You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty.
Live premium ad everywhere on the iHeart Radio app. Dean Sharp, the House Whisperer live every Saturday and Sunday morning here in southern California and across our great land. Hey, you can follow us on social media. We only do the good kind, you know, the uplifting, informative, non spammy, inspiring kind of social media. We're on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook x, Home with Dean, same handle for all of them Home with Dean where you can just put in House Whisper,
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We're taking nothing but calls this morning and tomorrow, this last week end before Christmas. Here twenty twenty four. Let's go back to the phone. So oh, let me give you the number out eight three to three two. Ask Dean A three three the numeral to ask Dean talk to producer Matt. He'll get you set up and he'll pop you into the queue and then we will figure out what's going on with your home. All right, let's talk to Rick. Hey, Rick, welcome home. Hey, good morning, good morning, sir.
How many Well, I've gone a home in the Seattle area that we just bought, and it's built in the mid eighties and over time it's it's acquired a lot of cables running around the house, you know, satellite dishes, phone lines and that kind of thing, and it's a little insightly, but it goes all the way around, and I'd like to remove them, but I kind of don't know what I'm doing as far as removing them and how to test them, and I want to know how you can help me out.
Okay, good question, good question. So what's your current what are your current needs? So you're saying phone lines and cable, I mean that's the that's the kind of stuff that finds itself attaching to the outside of most homes over the decades. But the big question is how are you handling that? Like, I mean a perfect example with Tina and I, we haven't had a hard line since I don't know when, right, it's been.
Like twenty five years we've actually either.
Okay, all right, So if there's phone lines attached to the house, then then you don't need those. You just you don't need them. They are not voltage lines. I am going to show you how you make sure you're not getting into the wrong thing, but you just don't need them, and so you can just pull them off. And then the the other question is cable. What's going on with cable? Where's your table running, where's your active cable system? Running and so on.
Right, So there's a satellite dish that's attached to the house and we don't use that. So there's tables that run in from from that, and then each room seems to have a port that comes in from the outside.
Also what we.
Have internet and that comes in on an Internet line. But as far as I know, if there's only one that comes in, but I don't know exactly where it is, and and I kind there's like I said, there's tables all around, and I want to know how I can if I can test them to see if there's you know, if they're active.
Right, right, Okay, So the easiest way to do this, honestly, the easiest way to do this is to call your cable provider and and ask them to you know, I identify and and maybe they have a service person just drop by and identify where uh the the internet is coming into the house. Okay.
Uh.
If it's just one location, as is the case with most people these days, then you've got one line running to a router somewhere inside the house, and then that router is handling the rest of it, the Wi Fi for the rest of the house, and you know, importing whatever is going on. As far as television and screen is concerned, Unfortunately, there's you know, without cutting, crimping and feeding, there's it's not easy to test because these are very
minute RF signals running through these cables. If there's ever a concern that there's voltage, that one of those things on the outside of the house has voltage, you can solve that by just running down to the hardware store or big box or home depot and get a non contact voltage tester or current detector that's like twenty bucks and it looks like a big fat yellow pen and literally you just put the tip of it on a cable and if it lights up and it tells you, yeah,
there's high voltage electric current running through this, or you get nothing. And obviously if there's voltage running through it, you don't cut that. But as far as everything else is concerned, the way we normally do it is just literally figuring out, all right, we're going to trace the line that is leading from the internet box on the outside of the house. We're going to trace that line to the router and honestly, just the rest of it can go. All of those feeds into the bedrooms. It's
just old school stuff. It's vestigial organs from an era gone by, and and you should be free and clear to cap those. You know, you put blanks on those. You can just leave it in the wall, blank those inside the room so that you don't have to have the little cable things sticking out of the hookup and on the outside. Uh again, you just all you're after is where is the one feed into the router for my system? And everything else can just be pulled off?
Okay?
And can I just cut it or can it be pulled out?
Okay?
Well yeah, I mean you're you're, you're. I would just cut them. I would just cut them and shove them into the wall and patch the little hole in the wall, because no, you're not gonna have a you're you're very
unlikely to be successful pulling it all out. And you know, so, so there's you know, a useless wire in the wall or useless coaxle cable in the wall, No big deal, it's not hurting anything and uh and it's not going to get anybody's way, So just clear out and clean off the excess stuff on the outside of your house, just to get it all cleaned up and to patch it up.
Yeah, very good. Okay, well thanks very much.
All right, Rick, good luck, Happy holidays to you. Great question when we return more of your calls your home with Dean Sharp, the house whisper. Heyfi, Dean Sharp, the house whisper at your service. It is an all calls weekend we are doing here on the program today and tomorrow, nothing but your calls. You get to set the agenda.
And yes, got some feedback from a couple of electrical engineer electronic engineer types from my comments to our last caller about finding tracing coaxle cable lines around the house and old phone lines and so on, saying there are ways to test it. Yeah, I know there are ways
to test. I'm with you. I'm with you, guys. I just didn't recommend that that he invests in the thirty forty fifty dollars worth of gear in order to test that, because it's not as simple as the high voltage testing, which you just come up with a simple pen tester, touch it to the line and you know whether there's
voltage running through it. As you know, those of you who are commenting on that, this requires a signal sender and a receiver and you're going to be cutting those lines and or sending a signal from a coaxle outlet
out anyway. It's it's just a messy process. It's so much easier just to find out from your internet provider, Please tell me the wire that's going into the house that is yours, and then after that all the others are meaningless at that point, And that's the easiest way to go about it, because otherwise you're going to be cutting, splicing, putting ends on on, putting cable ends on, just for the sake of testing a line that you are ninety
nine percent sure is dead anyway, So there you go. Anyway, just saying just saying, all right, let's get at least get another question started here. We ran a little late last segment. I want to talk to Bob. Hey, Bob, welcome home. Hello, Hey Bob, you're with me?
I'm here? Are you here?
I am here? I am here. How can I help you, sir?
Hi, I'm calling from Ohio to confusion and I have a question. I have a home about fifteen years old. We never had this problem until just this year. But the front door, which is a metal, big heavy metal door, and in a screen door or storm door also there. They will not close unless I put my entire weight behind it to put in Okay, And I don't know. I was hoping it was an insulation problem, but I don't know whether it's getting too much moisture or not. Love moisture.
So it's a metal it's a it's a metal security door, yes, okay. So it's the door itself or is it security door on the outside. I just got to clarify.
It's the front door of the house.
Oh, it's the front door of the house. And it's a metal door. Yes, okay, front door of the house. It's a metal door. And it's just started.
Happening just in the last thirty days or so.
The last thirty days or so, any big changes weather wise for you? I mean things have been Where are you at in Ohio?
By the way, I'm just north of Cincinnati.
Okay, north of Cincinnati. I just I say that my daughter in law is from Fremont, out of Toledo, and so that's why you know, I'm always interested in Ohio. So things have been pretty consistently cold for you guys, uh for a while now, right, I mean, so it's not like there's been a huge temperature change, has there.
No, it's been consistently, you know, within ten or between agree, don't wear or another. Okay, yeah. The only thing I have noticed that there's a lot of We've had a lot of rain.
Okay, a lot of rain.
Yeah.
I mean a metal door, a metal door and rain. I mean even if it would even if it had breached and water had gotten inside, I'm not seeing that changing the door. It is more likely the culprit is the jam uh, any settlement on the house or anything like that happening.
I'm I'm aware of.
All right, all right, Bob, here's the thing. I'm up against. A break. So I'm gonna pop you on hold and uh and we're gonna get through the break. And when we come back, you and I are we're gonna address this a little more intensely. Can you hang on for me?
Yes? Sure? Perfect?
All right, my friend, you hang tight and we'll figure it out. We'll figure out what's going on with Bob's front door.
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty.
KFI AM six forty live streaming and HD everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Good Saturday Morning to you, the Saturday before Christmas. Christmas coming this Wednesday. Hope you're already. It's going to be a cooler weekend here in Southern California, thankfully, a little bit more Christmas y then it's been the last few days. That's good. I'm told that tonight is, by the way, the most popular Christmas light viewing night
of the year, and that makes sense. We're actually going out doing that, getting together with some friends, having dinner and then heading out to one of our local kind of candy cane lane neighborhoods and doing the deed, doing the deed with with our granddaughter Olivia, just you know, letting it all sparkle in front of her. It's worth it, every second of it. I hope you've got some great holiday plans this weekend and rolling into Christmas Day. We
are here doing an all calls weekend for you. I'm live. This is not pre recorded. Yeah, I know every host in the world takes the week off here. I am here, I am it worked into my schedule. Just fine, no problem. We're not going anywhere and we are here with you. So if you don't believe me, I can we can Tina will photograph me with a newspaper proof of life, Proof of life. It's really me anyway. The number to reach me eight three three two. Ask Dean A three
three the numeral two. Ask Dean. You're setting the agenda today with your calls today and tomorrow. Now, before the break, we were talking to Bob. Bob is in Ohio and he's having a strange issue with his front door. Bob, you're still with me, yes, sure, okay. So Bob has a steel front door, a metal door, and it is now virtually impossible to open and or close except with you know, putting all his weight against it. So what
is going on with that thing? It's a little bit of a head scratcher, clearly, because you know, okay, so steel doors can expand they do expand, technically, they expand. Steel doors, of all doors, are the most stable of doors. And the expansion of a steel door is is typically so minimal that it's easily you know, it expands and contracts within the clearances around the door, the gap between
the door and the jam. So you know, not a problem have I heard in the past of moisture intrusion inside a steel door, because the steel door is usually filled with fiberglass insulation, and that affecting the fibers on the inside and causing expand. I mean, I personally have not seen one of these actually happen. I hear it can happen. But again, the expansion, even in a failed seal,
should really be minimal. And the expansion that we expect, by the way, would be during a hot, humid summer where we've got moisture and heat working on the surfaces of that door, not in the dead of winter where when you know we've got thirty degree and twenty degree temperatures outside. That is not when you expect a steel door to expand. So I was thinking about it during the break, Bob, and I'm thinking, okay, tell me more about what you see. How where is the door rubbing?
Is it the just the top? Is it catching now at the top of the jam? Is it Is it hitting and rubbing down the entire side of the of the latch side, the vertical portion of the jam. Where is it making contact now?
I would say mostly around the what the doorknob is on that side of the door, and also across the top.
Okay, all right, And second question, it's a steel door. Is the jam steel as well? Or is it a wood jam?
I believe it's a wood jam.
It's a wood jam. Okay, Well, I'm not one hundred percent sure of exactly what the issue is.
Now.
You said you've had you know, in you know, some extra moisture of late. I think, my friend, I think that the issue may be with moisture intrusion in the wood jam. It's far more likely that the jam has swollen some or expanded, not the door itself. So in one sense that's good news because if the door was somehow just failing you, now you're looking at a new door, and nobody wants to be with that but the jam. And I know, and I don't know how how old is the door?
About for two years?
Okay, so not an old old door, but not brand new. And I wasn't there to see the tolerances of how the door was originally hung, in other words, the tolerances between the door and the jam, the gap in between a lot of finished carpenters, well, I should say some finished carpenters get a little nervous about leaving too much of a gap, as especially in a cold weather climate, and so they leave those tolerances fairly tight. That's never
actually a really good idea. The best thing to do is to stay with industry standard tolerances so that a door can expand and contract without sealing itself in the opening. In your case, I'm wondering, though, if there's been some moisture intrusion, if it's actually not effecting, and I don't mean that the wall is leaking, I mean that somehow some of this extra moisture has gotten into the wood jam and it, now, with a very tight tolerance set,
is now pressing against the door. I would probably put good money that it's something like that. And the good news is that the right finished carpenter or a door service person should be able to surgically reset the door
for you deal with the jam. And basically, like if I was coming over to your place to deal with it, I would take the door off of its hinge, set it aside, and address the latch leg of the jam and the head piece of the jam, and I'd probably pull them out and re shim them with larger clearances, or just replace those two pieces of the jam, might replace the whole thing, but the key would be to set to reset larger tolerances so that that door is
swinging clear, and then we let the weather stripping, a good set of weather stripping make up for the gap. As far as keeping the cold and the wet outside and the warm and the dry inside, that's the one downside with a steel door. You gotta make sure those tolerances are set with room for expansion seasonally. Because if it was a wood door, we could just take the door off, plane the edge down and take you know, you know, an eighth of an inch off the door,
reset it, and you know you're back in business. But obviously we can't do that with a steel door. I'm assuming the door is not failing, that's the thing, but I would get some professional eyes on, get a finished carpenter who specializes in door setting to take a look
at it and make sure. But my guess is that the expansion or the swelling is actually happening on the jam side of things, and that the tolerances were probably not set wide enough on when the door was originally installed, and you just haven't experienced this kind of water intrusion up until now.
Okay, well, you did mention that your daughter lives in Ohio, and what you could do is you could come down to my house take care of that door for me, and then you swing up and see her in tiledo.
All right, that's a good idea. How about I do that? Well, actually, the problem is she it's my dog, her in law, and she lives out here. She lives like ninety seconds away from my house. But she was born and raised in Fremont in Toledo County up there, so and we get there a lot we do. Uh so you know, maybe if you have oh yeah, yeah, yeah. So so I'm afraid to break it to you. I won't be coming out to you see your door anytime.
So okay, well, thank you for I appreciate it.
All right, thanks, thanks for your question, Bob, and thanks for listening to us from Ohio. That's awesome. All right, y'all, we still have more to go. You hang tight. It's an all calls Saturday morning here on the program. You're home, Dean Sharp, the house whisper. Okay, bye, Dean Sharp, the house whisper. Welcome home. Thanks for joining us on the program this morning. Here we are at the end of
another two hours together. We're not done yet, though. It's an all calls morning, and we're going to be right back at it tomorrow for the big show from nine to noon. Nothing but your calls. We do all calls weekends. I love them. I love them. We do them every few weeks because I never get a chance to take enough calls. We've got so many great things to talk to you about all the time, and so I love just sitting back and letting you set the agenda for
the show. So let's finish her off with another call this morning. Let's talk to Jeff. Hey, Jeff, welcome home, Hidine.
Yes, I had a question for you.
Hello, sir, Yeah, I'm here. How can I help?
Yeah, I've got this crack that's going across in my slab at that part concrete slab on my house foundation in it in the hallway, it goes a little bit into the bedroom, so it's just like a crack, and I've been wanting to lay some flooring there. I had a flying person in there checking it out, and they said they couldn't do it because he had the one the kind of flooring that sticks to this lab. So I just wonder, is that something I need to get
sixed before I can lay some flooring? Like being in the floating laminate flooring.
Okay, so you're going to be using floating flooring laminate or a luxury vinyl plank, something that floats, something that doesn't stick down.
I'd like to use something you know, across there or even get it repaired.
Okay, all right, yeah, yeah, A couple of questions now about the crack. Uh you say it runs down the hallway and then into a bedroom. How wide is the crack? Is it what we call spider crack, just a nice long, ugly crack?
Or uh?
Has it spread open? And is their uplift meaning is one side now taller than the other? Or has it just opened up? You know, that's what we need to know about this crack, because not all cracks are created equal, and not all cracks are actually a concern on it from a structural perspective, and the way that we approach filling them up or ignoring them has everything to do with the nature of the concrete crack itself. So describe it to me a little bit more detailed.
I think carbon covered with some cheap carpets for the last couple of years. When I last looked at it, I would have to say it was just a bit uneven, you know, not open to anything. Just their crack across the floor and it's just a tiny bit uneven on each side, if that makes sense.
Okay, So so it hasn't actually opened up. It's just a it's it's just a crack that's running. And uh, you know, the cracks can typically be a little uneven with each other. I mean, you know, once once a crack occurs. But when I'm talking about uplift, is one side like an eighth of an inch or a quarter inch or worse higher than the other or uh is it just you know, uneven concrete? Uh, you know on each side of the crack.
I haven't measured it. I'd say not even an eighth sent of a nance recorder of an inch right in that area.
Okay, it sounds to me like this is not an issue of of of any significant concern. Uh. People are always shocked when they find cracks in their concrete slab and and people quite often get really concerned that, oh, no, okay, my foundation is failing.
Uh.
But here's the thing that we say in the industry, there are there are only two kinds of concrete in the world. Concrete with cracks and concrete that hasn't cracked yet. It's just the nature of concrete for it to experience that kind of stuff. Probably everybody listening to us right now who has a concrete slab in their house has got a crack somewhere, if not more than one place.
That doesn't mean the house is failing. So what we look for when we get word of a crack that has to be repaired, we want to hear if the crack has opened up. I mean like if there's a gap now from one side to the other, that's something that has to be looked at. Or if one side of the concrete has raised up above the other side of the concrete what we call uplift, uh, then that's something to be concerned about. That that at least has
to be looked at. Even those, by the way, does not mean that it's a failure and that can't be fixed. When there's when there is a spreading of a crack an opening of a gap, but there's no uplift and the and the spreading of the crack is minimal, but there is a gap there, then we can come in with with high pressure concrete epoxy and simply fill that crack over and you end up making that crack actually stronger than the concrete around it once it gets filled.
If this though, is not opened up, if there's no gap and there's barely any disturbance or uplift at all, then it's what we would call a spider crack. And if you're concerned at all about like an uneven level there, then a little bit of flooring level can be applied to the concrete just to hit the edge that's a little disrupted, and then feathered out over a foot or so to nothing, so that any flooring that you want, be a tile or hardwood or something that glues down,
will have a smooth surface to work on. But if you're planning on putting in a floating floor, carpet was a floating floor. It lays there, floats over the surface of the of the concrete and only connects on the edges. A luxury vinyl plank floor is a floating floor basically lays there like a carpet, So is a laminate floor.
If that's the plan, and this is a minimal, minimal, minimal disturbance edge, then the fact of the matter is you probably don't have to do anything at all or worry about it in any way, shape or form, because the floor is just going to float over it, cover it over and it shouldn't be an issue. So don't
be alarmed just because there's a crack. Only be alarmed if we have a crack in which the concrete is gaping open or one side is uplifting from the other, because that becomes an indication that there may be some deeper concerns that have to be looked at by a professional, but not just typical spider cracking, especially on an older slab, because it's gonna happen, my friend, it's going to happen, all right.
Thank you so much. I appreciate all that information.
You are so welcome. Jeff, thank you for the call, and thank you for hanging out on haul. I think Jeff was with us like from near the beginning of the show. Ah. We never get to every caller. That's why we do these all call weekends. So I will tell you this tomorrow morning, nine am, I'll be here and if you're here, then we can get right back at this and we will have three hours for you to set the agenda for the show. It's an all
calls weekend and we will see you then. Until then, let me just tell you thanks again for spending the time with me. It is a privilege. As always. Follow us on social media Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, x at Home with Dean the same handle for them all. The House Whisper podcast is everywhere your favorite podcasts are found, and if your home is in some need of personal house Whisper attention, then you can book an in home design consult with us, Me and Tea coming out to your house.
You just go to house Whisperer dot design for more information. We're right back here tomorrow from nine to noon. Until then, get out there in this beautiful holiday weekend and get busy building yourself a beautiful life. We'll see 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