Electrical Conduit

Posted on by Tim Carter
electrical conduit on wall

Electrical Conduit - This is typical electric conduit. It's steel pipe that's easy to bend. This conduit is in my garage and was added after my house was built. The steel tubes contain wires that connect my standby generator outside to the electric panels in my basement.

Electrical Conduit - Should You Install It in Your Home?

Before I jump into this topic about electric conduit, I feel you need to know a little history about how my media and influencer profession works.

Ask the Builder started out as a syndicated newspaper column in October of 1993. In fact, as of June 2022, it still runs in over 60 papers in the USA.

Within a few months of the birth of my new profession, I started to hear from public relations (PR) professionals. As I was a college-trained geologist then carpenter/plumber/builder, I had no idea about this profession nor how it worked.

It took a few years  for me to wake up and realize what was happening. Much of it involves powerful psychology that's used to persuade and manipulate writers and influencers like me. Perhaps the best book you can read to discover how you're being played like a fiddle each day in your life about everything is Influence - The Psychology of Persuasion.

PR pros often offer up free products to writers and influencers so they can test the products. Writers and influencers are often invited on all-expenses-paid press junkets. Manufacturers who fund these editors conferences have a captive audience to share their message. The attendees are treated to great hotels, delicious food, liquid refreshment of all types, and often interesting entertainment.

I'll never forget eating dinner on white tablecloths inside a quiet Atlanta museum rented out just for us. Building a two-man boat out of cardboard with other home improvement editors in a competition at a Florida resort swimming pool is tattooed in my tiny gray cells. Yes, my team won going back and forth across the pool in record time without sinking because our leader, Larry Eisinger, happened to be an avid boater and expert model maker.

All of the above pushes the reciprocity button in writers, editors, and influencers. Once you accept a gift,  accept a piece of cheese on a toothpick at a grocery store from a nice older woman in an apron, a neighbor lends you a tool, or a PR person gives you something you don't need to return, you automatically feel obligated to do something in return. It's basic human behavior. Read about this, and the even more powerful psychological buttons, in the above book.

Two of these PR pros became really good friends over my career and are the best I've ever met: Laura Bennett and Kathy Ziprik. Most PR people I've interacted with over the years couldn't lace Laura and Kathy's boots.

There's an old adage in the newspaper business: News is what people don't want you to print. Everything else is advertising (PR).

This column was inspired by a professional PR person tasked (paid) to get the word out about electrical conduit pipe and electrical conduit fittings. She was hired by the Steel Tube Institute (STI).

Why did this PR pro reach out to me?  My guess is it was her hope I'd do what so many of my peers do. Many take a short cut and simply regurgitate the information contained in her well-written press release. The problem is her press release contained just part of the truth about metal conduit. The STI controlled what was in the press release as they're paying for the work.

My job as a columnist is to tell you the whole story about a topic. I've been an expert witness for over 23 years and we have a saying in our business: A half-truth is a whole lie.

Let's unpack the facts about electrical conduits, especially metal electrical conduit. Allow me to share with you everything I know about the cables and wires in your home and how they can be installed.

Electrical Conduit Pipe - What is It and Why is it Used?

Electrical conduit is a tube through which electrical wires pass. Steel is cheap, it's strong, and it does an amazing job of protecting the energized conductors within the conduit. This is why the National Electrical Code (NEC) specifies that conduit must be used in just about all commercial, institutional, manufacturing, and non-residential electric installations. You don't want wires carrying current to get damaged easily. When this happens people can get electrocuted and fires can start.

electric conduit

This is a closeup of the metal electrical conduit in my garage. You can see the stamping on the tubing indicating it meets the NEC.

Is Conduit for Electrical Wire Required in Homes?

Conduit is required in residential homes in some areas. Local unions and building/electrical inspectors that have been co-opted by friends in the industry can dictate how electric cables and wires are installed in your home.

They can ignore safe and proven installation practices and products that are approved in the NEC.

If you live in Chicago, Illinois your electric wires will pass through conduit. The Steel Tube Institute would love to see it required in every home. They have a dog in the fight for goodness sake. The STI pays people to promote its products as do many many many manufacturers. Some manufacturers lobby the people who create the NEC as well as the building code.

Never forget that everything in your life and mine is a real-time mirror image of the Game of Thrones. Everything revolves around money, power, and sex for most people.

electric wires extending from an electric box

How many pieces of conduit would have to feed into this six-gang switch box to make all this magic happen? There are twelve Romex NM-B cables feeding into and out of this box to make  the six 3 and 4-way switches work. Imagine what needs to be done so twelve different steel tubes don't interfere with one another. How much skill does that require?

What is Used to Install Wiring if Conduit is Not Used?

Non-metallic sheathed cable is what is used instead of conduit. Most tradespeople and suppliers call it Romex or NM-B. This type of wiring is used in probably 99.995% of the homes built in the USA. I've installed many miles of it in my lifetime. When installed according to the guidelines in the NEC, Romex is exceedingly safe. The statistics provided by the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) support this fact.

12-gauge romex cable wire wiring

This is non-metallic sheathed cable NM-B or Romex wiring. Its yellow plastic outer covering tells you the conductors inside are 12 gauge rated for 20 amps. The cables in the upper left of the photo lead to separate circuits in my daughter's new home. The writing on each cable allows you to identify each circuit breaker within the electric panel on the wall. Can you guess where the cable that says YUMMY COLD FOOD terminates inside the house? Copyright 2022 Tim Carter ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The multi-billion-dollar insurance industry is behind the curtain of the NFPA who curates the National Electrical Code. If huge insurance companies thought that Romex was too great an insurable risk, rest assured Romex would be PROHIBITED in the NEC.

It's not prohibited. That should put your head on a swivel.

How Much Extra Does it Cost to Install Electrical Conduit?

It costs much more money to install electrical conduit than Romex.

I asked the PR woman hired by the STI how much conduit is required in an average-sized home in the USA. She deferred to Dale Crawford, the executive director of the STI. His response was: "A 2,333 square foot home (average new construction in US in 2020) would need between 4,500 and 4,800 linear feet of conduit. "

I then asked, what is the added labor cost in the average home to install the steel tubing/conduit? Dale deftly replied, "This is highly variable, which makes it difficult to estimate. Skilled union labor can install conduit nearly as fast as installing NM-B. The union electricians in Chicago are especially skilled and impressive at this."

Unfortunately that's not the answer I was looking for. I'll explain below the extra labor that's required to install conduit vs Romex or NM-B cable.

I also asked, what is the price-per-foot of the three needed THHN conductors that would run in the steel tube? Dale was polite and quick to point out that my question contained an error. I had forgotten that the steel conduit takes the place of the bare ground wire that the NEC requires in NM-B cable. In other words, when you remove the plastic sheathing in NM-B cable, you'll discover three conductors: the white wire that's neutral, the black wire that's hot, and a bare wire that goes to ground.

12-gauge wire for 3-way and 4-way switches

This is what the wires look like inside Romex or NM-B cable. In this case, the extra red wire helps make it easy to connect 3 and 4-way switches. This special cable can also carry two separate circuits to one junction box. It can also be used to create a 240-volt circuit. It's all quite confusing if you're not up to speed with the NEC.

He said, "Here is where one of the big cost comparison adjustments comes in, especially given the benefits of protection of conduit. Only two conductors would be required for this installation in conduit, as a ground is not needed or required by code. The steel conduit acts as the equipment grounding conductor in this installation, saving about 33% of the cost of wiring. Two 14 AWG conductors would be $0.15/foot and 12 AWG would be $0.20/foot, roughly." (May 2022 pricing)

What is Needed to Install Metal Electrical Conduit?

When you decide to use metal conduit in lieu of Romex or NM-B cable, you need the following:

  • metal tubing
  • metal boxes
  • metal extension rings
  • electrical conduit fittings
  • THNN plastic-coated wires

That's pretty much what's required.

What is Needed to Install Romex or NM-B Cable?

You need the following to install Romex or NMB cable to NEC standards:

  • Romex or NM-B cable that contains three wires
  • plastic boxes
  • cable staples

Wire nuts are required in both installations so I left them out of both lists.

What's the Cost Comparison for Both Material Lists?

You might want to sit down for this.

Let's look at electric conduit first. This is not an all-inclusive cost analysis because each installation is different and requires a different number of parts. All prices were checked on June 5, 2022 at the Lowe's website.

  • 1/2-inch x 10 feet EMT steel conduit - $6.98 per length
  • standard 4x4 metal box - $2.58 each
  • standard set screw conduit connector (you need hundreds of these for one house) - $1.48 each
  • 1/2-inch extension ring -  $1.58 each
  • THHN wire 14 gauge - $0.17 per foot - NOTE: You need two wires - white/black - in each piece of conduit so figure $0.34 per foot

Now let's look at the cost for Romex/NMB materials:

Summary: Each separate box where you might have a single outlet or wall switch will cost you $5.64 should you use conduit. Each separate single-gang box for Romex/NM-B will cost you about $1.11 including a cable staple or two. An average home could have at least 100 boxes. Thus, using conduit, you'll spend about $450.00 more just for the boxes.

The wire price is quite close as each conductor in the Romex roll is costing you $0.165.

The price of the conduit, based on Dale's estimate, is $3,245.70. You don't need any conduit with a Romex/NMB installation

What Extra Labor is Required to Install Conduit?

Here are the extra steps required to install electrical conduit:

  • install the set screw connectors and any couplers for long runs of conduit
  • measure and bend the conduit
  • install the conduit
  • install the extension ring

Installing the cables/wires in both methods is probably a wash. With Romex/NM-B you just pull the wires through the drilled holes. With conduit, the electrician needs to pull the wires through using a pull cord he blew threw the pipe or maybe he uses a fish tape.

What is the extra cost to do the extra steps for the steel conduit? You can bet it's thousands of dollars with the current labor rate (2022) of about $95 per hour for a master electrician.

BOTTOM LINE: If you decide to use electrical conduit in your new home, you can expect to pay a $6,000 - 7,000 premium for it in 2022 dollars. When I reached out to the NFPA PR contact about hard statistics that steel conduit will significantly reduce the amount of electrical fires in a home, she never got back with me.

Here's a fact: There are many millions of homes in the USA that have non-metallic sheathed wiring in them. These are decades and decades old some actually have first-generation knob and tube wiring.  The vast majority of these homes have never had a fire caused by approved Romex or NM-B cable.

Home Depot Dryer Installation

Posted on by Tim Carter
lg electric dryer 2022

Home Depot dryer installation | This is my son's LG electric dryer after I corrected the dangerous Home Depot installation mistake.

Home Depot Dryer Installation

On May 25, 2022, Home Depot delivered an LG dryer and washer to my son's house in Nashua, NH. My son had told them not to do the actual hookups because it cost $500 and he knew I could do it for nothing.

The installers must have not read the paperwork and proceeded to start to install the 240-volt electric cord my son had purchased with the appliances.

The installers connected the cord to the dryer without using a proper Romex connector. This grave error, over time, would have started an electrical fire because the vibrations of the rotating dryer would wear through the wire insulation. Look at the photos I shot:

LG dryer electric unsafe connection

This is the frightful thing I saw when I decided to check to see if the Home Depot installers did the right thing. Can you see the mistake? Can you imagine what happens when the dryer operates and vibrates?

lg dryer electrical connection panel

What you see above is exactly how the Home Depot installers installed the cable. Look at the full-color diagram on the back of the dryer in the lower left corner of the photo. When I removed the steel plate on the rear of the dryer to access the electrical panel, this is what I saw. This is why you should get educated about how things work instead of trusting others. After all, it's just your life and that of your loved ones. After removing the cable above and installing the code-required Romex/NMB connector, I installed the wires CORRECTLY.

3/4 inch romex connector

This is the inexpensive UL and NEC-approved connector that should have been installed by the Home Depot installers. It's unacceptable that they don't carry a box of these in their truck at all times.

3/4 inch romex connector threads

This view of the connector shows how it works. See the thin nut? You remove that and put the connector through the hole in the back of the dryer. You then screw on the nut and tighten the connector so it can't vibrate loose. Then you turn the screws to move the clamp so the thick black cable can fit through the connector. You push enough of the cable through the connector so the black cable insulation shows on the other side of the romex connector. The final step is to tighten the clamp screws so the cable can't move within the connector.

lg dryer electric cable installed

This is the finished installation that I did. There's nothing hard about this and it's completely safe to do. You can install cables like this if you can fog a mirror and understand simple colored wiring diagrams.

 

May 29, 2022 AsktheBuilder Newsletter

Posted on by Tim Carter

Issue #1184

I'd like you to look at the following photos.

They're beautiful.

bronze star
world war 2 victory medal
us army pow medal
melvin carter purple heart medal
rear of melvin carter purple heart medal

Memorial Day
and
My Dad

This weekend here in the USA, we celebrate Memorial Day. It's the day set aside to honor all who gave their lives while in active military service to protect the US Constitution.

The US Constitution has been under assault for hundreds of years, but never so much as it is now in my opinion.

We're overrun with domestic enemies trying to reduce that hallowed document to shreds and erase it from the memory of all on the planet. You know what a foreign enemy is and their intentions, right? How much thought have you given to the term, domestic enemy?

If you're not aware of this, the US Constitution is the best blueprint for personal freedom and liberty that has ever been created on this planet.

Perhaps the best part of the Constitution is the Bill of Rights. When you read that part, you'll discover the rights given to you by God.

All too often many forget these rights are NOT TO BE infringed upon by any man or woman.

There have always been a segment of humans who think the concept of personal freedom and liberty is HATEFUL. We have millions of them now here in the USA. They want to control you. They want to tell you what to do, what to put into your body, and when to do it.

If my dad were alive today to see what's going on he'd be so angry he couldn't talk. He be more upset than the morning after I ruined a front tire and bent the wheel rim of his new Ford Custom 500.

It happened one sultry summer night within a few weeks of me getting my driver's license. I had hit a giant pothole up near St. X high school while out on a mission with a few of my buddies. We were out scouting some stunning XX chromosomes.

What is Bravery?

Some who gave the ultimate sacrifice ran towards withering gunfire. Some drowned exiting landing craft. Some were shot out of the sky at 30,000 feet. Some had just launched a torpedo or two.

The manner in which each one of the millions of military members met their Maker is as varied as leaves gently rustling in the trees outlining military cemeteries around the world.

Take my dad for example. He didn't die on the battlefield, but I can assure you his death was directly attributed to his service as a Medical Corpsman in the great WW II.

My dear friend Richard Anderson is another. His death was directly attributed to exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam.

Your soulmate, a member of your family, or a close friend may have offered up their life for you and the rest of us.

You have to ask yourself on this special weekend if you're cut from the same cloth, or are you a coward?

It's one or the other.

It's like day and night.

It's like good or bad.

It's like hot or cold.

It's like love or hate.

There's no gray area when it comes to bravery.

You're either BRAVE, or you're a chicken.

The events of the past few days have brought bravery into the spotlight. It's one thing to face hundreds of enemy soldiers in hardened pillboxes firing deadly 88's or 50-caliber machine guns at you.

It's almost impossible to compare that to a coward, quite possibly on evil psychotropic drugs, holed up in a classroom surrounded by death armed with a single .223 and maybe a handgun.

Over the past few days, I wondered what my Dad would have said about what happened in Texas. I have a distinct feeling he would have taken in a deep breath and pursed his lips.

One of his favorite words was chickenshit.

My Dad's Medals

Those medals above are my dad's. I didn't show you his Good Conduct one because I felt it goes without saying he also got that one.

The medal at the top is his Bronze Star.

The Bronze Star Medal is a United States decoration awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces for either heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious achievement, or meritorious service in a combat zone. Go here to see what my Dad did to earn it.

The medal below the Bronze Star is the WW II Victory decoration. Yes, to the victor go the spoils.

The next medal is my dad's POW decoration. He spent seven months in a POW camp in Poland.

Just below that is dad's Purple Heart. He was wounded twice so he has two of them. I love the one with his name on the back.

What About You?

Each Memorial Day weekend, I spend lots of time pondering my dad's time in the US Army. I have all of his memorabilia and two giant scrapbooks my mom created. I have the grim telegram sent to my grandmother letting her know her son was Missing in Action.

I have another that lets her know he was alive and a POW. The best one announces he's back in the possession of the US Army and about to be shipped back home.

But what about you? What will you think about this weekend? Will you contemplate bravery? Will you think of what millions of soldiers both alive and dead did for you so that you can read this newsletter and I can write it with no fear of reprisal?

How Brave are You?

Would you have run away from the French farmhouse and abandon my dad as his buddies did on that October afternoon when they were overrun by the Huns? Or, would you have stayed helping him attend to the wounded and dying soldiers he was comforting?

Would you not given it a second thought and run into the Texas school with ten, twenty, or fifty of your buddies days ago or would you have made excuses to stay outside?

Excuses are reasons for failure.

I'm so proud of my dad. That said, I'm sad that I didn't get to hear all about what happened all those years ago. Most didn't want to talk about it after they got back.

It makes sense when you think of it. Think about the men he was trying to bandage on the battlefield. Imagine sleeping night after night in his blood-stained uniform. Think of the screams of pain and anguish he heard while injecting his buddies with morphine.

That's the stuff nightmares are made from. That's what causes one to undergo hellish shock treatments to try to make the reruns of the memories go away.

Think of what it took for my dad and millions of others to wake up the next day and do it all over.

To march, walk, or run towards death.

What Does Bravery Look Like?

Yes, the more I think about it I know exactly what my dad would say about what happened this past week.

My guess is my dad and a few of his buddies would have raced into that Texas school with just their unsheathed bayonet knives knowing that a madman was killing defenseless 4th graders and young teachers.

They would have known the coward's magazine would eventually run out of cartridges. A lucky few would get to see the wide-eyed fear on the coward's face as they rushed him knowing that at least one would make it before the coward could reload.

Then it would be all over.

That's exactly what bravery looks like.

Don't allow any chickenshit talking head on TV tell you otherwise.

And for the love of God don't allow anyone to convince you the GUNS caused the mayhem. Humans squeeze gun triggers just as they squeeze forceps inserted into a mother's body.

Lay the blame at the feet of the coward's psychiatrist if she/he wrote the prescription for a psychotropic drug.

I love you Dad. I can't wait to hug you up in Heaven. You too, Mom!

Tim's Dad and MomADA compliant Shovel Man
Lazer Plumb Bob logo

Brian Short Greenwood Minnesota Mass Shooting

Posted on by Tim Carter
brian short and family

This is Brian Short with his family.

Brian Short - Husband, Father, and Registered Nurse

Author's Note: Be sure to look at a screenshot of a news story from June 8, 2022 that's at the end of this article. The night before a young man was arrested outside of Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh's home. The last line says it all.

Second Author's Note: On the evening of September 2, 2022 the author received a strange phone call from a young woman who refused to identify herself. She was agitated about the following story. She made a threat that something was going to happen and something was going to be published about what you're about to read. It could have been a scare tactic by drug companies to try to get me to remove this story from my website. Why? It's always about money, power, and sex as Queen Cersei said to Lord Stark in the infamous Game of Thrones book and TV series. Look at the video clip far below.

Brian Short was a smart and successful man. He was calm, had an amazing sense of humor, and never was cross. He was a loving husband and father.

Brian was a member of a very secret group of successful Internet entrepreneurs I helped found in 1999. Each of us had a website in a particular niche. His was AllNurses.com. It was the go-to place for nurses from all around the USA and world.

On or about September 7, 2015, Brian used a brand-new Remington 12-gauge shotgun to murder his three teenaged children and his wife. Brian then went to the garage, sat in a chair, and proceeded to blow off his own head.

Are you stunned?

Are you asking yourself, "What does it take to put the barrel of a shotgun at the head of your child while she/he is gently sleeping and PULL THE TRIGGER?"

Not once, not twice, but three times, then do the same with your frantic wife.

What would cause that sort of abnormal behavior in a person who had no past history of abuse or violence?

The Secret Inside Scoop

Brian shared his success within the secret group. We all did. But we also shared when headwinds or hurricanes hit.

Google aimed a firehose of money at Brian and several others in the group between 2004 and 2015. I was one of them.

But the winds of fortune can be fickle. The first to fall was a very good friend of mine who made significant money from affiliate revenue. Google sent all sorts of people to his website. Then one night, the traffic disappeared just like you'd turn off a water faucet.

The same thing happened to me on a dark and cold February night in 2011. I woke up to discover 95% of my traffic - and ad revenue - had disappeared like a puff of smoke in a windstorm.

Then it happened to Brian. The traffic to his AllNurses.com website vaporized a few years after mine. That traffic was responsible for creating the vast sums of money that flowed into his accounts each day.

All of a sudden he was making peanuts each day. Not nearly enough to get by.

Depression - Psychotropic Drugs

This loss of income caused Brian, a smart upbeat registered nurse, to experience severe depression. He was in his mid-40s. How was he going to continue funding his lifestyle?

Would he have to go back to working on a hospital floor making 2% of what he had been making each day? How could he explain to his kids that he was now what he thought to be a failure?

He went to a doctor that most likely prescribed a cocktail of psychotropic drugs to help him cope with his depression. My mother was a registered pharmacist. It didn't take me long to discover that pharmacies are required to keep copies of the prescriptions doctors write. If you had access to Brian's pharmacy files, you'd have the list of drugs, and the dosage, he was taking. But unfortunately, HIPPA laws prevent this incursion of privacy.

Do you know the side effects of psychotropic drugs? You can go read about all the soft and fuzzy ones online but dig deep enough and you quickly discover these evil drugs cause a person to become uncoupled from reality. They also cause hallucinations and delusional behavior.

Go type side effects of psychotropic drugs into any search engine and see for yourself.

The Whole Truth

Do you think you get the whole truth from news reporters? You know a half-truth is a whole lie, right?

Sometimes it's not possible for a reporter to have access to the whole truth. Current HIPAA laws in the USA create this roadblock in cases like Brian's and that of every other mass shooter you read about or see on TV.

That said, how many times have you seen or heard a simple brief mention in a mass-shooter news story, "...the shooter was being treated for depression."

Then abruptly the reporter or writer moves on.

You don't hear the reporter/writer speculate on what the  treatment might have been. Was the shooter on psychotropic drugs like Brian?

Was the shooter experiencing hallucinations? Was the shooter uncoupled from reality?

But now you know what might have been the ROOT CAUSE of the shooter's behavior.

Connect the Drug Dots

Do you have a piece of graph paper? Do a small bit of research and chart the timeline of the introduction of the many varieties of psychotropic drugs and their use on the masses. Then chart when mass shootings started to happen.

I think you already know what you're going to discover, especially if you've had 60+ trips around the sun.  If you're as old as I am, you know growing up you NEVER heard of mass shootings like we've experienced in the past 20 years or so.

Why is that?

Then ask yourself as you reach for the box of heavy-duty aluminum foil from your pantry, "Why in the HELL don't we hear about this on TV and in news stories?

Why don't news outlets make these connections?

Why wouldn't TV anchors they tell us the TRUTH about what probably is causing the mass shootings?" 

WAKE UP!!!

STOP BEING PLAYED!!!

START ASKING QUESTIONS!!!!

STOP BEING LED BY THE NOSE BY YOUR NEWS SOURCES!!!!!

news story screen shot

May 22, 2022 AsktheBuilder Newsletter

Posted on by Tim Carter

Issue #1183

Summer is almost here and it's time to ease up on the newsletter throttle. I've got lots going on in my life right now, and perhaps you do too.

This time of year I try to spend as much time outdoors as possible because the summer WX in New Hampshire is incredible.

Dew points in the mid 50s F are common. We have maybe just a handful of days the mercury tops 90 F.

Lake Winnisquam water is crystal clear and warm. Kayaking is surreal in the morning. On many days, I'm the only person gliding across the water. It's just me, the loons, a few duck families, and the resident bald eagle may buzz over me looking for a tasty bass breakfast.

We've had an unusually cool spring but in just a few days, I'll be out in my orange kayak early each morning enjoying the solitude.

Here's what Lake Winnisquam looks like in the morning.
lake winnisquam sunrise 2022

My Past Week

I did several fun phone consult calls. One was with Ed who lives in Cincinnati, OH. Oh how I wish he could have sent me a Skyline Chili 5-way through the phone line!!

He had a pesky leak in his garden window and once he sent me a specific photo, I solved the problem in seconds saving him huge money. Here's Ed's window:
vinyl garden window

I also accomplished a personal goal with the help of my amateur radio mentor, Jim Cluett.

A few days ago, a once-a-year event was held. It's called Military Cross-Band Exercise. On this one day, amateur radio operators can talk with a member of the military over the radio waves.

It's important for you to realize the electromagnetic spectrum used for radio communications is like a massive layer cake. Only a very few ultra-thin layers of the cake are given to amateurs like me.

The rest of them are in use by government agencies at all levels, common things around your home including your cell phone, that cordless phone in your house, your garage door opener, free commercial bands like I used as a train conductor, commercial businesses that pay the government to use some frequencies and the remainder are for military and secret use. You may find this simplistic description about the radio spectrum useful.

When I made contact with the serviceman, keep in mind I'm not allowed to transmit on his military frequency because it's not for use by civilians. I can listen on the military frequency and then respond on a frequency that amateurs are allowed to use. He has his radio set to listen on the amateur frequency.

Radio operators call this split operation.

Here's a graphic table of the radio frequencies amateurs like me are permitted to use.

amateur radio band chart

CLICK on the image to see a readable version.

I made contact with NSS in Annapolis, Maryland on the 40-meter band. It was pretty darn cool even though the conversation lasted about 20 seconds.

Another wish I had from decades ago came true. I had always hoped that I could help build or work on the homes that my kids bought. Version 1.0 of that came to pass on frigid December days in 2018 and through the spring of 2019 when I helped build my daughter's home.

Just yesterday version 2.0 of that dream came true! I started to help paint half of the inside of my son's new house. It was a market home and the builder already had painted every room battleship gray before my son's offer was accepted. The only things missing in each room were giant 6-foot-tall white numbers you see on the bow of all US Navy ships.

Who in their right mind thinks gray is a great color to use on every room in a house? Holy tomato. I'll share two video walk throughs next week. One will be what I call the Gray Tour. The second will be once the rooms are finished. SPOILER ALERT: Be prepared for some bold colors. I warned him!

It's my intention to record a few helpful interior painting videos as the project unfolds.
Tim Character logo - point right

CRAFTSMAN Celebration

CRAFTSMAN tools is celebrating its 95th anniversary with a bunch of giveaways. This is made for you. I'm not allowed to participate because I'm a member of the media.

Go here and enter and I wish you the BEST of luck. Lots of great stuff is being given away.

To celebrate the past, present and future of this iconic American tool brand, CRAFTSMAN will host four social media giveaways beginning this week leading up to the brand’s 95th anniversary on May 20.

Giveaways and requirements for entry include:

  • Day 1 - Vintage CRAFTSMAN T-Shirts: Share a photo of your oldest CRAFTSMAN tool and use #95YearsofBuildingPrideDay1 for the chance to win a vintage CRAFTSMAN t-shirt.
  • Day 2 - Autographed CRAFTSMAN V-Series™ Tool Sets: Post a photo of your favorite project or job completed with CRAFTSMAN tools and use #95YearsofBuildingPrideDay2 to win a V-Series™ 3/8-In. Drive Metric 6-Point Tool Set signed by TV Host and auto enthusiast Cristy Lee.
  • Day 3 - Commemorative 95th Anniversary CRAFTSMAN Sweatshirts: Show us your CRAFTSMAN red and use #95YearsofBuildingPrideDay3 for a chance to win a commemorative 95th anniversary CRAFTSMAN sweatshirt.
  • Day 4 – V20* BRUSHLESS RP™ 1/2-In. Hammer Drill and CRAFTSMAN Hats: Show us the latest addition to your CRAFTSMAN toolbox and include the #95YearsofBuildingPrideDay4 to be entered for a chance to win a V20* BRUSHLESS RP™ 1/2-In. Hammer Drill and CRAFTSMAN hat

ADA compliant Shovel Man

Rocket Man

Does your wife think you're ready for intensive therapy? How about your friends? Do you have the Peter Pan syndrome as I do? Do you do things like this?

rocketman on his rocket board

Condo & HOA Consults

I've been doing an increasing number of consults for both Condominium Associations and other HOAs. Currently, I'm helping a small association on the NH seacoast wrestle with repairing an exterior deck water and rot issue. It was a very poor design. The architect that came up with the idea should have her/his license revoked in my opinion.

Another HOA Board is voting in the next few days on hiring me to help them make the right decision about a huge roofing contract.

The biggest reason they give for hiring me is "Tim, you don't have a dog in the fight."

They'll all attracted to my new transcribed and recorded phone call. This way they can concentrate on what I'm saying on the call and they don't have to take notes risking they didn't write down exactly what I said.

Within hours, I often deliver the MP3 recording AND the actual full transcription of the call. Both can be distributed to all association members. You can see how this can help the associations make better financial decisions.

You should absolutely consider doing this if your association is in the planning phase of a project. It's BEST for me to catch flaws in a project BEFORE it gets installed.

If you live in a condo or other HOA and want more details, reach out to me.

From Tim's Digital Sack

It was a light week for mail.

Bob confirmed what I've been saying for the past five months about inflation:

I purchased a gallon of Sherwin Williams Emerald paint. You say it's the best for outside work. I thought two quarts would do, but that size is not available.

After a 25% discount plus the sales tax, (I had not purchased a gallon of any brand for about fifteen years) the price was $80.

Ouch! I've got very bad news for you. Soon it's going to be over $125.00 a gallon. I've been talking about inflation for the past five months on my LIVE video streams. The inflation situation is not transitory. When you dump trillions of dollars into the monetary system, inflation is guaranteed to happen just as the sun will rise tomorrow.

If you want to know the truth about inflation and what causes it, I urge you to read this. You'll discover that inflation is by no means a modern-day phenomenon.

You also need to know that inflation is not going away soon. Spending money like a drunken sailor on the Federal level has consequences. Your money is a commodity just like wheat, soy beans, or chickens in cages. When there's an oversupply, the VALUE of the commodity drops.

I hope you have enough acorns squirreled away.

Trust me, the inflation storm clouds are just beginning to build on the horizon. An epic financial weather event is about to turn your world upside down.

That's enough for a Sunday.

Tim Carter
Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com
HILTON HOTELS Uses - www.StainSolver.com
Military Cross-Bander - www.W3ATB.com

Do It Right, Not Over!

P.S. Do you live in the Southwest USA? Have you been paying attention to the water level in Lake Mead and Lake Powell?

Have you started to wonder about your source of electricity? Are you aware the entire generating capacity of the US electric grid is stretched tighter than a banjo string? It might be a good idea to wake up and figure out what you're going to do. Remember, it's all about self-sufficiency at the end of the day.

Basement Leak Repair

Posted on by Tim Carter
wet backyard linear french drain soggy yard

Basement Leak Repair | Water flowing through the soil creates a swamp in the backyard of this home and many others in the neighborhood. It’s easy to dry it out. Copyright 2022 Tim Carter

Basement Leak Repair - Best is Doing it Outside

Ande lives in Puyallup, WA and reads my weekly column in her paper. She’s got a very common problem. In fact, tens of thousands of people suffer from it in places where there’s abundant rainfall for many months during the year.

Ande’s backyard turns into a miniature Okefenokee Swamp when it rains. Her crawlspace also floods. She asked for my assistance in solving her basement leaking. Fortunately, my college degree is in geology with a focus in hydrogeology - the study of groundwater.

Each spring I receive hundreds of emails from homeowners who have water leaking into a basement after heavy rain. It also leaks into crawlspaces. Most have soggy yards as well. The good news is that in almost all cases you can solve these problems with moderate effort and minimal expense if you can do most of the work yourself.

Basement Leak Repairs Causes

I do lots of phone coaching with homeowners like you and in a vast majority of the cases the builder caused most of the problems. The three biggest pain points are:

  • roof water dumped onto the ground next to the house
  • failure to slope all ground away from the house foundation
  • grade the lot so all surface water drains to the natural lowest spot before the house was built

Let’s unpack these one at a time. You’d be surprised at the amount of water that falls onto your roof. If the footprint of your house’s roof is close to 1,600 square feet, a rainstorm that dumps 1 inch of rain will create just over 1,000 gallons of water falling off the roof! The last thing you want to do is dump all this water onto splash blocks at the base of downspouts. This water needs to be piped to municipal storm sewers or piped to the lowest part of your lot where water would have drained naturally before your home was built.

Read my past column about gutters and downspouts to see how to calculate how much water falls on your roof.

Leaking Basement Source - Bad Grading

The soil that touches up against your home must slope away from the foundation. If your home was built on a mountain peak, by default all the water would slope down and away from each side of your foundation. You can achieve the same thing by making sure the top of your foundation walls are at least 18 inches higher than any ground within 10 feet of the foundation.

foundation height above grade sketch

The building code suggests that the slope of the ground should fall at least 6 inches in the first horizontal ten feet away from the foundation. Realize this is a minimum standard. More slope is better. Read my column about foundation height and the grade around your home.

Once you have the ground sloping away from the foundation on all sides, you do what’s necessary to slope your yard so water flows to the lowest point of your lot. This takes care of all surface water. It’s now time to deal with the water flowing through the top soil.

Water Moves Through Soil

When it rains, water flows into the top soil and occupies the space previously taken up by air. The water then is pulled by gravity down and then sideways. Many soils have a clay component and as you go deeper into the soil, the denser the clay becomes. This is why in the Midwest, South, and many other parts of the USA it’s easy to create a pond. The clay soil acts like a giant pottery bowl.

Knowing that this subsurface water is moving downslope towards your home, you simply have to intercept it before it hits your foundation. You then redirect this water around your home and send it on its way to the ocean. That’s where all water wants to end up if given the chance unless you live in the Great Basin of the USA or similar locations in the world.

I feel the best way to intercept the subsurface water is to dig a 6-inch-wide trench about 24 inches deep. In most situations this gets you into the dense clay subsoil. I like to put about 1 or 2 inches of clean rock in the bottom of the trench. This rock should be the size of large green grapes. Be sure there’s no sand in the rock or smaller pieces of rock.

Who Does Basement Leak Repair Near Me?

I can help you do your basement leak repair over the phone. It's easy and I even draw up the plan of what you have to do! Go here and let's get started with your leaking basement repair.

I then put a perforated 4-inch pipe on this gravel and then fill the trench to the top with the same grape-sized gravel. Water flowing through the soil hits this gravel, immediately drops down and finds its way into the drain pipe.

The trench might be L or U-shaped as it goes around your home looking for daylight. As the ground slopes away from your home the drain pipe will eventually pop out of the ground if you keep the bottom of the trench level or have a very slight 1/8-inch per foot of fall to the drain pipe. In wet periods you’ll see enough water flow out of the pipe to fill a five-gallon bucket in a minute or two!

Where is a DIY Video Showing Repairing Basement Leaks?

You can get access to a 90-minute step-by-step video showing you how to install one of these trench drains going here.

Column 1457

Best Choice Roofing

Posted on by Tim Carter
metal roof installation

Best Choice Roofing | A neighbor of mine decided to kick asphalt shingles to the curb and went with metal roofing. This is a worker cutting a metal shingle for his roof. Copyright 2022 Tim Carter

What is the Best Choice Roofing Material? It Depends

My guess is you don’t spend lots of time thinking about the roof over your head. You simply want it to be free of leaks and if it can look good at the same time, that’s a big plus. You also ask, "What is the best roofing company near me?"

What is the Best Roofing?

Have you ever given much thought as to why asphalt shingles are the go-to product for most of the homes in the USA? If you travel internationally, you might have noticed other countries don’t have the love affair with asphalt as we do. Why do you think that is?

Just because most people in the USA use asphalt shingles doesn't mean they're the best choice roofing you can get.

I have quite a few subscribers to my free weekly newsletter who live in Europe. They have told me on numerous occasions that asphalt shingles are considered cheap and frowned upon. The ingrained mentality for many Europeans is roofing materials must be extremely durable and expected to last for many many decades.

What are the Best Roofing Shingles?

The best roofing shingles are ones that will not curl or lose ceramic granules for at least thirty years. I share what these are in my Roofing Ripoff expose' book. You can read the first three chapters for FREE here.

The issue for just about everyone is money. While you may really want a stunning slate roof that may last 200 years, you can’t afford one. This is why traditional asphalt shingles have cornered the market. They’re affordable and can be installed quickly keeping labor costs to a minimum.

What is the Best Roofing Material?

The best roofing material is one that can last for many decades, is easy to install, is easy to repair, and is affordable. The trouble is there's no roofing material that has these characteristics. Some come close as I describe below.

But what are your options if you decide you don’t want asphalt shingles? I kicked them to the curb when my 30-year-warranty asphalt shingles started to fail after nine years. I was so angry this happened to me I decided to investigate. I did a national survey getting feedback from readers of my syndicated column. I quickly discovered the failure I was seeing in asphalt shingles was widespread.

This is why I wrote my Roofing Ripoff book after I replaced my asphalt shingles with a synthetic slate made from virgin polymer plastic. I estimate my roof might last 100 years or more. While writing my book, I made a surprise discovery that allows you to extend the life of your asphalt shingles by decades. More on that in a moment.

Is Metal Roofing the Best Roofing Shingle?

I’m seeing significant growth in the metal roofing category. A neighbor of mine just installed a new metal roof that looks very nice. Each shingle is made from painted aluminum. This roof could last for hundreds of years as aluminum is very resistant to corrosion in central New Hampshire. If you’re attracted to aluminum roofing and live near the ocean or a sea, you better make sure it has a special coating to prevent corrosion.

new metal roof

This is a new metal roof being installed on my street. It's painted aluminum shingles. Away from the ocean, these roof shingles might easily last 100 years.

How Do You get a Leak-proof Roof?

You get a leak-proof roof by knowing how your roofing materials should be installed. Don't HOPE they get installed correctly.

No matter what roofing material you choose to use, I beg you to invest the time to read the installation instructions of the product before you talk to roofing contractors. These instructions are not hard to understand. Many manufacturers have good how-to-install videos you can watch.

I’m not asking you to do this thinking you’ll be installing the roofing. I’m suggesting this because you need to understand how to make sure your new roof doesn’t leak. Based on my 40-plus years of installing roofs and doing autopsies over the phone with homeowners like you, I’d say that 95% of all roof leaks happen at or near roof flashings. A flashing is a transitional roofing material that connects a roof to something that’s not a roof. You can discover much more about flashings here.

Once you have an understanding of how roof flashing should be installed, you increase the odds of your number one goal of having a leak-proof roof. For example, you can watch my detailed step-by-step video of how a plumbing vent pipe flashing should be installed. .

I show you in the video the best flashing to use as the common one used my many roofers has an inferior rubber seal that cracks and splits after several years of exposure to ultraviolet light.

How Can You Make Asphalt Shingles Last 40 Years?

When I was writing my Roofing Ripoff book I made a discovery that might collectively save homeowners like you hundreds of millions of dollars over time. Based upon exhaustive research of scientific journals, I felt that I was the first person in the world to uncover the fact that copper atoms bond to asphalt molecules and prevent crosslinking.

When too many asphalt molecules crosslink, and oxygen from the air encourages this, the asphalt becomes stiff and brittle. This is why asphalt shingles curl and why they lose their ability to hold onto the ceramic granules that cover shingles.

Active photons in the sun’s ultraviolet rays blast copper atoms from solid copper. This copper washes down the roof bonding with the asphalt. It’s best to put about 9 or 12 inches of exposed copper up on top of side of your roof. Gluing pennies up on the roof is laughable. It’s not enough copper.

copper roof strips on asphalt shingles

This copper will extend the life of the asphalt shingles for decades.

Each time it rains, the copper atoms broken off by the photons wash down onto the asphalt allowing them to link to the asphalt. If your asphalt shingles are in very good condition, you can add the copper and get the same benefit.

Column 1456

May 15, 2022 AsktheBuilder Newsletter

Posted on by Tim Carter

As a new subscriber you should be aware that you're entitled to lots of Ask the Builder perks. For one, you get top billing right here each week! You also get to hit the buffet line first. I highly recommend the buckeyes over on the dessert table. Just behind them are the dark chocolate pecandes. If you want to get your soulmate to smile, put one of those pecandes under their pillow.

But you, how long have you been a subscriber? Do you got back twenty, or more, years? If so, do you remember the column I wrote about DIY termite and wood-rot treatments? You can save THOUSANDS of dollars. With inflation raging at over 20%, you surely need help saving sweet moola.
garden sprayer and borate wood treatment powder

My Past Week

I'm an extrovert. It drives my lovely wife Kathy crazy sometimes. No, most of the times. One of my favorite things to do is to chat up strangers on elevators. Such fun!

I also like colorful clothes that make a statement. My youngest daughter knows this and bought me a fancy fun socks subscription for my birthday last year. Every three weeks or so for about four months a new colorful pair of socks would arrive.

She continued the trend this past Christmas purchasing socks honoring several National Parks. Here are the Grand Canyon National Park socks:
fancy grand canyon socks

She bought these and two other pairs when she visited the Grand Canyon last November. On that sunny cool day beginning at the Bright Angel Trailhead, she hiked 9.6 miles round trip to and from Indian Gardens.

I warned her it was going to be a grueling adventure because of the steep upward climb. She said to me the next day, "I burst into tears of joy when I got to the top of the rim just before sunset. I was so tired. I had to stop so many times in the last mile I didn't think I'd make it up by the time it got dark."

Just after my 20th birthday, I hiked down to the bottom of the canyon on the Kaibab Trail and back out the next day up the Bright Angel Trail. I was sporting a full backpack. It was August and quite hot.

I was in prime physical condition. After her adventure in cooler weather, my daughter said, "Dad, I can't comprehend how you did the hike up from the bottom in that hot weather. How did you do it?"

I replied, "Easy, sweetheart. You engage your critical-thinking skills and put your mind to the task. Step one is to deal with fear. Fear is so very powerful and causes mind paralysis. It prevents you from engaging critical-thinking skills.

I clearly remember kicking the fear of not making it up to the rim that simmering day over the edge of the trail as there was no curb. This happened early in the hike. I was still in the shade in the inner gorge and I was approaching the Tapeats Sandstone.

I distinctly heard that fear splash into the Colorado River as I put one foot in front of the other on the dusty trail."

Back to the socks - I wore the festive socks to church last Sunday. Because I'm the head usher and greeter, I get compliments each week on my socks. My Glacier National Park ones are a nice blend of blues, greens, and gray.

Do you want your own Grand Canyon and National Park socks? I thought so.

Don't you feel the socks go well with my brown loafers? I've always had a soft spot for brown shoes. Back in high school, I had these very distinctive brown shoes that were good looking and comfortable.

I tried finding these shoes to show you a photo but had no luck. They had the same basic stitched upper design as the penny loafer in the above photo but they weren't loafers. They had shoe strings and a slightly pebbled finish to the leather.

At least one of my high school girlfriends liked them so much she'd comment about them when I picked her up for a date. To the best of my knowledge of all the boys she dated and there were many, I had the best shoes. But that wasn't enough to snag her. Such is life!

The shoes were so comfortable I wore them working at Skyline Chili where I was on my feet all the time.
tim carter at skyline chili 1971

That's me circa 1971-72 working at the Clifton Skyline Chili. If I had a nickel for every coney island I made at that steam table, I'd be buying Twitter for $25 a share instead of Elon.

Did you see his brilliant 3D chess move this past Friday? No wonder Elon's the world's richest man.

What do you think of my wide tie? Today, I'd be sporting one of my chic-magnet bow ties. Mix a bow tie with C.O. Bigelow bay rum cologne and you can cast a spell on just about any one of the fairer sex who sports two X chromosomes. Add in a train conductor's hat and you've got some very powerful jujumagumbo. A red dragon tattoo might not be a bad idea now that I think of it!

Super Thanks Now On!

Halfway through last week, I received news that YouTube had activated a feature on all my videos. I've known about this feature that was in beta testing for six months. It's called Super Thanks.

The feature allows you to THANK a video creator for the help you received in the video. It's a great idea when you think about it.

You tip waitresses for great service. You possibly tip your barber or hair stylist. You tip valet drivers.

You can now tip me, if you feel I've saved you money or time after watching one of my 700+ videos on YouTube.

Look at this partial screenshot of the beginning of one of my videos. You'll see that THANKS text link under all of my videos:

partial screenshot ask the builder video

The red arrow is pointing to a new text link called THANKS with a $heart. When you click it at the bottom of any video, you'll then see this box:

screenshot of youtube super thanks instructions

Your support of my work allows me to re-invest in my channel. My intention is to use any and all revenue to upgrade my video equipment and editing platform so I can make MORE videos for you.

Consider supporting one of my videos now as an experiment. Do it on this video and see what happens. I'm under the impression your comment STANDS OUT because you're helping support my channel.

Please let me know if you do this so I can see what it looks like from my end. Thanks!

PRO TIP: To find one of my videos on YouTube, all you do is enter the search phrase followed by my name. For example:

  • 3 way switch tim carter
  • deck post railing tim carter
  • blacktop crack repair tim carter

I think you get the idea.

Tim Character logo - point right

Corded vs Cordless Power Tools

Last week, I teased you about a column I was writing for the 60+ papers that still run my weekly Ask the Builder column.

If you've been a subscriber for quite a while, you know I'm cut from a different cloth. I have this tendency to tell the truth. I'm not a hobby blogger spouting off drivel that gives manufacturers warm and fuzzy feelings. Well, I do spout off sometimes for companies like Wall Control that make amazing products.

This new column is going to create some angst with power tool manufacturers. Let me know if you feel like Bill does.

dewalt corded and cordless circular saw

The two saws in the photo pretty much deliver the same results. The one on the right is a cordless saw.

ADA compliant Shovel Man

Kevin's A/C Bid

This past week, Kevin saved himself possibly $1,000 and GUARANTEED his new air conditioning system was going to keep him comfortable on the hottest day this summer.

How did he do this?

Simple. Kevin asked me to look over the quote he got from a company he liked. He wanted me to point out any things I thought should be in the contract or included in the quote.

I created a list of no less than five bullet points I felt were mission-critical. I suggested he have the company re-write the bid and include them.

What happens if you don't do this?

Well, you might be one of the fifty people each week screeching at me to throw them a digital life preserver as they flail about in the storm-tossed waves in the I-Trusted-the-Contractor Sea.

Just like so many things today that you shouldn't be trusting, the homeowners who reach out to me placed far too much trust in the contractor.

Financial LOSS is guaranteed.

Don't drown or lose money. Go here and let me help you review your bids NO MATTER what size the job is.

From Tim's Digital Sack

You might have been outdoors enjoying the spring weather and didn't have time to write me. Even so, I did get several interesting emails. Here are a few.

Rob asked this:

Can I mix a scissors truss and a regular truss in the same roof? By that I mean that only 1/2 the roof is vaulted, while the other part of the roof in a different room has a normal flat ceiling?

Yes! All that has to happen is the heel heights and pitch be the same of the two different trusses.

- - -

Stan wanted an update on my HOA atomic bomb debacle:

Tim, I have followed you for years and enjoy your straightforward information. I guess I may have missed an article. You were getting ready to drop an atom bomb on your HOA in May and I have not heard the results of that bombing. Did it happen? Keep up the good work.

Well, it almost worked. I opened the bomb bay doors, did a low-pass flyover, and got 18 other residents here in my HOA to vote against the wretched short-term-rental bylaw amendment.

The issue is, I needed 20 neighbors to do what I did in order to block the 2/3rds vote accepting the change. The bylaw passed with a vote of 41 for and 19 against.

Those that voted to infringe on my private property rights are now my enemies. How dare they tell me that I can't rent to senior citizens who just want to play bridge all day out on my deck.

I have no issues with tough bylaws that concern activity on common land. What's next? Will the idiots who voted for this bylaw start to say I can't clean my guns in my home? Will they say I can't own a German Shepherd dog? Will they stop me from putting up a flagpole to fly the American Flag?

Given the chance, I'd chase the 41 neighbors who voted for the bylaw amendment to the Gates of Hell.

The mills of the gods grind slowly but thoroughly.

That's enough for a Sunday.

Tim Carter
Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com
HILTON HOTELS Uses - www.StainSolver.com
POTA Activator - www.W3ATB.com

Do It Right, Not Over!

P.S. What do you know about deck railing post safety? Do your deck railing posts have this SERIOUS DEFECT?

P.P.S. Need help? Call me at 867-5309...

Chucky sent us. He knows all about lifetime guarantees...

Lazer Plumb Bob logo

Cordless vs Corded Tools

Posted on by Tim Carter
dewalt corded and cordless circular saw

Corded vs Cordless Tools | The saw on the left is a corded one that uses 120-volt electricity. The saw on the right is a cordless one that gets its power from a battery. Copyright 2022 Tim Carter

Corded vs. Cordless Tools - Which One Costs More?

Do you have a love affair with power tools? If so, my guess is you may have succumbed to the Sirens’ songs luring you into the Sea of Cordless Tools. Before you become mesmerized by the nymphs’ sweet voices, I suggest you check your heading and go hard to starboard before dashing your boat on the rocks.

As luck would have it, just as I was starting to write this column, a serendipitous email from Bill popped into my email inbox. He lives in Spokane, Washington and shared a story about a recent visit to one of the big box stores that was cluttered with pallets of wares that had been hidden for months in storage containers anchored off Long Beach, CA. The text of his entire email is at the bottom of this column.

“I couldn’t help noticing all the many cordless tools. It seemed like there were hundreds, all with little signs that said something like ‘Tool Only’. I couldn’t help wondering about this trend in tools, and comparing it to what is apparently happening also in automobiles.”

Bill is older than I am by a few years and he still owns plenty of power tools that have a 6-foot 120-volt power cord attached to them. I have many in my garage in excellent shape and I’m so glad I do. If invited to sit down to lunch with a group of young-buck carpenters, I’d be the old goat sitting on an empty overturned drywall mud bucket that would say, “Back in my day, we didn’t have cordless tools. We got along just fine.”

What are the Pros and Cons of Cordless Tools?

The inspiration for this column came from a sidebar discussion on one of my recent live stream video broadcasts. A viewer asked me to list the pros and cons of cordless tools and then asked me what I thought the future was for traditional corded power tools.

It’s important to realize I’m old enough to remember seeing cordless tools enter the marketplace back in the 1980s. My best friend was my HVAC contractor. He bought a small cordless Makita drill outfitted with a nut driver that allowed him to drive hundreds of tiny self-tapping screws. I marveled at how he didn’t need to trip over a power cord while up on a step ladder. That little cordless drill/driver saved him lots of time.

As a carpenter and plumber, all of my power tools were corded. The biggest concern I recall is making sure you didn’t cut through an extension cord. On a new construction site, mud-covered extension cords were something you just dealt with. That said, we always had power. The tools always worked. We never had to wait for a battery to charge. Cold weather didn’t sap my saws of their strength.

Is There Competition for Battery Raw Materials?

I decided to step back and do a true and honest comparison between corded and cordless tools. If ever there’s a time to do it, I feel it’s now. Inflation is raging and I don’t see it calming down anytime soon. My geology degree also is screaming at me. The war for raw materials for car, truck, and tool batteries is going to heat up. This competition for the ingredients is most likely going to cause the price of cordless batteries to soar higher than a rocket headed to the moon.

What is the Biggest Benefit of a Cordless Tool?

When I collected myself to answer the viewer watching the live stream, I said, “You can’t beat cordless tools for convenience. You can use them without having to plug in a cord.” I then hesitated to list other positive features of cordless tools. Why? I have this nasty habit of always looking at what things really cost you in the long run.

Cost Comparison Between Corded and Cordless Circular Saw (May 2022)

Days ago I decided to do a fast price comparison between two normal 7 and 1/4-inch circular saws made by the same manufacturer. One was corded and the other one was cordless. The new corded saw cost $144.00. The cordless saw, tool only, was $159.00. You had to spend another $147.00 to get two batteries, a charger, and soft-sided bag to transport all the gear. Invoking your grade school math you can see out of the box the cordless saw job-site-ready was over $300.00.

How Many Times Can you Recharge a Cordless Tool Battery?

I went to the manufacturer’s website and read that you can expect to recharge the battery up to 1000 times. Using a cordless tool all day long on a job site might have you charging the battery at least once or twice a day. It’s possible you could recharge a battery 450 times a year under heavy use.

Do Cordless Tool Batteries Record Your Activity?

If you wear out a battery and try to return it as a warranty claim, don’t try to fool the manufacturer saying you only charged it 200 times or so. I’m reasonably certain hidden inside all cordless tool batteries are electronics that not only protect the battery during charging cycles, but they also record how you use the battery, the number of recharge events, and all the particulars of the condition of the battery at the time it’s charging. I remember saying at a cordless tool editors conference years ago that the batteries were nothing more than spies. The tool representatives in the room didn’t disagree and glared at me.

How Much Does a Replacement Battery Cost? (May 2022)

I then looked at the cost of replacement batteries. You’ll currently spend $100 for one with a decent amp-hour rating. What’s that battery going to cost you in two, five, or fifteen years? Keep in mind I have corded tools that are decades old that still work. What will you spend over time to ensure your power tool works?

Bill finished his email to me saying he’s going to continue to trip over his cord. I intend to do the same thing comforted by the fact that when I bought my corded tool I paid a one-time fee and will never have to spend more to keep it running so long as I care for it. It might be prudent for you to invest in a variety of high-quality corded power tools before they become extinct.

Check out a powerful corded miter box saw here.

Author's Note: This is the text of the email I received from Bill in Spokane, Washington:

I was in the Home Depot in Spokane yesterday. It was in a terrible mess, chaos everywhere. There were pallets and pallets of new merchandise down the length of every aisle, cluttering up the store, and making it impossible to have a meaningful visit. I asked an employee what was going on, and he said "You know all those ships that have been sitting in Los Angeles harbor waiting for two years to be unloaded?.. Well they are finally being unloaded, and this is the result."

I wandered over to the tool section (relatively clear of debris) to see what was new. I couldn't help noticing all the many cordless tools. It seemed there were hundreds... All with little signs that said something like "Tool Only". I couldn't help wondering about this trend in tools, and comparing it to what is apparently happening also in automobiles. Huge need for batteries and charging systems! I fairly lusted after a Milwaukee cordless framing nailer that claimed hundreds of nails driven on a single charge, at a rate of three nails per second! Wow! But the battery charge does eventually run out, and the battery pack eventually does turn to mush and has to be replaced. And what about the huge waste problem of disposing of all these batteries? Have the 'greenies' ever considered these facts?

I am an old man (80), and like my father before me, I find myself saying "I don't belong in this world anymore". I will personally continue to trip over my cord, and its long extension from the meter base, outlet, or small generator knowing that I can keep working with this corded tool until the Lord takes me home... and my ancient tool turns up at Habitat for Humanity.

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