This Old Recap

26 recaps

Landscaping

Landscaping recaps are episodes tagged with landscaping, gardening, lawn repair, or tree planting. Those tags are grouped as outdoor planting and lawn work. Hardscaping and drainage have their own pages.

Recaps

AI illustration of a partially laid concrete paver walkway over crushed basalt and sand, with aluminum edging and hand tools resting nearby
ASK THIS OLD HOUSES24 / E23

Ask This Old House · S24 E23

Ask This Old House S24E23: Paver Walkway in Spokane, Lawn Mowing 101, and Zack's Contractor Dating Analogy

Lee Gilliam and Kevin O'Connor compare gas, battery, and manual push mowers, then cover dry-grass mowing, the one-third rule, blade sharpening, and seasonal cutting heights. The full Ask This Old House bench talks contractor vetting, from license and insurance checks to jobsite visits and Zack Dettmore's dating analogy. Mark McCullough is in Spokane, Washington, replacing an uneven flagstone front walk with a concrete paver walkway on a compacted basalt crusher-run base, sand setting bed, and aluminum edging.

AI illustration of a concrete foundation footing with rebar, anchor bolts, pump hose, and wooden forms in a muddy excavation under warm daylight
THIS OLD HOUSES47 / E21

This Old House · S47 E21

This Old House S47 E21: Walpole Ranch ADU Begins, a 38-Inch Frost Problem, and a Mechanical Room in Exactly the Wrong Place

Dan and Jill's 1971 Walpole ranch kicks off Season 47's final project with a 900-square-foot ADU for Jill's parents. Tom Silva catches a garage foundation that came up ten inches short of local frost depth, Richard Trethewey stares down an oil boiler that has to serve two households, and Jenn Nawada plans a yard built for kids, grandparents, and one shared fire pit.

AI illustration of a rusted window well beside a new galvanized steel well, drainage gravel, and tools at a basement foundation wall
ASK THIS OLD HOUSES24 / E10

Ask This Old House · S24 E10

Ask This Old House Season 24 Episode 10: An Idaho Backyard Makeover for Community Dinners, Plus Two Window Wells That Finally Fit

Jenn Nawada heads to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, to help Adam—whose weekly Monday Night Dinners now draw hundreds—redesign his backyard with an outdoor kitchen, a stone pathway, and fresh sod. Then Mark McCullough swaps out two rusted, off-kilter window wells, showing the proper demo, drainage, and galvanized steel install.

AI illustration of a basement slab with a sealed PVC radon pipe, hand tools, and dust in low daylight
ASK THIS OLD HOUSES24 / E02

Ask This Old House · S24 E2

Ask This Old House S24E2: Seashell Driveway, Radon Mitigation, and Why You Call a Pro

Lee Gilliam rebuilds a coastal Massachusetts driveway with reclaimed stone edging and a 3-inch layer of local shells, keeping the hardpack base intact. Ross Trethewey and a certified mitigator diagnose a 100-year-old slab with grab samples and a manometer, then install a sub-slab depressurization system with an exterior fan wired by Heath Eastman.

AI illustration of a woodturning lathe with a square bubinga bowl blank, shavings, and oil-and-wax finish on a workshop bench
ASK THIS OLD HOUSES23 / E15

Ask This Old House · S23 E15

, Ask This Old House Season 23 Episode 15: 3D Printed Homes, a Detroit Tool Library, and Tom's Square Bowl, or Concrete Does Not Care About Your Stick-Built Schedule

Ross Trethewey tours a 4,000-square-foot Austin house being printed in concrete, Aaron Smith shows how a Detroit tool library and garden build neighborhood capacity, and Tom Silva turns a square bubinga bowl with four legs on a new lathe. Three completely different jobs, one shared requirement: you can't skip the layer underneath.

AI illustration of an open kitchen cabinet with a taped drill template, mounted slides, a taped door, and tools around the old trash pullout
ASK THIS OLD HOUSES23 / E10

Ask This Old House · S23 E10

Ask This Old House Season 23 Episode 10: Trash Pullout Replacement, Light Bulb Phaseout, and Arborvitae Removal, or a 1997 Kitchen Finally Slides Smoothly

Nathan Gilbert replaces a broken double trash can pullout in a 1997 kitchen, Heath Eastman explains why incandescent and fluorescent bulbs are being phased out, and Lee Gilliam removes overgrown emerald green arborvitaes while saving an oakleaf hydrangea. Three house calls, one shared moment: something built for an earlier set of assumptions has run out its clock.

AI illustration of a benchtop router and plunge base beside a clamped cedar board with a shallow dado and sawdust on a workshop bench
ASK THIS OLD HOUSES23 / E20

Ask This Old House · S23 E20

Ask This Old House Season 23 Episode 20: Electric Bill Investigation, Dethatching and Aerating, and Router 101, or Rob's Winter Spike Becomes a Graph

Lee Gilliam compares dethatching rakes and core aeration timing, Heath Eastman installs a smart energy monitor at a 1875 house to track a winter bill spike, and Tom Silva walks Kevin through router bases, bits, and depth stops. The monitor finds no fault, which turns out to be the useful answer.

AI illustration of a partially assembled white-cedar outdoor shower enclosure against a shingled wall, with bluestone pavers, tools, and wood shavings in warm daylight
ASK THIS OLD HOUSES23 / E17

Ask This Old House · S23 E17

Ask This Old House Season 23 Episode 17: Cape Cod Outdoor Shower, Cedar Enclosure, and the Drainage Trench That Makes It Work

Jenn Nawada and Mark McCullough lay out a Cape Cod outdoor shower between two windows, Mark runs a pitched drain line away from the foundation, Nathan Gilbert assembles a white-cedar kit, and Richard Trethewey taps hot water through a frost-proof hydrant. The cedar and bluestone are what you see. The grade, gravel, and pitch decide whether the house stays dry.

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