- 16 minutes ago
Ask This Old House - Season 24 - Episode 06: Sustainable Grass, Driveway Lights
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:05On Ask This Old House, our experts travel across the country to answer questions about your house.
00:18Today, Jen visits a sod farm to learn about some innovations in grass alternatives.
00:25Then, Tommy gives us a lesson on nails, their sizes and uses.
00:31And, Keith offers a smart solution to a homeowner struggling with lighting their outdoor space.
00:37It looks amazing. Thank you so much, Heath.
00:40All that on Ask This Old House.
00:48For decades, homeowners have turned to sod for a quick and effective way
00:53to get the perfect lawn.
00:55It's grown and harvested in sheets, ready to be unrolled like a carpet,
01:00instantly transforming bare soil into a lush green yard.
01:05Today, I'm visiting a sod farm here in Rhode Island,
01:08where they have been experimenting with alternative grasses.
01:12Back in 2018, Roger, Kevin and I came here to learn about their micro-clover blend,
01:18which required no fertilizer, no pesticide, and minimal watering.
01:22So I've come back to see what Pat's been working on at the farm.
01:27It's nice to be here again.
01:28Jen, glad to have you back at the farm.
01:31Last time was with the micro-clover, and we're working on some new sustainables.
01:35What do we have here?
01:36Well, we're getting into wildflowers.
01:38You're telling me there's hope for you.
01:40The sod guy is bringing me flowers?
01:42Absolutely.
01:43We've got trays here that we've grown in the greenhouse.
01:46They've got about 20 varieties of wildflowers in there.
01:50Annuals, perennials, and biannuals.
01:52Okay.
01:52So something's going to be going off each season.
01:54Exactly.
01:55Okay.
01:56So what's the root structure like?
01:57Well, Jen, here's the root structure, and this is about six to eight weeks old.
02:01That's pretty rugged.
02:02It's very sturdy and ready to plant.
02:05Okay.
02:05And what you want to do when you're going to plant this is prepare your soil just like
02:10you would be with sod.
02:11Oh, right.
02:11A good four to six inches of loom.
02:13Put it down.
02:14It's going to help with rooting in.
02:17And then you lay them just that close, right?
02:20Yeah.
02:21But you might want to stagger the joints just like you would with the sod.
02:24Right.
02:25That makes sense.
02:26All right.
02:27So I like the application.
02:28I mean, it's also providing a habitat for pollinators.
02:31Oh, the pollinators love it.
02:32I see.
02:33The byproduct is very tasty.
02:36I mean, I could really see a lot of homeowners wanting this in their garden.
02:40They do.
02:40We've had homeowners come in that have hives, and they put this around the hives.
02:45It supplies them with a year-round source of food for the bees.
02:49Yeah.
02:50We've also had larger commercial jobs, universities that have put it in for the color and to have
02:56less maintenance of mowing grass around a building.
03:00Right.
03:00You set it and forget it, essentially.
03:02Exactly.
03:03We'll show you what we're working on now.
03:05Okay.
03:06So this is our experimental field.
03:08As you can see, we've done some test cutting.
03:11Mm-hmm.
03:11And this has got sheep's fescue in it.
03:14Mm-hmm.
03:14And the sheep's fescue is what helps to hold it together so we can roll it up.
03:19Right, because the wildflowers will break apart, right?
03:22Exactly.
03:22So that just helps it knit together.
03:23The field looks a little humble right now, but in a couple of weeks, it's going to look
03:28like this.
03:30Wow.
03:30Isn't that spectacular?
03:32These purples and pinks, then what time of year is this?
03:34This is all about the end of May.
03:36Wow.
03:36So that is spectacular.
03:38I don't even know what to say, except I can't wait to use it at certain homeowners'
03:42places.
03:42What you'll do is, once you get a killing frost in the fall, you mow it down.
03:47For the maintenance aspect.
03:47This field is two years old.
03:48Yep.
03:49And has been mowed several times.
03:51It reseeds itself.
03:53Once you mow that down, the seeds drop in, so it's constantly reseeding, sustainable.
03:58Right.
03:59And so that's very, very low maintenance.
04:01Once a year is not bad.
04:02Exactly.
04:02The other thing with our sheep's fescue is erosion control.
04:06Mm-hmm.
04:06And we have another field I'd like to show you of just sheep's fescue.
04:10Oh, I'd love to see it.
04:12So, Jen, you saw the sheep's fescue and how it clumped over there in the meadow mix.
04:16Yep.
04:16This is a field of sheep's fescue that we've been maintaining.
04:19And as you can see, it's a finer bladed grass.
04:24As opposed to this, which is a traditional grass that a homeowner would normally have.
04:29Right.
04:29You can see it's a little bit wider bladed.
04:31This is what I always order.
04:33Correct.
04:33Right.
04:34But a homeowner could use this.
04:36But primarily what we've been doing, as you can see, we've already been harvesting some.
04:40Mostly been going to golf courses.
04:42Okay.
04:43So many homeowners have lands that abut conservation land.
04:46Like, and there's that 200-foot buffer zone that you have to abide by.
04:50Low maintenance grass.
04:51That's a perfect spot for it.
04:53Yeah.
04:53Yes.
04:53Okay.
04:53Hill sides for erosion.
04:55Yep.
04:56Drought resistant.
04:57Yep.
04:57I think this is a brilliant choice.
05:00And it's just, it's just nice to have alternatives.
05:02Always nice to have alternatives.
05:04Yeah.
05:05Well, I really appreciate my field trip to the farm today.
05:08I've got to get out of here.
05:09It's been a pleasure again.
05:10All right.
05:10We'll see you soon, okay?
05:11Absolutely.
05:12All right.
05:12Take care.
05:12So long.
05:19Ooh, Tommy, cooking up some nail talk for us, huh?
05:22I thought we'd nail it today.
05:24Oh, brother.
05:24Here we go.
05:25We've got all kinds of nails.
05:26Most nails have the same anatomy, a head, a shank, and a wedge-shaped point.
05:32Right.
05:32And I guess every nail's got those three components.
05:35It's just a question of what type of head, what type of shank, what type of tip.
05:38Exactly.
05:39Like right here, we have a flat head with a smooth shank.
05:43We have one with a corrugated or waffled head, and a little bit of a waffled head with that one
05:48right there.
05:49What's the waffle doing for us?
05:50The waffle is keeping the head of the hammer from sliding off of the nail.
05:54Now this nail has a plastic coating on it, and it can be slippery.
05:59So you want the hammer, again, to stick to the nail as it hits that one little contact.
06:04Okay.
06:05So then you have a trim nail right here, or a finished nail.
06:08I don't like to use these nails outside because there's too much movement of the wood.
06:12So I always want to use a common or a flat head nail for that and set it in and
06:17then fill it.
06:17Yeah, I mean it's got a much smaller head by design because unlike the flat heads, which are designed to
06:24sit at the surface,
06:25you're going to overdrive this so it sits below the surface.
06:28Right, and you want to overdrive it with a nail set that fits the nail head.
06:31Because there's a very small depression in the top of that.
06:35You hit it with a hammer, it doesn't slide off.
06:37All right.
06:38Duplex?
06:39Duplex.
06:39All right.
06:40Used a lot in framing and also in form work, like concrete forms, because you're nailing a nailing that's going
06:47to be temporarily holding something that's going to be pulled apart easily.
06:50So you drive the first head down, flush to the surface, but you have something that's sticking up so you
06:56can grab the hammer or a bar to pull the nail out so you can save the material and use
07:01it later.
07:01Super handy if you know you're pulling them out.
07:03Yep, yep.
07:04So different heads, now we've got different shanks.
07:06Yep, you've got a smooth shank on a common nail right here, and then a ring or a cup shank.
07:10And this one here, it's a spiral shank, it twists when the nail goes in.
07:15So, most typical situations, smooth shank is perfectly fine, but a little extra holding power, those rings do quite a
07:23bit for us.
07:23Splashers would use them for a while at, are also putting a subfloor down on top of a rough floor,
07:30like an underlayment.
07:31And you're not going into structure, you're going from a quarter inch into three quarter inch flooring, it's not going
07:37to grab anything except that.
07:39It goes into the fibers, bends it, and those fibers just go into the, snap into the cup a little
07:44bit, and it really holds it well.
07:46Okay.
07:47And this one here, it's a spiral shank, where you're going to drive something down into the framing structure, and
07:52it's really going to hold.
07:53It's going to screw itself in every time you hit it.
07:56You've got a subfloor that's been secured with that thing. Man, those are a bear to get out.
08:00They are tough to get out. They're even tough just to get started with a cat's paw to get them
08:04up, and then you've got to pull them.
08:05Lots of times you break the head off.
08:07Yeah. All right. Well, I appreciate it. Good information.
08:10My pleasure.
08:11Thank you, Tommy.
08:18Hi, Jen.
08:19Hi, Heath. How are you?
08:20Nice to meet you.
08:21Thank you so much for coming.
08:22So I'm guessing this is the area you wrote in about?
08:24Yes. This is the area. We have a bit of a lighting issue.
08:27So our guests tend to come up the driveway to enter our home, and it gets pretty pitch black here
08:33at night.
08:34And then they have to go up the spiral staircase. So we'd like to kind of light it up a
08:38little bit.
08:39Got it. So what else do we have for lights? Looks like we have one at the top of the
08:42stairs?
08:42Yes. We do have a light at the top.
08:44Okay.
08:44It's kind of dull. Doesn't really light up the space at all.
08:47Okay. And we have one at the basement stairs. Is that yours as well?
08:49Yes. This one, however, does light up the area a bit, but it's a manual switch. I have to go
08:54down into the basement to flip it on, which no one ever does.
08:58So we just mostly keep it off.
08:59So it never gets used.
08:59It doesn't get used.
09:01And then it looks like you actually have a floodlight in the garage as well.
09:03Yes, we do. I also have to enter the garage to get this one on. And when it is on,
09:08it's just this bright light.
09:09And it might aggravate some of the neighbors and the people around here. I can see that possibly shining into
09:13a window.
09:14Yes, you got it. And we don't want to be those neighbors, so we also tend to not use that.
09:18Yeah, and you don't want that phone call.
09:19We don't. Yeah.
09:20So from looking at everything, I think we have a couple of things we want to solve.
09:23We want to make the area brighter without being too intrusive to the neighbors and make it comfortable for guests
09:27to come into.
09:28Yes.
09:28And we need to find an easier way for you to control this.
09:31Yeah.
09:31I don't think that's too bad. I think I have a couple of solutions. Let me grab a couple of
09:34items you can take a look at and we'll go from there.
09:36Awesome.
09:36All right.
09:41All right, Jen. So since you mostly use the driveway and your guests come from the driveway, come into the
09:44house, and that's pretty dark out there, I want to address that area first.
09:48So the first option we have are a couple of things like this. We can use an LED tape on
09:52the bottom side of that water table, that white board that runs the whole length of the house.
09:55Yes, okay.
09:56So this is the more standard type of LED tape that you see. You can see it has the dots
09:59on it. It's very flexible. It can work around what we want to work around.
10:02It's low voltage, so it's 24 volts DC. So for that, we end up using a power supply like this.
10:07This will plug into the outside receptacle, then a couple of wires will connect to this, and that's how that
10:11works.
10:11Okay.
10:11This side's more of a continuous strip, a little more modern looking. The nice thing about this one is it's
10:16120 volt, plugs directly into the receptacle.
10:19It doesn't need anything like this. Very user friendly, very easy to install. Also, both of them cuttable to length.
10:25Oh, right.
10:25Just pay attention where you cut them, but you can order a little bit longer, cut it to where you
10:28want it, and it's good to go.
10:29Okay.
10:30The last option would be landscape light. So we can do something like a wall light.
10:33I love this one.
10:34We can do a handful of those, depending on how many you want, put those along that water table. They
10:38require a transformer.
10:39Okay.
10:39So it runs at 12 volts versus being able to plug in at 120.
10:43So am I able to expand on this one?
10:45Great question. Yes. So we're going to put a transformer in, if you go this way, that's bigger than what
10:49you need, so you can add additional landscape lighting in the future so it's all controlled off that same switch.
10:54Nice and easy.
10:55Oh, I love that. I think that makes it a very attractive option for us.
10:59I love the idea of the strip. I think it does the job, being able, you can get it as
11:04long as you want.
11:05I'm a little curious about the durability of the strips.
11:08Sure.
11:08With New England weather, is it able to sustain the super cold and warmer days as well?
11:14Great question. So these are actually designed for outdoor use, and they are rated for the temperature range, so these
11:19are designed to operate below zero and above 100 degrees.
11:22Okay. Wow. Heath, these are some really great choices. I think we're going to gravitate towards the landscape light.
11:28I just love how elegant the design is, and the way that the light is casting downward. I feel like
11:34it's going to resolve our lighting issues.
11:36I think you're absolutely right. Well, I love the look of this, and especially this guy. I mean, it's a
11:40great pathway, but it's just going to be kind of a guiding pathway.
11:43It's not going to throw a whole lot out. This, I think, will light up some of your driveway quite
11:46a bit. That way people can see well. And again, you can expand on it easy enough.
11:50Yes, absolutely.
11:52All right. So if we're going with that, I'm going to grab my tools and get started.
11:55Wonderful. Thank you.
12:01Hey, Heath. Looks like you've made quite the progress here.
12:03Jen, perfect timing. So just starting to do the layout here and figure out where we want to put these
12:08before we start to attach them.
12:09Yeah. And we're trying to avoid all the obstacles that are in the water table itself. We have the spigot.
12:13We have dryer vents. We have a hot water heater vent over there. We've got a lot going on.
12:17So what I was thinking of is starting at the center, right about here.
12:22Okay. And then it seemed like every six feet from that point forward worked out pretty well. So I kind
12:26of laid them out on the ground for you to take a look at.
12:28Yeah. What do you think?
12:28I love the spacing and I feel like it's going to light up this driveway pretty nicely.
12:33I think so. Yeah. And what I'm thinking is I'd rather attach these down low, something close to that bottom
12:39edge.
12:40Okay. And then this actually have this little cavity here. I can tuck the wires behind, keep everything concealed.
12:45I think if we mount these, like I said, every six feet or so, I think it'd be pretty good.
12:49Awesome. Looking forward to it.
12:50All right. I'm going to go ahead and get started then.
12:53I'm going to measure over six feet.
12:56I'm just going to hold it in place and mark the center.
13:01The reason I marked the center is I want to cut a little groove.
13:04So when this wire goes in, it can just tuck up under that board without looping down.
13:12Keeping this fixture flush with the bottom board.
13:23And now that wire can tuck up neatly behind.
13:28There you go. Yeah. Perfect.
13:32That's it. That's all we need.
13:36I think that's the best one yet.
13:38Beautiful.
13:38Beautiful.
13:52So we've pulled the wire across.
13:54We've got staple up underneath.
13:55We left the loops where the lights are going to go.
13:57So now it's time to make the connections.
13:59So what I'm going to do is just split the wire.
14:01So I have the two conductors.
14:04Then I'm going to strip them up.
14:08Next to the connector, slide it on there.
14:13And just tighten the set screw.
14:15And then I'll do the same for the other wire.
14:31Then I'll slide a sleeve over.
14:34And then for the sake of polarity, I'm going to pay attention to which size has the ribbing.
14:40And which side does not.
14:42It's the same on this.
14:44That's the smooth one.
14:46And that's the rib one.
14:48So I'm just going to keep them in the same order just to rule out any potential issues.
14:56All right.
14:57Connectors nice and solid.
14:58Now to make them weatherproof.
15:00Slide these over to the about the middle.
15:04And then we'll just start heating them up.
15:10And what we're looking for with the final product is to see a little bit of the goo coming out
15:16at the end.
15:22And you can see right there that it's nice and sealed around the wire on all sides.
15:29It helps glue this together and keeps it weatherproof.
15:34Now that we're able to install the lights and get the wire where we wanted it, we know where the
15:38transformer is going to mount.
15:39So we're going to go ahead and secure this into place and then wire it up.
15:47All right. So the connection is very simple.
15:48We just have the two wires.
15:50We'll strip these back like we did for the fixtures.
15:52One's going to go to the common terminal and one's going to go to the 12 volt terminal.
15:56Tuck those over.
15:58And we'll just put the cover back on loosely for now.
16:02All right, Jen.
16:02So we have the lights installed down the driveway.
16:04So now we're going to focus on the exterior lighting of the garage and the house.
16:08So I want to start with the garage and we have a couple of choices.
16:10So the first one we're going to take a look at is this is kind of a standard flood.
16:13This is an LED bullet that we can put on the garage.
16:16Second option is something like this.
16:18It's more of a wall pack, more of a commercial idea, but I think it actually might work really well
16:22in this application.
16:24So you can see it's pretty flat. It's not going to shine the light out, but it goes out into
16:29the driveway.
16:29It does a really, really good job.
16:31So when we hold them up like this, we can see how much of a difference we get out of
16:35the light of those.
16:36So I think without blinding the neighbors and giving us a soft, comfortable area to work in, I think this
16:40might be a better choice.
16:40Yeah, I would have to agree. All right.
16:43And what do we have here?
16:44And then for the exterior light? Well, I just kind of picked one for you.
16:47Hope you like it.
16:47I love it. I'm obsessed with this light.
16:50I did have a question about these ones. So how do I switch it on?
16:54Am I still having to go into the garage? Because I don't want that light anymore.
16:57So hopefully not. We're going to try and get a smart switch to work in there.
16:59But this one does have an optional photo cell.
17:01We don't have to use it, but it could come on and dust it out if you want.
17:04Right. The easier, the better.
17:06Yeah.
17:07All right, Jen. So it's time to swap out the garage fixture. You up for it?
17:09Let's do it.
17:10Okay. So the first thing we do is we turn the power off, and now it's time for you to
17:14take this fixture down.
17:15Okay.
17:15So you're going to start by taking that little center cover off, and then there should be a screw in
17:19there holding this in.
17:20All right.
17:23So now we want to take the wires off. We're going to start by disconnecting the black, the white, then
17:27finally the ground.
17:29Next we want to take the fixture bar off.
17:30All right. Okay.
17:32So the new fixture kind of mounts in a similar way. It has a similar bar, but the thread in
17:35the middle is a little bit different.
17:36That's going to go across those, just like the other one came off, and just like that.
17:45All right.
17:46Now we want to tighten those up, and before you send them all the way home, you see how this
17:51has a little play?
17:52Mm-hmm.
17:52We just want to shoot for the center.
17:54Okay.
18:00So let's loosen that ground screw up while you have that.
18:03Okay.
18:05I want it out, but we just want it loose. A little more. There you go.
18:10And I just want to wrap that wire around it as well.
18:14All right, Jen. Now we're ready to install the new fixture. So I'm going to hold it in place for
18:17you.
18:17Okay.
18:18And we're going to put these in a certain order. We're going to start with the ground wire.
18:22That's going to go on first.
18:25Ground wire is always the first one to connect and the last one to disconnect.
18:28Okay.
18:29Next we'll do the white wire.
18:30Yep. And just line them up. That's great. It's right there.
18:34The black wire.
18:34The black wire.
18:34And now the black wire. Yep.
18:37Okay.
18:37So are you happy with those?
18:38Yep. I think so.
18:39Great. Okay.
18:40So I'll hold this. What we want to do is we want to tuck these into that space a little
18:44bit.
18:46Get the wires all the way in there as best we can.
18:48Okay.
18:49All right, Jen. So I'm going to hold this into place.
18:51Okay.
18:52I just need you to look in and kind of line it up.
18:56All right. So line it up.
18:57And then there's a screw right there, and that's going to hold it in.
19:01All right.
19:05Pretty good there?
19:06Yep.
19:07Okay.
19:07That's pretty secure.
19:08And let's just see how we did.
19:10Need to tip a little?
19:12Yep.
19:13It's between the lines.
19:14All right.
19:15Then we just want to put this little cap on.
19:19Okay.
19:19Looking good.
19:20Now I'm going to work on replacing the light fixtures on the side of the house.
19:24I want to put a proper ground screw on the ground wire here.
19:27Maybe a couple of number 10s to hold this in a little more securely.
19:33This spot right down here, this lower screw is actually threaded for those screws.
19:39Number 10, 32, ground screw.
19:47Let's go ahead and see how our bracket fits.
20:00Let's go ahead and see how our bracket fits.
20:15All right, Jen.
20:16So now that all the lights are on, it's time to put the smart switches in so we control
20:19these.
20:19And I figured we'd start in the basement since this is the one you'd never use at all.
20:22I mean, I barely knew where it was located.
20:25I'm just going to start by taking the plate out.
20:32Take these out of the way.
20:38And our ground.
20:39Okay.
20:40All right, Jen.
20:41So we've taken out the switch that controlled the exterior light fixture.
20:43And you can see we have three wires here basically.
20:46The feed in, the power, the load out that goes to the light fixture, and the ground.
20:50But our new switch needs a neutral.
20:53So in order to get to that, that's in the back of the box here, I'm going to take this
20:55other switch out so we can go ahead and grab that as well.
20:58Okay.
20:59And there it is.
21:00You can see it coiled up.
21:01All right.
21:02Yeah.
21:02Right there.
21:04So what I'm going to do is just add a little pigtail.
21:08I'm going to strip a piece up.
21:16All right.
21:17So now we can just go ahead and tuck the neutrals back in.
21:20And we can put the existing switch for the basement lights back in place.
21:25So in this case, we have five wires on a switch.
21:28Our ground will go to the bare copper.
21:29Yeah.
21:30Our white will now go to the neutral here.
21:32This blue is actually going to get capped.
21:35Okay.
21:35We don't need that.
21:36That's if we have multiple switch locations.
21:39The black will go to our constant power.
21:41And the red's the light.
21:43Now we'll do our best to fold those up as neatly as we can into the wall.
21:57All right.
21:58I'm going to plug in this outdoor smart plug that works with the system.
22:04Just want to secure it to the wall.
22:09And then we'll plug our transformer in.
22:12All right, Jen, you get that last switch paired?
22:14I sure did.
22:15All right.
22:15Let's give that scene a try.
22:16All right.
22:17Let's see.
22:18Look at that.
22:19Wow.
22:20This is incredible.
22:21I think it looks great.
22:22I can't wait to see it at night.
22:23It looks amazing.
22:24Thank you so much, Heath.
22:26You're welcome.
22:26Thank you so much for the help.
22:28Enjoy.
22:42Next time on Ask This Old House, Nathan takes a trip down memory lane,
22:47visiting the Navy Seabees in Gulfport, Mississippi, to see what has changed since he left.
22:53Then Tommy talks about hitches, the various parts, and how to properly attach them to a trailer.
23:00And Morrow helps a homeowner fix peeling paint on her galvanized steel railings.
23:06See how nice and easy that goes?
23:07All that on Ask This Old House.
23:11All that on Ask This Old House.
23:35All that on Ask This Old House.
23:38Have a good day.
23:42Thank you once again.
Comments