This Old House

Mark

We're building a new chimney to look old.

Richard

We're going to be hiding a shower drain in plain sight.

Tom

And the style on our Narragansett project is Queen Anne, and that means decorative shingles. You know what they say. The money is in the detail.

Adam

You got it.

Kevin

What happened to all this plumbing here?

Richard

I've never seen anything like this before.

Roger

There's already rot going on in that trunk.

Kevin

So what have you found up here?

Tom

Well, a bit of a surprise.

Richard

It's really the classic plumber's lament.

Kevin

Nice.

Richard

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

Kevin

Sounds like you guys have a plan.

Jenn

I think we do.

Laughs

Tom

The money's in the detail.

Kevin

That is beautiful. Hey, there. I'm Kevin O'Connor. And welcome back to "This Old House" here in Narragansett, Rhode Island, where we're working on this house from the 1880s. Ryan,

good to see you. Ryan

Hey, Kevin.

Kevin

So, the house is in the Historic District, and that means that the commission has got a lot to say, but mostly on the outside. Inside, as you can see, almost all new. And this part right here is an addition. We've got a first floor garage with a second floor master suite going up there. This mud room area right here with our entrance to the front and back is new. We got a little bathroom, and then right here starts the original house, which, as you can see, is back down to the studs, and it has been opened up. So we've got a front living room area right there. That screened in porch has been now enclosed. So that's four seasons. We're going to have the kitchen area right in here, all new. Little pantry there. And what was the dining room, well, this is still going to stay a dining area, but open up to the entire space. So a lot going on inside. Now back, well, there's quite a bit going on out here despite the small space. This corner, which used to be the driveway into the area, is actually, believe it or not, going to be a little putting green. And then as you come around here, there'll be a shed for some of the outdoor equipment. And then off of the back here, that's the entrance to the mud room, there's going to be a deck with a seating area right here, and then just behind it, a plunge pool. And then we've got a whole set of other stuff going on over here. Jeff, good to see you. Matt, how are you?

Kevin. Kevin

So, busy place out here.

Jeff

Yeah,

a lot going on. Kevin

But also a work spot

for you guys. Jeff

Yeah.

Kevin

Brickwork, what's going on?

Jeff

Brickwork. So remember, we took that old chimney down. We basically demoed it all the way to the basement. We no longer needed a masonry flue, but we did have to keep a historic component of it. So the section through the roof, we're going to rebuild with the old bricks.

Kevin

Gotcha. Okay. So these are the original bricks that you guys took down.

Jeff

Yeah, so Matt clean them up. You know, basically every single brick

had a layer of mortar on it. Kevin

All right. So, Matt, what's your process? What are you starting with?

Matt

Well, I'm getting the bricks and mortar ready. These are all of the bricks that were salvaged.

Kevin

Oh, yeah. So take them down right through the house, throw them in a bucket, and then you're left with a pile.

Matt

Correct. Some of them have pretty substantial cracks. So that's something we'll discard, put off to the side.

Can't use that. Matt

Something like this. That's just what we're looking for.

Kevin

Can use this one. So if you get a brick like this, like, how clean do you need to get it back to?

Matt

We're really concerned about the tops being clean with it. We're going to respect the condition of the sides of it. That's what's going to be exposed.

Kevin

So the face here we'll see, try to go light on that, but then the mortar side, get as clean as you can.

Matt

That's all going to be cleaned off, yeah.

Kevin

All right. So what's your process?

Matt

So first we go with a cold chisel and just get all this stuff off.

Kevin

They actually clean up pretty nicely.

Yeah. Kevin

So how much of this chimney are you guys rebuilding?

Jeff

Hey, Mark's upstairs working on it right now.

Let's go check in with him. Kevin

All right.

Drill whirring

Jeff

So remember what this chimney used to look like. Had that big cant slope on it, and it went from one side of the building to the center here.

Kevin

Craziest chimney I ever saw.

Jeff

So we had to reproduce the chimney for the Historic District on the exterior, but we didn't need all of this chimney through two floors

of the house. Kevin

That is all gone.

Jeff

That real estate was too valuable.

Yeah. Jeff

So we calculated what this chimney would weigh.

Kevin

So what is that? It's the cinder block plus the brick times the linear feed of what you got left.

Jeff

Exactly. It was like 2,000 pounds.

All right. Jeff

And so we had a structural engineer design this saddle system here. We've reinforced the rafters. We're through bolted that saddle.

Kevin

So one rafter goes to three. You sister them right there. And then you hook it on to this.

Jeff

Exactly.

Kevin

That's awesome right there.

That's a lot of steel actually. Jeff

Yeah.

Kevin

And so what, the block just goes right through the ridge?

Jeff

The block goes through the ridge,

and then the rest is brick Kevin

And that's Mark's job.

That's Mark's. Kevin

All right. Well, I know he's up there, so I'll go check him out.

Jeff

All right.

Kevin

Hey, Mark. How you doing?

Mark

Hey, Kevin.

Kevin

You got a crew up here, huh?

Mark

I do. I have a couple of masons with me.

Andrew. Kevin

Andrew.

Mark

And this is Mark.

Kevin

Mark, nice to meet you guys. So I got a minute. This is a first for me. Just the top tenth of a chimney.

Mark

Right, so in this instance, we're using a gas fireplace so we don't have to use a conventional masonry fireplace.

Kevin

But it will be functional. This is not just decorative.

Mark

It's definitely going to be functional. What we have to do, as you can see,

we have 4-inch cinder block. Kevin

All right.

Mark

We're going to bring that right through the roof, as we did. We're going to go a little bit above the ridge. On top of that, we're going to build our flashing. So we'll install flashing all the way down to the bottom, all the way back up at the ridge, and we'll tie it into the masonry. And then on top of that, because of the historical commission, we're going to end up using the original brick to the house.

Check that out. Kevin

Nice. Yeah, I saw these being cleaned down below. And he was telling me, clean it up nice on the mortar sides, and then go easy on the face side. Keep some of that patina.

Mark

Well, that's the character of the brick. And again, it's been 120-something years for that to develop, so why lose it?

Kevin

Cool. So, Mark number two, are you slinging mud today? Mark #2:

I am. Kevin

All right. Well, I'd love to see this next course go down.

Mark

All right. Let's get at it.

Kevin

You're just itching to grab a trowel, aren't you, Mark?

Tom

These old Queen Anne Victorians, the exterior is all about the detail, the clapboards that fan at the top, and straight rows of clapboards. Then you get into shingles that are step courses. You get straight courses. You get scallop courses and another row of straights. It's really beautiful. The project is really coming along nicely. Working on the outside trim now. Getting ready to do some of the step shingle siding. And it's pretty cool to see this done. It's done with, first of all, you have a straight edge to drop your shingles on to, like you would using if it was a straight row. With the step row, you notice one is up and one is down. You can do that a couple of different ways, right, Adam?

Adam

Sure can.

But you've chosen -- Adam

A spacer block at your chosen space. We've chose an inch and a quarter today. That's what the architects picked.

Tom

And you're just going to take your shingle, and you're going to drop it on. So the next one would obviously go low. You want to have a slight space for the shingles to expand and contract in. Drop that on. The next one would be raised. Drop it on your block, space it out. You also want to make sure that the shingle joint is far enough away from the joint below because you want to make that watertight. Now we take a wider one. It's all random in width. We look at our width. You see how we're covering that joint really well. Drop it down. People wonder how you do your corners. Example of the shingles right here. This is actually called a woven corner, where you're actually staggering the joints. So you make a joint on this one on this side. No joint on this side. It's on this side. Joint on this side and no joint on this side. So on down the line. Basically by offsetting the shingles and feathering them in like that, you're creating a watertight joint. So one way, next way, so on down the line, that makes it tight. All right, so now we're ready for the next course up. And you've got a storey pole all marked off. This is the bottom. Next course. Next course. Next course. And these lighter lines are the raised courses. So you just hold it against it, and you work your way up. So now line up that line right there, mark the next course. And we'll snap it with the corner that you've got woven down the other end. Good. So when you're nailing shingles to the side wall, you want to try to keep them down as low as you can get them without seeing them from the shingle below. You want to make sure that that nail gets covered up. You also want to make sure that you use a nail or a staple that is wider. The quarter inch is not good. A box nail, which has a nice round head on it, will grab the fibers of the shingles. If you use a finished nail, the sun will actually pull them right off. You never use a finished nail for that. You also want to try to keep the staple a 1/2 to 1 inch from the edge, which is nice. And no more than two staples or nails to a shingle. So you don't need anything in the middle. All right, let's get a look, see how this is. Oh, yeah. That's really looking good, Adam.

You're right. Tom

You know what they say.

The money's in the details. Adam

You got it.

Man

This beam we're going to cut to size, we're going to send it outside, and then that's going to slip in. This gets welded on all the way around. So this was a dirt floor basement. We dug down and added footings and then poured a slab on top of that. That enables us to post all the way down to the foundation to carry this load. We have a temporary post and a clamp, and so that I'm able to go to our...

Kevin

So, Jeff, you guys worked all throughout the five month shut down from COVID and were very busy. And a lot of that work was actually putting in a ton of steel.

Jeff

Yeah, yeah. So we basically took a six room house and made it into two open rooms. And as a result, we had to create some support. So we designed the steel structure not only to support the load, but also to be hidden in a coffered ceiling, which will come later.

Kevin

Just down the street from our project house is the ferry that takes people to one of Rhode Island's most beautiful tourist spots, Block Island. I've been bringing my family here for years. And every summer since 2009, something magical happens out here. The island is home to miles of beaches and dunes, trails and beautiful outdoors. And for anybody who enjoys those outdoors, they can find something special, a treasure unique to Block Island, one of these -- a beautifully formed glass orb. Every summer since 2009, thousands of these have been hidden throughout the island on those trails, maybe in a pile of driftwood, or up in a tree for anybody to find. Eben Horton has been blowing glass since high school. His shop is one town over from our project. All right, Eben, you got to give me the history here. First of all, what is it? What is this thing?

Eben

It's really simple. It's 550 glass Japanese fishing net floats, or floats, that we make here. They're hidden on Block Island. Whoever can find it can keep it.

Kevin

And why are you doing this?

Eben

Because it's fun. There was a time when I didn't have as much going on. I was a little slow after the Great Recession. And I thought it would be a good thing to keep me busy. I thought it was going to be a one year thing, but it became so popular on the island, I just kind of kept doing it, kept doing it. And now I'm kind of, I guess, along for the ride.

Kevin

So when you say it's become so popular, tell me how popular it's become.

Eben

I've been followed a lot. I have to borrow friends cars when I go out there because people see my Volkswagen, they're like, "There's Eben."

Kevin

And they follow you because no one knows where they are.

Right. Kevin

So if they can catch Santa in the process...

Eben

Yeah, then the odds are in their favor, I guess.

Kevin

So tell me about the hiding process for you. What is that?

Eben

I have a messenger bag just on my hip, and I'll put like 20 in there, and Jen and I will go for a walk, just scatter them. I have favorite places I'll hide, but that always sort of changes.

Kevin

Yeah.

Eben

If I see a tree that has a hole in it, I'll put one in the tree. I love hiding them about that high in like a branch. Every time I go out and hide during daylight, I walk by people looking for them, and they asked me if I found them. I go, "No." Just keep going. Every year, well, I number them 1 through 550. Float number 1 is always a special one that's either coated in gold leaf. Or this year, with the coronavirus happening, I made a coronavirus.

Kevin

And then each one gets inscribed?

Eben

They get numbered with a Dremel and a little diamond bit and then dated.

Kevin

Tell me about the process of make them. This is a two person shop, generally, you and your wife.

Eben

Me and my wife. I have two other assistants that help us from time to time, but generally it's us two. So the large furnace holds 350 pounds of glass. Once a week, I fill it up, what's called doing the charge, and just raw sand and all of the other things that make glass are all mixed together. It's thrown in. The following day, it's full, and it's crystal, crystal clear, ready to be drawn. And then to actually make the floats, we use blowpipes, which are a hollow metal tube gather glass out of the furnace, we shape it, like, center it like a potter would center on a potter's wheel. Put a bubble into it, and then just slowly blow it up. Not too thin, though. I have to keep them pretty thick.

Kevin

They're actually quite sturdy.

Eben

Yeah. Yeah, you can drop them, and they won't break.

Kevin

Turn them into a ball. Then where do you go from there?

Eben

I let it cool a little bit. Not too much. So it's just, just solid. Then it gets knocked off the blowpipe, and then a little stamp is applied. So a glob of glass is put on top of the ball. And then I push down with a stamp. It's like putting a wax seal on a letter. And then it goes into that oven where it cools down overnight. If I didn't do that and just let them cool naturally, they would probably split in half or explode.

Kevin

The rules for the people who come from all over, who are on the island looking, do they have rules?

Eben

They do. If they find one, they can keep it. If they find another one, I ask they re-hide it, following the rules that I follow to hide them. And hiding them is almost as fun as finding them.

Kevin

Every so often, Eben asks friends to help him hide the orbs, and this year, he's included us on that list. So he has given us about a dozen or so to spread around the island. And I'm going to do that with the help of our homeowners. Michael and Cassidy have brought their two children to lend a hand. Now, some people might recognize that as the North Light behind us. Well, we might put them on this trail. We might not. But we're not telling you where they're going. Eben has a few rules for hiding them, okay? So on the beaches, you want to go above the high tide line, keep them off of the protected dunes. On the trails, just a few feet in so that people want to go too far. Keep them away from the cliffs or the bluffs.

Girl

Yeah!

Kevin

You guys got it?

Girl

That's an awesome spot to hide this orb.

Kevin

All right, guys, check this out, huh?

Cassidy

Wow.

Michael

This is a good spot for it here.

Kevin

Well, remember, you're not supposed to put them near the bluffs, so you're going to have to keep that with you. But you guys can take the view with you, though. Have a look.

Cassidy

Absolutely beautiful.

All right. Kevin

What do you say we drop one right by the path right here?

Right here. Kevin

Let's see. Hold on.

Girl

Drop that mic.

Kevin

Nice job.

Michael

Good job, buddy.

Kevin

Oh, she's got a tree in mind, huh? Beautiful. All right, a couple more to go. Let's keep going.

All right. Kevin

More to do. Come on,

guys. Cassidy

More to do.

Kevin

All right, guys, we have got one more task. Now, Eben every once in a while will throw one into the water. Lulu, come on over here. So we've got one more to go. We're going to throw it in the water. Who knows where it will wash up, but hopefully somewhere on the island. Julian, you ready? All right, let it go. Whoa!

There she goes. Girl

Bye!

Richard

Back here in Narragansett, progress continues. Here's the old part of the house. Here's the new work, the connector that goes to our master suite. There's a master bedroom right here and a really beautiful master bathroom. Our plumber extraordinaire, Josh Jordan, is on site. Hey,

Josh. Josh

Hey, Rich. How are you today?

Richard

Update us. Where are you at?

Josh

We have some wall mounted faucets and some lavs roughed in over on the side.

Richard

Okay, that means the faucets are right in the wall behind the tile, floating sink's right here. I love that.

Water closet. Richard

Tucked away.

Josh

Big, beautiful cast iron tub with another wall mounted faucet.

Richard

Perfect. And a very big shower.

Josh

Yeah, it's a very elaborate shower. We have rain heads, body sprays, handhelds, steam. And it's also curbless.

Richard

They want it to be curbless. So curbless means that the height of this floor continues right through. And that's what everybody would like. Now, conventionally, whenever we've had a custom tile shower, we've always had to have a curve, and it had a good function. You build it up right here, and then you'd put your copper pan or your rubberized membrane to make it waterproof, and then you'd have a drain like this somewhere in the center. Then the tile person would come and fill this with what they call mud and fair it with pitch back towards the drain, and then apply tile so the water would pitch to the drain. But that always meant a big curb right here. So if you tried to do this with -- to move that to the back with mud starting from this point, by the time you got to the back, it would be so thin that the mud could crack. Now, this manufacturer came up with a system. This is actually ground up bottles, water bottles -- you call it P.E.T. A plastic. And you see the pitch right here. So now they can put this down on the substrate and allow you to pitch the water from a very low starting point here and work it towards the back. Now, it also invites using a linear drain like this that would allow the water to come into this drain. But why do that when you can actually make the drain go all the way to the back and disappear completely? So you can see, here's the stainless steel acceptor with the pipe and the drain. Now, the cutaway helps to understand this, I think, perfectly. You can see, here's that substrate. Here's the tile floor of the shower. Here's the stainless steel drain. Now, make it waterproof, there's a waterproof tape, an applied rubberized sealant, the mastic itself to hold the tile, and then the tile. And then to cover up this opening, look at this. Here is the cover with the tile applied. You can see it's stainless steel. And there's a magnet catch, and that's the finished look. Beautiful. All right, Josh, what's left for you here?

Josh

Well, we have to put in the four-head rain head system.

Four heads. Josh

Yeah, four heads. Going to go mounted to the ceiling. A little bit of piping left to do in the wall, hook up the drain, and that's about it.

Richard

This shower will be steaming before you know it.

Josh

Oh, yeah, it will.

Richard

Thanks for your good work.

Kevin

Next time on "This Old House"...

Jenn

Our project is loaded with hardscape, but today, we're going to take a look at the softer side. This area is going to be planting.

Correct. Jenn

So we talked about maybe an ornamental tree, maybe a Japanese maple.

Woman

Yeah,

something soft. Jenn

Yes.

Soften the area. Jenn

That's what you're interested in, right?

Woman

Yeah.

Tom

And I'll show you a way to replicate 130-year old singles.