This Old House

Jenn

North Shore boulders go in place today to create a level playing field.

Fred

I love it!

Jenn

Let's get another one.

Tom

Pocket doors have sat inside these walls for 120 years. Today they get restored.

Kevin

And today we'll learn how to lay out mosaic tile. 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!

Richard

It's five bathrooms. It's a kitchen. It's a full new mechanical. It's gonna be a biggie.

Kevin

Sounds like you guys have a plan.

Jenn

I think we do.

laughs

Tom

The money's in the detail.

Kevin

That is beautiful. Hi, there. I'm Kevin O'Connor and welcome back to "This Old House," here on Cape Ann, Massachusetts, up on the North Shore, and this beautiful lot that we have, just about a mile from the water, nice wooded area with all of this ledge and granite that the original house was built around. That shingle-style right there, originally a summer house built in 1890. Now, the only new space we have, well, it's this garage right here. Two bays, but I gotta say, Charlie and his guys did a nice job of making this fit in with the rest of the house. Lots of progress, so let me show you around. This is a two-bay garage and it's probably the way the homeowners will now enter the house. Hey,

Kevin. Kevin B.

Hi, Kevin.

Kevin

You can see that it is fully insulated. Kevin Bilo and his guys put radiant heat in the concrete slab. Thank you for that. And then you'll enter through here into a new mudroom. Heath,

good morning. Heath

Hi, Kevin.

Kevin

So, over to here, there is a full bath with a shower right in there and this is the new mudroom entry and, as you walk back through here into the heart of the house, you can go to the back. This will be a family room with kitchen off to this side. And then, this opening right here, this was added so that you could see straight through to the front of the house, and check that out. Entryway, the beautiful diamond-leaded glass windows right there, and then, we've got the fireplace. That's gonna be restored and all fixed up. Phil, how are you? John, Tommy, what's goin' on?

Tom

I'm trying to figure out what's goin' on with these pocket doors. You know, they're over 100 years old and pocket doors are really sweet for a --

Kevin

So original, huh?

Tom

Original. See how quiet they are?

Kevin

That is a beauty. Look at the size of that thing!

Tom

Still running good.

Kevin

That is awesome.

Tom

But this one over here, not so good. It actually fell off the wheels right here and we had to pull it out of the opening and I've never actually seen this hardware before. I think what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna open it up above. We've had to strip the plaster off of this wall, here.

Yep. Tom

I'm gonna take off this piece up here on the top, that cap piece, so I can reach down and pull these wheels up, and then, I'm gonna see how they fit on the door. Alright. See if you can lift that out.

Kevin

Oh, what have we got in there?

Tom

Reach down, get the wheel.

Clanking

There it is. Kevin

Oh, cool!

Tom

Look at that. And it looks like some kind of an adjustment right there. And this goes into the door, so we've gotta get that into the door and see how it holds in place.

Kevin

Check this out. "Richards-Wilcox manufacturing from Illinois." Huh! "Patent pending May 24, 1881."

Tom

That's alright. I would say these are definitely original to the house.

Kevin

Still in service, on one side.

Tom

Yep, and here's the other one.

Kevin

Very cool.

Tom

Nice, huh?

Kevin

Yeah. So, this is the top of the door that came off?

Tom

Right. Okay, so, now, this one will go this way and the other one will drop in the other way, but this is interesting. So, if you look at these pins, 'cause of the angle that they're on -- They're on a diagonal. Because they're on a diagonal, it's the adjustment for the height of the door, so you can see how this wheel goes further away from the door when I move it back.

Up or down. Tom

Yep.

Kevin

And then this one here?

Tom

That little opening there is so that you can get to the screw that locks it into place. Now, these screws on both of them have fallen out. I thought, for sure, we'd be able to find them inside the opening. Couldn't do it, so I picked up a couple of screws and I'm gonna have to probably modify this hole just a little bit so I can get the head of the screw to fit in there. See if that head fits in there.

Kevin and Tom

Yep.

Alright. Kevin

Good.

Tom

Pretty good. Gonna get the other one to work. Now, if I tighten this up, does it stay there? Yeah.

Kevin

Holy smokes.

Yep. Kevin

Rock-solid.

Tom

Pretty cool. I love it. Alright. So, now, we have to take the wheels off, put 'em back inside the opening...

Kevin

Oh, so good right there.

laughing

Tom

...and it's gonna be a trick to get these on the door while it's in the hole. Alright. So I gotta get those two pins lined up with the holes.

Kevin

Oh.

Tom

Oh, my gosh. That went right in. Look at that!

Kevin

Come on up. Gimme one more second. Alright. The thread's caught.

Tom

Okay. Just keep goin'.

Kevin

I can go a little tighter to pull this up.

Snug it up. Kevin

Alright. Let's see

if that gets over the -- Tom

Okay.

Let's see how they meet. Kevin

Oh-hoh-hoh-hoh! Look at that!

Tom

Nice and quiet, huh?

Kevin

Boy, that thing slides like it's brand-new!

Tom

Alright. So let's bring 'em together.

Kevin

Holy mackerel.

Tom

That really slides easy. Right in the middle there, we just --

Kevin

Right there.

Perfect. Kevin

Very nice. What do you think, Tommy, get another 120 years out of these?

Tom

Well, 100, anyway.

Both chuckle

Tom

Kevin

Our homeowners have asked for a little bit of solar power on this house, so, up here from the third floor, you can see the roof that we're putting it on. It comes off the second floor. Danny is our installer. Danny, good to meet you.

Daniel

Hey. Nice to meet you, too, Kevin.

Kevin

So I'm told you're giving us a new type of panel, sort of a low-profile panel.

Daniel

Low-profile panel. It's a roof-integrated solar system.

Kevin

So what does that mean?

Daniel

So it's gonna be directly attached to the roof and, when I say roof-integrated, there's not gonna be shingles underneath. The solar panels actually act as the roofing system.

Kevin

Really?! Okay. So I am seeing some shingles, but, these are just gonna be around the perimeter?

Daniel

Yep. Yeah. We'll step flash with the shingles underneath, but other than that, we just have our roofing underlayments directly underneath the panel.

Kevin

So you can sorta see, here, shingles, which we're used to. This is the peel-and-stick layer.

Daniel

Yep. That's exactly right.

Kevin

So, under the panels, we'll have the peel-and-stick and this layer right here?

Daniel

Yep. The fireproofing layer, that's what makes our system Class A fire-rated.

Nice. Daniel

That's what allows it to be so close to the deck.

Kevin

Alright, Heath. You're clipped in.

Alright. Kevin

I appreciate you helpin' out. I know you would've, anyway, but you actually have to do this, right?

Heath

We do. So, yeah, in Massachusetts, we're actually required to have a licensed electrician assist in the installation of solar panels.

Kevin

Danny, you have our best man. Alright. Oh, let me get out of the way. Panel's comin' in.

Daniel

So I'll take one end, if you just wanna keep feeding it.

Heath

Yep.

Kevin

So, first off, you said six panels, Danny?

Daniel

Six panels. That's right.

Kevin

What are we lookin' at here?

Daniel

So we're looking at our 360-watt solar cell. Sixty cells within this solar panel. Like we mentioned earlier, we've got our racking integrated into the panel on all sides. What's really special about this one is how each panel integrates with one another. The next panel will sit on top and engage with this rubber gasket to prevent any wind-driven rain.

Kevin

And these feet right here along the back?

Daniel

So these feet are what attach to the deck itself.

Yeah. Daniel

So we've got 5 feet on each panel. These are adjustable, too, so, if you've got a wavy deck, we can actually adjust these to keep a straight, level plane across the solar panels.

Kevin

And then this guy?

Daniel

Now, this is the brains behind the operation. This is a micro inverter, so this is actually what takes the DC power from the solar panel and converts it to the AC that's usable in the house.

Kevin

So you're gonna take one. You're gonna start down on the far end and work your way back?

Daniel

Work our way back. We've got three panels in one row and then we'll hop up to the second. Each one of our panels has a grounding lug. This grounds the whole system to one another. And this is where all our wires, all our feeders, our AC wires, and our grounding is gonna come through via our junction box. So, next component is our top-flashing support. Each one of my top flashings is gonna cover this whole section.

Kevin

So, what sort of an output are we gonna get from this array?

Daniel

So, from this array, we've got six panels, 2.16 kilowatts on the DC side.

Kevin

Any guess how much of their power load it's gonna handle?

Daniel

On average, for this system size, it's gonna feed about 20% of their usage.

Kevin

Cool. Alright. Well, Danny, thank you very much and, you know, feel free to keep our electrician.

Laughing

Daniel

Jenn

So, the last thing you would think is we needed more boulders on-site, but we do because we needed to create a level playing space for their daughter. Everything was a steep slope before, so these boulders are brought in so we could help retain that slope and it doesn't wash out. So, over here, we have an assortment of boulders. Hey,

Fred. Fred

Hey, Jenn. How you doing?

Jenn

Good. How you doing?

Good to see you. Jenn

So, you wanna tell us why you have 'em all laid out like this?

Fred

Well, when the truck comes, when they dump 'em, they're just in a big pile, so I like to spread 'em out, take like a mental inventory, see what we have, take note of the size, shape, color. So as I'm buildin' the wall, I can remember, "Hey, I saw that rock earlier." Go back, grab it, put it on the wall.

It's like the memory game. Fred

Hopefully, it fits. You have to figure out your space.

It's a form of art. Fred

They don't always fit, but.

Jenn

Yep. That looks pretty good.

Fred

Nice and tight. Now, we're gonna find another rock to fit over these two rocks, one over two, two over one.

Jenn

Love that. Alright. So, we'll fit one that fits like a puzzle piece right in.

Yep. Both

Alright.

Fred

Let's go rock shoppin'. I think I remember seein' a few over here that might work.

Jenn

Ooh, I like this one.

Fred

Let's give it a shot.

Jenn

Even the colors line up!

Fred

I love it!

Jenn

Let's get another one.

Fred

There you go.

Jenn

That's nice and flat.

Fred

That one's nice.

Jenn

This wall's really comin' out great.

Fred

Yeah. It's turnin' out nice.

Jenn

Thanks, guys. Thanks for comin' out in the snow today. And good seeing you, Fred.

Thank you. Jenn

Alright. Thank you.

Kevin

Hey,

Richard. Richard

Hi, Kevin. How are ya?

Kevin

Alright. A lotta progress down here, not just for this job, but going back 120 years.

Richard

Yeah. I mean, there was never an original heating system and they added one for the caretaker 'cause it was just a summer place, but, now, we have a heating system for the next 100 years.

Kevin

A nice one,

too. Richard

Right. Every surface in this building, every horizontal surface, has radiant floor heating in it,

all three floors. Kevin

Awesome.

Richard

And so we've got a command central board here that we've shown before, but, you know, what it has is there's three different floor conditions in this building.

Kevin

It is a work of art.

Richard

Right, it really is. So, right here, this mixing valve is for the tile and the concrete. That needs one water temperature. Then, the more R-value you put on top of the floor, like carpet, this would be the highest water temperature you're gonna need; and then, hardwood floors comes off here.

Yep. Richard

So, the way it works is it's got a mixing valve right here that puts out the right water temperature, a brutally smart pump. This pump is so smart. It sort of figures out what it needs all the time, okay? And changes the flow rate to everything.

Yep. Richard

And then, through these boxes, every single loop... See these manifolds? These are all through the building. There's about eight of 'em through the building....will have a little power head like this. that'll have a thermostat say yes or no to every single room,

so it's -- Kevin

Wow.

Richard

It's absolute precision.

Yep. That's awesome. Richard

Okay? So, now, here's tile. Here's carpet. Here's wood. And we've got two lines that are gonna go over to our indirect tank, but I wanna show you something. Anytime you have a hydronic system -- that means you're heating water -- you have to have stability. You have to have the air eliminated from it, so, this is an air eliminator and it really is amazing inside. Anytime this is pumping through here, any of the oxygen bubbles hit these little spindles and it turns into micro bubbles and comes out through here, so it means all the air comes out this way, so you get hydronic stability. Now, you can start movin' it all over the building and not have an issue.

Kevin

If you didn't have this surface area right here, the air would stay in the water

and could pass right through. Richard

You might have to try and burp it out at different manifolds and you're chasin' it all the time. This thing scrubs it, okay?

Kevin

So this board is for heating, but you said we have indirect for our hot water supply?

Richard

So, right here, these two lines right here come over to an indirect tank. Now, we've used these before, but we've never shown you one naked.

Laughter

Kevin

Oh, well, you know, anytime you can show me something naked...

Richard

So, here is a stainless steel tank and inside it, it has a coil like this and it's much longer, the actual coil inside. So boiler water passes through this coil. It gives up its heat to the stored volume of water here that started cold and become hot.

Never mixes. Richard

No, no.

Kevin

Nope. It just gives up its heat.

Richard

No. And then, when it's done, look at this,

the level of insulation Kevin

Wow. That's like

right here. Kevin

6 inches of insulation.

Richard

Right here and it'll be on every single surface, so it becomes this super insulated Thermos bottle ready to go for plenty of hot water for all those bathrooms in this building.

Kevin

Indirect because the fire is over there and it only comes on when this cools down.

Richard

One flame in this boiler right here.

Yep. Richard

And this is our gas fire-condensing boiler. It's a floor-mounted unit. You know, a lot has changed in these high-efficiency boilers. Let me show ya. So, Kevin, we've talked about this before. You know, the heat loss in any building changes all winter long, according to how cold it is outside versus how warm you want it inside. So, if you have a typical house, like we do, with those three different floor conditions, the tile, the carpet, and the wood, the water wants to circulate and just gently modulate all winter long and just change a little as it gets colder. When we first went into super efficient gas fire-condensing boilers, those boilers were all relatively small and wall-hung. Now, those wall-hung boilers were really efficient, except, the heat delivery system was lookin' for a gentle supply to it and the boilers got so hot, so quick, that they fired up and got quickly hot and then shut off, so they cycled too much. So we really would like to have the burner stay on longer. So the trend has been to go to a larger, water content heating device, so that the burner has a chance to stay on longer, to lower input. You can see that the temperature in the boiler doesn't get super hot. It actually more closely matches what you're lookin' for out of the system,

and that reduces cycling. Kevin

Mm-hmm.

Richard

So, this is what a cutaway is of this larger water content boiler. It helps to understand. You know,

when these -- Kevin

What?!

chuckling

Look at you. Richard

Okay. When these wall-hung boilers first came out, the heat exchanges had relatively small water content. You know, this was one, and this was another, and these would be stacked together and the flame would come through.

Kevin

And that's the full volume of water that you had.

Richard

: Either of those. And so, with this, you can see a burner right here. The burner comes with this beautiful flame that will just modulate and change according to how cold it is outside, but this is how much water content. See it? Water, water, water, water, water everywhere.

Wow. Richard

So, now, that water's gently circulatin', you know, through the -- out through it, so it'll actually take, it'll actually take the burner's input and just stay on and it seems backwards, right? Because you say, "You're gonna leave the burner on?" Yeah. We're gonna leave the burner on, but at the perfectly lowest amount, versus havin' to come on and off.

Kevin

Also counterintuitive that, in this case, bigger

is better than smaller. Richard

That's right. Yeah, but it really is. We wanna reduce cycling 'cause we're inefficient when we're cycling.

Kevin

Right. Beautiful. Love it. Thank you,

Richard. Richard

Isn't that cool?

Kevin

Hey,

Mike. Mike

Hey, Kevin.

Kevin

So, the Ferrante van is out front, which means it is time for tiling. They're workin' up here on the second floor. This is the master bedroom. This is a guest bedroom in here. Mark, how are you?

Mark

Good, Kevin. How you doing?

Kevin

Alright. Big layout table here. And just off of the bedroom is a guest bathroom.

chuckling

Kevin

Erik, how are you?

Erik

Good, Kevin.

Kevin

So this is our little bathroom in here. What are we workin' with?

Erik

Well, today we're working with a marble mosaic.

Kevin

May I see that? Marble. So are both of these light and dark marble?

Erik

Yep. The white is the honed. The gray is the polished.

Kevin

Let me see if I can pick that up in the window reflection. Oh, yeah, so the gray reflects and the white is pretty flat. That's the honed. Alright. And check that out. So this is on a little bit

of a mesh backer. Erik

Exactly.

Kevin

So there's a whole bunch of little pieces?

Erik

Yep, whole bunch of pieces

Nice. Erik

made into one 10x10 square.

Kevin

Cool design with this and that

stickin' out. Alright. Erik

Yep, yep.

Kevin

So, how are you thinkin' about layout? Walk me through that process, please.

Erik

Well, Kevin, when we start a layout, most important thing is, you know, the focal point, big pieces when you come in this door.

Kevin

So this right here, a threshold, this is the first thing

people are gonna see. Erik

Exactly. That's where your eyes are gonna go to, follow along the wall, here.

Kevin

Another important place.

Erik

Yep, and right up to the tub.

Kevin

And then I presume you're less concerned about this side, just with all the other things going on?

Erik

Yeah, a little less concerned. We have the vanity. We have a toilet. It's gonna eat up a little bit of room.

Kevin

Okay.

Erik

But, still, at the same time, you know, we'll be symmetrical, left to right,

front to back. Kevin

Right. And you get that symmetry by picking your center lines, which are already drawn on the floor.

Yep. Kevin

So, with big pieces, your point is you don't want a little sliver of a piece like right there 'cause we'll see it.

Erik

All about that appearance.

Kevin

Alright. So what are you thinkin' for layout?

Erik

Okay, so here we have our crosshairs.

We have our center lines. Kevin

Mm-hmm.

Erik

And we're gonna lay it out a few different ways. Here, we'll start on both sides of the line, again, front to back, left to right.

Kevin

Got it.

Erik

And we'll check to see what the piece is.

Kevin

This is the thing that I think most people don't appreciate of what you guys do, you know? Everyone thinks that you're just cuttin' tile and puttin' it down with your grout lines, with your thin-set. It's a lotta layout.

It's a lot of thinking. Erik

Yeah, a little bit to it. Little bit to it. So, again, back to -- left to right. What we have is that's a big piece.

You like that. Erik

Yes. So, we're starting with a 10-by-10 square, Kevin, so, right there, 8 3/4

piece. Kevin

Nice.

I'll take it. Kevin

Okay. So that's a good line going this way and, if we continue towards the tub...

Erik

Yep. If we go towards the tub...

Kevin

There's another one for ya. Two full pieces. This would be your third full piece. Uh-oh.

Laughs

Erik

Not too crazy about it.

Kevin

So you'll have a little tiny stub. Give me that again. How many inches was that?

Erik

About 2 3/4 inches.

Kevin

So what do you do in that situation, you blow up this layout?

Erik

Well, this is where we'll make an adjustment and see what we end up with. So what I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna move these. I'm gonna split this center line.

Kevin

Okay.

Erik

The front-to-back center line. We're gonna stay where we are left to right.

Kevin

We know this one works,

that way. Erik

We know that one works.

Kevin

I'm just gonna stick this back in there for us. So we basically have adjusted half a tile. Our little 2 3/4-inch stub piece is gonna be what, now, with your tape?

Erik

Lookin' a lot better.

So 8 -- Erik

Almost 8 inches.

Okay. Erik

So, with that 8-inch piece there, up against the tub, we'll have the 8-inch piece in front of the door, exactly what we're lookin' for.

Kevin

Beautiful. Okay. What next?

Erik

So we'll start cuttin' these pieces along the wall. We're gonna -- We'll cut one now, see how it fits, and then, we'll take it from there. Dad, 8 3/4.

Mark

Okay!

Kevin

We'll give that a look, Mark,

chuckle

Kevin

see how you did.

Erik

I think that's the one.

Kevin

Okay!

Erik

Put a couple pieces down. 1/4"x1/4" notch trowel. Little back butter.

Kevin

No spacers for your separation, there? You're just gonna eyeball that?

Erik

Nope. We're gonna do it by eye.

Kevin

So, when you're working with a mosaic tile like this, pretty complicated on the mesh, you know,

more so than a single tile

harder, easier, more time-consuming, or what?

Erik

Definitely time-consuming. Being a mosaic, we have 30-something pieces that make up a 10-by-10, so, compare that to maybe just a regular ceramic.

Kevin

Yeah. Good thing for homeowners to know, too, when they pick a tile like this, it's gonna take --

Erik

Yeah. Gonna take a little bit of time.

Kevin

Yep. You pay for it two ways.

Erik

The biggest thing is just take your time. Have some patience.

Kevin

And then, after this, what do you gotta do, let it set up?

Erik

Yep. We'll let it set up for the day and then we'll come back the following day

and get it grouted. Kevin

Nice. Mark!

Mark

Kevin.

Kevin

Whaddya think? How'd your son do?

Looks great. Kevin

It does, doesn't it?

Mark

Yes,

it does. Kevin

I like the tile. I like the design and you definitely figured out the edges alright. Nice job, guys.

Thanks. Mark

Thank you.

Kevin

Alright. Well, that is it for us. But next time, we are gonna restore the original leaded-glass windows and Jenn is gonna start gettin' plants in the ground. So, until then, I'm Kevin O'Connor.

I'm Mark Ferrante. Erik

I'm Erik Ferrante.

Kevin

For "This Old House" here on Cape Ann. Next time on "This Old House"... The plaster is up and that means we're starting to work on some of the finish details. Painters are here, electrician is doing final, and we've gotta make some design decisions.

Jenn

We're making this bed a colorful transition to the forest.

Tom

Most of the trimwork in the house is installed and a lot of it is new, except for this window right here. When it was demoed, the trim was damaged. Let me show you how we're gonna fix it.

Woman

This is the big moment.

Kevin

That's awesome. So, right back to where it was

120 years ago. Woman

Yep.