Season 14 - Modular Mountain Retreat
Berkshires, MA
Beautifully sited on wooded acreage with breathtaking views of some of the most beautiful countryside in New England, this Arts and Crafts style bungalow certainly doesn't look factory-built. You'd never know it was a modular home unless Bob took you to the Pennsylvania factory where it was built, almost from start to finish. We'll follow the house down the assembly line from framing, through wiring and plumbing, all the way to the installation of flooring and priming for paint. ...
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Modular Home Construction and Site Preparation Video Clips (HA1414)
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| Bob meets with Pat Fricchione from Simplex Industries of Scranton, Penn. to discuss the modular home industry and specifically the home being built in western Massachusetts’ Berkshire Hills. Simplex delivers ...
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| Bob meets with Bill Wilson of the Berkshire Visitors Bureau to discuss the beautiful areas surrounding the project home. The Berkshires are located along the Massachusetts Turnpike from Boston to ...
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| Bob teams up with, Michael Shiels, the project’s general contractor, to discuss the foundation prep work that is underway. The home site began as a piece of raw forest ...
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Modular Construction Details and Foundation Work Video Clips (HA1415)
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| Bob Vila meets with Jim Costello from Superior Walls of America to discuss the difference between precast panels delivered to the site and a traditional poured concrete foundation. The ...
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| In this segment, Bob Vila visits the Simplex Industries modular home plant in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where the Home Again project house is being constructed. Dave Boniello, the Vice President of ...
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| Chris Vila joins Superior Walls’ Mel Zimmerman to talk about a few of the benefits of a factory-built foundation system. Constructed in a controlled environment, the foundation walls can be ...
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| In this segment, Bob continues his tour of the Simplex Industries manufacturing facility. The plant workers are precutting all the plywood for the project house, as well as other homes ...
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| The next stop on the Simplex tour is the drywall finishing area. To speed up the process, they use what is known as a taping bazooka. The bazooka extrudes tape ...
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| Bob meets with Thomas “Doc” Dougherty, the stair builder at Simplex Industries, to discuss the progress of the staircase in the modular home project. The staircase is located in the ...
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Interior and Exterior Finishes on a Modular Home Video Clips (HA1417)
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| BobVila meets with Dave Boniello from Simplex Industries to discuss the custom kitchen being installed at the factory in the modular home. Boniello points out the cabinets chosen are from ...
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| Bob Vila takes an early interior tour of the modular home. Bob is in a 15-foot-wide-by-48-foot long section. The flooring and walls are almost complete and much of the ...
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| The skin of the modular home is finished with windows from Pella. The Pella double-hung Architect Series six over one design was chosen for the project. The upper window is ...
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| Dupont has provided a new product for the solid surface kitchen counters called Zodiaq, which is made of natural silica, quartz, and about eight percent polymer. Zodiaq quartz surfaces are ...
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| Bob meets with Pat Fricchione and Dave Boniello from Simplex Industries to observe the delivery of the modular home pieces to the home site. The 15 ton pieces are craned ...
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| The second section to be secured of the four main house pieces is the first floor front section—including the front door. The workman use a “come-along” tool to join the ...
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| Bob Vila oversees the delivery and installation of the first section of the second floor of the home. Bob points out the complexity of this piece with its dormers and ...
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| Bob meets with Michael Shiels from Shiels Builders who is the local on-site contractor for the Modular Mountain Retreat project. Shiels insures all hook-ups from plumbing to electrical are ready ...
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| In a matter of one full day on the site, all the major pieces are put in place and work on the roof and exterior skin begins. The triangular end ...
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| At the modular home site in the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts Bob meets with Michael Shiels to discuss the backfilling of the Superior Walls basement foundation system. Due to excessive ...
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| Bob meets with Brian Eberle from Enviroshake of Chatham, Ontario, to discuss the environmentally friendly shake shingles which are being used on a portion of the modular home’s roof. ...
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| Bob discusses the Titanium UDL roof underlayment product with the roofing contractor and a representative from Simplex Industries. This engineered roofing underlayment product that is 100 percent asphalt free. The ...
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| Mark Murphy from Owens Corning shows Bob a new man-made stone product for the exterior of the modular home project. Southern Ledge Stone and Dressed Fieldstone (both in the color ...
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| Michael Shiels and Bob review the joining of the four main sections of the modular home. They review the marriage points where gusset plates are added to insure stability and ...
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| Bob Vila and Michael Shiels visit the master bedroom section of the modular home. The expanse extends sixteen by forty feet including the master bedroom suite. French doors exit to ...
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Panelized Cedar Shingles, a Metal Roof, and The Mount Video Clips (HA1420)
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| Bob meets with Michael Shiels to discuss the progress on the modular home project’s exterior construction. Bob points out some of the features that give this home its custom built ...
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| Kevin Corcoran from Englert Roofing systems explains to Bob benefits of the company’s environmentally friendly (56 percent recycled material), maintenance free, metal roofing product. The product applied to the project ...
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| Bob visit the Berkshire’s home of Edith Wharton, called “The Mount,” in Lenox, Massachusetts. Her most famous tome from 1897 "The Decoration of Houses” was the inspiration for the field ...
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| Jeff Smith from Al Smith Gutters demonstrates the installation of a modern metal roof panel. After sliding the panel into place stainless steel clips are installed which will allow ...
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| Steve Roth from Style Solutions shows Bob the crown molding being used in the Modular Mountain Retreat project house. The EPS (extruded polystyrene) moldings are easier to install than traditional ...
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| Jack Murdock from RMI and Craig Ryans from Vermont Castings of Mississauga, Ontario, demonstrate how simple it is to have gas appliances and heat in a rural location. With a ...
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| In the middle of a Berkshire forest Jim Precht from Advanced Environmental Recycling Technology (AERT) shows off a recycled deck material that uses no “first use” materials. The modular mountain ...
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| In this segment Bob watches the crew install the railing on the deck. The composite railing product comes pre-milled to accept all the railing components. As with wood decks, ...
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Energy Efficient Heat, Column Deck Supports, and The Mount Video Clips (HA1422)
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| Bob Vila tours the modular home project in the Berkshire Hills in Western Massachusetts. Bob reviews the exterior skin products on the house. Starting with the multi-textural roof composed of ...
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| Bob Vila takes a quick look at the sustainable mahogany front porch and deck. The decking, secured by stainless steel fasteners, can be stained or simply sealed depending on the ...
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| Bob takes a closer look at the area under the rear deck of the modular home. The grade of the hill allows for a full height wall of Cultured Southern ...
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| Bob meets with Jeff Davis of Chadsworth Columns to look at the structural columns supporting the rear deck of the modular home. The four-by-six treated wood timbers are encased in ...
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| Bob ties the look of the stone lower façade of the Berkshire’s modular home to The Mount, famed author Edith Wharton’s home. Bob take a visit to Wharton’s Sunken ...
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| Bob meets with Mark Gallivan from Sears HVAC and Brent Morin from Morin Mechanical Services to review the heating system installation at the modular home project. The high efficiency, state ...
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| Chris Vila meets with Jack Frederick from Frederick/Gerahty to review the hot water heater. The Continuum unit from Rinnai is an instant-on unit that employs no holding tank. Water is ...
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Berkshires Architecture, Shakespeare & Co, and Structured Wiring Video Clips (HA1423)
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| Bob begins the final an interior tour of the modular home project in the Berkshire Hills. The interior doors are Woodport MDF panel doors with M-tech hardware. M-tech specializes in ...
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| Joe Kreis from MJ Cordaro Electric Company explains the installation of a Leviton structured wire system. The system is designed to seamlessly allow the transmission of data, phone, and cable ...
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| Bob begins his tour of cottages in the Berkshire Hills in Lenox, Massachusetts. Starting with Ventfort Hall, an Elizabethan-style mansion built in 1893 for Sarah Morgan, the sister of J. ...
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| Tina Packer, president of Shakespeare & Company, gives Bob a tour of the grounds of the Spring Lawn Mansion in Lennox, Massachusetts. She points out the foundation blocks where the ...
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| The last stop on Bob Vila’s Berkshire Hills cottage tours is the largest shingle style home in America, the Elm Court mansion built by William Douglas Sloane and Emily Vanderbilt ...
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| Bob Vila meets with Bob Berle at Elm Court in the Berkshire Hills. Berle‘s great-great grandparents, Vanderbilt-Sloanes, had the home built in 1886. It expanded through several additions to become ...
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| Bob Vila greets Sonya Berle who shows off the large foyer and explains how she and her husband started with small restorations in New Orleans before beginning their grand plans ...
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| Bob Berle shows Bob Vila the bowels of the home and points out the decay that was prevalent but currently under repair. The 35,000 square foot basement was open to ...
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| Bob Vila meets with Sonya and Bob Berle in the library of Elm Court to discuss the interior design and preservation of this magnificent example of turn-of-the-century design and opulence. ...
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Sound Insulation and Restored Rooms at Elm Court Video Clips (HA1425)
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| Bob meets with Joe Adams and Ralph McGrath, in the media room of the Elm Court Cottage in the Berkshires. They are installing a sound attenuation, grid-ceiling system from Owens ...
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| Bob Vila joins Sonya and Bob Berle, owners of Elm Court for a tour of the ornate grand parlor. When the Berles arrived at Elm Court the parlor was in ...
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| Sonya and Bob Berle lead Bob Vila through a tour of one of the Vanderbilt’s most elegant dining rooms. The Berles have restored the ornate plasterwork ceilings and cornices that ...
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| The butler’s pantry of Elm Court mansion has a larger footprint than some US homes. At times up to 38 footmen would whisk in and out of the dining room ...
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| Bob Vila meets with Bob and Sonya Berle on one of the many staircases at the Elm Court in Lenox, Massachusetts. This stair hall, with views of the gardens through ...
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| The Berles give Bob Vila a tour of the guest suites at the Elm Court mansion in Lenox, Massachusetts. Starting with the Emily Vanderbilt Suite, railroad inspired colors and historic ...
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| Bob Berle takes Bob Vila on a behind-the-scenes tour of Elm Court. Starting with the suite above the dining room and pointing out how the floors go up and down ...
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| Donald Brazie from D & B Plumbing demonstrates how to hook up a washer and dryer in a utility room that was formerly a bathroom on the Elm Court's second ...
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| Bob Vila visits one of the recently refinished rooms at the Elm Court shingle-style mansion. A custom Walnut coffered ceiling from Owens Corning’s QuietZone noise reduction line of products enhances ...
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| Sonya Berle meets with Kara Roberts from Smith+Noble and Bob Vila to discuss the designer feel of the master bedroom. Coordinating accent pieces were chosen to give the room a ...
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