The PBS show about renovating vintage homes debuted in 1979. Tom Silva has been there almost since the beginning.
Before "House Hunters," before "Property Brothers," before "Love It or List It," there was "This Old House."
The PBS show about renovating vintage homes debuted in 1979, 15 years before the birth of HGTV.
Tom Silva, 71, has been there almost since the beginning. As a co-owner of Silva Brothers Construction outside Boston, Silva became a regular on "This Old House" in 1986, serving as a contractor for its first host, Bob Vila.
Two years later, Silva’s company became the show’s permanent contractor. In addition to appearing regularly on the show, Silva appears on the PBS sister show "Ask This Old House" and contributes to the show’s publications.
He recently spoke with The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch.
Q: When you started on "This Old House" more than 30 years ago, could you have imagined how big home improvement would become on television?
A: Who could have known? ... You can’t keep track of all the shows now. We’re the longest-running how-to show in the world, seen in multiple countries.
Q: How do you explain your show’s longevity?
A: The average life of a reality show is something like three to five years. We’ve been on 40 years. The information we give is proven, trusted. We take you through the whole process. We teach people. I think that’s a big deal.
Q: As a contractor, what’s the most important advice you would give homeowners tackling a renovation?
A: Everybody always wants the best of everything, but unfortunately your budget always doesn’t allow that. But the things you don’t see are the things you don’t want to cut back on. The things you don’t see are what make the house perform and last. ... Things like the windows, the insulation, the type of heating and cooling system, how a home is structured, the framing, the siding. Those are the things that will let you live in your house cheaper for longer.
Q: Are old houses better-built than new ones?
A: There’s so many different changes, and a lot have been improvements. Remember the way the old Yankees built these houses that we’re working on. They’re 200 or 300 years old and they’re still standing. ... Keep the old things the Yankees did but blend in the new technology. The engineered lumber, and the fasteners and adhesives are magical today.
The old houses are not better than the new houses, but the material is different. The wood is from tighter-growth old lumber. Now they are younger trees, they take on moisture faster — the trim won’t hold up like it did years ago because it’s a different type of wood — so we have manufactured trim like Boral or Azek.
But you can have the best of materials and if you don’t prep it right, it won’t hold up. You can buy two different paints, for instance, the most expensive and the cheapest, and if you use the best paint and don’t follow any rules or the cheapest and prep it right, 90 percent of the time the cheap paint will hold up better.
Q: In your years of being on the show, do any projects stand out as your favorites?
A: The majority of the time it’s the project I’m working on now. But a couple projects do stand out: the oldest house, a 1721 farmhouse that leaned back 8 inches because of a rotted sill. We had a lot to deal with there, and a Manchester-by-the-Sea (Massachusetts) project, it was way too big for the time allotted. We had 10 months, but it was an 18-month project.
Q: Your family runs a construction company. How do you balance that with the demands of the show?
A: Yesterday, I started filming at 7 (a.m.) and got home at 7 (p.m.) after filming a little story for "Ask (This Old House)" on how to straighten and lengthen a door. I came home cold and hungry, but I was satisfied because I helped a homeowner. ...
I grew up in this business, in a home with five boys, in a house built in 1765 in Lexington, Massachusetts. That home was our classroom. Insulation, wiring, demo, plastering, painting — we did it all, and I can honestly say I don’t think I ever wanted to do anything else. There’s something about working with your hands, the accomplishment of building. There’s not a lot you can get that sense of accomplishment from.
