This Old House

Kevin

Today on "This Old House"...

Norm

This new porch gets decked with recycled material.

Kevin

Our homeowner adds a beautiful touch to the mudroom.

Roger

And these eight giant tanks will control the rainfall from a storm of the century.

Kevin

What happened to all of this plumbing here?

Norm

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.

Tom

This one right here is right on.

Kevin

Family that paints together stays together. Nice job.

Richard

Where will a slab like this be used?

Money is in the detail. -Kevin

That is beautiful.

Kevin

Hi, there. I'm Kevin O'Connor, and welcome back to "This Old House" here in Newton, Massachusetts, where you can see the progress we are making on this house. Check out our new front porch. That has been completely reframed. We've got new decking down. We've got new posts. And we were able to save the original railing, which went back in place. Now, much of that work was done by our apprentices, and sadly, we had to say good-bye to them last week, so they're going to be missed. Right here, you may recall there was a big Norway maple and had a big bruise on the bottom. It was also very close to the house and the power lines, so Roger had it taken down, and our homeowner, Joe, well, he's actually splitting it into firewood. So next year, that'll be conditioned, and he's going to be able to burn it a new woodburning stove that we're installing for him next week. And over here, check out the side of the house. This is the first time you could really see this side with the tree down. The siding is almost up. We've got clapboards on the first floor. We've got shingles on the second floor. And our homeowners picked a pre-primed prepainted look, so those are the final colors, and that is going to look sweet. And out back, well, we got another project going on back there, as well. Good morning,

Norm. -Norm

Hey, Kevin.

Kevin

Hey there,

Liz. -Liz

Hey. How are you?

Kevin

All right. Working hard again, huh? Last week tile, this week, a deck, huh?

Liz

Yeah.

Kevin

And it looks like a composite deck.

Norm

Right. Kevin, it's a composite material. We've used materials like this before. It's made out of recycled wood products and polyethylene,

like water bottles. -Kevin

Cool.

Norm

And it gets extruded when it's made. And this one has a coating on the top when it's extruded that helps reduce fading and scratching.

Kevin

Nice. And so they also give you the color

and the wood tone right here. -Norm

Right.

Kevin

Although, Liz, I guess you could have gone with natural wood. Why the composite?

Liz

We like the recycled content of the material and the durability. I'd rather be playing out here with my kids than maintaining a deck.

Kevin

Boy,

I hear that. Yeah. -Liz

It looks great.

Norm

So now it gets attached with these clips. It's got a groove already cut in it, and the clip goes in like this, and then a screw goes through this hole to fasten it. And they go in this. It looks like a nail gun, right?

Kevin

Yeah.

Norm

But it's actually driving these screws down through the clip, and the clip also holds it up, giving an air space between the frame and the decking.

Kevin

Mm-hmm.

Norm

It also spaces the decking. Right here, you can see the space. So it makes it pretty easy.

Kevin

Nice. All right. Well, you guys have obviously made some progress, so you've got a plan. I promised Charlie some help, so I'll leave you guys to this.

Okay. -Liz

Great.

Norm

All right. Okay. That plank is secure. Now, the next one will fit, but we need a small piece for here.

Right. -Norm

And we'll rip that now.

Liz

Okay.

Norm

Okay, Liz, so this is where we'll rip the piece. The manufacturer suggests a carbide blade. If you could just help guide it. Okay. Liz, let's just slide that underneath the skirtboard.

Liz

All right. And my cut side goes towards the house, right?

Yeah. -Liz

Okay.

Norm

All right. Now, to fill the gap we see now, we're going to put in a full-width piece. Just drop it in. Okay. We can't use the clips here. So we're going to use these screws. They're stainless steel, and they match the color of the decking. So, Liz, what I want you to do is take the spar and just pull on it like that so it's nice and tight...

Okay. -Norm

And I'll drive the screw.

Liz

All right. Like that?

Norm

Yeah. Perfect. We're going to drive the screw. You don't want to drive it in too much. Just kind of flush so it looks nice. Good.

All right. Great. -Norm

All right. We'll do the same thing all the way down the line. All right. Liz, last piece. Use a spacer since we don't have a clip in there.

Liz

Okay.

Norm

And we've put some screws in to get them started, but it's also nice just to take this bar and just put a little pressure on it.

Okay. -Norm

Okay?

Yeah. -Norm

All set?

Yeah. -Norm

Okay. Let's do it. Okay. All right. Liz, that finishes it. That went pretty well, and it looks great.

Wow. I love it. -Norm

Yeah.

Liz

Thanks,

Norm. -Norm

Thank you.

Liz

Now we've got a spot for lunch.

Norm

All right.

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. Now, we could have replicated them all using the CNC machine, but that's expensive and it's a budget job, Charlie, so you've got a better way.

Charlie

It is a budget job, and I figured I'd do it at night, believe it or not. Save the homeowners some money and give me something to do.

Kevin

You got nothing better to do, all right. So it's a big, beefy piece of material. And if we were to make it out of solid stock, we need about 4-inches thick, we need it by 10 or 12-inches wide, and you're talking cedar, right?

Charlie

Yeah. It would have been expensive, and it still would have given us another process still to mill it down to get our dimensions. So it's not like we would have bought it off

the shelf like that. -Kevin

Right.

Charlie

So we took two-by-twelve western red cedar, glued it together.

Kevin

Easy to get our hands on that stock.

Charlie

It is. We cleaned up the edges. Squared one of them. We're going to get two of these brackets every 15 inches. So I'm going to mark it up, cut it on the chop saw and then we're going to start templating. All right. Now we can put our sample piece on. We're going to line up the two square edges with the bracket. Make a nice dark line so we can see it. And now just, on the opposite side, do the same thing. All set?

Kevin

It's good there. I'm going to separate these?

Charlie

Yeah. That would be great. All right. Now that I have these separated, I'm going to square up these two cuts on the chop saw. All right. Just follow the line, but leave the pencil line on 'cause we'll hit it with the sander to clean it up.

Kevin

Okay. All right. Let's check this out, Charlie. Wow. Look at that. That looks terrific, and a perfect match to the originals.

Charlie

It is a perfect match. And guess what? We only have 50 more to do, and you are more than welcome to get out here and help us.

Kevin

Yeah. Uh... I got places to be.

I think you got this one. -Charlie

Next time, right?

Yeah. Next time. -Charlie

Okay.

Kevin

All right. Newton homeowners Joe and Liz are at the point where they're considering counter tops, and one of the things they're thinking about is quartz, which is exactly what we're using here at our idea house in Rhode Island. And, Jeff, you like it because you've used it before

and you're using it again. -Jeff

Yeah. Yeah. One of the things I like about it is that

it's a man-made product. -Kevin

Mm-hmm.

Jeff

So that enables us to control the mixture, the content. Any of the design elements can be combined with any flares, any designs in the quartz. The other thing I like about it is that it's a very durable surface. It doesn't require sealing. It doesn't require any maintenance. And the last thing I like about it is that we don't have to go pick the slab. So we could pick up off a sample, and then we can be pretty well sure that it's going to look like that sample.

Kevin

Yeah. Even though quartz itself is natural, that man-made process gives us the uniformity of look. And you know, from the sample, you're going to get

the exact same thing on a slab. -Jeff

Yeah. To connect two sections, we use a special machine that draws the pieces together. All right. We're going to finish up this last seam. We'll clean that up, drill for our faucet, install a cooktop.

Mm-hmm. -Jeff

And we got a counter top.

Kevin

All right. And I've got something to report back to Joe and Liz. I know how it looks.

Jeff

Yes,

you do. -Kevin

All right. Thanks, Jeff.

Jeff

All right.

Kevin

When we rebuilt this front porch, we made a big improvement to the front steps, and that gave us an opportunity to make a big improvement to this front walk, Roger -- two bad pieces of concrete that are now gone.

Roger

And filling in where there was one missing piece of concrete, huh?

Kevin

Right. And so instead of concrete, you're going down with new pavers.

Roger

Right. Except these are concrete. They're not clay pavers. They're concrete pavers.

Kevin

So made to look like a brick. So they definitely got the color right and they got the size right. That's for sure. What do you love about these?

Roger

Every one is exactly the same. So when you lay them down, you don't have to worry about if one is longer, shorter, thicker, or anything like that. It makes us go really fast.

Kevin

All right. And your prep work here for the base, same formula as usual?

Roger

Same formula as usual. Dig out the loam, dig out the clay, put in crusher run, pack that down, a little bit of sand, screed it off, set the pavers. Kevin, we're putting these down in a running bond pattern. That means they'll all run in the same direction on the long walkway.

Kevin

So a pretty simple pattern, and really very few cuts, right? Just here at the end and at the front.

Roger

Very few, and that's a good thing.

We don't mind missing those. -Kevin

Right.

Roger

Now, the one thing I want you to notice, that each one of these has nubs on them. Okay?

Kevin

Mm-hmm.

Roger

And that's so when they fit together, they're perfect spacing for -- We're going to be putting in polymeric sand, and that allows it to get down into the joint.

Kevin

Wow. That's nice. That's one of the reasons why it goes so fast, right?

Roger

Yeah. So when you put these in, you click it next to the other brick

that's in and drop it. -Kevin

Oh, yeah.

Roger

Perfect spacing every time.

Kevin

Perfect spacing. And so, if that had been a traditional brick, with its irregular shape, you'd have to set that off manually to make sure that you had enough room.

Roger

Right. You'd probably have to hit it with a rubber hammer to move it down, and then shake it one side to the other.

Hence the speed. -Roger

Hence the speed.

Kevin

So, Roger, with this edge course you've got going there, sometimes I see you guys sort of flip them up on end

so you can bury them. -Roger

Right. And that would be to hold the walk in place, but if you look closely, there's little nubs on here, another one right here, and he bought them as unfinished. So you don't want to see the bottom or these nubs.

Kevin

So that's why Tom is laying them flat right here.

Roger

Right. So what we're going to do for strength at the edge is, we're going to use this plastic edging. It's going to butt up against the brick. Then we're just going to drive a spike down through into the ground, and that'll hold it in place.

Kevin

And we're not even going to see this, are we?

Roger

No. We're going to scrape off a little sand, and it'll sit on the base and it'll just hold that edge right in place. Kevin, now the secret to a good walk is to sweep the joints in with polymeric sand. We use a compactor that'll vibrate the pavers and move the polymeric sand down in the joints. The last step is misting the bricks so that the polymeric sand gets washed down and activated, and then it'll lock up, and it'll be rock solid.

Kevin

All right. And is it ready to be walked on?

Roger

For you, it is. Yeah.

Kevin

Perfect, because I got to go inside and check out some stained glass. I'm going to see you out back because we got some heavy industry going on, right?

A lot going on out back. -Kevin

All right. Roger, this looks beautiful. Liz has worked tirelessly on a stained-glass window for this little pantry area here. Hey,

guys. -Liz

Hey.

Kevin

So it's finally back on site, and we get to look at this masterpiece. That is awesome.

Liz

Thank you.

Kevin

So, Liz, this was your creation, and what was the inspiration?

Liz

The Japanese maple in the front yard.

Kevin

Well, that explains all these beautiful red colors right here all throughout. The last time we saw this, the glass was cut. It was ground, and then it was soldered in place. What happens after that?

Michel

The next step would be to put a zinc framer on it.

Kevin

Yeah.

Michel

And then, after, was the black patina that was applied to the solder, and to finish, we applied wax...

Kevin

The wax to protect this.

Michel

To clean and protect the glass and the solder.

Kevin

Beautiful. Well, you are a good teacher. This student has pulled this one off. Is that ready to go in?

Liz

Yeah.

Yes. It is. -Kevin

Let's see that. This is going to look terrific with the light behind it.

Michel

I'm on top, inside the... Here we go. Excellent.

Liz

Okay. Is that it?

That's it. -Kevin

All right. Let's see what this thing looks like installed.

Wow. -Liz

Whoa.

Kevin

Awesome. You like that, Liz?

Liz

I love it, I can't believe it, I can't believe it's done. Thank you,

Michel. -Michel

You're welcome.

Kevin

Very nice job, guys, very nice. When it rains here in Newton, all that rainwater runoff from roofs and gutters and driveways, it all goes into a town storm drainage system, which is old and overwhelmed. So when we add new buildings, like our garage here, which means less ground to absorb the rainwater and more roof surface to shed it, well, the town requires that we deal with the runoff. And, Roger, that explains the massive hole

that is now in our backyard. -Roger

Yeah. It's 8-feet wide and 7-feet deep, and it's an engineered trench for us to control water. We removed 100-yards of material to prep this hole. One we had it down that deep, we put down the fabric on the sides. And on the bottom, we're putting in a foot of stone to lay these galleys or dry wells on.

Kevin

This is the galley right here, this tank coming in?

Roger

Yeah. This is the main part of the system. There's going to be eight of those set in, per the engineer's spec, and they'll all lock up together, and then we'll do a couple other things to control the rest of the water.

Kevin

And how long is this trench?

Thirty-six feet. -Kevin

That is a big hole.

Roger

Yep. So these concrete bins are open in the middle. The water goes inside and then slowly strains down into the ground.

Kevin

And are they piped together,

or are they just sort of... -Roger

No. They're just sort of meshed together. They don't have to be watertight. So if a little comes out, it's not going to make any difference.

Kevin

Right.

Roger

We want the water to come out. Each one of these galleys will hold 300 gallons of water. So we're looking at 2,400 gallons just in the galleys alone, but with the stone that's there, it's going to even hold more water than that.

Kevin

And, you know, so this is underneath the driveway, so, obviously, they're built to be able to, you know, drive a car over this area when it's filled.

Roger

Right. This is what's called H20 or a heavy-duty tank,

so you can drive over it. -Kevin

Right.

Roger

And you can see, also, there's a clean out in the top. It's going to be to make sure, if debris gets in there, we can take it away.

Kevin

This is a lot of engineering. What does this thing cost?

Roger

This is a lot of engineering and a lot of work, and it's probably going to be about $25,000 by the time we're done.

Kevin

Boy, that's unbelievable. And obviously, not a surprise to the homeowners, right?

Roger

No, no. This was all figured right from the get-go in the beginning because you can't get a building permit without doing this work.

Kevin

You pull a permit, they tell you you got to do this. So he's starting with a little bit of the backfill, huh?

Roger

Right. He wants to start from the back and work his way out as he's setting the galleys. Kevin, this fabric you see all the way around the edge is a soil separator. What it does, it keeps all the fines that are in the soil from getting into the stone and all the voids we have inside it.

Kevin

Essentially, you don't want this system to clog up.

Roger

No.

Kevin

It's amazing to think, Roger, that, I mean, prior to this, they used to just use the gutters from the house and the sewers in the street. And now, I mean, look at all this engineering.

Roger

Yeah, and the engineering took into consideration of a lot of things. Number one was, they did a perc test to test the soil to see how fast the water would go through it. Number two is impervious surface. You got to a roof you got to take into calculations and the driveway. And all that water that runs off of that, you got to control it. So they figured this system for a 100-year storm. Now in a 100-year storm, you're going to get 9 inches of rain over 24 hours.

Kevin

Holy mackerel. That's an insane amount of water.

Roger

Well, with all the tanks in, Jimmy can now start backfilling them. He's going to take and backfill them all the way to the top and up to about a foot above the tank, but he's still got some other stuff to do. He's got to cut the driveway, put in a trench drain that'll tie in there and collect that downspout and run it in for another one.

Kevin

A lot of work, right?

Roger

A lot of work.

Kevin

Hey,

Tommy. -Tom

Hey. Boy, a lot of work just to collect a little rainwater, isn't it?

Roger

A little rainwater?

Kevin

Not a little rainwater, a lot if it ever comes.

Yeah. -Kevin

All right. So some good progress this week, fellas. And, Roger, next week, what have you got for us?

Roger

Next week, hopefully, we'll prep for planting, and I got a few special guests that are going to help me out.

Kevin

Hmm. Interesting. And, Tommy, what about you?

Tom

We're going to install a fireback behind the stove in the kitchen.

Kevin

Sounds cool. All right. So, until then, I'm Kevin O'Connor.

I'm Roger Cook. -Tom

And I'm Tom Silva.

Kevin

For "This Old House."

Roger

A little rainwater?

Tom

A little rain, you know.

Kevin

How many 100-year storms have you been through?

Tom

Two.

Kevin

Next time on "This Old House"...

Tom

Have you ever heard of a fireback? Well, Joe and Liz found a unique way to use one in their kitchen.

Roger

It's time to bring back the beauty of this old landscape.

Kevin

Wow. Holy smoke. So, Jeff, what am I looking at here?

Jeff

So you're looking at 110-year-old reclaimed oak. Came out of a barn in Ohio.

Norm

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