Newton, MA 15 - Recap

With a week to go, there’s still a lot of work remaining. The pool table returns today and Tom has a lot of trim work. Because the painters are working right behind him, he has set up a workshop on the front porch, sealed behind plastic to keep the cold at bay.

Kevin begins in the kitchen, with Paul Grothouse, the countertop maker. Paul has traveled from Pennsylvania. He brings a farmhouse style table, wide-plank teak top with a red oak base, stained to match the family’s chairs. It’s top bears a spray on, catalyzed polyurethane finish power rubbed for a very smooth feel. The durable finish, Grothouse says, can take what a family can dish out. But his real purpose in coming was to oversee installation of the teak island countertop. Eight feet long, four feet wide and three inches thick, it features the “super double Roman ogee” that requires fourteen passes with various routers, and then a great deal of sanding. It is an end grain surface, made by carefully gluing many blocks together and sanding them smooth. It bears a matte surface finish that is... mineral oil! Kevin asks Paul why they don’t use the same tough polyurethane finish they applied to the kitchen table. The answer is chopping. Chopping breaks through polyurethane and soon ruins it, whereas a light sanding and a reapplication of mineral oil restores like-new condition to the countertop. Paul warns against using vegetable based oils which can go rancid. Tung oils and linseed oils contain drying agents that incorporate poisonous heavy metals, making them entirely unsuited to surfaces that touch food.

Rich Trethewey shows off the bathroom on the second floor. The team cleaned and painted the wainscoting and added a new glass tile floor, new toilet and new vanity with a cast iron top. They reused the original tub, refinishing it for appearance. Another floor up, they’re working on a different tub. Rich climbs to the third floor, where the bathtub is missing from the bathroom, because specialists have moved it into an impromptu paint shop in a nearby bedroom. That tub is blue on the outside – an unwelcome color. It has a deep ding in the finish and the bathing well is in rough shape. Their work starts with a stripping chemical and scrapers that help them remove the blue paint. To prepare the inside, they acid etch the finish to create a rough surface that will hold the paint well. The hydrofluoric acid emits powerful fumes, so the tradesman protects himself with a chemical rated respirator. In twenty minutes, they remove the acid residue with ordinary water (disposing of the paper towels properly). While they wait, they use hand tools and sandpaper to remove blue paint from the crevasses of the claw feet. To fix the ding, they sand off the oxide coating and roughen the edges, then fill it with automotive body compound and sand it smooth. They’re ready for the primer coat. They apply that with a high-velocity low-pressure sprayer – three coats of an epoxy based grey primer. For additional protection they have a filtered fan bringing fresh air in, and another exhausting fumed air. When the primer coats dry, the top coat, also epoxy based, goes on over top of it. Under normal usage this finish will last at least ten years.

The largest bathroom is part of a master suite – including an office, bedroom, the bathroom and a large closet. Kevin speaks to closet designer Brian McSharry, who spoke to the homeowner about her wardrobe as the first step in his design process. That permitted him to allocate sufficient space for hanging clothes, including “stacked” spaces for hanging shorter garments. Other modules include open adjustable shelving, drawers with full extension slides and some glass doors with soft close mechanisms. All of this hangs from a rail lag-screwed to the studs; vertical panels hang from this rail by an adjustable fitting that permits the installers to level the system and ensure that it is plumb.

Down in the kitchen, Kevin talks to Mark Ferrante as he installs the tiled backsplash. He attaches them with mastic, spread with a solid trowel and then a 1/4" notched trowel; mastic gives more workable time. He also back butters the tile; so each mating surface has some mastic on it. Small plastic wedges ensure the slightly irregular, hand-made tiles align properly. The lower field consists of alternating rosette and star tile designs, surrounded by a narrow border tile, while the upper field is lighter tiles that recreate a brick-like running bond pattern. Mark will let these tiles set for a full day before returning to grout them.

Norm discusses the grand staircase, made of white oak and carefully refinished. He’s noted that the finial of one of the newel posts has disappeared at some point in the house’s history. Fortunately, Tom Silva has the answer. He starts with the lathe and a blank that he has made eight-sided by trimming the corners. With a gouge, he rounds the piece off. Using a template, he then marks the various transitions. With calipers set to the diameter of the ball, he first uses a parting tool to make the center of the ball the correct diameter. Resetting his caliper for the base, he carves the base of the ball. Then, freeland, he uses a spindle gouge to recreate the ball shape. With a parting tool, he severs the ball finial from the stock still spinning.

At the newel post, Norm and Tom use a jig to drill a precise hole centered on the post. With a forstner bit, Norm drills a hole of the correct side, and then with a little sanding, glue, and paint, it will be impossible to tell the difference between the replacement piece and the originals on other posts.

Downstairs, Kevin and Tom look at the laundry room. Tom explains they studded up to the stone walls, filled the bays with insulation and covered the studs with paperless wallboard. A paperless wallboard is appropriate for use in situations where mold or moisture might become problems; it resists these hazards. There are cabinets for tools, space for the washing machine, and a tough epoxy based floor covering like that used in the garage. For a nearby workout area, they’ve laid down a soft floor made of tiles formed from completely recycled rubber. These lock together like jigsaw puzzle pieces and may be purchased at the home center.

On the third floor, in the “man cave,” Norm supervises the return of the pool table. The first step is to reinstall the slates. Steve Kelly, the pool table expert, has carefully shimmed and positions the slates, and attaches them to the wooden frame with screws. He fills the seams between the slates with hot wax, scraping off any excess with a sharp utility knife. With the slates in place, it is time to hang the pockets. Those attach to the wooden rails with small tacks. He then rolls out the cloth, cuts this to size and staples it, carefully pulling it tight. With a razor blade, he removes the excess. All that remains is reattaching the side rails, already completed at the shop. Norm racks ‘em up, and Steve breaks as the two men begin their promised game.

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