All Calls Saturday | Hour 2

you know, uplifting, informative, non irritating social media. We're on all the usual suspects Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, x at Home with Dean, same handle for them all Home with Dean, And of course, this very program is also what's known as The House Whisperer Podcast that you can listen to anytime, anywhere on demand. Every time one of our broadcasts goes off the air, very shortly thereafter it becomes our podcast, which means that if you've missed part of the show,

you can always catch up. Hundreds of episodes now all searchable by topic, your home improvement reference library. And finally, if your home is in need of maybe some more personal house Whisperer attention, like you know what I really need. I need Dean and Tina standing in our living room staring at the problem, not my partner, the problem, the other problem, the house. We can do that too. You

can book an in home design consult with us. You just go to house Whisperer dot Design, house whisper dot Design. All right, it is an all call Saturday morning, as we do, and I want to go back to the phones.

Thanks for joining us on the program. It is always a pleasure to sit and spend time on a relaxing Saturday morning talking to you about that most precious place of your possession, your home. We're taking calls today, as we do on Saturday mornings. The number to reach me eight three three two ask Dean A three to three the numeral to ask Dean. The phone lines are open if you want to give me a call. I am talking to Patrick. Hey, Patrick, are you still there?

electricity than the old incandescence. Yet we're on a trend toward electrifying homes, meaning we've got electric cars now that need charging, we've got solar up on the roof, we've got electric appliances more than ever before. So what used to be back in what would this be? Sixty seven sixty eight used to be a typical tracked home, modest sized American home would have a one hundred amp service

running to it one hundred amp panel. Nowadays, homes that are built brand new these days, same kind of a home, we've got a two hundred amp panel. Most homes these days start with a two hundred amp panel. That is now the typical thing. So one reason for replacing an electrical panel you need to upgrade your service size and

move to like a two hundred amp panel. The second reason is simply that the box itself, the breaker box, which is there's nothing magical about it's just a box, is rusting out or corroding and no longer a safe place to protect the circuitry that's inside. And the third reason is, and it sounds like this is your case, Patrick,

that replacement breakers aren't available anymore now. Fortunately, in the electrical panel world, breakers last a long time, and there isn't like changeover, like you know, man, I just installed this panel three years ago, and now change the breakers. They're not available anymore. That's not the way it works.

It moves very very slowly. But breaker technology does age out, and panel manufacturers do change the shape and the connection points of their breakers, and so, yeah, older panels, once you get past fifty years or so, there's a good chance that that company, even though the company's still around

making breakers, may not be manufacturing those breakers anymore. And you got to give them, you know, you got to give them some slack for that, because at this point they're like, you know, how how much of their manufacturing process do they need to commit to panels that are fifty plus years old. They're not the main thing that

they're selling anymore. So, and very specific panels are made by specific manufacturers and they're not interchangeable either, Like square D panels don't fit eating breakers, and eating breaker panels don't fit Siemens breakers and Semens breakers don't fit GE breakers, and sixty year old g General Electric panels have different breakers than ten year old General Electric panels. So there are three reasons you need to upgrade your service, or the box itself is rusting out or corroding, or you

got to replace breakers and they're not available anymore. Those are the reasons Patrick to think about replace an old electrical panel. And if those don't apply to you, then then there's nothing wrong with your panel. It's gonna just do what it's gonna do until you need it to do something different. Does that make sense, my friend? I

appreciate the call, and good luck on your panel. If you've got a question about like, okay, what do you do now, then just talk to your electrician, call electrician out, get a couple of bids. Replacing a panel really isn't that big of a deal. It does involve calling the electric company. They're going to have to reset the meter on the panel and approve the new panel installation, but

you know it's not it's not a major deal. And quite often you can put a surface mount panel if your panel is embedded into your house, like so back sixty plus years ago were you can without having to tear up the stucc, or you can often use that old panel box as what we call a junction box and mount a surface mount panel right over the top of it on the wall for a relatively low installation costs.

So look at all of those options with your electrician and figure out, you know, what the next move is, and get more than you know two bids on it, so that you're really getting the inside scoop from three different qualified electricians as to what your options are. Patrick, good luck with that panel all right, when we come back, more of your calls. Your Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.

having a truly authentic spring. I gotta tell you, it's normally spring just kind of pops into place here in southern California as a slightly cooler summer version of summer. Right, it just all of a sudden, everything stops, The rain stops it. You know, the skies are clear, temperatures warm up into the high seventies, and it's just you know, it's spring, but it's just not quite hot summer this

this year for whatever reason. And I haven't talked to any meteorologists about this, and I should, but for this year, here we are in May and it's spring like sunshine for three hours, then clouds roll in, a little rain, then the clouds roll out, then it's warm again, then it's cold again, then it's misty. That I mean, this is legitimate spring. This is like the spring that most people everywhere else know as spring. And I gotta say,

I'm I'm actually really enjoying it. The longer moisture and cool stays around in Southern California, the better for us. The hills are still green and verdant and uh and so good, good good, let's uh, let's encourage it to last, all right, we are here on the program doing an all calls Saturday morning talking about your home, and you get to set the agenda. The number to reach me eight three three two. Ask Dean eight three three the numeral two. Ask Dean A three three two ask Dean.

We're going back to the phones. I want to talk to Victor. Hey, Victor, welcome home.

have them around but not damage their house. And all the key things are all having huge holes gaps in them now, and they constantly pounded them all day long.

you know, I'm sorry that you're experiencing that damage. Other there there are tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of other people who would love to live surrounded by trees and have the problem of having too many woodpeckers around in that because they're gorgeous birds and they're wonderful to have around, but not when they decide that your house is the target of their pecking. And I totally get it. We've experienced that ourselves from time to time. Woodpeckers can

become a nuisance when it comes to that. And so okay, so here's the thing. Let's let's uh, let's you know what. Here's the thing, Victor. I'm gonna we're up against a break. I'm gonna we're gonna go to break just a few seconds early, and if you can hang tight through the

break on the other side. I will take the time to answer this as thoroughly as possible, because it's a multifaceted answer there's probably one point of suggestion that I think that you'll probably embrace, But I just I just want to give it a full orbed answer, because it's not as simple as you know, put out some shiny foil tape and there go away, or set up a fake owl in your yard. That's just typically what people do to get rid of nuisance birds, and almost always

it doesn't work. So I want to give you some advice that actually may produce the results you want without you know, devastating the woodpecker population in your neighborhood too. So Victor, you hang tight, and we'll talk about what happens when you invite nature into your yard and you suddenly find that it's it's on the attack your home with Dean Sharp the house Whisper can't fin Dean Sharp, the house Whisper. Welcome home. Thanks for joining us on

this lovely Saturday morning here in springtime. It is May third, and like I said earlier in the show, we're having a full blown spring here in southern California. I kind of like it. I gotta say. I like the sun and then the rain, and then the clouds and then the sun again. It's just keeps you on your toes. Probably not the best day to wash the car, but still keep you on your toes. Anyway, we're having an all call Saturday morning, as we so often do.

But yeah, they can be a problem if they start looking at your home and saying, okay, all right, all right, I got plans. I got plans to remodel your home. And so the next thing, you know, we've got to holes in the siding, or holes in the eve boards or the blocks or the facier board or the casing trims around the house. And that's not a good thing. And so woodpeckers, what do we do when they're in

the yard and now they're becoming a nuisance. Well, I have it on good authority, very very good authority and a lot of experience that deterrents are really not very effective when it comes to woodpeckers. Temporarily effective. You can put up the plastic owl, or you can put up the shiny metal and you know, the ribbons. But at

the end of the day, who wants that. Who wants their house to be covered in you know, metal ribbons that reflect I mean, it's not something we want to look at, even if it does keep the birds away. There are maybe three or four reasons why woodpeckers are pecking on our house. One is kind of sort of unavoidable, and that is that this time of year, especially Victor,

woodpeckers will simply be knocking on wood. And if you've got sighting on your house or wood casings, they may be knocking on wood just to make the noise, just to attract mates. Okay, that is one of their behaviors. So they're they're drumming to basically say hey over here, ladies. Yeah, that's the thing. Same with crickets this time of year. You know, female crickets make no sound whatsoever, but male crickets are out there rubbing their legs together, you know,

saying I'm over here. And so that's just one of the things that happens in nature in springtime. The second thing though, that it could be an indication of something that you would want to look into, especially when it comes to woodsiding and wood eves and things like that, is that woodpeckers may be on our house actually looking for insects. They're looking for the larvae of carpenter bees

and leafcutter bees. They're looking for termites, they're looking for wood boares or ants or grubs, caterpillars, and they may find them in the recesses of our eves. And so one thing that you may want to consider if you've got woodpeckers attacking a certain area of your house is you may want to have a pest control company come out and take a look at those zones and say, hey, have I got bugs there more.

an indication. They may be actually telling you, hey, you have an abundance of insect larvae in certain areas of your house, and it's not an uncommon thing at all, and you could treat for those and reduce the amount of woodpeckers that you find on your house. The third thing that they do is they store food. Right, Western woodpeckers make holes to store acorns in. If that starts

to happen, you've got to cover that up. You got to pull the acorn out and cover the hole maybe with a tiny piece of sheet metal, just temporarily, just to discourage that activity. And the same with nesting. You're

getting a big hole drilled in your house. They're looking to set up a nest, and so you got to get to have some tiny pieces of sheet metal on hand that you can get there, make sure there's no bird in the hole, and then cover the hole with the sheet metal they won't go through sheet metal, and just discourage them from that. But here's the thing, all right, those are the reasons this is the most effective way that I have ever found to get woodpeckers off of your house, and that is not to go to war

with them, but to acquiesce and give them what they want. So, like all animals, woodpeckers, they work hard for a living, and they are always happy to attracted to not having to work as hard if they don't have to. So consider having a pest control company deal with the sighting for insects, but give them a better, easier choice. I would, literally, if I were you, invest in a couple of woodpecker houses.

You know, their thirty forty dollars houses, A good quality woodpecker house, like a bird house, but specifically designed for woodpeckers. They're out there. They're usually cedar. They love the aroma. They're usually have a perfect sized hole for the woodpecker and perfect conditions inside. And because of that, they're like, hey, this is great. I don't have to build my own house. This is a pre made tracked house ready for me

to move into. And therefore, and you put those woodpecker houses as far away from your home, like on the back fence, just as far away from the house as possible, so that the woodpeckers are there, they find it and they decide to move in there instead of your house. And then the other thing is too. I know this seems counterintuitive, but to feed them woodpeckers love sue suet is a is one of the They're just absolute and

it's like crack cane to them. So to set up next to the woodpecker house and keep hold a woodpecker feeder, especially during the spring, you're simply giving them a better alternative. It's easier than hunting for insects, it's easier than foraging

for their own stuff. You're not going to make them dependent, but you're simply and when it comes to your property, in your house, you are giving them an easier, better, more efficient means of getting what they want than having to sit on your house and drill into your wood.

And usually it's not a silver bullet like I said, but I would say maybe eight out of ten times that we've made those recommendations that the people have followed through, they have found that they now peacefully coexist with the woodpeckers on their property. They've got these beautiful birds living on their property, but no longer attacking the house. Now when it comes to the springtime drumming to attract mates. There may not be a whole lot that you can

do about that. But they're not trying to drill a hole in that situation. They're just trying to, you know, make some noise. And yeah, that may not be the thing that you can solve the easiest. Other than that, my friend, I wish you the best. I hope that you know. I would love to hear back from you, Victor, if you take those efforts and tell me whether or not you've reached a peaceful daytante with the woodpeckers. By

the way, tomorrow's show birds, bees, flowers and trees. We're gonna be talking about all this kind of stuff with some experts in studio with me. You're not gonna want to miss it nine to noon Pacific time tomorrow.