This Old House

Roger

Today on "This Old House," we'll take care of this tree before it takes care of those houses.

Chain saw buzzing

Kevin

And our homeowner gets a lesson in tilework.

Mark

That's great. You ready to tile now?

Richard

What happened to all this plumbing here?

Man

I've never seen anything like this before.

Roger

There's already rot going on in that trunk.

Man

So what have you found up here?

Tom

Well, a bit of a surprise.

Richard

It's really the classic plumber's lament.

Nice. Nice. -Tom

Here it's right on.

Man

The family that paints together stays together. Nice job, guys! Where will a slab like this be used?

Tom

The money's in the detail.

Man

Oh! That is beautiful.

Buzzing

Kevin

Hi, there. I'm Kevin O'Connor. And welcome back to "This Old House" on a bittersweet day for us. The young apprentices who have been with us for much of this job, well, today they cast off to their future projects, and we'll say goodbye to them in a little bit. But first, Roger has got a problem to contend with. Good morning,

Roger. Roger

Good morning, Kev.

Kevin

So you don't like this Norway maple?

Roger

I don't like this Norway maple. We looked at the trunk, and there's some damage to it, meaning it could fall. And if it fell here, it'd wipe out the wires, maybe a house or tree or even a person.

Okay. -Roger

So, with it gone, it gives us a chance to plant a beautiful tree in there.

So it's coming down. -Roger

Coming down.

Kevin

All right.

Chain saw buzzing

Kevin

Big spot of rot right there, although plenty left for Joe to turn into firewood.

Roger

It's gonna be some work, but he can get some firewood out of it.

Kevin

So not all we're doing this morning.

Roger

No. You remember the birch that was here? That beautiful tree?

Kevin

Yeah.

Roger

We fenced it to protect it. So we have our arborist, Eric Roensch, here to give us a hand with the birch tree.

Kevin

Hey,

Eric. -Eric

How are you?

Kevin

All right. Nice job on that Norway maple.

Eric

Thank you.

Kevin

And so what have you got planned for the birch?

Eric

Well, today we're gonna clear out the understory and some of the sucker growth, show off that exfoliating bark that the birches are known for. It's a good focal point of the landscape. We're gonna cut the tree off the house. You can see that's a highway for squirrels and raccoons to get up there on the roof, so we're gonna cut that back. And then we noticed that we've got two co-dominant stems here, so we're going to install a support cable for the heavy winter snow load to prevent the tree from splitting. We'll go up about two thirds of the way there and try to find the proper-diameter trunk to install the cable so it can support the weight of the tree.

Kevin

Cool. All right. Well, let's save this beauty.

Eric

Absolutely. We're gonna drill through the entire leader. At that point we're going to install this threaded, galvanized rod, and that's gonna be our anchoring system for our cable system. We're gonna use this 3/16" galvanized cable, and we're going to attach that to our rod will this galvanized wrap. All right, guys. Wrapping up here. We just put that cable in. That looks good. Got the tree pruned off the house. Took out a lot of the understory down here.

Things are looking good. Roger

What do you think? We'll another 35, 40 years out of it?

Eric

Let's hope. That would be great.

Kevin

I mean, look at this. With the suckers gone, you can see the bark. It already looks terrific. Eric, thanks a lot, man. You and your guys did a great job.

Thank you. Thank you. -Roger

Thank you. We've got a beautiful-looking tree.

Buzzing

Kevin

To keep the cost down on this job, our homeowners are pitching in wherever they can. So today Liz, our homeowner, is actually working with Mark Ferrante. Hey, Mark. Hey,

Liz. -Liz

Hey. How are you?

Kevin

All right. So tiling today, right? So this is where the woodburning stove is gonna go.

Liz

Right, yep.

Kevin

And we've got a big, huge slab of granite underneath.

Mm-hmm. -Mark

We do.

Kevin

You guys are putting tile around, what, the perimeter?

Yep. -Mark

Yep.

Kevin

All right. What did you pick?

Liz

Uh, this is a hand-applied design on this piece of Carrara marble.

Kevin

Cool. And so what drew you to this?

Liz

I really like the pattern of it. And Joe and I found a dry sink in a antique store that had a similar pattern, and we thought it would look really sharp and dress up the woodburning stove.

Kevin

Nice. Okay. And for you, Mark? What's the prep involved?

Mark

Well, actually, we cut out the plastered wall. We put in concrete panel. We taped the joints. Now we skimmed over it with a thinset,

and now we're ready to tile. -Kevin

All right. And so you are ready to give the class to the student here?

Absolutely. -Kevin

All right. I'm gonna come back and check on you guys, all right?

Laughs

Mark

Well, we're gonna put a little milk in here. And now we're gonna put some thinset in. The thinset's to adhere the marble to the wall over there.

Liz

Okay.

Mark

Okay, you can put the mixer in, Liz.

Liz

All right.

Mark

Okay, now just push the button and start the mixer. That's it. Keep it going.

Whirring

Mark

Just like making frosting,

Liz. -Liz

Yeah.

Mark

Just on a larger scale.

Yeah. -Mark

Okay. That's great. Okay, so now we're gonna spread the thinset, Liz.

All right. -Mark

And this is what -- We could start either this side or that corner 'cause we're gonna start with a whole tile, and we're gonna come in and we're gonna cut the end piece. Okay?

Liz

Mm-hmm.

Mark

Now the way we do this is put some on the trowel. I'm telling you, it's literally like frosting a cake.

Liz

Nice. Okay.

Mark

You spread it like this.

Liz

Mm-hmm.

Mark

And you keep the trowel on a 45, then you turn it to the notch. Okay? There you go.

Liz

It looks easy enough. We'll see.

Laughs

Mark

Here. You want to try?

Yeah. -Mark

Give it a shot.

Liz

All right. So, 45?

Mark

That's it. Right to the bottom of the floor you can go with it. Now just turn the trowel around so it's the notch. There you go!

Liz

And across?

Mark

Yeah. Whatever way you want to go. There you go. Excellent. That's great. You ready to tile now?

Yes. -Mark

Okay.

Liz

Let's do it.

Mark

Very good. Now this is the easy part.

Just like buttering toast. -Liz

Okay.

Mark

You spread it on the back of it, and you spread it nice and thin and even.

Okay. -Mark

Okay? And make sure the whole tile is covered. We call this "back buttering."

Liz

Back buttering. Okay. Butter and cake.

Yeah. -Liz

I like it.

Mark

And there you go. And we're ready to set it.

Liz

Okay.

Mark

Just put it in place, and this is our guide, 'cause this is our finished piece. So we want it to be right there on the edge.

Okay. -Mark

Okay? So now you can continue going on.

All right. -Mark

Here you go.

Liz

Okay. Looks like you've done this before.

Laughs

Liz

I've buttered a lot of toast... and a lot of peanut butter and jelly.

Mark

Now, when you set it, put it up against the edge of the tile and then push it in and just wiggle it a little bit.

Liz

Okay.

Mark

Just wiggle it a little bit. Great. Now just run your finger across both of them, and if you feel it's a little high... you just push it in a little bit and then you can feel it again.

Feels pretty good to me. -Mark

Okay.

Pretty good. -Mark

Yeah, it does. So, here, let's wash it off. Make sure there's no cement on them.

Liz

Yeah.

Mark

It's just water on that sponge.

All right. -Mark

Okay. Next one.

Excellent. -Liz

How's that? All right.

Liz

Oh.

Perfect. -Liz

Wow. We'll rinse the sponge out, and we'll drag it across the top of this edge here, okay?

Kevin

Look at this. Last piece going in.

Mark

You might have to slide that top one up a little bit, Liz.

Kevin

Right there. Let me get that for you.

I see it. -Mark

Yep, it slid down.

Kevin

So,

Liz. -Mark

There you go.

Kevin

Hey, look at that, huh?

Liz

Wow.

Kevin

So? How'd you find it?

Liz

It was great. Like making a cake. I found it actually very relaxing and very satisfying to see it all kind of come together like this, and I had a great teacher.

It was a pleasure. -Liz

Thank you, Mark.

You're welcome. -Kevin

Good to hear. So, Mark, what is next for you?

Mark

Well, our next step is let this dry for 24 hours. Back next day, put a coat of clear sealer over it. The manufacturer recommends it because the grout might stain it.

Kevin

Okay. So sealer before the grout.

Mark

Right, so the sealer gets into the joint so that when it goes in it won't stain.

Kevin

Have you guys settled on a grout?

Mark

Yes,

we have. -Kevin

Which is?

Mark

We picked out the color called "silver shadow."

Look at that. -Mark

This one, right there. Kind of blends right in with it.

Liz

Yeah, the white was too bright, and so this kind of is a little nicer.

Kevin

All right. Well, you got yourself a new person for your crew.

I guess so. -Kevin

Nice job, guys.

If you ever need a job. Liz

Thanks. Thanks, Kevin.

Kevin

Another budget consideration is what to do with the front balustrade. Now, the homeowners were thinking "Well, let's just paint over it and save some money." But our restoration expert, Wayne Towle, saw it and he said, "Well, that's gonna be a big mistake." Hey, Wayne. Good to see you again.

Wayne

Nice seeing you, Kevin.

Kevin

So, why a mistake to just paint over it, what was already painted?

Wayne

Well, what I found was the balustrade is walnut, American walnut.

Kevin

Really?

Wayne

And if you -- In scraping it, you can see the color and the grain pattern, which is beautiful.

Kevin

So, do you think that this is original to the house?

Wayne

Yes, I do. Yes, I do.

Kevin

And are you surprised or is it typical that you'd find walnut as the material here?

Wayne

No, it was very common in that period of time.

Kevin

Yeah. The newel post, the handrail, and the balusters are all walnut. Cool.

Wayne

The owner is going to keep the balusters painted.

Kevin

All right. Well, I mean, I can't argue with anyone who wants to expose that beautiful grain right there, although that is a lot of paint to take off. What's that process?

Wayne

Basically, it's paint stripper, and what we'll use is a methylene chloride-based stripper. We put it on with a paste brush. We let it sit, and then we scrape it off.

Kevin

So, anytime I hear a word that ends in "chloride" or I see big rubber gloves like these, I'm thinking safety. What's your setup?

Wayne

Yes. We use the rubber gloves, eye protection, a respirator. And the biggest thing is this fan right here that will exhaust all the fumes out of the property.

Kevin

Looks like you're set up. Shall we get started?

Wayne

Yeah.

Fan whirring

Wayne

Kevin

Oh, look at all that paint already coming off. Wow! Look at how beautiful that is!

Wayne

The next thing that we're gonna do is we're gonna rinse the newel post down with this alcohol rinse, and what that will do is get rid of the residual paint, stripper, and finish. What makes the paint stripper thick is wax. And a rule of thumb is wax sticks to everything; nothing sticks to wax. The alcohol will cut the wax.

Kevin

So alcohol explains the fire extinguisher?

Wayne

Yes, it does. The stripper is not flammable, but the rinse is. And there's a little bit of soap in this rinse, as well.

Kevin

I've got to say, I'm surprised with how aggressive you are with this. I mean, covering it with a chemical stripper, wire brushes, soaking it in alcohol, and yet, it looks so beautiful.

Wayne

Well, first off, walnut is a hard wood. The brushes that we use are brass, so the bristles are soft. And the chemicals all evaporate very quickly.

Kevin

Well, it's a great effect. Well worth the effort. Same process all the way up, right?

All the way up. -Kevin

It is beautiful.

Wayne

And I've got something else to show you.

Kevin

Okay. What's that?

Wayne

Right over here.

Kevin

Our fireplace?

Wayne

Yeah. You can see it's painted white. We did a test strip here on the brick fireplace, and we found both a really nice color and texture. Also, we found out that the moldings are cast brick. They're not cement.

Kevin

That's a detail you like. Did you show it to the homeowners?

Wayne

Yes,

and they love it. -Kevin

So what do they think?

Wayne

We're gonna strip it.

Kevin

Nice! Well, it will be for show only because the chimney behind it is gone, but I know Liz has an emotional attachment to this. She grew up with it, so if you can make it look beautiful, everyone's gonna be happy.

Wayne

It's a nice architectural detail.

Kevin

Awesome. Always a treat. Thank you.

Wayne

Thank you.

Kevin

A few months ago, three young apprentices joined us here as part of our Generation NEXT initiative. "This Old House" and the mikeroweWORKS Foundation are promoting the trades as a viable career path. Well, today, our apprentices graduate on to the next phase of their careers, and we thought it would be fun to take a look back at their time here and talk about the road ahead.

Austin

So, this is what my tool belt looked like, 10 weeks ago, before I started, when I first got it.

Nathan

This is what mine looks like, now. You can tell I've put a couple of miles on it. This is 10 weeks of sweat and hard work.

Bailey

It's a little bit dirty, a little bit worn. I've thrown it on the ground plenty of times.

Austin

This tool belt tells, basically, the story of my apprenticeship here.

Nathan

I knew it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I couldn't be more excited of the last 10 weeks, at how everything's developed. I came into it thinking, "Yeah, there's gonna be some hard days." But there was a lot more hard days than there was easy days.

Tom

All right. Let me show you the way I like to do it.

Bailey

Working with Norm and Tommy, Richard and Roger, it's been so cool 'cause I watched them on TV when I was a kid, and getting to work side-by-side with them has been amazing.

Austin

It is such quality time with them. Like, you don't want to lose it.

NORM

Bailey, put one in.

Bailey

It's just crazy to be here and how much we've gotten done.

Austin

Done a little bit of plumbing with Richard.

Richard

Two hands. Yep, two hands.

Nathan

We talked about siding, fascia, soffit. One of my favorite memories from the past 10 weeks was actually in the first week, and that was we went right to work with Tommy, framing up that hip roof, and it came out really great.

Austin

Working with Tommy and Charlie, definitely, you got to do it the right way.

Tom

What you want to do is you want to take your hammer...

Bailey

Tommy definitely gave me those little tips. When you swing your hammer, sometimes you do just use your wrist, but really you can use your whole forearm. You get so much more power.

Nathan

How skilled these guys are to be able to act, to teach. These guys are really the best at what they do, and you have to appreciate that.

Bailey

The porch definitely has become our porch.

Laughs

Tom

Slide it over, put it on the mark.

Bailey

It's been pretty cool to see it come to what it is now. It would be cool, maybe some day, to drive by and see it, still standing and still strong as we built it.

Tom

Okay, guys, what we have in this house is actually called double-hung windows.

Austin

I learned a lot of little tips on what goes into putting a window in. Make sure that the framing is square so your windows will actually be able to open and close.

Nathan

You know, what Tommy taught us is you take a little bit more time with them. You do them right. Check for square. Make sure they're plumb. Make sure they're level.

Tom

Tip it up slowly.

Nathan

They want it done right. They want to know that that's the best product that you could have given the customer. We've been bounced around, trying different things. Letting us go around the job site and, every week, kind of doing something a little bit different has been awesome.

Austin

I've learned how to tear down siding, how to shingle a roof.

Charlie

So you're gonna take this, and I want you to scale from the plans.

Bailey

Charlie had Austin and I estimate the shingle siding for the second story.

Austin

You always need to be five steps ahead. Right elevation from about 28 feet. You've got to know what comes next after the job that you're working on.

Bailey

We learned a lot.

Austin

It was just so much to take in at one time, so I've got a diary. It'll be great to be able to go back and look at it.

Bailey

I just took little notes every day, and then maybe if I keep re-reading everything that I've written down over these 10 weeks, it'll stick into my head a little bit better.

Nathan

I think one of the biggest jobs that stood out is actually what I'm sitting on right now -- the floor that we leveled out across this room.

Bailey

I've been called coachable, and that's a very huge compliment to me. I always want to be able to learn something new and make sure I'm doing things the right way.

Charlie

All right. We got a couple stops to make before we go to the lumber yard. I got a couple of job sites to check.

Nathan

I think one of my favorite memories I'll come away with after this apprenticeship is when Charlie took us out one by one. He picked a different day. He took me, Austin, and Bailey out in his truck. I kind of shadowed him as we went town to town, job to job.

Bailey

I always had an appreciation for the actual construction of a house.

Charlie

Remember, always think ahead. There's no sense...

Bailey

But I never realized how much behind-the-scenes stuff goes into it.

Nathan

He took us to the lumber yard, taught us how to sight wood, how to pick out plywood.

Charlie

That's acceptable, but you just have to pay attention when you're nailing your decking on...

Nathan

In between stops, he was pumping me full of information, how to run your business, where to get materials.

Austin

How we should save our money and certain things we should invest it in. Something he said always was basically, "Time is money." And, I mean, if you're losing time, you're losing money.

Nathan

Being on "This Old House," I mean, it was an experience.

Bailey

It feels like an accomplishment to have finally completed this 10 weeks.

Austin

It was a great experience, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, honestly.

Bailey

I feel like, at the end of this, I have grown a lot, and I really appreciate everything that everyone has helped me with.

Tom

Push it right out. Now you're getting it.

Austin

I didn't have much experience, so being able to actually come up here, work on the house, was awesome.

Nathan

I'm coming away with more of an appreciation for how much effort these guys put into it. Being able to work with these guys, day in and day out, soak up everything they have to teach me, it's been pretty awesome.

Austin

This experience has definitely changed my life. I've got a whole path lay ahead of me, and I'm ready to take it.

Charlie

The final touches on the porch. You guys have been a part of it. Be very proud of yourselves.

Austin

I'm Austin Wilson.

I'm Bailey Beers. -Nathan

I'm Nathan Gilbert.

All

And we are Generation NEXT.

Kevin

All right, Austin, Bailey, Nathan, this is it for you guys, and I got to say, we want to thank you a ton for all the hard work you did here in Newton.

Richard

And you are each such a fine example of young people joining our skill trades. We hope you inspire plenty of people to do just that.

Tom

An, no matter where you are in your lives, you are now and forever part of the "This Old House" crew, so congratulations.

Kevin

All right!

Austin

Whoo-hoo!

Kevin

We still have a lot more work to do on this house, even though we are losing our apprentices. So we're gonna be doing retaining walls and more renovation next week when we come back. And until then, I'm Kevin O'Connor.

I'm Austin Wilson. -Nathan

I'm Nathan Gilbert.

I'm Bailey Beers. -Richard

I'm Rich Trethewey.

And I'm Tom Silva. -Kevin

For "This Old House." All right, guys. Nice job.

Tom

Congratulations,

guys. Kevin

Well done. Welcome to the team. Ah! Ah! Ah! Oh!

Kevin

Next time on "This Old House"...

Roger

This new porch gets decked with recycled material. These eight giant tanks will control the rainfall from the storm of the century.

Kevin

One of the original features of our house is these ornamental brackets, and when we added a second story to the back of the house, for the master suite and the new garage, we needed more -- 56 more, to be exact.

Richard

That's next time, on "This Old House."