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00:00Today on This Old House.
00:02We are installing under cabinet LED lighting and we're going to learn about good, better
00:08and best.
00:10And from polyester chips to finished carpet, all in two days, under one roof.
00:15We'll show you the only factory in the world that can do that.
00:20That's it.
00:29Hey there, I'm Kevin O'Connor and welcome back to This Old House and our projects here
00:55in Western North Carolina where we're working on five different houses and we are just about
01:01a week away from getting our homeowners back into their houses.
01:05Jen is in town over at our North Asheville project helping with the landscaping.
01:10Zach is also here.
01:11He's down in Swannanoa working in Maya's house alongside Noah.
01:14And here at Paula's house, well you can see there's still some exterior painting to be
01:18done and the interior details are all starting to wrap up.
01:24Hey Will, good to see you.
01:25Hey, how are you doing?
01:26Doing alright, how are you doing?
01:27Alright, great.
01:28A lot of progress, huh?
01:29Yes sir.
01:30What is this?
01:31That's a beauty.
01:32This is kind of the final touch that we're putting on the house here, black walnut entryway.
01:37That's very nice.
01:38And then we'll finish it off with this pediment.
01:42Oh, no kidding.
01:43This came from a friend of hers in France, an antique dealer that donated to the cause.
01:49I love it.
01:50Alright.
01:51Well, it's a good thing you're as tall as you are.
01:52That's nice.
01:53So this is a great detail and it also is going to straddle a couple of other surfaces
01:57that Paula has chosen.
01:59She's decided on a solid white oak floor that's going to run throughout the first floor here.
02:06And then you can see that we've got a 12 by 12 ceramic tile, two different colors right
02:11here just for the foyer.
02:13Also some stained oak going upstairs, but a whole different surface up there.
02:19And then up here on the second floor in the bedrooms, Paula has decided to put down carpet,
02:24which is a pretty typical choice.
02:26Nice and soft underfoot, perfect in bedrooms.
02:29You can see that it's getting installed right now and the other day I actually had a chance
02:32to go see how carpet like this is made.
02:37I am in Dalton, Georgia, also known as the Carpet Capital of the World.
02:42And in this enormous facility right here, they manufacture 30 acres of carpet a day.
02:48From the polyester pellets to the fiber to the finished carpet.
02:52And it all happens under one roof.
02:57The site manager at this facility, Rob Neal, has promised to give me a tour.
03:00Rob, great to see you.
03:01Yes, sir. Good to see you.
03:02Boy, this is quite an operation.
03:04It is huge.
03:04Yes, sir.
03:052.6 million square feet.
03:07Wow.
03:07Under one roof.
03:08All under one roof.
03:09All right.
03:09Well, let's start at the beginning.
03:11How do you guys make carpet?
03:12All right.
03:12So we start with these polyester chips.
03:14This is our resin.
03:15All right.
03:16These are our color chips.
03:17So this is what's in those silos out back.
03:20Absolutely.
03:21Yes, sir.
03:21So when this comes inside, where is it going?
03:24The resin is going to fall down through this middle hopper here, mix and bowl here where
03:30they're blended together.
03:31Then it's lowered down into the extruder all the way out the end where it comes out about
03:35290 degrees.
03:36So really hot.
03:37Really hot.
03:38And you're melting them together into one color.
03:41One color.
03:42Pushed out to what?
03:43Pushed out into some production pipes and then out into the beams where it's separated out
03:47into filaments.
03:48And I presume that's somewhere over there.
03:50Yes, sir.
03:50You'll go look at it.
03:51Yeah, yeah.
03:51All right.
03:52Here we go.
03:53Okay.
03:53So as it's melted, it's like a liquid wax coming through these pipes and down into these beams
04:00through these spinnerets, right?
04:04And there's your first look at your solution-dyed fiber.
04:09Each one of those is 320 filaments.
04:12320 each.
04:14So almost 1,000 individual filaments, like little tiny fishing wire.
04:18Yes.
04:18Push down through those holes.
04:20Then it's going to start the cooling process with air coming out through that filter.
04:24And then as it falls, those three stories, it's going to continue to cool.
04:28Once it's cooled, then we can start drawing it, stretching it, and reheating it to give it value.
04:33All right.
04:33Well, let's go down three stories.
04:34Let's go.
04:35Let's go.
04:38Okay.
04:38So the fiber is now cooled.
04:40Now we're going to start the process of reheating it, drawing it, and then it's going to run through all
04:46these go days and down onto the winder.
04:49And then you end up with three of these down below?
04:51Wind up with three cones.
04:53It's about, that's about 15 pounds of yarn.
04:55So three of those, about every 14 minutes, it's going to doff those.
05:00And just out of curiosity, do you know how much length you've got on this roll?
05:0537 miles of yarn.
05:08On each one?
05:09On each cone.
05:11And then there's three that you've got right here.
05:13How many of these are you making a day?
05:1733,000.
05:18Holy mackerel.
05:20And this has all been colored, ready for the next step.
05:23Ready to go to twisting and heat set.
05:26Unbelievable.
05:28This is twisting area.
05:29This is where we take the flat yarn, two flat cones, and twist them together.
05:34And how many stations are we talking about?
05:3522,500 total ends to make a twisted, not heat set cone.
05:41So if I'm looking at it correctly, the first flat comes in, goes down.
05:46That's the second flat right there.
05:49And that comes up to the finished twisted right there?
05:51That's correct.
05:52And the more turns, the more twists you get in this yarn, the more durable it's going to be.
05:57How long does it take to get two of these flats into a finished twist?
06:02So that's going to take about 12 hours to make a 20-pound cone.
06:06The 24-7 never stops.
06:09Okay, this is heat setting.
06:10We're taking the twisted yarn, running it around, putting it into a stuffer box.
06:15Is this the stuffer box?
06:17That's the stuffer box.
06:18And what's it doing in there?
06:19Those two wheels kinking that yarn together.
06:21Okay.
06:22Which I can see right there.
06:24Yeah, you see it taking shape already.
06:25And now it's going to go through the process of setting those qualities.
06:30This is the end of the oven?
06:32This is the end of the oven.
06:33Now we've got to cool it back off, right?
06:35You can see that kink in there.
06:37Boy, that just looks like a jumbled mess.
06:39It's all polyester fiber.
06:41And then, holy mackerel, what?
06:43Now the goal is to separate all those fibers and get them back on the cone so that they can be ready for tufting.
06:49So even though this is now being pulled tight and it looks like it's sort of back to flat, twisted,
06:55it's really got a kink in it.
06:56It's still there.
06:57And then is it basically done now?
07:00It's done.
07:01On the cone, off the cone, twisted, kinked, heated.
07:04It's unbelievable.
07:05All just to give you the basic raw material to make carpet.
07:09Soft fiber.
07:10And that's next.
07:11Making the carpet?
07:11That's next.
07:12We're going into 12-foot broad loon.
07:14Yes, sir.
07:14Thought I'd never get there.
07:15Let's go.
07:16Okay.
07:16This is tufting.
07:17This is where we're taking the finished yarn,
07:19crilling 1,500 cones, pulling it through all this tubing, and down around across all these rollers,
07:26down into the needles, and then it's tufted into the primary backing.
07:31So if there's 1,500 spools, that's each one strand of yarn, are there 1,500 needles?
07:371,500 needles going across a 12-foot wide piece of carpet.
07:43So you're toughing that into a backer.
07:46How long is this going to go all the way through?
07:49We're going to put about 600 feet per roll.
07:51It's going to weigh about 2,000 pounds when it's a finished gray roll is what we call it.
07:56So this is it right here?
07:57This is it right here.
07:58That's 12-foot wide, soft fiber.
08:01So is this the finished carpet right here?
08:04There's still one more step of the process to go to where we're going to put a clean,
08:08thin layer of latex on the back of this, and then we're going to put latex on the face of it,
08:13stick it together, and dry it.
08:15That's where it's going to get its durability.
08:17That's going to lock in all of these tufts.
08:20So if you don't have that backer in there, I can pull these out.
08:23Yeah, they pull right out.
08:24If you don't have that latex to lock it in to hold those fibers in that back.
08:30And so what do we have here?
08:31This is a finished piece of carpet.
08:33This is where we're taking the secondary backing and sticking it to the primary backing.
08:38And this gentleman behind me is doing what?
08:39He is looking to make sure everything looks good.
08:42As long as he says all's good, it's rolled up, cut, wrapped, and sent out the door.
08:47And you guys are the only ones doing this all under one roof,
08:50where you start with that granular and you come out with wrapped carpet ready to go.
08:54We are the only ones in the world that do it all under one roof.
08:57Well, that is good to know.
08:58Paul is in great hands.
08:59Rob, I cannot thank you enough.
09:00Yes, sir.
09:06All right, what do we have here?
09:20This is the butcher block for Maya's kitchen island.
09:27Oh, nice.
09:28Well, what is this?
09:29Cherry.
09:30Oh, I like it.
09:33It's so pretty.
09:34It's good.
09:35Are you a cherry fan?
09:36I am.
09:37It's so rich.
09:39And it'll darken, get red.
09:41Okay, is it the right size?
09:42No, so we'll go with the width as it is.
09:49And then we'll just cut it to the cabinet length plus an inch.
09:54All right, this factory edge is pretty good.
09:57Do you think we could salvage that?
09:58Yeah, let's check it for square.
10:01All right, should we pull an old three, four, five triangle here?
10:04Perfect.
10:08So if I pull four foot and you pull three foot,
10:12in theory, we should have a five foot hypotenuse here.
10:20Okay, I'm burning an inch.
10:22Okay, I'll add an inch.
10:24So we got 61.
10:26Perfect.
10:29Right in the center of our 49.
10:31All right.
10:33Okay, so we've got our marks.
10:36We've got our straight edge.
10:38We need to measure how far off of our straight edge our blade is.
10:43Right.
10:43So I went ahead and measured an inch and seven-sixteenths
10:49from our straight edge will be our 49 inches.
10:54Inch and seven-sixteenths.
10:55Inch and seven-sixteenths.
10:57All right, can we clamp this thing?
10:59Let's do it.
11:00I like to make a shallow cut first to minimize tear out.
11:03Let me put this, it helps me to visualize it.
11:07All right, so if you look at the blade,
11:11it's full depth.
11:13As it's exiting the wood like this, that tooth is wanting to pull up
11:19on this top layer of wood, which is sort of our most visible point.
11:23I'm with you.
11:24But when it's brought up, you can see as that tooth chews through that layer of wood and it exits,
11:30it's exiting at a very gradual level.
11:33So it's very unlikely there's going to be any chip out, almost impossible.
11:37And as long as we don't move the blade away from the guide, we should be just fine.
11:48Okay.
11:49Well, that worked all right.
11:50Yep.
11:52So reset the blade.
11:55I guess we only need to go deep enough to make it through the material, right?
12:00Yeah.
12:12That looks great.
12:13A little burning, we could take care of that with the old sander.
12:18All right, should we insert the router?
12:19Because then once I go with the router, then I can start hand sanding.
12:22Sure.
12:23Now we can use this eighth-inch round-over bit to ease the edges of the butcher block,
12:31and this little bearing will ride on the side of our cut.
12:41The top will overhang the cabinets and be supported by steel brackets,
12:45which require some extra blocking for support.
12:48These brackets are nice and secure, and they're locked into this two-by-four,
12:51and we did a little half-lap joint there.
12:54I got these blocks here.
12:55I guess we'll just use those as shims so our countertop can go on top.
12:59Let's screw those down.
13:02Okay, so I got our sample block.
13:05The manufacturer wants us to oversize these pre-drilled holes
13:11that our screws and washer are going to go through.
13:14So this is going to be able to travel over the course of the year as
13:18the butcher block expands and contracts.
13:21Yeah, it makes a lot of sense.
13:22I feel like people really underestimate how much wood actually moves.
13:26You can't just screw this thing right down.
13:28Absolutely.
13:29All right, good call.
13:30Let's do this.
13:39All right.
13:41So we'll do an inch and a half off the front since we have the drawers out,
13:46and then a half inch on each side.
13:47I think I got to come to you.
13:50Nope.
13:50I lied.
13:51Good, good.
14:03Okay.
14:14Looks pretty nice.
14:15Yeah.
14:15So what's next for this?
14:18Do you know what you're finishing it with?
14:20I'm not sure.
14:22I need to talk to Maya and see what she wants to do.
14:25Probably a wax or an oil.
14:27Yeah, this looks great.
14:28It's nice and sturdy.
14:29Thanks for letting me slow you down today.
14:31You did great.
14:32I appreciate the help.
14:34All right, on to the next one.
14:41Wow, Jen, the progress here is amazing.
14:43Thanks.
14:43Yeah, you saw the boulder wall, but you haven't seen any of the entry plantings yet.
14:47Check out this penstemon.
14:49The bearded tongue.
14:49Yeah, it's one of my favorites.
14:51Nice white flowers in the spring.
14:52Yeah, adds that pop of color.
14:53And this one's for you.
14:55Check out my dwarf cryptomeria.
14:56Very sweet.
14:57I love the texture.
14:58I love that it's evergreen.
14:59And this is where I left off.
15:01We put these steps in.
15:02What a natural stairway to a beautiful spot.
15:05It was a lot of work, wasn't it?
15:07Yeah.
15:07But I think it was worth it.
15:08Oh my gosh.
15:08Because it can take me up to my beautyberry.
15:12It's so beautiful.
15:13It's amazing, right?
15:14But today we're going to plant this boulder wall,
15:16and I want to show you the soil that we're going to use to plant it.
15:18Great.
15:20So, Jen, right here is the soil that I used to plant these entry plantings.
15:24Okay, the existing soil.
15:25Yeah, you can see it's a combination of some native soil.
15:28It's very, very clay-y.
15:30Okay.
15:30So, I have to amend it with this planter's mix for the entry plantings, but not for the wall.
15:34Yeah, because it doesn't allow for proper drainage.
15:36Exactly.
15:37So, I'm actually having a soilless soil medium here.
15:41So, it's made up of perlite and peat moss.
15:44And then I throw in some coconut fiber substrate.
15:47And then I mix in some native soil into this mix.
15:50And I do it maybe one to one to one.
15:53It just depends on the environment, and it depends on what you're starting with,
15:56and where you're planting.
15:57But that's going to allow for proper drainage and aeration.
16:00And then I can stick those succulents in the wall.
16:02All right.
16:02Should we go plant them then?
16:03Let's get started.
16:04All right.
16:04Yeah.
16:06So, I got to get all the soil out of this crevice to make room for my good soil that I'm putting in there.
16:13I'm going to tuck it in there.
16:14And then once I feel I have enough, then I'm going to take my plant, loosen the root system,
16:21and I'm going to put it in the crevice.
16:25And I'm going to get some more soil.
16:28And then I'm going to pack the hole.
16:29I expect the sedum to creep over the boulders and fill in the space between the joints.
16:34All right.
16:34Well, I'm going to do this succulent over here.
16:36This one's called Hens and Chicks.
16:38And you can see the mama hen and the baby chicks.
16:41So, I am going to do the same thing over here and just take a scoop.
16:46And I'm going to pack this void in here and then tuck this.
16:51I'm going to add a little more soil so it has something to reach onto.
16:56Well, while Jen is wrapping up some of the details on the outside,
16:59we are wrapping up the details on the inside.
17:01So, it's exciting to see our new flooring go down.
17:04Obviously, we've got paint and trim going down.
17:06And then as we come up to the kitchen level,
17:10new oak on the treads and the flooring right here.
17:13Probably a nice little breakfast nook right here with access to the deck.
17:17But then, hey, the kitchen is in.
17:19This is awesome.
17:20So, we've got our appliances.
17:22We've got the cabinets.
17:23We've got a quartz countertop right here.
17:26And then we've got the very popular floating shelves.
17:29These are all the rage today.
17:31It's a great look.
17:31But, of course, they are very unforgiving
17:34if you're thinking about doing any sort of lighting underneath them.
17:38Fortunately, we are back with our electrician, Mario.
17:41Good to see you.
17:41Hey, Kevin.
17:42Good to see you.
17:43So, these things are fussy, right?
17:45I mean, when you've got a floating shelf,
17:46you don't have any place to hide your light hardly.
17:49They can be really tricky.
17:50But, fortunately, we now have this really thin LED tape that is low voltage.
17:55So, we've come a long way.
17:56I mean, little strips of tape is a far cry from the stuff that we used to use.
18:00We used to have to get some variation of this connected at various points.
18:06But, as you can see, this doesn't really lend itself to being hidden and giving a good light source.
18:12Also, these were 120 volt.
18:15So, what happened was we had to use a line voltage wire.
18:19And so, that was very hard to make a connection, to hide it, and to interconnect them.
18:26And something that you're using right now by comparison.
18:29So, now we're using a 24 volt, low volt cable.
18:33And as you can see, much smaller, much more flexible.
18:37And we're not bound by as stringent of a code as the connection.
18:41Okay.
18:41And so, in this case, looks like your low voltage is coming out of the wall.
18:45So, that's going down somewhere.
18:46And then you've just threaded it through our floating shelf.
18:49And going to what?
18:50So, the cabinet guys were kind enough to dado out the space for our channel.
18:55And so, what we have is a very thin metal channel that we're able to install our tape in.
19:01Which will then get covered by this lens.
19:03But, in order to make this connection, we have to do a little solder.
19:06Yeah.
19:07That's good.
19:08In terms of light source, though, things have changed as well.
19:10Because these are not all created equal.
19:12Yes.
19:13Yeah.
19:13I've got some options here I can show you.
19:16So, our first one, which is the most affordable, is a one and a half watt per foot.
19:23But as you can see, a lot of dots.
19:25Individuals.
19:26And even when this is tucked up underneath, that pattern right there,
19:30you always see it down on the reflective counter surfaces and such.
19:33Correct.
19:33Okay.
19:35So, the dots and low voltage.
19:37Dots, low voltage, low wattage.
19:39Then we can move up in wattage, which helps for brightness.
19:42Oh.
19:43Yeah.
19:43But you still end up with a lot of dots.
19:47All of those.
19:47Looks like they just put more of the diodes in.
19:49That's correct.
19:50All right.
19:52So, we like to use this product, which is called diodeless.
19:57Ooh.
19:59Nice and smooth.
20:00Which means it's going to be even and consistent on whatever it's shining down on.
20:05Yes.
20:05So, can we see what's going on underneath with these tapes?
20:08Sure.
20:09Yeah.
20:09So, that says it all right there.
20:10Just nice and continuous.
20:12And when it's off, you can't even see the diodes.
20:14So, this is what you like working with?
20:16Absolutely.
20:16Okay.
20:17Easy to work with?
20:19Yeah.
20:19In fact, I have a spool right here I can show you.
20:22So, as you can see, it comes off in spools.
20:26It is field cuttable at every one of these locations.
20:30And then at certain points, it's also connectable via these solder pads.
20:34Any chance you can demonstrate that for us?
20:36Sure can.
20:37I have it right here.
20:38Look at you.
20:41Okay.
20:41So, we're getting set up here to do what our connection is.
20:44So, we've got our third arm tool, which help holds everything in place.
20:48We've got our wire that's coming out of the wall.
20:51We've got our tape with the cut points and the solder point.
20:55We have the polarity marked for us, positive and negative, so red and black.
20:59We have our flux, which we will coat the wires with.
21:02We've got our tin, which we will melt on there.
21:05And the last piece is the actual solder iron.
21:08Okay.
21:09So, we've applied our flux.
21:11We're going to heat up the pad a little bit.
21:14So, that's the solder that's on the tape?
21:16Correct.
21:17We're going to get that flowing a little bit.
21:19So, we're going to put our heat right to it.
21:22And then we're going to take our tin and just go ahead and melt that right on there.
21:30Nice.
21:30So, a little fussy, but that's a nice clean connection.
21:33And is that connection complete?
21:34Not quite.
21:35We have one other step, which is we want to wrap it with electrical tape.
21:39So, the low voltage, I can totally see why you love it.
21:41Such a low profile, easy to work with.
21:44If we use low voltage, though, in a house like this,
21:46we've got to transition from line to low, right?
21:49Correct.
21:50How do you like to do that?
21:51So, we use our LED driver, but in a space like this,
21:56it's challenging to put one of these somewhere.
22:00And I don't like putting them in cabinets because if we ever have to service it,
22:04people have to move their stuff out of their cabinet.
22:07So, we have a crawl space available to us here.
22:09So, that's where this transformer is sitting,
22:11but it's still controlled by that wall switch right over there.
22:14All right.
22:15So, a nice, elegant solution.
22:16I mean, low profile, and I know Matt and Melinda are going to be thrilled
22:19when they see all of this lit up.
22:21Thank you, Mario.
22:23And that puts us one step closer to let Matt and Melinda get back in this house,
22:26which is actually happening next week.
22:29Same for all of our homeowners.
22:30So, we've got a homecoming coming your way.
22:33Until then, I'm Kevin O'Connor.
22:34And I'm Mario Salamone.
22:36For This Old House, here in Western North Carolina.
22:41Next time on This Old House,
22:43we've been here for the last 10 episodes,
22:45following along as five groups of homeowners
22:48have traveled a difficult road to rebuilding.
22:50We've watched them make hard decisions,
22:53suffer setbacks, and have to rely on friends and volunteers
22:57who showed up to help when it mattered most.
23:00And today?
23:01Well, today we're going to check in with each of them
23:04as they move back into their homes.
23:09That's next time.
23:13We'll see you next time.
23:27We'll see you next time.
23:31We'll see you next time.
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