Vacation-Proof Your Home + Italian Family Memories + Attic Renovation Secrets

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-28

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[00:01:31]Your home always knows when you're away.

[00:01:34]From PRI and APM, American Public Media, it's This Old House Radio Hour. I'm Jen Largess. Before you go on vacation, these simple checks can prevent [music] the kind of homecoming that ends in a call to your insurance company. Make sure you have a home recording saved to your cloud. You can [music] use that home recording for your insurance claim.

[00:01:54]When TV host Mekala Bilalzi thinks about [music] home, she starts with the driveway because that meant a full house >> [music] >> and life was happening inside. You never think this is not going to be forever.

[00:02:06]Still, when I dream about home, it's that [music] house. Your attic might be the biggest untapped room in your house.

[00:02:13]How to tell if it's ready to become a real living space. All of this plus we're answering your home improvement questions [music] at 877-864-7460.

[00:02:23]Coming up next.

[00:02:29]It's This Old [music] House radio hour.

[00:02:31]I'm Jen Largess. Vacation season is here and while most of us [music] remember the passports and the chargers and the last-minute snacks for the road, we forget the one thing we're actually leaving behind, your home. Nothing ruins coming home faster than walking through the door to find a leak, a smell, or a problem that's been quietly waiting for you all week. Kishonna Lane, better known online as Weekly Home Check, is back to help you leave your home with confidence. So, the only surprise waiting for us when we return is how good it feels to sleep in our own bed.

[00:03:05]Kishonna, are you one of those people who cleans your house before you go on a trip so that you can come home and just sort of decompress?

[00:03:12]Absolutely. There is no greater feeling than coming back to a clean, maintained home.

[00:03:18]Otherwise, it's just a bit of stress.

[00:03:21]I thought maybe we'd start with the kitchen and what you should do to get it in order before you leave for vacation.

[00:03:26]Absolutely. In our kitchen, we want to make sure that our dishes are done, the countertops are tidy. We've got those large appliances and when we're away from home for extended periods of time, you want to set those on away or vacation modes. It's going to use less energy since no one's using these appliances while you're away from home.

[00:03:46]I'm not familiar with this. What kind of appliances have vacation mode? Where should I look? Our water heaters will all have a vacation mode. There'll be a knob at the bottom, the pilot will remain on.

[00:03:58]And if it doesn't say vacation, you can just turn it to the lowest setting.

[00:04:01]Also, on our thermostats, you may find vacation mode. Your refrigerator may or may not have vacation mode, many of them do. However, if it doesn't, there's a knob that's inside the refrigerator that you can turn it up so it doesn't cool as much while you're gone. And while we're on that topic, you want to make sure you throw out uh expiring [snorts] foods or leftovers that may be in the fridge to prevent any like smells and odors and bacteria growing in the fridge. Just last week we came back from a trip and I lifted up the coffee maker and I guess the moisture underneath had attracted ants. When you're not there on a daily basis to catch it quickly, it can turn into a real big mess. 100%. Another one is the uh dishwasher filter, right? A lot of the times, rice, sauces, and and gunk just from our dirty dishes and plates. If you have a garbage disposal in your sink, run some vinegar down there and squeeze a lemon. It's going to disinfect it and also it's going to clear it of any odors. Now you mentioned the dishwasher. Are we filling it and running it and running out the door? Do you need to leave it open? What's your best advice? I don't know what it is about systems that they just know when you're gone. It's like this is the time to act up. Make sure that dishwasher uh cycle is completed. Keep the lids open and this is for the laundry as well.

[00:05:19]Anything dealing with water, it can completely tear your home down while you were away on vacation. Yeah, that's going to be the one time the toilet handle sticks and it keeps running throughout your whole vacation, right?

[00:05:29]>> what happened to me. Oh, no.

[00:05:31]>> But you know, you you live and you learn, right? And so >> Mhm, yes. Yep.

[00:05:36]>> spreading spreading the words of good good maintenance. A toilet can overflow and leak through rooms, damage ceilings, you have water in the walls, and then there's insurance. Make sure you have a home recording in your back pocket saved to your cloud. You can do this on your phone, you can take pictures, but it's going to be your saving grace in the event that you do get back to your home and there's been a catastrophe of some sort. You can use that home recording for your insurance claim to prove what you had and what has, you know, now been damaged. Do you recommend continuing to run your AC even though nobody's home?

[00:06:15]Yes, I do not recommend turning it completely off. It'll have to work harder to sustain or maintain or get back to a comfortable temperature. In warmer climates, you want to set it to at least 78° when you're away. That's going to also allow it to not get too humid in the house, which can affect many systems, which can cause odors to completely run amok. I think a lot of it, too, is depending on who's living in the home. If you've got young children, I mean, it makes sense to me all the time to walk around and make sure all the windows are closed cuz I never know >> [laughter] >> who's opening what and who's, you know, who's been in what space. And so, doing those little checks of walking around, making sure that there's no batteries charging. A lot of my kids' toys have batteries, fans are unplugged, all those kinds of things. 100% if you can be proactive at um doing small things like just unplugging any and all electronics that don't need to be plugged in, that could potentially prevent a fire. It's those little things.

[00:07:16]>> So, have you ever heard of the penny trick? It's this idea that you put a frozen glass of water or Tupperware in your freezer and you place a penny on top. And if you come home and that penny has sort of melted into the ice at all, you know that there was a period of time maybe that you were without power and you know that you had a period where maybe the things in your freezer had thawed and you might need to check or throw them away. That may cause me even more stress. I'll be running I'll come through the house and run [laughter] to the fridge. The penny's got to be to see where the penny is. Um Where's the penny? Right. And getting to know your home and walking around and having your own checklist is very beneficial. Absolutely. But it's the things that we obviously also don't think about. Like the water that's under the coffee pot. You're right. It's going to attract ants.

[00:08:02]>> you by surprise.

[00:08:03]>> Yeah. Yeah. [laughter] Yeah. Yeah.

[00:08:05]Keyshawn, thank you so much for this information. I think it's good for everyone to create a checklist and these are great tips to [music] do so.

[00:08:11]Absolutely. Thank you.

[00:08:13]That was Keyshawn Lane. For more weekly home tips, go to weeklyhomecheck.com.

[00:08:26]Right now we're answering your home improvement and DIY questions. Call us at 877-864-7460.

[00:08:33]That's 877-864-7460.

[00:08:37]Or you can leave us a voicemail anytime.

[00:08:39]Hello, you're on This Old House Radio Hour.

[00:08:42]Hi, my name is Amy Kramer and I'm calling from Skaneateles Falls, New York.

[00:08:47]Is that how you say the name of your town? Say it again. Yes. Skaneateles Falls.

[00:08:53]I have never been able to say that word.

[00:08:55]I always said Skaneateles or something.

[00:08:58]>> [laughter] >> Yeah, it's a it's a challenging word that most people >> [laughter] >> Amy, what's your question today?

[00:09:08]I recently purchased a 175-year-old farmhouse that has been meticulously cared for. However, the water um connection where you could put a washer is upstairs and there's nowhere to put a dryer.

[00:09:29]So for convenience, I thought this little space where they had a washer would be perfect for an all-in-one washer-dryer system, but some people have told me that they can be pretty damaging to older homes. Interesting. Well, we've got Zack Dettmore, a general contractor for the show here on the line with us.

[00:09:48]Zack, have you ever um used or heard of a all-in-one washer-dryer?

[00:09:54]I have. This is so funny you bring it up because we're currently working on the next season of This Old House and having this exact conversation with the homeowner.

[00:10:04]>> Really? Well, how so?

[00:10:05]>> And >> [laughter] >> and uh I have a lot of feelings about it, but I'm so curious um what what pray tell are the things that people said would happen to an old house if we used one of these?

[00:10:18]Mainly condensation issues. I guess I'm focused more on the ventless because I don't have a vent there. I was told that over time the condensation could potentially damage like the wood or the walls or just the integrity of the older home. All right, let's jump into this.

[00:10:34]So, the first thing to know is there's sort of two types of dryers. We'll forget that they're all-in-one, which basically means that you throw the dirty clothes in, it washes, and then it switches over to drying. It's like a magic box. I can't I can't quite wrap my head around that.

[00:10:50]>> [laughter] >> You don't have to switch over between.

[00:10:52]Just one time in and then it goes all the way through the cycle or do you have to interact with it at some point? No, it's one-stop shopping. Wow.

[00:11:02]Okay, I'm all ears.

[00:11:04]Um I think I think honestly the biggest gripe we'll we'll just address the gripe is going to be capacity. If you're used to a gas um dryer or like a high usage electric dryer, I'll call it something that uses 220 volts versus a standard home receptacle, um they have bigger capacity, whereas a um ventless typically has a smaller capacity and takes longer to dry the clothes. So, that's sort of the number one complaint.

[00:11:31]But, let's talk about um the two types.

[00:11:34]You have a condenser dryer, which typically collects the water in a tank.

[00:11:39]So, it's not putting a huge amount of humidity out into the house. And then, you have a heat pump dryer, which uses less energy, and it puts almost no extra humidity into the house. So, typically what I think I would recommend is going with a heat pump because it's going to use less energy. And what we're seeing in New York and New Jersey is that the cost of electricity is going up and up. So, we really want to try and go with the thing that's going to be cheapest to run. So, I would say you want to look for a heat pump dryer, and I would say you have very little to be worried about in terms of moisture in the house. But, you can check the unit you're going to purchase to make make sure that's the case. But, it is not taking all of that moisture from the wet clothes and dumping it into the air of the house. It's either dumping it into the a tank, or it's managing it in another way. So, I would say if you're okay waiting a little bit longer for the clothes to dry, go heat pump dryer, and you'll love it. So, the heat pump dryer, does it connect Do you know if it connects to like a standard outlet? Are there options for that?

[00:12:52]Cuz the space that I have in the kitchen, yeah, it's just a standard outlet, no vent.

[00:12:58]It's just a little kind of space in the corner.

[00:13:01]Yes, that heat pump takes a lot less energy, so it doesn't need that like large 220-V receptacle that um old electric dryers needed. Yeah.

[00:13:12]Now, Zach, does she have to have a dedicated circuit? She said it's in the kitchen. All of her receptacles for the kitchen are tied together. Does she have to have a new line run so this is at least a dedicated 20 amp? I can't speak to the uh electrical code in the skinny Atlas. [laughter] Uh but um I would say that um if we were to dive into it, um the code probably says you should. Now, if we if we looked at all of the houses there, probably they're not doing that, but the correct answer is >> [laughter] >> is yes, you should have a dedicated line for an appliance of this type. Got it.

[00:13:51]Um [snorts] it's basically we don't know if that is sharing, you know, a line with an air conditioner or with blow dryer or microwave, and although that receptacle might be enough power to run that dryer on its own, it may not be enough to run that plus an air conditioner plus a blow dryer plus a microwave. Yep. Cuz you blow dry your hair in the kitchen.

[00:14:11]I always do. I just stick my head in the dryer, but that's just me.

[00:14:14]>> [laughter] >> It's less and less every day, too.

[00:14:20]Well, thank you for your expert advice.

[00:14:23]It sounds like putting one in that's all-in-one might help with my heating cost, which is great. And I won't have to blow dry my hair in the kitchen anymore, either.

[00:14:33]>> to find a new spot.

[00:14:35]>> [laughter] >> All right. Well, thank you so much.

[00:14:38]Thanks for the call. [music] All right.

[00:14:40]See you.

[00:14:41]Coming up, we answer more of your home improvement and DIY questions. Call us at 877-864-7460.

[00:14:47][music] That's 877-864-7460.

[00:14:54]It's This Old House radio [music] hour.

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[00:16:02]When was the last time you watched your home movies? Disasters strike unexpectedly. Every year American families lose the one thing they'd run back into a burning building for, their families' memories. Hi, I'm [music] Nick.

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[00:17:05]>> [music] >> You're [music] listening to This Old House Radio Hour. I'm Dan Lurie just Right now we're tackling your home improvement and DIY [music] questions.

[00:17:16]Call us at 877-864-7460.

[00:17:21]That's 877-864-7460 or you can leave us a voicemail anytime.

[00:17:28]Hello, you're on This Old House radio hour.

[00:17:30]Hi, it's Michael Antolak from uh Minneapolis, Minnesota.

[00:17:34]Hi Michael, what's your question today?

[00:17:36]I have a house that was built um the original structure was built in the late 1890s and it was stuccoed over in I think the 1930s.

[00:17:47]Um the stucco is starting to go on it but it's mostly just ugly. Like it is faded in different places. There's [laughter] um residue from water dripping on it over the years and I've thought about painting it but if I ask stucco guys if I should paint stucco, they say no because of the moisture getting trapped in there and if I ask [clears throat] painters, they say, well, of course you should paint it cuz it'll be make it look really nice.

[00:18:15]So, my question is is whether I should paint it or restucco the whole thing.

[00:18:21]Well, luckily we've got This Old House general contractor is Zack Detmore and painter Mauro Henrique both on the line.

[00:18:27]So, we're going to let them duke it out.

[00:18:29]>> [laughter] >> All right, that's my thing. That's my thing.

[00:18:33]Michael, I would say paint it.

[00:18:36]Yeah, okay. He's not surprised Mauro.

[00:18:39]Tell us why.

[00:18:40]>> Mauro. [laughter] He set the trap for you and you went right into it. Hey, we talk, you know.

[00:18:45]>> [laughter] >> Uh well, what do you have to say about when people say you risk um moisture getting behind there and the paint trapping you know, not allowing the stucco to act as stucco? Uh um there's there's two two different things there. Two different um approach. There's paint and then there's paint specifically for a stucco.

[00:19:07]Okay? What's the difference?

[00:19:09]>> There's two different. The difference is the uh elastomeric paint, you're going to have an elastomeric stucco paint or stain that will move according to the uh the weather cuz all material moves all the times. All right? So, you're saying it moves, it doesn't breathe? It does It breathe This paint is also breathable.

[00:19:32]Okay? The And then moisture, if there's any moisture that gets trapped in it, the because it's breathable, it pushes the moisture out.

[00:19:41]Moisture doesn't get trapped behind the paint behind the coat of paint behind the the stucco paint.

[00:19:47]Uh it But you don't you don't want to go anything um other than the this the very specific paint for stucco.

[00:19:55]How can I make sure that the painter's using using stucco paint? Do you think they would know what to use if I just said Oh, just If you're going to If you're going to hire someone, just say, "Hey, look, this is the kind of paint that I want on my house."

[00:20:08]Mhm. And uh look at the paint Look at the painting can.

[00:20:13]See if that says elastomeric.

[00:20:15]And and that's the one number one thing that I do for stucco houses in general.

[00:20:20]Not a regular paint cuz that will not going to help. So, a regular paint will trap the moisture, not let the stucco breathe, but this elastomeric will let it breathe and move. It will breathe then it moves according to the materials.

[00:20:35]Um this is what the good thing about this paint. So, uh because if you put like a less than regular flat paint, you will crack. Mhm. You know, it will create moisture behind and all that stuff that you do not want on your house. Mhm.

[00:20:48]Right. So, I think the key takeaways here are what the stucco needs, what it wants to do is absorb rain, right? It doesn't want a jacket on. It wants to be able to release moisture, and it wants to be able to dry quickly. Absolutely. So, any paint or coating that you apply, um you're looking for vapor breathability, uh low vapor resistance, or extreme breathability. So, those are the terminologies you want to look for, and I would think they would be, you know, to tomorrow's point, properly labeled as such, but I think trust but verify, right? If you find a painter you trust you you trust and you like, you ask them what they recommend, what they've had success with, and then you take that information and compare it against the product that was sort of your front-runner. And if they're right, then trust them. If they're if they've picked something that's um completely um >> problematic. Yeah, waterproof or sealing, or you know, something that's going to trap moisture, keep moisture out. Like if you had a wood, right?

[00:21:53]You'd want it to be a barrier because you don't want the wood to get wet. In this case, we do. So, um I would see what the painter suggests, and the one who you feel like is really in the know the most, hire that painter. Yeah, that's that's a good start for stucco surface in general. Elastomeric paint.

[00:22:11]Okay, well, that's a great answer. Uh one more question, uh very important.

[00:22:15]What's your favorite color to paint the outside of a house?

[00:22:18]Mhm.

[00:22:19]That's a hey, we don't have 5 minutes right now. It's going to cost you a few bucks if I release this precious information to you. Yeah. Do you know how much people pay him for this question?

[00:22:29]>> [laughter] >> Uh I know, I mean, you you can pay me later, but I like I like a um like the sand color for stucco. It looks natural.

[00:22:39]It you know, I see a lot of people painting light gray or sometimes brown, and but I like the sand looks that, you know, that off-white that goes It looks like you got nothing on it your on your stucco walls, but it has like a finish, very distinct, very clean-cut finish.

[00:22:57]That's what I That's what I would do if I have my stucco house.

[00:23:01]>> Yeah.

[00:23:02]Cool, That's That's what I was thinking.

[00:23:04]Something Something warmer anyway. I'm really over the grays everywhere. Oh, no. A stucco I mean stucco is like brick. If you put the wrong color on, bad news bears. Doesn't make any sense.

[00:23:15]>> [laughter] >> Yeah. Right?

[00:23:17]Well, Michael, thank you for the call.

[00:23:19]Well, thank you both for your time. I really appreciate this. Anytime. No problem. Thank you.

[00:23:24]Call us now to have your home improvement or DIY question answered.

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[00:23:40]Hello, you're on This Old House Radio Hour.

[00:23:42]Hi. My name's Elise Slater and I live in Green Valley, Arizona, which is just south of Tucson.

[00:23:50]And I am redoing a house that was built in the mid 1980s. It's a townhouse. I bought it for my mom. She lived there for a few years and then it's been largely unoccupied for about 10 years.

[00:24:05]And after she moved out, I had two species of rodents invade on two different occasions.

[00:24:13]Uh-oh. And living here is like living in the pages of National Geographic. So, what's happening is I pulled the vanity out of the the master bath and there was a big sheet of sheetrock missing on one side and I could see a rodent nest there. And when I pulled the shower surround and base out, they've traveled all along the base of the wall and actually got under the shower pan and and brought insulation in and nested around the drain space below the pan.

[00:24:45]And I don't know if I had to clean this up and I've looked everywhere on the internet and YouTube and everything.

[00:24:50]There's really no information out there for me. I don't know if I have to actually if I can sand it down and put Kilz on it, or do I have to like rip all this wood out? It's the wall between two bathrooms. There's I don't know what to do about that wood.

[00:25:04]>> We've got Zack Dettmore, a general contractor for the show, on the line with us as well.

[00:25:08]Your your instincts are good. Everything you're saying is spot-on. I like this.

[00:25:13]So, it's very uncommon for us to open up a wall and not find it full of rodent droppings because they can squeeze into a gap that's a 1/4 in wide or or greater. So, it's it's very difficult to detail, um, you know, house wall systems in a way that they are that airtight.

[00:25:37]Definitely protect yourself.

[00:25:39]You know, cover your eyes, wear a mask.

[00:25:41]Um, use a vacuum if you can.

[00:25:44]But, um, pretty much you're just going to get rid of any residue of mice, and then, um, if you're concerned about cleaning it, hydrogen peroxide cleaner works, or, uh, enzymatic pet odor cleaner works. And then, we would recommend using like a stain-blocking primer. And basically, you're sealing it in. You don't need to sand the wood or treat it. You just want to seal it in because they haven't urinated on it enough to cause rot. So, the the the frame, the structure, is still typically intact. So, you just want to seal it in to sort of keep that odor from leaching out through the wood. Clean it up, and then, um, before you close it up, detail it with, um, a pest or rodent-blocking foam or steel wool, something that they can't get into so this problem is solved in the future. And, you know, you can even use like a mineral wool insulation because they don't like to eat that because it the fibers are made of, um, stone, not, uh, something that, you know, they could consume. It's also, um, termite resistant. And just sort of fill up those areas if you're if you're concerned. But, really, you know, like an oil-based primer works well. Okay, great. And then the steel wool, can I I mean the the rock wool, can I put that in where there is no insulation currently to discourage them from even using the spaces between the studs? Is that There is no insulation in there now.

[00:27:10]Totally acceptable to use that. It's resistant to fire. Um any stone wool product um is great for that because it'll it'll make the passage for them um more difficult.

[00:27:21]Okay. And I don't actually know where they're coming from when they're getting to the master. I did I did find their entry point in the kitchen, but they're um in the master, I don't know if they're coming down the wiring or if they're traveling through the cinder blocks. I don't know. I don't know.

[00:27:39]Unfortunately, unless you take the whole house apart, you can't detail it properly cuz you really need to imagine wrapping your whole house in a blanket that's completely monolithic, and you just don't have the capabilities of doing that cuz this renovation isn't that large. So, the best you can do is just seal up every little hole you see with like an expanding foam that has pest block in the name um because it has chemicals in it which they don't like to to eat through.

[00:28:07]Um but unfortunately, it is possible that you could do all this work and they will still get through in some place.

[00:28:13]So, just trying to stuff um those cavities and seal up everything you can is is about as good as it gets at this stage when you're not ripping the whole house apart.

[00:28:24]Great. Well, thank you so very much. I really appreciate your advice. No problem. Good luck with it. Thank you.

[00:28:31]Right now, we're answering your home improvement and DIY questions. Call us now at 877-864-7460.

[00:28:39]That's 877-864-7460.

[00:28:44]Or you can leave Leave a voicemail anytime. Hello, you're on This Old House Radio Hour. Hey, how you doing?

[00:28:50]I'm David Schaf. I'm calling from Alaska. Anchorage. Hi David, what's your question today?

[00:28:57]Well, I was having problems with a backup battery for my computer. I had put it in and the um backup would say has this light and it says yeah, when it blinks, it says yeah, there's faulty wiring in the building and not to use the battery. And it won't work anyway. So, I thought maybe there was a problem since I lived here for like 25 years without one. So, I exchanged it, got a different one and the new one's saying the same thing.

[00:29:31]Um I also have a power extension cord which tells me whether the polarity is good or not and it says the polarity's fine. So, I'm I'm at a loss of what what it's trying to tell me.

[00:29:45]Absolutely. Well, we've got Zack Detmore, a general contractor for the show and Heath Eastman, electrician for This Old House both here to help. Oh, great.

[00:29:53]Hi David.

[00:29:54]Um first question I'd have for you is when you're plugging in this is like a a standalone kind of UPS, right?

[00:30:01]Uninterruptible power supply like you'd buy at a big box store.

[00:30:05]Yeah, it's a large battery uh that you plug in and it it gives you like 15 minutes worth of uh electricity if you're out and we get outages up up here pretty often.

[00:30:18]I can imagine. So, the first question would be are you plugging that UPS directly into the receptacle in the wall or are you plugging it into a surge strip of any kind?

[00:30:26]I did both just to see if there was any difference. There was no difference. No difference. So, usually when it's giving you an error on one of those UPS systems, it's telling you it has a couple of one of a couple of different conditions. So, one will be polarity is an issue, reverse polarity, but you're saying you're seeing something different in another tester.

[00:30:46]Um the other common one is there's no ground and it will still give you that kind of code if there is no ground in the actual receptacle.

[00:30:53]Ah, okay.

[00:30:55]So, is that something that you're supposed that they they should have put in when they built the home?

[00:31:03]How old the I mean if it's a three-prong receptacle, you'd expect it to be there.

[00:31:06]How old is the home? Well, the home is made in 1985.

[00:31:10]Mhm. Um and I've been in it for like 25 years myself.

[00:31:15]Um it is a three-prong receptacle.

[00:31:17]>> Yeah, so '85, it should have been. Yeah.

[00:31:19]So, I wouldn't rely on the extension cord for your testing, but I would probably grab a plug-in tester. Simple enough at any, you know, home center.

[00:31:28]Um you can get them that reset the GFIs as well, but you just plug it in and it will show three indicator lights on it and will tell you if everything's wired correctly and if there is a ground there.

[00:31:36]And when you plug that tester in, you'll kind of get a better idea of what's going on with the receptacle.

[00:31:42]Okay, so when it says there's faulty wiring in the building, that doesn't mean I have to get electrician to go through the whole building, do I? Not necessarily. It's saying where it's plugged in, it's seeing the fault. So, it's it's thinking it's seeing either no ground or an open ground or it's seeing reverse polarity typically.

[00:31:58]Zack, that's what you were going to say too, right?

[00:32:01]Yeah, I mean he pretty much covered the talking points. I was going to ask, you know, where the moon was when this happened, but we'll skip that. Um no, I was curious I was curious in a Or close to the north polarity, so >> [laughter] >> Yeah, that's the only polarity I know about.

[00:32:17]I was curious um being in a uh area like that, could the quality of the power delivery to the building be affected? You you you had mentioned you had this because outages were were common or is alternating current coming to a house sort of the same. No, that's a great point. It could be that maybe the voltage is actually low. I don't know that those pick that up, but that is a possibility.

[00:32:46]Well, the the reason for outages mostly because either squirrels get into those boxes and blow everything up or the snow so heavy it pulls down the wires. But usually the electricity is is uh pretty pretty well done. Um it's just you know, being in Alaska you've got all these extra things to worry about.

[00:33:09]Squirrels mostly.

[00:33:11]Yeah, it's happened three or four times up there, right? And I saw one blow up right near the house. It was really bizarre.

[00:33:17]Really? Have you have you tried plugging the UPS in somewhere else? In a different receptacle to see if it does the same thing? Yeah, like Massachusetts.

[00:33:25]>> Yeah, it does the same thing.

[00:33:27]It does the same thing no matter where you And this is the second unit and you're getting the same fault. Yeah.

[00:33:32]Yeah. Yeah.

[00:33:34]I would start with one of those simple testers and just see what it's telling you. It's only it'll tell you if you have the ground and if the polarity is correct and at that point you may want to look at contacting electrician. I'm not sure what else would be going on short of maybe like Zach said, maybe low voltage or something along those lines. Yeah, it's possible that that's a consideration.

[00:33:51]The only other one is that in 1985 the homes here were not built pretty built well because the builders would build a home quickly and then they get out of the state.

[00:34:04]So it took a while before they started making laws here regulations about that.

[00:34:10]So that's a possibility, too. Yeah.

[00:34:13]I think that simple tester is probably the first starting point.

[00:34:16]>> like you might be going out there and grabbing a grounding rod and beating it into the ground and solving your problem.

[00:34:22]>> [laughter] >> Yeah. Oh yeah, all right. Just wait till the ground thaws.

[00:34:28]>> [laughter] >> Yeah, I think I think that tester is so cheap it makes sense to just just buy it and then you'll know you'll at least all of these things are always a process of elimination so you need to start with the diagnostics closest to your home before you you know are traveling down to the power plant banging on their door.

[00:34:45]>> That's the simplest and and quickest test to find out where you stand. Mhm.

[00:34:48]All right, that sounds pretty good. I'll we'll do that. All right, sounds good.

[00:34:52]All right, good luck. All right, thank you very much.

[00:34:56]If you have a question for us, leave us a voicemail on our hotline 877-864-7460 [music] and we can answer your question next time. Coming up PBS TV host Mickela Mallozzi shows us her old house.

[00:35:10]The second [music] we'd get home and as soon as you open that door there was this whiff of food and warmth. [music] Garlic or tomato sauce or something hot.

[00:35:19]The sliding door was like always steamy.

[00:35:21]That's next [music] on This Old House Radio Hour.

[00:35:27]>> [music] [music] [music] >> Welcome back to This Old House Radio Hour. I'm Jen Largesse. Coming up how to turn your attic [music] into an extra room. But first we go to Stamford, Connecticut where Mickela Mallozzi, the host of PBS's Barefoot, grew up in a loud and loving Italian-American house where the driveway doubled as a stage, [music] the kitchen was the center of the universe and home meant family was just one room away.

[00:36:08]I'm Mickela Mallozzi. [music] I'm the host of Barefoot on PBS and this is my old house. [music] I grew up on this little side street in Stamford, Connecticut in a working-class neighborhood.

[00:36:23]This is two-story colonial home that evolved with the family and expanded and changed colors and changed textures.

[00:36:33]It was this communal space that my family always came to. I come from a really big extended family. We have a really small nuclear family, but >> [music] >> my cousins, first cousins, second cousins, third cousins, fourth cousins, uncles, aunts, great aunts, uncles, it was this place where everyone came together.

[00:36:52]It's the driveway that really I remember the most because when the driveway was full, you knew the house was full and it was this joyful way of seeing this line of cars.

[00:37:03]People are here and it's raucous and loud and there's food.

[00:37:09]Both sides of my family immigrated from this little town in southern Italy between Rome and Naples called Minturno.

[00:37:17]And when my mom's family moved over, they bought this house. [music] So, my mom and her sister grew up in that house. And then in the '80s, my parents moved into the house when my grandparents moved [music] back to Italy and I was born in that house. My sister is a wheelchair user. She has cerebral palsy. It was a big learning curve for my family [music] navigating the world of disability and accessibility in the '70s. So, when I was a kid, our back deck, she had an electric lift that was this very slow-moving cranking [music] kind of lift that would get her chair up and it was outside. So, if it was raining, we'd have to hold an umbrella.

[00:37:54]And then eventually, my parents decided to make [music] an extension to enclose this lift, but also make our dining room bigger so that her bigger wheelchair could fit.

[00:38:08]Well, my father is a retired carpenter.

[00:38:09]He was a carpenter for >> [music] >> 40-something years. So, he put his stamp on that house over the 40 years that was my family home. For a lot of reasons, your family grows, your family changes.

[00:38:23]And so, [music] it was this constant rejuvenation of the house when things needed to change based on size. It was this idea of solving problems.

[00:38:32]>> [music] >> Food was the center of our world. The second we'd get home, and as soon as you open that door, there was this whiff of food and warmth. Garlic or tomato sauce [music] or something hot. The sliding door was like always steamy. And the stove fan is this constant rumble that would be on all the time in the house.

[00:38:54]Because my mom, when she wasn't cooking the meal we were about to eat, she was going to be cooking something else that we were going to eat at some point. My dad would make homemade wine. We jarred [music] tomatoes. We were always in the kitchen, and the kitchen wasn't very big. And we're a very loud family. Most Italians are. Like, we're not arguing with each other, we're just speaking to each other.

[00:39:14]And storytelling at the table, it was always the focal point of entertainment, joy, fights, arguments, negotiations, all of that. It was always the kitchen.

[00:39:27]The physicality [music] of having a two-story house with a person with a disability started to show when we started getting older.

[00:39:36]Eventually, [music] my sister went away to college and then moved to Boston. But when she was home, we couldn't carry her upstairs [music] anymore. The house ran its course for our family at a certain point. My parents sold during [music] the crash in 2008.

[00:39:51]We got a call from my mom saying, "The movers came and packed up all our [music] stuff, and we're moving into a different house." I didn't even pack up my own stuff. It was this shock.

[00:40:03]Heartbreaking.

[00:40:04]>> [music] >> You never think as a kid, "This is not going to be forever. This isn't going to always [music] be here." Still, when I dream about home, it's that house. And it's been almost 20 years since we last lived in there.

[00:40:17]I think also [music] I didn't get to say a proper goodbye to that house. That makes it such a strange chopping off a limb kind of [music] like it just disappeared. You just think that can't be because we were supposed to grow old in this house and then you don't.

[00:40:31]Home to me means [music] smelling the food when you open the door. It means hearing people [music] in the other rooms coming closer and that still happens when I go home. I walk in the door and there's echoes >> [music] >> of what our old house sounded like. That fan is still running cuz my mom is still cooking. That's home is like food, sound, energy, >> [music] >> yelling. Now like everyone's losing their hearing, right? Everyone's getting older so it's just louder and louder and louder but that's home to me [music] is this like mishmash of imperfection yet at the same time a wall of [music] love and energy and food. That's home to me.

[00:41:23]>> [music] >> That was Mekhela Melazzi. Season 8 of Barefoot with Mekhela Melazzi is out now on PBS. [music] Most houses are hiding extra space, an attic full of potential, a garage waiting to become something more, a forgotten room that could really change the way you live. But before you start dreaming about a home office or a guest suite, a bonus room, you need to know if that space can actually do the job. This Old House builder Charlie Silva joins us to explain what makes an attic truly livable and when your big renovation dream might just be better left as storage. Charlie, thanks for being here.

[00:42:06]Nice to be here, Jen. So Charlie, how do you know if you can transform your attic into a living space? What are you looking for exactly when you walk into that room to see if it is even a doable project? Well, to walk into that room with the attic space, you want you need access to it. Most attics have a pull-down that we've all seen drops down into the hallway, but if you want habitable living space, a pull-down is not going to do it. Code-wise, it's not going to work. And you don't want to have a Griswold moment where you get stuck up there. I think that happened to uh one of my customers one time. The husband went by and shut the attic stairs because his wife was up there and he didn't know it, so >> [laughter] >> Well, maybe that's a good thing.

[00:42:43]>> Maybe it is a good thing.

[00:42:46]Okay, so you need a set of stairs to hit code in order to be able to get into the space. Then what? Well, then what is is head space, head room space, right? So, if it's a five pitch roof, it's going to be a non-starter, meaning it's way too low. If you have a 8 10 12 pitch roof, you're going to have some space. Eight is a little tight, but depends on the on the width and the depth of the house, right? Or what that space would be. The steeper the pitch, meaning the higher that number, like a 12, you have a might much taller roof line.

[00:43:15]A lot of for example, a lot of ranches might be a five or six or seven eight pitch roof, and you might have a colonial with a 10 or 12 pitch roof with some dormers on it or something like that. If you have that, you know, then that's going to be a habitable space that you can walk around in. So, the lower the number, sort of the flatter the triangle. The higher the number, the steeper the triangle, which means it's going to be taller, you're going to have more head space inside.

[00:43:39]That's right. How do you create to code proper access to a finished space like this? Well, if you go into most houses with a second floor, where are the stairs generally? They're generally above the stairs going to the basement.

[00:43:51]So, that space is taken up already going to the basement. So, now most stairs would go above those stairs for access.

[00:43:58]If you have a hallway in the center of your house and it's a ranch, your basement stairs are generally going towards the back of the house. Your stairs to your new second floor would start on the outside wall going above those stairs going to the basement leading you to the center of the high pitch part of the roof, which is good.

[00:44:16]So, when you're walking up, you'd walk up to the high spot of your attic.

[00:44:19]>> What happens if you walk up there and you see a ton of HVAC equipment or you see a ton of different pipes and lines running? How hard are those to move or can they even be moved at all? They definitely can be moved, but let's say you go up there and there's a HVAC system that is for your air conditioning heating or or just one of them.

[00:44:38]Generally, that ductwork might be running right down, let's say the off the center of it, and the air handler is just sitting up there. You could move the air handler. You can install new ductwork going around the perimeter, let's call it the gutter line again, so that could go behind any wall. Mhm. What you really want to do is get the ductwork moved and then reuse the vents that are going through the ceiling down below, so you're not patching and painting ceilings now at this point, but really feed it to the existing. So, if I want to make this finished space into, let's say, a bedroom or an office, does code require me to have a window or a point of egress in this area?

[00:45:12]You definitely have to have egress.

[00:45:14]Different states have different codes, but really everything comes down to a fire code for egress.

[00:45:20]And if it's an attic over, let's say, a ranch, there's most likely not even any gable windows up there. There's most likely just vents. So, you're going to want to have a fire egress code window.

[00:45:31]I would put them on both sides. Call it a double hung window. We open it up. It has to be so many square feet, but let's say, for example, you don't have enough space for a double hung window to fit. A casement window the proper size would work. So, let's talk about one of the biggest problems with attics, and that is that they are usually, especially in the summer, very hot. And I don't know, maybe in the winter very cold. How do you know if you have the right insulation already or are you always going to have to modify that if it's a living space? I would have to say a high percentage of the time it's not going to have any insulation in the roof rafter system now because it is an uninhabitable space. Going then your floor probably has some kind of insulation in it, which would be the floor of the attic or the ceiling of the first floor. So, you would be to code once again having to insulate in between your roof rafters to whatever that code is required in that state you live in.

[00:46:23]And if I want this area to be a conditioned space like the rest of my home, am I going to be able to just tack on and use my existing HVAC system or is this a different space of the house that I'm going to need something dedicated?

[00:46:36]Depending on the age of your system, you're going to want to have it on its own separate zone. So, let's say you're adding on 1,000 square feet. It's 1,200 square feet of the We're going to call this a ranch and it's a 1,200 square foot ranch. And you're going to make it now a 2,200 square foot house because the first and second floor. So, mechanically if it's insulated properly, will probably enough BTUs to do that space. You're going to have a professional HVAC system installer to do the calcs. Now, there's most likely a good chance that it's an older system and you might want to take this opportunity to upgrade your system. Why spend that money and labor on a system that's 15 years old? Maybe it's time to getting close to upgrade it. And I'm not saying it's going to be a wash. You'd have to buy new equipment, but you are going to get a much more efficient system and kind of spending the same labor and probably even more efficient ductwork. And I would zone it for sure. So, the first floor would have its own zone and the attic new space would be another zone. Yeah, I think you hear those stories of people refinishing their spaces and they're sweating up there. It doesn't The AC isn't reaching them and they are hot. So, do you ever see people put a little mini split or do something else up there? They do for sure and I'm and I love mini splits, but at the same time if you go back to your existing system and it's time, why you have a 15 20 year old system when you could update that for the same money basically and have it do both spaces.

[00:47:59]And once again, if it's insulated properly, so for example, if you're using a closed cell foam in between the roof rafters, I mean, that's about as good as good as you're going to get. I think what a lot of people dream of creating this new usable space, one of the things that they want to add is a bathroom. How difficult is that? You can absolutely can add it. The best way to put add it though and and where to add it is above the one on the first floor.

[00:48:23]All your drain works there.

[00:48:24]Now, you have to access it and get down through the walls and if it's stacked over another bathroom, it helps.

[00:48:31]But it doesn't mean it adds a third of the cost to the bathroom if you put it in another location of that space above.

[00:48:37]You just have to get access down to the let's call it through the first floor into the basement, you know, and the waste has to get out down tying into the waste that's coming from the other one.

[00:48:46]So, it doesn't mean it's doubling the cost, adding a you know, 30% to the cost of the bathroom cuz the bathroom is the bathroom. So, Charlie, what do you do if you're short on space in your attic and you want to get a little more? I was actually at one probably 6 months ago.

[00:49:01]They had the right pitch. They had access with the stairs. They had windows on each end, but it wasn't a deep house.

[00:49:09]So, the roof pitch was a 12 pitch, but you didn't have much depth. So, you get up to the attic it and it really needed a dormer. Mhm. The only thing it was going to be was a big hallway up in the attic. And a dormer is when you're driving down the street and you look at someone's house and if they have a window, not a skylight, built into the roof system, that's a dormer. You can have what they call an A dormer, maybe it's 3 or 4 ft wide. Sometimes it's a full shed dormer on the back of the house or the front of the house. And a full shed dormer goes the whole width of the house and generally in about a foot from each end of the roof. And I'm not saying it's the same amount of money, but instead of putting a couple of dormers up there, why don't you take off another 10 roof rafters or 12 and make that dormer wider, making that more practical space. What do you think are the most common mistakes you see people make when they try to maybe DIY an attic conversion? Well, probably first and foremost would be is they didn't think it through with all everything that we've just talked about.

[00:50:07]>> [laughter] >> Two, if they don't pull a permit, there's an issue. But one of the number one problem I see is people assuming their mechanicals are going to be just fine and it's going to be okay and it's going to be a one-zone system and the thermostat's on the first floor and now it's 400° upstairs and it's, you know, freezing downstairs, whatever it might be. People might say, "Oh, I'm I'm going to be able to save 20% of my budget by skipping on this thing here and, you know, really think through everything and really have a professional help you talk it through like you and I doing right now. You have that conversation.

[00:50:41]No question is stupid. It's your house and it's your money. And what you didn't talk about, probably the biggest pain in the neck of all of it, is who's going to clean out the attic when [music] it comes time to do all of this.

[00:50:51]>> [laughter] >> That's not going to be my job. I would say get a 30-yard dumpster and [music] then tag team.

[00:50:57]>> [laughter] >> If it's been up there for years, you don't need it.

[00:51:01]Well, Charlie, that's [music] fantastic information and we thank you so much for coming on today.

[00:51:07]If you're curious about transforming a room in your home, call our hotline and leave us a voicemail at 877-864-7460 [music] and we can let you know what's possible.

[00:51:25]Next week on This Old House Radio Hour, comedian Shang Wang takes us just outside of Houston, Texas to tell us about his old house, a Taiwanese-American household at the edge of the bayou where 12 people lived under one roof, how the bayou became his childhood kingdom, and cicadas still sound like home.

[00:51:44]My dad first took me there when we were really young and being the child of immigrants, my dad grew up pretty poor, youngest of eight and coming here as a dad, there wasn't a lot that we could connect over in terms of pop culture, music, entertainment. It was mostly about being outside and exploring wildlife, going fishing. My dad was a avid fisher, so he always liked to check to see if there's fish in any body of water. It was just a magical place cuz it was full of life. Plus the air in your home is only as clean as what's hiding inside your walls. We tell you what it takes to clean your ducts.

[00:52:21]That's next week on This Old House radio hour.

[00:52:25]And now it's time for one last thing, my favorite tool.

[00:52:30]>> [music] >> Hey Jen, it's Zach Detmore, contractor for the show and my favorite tool is ethanol-free [music] fuel. So, if you're using a small engine, think your snow thrower, your lawn mower, and you're putting fuel from [music] a gas pump in it, that has ethanol in it and ethanol absorbs water and if that fuel is left in your engine, you will have water in your engine and it's really not good for storage. [music] So, it's better than fuel stabilizer to have no ethanol in the first place. So, you can just pick up a jug of ethanol-free fuel, [music] run your small engines, but then they will start up every time and you can store them with that fuel in it and have less issues. I've done it for years, I love the stuff [music] and I use it all the time.

[00:53:15]>> [music] >> We'll see you next week on This Old House radio hour. Our show is distributed by and co-produced by Elias Studios [music] and APM, American Public Media. This Old House radio hour was created and produced by Ember [music] 20. Listen to new episodes of the podcast every Tuesday on your app of choice. You can follow This Old House on all the socials at This Old [music] House, all one word. We'll see you next week.

[00:53:53]Everybody has a hot take on the economy, and whether you're curious about inflation, [music] trade wars, or the markets, what you need is reporting you can trust. Hi, I'm Kai Ryssdal, the host of Marketplace. Our award-winning reporters [music] talk to everybody from CEOs to farmers to help you understand how the economy takes shape in the real world.

[00:54:11]You'll be smarter every time you listen, [music] and these days, that's priceless. Listen to Marketplace on your favorite podcast app.