Land Buying Checklist

Posted on December 20, 2021 by Tim Carter

Land Buying Checklist | This lot in central New Hampshire might be appealing. The truth is it may have two or three deal-breaker flaws.

Land Buying Checklist - Use My Checklist to Save You Lots of Money

Are you one of many who are thinking of fleeing bigger cities to get away from crime, pollution, higher taxes, never-ending traffic jams, and a laundry list of other pesky problems? You’re not alone.

You might be one of the millions like my son-in-law and my own son who now can work from anywhere there’s an Internet connection. The paradigm of having to drive to work or take public transportation has shifted farther than the ground does in an 8.0 earthquake. That dream you’ve nurtured for decades about living in the countryside is within your grasp.

How Many Things Might Be on a Land Buying Checklist?

That said, you need to proceed slowly when buying raw land or a developed vacant building lot. I maintain there are no less than 20, maybe 30, important things you need to consider. In the limited space I have here, I’m going to share some of the major dealbreakers that would make me walk away from what appears to be a dream lot. The other checklist items are in a document I created years ago. The link for that is at the end of this column.

CLICK or TAP HERE to download my Land Buying Checklist

Just a few years ago, I helped my daughter make a decision about buying a vacant lot in a small subdivision on Mt. Desert Island (MDI). My daughter unknowingly enlisted a realtor who had virtually no clue about the pros and cons of vacant land. Don’t ever do this. We looked at no less than fifteen lots. At least five hours and gallons of gasoline were wasted looking at lots that should have never been considered.

What are Your Personal Deal Breakers?

The first thing you need to do when considering a building lot is to make your own personal list of deal-breakers. In my daughter’s case, she wanted privacy and quiet. This means you don’t want to have a lot that’s on a main road where giant trucks with diesel engines pass by every three minutes. The same goes for tourist locations like MDI that are overrun in good weather with tourists riding loud motorcycles. The wet-behind-the-ears realtor should have never even considered five of the lots she took us to.

What About Zoning Set Back Lines?

The size of a lot is much more important than you might think. If you’ve never built before, you may not be aware of zoning laws that create an unbuildable border of land within your lot. This no-build zone is created by the front, rear, and side-yard setback lines. They differ widely from town to town and neighborhood. For example, a vacant urban lot may have setback distances of just a few feet. A rural lot may have a front and rear-yard setback of 60, or more, feet. In my daughter’s case, the modest home she ended up building had to be shoehorned into the leftover buildable area within her lot. The house had to be built at an angle to the road and even then two small wetland areas were dangerously close to the house.

Wetlands you say? Imagine looking at my daughter’s lot in the dead of winter when you can’t even see them because they’re frozen and under a foot or two of snow! You’d hope all the wetlands are clearly marked on the plat map, but my suggestion is for you to only hope for things you can’t control like the weather and international conflict.

Is Compass Direction Important?

What about something as simple as compass direction? You might not think it matters much. Are you excited about the prospect of installing solar panels on your roof? Will the largest part of your roof that you can’t see from the road face south? That’s what you want to happen if you live in the northern hemisphere.

Take my house for example. I happen to thoroughly enjoy sunrises. I wanted the rear of my home to face east so I could enjoy them sitting out on my deck. The other advantage of this orientation is when I’m on the deck on a hot summer’s day, my deck is in the shade. Other neighbors of mine are sweltering in direct sunlight on their decks that face west.

What About Garbage Pickup or Snow Plowing?

What about city or town services? When I moved to rural New Hampshire thirteen years ago, I didn’t much think about trash pickup. After all, for five decades I just rolled my cans to the curb and the refuse magically disappeared. You can pay extra for that service in my town or you can drive your own stinking and leaking plastic trash bags to the town dump yourself. It’s a good thing I can hose out my pickup truck bed each time I get back home in the summer.

Is Mud Season an Issue?

Have you heard about mud season? It’s the harbinger of black flies. I’ll never forget my first spring in New Hampshire. Fortunately, my house and the roads leading to my house from at least one direction are all paved. One early spring day, I went for a walk to the end of my street. When you turned south on the intersecting road, it was paved for about 100 feet. Then it turned to gravel.

There in the middle of the road was a warning sign: ROAD IMPASSABLE. The ruts in the road were about 12 inches deep. My beefy Super Duty 3/4-ton 4x4 truck has only 8 inches of clearance. All the locals knew that if you were to venture onto the road and get stuck, only a farm tractor might get you out. No tow-truck company would ever venture into mud that deep. If you lived on that road, how would you get food for weeks at a time during mud season?

You’ll discover all sorts of other things to consider when you peruse my Land Buying Checklist.

Column 1434

AsktheBuilder Christmas 2021

Posted on December 20, 2021 by Tim Carter

'Twas the week before Christmas and all through the land every creature was astir doing its best to spread peace, joy, and maybe a few dark chocolate pecandes.

Last-minute shopping trips, baking, cooking, and wrapping gifts might have you scurrying and skittering about marking each passing minute as we march towards Christmas morning.

I was busy this past week on a number of things. I had to put the finishing touches on a pink unicorn barn for my granddaughter and I was hard at work on your Christmas gift too.

I still have more to do. Thank goodness there are still a few more days before Christmas.

If you subscribed after 5:00 AM last Sunday, I urge you to look over last week's issue. Without this context, what you're about to read will make little sense.

I was able to decide exactly what to give you and am working diligently to get it all wrapped up. I even intend to put red and green grosgrain ribbon on the box.

However, it's looking like my gift to you might not be under your Christmas tree, but instead covered with New Year's confetti.

Two Thumbs Up

When I was in the shower ten days or so ago pondering the idea for your prizes, I decided to pass the concept by two of my friends.

I trust my judgment, but as you'll soon discover I only get one chance with this.

There are no do-overs.

Both of my friends were enthusiastic about what I have in store. One said, "I think it's a great idea! And very generous, really."

That said, I wish you a very Merry Christmas. If you celebrate some other holiday at this time of year, I wish you the best.

"...So they went with haste, and they found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in the manger. And when they had seen, they understood what had been told them concerning this Child."

Just like the humble shepherds that night who were the first to see Jesus, the Christ Child, you'll soon be the first to behold something I've never done before.

It's my hope you enjoy it as much as I'm enjoying creating it for you.

Tim Carter
Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com

Do It Right, Not Over!

December 12, 2021 AsktheBuilder Newsletter

Posted on December 13, 2021 by Tim Carter

Christmas is now less than two weeks away. It's hard to believe 2021 vaporized as quickly as it did.

Two mornings ago, I woke up at 5:00 am thinking of you. You may find this really hard to believe, but it's true. It was pitch black here in New Hampshire as we're so very close to the winter solstice.

There are now less than 9 hours of daylight each day here in the great Northeast Kingdom.

All this past week, I was struggling with my own feelings about a laundry list of items. As each day passed, I was becoming more and more disturbed. I know these tiresome and troubling thoughts were gnawing away at me during the night.

In the pre-dawn darkness, I was gazing through the glass door next to my bed. The lake water was as black as the ink in my fountain pens but I could clearly see the twinkling lights on the distant shore.

I thought, "I'm sure many others, including my newsletter subscribers, are feeling similar pressure and stress - especially around Christmas. What in the world can I do to help?"

Many Many Sunrises

Many years ago when I was in my 30s and even in my 40s, I was asleep. By that I mean I was not aware, nor interested, in all the external forces that had a direct impact on my life. I was crazy busy trying to scratch out a living for myself, my lovely wife Kathy, and my three wonderful children that depended on me.

Having not witnessed enough sunrises yet, I was hyper-focused on my current jobs and what jobs I would get in the future that would allow me to put food on the table. Maybe you used to be like me.

My dear father-in-law and a handful of others I knew had seen enough sunrises and were awake. So was my best friend Richard, who we had to send back to Heaven fourteen months ago.

I distinctly remember Richard coming to the job site on many a day and he'd share what he had seen on C-Span the evening before. He was passionate about this new cable-TV channel.

I tried to look interested but I wasn't. All I could think about while he talked was if I was going to finish that job on time and not encounter problems that would gobble up the profit.

I don't know if Richard was also tuned into national financial news, as I have no memory of him sharing that with me.

I'm now wide awake and realize what's happening. Perhaps you are too.

No doubt you've seen food, fuel, and other prices rise 20, 30, and even 40 percent in the past twelve months. Inflation is just one of the things that's bothering me and it's my opinion that it's going to get far worse.

Along the way in the past twenty years, I've also become a student of history. Just seventy-seven years ago, world leaders met at the Mt. Washington Hotel a mere 68 miles from my house for the historic Bretton Woods Conference.

If you want to see where you're going, it's easy. Turn around and see where you've been. History is a mirror-image road map.

If you don't know what happened at the conference and WHY it happened, I suggest you get up to speed.

Too Late to Start Over

Back in the late 1970s, I was trying to help my father-in-law cobble together a big business deal. We were trying to put together a limited partnership to develop a 240-acre tract of land he owned with another man.

I was so wet behind the ears that my shirt collar was soaking wet. One day, we were driving to meet with some attorneys. While my father-in-law was a super-smart man, he often posed riddles instead of just saying what he meant to say.

For example, two of his favorite sayings/riddles were:

Success breeds success.
A tiger hunts best when it's hungry.

On this particular day, I asked him why he just didn't fund most of the deal with his own money. He responded, "It's too late in the game for me to start over."

That was all he said. I understood it, but it took years to fully grasp the meaning.

My Life-Preserver Business

Each day, I receive incoming emails generated by a form on the Ask Tim page on my website. Well over ninety-five percent of the messages are folks flailing in the deep frigid water of failure screeching at me to fling them a life preserver.

The most common causes of their misery are:

They failed to research a project before starting
They failed to read the product installation or label instructions
They placed far far too much trust in a contractor

I've also started to notice a few very disturbing trends in many of the messages. For starters, I'm seeing more people stating that they're on fixed incomes. That relates to what my father-in-law was talking about.

You might be on a fixed income. For a host of reasons, it's no doubt too late for you to start over and make more and more money each week.

I get it. I really do.

Another trend I see is both fear and frustration. You may be a homeowner not able to find really good contractors to do work for you.

Just over a week ago, I did a consult call with a young woman in upstate New York that had this problem. She has to have a dormer put on her house and no one will bid the job. She's decided to do it herself and she will succeed with my help.

The other big trend in my incoming emails is anxiety. It doesn't matter if you're on a fixed income or not, you might be anxious that the contractor you hire might not do the job right.

Nothing but bad happens when bad workmanship and/or the wrong products are used on one of your jobs.

The work might have to be ripped out and you have to start over. Imagine what the final bill might be. In many cases, it's well over $10,000.00.

My New Neighbor

Here's one final example of what I witness each day. Just a week ago, I was driving back from getting two smaller Christmas trees to decorate our front porch.

I was traveling on a back road that parallels the lake shore near my house. Lo and behold, I saw the gate guarding a private road was wide open. The narrow gravel road leads to a new house that's being built just above mine. No doubt the homeowner was there checking on the progress.

As the afternoon light was beginning to fade, I drove down the half-mile-long driveway. The husband/wife owners were inside the recently framed house. We said hellos, he helped me up onto the front porch, and I marveled at the recently completed roof framing.

"When does the roof go on?" I inquired.

"Hah, they were supposed to start today. With snow in the forecast on Monday, it might not happen now until spring." The husband let out a heavy sigh and shrugged his shoulders.

As I walked up to the front porch, I had spied the bundles of shingles on the pallets. The brand was a popular regional one. It was the same brand that was on my own home until I ripped each wretched crumbling shingle off five years ago drenched in sweat and fuming with frustration.

A few years tends to temper one's emotions.

"I see you're using the same brand I had on my home. How would you like this roof to be the last one you ever put on your home?"

"Tim, I thought you have a metal roof on your home, right? Those are asphalt shingles on the pallets, not metal." He has seen my house by looking at it from up in the cul-de-sac and in the right light my roof might look metal shingles although it's synthetic slate.

"No, I've got DaVinci Roofscapes synthetic slate on my house. There was no way I was going to put asphalt shingles back on my house again after my 30-year shingles went bad in nine years."

I then shared with my new neighbors what they could do to make their new shingles last for 40 or 50 years.

As you might expect their eyes lit up at this good news. The wind was pouring through the squares and rectangles in the walls where windows will soon be. It was biting us like the black flies in the spring telling us it was time to get home and warm.

We took one last look down at Lake Winnisquam and peered across the distant shore to see the Ossipee Mountains. This unusual circular feature on NH topo maps is a rare fully preserved ring dike.

Here's a photo I took of the Ossippee Mountains from the new home site on a warm June day when blasting was underway.

Realize the ring dike is the basement of a huge volcano that got uplifted from under the surface of the Earth Ball many years ago.

The three of us carefully walked up the crusty snow cover to our vehicles, shared our goodbyes and Merry Christmas salutations and drove away.

The Fuzzy Idea

So what's all of this have to do with you?

I'm sure you've got a clue, but here's another one.

Hours before I went to bed just two days ago, I was in the middle of one of my new LIVE stream videos.

For just a brief moment in the LIVE stream, I mentioned that I had sent my son one of my PDF documents that would help him save spending $750 on a house inspector.

One viewer immediately typed into the chat window that's part of the stream, "I WISH I would have known about this document before we bought our house last year!!!"

As I lay in bed two mornings ago I pondered, "What magic Christmas or New Year's prize could I give to all my subscribers that could save them thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of dollars?"

I'm positive that simple comment made by the viewer helped trigger the thought tsunami that washed over me at that moment as I lay in bed.

In that place between sleep and awake, a fuzzy idea started to take form in my tiny gray cells. I crawled out from under the warm covers to jump into the shower to see if I couldn't refine the notion.

I don't know about you, but over the years, I've had some great shower moments where I think through an idea or two.

I'll share more with you next Sunday. I've still got to put some things in the box and wrap it before it's ready for you.

I hope your week goes well and that you can manage any and all stress.

Tim Carter
Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com

Do It Right - Not Over

December 9, 2021 Live Stream

Posted on December 10, 2021 by Tim Carter

Gravity Retaining Walls - Can Be Tall

LIVE Stream 12-09-2021 Ask the Builder

Gravity Retaining Wall Systems

Posted on December 7, 2021 by Tim Carter

Gravity Retaining Wall Systems - There are Quite a Few

You might have a retaining wall in your near future. I can understand why as man has used them for thousands of years to create flat, or gently sloping, terraces on hillsides. Retaining walls, though, are far more complex than you might imagine. Tall retaining walls that don’t tumble over or lean might have been a stroke of luck on the builder’s part, but most likely they involved some serious engineering.

What is the Easiest Retaining Wall to Build?

I suggest we just discuss simple gravity retaining walls for now. This wall is the easiest to build, materials are plentiful and often free, and you can achieve success in almost all cases. A gravity retaining wall is made using any solid material that you can stack on top of one another. This wall relies on its own mass to hold up the earth that’s pushing against it. It’s a simple battle of gravity and you can win as you’re about to discover.

Watch this video to see the size of blocks being used to build a gravity retaining wall just seven houses away from mine:

Did You Make Any Retaining Wall Mistakes?

There’s an old saying: You don’t know what you don’t know. I can attest to this. Looking back at my building career, I often get a grin on my face. I was so ambitious and I had no fear. I jumped into projects like a small child into a blow-up swimming pool on a hot August day. I had lots of early success, and I also had a few dustups. Dustups are great learning experiences.

I was quite wet behind the ears, just about 26-years-old, when my lovely wife asked me to build a retaining wall for her at our second home. The wall would serve two purposes. First, it would allow us to put a 6-foot-tall fence up in the dirt behind the wall that would give us lots of privacy from the apartment building parking lot that abutted our back yard. The 3-foot-wide strip of fill dirt behind the wall would also give her a wonderful place to plant shade plants and flowers.

This wall was about 50 feet long and started out up near the detached garage. There is extended up just 1 foot tall. By the time it got to the far property line, it was 42 inches high. I thought all along this 8-inch-thick red-brick wall would do really well. I was wrong.

CLICK or TAP HERE to get FREE BIDS from local Retaining Wall companies.

Did You Batter the Wall?

My first mistake was not battering the wall. Batter means to make it lean backwards out of plumb. Think about how you lean in to something when you push it. Retaining walls, especially simple stacked gravity walls, look better with a batter to them. The batter sends a subliminal message of strength. Usually, a batter of about 5 degrees out of plumb is plenty.

Within five years, I noticed the tall part of my wall started to lean. I had good drainage behind it, but the wall was lacking in mass. the base of the wall was as thick as the top. The base of the wall at that end should have been at least 20 inches wide and taper to 8 inches as it got to the top.

Are Retaining Walls Like Levers?

Keep in mind that retaining walls are simple vertical levers. The weight of the ground above the wall and frost in cold climates pushes against the top of the wall trying to tip it over. You probably remember your high school physics class where Archimedes said, “Give me a lever long enough and I can lift the Earth!” He was right. The taller the wall, the longer the lever. This is why you need to make your gravity retaining wall look much like a pyramid that’s cut in half. Imagine how stable a pyramid is with its wide base!

The second retaining wall I built for my wife fared much better. I learned from my mistakes. It was a red-brick serpentine wall that she requested. It was stunning once complete and it’s still in perfect shape now 35 years later. A curved retaining wall works well for the same reason arches worked for the Romans to support their aqueducts. Imagine an arch laid on its side and built into the ground! It has enormous strength.

What is a Good Height for a Gravity Retaining Wall?

Most gravity retaining walls work well about 3 to 4 feet tall. It’s best to make the width of the base about half the height of the wall. You should also bury the first row of stones, blocks, or timbers about 6 to 8 inches into the soil. Don’t just lay the first row on the ground and definitely not on grass or other organic matter that will decay and become a slippery mass of goo.

The soil type at your home will make a difference. I’ve found that sandy soils are the ones that seem to play the best with gravity retaining walls. Dense clay soils that are slippery might put far more pressure against the top of your wall. The amount of hillside above your wall also comes into play. A slope that extends hundreds of feet uphill from your wall will place much more pressure against the wall than a much shorter slope.

Do some due diligence. Walk, bike, or drive around your neighborhood. Pay attention to other gravity retaining walls that you like and might have been in place for decades. Don’t be afraid of asking the homeowner or business owner about the wall. They may have built it and can share how it was done.

I’ve got five gravity retaining walls on my own property here in New Hampshire built with giant granite boulders. Next door to me, my neighbor has one that’s 10 feet tall. All of them have been in place for over twenty years and look as good as the day they were installed. Believe me, your new gravity wall is going to look fantastic. Send me a photo of it using the form on my Ask Tim page at www.AsktheBuilder.com!

Column 1433

December 5, 2021 AsktheBuilder Newsletter

Posted on December 6, 2021 by Tim Carter

Wait just a minute! Did I just overhear you whispering to Carol, Sean, Maryanne, Armando, Teresa, Vito and about 90 others who are part of your corner cabal about your plans to invade Cuba? I'm sure it was my tinnitus and you being a new subscriber, must have been asking if I played the tuba in my high school band, right?

That said, you might have been receiving these Ask the Builder newsletters for many many years. If so, I'll bet you remember the video I did showing you a secret way to hang things on walls with no visible screws and no hard-to-adjust wires for goodness sake. CLICK or TAP HERE and make room for new information in your tiny gray cells!

Ancient Chinese Proverb

The person who says it can't be done should not interrupt the person who is doing it.

Christmas Shopping?

Are you shopping on Amazon.com for your Christmas gifts? I know, I know, you might be celebrating some other religious holiday this time of year. I respect that. We celebrate Christmas here at the Carter house.

You can ensure this newsletter keeps coming your way by using my affiliate link to do your shopping. It doesn't increase your price for items.

Jeff Bezos simply flips me a few pennies that he'd otherwise use to buy rocket fuel.

Cassette Tapes > MP3 Files

Last issue I asked for your help in identifying the best hardware to magically convert old cassette tapes into MP3 files.

I was not disappointed. You might have been one of the many that responded with fantastic ideas.

CLICK or TAP HERE to see what was sent to me!

Thank you for responding to my request for help. The valuable information you sent to me is going to help thousands save their recordings.

Strong Evidence - God is Indeed a Woman!

There are two videos you should watch that might convince you that God is a woman. The first one will absolutely put a HUGE grin on your face.

Don't get wrapped around the axle on this one because there's no doubt God has a sense of humor.

Who knows? You might need to have yours adjusted. These two SHORT videos will help for sure.

CLICK or TAP HERE and let me know if you're now a believer! I know I am!

Attack Squirrels or Laced Plastic?

For the second year in a row, new strands of my Christmas lights on my deck have been ruined by squirrels that CHEW through the wires.

When you've seen as many sunrises as I have, you might wonder if the manufacturer has added an animal attractant to the plastic insulation. This way they can SELL MORE lights to us unsuspecting consumers.

Have you had the bushy tree rats chew your lights too? I know one thing, the mills of the gods grind slowly but thoroughly...

What You've Been Missing

My new LIVE video streams are really going well. I'm so lucky to have made a new group of friends that show up on a regular basis and ask fantastic questions.

If you want to watch the most recent ones, here are the links:

Build a Dormer Over the Phone! She's Going to Do It!

Build a House Inside a Tent - Seriously!!!

Non-Toxic Paint for Kids - I'm Using It

That's enough for a December Sunday. It's time to throttle back.

Tim Carter
Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com
CLEAN FOOD STAINS - www.StainSolver.com
Fun Radio Tales - www.W3ATB.com

Do It Right, Not Over!

P.S. What about building under a tent? What about building in other tough conditions? CLICK or TAP HERE to see if you have a better method.

Find Homebuilding Issue 51 Rear Cover

Convert Cassette Tapes to MP3 Files

Posted on December 3, 2021 by Tim Carter

cassette tapes

Convert Cassette Tapes to MP3 Files - Pretty Easy - Takes Time

On November 28, 2021 I asked my 31,000+ newsletter subscribers for help in identifying the best hardware to convert old cassette tapes to MP3 files.

Quite a few replied with ideas. Just about every one is below for you to read in detail.

If you want a quick summary of how best to convert cassette tapes to MP3 files, here it is:

Connect a traditional cassette tape player to your computer. Use a cord that connects from the earphone output on the player to the microphone input on your computer.
Download the free version of Audacity software (opens in new window).
Discover how to record an audio file using Audacity. Read below about what you need to do for music cassettes.
Buy plenty of fingernail files as you'll need them as you do the minute-for-minute transfer. There's no silver bullet to speed up the process.

I tried the above method. I already have Audio Hijack Audio software I use to record my podcasts so I didn't need to download Audacity. A HORRIBLE humming noise was on my first transfer. I tried a second time putting a self-made choke (several round circles of the cord on top of one another) on the transfer cable. My thought was the linear transfer cable was picking up RF from the computer. The choke didn't work.

I decided to experiment using my studio-quality USB podcast microphone set 5 inches away from the piece-of-crap (POC) speaker on my POC cassette tape player.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Since I'm just transferring voice files and not high-fidelity music, this crude method of using my microphone produced very good and acceptable results. Listen to the re-recording below:

Here's the feedback I received from my subscribers if you want to DIG DEEP into other great tips. PLEASE do not ask me questions about any of this in the comments below. I'll not be answering them. You have all you need here to get going.

NOTE: I have NOT edited the responses. It would take far too long. Any typos, grammar, punctuation, innuendo or other errors are not mine. I just put in the first name of the subscriber to put a face on the input:

Nancy sent:

"Suggest you go to your public library as they usually have the equipment to do that."

Kim responded:

"Regarding cassette transfer - two important things - if wanting absolute best transfer use a good tape machine that has adjustable heads - so that you get absolute best sound from each specific tape (I'm sure many of them were recorded on different machines - and all do not have same head positioning when recording) when using adjustable tape machine - you can tweak each tape to get best sound nakamichi CR-7 is one of the best. Also - use good analog to digital convertor (via computer - whatever) and keep files as WAV vs MP3. WAV is lossless and you'll have best format to keep "forever" "

Nick sent:

"I am a recording Producer/Engineer by trade. I have used the Marantz Professional PMD-300CP and cleaned up audio in pro tools or logic."

Chuck added to the fray:

"You can usually connect a regular cassette player's audio out jack directly to your computer microphone jack and record directly using Audacity or any other audio editing program.

Recording directly to your computer obviously saves a step because then you don't have to move the files from the cassette device to your computer. Plus you have a better idea of the sound level input when using software rather than a device."

Marc expounded:

"Although very tedious, converting from tape to mp3 is fairly easy to do. You need a PC with an "AUX" input (blue 1/8" audio socket next to the pink and green ones), a cable that has two RCA (phono) jacks on one end (left and right, plugs into "TAPE OUT"), and a 1/8" stereo male jack at the other, a—functioning!—tape deck for playback, and a software package like Audacity (free) to capture the audio. I say tedious, because you can't speed up the capture process, this is done in real time. This means that if the tape has 45 minutes of content on it, it will take 45 minutes to capture (or digitize) the material. If you do have a high speed dubbing deck, it works but it introduces more hiss during the transfer. It also is more stress on the tapes, which at this point may be 30-40 years old, so real time is better (more gentle on the brittle tapes). Although I have the equipment, I am in Canada (shipping costs are insane and I'm not sure about the carriers being able to make sure the tapes arrive here safely); I know that transfer services like this exist pretty much everywhere. I seem to remember Costco advertising that not too long ago… oops, just did a quick check and they seem to only do video transfers. My bad. Honestly, look more for someone local to you, where you can go in-person. For stuff like that, either do it yourself or carry the tapes to someone that you trust not to loose the things (and do a good job with digitizing). Those tapes are unique as long as there's no duplicate in digital form, which makes them irreplaceable in case of loss."

Roger sent:

"I've been doing this to my entire cassette collection (several hundred cassettes) over the last few years. I have my stereo cassette deck hooked into the line-in jacks of my computer and record the signal with the free Audacity computer program. If there are any sound quality issues (such as pops because some of the tapes were dubs from albums) Audacity can filter them out. There are many many more adjustments you can make to control the frequencies. If the tape is stretched there isn't much you can do to fix that. But if it is dragging on the side of the case and slows down or stops I have opened the case and put the tape in another good case to make it run more smoothly. The worst-case problem I had was a tape of my departed father-in-law giving a speech at his retirement ceremony. The cassette recorder evidently had poor batteries so everything sounded like the chipmunk's cartoon. Audacity was able to change the speed and pitch of my dub to be more reasonable. It doesn't look like you have professionally produced music cassettes but if your cassettes are professional music albums that you have recorded to have in the car or something, you can probably replace them by borrowing CD copies from your library and copying the CDs to MP3 files on your computer. My next project is to go through all my vinyl albums and decide which ones to copy. I'll probably buy a turntable and hook it directly to the computer with a USB jack. They're not that expensive. Hope this helps somewhat."

Bob proclaimed:

"I've been transcribing important cassettes that have homemade recordings of interest to my family for the last month or so. If you don't find an automatic machine, I can help. I'm using a boom box with a cassette drive and a free program called Audacity. I run a 3.5mm cable from the boombox headphone out to the line-in socket on my 10 year old Dell desktop. In Audacity, I set the recording levels, record, edit out the unwanted space and convert to both MP3 files and wav files. I can also convert one channel mono recordings to pseudo stereo recordings by duplicating the one audio track. Audacity is powerful, fast easy to use and has a graphical interface. Like most things, the first successful recording might take a few days of fiddling, but then you can crank them out. I was shocked at the quality I recorded from 40 year old cassettes."

Mark remarked:

"It’s been a few years so the technology has changed however there is no machine does a direct conversion that I’m aware of.

Best thing is to pick up a cassette deck that’s high-quality preferably HXPro or even better a dolbly noise reduction. Ideally decks with both of these functions should be used during the initial recording and then also playback so you get the full impact of it. If it wasn’t used during the creation of the recordings the results won’t be as effective.

Dolby can be used on cassettes that weren’t recorded with it, but it tends to knock all higher frequencies out of the recording( takes hiss away but now may sound warbley . You may be better to use an EQ (stand alone box) or EQ filter like they do in recording studio or a computer filter to selectively knock out the hiss.

Either way you then need a computer and a interface (like a USB interface) ( less than a 100 bucks) and some trial and error to record it to your computer.

A tip might be to contact your local music store and get a connection to a recording person or go on line and look for a place that transfers old film movies to digital."

Barb and a few other subscribers suggested paying others to do it:

"I am not an audio engineer. I looked at the website recently about converting photos to digital. The site seemed to have good reviews. They provide many types of services. The site is www.digitalrecollections.net They seemed to provide services fairly quickly."

Jim had this to say:

"Converting audio tapes is ten times easier than video tapes. All you need is a player, a computer with line in jacks, a capture program like VLC or Audacity, and a lot of time to waste.

First you set up all the jacks and levels and such, then hit record on the capture program and let the tape crank away. You will get a huge file that's the .wav file of the tape. Very large.

Then the real time wasting begins. Edit using audacity, sorting the good from the bad, splitting the tracks, labeling the file names, and converting to mp3. You can take out glitches and add effects (but use caution). You can take out some hiss, but basically it's just turning down the treble and it will not really improve the quality of the recorded signal. But it won't degrade it."

Beth shared tips on shipping cassettes copied from some other source:

"Care must be exercised to ensure that tape collections are not harmed when they are transported. When magnetic media are transported, temperatures should not exceed 110° F (43° C). Collections should be transported in the spring or the fall when outdoor temperatures are moderate, if possible. Properly wound tape reels can survive greater variations in temperature and humidity without permanent damage than can poorly wound tape packs.Tapes and cassettes should be shipped in the same orientation as they are stored – on edge – with the weight of the tape pack being supported by the reel hub. Tapes that are shipped in the flat position are particularly subject to damage from dropping and other forms of shock. This is especially true of tapes that experience large changes in temperature during shipment or tapes that are poorly wound.

Media should be protected from damage due to shock by packing them in materials that will absorb shock (special packages, bubble wrap), using special labeling, and transporting them in appropriate vehicles. Shock-absorbing packaging will often have the added advantage of providing insulation that helps protect the media from large swings in temperature and humidity.

Exposure to strong magnetic fields must also be avoided to prevent information loss. Some of the detectors used to screen luggage in overseas airports have been known to partially erase tapes. Walk through metal detectors and X-ray scanners do not pose a threat to recorded information. Some hand-held metal detectors can cause problems since they use strong magnetic fields. Refer to the section on Stray Magnetism in the Ampex Guide in the Appendix."

Phil phoned in his comment (not really):

"DAK.com has an interface and software that you can use to convert your tapes and vinyl records to MP3 format on your computer. Cost is about $70. I have had mine for several years and have converted hundreds of vinyl records already with it."

Jeff tooted his horn:

"Here is what I have done many times and it has worked well. You need to connect a tape player to your computer. If you only have a Walkman or something comparable you can connect directly from the earphone jack to the microphone or input jack of the computer. Use a cable that has stereo mini-phone plugs on each end. If you have a stereo cassette deck that would probably work even better. You can use the headphone jack and connect to the computer or better still if you have RCA phono input jacks in the back of the deck you can get a Y connector with two male RCA plugs on one end and a single stereo mini phone plug on the other to plug into the computer. You can get the cables on Amazon and I think at Walmart. Download and install Audacity onto your computer. It's a free multi-use audio program that you can find on the internet. It works well with Linux, Mac, and Windows. Now play your tapes into the computer after pressing the record button on Audacity and it will record. You will probably have to experiment adjusting the recording volume in Audacity. You can record a little and then play it back and see how the volume is. Be sure to delete any experiments before you do the final recording. With Audacity you can convert the audio files into MP3s. Concerning the quality and hissing etc., It will turn out exactly how it sounds on the tapes."

Rob responded:

"In response to your call for assistance, you probably realize that it isn't as easy as you make it sound. Firstly, the recording process - each recording machine has its own quirks - cleanliness of heads, alignment of heads, inherent noise in recording circuits, bias in recording circuits, external electrical sources that could introduce audio anomalies. Also the microphone and associated systems with similar concerns. Next, on the restoration side, the playback equipment - most of the same as above, but for each tape the heads should be readjusted to match the new tape's alignment. Tapes have inherent noise, different tapes, different mixtures of magnetic media. Even the same brand could change mixture with different batches of tapes. So, of course, there could be a good deal of work to extract the best quality from each tape. And there is software capable of removing some degree of noise, with the possibility of also degrading the signal, depending upon the judicial use of various filters. The human factor, a real human listener who knows what filters to use and how strongly to apply each of them is important for optimal results.

Of course, there are machines that can do a "reasonable" job. However, no machine will be able to produce an archival quality finished product.

Of course, this is all based upon what the end-user deems acceptable. You mentioned the MP3 format. This is what is known as a lossy format. This means that the audio program encoded into this format automatically loses quality. This may or may not be acceptable. It is popular because of its small file size. The small file size is becoming less important as computers (audio players) are having more memory than in the past, and as the processing speed of computers is increasing.

It looks to me that you have roughly 150 tapes (from what I can see). This would require about 300 separate sessions (one for each side). At a bare minimum, a person would have to insert the tape, possibly rewind, press play, and wait for extraction (other things can be done while extraction occurs), return to the machine, and begin the process again. Assuming 5 sessions per day, that would be about 60 days, if you are talking about a dedicated volunteer situation."