You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty AMI forty live streaming in a d everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Dean Sharp the house Whisper Live every Saturday and Sunday morning. I am at your service. Hey, don't forget to follow us on social media. We only do the good kind, not the annoying social media.
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have built for you. There and if your home is in need of some more personal house Whisper attention, of course, you can book an in home design console with me and the tea. That's right, the two of us in your home. Just go to house Whisperer dot design for more information. All right, It is Saturday morning, and as
we do on Saturday mornings, we are taking calls. You get to set the agenda for what the show is all about today, whether it be construction questions, DIY concerns, design and architectural questions, any and all of the above, anything regarding your home. And we were talking to Yvonne. I popped her on, hold, eyvon are you still with me?
Yes?
I am all right. So, Yvonne, they bought a house, a four year old house with a really really bad cat odor problem and some black mold and they're doing mold remediation now, and Vaughan has concerns about whether or not that's going to be enough to get rid of the cats smell out of the house because it's pretty bad. And so what are the guarantees there? And then what kind of flooring to put in? Von One thing I did not ask you before we went to break is
the house. Is it a raised foundation house? Is it a concrete slab that we're concerned about? Is it upstairs? Downstairs? Where is the odor concern?
It's a single story, twenty two hundred square feet slab.
One of the rooms.
They pulled the flooring off before they found the mold. It has that yellow like spongy thing under the flooring before you get to the concrete.
Okay, okay, and is the problem throughout the entire house? As far as you know, are all the floors coming up?
I well, about seventy percent of them smell of the of the area's snell. And so you know, we could either leave and hope that the other parts aren't gonna spell later on, or take the whole thing up. So we think we're just going to take the whole flooring up and start fresh.
I think that is actually the best idea, honestly, because there's there's no guarantee that you know, when the thing is smell. An odor is such a distributed and diffused thing. There's no guarantee just because one or two rooms may
just smell intensely awful. You might come out of that room and think, well, you know, we're in this other room in the house and it doesn't really smell at all by comparison, right, But what happens what happens when the worst of the odor is gone and then you realize, oh no, there was there was odor here too, it just wasn't as intense, And so we thought there wasn't.
So when it comes to this, when it comes to a cat person house where cats have had free rain, my suggestion is, yeah, let's start over from scratch as far as the flooring is concerned. But the good news is this, when it comes to mold and when it comes to cat odor, it is treatable, all right, So there is hope. It's not an impossible thing, but you got to be thorough. So Number one, yeah, we're going to pull that flooring. Number Two, you get the mold
remediation done right, and that's going to help. By the way, the mold remediation just by itself is going to be of great assistance because it will address some common root issues. However, just to be clear, mold remediation is not odor neutralization. When it comes to cat pe cat P, it's uric acid. It's an acid that is embedded in there in their urine. That uric acid, it's got a lot of ammonia in it, and and that's why it's just an unbelievably unpleasant smell.
Uh.
And that that gets embedded into surfaces concrete slab, which of course is porous, even the base board and the lower areas of the dry wall. So how do we deal with that? We do the mold remediation and then then you've got a two step process here if you want to absolutely guarantee that you're not going to be dealing with again. First is a really good quality enzymatic cleaner enzyme cleaner. Okay, an enzymatic UH, a bioenzymatic UH
cleaner is uses enzymes. And what enzymes do is they uh, they're they're they're this this wonderful biological weapon that get in and they will break apart the bonds of the urine uric acid molecules and therefore render them neutralized. Now, you got to use a lot of it, especially in a slab, you know, And so you douse that slab in enzymatic cleaner and you let those enzymes do their
job and do it thoroughly. You can also use the enzymatic cleaner on lower areas of dry wall walls, but we you know, we want to give it an absolute thorough clean. And then both the walls and the slab I want to once we know that the enzymes have done their job and the and the odors are gone, then we want to seal them because I don't want anything low in remaining to come back, and so I want to put a good concrete seiler on top of that concrete all the way across the slab. It's not expensive,
not expensive at all. Penetrating steeler, you can mop it on, you can rag it on. But we want to seal that concrete, so just to make sure that nothing else that the enzyme possibly for some reason didn't reach, is going to find its way back through again and also stop uh you know, a mold from having any chance of grabbing hold again. So we want to seal the slab.
And then when it comes to the walls, the lower parts of the walls, if there's if there's any concern whatsoever there, then there are products out there like made from zinser uh that makes an odor killing primer, eint primer. Okay, that can go on the walls. But here is here is my big yeah. So so so just be thorough,
you know, hit it the multi layer approach. The thing about mold and cat urine, they are so annoying and and uh and so unpleasant, and yet once they've been exposed to the light of day, they are not at all difficult to get rid of, because you know, it's not like mold will stand there and look you in the face and say you can't deal with me. I'm here. You know, once mold is exposed and it has lost it's moisture and it's in its warm, cozy hiding place, it's easy to kill the cat urine. When we reach
it with the ensmatic cleaners, it's easy to neutralize. It's just a matter of making sure that you're thorough. Now your other question about flooring, okay, just a minute, yeah, yeah, okay.
So the room that we had already taken the flooring up, we had the professional person do this. He said, there's more you need to take care of it. But anyway, the concrete underneath it is etched with the cat urine. See, and so he was saying, you need to scrub up the concrete first.
Is that like rough it up?
Have you ever heard that?
Yeah, I'm not exactly sure what he's referring to. The concrete is etched and meaning is it is it powder read? Is it is it has it lost its consistency? Is he saying that the concrete is is weak?
He's saying that when you look at it and touch it. So you look at it and it's they're yellow lines where the urine soaked through the the sub I don't know what you call that. So it's yellow and there are lines in it that are pits, pitted. Okay, it's pitted. That's the word I was looking for. I didn't say it's not structurally sound, but it's definitely changed and it's not flat. It's there.
I think you understand, right, Yeah, that's not a big concern. I mean, as long as long as there isn't like a major floor inconsistency in the level, not really not really are concerned. My concern is making sure that the uric acid is neutralized in the slab. If the slab is a little inconsistent or it's suffering some scars from
what it's been through, not the primary concern. And that was going to lead to my next flooring question, which is, if you guys are looking for a floor that's going to last you ten fifteen years, going to be easy to install, easy to maintain, then you may want to consider, and that doesn't break the bank on you, you may want to consider a hard surface floor, resilient floor like a luxury vinyl plank floor. Okay, it's a floating floor. It essentially lays on top of the slab. It makes
up for inconsistencies in the slab. It lays like carpet, it's got a little pad underneath. It, waterproof, it is very, very durable, and we're really kind of in the golden age of luxury vinyl plank flooring right now, so you've got a lot of options. It's warm, it's very realistic looking, and again, even if something goes wrong, it's something that can be unclicked in place, dealt with, and put back
down again. So there there are a lot of benefits from it, and maybe the best benefit of all for all of that, some of the most expensive, highest level luxury vinyl playing floors out there are in the about the six dollars a square foot category, which which is way less expensive than tile or real hard wood, and
in even some carpets. And so that's probably where I would actually point you in the direction of checking that out and seeing if that's something that pleases you, because I think it would do you a good service after all of this is done, but most importantly, ivon, most importantly, after you've treated these floors, don't rush to put the new floor down. Make sure, because maybe you've done one dose of the Enzmatic cleaner and it seems like it's all done. You wait, you wait, you wait and wait
and wait several days to make sure. You know what, it's been two or three weeks that odor is gone. All right, fine, Now we're gonna cover the floor with our new flooring material. Don't rush to cover that floor until you absolutely know that that odor has been neutralized, because you'll get it. You'll get there, okay, but it may take more than one treatment to do it, and so you just don't want to assume that you do
it once and then you rush it out. Ivon, I am running late to break, but thank you for your questions. Good luck on the floor, Enzymatic cleaners, odor ceiling primer for the bottom of the walls. It's gonna work. I promise you. Just do your due diligence, all right, y'all, more of your calls when we return your home with Dean Sharp the house Whisper. Dean Sharp, the house Whisper, at your service. We're taking your calls this morning, like
we do on Saturday mornings. Anything from construction questions to DIY concerns to design and architectural issues. That's why I'm here here to help you out, here to help you transform your ordinary house into an extraordinary home. I want to talk to Grace. Grace from home.
Good morning, Gane. I'm an eighty nine year old goo at yourselfer, and you have given me so much good information over the years. I thank you. Now I have up two patio covers which I built, and I put down that composite roofing. You know that you you cut and put down.
Yeah, and.
You talked about a couple of weeks ago self ceiling underlayment. Yes, now I bought. I bought some And can I put this self ceiling underlayment over my existing shingles and then put new shingles on top of it? Or do I have to take the old shingles off and put it down and shuttle all over again.
Uh?
You should take the old shingles off. You really should. Probably not what you wanted to hear, but you should. Self ceiling under layman. It's flexible, okay, and uh, and so so let me be clear, just by way of education, self ceiling under layman is flexible. It's stretchy. Uh and uh, will will it lay over the existing shingles? Sure? And will it do its job? Likely? Yeah? And then you put other shingles on top of it, or you going to have a leak. Probably not. But here is the thing.
It's not recommended, it's not warrantied for that. And the one issue that you could develop is moisture issues because the self ceiling underlayment is not designed to seal against the uneven surface and the granulated surface of those existing shingles. What it really wants, it wants that smooth plywood roof to nice and clean and dust free, to stick to and just become one with. And then you lay shingles
on top of that. So the best thing that you can do is pull those existing shingles off, clear up that deck, and have the self ceiling underlayman. And now the good news is for the future. You lay down one, you lay down a layer of shingles, and if the next time that you're thinking about or anybody's thinking about putting a new roof on that, you could add another layer of shingles on top of the existing layer of shingles.
With that underlayman, you can go up to two layers thick by code before you have to tear the whole thing off and start again. But where you're at right now, if there's a problem with that existing roof and it's time to redo it, get all the way down to the wood and then lay down those self ceiling underlayman sheets.
Okay, So do I take the paper off too?
Yeah?
Because the Yeah, because the self feeling underlayment replaces the paper. There's no need for paper. It is the new improved roofing paper.
All right, Thank you so much. I do appreciate you. And it's amazing what you do for me. Thank you.
Oh Grace, You're so kind. You're so kind. It's amazing that you are diying at eighty nine. I just I just love that. I love that. I love your energy. You stay safe and keep listening and keep doing it the right way. I'm not going to steer. You're wrong, all right, y'all. More 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 Hi Am, the forty Live Dreaming Nate d
Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Your Home with Dean Sharp the house whisper. That's me here to talk to you about all things home, whether it's construction, diy, architecture, design, and everything in between. Anything we can discuss to take your home to the next level, to turn it from an ordinary house into an extraordinary home. Saturday mornings we take calls. I want to go back to the board right now. Let's talk to Let's talk to Kathy. Hey, Kathy, welcome home.
Hi Dean. I'm so happy to be able to contact to you. I love your show and I have a serious problem. I have no idea what to do, so I figured you'd be the right person to talk to. Okay, okay, So I've lived in the same house for twenty three years. We have a pitched roof with Spanish tiles, and never had this problem before, but just recently, I can hear animals in the attic in my bedroom above and it sounds like they're scratching very loudly, like they're going to
come through the ceiling. And then you can also hear a little little baby sounds. So I'm pretty sure whatever's up there is vested and has had some baby animals as well, And I have no idea what to do, and I don't know if I need to call a wildlife control Kenny or a service. That's how I'd give you a call.
Okay, Okay, Yeah, Yeah, You've got some very very likely rodents up there who have found a way to get into your attic because your attic is so nice and warm, and it's so cozy, and it's full of insulation, and they like to make bedding, and they can nest and they can have their little babies, and it's a whole thing. You want to call a conscientious company. I'll tell you right now, if you live in southern California, I want
you to call Ecola. Okay, and you want to call just so everybody knows, you want to call a pest control company that conscientiously handles these kinds of things. Eco La does. They also specialize in rodent exclusion and attic cleanup because there are there are things. We don't know how extensive what's going on up there is, but you know, once there are animals in the attic and they're peeing in their their droppings are everywhere. We want to get all of that cleaned up, and we want to get
your attic. You know, sterilized again, and so you need to have somebody evaluate it. And first of all, the first, the most important two steps is getting the kids that are up there now, getting them out, and then making sure hunting down where it is that they've actually been getting in and making sure that there are there's no
ingress into your attic whatsoever. That's exclusion. The very, very best thing you can do with rodents on your property is not to go to war with them and kill them and bait them and poison them and all of the kind of stuff that so many places recommend. The best thing to do is just let them be outside doing what they do, but don't let them into the house. And so a company like Eco La, they specialize in
attic rodent exclusion. They'll get you all sealed up, they'll get you cleaned up, and you won't have that issue anymore.
Perfect. Thank you so much.
You are so welcome, Kathy. And you know what the one thing is, I understand, I get it. It sounds like they're just going to come dropping through the ceiling. They're not. They're up there scratching around and bedding and doing all that. They're not trying to drill through the ceiling to get into your living space, so you can at least put your heart to rest for that. But yeah, you want to get a dealt with sooner than later, as soon as possible. So give them a call. Tell
them I recommended you along the way. They'll treat you right, I promise.
All right?
Do we have time to pick up another call here? We could at least get one started, can't we? Sure? Let's talk to Jeff. Hey, Jeff, welcome home.
Hey Dean, how you doing? Quick question for you about redoing our backyard. And I have lines going to our outdoor garage or at detached garage under the slab, and plumbers have said to replace them, and I want to know what the best material is to replace them with.
Okay, so you've got you. So you've got water lines headed out to the garage. Yes, and they're running underneath the slab.
Yeah, they're running under the the driveway.
Oh, running under the driveway. Okay? Yeah?
Uh?
Have you got access to get lines out there through the yard without the driveway?
We will. We're getting the whole backyard redone in a couple of weeks.
I got you, I got you, all right? All right? My friend uh. And what's what's running out there right now? Copper lines?
Yes, they're copper.
Okay, all right, great, all right, Uh, Jeff, I'm up against a break. Pop you on hold real quick. I'm gonna let everybody percolate on this question, and when we come back, I'll get you an answer. You hang tight your home with Dean Sharp the house was we're taking calls as we do every Saturday morning, Dean Sharp the house for at your service, Welcome home, Good Saturday morning to you. Glad that you are here. It is a privilege and a pleasure to be here with you talking
about all things your home. And of course Saturday mornings are all calls, so you set the agenda. We're talking to Jeff. I popped him on hold so we could take the call right before the break. Jeff's got some plumbing lines, some water lines that he needs to run to detached garage and pulling up the old stuff or abandoning the old stuff that's in the ground. Copper right now, that's in the ground, we're running under a driveway. Wants to know what's going on and what's the what's the
best new material to use? Is that safe to say Jeff, did I summarize that?
All right?
Yes, that's correct.
Okay, So my recommendation for this situation, at this time in our history of plumbing technology is that I would use without question pex pex pros stranded polyethylene and for a couple of different reasons. Number one, it's great material. Number two, it is you can get it in a continuous role. So since you can buy PECKS in continuous tubing that is up to five hundred feet long, you're not going to have any issues whatsoever being able to run from the source of the water out to the
garage in one continuous role without any fittings whatsoever. And the fewer fittings that are in a plumbing system, the fewer hassles. And if there are no fittings, there are no hassles the future for leaks and stuff. And PEX can be buried. It's rated to be buried directly in soil as long as you dig the trench right and surround it properly when you recompact the soil. Although even though it I mean that's good news, it's good news that PECKS is rated for direct soil contact, direct direct
concrete contact. However, my preferred method, and the one that I would recommend to you, because I assume you're redoing the backyard, you're pulling up stuff, you're gonna have to dig a trench anyway, Spend a few extra bucks and get yourself some large diameter PVC piping that you can lay down in there and use it as a conduit for the pecks line. So that number one, no soil actually ever has to touch the PEX. Number two, there's no contaminants inside the soil that could ever affect, ever
affect the packs. They're protected. And number three, if there ever is any issue whatsoever, you can pull out the old lines and pull new ones through without tearing up the lawn or the yard or the driveway ever again. And so so my recommendation would be pecks inside a large PVC sheath and you should be golden.
Great. I have one more quick question. I'm also redoing the garage at the same time, and I'm insulating it, and I have twenty four inch on center roof studs. Should I use the twenty four inch wide rock wall or can I use the sixteen and cut it to fit?
It doesn't really matter. It doesn't really matter, you know, as long as as long as you're doing a clean job. You know, the goal is to fill up the entire void in between the rafters up there. And so you know, whether you do sixteen and you some to fit, or whether you go the full size of the twy. I mean, the twenty four is obviously going to be more convenient as far as getting it in. But if it's a cost savings or you've got you know, sixteen inch wide insulation already on hand, you know.
Go for it.
If you're willing to do the extra effort. All that matters is that you fill up the entire void and not leave any gaps.
Great, thank you, Dean.
You are welcome, my friend. Good luck on that project. Good job there. We have time for one more. We're gonna try. We're gonna try, We're gonna try. Let's talk to you, e Vet, Hey, Vet, welcome home. Good morning, Dean, good morning.
Hello.
Yes, I'm a long time listener and this is my first time calling you. I do have two questions for you. The first one is to do with my toilet. I whenever flush is a toilet, they are just little debris coming up in the bowl. And I don't know if you use a boat really to get clogged up. I don't know what it is, but just small little debris, Okay, I don't know what it's called.
That, Okay, And what's your second question?
My second question is I I do want to install two on ins for my door and window. The kiuse whenever it rains, the water just keep pouring on the door and also the window. So I just want to know which is based on into to install.
Okay. All right, well, okay, so first question. These are both pretty simple questions, so hopefully I can help you out. First question, I would like when you when you flush a toilet and all of a sudden, mysterious debris shows up in the water that's swirling. Yes, it means that it could be one of two things. But the culprit the place to look is not in the toilet bowl,
but in the tank, in the water tank. Okay. There may be may have a hard water condition, You may have some scale or some mineral build up inside the toilet tank itself. There may be sediment and water that's coming off every time the tank drains. So what you want to do is you want to take off the lid of the top of the tank. Look down inside. Maybe turn off the water to the toilet and flush it all out so that you can get it dry
in there. Maybe give it a good scrub, or maybe a little bit of vinegar and water mix which forms a very mild acid that will help remove some of the mineral build up. It's either that or if you find that the debris is very very dark, then quite often the culprit is that the old flapper, that the three dollars rubber flapper that is sitting there inside the tank again is probably reached the end of its life and now it's giving out rubber particulates every time it
moves and every time that water flows over it. And you can resolve that just by heading down to the hardware store and you know, buying another three dollars flapper and you'll be able to switch it out in seconds.
Okay, that sounds great.
So if debris is showing up, your toilet bowl is nice and clean. But when you flush all of a sudden little stuff and if it's not black, then it's gonna it's mineralization. It's mineral and scale build up inside the toilet tank that's being knocked to lose every time the water moves over. It's not a it's not a problem. It's not well, it's a problem. It's not nothing serious. Uh and uh. Now, as far as your awnings are concerned, the best thing to do is talk to a good
awning company because there are so many options. There are so many options for putting over a door. There are canvas awnings, there are cloth awnings in every shape and size. There are metallic metal awnings that can go over it. Really. First, first and foremost is a question of function and a course, you know you're the function of the awning is to help keep water from pouring off and over these doors and windows. Secondly, it becomes an issue of design style
and so the awning. No matter what awning that you put up there, if it's professionally installed, it's going to get the job done. It's a question of the esthetic and what you want. Obviously, a metal awning not a lot of people love the look of metal awnings. They're the ones that are going to last the longest. But a good loth awning that is of good material that's UV resistant it also will last a long long time and eventually you'll have to replace it. But they're also
relatively inexpensive to replace Ivett. Thank you so much for your question, Thanks for the call, Thanks for being such a long time listener to the show. Appreciate everybody who joins us every weekend. So here we are at the end of another couple of hours together and we took
as many calls as we possibly could. If we've left you on the line, just know when if you call back tomorrow or next week, then you let our call screener know and you'll get a priority position at the front of the line because we love the fact that you take the effort and I always want to treat you right and I can always get to every call. All right, tomorrow's show, you do not want to miss tomorrow's show. Tomorrow we have a Design Matters most show.
That means I'm talking to you about design principles. We're talking about good architecture and good design is theater and why are we talking about it that way? To give you a better understanding of how to evaluate your own home, room by room by room and really make it speak the way you want it to. So tomorrow from nine to noon, join me. Don't miss out. As for today, well, I will send you off and simply tell you get out there and get busy building yourself a beautiful life.
We'll see you all tomorrow. This has been Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper. Tune into the live broadcast on KFI AM six forty every Saturday morning from six to eight Pacific time and every Sunday morning from nine to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app