Podcast Episode 754: Making Humidity, Adding Exterior Insulation, and Extreme DIY

This week's Fine Homebuilding podcast touches on a few things worth knowing if you're planning upgrades. A listener pushed back on a past episode's claim that evaporative humidifiers use less energy than steam humidifiers. His point: both methods require the same "latent heat" to turn liquid water into vapor. Steam humidifiers add that heat directly (usually with electricity), while evaporative units pull the heat from the surrounding air, which then makes your furnace work harder to replace it. In a heating season, he argues, there's no real energy advantage either way. If you're weighing humidifier options for a heating system, the type of fuel and your home's setup may matter more than the "energy efficient" label.

A homeowner in New Hampshire wrote in about an 1800s carriage house he's converting into a small home. He's considering removing damaged original shingles and installing a weather-resistant sheathing system with exterior insulation added outside the existing wall framing, plus deeper framing to fit more insulation. He's also dealing with basement water leakage and considering an interior drainage system and waterproofing membrane himself. These are exactly the kinds of decisions — exterior insulation thickness, wall assembly, and foundation drainage — that come up often in old-house rehabs, especially in cold climates like northern New England.

The episode also touched on why more homeowners seem to be tackling large-scale renovations themselves, whether driven by cost, hands-on interest, or trouble finding contractors — a trend worth watching if you're weighing DIY versus hiring out for your own project.