This Old House

RICHARD

Today, on "This Old House," we save the old boiler, but everything above that gets a total makeover.

KEVIN

We're gonna replace a decades-old steel water line that ran from the street with a brand-new copper pipe.

RICHARD

And our homeowners need to pick tiles for their bathrooms.

TOM

Looks pretty bad right here.

NORM

Are you kidding me? Is this place really worth saving?

RICHARD

We can do better than this.

TOM

Time to get to work.

KEVIN

Nice and easy, nice and easy. Everybody together.

Grunting

KEVIN

Oh, yeah!

ROGER

The right plant in the right place.

KEVIN

Good!

RICHARD

It's state-of-the-art, perfectly square. All in all, a good day's work.

KEVIN

Hi, there. I'm Kevin O'Connor. And welcome back to "This Old House," where we've made a lot of progress on our Belmont Victorian. We've got a new bay window going into the kitchen, and you can see that the frame has been built, and Tommy installed that last week. And, also, the new beams holding up our house -- and there are several of them. They are all in. And in a little bit out front, we're gonna start a big project. But first, I've got an appointment in the basement. This house always had a heating system, obviously, but never an air-conditioning system. And that's something that the homeowners want to add, Richard. So that means a brand-new HVAC plan.

RICHARD

Right. Looked at the building and we said, okay, let's put some ducting systems in for air conditioning. And when we did, we said, "You know what? We could do the ducting for both the heating and the cooling," and the radiators went away. But we have a cast-iron boiler right here, and it wasn't that old. So we're gonna reuse it to save a little bit of money. Gas-fired cast iron with multiple zones. And there used to be a mess of piping all here. Most of it is gone. We're gonna actually move this closer to the chimney right here, give them a little more mechanical space and a little more open space out here.

KEVIN

Boilers make hot water, though, and you're talking

about a ducted system. -RICHARD

Correct.

KEVIN

So you've got to make that connection.

RICHARD

We're gonna use HydroAir. "Hydro" for water and "air" for air, obviously. So there would be the equivalent of an automobile radiator coil that's gonna sit in an air handler. Heated water will go down through the coil -- back and forth, back and forth this way. Air will be drawn across that coil to heat the air in the winter.

KEVIN

So now those ducts that we're gonna install will give us heat and cooling, all in one.

RICHARD

Right. But the question is, what type of ducts?

Right. -RICHARD

Conventional ductwork in a building like this always would start with this. If it was a two- or three-ton system, we might need to have a duct this big.

KEVIN

This is like a trunk line?

RICHARD

That's right, the main trunk. And so then the challenge is, okay, now I've got all these rooms. I do my calculation, and I've got a fan that pushes out relatively low push. Now, I'm gonna have a branch that goes to this room and to this room and to this room. And if you don't get those sizes right, what happens -- and, sadly, it's the norm, not the exception -- you don't have enough air to the far rooms or to the upstairs rooms, and people complain.

KEVIN

Although you've added mechanical dampers to try to kind of refine those systems.

RICHARD

It could be automatic or manual. But it's still hit-or-miss trying to get it to balance.

KEVIN

And you're still stuck with a huge trunk line. We've got finished walls, finished ceilings.

RICHARD

So what we're gonna do is do a small duct, high velocity. We're gonna put more air through a smaller duct. So this is the main trunk right here for our system -- 7-inch round. Off of this trunk will be a series of these attenuators. So this will come here and branch in here. This is what you see in the room.

Right. -RICHARD

And these outlets can sit in the ceiling, in the floor, in the high side wall. It just doesn't want to blow on people. And this has a special sound attenuator here.

KEVIN

And you know you're gonna be able to fit this through the wall. But look at this thing. I mean, now you've got -- This is the trunk line. That's gonna hide right up in a joist bay in a closet with no problem.

RICHARD

We can make it go away. So then the question is, "How do we zone the system?" You know, there's three different floors. So what I'm gonna do is actually use one of these air handlers on each floor. Now, the way it works is air is drawn in through here, and there is a hot-water heating coil that will sit right here.

KEVIN

So we can actually add that when we're using this for heat.

RICHARD

That's right. And that will heat the air. The air continues across another coil right here. This is for air conditioning in the summer. And then this is a very smart blower here that pushes the air out. We can dial in the exact fan speed that we want to match and make it really quiet.

KEVIN

So instead of those mechanical dampers, your answer to zoning is one of these each floor.

That's right. -KEVIN

Great control. But to me, I'm thinking, now I've got a piece of equipment times three inside, and then aren't these tied to another condenser outside? So I've got three more pieces of equipment out there?

RICHARD

There was a day that that was the answer. But no. Let me show you.

KEVIN

They've actually got a pretty good spot here on the side of the house for mechanicals.

RICHARD

Yep. We're on the opposite side of the driveway. And this is our entire outdoor cooling section for the whole building.

KEVIN

Just one of these? Not three of these?

RICHARD

That's right. So, conventionally, it would always be for each air handler, you'd have a separate condenser out here -- one, two, three, in this example. They're always at full blast. This one is so smart, the compressor can vary the amount of cooling power and it can split it to go into one, two, or three air handlers right here. So you have a pair of refrigerant line sets that go from here into unit number three. It would cool there, come back here, dump heat outside, leaving cool inside the building.

KEVIN

So this thing can send cool into equally a one, two, and three zones, or maybe, say, shut down two and three, send it all to one. It knows that.

RICHARD

It is very, very smart.

Wow. And small. I like. -RICHARD

That's right.

KEVIN

Got a lot of work going on out in the yard. You can see our mason, Mark McCullough. He's laying the last few courses for the foundation that's gonna be underneath the mud room over there. And out front, we're solving a problem that we figured out a couple weeks ago, Tommy, with the water line that was going to this house right here. The homeowners didn't know what to do. We were trying to wait to figure out a solution, -and I guess we now have one?

TOM

Right. Well, when we dug out for the piers for the porch, we discovered that the water line was a steel water line. I actually have a sample of it right here. This was a steel water line. It's all corroded on the outside. And I told them the inside may be corroded, also.

KEVIN

Probably original to this house, you think?

TOM

Yeah, I definitely think it's original. Because I told them that, you know, it's an expense that we didn't know about. We'd have to replace that line now, or if they didn't want to do it now, we could put a sleeve in the ground and push the copper line through later.

Right. -TOM

But if you look, this water line right here, you can actually see the steel outside it, and you can see all this right here is corroded. This pipe is getting smaller and smaller over time, and they're gonna lose water pressure.

KEVIN

And eventually, we're gonna have a porch going back over there. So if we're gonna change it, the ideal time to do it is now. The homeowners have decided that they want to change it.

TOM

Yeah. The idea was to put the sleeve in so they didn't have to do it now, but they said, "We're making such a mess, we might as well do it now." And I agree. It's the right time to do it.

KEVIN

So, what is the process for changing it?

TOM

All right, well, they got to dig a trench from the sleeve that we put into the ground all the way out to the curb where the shutoff is. Because on the other side of the curb to the main is already done.

All right. -TOM

All right. So now Jimmy's digging a trench. He's getting over his utility lines to locate everything, and then they're gonna snake a new copper line through the PVC sleeve and out to the shutoff.

KEVIN

Connect it to the house.

Yeah. -KEVIN

Cool.

TOM

Peter's using the excavator to dig out the main part here, but Jimmy knows that there's a main gas line here, and he's got to do all that work by hand. So, somewhere down there, there should be a gas line. You don't want to hit that with a machine. Could blow this house up. He's located it right there. You can see the big pipe, yellow. So now he'll start working his way in at it. With all the pipes exposed, we can finish digging the trench to the house. First, Jimmy finds the valve near the street. The sleeve on the top of the valve is actually called a buffalo box. This one has been damaged by the snow plow. So he's gonna have to replace it. But before replacing it, he's gonna turn the water off. So what Jimmy's doing now is he's actually removing what is called a dresser. And the dresser is making the connection between the old steel pipe and the city water line. He removes that, and he's hopefully going to expose a brass nipple to connect the new copper line to. All right, let me show you what we have. Here's the house, and here's the main water line in the street.

KEVIN

Yeah.

TOM

This pipe runs to the house. The connection between the main water line right here at this fitting is made by this dresser right here, okay?

KEVIN

So, we've got main water line here, and we've got our old house water line right there?

TOM

Right, with a shutoff right here so you can shut it off at the street. Now we have to make the connection between this old water line through this dresser. So you look at it this way and take this off, and there's the water line that runs through this clamp. This is a rubber bushing right here. This is a sleeve that goes on it in between.

KEVIN

So Jimmy cut this in half so we can get it out,

but now we can see it. -TOM

Right. So now when he puts the dresser on the pipes, he then tightens down on these two clamps, and it squeezes it together onto these two bushings on each side so it won't leak.

KEVIN

So we're connecting the old with the new -via the compression?

TOM

Right.

KEVIN

And now that we're getting rid of that old pipe, we're gonna be able to make a clean connection -to the municipal side?

TOM

Right. The connection will be a little bit different because it's a copper pipe going to a new fitting.

KEVIN

Very cool. I've never seen a dresser before.

TOM

Yeah, pretty cool. All right, now you can see the piece of PVC pipe right here that Jimmy put through the wall a couple of weeks ago when he dug outside. And this goes just beyond the outside of our front porch. Now what he wants to do is he wants to take this 1-inch copper line and push it through that pipe till he gets to the outside, and then somebody will pull it while they push it through.

KEVIN

And are we gonna try to go the entire way with a single piece of copper from inside here all the way -down to the street?

TOM

Right. He doesn't want to have any joints in that pipe except for in the house and at the street.

KEVIN

Right. So now we've got a full 1-inch diameter on the inside. So we've got full city pressure coming through this -when it's connected?

TOM

Yep. Full city pressure and a lot of volume, which is always good.

KEVIN

Got to feed it underneath those two gas lines.

TOM

Got to get under the gas lines, 'cause you don't want the pipe to be up high, because you don't want it to freeze. So what they've done is they've run the copper line past the connection. They now cut the length, put the fitting on,

and make the connection. -KEVIN

Cool. So, a lot of digging. A lot of work. But, you know, that thing's gonna last 100 years or more.

So that's a big upgrade. -TOM

It sure is. It's gonna last longer than you and I together.

KEVIN

Well, you for sure. As soon as they connected that water line, they very quickly came back and back-filled this front yard. So we're pretty much all buttoned up below grade. Now, above grade, we've got these piers that are gonna hold up the front porch. We've got one more to build, and because they're gonna be seen from the street, the architect called for brick, because we're gonna see that. And, Mark, it's not just any old brick. You're trying to match this brick -to what we've got at the house?

MARK

That's right. We looked up top and we saw what the chimney brick were. So we matched that as close as we could.

KEVIN

And so what is the brick that we're using?

MARK

What we're using is what they call a city-hall paver. You go anywhere in Boston, look down at your feet, that's what they're using on the sidewalks. And occasionally, they do use it for piers, brick veneer, et cetera.

KEVIN

Are you suggesting that this brick has been made since they made Boston City Hall?

MARK

I am. You can go down to Rhode Island. There's a plant that makes them continually.

KEVIN

For hundreds of years?

MARK

Hundreds of years, yep.

KEVIN

That is very cool. All right. So it's a little irregular.

MARK

That's called a molded brick, so that's actually in the form, the wiggles.

Yeah. Done deliberately. -MARK

Yep.

KEVIN

This side right here, you don't always see. Sometimes they're all flat. You got a little bit of a hollow here.

MARK

Yep, that's what we call a frog. We lay that on the bottom. That grabs the mortar as we kind of shuffle it into our line.

KEVIN

Oh,

cool. -MARK

Yep.

KEVIN

All right, and obviously made for outdoors, 'cause that's where they're going.

That's right. -KEVIN

Beautiful. I think it's very cool that we're using a brick that's basically been in continuous operation

for 300 years. -MARK

Sure. Yep.

KEVIN

All right, so we've got a footing already below grade in place. -You just build up from there?

MARK

That's right. As you can see, we started out with a line. We put these concrete-block footings in place. So as soon as we got to the brick, we didn't have to measure out or do anything. We can just go directly on top. I'll use this line crawling up this pier so it'll be the same as that one and the same as the one behind me, as well.

KEVIN

Beautiful. And you got the first course, or part of the first course, already set in.

MARK

Yep, right.

KEVIN

All right, let's get to it.

MARK

Okay.

KEVIN

So we'll level and square as you go.

MARK

That's right. I want to make sure on these first two courses that I get everything right. And then once I get up a few courses, I'll be able to fly. I want to get a full bed joint. Obviously very important. If we start the way we're supposed to and continue that way, we have a great, watertight pier.

KEVIN

So, as you've worked your way up at these courses, Mark, -in go these tabs, huh?

MARK

That's right. This is just a corrugated brick tie, and we use this just to tie everything together. We're gonna make this pier solid. So we're gonna just slush it with concrete. And this tab, again, all we do is just twist it into our mortar bed a little bit. And then once we do pour this thing solid, those tabs are gonna grab and try to make everything one.

KEVIN

So if we didn't fill this with concrete, what you've done here with the brick, this sort of shell, this wouldn't be structural enough to hold our deck?

No. -KEVIN

It's when you add that concrete everything comes together?

MARK

That's right, yeah. 4 inches of masonry, we consider a veneer. So anything beyond that, we consider structural. So that's what we're gonna try to do with these piers.

KEVIN

All right. Nice, Mark. So you got all your courses up to the top, and now you just have to clean it up?

MARK

Yep, right. I'm just gonna join it off. Then I'm gonna hit it with my brush, just like this.

KEVIN

And you're just knocking off those little things on the front.

MARK

Just the snots off the front.

And then I'll run it again. -KEVIN

I love that. Beautiful. So, how long until this sets up and we're ready to pour the concrete?

MARK

Probably wait a couple days.

KEVIN

Oh, really?

MARK

Yeah.

KEVIN

So that truck's not for you?

No. -KEVIN

Okay, well, cool.

Thank you very much. -MARK

All right, Kevin.

KEVIN

Tommy, we got a concrete truck here, and Mark's not ready to pour, so maybe you are?

TOM

I am definitely ready.

KEVIN

All right, so the new mud room going right here that you get to from the stairs coming that way.

Yep. -KEVIN

Brick is in. That was a lot deeper a little while ago.

TOM

Yeah, this is a good three feet lower. And what I wanted to do is make sure when they back-fill this that they compact it every 6 or 8 inches, because I don't want it to settle over time.

KEVIN

Right. I see plastic down.

TOM

Vapor retarder is down, and I made sure that the vapor retarder is down below the top 3 or 4 inches of gravel, and they put that on top of the vapor barrier.

Below the gravel. -TOM

Right. The reason is I don't want the concrete to sit on top of the vapor barrier. What happens is when you do that -- you pour concrete, the water in the concrete doesn't have any place to settle out of.

KEVIN

Oh, right.

TOM

So when they're trying to trowel a floor, the guys are there for hours trying to wait for the water to go out, so they break holes in the vapor barrier.

KEVIN

So that extra layer there just helps it set up.

TOM

Right, and then over time, it'll dry out and come through that concrete.

KEVIN

But eventually, that little vapor barrier right there will stop the ground moisture from coming up underneath this crawl space.

TOM

Absolutely, and keep the crawl space a little bit drier.

KEVIN

How much concrete's going in?

TOM

Not much. Only gonna put about 3 inches in here, and it's not a very strong mix. It's a very weak mix, and it's gonna float on its own. It's actually called a rat slab.

KEVIN

Rat as in like, rat rat?

TOM

No, literally a rat slab, because years ago in crawl spaces and places in basements where people really didn't get around, they were always worried about the vermin coming in.

That's nasty. -TOM

So they would pour a rat slab so they couldn't get through the dirt.

KEVIN

Let's pour this one extra thick.

TOM

No, we don't have to worry about any rats.

KEVIN

So, you ready to go?

TOM

I'm ready for the truck.

Let's back him in. -KEVIN

All right.

Truck beeping

TOM

The truck we're using is an on-site ready-mix truck. Most concrete trucks mix the concrete on the way to the jobsite. This one mixes at the site. This truck's arrived with dry Portland, sand, gravel, and water. The operator determines the proportions of the mix on-site. And this is actually pretty good, Kevin, because all the ingredients come together in this hopper right here dry, and then they're mixed as they come up the chute in any strength that I want.

KEVIN

So by the time they get to the end of that chute, it's all mixed together?

TOM

It's all mixed together in the consistency that I want. It can be wet. It can be dry. It can have a 3,000-pound mix, which is relatively light, or a 5,000-pound mix, which is a really strong mix.

KEVIN

Wow.

TOM

And he can change it any time during the mix. So I can get a little bit of 5,000 here stiff, and I can get a little bit of 3,000 here wet.

KEVIN

Now, the other trucks, I mean, you got one batch, right? And you just got that batch.

TOM

And if I say to the driver, make it wet, and it's too wet...

You're stuck with it. -TOM

...you can't make it dry.

KEVIN

Cool. All right. Let's pour it.

TOM

Yeah, now they got to close this up so they can mix it.

KEVIN

That's awesome. Perfectly mixed.

TOM

Right. Now, see I just told him to make it a little bit wetter, and he did. See, that's even wetter. See, that's perfect right there.

KEVIN

Oh, yeah.

TOM

Because I don't want to have to trowel it. It's almost like I want it to seek its own level.

KEVIN

It's nice that he can get that chute wherever he wants, too.

TOM

Yeah, it's nice. He can bring it up. He can turn it left and right. He can bring it in and out.

KEVIN

It looks pretty level there, Tommy. Do we have to trowel this off?

TOM

Nope. We're gonna leave it alone. That's good enough. It's nothing but a rat slab. No rodents are gonna get through that.

KEVIN

All right. That's nice. Love that truck.

MAN

Whoops. Get on up.

RICHARD

There is a lot of heavy lifting going on back at our project today, but our homeowner's thinking ahead to the finishes. Our homeowner Katherine and her interior designer, Amanda, are here for a very big day -- to pick tile. Good morning, ladies. How are you?

KATHERINE

Hi,

Richard. -AMANDA

Hi, Richard.

RICHARD

So, a little nerve-wracking today?

KATHERINE

It definitely can be, but luckily we have Amanda here

to help us make decisions. -RICHARD

Right. Now, you never had a master bathroom before. What were you thinking? What did you tell her?

KATHERINE

So, we wanted a very grown-up space. We wanted something that was going to be sleek and elegant, clean, modern, very spa-like.

RICHARD

Great. So, what did you do with that wish list?

AMANDA

Okay, well, let me show you the floor plan. Here is the floor plan of the master bath. We have a double vanity. And the two main features of the bathroom are the large walk-in shower with glass on three sides and a rainhead, and then we also have the claw-foot tub, which is existing and we're having re-glazed.

RICHARD

Great. And that tub will sit right in the window, overlooking the street with nice light. That's great. So this looks like it could be a little bit close together, this passageway.

AMANDA

Okay, well, I see what you're saying. But let me show you the rendering, looking toward the vanity. And by using glass on three sides of the shower, it keeps the space feeling very open.

RICHARD

Boy, that really lets you see it, doesn't it?

KATHERINE

Yeah, it's so helpful to me.

AMANDA

And then this is a view looking in the other direction with the claw-foot tub.

Nice and clean. -AMANDA

That's right, yeah. And then we have the design board.

RICHARD

Everything you'd ever want in your bathroom.

AMANDA

Right. So it shows all of the fixtures -- vanity, sconces, and then materials, which we have physical samples here.

RICHARD

Everything but the towels.

KATHERINE

Yeah, right.

RICHARD

So, where is this going?

AMANDA

So, we're using a natural stone, carrara marble, for all of the tile in the bathroom. And we're using the same stone throughout, but we're varying the formats, or sizes, to create interest. So, on the shower wall, we're using the 6"x12". Shower floor, we're using the herringbone, and also as the vanity backsplash. And then over there, we have the 12"x24", which we'll be using for the floor.

RICHARD

But all the same material in different shapes.

AMANDA

Exactly. That creates the interest.

RICHARD

And why marble?

AMANDA

Well, it's luxurious and timeless.

KATHERINE

Yeah, so we feel like it will continue to be a good material, especially since our home is so traditional, but we wanted the bathroom to feel modern.

RICHARD

It won't be like that pink tile that people want to get rid of after 20 years.

KATHERINE

Exactly right, yeah.

RICHARD

All right. So, marble in the master. Now, what about the kids' bathroom?

AMANDA

Oh, let's go take a look.

RICHARD

So, the kids' bathroom is a conventional-sized bathroom.

KATHERINE

Right. 5h-foot tub, toilet, vanity. Very traditional bathroom. And I wanted it to have a traditional style. I wanted it to have a very Victorian style to it. So when I think of Victorian, I think of two words -- "white."

RICHARD

They didn't know anything but white.

KATHERINE

It's true. And "hexagonal."

All right. -KATHERINE

So, we started out looking at this ceramic tile.

The classic tile. -KATHERINE

Absolutely. But it seemed a little bit too white, so I suggested that maybe we could splash in a little bit of a black accent with a black countertop.

RICHARD

Ooh, that will look smart. Very beautiful.

KATHERINE

Yeah. Yeah.

RICHARD

So, that's your floor and your countertop. What about the walls?

AMANDA

So, on our walls, we have beadboard, painted white. And for the tub surround, we're using a 3"x6" ceramic subway tile.

RICHARD

That's also a classic, the subway tile.

AMANDA

Right. Well, we're not using this one. This is the standard one. We're using this, which is also a machine-made tile, but it's made to look handmade. So it has some variation and undulations, which create more interest.

RICHARD

Actually, you can just feel the waves.

That's pretty cool. -KATHERINE

Yeah. But because it's not actually a handmade tile, it's a lot more cost-effective.

RICHARD

That's pretty cool for you.

Yes. -RICHARD

All right, I get it -- black and white, but it's a kids' bathroom.

AMANDA

Right, I wasn't on board with the idea of black and white for kids at first, either, until I started working on the design. And I thought we could introduce color in some other ways, such as the painted green walls. A green shower-curtain rod.

RICHARD

A little bit of whimsy.

AMANDA

Right. And green vanity knobs. All things that can easily be changed out as the kids grow and wouldn't cost a lot.

RICHARD

And those kids are gonna grow.

KATHERINE

You can't stop 'em.

RICHARD

So, you've got two bathrooms decided. -You have, what, two more to go?

AMANDA

We're working on it.

RICHARD

And we're working on it, too. Next week, while we're laying ductwork, Katherine gets to visit the world's largest open-air antique fair. Until next time, I'm Richard Trethewey.

AMANDA

I'm Amanda Reid.

KATHERINE

And I'm Katherine Bicer.

RICHARD

For "This Old House."

I'd rather go with you. -KATHERINE

You should!

KEVIN

Next time on "This Old House," our homeowners go to the world's largest outdoor antique fair to see if they can find some Victorian charm.

KATHERINE

I've got a list. Dining chairs, kitchen table, console table.

KEVIN

Yeah? And on the third floor, we'll solve a ductwork puzzle. Air handler over there. Knee walls wrapping that duct all the way around to this corner right there, wrapping it around the house. Can you do that?

NORM

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