Once all the windows are in place, drying out the interior of the addition can be addressed. This drying-out process has become a concern for builders all over the country to prevent mold growth problems from developing within the house while it is being built. Kurt Bolden of HydroLab explains the process of determining how much moisture is contained within the building materials. HydroLab trains mainly insurance and restoration companies in the area of water mitigation in construction. HydroLab seeks to train contractors on the effects of water damage to a structure. A lot of materials delivered to construction job sites are wet, which may cause problems. Much of this material may appear dry and is installed anyway. When this happens, contractors are not aware of the moisture content load within the structure. Moisture is the number one cause of defects within a building. HydroLab maps out how much moisture is in each piece of material. To determine moisture content, a pin or screw is put into the material. A meter is then used to read the moisture content detected by the pins or screws. Fungal growth occurs in this region at about 16 percent moisture-content load. The lumber in this project is running at about 18 percent moisture content , so if this lumber is put behind insulation and prevented from drying, it could lead to increased risk of mold growth in the walls. Charles Cressy of Water Out reviews the drying out process to prevent mold growth in new structures. To do this, an environment promoting the rapid evaporation of the bound water should be created. Dry and warm air is piped into the building and circulated throughout. The moisture trapped in the building material should become part of the air that is circulated and sucked out of the building. The Water Out trailer is typically used to dry out flooded buildings. The trailer is capable of drying out a building incredibly fast.

In this episode, Bob goes on a neighborhood tour of Naples, Florida. We see the highlife both by car and by boat as Bob selects a "cracker" cottage to remodel.

Bob meets Jack O'Leary, the plumbing and heating contractor for this remodeling project. They discuss the old heating unit, which was an oil-fired steam system that used radiators throughout the house. The house has doubled in size since adding a new addition, and the old unit can't handle the new load. It was too costly to add another steam unit, so they decided to go with an oil-fired boiler. This works well for the homeowner, since oil is cheaper than electric, and gas isn't available in the area.

Here's another great tip from BobVila.com. Whether you re building a whole house or just adding a new bathroom, one of your first decisions has to be how you re going to heat the new space. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, radiant heat is more efficient than baseboard or forced air systems. Rather than just blowing hot air around the room in bursts, radiant systems slowly and steadily charge the floor with heat, keeping it where you want it, longer. Hydronic, or water-circulating, radiant systems are best for new construction or large additions. They come in many forms, for installation just below the subfloor between the joists, directly under tile or hardwood flooring, or even inside a concrete floor slab. Where you only need to heat a small space, like a bathroom, electric radiant is an easy luxury option. Electric radiant mats can be installed directly under tile and are ideal over a concrete subfloor. Set the timed thermostat to turn the system on only when you ll be using the room, like the morning when you shower, and it ll use less than 15 cents of electricity per day. This way, you don t have to make room for ductwork or baseboard units when you add a bathroom. On a cold winter morning, your toes will thank you for choosing radiant heat! Find out more at BobVila.com: The ultimate home improvement web site! BobVila.com 2008

Barry Driscoll is in the basement installing a state-of-the-art surge protector from Square D. Barry hooks up a main surge protector for the whole house that will take care of all the appliances, electronics, and anything else that could be damaged. It also protects the telephones and cable TV that run throughout the house. This eliminates the need for individual surge protectors on separate appliances. This can be installed in a retrofit as well as in new construction. Barry is also installing an arc fault detector. These units that are now required by the new national electrical code for branch circuits in bedrooms protect against fires from arcing caused by damaged wires (if you hit a wire while hanging a picture), deteriorating electrical insulation, stressed electrical cords, or misapplied or damaged appliance use. The arc detector was designed to detect overloads, short circuits and arc faults and open the circuit and stop the arc fault and its high intensity heat before a fire is likely to ignite.

Christopher Burk of Simonton Windows shows Bob the Pro-Finish new-construction windows that are being installed in the Mashpee homes. These extruded-vinyl windows are construction ready with a nail fin for easy installation. These energy-efficient windows are made of vinyl and double-pane low-e glass to reduce conductivity and maintain stable indoor temperatures. Low-emissivity glass, or low-e, has a film applied to the inside face of the outer pane of glass. It is designed to deflect heat back to its source, keeping homes warmer in the cold months and cooler in the warm months. In addition, these windows are argon-filled, which makes them even less susceptible to heat and cold transfer. These tilt-in windows are easy to install, easy to maintain, and simple to clean. They have received the Energy Star rating for their efficiency and even come in a high-impact version that is designed for storm-prone areas.

Every year, tornadoes, hurricanes, and other severe windstorms rip through hundreds of towns and cities across the United States, injuring and killing people and causing millions of dollars in property damage. You can protect your family from injury caused by the high winds and flying debris of a windstorm by constructing or installing a safe room in your home. A safe room is different from the other rooms in your home because it has been specially designed and tested to withstand wind speeds of up to 250 miles per hour and the impact of a 15 pound 2 by 4 flying at a speed of 100 miles per hour. Typically, the safe room should be located in a central, interior, ground-floor area of the home for additional protection as well as accessibility. The basement of a home can also be used as a location for a safe room. A safe room can be incorporated into the construction of a new home, or it can be retrofitted into an existing home. The safe room can function year-round as a usable area, such as a bathroom, closet or utility room. Safe rooms can be constructed out of reinforced concrete, reinforced concrete masonry or combinations of wood frame and steel sheathing or concrete masonry infill. Safe rooms can also be manufactured, assembled and installed on site. Here are some things to consider when constructing or installing a safe room: Safe rooms must be structurally isolated from the main structure of your home. Safe rooms must be securely anchored to the foundation. Safe rooms installed in or over a crawl space must have a separate foundation. Safe rooms must have adequate ventilation. All components of safe rooms, including walls, ceilings, and door assemblies, must be designed and tested to resist the specified wind forces and prevent perforation by windborne debris.

Bob visits with Jim Vaccaro and Tom Ferontie of Mashpee Commons, in New Mashpee, Massachusetts. This urban and community development is set to evolve over years. It has a mix of business, retail, professional, and housing space. There are apartments above storefronts and offices. By the time Mashpee Commons is complete, it will have 380 homes, including apartments, condominums, senior housing, and single-family homes. By choice and in deference to Act 40B, 25 percent of the new homes will be affordable to those earning a modest income. Vaccaro points out that there is a serious work-force housing shortage on the Cape. The goal of this project is to be part of the housing solution. Bob remarks that the architectural style is a classic New England mix, as if it grew over generations. Ferontie explains that the goal was to meld the Nantucket and Cape Cod styles in terms of materials, colors, and architectural details like cornices and windows, but keep a skeleton that is contemporoary and efficient. Most buildings are steel frame with brick or wood veneers.

Bob is joined by Mikde Hobson of Westchester Insulation as the crew prepares one of the Mashpee houses for insulation installation. Hobson explains that this is a patented insulation system that uses special fabric stapled and drawn tight across any cavity that needs to be insulated. The crew works with pneumatic staplers to get the fabric in place across all the walls and the joists of the cathedral ceiling. The fabric is not intended as a moisture barrier of any kind and is just there to hold the insulation in place and prevent it from settling. Hobson shows Bob the white fiberglass that will be blown into the cavities. It is white because it is a virgin product, completely free of treatments, binders, or chemicals. Certainteed and Johns Manville both produce fiberglass insulation that is suitable for the Blow-In-Blanket installation. Once all cavities have been enclosed, the insulation contractor cuts a slit in the fabric and inserts a hose through which the fiberglass is blown. The cavity is filled to a density of two pounds per cubic foot which is visible to the eye by a slight bulge in the fabric. At this density, an R-value of 15 is achieved in two-by-four cavities like walls. In attics and ceiling cavities that are two-by-six, an R-value of 38 can be achieved. This insulation is inert and will not support moisture, mold, animals, or insects. It also serves as a sound insulator and can be blown in around drain lines, in interior partitions, and around tubs and showers. Blo-In-Blanket insulation is suitable for new construction or retrofit applications where it is blown in through the sheathing from the outside or through interior drywall to fill wall cavities. Blow-In-Blanket insulation costs about 50 to 60 percent more to install than traditional batt insulation, but offers such energy efficiency that it pays for itself within two to four years.

Bob meets Bob Bevilacqua at the River Hill site in Mashpee, Massachusetts, where Bevilacqua and his crew have undertaken a mammoth job of earth moving as they cleared and prepared the site for eleven new homes. First they cleared the four-acre parcel of trees, stumps, and brush, before stripping, screening, and storing the top soil in a mound for later use. It will be used later in the project for road shoulders and finish landscaping. RJ Bevilacqua Construction has also cut in the road for blacktop, stripping the clay underneath and relocating it to the drainage basin they are preparing near the back of the development. A retention area is created to catch runoff from the road, where storm drains collect the water and send it through a sediment field to catch any oil or sediment from the water before before it passes to an overflow basin. About 3,000 yards of fill will be used to create the slope and basin for the retention and runoff area. The goal is to reuse all of the earth that has been moved on the site as fill once the finish work begins. The roadbed is another example of reuse, and is built of recycled concrete and asphalt from a demolished roadway.