This Old House

TOM

Today on "This Old House," our new porch gets some old-school decking.

KEVIN

And the kitchen gets some cool lighting fixtures. And you can just toggle between those three with that fixture, once it's installed?

SUSAN

Absolutely.

RICHARD

And the two new gas fireplaces will be state-of-the-art.

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" here in Belmont, Massachusetts, where we are working on this shingle-style Victorian. Now, the house was built back in 1895, and the homeowners have asked us to save or to bring back a lot of the original Victorian details, which is just fine with us. But the first thing we needed to do was to work on sort of the bones of the house, the things you won't see when it's finished. Inside, for example, we took down a whole bunch of bearing walls to open up the kitchen space, and then to replace that so that we could carry the weight above, we had to put in a whole bunch of beams. And outside, well, a lot of the work has been on this new porch. Now, the house originally had a porch, but it was taken off years ago. And so to rebuild it, well, we had to dig some big holes so that we could pour new footings, build up these brick piers, and then framing out the structure for this porch, so hopefully it will never come off the house again. And now, well, we're at a turning point. We're gonna start working on the details that you will see when this house is complete, like this beautiful arch here over the porch entryway, or the moldings that run all the way along here and a new hardwood deck for the front porch. So, Tommy, I guess you got to work on the stuff that you can't see so that the stuff that we can see sticks around.

TOM

Absolutely, and that's true in all phases of construction.

KEVIN

So, in terms of the decking, we've always got choices. Manmade materials, we use a lot these days, or natural. In this case, you obviously chose a natural material.

TOM

We used a natural material here. This is actually a 1x4 mahogany, and I really like mahogany. It has a nice, straight, tight grain. I actually built a deck in my house years ago, and it looks beautiful.

KEVIN

Hardwood. This stuff is not gonna rot. It's gonna stick around for a long time.

TOM

It's not gonna rot.

KEVIN

In terms of finishing, what? Stain, natural, paint?

TOM

Well, traditionally, people would have painted it, but a lot of people like to celebrate that wood, so they'll stain it, and it will really look rich.

KEVIN

Okay. Now, in terms of fastening, we got choices, as well. We do a lot of hidden fasteners these days. You could screw it. Looks like you're just nailing it through the face.

TOM

Again, traditionally, this would be nailed with a galvanized 8-penny finish nail, right through the face. We're gonna change the fastener to a stainless steel 8-penny finish nail, and we're gonna add some construction adhesive underneath to really make a nice, tight bond.

KEVIN

The Victorians would not have done that 100 years ago, would they have?

TOM

They certainly would not have.

KEVIN

All right, so it's not going anywhere. In terms of framing, we spent a lot of time when were framing this porch to put in these diagonal members right here.

TOM

Right, and it's all in relationship to how the decking is gonna run. The pattern of the deck is gonna come this way and that way. Traditionally, they would have framed the deck parallel to the front wall. That way, the deck boards could run perpendicular to the wall, and we would also frame the deck down with a pitch so that each deck board would act like a little roof, so that when the rain would come in, it would push the water away from the house.

KEVIN

So, this is something that we're never going to see, but you wanted it there so that we had a good landing spot for this beautiful miter.

TOM

We want the miter to be nice and tight, a lot of structure there, and you want to make sure that all of the structure is perpendicular to the direction of the decking.

KEVIN

All right. Well, let's get more of the decking down.

TOM

Yep. An automatic measuring system is a huge time saver. Punch in the various length, and your measurements are done.

Saw buzzing

TOM

All right, so now we'll check it real quick. We're gonna have a space between each one, so we're using a spacer. That's an 8-penny common nail. I also want to make sure that the tip of the board doesn't touch this board. I have to allow for my spacing there. So I have a nail. I lay this in right like that. So now you can see we have a nice, tight joint, and we have spacing in both directions. All right, now, before we nail it, I'm gonna take the board out and I'm gonna put a little dab of construction adhesive down. Okay. We'll place it back in, keep it against the nails. Make sure my spacing is right. Right there. All right, let me get a tack in this.

Nail gun firing

TOM

Okay, now you can nail yours. Now, make sure it's tight against the nails. If you have --

Nail gun firing

TOM

All right, now we're gonna pull our spacer nails out and move 'em out.

KEVIN

Thank you.

TOM

All right, 11', 2 1/4".

Saw buzzing

Nail guns firing

KEVIN

All right, let's have a look at the progress.

TOM

Oh, yeah.

KEVIN

Well, I love the look of the mahogany, Tommy. Look how tight that miter is. That's great.

TOM

Yeah. It's a nice look, and it's gonna stay nice and straight and tight because our framing is good and strong.

KEVIN

So, more boards parallel to the house. Any miters on the far end?

TOM

Yeah, we got a miter around the two boxes at the top of the stair and front of the stairs. And we got to make a turn, a big miter like this down there to run parallel to the house.

KEVIN

So we're back to it.

TOM

We're back to it.

KEVIN

Our electrician, Allen Gallant, has shown us the history of lighting in our house. It started off with gas lights, went to knob-and-tubing, and now we have conventional wiring. So, today, we have come to a lighting showroom to find out what's next -- what's next in lighting design and technology. Our homeowner and our interior designer are meeting with Susan Arnold, our lighting expert. And, Susan, it's good to see you again.

SUSAN

Hey, Kevin. How are you?

KEVIN

I'm well, thank you. So, Amanda, Katherine, you guys have all had a chance to talk and look at some stuff?

KATHERINE

Yeah, we've been working hard.

KEVIN

And we have a piece of inspiration, right?

AMANDA

Yes, we do. This was an existing fixture that Katherine found in the house, and she adores it.

KEVIN

Mm-hmm.

AMANDA

It has some curves, and the candle cover. So, we're gonna use this as inspiration for some new fixtures.

KEVIN

Now, do you adore it enough to actually reuse that fixture, or is it inspiration only?

KATHERINE

Oh, I love it. I definitely want to reuse it. But we don't have enough of them, so we'll have to buy some new ones, as well.

AMANDA

We'll find a home for this, though.

KEVIN

Beautiful. So, sconces is our first mission for the day?

AMANDA

Yes, yes. And right now, we're talking about the master bathroom. So, in the master bathroom, we have a double vanity.

KEVIN

Mm-hmm.

AMANDA

And we have two medicine cabinets, and then we want to do three sconces, because light is much more flattering when it's on the side of the mirror, as opposed to overhead.

KEVIN

Perfect.

AMANDA

So, we're looking for three sconces. They'll be matching, of course. And we've already talked about some options, and I think we've narrowed it down to this one, which has a loop, and it also has the candle cover. So, it is in line with this one.

KEVIN

Yeah. And what do you think, Katherine? Does that work for you?

KATHERINE

I love it. I think that the loop is so elegant, and I just think it will be amazing in that space.

KEVIN

Okay. So, I'm looking at three different finishes in the catalog. What finish do we want in the bathroom?

AMANDA

We're gonna do polished nickel.

SUSAN

That's a great finish. This is a polished nickel finish right here.

KATHERINE

Oh, that's really beautiful. Come to think of it, I like that fixture, too. I wonder if there's a place we could use that.

AMANDA

You know where I think that would be great is in the powder room. It's elegant but simple enough that it's not going to compete with our wallpaper.

KATHERINE

I love it.

AMANDA

But I think I like it in the brass finish better. So, this fixture in that brass finish.

KATHERINE

Oh, okay. Yeah.

KEVIN

So, some good decisions made on the sconces, -it sounds like, right?

KATHERINE

Yep.

KEVIN

All right, what else do we need to deal with while we're here?

SUSAN

I want to show you some great kitchen options. Let's go this way.

KATHERINE

Great. Thanks.

SUSAN

So, one of the things that's very important when it comes to your kitchen lighting is under-cabinet lighting. Years ago, we had options of halogen and fluorescent. And today we have many different color choices when we start to look at LED.

KEVIN

We love the LED, because it's super efficient. But we do have to choose a color?

SUSAN

Absolutely. So, we like people to bring in their countertop and tile so they can see how the color is gonna reflect off the surface.

AMANDA

Well, I have their finishes right here.

SUSAN

Great. So, this one fixture, which is new, about a year old, it's an LED fixture, and it actually has three different color temperatures. We have a warm, which is like a nice incandescent, we have a medium, and we have a daylight color. Nice, bright, white. No clouds in the sky, full sun.

KATHERINE

And that's the color that I really like. I think it makes the blue really stand out. The first time I saw this, I was amazed. I didn't know that light color could do something like that.

SUSAN

Absolutely.

KEVIN

Do you like it too, Amanda?

AMANDA

Yeah, it really changes the whole look, the different lighting. And it really makes the tile sparkle, and you can really see the crackle finish.

KEVIN

And if Murat doesn't like it, he can always -- ah, no, he doesn't get a choice.

Laughter

KEVIN

I guess he could toggle, but if you guys like it...

We won't tell him. -KEVIN

Perfect. All right. So, from good decisions on sconces. Picked the color for the under-counter. -So we're making good progress?

KATHERINE

Yep, we are.

KEVIN

As always, Susan, great information. Thank you. And then you guys can keep going down the list and make some more decisions.

Definitely. -SUSAN

Thanks.

KEVIN

All right,

thanks. -AMANDA

Bye.

TOM

Now, insulation in an old house like this is usually a problem, because years ago, they would blow it into the walls, and over time, it would settle. Now, remember the ice dams that we had last year. There was a lot of problems in this -- houses like this, because the insulation settled, allowing a lot of voids and a lot of air could escape through the insulation, melting the snow on the roof. When that snow melts, the water comes down and hits the cold overhang, causing an ice dam. We're gonna solve that problem. We're gonna insulate the roof and the walls. Now, any roof or wall areas that are open and we can meet our R-factor, we're actually gonna use an open-cell foam. Now, the R-factor of the open-cell is about 3.4 per inch. It also adds a little bit of sound deadening to it, which is great in some areas of the house. Now, in areas where we have trouble meeting that R-factor, we'll go to a closed-cell foam. It's harder. It actually adds a little bit of structural integrity to a wall system. The R-factor of the closed-cell is about 6.4 per inch, but it's almost double the price of a closed-cell foam. Now, for any cavities that we can't get into with a spray foam, we're actually gonna drill a small hole and we're gonna blow in and dense-pack cellulose into those cavities. Once the cellulose is dense-packed into those wall cavities, it won't settle over time, and the R-factor of the cellulose is almost equal to the open-cell foam. So, the homeowner will save money forever on their energy bill, and no more ice dams.

RICHARD

In this big, beautiful room, there will ultimately be two rooms -- a living room and a dining room. There will be a couple of columns going right here to help to define the two spaces. And in both of the rooms, they want to have fireplaces. Now, in what will be the new dining room, there was an existing fireplace. And it was a masonry fireplace covered with brick that was not original to the building. So Mark McCullough, our masonry contractor, demo'ed that brick, and the homeowners have located a beautiful repurposed mantelpiece that will look just right there. Now, we also want to get away from burning wood, so we called in a fireplace team, Ken LeMire and his team, to get us a gas insert. Ken, is this our new unit?

KEN

That's it. It's a direct-vent gas insert that uses outside air.

RICHARD

Okay.

KEN

As you can see, we got these two flexible pipes that have been fished down here from Jim.

RICHARD

And that's really the big difference. The original wood fireplace would have taken all of its air from inside the building and taken it right up the chimney.

KEN

That's correct. Today, we use it a little bit differently. We use outside air. It makes things more efficient. And it doesn't change the composition of the air in the room.

RICHARD

Great. Any special features of this unit?

KEN

Sure. It's got a remote control.

RICHARD

Another remote control in my life, okay.

KEN

That's right. Manual or in thermostatic motion.

RICHARD

So you can leave this as a thermostat.

KEN

Correct. Keeps the room the same temperature all day.

RICHARD

Cool. Any special safety features we should know about?

KEN

Yeah, if the fireplace is left on for six hours, Richard, it will automatically shut down the pilot.

RICHARD

Can't be too safe.

KEN

Right.

RICHARD

So, is this ready to go in?

KEN

Absolutely. We're ready.

RICHARD

All right. Do you need my help?

Laughs

Laughs

KEN

I think we can get it.

RICHARD

Nobody ever wants my help.

KEN

Nope? All right, Jim. Let's line her up.

JIM

Hold on.

RICHARD

Oh, so there's a little base there. Perfect.

KEN

We just got to slide this in. And we're gonna have to obviously line her up and get all the screws --

RICHARD

And then there's a frame right around that. That is gonna look very smart.

Love it. -KEN

Right.

RICHARD

Now, the dining room had an existing masonry chimney, but in the living room, there was nothing. So Tommy built this structure to look like a finished chimney when it's all finished up. You can actually see the new open-cell polyurethane foam here. And this chase is actually gonna work to our advantage. You can see the plumbing pipe right here for drainage, and for water for our new bathroom here. But what I don't see is a chimney.

KEN

Well, there is no chimney on this one, Richard. Whereas before, we had a masonry chimney, we had two aluminum pipes coming down to feed the fire and release the exhaust.

RICHARD

Sure. Yeah.

KEN

In this one, we have a coaxial hard pipe.

RICHARD

I got you.

KEN

Where it releases the exhaust out of the inside cavity, brings in the fresh air to the outside cavity.

RICHARD

And that's an important distinction -- the hottest flue gases right here, work their way up here, while the cooler combustion air comes down this way. And that really protects this pipe, so you can go within some reasonable distance of combustion.

KEN

Usually one inch.

RICHARD

Really?

That's great. -KEN

Yeah.

RICHARD

All right, so there will be a series of rigid pipes, and then it will go to the outside right here. What's it look like on the outside?

KEN

Well, it's this cap right here, Richard,

also made of aluminum. -RICHARD

Okay.

KEN

That's what it would look like on the outside of the home.

RICHARD

That's not terrible. It does stick out a little bit, but that's not bad.

KEN

It can be painted if it's a problem.

And that's hot. -KEN

It is hot.

Chuckles

RICHARD

All right, how about special features? Anything to know about it?

KEN

All the same features we talked about on the insert are transferred into this fireplace, as well.

RICHARD

Okay, so it's the remote and that automatic shutoff?

KEN

Yep, six hours.

RICHARD

Okay. The thing I like the most that I heard, though, is that if there's no power, this thing still will have heat, right?

KEN

Six AA batteries. No electricity required. As long as you got battery, you got heat.

RICHARD

The party starts in this room. Thanks, guys.

KEN

You're welcome.

KEVIN

Boy, Tommy, you're moving all over this porch, huh? From the deck up onto the roof.

TOM

It's like I said earlier, I got to move this project along.

KEVIN

All right. So, shingling.

TOM

Yeah, shingling. First, we have to choose the color of the shingle that we're gonna use.

KEVIN

Mm-hmm.

TOM

Now, the homeowners know that later on, they're gonna have to change the existing roof on the house, because it's old. It's got about five or six years left. But for now, they want to match the color of the roof.

KEVIN

So, this is the closest match we're gonna come up with?

TOM

This is actually the shingle that's on the house. It's called slate gray, or slate blend.

KEVIN

Okay.

TOM

It's a three-tab shingle.

Yep. -TOM

All right. So, now, what we have here is what is considered a low-pitch roof. A standard roof of 5 inches up and 12 inches out is a standard-pitched roof. Anything above, you can use a shingle with no problem. Because we have a 3 and 12, that's a low-pitched roof. I want to make sure that the roof is waterproof.

KEVIN

The lower pitch it is, the more likely we're gonna have driving rain coming up underneath those shingles, hence the membrane?

TOM

Exactly. So we're gonna use a self-sealing membrane. So that means that when we drive a nail through it, or if water should be driven up under the shingle, the roof is still gonna be waterproof.

KEVIN

So, the whole roof is covered with this membrane, even went up the side wall there.

TOM

Right. Now, the other thing that you have to remember is that when these shingles go down on a standard 5 and 12 pitch, we have 5 inches exposed to the weather.

KEVIN

So, this is the exposure right here?

TOM

Right. Now, because this is gonna be a low-pitched roof, I like to drop the exposure an inch, making it a 4 inches to the weather, a tighter reveal.

KEVIN

Okay.

TOM

That allows me to nail it closer to the bottom of the shingle on each tab, lessening the chance for the shingle blowing up.

KEVIN

All right. So, where are we going from here?

TOM

We can snap some lines and shingle.

KEVIN

Good. Good. Good.

TOM

Now we want to snap our verticals.

KEVIN

Good.

TOM

All right. So, now the horizontal lines that we struck are for the top of the shingle. That references a straight line all the way across the roof, and as I move it up and place it on each one of the lines, that actually gives us a straight line, and at the same time, my 4-inch reveal.

KEVIN

Right.

TOM

Okay, now, when you start the roof, if I just took the first shingle and I laid it on the line like that, I would have a straight shingle, but I'd have an open slot, every single shingle and on each joint.

KEVIN

And we don't want to see that opening.

TOM

No, so what a lot of roofers will do is they'll take a full shingle, flip it upside-down, and lay it on the roof like this, and nail it.

KEVIN

Yep.

TOM

Okay, but I like to do is take a shingle and cut off the tabs, take the shingle, and put it on right-side-up like that, and this brings the sticky part of the shingle that will adhere the shingle above lower.

KEVIN

Right.

TOM

Okay?

Nail gun firing

TOM

All right, now that I have my starter strip on, I can actually start building up the roof. Now, this is where my horizontal and my vertical lines come into play. I'm gonna line up the top of the shingle with my horizontal, and the end of the shingle with my vertical.

Nail gun firing

TOM

Okay, so now you can see our starter strip and our first shingle are offset about 6 inches. The next shingle going on the roof, if I place it on my line, is also offset 6 inches. But that means I have to cut 6 inches off the end of this shingle, so that it'll be a straight line. Now, if you look at the top of the shingle, the manufacturer gives us reference points on where to cut our shingle. So if I cut at my first mark right here... Now when I take the shingle, turn it over, place it on the line, both lines, I have a half-inch overhang here and a nice, straight line. Now, if I had a standard 5-inch reveal, I would nail the shingle like this... One, right over the tab. But we have 4-inch reveal. That allows me to nail the shingle lower, and I can nail one on each side of the tab, lessening the chance of the shingle blowing up. So, now, I'm gonna work my way up the roof again. Take another shingle. This time, I'm gonna cut 12 inches off the shingle. Flip it over. Put it on my line. I have my half-inch reveal. And I'm gonna nail it low. All right, now, the next piece I'm actually gonna take one of the pieces that I cut off. I'm gonna lay it on my line. Both pieces. Put on another one here. Cut 12 inches. Now we've laid out our first section of the roof with 6-inch offsets and 4-inch reveal.

KEVIN

So, now that we've got the offset, Tommy, we can lay a full shingle next to each one of these seams, all the way down, and we know that offset is just gonna repeat itself.

TOM

Exactly right.

KEVIN

Nice. All right, Tommy. It's a good-looking roof, right? Watertight, too.

TOM

Yeah, a little more to do up around there, and we're in good shape up here.

KEVIN

So, framing a couple weeks ago. This week we got the decking down on the porch, and now the roof on the porch. What about next week?

TOM

Next week, we'll be doing some detail work outside.

KEVIN

All right, well, until then, I'm Kevin O'Connor.

TOM

And I'm Tom Silva.

KEVIN

For "This Old House." Next time on "This Old House"...

TOM

Our porch piers get a cedar flare.

KEVIN

You know when they say the money is in the corners, this is what they're talking about.

TOM

And we have a lot of them.

KEVIN

The mudroom exterior gets some finishing touches.

TOM

The architect called for the door to be made out of mahogany, so I had it made in mahogany. And it made a big difference in the price, I can tell you that.

KEVIN

And our master bath gets some classic Carrara marble. That's never gonna go out of style.

TOM

Never go out of style.

RICHARD

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