Old Houses Create Weird Problems | 1857 Rowhome Renovation Week 92

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:01]This 169 year old staircase has changed a whole lot through its lifetime and it's changed a whole lot since I bought this house almost [music] 2 years ago.

[00:00:13]There's a lot of peculiar details with this old stair like the pie-shaped [music] treads or the old newel post mixed with this modern cable railing and this weird detail where the staircase is offset from the brick wall by about 4 to 6 [music] inches.

[00:00:29]To understand this peculiar detail, you first have to understand the construction of Philadelphia row homes.

[00:00:34]Separating each house is a brick [music] party wall. This stops fire from spreading between homes and typically there's just plaster on those walls. The floor structure is then pocketed into these brick party walls so the brick [music] is the structure. I found something very strange when I started demo. That's that this original plaster wall with the wallpaper had been covered up with studs and drywall. It's interesting to uncover a little bit more of the story here.

[00:00:59]>> [music] >> This is where the wood section of the house starts >> [snorts] >> and this was [music] the old wall.

[00:01:06]And this is where the stair used to [music] turn and it just, you know, was like a winder.

[00:01:12]Came down this way [music] and out that way. That's further confirmed by this.

[00:01:17]All these uh wood members are mortise and tenon so the wood [music] actually notches in together and you can see where the joists used to come across and hit the wood [music] here. And of course the head height would be too low to have a stair doing this. So [snorts] that's the story. [music] I was very surprised to see this wood framing when I started taking off the plaster. [music] It means that the joists in this section of the house aren't pocketed into the brick. They actually have their own kind of free-standing structure in this wood.

[00:01:47]Seeing this old timber is actually part of what dates it back to 1857.

[00:01:52]Timber construction like this was eventually banned because of the fire hazard. Most of the row homes built in the 1900s are all brick.

[00:02:02]It's really [music] bittersweet.

[00:02:04]It's sad to see it go.

[00:02:06]It's [music] the last remaining little bit of original framing of the middle of the house. Of course, we still have some cool exposed joists. [music] Take a look at that joinery.

[00:02:25]There we go.

[00:02:26]There we go.

[00:02:30]This section of wood framing supported the ceiling and a roof that was demolished [music] when we added a third floor addition. So, this wood was no longer needed, so I removed it to gain back a few inches of space and also to celebrate the brick wall.

[00:02:48]I haven't done a whole lot of finish carpentry, so I was pretty glad that I was able to salvage this original skirt trim.

[00:02:55]>> [music] >> I sanded it down, primed it, and now I can paint it getting it ready to reinstall.

[00:03:07]>> [music] [music] >> Wow, check it out. Looks better already.

[00:03:19]Uh I still have a lot of work to do.

[00:03:22]I need to like shim, I need to secure, I need to figure out the top piece, which I think is going to be a piece of old pine.

[00:03:29]Uh also, I went with white. The rest of this stuff is red, but I don't know. I just thought it might be too much red.

[00:03:38]So, we'll see how we like the white.

[00:03:40]Before I start covering this area up, my first step is to tuck this rock wool insulation into all the gaps and cracks just to create a fire break between the basement and the first floor.

[00:04:01]>> [music] >> This trim was divided into three different sections and I decided to use some pocket screws to unify these back into one piece.

[00:04:13]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> This is going to be very fragile. It's not super well connected together >> [music] >> and I got to do a quick test fit here.

[00:04:49]Something's definitely off here.

[00:04:52]You can see these gaps.

[00:04:54]No good.

[00:04:55]It was fine before I connected them, so it's just something about the angles.

[00:04:59]It's weird cuz here it looks like it wants to go back like an inch, half [music] inch, but down at the bottom it's tight on that riser. So maybe that piece just needs to shift back. But the reason I had to test fit it is because I'm going to put in blocks like so on an angle and that'll create [music] kind of like a screwing surface and something to support a board that'll just run on top of all this.

[00:05:24]And I needed to do this in place cuz I want to avoid you know, this block interfering with the [music] studs. You can see here that this trim is sitting flush or plumb to this surface here. That means I think we got to cut this by about that amount.

[00:05:43]And we got to cut this, kind of scribe it to this tread. Just as I was marking this up, I realized a problem with my plan here.

[00:05:52]I was going to cut here, but once that drops down, then this plane doesn't align with this plane.

[00:06:02]So, then [music] this has to shift back, and then I'm going to have a big gap here.

[00:06:08]Unless [music] I don't mind just putting a piece of trim on the underside of the board that's going [music] here, which that is a good option.

[00:06:29]Yeah.

[00:06:31]That's much better.

[00:06:32]It's not perfect, but I think this lines up well enough, and I'm just going to finish screw it together through the top here. It's kind of crazy how cozy this house has become, uh when at one point it was just a dangerous place to be, uh like the time I got hit in the head with a brick, uh but luckily I was wearing a hard hat, or being exposed to a disgusting amount of dust. It's been 4 or 5 hours of sanding, and after going through this whole renovation process, it's more important than ever to visit a primary care physician just to get a checkup and see how I'm doing. Now, that process has been made a whole lot easier by today's sponsor, Zocdoc.

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[00:08:17]>> [music] [music] [music] >> I'm going to have to chip some of this plaster away.

[00:08:43]That's annoying.

[00:08:48]>> [music] [music] >> It's finally time to get this trim back on. When it was originally installed, there was [music] like an inch of plaster between the studs and the trim.

[00:09:10]Now that plaster is gone, so I'm just using shims, scrap wood, whatever I have to fill that gap and create solid backing for nails into the stud. You can also see me figuring out this little return detail. The baseboard originally just was flat. This whole wall was packed out by 5-6 in.

[00:09:29]Now that that's removed, I need to create a return at the bottom of the stairs back into the brick.

[00:09:41]>> [music] >> I've been doing a lot of miscellaneous things here.

[00:09:56]Uh kind of looks kind of looks terrible. Uh but you know, all that's hidden. It's just It's just doing functional stuff. It's fine. These blocks are nice and solid.

[00:10:07]Those are attached to the trim. The trim you know, shims. Getting random thicknesses [music] of pieces of stuff.

[00:10:15]Uh I painted that just because it was looking gnarly. I think it was already painted, but it's just in a high [music] traffic kind of area. I built this little thing. I need to paint that side and you know, I thought about making it flush [music] here, which might have been a little cleaner, but then I would have to cut around this bull nose and it was way [music] easier just to you know, offset it like that. Once this cap's [music] on top, I think you'll barely even notice that.

[00:10:44]I think it's all ready now to start working on the cap that's going to cover all this.

[00:10:49]And I'm kind of intimidated cuz I haven't worked much with angles and I have three pieces that need to all kind of be mitered and angled and specific lengths. I'm going to use a salvage piece of this old flooring. Uh and I'm going to polyurethane it. It might be a little lighter than the floor, but I think it'll be close enough. I've been thinking a lot about details here. I wanted to get this LED light strip in here and I'm just not sure it's going to be the right thing. Uh I love these.

[00:11:19]They're like smart. This actually I took out from the shelf in my kitchen and I had it scheduled to be on from like sunset to 1:00 a.m. Which is great when you go for a midnight snack or something.

[00:11:30]And I like the idea here on the stairs cuz then it can always just provide a little bit of ambient light >> [music] >> just to get around the house.

[00:11:38]Ow.

[00:11:39]So, my my first thought was just to put this on the side of the board and then hold it off of the brick, which looks pretty good as [music] you're looking at it, but I realized when you're walking down the stairs and especially when you're looking from the third floor, you can see down into this gap and it's really kind of unsightly.

[00:12:01][music] And an interesting thing here is that there's the uh tongue and groove, well, the groove part of the flooring here, which could be used [music] to my benefit. I just grabbed this foam backer rod. This is something used when you're caulking big gaps >> [music] >> and I think it's great when you're meeting materials to brick because instead of scribing this weird line, it actually works perfect to embed that in the groove and push it tight. Then you get all of the little gaps closed up.

[00:12:30]So, now I'm trying to find a solution where maybe the LED light can go into the groove facing up. I mean, one option is just to also put the backer rod in that groove, which I don't know if there are thermal issues [music] with that.

[00:12:44]And I think the problem is number one, the backer rod blocks most of the light and number two, you see the individual LEDs >> [music] >> hitting the backer rod. Another thought was to try to put the backer rod on the bottom side. I do think [music] that that could work, but it's going to be a real challenge to get this LED in here given all these different pieces.

[00:13:09]>> [music] >> I got so much [music] lumber down there.

[00:13:29]This beautiful piece of lumber came out of the third floor and brings joy to my heart to say it'll continue serving this house for many years to come.

[00:14:12]>> [music] >> Now comes the tedious task of trying to find the angles for the miter cuts on these boards. Now, I don't even know what I'm doing here. I'm screwing together two pieces of wood at the same angle cuz I feel like that'll lock in the angle or something. Uh but first of all, it didn't work. Second of all, I don't even know what I would have done as a next step here.

[00:14:34]Attempt number two, I realized I didn't need such blocky blocks and I didn't need to screw them together. I could just hold two shims and trace them onto a piece of paper.

[00:14:45]Mhm. Got the angle and then uh miter is like there.

[00:14:51]Okay.

[00:14:53]I got the template, got the angle and then if I fold this and line it up, I think [music] that'll give me the angle I need to cut it at. I can just trace it on there and eyeball it. Okay, I'm getting somewhere. And then this one is cut like this, which I think is the same angle. I mean, yeah, it's the same angle. It looks like it should work.

[00:15:16]All right, first test. [music] I cut both of these with my track And it needs to go up a little further and it's not quite perfect. [music] Attempt number two. I checked it with the template and I think this is going to be the one.

[00:15:34]That's pretty good.

[00:15:36]Not quite perfect. [music] I need to cut it at a little bit sharper of an angle.

[00:15:41]Third try's the charm.

[00:15:45]I think it's good [music] enough.

[00:15:47]And it's better to have the top tight and the bottom slightly looser anyway, cuz it'll keep that seam tight. [music] Dang it.

[00:15:54]I got the angle, but I have the tongue on [music] the wrong side.

[00:15:59]>> [sighs] >> Yeah.

[00:16:01]I have to cut this flat, cut that angled. It's fixed.

[00:16:07]But the angle isn't great. I've spent too much time on this for it not to be good at least.

[00:16:19]It's not perfect.

[00:16:22]But I think [music] I can live with it.

[00:16:25]That one.

[00:16:32]It's just not even close at all. I don't understand. Is it like [music] upside down? Just guess and check.

[00:16:39]Guess and check. That's not bad.

[00:16:42]Aha.

[00:16:44]So it took four tests with the angle. I got the angle and then it took another four cuts to get the length right, but eventually we got it. I'm not the fastest carpenter, but I I can get it done. All these top pieces are just like dry fit right now. I got all the miters.

[00:17:01]I need to sand all these down and polyurethane them. So don't look at the finish right now.

[00:17:07]But just the miters and the fits, uh I had to remake this piece cuz I tried to change the angle too many times and it got too short and I remade it. So this overhang matches this overhang. Nice.

[00:17:19]Next miter, um the angle's good. You can see there's no gap there.

[00:17:25]I just got to kind of like mess with the rotation of these. And at the top, there's another angle. I cut this to match the wall, but obviously you can see how bad it is not level.

[00:17:38]After some light analysis, I realized it was actually the baseboard there that was not level, and it wasn't my trim.

[00:17:45]So, I I think we got to just leave that for now.

[00:17:49]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [clears throat] >> It's been about [music] 3 weeks since I was sanding this.

[00:18:35]And it's still not um it's not secured.

[00:18:39]But it is >> [laughter] >> it's so close. It's like sometimes I I feel like what's left to do on the job is so easy, I can do it anytime, so I end up just not doing it. But, eventually I'll get to it, and I'll get the LED strip [music] in. It's kind of unfortunate that I can't do a big reveal with the cool lighting detail, but you know, it's fine. I've been taking a break and not working on all these little things.

[00:19:06]That's all for this week. I will see you next week, and thank you as always for [music] keeping up with this project. I really appreciate it.