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00:05On Ask This Old House, our experts travel across the country to answer questions about your house.
00:18Today, Nathan heads to a historic neighborhood in New Orleans to help some homeowners install shutters.
00:26Then, Jen and Lee talk fertilizers, organic versus synthetic, when to use, and how much.
00:34And do you know how many smoke detectors you should have and where to put them?
00:38Heath answers these questions for a homeowner on Ask This Old House.
00:57Hi, Emily.
00:58Hey.
00:58Hi, Lena.
00:59Hey, Nathan.
01:00Nice to meet you.
01:01Yeah.
01:01This is a beautiful neighborhood.
01:02Tell me a little bit about it.
01:03We're in the Bywater here in New Orleans.
01:06Super historic neighborhood.
01:07Really great walkability.
01:09It's beautiful.
01:10These homes are all old historic styles.
01:13I love it.
01:13We personally have a side hall cottage, which we truly fell in love with.
01:18Have you guys been here long?
01:19A little over a decade we've been in this neighborhood.
01:21Yep, and we've owned the home for four years.
01:23Oh, nice. Congratulations.
01:24You made some improvements over the years?
01:26We have.
01:27Yes, absolutely.
01:28You know, an old house.
01:29It needs some work.
01:30It needs some love.
01:30So you're only about these shutters.
01:32Yeah, we have these beautiful shutters, but they've been there a while.
01:35They've started to deteriorate, and you know, we like to close them during hurricanes and storms,
01:39and we can't quite do that right now.
01:40Yeah, these are getting soft.
01:41I can see a little bit of rot, but you do live in a historic area.
01:44I'm sure you know that.
01:45There's the rules that the city dictates when you're working on historic homes.
01:48So they're going to talk to us about things like wood material that we use, hinge style,
01:53hinge location, even paint colors.
01:55It's good to know someone in the area that has all those details.
01:58Like we have a friend that's in the area, Scott, great carpenter.
02:00He's going to come by and give us a hand while we're waiting for him.
02:03Let's take these shutters off.
02:04Let's do it.
02:06Yeah.
02:08These old cast iron hinges are really unique.
02:10This set of shutters has three on each side.
02:13I had to loosen up the screws on the middle one so I could swing the shutter out and take
02:18it off as it's intended.
02:19Pops right off those pins.
02:21When we put these back, we're not going to put this third hinge on.
02:24Only go top and bottom so we can take them off easily.
02:34Hey, Scott.
02:34Hey guys, how you doing?
02:36Good morning.
02:37These are the homeowners, Lena and Emily.
02:39Hi, Lena.
02:39Emily, nice to meet you.
02:40Hey, Scott.
02:40Hey, Scott.
02:41How you doing?
02:41Good, good.
02:42Look at this beautiful shutter.
02:44Wow.
02:44This is incredible.
02:45This is perfect.
02:46So we spoke that we are in a very historic area here.
02:48What do we need to do to fall in line?
02:50Basically what you're doing right now is we've applied for permits with HDLC.
02:55They have guidelines.
02:56They want to keep the neighborhoods as close to the original content as they were originally constructed back in the
03:00days.
03:01So you want to kind of keep in line with that.
03:03They apply and they give the committee permits of what they want to do and ideas of what they want
03:08to do.
03:08They approve it, yes or no.
03:09Okay.
03:10They're staying pretty much what they had before originally going back.
03:12We just put a new refresher look.
03:14Yep.
03:15The shutters they had before were a little rotten.
03:17Mm-hmm.
03:17These are Spanish cedar, which is very conducive to the element and climate here in New Orleans.
03:21Perfect.
03:22But this is a little bit better shape than the rotten, softer ones we had before.
03:25And then how about the hardware?
03:26The hardware is actually a replica of cast iron, antique historical shutters.
03:29We have the hinges, a slot bolt, and a catch lat.
03:33So you said we're going to go from three hinges down to two hinges?
03:36Exactly.
03:36Mm-hmm.
03:37Also, two hinges are more conducive to what's the look on the rest of the neighborhood.
03:40So the city is okay with that.
03:41They approve that.
03:42Perfect.
03:43Three to two, no problem.
03:44The city's happy.
03:45Everybody's happy.
03:46All right.
03:46Awesome.
03:46Let's get to work.
03:47All right.
03:48All right.
03:50To get started, we will Dutchman in the old mortises for the middle hinge we aren't going
03:55to replace.
04:09Then, we can work on the fit of the shutters by measuring and cutting the bottoms to height.
04:13Thirty-four nine-sixteenths at the bottom.
04:15Okay.
04:22Then, Scott can plane the edges at a slight angle to ensure a tight fit when the shutters
04:27are closed.
04:34It's important to keep track of the orientation of the shutters during these steps.
04:38Since we are cutting them to fit when they are closed, not when they are open, reference
04:42marks can be helpful with this step.
04:46Now, we can mortise the shutters to receive the new hinges.
04:57Since we have exposed raw wood, we will hit all the raw edges of the shutters and the window
05:02with primer to protect it from the weather.
05:12Finally, we can mark, pre-drill, and screw in the hinges.
05:33With the hinges in place, we can secure the locking hardware.
05:39All right, Scott.
05:55All right, open them up.
05:59Working good now.
06:00Wow!
06:01Oh my gosh.
06:02So nice.
06:03They're beautiful.
06:04Look at that.
06:05So you got your slide bolt at the top there, so that's going to connect.
06:09Once you have it shut, you also have these catches, so those will help hold the bottom.
06:13A little bit of homework for you guys, though.
06:14All right, so we did some cutting, we did some priming.
06:16If you could touch that up with a little bit of paint, and then any other little scratches
06:20or nicks that might have happened during install, if you just touch those up, you'll
06:23be good to go.
06:24Thanks, y'all, so much for everything.
06:25Thanks for coming all the way to New Orleans.
06:27You're welcome.
06:27And we couldn't have done it without Scott today, so Scott, thanks for everything.
06:30You're welcome.
06:31Hope you enjoy your new shutters.
06:33Y'all are the best.
06:34See you guys.
06:45What do you like?
06:46Do you like organic, or do you like synthetic?
06:48What do you think?
06:49I think you're a number one.
06:50Are you guys talking fertilizer behind my back?
06:52Good to see you.
06:54What's up?
06:55Yes, we are.
06:56We're discussing synthetic versus organic, and really how much has changed in our industry
07:01over the past 10 years.
07:02Which I want to talk about, but for my benefit, can you just pull it back a little bit?
07:06Let's go a little higher.
07:07Just fertilizer in general.
07:09What is it?
07:10What's it doing?
07:11What are the differences?
07:12When do I use it?
07:13What do you got?
07:14Basically, they are different ingredients, whether it's synthetic or organic, and that
07:19they are fine-tuned to a specific need of your plant.
07:22So, like, going back when Roger would say, right plant, right place, right fertilizer,
07:28right place.
07:28You'd have to know your plants, your soil conditions, and your existing lawn.
07:33So, every bag is a different concoction.
07:37Exactly.
07:37And you've got to know what you're actually grabbing.
07:38And I guess what's on the bag.
07:40These numbers here.
07:42NPK numbers here.
07:43NPK?
07:44Yes.
07:44So, you have nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium.
07:48Okay.
07:48Okay?
07:49And the nitrogen is good for, in the lawn area, if this number was higher, it'd be good
07:53for grasses, so it gives you that extra punch of color.
07:57Exactly.
07:57And that's what we like, right?
07:58Right.
07:59100%.
07:59A lot of colors.
08:00We've got to do that.
08:01And then the middle number, the phosphorus?
08:02Phosphorus for the root system, and also for a little punch color, things like that.
08:06Potassium or K for?
08:07The overall strength of the plant.
08:09So, the overall strength and structure.
08:10I presume these are organics over here?
08:12Yeah.
08:13Do they have the number system as well?
08:14They do.
08:15So, the organics come from natural materials.
08:19You're going to get it from compost, manure, bone meal, right?
08:22So, this one is manufactured.
08:24When you say manufactured, from organic.
08:27From organic materials.
08:28And there's a whole laundry list.
08:30Things like that.
08:30This is your regular compost, and then this one is milorganite.
08:34Yes.
08:34Milorganite, love this.
08:35This is really good for the lawn, as well as your flower beds and everything else.
08:39Human waste.
08:40Oh.
08:41So, like, literally the same effect of manure.
08:43Correct.
08:43Human manure, I guess.
08:45Yes.
08:45Okay.
08:46But each of these pellets and sizes have been just, they're specific to the NPK ratio on
08:51the bag.
08:52So, but the deal with organics, it takes it a little bit longer to break down, because
08:56like the earthworms and the microbes.
08:58It's good for the soil overall.
09:00Yeah.
09:00The microbes in the soil, they break it down.
09:02And then once that is digested, the plant can uptake those nutrients.
09:07Where this is like a quick punch, boom, green it up, grow fast.
09:10So, generally speaking, more potent on the synthetic side, a little less potent on the
09:15organic side.
09:16Well, if you got to look at it, it's okay.
09:17Think of your, if your plant is sick.
09:18That's going to be your antibiotic.
09:20That's going to be your treatment.
09:21So, if you want fast acting, go synthetic.
09:23Ideally, I try to go organic, but sometimes you need a supplement with synthetic.
09:29So, that was my next question.
09:30Like, are you strictly an organic fertilizer person or strictly a synthetic?
09:34Or can you mix and match?
09:35Like, how would you mix and match?
09:37I would mix and match this, these two here, the synthetic and the malogonite with doing
09:42the lawn.
09:42Okay.
09:43And then also, if I want to put this in like maybe some flower beds and things like that,
09:46this works really well.
09:47Give it a nice punch.
09:48And I would do the same with, you know, everything's established, but oh, my plants aren't blooming.
09:52I might give it a kick of the middle number.
09:54Yeah.
09:55Or use something called super phosphate, phosphorus.
09:58Yeah.
09:59And that gives for the blooms and the fruits, right?
10:03Or if you know your roots are weak, you know, they need some more attention, you hit it with
10:06the last number, the potassium.
10:08So, I'm hearing sort of long-term, consistent, good soil health, a little faster acting,
10:14higher concentration.
10:15I don't get the sense that I can use too much of that.
10:18I mean, obviously, I don't want to kill my lawn with too much compost.
10:20Yeah.
10:21That's a very good question, right?
10:22Yeah.
10:23Correct.
10:23So, like, if there's too little, you know, it's not your plant's going to suffer.
10:27It's going to struggle.
10:28Like, you want to give it that little dose of vitamin to, like, get it back to health.
10:32But if it's too, if you put too much in excess, you could also burn your plant.
10:37Yes.
10:37And in this situation, more is definitely not better.
10:40It could cause environmental impacts.
10:43Yes.
10:43You know, heavy rains, it'll leach into the ground, go into watersheds, create algae blooms
10:48and lakes.
10:49You know about regulations, right?
10:50Correct.
10:50Yep.
10:51You have to be aware of where you live in and, you know, where you are and read the directions
10:54on these things.
10:55You know what I mean?
10:56But this is the best way to go for, like, a lawn situation.
10:59But you have to be careful about, like Jen says, the water situations and things like
11:03that.
11:04So, if you do go on the synthetic route, use it appropriately, use it in the right amounts
11:08and understand it.
11:09Yeah.
11:10More is not better.
11:11People have a tendency, it's just human nature to put more, you think it's going to be better.
11:15Just follow the ratio on the bag.
11:17There's a formula.
11:18Okay, cool.
11:18Good information.
11:19And then, I guess, finally, is this all you guys talk about when you're alone?
11:22Pretty much.
11:24Right?
11:25Hey, it's important, man.
11:31House fires are one of the leading causes of damage to a home.
11:35They can escalate very quickly from a very small flame to a full-blown fire in less than
11:39two and a half minutes, causing over $10 billion in damage annually.
11:43So, when a homeowner reached out about installing hardwired smoke detectors in her home, I thought
11:47this was a perfect opportunity to reach out to the local fire chief and have him help explain
11:51what detectors to choose and how to locate them properly.
11:55Thanks for having the fire department.
11:56Yeah, this is great.
11:57Hey, Chief.
11:57Thanks for coming out.
11:58Hey, Heath.
11:58Good to see you again.
11:59It must be Tracy.
12:00Nice to meet you.
12:00Come on in.
12:02Let's take a look inside.
12:03After you.
12:06All right, Tracy.
12:06So, I saw that you wrote in about installing new smoke detectors.
12:09Can you tell me a little bit about the system you currently have?
12:11Sure.
12:12I had a security system for a while, and then I went to battery operated.
12:16Okay.
12:17I don't have too many around right now, but I really need something that's safer.
12:21Does that sound a little familiar?
12:22Yeah.
12:23So, it sounds like she had what we call a household fire warning system, probably monitored by a
12:28central alarm company that would call you directly in case the alarm went off.
12:33At some point in time, you decided to go with battery operated detectors only.
12:38Yes.
12:38That did not send the signal anywhere else.
12:41And now you want to bring your house up to present day code with hard, white, interconnected
12:45smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.
12:47Yes.
12:47And that's the great point is the interconnected portion.
12:49So, right now with the batteries, if something were to happen in the basement, it's only going
12:52to make noise in the basement.
12:53If you're on a second floor or a bedroom further away, especially if you have the summertime
12:57with an air conditioner or a fan going, you may not hear that detector going off.
13:01So, that's a great point of the interconnect.
13:03That is absolutely the best system to have.
13:06Early detection in a fire, seconds count to escape from your bedroom or your basement.
13:12So, that's what we would recommend in all instances that people use interconnected smoke
13:16and carbon monoxide alarms.
13:18Sounds great.
13:18So, when it comes to choosing the detectors, we have two different kinds I'm aware of, ionization
13:22and photoelectric.
13:23Does that sound right?
13:24That is correct.
13:24Okay.
13:25So, now if you are to build or remodel your house, you can only use photoelectric smoke
13:30detectors.
13:30Got it.
13:31Prior to that, depending on when your house was built or remodeled, you could also use
13:35ionization smoke detectors, right?
13:38But they could not be placed within 20 feet of a kitchen or a bathroom that had a shower.
13:43However, they go into false alarm frequently, so that's why we have the photoelectric requirement.
13:48Yeah, that kind of sounds familiar back in the day when we used to have some of the smoke
13:51detectors a little too close to a bathroom.
13:53They were the ionizations.
13:54We had to change them to the photos so they weren't always going off because of the steam
13:57off the shower.
13:58So, that's good.
13:59The other thing that we're going to use are the photoelectric smoke combination with
14:02a carbon monoxide.
14:03That way, if you have an issue with the carbon monoxide, it'll tell you throughout the entire
14:07house.
14:07Yeah, that is correct.
14:08So, the way we want to do that is we want you to install a combo detector that has a
14:13voice
14:14and a tone, right?
14:15So, if there is a carbon monoxide event in the basement and it's during the night, the
14:20detector that's required outside your bedroom is going to tell you what it is.
14:25Is it a smoke event or is it a carbon monoxide event?
14:28And that is done through a tone and a voice.
14:30That's great.
14:31So, I'll know which one it is.
14:32It'll say fire or carbon monoxide.
14:33Yeah, it's perfect.
14:34It tells you either one.
14:35So, I think we have a pretty good idea for the system we want to install.
14:38Now, it's just a matter of locating where they're going to go.
14:40Okay.
14:40So, let's start down this hallway and take a look at the bedrooms.
14:43Let's go.
14:43Right down here.
14:45All right.
14:46So, it looks like we have three bedrooms?
14:47Mm-hmm.
14:48Yep.
14:48So, we want one in each bedroom.
14:50That is correct.
14:51And where we want to put it is just inside the bedroom, preferably within three to five
14:54feet of the door.
14:55We want to keep it away from any ceiling fan because that can certainly interrupt the detector
15:00from activating.
15:01Got it.
15:01We also have a bathroom with a shower and you have a kitchen around the corner.
15:04Right.
15:05So, ideally, I would like to see the detector three to five feet further down the hallway
15:10and meet all the requirements.
15:11What about a second floor?
15:13Where do we put it?
15:13The requirement is at the base of all stairs, not within the stairwell.
15:18So, we want to place it, once you get off the landing, on the ceiling.
15:22Okay.
15:22We want to protect the means of egress.
15:24So, what if we had an attached garage?
15:25So, the minimum requirement is one heat detector located in the center of the garage on the ceiling.
15:30So, now that we kind of have a good idea of what we're going to do in the bedrooms, we
15:33come out to the hallway.
15:34And I know we have to have one within ten feet of the bedroom doors here.
15:37We can see you have the battery one that's right here.
15:40But the thing I notice is that vent.
15:41And that's a fairly common issue.
15:43So, what's the guideline for putting one near a vent like that?
15:45Yeah, we want to keep it away from the vent for two reasons.
15:48The dust collection on the detector and also from any air movement delaying the action.
15:54Okay.
15:55Great.
15:55I think we're in pretty good shape.
15:57That's great information.
15:58Chief, I can't thank you enough.
15:59Yep.
15:59Thank you very much.
16:00And as always, thanks for coming out and helping.
16:03But it's very important to drive home the fact that if you have questions when you're
16:06doing this, please contact your local fire department.
16:08You guys are very happy to help.
16:10Absolutely.
16:10Always contact your local fire department for advice here at Newburyport.
16:14We welcome the phone calls.
16:15We want to make sure you purchase the right detectors and put them in the right spots.
16:19Tracy, we got some work to do.
16:20All right.
16:21Let's do it.
16:21Thanks again.
16:23All right, Tracy, before we go ahead and install these, I just wanted to go over the couple
16:26of different detectors we have and kind of show you what you already have and what we're
16:29going to install.
16:30So what you currently have are the battery operated ones, which is great if you have
16:33nothing.
16:34So very simple.
16:35They just clip up like you saw.
16:36You have a couple of batteries.
16:37When they die, they die.
16:38You replace them.
16:39This is what we've been installing lately.
16:41I actually have these in my own house.
16:43This is a hardwired detector, battery backup, and it does both, the smoke and carbon monoxide.
16:49Fairly simple.
16:50When we do the hardwire, it's going to be color to color for the wires, black to black, white
16:54to white, red to red, and the grounds buried together.
16:57And then fairly typically, we'll either have a couple of double A's or a nine volt battery
17:00that goes here.
17:01So if you've ever heard that chirp, that single chirp at two in the morning, because that's
17:04the only time it ever happens.
17:06Oh, yes.
17:06And it's about a minute apart and you're trying to chase it down.
17:08Trying to find it.
17:09That's what it is.
17:09Because it usually means it's due for a battery replacement.
17:12But since we don't want to deal with that anymore either, we now have detectors that
17:15have a 10-year sealed battery.
17:17So the unit is good for its 10-year cycle, sealed battery, you don't have to touch anything.
17:21So it's hardwired, the battery is built in, and you're good to go.
17:25Now what if it doesn't chirp, and how am I ever going to know when it's up in 10 years?
17:28I wouldn't remember the 10 years are up either.
17:30So it should chirp and give you an end-of-life cycle signal of some kind to tell you that
17:34it's
17:34time to be replaced.
17:35But if it doesn't, on the backside of them, they all have a date.
17:38Oh, okay.
17:39It tells you what the manufacture date was.
17:40So if you have one, and you're not sure, and you take this down and it's past that
17:4410-year mark, it's a good time to replace it.
17:46Okay.
17:47And finally, we're just going to go around to install these, use a hole saw to cut
17:50in these round old work boxes, run our 14.3NM around, go ahead and mount these, and we'll
17:55be good to go.
17:56Great.
17:57You ready?
17:57I'm ready.
17:58All right, let's do this.
18:00So what I've done is I've drilled a hole from down here to up in the attic.
18:05So what I want to try and do now is I'm going to take these fiberglass fish tapes.
18:08I'm going to try and push these up.
18:10It's a straighter shot, a little easier to kind of push straight through the hole, and
18:15I'm just going to try and line it up.
18:17Now, I should need two of them.
18:19The wall is about eight feet tall, and these are five-foot sections and just thread together.
18:27So we're going up.
18:31Ah, right there.
18:33So that is the top plate of the wall.
18:35So now what I want to do is try and wiggle this around a little bit and find that hole,
18:38and they do line up pretty well, so it shouldn't be too bad, hopefully.
18:43Right there.
18:45So that is popping up into our attic.
18:49So what I can do is tie the wire onto this now, go to the attic, and pull this right
18:52up.
18:54We have the wire taped on, so I'm going to go ahead and start pulling that up.
19:07And there's our wire.
19:09So the first thing I want to do is measure where we want to put the hole.
19:14And I already have an idea of where the trusses are upstairs.
19:18So I want to be about three feet over.
19:27Let's poke this up just to make sure I'm clear, which I should be.
19:36And next, I'll use a little tie wire that I've pre-bent at two inches.
19:40I'm using a three and three-quarter hole saw for this, so two inches should be excessive,
19:44that I can slide up and spin around and make sure that I clear everything.
19:56And I can spin around high and low.
19:59And I know there are no obstructions for that junction box.
20:04Now that we have that, I have my three and three-quarter inch hole saw,
20:10and my dust collection bowl all set up to collect everything.
20:20And just like that, we have our opening.
20:25All right.
20:27So I've got this hole cut out, and we have two ways we can do this.
20:29So we can either fish the wires around to the location, pull them down,
20:32and then make them up and push them up.
20:34Or in this case, where I have nice attic access,
20:36I'm going to go ahead and cut all the holes and install the boxes ahead of time,
20:40and then go upstairs and I can staple right to them and stuff the wires through.
20:44That's a nice snug fit.
20:46And now we'll just spin the ears out.
20:58All right, so I'll repeat this process for the other two bedrooms,
21:01and then I can go upstairs and pull the wires over and push them through,
21:03and then we can make them up.
21:12All right, now since this is an interconnected system, I want everything to talk to each other.
21:16This box happens to have two wires.
21:18So at the start, I'll have a single wire, just one of these.
21:21Then I jump from room to room to room to hall or basement or wherever else it is.
21:25So single on the first one, then as I come to the next box, I come back out.
21:28That's why I have two. This goes to the next room.
21:31So it lets me provide the power with the black and white on both,
21:34and the red is my interconnect.
21:37So this red is continuous between the entire loop.
21:39So if something happens, they all talk to each other.
21:56All right, Tracy, so all the hard work's done.
21:57All the detectors are up.
21:59Everything's powered.
22:00It's ready to give them a test.
22:00You ready?
22:01I'm ready.
22:02All right, you got your hearing protection.
22:02That's going to get loud.
22:03Yep.
22:03All right.
22:04I'm ready.
22:07Test.
22:09Oh, yeah.
22:11That'll wake you up, huh?
22:12That's definitely going to wake me up.
22:14And then I'll run through a couple of cycles, and you can hear,
22:16you kind of hear, it's telling you that it's either smoke or it's carbon monoxide.
22:20Yep.
22:20So it definitely lets you know what's going on.
22:23Oh, that's a long cycle.
22:25Yes, that will wake me up for sure.
22:27There we go.
22:27Good.
22:28We can take those out now.
22:29Well, I think you're all set.
22:31Great.
22:31Thank you so much.
22:32I feel so much safer.
22:33This is great.
22:34That was a great project.
22:35Happy to help.
22:35Thank you, Heath.
22:36That was a great project.
22:41Next time on Ask This Old House, Mauro helps a homeowner design and paint an accent wall.
22:48I love it.
22:49It looks amazing.
22:50Then, do plants clean the air?
22:52Can they repel mosquitoes?
22:54Jen discusses some of these common plant myths.
22:57And when homeowners ask for an affordable patio option,
23:02Mark suggests installing a Pea Stone patio.
23:06All that on Ask This Old House.
23:41Ask This Old House.
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