- 2 days ago
Ask This Old House - Season 24 - Episode 18: New Orleans Shutters, Hardwired Smoke Alarms
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:04on ask this old house our experts travel across the country to answer questions about your house
00:17today Nathan heads to a historic neighborhood in New Orleans to help some homeowners install
00:24shutters then Jen and Lee talk fertilizers organic versus synthetic when to use and how much and do
00:34you know how many smoke detectors you should have and where to put them Keith answers these
00:39questions for a homeowner on ask this old house
00:57hi Emily hey hi Lena hey Nathan nice to meet you yeah this is a beautiful neighborhood tell me a
01:03little bit about it we're in the bywater here in New Orleans um super historic neighborhood really
01:08great walkability it's beautiful these homes are all old historic styles I love it we personally
01:14have a side hall cottage which we truly fell in love with have you guys been here long a little
01:19over a decade we've been in this neighborhood yeah and we've owned the home for four years oh nice
01:23congratulations thank you you made some improvements over the years we have yes
01:27absolutely you know an old house it needs some work it needs some love so you're only about these
01:31shutters yeah we have these beautiful shutters but they've been there a while they've started to
01:35deteriorate and you know we like to close them during hurricanes and storms and we can't quite
01:39do that right now yeah these are getting soft I can see a little bit of rot but you do
01:43live in a
01:43historic area I'm sure you know that there's the rules that the city dictates when you're working
01:47on historic homes so they're gonna talk to us about things like wood material that we use
01:52hinge style hinge location even paint colors it's good to know someone in the area that has all
01:57those details like we have a friend that's in the area of Scott great carpenter he's gonna come by and
02:01give us a hand or we're waiting for him let's take these shutters off let's do it yeah these old
02:08cast iron hinges are really unique this set of shutters has three on each side I had to loosen up
02:14the screws on the middle one so I could swing the shutter out and take it off as it's intended
02:19pops
02:20right off those pins when we put these back we're not going to put this third hinge on only go
02:24top
02:24and bottom so we can take them off easily hey Scott hey guys how you doing good morning these are
02:37the
02:37homeowners Lena and Emily good good look at this beautiful shutter this is incredible this is
02:45perfect so we spoke that we are in a very historic area here what do we need to do to
02:48fall in line
02:50basically what you're doing right now is uh we've applied for permits with HDLC they have guidelines
02:55they want to keep the neighborhoods as close to the original content as they're originally constructed
03:00back in these so you want to kind of keep in line with that they apply and they give the
03:05committee
03:06permits of what they want to do and ideas what they want to do they approve it yes or no
03:09okay they're
03:10staying pretty much what they had before originally going back we just put a new refresher look yep the
03:15shutters they had before a little rotten these are Spanish cedar which is very conducive to the
03:19element and climate here in New Orleans perfect but this is a little bit better shape than the
03:23rotten softer ones we had before and then how about the hardware the hardware is actually replica of
03:27cast-iron antique historical shutters we have the hinges a slot bolt and a catch lat so you said
03:33we're gonna go from three hinges down to two hinges exactly mm-hmm also two hinges more conducive to
03:38what's the look of the rest of the neighborhood so the city is okay with that they approve that
03:42perfect so three to two no problem city's happy everybody's happy all right awesome let's get to
03:46work all right all right to get started we will Dutchman in the old mortises for the middle hinge we
03:54aren't going to replace then we can work on the fit of the shutters by measuring and cutting the
04:13bottoms to height 34 916 at the bottom then Scott can plane the edges at a slight angle to ensure
04:26a
04:26tight fit when the shutters are closed it's important to keep track of the orientation of the shutters
04:37during these steps since we are cutting them to fit when they are closed not when they are open reference
04:42marks can be helpful with this step now we can mortise the shutters to receive the new hinges
04:57since we've exposed raw wood we'll hit all the raw edges of the shutters and the window with primer to
05:03protect it from the weather finally we can mark pre-drill and screw in the hinges
05:33with the hinges in place we can secure the locking hardware
05:39nice cut
05:56all right open them up working good wow oh my gosh so nice they're beautiful look at that so you
06:05got
06:05your slide bolt at the top there so that's going to connect you once you have it shut you also
06:10have
06:10these catches so those will help hold the bottom a little bit homework for you guys though all right
06:14so we did some cutting we did some priming if you could touch that up with a little bit of
06:17paint and
06:18then any other little scratches or nicks that might have happened during install if you just touch those
06:22up you'll be good to go thanks y'all so much for everything thanks for coming all the way to
06:26new
06:26orleans welcome and we couldn't have done it without scott today so scott thanks for everything you're
06:30welcome hope you enjoy your new shutters thank you y'all are the best see you guys
06:45what do you like you like organic what do you like something what do you think i think you're
06:49you guys talking fertilizer behind my back yes we are we're discussing synthetic versus organic and
06:59really how much has changed in our industry over like the past 10 years which i want to talk about
07:03but for my benefit can you just pull it back a little bit let's go a little higher just fertilizer
07:08in general i mean like what is it what's it doing and like what are the differences when do i
07:12use it
07:13what do you got i mean basically they are different ingredients whether it's synthetic or organic
07:18and that they are fine-tuned to a specific need of your plant so like going back when roger would
07:25say right plant right place right fertilizer right place you'd have to know your plants yes your soil
07:31conditions and your existing lawn so every bag is a different concoction and you gotta know what
07:37you're actually grabbing but and i guess what's on the bag yep these numbers here npk numbers here npk yes
07:44so you have nitrogen phosphate and potassium okay okay and the nitrogen is good for in the lawn area
07:52if this number was higher it'd be good for grasses so it gives you that extra punch of color exactly
07:57and that's what we like right right 100 percent a lot of colors we gotta do that right and then
08:01the
08:01middle number the phosphorus phosphorus for the root system and also for a little punch color things
08:05like that potassium or k for the overall strength of the plant so the overall strength and structure
08:10i presume these are organics over here yeah do they have the number system as well they do so
08:15the organics come from natural materials you're going to get it from compost manure bone meal right
08:22so this one is manufactured when you say manufactured from organic from organic materials and there's a
08:29whole laundry list this is your regular compost and then this one is milorganite yes milorganite love
08:35this this is really good for the lawn as well as your flower beds and everything else human waste oh
08:40so like literally the same effect of manure i mean correct human manure i guess yes okay but each of
08:46these pellets and sizes have been just they're specific to the npk ratio on the bag so but the deal
08:53with
08:53organics it takes it a little bit longer to break down because like the earthworms and the the microbes
08:58for the soil overall yeah the microbes in the soil that they break it down and then once that
09:03is digested the plant it can uptake those nutrients where this is like a quick punch boom green it up
09:09grow fast so generally speaking more potent on the synthetic side a little less potent on the organic
09:15you gotta look at it it's okay think of your if your plant is sick that's gonna be your antibiotic
09:19that's gonna be your treatment so if you want fast acting go synthetic ideally i try to go organic
09:25but sometimes you need a supplement with synthetic so that was my next question like are you strictly
09:31an organic fertilizer person or strictly a synthetic or can you mix and match like how would you mix
09:36and match i would mix and match this these two here the synthetic and the malagonite with uh doing
09:42the lawn okay and then also if i want to put this in like maybe some flower beds and things
09:46like that
09:46this works really well give it a nice punch and i would do the same with you know everything's
09:50established but oh my plants aren't blooming i might give it a kick of the middle number uh or use
09:56something called super phosphate phosphorus um and that gives for the blooms and the fruits
10:02right or if you know your roots are weak you know they need some more attention you hit it with
10:06the
10:06last number the potassium so i'm hearing sort of long-term consistent good soil health a little faster
10:13acting higher concentration i don't get the sense that i can use too much of that i mean obviously i
10:19don't
10:19want to kill my lawn with too much compost it's a very good question right so like so if there's
10:24too
10:24little you know it's not your your plant's going to suffer it's going to struggle like you want to
10:28give it that little dose of vitamin to like get it back to health but if it's too if you
10:34put too much
10:34in excess you could also burn your plant um and in this situation more is definitely not better it's
10:41because environmental impacts you know heavy rains it'll leach into the ground go into watersheds
10:47create algae blooms and lakes you know about regulations right correct yep you have to be aware
10:51where you live in and you know where you are and read the directions on these things you know what
10:55i mean um but this is the best way to go for like a lawn situation but you have to
11:00be careful about
11:01like like jen says the water situations and things like that so if you do go on the synthetic route
11:06use
11:06it appropriately correct use it in the right amounts and understand it yeah more is not better people have
11:11a tendency it's just human nature to put more you think it's going to be better just follow the ratio
11:16on
11:16the bag there's a formula okay cool good information and then i guess finally is this all you guys talk
11:21about when you're pretty much right hey it's important man house fires are one of the leading
11:33causes of damage to a home they can escalate very quickly from a very small flame to a full-blown
11:38fire
11:38in less than two and a half minutes causing over 10 billion dollars in damage annually so when a homeowner
11:44reached out about installing hardwired smoke detectors in our home i thought this was a
11:47perfect opportunity to reach out to the local fire chief and have him help explain what detectors to
11:52choose and how to locate them properly thanks for having the fire department this is great thank you
11:57hey chief thanks for coming out good to see you again must be tracy nice to meet you nice to
12:01meet
12:01you come on let's take a look inside after you all right tracy so i saw that you wrote in
12:07about
12:07installing new smoke detectors can you tell me a little bit about the system you currently have sure
12:11i had a security system for a while and then i went to battery operated okay i don't have too
12:18many around right now but i really need something that's safer does that sound a little familiar yeah
12:22so it sounds like she had what we call a household fire warning system probably monitored by a central
12:28alarm company that would um call you directly in case the alarm went off at some point in time you
12:34decided to go with battery operated detectors only that did not send the signal anywhere else and now
12:41you want to bring your house up the present day code with hard white interconnected smoke and carbon
12:46monoxide alarms yes and that's the great point is the interconnected portion so right now with the
12:50batteries if something were to happen in the basement it's only going to make noise in the
12:53basement if you're on a second floor or a bedroom further away especially if you have the summertime with
12:58an air conditioner or a fan going you may not hear that detector going off so that's a great point
13:02of the
13:02interconnect that is absolutely the best system to have um early detection in a fire seconds count
13:08to escape from your bedroom or your basement so that's what we would recommend in all instances
13:14that people use interconnected smoke and carbon monoxide alarms sounds great so when it comes to
13:19choosing the detectors we have two different kinds i'm aware of ionization and photoelectric does
13:23that sound right that is correct so um now if you are to build or remodel your house you can
13:28only use
13:29photoelectric smoke detectors got it prior to that depending on when your house was built or remodeled
13:34you could also use ionization smoke detectors right but they could not be placed within 20 feet
13:40of a kitchen or a bathroom that had a shower however they go into false alarm frequently so that's why
13:46we have the photoelectric requirement yeah that kind of sounds familiar back in the day when we used to
13:50have some of the smoke detectors a little too close to a bathroom they were the ionizations we had to
13:54change them to the photos so they weren't always going off because of the steam off the shower so that's
13:58good the
13:59other thing that we're going to use are the photoelectric smoke combination with the carbon
14:02monoxide that way if you have an issue with the carbon monoxide it'll tell you throughout the
14:06entire house yeah that is correct so the way we want to do that is we want you to install
14:11a combo
14:12detector that has a voice and a tone right so if the if there is a carbon monoxide event in
14:18the basement
14:18and it's during the night that the detector that's required outside your bedroom is going to tell you
14:23what it is is it a smoke event or is it a carbon monoxide event and that is done through
14:29a tone
14:29and a voice that's great so i'll know which one it is it'll say fire carbon monoxide yeah it's perfect
14:34tells you either one so great i think we have a pretty good idea for the system we want to
14:37install
14:38now it's just a matter of locating where they're going to go so let's start down this hallway and take
14:42a look at the bedrooms let's go right down here all right so looks like we have three bedrooms
14:47mm-hmm yep so we want one in each bedroom so that's correct and where we want to put it
14:51is
14:52just inside the bedroom preferably within three to five feet of the door we want to keep it away
14:56from any ceiling fan because that can certainly interrupt the detector from activating got it we
15:01also have a bathroom with a shower and you have a kitchen around the corner so ideally i would like
15:07to see the detector three to five feet further down the hallway and meet all the requirements what
15:12about the second floor where do we put the requirement is at the base of all stairs not within the
15:17stairwell so we want to place it once you get off the landing on the ceiling okay we want to
15:22protect
15:22the means of egress so what if we had an attached garage so the minimum requirement is one heat
15:27detector located in the center of the garage on the ceiling so now that we kind of have a good
15:32idea
15:32of what we're going to do in the bedrooms we come out to the hallway and i know we have
15:35to have one
15:35within 10 feet of the bedroom doors here we can see you have the battery one that's right here
15:39but the thing i notice is that vent and that's a fairly common issue so what's the guideline
15:44we're putting one near a vent like that yeah we want to keep it away from the vent for two
15:47reasons
15:48a dust collection on the detector and also from any air movement delaying the action great i think
15:56we're in pretty good shape that's great information chief i can't thank you enough thank you very much
16:00and as always thanks for coming out and helping but it's very important to drive home the fact
16:04that if you have questions when you're doing this please contact your local fire department you
16:08guys are very happy to help absolutely always contact your local fire department for advice
16:13here in new report we welcome the phone calls we want to make sure you purchase the right detectors
16:17and put them in the right spots tracy we got some work to do all right let's do it thanks
16:21again
16:23all right tracy before we go ahead and install these i just want to go over the couple of different
16:27detectors we have and kind of show you what you already have and what we're going to install okay so
16:30what you currently have are the battery operated ones which is great if you have nothing so very simple
16:34they just clip up like you saw you have a couple of batteries when they die they die you replace
16:38them right this is what we've been installing lately i actually have these in my own house
16:43this is a hardwired detector battery backup and it does both the smoke and carbon monoxide
16:48fairly simple when we do the hard wire it's going to be color to color for the wires black to
16:53black
16:53white to white red to red and the grounds buried together and then fairly typically we'll either have
16:58a couple of double a's or a nine volt battery that goes here so if you ever heard that chirp
17:02that single
17:03chirp at two in the morning that's the only time it ever happens and it's about a minute apart and
17:07you're trying to chase it down to find it that's what it is it usually means it's due for a
17:10battery
17:11replacement but since we don't want to deal with that anymore either we now have detectors that have
17:15a 10-year sealed battery so the unit is good for its 10-year cycle sealed battery you don't have
17:20to
17:21touch anything so it's hardwired the battery is built in and you're good to go now what if it doesn't
17:26chirp and how am i ever going to know when it's up in 10 years i wouldn't remember the 10
17:29years are up either so
17:30it should chirp and give you an end of life cycle signal of some kind to tell you that it's
17:34time to
17:34be replaced but if it doesn't on the back side of them they all have a date it tells you
17:39what the
17:39manufacture date was so if you have one and you're not sure and you take this down that's past that
17:4410
17:44year mark it's a good time to replace it okay and finally we're just going to go around to install
17:48these
17:48use a hole saw to cut in these round old work boxes run our 14.3 nm around go ahead
17:54and mount these
17:55and we'll be good to go great you ready i'm ready all right let's do this thank you so what
18:01i've done
18:01is i've drilled a hole from down here to up in the attic so what i want to try and
18:06do now i'm going
18:06to take these fiberglass fish tapes i'm going to try and push these up it's a straighter shot a little
18:12a little easier to kind of push straight through the hole and i'm just going to try and line it
18:16up
18:17now i should need two of them the wall is about eight feet tall and these are five foot sections
18:24and just thread together so we're going up
18:31ah right there so that is the top plate of the wall so now what i want to do is
18:36try and wiggle this
18:37around a little bit and find that hole and they do line up pretty well so it shouldn't be too
18:41bad
18:42hopefully right there so that is popping up into our attic so what i can do is tie the wire
18:50onto
18:50this now go to the attic and pull this right up we have the wire taped on so i'm going
18:56to go ahead
18:57and start pulling that up
19:07and there's our wire so the first thing i want to do is measure where we want to put the
19:12hole
19:14and i already have an idea of where the trusses are upstairs so i want to be about three feet
19:22over
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 i'm using a three and
19:41three quarter holes off of this so at two inches it should be excessive that i can slide up and
19:46spin around to make sure that i clear everything and i can spin around high and low and i know
20:00there are no obstructions for that junction box now that we have that
20:08i have my three and three quarter inch hole saw and my dust collection bowl all set up to collect
20:12everything and just like that we have our opening all right so we've got this hole cut out and we
20:28have two ways we can do this we can either fish the wires around to the location pull them down
20:32and then make up and push them up or in this case where i have nice attic access i'm going
20:37to go ahead
20:37and cut all the holes and install the boxes ahead of time and then go upstairs and i can staple
20:41right
20:41to them and stuff the wires through that's a nice snug fit and now we'll just spin the ears out
20:58all right so i'll repeat this process for the other two bedrooms and then i can go upstairs and
21:02pull the wires over and push them through and then we can make them up
21:12all right now since this is an interconnected system we want everything to talk to each other
21:16this box happens to have two wires so 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 so single
21:26on the
21:26first one then as i come to the next box i come back out that's why i have two this
21:30goes to the next
21:30room so it lets me provide the power with the black and white on both and the red is my
21:36interconnect so this
21:37red is continuous between the entire loop so if something happens they all talk to each other
21:56all right tracy so all the hard work's done all the detectors are up everything's powered
21:59it's ready to give them a test you ready i'm ready all right you got hearing protection it's gonna get
22:03loud yep all right i'm ready and test testing oh yeah that'll wake you up huh that's definitely
22:13gonna wake me up and then i'll run through a couple of cycles and you can hear you kind of
22:16hear
22:17it's telling you that it's either smoke or it's carbon monoxide so it definitely lets you know what's
22:21going on it's a long cycle yes that that will wake me up there we go good we take those
22:28out now well
22:30i think you're all set great thank you so much i feel so much safer this is great that was
22:34a great
22:34project happy to help thank you next time on ask this old house maro helps a homeowner design and paint
22:46an accent wall i love it it looks amazing then do plants clean the air can they repel mosquitoes jen
22:54discusses some of these common plant myths and when homeowners ask for an affordable patio option
23:01mark suggests installing a peastone patio all that on ask this old house
23:31you
Comments