This Old House

Kevin: Today on "This Old House," I'm in East Asheville, residing a home flooded during Hurricane Helene, and our North Asheville project suffered extensive tree damage.

Mark is here to evaluate the extent of the chimney damage and Zack is back to help reconfigure the floor plan.

Kevin: Hey there, I'm Kevin O'Connor, and welcome back to "This Old House" and to the mountains of western North Carolina.

Six months ago, this area was hit by Hurricane Helene, and that meant record-breaking floods, landslides, and devastating tree damage.

It's estimated that they lost over 820,000 acres of their trees, maybe as much as 40% of the tree canopy in this area.

Still, there are beautiful vistas all around, like the one here right behind me.

And with the first signs of spring showing up, our homeowners are starting to see progress on their houses.

Down in Swannanoa, all three of our homes have gotten new roofs, work has begun outside, and drywall is going up inside.

At our North Asheville project, Mark is meeting with general contractor Larry Ward to get an update.

– Mark: Larry.

– Larry: Mark.

– Mark: How are you?

– Larry: Yeah, good to see you.

– Mark: You too.

You, too.

– Larry: Thanks for coming.

Mark: I can't believe all the devastation.

I'm sorry that happened.

Larry: Yeah.

This house really took a big lick.

– Mark: Yeah.

– Larry: Big tree fell across it.

Damage to about half the house.

We've had to tear it down to the floor system, to the framing, just to clean it up, get all the water out of it, all the damage.

And it took out part of the chimney.

– Mark: Yeah.

– Larry: I've got Don, my mason, inside to evaluate it, figure out where we're at so we can move forward.

Mark: Okay, well, I can't wait to get at it.

– Larry: Let's do it.

– Mark: All right.

– Larry: All right.

– Mark: Thanks, Larry.

Larry: Thank you.

– Mark: Hey, Don.

– Don: Hey, Mark.

– Mark: Don, how you doing?

– Don: Good to meet you, sir.

Mark: You as well.

So I was just outside with Larry.

He told me that a tree collapsed onto the chimney and did a lot of damage.

Don: Yes, and when the tree hit the hit the chimney, it knocked a lot of the brick that was above the roof down into the flue liners.

And it's got the damper lid jammed.

Mark: Okay.

Believe it or not, I've seen something similar.

I think you've been around long enough.

You've probably seen something like this as well.

– Don: I have.

– Mark: Yeah.

Don: I've been in masonry a little over 55 years and been probably laying brick and block for 50 years.

Mark: Wow.

Don: I love the trade, love the craft, and just becomes part of your life.

Mark: Yeah, I agree with that.

So I have to admit, you have me beat by a few years, but this is going to be an honor to work together, and I can't wait to get at it.

Don: Yes, sir.

You want to take a look at it there and see what the situation is?

And then gonna take a little bit of work to get this stuff loosened out of there to where we can assess how much damage is really done to the chimney.

Mark: Oh, okay, Don.

Yeah.

Don: So if we can slide that damper lid over to one side, maybe it can drop down.

– Mark: Okay.

This is what's jamming me up.

I think I'm going to chip this brick, and then you or I can come back and patch that.

Don: Oh, yeah, that's no problem.

We can do that.

– Mark: Okay.

Yeah.

Whew.

I might have taken just enough, Don.

There we go.

– Don: There it is.

– Mark: All right, Don.

Victory.

– Don: Oh, yes.

– Mark: We won.

– Don: You didn't even bend it.

Mark: Okay, actually, we got a nice smoke chamber.

Of course, you can see that big chunk we have lodged in the flue.

We got to get that out.

Maybe you run up top.

I'll stay down here.

If we can get that big chunk out of there, Don, I think we're looking good.

Don: I'm going to send this hook down, and I'm going to jiggle that piece a little bit.

Mark: You're doing great.

Yep.

Don: All right.

I'm going to pull up a little bit.

Mark: Okay.

– Don: You okay?

– Mark: Yes, sir.

Don: All right.

Mark: Oh!

Whoa!

All right.

All right, Don.

Feels like we cleaned her out.

Don: Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

Mark: All right, so I can tell this is the fireplace flue.

There's a little creosote right here build-up.

But do you know what that flue is?

Don: That's been an old flue for a heating unit that's no longer being used.

That one's going to get closed off.

Mark: Great.

I like these two walls.

They divide the flue chambers, which is always good.

I actually think it's code.

The walls don't have to be pretty.

They just have to be solid.

Which you and I can tell these are.

So I like to see that.

Something that I'm not too crazy about and did have a question on is the framing.

Up north, we have regulations that are going to keep the framing off of the masonry.

I would assume you have the same down here in North Carolina.

Don: Yeah, this is temporary.

And North Carolina building code tells us never any masonry touching the wood.

Mark: All right.

So temporary framing.

Once it's down, we're going to have our clearances.

So, Don, you and I can see the general conditions of these flues.

I think they look good, but we can't see, like, a hairline crack.

Don: Yeah, we've got a chimney sweep that's going to run his camera down in there and take a look, and he'll tell us what he sees.

Mark: Okay.

That's going to be perfect.

Don: Mark, this is Alan, chimney sweep.

Mark: Hey, Alan.

How are you doing?

– Alan: Great.

I hope you are.

– Mark: All right.

No, we're glad to see you, because we know we have a little creosote in these flues.

Alan: Sure.

We'll go ahead and sweep it out.

Clean it out real good.

And that way, we'll be able to see what's going on a little more accurately with our camera.

Mark: Okay.

And it looks like you're all set up, so ready to go?

– Alan: We're ready to go.

– Mark: All right, let's get it.

– Alan: All right.

Okay, we're going to run this camera all the way up to the top and then work our way back down with it.

Mark: Okay.

All right.

Am I seeing a crack right there?

Alan: Yes, sir.

That is a crack.

There are some large gaps and cracks there.

Don: Anytime you see black on the inside of a chimney, it's leaking somewhere.

– Mark: Yep.

All right.

– Larry: Gentlemen.

– Mark: How are you, Larry?

– Larry: Give me a verdict.

Mark: Okay, so we found a couple things.

The flue chamber, small crack in one of the flues.

The mortar in between the flues is degradated.

They used a type N mortar, which we don't like.

Don: And if it's going to be used as a fireplace, then I would remove this wall of brick here so that I could have access to taking the liners out, put stucco on the throat, and then come back up with new liners laid with refractory mortar.

Larry: Well, gentlemen, I think I've got to go and talk to the homeowners and see what direction they want to go with this chimney, and we'll make a few decisions and start moving forward.

Mark: All right, let us know.

– Larry: Yeah.

Thank you, guys.

– Mark: Thanks, Larry.

Larry: Appreciate your help.

Kevin: Our East Nashville project also sits right on the Swannanoa River and had a ton of flooding right here.

So today's project is to work on the siding, which I'm going to be helping out Will and Miguel.

Hey, guys.

How you doing?

Good to see you.

So remind me how high up the water got here.

William: The water was about a foot below that vent you see right there.

Kevin: Wow.

The entire first floor, basically.

Yeah.

So I know that a bunch of work was done on the inside.

But tell me what you guys found with the siding out here.

William: We found that most of this trim board had a good amount of water trapped behind it, especially where there's -- it wasn't open on the backside like the rim joist and the corners.

So we started pulling all this off.

It was all soaked.

And as we did that, we discovered that about 2, 3 feet up all around the house, there was a lot of mud and soaking wet.

Kevin: Not just clean water that got into the house.

– William: That's right.

– Kevin: Muddy water.

William: The mud kind of all seeped down in here and just stuck here.

So soaking wet.

So we started taking off siding until we found a dry spot.

Kevin: Okay, so what's your plan of attack?

We've got cement board for siding.

-Right?

– William: That's right.

We've got the trim board here.

This is new, you put up.

William: This is all new fiberboard.

Kevin: What are we doing today?

William: Well, today we're going to chalk some lines and do as much siding as we can.

– Kevin: Just going to work it.

William: We're kind of working some of this backwards because we don't have windows yet.

Kevin: Yeah.

So these are -- We're waiting on these?

William: It's part of the process that we have to do some things backwards here.

But yeah we'll kind of just side around this hole and then cut it in later.

Kevin: All right.

William: All right.

Go ahead.

Kevin: Good.

William: I'm gonna try to nail it right into the stud.

More or less.

Kevin: So this is how you're getting your profile for basically the starter course?

William: That's right.

We're going to just use the water table here as the little built-in kind of kicker.

Kevin: Okay.

And then you guys gonna spline... -William: Yep.

– Kevin: ...behind each joint?

William: A little piece of vinyl here for the flashing.

And then one nail like that will hold it right in place.

Then the next piece we put, we'll leave a little bit of a gap here.

– So that -- -Kevin: Expansion, contraction.

William: Little expansion joint.

Kevin: You do the caulk now or you do the caulk later?

William: We'll let the painter take care of the caulk.

This is what we call a nickel gap.

About the thickness of a nickel.

Now here I have no stud to nail to at this kind of joint.

So I'll just put an extra nail for good luck.

Kevin: Pieces this wide and this long, it goes quickly.

William: That's right.

Kevin: So window opening, come to side casing with a cut?

Are you going to run it long?

-Like, what are you -- -William: For right now, we're going to just go straight through.

– Kevin: Trim it later?

– William: Trim it later.

We have a lot of work to do trimming out these windows.

We'll probably end up cutting a lot of this siding.

Kevin: Yeah.

William: So I'm just going to go straight through and we'll deal with that when we install the window.

Kevin: Okay.

William: Good.

So what we want to do here, since we don't have a line behind this board, is just make sure we have six inches below.

Kevin: That's what I got.

Back in North Asheville, Zack is continuing work with carpenter James Moore.

James: Okay, Zack, we're back in the living room with our vaulted ceiling.

And you can see we've made some progress in getting things built back.

Zack: I know.

The first thing I noticed is this beam.

James: Yes, we had an engineer and he designed the span and the height of the beam that we needed to put in in order to support this so that we can remove a little bit more framing as well.

But we've got that installed, the new rafters here, and left a few of the old rafters that were not damaged.

Zack: Got it.

So over here I noticed we left this wall, but now this looks like a brand-new wall.

Did you decide to remove that?

James: We did.

We took the whole wall down because it was really not in good shape at all.

It's easier many times just to go ahead and tear the whole thing down and start again.

It doesn't sound right economically, but really it is.

You're saving on labor.

So they're going to put a window, I think, in this wall.

We're going to consult with the homeowners.

But the big concept here is they're going to make this whole area one room.

This wall is going to come out.

It is a load-bearing wall, or was, but we've replaced it with the beam.

So we're in good shape to tear it out now.

Zack: Makes sense.

You got that beautiful view that you'll be able to take in there.

So what kind of -- Is there cabinetry going here?

James: There is.

A brand-new kitchen is going to go in.

There's going to be a super-sized countertop that's a part of the cabinetry.

Great place to gather as a family, really centralized here in this space.

It's going to work out really, really nice.

So we're ready to take this out.

And then we're going to continue with the subfloor.

And that's the next step.

So we've got some guys out here that are going to help us do that.

Shouldn't take us long at all.

And then we can proceed with this floor and get it down.

– Zack: All right.

Let's do it.

– James: All right.

Now we're ready to take up this temporary so-called floor, put down the permanent 3/4 tongue and groove.

The reason we're gluing it is to make it a part of the floor system.

It won't squeak as much, and if you've ever tried to get some up with glue on it, it doesn't come up easily, so it really makes a difference to have glue.

Well worth it.

So let's see how this one fits.

Let 'er go there.

And she's got to come this way just barely.

We'll have to drive it in with a sledgehammer.

That's good.

I think that's got them all, Zack.

That's finished the floor.

Zack: That looks really good.

Nice and clean space now.

James: We've got it all down.

It's nice and solid now.

And we've got a room that is almost twice as big as it was.

Zack: Absolutely.

It feels like, you know, ready to put cabinets and drywall in here.

James: It does.

We wish we were that far along.

But maybe in a few days we might be.

But in the meantime, we'll carry on and keep working on it.

Zack: All right.

What's next?

A little cleanup?

James: I think so.

Clean up and then try again tomorrow.

See what we can get done then.

– Zack: Awesome.

Let's do it.

– James: All right.

Kevin: Here in Asheville, there are two rivers, the Swannanoa and the French Broad.

And each crested over 25 to 30 feet during a storm and took everything in their path.

There are still hundreds of miles of public waterways that are littered with debris.

With a job this big, FEMA called in the Army Corps of Engineers to head up the cleanup.

Colonel Morgan.

Kevin.

Brad: Kevin, pleasure meeting you.

Kevin: Nice meeting you.

Yeah.

Thanks for your time.

Brad: Happy to do it.

Kevin: So give us a sense, I guess, with -- Let's start with sort of scope of mission.

You know, how big of a cleanup?

How long?

How many people?

Brad: We're working in 14 different counties, 5 different towns.

So all over western North Carolina.

Kevin: And roughly how many personnel?

How many bodies sort of out there doing the work?

Brad: So I've got about 250 Army Corps of Engineers, either military or civilians, that are out here.

And we also have about 2,500 contractor personnel that are running the equipment, running the trucks, running the crews, actually doing the work.

So we first started kind of with the right of way debris removal.

So that's where we're asking people to push whatever the storm generated on their lot, push it out to the street.

We've got the large grapple trucks rolling through, picking that up, clearing the streets, getting it out of the way.

And what we're here now seeing is some of the waterway debris removal.

Kevin: And when you get to the waterways, like, what type of debris are you pulling out of there?

What's gotten into these rivers?

Brad: You name it, we've probably pulled it out.

I mean, from cars, tractor trailers, of course, we're pulling out the remnants of somebody's home.

Kevin: Why so important to clean up the rivers?

I mean, if I can't see it, why not just leave it?

Brad: They're still potential hazards for obviously, if there's a vehicle in there, obviously, that fuel tank has still got fuel in it.

It's still got those oils and other hydraulic fluids within that.

So obviously it's critical to get those out.

And then again it's to prevent any future impact.

If there's any additional rain event or water event that may then take, you know, that hazardous debris and basically turn it into some type of, you know, impact further downstream.

Now it's going to take out a water intake or a sewer line or a bridge or things along those lines.

Kevin: And so I would imagine it's always a little bit harder to work in the water than it is on the roads.

Brad: Very much so.

I mean, you've got to handle the material multiple times, right?

So you've got to get it out of the water, basically get it onto the bank, and then from the bank, then you've got to get into the truck.

We've got a lot of temporary debris management sites where we'll then take that material, we'll segregate it, and we'll pull out anything that's recyclable.

We'll set that to the side.

And then the construction and demolition material, that basically just gets shipped straight to a landfill.

And then if there's any type of vegetative debris, what we're doing now is we've got large grinders at these debris management sites.

So we're grinding a lot of that vegetative material down into mulch.

Kevin: So this looks like a pretty traditional excavator to me.

Am I seeing that correctly?

Brad: You are.

The only thing different is we've basically taken off the oil-based hydraulic fluid, and we replace that with some biodegradable fluids to then make sure that's going to be a good piece of equipment to have there in the water.

Every day, each piece of equipment goes through a thorough review to make sure that there's no, you know, additional issues or leaks or anything before we put that equipment back in the water.

Kevin: But you guys deal with specialty equipment as well that sort of allows you to work in these conditions?

Brad: Yes, sir.

We have a lot of highly specialized logging equipment.

Equipment that's designed to get into swamps and marshy areas and harvest timber.

And some have a specialized cutter head so they can actually, you know, go after the timber, cut whatever, cut, and then cut it to whatever length they need to cut it to.

We're pushing hard.

Kevin: Yeah.

Good.

Well, I appreciate your time very much.

We won't keep you from it.

But thank you for that.

Brad: Yeah.

Of course.

Pleasure meeting you.

Kevin: Yeah.

Same here.

-Kevin: Hey, Zack.

Hey, Mark.

– Mark: Hey, Kev.

– Kevin: How you doing?

– Mark: Doing all right.

Kevin: Boy, this looks good.

I love to see the progress.

How'd you guys make out inside?

Mark: So I'm sure you heard.

Tree fell on the chimney, knocked a bunch of brick into the smoke chamber.

Our task was to remove the brick, which we were successful in doing.

So I had a good day.

Kevin: All right, I love it.

Zack, how about yourself?

Zack: Really good.

James and the team, they got all the structural framing done.

Open concept now.

They've got the subfloor down.

So I think they're pretty much ready for roughing now.

Kevin: Good to hear.

We're making some good progress at Paula's as well.

Siding is being taken care of.

They're ready for roughing as well.

And infrastructure work is getting done around town.

I just spent some time with the Army Corps of Engineers.

They're getting things cleaned up.

As you guys know, you go downtown, businesses are back, businesses are open.

Mark: Yeah.

So I was able to buzz around a little bit.

I saw a lot of that, which I was happy to see.

-So I think we're going well.

– Zack: Yeah.

And every time I have a meal here, that's some of the best food I've had in weeks.

Kevin: You okay being out of Jersey this long?

Zack: No, I'm not.

I'm pretty uncomfortable.

Kevin: All right.

Well, Asheville is open for business and progress continues.

And we'll be back working on it here next time.

So until then, I'm Kevin O'Connor.

Mark: I'm Mark McCullough.

Zack: And I'm Zack Dettmore.

Kevin: For "This Old House" down here in North Carolina.

Kevin: Next time on "This Old House," we're visiting the largest privately-owned estate in the country that's also a top tourist attraction here in Asheville.

Woman: It's multi-seasonal color, all these geogrid patterns.

Man: We're trying to get all the tile, waterproof board up, and we're going to use a waterproof sealant.

Man #2: We took the old deck off and we discovered a little bit of rot here.

Typical poorly flashed seal.