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00:00On Ask This Old House, our experts travel across the country to answer questions about your house.
00:19Today, Heath heads to New Orleans to install locally made lanterns.
00:23That looks beautiful.
00:25Then, do you know how to stop an overflowing toilet?
00:29Richard gives a few tips on how to solve this problem.
00:33And Mauro shows how a fresh coat of paint can give new life to a rusty patio set.
00:39This looks fantastic.
00:41On Ask This Old House.
00:49I'm on my way to New Orleans, Louisiana. The Big Easy.
00:53New Orleans is well known for a lot of things.
00:56Mardi Gras, jazz music, and a rich architectural history with housing styles like the Creole Cottage, the Shotgun, and the Greek Revival, just to name a few.
01:06But for me, what really excites me about New Orleans are the light fixtures.
01:09The streets are lined with beautiful lanterns, both gas and electric, that date back 100 years.
01:14So today, I'm helping a homeowner replace her light fixtures with ones that are more suited to the style of the city.
01:19But first, I want to meet the local artisan who's going to show us just how those fixtures are made.
01:24Hi, Steven.
01:25Hi, Heath.
01:26Nice to meet you.
01:27Same here, buddy. Welcome to New Orleans.
01:28Thank you. I love coming to showrooms like this and seeing everything that you have on display.
01:31So, can you tell me a little bit about what you do here?
01:33Oh, for sure. So, we handcraft gas and electric lanterns.
01:36We make everything from scratch here and send them all across the United States.
01:40These things are beautiful.
01:41Yeah.
01:42If I understand correctly, you're kind of known for making one particular fixture that's pretty famous.
01:45Is it New Orleans style?
01:46Yeah. So, the New Orleans style, we actually call ours the Bourbon Street fixture.
01:49Okay.
01:50But you'll see it all through the greater New Orleans area and especially in the French Quarter.
01:52I'm pretty sure I have. Some different sizes, some larger ones and smaller ones, but same idea.
01:56For sure.
01:57What makes it New Orleans style?
01:58So, you know, gas lights have been in New Orleans since the 1800s and with the Spanish and French heritage, this definitely fits all the architectural styles you'll see downtown New Orleans.
02:07That you would have seen, that kind of shape.
02:08For sure.
02:09And it looks like you make a little bit of everything, not just those.
02:11Correct. So, although we do a vast business in New Orleans, we ship lanterns all over the country and we need styles to fit that architecture as well.
02:18Got it. And I understand you're making a couple of light fixtures for our homeowner.
02:21Yes, sir.
02:22And they're not this style, they're something a little bit different?
02:23No, something really cool though. You want to take a look?
02:25I do want to take a look.
02:26Okay.
02:27All right, so everything comes into our factory as a sheet of copper.
02:31So everything comes in like a raw sheet like this?
02:33Oh yeah, every week we get tons of copper delivered just like this.
02:35And this is pretty thick. Do you have different thicknesses you usually work with?
02:38Oh yeah, we use 16 ounce, 20 ounce and even some thicker grains.
02:41Depending on the fixture, how big it is and what you're building?
02:42Absolutely.
02:43All right.
02:44And Dennis right now, he's on the foot shear.
02:46We're going to break down some of the sheets into smaller pieces that we can handcraft and get these pictures.
02:51Okay, so he's just making all the parts smaller off of this sheet.
02:54Yes, sir.
02:55Now Dennis is on the notcher, which cuts small angles into the side of the copper and that allows us to bend and fold the metal.
03:03So that notch you're using right now is actually making a 90 degree cut, right? A nice clean 90?
03:07Absolutely.
03:08Nice.
03:09So right now we have Dennis with the hand snips and that's to cut out some of the more decorative tops that we use.
03:14So you still actually use a template and cut that by hand, it's not all machine done.
03:17Oh yes, for sure.
03:18So much of what we've done is really using hand snips to the fine details.
03:25And it looks like you've got rows of parts waiting for the lights as well.
03:27Oh yeah, after the parts guy's done, he keeps them on the shelf ready for fabrication.
03:31Nice.
03:32And we've got Justin here just about to put some rivets in one of those New Orleans-style lights that you like so much.
03:38All right, that is the New Orleans-style light. A little bigger than the one I saw on the showroom wall.
03:42Yes, sir.
03:43And he really is riveting each one, huh?
03:45Oh yeah, we use rivets because, you know, with gas lights especially, the heat will break down solder over time.
03:50So we rivet everything to make sure it stays secure for a lifetime.
03:52That's a great point. I didn't think of that because most of what we see is soldered up by us.
03:56Yep.
03:57So rivets, you don't have to worry about the gas lamps.
03:59What's the next step?
04:00Oh, that's oxidation. Really cool. Let's take you there.
04:02And that's where we get the finish?
04:03Yes, sir.
04:04I want to see that.
04:07So Heath, we're over at the oxidation tank now,
04:10where Vince is going to submerge the fixture in the potash solution.
04:13And what that's going to do is help give us a nice 10 to 15-year aged finish.
04:18So he's going to dip it several times.
04:20He's going to work it in with some steel wool.
04:23And in a matter of an hour or two, you'll see that beautiful finish.
04:27And that's all it takes, a couple hours, you can get that aging on it.
04:29Correct.
04:30All right. So after we're done dipping this and getting it to the point we want,
04:33last step is the final assembly.
04:35Oh, yes.
04:36Perfect. Let's take a look.
04:37Okay, so we're here at the finishing station.
04:39And we have Steve putting in the electrical components.
04:42So he's finishing up the socket now.
04:44He's got the wires through, has the ground on the back.
04:46Everything looks good.
04:47But if the customer had wanted gas instead, it would still be done in this spot?
04:50Oh, absolutely. Everything would happen at this station.
04:52Okay. And the last step would be the glass.
04:55Oh, yeah. Glass will go over there.
04:57And at that same time, we'll put in our signature hurricane globe.
04:59Great.
05:02All right, Steve, is that the final product?
05:04Yes, sir. Here's your lantern.
05:05I'll take it. That looks beautiful.
05:07Love the work you put into these. I can't thank you enough for making this,
05:10and the homeowners are going to love it.
05:11Oh, man. I'm glad to have you guys by.
05:13I appreciate the tour of the shop. Love seeing the process.
05:15And we'll get this installed for them, and I'll talk to you soon.
05:17You're very welcome. Good luck with your project.
05:24Hi, Heath. Welcome to New Orleans.
05:25Hi, Roxanne. Thank you. Nice to meet you.
05:26You too.
05:27This neighborhood is great. I love these houses.
05:30So what style is this one?
05:31This is a traditional New Orleans double shotgun, about the turn of the 20th century.
05:35Okay. So I've heard of the term shotgun, but double shotgun, it was split down the middle.
05:39It was a two-family originally?
05:40That's correct.
05:41And you've converted it to a single family?
05:42Yes, we have.
05:43Oh, that's great. But I saw that you wrote in about changing some light fixtures.
05:46Yes. We put a lot of work into the exterior to make it look better, and the light fixtures at this point just don't go with it.
05:51They're outdated. They're not very attractive.
05:53Makes sense.
05:54Well, the good news is I saw the light fixtures that you chose being made, and they look amazing.
05:57I really think you're going to love them.
05:59Now, the one thing is I'm not licensed in the state, so I'm going to bring in a local electrician that's licensed and knows the local rules and regulations better than I do to kind of help us go through the whole process.
06:08But in the meantime, I like to turn the power off and climb up and take one of these down and take a look and see what's going on behind there so we know what we're dealing with before we go and install them.
06:14You okay with that?
06:15Absolutely.
06:16All right.
06:17It's always interesting coming to places down south where we see the electrical panels outside.
06:21Not used to that up north where we are too much.
06:30All right.
06:31So we're going to take those off, and let's see.
06:37Just our fixture bar secured to the house with some wood screws, no junction box, and just a wire sticking out.
06:44Let's go.
06:45All right.
06:46So let's take this one down and see what we have behind it.
06:55Ah, look at that.
06:59So this is one of the reasons we want to seal these fixtures up.
07:05I don't know if you can see this, but all kinds of stuff stuffed in here.
07:11All right, Roxanne.
07:12So we picked up the lights, and here's the finished product.
07:14What do you think?
07:15It's incredible.
07:16I think they look great.
07:17So we took the old ones down to see what we had going on behind there, and we found kind of what we thought we'd see.
07:21There's no junction box behind there, just a bare wire coming out of the wall, and to be honest, you had a couple of little critters forming nests back there.
07:27Which is okay.
07:28We've cleaned it up, and we can go forward.
07:30So we want to put a junction box in, and the easiest way to do that with your siding is to take something like this.
07:35This vinyl block we can slide over there.
07:37This has the built-in junction box.
07:38The wire will come through, but the nice part is we don't have to cut any of the siding.
07:41It's designed to go right over the siding and over the lap, so it fits over that tightly.
07:46Screw this in, pull the wire through, and we have our junction box.
07:48Nice and easy.
07:49At the same time, we can then take some silicone and seal the top and bottom of this to get it sealed to the house, so no water is getting in there, no critters anymore.
07:56That way that's done, waterproof, and we're good to go.
07:59But you can see the fixture is kind of bigger than this, and I want this to sit very well in the house.
08:04So we're going to take this extension, slide it over that box.
08:07We can see lines up with the screw holes, but then we have the white against this.
08:11It doesn't look great when you have this beautiful new fixture.
08:13So the shop was nice enough to make this.
08:15Oh, beautiful.
08:17Once that's over, the fixture's on.
08:21It's going to look perfect.
08:23So now it's time for the fun part.
08:25Ready to get to work?
08:26I'm ready.
08:27All right.
08:28A locally licensed electrician, Troy, is here to help.
08:32So we're just going to take that connector and pop that right in the back.
08:47So now the wire will come right through there.
08:54Oh, that's good.
08:55You can't put it on the front of the vinyl.
08:56See how that looks.
08:57There's this.
08:58Pretty good?
08:59So now we want to seal up all the way around that.
09:00All right, Troy, you want to slide that over.
09:01Get that lined up.
09:02And next we have a metal plate to hide that vinyl block so it matches the fixture.
09:18Drilled it for a bushing so when the wires pass through they're not running against the
09:21sharp edge.
09:22All right, so now we're actually ready to finally wire the fixture.
09:25So we're going to go ahead and tie the ground wires together first.
09:28We've gone ahead and put a bonding screw into this plate since it's metal.
09:31We'll make sure it's mechanically bonded to the fixture and to the wire.
09:34So on the house, we have a black and a white.
09:36Our black is the hot.
09:37The white is the neutral.
09:38On the fixture, we have two blacks.
09:39So how do we know which one goes to the black and which one goes to the white?
09:42You can see the neutral is usually identified.
09:44So you can see the ribbing on the outside of that jacket.
09:47And on this one, it's smooth.
09:50The ribbing, the identified one, will go to the white wire, the neutral, the smooth one to the black.
09:58And now we're just going to repeat the process that we just did for this second light.
10:13All right, Roxanne, so thanks to Troy's help.
10:39The lights are in.
10:40What do you think?
10:41I love them.
10:42They could not be more perfect.
10:43Troy, I can't thank you enough for the help getting these in.
10:44These things look amazing.
10:45They fit the house well.
10:46It looks like they've always been there.
10:48One last thing is for the bulb, we chose a 2700K color soft white.
10:52It's nice and warm, kind of mimics the incandescence.
10:54It looks a little bit like the gas flame, a little closer to that color of gas lanterns.
10:57Yeah, thanks.
10:58I think it looks great.
10:59Thank you both so much for being here.
11:01Troy, thank you for your help.
11:02Thanks for coming to New Orleans.
11:04It was a great project.
11:05I'm glad you called.
11:06Thank you both so much.
11:07See you later.
11:08Have a good one.
11:14Look at you, Richard, starting a new season strong, a toilet and a cutaway.
11:18I'm so glad you noticed.
11:19I thought we were talking about something that is a nightmare, overflowing toilets.
11:23It wrecks your day, it wrecks the house, it's terrible.
11:26And I thought if we could get people a little more comfortable with what's going on inside
11:29the toilet, it might change behaviors.
11:31Okay.
11:32So you've got a tank and you've got a bowl.
11:34In the tank, there is two gallons of water.
11:38Here's one gallon.
11:39Here's the other.
11:41So when you hit that tank lever, that water comes down here through this flush rim.
11:46Here's what represents the bowl.
11:47And two things happen.
11:48One is water comes here and it creates a siphon.
11:51It pushes water up here.
11:53But also the weight of the water coming into this bowl also helps push it up through the
11:59trapway.
12:00This is like 16 pounds.
12:01Correct.
12:02Okay.
12:03And so now you'll notice also this trapway gets smaller.
12:06Do you see how it gets smaller right here?
12:08Okay.
12:09So let's create a stoppage.
12:11Okay.
12:12This could be toilet paper.
12:13This could be solid waste.
12:14It could be a variety of things.
12:16The ease with which you just stick your hand.
12:18It's just water, Kevin.
12:19This is for educational reasons.
12:20This is education.
12:21Doesn't matter.
12:22Unsettling.
12:23So now, so we hit the toilet flush.
12:26Okay.
12:28So the water's coming out of the tank in the bowl, but now it can't evacuate the bowl.
12:32Right.
12:33So now they come along and it's filled up to here.
12:35And what do they do?
12:36They're going to just hit that lever.
12:37That's when you know you have a teenager.
12:38Right.
12:39I know that teenager.
12:40And this is what he would do.
12:41He would go like that.
12:42And he'd say, oh, I can't believe this, Jim.
12:44Stop it.
12:45Sorry.
12:46So, so the lesson is if it's already filled, you just don't do that.
12:51You just don't go for a full flush because it's two more gallons.
12:54Right.
12:55Worst feeling.
12:56That is the worst feeling right there.
12:57So you come along and somebody still thinks they can do it again.
13:00Oh, they hit the flush.
13:01Right.
13:02And now that water's gone down through the first floor, down to the basement, gone to the,
13:05it's gone down through floor upon floor.
13:07Okay.
13:08Now sometimes I want to, I want to let you know though.
13:11Sometimes when you add a little bit more water, it actually will indeed clear it.
13:16This is heavy.
13:17Right.
13:18It's heavy.
13:19And so say, you see this trap way.
13:20So say there's too much toilet paper or something right here.
13:23Sometimes it's just enough.
13:24And it always happens at least once.
13:26That's right.
13:27To encourage you to do that.
13:28To do that again.
13:29Exactly.
13:30So then all of a sudden it might clear and you say, you're okay.
13:32So, but there are other times when it gets down and it gets impacted.
13:35You have no other choice, but to try and mechanically clear it.
13:38So everybody knows the plunger.
13:40Yeah.
13:41It's often misused.
13:43What people do, they, they come like this and they get, get sealed onto the opening right
13:47here at the trap way.
13:48And they'll say, I'm going to just push as hard as I can.
13:51Yeah.
13:52Give it everything you get.
13:53And so what happens is you actually can impact and make that tighter and harder.
13:58So what you want to do is actually go just the opposite way.
14:01Get a seal right here, get some suction on it and pull the other way, hoping that you'll
14:06release it back up here and then thereby let it go.
14:08So you're pulling it from the narrow to something wide.
14:11That's right.
14:12Might do the trick.
14:13That's right.
14:14Yeah.
14:15All right.
14:16Oh boy.
14:17So the other thing is, if it's just solid waste, you know, it often will be clear with
14:20a plunger or we have, we have some other tools that can clear it.
14:23But sometimes you'll have a toilet.
14:24We've read stories upon stories that we'll have a toilet that'll act fine for six months
14:30and then it won't.
14:31It just gets clogged mysteriously, like a little ghost toilet.
14:34Two stories.
14:35What?
14:36What, what, what?
14:37Cold cream container.
14:38Okay.
14:39Gets flushed down the toilet.
14:40The trap way gets smaller.
14:42What does it do?
14:43It gets stuck this way.
14:44Oh yeah.
14:45We come with the plunger.
14:46We clear it and it goes like this and it stays like this for six months.
14:48Water comes through, no clog.
14:49Then it goes like this.
14:50Goes back.
14:51So too with woman's bracelet.
14:52Drives you crazy.
14:53In here.
14:54And it goes here.
14:55The only way you fix that, take the toilet out, smash it into a million pieces, find
15:00the cold cream and get them a new toilet.
15:02We're going to have to talk about your morning routine.
15:04Cold cream?
15:05Well, it wasn't me.
15:06I didn't do it.
15:07We only fixed it.
15:08All right.
15:09So starting off the season with a nightmare.
15:10Yeah.
15:11Yeah.
15:12Hey, let me flush it for you.
15:13Don't do that.
15:14Please.
15:15Hi, Maureen.
15:16Hi, Maureen.
15:17Hi, Maureen.
15:18Nice to meet you.
15:19Nice to meet you.
15:20So you have a project for me?
15:21I do.
15:22We have some outdoor furniture that's in desperate need of your help.
15:23All right.
15:24Let's take a look at it.
15:25All right.
15:26Wow, Maureen.
15:27Look at this backyard.
15:28Look at the grass.
15:29So green.
15:30Yeah.
15:31My husband really is the green thumb.
15:32That's his domain.
15:33But maybe you can help me with the table and we can give some more life to this.
15:49All right.
15:50This is a very nice table.
15:51Look at this.
15:52The design.
15:53And you get the table.
15:54You got the chairs.
15:56Lots of rusty going around.
15:58Well, it is 15 years old, but they don't make them like they used to.
16:01They're all boxy and, you know, this intricate design we really like.
16:05So I'm hoping you can help us give it a new life.
16:08Absolutely.
16:09We can help you out with that.
16:10Awesome.
16:11We're going to need to do some preparation and bring this table back alive again.
16:15Any color in mind that you'd like to paint?
16:17We'd like it to match the fire pit furniture.
16:19Black?
16:20Black.
16:21Ready or go to work?
16:22Ready.
16:23Let's get some tools and let's do it.
16:24All right.
16:25All right.
16:26All right.
16:27First thing that we're going to do, we're going to protect everything that we are not
16:31painting.
16:32In this case, it's going to be the slats, okay?
16:34So we're going to use this green tape.
16:36We're going to protect everything, top, sides, and the bottoms.
16:40A good painting job comes from a great preparation.
16:45All right.
16:46Here's what we're going to do next with this flexible pad.
16:58Just like sanding to remove any loose debris that's on the chair right now.
17:02Okay.
17:03So not sandpaper.
17:04Not sandpaper, but it's a scrub pad.
17:06It's really good.
17:07It's flexible, and we can go around the curves and everything.
17:11Okay.
17:12Perfect.
17:13All right.
17:14We're going to vacuum to remove any of the residue that stays there.
17:31Now it's time to wipe off all the surface with denature alcohol.
17:38So, Moira, why denatured alcohol?
17:42Because it dries faster and cleans better.
17:45All right.
17:47Look at this, Maureen.
17:52Oh, my goodness.
17:55Okay, Maureen, look.
17:57Nice and clean.
17:58Now it's time to spot primer all the rusty spots that we can have.
18:02All right?
18:03Okay.
18:04Only the rust rust?
18:05We're going to prime the whole thing with this primer.
18:06Okay.
18:07We're going to take care of all the areas that we sand with a lot of rusty.
18:10Okay.
18:11That's the area.
18:12But first, you've got to do a very good shake on that bottom.
18:15Mine's not making the same sound as yours.
18:17No, go strong.
18:18Like you're mixing a good martini.
18:20Ah, okay.
18:21All right?
18:22Just like that.
18:23All right.
18:24And then you go like this.
18:26Just for the rust spots.
18:29Just like that.
18:30On there.
18:31On here.
18:32The primer that we use for the rusty areas is completely dry.
18:43Now we're going to use a different primer for the rest of the chairs, which is good for
18:48everything except for the rusty areas.
18:50Okay.
18:51That's done.
18:52Now let's use this primer.
18:53What if I hit this primer on top of the rusty primer?
18:55If you hit just a little bit, it's totally fine.
18:57Okay.
18:58Just don't go over.
18:59Okay.
19:00You're going to be about a foot away.
19:10Okay.
19:15We're going to let it dry for about 30 minutes, and then we can start applying the first coat
19:28of paint.
19:29All right.
19:30It looks like everything's dry.
19:31What's next, Mauro?
19:32Okay.
19:33We're ready to apply the first of two coats, and this is called DTM.
19:37DTM.
19:38DTM.
19:39What does that stand for?
19:40DTM stands for direct metal.
19:42It's a specific paint for metal surface.
19:45Okay.
19:46Excellent.
19:47I can't help but notice the paint looks like it's not black.
19:52I thought we'd do that black.
19:53Looks like a little green.
19:54It does look a little green.
19:55Well, DTM paint looks like green.
19:57Once you apply it, you turn black.
19:59Oh.
20:00All right.
20:01I will trust you in science, Mauro.
20:02Okay.
20:03We'll do the roller first.
20:06Because I want to see this color right away.
20:11And we're also using a 3-8 roller nap.
20:15For metal, I like to use a short nap.
20:18Okay.
20:19Which will give us a nice and smooth finish.
20:24See?
20:25That's the roller.
20:26That's the roller cover.
20:28And this is the 3-8 of an inch.
20:31You see here?
20:32Okay.
20:33I understand.
20:34All right.
20:35Which is very thin.
20:36And that works better on metal?
20:37That works better on metal or a very nice flat surface.
20:45Now I'm going to use the brush for some hard areas from the roller to reach out.
20:52Okay?
20:53Just like that.
20:54We cannot get done with the roller, but the brush works really well here.
20:57Let's start prepping the table the same way we did with the chairs.
21:04Let's start prepping the chairs.
21:05Let's start prepping the chairs.
21:06Let's start prepping the chairs.
21:37Wow.
21:39Wow, Mauro, this looks fantastic.
21:57It looks beautiful.
21:59I've seen it before and after.
22:01It looks amazing.
22:02The chairs, the table, everything looks so good.
22:04Oh, my goodness.
22:05I hope we can get another 15 years out of it.
22:07You can, so a suggestion for you,
22:09get some waterproofing covers for table and chairs.
22:13And if you have space where you can store it during the winter,
22:16this paint job is going to last a long time.
22:18All right.
22:19Thank you so much.
22:20You had an old table, now you've got a new table.
22:22Yes.
22:23We couldn't have done it without you.
22:24It was very good to meet you and do the work with you.
22:26Enjoy it.
22:27Have a great day.
22:29Next time on Ask This Old House, Lee gives a driveway a coastal makeover.
22:46Over time this is going to bleach out in the sun.
22:50Beautiful.
22:51Then we challenge our crew with a game of what is it?
22:56And are you concerned with radon levels in your home?
23:01Ross helps a homeowner test and mitigate the problem.
23:07All that on Ask This Old House.
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23:12Iblina Lewis is a mostly the one shade.
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23:16In every Travis name trail.
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23:20We are all looking forчик otrape.
23:21What is your hitch 3 or a notamment.
23:22There is an spann your hitting building.
23:23The bottom line is the same.
23:24You can allow increasing Jurassic Park.
23:26If you are freaking être dalense.
23:27The Collaboration is reaching our nation.
23:29The Pennsylvania Taylor is reaching out.
23:31To you really zu COVID.
23:33When I get to the table close a while I'm out of it.
23:34You can try and beating my life down the room.
23:38Go San On Up!
23:39You
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