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Ask This Old House - Season 24 Episode 12 - Paint Ceiling, Squeaky Floor
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00:00on ask this old house our experts travel across the country to answer questions about your house
00:17today Morrow teaches a homeowner how to paint their ceiling and you're gonna get
00:22really close to the crown now you go back and you spread the pain then Nathan discusses the
00:29options available in home siding and do your floors squeak boy that floor has a lot to say
00:36there doesn't it Tommy helps a homeowner make his floors nice and quiet all that on ask this old house
00:51hello hello welcome nice to meet you Melissa nice to meet you come on in nice house look at this yeah
00:58thank you this is our little home we've been working really hard to finish the kitchen over
01:03the last year so you renovated all of this looks pretty good yeah thank you job here looks nice
01:07thank you and then now we're focused on finishing up our living room all right so what are we doing
01:15here in this room so we're trying to finish the ceiling when we painted the walls we put tape up
01:21to do the molding and when we peeled it off we took away like a lot of the old paint so it's all chipped
01:26in the corners you didn't paint the ceiling we did not paint the ceiling came you already done yeah
01:30all right and then when you pull the tape off some of the paint came right up that's right we can fix
01:35that all right right so do we have a color for this ceiling already I'm thinking just like white nice
01:40and clean right that's a good idea because you're gonna brighten up this place a lot yeah all right so
01:45you're ready I'm ready I'm gonna step out get some materials what we need and we're going to work
01:50okay thank you okay Melissa before paint preparation has to be done and one part of the preparation is
01:59for us to remove as much of this furniture to the next room okay well couches protect floors protect
02:07and I like to find out what's up there so I want to pull this leg down and let's find out what we have
02:14well what we have here is like this bloating insulation that makes a huge dust when you open
02:27this yeah pull the lights down so in this case we're gonna put this light back we're gonna have
02:33to cut around with the brush nice and easy just like that okay and then we roll the field great but
02:40before we do that we have to protect all the walls so what kind of tape are we using we're using what
02:46we call painter's tape okay it comes in different colors and different thickness so this one here is
02:53like a medium adhesion yeah you can go on the surface really well but you have a limit time that you can
02:58keep the tape on the surface okay and then you have to pull the tempo probably this is what happens over
03:04there wrong kind of tape or you wait too long to pull out yeah we when we moved in we left it on there
03:10and so I bet you we just left it on too long yeah I know you have time to put on and yeah you have
03:15to respect the limit the time for you to take it off all right let's go to work all right time for
03:26you and I to do a lot of cutting lines okay what I like when a cutting line on ceiling I like the
03:31angle brush okay because I can see everything that I'm doing because that angle there and you're gonna get
03:38really close to the crown okay really with this tip here okay and then you spread the paint and we
03:47don't need to use primer or anything before we do this well if you have like a raw plaster never painted
03:52before mm-hmm then you use a primer got it okay and another situation when you have some glossy paint
03:58and you want to turn into a flat finish yeah then you put a coat of primer on it okay all right but
04:04other than that this has been done with the flat interior paint so we're going to go with the
04:09white on top got it okay okay cool so here's where we go you go like this okay and use the front tip
04:16yes and then you drag around then you spread the paint just like that you want to give it a try sure
04:23I'll try it here we go let's see how much paint do I put on the brush just enough just don't don't dig
04:29too much yes nice and easy go really close just don't need to go fast so it's nice and easy yeah
04:36okay now you go back and you spread the paint do we have to use ceiling paint in specific or can I
04:44use wall paint as well you can use whatever you want it's about preference sometimes you have like
04:49the wall which is most popular finishes eggshell yeah they want to see eggshell on the ceiling but
04:54I like the flat because the flat doesn't attract so much light got it I don't see any paint on
05:01your hands on yourself pretty good that's a pro would I get an A get an A plus well when you're painting
05:10there's three important things for you to know about so number one the correct amount of paint on
05:17your brush number two speed number three consistence throughout then the paint job will fly
05:29when it's time to roll right same thing again the three steps are how much paints on your roller
05:35speed consistency beautiful great job and you go just like that not a lot of pressure just enough
05:45to release the paint from the roller I see that you're holding it at an angle am I supposed to do
05:50that or do you you are well number one you don't want your roller to be right on top of your face like
05:55that's usually how I do it because you're gonna play not only the ceiling but yourself also right you're
06:01gonna have an angle I'd say so you can see better what you are doing okay when I give it a try all
06:08right I'll do my best all right this is quite the arm workout oh it is who needs a gym
06:21first coat is done let's let it dry we'll come back and we put the second and final coat on it is the
06:35same process as we did before cut in the edges and then we can use the roller
06:51what do you think look at the ceiling looks so much better better brighter yeah the room
07:02actually looks finished finally and even the walls looks much better now with that ceiling
07:06color yeah complete well we did it so it looks great now you know how to do it yes I know you
07:12have more things to do around your house but if you just need some help let me know of course but
07:16thank you so much I really appreciate your help thank you oh look at you guys with your meters you
07:29serving coffee with this conversation if you want some what am I looking at so you're looking at kind
07:33of the history of electric utility meters that we'll see on homes that we have so one of the first ones
07:38that we used to see was the analog meter this glass case mechanical yeah mechanical you see they're
07:42you're rotating dial in there right and you look at it the more power you use the faster that one
07:47the you clock up you know you'd see it and then someone have to walk by your house for the utility
07:52company write down the meter number write down the total amount of kilowatt hours you used subtract
07:56it from what you use the previous month and send you a bill right so that was the old-school analog
08:00style analog indeed this guy digital so there's a push to go on to these and most of us probably have
08:06the digital versions now the nice thing about this it's a little more accurate but it also has the
08:09ability to have one-way communication meaning they can remotely read the meter don't be walking by
08:14nobody has to walk by you can drive by or it can go back to the utility so then what's that so that
08:19is smart meter 1.0 these offer a little more information they start to monitor your energy
08:24usage these have the ability for two-way communication and the thing for the two-way is you have the ability
08:29to remotely shut those off so if you have an issue at a house you have first responders coming you have a
08:34gas leak a fire going on the utility company can know before anyone arrives disconnect the
08:39power so the house is sending information to the utility one way but the utility is sending direction
08:43back that's the second correct that's right and this is gonna happen every 15 minutes it's gonna
08:47ship that data every 15 minutes so they know what's going on but it's not true real time what's coming
08:51though is smart meter 2.0 so the next version of this will be real time so we're talking about a lot
08:57of data high resolution instantaneously so they can see exactly at any moment if you lose power in
09:02that house they know it if there's an outage in that area they can see exactly which houses are affected
09:07so it gives them a lot more granularity the other part of it for the consumer is that they're allowed
09:11to log in from their computer and see how much energy they're using real time right excited he gets
09:17with that excited to log in well you get to use you know an actual app versus seeing the dial spin
09:22right and then you can affect energy behavior and hopefully reduce the load in that house he loves
09:26this he does i do you know what i do now too thank you for the information i don't even need coffee to
09:30get through this conversation it's actually pretty interesting hey nathan hey kevin how's it going
09:39it's going all right looks like we got some siding discussion going on yeah i'm getting a lot of phone
09:43calls about siding jobs right now so yeah i know i know i love doing it it's a good job but people
09:48always have questions i presume they're asking you what should they use and what's the best for them
09:53and it all is driven off of their budget of course but i want to go over some of the most basic ones
09:57especially the ones we see here in new england to start with the most cost effective one is vinyl
10:01siding yeah it's a good product this is a double four here nice white color double four meaning
10:06you're going to get four inch exposure four inch exposure so you're almost you're running two courses
10:10at one time right it goes up nice and quick okay and people love it they can go over their old
10:16siding with it which we see a ton yep you're going to see this a lot on new construction jobs you're
10:21going to see it a lot on siding remodels again easy to put in easy to maintain just a good product
10:27i actually like the way it snaps in you know you get a nice tight joint right there so your
10:33installation is going to go quickly and from the homeowner's perspective satisfaction is going to
10:37be instant and they're never going to repaint that no no pressure wash it once a year and you're good
10:41what i like too about vinyl siding is if they're replacing a window or a door i can go unzip
10:45everything do the job and then just zip it back up we see it everywhere although not our first choice
10:50for historic homes but a cost effective option very good we are very partial to wood and i am too cedar is
10:56my favorite material to work with i like cedar shingles i like cedar clapboards they have a
11:02timeless look you see them on a lot of houses in the area these ones have got primers on them and
11:06you know natural material tapered which is key for you so i can adjust my coursing i can adjust my
11:11exposure so i can take my cedar clapboards here traditionally it's going to be a four inch exposure
11:17which is the exposure being this dimension the face to the weather and then as i get close to maybe
11:21the top of a door or window i can adjust this ever so slightly to hit the top to keep that clean line
11:25so that is not something that you can do for example you know with vinyl whereas you can make
11:30the coursing like that you get what you get with the vinyl exactly once you set your first course down
11:34below that's driven all the way up the wall in terms of cost you got a sense of you know the
11:38difference between vinyl and wood wood's going to be the most expensive right now and then vinyl's
11:43going to be the cheapest okay and then in terms of maintenance as i said never going to repaint
11:47that how frequently going to repaint this let's say every seven to ten years yeah you know and
11:52there may be some sanding too so there's a little bit more maintenance with that okay so probably
11:55in the middle yeah in the middle we're going to go with fiber cement siding you can get it primed you
12:00can get it painted with a finish coat we have a cedar mill face here and a smooth face okay you can
12:05even get it for different exposures we're talking about so here this is a four inch so we have a nice
12:10four inch exposure here we have a seven inch exposure this one's raw no primer paint on it this is a
12:15man-made material man-made the name pretty much tells us all we need to know fiber cement it's a
12:20cementitious material cement sand and wood pulp really yeah what else yeah huh well despite the
12:27fact that I might have some wood pulp it really stands up it is rot resistant it is pest resistant
12:31it's a really good product and if you're gonna have to repaint cedar let's well vinyl never see
12:37ever say every seven years how frequently do you have to repaint this 10 to 15 years so that's a big
12:41bonus yeah yeah definitely do you enjoy working with it I don't mind it I like snapping it I get a nice
12:46clean cut you don't get as much adjustability with your exposure to hit your tops of your doors and
12:52windows so this one's set up for four inches four inches you're good if you try and shrink it a
12:57little bit you get a little bit more rock so as you crawl up your sidewall as you look up you would
13:01see a little bit of a shadow line there which you don't really want to see so so so less adjustment
13:06there maybe choose a different fiber cement product if you want different exposures or you have to think
13:10way ahead you need to be pulling measurements to the tops of your doors and windows making sure you're
13:14just you're running your courses perfectly to hit and in terms of cost where does it fall I would
13:20say it's right in the middle I would say most expensive right in the middle vinyl is going to
13:24be your cheapest but then even within each type of siding there's you know more expensive options good
13:30well it's nice to see the options here in front of us thank you good
13:32hey Tommy hey Anthony how are you thanks for coming oh my pleasure wow looks like you've done
13:45some work in here yeah kitchen extensive renovations last year very nice this is by my grandparents house
13:52oh really my wife and I bought it last year we have a two and a half year old son and uh how long did
13:59your grandparents own it over 70 years so wow yeah it's been in the family and we're lucky to have
14:05another generation come through well it's a keeper absolutely well it really looks good so but what did
14:09you call me for oh we have one persistent problem upstairs upstairs yeah all right we'll lead the way
14:14let's see what's going on there's always something yeah the stairway is really nice I like the metal
14:20ballisters and the flat handrail kind of contemporized it thank you yeah we replaced the treads
14:25and then we pulled up the carpet because we love the flooring underneath and yeah it's beautiful
14:29yeah it's existing to the house and then um this is my son's bedroom here oh it's nice and bright
14:34and we we run into some issues when we're putting him to bed at night with this floor right outside
14:40of his door boy that floor has a lot to say there doesn't it yeah it's very hard to be discreet
14:45yeah I can see right there that somebody tried to tighten it up by nailing it right down through
14:50well I've made a mock-up and I brought it with me and I can show you exactly what's going on with
14:56the floor system and the structure below awesome let's take a look it's downstairs
14:59all right Anthony this represents your floor system so you can understand what's down below
15:06the floor start off with the finish floor a subfloor and the structure the subfloor would be nailed to
15:13the structure with a nail like that and what happens is your house expands and contracts all the time
15:18with humidity and dryness in some cases if the nail isn't into the structure nice and tight or if
15:25there's a void or a knot or something like that when the structure expands it gets bigger and it can
15:31actually pull the nail up as the board is swelling and then when it dries the nail is left up ever so
15:38slightly now you have something that's loose right here and when you step on it this structure
15:46and the and the subfloor is squeaking on the nail itself so what we need to do is we need to tighten all
15:54these up like they took the nails upstairs and they drove nails down through the finish floor through the
16:00subfloor into the structure and put it down ever so slightly bringing the sandwich all down and making it
16:09nice and tight okay okay but we don't want to see the head to the nail but they actually make a kit that
16:14has this attachment here and a special screw that goes through the attachment like that and you drive
16:22the screw and it goes through both pieces with this tight to the top of the finished floor goes through
16:27the finish floor through the subfloor into the structure pulling all of this sandwich down nice and
16:33tight all right so now if you look at the screw and i take it out of the attachment right here
16:38you can see the smooth part of the shank and where the thread begins there's a little line that goes
16:44all the way around the screw right there and that is designed so the torque of the drill driver it snaps
16:50the head off and you'll end up with two pieces and the screw has broken off right below the finish of
16:58the floor and the floor won't squeak anymore and we'll never see it that's right first thing we need
17:03to do is find a joist down below and the joist should if these nails are into the structure right
17:11here that helps us unfortunately i don't think the house is framed 16 on center it's probably random
17:16framed so if i just lay my tape measure up like that and i say well okay there should be a joist here
17:24another one over here well i know there's going to be one there by this wall but let's say if i take
17:30and i try to find it by sound that sounds that sounds a little hollow right there
17:42so i'm looking for a sound change or a more solid sound let's put it that way
17:47here the change in the sound so right at the 24 24 mark let's try one right there so what i'll do is
18:03i'll take this bit with a very small amount of thread on it and a smooth shaft so when i drill through the
18:11floor with this part of it i get through the floor into the subfloor if there's no structure underneath
18:17i should be able to push this right down if there's structure underneath it will pull the drill down
18:23with it so we'll give it a try let's try i'm going to try on the 24 number so let's see what happens
18:39no structure there
18:53and nothing there all right so i'm gonna try right here
18:57there's one right there so that thread is into the joist i can feel it pulling down now if i put
19:11the drill in reverse and i try to hold the drill down if there's no structure there i will be able
19:17to hold the drill if there is structure there the thread will push me out so it pushed me out a little
19:25bit so there is structure there so let's put a little piece of blue tape right there shows where
19:30the joist is now if we take a measurement let's go from the edge of the floor in here over 12 inches
19:4212 inches here you get 12 inches that lines up with that so what i'm going to do is we'll try
19:49and drill a screw and see if it grabs is there anything we want to listen for or you'll feel it
19:57well you'll actually hear it you should hear it snap or pop okay and if i do it right and it grabs
20:04into enough structure it'll snap right below the finish level of the floor
20:08all right why don't you stand on the board right there push everything down tight ready yep
20:24didn't snap
20:30okay let me try one more right here beside it this old framing structure could be a little bit too soft
20:38oh there it is right there okay so we're into structure right there let's try one more right
20:51here now just push down and pull the trigger full blast there you go there we go pull it up
21:01all right now let's try stepping on that again okay
21:03all right let's try one more right beside that one
21:10full blast
21:14boom all right so walk in from the hall okay
21:20that's pretty quiet i'll walk out
21:24so much better so much better yeah yeah so it doesn't sound too good or it sounds good
21:30the lack of sound is good all right so now what we got to do is we got to fill the holes
21:35okay so we get some wax sticks three different colors you see there's different tones in the
21:40floor so you just pick one and go back and forth work it into the hole to fill it up i'm not going
21:45to match it exact but we want to try to blend it so blend the colors together a little bit of this a
21:51little bit of that keep working it in working it around go back to this one
22:00go back to this one
22:06buff it
22:10looks pretty good blends right in yep all right let's see how it looks now that it's all cleaned up
22:16oh i think it looks pretty good i can't even tell we're up here drilling holes give a little
22:20test oh wow what a difference everything that's so much better well hopefully all you hear is just
22:26some snoring thank you so much for coming tommy my pleasure so if you've got questions about your
22:30house we'd love to hear from you until then i'm tom silva for ask this old house
22:35next time on ask this old house ross discusses the advancements in water tank technology and works
22:51with a homeowner to install a solar thermal unit then do you have problems with houseplant pests
22:58jen gives advice on how to get rid of them and nathan helps a homeowner get better access to their attic
23:05by installing pull downstairs all that on ask this old house
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