Richard Karn talks ‘Home Improvement,’ renovations and more ahead of central Pa. appearance | Home & Garden

For Richard Karn, a toolbelt wasn’t just part of his costume on “Home Improvement.”

Best known for his role as Al Borland, Tim “the Tool Man” Taylor’s sidekick, Karn grew up in a family of craftsmen. He’s also tackled some massive home improvement projects of his own, as documented in his book “House Broken: How I Remodeled My House for Just Under Three Times the Original Bid.” He also offered tips to readers, alongside George Mair, in “Handy at Home: Tips on Improving Your Home from America’s Favorite Handyman.”

He learned a lot during that renovation — lessons most homeowners can relate to. He’ll visit the PA Home + Garden Show in Harrisburg March 6 and 7 where he’ll tell stories and answer audience questions.

Ahead of his appearance, Karn talked about the real-life inspiration for Al, what it was like reuniting with the “Home Improvement” cast for an episode of “Shifting Gears” and what projects he’s currently tackling at home. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

You have a family history of craftsmen — your dad was a craftsman, your grandfather was a craftsman. Did they have a specialty that they focused on in their trade?

You know, they were just kind of competent all the way around. My dad and his dad, my grandpa, when they were building houses, they pretty much did the whole thing. They did the foundation, they built the garage doors, they put on the roof … it wasn’t until a little later that they used to have specialty people come in and do stuff. My dad finally said he was tired of doing electric — too dangerous, sometimes.

He was brave to try it in the first place.

Well, it was just what you did. They built houses, they built small apartment buildings, they built businesses around the Seattle area. So, I grew up around that. We could never park our car in the garage because there was a table saw and a bunch of other stuff in there that took precedence.

So you’ve just grown up around home improvement tools your whole life. A circle saw and stuff like that was just part of your home decor, so to speak.

I have so many tools. I could start a tool museum. I have so much stuff. … Even my great grandparents were house movers, back when you didn’t tear something down, you just moved it.

So there’s always been this family connection to the home, that’s amazing.

Yeah, I guess I’m the black sheep.

But not so much though — you contributed in your own way, of course, with your portrayal of Al. I have to imagine some of them (your family members) are in that character for you?

A lot of my dad is in Al, yeah. But Al was also a little bit of me, a little bit of my dad, a little bit of working in the moment. … I wasn’t originally cast as Tim’s assistant. They had someone else they wanted that was older and taller, just for a visual difference between the two. The producers, Matt Williams and David McFadzean, they thought I was too much like Tim. … So, when the other actor got a job doing a play in New York, they called me and said, “Would you mind doing the pilot?” So having that in my background, I don’t know that that necessarily really came into play for me getting the job more than just me being there and confident at the time of the auditions. … Al kind of just grew out of that, and it grew out of the writers watching me watching the audiences watching Tim and I. The audience was way ahead of us, the writers and both Tim and I. We’d do stuff, and they would laugh … at our relationship and our chemistry.

So much of it was chemistry, for sure, the way you two played off of each other. You mentioned there was a lot of your dad in that character. Was he ever able to recognize it? Did he call you out and say, “I know where you got that one from, kid.”

(Laughs). One of the greatest compliments from my dad was, ‘You know, you really look like you know what you’re doing.’

To hear your dad say that is so validating.

Being a dad myself now, I realize, we still see our kids at 3 and 4 and 5 and 6, as their motor skills are still a little off or trying to do this. So he’s remembering me trying to drive a nail and bending it. He had me doing things like putting in floors and putting on roofs. If I had a nail gun, I might be a contractor. But we were on our hands and knees driving our things in with a hammer and a nail. But if I had a nail gun — cachunk, cachunk, cachunk — I might be a contractor.

I’d like to fast forward just a tiny bit to when the public got to hear more of your own home renovation journey, through your book “House Broken,” which is about a renovation not exactly going according to plan. I got a really great chuckle out of the “About the Author” description of that book … which notes that you promised your wife Tudi that you’d never move or remodel another house again. Did you keep that promise?

I’m still in that house, 30 years later. That quote from me kind of came from the fact that we spent just under a year and a half renovating, and getting it to how we wanted. Whether or not we were following the plan or not, we just kept adding things that we wanted that weren’t in the original idea — which isn’t a bad thing, if you can afford it. But if you’re on a budget, it’s a very bad thing. … There is such a thing as remodeling stress syndrome, which has caused many a marriage to explode.

But, when we finished, we literally got a knock on the door. This guy comes up and says, “I’m selling houses in this area and I have a buyer for your house.” He quoted me a price, and it was about twice what we paid putting into it. I went, “Oh.” And my wife was standing next to me, and she said, “Don’t you even think about selling the house that we just finished and now we love.”

Do you have any projects you’re working on at this moment? Anything that’s in progress around your house?

Oh yeah, there’s always some stuff. And my wife goes, “When are you going to get to this?,” and I go, “I will, I will.” One of them is repainting some areas, and there are areas where I had to redo some of the wall … but the rest of the room still looks fabulous, and I just have to do that one little section, so I’m putting off that until I can figure out the best way to do it. I have a gutter that has come apart, and I’m trying to figure out if I need to have a copper guy come and reweld it, or if I can just fix it with some certain glues and this or that. All of my projects kind of percolate in my mind for a week or month or whatever, and then it comes to me.

Is anything off-limits to DIY for you?

A lot of the plumbing, although there is some stuff I can do under the sink that isn’t too daunting. If I have to open up a wall or something like that, I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to change the solenoid in my dishwasher, I’m going to have someone come in and fix that. … Then there are other things I will try, and oddly enough, I fix it, and there are other things where I go in too deep and I think, no, I need to get a professional in here. Everybody has a different sense of what they can or can’t do, and sometimes you just have to push your limit, push your comfort zone a little.

That’s the only way to find the line.

You know, when you go to stuff like (the PA Home + Garden Show), it’s like walking into a candy store. We go, “oh yeah, I remember those, those tasted really good,” or “oh yeah, I need to do that,” or “that’s something I should look into and think about.” The home shows bring all sorts of ideas that you had no idea walking into the place that you were going to have.

Absolutely. It’s flipping through the inspiration magazine, but it’s in real life.

Yeah, exactly.

What can we expect from your appearance at the PA Home + Garden Show?

I’m going to be talking about the show, about whatever. People can ask me questions. There’s a dialogue there, and I am very easy to talk with. In a lot of ways, these question-and-answer talks in front of a group just stimulate my mind, and I remember things. My favorite saying is, “Honey, I didn’t forget — I just didn’t remember.” We’ll talk about something, and all of a sudden I go, “Oh my gosh, I forgot about that.” … So, we do massage our older memory.

I imagine at these events you’re just chatting with a lot of people, doing a whole lot of talking. How do you prepare for a day like that, and also, how do you recover afterwards?

I prepare by finally watching the show again. I have started watching the show again after 30 years. I’m a little more familiar with everything again. … The recovery process, I don’t know, it’s just good for my constitution. It keeps my motors revved, as long as I don’t strain my voice too much. I strained my voice when I was doing “Family Feud,” because they didn’t give me a good earwig. They didn’t give me a good earpiece, so I couldn’t hear myself… the audience were just so much more loud. Because we’d do six shows a day, and my voice was pretty tired at the end of the day.

Sure, oh my gosh. It sounds like in terms of interacting with people, though, you sort of feed off that energy. There are two types of people, right — ones who are drained by that experience, or you get energy from that experience. You certainly sound like you’re in the latter camp.

I certainly think so. I’m a pretty gregarious guy. It always makes me laugh when you get these guys out there that are annoyed with the public coming up and talking to them. It’s like, why? Why are you upset? You’re just going to be upset all the time, because people aren’t going to stop doing that. You’re just going to be upset all the time. Why put yourself through that? Your constitution is going to be a lot happier if you just accept it and move on.

That’s a great way to move through life. At these events, of course, you’re getting asked a whole bunch of “Home Improvement” questions, but you have had more reason to talk about that era of your career as of late, since that cast reunited for an episode of “Shifting Gears” (that aired in October 2025). What was the most surprising part of that experience for you?

Honestly, I think it was Pat’s (Patricia Richardson’s) general attitude. I think she’s in a much happier place, so she was having fun, as opposed to the angst of working or whatever. So that was nice. And it’s funny, because a lot of the crew — I’m talking like, hair, makeup and costume — are people who worked on “Home Improvement,” that are working on Tim’s shows still. And some of the cameramen here, a sound guy there, even the director, John Pasquin, was our original director for “Home Improvement” and he directed this episode. So it was really fun to go back in and do that.

Most people know you from “Home Improvement,” but you’ve also had some very memorable parts on some of the best comedies of the last 10 years, including “PEN15” and “Detroiters.” … Are there any TV shows you’re currently watching that you’d jump at the chance to be a part of?

A friend of mine is doing this new show, called “Best Medicine.” It just premiered. It’s the American remake of “Doc Martin.” Annie Potts is playing the aunt to him. That kind of show would be fun to do, just an ensemble quirky show. I’d love to have some character that didn’t have to carry the show necessarily, that just comes in, does his thing, it’s a great job. Kind of like “Home Improvement.” I was maybe on the show most of the time, 30 seconds? A minute and a half? A cold opening, a “Tool Time” here and there? But I left this huge impression, which is what they wanted.