This Old House

Fixes, Framing, And Floods

Host Kevin O'Connor arrives to find most of the demolition complete, and the house entirely opened up. General contractor Tom Silva shows him the progress and then they get to work taking the dip out of the old kitchen floor by working from below, down in the basement. Inside, master carpenter Norm Abram frames up the new mudroom and powder room on the first floor using Tom's preferred method of framing up new walls: cutting all of the stock to length; assembling the walls on the floor; and standing them up one at a time. Plumbing and heating expert Richard Trethewey meets Massachusetts State Director of Flood Control, Bill Gode, to see how the Charles River has been literally formed and shaped by several major engineering projects over the years, including three major dams. Back at the project house, as Tom contends with the termite-damaged sill out front, Kevin welcomes pest control expert Todd McNamara to see his "eco-friendly" plan to address the termites and also the carpenter ants out back.