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Ask This Old House - Season 24 - Episode 08: Regrade Lawn; Solid Core Doors
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00:04On Ask This Old House, our experts travel across the country to answer questions about your house.
00:17Today, Lee helps a homeowner regrade their lawn.
00:22She loves this.
00:24Then, do you lack a green thumb when it comes to houseplants?
00:28Jen gives some suggestions on low-maintenance plans.
00:32And Nathan helps a homeowner swap their hollow core doors for solid ones.
00:42On Ask This Old House.
00:50Hi, guys. How you doing? I'm Lee.
00:52Hey, Matt.
00:53Nice to meet you. Matt, how are you?
00:54Hi, Brooke. Nice to meet you.
00:55And this is Violet.
00:56Hi, Violet. How are you today?
00:58Yeah?
00:58Good.
00:59You got some treats in there?
00:59We got some snacks.
01:00We got an email.
01:02Something about you. Yeah. Talk to me. What's going on?
01:04Yeah. So, you can see we have a lot of, like, sloping and sort of uneven spots.
01:09Okay.
01:09And we've got some mud patches.
01:11And we get a lot of water pooling, like, right around here, especially in the winter.
01:15And with our daughter and our dogs, we spend a lot of time out here.
01:17So, we'd love to know what you can do to help us out.
01:19Okay. I'm looking at it right now like it's uneven, so we can level that off.
01:22And I think we should do, maybe clean it up, the thatching, let some oxygen get in there.
01:27And then I'm also seeing some mossy areas.
01:29So, I think the pH is off. So, we can try to fix that.
01:31And then I'm looking at the canopy.
01:33And I think it's probably shady in here.
01:35Yeah, we get a lot of shade.
01:36Grass likes a lot of sun.
01:37So, I think in the future, we should probably prune this back.
01:41But for now, let's try to get, you know, what we need to do today and go from there.
01:45Okay. Yeah, I think that sounds great.
01:46All right, let's go to work.
01:47Okay.
01:48All right, good.
01:52So, I got some rakes here.
01:53And what we got to do is thatch out the lawn.
01:55Okay.
01:55If you see in the lawn, it's got a lot of, a lot of like sticks and leaves and all
01:59that stuff.
02:00So, we want to open that all up.
02:01And I want, I want the lawn to just breathe.
02:04Okay.
02:04So, I'm going to have you that one there.
02:06Okay.
02:06What I want you to do is I like to go like a motion like this.
02:10And see how that is? Look at that.
02:12Okay, so like making X's kind of?
02:13Correct. And try to go backwards.
02:16So, we're bringing it back with us.
02:19But we're opening it up.
02:23Get that in there like that.
02:27See how it's opening up?
02:29Yeah.
02:30And that's what we want.
02:32This is choking out the lawn. Look at this, see?
02:34That's so crazy.
02:35Yeah, look at that.
02:37That's choking out your lawn.
02:39Choking out? Is that what you call it?
02:40Choking out. Not getting any daylight in there.
02:42So, we want to clean all that out.
02:44But, there is an easier way.
02:47There is?
02:48Yes.
02:48So, there's a machine called a dethatcher.
02:51Okay.
02:51And that will run up and down.
02:52And it will do this better than what we're doing.
02:54All right, sounds good.
02:55Okay? All right, let's go get that.
02:57This is a dethatcher.
02:58And you can rent these.
03:00And here are the tines right here.
03:01And they'll beat up the lawn and do what we want to do.
03:04Save our arms.
03:05Work a little smarter, not so hard.
03:07Yeah, I like that.
03:08All right, we'll pull this off the truck and we'll get going.
03:10Good.
03:33What do you think?
03:34It's a beautiful table.
03:35I love the color choices we have here.
03:38It's a best color, huh?
04:05Yeah.
04:05With the blue, and it helps hold the moisture in the seed.
04:09Very cool.
04:10But what I have here is I have a fescue and I have a Kentucky blue.
04:14And it's like a sun and shade mix because we've got a little bit of shade.
04:17A lot of shade.
04:18Yeah, I know.
04:19And then over here we have starter fertilizer that will help jumpstart the seed.
04:23And then a little trick I do is we cover it up with peat moss.
04:27And that incubates it, keeps it nice and warm, and holds the moisture so the seed will germinate.
04:31We forgot this bad boy.
04:33Okay.
04:34That is playground chips.
04:36Ah.
04:37Okay?
04:37We can't get everything coated with the lawn because it's got some shade areas and things like that.
04:42So I said let's make a little playground area.
04:44And it's tumbled.
04:45It's really good for the baby so she won't get any splinters or anything like that.
04:48Oh, perfect.
04:49Okay.
04:49I love that idea.
04:50I think we're ready.
04:51Cool.
04:51Any other questions?
04:52No.
04:52What do you think?
04:53Let's get started.
04:54All right.
04:54Let's go.
04:55All right.
04:56To get started, we're going to level out the low and high spots in the yard with loom.
05:02Shake it out.
05:03Nice.
05:09Matt, now we've got to do some push it around.
05:12Go from the top of it, just push it.
05:15How do you tell when it's at sort of the level that you're looking for?
05:18A little eyeball on it.
05:19You know, you can see the lows and the valleys.
05:22But try this.
05:24This is a leveling rake.
05:25Let me have that one.
05:26Try that.
05:27Lay that on top.
05:29Oh, look at that.
05:30See how that finds the level of the existing lawn?
05:34Is it better to push or pull?
05:36Both.
05:36Back and forth.
05:37See how it's finding the level?
05:38Oh, yeah.
05:40Thanks.
05:40Real nice job.
05:42Sweat equity, my friend.
05:43Sweat equity.
05:44It's going to pay off.
05:45It's going to break.
05:47Any chunks like this, just break them up.
05:52Use the knife, the forks.
05:54That's it.
05:55That's pretty good.
05:58Rocks and stuff like that.
05:59Do we have to worry about any of that?
06:01Or is that...
06:01Yeah, if you see one or two, throw them off to the side.
06:04Yeah, perfect.
06:08So now what we're going to do is add some lime.
06:10And what does the lime do for the soil?
06:11Lime's going to bring up pH, sweeten it up a little bit.
06:14This level goes up and it will cascade out, just keep a nice steady pace.
06:20Perfect.
06:21Nice job.
06:22Real nice job.
06:24Let's increase it a little bit more.
06:25Around 10.
06:26So let's go to about 20.
06:28Let's double it up.
06:2922.
06:35Nice.
06:37Here we go, Violet.
06:38So here's your bucket, okay?
06:39See the grass seed inside?
06:41Can you throw some of that on the grass for me?
06:43Good girl.
06:44Good girl.
06:45Nice job.
06:46Good job.
06:46Nice job.
06:48In a small area like this, I'd rather do it by hand.
06:51Yeah.
06:52You can control it better.
06:57There you go.
06:59Keep going.
07:03How's she doing?
07:05She loves this.
07:06I'm going to give you a little bit more.
07:07Okay, Violet, we're going to get a little bit more, okay?
07:09Violet, you ready?
07:09Here we go.
07:11Look at that.
07:13Ooh.
07:13Go get it.
07:18This is a leaf rake.
07:19I don't want to pick up any of the material.
07:21What I want to do is flip the rake upside down.
07:23Okay?
07:23And all I want to do is I want the seed to try to get contact with the soil.
07:27So all I'm going to do is go like this.
07:29That's pretty much it.
07:30So just really lightly.
07:32Yeah, really lightly topping it off.
07:34Finishing it off.
07:36Now does this sort of put the seed sort of under the top layer of soil a little bit?
07:41Yeah, exactly.
07:41That's what you want.
07:41But then we're going to, I got one more step we're going to do and then that will finalize it.
07:54We're going to throw some peat moss down, okay?
07:56All right.
07:56And this is going to cover the seed.
07:58But I need you to keep it wet after we get it down because it's kind of light and fluffy,
08:02so I don't want the wind to blow it off.
08:03So all I'm going to do is throw it down like this.
08:05And we're going to cover the yard.
08:08Try to keep it low because see how dusty it is?
08:10Yeah.
08:10And we got a windy day today.
08:13And then do you rake this also or is this you just water it in?
08:16This is it. This is the final step.
08:17Oh, okay. Cool.
08:19All we're going to do is water it.
08:22All we've got left is to spread those playground chips.
08:25Push them all over the place here.
08:27Good job.
08:29This will be nice for when you're on your swing.
08:32Okay, I think Violet's going to do the watering.
08:34What do you guys think?
08:35I love it. I'm so excited. It's so level now.
08:38Yeah. Water every day, all right?
08:39If you can get twice a day, that'd be great.
08:41We'll see you soon. Thank you so much.
08:42Thank you so much.
08:43We'll talk to you guys later.
08:44Violet, can you say thank you?
08:45Bye, Violet. We'll see you later.
08:47Bye-bye.
08:48You say bye-bye.
08:48Watch out.
09:01Watch out.
09:02Hey, Jen.
09:03Hey, Kevin.
09:04More beautiful plants in a beautiful place.
09:05What are we talking about today?
09:06We are talking about low-maintenance, highlight-to-low-light plants.
09:11I like the low-maintenance. I got that.
09:12And then highlight-to-low-light is how much sunlight they need?
09:15Correct.
09:15Okay.
09:15And so these are really all great beginner plants.
09:18If you go to the nursery or your home center, just these are perfect ones to start with.
09:22So what are they?
09:23So these are highlight plants, meaning like bright sunlight.
09:26They want six hours of light.
09:29We've got a cactus here.
09:30This one is a zebra plant.
09:32And this one is aloe.
09:33Beautiful.
09:34Okay.
09:34And then moving down the line, what do we got?
09:36This one is a ponytail palm.
09:38And this one is a croton.
09:39And they both require and do like a lot of light, but not direct sunlight.
09:44So indirect sunlight.
09:46So maybe these are sitting on the windowsill, getting blasted.
09:49Maybe these are pulled inside on the dining room table or kitchen counter.
09:52Exactly.
09:52They'll be happy, happy, happy there.
09:54But do they still want like that six to eight hours if you can get it?
09:57Yeah.
09:58It would make for a healthy plant.
09:59All right.
10:00So does that mean that these are sort of the lower light ones here?
10:02These are the lower light.
10:03You know, you're in your college dorm room.
10:05I wish.
10:07Oh, I wish.
10:07I know.
10:08Me too.
10:09Low light plants.
10:10This is a philodendron.
10:11This is a ZZ plant.
10:13This is a snake plant.
10:14And that is a pothos.
10:15I don't know how you remember all these names.
10:17Well, it's kind of fun.
10:19But that's the thing.
10:20Like turn it into a game.
10:21Get to know your plants.
10:23So when you say lower light, if that's direct six hours or more, if that's indirect,
10:28but bright six hours or more, where are we on the spectrum here?
10:31I would say between two and four hours.
10:34That's it?
10:34Yeah.
10:34So they could really handle that very well.
10:37You could put it in a corner.
10:40Just it's once a little light.
10:41A couple hours is good.
10:42Cool.
10:42All right.
10:43So in terms of keeping them alive, I got the sunlight part.
10:47Talk to me about soil and watering and fertilizer.
10:49Like what do I have to think about?
10:50Great, great questions.
10:51Okay.
10:51So for the full sun plants, the cactus and the zebra and the aloe, they like to be watered,
10:58but the water should drain through.
11:00So when you're thinking of soil, you're going to want a chunky soil.
11:04You want it to be very drainable.
11:06You don't want any water to be retained in there.
11:08And in terms of draining, something like this, where you've got the pot hole in the very
11:14bottom, and you can see it pooling in the little tray, you can dump it out.
11:18What do you do if it's in a basin?
11:20I presume this does not have holes in the bottom.
11:22Yeah, this one does not have holes in the bottom.
11:24So what do you do in that case?
11:25It's a great question because here's what I do.
11:29I keep it in its original pot that it came in from the nursery, water it, let everything
11:34drain right out, and then put it back in because you don't want it sitting in standing water.
11:38You're just going to invite rot.
11:39Okay.
11:40Highlights without the direct sun, what do they get for water?
11:45So the indirect sun and all the way down here, they all have a more organic soil matter.
11:51All of these?
11:52All of these.
11:53Okay.
11:53So this is going to be in need of water before these because the sun is going to pool from
11:59them.
11:59Makes sense.
12:00It'll evaporate.
12:01So I would say these are going to need water next, and then these four, you can probably
12:06water once a week.
12:07Am I trying to keep them moist?
12:08Am I letting them dry out?
12:10Is it?
12:10You want to stick your finger in for a test.
12:13You know, if the first inch is dry, then it's time for water.
12:17Oh, yeah.
12:18Okay.
12:19And so that's how you tell right there.
12:20Yep.
12:21This one needs water.
12:24Okay.
12:25And do they need fertilizer?
12:27And if so, different amounts or different kinds based on?
12:30Different amounts that you could use a water-soluble fertilizer for all of these.
12:35So it makes the concentrate in water.
12:37Yeah.
12:37So you could read on the bottle, okay, I have this size plant, how many drops.
12:41You put it in the watering can.
12:42You water it.
12:43Make sure it's a sufficient amount of water for the pot.
12:46And they're all different ones.
12:48Cactus, succulents are going to require a different fertilizer than the rest of these.
12:52So, you know, but it's written on the box, water-soluble, easy.
12:56All right, big question.
12:56Yeah.
12:57A guy like me, you're going to keep these alive in my house?
13:00You're looking at my thumbs?
13:02I think you might be okay with these.
13:04All right.
13:04That's good to know.
13:05Thank you, Jen.
13:05You're welcome.
13:06It really needs water.
13:07All right, let's go do it right now.
13:08How are you alive?
13:10You're so dry.
13:28Hey, Enric.
13:29Nice to meet you.
13:30Let's go inside and take a look.
13:31Absolutely, welcome.
13:32All right.
13:34This is a beautiful home.
13:35Thank you so much.
13:36Have you been here long?
13:37Yes, about a year or so.
13:38So my wife and I have been doing a lot of renovation, mostly painting, and then also including the doors
13:44and updating the hardware.
13:46And we've come to realize that we really would like to explore exchanging or changing these hollow core doors to
13:53something more solid for two main reasons.
13:56One, just the feel of it, have something that feels a bit more solid.
13:59And the second one is really around sound insulation, if it would reduce the sound coming, obviously, from the bathroom
14:07here.
14:07We have an office slash guest room here.
14:10Okay.
14:10And also my daughter's bedroom is around the corner.
14:13So any sound dampening would be a pro, right?
14:15Absolutely.
14:15All right.
14:16So you already called it out.
14:17You've got a hollow core door here.
14:18This is a six panel.
14:20We could go with a solid core door.
14:22We can go with a solid wood door.
14:24I think a solid core would be the way to go.
14:26I'm happy to see you have three hinges on these interior doors, so that'll support the weight well.
14:32I think we could even change the design if we wanted to.
14:35We could go with a one panel, a two panel.
14:37Definitely easy to swap out.
14:39Want to show me the other door?
14:41Yep.
14:41Absolutely.
14:44So this is the last door to my daughter's bedroom.
14:47All right.
14:47Let's take a look.
14:48So we have the same hollow core.
14:51This is a six panel.
14:53Let's start off by measuring the door.
14:55And there's kind of two different ways to approach it, right?
14:57So I throw my tape on here, and this is about 29 three quarter.
15:02In my terms, I'd probably call this a two six.
15:04Two foot six inches.
15:06Two six for the width.
15:10And for the height, for me, I'm going to call this a six six.
15:15So I've got a two six, six six door.
15:18But you could also work off of inches as well.
15:20So there are some options when you go to buy a door.
15:22You can get just the door slab itself, or you can get a door already hung on the jamb.
15:27But if I get a pre-hung door, I'm going to have to pull the trim off both sides, right?
15:32I'm going to be throwing away a perfectly good jamb.
15:34Then I'm going to have to put the jamb in, shim it, trim it, paint it.
15:38So there's a lot of extra work here just to change the door slab.
15:41Would you want to change the style of this door at all?
15:43Yeah, we've been thinking about the single panel.
15:45Single panel, one long single panel.
15:47That would look sharp.
15:48All right, to get started, I'm going to drive these pins out.
15:50We're going to take this door over to the workbench.
15:52Let's do it.
15:54All right.
15:55Let's get started by removing this handle here, and then I'll take the hinges off.
16:01So if you take that, just loosen those screws up, and we'll put those parts aside.
16:09Pull that out.
16:23And all right, here's your door slab.
16:262666, single panel, shaker style, solid core.
16:29It's exactly what we needed.
16:31Here's the old one.
16:31Let's toss that on top.
16:34So I know that you have the bottom down there, and I have the top up here.
16:38So that's important to keep that in mind.
16:41And as we look to the side here, you can see our old hinge locations.
16:44Now that we have these stacked on top and they're flush, I'm going to transfer that mark down to there.
16:48Yep.
16:49And then over here, we'll bore this hole for the lock set.
16:52So we can kind of make a reference mark here.
16:55All right, let's remove this old one.
16:57Okay.
17:02So I just want to make sure we go back in the same spot as the old door, because we
17:06want to reuse that existing strike plate that's on the jam side.
17:09So I'm setting up this jig here.
17:11From the top down, I have about 43 and 3-16ths to the top of my bore.
17:18And then for the back set, we have this jig on the side here.
17:21We've got 2 and 3-8ths for our back set, and that's the distance from the edge of the door
17:25to the center of the hole.
17:26So what we're going to do, it's a hole saw, but this is a pretty thick door, 1-3-8ths.
17:30So we're going to go through as far as we can until the pilot bit pops out on the other
17:35side.
17:36Yep.
17:36And then we're going to flip it over and finish the cut from the other side so we don't get
17:39much blowout.
17:41And we're going to do our best to stay nice and square.
17:44All right, I'm going to use a 1-inch hole saw bit to drill a hole here in the door
17:48for our latch bolt.
18:13So I'm going to take this speed square here, and I'm just going to line up the edge of that
18:16hinge there.
18:24To make our lives a lot easier when we've got to mortise these hinges into the door,
18:28I have a quick little door buck that I made outside.
18:32So what we're going to do is bring the door over.
18:36You're going to drop it in, come a little bit closer to me,
18:39because we're going to want these cedar shims to pinch on the high point of this door.
18:45Take that, wedge that down into place, and now we can work right here waist tight
18:51instead of trying to work in front of our face.
18:54So for the hinges, you have a 3.5-inch hinge.
18:58I have this little jig here.
18:59It's actually a pretty affordable one.
19:01It comes with a different plate, so you can do different style hinges, different sizes.
19:05Really easy to use.
19:06It has these little tabs here.
19:07Push that against the edge, and then we're going to go centered off of our reference marks
19:12a little bit on that side and that side.
19:16So if you hold that right there for a sec.
19:40All right, nice fit.
19:42Perfect.
19:43Nice and flush.
19:43All right, we'll do the next one.
19:50All right, so here is one side of the hinge.
19:53We're going to use this self-centering drill bit, and we're just going to go right in the
19:56middle, push down, and drill a hole.
20:00Okay.
20:14Grab your next hinge off that pile.
20:32If you want to keep going, I'll follow up behind you with the hinges.
20:42Roll that up to you.
20:43I'll go down.
20:44I'll drive the pins in.
20:45I'm going to start at the bottom.
20:47Okay.
20:53Right there.
20:56Perfect.
21:02Nice.
21:04Awesome.
21:05All right.
21:06All right.
21:06Now, let's put on our handle set here.
21:10So let's start with this latch.
21:14Okay.
21:26All right.
21:27So we have our locking handle set here.
21:31So that's going to go on that side, right?
21:33Yep.
21:35Okay.
21:37This side.
21:46So we always start it by hand, just to make sure that we get those threads in contact,
21:50and we're not going to cross-thread anything.
21:57All right.
21:58I'll let you do the honors.
21:59Okay.
22:03Perfect.
22:04All right.
22:05Let's give this one a test.
22:08Nice.
22:10Easy open, easy close.
22:12Reveals are all good, but a little bit of homework for you, all right?
22:14Okay.
22:14So they come with a coat of primer, but we did a little bit of woodworking around it.
22:18So prime any of the cuts that we made, and then two coats of finish, and you're good to go.
22:22Perfect.
22:23Two coats it is.
22:24Good luck.
22:24Thank you so much.
22:25Everything looks amazing.
22:26You're welcome.
22:26You're welcome.
22:42Next time on Ask This Old House, looking for ways to organize your garage?
22:47Nathan helps a homeowner install overhead storage.
22:51Then, Heath shows how to install a three-way smart switch.
22:55We want to pay attention to what wire is connected to this screw.
22:59And Richard gives a lesson on water heater maintenance by replacing an Anno rod.
23:04This awful one's even better than this one.
23:07All that, on Ask This Old House.
23:10protagonists.
23:40Next time onSpiceDress.
23:40you
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