This Old House

Kevin

Today on "This Old House"...

Tom

The in-law suite will be occupied during construction. How do we keep it safe from dust?

Kevin

That's a smoky room.

Tom

So let's turn on the machine.

Richard

And people have been coming to Saratoga Springs to soak in these baths for hundreds of years. And it's all because of nature's underground plumbing system.

Man

Got it? Man #2: Ah, that's it.

Kevin

Hi, there. I'm Kevin O'Connor. And welcome back to "This Old House" here in Saratoga Springs, location of our latest house project. This town has always been a travel destination. The American Indians came here first for the mineral springs, and they were followed by the Europeans, who built the spas. Springs and spas are still here in town. And then in 1863, a year before our house was built, they built the Saratoga Racetrack. And that is just a couple of blocks from this neighborhood. And there it is, our house. One family, seven generations have lived here continuously since 1864. And inside, work is already under way. Over seven generations, you can accumulate a lot of stuff, and much from the basement has been brought up here to the front porch. Whitney and Evan have been going through it. You can see -- I'm told that maybe Grandpa built that for Evan right there, but there are tools, magazines, bottles, and such. They will continue to sort through all of that and see what they're going to save, see what they're going to get rid of. As you come through the front door, we've got this front parlor room right here, is gonna pretty much stay the same. Doors from the house are being stacked up because most of these are going away and are gonna be salvaged. And then as you push through to the back of the house, you've got the dining room that used to be here. You can see the paper is down in most places 'cause they're trying to preserve the original hardwood floors that are in these two rooms. Now, we think that the house stopped right here originally. So this kitchen was added over the years. And, well, a couple interesting details in here -- the blue-and-white wallpaper on the walls, as well as on those glass cabinet doors. And you can see in the ceiling that the demolition has already started. A lot of it going on down here and a bunch more upstairs, as well.

Tom

Hey,

guys. Kevin

Tommy, Whitney, Evan. So, you guys have been busy, putting some sweat equity in, huh?

Mm-hmm. Kevin

How far have you gotten?

Whitney

Well, we've got about 3/4 of a dumpster filled outside.

Kevin

Wow, that's a lot of plaster.

Evan

We started on the third floor.

That's totally gutted. Kevin

Yeah.

Evan

And we've started on the first and second floors but kind of stopped at some spots.

Whitney

Yeah, as soon as we started to see some really wonky structural stuff, we decided we'd wait for the professionals.

Tom

Yeah, I understand what she's looking at. I mean, let's take, for example, this outside wall right here.

Uh-huh. Tom

Alright? So if I look at the stud, the stud goes down, and it stops -- just stops. It should continue on down. I can see that they cut off a piece down there that should meet, but they took this other piece and they just brought it up and nailed it against the side.

Kevin

Kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it?

Tom

Right, and this one over here is another one where this piece is cut off. But this was added to the side of this one. If you look and follow it up, it probably met there. They cut this off and they nailed this piece to those two pieces, creating one stud.

Kevin

And then through all of this, I mean, more cut stuff and cross bracing, Tommy?

Tom

Yeah. The cross bracing is a little confusing here because this piece here should line up with this piece for them to do it correctly. And these pieces usually go into a corner of a building to help with the lateral stability.

Kevin

So those boards were a little bit of an unexpected find, Tommy. And you guys had some unexpected finds, as well?

Evan

Yeah, we found some cool stuff.

Kevin

Oh, my goodness. Look at that.

Whitney

So, yeah, this looks like it is a pitcher part of a washbasin set. It's got the -- I'm assuming the maker of the product on the bottom.

Kevin

So that's a clue as to who made it and when it was made. Well, look at that, huh?

Whitney

Yeah.

Kevin

So this is back when we sort of washed our face and hands in the bedroom, right? Just poured it in a little basin.

Whitney

It would come, usually, with a big basin, as well, and the pitcher would hold the water.

Kevin

Save that, obviously, right?

Whitney

Yeah. It's pretty neat. I'd love to, you know, clean it up and put some cut flowers in it. Think it's a nice touch.

Kevin

Evan, I didn't know you played.

Evan

Not very well, obviously. So we found this in a crawl space in the third floor tucked under there, one of the dormers, yeah. And I love it, but I can't find any detail about manufacturer

or anything like that. Kevin

May I? Look at this. Uh-oh. That seems fragile. I probably shouldn't.

Tom

You're gonna break it.

Kevin

I'm gonna give that back to you. What will you do with that?

Evan

You know, I can't decide if I'm gonna save it or not. It might be a little too far gone, but pictures and memories.

Kevin

Well, you got a pile of stuff on the front porch, so you can add it to that. Alright, so you guys are gonna continue demolition, Tommy?

Tom

We're gonna start demo. We want to get that wall out there, because that wall's coming down because the hallway's gonna go from that wall over there back. So that's gonna go out about two feet, I think.

Kevin

While you guys get dirty doing that, I'm gonna go meet your architect and hear more about the master plan, so good luck. And if you find anything, let me know.

Tom

Okay.

Kevin

Unlike the front of the house, which looks pretty good after all these years, it's a different story out back. You can see that there have been a number of additions over the years, and there's been no rhyme or reason to them -- bump-outs here and there. I mean, this roofline right here, pitched in two directions with a ridge, that roofline up there -- shed. And the one right next to it, flat underneath a door to nowhere. Well, that's a problem, and it's a problem we're asking our architect, Matt Hurff, to solve. Matt,

good to see you. Hurff

How you been?

Kevin

Alright. How about you?

Hurff

Good, thanks.

Kevin

What do you think's going on here? How'd we get to this state?

Hurff

Well, with these old houses, I mean, the original house is built with a pretty cohesive idea. And then what happens is, over time, families grow, needs change, and they start adding things on the back. Maybe you need a kitchen or you want your bedroom to be a little bit bigger or you want a porch, and there's no real thought given to it. They just answer their immediate need at the time, and as time goes by, you accumulate these carbuncles on the back of the house.

Kevin

Carbuncles, indeed. So that's why we've got what we've got. And, you know, the other thing we've heard from the homeowners is, is that all these little sort of additions have pushed their main living space kind of forward in relation to the backyard here. They've got to go through the carbuncle to get here, and they love getting here. I mean, they use it in the summer on a bright, sunny day like this. They even use it in the winter when that ice rink goes up. So your charge is to get them back here but also to clean up this mess. Walk us through it.

Hurff

So the easiest thing to do at the end of the day was just to take all this stuff off. So what we're doing is removing all this and putting on a cohesive single addition which has all of their living space pushed onto the backyard so they can enjoy their yard.

Kevin

So original house, gambrel roof. That's it right there. This is all new. What have you given us? What are the parts and pieces?

Hurff

So we give it a full first floor with a lot of glass on it with a living room and a dining room and then a second-floor master suite which stretches all the way across the back of the house.

Kevin

And what are the windows?

Hurff

These are bay windows. So it comes out and then it recesses back to a French door and then it comes back out again.

Kevin

And off to the right here? Your handiwork, or is that something that's existing?

Hurff

This is just an existing side porch.

Kevin

Right, and so there are -- You know, there's some nice little flourishes here, right? I mean, you've got the roof and you've got some ornamentation right there. So -- And this, these lines right here, I presume, represent a metal roof.

Hurff

Yes, a standing seam metal roof.

Kevin

Gotcha. When you see all that glass, you realize that that's what these guys want. They want to be back into this space as much as they possibly can, even when they're not in it, when they're inside.

Hurff

The most important room in the house isn't in the house.

Kevin

Right, for these guys. Alright, terrific. Well, it's a beautiful drawing, and we appreciate the help. So we will get to work building it.

Great. Kevin

Thanks.

Richard

About a mile from our project is the reason that anybody ever heard of Saratoga Springs. About 400 years ago, this was Mohawk hunting ground, and those Native Americans discovered something really special here -- mineral springs with curative powers. So I've come to High Rock Spring today to learn about the underground plumbing that brings so much water up through these rocks. And Ken Chaisson is our expert. Hello, my friend.

Ken

Hey, Richard, nice to meet you.

Richard

You know a lot about this stuff.

Ken

Well, yeah. So the magic of this whole thing is the springs. And the springs here in Saratoga are the only cold-water carbonated mineral springs located east of the Rocky Mountains. They're very rare and they're very unique. And their geological story, the best evidence that we have, it starts about 400 million years ago, where geologists believe that there was a shallow sea here that was teeming with life. And when the sea creatures died, they fall to the bottom of the sea and they form fossils in limestone rock. And as the ancient seawater interacts with the fossils, it releases a tiny amount of carbon dioxide gas, much like the vinegar and baking soda volcano experiments we always did as kids. So over time, that water becomes carbonated, and now that water bubbles up through those layers of limestone and it picks up glacial minerals, and it picks those minerals up in solution, and it wants to bring them to the surface, but it runs into a layer of rock called shale. Shale is an impermeable cap rock that keeps that mineral water buried deep underground.

Richard

And holds the gas in it.

Ken

It holds the gas, right. So it can't get through it. That would be the end of the story, except we're standing about 50 feet away from an earthquake fault. The earthquake fault here is a -- runs about 40 miles from the Adirondacks down through Saratoga Springs. And about every 10 or 20 years, we get a small earthquake here, normally not a big one, but about 10,000 years ago, these geologists believe we got the big one here, and the big one cracked the shale. And when the shale cracked, now that carbonated mineral water could come to the surface

through cracks in the shale. Richard

Had a way to get out.

Ken

It had a way to get out.

Richard

So is this the fault right here?

Ken

Yeah. What we see here is the Saratoga fault.

Richard

And that fault made a big difference here in Saratoga, right?

Ken

It made a huge difference, because without the fault, we wouldn't have any water. The area where these springs happen is a mile wide and 12 miles long. It's very restrictive. In the 1830s and 1840s, the railroad shows up. Now you can get on a train to New York City and you're here. So the very wealthy spend the summers here in Saratoga.

Richard

And this was really the principal resort in that era.

Ken

This was it. Yeah, this was absolutely it. The industry that rolled through here in the 1800s really devastated the environment here. And that was the carbonic gas industry. These tiny little springs that are scattered throughout this 12-mile range, they were drilled out and they were pumped, thousands of gallons of water a day, to get the gas, the carbonic gas.

Richard

For what, like soda water?

Ken

They would use it for soda water, right, exactly. They took so much water from the ground that the -- the water table was suffering. So the state enacted legislation in 1909 to stop the gas wells from pumping. They stopped pumping, and then a few years later, the water table rebounded enough that the bathing industry again saw a resurgence.

Richard

So this High Rock Spring is the very first one that people came to.

Ken

Yeah, absolutely, and the spring will rebound and it will build more minerals up as the water flows.

Richard

But some of the other springs are still spouting?

Ken

Yeah, these springs are still spouting up and depositing minerals at a rapid rate. Welcome to Saratoga Spa State Park. This is called the Island Spouter. What you see here is water that's in a chamber 300 feet deep in that limestone layer. As a result of the gas industry that was here in the 1800s, there is a bore that goes down to the source of that water.

You drilled it. Ken

It's been drilled.

Yeah. Ken

And out of the 13 springs we have here in Saratoga Spa State Park,

they all taste different. Richard

Really?

Ken

They all have a different chemistry to them. Since the springs come from different depths in that limestone rock, they pick up different minerals at different rates.

Richard

Really?

Ken

So if you drink one and you don't like it, go 20 feet and drink another.

Richard

So there's something for everybody here.

Ken

What we have here is Hayes Spring.

Okay. Ken

Hayes Spring, again, is one of our 13 springs we have in the park. What's unique about Hayes is that it's got a sniffer in it. We vent some of the carbon dioxide gas out of this pipe, and the gas comes out of the pipe, along with the minerals that are in there.

Coughs

Richard

That's a plumbing smell.

Ken

And it's a plumbing smell, exactly.

Richard

Oh, but it clears your sinuses, doesn't it?

Ken

Yeah, it's absolutely phenomenal.

Richard

Clears your entire brain.

Ken

Absolutely. Well, now that you've sniffed the water, you can come and taste the water and tell me what you've got there.

Richard

Okay. Like a little salty, a little fizz.

Ken

Yeah, this is the one -- is the nickname 20-minute water because it has the same consistency of a laxative.

Richard

Got to run.

Ken

Alright, Richard, we've only walked a couple hundred yards from Hayes Spring to our next spring. This is Karista Spring. "Karista" is the Mohawk word for iron. And you can see on the splash pool there's a lot of orange and reddish mineral deposits

from the iron that's in here. Richard

Serious rust.

Ken

And I think we should go ahead and have a taste of it.

Richard

What is this? This is gonna be --

Ken

This is gonna have iron. It's gonna have iodine in it, as well. And oddly, it's got iron and iodine in a similar proportion you've got in your bloodstream. So as you drink that, you kind of taste like you bit your lip.

Yeah. Ken

Kind of tastes like blood.

Richard

Absolutely. Alright. So people come to drink it. But they also came here to bathe in it.

Ken

That's correct. The waters right now are not set up for bathing 'cause they come out of the ground at 55 degrees. But we do have one bathhouse remaining in the park, the Roosevelt Bath & Spa.

Let's go see that. Ken

Absolutely.

Knock on door

Colleen

Come on in.

Richard

Room 12. You must be Colleen.

Colleen

Yes,

I am. Welcome. Richard

I'm quite excited.

Colleen

Alright, so these baths have been around Saratoga since 1935. We have 42 rooms here. The pretty color is the iron. So when this water comes in here, it's crystal clear.

Yeah. Colleen

It hits the air, it oxidizes. You put your face in it, your hair, won't turn red. Just absorbs right into your skin. There's a drink of water for you so you can hydrate while you soak. That towel you can roll right behind your neck.

Yeah. Colleen

Really, you're just gonna sit, soak till you see me again.

So I'll see you in 40 minutes. Richard

Alright,

see you in a bit. Colleen

Okay.

Richard

What, you think it was easy finding a hundred-year-old bathing suit? It's time for a bath. It's not even Saturday night. Ooh, that's deep. Perfect temperature. Oh. It feels bubbly. Oh. Wow. It really feels good. I can feel the bubbles for sure. It feels really relaxing, actually. I like this. I got 38 minutes left. Good night.

Jenn

Hey,

Whitney and Evan. Evan

Hi, Jenn.

Jenn

So, what did Matt say? How far back do we have to go?

Evan

It's gonna be this full eight-foot section to the middle of the arbor and all the way across on the other side of the patio to the fence, as well.

Jenn

Okay, so I think first job is to save and move these perennials, right? This peony, this astilbe. Once we get these out of the ground, they can go here or somewhere else in the yard. So this is almost flat like a pancake. Look how shallow this root system is. Perfect. Let's go get that peony out. Well, dig a nice root ball straight down around the base of the plant and we'll try to get it up and into the pot. One, two,

three. Whitney

Got it.

Jenn

Then you put your hands on the bottom, so --

Evan

Yeah, I gotcha.

Jenn

Perfect. We're gonna have to tuck some of these roots in here, which is totally fine. Alright, so now it's time to address this climbing rose at the corner of your foundation. So what we're gonna do is start with cutting it back to about 12 inches. You don't need all of this. The plant needs to put its energy into the roots and its transplant. This is an old one right here. Oh, that was a good one. This is just gonna make it so much better. Alright, so we just want to cut right above where the leaf -- where there's a V, and that will help with promoting the new leaves to come out. Alright, so how old do you think this rose is?

Whitney

From what I understand, Evan's grandmother, Susan's mother, brought back a slip of this after a family trip to Cape Cod. Probably 40 years.

So let's try to save it. Whitney

Yeah.

Jenn

Alright, so here's our pre-dug hole. So what we're gonna do -- It already looks way too deep, right? So we're gonna hold them in place. So we want this part at soil level where it was and then hold it in place and we'll backfill it so it could go naturally where the root wants to go.

Okay. Jenn

That make sense?

Whitney

Yeah.

Jenn

I believe your rose will be in full force again. Just don't forget to put a rose fertilizer on it and water it every day.

Whitney

Yeah, we do want to take care of these. I know these mean a lot to my mother-in-law.

Jenn

Wow, Evan. Great progress over here.

Evan

Thanks. Yeah, it's a little sad how easily it comes up after how hard it was to put down 10 years ago.

Whitney

Yeah, it was right when we first started dating. If I wanted to come hang out with, you know, this cute guy, I had to come back here and help put in a slate patio.

Jenn

That is so sweet, you guys. At least you know you have a good base.

Whitney

That we do.

Jenn

So you, Whitney, help me. We got to take this retaining wall down to the middle part of this pergola, the arborway. So we're gonna stockpile that, as well. So what I'll do over here -- Evan, you keep on that, and we'll hit these up.

Kevin

Evan's mom, Susan, grew up in the house. She's currently living next door, will stay here during the restoration, and is even part of the demolition team. Hey,

Susan. Susan

Oh, good afternoon. How are you today?

Kevin

I'm well, thank you. You got the wallpaper-stripping duty, huh?

Susan

Oh, I enjoy it, though.

Kevin

You do?

Susan

Very much, yeah.

Kevin

You're the only one in the room who enjoys it.

Chuckles

Kevin

What have you found?

Susan

Well, I'm counting down the layers. So far I think I have six. One, two, three, four, five, and that's gonna be six.

Kevin

Okay, I'll take your word for it. They sort of fade a little bit right there. Anything interesting that you found?

Susan

Well, actually, I like some of the patterns much more than others. But what I'm disappointed in is that as I'm doing this, the paste has discolored this. So I can't really see the beautiful pattern that it might have been with the colors. But I want to show you this. This layer right here.

Kevin

Which matches this layer that's up there. Okay.

Susan

I think that this was hand-painted on -- I'm not sure what color the paper had been, but it looks like this was rolled kind of with a roller that might have been a chalk paint going up, because it's not plumb. It's a little off.

Kevin

A hand-painted layer of wallpaper, one of seven, six or seven. Alright, well, very cool. Well, we appreciate the help, and it's a nice discovery.

We will leave you to it. Susan

Yeah. Well,

I got more to do. Kevin

You do. Alright. Thank you, Susan. So, as you can see, demolition is happening pretty much everywhere. This room is under demolition. Evan took his hands to this wall right here, got the plaster and lath off. And, of course, in here, we've got some more demolition going on. And part of our goal is to protect not just Susan, who's living next door, but then also, Matt, to protect your guys, because there's gonna be a lot of dust created. You want to keep them safe. What is your plan for doing that? 'Cause it looks like you got one.

Whitbeck

Yeah, so we'd like to be able to separate sections of the house, make sure that we're blocking off how the air is moving from room to room. And that's important. We found plastic in areas. We took a couple doors and put doors where there weren't. Now we're gonna use this air-remediation system. What I'm doing here is monitoring that air, checking what the particulate level is. This little device allows us to measure what that particulate is, even though it's microscopic and we can't see it so much with our eyes.

Okay. Whitbeck

So what we're gonna do is plug this system in right here. This is an air scrubber, and it's gonna clean that air up by filtering it.

Tom

It starts with this filter right here. That's gonna take the heavy plaster dust and collect it first.

Kevin

So this is intake, pushing this way?

Tom

Exactly, and then you're gonna come -- I'll open it up inside. And we have an air charcoal filter right here that cleans it a little more.

Filter number two. Tom

Right. And this is a HEPA filter right here. It's a high-efficiency filter to take the small particulates out of the air.

Kevin

How small are we talking?

Tom

Down to 0.3, which is really small. I mean, your hair is, I believe, 70 microns, but we could test this out by lighting a smoke bomb, filling the room with smoke, and see how fast it'll evacuate.

Kevin

You had me a smoke bomb.

Tom

Alright, here goes.

Kevin

How much air will pass through this?

Tom

I think this is 550 cubic feet a minute.

Whitbeck

So say this room's about 1,200 cubic feet, maybe 1,400. So this is able to clean the room in about two minutes of time.

Kevin

Oh,

yeah. Tom

Alright. It cleared the smoke in the room, that's for sure. And you can see, this filter was white when we began, so it captured a lot of smoke there.

Kevin

Yep, it did. That's good news. So, Matt, you're gonna seal up the rooms, you're gonna evacuate the air and scrub it. How many of these you gonna have going during demolition?

Whitbeck

We're gonna have four of them going, so one on each floor, and then we'll have an additional one we'll bring to every floor as it's getting additional demolition done to it.

Kevin

That'll keep your guys safe. And then, of course, Susan can stay right next door.

Whitbeck

That's what we're hoping for.

Kevin

Good. Alright. Well, next week, demolition will continue, and we are gonna break ground in the backyard for the new edition. So until then, I'm Kevin O'Connor.

I'm Tom Silva. Whitbeck

And I'm Matt Whitbeck.

Kevin

For "This Old House" here in Saratoga Springs. Next time on "This Old House"...

Man

Welcome to Saratoga Race Course.

Kevin

Thank you very much.

Man

It's a great spot for these horses to develop. It's more being like a farm than a commercial racetrack.

Tom

And building code? Forget that. Some of this old framing makes no sense.

Kevin

And without this new wall here, the floors upstairs are a house of cards.