Drone Home Inspection

Posted on by Tim Carter
drone photo of new home wood walls

This is a new home being built in Altadena, CA. The original house succumbed to the Eaton wildfire in January of 2025. A video-equipped drone allows the owner to track and curate construction progress. Copyright 2026 David Werntz Wings by Werntz

Drone Home Inspection

Thirteen months ago, my very good friends Steve and Karin were going about their daily lives in their wonderful home in Altadena, California. Several years before, I had visited for a week. Steve and I plowed through a long honey-do list. I donated my time to Steve to help pay back all the work he does to maintain my Ask the Builder website.

Our improvements, along with the magnificent house, were destroyed in the Eaton wildfire. Steve and Karin only had 30 minutes’ notice to evacuate. Red-hot embers were swirling all around their house. Everything that couldn’t be crammed into their two small cars was consumed by the voracious flames. This is what flying embers look like at nighttime:

I’ll never forget the next day when Steve sent me a photo of what remained of his home. A neighbor was able to sneak past the blockades to capture the devastation. Steve could only muster up two words for the photo caption: “Not good.” I was heartbroken to say the least.

house destroyed by eaton wildfire altadena ca

This is the rear of Steve's house. The Eaton wildfire took no prisoners.

The good news is that the rebuilding process started in earnest about two months ago. The original developer was hired to rebuild the 50+ homes that were consumed by the wildfire. Many houses in the subdivision survived the flames. One of them is owned by Dave, a close friend of Steve’s. Dave’s house is but 300 feet from Steve’s. Dave is a small-plane flight instructor and also flies drones as a hobby. Visit his website Wings by Werntz.

Dave has been keeping Steve up to date on the construction progress by flying his drone up to the construction site. Steve is living in a rental house about fifty miles away. I get to see all the photos and videos created by the high-resolution camera on the drone. I’m stunned by the clarity and how Dave can pilot the drone down close to capture very small details. The drone technology is almost unbelievable.

You can use a drone to help you keep in touch with those parts of your home you can’t inspect without violating the laws of gravity. I used to have little fear of climbing ladders and walking on roofs. Those days are over as I’ve lost my nerve to a very large degree. An accident is bound to happen if you no longer can maintain your balance or doubt your motor skills when up on a ladder.

A drone can inspect any building. One can even do masonry buildings. The drone’s video camera can focus on the mortar joints as well as the brick or stone. You can spot crumbling mortar within minutes. There’s no need to scale a dangerous, tall ladder.

I’m about to invest in a drone for my own use. With a small amount of practice, I know I can use one to inspect my roof for missing shingles. The drone would allow me to look at the flashings around plumbing vent pipes, my chimney, and skylights. My feet would be planted safely and firmly in the grass as the drone performs the dangerous work.

You can use a drone to do all of the above. It gets better. Imagine not having to wonder if the last big storm caused damage you can’t see from the ground. The day after the storm, you could have your drone up in the air looking for problems on your roof. The drone could let you know if any of your siding or fascia boards were damaged by flying debris.

The current Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requirements are pretty simple. If your drone weighs less than 0.55 pounds and you fly the drone for recreation, you don’t have to register it. Drones that weigh 0.55 pounds or more must be registered at the FAADroneZone website.

That said, if you’re a recreational flyer, you must complete the Recreational UAS Safety Test (TRUST) and carry proof of completion while operating your drone. You should visit the FAADroneZone website to read all the rules that apply to recreational flying. You can’t just buy a drone, charge the batteries, and start flying it legally without complying with the FAA regulations.

You may be tempted to start a tiny business doing inspections in your neighborhood or town. This commercial use of a drone requires you to comply with Part 107 of the FAA drone requirements. You’ll have to take an in-person test, much like you did years ago to get your driver’s license. You’ll obtain a Remote Pilot Certificate once you meet all the Part 107 requirements.

Small drones equipped with high-resolution video and photo technology are very affordable. You can purchase one for just a few hundred dollars. I plan to survey my Ask the Bulider newsletter list for help before I buy one. I’m sure many of my subscribers own and operate drones. The survey results should be a great help. My subscribers will make sure I end up with a drone that’s reliable, high-quality, and is easy to operate.

You can get lots of this information from drone groups on social media. You may even have an in-person drone group that meets monthly in your city or town. Investing time in talking with other drone operators will allow you to make a great informed decision should you decide to purchase one.

Column 1651

DIY Wood Preservatives

Posted on by Tim Carter
sugar shack with charred wood siding

Those black blotches are not mold and mildew. The owner used a large propane-fueled blowtorch and charred the siding. Charred wood resists insects, rot, and ultraviolet light damage.. Copyright 2026 Tim Carter

DIY Wood Preservatives

There’s a very good chance you own something made of wood that’s exposed to the weather. It might be a fence, a deck, a dock, patio furniture, wood siding, a shed, etc. Wood is a marvelous material. It’s favored by many because it’s easy to cut, shape, and install. Wood can also be quite affordable because it’s nothing more than a crop, just like corn or blueberries. Timber companies often plant one or two new trees for each one they harvest.

The downside of wood, when used outdoors, is that it requires maintenance. Some wood species require much more maintenance than others. Redwood and Western Red Cedar are two species grown in the USA that require minimal maintenance. Both have a substantial amount of natural preservatives locked into the wood fibers. Even so, you can’t expect them to resist weathering like you would a structure made of stone or a roof covered in slate.

Water and sunlight are the two primary enemies of wood. Water triggers wood rot. Water that soaks into untreated wood causes it to swell. When the wood dries, it shrinks. This movement creates cracks, much like when you bend the aluminum tab back and forth on an aluminum soda can. Repeated wet/dry cycles cause the cracks to get bigger and bigger, allowing water to penetrate deeper into the wood.

UV Light = Cruise Missiles

The ultraviolet (UV) rays in sunlight mimic miniature artillery shells. The UV rays that strike untreated wood break apart the lignin in the wood. Lignin is the glue that holds wood fibers together.

You may have witnessed this UV damage after you’ve pressure-washed an outdoor deck. The previously smooth wood becomes fuzzy once it dries. The fuzz is sun-damaged wood fibers that are still barely hanging on.

UV rays add further misery by changing the color of your beautiful outdoor wood. New teak is a rich, deep brown. That same teak left outdoors with no protection soon becomes battleship gray.

Paint is Great But...

Knowing what you’re up against, you’re tasked with stopping water from getting to the wood, and applying some sort of sunscreen to prevent UV damage. Paint fits the bill. Paint is nothing more than a colored glue. Some glues (resins) are much stickier than others. Think of the simple white glue kindergarteners use versus strong carpenter’s glue or epoxy.

I’ve found that paint that has a urethane resin component can bond well to wood for decades. I painted my redwood siding almost thirty years ago. Not only does it still look great, but it’s also not peeling. Keep in mind my redwood was squeaky clean, and I painted the siding employing all the best painting practices.

Should you decide to paint your outdoor wood, you should paint each piece on all sides and edges. This is not practical in many situations. That said, when you do an autopsy on peeling paint, you’ll often discover water was able to find its way to the unprotected surfaces, soak in, and then cause the wood to swell. This movement often exceeds the holding power of paint, and it peels and blisters.

Penetrating Non-Film-Former Sealers

You can choose to use penetrating sealers to protect wood. The best ones, but they’re almost impossible to find, are ones that are made with synthetic oils, and are not film formers like paint. Film-forming sealers eventually peel. They become a maintenance nightmare as you need to sand off the old sealer or use chemical strippers to achieve a stunning, new perfect finish.

Avoid sealers that contain natural oils. Tung and linseed oil are examples of these natural oils. These products are scrumptious food for both mildew and algae. Sealer manufacturers often add mildewcides to their sealers to prevent this growth, but the chemicals can and do leach out or break down over time.

You can also coat exterior wood with copper napthenate. Copper is a natural biocide. It helps to ward off wood rot, mildew, and algae. The issue is that this liquid produces a greenish cast on the wood. It’s a great product to coat the cut edges of treated lumber.

Japanese Wood Char

I’m intrigued by what the Japanese builders have done for centuries. They use fire to char new wood. This technique creates a natural surface that requires a minimal amount of maintenance.

The charred layer at the surface is identical to the black leftover log from the night before in your campfire ring. Have you ever noticed that charred log never seems to rot? You don’t see algae growing on it either. This is because the charring removes the food component of wood that fungi, mildew, and algae eat!

A homeowner just a few miles from my house used this method to protect the new wood siding on his maple-syrup sugar house. Five years ago, I watched him use a propane-fueled large blowtorch to char the new wood siding.

He was very wise and made sure the wood closest to the ground was charred the most. Water splashing up from the ground gets the wood closest to the ground very wet. The charring was not uniform, and you could see lightly charred wood in many areas. It created a very unique look, in my opinion.

I stopped by this sugar house just a few days ago to inspect it. I couldn’t find any signs of wood rot or algae growth. It turns out the Japanese are very clever to have observed what happens to burned wood and use that basic technology to protect the siding and trim on new houses!

Column 1650

Bring Back Vocational Schools

Posted on by Tim Carter
floor trusses installed in the winter

Vocational Schools - Artificial Intelligence (AI) will not be using a nail gun when it’s 20F outdoors. AI will not be soldering copper tubing either. Encourage all you know to enter the trades. You can switch jobs now and have a fulfilling career as a plumber, electrician, or carpenter. Copyright 2026 Tim Carter

Vocational Schools - Create Master Craftsmen/women Again

I need your help. You’ll be helping your children, any grandchildren, friends, neighbors, etc., too. You may not realize it, but there is a severe shortage of workers in just about every residential construction trade. Here’s another reality: Over 70% of the U.S. population hires people in the trades to perform construction and maintenance tasks on their homes.

A shortage of workers leads to higher labor costs and often longer wait times for quality work. It’s time to bang the gong and let young students and young adults know that a life-long vocation as a plumber, electrician, carpenter, painter, drywall finisher, etc., is both fulfilling and respectable.

I think we’re about to go full circle when it comes to respect and reverence for the trades. Back in the late 1800s, when disease was undeniably linked to sanitation, plumbers were on the same platform, and maybe the next one up, as physicians! This history, which is rapidly becoming legend, is one of the reasons plumbers are among the highest-paid tradespeople. A great plumber helps you stay healthy.

Jobs Used to be Vocations

It was common back in the early 1900s for tradespeople to develop a love for what they did each day. Some were so proud of what they produced that they signed their work! Years ago, I uncovered the signatures of carpenters up in attics where they had signed and dated the roof ridge board they had installed minutes before.

I’ve discovered bottles with handwritten notes in them in the walls of old homes I’ve worked on. They were left by plumbers just as you might stuff a note in a bottle and toss it into the surf. I didn’t realize how valuable these were and discarded them. How I wish I had photographed all those signatures I discovered hidden inside homes!

You can help bring back this pride and honor by adding your voice to the conversation. Are vocational schools still part of your public school system? Vocational schools in many cities and states have slowly disappeared over the past decades. My deep cynicism thinks this was a diabolical plan to herd young people towards expensive, and somewhat useless, college degrees. Layer on top of this the inescapable student-debt loan that crushes their spirit and bank accounts.

I was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. I had the good fortune to come to know an instructor in the construction technology track at a local vocational school. He asked if I’d be willing to speak several times to his students about real-world challenges and opportunities in residential construction. It was a magical experience for me to be surrounded by young folks who sucked up construction knowledge like water disappears into a dry sponge.

The vocational schools in the greater Cincinnati, Ohio area are still churning out energetic young tradespeople. These students have high-paying jobs waiting for them. Go to the Great Oaks Career Campuses website. You’ll be dazzled by all the vocational study tracks they offer. Your school system should mimic this. You can help make it happen by doing two things.

Write a Letter to the Editor

Step one is to write a simple letter to the editor of your local paper. Perhaps you can tell personal stories about how it’s difficult to locate professionals to do work at your home. Share any examples of how you’ve seen a decline in quality and professionalism. You can touch on how jobs in the trades are beyond the reach of artificial intelligence (AI). AI is the new warm-and-fuzzy buzzword, but many don’t realize it’s going to gobble up thousands of jobs. I don’t know of a plumber or roof framer who’s worried about AI taking their place!

Mention in your letter how vocational schools can be an incubator for fostering pride, steady employment, and personal fulfillment. I used to feel immense satisfaction when I installed a valley jack rafter that was cut so perfectly, you couldn’t slide a piece of paper between it and the actual valley rafter. Can you say you feel the same emotion in any of the tasks you do at your job each day? I doubt it.

Speak at School Board Meetings

Step two is to attend your local school board meetings, assuming your school system abandoned vocational training. Once again, share stories about how the need for skilled tradespeople is growing, and that your school system should be part of solving this conundrum.

Try to recruit others who feel like you do to attend these important school board meetings. It’s all about pain relief. School board members are like the presidents of companies. If they don’t hear complaints, then they feel everything is okay. You need to voice your complaint about the lack of vocational training.

I feel this vocational training should start in middle school. There should also be crosstraining. I wish that when I was a young lad, I had been forced to sew on a button, learn how to run a sewing machine, cook a full meal, and bake bread from scratch. I feel young girls should be exposed to home repairs, welding, basic auto maintenance, etc.

While we’re at it, let’s campaign for all life skills to be taught in middle school and high school! Personal finance, investing, business principles, etc., should be discussed with young, fertile minds. These topics may create a spark in a young girl or boy, allowing them to have a fulfilling career they didn’t even realize existed.

Column 1649

Labor Cost to Install a New Front Door

Posted on by Tim Carter
handwritten front door installation cost

Labor Cost to Install a New Front Door - This is the quick long-distance estimate I created for Irene to help her understand why it costs thousands of dollars to install a new front door and repair water damage. The bid assumes $80 per hour for labor. The estimate was produced in January, 2026. Copyright 2026 Tim Carter

Labor Cost to Install a New Front Door - Many Small Numbers Add Up

I talked with Irene on the phone a few days ago. She lives in Connecticut and used my affordable phone coaching service. She needed to make sure the bid she received to repair wood rot next to her front door was reasonable. Irene was about to have a new front door installed. Irene said at the end of the call, “Oh my, investing in this phone call was the best thing to do. I now feel comfortable that I’m not getting ripped off!”

I believe you’ll understand why I recommended Irene, and I, talk after you read what she sent to me in an email: “I'm getting a new front door, but before it can be installed, I'm ashamed to say that there's been water damage under the tile right when you enter the foyer through that door.  Overall, the area where the tiles need to be removed/replaced, and new plywood installed, is around thirty square feet.  A contractor gave me an estimate of $4,300.00, not including the cost of the new door. I went to ChatGPT, and it says that his number is too high. What would you say about this?”

I replied to Irene that we should talk on the phone. She placed the order for the call within an hour. I decided to produce a detailed breakdown of the costs of this job. I did many such jobs for customers, and knew that there’s no one aspect of the job that’s a big number. The trouble is, all the small numbers add up to a big one.

I discovered, quite by accident, forty years ago, how to sell more jobs to my customers. This is why I knew my phone call with Irene would put her at ease. Creating the detailed breakdown of her job would only take me a few minutes. It was a fast exercise to see if the contractor’s bid was realistic, too low, or higher than kite flying at the beach.

Here’s why I closed more deals than all my competitors years ago. It was my secret weapon. I was asked to bid on a room addition project for a homeowner. Business was slow at the time. I had scads of time to do an accurate takeoff, obtain tight bids from my subcontractors, and time to make sure each and every cost item was covered.

I was very lucky to be the last contractor to make the presentation. Inside my briefcase was a fat folder that contained all my material takeoffs, the bids from subs, and a dot-matrix printout of a basic spreadsheet showing all of the costs along with the total cost. It was normal practice at the time for me to just share the total job cost. There was zero transparency. No one got a look inside my magic folder.

I shared my number. The homeowners’ cheery red faces transformed to pasty white. My number shocked them. The temperature in their dining room seemed to fall ten degrees. You could hear a pin drop. I said after an uncomfortable pause, “My number is high, isn’t it?”

The husband cleared his throat and said, “Yes, you’re the highest bidder of all three contractors.” I was desperate for the job. I could feel that they wanted me to leave. Their body language spoke volumes.

I said, “I can prove that my number is accurate, and that the other two contractors just guessed at the price. If you award the contract to one of them, I guarantee you’ll be hit with change orders, and the total cost will exceed what I just quoted you. Would you be willing to give me just ten minutes to prove this to you?”

They exchanged glances, and the wife said, “Sure.” I opened up my briefcase, removed the folder, and spread out all my documents on the table. They were immediately shocked by the amount of detail. The transparency was like a warm ocean breeze blowing through their home. You could smell the salt air!

Within minutes, they discovered that no one aspect of the room addition was that much. They could clearly see that the total of all the costs, plus a reasonable profit and overhead, added up to my quote. The transparency short-circuited the bum’s rush from their home.

Thirty minutes after sitting down at their table, I had a signed contract in my hand. I adopted this full transparency approach in all my subsequent presentations. My closing rate went from 25% to 60%. From that point forward, I was booked out nine months in advance, never worrying about how I was going to pay my bills.

Here’s a quick snapshot of Irene’s front-door job. Each and every one of these tasks has to be accounted for: demolition, temporary weather enclosure since the door must be taken out, replace the rotted wood, install the new wood floor, install the new flashing under the door, install the door, install the tile, grout the tile, install all the door trim, and paint/stain all the trim/walls.

All of the above are what I call hard job costs. Most homeowners are unaware of the soft job costs. These happen away from your home. Examples of soft costs are: time spent bidding, time spent looking at your job before the contract, picking up materials, going to the dump with refuse, loading and unloading the truck before each day, etc.

There are more soft costs you’re unaware of. Self-employed contractors pay double what you see taken out of your paycheck for Social Security and Medicare. You probably don’t realize it, but your employer matches what you pay. Contractors like me have to pay for both parts!

Think of what it costs to operate that 3/4-ton truck the contractor drives. The current cost per mile is somewhere between 80 cents and $1.00 per mile. The 2025 IRS allowance, which is always low, is 70 cents per mile. A contractor might travel 30 miles each day to get to your house and then go back home. That’s $150 a week in costs just for his truck!

A contractor needs to charge you for wear and tear on his tools, insurance, Workman’s Compensation payments, etc. All of these costs, which are invisible to you, must be accounted for. You want your contractor to make a small profit so he stays in business when you need him again.

My quick cost estimate for Irene showed she was getting a great deal from her contractor. I estimated the total cost for the job, not including the cost of the front door, to be just under $5,000.00.

If you need my help to make sure a bid you get is fair, I’m happy to do for you what I did for Irene. Just go here to set up our phone call: http://go.askthebuilder.com/talktotim Be sure to type go followed by a period in the URL.

Column 1648

Relocation Checklist

Posted on by Tim Carter
outdoor deck with lake view

Relocation Checklist - You may dream of living in a home with a view like this. Wait until the July 4th weekend when boats equipped with sound speakers the size of a VW Beetle cruise past your house at wake speed. When this happens at my home as I sit on my deck, it rattles my glass of iced tea. Copyright 2026 Tim Carter

Relocation Checklist - You Need One for a Long-Distance Move

Brian lives with his wife on the East Coast. He’s been a subscriber to my free newsletter for years. Brian is in a select group of virtual friends I’ve made over the years. It’s a delight to have email exchanges with these high-tech pen pals using electrons instead of ink.

You may be like Brian. He’s about to retire. He and his wife plan to do a long-distance relocation. It’s going to be their final big move, from what I understand. His last email exchange with me touched on this as he was asking for a bit of advice, knowing that I had done the same thing moving from Ohio to New Hampshire (NH) in 2008.

Brian shared that he and his wife are attracted to a community in Pennsylvania that has all sorts of amenities. He and his wife would become part of a homeowners' association (HOA). I’ve lived in one of these for the past seventeen years and cautioned him against making that choice.

I understand the lure of an HOA as you get older. Offloading any number of maintenance headaches to someone else is very attractive. But it often comes with a huge price tag that rises each year. I shared how my HOA dues started at $60 a month in 2008, and are now $200 a month. That increase is far greater than the rate of inflation over that same time period. His dues would be close to $5,000 a year. Imagine what they’ll be like fifteen years from now when money in his budget may be tighter than a banjo string.

The other issue, in my opinion, with HOAs is that I feel there’s at least one control freak who is the unpaid self-appointed bylaws enforcement officer. I have one in mine. This woman has a magical built-in radar gun in her head. She can somehow tell when you’re speeding down our private roads. She's not too bright because what she fails to realize is we don't have official speed limit signs on my street. We have the yellow/black recommended speed signs! You seed these signs on public roads below a sign telling you a curve is ahead.

You can view thousands of videos on YouTube of Karens like her who spread angst each day in HOAs like the wind scatters dandelion seeds.

My email exchange with Brian started to touch on other aspects of moving. Soon, I realized that the conversation should be shared with you. Moving within a city or town is stressful enough. That stress has a force multiplier when you move hundreds of miles away to a strange city or state you’ve never set foot in.

Finances should be one of the things you consider. Some states, like NH, have no sales tax or income tax. The state you’re thinking of moving to might have low property taxes. I was a real estate broker in Ohio for over twenty-five years and feel there’s only one way to compare property taxes. All you have to do is divide the annual property tax by the fair-market value of your home.

You’ll be stunned to discover that one city or state might have a tax rate three or four hundred percent higher than another. In my case, my property tax is only 0.6% of my house value. Brian’s current tax is 1.6% of his fair market value. That’s almost 300 percent higher than mine in NH.

Water - Wells vs. Recycled Sewage

Brian and I exchanged thoughts about water. He and his wife were reluctant to drink well water. I remember having the same reservations when I moved to NH. I had consumed the recycled sewage from all the upstream cities on the Ohio River for fifty-five years. Not only was chlorine added to the water, it needed to be filtered through huge activated charcoal to remove chemical pollutants like benzene. You see, there are big chemical plants up in West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Layer on top of this flouride was added to the Cincinnati, Ohio municipal water supply. It's recently been connected to all sorts of health issues.

Well water, for the most part, can be very pure. It depends upon where you are, of course. You can test well water with ease, and it's very inexpensive. You can make this part of a sales agreement and back away from an offer if the test results come back unsatisfactory.

I feel it’s important to create a list of things you dislike about your current home and city. For me, I had become numb to the horrible traffic, potholes, pollution, background noise, etc. of my fifty-five years in Cincinnati. I thought that most places were like this. I was wrong.

You then have to create a list of things you desire. Perhaps you want to be close to thousands of miles of hiking trails. Maybe you do want the big city life. You may want to be close to the ocean or a large lake as both often offer lots of recreation opportunities.

I casually mentioned to Brian that should he and his wife give NH a serious look, he needed to avoid houses that are located on a Class-five road. A Class-five road is just dirt and gravel. Forty-nine weeks out of the year, you can travel on them with no issue. However, when mud season arrives in the spring, some can be impassable unless you have an Abrams tank. In the summer, everything outside your home is covered with dust created by passing cars and trucks.

road closed sign mud season

deep ruts class five road mud season

This mud is frozen, but when it warms up you better have great tires on your 4x4. The roads become impassable in the worst cases. Copyright 2026 Tim Carter

You should consider climate, wildlife, and insects. My wife and I wanted to escape the insufferable humidity one suffers through in Cincinnati from June until September. NH has much lower dew points in the summer. That said, it also has wretched black files in the spring. These miserable tiny insects inflict a vicious bite for two or three weeks. The mosquito has been nominated to be the NH state bird many times.

It’s very important to consider crime statistics. There are quite a few websites that track this information. Study these facts to see what crimes happen where you plan to move. Is crime growing or lessening?

My advice to Brian was simple. Narrow down the choices to two or three places. Then, research the times the weather is best and worst. Travel to each town or city and rent a house for a week. Start to scout around to see if you like it. Stay in the city or town to see if you like the weather extremes.

Note the distance to stores and shops. Do you have to travel a great distance to get your car repaired? Do you like to dine out? Are there abundant great restaurants that will satisfy your appetite?

Drive by the worst parts of the city or town. Are there lots of homeless people? Are you a person of faith? If so, visit the places of worship to see if you fit in.

Think about how you buy a new car or truck. You often take it for a test drive. You need to do the same thing when you plan to put down new roots. Rent a house in the town for at least four weeks over a period of a year and see if you really like what you experience.

Column 1647

Indirect Bathroom Lighting Ideas

Posted on by Tim Carter
indirect bathroom lighting

Indirect Bathroom Lighting Ideas - Three different lights create a look you’d might expect at a five-star hotel suite. This bathroom is on the third floor of a quaint home on Mt. Desert Island. Copyright 2026 Tim Carter

Indirect Bathroom Lighting Ideas - My Daughter is an Expert

It’s very hard to keep up with all of the improvements in building materials and products. Thousands of new things hit the marketplace each year. You need to focus on just one or two verticals to stay abreast of all that’s new.

Lighting is a category that might keep you busy twelve hours a day. Designers and architects who specialize in lighting design must be in hog heaven. Not only are there new lighting fixtures of all types introduced each year, but there are also new bulbs that help them achieve the exact look they’re shooting for.

Several months ago, I was tasked by She Who Must Be Obeyed to gather several new interior ordinary light bulbs for lamps. I knew she wanted a warm bulb in the 2700K range. Much to my surprise, I was able to purchase affordable LED bulbs that allowed me to choose the color temperature of the bulb myself.

a19 led light bulbs adjustable color temp

These are great bulbs.

These A19 standard bulbs came with six settings: 2700K soft white, 3000K bright white, 3500K true white, 4000K cool white, 5000K daylight, and 6500K daylight deluxe. That’s a huge range of color temperature. Other types of bulbs are available with these same settings.

Layers of Light

Are you about to tackle a bathroom or kitchen renovation in the new year? Perhaps you’re building a new home. You have a unique opportunity to create layers of light in one or more rooms. This layering effect is what many lighting designers do to create that feel when you see dramatic photos of custom homes or lavish hotel suites.

Read this past column about how I helped a friend create a WOWZA kitchen lighting setup.

Lighting and color temperature are powerful tools you can employ to set the mood in a room. My son and I did this in his basement speakeasy. He was going after the 1920’s Prohibition-era look. The lighting needed to be subtle, warm, and soft. We achieved this using stunning pendant fixtures that hang above the bar. Each fixture has an old-fashioned light bulb featuring clear glass and a bulky tungsten filament that you’d see if you jumped out of a time machine into a hidden, smoke-filled bar one hundred years ago.

Soft LED light strips attached to the underside of the overhanging bar top in the back-bar area provide enough light for the bartender to do his job. Overhead, tucked up behind a soffit, we hid two spotlights that produce a soft cone of light on the shelves used to store the spirits. It goes without saying that all the different lights are switched separately.

Updating Condo Lighting

I stayed in my son-in-law’s condominium in Bass Harbor, Maine, over Christmas. He’s making improvements room-by-room over the next year. I helped him over the phone a month ago, solving a switching conundrum in his daughter’s bedroom. The original builder didn’t install any overhead lights during the transformation of an 1880’s sardine factory into eight residential condos.

He decided to install small track lights on either side of a giant roof-support beam. Two of the fixtures are aimed at a craft/desk area, and the other two will provide soft lighting over the two single beds. Track lights allow you to install light fixtures that can do very specific jobs.

He’s going to install an interesting variety of lights in his lower-level office. There needs to be separate lights for his desk area, one or two over a large racing simulator, ceiling lights that highlight shelves on a wall, and another light or two that shines on a wall-hung display case.

Are you starting to imagine how you can do many of these things in your own home? You can do lots of this in an existing home with minimal surgery to walls and ceilings. A competent electrician can use a fish tape to get cables to places you’d think impossible.

My daughter rounds out this lighting discussion. She just completed a bathroom finishing project in the past month. Years ago, I roughed-in a full bathroom on the third floor of her home. It was time to finish it off.

She’s always had a flair for decorating and design. She even wrote a book about it fifteen years ago called The Meghan Method. She’s an expert when it comes to lighting design.

Meghan Method Book Cover

That's my daughter. This book will BLOW YOU AWAY. The photos are stunning.

I feel she outdid herself in this modest bathroom. She loves to use furniture for her sink areas instead of traditional bathroom cabinets. You can count on the furniture to have 6-inch tall legs. This allows her, or you, to install an indirect light under the furniture. A soft, warm glow of light washes over the white marble floor in front of the sink area.

A nearly invisible thin LED light was installed on top of the marble backsplash. It’s designed to cast light up the wall, not into your face blinding you. The shower area has its own set of lights, as you might expect. The mirror over the sink comes with its own soft LED light built into the mirror.

You can get additional inspiration by peering at hundreds of photos online. You can do image searches on all the major search engines. Be specific about what you want to light. Use those keywords in your search. This small amount of effort will pay vast pleasure dividends once you see what’s possible in your home. Be sure to save the photos so you purchase the right fixtures. The photos will also help the electrician who will be installing the cables and wires to make your lighting dreams come true.

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DIY Staircase

Posted on by Tim Carter
diy staircase open risers mortised stringers

DIY Staircase - The flat stair treads are mortised into the angled 2x12. That angled board is called a stair stringer. It serves the same purpose as the floor joists in your home. Copyright 2026 Tim Carter

DIY Staircase - Use My Ebook

You may be like most folks. I’m guessing you give very little thought to the stairs you go up and down on a regular basis. They might be constructed from wood, steel, or concrete. The vast majority of stairs in residential homes are made from wood.

One of the first books I wrote was how to build a DIY staircase. CLICK HERE to get it.

Loretto Chapel Gaslighting

Wood is very easy to work with, and it can create very strong stairs. I stood just ten feet away from a marvelous circular staircase made from wood. It was in the Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This staircase has no center support column. Many feel that’s a miracle, but the truth is no central support column is required. The two twisted helical stair stringers that support the treads are the structural beams that support the stairs and anyone going up and down them.

loretto staircase

The owners of this staircase want you to believe it’s a miracle that it doesn’t collapse because of a lack of visible support. Any carpenter worth his salt knows what’s holding it in place. ©2026 Tim Carter

I feel it’s important for you to understand the structure of a set of stairs before you get out your saw and framing square. This basic knowledge will allow you to construct a strong set of stairs. These stairs will support you, your buddy, and that 300-pound refrigerator. Think about the concentrated load of two corn-fed boys/men plus a heavy appliance! Weak stairs have collapsed under similar circumstances.

Simple stairs have just two components. The flat part your foot steps on is called a tread. The treads connect to side stringers and sometimes one that is in the middle of the stairs. The stringers are no different than wood floor joists, steel I-beams, or steel-reinforced concrete beams that support many tons of weight.

Stringers and Runners are Angled Floor Joists

I’m sure you can relate to wood floor joists. The building code permits the use of 2x8s in houses. They must meet certain specifications. These 2x8 floor joists can create a floor that resembles a trampoline, and still be code-compliant. It’s unnerving to walk across a floor that bounces up and down, in my opinion.

You can choose to use 2x12s or even giant floor trusses to create a wood floor system that has no springiness. The floor resembles walking across bedrock with absolutely no give whatsoever.

Now think about a set of stairs. A narrow set usually has only two stringers, one at each end of the treads. These stringers are not level. They are angled up or down in an opening so they connect one floor to another.

Imagine if you lifted the lower ends of the stringers and made them parallel with the upper floor joists. Then imagine the treads were rotated to sit on top of the stringers. Your stairs are nothing more than a narrow, tilted floor, much like a child’s slide at a playground.

I see stairs all the time that have stringers that have the strength of weak 2x6s! Perhaps you have a set of these leading from your deck down to the ground. I’m talking about stairs where a solid 2x12 was used for a stringer. However, you or the carpenter proceeded to notch the wood, creating the flat spots to attach the treads. These notches resemble the teeth on a saw blade. They transform a strong 2x12 to a much weaker 2x?, depending on the width of the lumber leftover from the notching process.

Create Mortises for the Treads

I avoid this issue, and you can too, by creating shallow 1/2-inch-deep mortises in the 2x12s. The treads fit into the mortises and are attached to the stringers by driving nails or screws through the outer face of the stringers into the ends of the treads.

The mortise method preserves all the strength of the 2x12. It’s a bit more work to create the mortises, but it’s worth it in the long run. You need a framing square, a circular saw, a router, and a wood chisel to make perfect mortises.

For the sake of discussion, let’s say you’re building a simple set of stairs for a deck, basement access, or up to an attic. You’ll just be using 2x12s for both the stringers and the treads. This lumber will make a very strong set of stairs.

The framing square is used to lay out on the face of the stringers where the mortises will be. The front nose of each tread must be the exact same distance from the edge of the stringer. I prefer to create stairs that have a 7.5-inch riser and a 10-inch tread. Using a 2x12 as the tread provides the code-compliant 1-inch overhang for foot safety.

A normal 2x12 is 1.5 inches thick. I create a mortise that’s just under 1 and 5/8-inch wide. I do this because the 2x12s are often not flat. They may have a hump or dip in the center. The larger mortise allows you to insert the tread into the stringer with minimal effort.

I set my circular saw blade depth to 1/2 inch. I then start to make parallel saw cuts within the 1 and 5/8ths

inch lines. Each cut leaves a thin wafer of wood that’s about 1/8-inch, or less, wide. These wafers snap off when tapped with a hammer.

The router is used to create a smooth face inside the mortise where the wafers used to be. The wood chisel is used to square up the two inside corners of the mortise. I have to tell you creating these mortises is therapeutic for me. The process creates an enormous feeling of satisfaction when you see the treads fit into the mortises like a hand fits into a glove.

I wrote a short ebook filled with photos showing the step-by-step process of marking out and creating the mortises for a set of simple stairs. You can get a copy for just $7 by visiting this link:

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Exterior Painting Tips and Tricks

Posted on by Tim Carter
exterior window with peeling paint

Exterior Painting Tips and Tricks: There’s a great chance the paint on this window would have lasted 30 years without peeling if the homeowner had followed my advice. Copyright 2025 Tim Carter

Exterior Painting Tips and Tricks - Think Clean

Exterior painting tips and tricks can be discovered in the strangest places. I had the distinct pleasure of touring a huge paint factory in Southern California several years ago. I was allowed to peer down into this massive vat as the solid components of the paint were added. Thousands of gallons of paint were about to be blended to perfection. I was stunned at the sophistication of the operation. Computers, sensors, and engineers in white lab coats controlled every aspect of the mixing process.

I believe I was the only member of the press on that tour who had a deep appreciation of what we were seeing. It turns out no other editor or media talent on the tour had applied thousands of gallons of paint over a period of thirty years as I had. Little did I know how complex it was to make a durable exterior paint.

Paint is Colored Glue

You might not realize it, but paint is nothing more than colored glue. The chemical formula of many basic paints is almost identical to that of strong yellow carpenter’s glue. My first business partner, John, shared this with me while we ate lunch one day on a job site. John and I painted houses in the summer. We used the money to help pay our college tuition. John went on to get his physical chemistry Ph.D and ended up working for the largest paint manufacturer in the USA.

The adhesive component of paint is often called the resin. Many different adhesives can be used to make paint. Vinyl acetate is one. Acrylic is another. My personal favorite is urethane. Have you ever noticed how clear urethane sticks to wood floors and furniture like the strongest Velcro®️ strips you’ve ever tried to peel apart?

I painted my Cincinnati, Ohio, house with an exterior urethane-resin paint in the late 1990s. Drive by the house today, and it looks as good as the day I applied it. It’s not peeling, and it has not faded. I used the same paint to coat my current house in central New Hampshire fifteen years ago. It looks like the paint was applied last week. You should buy paint with the best resin if you want it to last.

Please Read the Label

The first step, and I feel many ignore it, is to take five minutes and read the instructions on the paint can label. Be sure to follow them to the letter. You’ll almost always see this sentence: “Apply to a clean, dry, dust-free surface.” Let’s talk about clean and what it really means.

Think about cleaning your body. When you shower, I doubt you just stand under the stream of warm water and twirl around. Instead, you take your hands and rub your skin with soap. You may even use a washcloth or microfiber towel. This motion, or agitation, is what gets you clean. The soap helps remove dirt and oil from your skin.

I maintain that pressure washing your house is the same thing as just standing under your shower head. I can prove it. Take your dirty car to a carwash equipped with a pressure-washing wand. Clean and rinse your car with the tool. Drive out of the bay and park your car. Let it air dry for a few moments. Wherever the dirt was the worst, pull a moist finger across it. I guarantee you’ll get dirt on your finger. Dirt the pressure washing left behind!

Pressure Washing Leaves Dirt Behind

I prefer to wash the exterior of a house like I wash my car. I use a wonderful brush that RV owners use to clean the large flat surfaces of their motorhomes. I pre-treat my siding with a mixture of oxygen bleach and liquid dish soap. I always clean in the shade, not direct sunlight. Once finished, my siding and trim are squeaky clean.

Cracks that allow water to sneak behind siding or along windows and doors must be caulked. It pays to purchase the most expensive water-based caulk. These products have better ingredients, in my opinion.

I allow the caulk to cure for 24 hours before painting over it.

Some modern paints don’t require primers. Some do. Pay very close attention to the label instructions for the primers. You may see they dry to touch in as little as an hour, and can be recoated soon after that. This is a very important point that most overlook.

Coat Primer Within Hours

Applying the finish paint as soon as the primer says it can be recoated is the best practice. This ensures the primer doesn’t get dirty, and you often get a physical and chemical bond whereby the primer and finish paint interlock as if they were one paint. You only want to prime as much surface area as you can finish coat on the same day.

The paint label may also say to work in the shade. Many years ago, I discovered the hard way how important it is to do this. I was painting the detached garage of my second home. The trim color was flat black. I was painting in the middle of the afternoon on a hot, cloud-free day. The sunlight was hitting the garage trim like a spotlight on a fleeing prisoner.

Within an hour of applying the paint, blisters appeared on the trim. The hot sunlight boiled the water in the paint, creating water vapor under the fresh paint skin. It was a huge mess.

High-quality brushes make all the difference. The paint will flow better, and you’ll get a better appearance. Get the brush wet before you dip it into the paint. This will help prevent hardened paint from building up on the metal ferrule. Be sure to watch my video demonstrating the secret and proper way to clean paint brushes. I have brushes that are thirty years old that look almost brand new!

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Garage Design Ideas

Posted on by Tim Carter
garage design ideas

Garage Design Ideas - The architect, builder, or designer got one thing right with this new detached garage. But there are many things wrong. Copyright 2025 Tim Carter

Garage Design Ideas - Always Go Bigger

Eighteen months ago, I recorded a thirty-second video that went viral on YouTube. It’s received hundreds of thousands of views and thousands of comments. Well over ninety-eight percent of the comments said I had no idea what I was talking about. I never expected this negative outpouring of opinion. I thought many would agree with me.

small garage foundation

This is the garage foundation in my video. Copyright 2026 Tim Carter

You can view the video here. 

I surveyed my 20,000 newsletter subscribers a year ago, once the short video went viral. The response was exactly as I thought would happen. Many of my subscribers have lived in multiple houses over their lives. They were frustrated with the narrow and shallow standard-sized garages that are more prolific than dandelion seeds floating in the air on a breezy late-spring day.

Garages are Too Narrow

The inspiration for the video came to me as I drove past a new home under construction near my house. The foundation had just been poured and backfilled. It was obvious the house had an attached garage based on the 16-foot-wide notch in the foundation for the garage door. The property had a ‘For Sale’ sign posted. This allowed me to inspect the property and foundation without trespassing.

The foundation size and shape communicated two glaring errors to me. I mention this in light of the insatiable appetite of many homeowners, including myself, to accumulate possessions, adult toys, gardening tools, etc. I knew from decades of parking in similar garages that the side walls of the garage were too close to the edge of the garage door. Adding insult to injury, the garage depth would barely allow a common pickup truck to fit with the garage door closed.

You might have hot buttons in your life about any number of things. Perhaps you’re bothered by the design of kitchen tools. Your blood pressure might spike when your life partner once again annoys you with a pesky habit. For me, it’s garage design. Millions of garages, in my opinion, are far too small. The sad thing is that unfinished garage space is one of the least expensive parts of a house to construct.

Educate Architects & Builders

I’m trying to do my part to educate young and old architects, builders, designers, and homeowners about the secondary effects of having a garage that’s too small. My goal is to challenge them to do the math, comparing the cost of building a slightly larger garage versus paying decades of ever-increasing fees for on-site and off-site storage. I’m asking them to ponder the size of cars, trucks, lawn mowers, wheelbarrows, garbage cans, etc. These are common things many homeowners store in a garage.

Days ago, I passed a detached garage being constructed near my home. Once again, I saw the narrow 2-foot-wide concrete walls on either side of the garage door opening. The 2-foot-on-center spacing of the thirteen steep roof trusses told me the outside depth of the garage was 24 feet. Subtract the depth of the 2x6 walls, and the inside of this garage is but 23 feet. The best-selling pickup truck in the USA, with the popular 4-door cab configuration, is just over 20 feet long bumper to bumper. Imagine trying to walk around the truck with the garage door closed!

It’s possible this garage was as big as the local zoning laws would permit. I served on the zoning and planning board of my small village in Ohio for six years. I know a thing or two about zoning and variances. It’s also possible the homeowner didn’t think it through as to what he or she plans to put in the garage.

The detached garage I passed days ago had at least one thing going for it. The architect, builder, or homeowner requested a very steep roof. This allowed for a giant room above the garage to store things. The factory-built trusses had a large rectangular space created within the webbing. The extra price for each truss is about the same as what the homeowner would pay each month locally to rent a tiny 5x5x8-foot storage space!

Stairs Steal Space

Lurking in the shadows of this detached garage is another specter. Without looking at the plans or walking onto the property, I have no idea how the homeowner will gain access to this large space above the parked vehicles. Traditional stairs against the rear wall will shorten one of the two parking slots. A narrow and steep fold-down staircase may be the solution. These can be extremely dangerous if you’re going up or down with a medium to large box in your hands.

Do Storage Math

I priced a few 16x24-foot pre-built outdoor sheds in October of 2025. Each one was more than $10,000.00. These sheds require ongoing maintenance just as your home would. Local zoning laws often stipulate where these can be on your lot. These sheds often have substandard floors that can rot out. The price doesn’t include a strong, level, and square foundation.

You should think about all of these things if you’re building a new home. Do you rent a storage pod for your current possessions, or do you rent an off-site storage space? What are you paying each year for this? How much will the rent go up in the next five or ten years? Based on the prices I see around my home in 2025, I can assure you that people near me will be spending about $40,000 in the next ten years for an off-site storage space that’s less than 200 square feet.

I helped my daughter design a very spacious garage for her home. The garage is 26 feet deep. It has attic trusses above it, creating a huge room. The face of the interior side walls of the garage is 3 feet away from the edge of the 10-foot-wide garage doors. The space between the two garage doors is 3 feet. She can open the doors of her large SUV and not hit the car in the other slot or the shelves along the walls. All of this extra space only cost her $6,000 at the time the house was built.

We did the math before she built. You, your builder, and your architect should do the same. I’m confident you’ll discover it makes much greater financial sense to build a larger garage, assuming your lot will accommodate it.

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