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This Old House Season 47 Episode 2
This Old House Season 47 Episode 2
#RealityTVDeep
This Old House Season 47 Episode 2
#RealityTVDeep
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FunTranscript
00:00Today we're back in western North Carolina where it's all about rebuilding
00:03after Hurricane Helene. And here in Swannanoa, it's all about prepping this
00:07bathroom wall for tile. And in East Asheville, the plumbers and electricians
00:12are here. We're turning the corner. And I'm in North Asheville helping the
00:15builder uncover how much damage there is in this house. If you like demo, this is
00:19the place to be.
00:30In late September 2024, meteorologists started issuing a warning. There was a
00:54hurricane that was headed for the Florida Panhandle. About 500 miles away, in
00:59the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the residents of Asheville and Swannanoa
01:04heard the warnings and knew that the remnants would be headed their way like
01:08they usually do. But this time, the unthinkable happened.
01:12Here's the bridge near the convenience store. Looks like the bridge is still holding, but
01:16honestly I can't tell.
01:18Creeks and streams swelled into rivers. Rivers turned into tidal waves.
01:23These waves are about eight to ten feet high, so it's still coming up.
01:28Flooding to levels this area has never seen.
01:31God, this is crazy. I'd say we're close to 20 feet over the regular height of the river,
01:37and that looks like it could get swept away.
01:39So why was Helene different? For that, we turn to Weather Channel meteorologist Stephanie
01:45Abrams, who was here in the days following that record-breaking storm.
01:49You were here days after the storm.
01:51Exactly, right here. This is what it looks like on a typical day. One, two feet, you can stand in it.
01:56But when Helene came through, this river got over 27 feet.
02:00And that's crazy, right? That's up to roof lines and stuff like that.
02:02I mean, you're talking two stories high. That's how high it was here. And of course, taking out everything in its path.
02:08And that broke the old record by over six feet that had been standing since 1916.
02:16That's crazy. So put that in meteorological terms. What does that mean? What type of storm is that?
02:21Okay, so that brought the rainfall we saw from not only Helene, but there was actually a rain event before that.
02:28So we had the rain event, then we had Helene on top of that. You saw four, five, six times the amount of rainfall you get in a typical month in just a matter of days.
02:37So there were some areas here that had a thousand-year rain event.
02:41Wow.
02:41And that doesn't mean that it's going to happen once every thousand years. It means that there's a 0.1% chance of that happening any given year.
02:49Yes. But the point is, a minuscule percentage chance that that's going to happen.
02:55Yeah. And here's the thing, though. With our warming climate, Helene went over record warm temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico.
03:00It was still a tropical storm when it crossed over into North Carolina.
03:04So let's just talk about that. We're 300 miles inland from the coast. I didn't think that you get a hurricane and this type of damage in the mountains so far from the ocean.
03:13That happens a lot. It can go all the way to the Midwest or even the remnants. So you have to remember that these are not just coastal systems.
03:20Whatever's left of them, whether it's a hurricane, tropical storm, even the remnants can cause a lot of damage.
03:26Here in Western North Carolina, you have the mountains, which makes things worse because you get the moisture coming in.
03:31And what the mountains do is they shove the air mass up. It cools and condense and rains out even more.
03:36Everything is being funneled down and it's rushing down.
03:39Very quickly. And it's filling up all the different tributaries, those that are going to fill up all the rivers.
03:44And Asheville sits on the intersection of two rivers.
03:47So it's not just one, it's two rivers that are swelling and coming into this area.
03:52There was over 2,000 landslides. You had mudslides.
03:55Mount Mitchell, the highest peak here, gusted over 100.
03:57So you have hurricane force gusts and you have weak soil where the trees are trying to grab on.
04:02Tons of trees coming down to slicing through homes.
04:05The perfect storm.
04:07Unfortunately.
04:08So you've seen this before. You've been everywhere. You followed all these storms. You've been doing it for decades.
04:13What are your thoughts on, you know, Western North Carolina, Asheville?
04:17They're going to come back. They're going to come back stronger. They're going to come back better.
04:20And I just can't wait to see the finished product.
04:22We'd love to hear that. Thank you.
04:25Welcome to Swannanoa, a town that is about 15 miles east of downtown Asheville, North Carolina.
04:32Lots of damage. Work is underway. And we're here to help.
04:38Hey, there they are. Chris, good to see you.
04:39Yeah, good to see you.
04:40Good to see you.
04:41Zach, welcome to North Carolina.
04:42Hey, Kevin.
04:43We have an extra set of hands down here. You guys are going to like working with this guy.
04:45Thoughts? Have you had a chance to look around?
04:47Yeah, I mean, just driving in, it was amazing.
04:49As soon as I got close to the water, it just felt like the storm was yesterday
04:53with the amount of damage and vehicles overturned.
04:56It's a little overwhelming, honestly.
04:59My heart goes out to the amount of rebuilding you guys got to do,
05:02and hopefully I can just help a little bit while I'm here.
05:05Well, there's a lot to do in this neighborhood.
05:07You've seen what's going on outside here.
05:09Yeah.
05:10You guys made some progress since we were here last?
05:13Yeah, we're coming along.
05:14We've kind of changed some layouts on some of these houses, got some framing in,
05:19and we're kind of trying to strike the balance of giving the clients kind of what they want
05:24in a new house, but trying to make it feel old still, even with the old layouts and stuff.
05:28And you've got to do that times three, because we've got three houses in progress.
05:31Where do they each stand?
05:32Yeah, Kevin, this one we got all of our rough-in trades finished up,
05:36and we have electrical, plumbing, and the other two left up.
05:40Okay, so progress, although lots to do.
05:43And like I said, we've got extra hands, so put us to work.
05:46What can we do to help?
05:47Cool, yeah, we'll start right back here, straightening walls
05:49and getting things ready for the next stage.
05:52Okay, four of us, or?
05:53Yeah, no, Zach and I will head over to another house, and we'll start porch ceiling.
05:57Divide and conquer.
05:58Let's race you.
05:59Come on, let's go.
06:00All right, Kevin, so today's work's in these two bathrooms here.
06:05This is the primary bath.
06:06Yeah.
06:07This is the secondary bath here.
06:08Okay.
06:09We're going to be kind of straightening some walls and replacing some stuff,
06:12but the general layout on this one is linen tower in the corner,
06:15then we'll have a vanity and a toilet, and then we've sized it all appropriate
06:19for a little bit larger tub, just for a little more soaking space.
06:22And then over here, it'll be kind of a similar just tub, toilet, cabinet as well.
06:26Nice.
06:27So you've kind of backed them up to each other, the plumbing, right?
06:29Mm-hmm.
06:30All right, sounds good.
06:31And our job today?
06:32So today, we're going to kind of be tackling these two walls here.
06:35We want to pull some of the old stuff out.
06:37It's just squirrely.
06:38It's not straight.
06:39And with this being an exterior wall and nine-foot ceilings and being tiled,
06:44we want the new structure to be more stable than it is now.
06:47I'm game.
06:48So we start with demo.
06:49Let's do it, yeah.
06:50Okay.
06:51So this is just temporary.
07:01Do you want to take this out now?
07:02Yeah, we'll go ahead and take this out, and then we'll start getting this first cripple
07:06out here.
07:08And then we'll go ahead and take this old sill out.
07:11All right, Kevin, I've got some temporary support for us.
07:16I'm going to go ahead and stick this in here and kind of get a tight fit while we take these
07:21other kings out.
07:23So this is our new material?
07:26Yeah, this is the new material.
07:28It's really stable.
07:29It's a laminated.
07:30It's kind of like an LVL.
07:31They're straight as can be, strong as can be.
07:34Those will be our kings, the vertical studs that run from the bottom plate to the top plate
07:39of the wall, placed on either side of the opening.
07:44We'll go ahead and pop our header in.
07:51Now, our jack studs, which are the shorter studs that support the header above the window.
07:57So this is our last piece.
07:59We're going to double up that sill just for some rigidity.
08:02And this was actually tapered from an inch and a half down to an inch and a quarter just
08:06so the water rolls off as we flash it.
08:09Okay, so one down.
08:11Should we get it going on the next one?
08:13We've got one more to do.
08:14Let's do it.
08:15Cool.
08:16Yeah, it's like all these homes are on crawl spaces, and all the HVAC units were in the
08:21crawl spaces.
08:22So what we did was we moved the HVAC units into the attic.
08:26Oh, okay.
08:27I see them up there.
08:28Yeah.
08:29Yeah, Zach.
08:30The reason that we did that is because in a couple of years we're going to have to raise
08:33these houses by about four feet because they're reestablishing the floodplain here in the county,
08:38and that takes time.
08:39Ah, I got you.
08:40So what's the plan for insulating this now?
08:43We're going to use spray foam insulation.
08:45The spray foam needs a backer, something to adhere to.
08:47So we're going to extend this wall up.
08:49Got it.
08:50So you're basically making a spray foam hat on this house, and the HVAC equipment is going
08:55to be inside that, so it's going to be in a nice conditioned space rather than being
08:58in a really hot or cold attic.
09:00That's right.
09:01That's a good plan.
09:02I like it.
09:03So what do you need me to do?
09:04We need to get some studs up, and we need to get some OSB up there.
09:06All right, let's do it.
09:28I'm in East Asheville, and it was so idyllic here.
09:31A series of beautiful houses nestled along the river.
09:34There were six of them in a row right here.
09:36And then that day came, and all of them are gone.
09:39Six in a row disappeared, but there was one house in this lower part of the neighborhood
09:43that survived, and that's Paulus.
09:45And today we have contractor trucks, plumbers, and electricians.
09:48That means we're turning the corner.
09:53So James, you're the general on this one.
09:55It's your mission to bring this all together?
09:56Yes, sir.
09:57Thanks for your help.
09:58Yeah.
09:59So you tell me this was a modular building.
10:00That's exactly right.
10:01You know, one of the first signs is that we have an interior OSB here.
10:06Okay.
10:07Which gave us a lot of shear strength against the river's force.
10:10So the strength of the box has actually helped keep this building here.
10:13That's exactly right.
10:14And I'll tell you, Paula told me the story about her dining room table somewhere in here,
10:18and it floated all the way to the ceiling.
10:20Yeah.
10:21And came right back down again.
10:22Yeah.
10:23Everything sort of floated down here, and once the water receded, we were able to come in
10:29and had volunteers help us with getting the drywall and insulation and the subfloor removed
10:35so that we could let the house air out, dehumidify, and just breathe a little bit.
10:40That's so important.
10:41So now we can reuse the OSB.
10:43That's correct.
10:44All right.
10:45What about this new deck here?
10:46New subfloor.
10:47That's correct.
10:48Good.
10:49All right.
10:50Hello there.
10:51I'm Richard.
10:52I'm Chester.
10:53Hi.
10:54How are you?
10:55Nice to meet you.
10:56Great.
10:57What are you working on?
10:58We are replacing the electrical system on the first floor.
10:59Just the first floor?
11:00Just the first floor.
11:01Anything that got wet, submerged.
11:02And there's no question, with code, once this gets wet, we can't know.
11:04So it has to completely go away, right?
11:06It was underwater.
11:07So we'll be replacing the whole panel.
11:09And then you said the first floor wires have to go?
11:11Yep.
11:12So if you look right here, you can see the Romex has a paper sheathing on it.
11:16So if any moisture or water gets in there, it wicks up the wiring and water and electricity
11:21definitely not mix.
11:22It does not mix.
11:23Thanks to you and your guys for helping out.
11:24All right.
11:26All right.
11:27So the new kitchen window roughed in?
11:28We do.
11:29Paulo's going to have a great view of the river.
11:30With the kitchen sink right here, I see the plumbing.
11:32Kitchen sink, all new first floor plumbing.
11:33I see the plumber's truck outside, so we must see.
11:35Who's this?
11:36Yeah, we've got Larry here working in the plumbing.
11:38Hey, Larry.
11:39Hey, Richard.
11:40I'm Richard.
11:41Nice to meet you.
11:42Nice to meet you.
11:43I'm your brother from another mother.
11:44So take us through what you've done here.
11:46Sure.
11:47We took this opportunity to change the layout of the primary bath.
11:50We've got a toilet here, a single vanity.
11:52Okay.
11:53You're using PEX, I see.
11:54Yeah.
11:55Yeah.
11:56And a nice new walk-in shower.
11:57Love it.
11:58What's this thing?
11:59With a digital shower valve.
12:01We've used these before.
12:02They're pretty cool.
12:03It's an electronic device.
12:04You pick the temperature you want and which way you want it to come out of, which shower
12:07head if you have two.
12:08That's pretty cool.
12:09Right.
12:10Nice to this shower valve, electronic valve right here.
12:13It's a pretty cool unit.
12:14Right.
12:15So hot and cold come right there.
12:16Right.
12:17And then these go to different shower heads.
12:20And that's the inner workings of everything.
12:23So it goes to one shower head or the other.
12:25Right.
12:26That's great.
12:27So I need to solder adapters on here.
12:29So to do this safely.
12:30You don't want to melt this plastic.
12:32Right.
12:33So I have to pull these out.
12:40All right.
12:41So now with those soldered adapters, you can adapt to the PEX tubing, which is great.
12:45Right.
12:46All right.
12:47And where are you going to actually put this unit in the building?
12:48So we're going to put this in the crawl space so it's accessible in case it needs
12:53to be serviced.
12:54For any future service.
12:55That's a great idea.
12:56Right.
12:57All right.
12:58We're going to let you go back in that crawl space.
12:59I'm not going to go down there, all right?
13:00All right.
13:01And thank you for your good work.
13:02This is really something, you know, you're turning the corner here.
13:04Thanks for having us.
13:05Well, thank you for your help.
13:07Up in North Asheville, a family-run general contracting firm signed on to put Matt and
13:15Melinda's tree-damaged house back together again.
13:18Matt and Melinda contacted us.
13:20They couldn't get a contractor to come look at this home after Helene.
13:24And typically we are new home builders.
13:26We don't do renovations, remodel.
13:28We focus on energy efficient green homes.
13:32And so this is a little bit out of our realm, but, you know, their story touched our hearts
13:38and we just felt like we had to come in and do what we can to help put these folks' lives
13:43back together.
13:45Well, Hunter, tell me what the plan is in here.
13:49Yeah, Zach, we had a tree fall from the storm right through the living room here.
13:54Water just rushed in two to three inches of rain right after that.
13:58So we're just demoing the entire area, kind of just see what we're working with.
14:03Right, basically peel back all the layers so you can see what got wet, let it dry out, figure out where to stop.
14:08Exactly.
14:09And then we can go back and put this back for the homeowner, you know, as it was before the storm.
14:15Got it.
14:16So where are we starting right now?
14:17So we're going to go over to our lead guy, James.
14:20He's our project manager on the job.
14:22Nice to meet you, James.
14:23Nice to meet you.
14:24He's going to put us to work.
14:25Yes, yep.
14:26There's a multitude of things to choose from, but if you like demo, this is the place to be today.
14:30Let's do it.
14:31I at least have demo skill set.
14:33Great, great.
14:34Let's get started.
14:36By making these cuts, it's allowed us to pry it up very easily.
14:40If we tried to do it without the cuts, the fact that they'd be all interwoven together, it would be very difficult to get them up.
14:51This is my pain.
14:52Gotcha.
14:56Yep.
14:57Could possibly be salvageable.
14:59They did take a lot of water.
15:00So we're storing these right now so that they can be evaluated by both the homeowner and the insurance.
15:12All right.
15:13Looks like we made a bit of a bit of progress in here, James.
15:16It's a great progress today.
15:18So it won't be long.
15:19We'll be putting things back together.
15:21I like it.
15:22All right.
15:23Let's wrap it up.
15:26Back in Swannanoa, it's been several months since that fateful day when water started coming up through the floorboards at Jim and Allie's house and at the house of their neighbors, Stephanie and John.
15:36Called 9-1-1 probably seven times.
15:40They just told us to get higher ground.
15:43I also called 9-1-1 and then I finally got through and she was just overloaded.
15:49And I said, you know, we're getting flooded.
15:50And she said, go into the attic.
15:51And I said, OK.
15:52And she said, OK, that's all I can tell you to do.
15:54So that was it.
15:55We knew that there was no help to be had.
15:59The scene was very different just one street away.
16:03Up a steep hill, new Swannanoa resident Rob, a restaurant cook, was still asleep from a shift the night before.
16:10My wife woke me up and said, there's a ton of water back behind us.
16:16And I hear like people screaming from the roofs.
16:19And then I hear somebody shout.
16:20It was on, I think it was on this roof over here.
16:23They were saying that they had a baby.
16:25So I just kind of, you know, I got that big rush of adrenaline.
16:28My neighbor, he has kayaks in his backyard, ran like right over to his house, jumped his fence.
16:34That neighbor, whom he had never met, was John, an avid outdoorsman.
16:39Yeah, I was just drinking coffee on the porch, thinking that it wasn't that bad.
16:47And then all of a sudden this guy jumps over my fence and grabs my kayak and starts taking off with it.
16:55I panicked and I grabbed my kayak and skirt and then my life jacket.
17:01I think I grabbed a spare life jacket.
17:04It was then that Rob admitted he had never even sat in a kayak before.
17:08I think I told him if the current's coming this way, keep your edge up.
17:11Because if it hits the edge of your boat, it'll flip you.
17:15And then, yeah, I don't know.
17:20And then I just kind of did a, you know, one of those.
17:23I'm not Catholic, but that's what I was thinking anyways.
17:27And then I pushed off and then we ended up down at the water and my jaw just like dropped.
17:34Because I just never dreamed the water would get up to the gutters of the houses.
17:40It was just a brown lake.
17:45You could see the rooftops.
17:47I heard people screaming.
17:49Sirens and alarms going off everywhere.
17:55That's, yeah, it was nuts.
18:00When I get closer to somebody and they say there's people in their attics that are stuck.
18:05We are punching our way out of the roof at this point in case the blood continues.
18:11So I turned around.
18:12I'm telling everyone I'm going to be back.
18:15And I turn around and I go inside and I get, you know, I go into my shed and I get this mole.
18:21I probably should have grabbed the axe, but I just started hacking through the roof.
18:29While Rob was chopping through a roof, John heard the screams of Jim and Allie next door.
18:35And he just said, I'm here to get you.
18:38So he took us one by one.
18:40I told her that, you know, can you hold on to the back of my boat and I'll paddle you to shore.
18:46And he just said, kick for your life.
18:49He had life jacket that he put on us.
18:51And he said, if I go underwater or if I lose you, just keep kicking.
18:57And I said, OK, brought her to high ground and then brought me.
19:02And then he moved on to the next roof and got people off.
19:05Did you know John beforehand?
19:07Did not know John.
19:09And now I love John so much.
19:12I owe John my life.
19:14Helene surged on, but so did John and Rob.
19:19And I was like, man, the water was raging.
19:23You had to dodge things that were floating, like sheds, washing machines, tires.
19:31Several houses down, Stephanie, John, and their two young boys, just two and seven years old, had escaped out a window and swam up to their roof.
19:41When we did get out, as soon as we swam over and I got my, he was out and I put my 7-year-old on, I said, as soon as you get out, start screaming for help.
19:49It was just like pure adrenaline at that point.
19:51And I said, scream for help.
19:52And he started screaming for help as soon as he got out the window.
19:56Both John and Rob heard the screams, each frantically racing towards the family.
20:01Like, hand me the baby, I try to get the mom into the back kayak and it's hard to get in and out of him.
20:07So she goes down and then my kayak starts going down, like my legs are in there.
20:11This water is like, you can smell the sewage in it.
20:15You can see the oil, like the sheen on top.
20:17But we ended up getting that boat on the roof and they handed me a shivering little boy or baby, about that big.
20:25You just, you don't let your mind go in any other way, but.
20:29It felt like that was the thing to do.
20:31What, yeah.
20:32That was the safest bet for them.
20:34Yeah, I'm like, he's gonna be fine.
20:35It was cold.
20:36He didn't have, he had almost no clothes on.
20:38And I just sat him in there and he was a little trooper though.
20:42I mean, I remember his lips were kind of blue.
20:45I trusted them, you know, with him.
20:50I just had to just give him, and that's all I could do.
20:54You know, I wasn't gonna fight them, protect my child.
20:57John got the two-year-old in his kayak and paddled towards higher ground.
21:02I just picked him up and handed him to someone on shore, and he was all shivering.
21:07And I felt good to get him to shore.
21:12They don't want to hear it, but they saved our lives.
21:15One by one, there's 16 people that John kayaked to safety that day, and that Rob took them
21:24out of their attics, and every single person survived.
21:28It felt like Forrest Gump.
21:30I was just going.
21:31There was one time I kind of broke down, about started crying, but it wasn't because it was
21:41that scary.
21:42It was just overwhelming.
21:43It was really overwhelming.
21:45And today, I got to witness a reunion months in the making.
21:50You know, you may not think of yourself as a hero, but I believe that you are.
21:55And, you know, our words may say thank you, and I don't think we could really express how
22:03thankful we are.
22:05We can only hope to maybe pay it forward one day.
22:10It was a chaotic and hectic time, but you were cool, calm, and collected, and I think
22:19your training kicked in, even if you weren't conscious of that.
22:23And, you know, you saved our lives that day.
22:27You really did.
22:28I think we all saved our lives.
22:32We all did it.
22:33It was a group effort.
22:40Next time on This Old House, Zach is busy working on our North Asheville project.
22:45Our East Asheville project also sits right on the Swannanoa River and had a ton of flooding
22:50right here, so today's project is to work on the siding.
22:53There are still hundreds of miles of public waterways that are littered with debris.
22:58With a job this big, FEMA called in the Army Corps of Engineers to head up the cleanup.
23:08That's next time.
23:15We'll be back to you, God.
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