.

Instead of a dining room, just a dining table.

And then it all opens up to a big family room.

Now, they're gonna keep the existing bay window.

You can see it's right there.

And they're also gonna keep the existing front entryway and the front door.

But there are some changes out front.

And the biggest one is, obviously, this new front porch.

Dramatically changes the feel of our old '70s ranch.

The old house was sheathed in boards -- 1x8s, 1x10s/ You sort of see them right here.

So that has all been wrapped.

That's our air barrier, water barrier.

Some new windows have gone in.

And look at all the trim work that is done.

So soffit, fascia -- all trimmed out.

And as you come along the side of the house, you can see that the rake board is done as well up to the ridge.

And then you can see the transition from original house, wrapped in blue, to the new renovation and ADU.

All new construction.

So they've got the impregnated sheathing right there.

And Zack -- We've got our friend from New Jersey who's come up to the Northeast.

-Good to see you.

– Zack: What's up, Kevin?

I'll give you this hand.

This one's a little injured right now.

Kevin: I heard you hurt it.

Jared, how are you?

Jared: Hey, Kevin.

Good to see you.

Kevin: Yeah.

Same here.

What'd you do?

Zack: I got a piece of wood stuck in there.

Really keeping it on brand.

Kevin: All right.

[ Laughs ] That works.

So, what's the project for you guys today?

Jared: We're installing some vinyl siding.

The owners have selected a four-inch Dutch lap.

Kevin: Okay.

We're usually taking the vinyl off and replacing it.

You guys are putting it up new.

How do you feel about that?

Zack: I haven't done vinyl in a while, but Jared's got some excellent tips to sort of make it look like original Dutch-lap siding from the street, so I'm looking forward to learning from him.

Kevin: You're in good hand with him, even if it is down one, so I'll leave you to it.

Zack: Got to say, this is looking pretty good.

Jared: We're getting there.

Zack: So, what made the homeowner go with vinyl siding?

I mean, there's so many different sidings on the market.

Jared: I think one of the big factors, Zack, was the maintenance.

They want a low-maintenance product they're not gonna have to worry about painting every four or five years.

It gets dirty, we wash it off, and it looks brand new.

And it's also less expensive than some of the more traditional type of sidings.

Zack: So that'd be a big savings over something like cementitious siding, which would be like two to three times the cost.

Jared: Even cedar, maybe five or six times the cost.

Zack: It's a really durable product.

This can take, you know, a heck of an impact.

And what I like is you can sort of pop out sections if you're gonna remodel in the future.

But one thing I don't like -- I'll steal this off the ground here -- is when I look from the street, typically you see that J-channel going around the windows and doors, and it's like a tell that it's actually vinyl siding.

Somehow you've completely avoided that here.

-It looks great.

What'd you do?

– Jared: Exactly.

That's a telltale sign.

When you have that J-channel going around the windows, it screams it's vinyl siding.

So the idea is to make this seem like it's a wood product even though it's vinyl.

So what we have here is a composite trim with a built-in J-channel, and the siding's allowed to go behind and sit in that J. The siding itself wants to move a little bit, so we need that J to cover the edge.

Zack: Yeah.

This groove you've made in the back here, that looks really good, lets the siding inside.

But this cut on the bottom here, this is a nice detail too.

What I like about this is when you view this house from the street, you're gonna have a very difficult time knowing that this is vinyl siding.

Well done.

So how can I help you get this moving?

Jared: I think what we're gonna do is continue this section down here towards our door that we're waiting for.

We can fill this in, keep moving this way.

Zack: Let's do it.

[ Saw buzzing ] So with these seams on the vinyl, Zack, what we try to do is point the seams in the direction that has the least amount of traffic.

In this situation, the seams are pointing to the backyard.

And we overlap our seams, you can see here, by about an inch and a quarter or so.

When we nail it, keep in mind we're hanging vinyl, not nailing it tight to the house.

So we're gonna put our nail right in the middle of one of these seams.

We're gonna set it in here.

And we're not gonna bury the head.

This allows the siding to move.

It also allows air to travel behind the siding and dry out any water that might get behind.

The siding has weep holes on the bottom of it.

If moisture were to get behind it, it drains to the bottom, and the weep holes allow the water to escape.

So to finish this off, we're gonna put a piece of J-channel tight to the bottom of our soffit.

And then we're gonna cut our piece of siding to fit under the J and click into that last row of siding that we just installed.

Looks good.

Kevin: While Zack and Jared are banging away with our siding on the ADU, I thought I'd give you a lay of the land now that it is all framed up.

Total square footage is 900 square feet, and it's got one bedroom -- that's this space right here -- but two full baths.

So there is a guest bathroom in the front and then the bathroom off of the primary bedroom in the back.

This space right here is a little laundry room.

So we've got washer, dryer.

Living space on the far side over there.

And then this room, this is their kitchen.

It's got a great door to the outside.

Now, technically, the ADU ends with this wall.

And the space behind it, that's shared space.

And even further back, that's the primary house.

Now, this one was conventionally built, so stick-built on site.

But a lot of ADUs are actually being prefabricated.

And to see how that works, we're gonna go to a factory in western Pennsylvania to see it built in the factory and then shipped to its site, 400 miles away.

Zack: As part of our deeper dive into ADUs, or accessory dwelling units, we've come here to see a different way of construction, modular construction.

Inside this factory, we'll see how a building comes together from a pile of wood to a structure ready to roll down the road.

-Hey, Kyle.

– Kyle: Good morning.

Kyle: This is nice and warm in here.

Kyle: Absolutely.

This morning when I got here, it was a balmy 6 degrees outside.

And as you can feel in here, we are 60 degrees.

One major advantage of building modular houses is climate-controlled environment.

Zack: Yeah.

I'll say.

So, tell me about this place.

This is huge.

Kyle: The facility you're in right now is about 100,000 square feet.

We build modular houses, start to finish.

We can go as simple as ranch houses to custom two-stories.

And what's becoming very popular -- ADU units.

Zack: Oh.

Kyle: This is a set of drawings.

Each department of this facility gets this set of drawings to build the part of the house that pertains to them.

You're at the floor jig right now.

This is where it all starts.

Once this is done, it will come off of this jig to be moved up the line.

Zack: That's pretty cool.

Kyle: Now we're in the rough-framing section.

This is where all your partition walls are built, and exterior walls are built here.

Everything is built on a flat level square jig.

Zack: Man, how great is it working at this height, on a nice, flat surface?

Kyle: These metal jigs were designed for the average-height person, so there's less bending.

Zack: I like it.

Kyle: After the partition walls were set and staged, now they're being set on the module, and now they're doing the rough electrical and rough plumbing at this area as well as tub fixtures and starting to hang the drywall.

Zack: So you're able to do all the electric, all the plumbing right here in this facility?

Kyle: Yes.

Absolutely.

Each individual box will have all the wiring and plumbing completed in it before it leaves the facility.

The connections will have to be done by the builder on site after the units are set together.

– Zack: Got it.

– Kyle: All right, Zack.

We are at the next stage of the process, which is our roof and ceiling assembly.

This is a rafter system.

All our rafters are on hinges.

At the jobsite, the crane will lift this roof in place.

Knee walls will go under it.

It'll look like one complete unit once it's raised.

Zack: So this is actually the roof itself.

And this is gonna pivot up on this bolt.

– Kyle: On the bolt.

– Zack: I like that idea.

That takes all the struggle out of it.

Kyle: Absolutely.

And this is so we can transport it to the jobsite and stay under height.

Zack: So is there no overhang on this house?

Kyle: The overhang and the rest of the roof system is done at a station further down the line, which I will show you.

All right, Zack.

We are now at what we call the midline area, where all your roof components, which are your extensions, knee walls, and overhangs, will get installed here, your fiberglass insulation or whatever the customer prefers, exterior cladding, windows, doors, siding.

It'll also get the drywall finished here, sanded and painted.

This entire piece is the overhang section.

It is installed with a hinge system underneath the ice shield and shingles here, which will allow this to be flipped over at the jobsite for the builder to complete three rows of shingling here as well as the extension up top.

It allows the builder to get his roof weathered in and minimal time at the jobsite.

Zack: It's interesting.

It's like this business is 50% building and 50% just trying to get it down the road.

Kyle: Absolutely.

We do struggle with getting it to the jobsites with restrictions on height, but we try to make it that the builder has less to complete on site so when they get it, the advantage of going to modular is it's 90% done when they get it.

Well, here's the finished product.

They're installing the tile backsplash.

Zack: Wow.

It's completely finished in there.

-Painted and everything.

– Kyle: Absolutely.

It'll be to the jobsite in a week.

Zack: That's amazing.

I can't wait to see it there.

-Thanks for the tour.

– Kyle: You're welcome.

Kevin: One week later, this custom modular ADU traveled by truck from the factory in Middleburg, Pennsylvania, to its new home in Sudbury, Massachusetts.

Once on site, a local contractor and his team took over.

The boxes were craned into place over the existing home and onto a new foundation.

The roof, which was shipped flat, was tilted up to the proper pitch, then supported by knee walls.

Gable-end panels were hoisted into place and secured.

Then the top peak and ridge cap were added, sheathed, and shingled.

And the building was secured to the foundation.

[ Drill whirring ] Over the next several weeks, the mechanical systems were connected, and the ADU is now ready for its new residents, a couple in their 60s who is relocating here from the main residence, where their son and family will be moving.

With the cost of housing so high, this ADU will allow multiple generations of one family to live on one plot but in their own separate spaces.

Richard: Back here in Walpole, we're in the basement And the homeowners decided they wanted to have the basement conditioned -- heated and cooled -- in a separate system from the existing house.

So we looked at the space and said, "How are we gonna do it?"

One way would be to put a conventional ducted system.

If you did that, you'd have to drop the ceiling, which is already pretty low, or do soffits to cover all the ductwork all the way around here.

Many people would just do the high side wall.

Everybody's doing these mini splits.

But it's a statement.

You really see it in the room.

What we're just doing here is actually to take the equivalent of that high side wall in a ceiling unit.

You see it right here?

Everything that would be in that mini split side wall is in that ceiling unit and has a lot of advantages in this case.

It only needs eight inches, so we don't have to drop the ceiling at all.

It also has a really smart vane or air distribution system.

These vanes can send the air straight out or from side to side.

Now, imagine if it didn't have that.

You could be sitting at the desk right here, and all of a sudden cold air or hot air comes down on top of you.

You can program it so it doesn't happen.

So the decision was to have a unit here, but we could've actually had one unit right here in the center of the space, because they make a unit with a four-way directional.

Air goes this way, this way, this way, and this way.

But, as always happens, they made a change where they want to break this room up into two and make this end available to be a separate room as a bedroom.

And that's where we needed a second unit, And that's where Bobby Connelly comes in.

Hello, my friend.

Bob: Hey, Richard.

How you doing?

Richard: Good.

Glad you're on the case with us.

So take us through this unit.

Bob: So, I'm about to pop this in the ceiling, but I figured I'd give you a look at the finished product.

Richard: That'll pretty much disappear up against a white sand.

That's great.

It's a little less imposing than looking at the side-wall unit.

Oh.

All right.

So what are we looking at here?

This is upside down.

So this is the bottom of the unit.

Bob: This is the condensate pan at the very bottom of the unit.

Richard: So all the water -- Condensate is the natural by-product.

Anytime you're air-conditioning, the humidity in the air wants to drip.

So it'll go into this pan.

It's not gonna be able to go by gravity to the drain, right?

Bob: No.

No.

It has to be pumped.

So this unit comes with a built-in pump.

-With a float switch.

– Richard: Good.

– Bob: That activates the pump.

– Richard: This is quieter?

– Bob: Yeah, it's pretty quiet.

– Richard: All right.

Good.

Bob: Now that we have it completely open, you can actually see how it works.

You have your airflow coming down.

Gets sucked through this coil from this fan right here.

Richard: There's a beautiful little fan down there.

Yeah.

Bob: It modulates depending on the load inside the room.

It's gonna blow over the coil, and then it's gonna come up and out into the room.

Richard: And that air's gonna either be heated or cooled.

And here's those vanes that can go side to side.

Or it can go this way to make sure you're not uncomfortable.

– Bob: Yeah.

– Richard: Cool.

It really helps to see the breakdown here.

Your connections are pretty straightforward.

Bob: Simple connections.

This is your liquid, your suction, and your condensate.

And then three wires for the electrical.

Richard: So you've roughed in.

I see you're ready to go.

You got lines set here, and you've already got the brackets.

-You need my help?

– Bob: No.

Richard: You always work alone.

Thank you.

Good job.

So, still to be done out here is to connect the refrigerant line sets to the condenser.

Now, you might expect to see two condensers, one for each of the inside units.

But the trend lately is really these multi units.

So a single condenser unit that can support multiple indoor units.

So this unit has two ports right her, one for each of the units.

But it could be ordered with three, four, or five.

And that really cleans up -- What you often see is a nest of these condensers out here in the back.

So it's much more efficient, and it's a lot cleaner.

The other thing to remind people is when you're using a heat pump in a cold climate, you have to think about protecting the heat pump in the case of snow.

So it has to be mounted up above the snow line.

Kevin: The backyard is shared space between the ADU and the main house, and there's gonna be a patio area right about here, a little more patio there, and then, in this corner, going back to the house, there's gonna be a deck.

And that's gonna be covered by a pergola that will come out from the house here, return itself back right here so that this is all covered space.

And then the deck is gonna be even with the new opening that we've got here.

And, Dan, good to see you.

Dan: Hey, Kev.

What's happening?

Kevin: Yours and Jill's idea to get some good access to the backyard?

– Dan: Our idea.

Yep.

We chose a three-panel slider to basically give us indoor-to-outdoor living space, get a lot of natural light in.

Kevin: You gonna help us put it in?

– Dan: I sure will.

– Kevin: All right.

Zack, you're here as well.

Jared, you're the boss man.

So, what's the process after you guys did some prep work, right?

Jared: You can see, Kevin, we've had a pan that was made custom for our install.

We've leveled the pan from left to right.

We've wrapped the pan down the face on the exterior, and we've created a little back dam on the interior.

Kevin: Which is that right there.

Jared: We've pitched the pan from inside to out.

In case we get some water, it'll shed outside.

Then we also wrapped the copper pan up the jamb about six inches and tape it with flashing tape.

Kevin: All right.

How do you want to get started?

Jared: We've already put the frame together.

We're gonna get it, put it in the opening, and install.

Great.

Let's line our two center marks up.

All right.

Push it in a little bit.

It's got to come a little left.

That looks pretty good right there.

Let's mark the outside end of the flange so we know where to apply our silicone.

We're gonna apply a nice bead of silicone from the edge of our line to the side of the jamb.

So we're also gonna put a bead of silicone on our pan.

With this bead, we want to put it towards the back-dam portion of the pan so it wouldn't impede any water from draining out.

I think we're ready for install.

Zack: You want to check that center mark, make sure we're going where we're supposed to here?

– Dan: Straight on.

– Kevin: Straight on?

Jared: Great.

So now we'll put one screw, Kevin, about two slots down from the upper-right corner.

[ Drill whirring ] -So now we can square it.

– Zack: Okay.

– Jared: 136.

Tell me when you're good.

– Zack: I'm good.

– Jared: Looks good.

136 each way.

We are plumb on both sides.

We're square.

We're ready to nail it off.

Dan: All right.

You ready?

We're going up.

We are now over top of the track.

Kevin: All right.

Ready to drop?

Beautiful.

Ahh.

Satisfying.

– Jared: All right.

Middle track.

– Kevin: Middle track.

Jared: All right.

Last panel.

All right.

Coming over.

– Kevin: Very good.

– Dan: Up in.

Kevin: This one's gonna be the fixed.

Jared: That'll be the fixed.

Come all the way to the right.

There we go.

And they should stack.

– Kevin: Huh?

– Dan: Look at that.

Right?

Kevin: How about that opening right there?

-What do you think, Dan?

– Dan: Oh, I like it.

Excited about how this is turning out.

Kevin: Very nice.

Jared, what do we got to do to finish this off?

Jared: We're gonna adjust these three panels, make sure they're operating properly.

We're gonna send some screws through the jamb of the door with some shims, keep it straight.

We're gonna tape the outside over our nailing flange, exterior trim, siding, and we're done.

Kevin: Perfect.

All right, Zack.

Nice to have you up here in Massachusetts.

You're gonna come back and join us?

Zack: I will for sure.

Kevin: Bring both hands next time.

– Zack: I'll try.

– Kevin: All right.

Well, on behalf of all of us here, I'm Kevin O'Connor signing off for "This Old House" here in Walpole, Mass.

How excited are you about this, huh?

Dan: Real good.

It's real nice.

Kevin: Next time on "This Old House"... This project has two separate units -- the main house and an ADU.

And that means it needs a fire wall.

We'll show you how to build one.

Man: This is a fire damper.

If there's a fire happened to be in one of the ducts, it'll stop it from going to the other side.

Richard: And the walls are soon to be closing in, so it's a perfect time to show you just how we've hidden the ductwork on this building.

Kevin: We're also exploring different ways that you can build ADUs.

Man: This is wonderful.