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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.
00:18Today, Mauro teaches a homeowner how to paint their ceiling.
00:21And you're gonna get really close to the crown. Now you go back and you spread the paint.
00:27Then, Nathan discusses the options available in home siding.
00:32And do your floors squeak?
00:35Boy, that floor has a lot to say there, doesn't it?
00:37Tommy helps a homeowner make his floors nice and quiet.
00:41All that on Ask This Old House.
00:52Hello. Hi Mauro. Welcome.
00:54Nice to meet you, Melissa.
00:55Nice to meet you. Come on in.
00:56Nice house. Look at this.
00:58Thank you. This is our little home.
01:00We've been working really hard to finish the kitchen over the last year.
01:03So you renovated all of this.
01:05That's pretty good.
01:06Yeah, thank you.
01:07Great job here. Looks nice.
01:09That's the first thing I always look at.
01:11And then now we're focused on finishing up our living room.
01:14Alright, so what are we doing here in this room?
01:16So we're trying to finish the ceiling.
01:18Okay.
01:19When we painted the walls, we put tape up to do the molding.
01:22And when we peeled it off, we took away like a lot of the old paint, so it's all chipped
01:26in the corners now.
01:27You didn't paint the ceiling?
01:28We did not paint the ceiling.
01:29It came already done.
01:30Yes.
01:31Alright, and then when you pull the tape off, some of the paint came right up.
01:34That's right.
01:35So we can fix that, alright?
01:36Great.
01:37So do we have a color for this ceiling already?
01:38I'm thinking just like white, nice and clean, bright.
01:41Nice and clean?
01:42That's a good idea because you're going to brighten up this place a lot.
01:44Yeah.
01:45Alright, so are you ready?
01:46I'm ready.
01:47I'm going to step out, get some materials, what we need, and we're going to work.
01:50Okay.
01:51That sounds good.
01:53Okay, Melissa, before paint, preparation has to be done.
01:57Yep.
01:58And one part of the preparation is for us to remove as much of this furniture to the next room.
02:03Okay.
02:05Well, couch is protect, floor is protect, and I'd like to find out what's up there.
02:11So I want to pull this light down and let's find out what we have.
02:17Whoa, whoa.
02:21Well, what we have here is like this blown-in insulation.
02:24Uh-huh.
02:25That makes a huge dust when you open this.
02:27Yeah.
02:28You know, pull the lights down, so.
02:29Yep.
02:30In this case, we're going to put this light back.
02:32We're going to have to cut around with the brush, nice and easy, just like that.
02:36Okay.
02:37And then we'll roll the field.
02:39Great.
02:40But before we do that, we have to protect all the walls.
02:44So what kind of tape are we using?
02:45We're using what we call painter's tape.
02:47Okay.
02:48Okay.
02:49We're using different colors and different thickness.
02:52So this one here is like a medium adhesion.
02:54Yep.
02:55It can go on the surface really well.
02:56But you have a limit time that you can keep the tape on the surface.
03:00Oh, got it.
03:01Okay.
03:02And then you have to pull the tape off.
03:03Probably this is what happens over there.
03:05Wrong kind of tape or you wait too long to pull out.
03:08Yeah.
03:09When we moved in, we left it on there.
03:10And so I bet you we just left it on too long.
03:12See?
03:13Yeah.
03:14I know.
03:15You have the time to put on and then you have to respect the limit of time for you
03:17to take it off.
03:18Got it.
03:19Move the tape.
03:20All right.
03:21Let's go to work.
03:22All right.
03:23Time for you and I to do our cutting lines.
03:29Okay.
03:30What I like when the cutting lines are on the ceiling, I like the angle brush.
03:33Okay.
03:34Because I can see everything that I'm doing because of that angle there.
03:38And you're going to get really close to the crown.
03:42Okay.
03:43But really with this tip here.
03:44Okay.
03:45And then you spread the paint.
03:47And we don't need to use primer or anything before we do this?
03:50Well, if you have like a raw plaster never painted before, then you use a primer.
03:55Got it.
03:56Okay.
03:57And another situation when you have some glossy paint and you want to turn into a flat finish.
04:01Yep.
04:02Then you put a coat of primer on it.
04:03Okay.
04:04All right.
04:05But other than that, this has been done with the flat interior paint.
04:08So we're going to go with the white on top.
04:10Got it.
04:11Okay.
04:12Okay.
04:13Cool.
04:14So here's where we go.
04:15You go like this.
04:16Okay.
04:17And use the front tip.
04:18Yes.
04:19Spread the paint.
04:20Just like that.
04:21You want to give it a try?
04:23Sure.
04:24I'll try it.
04:25Here we go.
04:26Let's see.
04:27How much paint do I put on the brush?
04:28Just enough.
04:29Just don't, don't dig too much.
04:31Yes.
04:32Nice and easy.
04:33Go really close.
04:34Just don't need to go fast.
04:35Just nice and easy.
04:36Yeah.
04:37Okay.
04:38Now you go back and you spread the paint.
04:41Do we have to use ceiling paint in specific or can I use wall paint as well?
04:45You can use whatever you want.
04:47It's about preference.
04:48Sometimes you have like the wall which is most popular finish is eggshell.
04:51Yep.
04:52You want to see eggshell on the ceiling.
04:54But I like the flat because the flat doesn't attract so much light.
04:58Got it.
05:00I don't see any paint on your hands or on yourself.
05:03Pretty good.
05:04That's a pro.
05:05Would I get an A?
05:06You get an A plus.
05:07A plus.
05:08Well, when you paint them, there's three important things for you to know about.
05:14So number one, the correct amount of paint on your brush.
05:19Number two, speed.
05:21Number three, consistence.
05:24Mmm.
05:25Throughout.
05:26Then the paint job will fly.
05:30When it's time to roll, right?
05:32Same thing again.
05:33The three steps are?
05:34How much paint's on your roller?
05:36Speed.
05:37Consistency.
05:38Beautiful.
05:39Great job.
05:40And you go just like that.
05:42Not a lot of pressure.
05:44Just enough to release the paint from the roller.
05:47I see that you're holding it at an angle.
05:49Am I supposed to do that or do I just do it straight up?
05:51You are.
05:52Well, number one, you don't want your roller to be right on top of your face like that.
05:56Ah, that's usually how I do it.
05:57Because you're going to paint not only the semen but yourself also, right?
06:00Huh.
06:01You're going to have an angle like this so you can see better what you are doing.
06:06Okay.
06:07Want to give it a try?
06:08Alright.
06:09I'll do my best.
06:10Alright.
06:11Alright.
06:12This is quite the arm workout.
06:19Oh, it is.
06:20Who needs a gym?
06:27First coat is done.
06:29Let's let it dry.
06:30We'll come back and we put the second and final coat on.
06:34It is the same process as we did before.
06:37Cut in the edges and then we can use the roller.
06:41What do you think?
06:42Look at the ceiling.
06:43Looks so much better.
06:44Better.
06:45Brighter.
06:46Yeah.
06:47The room actually looks finished finally.
06:48And even the walls looks much better now with that ceiling color.
06:53Yeah.
06:54Complete.
06:55Well, we did it.
06:56So it looks great.
06:57Now you know how to do it.
06:58Yes.
06:59I know you have more ceilings to do around your house.
07:01But if you just need some help, let me know.
07:02Of course.
07:03But you'll do a great job.
07:04Thank you so much.
07:05I really appreciate your help.
07:18Oh look at you guys with your meters.
07:19Are you serving coffee with this conversation?
07:20You can if you want some.
07:21What am I looking at?
07:22oh look at you guys with your meters you're serving coffee with this conversation if you want some
07:31what am i looking at so you're looking at kind of the history of electric utility meters that
07:35we'll see on homes that we have uh so one of the first ones that we used to see was the analog
07:39meter this glass case mechanical yeah mechanical you see the rotating dial in there right and you
07:44look at it the more power you use the faster that you clock up you know you'd see it and then
07:50someone have to walk by your house from the utility company write down the meter number write down the
07:54total amount of kilowatt hours you used subtract it from what you used the previous month and send
07:58you a bill right so that was the old school analog style analog indeed this guy digital so there's a
08:03push to go on to these and most of us probably have the digital versions now the nice thing about this
08:07it's a little more accurate but it also has the ability to have one-way communication meaning they
08:11can remotely read the meter don't be walking by nobody has to walk by you can drive by or it can
08:16go back to the utility so then what's that so that is smart meter 1.0 these offer a little more
08:22information they start to monitor your energy usage these have the ability for two-way communication
08:26um and the thing for the two-way is you have the ability to remotely shut those off so if you have
08:32an issue at a house you have first responders coming you have a gas leak a fire going on the
08:36utility company can know before anyone arrives disconnect the power so the house is sending
08:40information to the utility one way but the utility is sending direction back that's the second
08:44correct that's right and this is going to happen every 15 minutes so it's going to ship that data
08:47every 15 minutes so they know what's going on but it's not true real time what's coming though is
08:52smart meter 2.0 so the next version of this will be real time so we're talking about a lot of data
08:57high resolution instantaneously so they can see exactly at any moment if you lose power in that house
09:03they 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 to
09:12log 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
09:21it gives you data right and then you can affect energy behavior and hopefully reduce the load in
09:25that house he loves this he does i do you know what i do now too thank you for the information i don't even
09:30need coffee to get through this conversation it's actually pretty interesting
09:37hey nathan hey kevin how's it going it's going all right looks like we got some siding discussion going on
09:41yeah i'm getting a lot of phone calls about siding jobs right now so yeah i know i know i love doing
09:47it it's a good job but people always have questions i presume they're asking you what should they use
09:51and what's the best for them and it all is driven off of their budget of course but i want to go over
09:56some of the most basic ones especially the ones we see here in new england to start with the most
09:59cost effective one is vinyl siding yep it's a good product this is a double four here nice white color
10:05double four meaning you're going to get four inch exposure four inch exposure so you're almost you're
10:10running two courses at one time right it goes up nice and quick okay and people love it they can
10:15go over their old siding with it which we see a ton yep you're gonna see this a lot on new construction
10:21jobs you're gonna see it a lot on siding remodels again easy to put in easy to maintain just a good
10:26product i actually like the way it snaps in you know you get a nice tight joint right there so your
10:32installation is going to go quickly and from the homeowner's perspective satisfaction is going to be
10:37instant 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 um we are very partial to wood and i am too cedar
10:56is my favorite material to work with i like cedar shingles i like cedar clapboards um they have a
11:02timeless look you see them in 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
11:26so that is not something that you can do for example you know with vinyl whereas you can make the
11:30coursing 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 um 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 that
11:48how frequently going to repaint this let's say every seven to ten years yeah you know and it may be
11:52some sanding too so there's a little bit more maintenance with that okay so probably in the middle yeah in
11:57the middle we're going to go with fiber cement siding you can get it primed you can get it painted with
12:01a finish coat we have a cedar mill face here and a smooth face okay you can even get it for different
12:06exposures we're talking about so here this is a four inch so we have a nice four inch exposure here we
12:11have a seven inch exposure this one's raw no primer paint on it this is a man-made material man-made the
12:17name pretty much tells us all we need to know fiber cement it's a cementation material yep cement sand and wood
12:23pulp really yeah yeah huh well despite the fact that i might have some wood pulp it really stands
12:28up it is rot resistant it is pest resistant it's a really good product and uh if you're going to have
12:33to repaint cedar let's well vinyl never cedar say every seven years how frequently do you have to
12:39repaint this 10 to 15 years so that's a big bonus yeah yeah definitely do you enjoy working with it
12:44i don't mind it i like snapping it i get a nice clean cut um you don't get as much adjustability with
12:49your exposure to hit your tops of your doors and windows so this one's set up for four inches
12:55four inches you're good if you try and shrink it a little bit you get a little bit more rock
12:58so as you crawl up your sidewall as you look up you would see a little bit of a shadow line there
13:02which you don't really want to see so so so less adjustment there maybe choose a different fiber
13:07cement product if you want different exposures or you have to think way ahead you need to be pulling
13:11measurements to the tops of your doors and windows making sure you're adjusting you're running your
13:15courses perfectly to hit and in terms of cost where does it fall i would say it's right in the middle
13:21i would say most expensive right in the middle vinyl's going to be your cheapest but then even
13:26within each type of siding there's you know more expensive options good well it's nice to see the
13:30options here in front of us thank you good hey tommy hey anthony how are you thanks for coming oh my
13:43pleasure wow looks like you've done some work in here yeah kitchen extensive renovations last year
13:50very nice this is by my grandparents house oh really my wife and i bought it last year we have
13:55a two and a half year old son and uh how long did your grandparents own it over 70 years so wow yeah
14:02it's been in the family and we're lucky to have another generation come through well it's a keeper
14:07absolutely well it really looks good so but what did you call me for oh we have one persistent
14:12problem upstairs upstairs yep all right we'll lead the way let's see what's going on there's always
14:16something yeah the stairway is really nice i like the metal balusters and the flat handrail kind of
14:22contemporized it thank you yeah we replaced the treads and then we pulled up the carpet because we love
14:27the flooring underneath and yeah it's beautiful yeah it's existing to the house and then um this is my
14:32son's bedroom here oh it's nice and bright and we we run into some issues when we're putting him to bed at
14:38night with this floor right outside of his door boy that floor has a lot to say there doesn't it
14:43yeah it's very hard to be discreet yeah i can see right there that somebody tried to tighten it up by
14:49nailing it right down through well i've made a mock-up and i brought it with me and i can show you
14:54exactly what's going on with the floor system and the structure below awesome let's take a look it's
14:59downstairs all right anthony this represents your floor system so you can understand what's down below the
15:06floor you 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 there's
15:25a void or a knot or something like that when the structure expands it gets bigger and it can actually
15:31pull the nail up as the board is swelling and then when it dries the nail is left up ever so slightly
15:39now you have something that's loose right here and when you step on it this structure and the and the
15:48subfloor is squeaking on the nail itself so what we need to do is we need to tighten all these up like
15:55like 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
16:08it nice and tight okay okay but we don't want to see the head to the nail but they actually make a kit
16:14that has 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
16:27through the finish floor through the subfloor into the structure pulling all of this sandwich down
16:33nice and tight 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 all
16:44the way around the screw right there and that is designed so the torque of the drill driver snaps the head off
16:52and you'll end up with two pieces and the screw has broken off right below the finish of the floor
16:59and the floor won't squeak anymore and we'll never see it that's right first thing we need to do is find
17:05a joist down below and the joist should if these nails are into the structure right here that helps
17:11us unfortunately i don't think the house is framed 16 on center it's probably random framed
17:18so if i just lay my tape measure up like that and i say well okay this should be a joist here
17:24another one over here well i know there's got to be one there by this wall
17:29but let's say if i take and i try to find it by sound
17:32that 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
17:47you hear the change in the sound
17:57so right at the 24 24 mark let's try one right there so what i'll do is i'll take this bit
18:06with a very small amount of thread on it and a smooth shaft so when i drill through the floor with this
18:12part of it i get through the floor into the subfloor if there's no structure underneath i should be able
18:18to push this right down if there's structure underneath it will pull the drill down with it
18:23so we'll give it a try let's try i'm going to try on the 24 number so let's see what happens
18:42no structure there
18:53and nothing there all right so i'm going to try right here
19:03oh there's one right there so that thread is into the joist i can feel it pulling down 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
19:24little bit 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 and drill
19:50a screw and see if it grabs is there anything we want to listen for or you'll feel it well you'll
19:58actually hear it you should hear it snap or pop okay and if i do it right and it grabs into enough
20:04structure it'll snap right below the finish level of the floor
20:15all right why don't you stand on the board right there push everything down tight
20:21ready yep
20:24didn't snap
20:25okay let me try one more right here beside it this old framing structure could be a little bit too soft
20:37oh there it is right there okay so we're into structure right there let's try one more right
20:51here i'll just push down and pull the trigger full blast there you go there we go pull it up
20:59all right now let's try stepping on that again okay all right let's try one more right beside that one
21:10full blast
21:14boom all right so walk in from the hall okay
21:18that's pretty quiet i'll walk out so much better so much better yeah yeah so it doesn't sound too good
21:29or it sounds good the lack of sound is good all right so now what we got to do is we got to fill
21:34the holes okay so we get some wax sticks three different colors you see there's different tones
21:40in the floor so you just pick one and go back and forth work it into the hole to fill it up i'm not
21:45going to match it exact but we want to try to blend it so blend the colors together a little bit of this
21:51a little bit of that
21:54keep working it in working it around come 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
22:14now that it's all cleaned up whoa i think it looks pretty good can't even tell we're up here
22:19drilling holes let's give a little test oh wow what a difference everything that's so much better
22:24well hopefully all you hear is your son snoring thank you so much for coming tommy my pleasure
22:29so if you've got questions about your house we'd love to hear from you until then i'm tom silva for ask this
22:35old house
22:43next time on ask this old house ross discusses the advancements in water tank technology
22:50and works with a homeowner to install a solar thermal unit
22:54then do you have problems with house plant pests jen gives advice on how to get rid of them
23:01and nathan helps a homeowner get better access to their attic
23:04by installing pull down stairs all that on ask this old house
23:20so
23:25so
23:29so
23:31so
23:33so
23:35so
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