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Home > Bob on TV > Bob Vila
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In addition to weekly updates on the home improvement television show's current project, you can see videos of featured home construction details and practices. Click to view related articles with more in-depth information and helpful how-to video clips for your next home project.
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Bob kicks off season two of Bob Vila in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he partners with St. Petersburg Neighborhood Housing Services (SPNHS), a NeighborWorks affiliate, and Tampa Armature Works (TAW) to create affordable, energy-efficient, storm-ready housing from recycled steel shipping containers. David Cross of TAW shows Bob how these abandoned shipping containers make ideal building units because they are built to last and can be fitted with windows, doors, and super-insulating ceramic paint for a quick-build solution that is right for today’s energy and climate challenges. Together with SPNHS and Barrow Construction, Bob and the team build a roomy, single-family home that improves this once-blighted neighborhood and creates opportunity for first-time home ownership.
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For his second project, Bob is in Melrose, Massachusetts, to help a young couple update and prepare their home for a new baby. These episodes will focus on healthy and safe living spaces for families and young children. A primary issue for all families is sound control, so Bob looks at solutions to help quiet the clamor. He meets with an environmental psychologist who specializes in noise issues and their impact on the home. Bob also tours the American Lung Association designer showhouse in West Palm Beach, Florida, to learn about indoor air quality issues and how paints, finishes, and furniture can challenge developing bodies. Safety is at the forefront as this couple selects gates, windows, and bath fixtures to enhance their home and protect their family. Bob even looks at how soft furnishings like bedding, pillows, curtains, and coverings can make a healthy home for baby.
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Bob’s third project helps a young family refurbish unused basement space to create new family recreation rooms below ground. They add drainage systems to the interior and exterior, a sump pump, and a complete basement moisture-proofing system to create dry space within the old fieldstone walls. A frame-to-finish basement system then creates living space where once there was none. A mascerating toilet and pump provide the necessary plumbing solutions to add a small bathroom and laundry room to the layout. Drafty, old double-hung windows are replaced with impact-resistant, energy-efficient windows to keep the space warm, draft-free, and light-filled. Storage systems, funky furniture, and carpeting complete the indoor space while an exterior door is added for access to the backyard. Outside, patchy grass is replaced with synthetic turf and fieldstone pavers. A privacy fence and creative storage, potting, and utility sheds are added. Granite steps, new energy-efficient windows, and western red cedar trim are also installed. Now this family can grow in place instead of moving to find more space.
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More and more homeowners are converting their houses into multi-generational homes for themselves, their children, and their aging parents. In this fourth project of season two of Bob Vila, a Norwell couple decides to add on to make room for their mother who wants to move closer to family and to help should she need it. The walls and floor of the addition will be built of energy-efficient Reddi-Form insulated concrete forms (ICFs). ICFs work like building blocks to make light work of foundations and walls. These forms are designed to use less concrete and still carry the load of a soaring 20-foot-gable end wall. Once the shell has been poured, a specialized framing system for the deck or interior floors of the home is set in place for the concrete pour. This high-efficiency, thermally smart home also has a solar roof to help reduce the family’s utility bills and usage. Air quality is a top priority, so all steps are taken to dry the house completely and stop mold from starting once the walls are put up. A deck, beautiful windows, flooring, a fireplace faced in stone, doors, and worry-free trim complete this new home for grandmom.
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When a hurricane hits, it’s not just the house that’s endangered, it’s the homeowners, the neighbors, and the community. When hurricanes strike again and again, as they did in Florida in 2004, the effects are devastating. In Season 1 of Bob Vila, Bob works with FLASH – the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes – to completely rebuild a home that was destroyed in Punta Gorda, Florida. Using current technology and new standards for storm-ready housing, Bob and the crew build a new home of pre-cast concrete that is cast in place with a structural system designed for integrity. Bob looks at the key elements of a home and how they protect or compromise the overall structure when high winds and wind-borne rain strike, as well as why some building systems fail and others succeed. The new Punta Gorda home will feature integral roof and envelope tie-down systems, advanced roof trussing technologies, and impact-resistant windows. Working with the builder, FLASH, and FEMA, Bob learns how current building codes are making new and upgraded housing safer for Florida residents. He also visits a home under repair and looks at how to guard against further damage to your home and surrounding homes while fixing damage from a first storm.
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In the opening season of Bob Vila, Bob undertakes a kitchen remodel of a historic Victorian home in Rowley, Massachusetts. The house is a classic New England gem, with many partitioned rooms, a kitchen in the back, a great yard, preserved wetlands behind, and a historic code to govern additions. The owners want to make their home more family friendly and open for casual entertaining. Their architect helps them create a design that works for the house and the family. From permits and approvals, to the opening of original bearing wall, the addition of a mudroom, lavatory, and deck to the creation of a barbecue station, and installation of cupboards, cabinets, and cozy radiant heat, this project focuses on family space. Appliances are modernized and updated, while architectural details like the Queen Anne window, reproduction trim, and copper roof are added to restore the original character to this historical beauty.
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