Providing traditional and modern woodworking tools and supplies to generations of craftsmen. Woodcraft helping you make wood work. Gorilla glue for the toughest jobs on planet earth. Phillips behind me, you can see im a creek without a paddle. Look at these three walls right here. Well, the space varies dramatically. And for this space to work, i need three mirrors to match the cabinets below that are walnut and have a classic, old look to it. Come with me. Ill show you how to cut this egganddart molding and create your own custom frame, whatever the size. Lets head to the woodshop. Any good frame on a mirror or a picture will have a mitered angle, and the way to cut it is with a miter saw. But first, before you start cutting, make sure that the fence is lined up all the way across. Another thing is the table has to be flat. If its not flat across, it will raise the angle when you cut and that will effectively change the mitered angle. Now, ill set this straightedge out of the way. This is all tuned up. The first thing that were going to do to cut the Crown Molding. And thats what this trim is. Its Crown Molding thats at a standard angle. Its 52 degrees on the top edge. This is where the egganddart pattern is classic pattern. And then on the back edge, its 38 degrees. Now, a miter saw a good one will come with two key things. Right back here you can see a Little Diamond on there. Well, that diamond, when you tilt this down, thats the bevel angle that i want to lock this saw at to make a simple, compound cut. The other angle and that angle right there is 33. 86 degrees, so dont try to find it. Just set it at the diamond. And then over here, when i swing this over, it clic in. Listen. [ click ] theres a positive stop right there, and i lock it right in. And thats 31. 62 degrees. For typical Crown Molding. Now, why are we using crown . Well, youre going to see when we cut this out. Look at how this corner comes together. Its very beautiful, very elegant. And that looks complex because thats a compound angle, and that springs the frame away from the wall. Well, thats what i want. Well, look at this. Well take the egganddart Crown Molding, and we will slide it right on down here, with everything locked exactly the way i just explained, and well make a miter cut. A couple safety tips make sure you wear your safety glasses, safety protection on the hearing. Always read, understand, and follow the instructions that come with the tools and products you use in your woodshop. Work safely and stay alert. Now, when i make this cut, see how my hand is locked down to the table and i press that piece against the fence . Now watch the cut. This is very important how i do this. When i bring that blade down, i want it to split one of those eggs, just like that. And notice how i turned the saw off, let it come to a complete stop before i back out of the cut. That saves the cut, makes it perfect, but its also for safety so it doesnt grab the blade and throw the scrap in a dangerous place. Now, you think, boy, i have to cut that other angle, right . And its complicated. No, not really. What you do now theres one part of that mitered angle thats beveled. Now, im going to slide this all the way down here against my stop thats at 23 9 16. Well, that doesnt do anything for me. I just have two parallel edges. I need it to go this way. You just flip it over just like that. You dont change the saw setting. You flip it over and hold it securely down to the fence. Notice how my fingers are locked to the fence and down to the table, and i make the cut. Again, i dont move the workpiece or the blade up until everything is stopped. Now, theres the short piece that i need. Now, i need several of those, so ill go ahead and make those right now. But remember, i first have to make this cut by splitting one of the eggs so when the corners mate together it is a match. Let it come to a stop. Dont reach in there until that comes to a stop. And i just flip it over, and i make a total of six workpieces this way. Hold that flat, repeat the process. For the long workpiece, the inside length is 29 1 2 inches and i just have a line marked on the table. Clamp that in place. Thats my stop. And what ill do is take this long workpiece and cut those six identical long pieces through the egg, just as before. I havent changed a thing, but this can be deceptive. As you look at this workpiece, it kind of looks like i have it up at an angle. I dont. I have the wide flat of that molding flat to the table when i cut it. Youll see some people take this and spring it up at an angle and cut it. I dont like to do that. Thats dangerous, in my mind. The other thing down here you can see i have my six short workpieces. I always want to set those safely out of the way. Lock that up behind the table so nothing can be in the way as i make the cuts. So i split that egg, holding it flat to the table, hand brace down. And it has builtin dust collection, which is really good. So thats one part of the cut. I flip it over, swing it up to the stop. And now ill cut the six long workpieces just by holding the workpiece flat to the table. I let the bevel and thmiter do the work. Repeat this process until you have six long workpieces, as well. Okay, set that safely behind the fence here. This is so easy when you have a good setup like this. Now that i have all the long and short workpieces for that mitered corner cut, ive done test samples to get the color i nt. Remember, im matching that walnut base, and this color looks really good. Its a spray walnut stain with both pigments and dyes. And once i get this all done outside and why i like a spray is it really gets into that carved detail very nicely. The winds behind me. And i am wearing safety glasses with side shields, because that microspray could come up and coat my eyes, asell. I do like to work outside when i can because of ventilation. The trick is you havto have at least 65 degrees and a relative humidity between 40 and 60 . Otherwise, youre better off doing it inside. So ill get this all sprayed out, and then its inside to learn how to glue the corners. No glue or excuse me no stain in this area, if at all avoidable, please. That could affect the glue up. Once the stain has dried, its one corner at a time. I use a sanding block get any of that excess stain off, like that. It doesnt have to be perfect, but it does have to be dustfree when we do the next step, and that is we apply an excellent wood glue that, when it dries, it dries clear. You dont want a yellow glue here that dries yellow and leaves behind a nasty bead. Now, its very important, since this is end grain that i putting that on. That means the fibers of the wood thats running this way. And theyre like tiny straws and it will really soak the glue in and starve the joint if you dont use an acid brush to brush that wood glue, or massage it, right into the pores of the wood. Now, because i am going to get a little bit of squeeze out here ill wipe it off with a rag. But since ive already stained it, the stain is in the wood and it will not make a blotchy corner. Of course, ill put a good finish on this later. See my fancy jig here . Its just a squarecut board clamped down with a holdfast. And then back here, heres another piece thats. Held in place. And when i bring this corner up on tt board, just li that, see how the corner mates and is nice and tight . And the other thing i like to do is use a rubber mallet and my body to hold this corner in place right there. Get everything all lined up. Its not a matter of force to clamp that corner, cause im letting that angle do its work. If its cut correctly, all i do right now is bring it flush right in here. And then ill use a brad nailer to tack the corner together just like that. This an 18gauge brad nailer. And once that draws that corner tight, then i dont have any marring. Because its so small, i just fill that. And thats how i do all four corners. Ill rotate this around, get another one. And its just that simple. Sand it clean. You want to keep that sanding block flat, just like that. Size the joint. Add the glue. And then just repeat this process for all four corners. [ brad nailer firing ] if you look very closely, all the corners e nice and tight. I have a little bit of squeeze out there, and since its going to dry clear and i have it already stained, i just use an acid brush to brush that excess glue off while its still damp and thats all there is to it. All four corners need to dry and once that happens, in two hours, then ill flip it over and ill show you how to trim out the back and put the mirror in. Once the glue has dried, now i can do the trim on the back. Now, look at this. This is a digital angle gauge. This trim piece, a quarter of an inch away from the edge and mitered on the end, wraps the entire case. Now, what angle did i need to bevel that at in order to get a perfectly flat back . It says here 16 degrees. These are very handy tools to use when youre trimming things like this out. So now all the way around. Im going to put in a total of four workpieces. And i cleaned up the back edge with a sanding block 100 grit before i glue these strips in. And a quarter of an inch away from the edge, and right on that miter seam right there, im going to use a pin nailer. Now, look very closely at this pin nailer. It has a safety ght here. Thats pulled back, a quarter of an inch in. And when i fire this, look at that. Thats tiny. You can barely see it. Ill bring that up a quarter inch all the way around and ill nail this in. And this will hold the frame for the mirror, and the stock mirror is 24x30. And once i get this in all the way around, put the mirror down. Once the mirrors in, i put the plywood back panel in. It matches it. And then thats just trimmed out with a oneinch strip of walnut thats countersunk and screwed in place. And then a french cleat goes on the top so that i can hang that on the bathroom wall. Thats all there is to it. Okay, everythings tightened up, and that french cleat will hook on the wall, on an identical cleat. And i think youll agree thats a goodlooking mirror. Very easy to do when you know the compoundcutting trick. And go to the website for all the angles and charts. Now lets go do the install. If you look at the cleat on the back of the mirror, you can see the mate on the wall. Its just a mirror image, and they hook together in a way that makes the install go perfectly. Egganddart custom trim. Mirrors or Looking Glasses you cant beat it in the bathroom. I bet suzy will like it. Now lets go take a look at another Looking Glass that well make back at the woodshop. Prior to about 1860, mrors were called Looking Glasses, because thats what you do with them you look at things. Well, look at this beautiful chippendale mirror. It tells a story a very interesting story. When you go to buy antiques, i want you to be very eptical. I want you to start looking for what is called a marriage. Its where something that looks a ttle bit out of place, like this bottom treatment to the frame, because the color is off ever so slightly, or the top pediment being just a little bit too good, because if this mirror was dated back to the 1760s of chippendale style, which this is, there should have been more damage to that. Nothing can survive with all that scrolled tail without damage. So look at antiques with a critical eye. Look for the color or the tina. If its off a bit, chances are you dont have an authentic antique right there. So this chippendale frame is something that i conjured up. I married that and that together with an old frame to create an antique. Suzy loves it. But you dont deceive anyone. And out of this, im going to head to the woodshop to show you all the tricks to make a beautiful chippendaleera mirror together out of mahogany. Lets head there now. A great friend of mine brian boggs, has a saying if you cant outsmart a piece of wood, better give it up. Well, here are all the tricks you need in order to create an antique masterpiece or a recreation of one, like this chippendale mirror. Whenever you have this very inicate scrollwork, you could use a coping saw or a fretsaw. But its a whole lot easier to cut out these details by using a scrolling blade on the band saw. Lets head over there right now and get started. Before i use a band saw to scroll out the parts, a couple tips make your pattern, reduce it in size to fit the wood that you want, to match the chippendale frame, in this case. And then this paper pattern see how it sticks right on there . Well, i like to use temporarybond spray adhesive. I put it on the paern. Let it dry f a minute. Th put that on. That way, after i make the cuts, itll peel right off. Also, you can see this is thicker than what i need. Im acally cutting out two fleurdelis and using carpetcentered, pressuresensitive tape to hold that together. It always has to be clamped together to hold it firm and tight. Now, down here, you can see, for a smaller fleurdelis, ive done the same thing. And then down here, this is the base, with a beautiful scroll treatment ght there. That date backs to the 1760s for chippendalestyle furniture. And then heres the top, or the pediment. Thats the pattern, and this is on beautiful, beautiful mahogany. Its very dense wo. The denser the wood, the better here, cause it will hold the detail. Now, this is a scrolling blade and it will get into those tight spots. Heres the trick. These are cool blocks, above and below the table phenolic resin blocks that gently hold the blade. And ill lower this so its the guide blocks will control the blade, but it also protects my fingers. This is the guard. And now ill turn on the dust collector and make some cuts. Whatever you do, wear safety glasses for this, and these are safety glasses. So the dust collector comes up and the first thing ill do is cut off the sharp areas here. Now, let me get started. Notice how my hands are always to the table. Now, as i go in, i just want to stay on the outside edge of that pattern line. And on a tight spot like this, i dont go into that cavity. I swing it out and around, staying on the outside edge. And once i get the basic shape roughed in, ill go back in and do relief cuts into those sharp areas. That way, i never put the blade into a bind. Remember what yogi berra said . When you come to a fork in the road, what do you do . Well, you take it the same thing on a band saw. When you come to a curve, take it. With that 1 8inch, 14t. P. I blade, youan do remarkable cuts on a band saw. Ill whittle this out, then work on the stake and also the castle. Same way. All techniques apply. Well, there you have it. Watch that blade as it comes to a stop. And now to separate the two patterns, i just use a chisel on edge and gently prime apart. Be careful of the delicate detail there. Now, the other thing let me t rid of that scrap off then im going to do is cut out the base pattern right there and the top paern, using all the same techniques. With the blade off, you need to lower the guideblock assembly so its as close to the two top of the workpieces as possible without having the two touch. So ill just scroll this away. There is a way to do this entire piece on this machine. Turn on the dust collector, and away we go. All right now, its a good idea to wear a dust mask when youre in there tight, doing all those detailed cuts, cause mahogany can be nasty to breathe. So just work smart. Use a good dust collector. See that hole in the center . Now, heres a way to cut that. I like to use a drill press with a hole saw to drill the hole in the center that will eventually frame out that fleurdelis accent that also needs to be carved. Now, speaking of carving, i take all the workpieces over to the router table, and im using a 3 8inch piloted ballbearing bit in the table and a guide pin to profile the best face out. So that way, it saves a ton of time in carving. Just make sure i use a push block to securely and safely make all those cuts. And once thats done, its back to the workbench for some hand carving. Well, power tools can only do so much, and a great set of carving chisels really will be the thing that brings the fleurdelis and the scroll accent to life. You just need to learn how to work with the grain and use sharp tools, and there you want to do downhill, just like that. And ill bring that up and the same with the scroll pediment. But lets look over here. Take a look at this the frame material. You can make your own framing. You can cove it out with a special bit, cut the channel and thats all done at the router table. Take a look. Using the router table with the router fence and three bits, i can profile the molding. The o. G. Cutter is used again to profile the inside edge all the way around the molding for the picture frame. Now, here you can see a straight cutter, and i make two passes with the straight cutter on the inside edge, as well. I want a groove all the way around the frame to accept the glass and the plywood. And then this 3 4inchacross bullnose, or roundnose, bit can be used in multiple passes to create the cove. In fact, if you move the fence you can make it as wide as you want. And thats the easy way to cut all the molding at the router table for either picture frames or, in this case, a mirror. Now, you take that wide board that we routed at the router table, and you take a look at it. You notice all the details are on the edges, right . And then the groove is left and right, as i flip this over. And so you always keep the board wide, profile it, and then you take it to the table saw after its profiled for safe cuts that way. You cut the strips in half. Thats 2 1 2 inches for the strips all the way around. And then you can use this little curved scraper to smooth out the ridges from that bullnose bit. And a little bit of sanding, and we have the mahogany frame. Now, look at this. You see this . This is a pocketscrew corner that you just draw nice and tight. And to make those pocket screws, you do it in the short workpieces. Lets see. You can see right here. I already have two that come all the way through. And lets do the other so you understand that technique right here. I bring it right up, clamp it in place, and now i use the drill and the stop a i drill the pocket screws. Once those are done, you know everything you need to know to make the frame. To sand all the parts down, i like to use a drill press with a flapwheel sander on it 80 grit to just mellow out the edges and feather in the carving. And then a little bit of random orbital sanding and final hand sanding with 100, 150, and 220. Then its time for the shellacking. Once i have all the parts sanded, i put two cleats on the back of the bottom and the pediment treatment, and thats just screwed onto the back of the frame. Its easier to do the shellac. This is a garnet sheac. Youve seen me use this many times before. Its a wonderful, rich color and it really makes this look old, and its a wonderful, safe finish to use. So ill brush this out allnatural bristle. No drips, no runs, no errors. You cant beat a good shellac, as long asts fresh. So ill just get it all shellacked and screw it together, and well take a finished look at the project. Three coats of shellac dry, and i can fit that into the notches that i made on the top pediment. And if you look closely at this Looking Glass, well, i think youll agree its one for the ages. It looks old and rich. And that mahogany came from an old piece of furniture that was broken down. So you can recycle wood if youre careful about how you salvage that wood from old pieces. Well, i really had fun with you today. Next week on the american woodshop, more classic furniture ideas. I hope you join us then. God bless you. Announcer the american woodshop, with Scott Phillips is brought to you by. Delta the heart of woodworking for over 85 years. Portercable the soul of woodworking for over 100 years. Woodcraft since 1928 providing traditional and modern woodworking tools and supplies to generations of craftsmen. Woodcraft helping you make wood work. Gorilla glue for the toughest jobs on planet earth. Kevin welcome back to this old house here in cambridge, massachusetts. Today well warm up our house with some natural wood on the ceilings and on the floors. Kevin so what are we putting down . Norm well, this is solid maple, tongue and groove, prefinished with a very durable finish. Thats what they use in bowling alleys. Tom it looks pretty bad right here. Kevin are you kidding me . Norm is this place really worth saving . Richard we can do better than this. Roger time to get to work. Tom nice and easy nice and easy, everybody together. Kevin oh, yeah. Roger the right plant in the right place. Good. Richard its stateoftheart. Norm perfectly square. Roger all in all, a good days work. Norm right here on this old house. Do it yourself doesnt have to mean do it alone. At the home depots howto community you can watch videos read tips, and get advice from fellow doers. Were proud to support this old house and doers everywhere. [ wind howling bird squawks ] [ thunder crashes, car alarm blares ] when the unexpected happens, state farm is there to help you get your old house to a better state. Proud sponsor of this old house. [ grunting ] man what we need is some elbow grease. [ laughs ] yeah, you can are you kidding me . Gmc lending this old house a helping hand since 2002. Funded in part by Lumber Liquidators retailer of hardwood flooring. Their wide selection includes bellawood prefinished, bamboo, laminate and vinyl plank flooring. Lumber liquidators is proud to sponsor this old house. Norm well, the exterior work on our cambridge project house is nearly complete and weve done a lot of work over the last few months. A brandnew roof on the entire house. Copper gutters with beautiful copper downspouts. And we spent a fair amount of time working on the Brick Foundation repointing it and stabilizing it. Also, all brandnew windows. Now, the house needed a paint job so it took a couple weeks to prep it and now you see the final colors. An offwhite trim, black window sash, and a yellow body. Now, the combination of those colors would be quite common in sweden so it goes right along with our homeowners scandinavian theme and its just a hint of whats going on inside, which is what kevin and tom are working on. The design aesthetic for this house is going to be a lot of white on white. Were going to have white walls with white ceilings. In the kitchen, were going to have white cabinets, and theres even going to be white tile backsplash. So the thinking is, well lets warm it up in a couple key areas with some wood. So the island countertop is going to be wood, a hood over the stove is going to be trimmed out in wood, and were thinking why not put some wood on the ceiling so its not all just plaster and to me, tommy it looks like you picked a bay window for the first spot to get that treatment. Right, the bay windows on the first floor are going to have this right here. This is actually Southern Yellow Pine with a sixinch face and its tongue and groove. All right . Now the trick to this is this is an old house. The bay is actually pretty crooked, all right . But the architect wants the boards on the ceiling to go in this direction and they want it to be tight to the ceiling and to the wall without any space because theres not going to be any molding. Looking for that nice, sleek look so what am i thinking, some scribing of that board maybe . Well, we could scribe it but i have to get both ends tight, and, like i said its out of square its out of everythings off. So what im going to do is im actually going to cut a notch right across the top on each side and then we can take the board and slide it into that groove. The painter will then come back, touchup the wall, because he has to do some touchups anyway. So what im going to use is this piece of 1 x 3 material. Its 3 4 of an inch thick, the same thickness as our ceiling. Im going to just tack it up here against the strapping. What well do is well use this as our guide to run our saw. Okay. So now im just going to follow along this with my oscillating saw. For our ceiling, we need a total of six boards that have to be all one piece, no joints, and we have to look for any imperfections to make sure we dont have any of those up there. Try to avoid the knots if we can. Lets see what weve got here. 85 7 8. You got it. Were going to clear that knot, so. All right, mark that. See if we can get a length on that one. The center of my light is right there so i want to be from this edge 43 1 4. Kevin got it. Okay, so now its center of the light right here, 2 3 16 we will be. 13 inches out from the edge. All right, now this is our first board that will go against the outside wall over the window. Well match up our tongue and groove joints make it tight. Make them even. Okay. Now i want to take those measurements that i took for the light thats in the middle of the ceiling there and i want to transfer those measurements from here out. That was 13 inches . Yep. And 43 1 4. So, easier to cut the hole for the light down here than up on the ceiling right . Absolutely. 43 1 4. Now ill set my compass in the center mark draw a circle. And well cut that out with our jigsaw. All right, lets see how we did. Place this end in our groove. Now i slide it over just about halfway. Now its in on both sides. Push it in. There it goes. Look at that, tommy. Perfect fit. Once in a while, you get lucky. Tom i rip down the board wider than we need for our last piece. Follow the wall with our scribes. I set my table saw on an angle and as i cut it, im going to weave the line on. Now well let the painters touch up the wall and put the finish on the ceiling. The entire third floor is dedicated to a master suite with a bedroom, a closet and a master bath that is really starting to shape up. We have got the floor tile down, this really vibrant blue and on the wall, weve got this sort of offwhite subway tile, sort of a wainscot here, but all the way up the walls in the shower, and its still going up, thanks to mark ferrante. Rk, i love this tile. How are you . Great. So what are we working with . Were working with an 8 x 24 glazed ceramic. See the lines in it . I do, very subtle. Done with an inkjet printer. Seriously . Glaze and all. So the glaze replaces the ink . Yeah. I like that, very cool. So weve got it going up on the vanity wall all the way up . All the way up to the ceiling, except right here. Whats going right there . Well, were going to put this excuse me. Oh, there we go. An enamel mosaic. So, same tile thats down on the floor going up there. But, if you notice look how thin it is compared to the field tile. And how do you handle that . So i have to pad out these walls here. Okay, we have some more backer board to go up . Yes, we do. Im going to glue it with some thinset. So weve got a 1 2inch notch there, 1 4inch . Its. Yeah, its a 1 2inch notch. 1 2inch notch. Here we go, so just right on the edge. Yep. I also marked the board so i can put some screws in it. Now were skimming the board with thinset. Look at that, kevin. Oh, yeah. Flush, perfectly flush. Thats great. Okay, heres number two. All right, you thinset ill lay the tiling. Okay. Thats it for the feature strip. And then whats next . Now were going to set the tile up top. So you can put the thinset right onto the plaster no need for a backer board . Right, not a wet area. Heres another one for an angle cut. Yep, were just going to take it from the bottom first, mark it. And we take the top measurement, its 12 5 8. Connect the dots and well cut it with a wet saw. Thats a nice fit, huh . Real nice fit. Okay, there you go, mark. Final piece. Nice. And another perfect fit. That is a greatlooking wall. Yes, it is. All right, and when do we grout . 24 hours from now. Nice. All right, well, all the finishes are coming together, mark. Thank you. Youre welcome. Well, our homeowners want to get a lot of use out of this deck up here on the third floor and, well, you cant blame them because, i mean, its essentially an extension of the master bedroom so weve gone to Great Lengths to make this nice space. We actually tore off the old deck and then we lowered this one down so that there was just a small step from the master bedroom new door, new windows, and now its sort of just sunk in here like a little crows nest. Were got these two walls up so all we have to do is install the railing but first, weve got to get the decking down and, tommy, we are using a cellular pvc on the decking. Weve actually used pvc before. We use it a lot outside on trim work. Fantastic product. Right, but this is the first time weve actually put it down as a deck board. Oftentimes, were either using hardwood or composite where theres some wood flour in it, so pvc this is a first for us. Its the first. Cellular pvc is great because it works like wood reacts like wood in some ways, but it doesnt rot like wood. Love the sounds of that. All right, so were just screwing this down, tommy . Yep, screw it down right above the tongue. Using a stainless steel screw here . Stainless steel trim screws. So pretty much fastening the same way as we would if it were wood. Well, if it was wood and we were using screws wed have to predrill it first or wed have to use nails. And it goes right in there no splitting. Were actually going to glue the last two pieces in, so let me show you. Heres a piece right here thats going to go in. Thats our next piece. Thatll be glued down . Were going to glue that one down. Our last piece will have to be cut on an angle and well tilt it into position, and thatll be glued down. Okay. Now once we get the first piece in we have to work fast get the second one get that in right away. Okay, theres one. All right, now weve got to tilt that second one in. A little tricky. Tongues in. Okay. Nice thing is just if we were tapping this on a piece of wood wed probably dent the wood. All right, now before we even put the roof sheathing on, we had to put this 4 x 4 in because we needed to attach it to the roof structure below. It has to be real strong. We also had to make sure that we flashed it because we dont want any water to enter the building. But its not the finished look. We want to actually dress that up, and we want the railing system to be as maintenancefree as the deck, so were back to pvc. Right, this is a pvc railing system that requires no maintenance and that will slide right over that 4 x 4. All right, okay. Now, what i did, we need a post on each side, but i didnt want a full post, so i decided to cut a post in half using one side against the house, putting it on a 2 x 4, making that really strong. Down here, you could see that i have a pressuretreated 2 x 4 screwed to the wall, and now were ready to install our railing system. Premade railing, what is this some sort of a kit . Well, it is a kit. All the holes are predrilled for the spacing of your balusters. All you need to do is cut the length and center the railing into that. Nice. Now weve got to drop it down onto our brackets. Nice. Its in. Okay, good. All right, so we need a second railing section and then the kit obviously comes with a top cap . Right, it comes with a top railing, but were not going to use that because the homeowner wants something different, so im going to customize a cap that goes right over the railing and right over the wall. Oh, so its one uniform look i get it, all right. Well, you know what, already looks good. Down here on the first floor the plasterers have covered up all of the blue board with their final coat of plaster, and now that its dried, norm, you are off to the races putting down our new wood floor. You guys dont waste any time. Well, kevin, were on a tight schedule. Weve got to keep this job moving. So what are we putting down . Well, this is solid maple, tongue and groove, prefinished with a very durable finish. And look how light color that wood is. I dont think weve ever put a floor down thats this light although we did just put that Southern Yellow Pine accent up on the ceiling, so i guess this is a good compliment. Yeah, and its also a good choice of wood, because maple is very hard. Itll be durable. Thats what they use in bowling alleys. So, solid wood floor were going to staple or nail it down, pretty standard practice. The one thing that catches my eye, though is that you guys have started right in the middle here which is not that standard. Well, kevin, this is an old house and its probably a little bit out of square, so if we were to start at this outside wall and start coming across, its okay in this room but as it goes into that room, it could skew off, and tom felt if youre sitting at the island here and you look down that wall and you see a wedge, its not going to look very good. Yeah. So were starting on the wall, bringing a Straight Line right through this room. If its off a little on the outside wall, the cabinets are going to cover it up. Good, okay. So weve got the rosin paper down for a release, and weve got radiant heat down below as well. Right, thats what these lines are for. We do not want to put a staple through the tubing. And i guess well start laying this out . Yeah, lay some pieces out and make sure the joints are staggered. And the idea is to drive these in using the mallet that comes with our nailer getting the joints together at the end and as tight as possible before we nail it. Okay, we nail these about every 12 to 16 inches, and im using an 1 1 2 inch staple. Now, we started installing the floor along this wall, so when we nailed it it just went up against the baseboard, it didnt move. But out here theres nothing to stop the floor from moving when you nail it so we installed this temporary cleat and now its time to take that off. Now, with the temporary cleats removed we can start to lay the floor, and we want to go with the tongue forward so we can nail through that tongue. However, we have groove against groove, so what i did is i ripped up some splines made out of some scrap maple flooring and theyll just fit in the groove, and what they do is they actually create another tongue and well do that down the line. Ive got one here with some glue on it. Ill just stick that in. Norm a few staples in the spline, and then well continue laying the floor just as we did before. All right, well, im running the floor a little bit over this vent. Ill trim it out when we finish laying the entire floor. But, you know, weve got enough of this down now that were starting to get a sense of how it feels in this house. Its prefinished, its nice and bright so its going to reflect a lot of light. Kevin and this is the final look so we dont get a Second Chance to go over this floor. No sanders coming on after this or polyurethane so weve got to protect it cause its a busy job site, and tommy actually picked up a big roll of this cardboard and as soon as the floors down well put this over it and make sure it doesnt get scratched up. All right. course, the first thing is we got to finish the floor. Lets get going. Kevin tommy i like to see it. You have been busy up here, huh . Yes, i have. Got the second length of railing put together. Not too bad, huh . No, these go together real easy. And this is just going to sit on this tab down here . Yep. You in . Yep, let me just cinch it up. Okay, there you go. Okay, im all set on this end, thanks. All right, thats nice and tight. Our balusters are in place. Now, this is the cap. We made it out of cellular pvc and its nice and wide to cover our shingles on each side. Now, for the railing cap on the other side, weve made this piece. Now, it looks nice and thick but its actually two pieces glued together. On this one, we made a dado in the middle to accept our balusters and a place for our posts, so when we drop this on, it will hold everything into position. Beautiful, and we can screw right up from the bottom of the balusters into this, and how do we fasten the corners, tommy . In the corner here i have to cut a couple of grooves for a domino to put into there and then well glue it into place. All right, so lets take this out of the way so i can get the machine in there. Now, i have two reference points that ive marked on the top cap here that will match the end of the railing cap thats going here. All i do is line em up and cut it. Okay, lets bring that one in. Let me glue up the end first. The epoxy that were using is actually a twopart epoxy and this is a fastset so it takes about five minutes for it to set up. I slide in the domino into the wet glue. Now weve got to pry it into place here. Ill get mine started. Yep. All right, ive got it by. You down all the way . Yep. All right, im in. Push the middle in over the post. There you go. All right, now ill just screw that down to the post. These screws are designed for the cellular pvc. It comes with a tip. When it drives it into the cellular pvc it makes a hole that we fill with a pvc button. After we get all these edges sanded up, its going to look like one twoinch piece of wood. Which is pretty good considering its really two pieces of oneinch stock. Right. All right, so i heard something about the homeowner not liking the yellow thats on the house for the shingles here, about maybe too much sunlight being reflected back in the bedroom . Right, but they really like this gray primer thats on the shingles so i thought what we would do is we would actually use this weathering stain. Its gray, and over time itll age out to a nice patina. Is that what they mean by weathering stain . Yeah. So let me show you what its going to look like. Oh, all right, so, not that different from the actual primer color. Exactly. All right, well, whatever makes the homeowner happy, right . Thats right. You know, theres going to be a lot of nice places in this house, but my guess is is that this roof deck here is probably going to be their favorite. I think youre right. Well, until next time, im kevin oconnor. And im tom silva. For this old house. Kevin coming up next time on this old house. And, tommy youve got a little bit of a modern riff on the wainscot. What are we working on . Well, we started right here when we made the doors out of mdf. We then apply these thin strips of 1 4inch mdf so that we end up right on the seam of the door. Oh, very clever, so well never see it, actually, once this is closed and all painted up. Exactly, so all were going to do is tack this in place. Norm thats next time on this old house. One pair of overalls a few cans of paint. Add a dash of doing and mix together. Thats a recipe for a kitchen you cant wait to cook in. The home depot is proud to support this old house and doers everywhere. [ wind howling bird squawks ] [ thunder crashes, car alarm blares ] when the unexpected happens, state farm is there to help you get your old house to a better state. Proud sponsor of this old house. [ grunting ] man what we need is some elbow grease. [ laughs ] yeah, you can are you kidding me . Gmc lending this old house a helping hand since 2002. Funded in part by Lumber Liquidators retailer of hardwood flooring. Their wide selection includes bellawood prefinished, bamboo, laminate and vinyl plank flooring. Lumber liquidators is proud to sponsor this old house. Kevin for more this old house, go to video. Pbs. Org, where you can watch entire episodes any time. And like us on facebook to see behindthescenes photos. This old house magazine the companion to the television series, provides advice from our experts that youve come to know. You can use your credit card to order ten monthly issues for 10. Just call. I am a chef; i cook for a living. And i think of pbs as a window to the world. That kind of place where you feel you are part of the story. I want to be part of every possible world thats out there. Thats when things become really amazing. And when you are able to see stories that make you wonder make you think thats what really makes pbs so meaningful. And thats the kind of tv we need to be supporting today. 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