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Ask This Old House Season 24 Episode 6
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FunTranscript
00:00On Ask This Old House, our experts travel across the country to answer questions about your house.
00:18Today, Jen visits a sod farm to learn about some innovations in grass alternatives.
00:25Then, Tommy gives us a lesson on nails, their sizes and uses.
00:31And, Keith offers a smart solution to a homeowner struggling with lighting their outdoor space.
00:38It looks amazing. Thank you so much, Heath.
00:40All that on Ask This Old House.
00:44For decades, homeowners have turned to sod for a quick and effective way to get the perfect lawn.
00:56It's grown and harvested in sheets, ready to be unrolled like a carpet,
01:00instantly transforming bare soil into a lush green yard.
01:05Today, I'm visiting a sod farm here in Rhode Island, where they have been experimenting with alternative grasses.
01:12Back in 2018, Roger, Kevin and I came here to learn about their micro-clover blend,
01:18which required no fertilizer, no pesticide and minimal watering.
01:22So, I've come back to see what Pat's been working on at the farm.
01:26It's nice to be here again.
01:28Jen, glad to have you back at the farm.
01:31Last time was with the micro-clover and we're working on some new sustainables.
01:35What do we have here?
01:36Well, we're getting into wildflowers.
01:38You're telling me there's hope for you. The sod guy is bringing me flowers?
01:42Absolutely.
01:43We've got trays here that we've grown in the greenhouse.
01:46They've got about 20 varieties of wildflowers in there.
01:49Annuals, perennials and biannuals.
01:51Okay. So, something's going to be going off each season.
01:54Exactly.
01:55Okay. So, what's the root structure like?
01:57Well, Jen, here's the root structure and this is about six to eight weeks old.
02:01That's pretty rugged.
02:02It's very sturdy and ready to plant.
02:05Okay.
02:06And what you want to do when you're going to plant this is prepare your soil just like you would be with sod.
02:11Oh, right.
02:12A good four to six inches of loom.
02:14Put it down. It's going to help with rooting in.
02:17And then you lay them, like, just that close, right? Like a mat.
02:20Yeah. You might, but you might want to stagger the joints.
02:23Right.
02:24Just like you would with the sod.
02:25Right.
02:26So...
02:27That makes sense. All right. So, I like the application. I mean, it's also providing a habitat for pollinators.
02:31Oh, the pollinators love it.
02:32I see.
02:33The byproduct is very tasty.
02:36I mean, I could really see a lot of homeowners wanting this in their garden.
02:40They do. We've had homeowners come in that have hives and they put this around the hives.
02:45It supplies them with a year-round source of food for the bees.
02:49Yeah.
02:50We've also had larger commercial jobs, universities that have put it in for the color and to have less maintenance of mowing grass around a building.
03:00Right. You set it and forget it, essentially.
03:02Exactly.
03:03We'll show you what we're working on now.
03:05Okay.
03:06So, this is our experimental field. As you can see, we've done some test cutting.
03:11Mm-hmm.
03:12And this has got sheep's fescue in it.
03:14Mm-hmm.
03:15And the sheep's fescue is what helps to hold it together so we can roll it up.
03:19Right. Because the wildflowers will break apart, right?
03:22Exactly.
03:23So, that just helps it knit together.
03:24The field looks a little humble right now.
03:26But in a couple of weeks, it's going to look like this.
03:29Wow.
03:30Isn't that spectacular?
03:31These purples and pinks. And what time of year is this?
03:34This is all about the end of May.
03:36Wow. So, that is spectacular.
03:38I don't even know what to say, except I can't wait to use it at certain homeowners' places.
03:42What you'll do is, once you get a killing frost in the fall, you mow it down.
03:47For the maintenance aspect.
03:48This field is two years old.
03:49Yep.
03:50And has been mowed several times.
03:51It reseeds itself.
03:53Once you mow that down, the seeds drop in.
03:55So, it's constantly reseeding, sustainable.
03:58Right.
03:59And so, that's very, very low maintenance.
04:01Once a year is not bad.
04:02Exactly.
04:03The other thing with our sheep's fescue is erosion control.
04:06Mm-hmm.
04:07And we have another field I'd like to show you of just sheep's fescue.
04:10Oh, I'd love to see it.
04:12So, Jen, you saw the sheep's fescue and how it clumped over there in the meadow mix.
04:16Yep.
04:17This is a field of sheep's fescue that we've been maintaining.
04:20And as you can see, it's a finer bladed grass.
04:25As opposed to this, which is a traditional grass that a homeowner would normally have.
04:29Right.
04:30You can see it's a little bit wider bladed.
04:32This is what I always order.
04:33Correct.
04:34But a homeowner could use this.
04:37But primarily what we've been doing, as you can see, we've already been harvesting some.
04:41Mostly been going to golf courses.
04:42Okay.
04:43So many homeowners have lands that abut conservation land.
04:46Like, and there's that 200-foot buffer zone that you have to abide by.
04:50Low maintenance grass.
04:51That's a perfect spot for it.
04:52Yeah.
04:53Yes.
04:54Okay.
04:55Erosion.
04:56Yep.
04:57Grout-resistant.
04:58Yep.
04:59I think this is a brilliant choice.
05:00And it's just nice to have alternatives.
05:02Always nice to have alternatives.
05:04Yeah.
05:05Well, I really appreciate my field trip to the farm today.
05:08I've got to get out of here.
05:09It's been a pleasure again.
05:10All right.
05:11We'll see you soon, okay?
05:12Absolutely.
05:13All right.
05:14Take care.
05:15So long.
05:16Oh, Tommy, cooking up some nail talk for us, huh?
05:22I thought we'd nail it today.
05:24Oh, brother.
05:25Here we go.
05:26We've got all kinds of nails.
05:27Most nails have the same anatomy.
05:29A head, a shank, and a wedge-shaped point.
05:32Right.
05:33And I guess every nail's got those three components.
05:35It's just a question of what type of head, what type of shank, what type of tip.
05:39Exactly.
05:40Right here, we have a flat head with a smooth shank.
05:43We have one with a corrugated or waffled head, and a little bit of a waffled head with that
05:48one right there.
05:49What's the waffle doing for us?
05:50The waffle is keeping the head of the hammer from sliding off of the nail.
05:54Now, this nail has a plastic coating on it, and it can be slippery.
05:59So you want the hammer, again, to stick to the nail as it hits that one little contact.
06:04Okay.
06:05So then you have a trim nail right here, or a finished nail.
06:08I don't like to use these nails outside because there's too much movement of the wood.
06:12So I always want to use a common or a flat head nail for that and set it in and then fill it.
06:17Yeah, I mean, it's got a much smaller head by design because unlike the flat heads, which
06:23are designed to sit at the surface, you're going to overdrive this so it sits below the surface.
06:27Right, and you want to overdrive it with a nail set that fits the nail head.
06:31Because there's a very small depression in the top of that.
06:34You hit it with a hammer, it doesn't slide off.
06:36All right.
06:37Duplex?
06:38Duplex.
06:39All right.
06:40Used a lot in framing and also in form work, like concrete forms, because you're nailing
06:46and nailing that's going to be temporarily holding something that's going to be pulled
06:50apart easily.
06:51So you drive the first head down, flush to the surface, but you have something that's sticking
06:56up so you can grab the hammer or a bar to pull the nail out so you can save the material
07:01and use it later.
07:02It's super handy if you know you're pulling them out.
07:04Yep.
07:05Yep.
07:06So different heads, now we've got different shanks.
07:07Yep.
07:08You've got a smooth shank on a common nail right here and then a ring or cup shank and
07:12this one here is a spiral shank.
07:14It twists when the nail goes in.
07:15So most typical situations, smooth shank is perfectly fine, but a little extra holding
07:21power, those rings do quite a bit for us.
07:24Plasters would use them for a while.
07:25That are also putting a subfloor down on top of a rough floor to like an underlayment.
07:31Yeah.
07:32And you're not going into structure.
07:34You're going from a quarter inch into three quarter inch flooring.
07:37It's not going to grab anything except that.
07:40It goes into the fibers, bends it, and those fibers just go into the snap into the cup a
07:44little bit and it really holds it well.
07:46Okay.
07:47And this one here is a spiral shank where you're going to drive something down into the framing
07:52structure and it's really going to hold.
07:53It's going to screw itself in every time you hit it.
07:56You've got a subfloor that's been secured with that thing.
07:59Man, those are a bear to get out.
08:01They are tough to get out.
08:02They're even tough just to get started with a cat's paw to get them up and then you've
08:05got to pull them.
08:06Lots of times you break the head off.
08:07Yeah.
08:08All right.
08:09Well, I appreciate it.
08:10Good information.
08:11My pleasure.
08:12Hi, Jen.
08:13Hi, Heath.
08:14How are you?
08:15Nice to meet you.
08:16Thank you so much for coming.
08:17So, I'm guessing this is the area you wrote in about?
08:18Yes.
08:19This is the area.
08:20We have a bit of a lighting issue.
08:21So, our guests tend to come up the driveway to enter a home and it gets pretty pitch black
08:25here at night.
08:26And then they have to go up the spiral staircase.
08:28So, we'd like to kind of light it up a little bit.
08:29Got it.
08:30So, what else do we have for lights?
08:31Looks like we have one at the top of the lights.
08:32Yes.
08:33Yes.
08:34Yes.
08:35Yes.
08:36Yes.
08:37Yes.
08:38Yes.
08:39Yes.
08:40So, what else do we have for lights?
08:41Looks like we have one at the top of the stairs?
08:42Yes.
08:43We do have a light at the top.
08:44Okay.
08:45It's kind of dull.
08:46Doesn't really light up the space at all.
08:47Okay.
08:48And we have one at the basement stairs.
08:49Is that yours as well?
08:50Yes.
08:51This one, however, does light up the area a bit, but it's a manual switch.
08:54I have to go down into the basement to flip it on, which no one ever does.
08:58So, we just mostly keep it off.
08:59So, it never gets used.
09:00It doesn't get used.
09:01And then it looks like you actually have a floodlight in the garage as well.
09:03Yes, we do.
09:04I also have to enter the garage to get this one on.
09:07And when it is on, it's just this bright light.
09:09And it might aggravate some of the neighbors and the people around here.
09:12I can see that possibly shining into a window.
09:14Yes, you got it.
09:15And we don't want to be those neighbors.
09:16So, we also tend to not use that.
09:18Yeah, and you don't want that phone call.
09:19We don't.
09:20Yeah.
09:21So, from looking at everything, I think we have a couple of things we want to solve.
09:23We want to make the area brighter without being too intrusive to the neighbors and make it comfortable for guests to come into.
09:28Yes.
09:29And we need to find an easier way for you to control this.
09:30Yeah.
09:31I don't think that's too bad.
09:32I think I have a couple of solutions.
09:33Let me grab a couple of items you can take a look at and we'll go from there.
09:36Awesome.
09:37All right.
09:41All right, gents.
09:42So, since you mostly use the driveway and your guests come from the driveway, come into the house, and that's pretty dark out there, I want to address that area first.
09:48So, the first option we have are a couple of things like this.
09:51We can use an LED tape on the bottom side of that water table, that white board that runs the whole length of the house.
09:55Yes.
09:56So, this is the more standard type of LED tape that you see.
09:58You can see it has the dots on it.
09:59Yeah.
10:00It's very flexible.
10:01It can work around what we want to work around.
10:02It's low voltage.
10:03So, it's 24 volts DC.
10:04So, for that, we end up using a power supply like this.
10:07This will plug into the outside receptacle, then a couple of wires will connect to this, and that's how that works.
10:11Okay.
10:12This side's more of a continuous strip, a little more modern looking.
10:15The nice thing about this one is it's 120 volt.
10:17Plugs directly into the receptacle.
10:18Oh, that's cool.
10:19Doesn't need anything like this.
10:20Very user-friendly, very easy to install.
10:23Also, both of them cutable to length.
10:25Oh, great.
10:26Just pay attention where you cut them, but you can order it a little bit longer, cut it to where you want it, and it's good to go.
10:30Okay.
10:31The last option would be landscape lights.
10:32So, we can do something like a wall light.
10:33I love this one.
10:34We can do a handful of those, depending on how many you want.
10:36Yeah.
10:37Put those along that water table.
10:38They require a transformer.
10:39Okay.
10:40So, it runs at 12 volts versus being able to plug in at 120.
10:43So, am I able to expand on this one?
10:45Great question.
10:46Yes.
10:47So, we're going to put a transformer in, if you go this way, that's bigger than what you need.
10:50So, you can add additional landscape lighting in the future, so it's all controlled off that same switch.
10:54Okay.
10:55Nice and easy.
10:56Oh, I love that.
10:57I think that makes it a very attractive option for us.
10:59I love the idea of the strip.
11:00I think it does the job, being able, you can get it as long as you want.
11:05Sure.
11:06I'm a little curious about the durability of the strips.
11:08Sure.
11:09With New England weather, is it able to sustain the super cold and warmer days as well?
11:14Great question.
11:15So, these are actually designed for outdoor use, and they are rated for the temperature range.
11:19So, these are designed to operate below zero and above 100 degrees.
11:22Okay.
11:23Wow.
11:24Heath, these are some really great choices.
11:25I think we're going to gravitate towards the landscape light.
11:28I just love how elegant the design is.
11:30Sure.
11:31Yeah, yeah.
11:32And the way that the light is casting downward, I feel like it's going to resolve our lighting issues.
11:36I think you're absolutely right.
11:37Well, I love the look of this, and especially this guy.
11:39I mean, it's a great pathway, but it's just going to be kind of a guiding pathway.
11:43It's not going to throw a whole lot out.
11:44This, I think, will light up some of your driveway quite a bit.
11:47That way, people can see well.
11:48And again, you can expand on it easy enough.
11:50Yes, absolutely.
11:51All right.
11:52So, if we're going with that, I'm going to grab my tools and get started.
11:55Wonderful.
12:01Hey, Heath.
12:02Looks like you've made quite the progress here.
12:04Jen, perfect timing.
12:05So, just starting to do the layout here and figure out where we want to put these before we start to attach them.
12:09Yeah.
12:10And we're trying to avoid all the obstacles that are in the water table itself.
12:13We have the spigot.
12:14We have dryer vents.
12:15We have a hot water heater vent over there.
12:16We've got a lot going on.
12:17So, what I was thinking of is starting at the center, right about here.
12:22Okay.
12:23And then it seemed like every six feet from that point forward worked out pretty well.
12:26So, I kind of laid them out on the ground for you to take a look at.
12:28Yeah.
12:29What do you think?
12:30I love the spacing, and I feel like it's going to light up this driveway pretty nicely.
12:33I think so, yeah.
12:34And what I'm thinking is I'd rather attach these down low.
12:37Okay.
12:38Something close to that bottom edge.
12:40Okay.
12:41And then this actually have this little cavity here.
12:42I can tuck the wires behind to keep everything concealed.
12:45I think if we mount these, like I said, every six feet or so, I think it'll be pretty good.
12:49Awesome.
12:50Looking forward to it.
12:51All right.
12:52I'm going to go ahead and get started then.
12:53I'm going to measure over six feet.
12:56I'm just going to hold it in place and mark the center.
13:01The reason I marked the center is I want to cut a little groove so when this wire goes in,
13:06it can just tuck up under that board without looping down.
13:13Keeping this fixture flush with the bottom board.
13:16And now that wire can tuck up neatly behind.
13:25There you go.
13:26Yeah.
13:27Perfect.
13:28That's it.
13:29That's all we need.
13:30Beautiful.
13:31Beautiful.
13:32I think that's the best one yet.
13:33Beautiful.
13:34Beautiful.
13:35Beautiful.
13:36So we've pulled the wire across.
13:37We've got a staple up underneath.
13:38We left the loops where the lights are going to go.
13:39So now it's time to make the connections.
13:41So what I'm going to do is just split the wire.
13:48So I have the two conductors.
13:53Then I'm going to strip them up.
13:54Next to the connector, slide it on there and just tighten the set screw.
14:15And then I'll do the same for the other wire.
14:31Then I'll slide a sleeve over.
14:34And then for the sake of polarity, I'm going to pay attention to which size has the ribbing
14:40and which side does not.
14:42It's the same on this.
14:44That's the smooth one.
14:47And that's the ribbed one.
14:48So I'm just going to keep them in the same order just to rule out any potential issues.
14:56All right.
14:57Connectors nice and solid.
14:59Now to make them weatherproof.
15:00I'll slide these over to about the middle.
15:03And then we'll just start heating them up.
15:06And what we're looking for with the final product is to see a little bit of the goo coming out at the end.
15:21And you can see right there that it's nice and sealed around the wire on all sides.
15:29That helps glue this together and keeps it weatherproof.
15:34Now that we're able to install the lights and get the wire where we wanted it, we know where the transformer is going to mount.
15:39So we're going to go ahead and secure this into place and then wire it up.
15:43All right, so the connection is very simple.
15:48We just have the two wires.
15:50We'll strip these back like we did for the fixtures.
15:52One's going to go to the common terminal and one's going to go to the 12 volt terminal.
15:55Tuck those over.
15:57And we'll just put the cover back on loosely for now.
16:01All right, Jen.
16:02So we have the lights installed down the driveway.
16:04So now we're going to focus on the exterior lighting of the garage and the house.
16:07So I want to start with the garage and we have a couple of choices.
16:10So the first one we're going to take a look at is this is kind of a standard flood.
16:13This is an LED bullet that we can put on the garage.
16:15Second option is something like this.
16:18It's more of a wall pack, more of a commercial idea, but I think it actually might work really well in this application.
16:23So you can see it's pretty flat.
16:25It's not going to shine the light out, but it goes out into the driveway.
16:29It does a really, really good job.
16:31So when we hold them up like this, we can see how much of a difference we get out of the light of those.
16:35Yeah.
16:36So I think without blinding the neighbors and giving us a soft, comfortable area to work in, I think this might be a better choice.
16:41Yeah, I would have to agree.
16:42All right.
16:43And then what do we have here?
16:44And then for the exterior light, well, I just kind of picked one for you.
16:47Hope you like it.
16:48I love it.
16:49I'm obsessed with this light.
16:50I did have a question about these ones.
16:52So how do I switch it on?
16:54Am I still having to go into the garage?
16:56Because I don't want that light anymore.
16:57So hopefully not.
16:58We're going to try and get a smart switch to work in there.
17:00But this one does have an optional photo cell.
17:02Okay.
17:03I don't want to use it, but it could come on and dust it out if you want.
17:05Great.
17:06The easier, the better.
17:07Yeah.
17:09All right, Jen.
17:10So it's time to swap out the garage fixture.
17:11You up for it?
17:12Let's do it.
17:13Okay.
17:14So the first thing we do is we turn the power off.
17:15And now it's time for you to take this fixture down.
17:16Okay.
17:17So you're going to start by taking that little center cover off.
17:18And then there should be a screw in there holding this in.
17:20All right.
17:22So now we want to take the wires off.
17:24We're going to start by disconnecting the black, the white, then finally the ground.
17:28Next we want to take the fixture bar off.
17:30All right.
17:31Okay.
17:32So the new fixture kind of mounts in a similar way.
17:34It has a similar bar, but the thread in the middle is a little bit different.
17:37That's going to go across those just like the other one came off.
17:39And just like that.
17:45All right.
17:46Now we want to tighten those up.
17:48And before you send them all the way home, you see how this has a little play?
17:51We just want to shoot for the center.
17:52Okay.
17:53So let's loosen that ground screw up while you have that.
17:54Okay.
17:55I want it out, but we just want it loose.
17:56A little more.
17:57There you go.
17:58And I just want to wrap that wire around it as well.
18:13All right, Jen.
18:14Now we're ready to install the new fixture.
18:16So I'm going to hold it in place for you.
18:17Okay.
18:18And we're going to put these in a certain order.
18:20We're going to start with the ground wire.
18:22That's going to go on first.
18:25Ground wire is always the first one to connect and the last one to disconnect.
18:28Okay.
18:29Next we'll do the white wire.
18:30Yep.
18:31And just line them up.
18:32That's great.
18:33It's right there.
18:34And now the black wire.
18:35Yep.
18:36Okay.
18:37So happy with those?
18:38Yep.
18:39I think so.
18:40Great.
18:41Okay.
18:42So I'll hold this.
18:43What we want to do is we want to tuck these into that space a little bit.
18:46Get the wires all the way in there as best we can.
18:48Okay.
18:49All right, Jen.
18:50So I'm going to hold this into place.
18:51Okay.
18:52I just need you to look in and kind of line it up.
18:54All right.
18:55It's lined up.
18:56Right there.
18:57And then there's a screw right there.
18:59Yep.
19:00And that's going to hold it in.
19:01All right.
19:06Pretty good there?
19:07Yep.
19:08Okay.
19:09It's pretty secure.
19:10And let's just see how we did.
19:11Need to tip a little.
19:12Yep.
19:13It's between the lines.
19:14All right.
19:15Then we just want to put this little cap on.
19:19Okay.
19:20Looking good.
19:21Now I'm going to work on replacing the light fixtures on the side of the house.
19:25I want to put a proper ground screw on the ground wire here.
19:27Maybe a couple of number 10s to hold this in a little more securely.
19:30And this spot right down here, this lower screw is actually threaded for those screws.
19:40Number 10, 32 ground screw.
19:43Let's go ahead and see how our bracket fits.
19:49And now we can connect the fixture.
20:02All right, gents.
20:04Now that all the lights are on, it's time to put the smart switches in so we can try
20:18these.
20:19And I figured we'd start in the basement, so this is the one you'd never use at all.
20:22I mean, I barely knew where it was located.
20:24I'm just going to start by taking the plate out.
20:27Take these out of the way.
20:38And our ground.
20:39Okay.
20:40All right, Jen.
20:41So we've taken out the switch that controlled the exterior light fixture.
20:44And you can see we have three wires here, basically.
20:46The feed in, the power, the load out that goes to the light fixture and the ground.
20:50But our new switch needs a neutral.
20:53So in order to get to that, that's in the back of the box here.
20:55I'm going to take this other switch out so we can go ahead and grab that as well.
20:58Okay.
20:59And there it is.
21:00You can see it coiled up.
21:01All right, yeah.
21:02Right there.
21:03So what I'm going to do is just add a little pigtail.
21:07I'm going to strip a piece up.
21:17All right, so now we can just go ahead and tuck the neutrals back in.
21:19Mm-hmm.
21:20And we can put the existing switch for the basement lights back in place.
21:25So in this case, we have five wires on a switch.
21:28Our ground will go to the bare copper.
21:30Yeah.
21:31Our white will now go to the neutral here.
21:32Mm-hmm.
21:33This blue is actually going to get capped.
21:35Okay.
21:36We don't need that.
21:37That's if we have multiple switch locations.
21:38Okay.
21:39The black will go to our constant power.
21:41And the red's the light.
21:43And now we'll do our best to fold those up as neatly as we can into the wall.
21:57All right.
21:58I'm going to plug in this outdoor smart plug that works with the system.
22:04Just want to secure it to the wall.
22:10And then we'll plug our transformer in.
22:12All right, Jen.
22:13You got that last switch paired?
22:14I sure did.
22:15All right.
22:16Let's give that scene a try.
22:17All right.
22:18Let's see.
22:19Look at that.
22:20Wow.
22:21This is incredible.
22:22I think it looks great.
22:23I can't wait to see it at night.
22:24It looks amazing.
22:25Thank you so much, Heath.
22:26You're welcome.
22:27Thank you so much for the help.
22:29Enjoy.
22:42Next time on Ask This Old House, Nathan takes a trip down memory lane, visiting the Navy Seabees
22:49in Gulfport, Mississippi, to see what has changed since he left.
22:54Then, Tommy talks about hitches, the various parts, and how to properly attach them to a trailer.
23:00And tomorrow helps a homeowner fix peeling paint on our galvanized steel railings.
23:06See how nice and easy that goes?
23:08All that on Ask This Old House.
23:09All that on Ask This Old House.
23:10All that on Ask This Old House.
23:15All that on Ask This Old House.
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