ASK This Old House | Drafty Door, Clean Paintbrushes (S16 E25) FULL EPISODE

Today, ask

this

old

house

, look at

this

big gap at the bottom of the

door

. I'm going to show you how to weatherproof it the same way you check a

door

for plum when you stop it. it should stay in that position if it's plumb if I let go of the door and it falls into the gap it means it's leaning towards the

house

we're trying out some of the latest battery operated wand tools and I'm going to teach you the do's and don'ts of

clean

ing your brushes oh please don't do that, that's next, ask this old house.

Hi, I'm Kevin O'Connor and welcome back to ask Soul House where we love getting your questions and we actually got one from jerry in california and jerry wrote to us would you recommend using a battery powered lawnmower to replace a 30 year old lawnmower? Well, jerry, that's a good question and I know exactly the guy with the answer, cute little ones, uh, hey, jen, hey. roger hi kevin hi okay, fresh out of the mailbag for you roger jerry in california wants to know if it's time to give up his gas lawnmower and switch to battery previously we've always made that judgment based on the square foot of the garden if it was small you could get away with one battery, if it was large the batteries tended not to work long enough to do the whole yacht so for professional situations it wouldn't work for me at all yes but they have Much improved batteries.

Now, then, what I'd like to do is gather a bunch of these, take them out, put them to the test, and see how they work. Can I come with you, of course, you too? Okay, how's that Jerry? Do you ask us? He answers okay, go get them, okay, let's do it, hey Waldemar, how are you? Hi Tommy, nice to meet you. Nice to see you. It's a big old house, but it's a busy street. Yeah, it's kind of okay. Show me what you're coming from. Oh look at this, a work in progress. I feel like I'm in one of my workplaces.

Yes, thanks for trying to keep the dust out of the room. Oh yes, I know that trick well and these stairs, they are doing all the work. On the stairs it's actually my wife and I, you know, trying to fix it right for you while you unscrew and glue it all together, that's not going to squeak, what are you doing with the floorboards? We're going to recover floors in this house, so actually we. We're trying to recover as many of the original pieces as possible, so you'll use them on the steps and absolutely paint the risers.

I hope you look very good. Stairs are the biggest challenge and I take my hat off to you for giving it a try. It sounds like you're doing a good job, thank you, but I have a much bigger challenge than that and it's actually this door, this front door, yeah, okay, what's the problem? Oh boy, look at the carvings, this is a nice door, well we're trying. to save it for that very reason, we think it's beautiful and probably original to the house, but the draft is just killing us. Well yeah, it looks like you have a little space at the bottom, I think we took about four. layers of previous floors and then we put one more layer but because of that it created that space oh I see so when you open the door yeah all I see is because if there are four layers there they had to cut the door to open it. or let it open wow right now we have the time strip there but you can really feel the draft coming in yeah well I think the door is beautiful but just looking at it very quickly I would say it's probably not original to the house, actually, yes. is too thick for this jam, the door should be flush with our insert slightly with the jam.

I see it fine, but if you're willing, I'll go get some tools and we can fix this, let's do it right, right now. The first thing I notice when I get to the door is this big gap at the bottom of this side that's about an inch and an eighth on this side is about an inch and a quarter that we need to fix and the other thing is I know. that the door is too thick for this jam and lastly it's also out of plum and I can see that the way you check a door to see if it's out of plum is when you stop it, it should stay in that position if it's at lead.

I let go of the door and it falls into space, which means it's leaning into the house right now to fix it. I need to know how far from the plum the easiest way to do this is with a plumb line. nothing more than a weight on a string, so simply attach it to the top of the door, pull the string and let the plumb bob stabilize. Now we verify it. The first number I need is this one right here, it's just 2 and 7 16. and then it goes down to the bottom we're three and 11 16. So that tells me I need to take an inch and a quarter from the top of the jamb to nothing.

I see that it's okay to start, why don't you start? Removing that weather stripping now we're going to measure an inch and a quarter at the top and draw a chalk line to nothing at the bottom and remove all that material and that's going to make this side of the plum jam want to address everything. your home improvement projects with confidence join this old house connoisseur with a new streaming service of this old house the iconic Emmy-winning series that inspired a generation of home enthusiasts stream over 1,000

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s of this old house and ask this old house business for free watch it all on the this old house app and join live online Q&A with our experts best of all you can try it free for seven days to join go to this old house membership .com, okay, because we move that rabbit stop further.

Now we need to adjust the mortise of our hinge on the inside so that it has the same dimension as we have on our door. We want to make it a little bit thicker, so I'm going to adjust my scribes right there and we're going to leave about a sixteenth of an inch, okay, so now just transfer it to our jam, take my scribes, hold it against the top of the jam and trace it down, That's where we have to move this shroud. I see, okay, let's try the door and see how it closes. Okay, the clothes are there. good seats right up against the traffic jam, great all around, wow what a difference Tommy okay now let's take care of that gap at the bottom okay this is the weather stripping we're going to install at the bottom of your door, it's actually an automatic weather stripper, so when you install it and the door closes, this little pin here hits the jamb when the door closes, it pops the weather stripping filling that space, oh, that's beautiful, normally this would slide up into a slot we would make in the bottom of the door, making it flush at the bottom, this just happens to be an inch and an eighth high and your door is an inch and an eighth from the threshold here , but an inch and a quarter from the threshold.

It's okay here, so we need to cut an eighth of an inch on this side for the clearance that we need to close when the door closes. I see that's okay, so what we're going to do is add a piece of wood to each side of the door to create our own groove and it's going to cover the aluminum, hide it and we're also going to lengthen the door. Makes sense. I want the glue to be strong, so I put in two rabbet cuts. on each side of the door before I add my filler pieces, while we wait for the glue on our filler strips to dry, let's install the weatherstripping around our door here, okay, now we can reapply the weatherstripping that you had or I. like this weather stripping here, it's actually a silicone based weather stripping that will fit perfectly into a slot right where the bunny is tight in the corner, if you look at the weather stripping, there's actually like a t-shaped spike right there, oh yeah, look Okay, so what we need to do is cut a slot right down there to match the shape of that.

How do you do that? We have a router here with a V-base that fits tightly into the corner and the bit is an eighth of an inch. but at the top there is a T shape that will give us a slot with a T inside that will block the gaps between the door and the jamb. It's different on all three sides, so I'll ask you to use a smaller weatherstrip. the hinge side and a thicker one on the top and strike side, this will prevent the door from compressing the weather stripping too much, so it will last longer once the glue is set.

I can cut my fillets lengthwise and widthwise and give everything a good sanding. these punctuation marks will help the filler pieces blend in with the styles and rails now we can install the channel and weatherstripping and then rehang the door, okay, put that top on, tell me a little more, okay, well, more for me, yeah, okay. Okay and I added this plastic pin so the screw head doesn't dent the jamb. We also removed the strike, so now the door should sit tight against the weather stripping. why do not you try it? There you have it. What a difference, nice and tight now, once you paint this door, you'll never know we made it longer.

A new old door. Thanks Tommy, it's a pleasure, thanks for your help. Now you can see this old house and ask this old house. anytime, anywhere Download our new app to stream

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s to your tablet, TV, and phone, enjoy classic episodes, catch up on recent renovations, and get step-by-step help on projects throughout your home, the best What's more, it's free, the most reliable information on home improvement. now available on amazon fire tv roku apple tv ios and android devices download thistle house streaming app today very good tommy i don't even know where to start yeah chiseled very well throughout the whole jam it's just to show the owner from home you can do all that work by hand and that's the way we used to do it years ago, yeah, but you know you can set up a rule with a trim router and a next bit and just go down along that and then trim Make it nice and straight, but no matter what you do, you'll still have to finish it off at the top corners and bottom with a chisel, although I was thinking of an oscillating saw, although I suppose that's an unusual tool for many people too, yeah, I mean it's another big investment if you're going to go and make a single door, speaking of verified tools, come on, are you kidding me?

A router with a curve template. I love it, made for weather stripping, yes. I have one and I have to say you know you don't use it all the time but when you do use it it's magical it has a 90 degree base and it has a T on the router bit so that idea of ​​what it is it's actually even . even though you drill the hole when you close it it creates something for the pick to jump out of, yeah that pick isn't actually like that so when it goes into the hole it flattens out and then once it's there it breaks off and now it's more difficult. to take it out right now you could have it, if you don't have this you can go for the alternative obviously which is just putting a bead in there and knowing how to attach a flat if this company sells a variety of sizes because you have to make sure you have the right size with the space but they also have another option where you can buy it just as a tube oh I see so if you take the tube you can run a bead of adhesive right into the the recess there and stick it in place yeah if you have You have to change it, then you take it out and you have to remove all the adhesive and then redo it with this, I can just reach in and take it out and put another one in, so if this wears out in five or ten years.

It's easy to fix once you've been through it, and that's exactly why I'm so grateful for giving it to me, but I'll lend it to you. I don't know if you can handle it. Okay, Maro, earlier this year you told us how to choose a good brush and the conclusion was: buy the most expensive brush you can afford, get a good brush and people followed that advice, but now they want to protect that investment, right? as? Do we keep those expensive brushes

clean

? Very simple. There are many people who use incorrect ways to clean brushes. They use vinegar.

They use chemical additives. Not everyone is well. Keep it simple. So what is the process? The process is very easy. always start with your painting don't load your brush more than necessary up to the true finger is the way to go just dip your brush so less is more less is better and more like this and then from here we're going to clean. this brush immediately after painting, it's ready, it's time to clean, always with the right side up, work with your fingers on the bristles, all you need is warm water, if you need to fill a little, it's okay, that's it everything you need to do and look at yourself.

It's like working it with your fingers massaging it there, just give it a little massage, push the whip out of the ferrule and an important tip: Kevin never puts the brush upside down because you're forcing water under the ferrule that goes. get clogged with paint and the brush is ruined oh please don't do that, even if you would, I mean, I can see, I mean, open all the bristles, your damaged brush is there, that's not good,uh, it's not good and I. I'll show you why, well, this is what I have here. I'm going to look at you with your cuts.

I have two brushes, a new one and a bad bun, so here's the ferrule, here's the ferrule and that one is clean on the left. clean one up here, this is a groove, this is the epoxy that holds the filaments together, yeah, look at all this, there's a little spacer right in the middle, so what it was doing there was actually taking any residual paint here and Water. I was pushing it down here, you will force water and paint under the ferrule which causes the bristles to be damaged, it's okay, I'll never do that again, I promise, it's okay, so eventually you'll get some paint in the splint. some left right here what do you think about the wire brush and metal comb?

The wire brush is not good at all you are never ever going to damage the ferrule and you are also going to damage the bristols too aggressive too aggressive how do you feel with the comb? Oh, competition only if necessary, but what I like to do if there is still some paint here. use a scouring pad, just nice and soft, and remove any leftover paint, to make it even less aggressive, less aggressive, well, you're tough, well, I guess that's why your brushes look like that, so what's up with drying? What do we do to dry a little? from a cup, you know, take this nice fluffy cloth, a couple of touches and use your hands, your hands just do the work, let's get into this pain, yeah, I can feel little drops coming out of there, so It's clearly working fine, look, the bristles are fluff. put it back in again yeah that's how you do it okay and now after the brush is dry I'm going to show you how we're going to store each high quality brush it comes with a nice case and this one here is the size of the.

I'm sure it comes with some kind of mesh with the size of your painting, so this is a tapered brush, so the covers taper to this two and a half inch, so that when the camera is attached with Velcro and the brush is ready to use again next. work, love it, great tips tomorrow, thanks, thanks, hey roger, what did you find? Well, jen, I was snooping around in the warehouse and I found a string trimmer, a chainsaw, another chainsaw and a hedge trimmer, they're all electric, they're all motor driven. with a battery then you mean no mess like no oil, no spark plugs, no gas, no air filters, no maintenance changes, yes they are pretty powerful little things, gotta give them a lot but the thing is all the Manufacturers make different size batteries, so this one wouldn't fit in this chainsaw, but you might need three or four different pieces of equipment to do the job and each of those pieces of equipment needs a separate type of battery, so you would have many batteries to choose from. hand because the brands are not interchangeable, it's not quite right, but I want to show you a new line of tools that will keep you busy during all four seasons.

Let's check it out. This manufacturer has enough tools to do all the work you can imagine in your garden. and they are all charged with this 40 volt lithium battery, so this battery is interchangeable between all of these tools. That's right, you've seen Tommy change the battery when he goes from a drill to a saw. Same idea, everyone fits into this. equipment now here's a lawn mower in this case it requires two of those batteries so you just pick them up and put them in yeah that's all there is to do now it has a height adjustment so we can make it as high or as high low as we want We want to do what we want to do so you can adjust the grass heights.

Yes, now you have a safety switch here and a handle to turn it on. Let me put on the ear protection. So what do you think is amazing? It has a 20 inch blade so it won't cause much damage to our backyard, but for a homeowner in the city or something it would be a perfect suburban lot, I mean this is very simple to use, yeah, We will exploit it. The battery died for me, what we're really going to do is bring it here. I'm going to pick this up. Take this out. There's a lot of energy left, so we're going to use it on our string trimmer.

Can you push that? Right over there, this is where the interchangeable part comes in. Look at that and I'm going to trim along this wall. Once you're done with the trimmer, you can take it out and put it in a leaf blower. You can use it to clear a path or remove leaves from the grass now in spring, before you start planting. It is always good to till the beds and loosen all the soil. We even have an electric tiller with the same battery that is running. Doing that for us is very helpful now that they make a couple different types of saws.

This is a 12 inch saw. This would be perfect on a suburban lot, a really small environment, but they also make 14 and 16 saws and that will reduce. a decent sized tree right, you have to remember that any saw, even the electric one, you have to lubricate the blade, so you have to put bar oil in these, but don't mix it with gasoline, just bar oil, so just a little maintenance, yes, that's it. Okay, and what I really like is behind you, here, this pole saw. See, there's always a branch that's too high to reach, and instead of climbing a ladder and reaching it, you can just grab the pulsar and cut it off.

Now here's another one. Tool I haven't used yet is a snow blower and I haven't had any snow so when it arrives we'll try it and see how it works. It's also a perfect size for sidewalks, decks and walkways, yes, absolutely. tight spaces it will work great take a look at this wheelbarrow this is a wheelbarrow yes it has a hydraulic lift to help you unload it just pick it up and put it back let's talk about back safety here we go I want to get on seriously go ahead You're going to hit me here, okay, come on, where are we going?

Are you going to keep me there? Are you even pushing? No, I'm not going to push him. There is a big hill here. You know, yeah, oh man, what is it? This is a ride-on lawn mower. get out of the battery powered one, every other thing we looked at had a battery that you could put in and take out, this is an electric car so the battery is fixed inside so it's a charger, yes you plug it in , you charge it, it's just It's like a golf cart, it can run for two hours or mow up to two acres and then it needs to be recharged the next time.

Ask this old home if you're ready to install your own faucet. I'm going to show you some. Cool keys you might want to know about live edge tables like this are very popular right now and we'll show you how to build them. This is maple. When I open it like a book, you can see the grain matches a book and in Future House I'll take you to a community in Texas that promises to bring renewable technology to the masses. Thanks for watching. This entire house has a video for almost every home improvement project, so be sure to check out the others and if you want. what you see, click the subscribe button to make sure you receive our newest videos directly to your feed.