0218 - Stucco Painting, Exterior Repairs, Shutters, and High-End Decking January 8-January 14, 2007 | July 9-July 15, 2007 >> Vila: Hi, I'm Bob Vila. Welcome to the show here in Melrose, Mass., where today we're putting finishing touches on our project -- mostly on the exterior of the house. We'll be giving you some tips on exterior painting, even when the weather gets cold. Also, we're putting finishing touches on the wood decking using ipe and Tiger Claws for the installation...putting shutters up, and building a trellis. Stick around. This house was built in 1921. And the original stucco surfaces, the sidewalls, are in very good condition except for just a few spots that needed repairs. But the woodwork was a bit of a different story. Eighty year old wood, New England winters. We've had to do a fair amount of repairs and replacements -- most of it using western red cedar, which is a very good wood to choose for this kind of work. And then we replaced the gutters up on the gambrel roof. One thing that's important in New England winters is to keep water and ice from forming on the eaves of the roof. There were some areas of the house, however, that had pretty serious damage...the porch columns, for example. After we discovered insect damage, we decided that the best way to strengthen and preserve these columns was to fill them up with concrete. So mason Kevin Latham wound up doing all three of them just to be safe. Once that was done, there was plenty of patching and repair to do, as well as some new stucco to add where we removed the back door and added the new kitchen slider and the small window. Kevin starts with wire lath over felt paper over plywood. Then he adds a brown coat and lets that cure. Next comes the finish coat, which is as much fun to watch as it is to apply. You just have to have good aim. With all these different surfaces to deal with, painting the house was not gonna be a simple job, so we called on CertaPro painters to help us out.
>> Like a lot of homes here in New England, this house is 80 years old. And like a middle-aged Hollywood starlet, different parts of the house are different ages. Some of them have held up really well over time, and others have needed a little bit of work. In this particular home, we've got some old stucco, which is in really good shape. We've got some new stucco, which in this case needs to be primed, and then we're going to paint it with a couple of coats. This window is an area where we've got a couple of different materials. This is our old natural wood, but going around it, we've replaced the frame here with Azek material, which is a man-made product which sounds like wood. Does not actually need to be painted, although we're going to paint it to make it match the rest of the trim. This Azek material is relatively new, by the way, and it's especially effective in areas where there's a lot of moisture, a lot of recurrent water issues, where rot is really gonna be a problem. We've already replaced it once. They don't want to ever have to replace this again. And this should solve the trick here. We're gonna be able to put paint onto the Azek, but the natural wood is actually gonna need to be primed and then painted with two coats to match everything else. Now, here's another area where we see a lot of texture from old layers of old paint. You can see where the water issue caused that peeling in sheets. You can also see a lot of alligatoring going on. That's all the checking marks going on in the paint. And what that is caused by is, in the olden days, which is to say 40, 50 years ago when this was probably painted originally -- there are oil-based paints. There are also lead-based paints. And they don't have enough flexibility for a New England winter and summer where the temperature variances are huge, from 10 degrees below to 90 degrees. And so that paint cracks like that. And when you're thinking about your house, what's a realistic expectation of what it's gonna look like at the end of the process? And that alligatoring is really baked in the cake now. What we're gonna do is scrape down everything that's loose, chipping, and peeling. We're gonna sand down the edges a little bit. And then we're gonna prime over it and go over it. But you're still gonna see that existing texture coming through the paint where the old layers of paint are doing their job, which is that they're adhered to the old wood on the house. So even when it's done, everything's gonna look uniform in color, and there won't be any chipping and peeling going on, but there will still be a lot of texture involved in it. Now, up above, what we've got going on here is before these gutters and downspouts were installed, you had the lip of this roof coming down and slamming into all these shingles. And it's really just like Chinese water torture on those shingles all the time and causing all the paint to flake off. So, in fact, we've had to replace all of those shingles. And we're gonna hit them with a solid-color stain. Looks a lot like paint, but it won't chip and peel. It penetrates into the wood. And that stain is a self-priming product as well. So we aren't going to have to go over it with a special primer. And, again, you're going to see a difference in texture between the old shingles, which are a little bit more horizontal -- or vertical, rather -- and the new ones, which will be smoother finish. That's part of that Hollywood starlet, where different parts of it are different ages. And that's something you're just gonna have to expect with a home this age.
>> Vila: So, Fergus, what are some tips to think about when you are painting towards the end of the season and it is getting a little bit cold?
>> The key is to think about temperatures at night. As long as the temperatures are above 35 degrees overnight, and really ideally for 48 hours, you're okay. So if it's 50 degrees during the day and dropping down to 45 at night, you're okay.
>> That's an interesting point. It's not just about the temperatures when you're applying the paint, but also during that curing cycle, those 48 hours after you paint.
>> That's exactly right. And the technology in paints today -- we can go longer into the season and start a little bit earlier. That's especially important here in New England.
>> Vila: But in other parts of the country, one of the biggest culprits to a good paint job is the humidity, right?
>> That's right. And in that case -- in New England, it's only an issue on occasion. But if we were in a Florida climate or something like that, high humidity may mean that you can't paint certain times of the year either. So it's sort of the opposite effect.
>> Vila: Well, thank you. It's a beautiful job.
>> Thank you, Bob.
>> Vila: Well, it's been six months since we began the work here, which was originally just a basement room refinishing project that grew to include finding more space for a growing family, redoing the backyard, to doing repairs to the house. And we're standing on one of them right now -- the front porch, the front entrance of the house. A nice wooden deck system that needed to be repaired. And not just the decking but also the structure underneath -- 80-year-old timbers, many of which were rotted or insect-damaged. So, we've done that, and now we're looking at the finished product, which is a tropical product from Everlasting Hardwoods, which is a renewable product. And I think one of the best choices for outdoor decking, even though traditionally some people don't like to work with it because you have to sometimes drill it. It doesn't nail easily. We're using Tiger Claw, a system for installing the wood without any kind of face nailing obvious, which keeps the beauty of the wood right out there. Take a look, and we'll see how these are attached.
>> Well, what we're using today is a hidden deck-fastening system from Tiger Claw. And this particular fastener here that we're using is made for extreme dense materials, like the ipe that we're putting down today. The fastener is very simple to use. You can see it attaches to the edge of a board, and then a screw is installed through the fastener down into the joist. How it works is the fastener holds the board, and then the screw holds the fastener down. Now, you can see we've driven -- let's take a look at the fastener here. All stainless steel with a black oxide coating on them. And the reason for the coating is, it helps it to hide very nicely in the seams of the deck so you don't see it even when you look down into the seams. Now, the, uh -- every retail package of fasteners comes with an installation tool. Now, the installation tool is a very simple block. Simply insert the fastener into the tool and sit it right on your joist. Now, that helps you to install the fastener nice and even, just the right height, and nice and square. Now, you see, I apply a little pressure to the top of the board with my foot, give it a little tap, and the fastener nicely goes right into the edge of the board. And I take my stainless-steel screw, also with a black-oxide coating...and I just pop it in at a 45-degree angle. And that's it. As simple as that. Once you install a fastener at each joist, you simply take your next board...and slide it into place. Using a hammer board...and a small sledgehammer, you simply give it a little tap. And the board goes right onto the fastener. Once you get it in place, simply set another fastener and another screw. And you continue on with that same installation process. I'm gonna work my way down...hitting one time at each joist. Any more than that can make the installation more difficult. Just hit once, and you move right along. And you can see I'm getting the perfect spacing -- automatic spacing as I move down. And our board is installed. Now I simply start that process all over again till I reach the end of my deck.
>> Vila: So, one of the other things about the ipe is that it's extremely strong and also naturally insect-resistant. It doesn't have any kind of chemical applications. Now, the other wood that we've combined up here is western red cedar, which we used overhead for the new porch ceiling. And just last week, we made these trellises, which are a large-format cedar trellis that will eventually allow a climbing rose to live here and which the homeowner thinks might have originally existed here to provide a little bit of privacy from what is a pretty busy street.
>> The trellis is made of western red cedar, one inch. The trellis is held together with a lap joint, secured with glue and some brads. The way all the cuts came out so even is that, after I made the first cut, I built this spacer. This spacer has a piece of wood that fits into the previous groove. That allows me to set my guide up for my next slice. This also takes into consideration the amount of room that the router itself needs. The spacer allows me to finish the cut and get a perfect one inch. It has to be slid into a groove that was here for the previous trellis. There's little chucks down the bottom that we're gonna use to hold it into place. They need to be screwed down to secure the trellis. The homeowner wanted nice, big blocks to let a lot of light in but still give some privacy, and we have this cutout here for a hanging plant.
>> Vila: The last touch that we're putting on over here is a new light fixture. And John Schiavone, our electrician, are you all done? I wanted to see exactly what it looked like up there.
>> Yeah, we've got the electricity off, of course. And simple wiring -- just white-to-white, black-to-black.
>> Vila: The first thing you do is the ground.
>> Definitely ground the system.
>> Vila: And then you just bunch them up and attach it in there. And I like a lot of these new light fixtures that they're making for exterior use that have these patinas on them so that they look appropriate to an older house.
>> Yes, they're very nice.
>> Vila: Where's the glass?
>> Here it is.
>> Vila: Okay. All right. And the old-time glass bowl...and finial, which complement the look. Very nice, John, thanks. This closed-caption sponsorship is brought to you by...
>> Vila: Hi, I'm Bob Vila. Next time on the show, we're doing exterior painting. We'll show you how to get better results when the weather starts getting a little bit cold, both on wood and on stucco finishes. Also, finishing up the deck installation using ipe wood from Brazil and Tiger Claws for the installation system, putting in some beautiful and long-lasting J&L shutters on the front of the house, and also building a trellis using western red cedar. Don't miss it.
>> Vila: Hi, I'm Bob Vila. Next time on the show, we'll give you some tips on how to get good results when you're doing exterior painting, especially when the weather is turning cold. Also, we're installing a trellis, putting in some shutters, and finishing up an ipe deck. Don't miss it.
>> Vila: Hi, I'm Bob Vila. Next time on the show, we'll give you some tips on exterior paint jobs in cold weather and finish up the wooden deck. Don't miss it.
>> The next thing we have to do out here is work on the shutters on the windows. As you can see here, we have one of the old shutters that had come off. It's in a lot of disrepair. We have some broken areas here. It's more than likely also covered with lead paint, so between trying to retrofit these and fix them up and put them back on, it's really not worth the time and effort. So we have these new shutters from J&L Shutters. They're a Permex synthetic material. They are prepainted from the factory with a 10-year guarantee, warranty, on the painting itself. They are movable. They also have metal reinforcement down through the stiles so that it's a much stronger shutter, and you never have to worry, for the next 10 years, anyhow, as far as repainting them or fixing them. These shutters from J&L also come with some historic-style hinges. You can see on the back we've already installed the hinge section to the shutter itself. All the screws are stainless steel, so you don't have to worry about them rusting over a period of time. There's also the hinge part -- hinge pin -- which goes on the widow casing itself, which will eventually slide in and will be a working shutter, as well as decorative. I've already taken the time and done my measurements. You can see here, I've already identified the drilling holes that I want to put a pilot hole in. You always want to make sure that you drill a pilot hole. Frequently, if you don't, what will happen is, when you try and put the screw in, it will actually split the wood, and your screw will eventually weaken and let go. With the pins on the outside casing, then you pick up the shutter, you line up the hinges on the back with the pins on the casing. And then it just slides right down in place. There you have a shutter now that is operable and functional. The last thing to do is to put on the shutter dog, which goes down at the bottom, which actually holds the shutter in an open position. First thing we have to do is line it up where we want it and then make a mark on the wall so that we can drill a hole. Now, because this is a stucco house, we're gonna use a masonry bit initially to drill a hole into the stucco itself. If we tried to do anything else, chances are the stucco itself would just flake off. Once we've gotten through the stucco, we change over to a standard bit, 'cause we want to be able to drill a pilot hole into the sheathing itself. If we didn't, what would normally happen is, once you put in the lag bolt, it would have a tendency to want to crack the sheathing over a period of time, and once again, you'd lose the strength of it. You could just screw these right to the house, but then you'd lose some of the historic value or appeal. You have the old-style hinges. When you want, you can actually use them and close the shutter so that it actually can protect the windows in the case of a bad storm. And these are also made of Permex material, which will not rot, warp, or crack. So they'll last a very long time, and you'll really enjoy them.
>> Vila: And that will wrap us up for today. Next week, we're gonna be showing you a recap of the waterproofing system we put in the basement, as well as window treatments, some nice, new appliances for the laundry room, and a whole-house audio system. Till then, I'm Bob Vila. Thanks for joining us. Looking for help on your next project? Visit BobVila.com for everything you need to get the job done right. You'll find show highlights, interactive tools for planning your next project, and helpful how-to articles for every room in your home. BobVila.com -- the ultimate home site.
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