This Old House

Norm

Today on "This Old House," for our apprentices, it's time for Framing 101. Ready? Go.

Kevin

And today's question, to paint or stain your kitchen cabinets.

Richard

And the framing is almost done. It's time for the plumbers.

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!

Tom

Here is right on.

Kevin

A family that paints together stays together. Nice job.

Richard

Where will a slab like this be used?

Tom

The money's in the detail.

Richard

Oh, look at that fit. That is beautiful.

Kevin

Hi, there. I'm Kevin O'Connor, and welcome back to "This Old House" here in Newton, Massachusetts, where we are renovating this old house for three generations of the same family. Above this new two-car garage is a space for the first generation. That space will be for Joe's parents.

Once they retire, they are gonna live up there and spend some time close to the family. Good morning, Charlie.

Kevin. Kevin

Hello, Jason. So you can see all this new space that's being framed out right here. This is a new entryway and a little mud room that continues into here. Hey, Richard, how are you?

Richard

Hey, good morning.

Kevin

There's gonna be a half-bath there. You can see that we've completely opened up this space, so family room, little pantry here, and then the kitchen, which has been extended back just a few feet. This is where the third generation's gonna eat -- two little kids, one who was born just about a month ago. And then out front, we have that porch, which was really dilapidated.

It came off. Hey, Tommy.

Tom

Hey, Kevin, how are you?

Kevin

I'm doing good. So more work on the porch today?

Tom

Yeah, we're finishing deck and the front porch.

Kevin

All right, well, I'll check back with you later, because right now we've got to go upstairs and make some more room for the second generation. And those are our homeowners, Joe and Liz. We're giving them a third bedroom up here on the second floor. There's one in the front.

There's one right here in the middle. And this is where the old house ended, and this is all new space in here, which is gonna be the master bedroom. And we've got another apprentice lesson going on.

Norm

Right. Framing 101.

Kevin

Beautiful. I love it. So what is the plan for in here?

Norm

Well, the plan up here is, you know, this is the master bedroom suite, and this wall leads us into the bathroom. So we're gonna build this wall first. It's gonna have a pocket door in the middle. There'll be a toilet over here, a tub back in the corner.

Mm-hmm. Norm

A single vanity and a nice,

big shower. Kevin

I love it. Well, Nathan, Austin, Bailey, this guy knows a thing or two, so you're in very good hands with Norm. I guess I'll leave you to it. Just don't scream at them, huh?

Norm

I'll take it easy. I'll take it easy.

Kevin

All right, good luck, guys.

Norm

Now, framing isn't a complicated process, but it's all about the details. We want to make sure our cuts are accurate in length, are nice and square, and we want to make sure that we use nice, straight lumber. So that's one of the first things I want you to do. Just pick up the 2x6 and sight down the edges.

And what I'm looking for is a nice, straight line and no twist. If it's twisted, set it aside. We'll use that for blocks. All right.

So these are the first two pieces of our wall. This is the top plate, and this is the bottom plate, or sometimes called the shoe. Now, I've done the layout. I started from this side.

16 inches on center. So every place you see an X is a stud. And you go all the way down, and then we skip this section because there's a door opening, and then there's studs for the rest of the way. And then we come back, I mark the top plate with C's, and they stand for cripples, and they're gonna fill the distance between the top plate and the top of the header.

So there's no need to actually make the marks on the bottom. Now, we also have already snapped a line for the exact location, this blue chalk line right here. So now I'm gonna use a plumb bob to locate the line on the ceiling. Drop it down just like a half inch.

Whoa. Perfect. Just put a mark right next to that line. We'll do that on each end.

Right -- No, actually, did you move it? That's pretty good. Mark it on the left side of the line. Yeah.

All right. Here's a chalk line. I'm gonna snap a line end to end, and that will locate the top plate, making it perfectly plumb and straight. Pull it nice and tight.

Nathan

Yep. Good?

Norm

Good. Okay, now I'm just gonna flip the top plate on top of the bottom plate. All right, now I'm gonna stand on these to make sure they're down tight. I want you to measure from the two plates for the strapping, and that'll give us our stud height or length.

Nathan

107 1/2.

Norm

107 1/2. Okay. How about on this end?

Austin

107 1/2.

Norm

Good. Now, this is all new framing, so every stud's gonna be the same length. Now, I don't like to have to measure every single stud, take my square, mark it, and then cut it, because sometimes it'll vary a little bit, so I make a little jig. Take a piece of strapping, and I added this block.

Now what I want to do is measure the length of our studs from here and cut this to length. Okay, now you just take the jig and you flip it over and butt it up against the end nice and tight, flush with the edge, and mark the end. All right, so now you have a mark. Now, you could take your speed square and mark that all the way across, but if you like to use your speed square to guide your saw, just use that mark as your starting point.

It'll be square every time. So we can start nailing now. All right, guys, now we got to stand it up. And because of this beam, it gets a little tricky.

Whoop. Go back. Went too far. All right.

Bottom in. Hold on, hold on. Got to go -- The top's got to go to you. There you go.

All right. All right, keep it outside of line. Let's see if we can walk the bottom in some more. Okay.

All right, now we're gonna bring it right up to that chalk line on the floor. Hold it, hold it. Stop on the other end. All right, let's tack this in.

All right. That's good. Like it? All right, that looks good.

Now, when we get the pocket door hardware, we'll put that in, and then this wall will be ready for wiring and blueboard. Nice job,

guys. Bailey

Thanks, Norm.

Thanks for the lesson. Norm

All right.

Kevin

Our project is in what we call the sawdust phase, and that means a lot of heavy industry before the finishing touches go in. But our homeowners have to make decisions on some of those finishing touches because many of them need to be ordered in advance, and that brings us to the Kitchen Showroom because kitchen cabinets are one of the things that need to be ordered up front. Hey, Kathy, Joe, Liz. How are you guys?

Liz

How are you?

Kevin

So, it is kitchen design day, always an exciting part of the project. And you are in good hands here with Kathy. You have a plan for us?

Kathy

Yes, I do. As you see up on the screen, this is the floor plan to the kitchen.

Kevin

Mm-hmm.

Kathy

You'll see we have a good size window in this kitchen, the farmer's sink in front of it, a decorative window here, and, of course, your stove, refrigerator, and a good size island for you with some seating. And then this little doorway here goes into your pantry.

Liz

Yay!

Kevin

So this is a big improvement for you guys, right? Wide open, more space.

Joe

We're really excited about it.

Liz

And no cabinets falling off the walls.

Kevin

That's an improvement for sure. Okay. Kathy, do we have a rendering of what this might look like...

Sure do. Kevin

...when the craftsmen are done putting everything together? Oh, there we go. Beautiful.

Kathy

The stove is over here. They're using a really pretty fire clay back from a fireplace. Refrigerator's here. Beautiful reclaimed wood countertop for the island.

Kevin

Mm-hmm.

Kathy

And your beautiful decorative window over there.

Joe

Yep.

Kevin

So I'm seeing smiles on two faces here. That's a good sign. Kathy, you're the designer. You got to make this whole thing work.

Are you smiling, as well?

Kathy

I am. I do have one concern. My concern is this little window over here with the diamond pattern. Do you see how tightly it hits that cabinet?

Liz

Yeah, it looks like it's right up against it.

Kathy

Right. That's leaving 18 inches of wall space from the corner to the window, okay? And it kind of takes away from the beauty of the window.

Yeah. Joe

Yeah.

Kathy

So my thought is to move that over and kind of center it a little bit more in the wall.

Kevin

Well, we have rough-framed the space already, which means that window has been framed in now up against where that cabinet's going to be.

Joe

Yep.

Kevin

Moving a window, you can't just snap your finger. What do you guys think?

Liz

It's probably worth it if it's really right up against that cabinet.

Joe

It'll depend. We'll have to talk to Tommy.

Kevin

Yeah.

Kathy

Let me show you what that might look like.

Liz

That makes a big difference.

Joe

Yeah,

it looks much better. Kathy

Doesn't it?

Sounds like they like it. Kathy

Yeah, I think they do.

Kevin

So you guys have got a conversation with Tommy and Charlie in your future, right?

Yep. Liz

Yep.

Okay. Liz

See what it takes.

Kevin

Well, it looks terrific right there. Are we at the stage where we can start picking materials and styles?

Kathy

We certainly can.

Let's go take a peek. Liz

Awesome.

Kevin

Oh, the plate. I remember this from our first design discussion. Your family, right, Liz?

Liz

Yeah, this is a Churchill pattern. It's been around for a long, long time. My grandparents use this. My parents use this.

And now we're using the same plates.

Kevin

And you're using it to inform your design decisions, right?

Liz

Yep,

yep. Kevin

How?

Liz

We love Navy blue, I guess.

Laughter

Liz

You can see here on the island, that's what we've chosen.

Kevin

So this is the cabinet color for the island.

Liz

Right. And then the rest of the cabinets are gonna be white.

Kevin

So tell us what we're looking at here, Kathy, in terms of styles first.

Kathy

Sure. This is a simple shaker style, very clean, crisp on your edges. It is a maple door that's painted.

Kevin

Right. And clean and crisp in comparison to something like this.

Kathy

Yes, that has that detail on the inside. They're both recessed panels, but that has a little more detail than the shaker door does.

Kevin

You guys like the simplicity of that.

Yep. Joe

Yeah. We're looking at both, but I think we like the cleaner.

Kevin

Right, and I see paint colors there, but you always have the option for stain, as well. You considered this?

Liz

We thought about it, but we decided because of the wood countertop on the island, we're just gonna stick with the paint.

Kevin

Right. I mean, it's not really in the family, is it?

Liz

No,

not really. Kevin

Okay. How about countertops?

Joe

So, we have quartz for the countertop around the outside of the kitchen.

Kevin

Okay, final color here?

Joe

Yep.

Kevin

A little bit of a green to it, right?

Joe

Yeah.

Kevin

That's on the perimeter.

Kathy

That's on the perimeter, yes.

Kevin

And then what do you got here?

Liz

Then we're gonna use oak for the island countertop.

Kevin

So you just got a scrap piece of flooring and a couple stain options you're thinking about?

Joe

Yeah, we're looking at the darker end of the spectrum.

Still have some deciding to do. Liz

Yeah.

Kathy

And this is the backsplash.

Kevin

Backsplash. And you got the subway tile. A little bit of an irregular, so maybe handmade or made to look kind of handmade.

Yeah. Liz

Right, right. We just wanted to keep it kind of simple to focus on the fireback behind the stove.

Kevin

Simple it is. All right. So some good decisions there. Kathy, do you have everything you need to get started on this kitchen?

Kathy

Yes,

I do. Kevin

Perfect.

Kathy

We're ready to go.

All right. Kevin

Nice job, guys.

Liz

Thank you.

Richard

Hey,

guys. Bailey

Hey.

Richard

Did you get that thing all framed upstairs?

It's all set. Richard

Now we got to plumb it. Any house has got a main sewer or septic system outside, and then they have a horizontal main drain that comes into the building. It always has to have one full-size pipe that continues right up and out of the building called a vent stack, and that's really important to make sure all the fixtures are vented and they don't girdle, right? This one's made out of cast iron.

It's in perfect shape right here so we don't have to touch that. If we had to change it, we could run PVC. But now it's time to think about actually running the plumbing to the new bathroom you just drained. So, we're gonna cut in underneath our feet down here.

We're gonna cut a horizontal branch off of this tree that exists. We're gonna go this way. So just come with me. We're gonna break off and go to a kitchen sink right here.

There will be a trap. We'll have a vent that continues up. Right here on the first floor, there will be a half-bathroom. Enter right here.

The toilet's gonna go here. The lavatory right here. What I thought we'd work on today is to actually run the plumbing to the master bathroom that's right above our head. That's where we just put the wall in.

So there'll be a toilet right here. There will be a tub that sits right here. The drain's gonna be right above there. There will be a lavatory, a vanity right here, and then finally a shower stall down this way.

So I thought we'd start by talking about some of the parts and pieces in plumbing, okay? So in residential drain waste and vent work, which we're doing today, there are really three different sizes typically. There's three-inch pipe, and we're normally gonna use that for toilets. Two-inch is often for the shower.

An inch and a half is very often for the lavatory but also for the vents that'll go upstairs and reconnect. So when you go to the home store and you see a million shelves and parts and pieces, so I thought we'd go through some of the basic angles to connect the pipe. What I've got is all one size here to at least understand the different angles we have available for pipe. The standard is always a 90-degree elbow, okay, as it sounds.

And then 45. So those are the two common ones you use most often. But there are times that you need more obscure angles. So here you can see this is 90, this is 60, and this one is 22 degrees, and this is really zero 'cause it's just a couplet.

And then they make a variation of these fittings because you're oftentimes trying to get into these impossible places where you don't have a lot of space. So they make a fitting that has -- instead of having a hub by hub, they have a street side, or a fit side. That means it's male to female. So it goes -- And that's really cool for tight, little places, okay?

So those are the angle fittings. And now this is some of the branches we'll deal with. This is a standard T fitting. Now, we'll use this a lot with for a trap, for a lavatory, where you go from horizontal to vertical.

They make all kinds of other clean-outs. It's important to have a place to be able to clear the drain. This is a specialty fitting. They come in every variation for tight, little spaces, which we don't have here, but they're really handy if you need them.

And all these connections are gonna be made with glue and cleaner. So next we have to drill our holes, so let's go upstairs with a drill and a tape measure and start getting rolling. Nicely done. All right, pull it back.

Good. Nice, nice, nice. Beautiful. All right, we got our holes.

Let's run some pipe. Push it up. Screw it right there. Perfect.

Inside the fitting, inside the fitting.

Nathan

25 1/2.

Richard

Okay, good. Nice and clean. You get better on the second one. Push it all the way in.

Okay, so we've got everything dry-fit. We got everything cut to length. We got hangers. We know we have pitch.

So now what we got to do is take a pencil and witness mark everything, then take them apart bit by bit, clean them, and glue them. So, I want to show you -- I'll do this one. You guys will do that one. Okay.

So the cleaner will actually take the paint off or the dye from the label. And the inside of the fitting, too. So we glue this. We have one shot at it, and it's also the pipe is gonna go in a lot farther than it did when it was just a dry fit.

So there's our witness mark. And it wants to push apart, so you got to sort of hold it for a five count, all right? So it's pretty quick. And switch to glue.

Okay, now, this is the glue. You got five seconds to do both of them, so -- Good enough. Inside the fitting. Inside the fitting.

Put the brush into the can. Two hands. Push it and line it up. Ready?

Push. Let's go. Come on. Push.

One 1,000, two 1,000. Good. Watch out for the drips. All right, good.

All right, guys, good job. We got it glued. We've got the basics of our drain system. So for our tub, our toilet, over to our lavatory, and to the shower, okay?

What do you think? You gonna be plumbers? No? Framers?

All right. We got lucky here, because they're gonna drop the ceiling so we could run it. We didn't have to run through every joist and stuff like that. But I think you have an appointment on the front porch with Tommy, all right?

Nathan

All right.

Richard

I'm gonna continue here. Thanks. Good job, you guys.

Kevin

Good progress on the new porch, Tommy. That old rotted wood is gone.

Tom

Yeah, rotted wood's gone. And we're now laying down a fir decking, 1x4.

Kevin

Nice. And hand nails, huh?

Old school. Tom

Old school way. I mean, years ago we would put the decking down with 8-penny hot-dipped galvanized nails, and I figure why not do it this way. Guys can get some training on hammering, and I can see they're denting the boards up here pretty good, guys. This is not good.

Not good.

Kevin

So we got a couple of these indentations, missed hammer swings.

Tom

When I was a kid, that was called a rosebud. My father did not allow rosebuds on the job site. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna show you how to drive a nail with a shingle. Let me have one of those shingles over there.

All right. And we'll take a nail, 8-penny finish. And we just take it, and we tack it into the shingle. So now if I miss that nail, I bend that nail, I drive it in, I'm really sloppy with it and I dent the shingle, I haven't dented the decking.

I just tap it lightly, bring it down, and finish it off with a nail set.

Kevin

Nice. And the rosebuds that your dad hated so much, are those just things we're gonna have to deal with?

Tom

We're gonna try to bring those right back to the same level as the surrounding areas. I'm gonna take some hot water or warm water. Put it on there and let it soak. That'll take a little while, but that will raise up, and then we'll sand it, and it'll disappear.

Now, I notice there's a split down there right against the house. That's because you're nailing so close to the end. And that's because the nail that you're using actually has a wedge on the top where it comes to a point. So it's like splitting wood.

You drive it into the wood, and it's gonna separate it. What we need to do is have a flat point on the tip of the nail. So we take the nail. We find a nail that we've driven a hole already upside down and hit the end with a hammer to blunt the edge.

Now when you drive that nail through the wood at the end, there's less chance of you splitting, just more chance of you driving that little piece of wood through the wood to make room for the nail.

Kevin

So how are we gonna live with this one?

Tom

We're gonna take that board out and change it. You want to make sure that our boards fit in this dimension right here equally. So the first thing we need to do is lay all our boards into position. We're gonna use a nail as a spacer between the boards, just a light tack, 'cause we want to be able to pull them out afterwards.

All right, so what we've done here is we've laid out about 20 boards, and we've come to the end. Now this is a given for the outside dimension of our side porch. What we need to do is fill this gap. Now, we could rip a strip down, but I don't like to do that.

I want to get a whole board in here. What we need to do is calculate the difference that we have to take off every one of them so that we can fit a whole one in here. And this distance right here means we have to take off almost 1/8 inch off of each one of those boards. By taking that little off, we won't notice it once they're in.

Saw blade whirring

Tom

Perfect. Now you're getting the feel of it. Now you can even speed it up and go even faster. Nice, even touch.

All right, last piece. How's it fit? Nice.

Norm

Hey, Tom, nice job on this decking. Square edge fir -- perfect for an old house like this.

Tom

Absolutely.

Norm

You have the crew working pretty hard.

Tom

And they're driving 8-penny finish nails, also, galvanized.

All by hand. Tom

All by hand.

Richard

So we worked these kids so hard, you think they'll come back tomorrow?

Kevin

They better. We got more to do on this deck.

Tom

A lot to do.

Kevin

What's coming up next, Tom?

Tom

Well, we're gonna put the columns, the railings. We got to frame and trim underneath, and we got to build a stairway.

Kevin

All right, well, we got all of that and more next time. So until then, I'm Kevin O'Connor.

I'm Rich Trethewey. Norm

I'm Norm Abram.

Tom

I'm Tom Silva.

Kevin

And those are the apprentices for this old house here in Newton. All right, back to work. Next time on "This Old House"...

Norm

As part of our Generation Next program, we are working with horticultural students from Minuteman Tech.

Tom

We explore the mystery of the cold floor in the living room behind this stone wall.

Richard

And radiant heating is gonna make this garage toasty warm.

Kevin

And a 100-year old subfloor becomes a pantry door.

Norm

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