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Do you need any help around the house?
How about a guy to do your backyard?
Are you the one?
ANNOUNCER: Matt Blashaw is trying to give away
a new backyard but all he's hearing is...
No.
Sure?
No?
Well, that might be a problem.
ANNOUNCER: When he finally gets the green light,
one backyard is gonna get a massive makeover
with a custom chevron table,
a terrestrial side with stone walls,
and an actual river that leads into a fish pound.
Have you heard of a guy named Matt Blashaw?
WOMAN: ( on phone ) Yeah.
Well, he's gonna be there, too.
You want to take me home?
ANNOUNCER: Professional contractor Matt Blashaw
stakes out home improvement stores.
I'm giving away gold.
ANNOUNCER: Looking for do-it-yourselfers
who need an extra hand from a pro.
Man, I don't know.
ANNOUNCER: What they don't know
is he's gonna transform
their simple project
into a total backyard makeover.
WOMAN: It's amazing.
ANNOUNCER: It's like winning the landscape lottery.
Yes.
It's a good day for a bad yard.
What is this about?
Are you with a TV show or what?
Yeah.
Have you heard of the show Yard Crashers?
Yeah, that's me.
You guys do editing at all?
Of course.
We need to talk because I need--I, okay.
I'm looking for a job.
Don't give my crew the job.
I would do anything for an outdoor kitchen.
Anything but pay for it, you know,
you know what I am saying?
Then you want salmon, tomatoes, and ***.
Don't know if you're gonna get that here.
( laughs )
What are we debating about?
Kitchen light.
Color.
Okay, how-- how's the house look?
Front yard is decent.
What about the back?
The back?
( clears throat )
I think that sums it up.
I have big plans for the back.
You guys bought your own house together?
Yes. Engaged 2 weeks ago.
Congratulations.
Let's see the rock.
There it is.
Mud.
What else you got? Paint me a picture.
We have one little dinky fruit tree.
We have a nice bed of crabgrass going.
So basically, you hate the whole thing.
Absolutely.
Well, this is where I come in.
I go home with you right now after you pick out whatever.
All right.
We're going to your backyard and if I like what I see,
I'll give you a brand new backyard in 2 days.
Can I get a thumbs up?
Can I get a--
All right, what you guys, what you guys driving?
Um, white Toyota.
Okay, let's go turn this... around, huh?
Is this the way through?
Yes, sir.
Oh, wow, look at this.
I'm a detective here.
Yes.
What happened?
We never saw the spa.
No, we didn't get to enjoy that.
When we moved in, they had taken everything,
all the trees, all the bushes everything,
so we've been filling in holes.
They left you with a pit of despair.
They did.
So the retaining wall,
as you can see isn't retaining anything.
This just fell off actually a few months ago.
This is not grass?
No, yeah, that's just from the...
That is all weeds.
It's not really a practical area.
It tracks--a lot of dirt in the house.
We can't do anything up there.
What we have is a low spot kind of going down here
toward the door.
Yeah.
All right, so basically you have a lake in your backyard.
And too, I mean the cracking, this is bad.
You got to have those joints.
They did this all in one pour,
so now you're getting tons of cracking.
Right.
But we do like that patio cover.
We like-- yeah, I mean, I like
having the option to be out of the sun in the summer.
We like entertaining. We like having barbecues.
So we have our friends over a lot in the summer.
We do love water features.
Okay. Are you guys excited?
So excited.
I'm gonna come back with a bunch of guys,
bunch of tractors, I need about 7 to 10 friends from you.
Absolutely.
Thank you.
How about a hug?
There you go.
All right, see you guys soon.
All right, see you, man.
Oh, my God.
You know what?
At the end of this I have a feeling
they're gonna ask me to be the best man.
( car honking )
Hello!
Hello!
How are you guys doing?
Good to see you.
Good to see you, bring it in.
That's what I like to hear.
Who's ready to build?
We're ready!
I love it.
I brought a team to help you out.
Yep.
All right, he is Kiel Myers.
He is from Myers Landscape, an incredible landscaper here.
Everything, rock, stone, wood.
What else do you do?
Dirt.
That is Greg Purkey right there.
He is from California Aqua Pros.
Next to him, that is Donna Dowson.
She has a couple of special projects that
I'm not even gonna tell you, all right?
You see what a surprise this is?
You want to see what we brought?
Okay, let's go to the back.
Everybody, let's go, let's go.
Let's go.
Let's go, everyone into the back.
Yeah, I'm ready.
You want to grab it from my hand
I do.
All right, you don't have to, check it out.
Oh, my.
Oh, my God.
We're wiping the slate clean, all right.
Nothing in this backyard is staying.
ANNOUNCER: The first change is a terrestrial side
with stone retaining walls.
In the middle of that, a rock-lined river
will run into a fish pond.
You can jump in and grab fish with your bare teeth.
Oh, my God.
ANNOUNCER: A foot bridge will cross the river
with a stone bench behind that
and woodland landscaping
will complete the feel of the outdoors.
All the way through the back here
there is no place to go over, you said.
All right, we're going to give you a place to go.
ANNOUNCER: The rest of the hillside
will feature a fire pit
surrounded by a flagstone, a seating area,
gravel patio, and more stone retaining walls.
The despair is gone, am I right?
Yes.
It's gone, baby.
ANNOUNCER: The existing concrete patio
is being ripped out to make way
for a chevron table with gabion legs
and a gravel patio with a flagstone pathway.
The existing patio cover is getting a makeover
and a brand new barbecue is the cherry on top.
MATT: You guys ready to go?
Let's do it.
Let's do it.
Let's go, get all the out the junk out first.
Sound good? Let's go.
All right, backyard,
say goodbye.
Later.
What happened?
Oh!
Whoo!
You have a hollow path.
What is that?
Hollow.
Yeah!
ANNOUNCER: Coming up... Katie and her pink gloves
have Matt a little nervous.
Safety goggles down, because I don't know
how you are with those tools yet, all right.
ANNOUNCER: The new retaining wall
may cause back problems.
200 pounds down, 25,800 pounds to go, right?
ANNOUNCER: And things get steamy on the new bridge.
I see some dirty dancing scenes going on.
We're going to your backyard if I like what I see,
I'll give you a brand new backyard in 2 days.
ANNOUNCER: When Matt went home
with first time homeowners Scot and Katie,
he found a backyard right for the crashing.
They left you with a pit of despair.
ANNOUNCER: So he called in his expert crew
and started the demolition.
Yeah!
ANNOUNCER: Now Kiel and the crew
are grating the yard
and Matt and Katie start their first build.
The pink gloves are on, so that means you're ready to work.
Yeah.
So right underneath your waterfall,
we're gonna build a cool little foot bridge
and those thing are always rustic.
That's what I love about them.
The stuff we're gonna use for the bridge, check it out.
This comes from many old barns around the area.
Okay, and what I love,
it has a lot of character to it.
So what I want to do first is that we're gonna--
this thing you just brought in,
that is a planer
and what a planner does is it
just takes a nice little edge-- the surface of the top of it.
Okay, so we're just gonna run it through once,
all right and then we'll cut it down.
And that's what's gonna be for the top of our foot bridge.
Okay, ready?
Yes.
Here we go, loud noise.
ANNOUNCER: They run the 2 x 6s
through the planer to even up the imperfections.
It's nice and smooth
but there's still some character in it as well.
That's my kind of tool.
It does the work itself.
ANNOUNCER: As Matt and Katie continue planing,
Greg marks the outline for the river
and Scot jumps in and starts digging.
They run the hose for the filtration system.
Then Scot's buddies join the dig for the massive pond.
Matt and Katie assemble the frame of the bridge
using deck screws.
Safety goggles down, because I don't know
how you are with those tools yet.
All right.
Use the pink power.
Whoo.
So making sure we have planed side up,
we'll start with our two.
Now I made you a little cheater block.
This is gonna be our spacing.
I made a little 1 inch space there.
ANNOUNCER: They pre-drill,
then sink deck screws just below flush.
I want you to do two more, four here.
Okay, put these in and then just keep on going.
Okay.
You think you can do this on your own?
I know you can.
All right, keep going, I'll be back.
I see the block set, Kiel.
It's going, buddy.
It's starting, cool.
So this is that pin system, right?
Exactly.
Okay, you know, that pin-- how the pin system works?
I don't.
So we just set pins inside all of our holes.
Okay, for this he's doing an offset
where the pin is gonna be back.
So that means that when we stack that block,
the block is gonna go back as well
and that's gonna give you added strength.
So looks like we have 200 pounds down,
25,800 pounds to go, right?
You got it.
Get to it.
ANNOUNCER: The crew gets stacking
and Matt and Katie drew holes in the 4 x 4 posts
that will line the bridge.
There we go.
Oh, you did it all the way through.
Nice work.
That's gonna sit right in the middle.
We just need to scribe out
and I want to cut out these pieces,
so it insets right in there.
Anything with the blade kind of freaks me out little
but I'm doing it
and it's not as bad as I thought it would be.
ANNOUNCER: They use lag bolts
to secure the posts to the frame.
Beautiful. Ain't going nowhere.
Let's see how many we can--
Let's stuff, stuff them in there.
Let's stuff some rebar. All right.
ANNOUNCER: They slide the rebar through the holes.
Then cap the ends with the two remaining posts.
Oh. Beautiful.
I trust it.
Oh, no. Not getting out of the river.
I see some dirty dancing scenes going on.
No, like, the bridge scene.
I was going to say get married on it.
( indistinct )
Cool. Love it.
ANNOUNCER: Matt heads over to help
lay the liner for the pond.
Into the pool.
Lift up so we don't drag.
Beautiful. Just like that.
ANNOUNCER: The crew doesn't waste time
filling the pond with boulders and rocks.
Strips of carpet help protect the liner from punctures.
Before the day ends,
the pier blocks for the bridge are set.
Friends move into apply sealant to the bridge
and Matt wraps day one.
So tomorrow flagstone that we got, okay?
We got to finish up on the stream, the pond.
We got all the plantings to do.
We got to build a table.
We're gonna install our bridge.
Our bridge.
Yes, the fire pit.
We got a lot of stuff to do.
Little bit overtime.
All right, not too bad,
we'll help you out a little bit.
All right. Good day one.
Done, done, done. Nice.
ANNOUNCER: Up next, a stylish table design.
You know, what a chevron pattern is?
It's like a V.
ANNOUNCER: And Matt goes bark diving.
Higher, okay.
ANNOUNCER: For Matt's favorite projects and tips,
head on over to the crashers page
at diynetwork.com/crashers.
Good Morning, everybody.
ANNOUNCER: Last night, Matt and the crew
made a ton of progress.
The retaining walls were finished
and the hole for the fire pit was dug.
Now the giant pond is being filled.
Good.
It's cold.
It's a little chilly this morning.
How are we looking on those steps?
We need steps up in here.
Steps? Walls are pretty set other than steps,
I'm glad we got all that done yesterday.
Okay, cool. So steps is gonna be good
and then we start doing the flagstone.
Absolutely.
Guess what, you're on fire pit.
You're like, "Yes, I need some heat."
All right.
And then you and I, we're gonna build our table.
Does that sound good?
Are you ready to do this?
I'm ready.
Let's go. Let's warm this up.
Let's go, day two.
ANNOUNCER: The existing patio structure
is getting a coat of vibrant purple.
Friends are cleaning cobblestones for the river.
And the bridge is carried back to its new home.
Who's walking it first?
It works!
ANNOUNCER: Scot helps with filtering out
dirt from the pond.
And since the bridge built was such a success,
Matt and Katie get started on their next collaboration.
Because we are making a table.
Awesome.
A custom table, we're gonna be using wood,
metal, and stone.
So what we're gonna do
is that we're gonna first build our table top.
The frame we're gonna use is pressure treated 2 x 4.
Let's cut these down to 90 inches,
so four of 90 inches.
Two for one.
Okay.
All right, put these together.
ANNOUNCER: They pre-drill...
then screw together the table frame using deck screws.
So for the design I want to do
is kind of it's a chevron pattern
is what we're gonna do.
ANNOUNCER: While they screw the additional 2 x 4s
into place to support the chevron design,
the crew is busy spreading the gravel
on to the steps and patio.
Then a massive delivery of bark gives Matt,
a not so bright idea.
That's good, that's good, right there.
I am gonna break my ankle.
You're not-- no, you'll be good.
It's very soft. Just go, just go.
Yeah.
Higher, okay.
Yes, cool, cool.
Whoa!
I love this.
ANNOUNCER: With the bark mount conquered,
they jump back on the chop saw
and cut 45 degree angles into the reclaimed lumber.
Okay, so we'll start with the top first.
And this is the most important one.
Sets with the tone.
Sets the tone for everything else.
Sweet.
That's the deal.
Just like that, making sure they're all tight
and then we'll put on the ends.
All right, I might leave you to it.
I got, I think I got.
Cool, get to it.
ANNOUNCER: The crew is installing borders
to keep the gravel areas contained and prepping for sod.
Greg uses foam to hold the stones
in place in the river.
And Matt and Scot start on the fire pit.
These are the bricks that you find in any fireplace.
Okay? If you put regular bricks down.
Heat, pop, crack.
ANNOUNCER: They align the hole with brick
making sure not to cover the pipe
that was installed for drainage.
All right, so jump in there
we got our mortar all mixed up.
All right.
Reason that it's really, really sticky like this,
is so that it stays up.
ANNOUNCER: Matt leaves Scot with the mortaring
and heads back to the table.
Katie has finished nailing the table top together,
so Matt uses a circular saw to give it a clean edge.
There it is. Yeah, that's nice and straight.
ANNOUNCER: They sand the edges then cap them
with more reclaimed lumber.
The plants are starting to go in.
The flagstone is being set in the pathways.
And Matt heads over to help build
a seriously heavy bench.
Scot, if your back hasn't been broken yet,
it's about to be now.
( indistinct )
Come back to me.
Coming over.
( indistinct )
Pivot.
Sit down.
Yeah.
Nice. War cry.
Aah!
ANNOUNCER: The fire pit is surrounded with flagstone
and filled with lava rock.
Then Matt and Katie begin building
the gabion legs for the table.
So I'm guessing you've never welded before.
Never.
Have you ever seen welding done before?
On TV.
All you're gonna do is press that button.
And you're gonna see it start to spark.
And then just slowly you're gonna kind of move
back and forth in that crease.
ANNOUNCER: Matt gives Katie a demonstration
then hands over the wire welder.
You're a welder.
How cool is that?
All right, beautiful.
ANNOUNCER: With only about an hour left in this crash,
Matt checks in with Greg on the status of the pond.
How long is this gonna take to fill up?
Probably about 20 minutes I think.
Yeah, I hope.
Yeah, me too.
ANNOUNCER: Coming up...
Matt finishes the day with some cool surprises.
Bring them out.
Oh, my gosh.
ANNOUNCER: And Scot goes crazy
for his brand new backyard.
SCOT: Woo-hoo.
All right, backyard, say goodbye.
ANNOUNCER: Scot and Katie's pit of despair is history.
Yeah!
ANNOUNCER: Now the backyard of their dreams
is nearly complete.
Let's go. One hour to go.
ANNOUNCER: The chevron table is getting its finish.
The sod is being rolled out.
And the landscape is getting a ton of new life.
Let's go.
Thanks for the enthusiasm.
Woo!
Awesome. Yeah. Thanks.
ANNOUNCER: Matt and Katie position
the gabion table legs.
And then just load 'em up.
ANNOUNCER: Then fill them with cobblestones.
They bring in the table top.
Okay, I'm just gonna attach it underneath.
ANNOUNCER: And with that,
the day's final build is complete.
Thank you.
And thank your pink gloves.
Thank you. Awesome. This is beautiful.
ANNOUNCER: Before Matt declares this crash a wrap,
he's got two final surprises.
Check it out.
You have a remote--
No way.
For your waterfall.
( all laughing )
I like that.
So press a button and it's variable speed.
So if you want a low flow, high flow.
Oh.
That is so cool.
All right, one more surprise.
Come on, come on.
Bring them out.
Oh, my gosh.
Guess what those are.
Yes.
Oh, my God.
Can you guess what kind of fish?
That's your largemouth bass.
Yes.
Oh, my God.
You ready for this?
Whoo!
What.
There we go. You have fish.
SCOT: Yeah!
We are done.
That is a wrap.
That is a wrap. That is a wrap.
Good job.
KATIE: Our backyard now looks like it's out of a magazine.
SCOT: Ah, shock and awe,
I think, is a good statement.
It's awesome. It's amazing.
It's every good word you can think of.
Before Yard Crashers our yard was horrible.
SCOT: I had no clue what to do with the yard.
I was at a loss.
KATIE: The hillside kind of baffled us.
MATT: And now you just don't have a hillside, all right?
You have a terrace that goes up, all right?
We molded this hillside.
You got the stone.
You got the gravel, fire pit in the back.
MATT: All right.
I built the footbridge, so I feel pretty accomplished.
I've never built anything with wood before.
SCOT: That table is amazing.
We got--I think you can fit probably eight people
around that sucker.
It's a one of a kind for sure.
You don't have that at home, folks.
MATT: Look underneath this patio cover.
All right, nice beautiful purple
made it look entirely different.
It doesn't look sad anymore.
You have barbeque.
KATIE: Woo!
( cheers )
Yes. Let's grill some of these fish up.
SCOT: My favorite part of this it has to be the river.
You know, you got free waterfalls into a huge pond
full of largemouth bass.
I mean, I'm baffled.
You know, I can't thank these guys enough, they're amazing.
Thank you to the family and friends.
Woo!
Oh.
And to our amazing crew, Kiel, Greg, Donna,
and all these guys over here.
That was a yard crash, enjoy.
We are out of here.
Whoo!