KF I am six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp, the House Whisper on demand.
Like dreaming an eight D everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Hey, welcome home. I'm Dean Sharp, the house Whisperer. I design custom homes, I build custom homes, and here on the weekends, I am your guide to better understanding that place where you live. It is Saturday morning, and as is our custom today on the show. Your calls. You're the star
of today's show. You get to set the agenda. Anything that is going on with your home, anything that's got you scratching your head about your home, whether it is a construction issue, a DIY question, a architecture or design question. Yes, please, And of course we do that by taking your calls and the number to reach me eight three three two. Ask Dean eight three three, The numeral two peep, ask Dean eight three three to ask Dean is the number to call. Just see it just rolls off the tongue
eight three three to ask Dean. It's that simple. You set the agenda for today. Uh, these these phone lines are open and we have room for you. Saturday mornings are just you know, for those of you who are up and about and around and thinking about these things. Maybe you're thinking about the weekend. Maybe you're thinking about, uh, what do I gotta get done to this place?
Uh?
Now is the perfect time to give us a call.
Traffic is always light, as you know, at this time of the day, so it is uh and if you're if you're not in California, then you know the morning's already reving up. And so give us a call from wherever you are across this great nation of ours. Let me introduce our awesome team to you. Sam is on the bad.
Good morning. There he is wrangling, are not so live studio audience? Good morning, Sam? How's your weeks? Everything?
You got a laser guy in here today? Yeah, I'm dodging shots here. You gotta get that guy with the laser. He hasn't been around for a while and now he's snuck back in. We got to get him under control. Call security on him. How are you feeling this morning?
Sam? Good, I'm feeling bubbly today. This is good. You're feeling bubbly. Yeah, I've got some fun stuff coming up.
My nephew graduated high school, so we're going to go and have a party for him, and my kids are out of town, so I got nothing but free time.
No, well, there you go, there you go. I was at my niece's middle school promotion yesterday.
Classic. It was classic. It was just great.
Middle of the day, got a little warm out there sitting in the sun on the field. But you know what, they pulled it off. They did not take too long to do it, So I'm gotta give them. I'm going to give them major props at Redwood Elementary School in Thousand Oaks for pulling off a two hundred and something kid promotion in one hour one hour tops. That was including speeches and h and a very interesting rendition of well.
I forget what song it is that they did with the band or the quartet or something, but there's nothing quite like a middle school band. Tina, of course was you know, you think Tina is just absolutely sweet and kind. She was sitting here, you know exactly what I'm talking about. You were criticizing them from the minute they started. You're like, whoa, whoa. I'm like, babe, it's a middle school band. What did you think they were gonna you pay for a frontline band?
You know, no middle school band? Yes, of course, there's the occasional flat note. Somebody on the viol just didn't get it quite right. The horns coming in the tuba player was fun. The tuba was great. The tuba came. You're on what you got to step up to your microphone?
I have not on at least by Oh there we go. Oh see, okay, all right O good now anyway, so, uh yeah, I feel you, Sam. It was It was a great time yesterday.
Uh guess who we've got screening call? Stay well, she's actually busy screening a call right now. Producer Michelle Cube is with us. She's not near a mic. She's doing her job. She's taking calls. By the way, Michelle's taking calls. You want to talk to Michelle Cube first before me or just her instead of me?
Fine?
Eight three three two, ask Dean eight three to three the numeral two, Ask Dean. Those are the calls, Those are the numbers to call? Uh my buddy. Eileen Gonzalez at the news desk, Good morning, Eileen.
Good morning, Dean. How's it go in? Good? How are you? What's going on? Oh? Not a lot?
You know, it's kind of funny when you were mentioning the middle school bands that reminded me of being in middle school, and it was one of the most horrible experiences ever, wasn't the salt on my ears?
Oh? Oh oh yeah music?
Right, Yeah, there's pure potential there. But yeah, that was brutal.
I don't know, it just is. It's it.
Well, you know, but would you expect it any other way? I mean you would you? I mean I think I would be a little disappointed if we if we were sitting there yesterday and and the the middle school band just knocked it out of the park.
I think, just like, whoa, well that that what happened that young lady did though her song, I know, but I'm.
Talking about the band. I expect the band to sound a little squeaky, a little loft, coming late, come in a little early. It's see, that's what you said. You looked at me and you're like, like, ugh, they have one job. No they don't. Well, they're middle schoolers, they have they have a thousand jobs. There's a thousand things they're doing and the last thing in the world that they're concerned about.
I'm sure they had to practice a lot though, because they knew they were doing that.
Yeah, but they're middle schoolers.
So was that young lady who sang that beautiful song I think from Anna.
Yeah she's got a nice voice. Yeah that's different, is it? It is different? She just has only let the talented kids do it.
That's the harsh that's the harsh line of middle school.
That's what you're starting to learn though.
In middle school, right, you're starting to be like, oh my gosh, if I you know, if I don't make the grade, they're gonna cut me from the team. In elementary school, you just get participation trophies for everything. But in middle school, it starts happening. Life starts showing up. It gets real. And these eighth graders, they were graduating and they're they're top They've been top dog right after a three year journey. And now now now look at
what they're gonna be. They're gonna be scrubs in high school.
Next year.
You're gonna be on low men on the totem pole. That's all I'm saying. All right, I should move on from this because it's probably time to start the show. Right sitting across the table from me, my better half, middle school music critic Tina, you're here, Welcome home, my also my best friend in all the world, but she's very harsh on middle school music.
Well, and congratulations save those middle schoolers who eliminated yesterday.
That's a big deal. It is a big deal.
And I know, I also know in the back of your mind you're thinking, thank god, get into music class in high school and work hards.
It's true, meaning me, very cruelly.
No, it was just a thing. All right, it's true. All right, y'all. When we come back, let's start taking calls. It's an all call Saturday morning, eight three three two. Ask Dean. Is the number to reach me? Eight three three two, ask Dean. I see what you're doing there, dam I see it. If only, if only that middle school band sounded like that. That is a legitimate high school band playing there, or college band?
What was it? What were you playing there?
That's middle school, Bristol School, seventh and eighth graders, and they are precise.
No way, what do.
You mean you feel vindicated? That's an exceptional that's like one in a million. They got their own album.
Just saying it's possible. They had one job and they nailed it.
You see this, Oh my goodness, you did not vindigate yourself. You just dug a deeper hole. It's middle school, all right. Dean Sharp the house whisper here with my music critic Tina uh. Whether your home is a condo, a cottage, or a castle, we're here to help you take it to the next level. We're taking calls this morning. The number to reach me eight three to three two. Ask Dean eight three three the numeral two ask Dean. Let's
go to the phones. I want to talk to Barbara. Hey, Barbara, welcome home.
Mike, good morning, Thank you so much for taking my call. I've had I have the beach house really close to the ocean, obviously, and it's very moist down here. We have a lot of sand ander, you know, in the soil around the house, and efflorescence has always been something that's under the house. I have a part of the house is the main house is above ground, and then I have a casita that's that's on a slab along with the garage, so that's not an issue. But it's
in the main house. And we've worked for efflores since about four years ago. Got rid of it on my termite guy had tinted, but it came back and then he goes, We'll just throw the oxy clean powder underneath and just like chicken feed, just kind of throw it. And it took care of it for about four years, and now it's back with a freaking vengeance. I mean, it was like snow under my house, but it's not
on the concrete. It's just on the dirt. And so I started thinking, Okay, well, it's coming from moisture from somewhere. It's coming from the outside. So when we renovated this house four and a half years ago, outside too, we were a very complicated backyard, but we did add some dirt with some sand, but I think the combination has more sand with dirt. And as I'm pulling away just looking to see what's against the house, it's moist it's wet. So the effluorescence is coming from I think maybe what
we did outside. I'm not sure, but that could be possible. And when it rains here we have rain coming from like the norse hitting the backside of the house. Is only in the backside of the house. The front part of the house is okay, So when you look under the house where the front part of the house is, there's no affluorescence. It's all in the back side of the house here, but there's a lot of snow under there. My question is, can I maybe remove some of the
dirt with it that on there? Do you think that that would help raking it? He said, no, don't touch it, let it go. But it's like snow. It's white and it's everywhere. It's not on the concrete or the wood yet. But four years ago, if I looked up, I could see the under part of my sub floors and it was whitey down the wood and on the concrete. I have a cripple wall that's been you know, reinforced, and it's all of it at cripple wall it was, you know. So it's an old house, fifty five plus years old.
It's home, miss, but I wanted your expertise. I'm almost tempted just to remove the dirt under the house. I don't know what else to do. It's crazy. So that's why I'm calling.
All right, Well, that's a really kind of a unique situation, Barbara.
It totally is.
I know it is a unique situation. Here's the thing. Efflorescence. By the way, just to catch everybody up, because you and I I don't want you and I just to have this private little conversation. People are like, what the heck is that fluorescence? Efflorescence is a fancy name for mineral deposits that are left behind by moisture. Now, most of the time, most of the time, when I get a call about efflorescence, it's because somebody thinks they're concrete
stem wall or their their foundation is dissolving. It's coming apart because we get all this white stuff on the surface. So it's got to be what's leeching out of my concrete or why is my concrete dissolving? And it's not that. It's not that at all. What it is is just water moving through cement most of the time, and most people find it like on the surface of their garage, their interior garage, little stem walls.
And.
Water moves to the surface because concrete is porous, and then it evaporates. But water has mineral content and its salts and other minerals, and as water evaporates, think about places like Mono Lake or any place where you've seen a lot of evaporative water. It leaves salt behind, the Great Salt Flats. It's all the same. It's water that has appeared, evaporated and left its mineral content behind, and
that's really all it is. It's not attractive for people to find inside like their house or on the garage walls, but it's not particularly a danger to anyone or anything because it's just mineral content left behind. Now that's normally the case when we hear about people experiencing efflorescence in their home and they want to know how can I
clean it off the concrete and so on. You've got it on your soil in the subfloor and the crawl space of your house, maybe because your unique little microclimate where you live there by the beach. But there's a lot of salt in the air. Okay, there's a lot of salt in the air, and if it has a chance, if that moist salt air has a chance to kind of settle on soil in a place where it doesn't flash off too quickly, then it's leaving some deposits behind.
And so that's why it looks like snow underneath the house. So here's the thing. I'm not sure I'm worried about it. I mean, it's not mildew, it's not mold, it's mineral deposits, and so yeah, it has a funky look to it. But mineral deposits, they don't threaten the house. They don't threaten the soil, they don't threaten the wood, they don't threaten anything in particular.
They're just weird looking.
Can I say we did we did start developing those they look like I'm going to just be very trying to explain this. We also have just developed, probably in the last six months. They look like avocado pits that are orange, but they're squishy, and it's a type of fungus or something outside that was up against the house. So I know the moisture combination sand flash dirt has probably a lot to do with that kind of issue.
And I pulled those bulbs out and I disposed all of those and it's only in those that those things are only in one part where the downceto is. So I got an extended for the down spout. I'm trying to direct the water when it rains out, you know, into the more in the middle of the hard But I have a big experdure, but I don't. I'm thinking, I know, I know, Elisa, is he my guy the you know my term my guy inn said, he goes,
don't worry, it's not going to hurt you. But we have that old grandma smell in the house, the old musty, old grandma smell. You know, it's a house.
That's that's what I wanted to address with you. That's that's what I want you to do. So here's the thing, Barbara. I'm gonna pop you on hold because we're up against a break. I'm running little late here. I spent too much time talking about middle school bands.
My bad. I'm the popy on hold.
And when we come back, I want to address what I think is the real root problem that I want you to deal with. Not there effluorescence, but the reason why it's there. Okay, so you hang tight, and when we come back, I want to talk about a problem underneath what appears to be the annoying problem and get to the root of it so that we don't have
any moisture issues causing trouble with your home. All right, We'll get back to Barber's call and the rest of your calls when we return your Home with Dean Sharp the house Whisper.
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty.
Am.
I am Cory live streaming and AHP everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Dean Sharp the house whisper with you this morning, as I am every Saturday morning. We're taking your calls. The number to reach me eight three three two. Ask Dean eight three to three the numeral two. Ask Dean all right, very quickly. I was running late with the other segments here, so I got to make up some time here. But I've got Barbara on the line. Barbara
has an efflorescence problem under her house. Lots of mineral deposits everywhere above normal for sure, for this one of the most one of the most unusual level of efflorescence
on the soil and her subfloor and so on. So, Barbara, what I wanted to address with you is not so much the efflorescence, which is not in and of itself an issue having mineral deposits left behind on things, but the root cause, which is moisture, whether it's ground moisture or moisture in the air, getting trapped in the subfloor, the fact that it's leaving behind mineral deposits. Again, not the most attractive thing, but not in and of itself
an issue the mineral deposits themselves. But you've said, like on the north side of the house, where you've got right by the rain gutter down spouts, you've started to get like the orange bulbs of mold and mildew. You've got a moist environment there. And so there's a couple of things that I want you to be aware of. Number One, I do want you guys to be extra careful about getting moisture away from the foundation of the house.
And you'd already mentioned that you're extending the rain gutters so that they actually deposit out away from the house, not right down at the edge. That's a wise thing to do. Make sure that we're not overwatering anything, considering that you're in a very moist kind of beach air environment,
especially on the north side of the house. Especially on the north side, because the north side of the house is where there's a lot more shade, because we have southern sun, so the south side of the house is getting blasted with more warmth and direct sunlight, and a lot of that moisture dissipates very fast. On the north side,
it develops quicker. But my concern is primarily not about the perimeter of the house, but underneath, okay, because what can happen not from the effluorescence, but by continual buildup of extremely moist air in there is we can develop mold, mildew, musty smell that ends up crawling up through the floorboards the floor joists. Even excessive amounts of moisture under there
can end up damaging the bottom of hardwood floors. We don't want our floorboards cupping or anything like that happening, okay, And it doesn't sound like that's happened yet, but it is something to deal with. So here is my biggest suggestion number in addition to keeping moisture away from the house, just as a general rule, it sounds like you've just
got a lot of it in the air. And I don't know the condition of your subfloor vents, how many vents there are, how open it is, how well air gets to circulate down around a subfloor in older homes. I never expected to be great, because you know, just even if it was built that way really well with lots of venting back in the day, the fact of the matter is, all sorts of things have happened to the house. Some of those vents have been covered up, some of them have been painted over, and blah blah,
you know that kind of stuff. So bottom line, bottom line, Barbara, And then I've got to run because I've got to catch up here. Here is my suggestion. I think you could affect this fix for about five hundred dollars.
Okay.
I think what you're looking for, and what I would recommend for you is that you guys invest in a subfloor crawl space dehumidifier, and they are you can find them. You can find them on like the home Depot website or lows or big box store a hard way.
You can find them online.
And it has to be not a dehumidifier for inside a house because inside house dehumidifiers they stand upright and they kind of look like little portable air conditioners. But your crawl space is not that tall. Okay, So this is a This is one clad in metal. You can plug it in. They are automatic. They work automatically, so in other words, you set a moisture level for them, and they turn themselves on when the moisture reached in the air reaches a certain level, and they literally draw
moisture out of the air. They dry the air in the space for about five hundred dollars. It's the average dehumidifier crawl space dehumidifier handles about four to five thousand square feet. So one of these puppies sitting underneath the house just running on its own. It'll turn itself on and off automatically. It has a drainage tube that you can run outside to drain somewhere and it will help draw the air into itself, dry it, and push it
back out into the crawl space. So the crawl space air stays dryer, lacking that heavy, heavy humidity, and as a result, you're not going to get the effluorescence or the mildew or the must or the mold build up in there. We've done this many times before to older homes and they work marvelously once they're up and running.
I don't know if you want to go ahead and do the effluorescent clean up this time and then put in the dehumidifier just to you know, to verify that it's working so you don't see the build up again. But that is what I strongly recommend to you, and you can again, you can find them online. Just about anything that needs to be made these days is made and these are common You may have never run across
one before, but they're commonplace. So a dehumidifier for your crawl space could could make all the difference in the world.
That's my best suggestion for you, my friend. Thank you so much for your call.
I've got to run on so that we've got time for more callers, so good luck with that.
Let me know how that turns out.
All right, all right, you're listening to Dean Sharp the house whisper ka hi in Sharp.
The house whisper welcome home.
We're taking your calls this morning live, as we do every Saturday morning. The number to reach me eight three three two. Ask Dean eight three to three. The numeral two ask Dean. Home improvement calls, design questions, architectural questions, construction questions, you name it. Give me a call. If it's got you scratching your head about your home, I'm here to help you out. All right, let's go back to the phones. I want to talk to Mike. Hey, Mike, welcome home.
Good morning. Dean. You've helped me with my Lake Tahoe home with on several occasions, and I'm not considering how to make my home a little more fire resistant. I was considering adding a hearty sighting to the house, but you'd mentioned some into messing paint. I've got t one eleven plywood for the most of the majority of the home, and I'm wondering what your thoughts on are intimissent paint for this purpose.
I like into messent paint. Into messent is another five dollars word. It means for everybody else who's listening, it means something that reacts to heat and expands with heat. So an inter messent paint basically, when it reaches a certain temperature, will expand and cover over seal over, kind of self seal the area, and it produces sort of a if you want to call it, this kind of a foamy protection layer that allows the surface underneath it
an extra layer of protection. And the really good ones could render you know, two thousand plus degrees two hour fire protection, which is more than enough in almost every situation. So, Mike, the general gist of this is, I don't like when we're fire hardening a home, I don't want to rely just solely on one thing. I think it's a good idea if you're changing out as much of your t one to eleven wood siding to something like the hardy sighting,
the cement based sighting. Not only is it going to look great, but it's going to give you that extra level of assurance that you are fire hardening the house.
So as opposed to using the inter messin paint, because the thing with the intermssine paint or primer, and on an exterior, I really like using an intermscent primer because then you can go ahead and use just about any other kind of paint that you want on top of it, and you get all the protection without having to be limited in color choices and durability and all of that kind of thing. So I prefer the primers for exterior situations.
But the thing is they're expensive. I mean they're crazy expensive, like four hundred and eighty to five hundred dollars for.
A couple three gallons. So it's not really a cost.
Savings in the it's quicker, but it's not a cost savings to just say, well, you know, I've got a wood exterior, let's just paint it with into messin paint now. If there's just no way to change out the exterior right now and you want that protection, then.
Sure, go for it.
But what I like to do is when we design a home in a fire rich area, to fire harden the home, we start with fire resistant class A surfaces on the outside, you know, like the hardy siding, and then I like to use the intermessent material where it counts the most, which is the eves and the overhangs. Anything that's overhanging, that's gonna be the place where flames are going to lick up and have the biggest amount
of exposure to rooflines and attic spaces. So my recommendation would be go for the hardy siding and then use into messent primer and or paint on the eves the underside of the eaves of the house so you don't have to box it in or change the design look or anything like that. That's where I would concentrate that paint and you won't be using that much of it there and therefore you're going to get the best value out of it.
If that makes sense.
That's great advice, especially if something I could do easily quickly. Yeah, yeah, for sure, seems like that would be the first potential location of fire starting.
Anyway, Absolutely, you know it's attic spaces, and of course you want to get the vents changed out to ember proof vents and then into mess and paint on the eaves, and then just any kind of Class A rated material for the exterior walls of the house. Mike, thank you for your call, my friend. We are at the top of the hour. More of your calls. The number to reach me eight three to three two. Ask Dean eight three to three the numeral two.
Ask Dean.
We got room on the callboard for you. Give me a call. Anything about your home. You're listening to Dean the House Whisper on KFI.
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from Kfi a M six forty