FIELD GUIDE
Project note
How to Date an Old House by Its Nails
Hand-wrought, machine-cut, and wire nails mark rough eras. How to read the shank, head, and taper, and when a reused nail lies about the year.
3 recaps
Cut Nails
Cut Nails is a subject that recurs across these This Old House and Ask This Old House recaps. A recap is listed when one of its tags is Cut Nails. Tools and guides on this page come only from those 3 episodes.
Recaps
FIELD GUIDE
Project note
Cut Nails vs. Wire Nails: What Old-House Framing Can Teach Us
Why wedge-shaped cut nails grip differently from modern wire nails, where you are likely to find them, and what to consider before pulling them from historic framing.
THIS OLD HOUSES47 / E01
This Old House · S47 E1
This Old House S47 E1: Five Families, One Hurricane, and the 1920s Construction That Refused to Quit
Season 47 kicks off in Western North Carolina, where Hurricane Helene turned neighborhoods into rivers. But the real star of the premiere? Worker housing from the 1920s that Tom Silva can't stop admiring.
Tools from these recaps
- 2x4 construction
1 episode on this subject
- bricks
1 episode on this subject
- concrete slab
1 episode on this subject
- cut nails
1 episode on this subject
- diagonal bracing
1 episode on this subject
- novelty siding
1 episode on this subject
- poured concrete foundation
1 episode on this subject
- shiplap
1 episode on this subject
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