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00:00Today on This Old House.
00:02Downtown Asheville, also known as Beer City,
00:04and we couldn't resist by coming to a brewery.
00:06Cheers. Cheers.
00:08So I hear you are measuring for some shade.
00:10Yes, blackout shade.
00:12Oh, it looks so good.
00:13How do we get this prepped so it's going to look
00:15as nice as the house across the street?
00:17That house looks great. This is going to look better.
00:27That's it.
00:30Oh, here we go.
00:41Oh, here we go.
00:42The St pays off.
00:58Hey there, I'm Kevin O'Connor, and welcome back to This Old House and to our projects here in western North Carolina,
01:03where we are working on several houses that were damaged by Hurricane Helene.
01:08We've got one in East Asheville, one in North Asheville, and several in Swannanoa, which is just a couple miles from here.
01:16This is the town of Black Mountain, and like so many towns around here, it has been attracting people for years because it is so beautiful.
01:25Look at the downtown right here, great main street with lots of restaurants, arts, and culture,
01:30and we are just surrounded by mountains with glorious views.
01:35Those mountains also make this a natural watershed, and we've got the North Fork Reservoir just up there.
01:43Well, like so many towns in this area, this one was hit hard by Helene.
01:47In fact, the locals were terrified that that reservoir, which provides billions of gallons of fresh drinking water to the greater Asheville area,
01:56they were afraid that that would fail and wash out this town.
01:59Well, it didn't, but the town was cut off.
02:03No electricity, communications, or fresh water for weeks.
02:07Well, they picked themselves up off a meeting right here on the center green, and they got through the storm.
02:12And as you can see, they are back in business.
02:15Those restaurants and breweries and all that arts and culture is back, as it is in many of these towns and the surrounding areas.
02:22And I thought I'd have myself a look around and maybe sample a few.
02:26Nestled in the picturesque Blue Ridge Mountains and sitting on the intersection of two rivers,
02:38Asheville is a nature lover's dream, where you can hike, bike, and paddle.
02:43But you can also taste, sip, and toast.
02:46Cheers.
02:46Cheers to you.
02:47Earlier, we met up with Molly Arrani of Chai Pani.
02:51There's something about the atmosphere of the mountains here in this town that inspires dreamers and creatives,
02:58and people that really appreciate good quality, exciting ideas.
03:03Cheers.
03:04This small city of under 100,000 residents has a food and beverage scene,
03:08where those exciting ideas are evident on the plate.
03:12Home to over 250 diverse restaurants, two of Asheville's top spots,
03:17Curate and Chai Pani, serve up Spanish tapas and Indian street food.
03:23Wildly different cuisines, but both locally sourced.
03:27We have a massive density of small independent farms within 10 to 15 minutes of every restaurant in this town.
03:34And that's also unusual and unique.
03:35And they're creating incredible produce.
03:38And they also, we have great relationships with them.
03:40They will grow things that we specifically want them to grow.
03:44And the foodies have taken notice.
03:46Both restaurants are prestigious James Beard Award winners,
03:50often called the Oscars of the food world.
03:53It's pretty incredible how many times Asheville has been nominated for a James Beard Award.
03:57Particularly for the size of city that it is.
04:00It's such a small group of restaurants are recognized in the country.
04:04I knew immediately that this wasn't just about what was on the plate.
04:08It was about the whole package, about our people, our staff, our team, about our hospitality, our culture.
04:14And it's not just world-class food that draws crowds, but also beer and lots of it.
04:20Boasting more breweries per capita than any other city in the U.S.,
04:24it isn't hard to understand why Asheville has earned the nickname Beer City, U.S.A.
04:30You can sample everything from IPAs to stouts at over 50 craft breweries.
04:35It'll start with your old port lager back there, hazy, an Oktoberfest, and a Pilsner.
04:40Places like Highland, the city's very first craft brewery.
04:43Point Pints since 1994.
04:46Or Hillman Beer, a small, family-run business near Biltmore Village.
04:50What is it with Asheville and the beer?
04:52It's actually the water quality around here.
04:54For real?
04:55Yeah.
04:55Oh, it's not just like a cultural thing?
04:57I mean, it is a little bit of the culture that works in with it.
05:00But we have, our water quality was like the equivalent of out west in Denver, Colorado.
05:06So the water is phenomenal.
05:08It comes from a pristine watershed that's bordered completely by the Blue Ridge Parkway.
05:13It's phenomenal.
05:13You hardly have to do anything to it to make really good beer.
05:16You don't have to add that other breweries might have to add in other regions.
05:20So a very cruel irony, that same water that gives us beautiful beer destroyed our town in ways that nobody could imagine.
05:29In late September 2024, Hurricane Helene dumped record rainfall on Asheville and its surrounding communities, leading to catastrophic flooding, triggering mudslides, destroying homes and businesses and infrastructure.
05:45We all woke up on Friday morning in complete shock.
05:49Nobody was prepared for this.
05:50It was not on anyone's radar that we could have this level of destruction from a hurricane in the mountains of North Carolina.
05:57Many businesses lost their physical structures of their business.
06:01But then also, none of us could operate because we also woke up without power, without water, without cell service, without communication between one another, without internet.
06:13So we flooded to about this high, so it was up over the tables.
06:19And it's not just, it wasn't just water, it was also mud, because our back, our whole back river, that's what came up and came in the building.
06:27Everything was muddy.
06:28You couldn't even decipher what was what and what it used to be.
06:31Everything was rearranged.
06:32Nothing was in the same spot.
06:33You're finding the safe halfway down, which was up in the office, halfway through the kitchen, kitchen stuff down here, brewery equipment outside.
06:43Um, it was just, just complete, complete destruction.
06:48The storm ravaged our entire perimeter, and obviously around town, uh, much more damage than what we incurred here on site.
06:56One third of Asheville's residents works in the hospitality industry, an industry that was now facing an unprecedented challenge.
07:04You know, there, there are no grant programs for businesses after disasters.
07:09If we have to close the ripple effect through the community who depends on us for their financial well-being and the economic just cycle that happens in Asheville, it was absolutely devastating.
07:22So that was our number one priority, is like, how do we get the restaurant operating as a restaurant again?
07:29People started just showing up, and I was thinking, I'm looking over at these guys in the kitchen.
07:35Every single one of them showed up in the middle of the storm response.
07:39These young people that worked for us would come in covered in mud, wearing their work boots, because they had been, like, rescuing people from the river and trying to save things.
07:49And they would walk into the restaurant and say, put me to work.
07:55But then, World Central Kitchen, an international food charity, arrived in town.
08:01We immediately jumped in and connected with World Central Kitchen as a first step, which was us preparing meals for the community.
08:09And World Central Kitchen is an incredible model because they pay restaurants to prepare these meals so that we could then hire employees, start purchasing some product, get that economy going again,
08:20but more importantly, be able to hire our employees back to do something during the storm while we couldn't be open.
08:26We started making food with what we had in-house by filling up five-gallon water jugs running around town to the breweries who had potable water because they use it in their brewing process.
08:39Restaurants feeding the community.
08:41Recovery here isn't just about rebuilding.
08:43It's about working together, innovating, and continuing to give back.
08:48Yeah, well, when I pulled up, this place looked like a little oasis.
08:50It looked like it was ready to go.
08:53We were spared a lot of damage.
08:55There's no doubt about it, and we're thankful for that.
08:58And so we need to give back.
09:01You've got a beer on the menu that's helping you give back.
09:04Is that right?
09:04Did I hear that correctly?
09:05Tell me about that.
09:06It's Highland Haze, and the intent is it's draft only, and the intent was to partner with our distributors in a four-state region and say,
09:16we have this beer.
09:17We want to support the hospitality industries.
09:19But every pint that we serve will go to support the local hospitality industry, which is suffering mightily.
09:27It took almost two months to get drinking water back to the residents and businesses of Asheville.
09:32And after lots of hard work, these businesses are back.
09:36Now, the only missing ingredient is visitors like you.
09:40Our restaurants are open, our music venues are open, our sports arenas are opening.
09:46We really need people to come visit.
09:48People should know, Asheville's open for business.
09:50We are open for business, and we're ready for it, and we need it.
09:53Yeah.
09:53Yeah.
09:54Yeah.
09:54It's really heartwarming to be in town right now and to see what it feels like.
09:58So come, be part of this community.
10:01You know, help us recover, help us build, and experience what we have to offer.
10:06Cheers.
10:07Cheers.
10:07Cheers.
10:07We're glad to be here.
10:08Cheers.
10:15Hey, Kat.
10:16I got to say, the place is really looking good.
10:20I love the paint job.
10:21I love the color in this room.
10:23Thanks.
10:23This is actually going to be our son's room, and he actually picked out the color.
10:27He did?
10:28Yeah.
10:28I bet he'd like it now that he sees it on the wall.
10:30He did a nice job painting, too.
10:32Absolutely.
10:33All right.
10:33So I hear you are measuring for some window shades.
10:36Yeah, we want to do some inside mount shades that are blackout.
10:42Okay, this can be tricky.
10:44We want to measure the bottom, the middle, and the top.
10:47And we want to find out the smallest measurement and use that when we write it down.
10:52Okay.
10:53And we have to measure up and down.
10:54We want to make sure that everything is parallel.
10:57That makes sense.
10:57All right.
10:58So I brought something to help you measure.
11:00I like to take two sticks, and I put a little angle like that.
11:06On the other end, I cut a little angle like that, and I swing them around.
11:10So the angle is pushing out on each side.
11:14I lay it down on the window.
11:16I push it tight there.
11:19I drag it over here.
11:21Push it tight.
11:22Bring the sticks together.
11:24I want to make sure that I'm parallel with the window.
11:28Let's have that pencil so I can take and just mark this like this.
11:32Put a mark on each stick.
11:34Make sure that the line lines up.
11:36Now, if I take the sticks away, and you hold that with the two lines lined up nice and tight
11:44so it doesn't move, my long points right across here, and I have 38 and 3 sixteenths of an inch.
11:57Okay.
11:57Now I'm going to take and I'm going to check it.
12:01That's perfect right there.
12:03Now I'm going to take and move it up to the middle.
12:06Much wider in the middle.
12:10So let's check the top.
12:12So slide that ladder over.
12:15Again, I want my lines lined up.
12:22Put it in.
12:23Make the stick parallel with the opening of the window.
12:28And that is on the line, and that's perfect.
12:31No movement at all.
12:33Okay?
12:33Now, you've got a lot of windows to measure here.
12:37So if we take the stick, because we'll put this back together, hold it tight.
12:46I'm just going to take one quick piece of tape, put it on here like that.
12:52And I can walk around to that window over there.
12:59Oh, that's great.
13:00We'll check and measure each window.
13:02Once we get that done, we can go to the store and get them cut.
13:05Sounds good.
13:05All right.
13:06All right.
13:10All right.
13:11We've got them all cut.
13:13Now we're going to install one and see how it fits.
13:15Great.
13:16First thing we need to do is we put the mounting brackets across the bottom of the headstock.
13:21And I know that they have to be four inches in on each side, and I want to center them in the opening so that the shade or the blind doesn't interfere with the finger latch when you rise the window up and down.
13:34And an inch and three quarter is our center and mark.
13:41Now we're going to find the center of the opening so it's 38, it'll be 19, 19 or 16th.
13:50And come out inch and three quarters again.
13:56All right.
13:57Now that I have the three positions marked, I'm going to take a drill.
14:00I want to pre-drill holes for the screws to go in easier, but actually hold better.
14:07All right.
14:08Now what we're going to do is we're going to screw three of these brackets right here.
14:11I drilled a hole for that hole right there.
14:24All right.
14:25Let's see how it fits.
14:26Now we have to angle these slightly.
14:29Push them in like that.
14:32And now we're going to twist them up.
14:35Oop.
14:37Nice.
14:38Great.
14:39Look at that.
14:40And you have a new blind.
14:43Oh, it looks so good.
14:44All right.
14:45That's the first of many.
14:47We have them all cut.
14:48Do you think you guys can put them up?
14:49Yeah, I think Jeremy and I can figure it out.
14:51All right.
14:52Thanks for your help.
14:53My pleasure.
14:54Kat and Jeremy's house is freshly painted.
14:57And they get that nice, crisp, clean look when you're using fiber cement siding and wood
15:03composite trim.
15:04Well, you want to get it right.
15:05And there is a technique.
15:07So to help us with Jim and Ali's house across the street, we brought in Mauro.
15:11Mauro.
15:12Good to have you in Carolina.
15:13Glad to be here.
15:15So the siding and the trim on Jim and Ali, same as across the street.
15:20Yeah.
15:21So we're working with two different materials here.
15:23For siding, we have the fiber cement boards.
15:26You love this stuff.
15:27I love this stuff.
15:27Holds bench really well.
15:28I love it.
15:29Okay.
15:29And for the trim, we have this wood composite materials.
15:34They have it this side with some texture, some grainy on it.
15:38And over here, we have the nice and smooth.
15:40And the core is basically just wood flour.
15:42It's nothing but sawdust.
15:44Yeah.
15:44A little bit of glue.
15:45A little glue.
15:45Put it all together.
15:47Everything expands and contracts.
15:50Do these expand and contract at the same rate?
15:52At a different rate?
15:53This composite measure will contract, will expand a little bit and contract a little bit.
15:59Different from the fiber board.
16:01Okay.
16:01So how do we get this prepped so it's going to look as nice as the house across the street?
16:06The house looks great.
16:07This is going to look better.
16:09Game on!
16:10All right.
16:11First thing that we got to do, we're going to fill up all the nail holes, and we're going
16:15to use an extra wood filler.
16:17So we can fill that up.
16:18And then for the fiber boards, we're going to use an elastomatic caulking there.
16:23We're going to fill up the nail holes.
16:24The nail holes is not that big, but we're going to sink in the nail a little bit.
16:27Okay.
16:28And fill them with caulking.
16:29And then when the side button up with the trim, then we're going to run a bit of elastomatic
16:33caulking all the way down here.
16:35All right.
16:36All right.
16:36That will seal it up nice, and then with the movement of the material, the caulking will
16:40follow up the growth.
16:41So maybe I do the nail holes, and maybe you do the caulking, and we can talk technique
16:45when we're into it?
16:46Absolutely.
16:47Yeah.
16:47Let's get to work.
16:48We've got a house to beat.
16:48That's it.
16:53Always on the grain direction.
17:03So Mauro.
17:04Yes.
17:05You're using wood filler.
17:06I'm using caulk.
17:08Why the difference?
17:09Well, here we're dealing with wood composite.
17:11A wood filler works better here.
17:13And then the fiber cement, the caulking, is going to be more like a flexibility and durability.
17:19Different materials, different solution.
17:21Different solution, different fillers.
17:23This, we're going to caulk.
17:25We're not doing anything here, but we're going all the sides, all the way down.
17:29The last time I was here, I met fellow mason, Don Caldwell, to assess the damage that was
17:43done to the chimney during the storm.
17:45We did find some brick that was lodged into the flue, and that's when we brought in Allen,
17:50a local chimney sweep, to clean the chimney for us so we could get a better assessment.
17:54We did discover some damage and decided it was going to be costly and take up a lot of
17:59time.
17:59We know the homeowners do have some options, and that's why I'm here to see Allen today.
18:04Allen.
18:05Hey, Mark.
18:05How are you?
18:06Good to see you again.
18:06How are you?
18:07You too.
18:07So I can see they made a decision.
18:09They have.
18:10They have.
18:10They decided to go with a wood burning insert.
18:14You know, the fireplace, it just had a lot of problems.
18:16It was going to take a lot of money, a lot of work to bring it back to an operable fireplace.
18:21They decided to go for the cheaper option, but this is also a more efficient option.
18:26This is going to provide heat for the home as well.
18:28Yeah.
18:29So by using this, that's going to negate the work that we thought we were going to have
18:32to do.
18:32Correct.
18:33Okay.
18:33We're going to line the chimney with a stainless steel insulated liner, and that should negate
18:38any kind of cracks or gaps or clearance issues inside the chimney.
18:41Okay, great.
18:43So before we're going to put this pipe in, a couple of things I noticed.
18:46The dampers in the way, and so are some of these fire bricks.
18:49So the first thing I'm going to do is get my grinder, and I'm going to make some relief
18:53cuts in the damper.
18:56And then I'm stuck with these two fire brick that are going to be in the way.
19:00So I got my hammer drill with a flat chisel on it and just pop these brick out.
19:05And I think I've given myself plenty of room to get the pipe in and make a clean connection.
19:10All right, so we've got our insulation rolled out here.
19:16It's a ceramic fiber insulation.
19:18It's half inch thick.
19:20We've got it rolled out.
19:21We're actually going to roll the liner into it and wrap the liner with it.
19:24It's required by most manufacturers that their liners are insulated to maintain their warranty.
19:29And also, the insulation keeps the flue liner warmer so that the chimney draws better.
19:35And also, the chimney will collect less creosote.
19:39Next, we're going to install this stainless steel sock or mesh that goes around the liner.
19:44Once the adhesives burn off, the stainless steel mesh will hold everything together.
19:49All right, Alan, it looks like I'm pretty cleaned up upstairs.
20:00Good deal.
20:00You guys are doing good out here?
20:02We're ready to drop it in the chimney.
20:03We're going to carry it up on the roof and then drop it in from the top.
20:06All right, I'll go inside.
20:07Keep my eyes open.
20:13All right, that looks good, man.
20:14You can come on down.
20:15Okay.
20:15All right, so we're actually going to elevate the wood stove insert a little bit.
20:20We're elevating it so that it has a more symmetrical look here.
20:23And just that was the customer's preference.
20:26So we use these fire bricks.
20:27That's going to elevate the unit.
20:29I really like the fact that we're using fire bricks.
20:31So that's great.
20:32And this one's going to go in the back.
20:35Take my next one.
20:37Put that in the front.
20:38So I noticed that we have the electrical installed.
20:41That's for the fan?
20:42Correct.
20:42That's been put in by an electrician and inspected.
20:45Let's get the fiber cement board in.
20:47Okay.
20:48And why are we using that?
20:49That's non-combustible.
20:50Okay.
20:51And now we're ready for the unit.
20:53Okay.
20:56All right, lower it down very slow.
21:03There we go.
21:04All right.
21:05It's in place.
21:06All right, James, you can come back down.
21:08All right.
21:08You've got to attach it with screws.
21:09All right.
21:10All right.
21:10All right.
21:10All right.
21:10All right.
21:11All right.
21:11All right.
21:11All right.
21:12All right.
21:12All right.
21:13All right.
21:14All right.
21:15I apply the silicone first to the terracotta liner, and then I attach the stainless steel
21:23top plate.
21:23It will also act as a support for the chimney liner.
21:29And the last thing I do is to install this custom fabricated chimney cap.
21:35All right.
21:36Mark, you got that last screw.
21:37I'm going to finish putting on this last piece of the backing plate.
21:41Looking good, guys.
21:42I got the chimney cap on, the top plate up there finished.
21:45Got the finished face plate to go on the backing plate here, and we'll be all done.
21:49All right.
21:50All right.
21:54All right.
21:54I believe we're all finished.
21:56All right.
21:58Guys, that looks great.
22:00I mean, I think we've got to have a fire.
22:02Am I wrong?
22:02Absolutely.
22:03All right.
22:03Let's lighten it up.
22:04All right.
22:05I love the flame, guys.
22:10It's pulling right up.
22:20All right, guys.
22:21This is great.
22:22I want to thank you for letting me help.
22:24Until next time, I'm Mark McCullough.
22:26I'm Alan Justice.
22:27And I'm James Essert.
22:28From North Asheville for this old house.
22:31All right, guys.
22:32Let's get warm.
22:33Great fire.
22:33All right.
22:42Next time on This Old House.
22:44We're going to build a concrete vanity with an integral sink for Paula's main bathroom.
22:48Okay.
22:49What those fibers are, they're like a steel cable.
22:51A hundred little filaments of fiber, and that's what gives it the strength.
22:54I always recommend soil testing just to know what you're working with, what the composition is.
22:58Then you have a baseline, right?
23:00Absolutely.
23:00Especially in a flood event like this, where we don't really know how the soil's been impacted.
23:05We'll get information that'll help us know how to go forward with that.
23:09That's next time.
23:10That's next time.
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