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00:00Today on This Old House.
00:01Inside this factory, we'll see how a building comes together from a pile of wood to a structure ready to
00:07roll down the road.
00:08It'll be to the job site in a week.
00:09That's incredible.
00:11Then, fitting HVAC into any building is always a challenge.
00:15We're going to show you a solution that tucks right up in between the ceiling trucks.
00:47Hey there, I'm Kevin O'Connor and welcome back to This Old House and to our project here in Walpole,
00:54Mass on a great rainy day.
00:56This town is about 20 miles south of Boston in the location of where we are working on this house
01:01built in the 1970s.
01:03It is getting a renovation and a pretty big addition in the form of an ADU or accessory dwelling unit
01:10that is going on the back of the house.
01:12We'll look at that in a minute, but first let's look at the progress here on the main house.
01:17So you may recall the last time we're here, our GCs Kevin and Jared and their crew were reframing our
01:23garage and you can see they made a lot of nice progress.
01:25The old garage's foundation needed to be brought up to code, so they decided it was better to take down
01:30the garage,
01:31re-pour the foundation, and then build right on top of that.
01:35So we are framed, we are insulated, we are roofed, and we also get some new interior space with that
01:42rebuild.
01:43And it starts right here on the back of the garage.
01:46So in here, there's going to be a combination mudroom, laundry room.
01:50And you can see they've roughed in for a washing machine right here, and then there'll be a dryer next
01:54to it.
01:55Mudroom here, and then there'll be a pocket door to close this space off from the main house.
02:00There's also a new half bath in this corner, door to the backyard, and a new staircase going down to
02:08the basement.
02:08Now right here, this is where the old house started.
02:12And so you may recall it was a very small kitchen area right here.
02:16That's going to be opened up, and we've even increased the ceiling height.
02:20So the old ceiling height was right about here, and now it goes up almost an additional two feet to
02:26get us some more cabinets.
02:28And what was three discrete areas, kitchen, dining room, living room, is now one wide open space.
02:37So lots of room, but also lots of light.
02:40You can see that there's a frame right here for a new glass slider going in.
02:44Hey, Kevin, how are you?
02:45Good, how are you?
02:46All right, good to see you.
02:47Good to see you.
02:47So what's going in? We've got three panels.
02:49So we have three panels.
02:51We'll have a fixed panel here.
02:53Yeah.
02:53And then we'll have a sliding panel.
02:55Two sliding panels that will all go to the fixed panel to make this a bigger opening.
02:59Very nice.
03:00Is that going in today?
03:01That will go in today.
03:02If the rain holds up, we're going to wipe the copper pan down, and we're going to get going here.
03:05All right, well, maybe I'll give you a hand.
03:07So this is going to really open up the space, be one big area.
03:11There will be an island right here, which you can see outlined by the tape.
03:15Instead of a dining room, just a dining table.
03:17And then it all opens up to a big family room.
03:20Now, they're going to keep the existing bay window.
03:23You can see it's right there.
03:24And they're also going to keep the existing front entryway and the front door.
03:27But there are some changes out front.
03:30And the biggest one is obviously this new front porch.
03:35It dramatically changes the feel of our old 70s ranch.
03:38The old house was sheathed in boards, one by eights, one by tens.
03:43And sort of see them right here.
03:45So that has all been wrapped.
03:46That's our air barrier, water barrier.
03:49Some new windows have gone in.
03:51And look at all the trim work that is done.
03:53So soffit, fascia, all trimmed out.
03:56And as you come along the side of the house, you can see that the rake board is done as
04:00well up to the ridge.
04:03And then you can see the transition from original house, wrapped in blue, to the new renovation and ADU.
04:10All new construction.
04:11So they've got the impregnated sheathing right there.
04:14And, Zach, we've got our friend from New Jersey who's come up to the northeast.
04:18Good to see you.
04:19I'll give you this hand.
04:19This one's a little bit injured right now.
04:21I heard you hurt it.
04:22Jared, how are you?
04:23Hey, Kevin. Good to see you.
04:23Yeah, same here.
04:24What'd you do?
04:25I got a piece of wood stuck in there.
04:27All right.
04:27Really keeping it on brand.
04:29All right.
04:30Works.
04:30So what's the project for you guys today?
04:32We're installing some vinyl siding.
04:34The owners have selected a four inch Dutch lap.
04:37Okay.
04:37So we're usually taking the vinyl off and replacing it.
04:40You guys are putting it up new.
04:41How do you feel about that?
04:42I haven't done vinyl in a while, but Jared's got some excellent tips to sort of make it look like
04:47original Dutch lap siding from the street.
04:49So I'm looking forward to learning from him.
04:51Well, listen, you're in good hand with him, even if it is down one.
04:53So I'll leave you to it.
04:57I got to say, this is looking pretty good.
04:59We're getting there.
05:00So what made the homeowner go with vinyl siding?
05:04I mean, there's so many different siding on the market.
05:06I think one of the big factors, Zach, was the maintenance.
05:09They want a low maintenance product that they're not going to have to worry about painting every four or five
05:12years.
05:13Gets dirty, we wash it off, and it looks brand new.
05:16And it's also less expensive than some of the more traditional type of siding.
05:19So that'd be a big savings over something like cementation siding, which would be like two to three times the
05:23cost.
05:23Even Cedar, maybe five or six times the cost.
05:25I mean, it's a really durable product.
05:27I mean, this can take, you know, a heck of an impact.
05:29And what I like is you can sort of pop out sections if you're going to remodel in the future.
05:33But one thing I don't like, I'll steal this off the ground here, is when I look from the street,
05:38typically you see that J channel going around the windows and doors.
05:41And it's like a tell that it's actually vinyl siding.
05:44Somehow you've completely avoided that here.
05:46It looks great. What'd you do?
05:47Exactly. That's a telltale sign.
05:48When you have that J channel going around the windows, it screams it's vinyl siding.
05:52So the idea is to make this seem like it's a wood product, even though it's vinyl.
05:56So what we have here is a composite trim with a built in J channel and the siding is allowed
06:01to go behind and sit in that J.
06:03The siding itself wants to move a little bit.
06:06So we need that J to cover the edge.
06:07Yeah, this groove you've made in the back here that looks really good, lets the siding inside.
06:12But this cut on the bottom here, this is a nice detail too.
06:16And what I like about this is when you view this house from the street, you're going to have a
06:19very difficult time knowing that this is vinyl siding.
06:22Well done.
06:23So how can I help you get this moving?
06:25I think what we're going to do is continue this section down here towards our door that we're waiting for.
06:29We can fill this in, keep moving this way.
06:31Let's do it.
06:45So with these seams on the vinyl, Zach, what we try to do is point the seams in the direction
06:50that has the least amount of traffic.
06:52In this situation, the seams are pointed to the backyard.
06:54And we overlap our seams, you can see here, by about an inch and a quarter or so.
06:59When we nail it, keep in mind we're hanging vinyl, not nailing it tight to the house.
07:03So we're going to put our nail right in the middle of one of these seams.
07:07We're going to set it in here.
07:10And we're not going to bury the head.
07:12This allows the siding to move.
07:15It also allows air to travel behind the siding and dry out any water that might get behind.
07:21The siding has weep holes on the bottom of it.
07:23If moisture were to get behind it, it drains to the bottom and the weep holes allow the water to
07:28escape.
07:52So to finish this off, we're going to put a piece of J channel tight to the bottom of our
07:55soffit.
07:57And then we're going to cut our piece of siding to fit under the J and click into that last
08:02row of siding that we just installed.
08:06Looks good.
08:08While Zach and Jared are banging away with our siding on the ADU, I thought I'd give you a lay
08:13of the land now that it is all framed up.
08:15Total square footage is 900 square feet, and it's got one bedroom, that's this space right here, but two full
08:23baths.
08:23So there is a guest bathroom in the front, and then the bathroom off of the primary bedroom in the
08:29back.
08:30This space right here is a little laundry room, so we've got washer, dryer, living space on the far side
08:36over there,
08:36and then this room, this is their kitchen.
08:39It's got a great door to the outside.
08:42Now, technically the ADU ends with this wall, and the space behind it, that's shared space,
08:48and even further back, that's the primary house.
08:52Now, this one was conventionally built, so stick built on site.
08:56But a lot of ADUs are actually being prefabricated.
08:59And to see how that works, we're going to go to a factory in western Pennsylvania
09:03to see it built in the factory and then shipped to its site 400 miles away.
09:16As part of our deeper dive into ADUs, or accessory dwelling units,
09:21we've come here to see a different way of construction, modular construction.
09:25Inside this factory, we'll see how a building comes together from a pile of wood
09:29to a structure ready to roll down the road.
09:32Hey, Kyle.
09:34Good morning. How are you?
09:35This is nice and warm in here.
09:37Absolutely.
09:38This morning when I got here, it was a balmy six degrees outside.
09:42And as you can feel in here, we are 60 degrees.
09:45One major advantage of building modular houses is climate-controlled environment.
09:50Yeah, I'll say.
09:51So tell me about this place. This is huge.
09:53The facility you're in right now is about 100,000 square feet.
09:57We build modular houses, start to finish.
10:00We can go as simple as ranch houses to custom two stories.
10:03And what's becoming very popular, ADU units.
10:08This is a set of drawings.
10:10Each department of this facility gets a set of drawings to build the part of the house that pertains to
10:15them.
10:16You are at the floor jig right now. This is where it all starts.
10:19Once this is done, it will come off of this jig to be moved up the line.
10:23That's pretty cool.
10:25Now we're in the rough framing section.
10:27This is where all your partition walls are built and exterior walls are built here.
10:32Everything is built on a flat level square jig.
10:35Man, how great is it working at this height on a nice flat surface?
10:39These metal jigs were designed for the average height person, so there's less bending.
10:44I like it.
10:46After the partition walls were set and staged, now they're being set on the module,
10:51and now they're doing the rough electrical and rough plumbing at this area,
10:54as well as tub fixtures and starting to hang the drywall.
10:59So you're able to do all the electric, all the plumbing right here in this facility?
11:05Yes. Absolutely.
11:06Each individual box will have all the wiring and plumbing completed in it before it leaves the facility.
11:11The connections will have to be done by the builder on site after the units are set together.
11:17Got it.
11:19All right, Zach, we are at the next stage of the process, which is our roof and ceiling assembly.
11:24This is a rafter system.
11:26All our rafters are on hinges.
11:28At the job site, the crane will lift this roof in place.
11:31Knee walls will go under it.
11:33It'll look like one complete unit once it's raised.
11:36So this is actually the roof itself, and this is going to pivot up on this bolt.
11:41On the bolt.
11:42I like that idea.
11:43That takes all the struggle out of it.
11:45Absolutely.
11:45And this is so we can transport it to the job site and stay under height.
11:50So is there no overhang on this house?
11:52The overhang and the rest of the roof system is done at a station further down the line, which I
11:58will show you.
11:59All right, Zach, we are now at what we call the midline area, where all your roof components, which are
12:06your extensions, knee walls, and overhangs will get installed here.
12:10Your fiberglass insulation or whatever the customer prefers.
12:13Exterior cladding, windows, doors, siding.
12:16It'll also get the drywall finished here, sanded and painted.
12:20This entire piece is the overhang section.
12:23It is installed with the hinge system underneath the ice shield and singles here, which will allow this to be
12:28flipped over at the job site for the builder to complete three rows of shingling here, as well as the
12:35extension up top.
12:36It allows the builder to get his roof weathered in and minimal time at the job site.
12:42It's interesting.
12:43It's like this business is 50% building and 50% just trying to get it down the road.
12:49Absolutely.
12:50We do struggle with getting it to the job sites with restrictions on height, but we try to make it
12:55that the builder has less to complete on site.
12:58So when they get it, the advantage of going to module is it's 90% done when they get it.
13:06Well, here's the finished product.
13:08They're installing the tile backsplash.
13:10Wow, it's completely finished in there, painted and everything.
13:13Absolutely.
13:14It'll be to the job site in a week.
13:16That's amazing.
13:17I can't wait to see it there.
13:17Thanks for the tour.
13:18You're welcome.
13:21One week later, this custom modular ADU traveled by truck from the factory in Middleburg, Pennsylvania, to its new home
13:30in Sudbury, Massachusetts.
13:32Once on site, a local contractor and his team took over.
13:36The boxes were craned into place over the existing home and onto a new foundation.
13:43The roof, which was shipped flat, was tilted up to the proper pitch, then supported by knee walls.
13:51The gable end panels were hoisted into place and secured.
13:57Then the top peak and ridge cap were added, sheathed and shingled.
14:04And the building was secured to the foundation.
14:09Over the next several weeks, the mechanical systems were connected and the ADU is now ready for its new residence.
14:16A couple in their 60s who is relocating here from the main residence, where their son and family will be
14:23moving.
14:24With the cost of housing so high, this ADU will allow multiple generations of one family to live on one
14:32plot, but in their own separate spaces.
14:44Back here in Walpole, we're in the basement.
14:46The homeowners decided they wanted to have the basement conditioned, heated and cooled, in a separate system from the existing
14:52house.
14:53So we looked at the space and said, how are we going to do it?
14:55One way would be to put a conventional ducted system.
14:58If you did that, you'd have to drop the ceiling, which is already pretty low,
15:02or do soffits to cover all the ductwork all the way around here.
15:06Many people would just do the high sidewall.
15:08Everybody's doing these mini splits, but it's a statement.
15:11You really see it in the room.
15:13What we're just doing here is actually to take the equivalent of that high sidewall in a ceiling unit.
15:19You see it right here?
15:19Everything that will be in that mini split sidewall is in that ceiling unit.
15:23It has a lot of advantages in this case.
15:25It only needs eight inches, so we don't have to drop the ceiling at all.
15:29It also has a really smart vane or air distribution system.
15:33These vanes can send the air straight out or from side to side.
15:37Now imagine if it didn't have that.
15:39You could be sitting at the desk right here and all of a sudden cold air or hot air comes
15:42down on top of you.
15:43You can program it so it doesn't happen.
15:45So the decision was to have a unit here, but we could have actually had one unit right here in
15:50the center of the space.
15:52Because they make a unit with a four-way directional.
15:55Air goes this way, this way, this way, and this way.
15:58But, as always happens, they made a change where they want to break this room up into two
16:03and make this end available to be a separate room as a bedroom.
16:07And that's where we needed a second unit, and that's where Bobby Conley comes in.
16:10Hello, my friend.
16:11Hey, Richard. How you doing?
16:12Good. Glad you're on the case with us.
16:14Yeah.
16:14So take us through this unit.
16:16So, I'm about to pop this in the ceiling, but I figured I'd give you a look at the finished
16:20product.
16:21Well, that'll pretty much disappear up against a white sand. That's great.
16:23It's a little less imposing than looking at the sidewall unit.
16:28All right. So what are we looking at here? This is upside down, so this is the bottom of the
16:33unit.
16:33This is the condensate pan at the very bottom of the unit.
16:37So all the water. Condensate is the natural byproduct.
16:40Anytime you air condition and the humidity in the air wants to drip, so it'll go into this pan.
16:45But now it's not going to be able to go by gravity to the drain, right?
16:48No. No, it has to be pumped.
16:49Okay.
16:50Yep. So this unit comes with a built-in pump.
16:52Okay.
16:53With a float switch.
16:54Good.
16:55That activates the pump.
16:56Is this quieter?
16:57Yeah, it's pretty quiet.
16:58All right. Good.
16:59Now that we have it completely open, you can actually see how it works.
17:04You have your airflow coming down, gets sucked through this coil from this fan right here.
17:09It's a beautiful little fan down there, yeah.
17:11It modulates depending on the load inside the room.
17:15Yeah.
17:15It's going to blow over the coil and then it's going to come up and out into the room.
17:19And that air is going to either be heated or cooled.
17:22Oh, and here's those veins.
17:23Those veins that can go side to side or it can go this way to make sure you're not uncomfortable.
17:28Yeah.
17:28Cool.
17:29It really helps to see the breakdown here.
17:31Yeah.
17:31Your connections are pretty straightforward.
17:32Simple connections.
17:33This is your liquid, your suction, and your condensate.
17:37And then three wires for the electrical.
17:39All right.
17:39So you've roughed it.
17:40I see you're ready to go.
17:40You've got a line set here and you've already got the brackets.
17:42You need my help?
17:43No.
17:44You always work alone.
17:44No, I don't do that.
17:45You always work alone.
17:47Good job.
17:48So still to be done out here is to connect the refrigerant line sets to the condenser.
17:52Now, you might expect to see two condensers, one for each of the inside units.
17:56But the trend lately is really these multi-units.
17:59So a single condenser unit that can support multiple indoor units.
18:03So this unit has two ports right here, one for each of the units, but it could be ordered with
18:08three, four, or five.
18:10And that really cleans up what you often see is a nest of these condensers out here in the back.
18:15So it's much more efficient and it's a lot cleaner.
18:17The other thing to remind people is when you're using a heat pump in a cold climate, you have to
18:22think about protecting the heat pump in the case of snow.
18:25So it has to be mounted up above the snow line.
18:41The backyard is shared space between the ADU and the main house.
18:46And there's going to be a patio area right about here, a little more patio there.
18:50And then in this corner, going back to the house, is going to be a deck.
18:53And that's going to be covered by a pergola that will come out from the house here, return itself back
18:58right here so that this is all covered space.
19:01And then the deck is going to be even with the new opening that we've got here.
19:05And, Dan, good to see you.
19:06Hey, Kev, what's happening?
19:07Not much.
19:08Yours and Jill's idea to get some good access to the backyard.
19:10Our idea, yep.
19:11We chose like a three-panel slider to basically give us that indoor to outdoor living space, get a lot
19:15of natural light in.
19:16You're going to help us put it in?
19:17I sure will.
19:17All right, not just you.
19:19Zach, you're here as well.
19:20Jared, you're the boss, man.
19:21So what's the process after you guys did some prep work, right?
19:24So you can see, Kevin, we've had a pan that was made custom for our install.
19:28Yeah.
19:29We've leveled the pan from left to right.
19:31Okay.
19:31We've wrapped the pan down the face on the exterior, and we've created a little back dam on the interior.
19:37Which is that right there.
19:39We've pitched the pan from inside to out.
19:41In case we get some water, it'll shed outside.
19:44Okay.
19:44Then we also wrap the copper pan up the jam about six inches and tape it with flashing tape.
19:50All right.
19:51So how do you want to get started?
19:52So we've already put the frame together.
19:54We're going to get it, put it in the opening, and install.
19:57Bottom.
20:00Great.
20:00Let's line our two center marks up.
20:02Yeah.
20:04All right.
20:04Push it in a little bit.
20:05It's got to come a little left.
20:07That looks pretty good right there.
20:09Let's mark the outside end of the flange so we know where to apply our silicone.
20:15We're going to apply a nice bead of silicone from the edge of our line to the side of the
20:20jam.
20:24So we're also going to put a bead of silicone on our pan.
20:28With this bead, we want to put it towards the back dam portion of the pan so it wouldn't impede
20:34any water from draining out.
20:38I think we're ready for install.
20:40And you want to check that center mark, make sure we're going where we're supposed to here.
20:44Straight on.
20:44Straight on.
20:45Great.
20:47So now we'll put one screw, Kevin, about two slots down from the upper right corner.
20:55So now we can square it.
20:57Okay.
20:58136.
21:04Tell me when you're good.
21:06I'm good.
21:07Looks good.
21:08136 each way.
21:09We are plumb on both sides.
21:11We're square.
21:12We're ready to nail it off.
21:21All right.
21:21You ready?
21:22We're going up.
21:22We are now over top of the track.
21:26All right.
21:27We're ready to drop.
21:27Yep.
21:28Beautiful.
21:31Oh, satisfying.
21:34All right.
21:34Middle track.
21:35Middle track.
21:42All right.
21:42All right.
21:43Last panel.
21:43All right.
21:44Coming over.
21:45Very good.
21:46Up in.
21:50This one's going to be the fix.
21:51I'm going to be the fix.
21:52Come all the way to the right.
21:56There we go.
21:56And they should stack.
21:58Huh?
21:58Look at that.
21:59Great.
21:59How about that opening right there.
22:01Wow.
22:01What do you think, Dan?
22:01You like?
22:02Oh, I like it.
22:02Excited about how this is turning out.
22:04Very nice.
22:05Jared, what are we going to do to finish this off?
22:07We're going to adjust these three panels.
22:08Make sure they're operating properly.
22:10We're going to send some screws through the jam of the door with some shims.
22:14Keep it straight.
22:15We're going to tape the outside over our nailing flange.
22:18Exterior trim, siding, and we're done.
22:21Perfect.
22:21All right, Zach.
22:22Nice to have you up here in Massachusetts.
22:23You going to come back and join us?
22:24I will, for sure.
22:26All right.
22:26Bring both hands next time.
22:27I'll try.
22:28All right.
22:28Well, on behalf of all of us here, I'm Kevin O'Connor, signing off for This Old House
22:32here in Walpole, Mass.
22:34How excited are you about this, huh?
22:36Real good.
22:36It's real nice.
22:41Next time on This Old House, this project has two separate units, the main house and an
22:46ADU, and that means it needs a firewall.
22:49We'll show you how to build one.
22:51This is a fire damper.
22:52If there's a fire that happens to be in one of the ducts, it'll stop it from going to
22:55the other side.
22:56And the walls are soon to be closing in, so it's a perfect time to show you just how
23:00we've hidden the ductwork on this building.
23:02We're also exploring different ways that you can build ADUs.
23:06This is wonderful.
23:24Have a great day.
23:26Have a great day.
23:40We'll see you next time.
23:40Another Moment of Elec ведered画 is an extension of your car financial power.
23:40An integration power of an upgrade can be installed on your left and in this field.
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