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But yes, I'm here, can you hear me?
Yeah?
Sorry, We're in the midst of a major kitchen remodel. The cabinets, the base cabinets are now in and they are inset cabinets, and they've put the subtops on top of the cabinets. But there's about a three quarter inch gap be set back between the edge of the cab face frame and the cabinet, and I'm wondering why they did that or is that a mistake. We are either going to do an og edge or a DuPont edge, which I want to ask you the difference between those two.
Okay, okay, So so you haven't you just noticed this. You haven't had a chance to ask your contractor or your cabinet installed.
No, well no, I haven't had a chance to ask Starre gone for Christmas?
So okay, so there, yeah, I'm here, I'm here, Okay, okay, just to clarify a couple of terms for everybody else who's listening. So when when you do in a cabinet installation, the cabinet boxes go in, and then once all the boxes are in place, the base cabinet boxes, plywood is put on top. It's what we call a subtop, because that's obviously not the countertop. What goes on top of the plywood is the stone or the tile or whatever
it is that you got going on. Now you have inset cabinets, which is very nice, very very old school, very nice, which is that the doors and drawers do not extend out from the face frame of the cabinets, but they actually recess in and flush themselves with the face frame of the cabinet. So you have no overhanging projecting doors and drawers on these base cabinets. It's just one plane coming down the face of the cabinet box. Of course you've got knobs and such, but no overhang.
The typical typical countertop overhang for typical cabinets, which is the cabinet face plus doors and drawers. That typical overhang is about inch and a quarter to an inch and a half of the actual stone and or tile overhanging because the cabinet doors themselves are coming out another three quarter plus inches, and then you've got another half inch to three cords of an inch overhang protecting all of that. In your case, it won't be overhanging that much because
your insect. But the rule still applies. But here's where it gets tricky. It all depends on the configuration of that og edge. If you're doing a double a double laminated edge in other words, instead of just one layer of stone at about seven eighths of an inch thick coming out and having its little finished edge, it sounds like you're planning on you've got a double lamination. In other words, another piece of stone is going to be put on the bottom there to make the appearance of
a big, built up thick edge. It all depends on, you know how, if we're hanging over let's say an inch okay, which would be kind of typical three cords of an inch to an inch of hanging over a an inset cabinet face, if the builder has insight from the stone people that hey, we need more than just one inch square piece to laminate there. It needs to be deeper. That may be the reason why the subtop has been held back a little bit in order to give more room for the bottom lamination stone to kind
of nestle in to the top. But I will tell you that's not common at all, and so typically we will just run the full subtop right over to the face of the cabinet. So I can't tell you definitively that somebody did something wrong, but I can tell you you just got to ask the question to have no one go any further until that question gets answered, because there is a bit of a strength sacrifice by holding
the subtok back. Quite often, once in a blue moon, I will tell you this, Jony, once in a blue moon when we have to do that because of the nature of the countertop material itself, right when we have to provide a larger notch, what we will do is we will put yet another piece of wood underneath the subtop that supports that free floating subtop edge and connect
to the front face of the cabinet regardless. Okay, ideally you want a solid connection to the front cabinet face all along the front, whether or not the subtop is being held back or not. I hope we just didn't lose everybody in all of that terminology, but that's kind of you did.
At all no, okay, yeah, yeah, And I have no idea why they did what they did so and it's the cabinet makers too.
It's not the fall off the stone many.
So yeah, just just find out, say, hey, what's the deal here and uh and you know they'll let you know what's going on.
Okay.
And a farmhouse SYNC should be level with the subtop.
Uh.
If it's an inset, yeah, if it's an undermount farmhouse SYNC, then yes, it gets set level with the subtops so that the stone goes over and just rolls over the sink.
Yeah, proud, Yeah, yeah, Okay, I'm gonna have.
To front yes, that's the nature of it. But as far as as it being underneath the countertop from the top.
Yeah, yep, yeah, okay, okay, Well, thank you so much, appreciate it.
You are so very welcome. Thanks for the call. Good luck with all of that.
Uh.
One last thing I'm gonna toss in there. I don't know if y'all kind of picked that up, but when you typically look at a stone countertop face, not a lot of people realize this that you know, the stone slab that comes from the stone yard is only three quarter well three get it's more like seven eighths of an inch thick usually between depending on the kind of stone, it could be anywhere from seven eights to an inch thick stone. That's not that full, big fat countertop edge
that you see there. What happens is we take that stone and then we'll take a slice of it off that front edge and we'll put it up underneath. We'll epoxyate laminated underneath, and then whatever kind of nosing of edging that you want. And there's twenty different kinds of edging that we can do there. But the idea is that we're giving the illusion that that stone is closer to two inches thick, when in reality it's just two pieces. And the quality of the install of that stone, by
the way, has to do with whether we're hiding the scene. Okay, any cheaper done countertops you can look on the face and you're like, well look, and I can see the line where they glued it together. That's kind of a fail for us. We never do it that way. We either mter from the top corner down so that we have no visible seam on the face, or if it's like what Jonie was talking about, what's called an og or a double og edge. The scene can get hidden in the details of the carving, of the fun of
the counter. So there you go. Did that make sense? Am I making sense to people? I know it's very technical, but just I know there are a lot of you out there like, oh, okay, I get it. Now, run to your kitchen right now and check out your countertop and decide whether you know how it rates? All right, and I'll tell you. By the time you come back, we'll be back to calls.
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty.
Hey, welcome home, Welcome to are all calls Sunday morning, the Sunday before Christmas twenty twenty four. I want to get back to the phones. Oh, by the way, I should give the number out again. It's been a bit eight three three two ask Dean A three three the numeral to ask Dean. Yes, it's one letter too long. You know how hard it is to get an eight
hundred number these days. It's tough. When we started the show about eight years ago, we tried so many variations, but we ended up really liking this one eight three three to ask Dean. You don't have to dial the en. But I'm never going to read it that way because then it would be eight three three two ask Dea. And that's a whole different show. That's a whole different show.
That's a whole that's a drug show. And even though our show has been called called a drug for many of our listeners, that's not our point eight three three two ask Dean. That's the number to call. All right, let's get back to work, shall we. Let's talk to Wayne. Hey, Wayne, welcome home?
Yeah, I mean thanks.
Got a question. A total house rebuild. And in the rebuild, the guys doing installation put in ceiling which I'm not sure if I should call him on it or not. There's a vaulted ceiling in the house, but the bedrooms and kitchen are all lower, I mean eight foot ceilings, and they put insulation in the ceilings of all the rooms except the kitchen, where they put it in the rafters by the roof instead. Is that a problem? Does that affect heating and cooling or what?
Okay, so the ceiling in the kitchen is an eight foot ceiling. Yeah, so they didn't put the insulation in the ceiling, they put it up in the rafters. Did they explain why?
Uh?
No, okay, And that that area, the area directly above the kitchen, that area of attic, does it connect to other areas of attic open attic space?
The attic is all connected. Yeah, it connected all across the bedrooms in the kitchen, that's all like attic area.
All right. So if I crawl through the attic or walk through the attic, whatever the case may be, if I get up in the attic, then I've got insulation down on the floor of the attic until I get over the kitchen then and all of a sudden it's up above in the roof rafter. Right, you're correct, Yeah, that's not that's not cool. Oh what is that effect?
How does that change things?
Well, what it is is that your attic is an unconditioned space. Okay. The whole reason we're insulating on the surface of the ceiling is that we want to keep the conditioned space, the conditioned air, meaning whatever we've heated or whatever we've cooled in the house. We want to keep those temperatures there, okay, and so and not in the attic. We don't share conditioned temperatures, you know, controlled temperatures with the attic space. It's it's cut off, it's
a separate space. It's technically kind of outside the house in essence, so we need that diaphragm of insulation to be complete over the whole thing, and so as it is right now, That's why I asked if it was if it's been isolated in the attic with other walls and things in the attic, then if the if the kitchen area or the area above the kitchen is isolated from the rest of the attic space, then that could be fine, because what we ultimately need is insulation above
the kitchen. But the fact that the kitchen ceiling has that that heat and cool that's down below in there can just soak right through unimpeded by insulation into the attic and vice versa. It's essentially it's a hole. It's a hole in your insulation. And so so that insulation needs to be down over the kitchen ceiling as well, period, because you need a blanket of insulation that seals up the house. So it's kind of a hole in the
hull of the boat. The fact that the insulation is up in the at in the rafter space above the kitchen that's meaningless that it's not doing anything up there. Okay, it's just it's literally not doing anything. It needs to be down on the surface with the rest of the insulation in the attic. O.
Good, Okay, thanks, I'll get them a change.
It, get them on it. Thanks Wayne, great question, Bertie. Happy holidays? All right, Am I already Yeah, we're kind of running late. All right, all right, We're gonna run to a quick break and we'll be right back with more of your calls.
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM sixty.
We are right in the middle of an all calls Sunday morning, this Sunday before Christmas, twenty twenty four. I want to go back to the phones. I just closed my laptop here. All right, let's talk to Dennis. Hey, Dennis, welcome home.
Hello, Hello.
Yeah, So I've got a nineteen eighties track home attached to car garage. The original roof was shake and it's been replaced. It's got hard war or it's got plywood on it now and that's dasspall and it's got of ribs rafters twenty two twenty four inches apart.
Yep, how much.
Weight can I put up there? What I'm looking at doing is I've got one hundred pounds hard top on on the car that's detachable, and I want to ratchet it up and get it up off the car and off the floor.
Right right? Got it? What size are the rafters are? You're giving me all the specs except the depth of the rafters themselves. Is this a trust system? Two by six and.
One and a half by six? Yeah?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They're two by six, they're five and a half inches deep, inch and a half wide, and they're set at twenty four inches on center. Now your your garage roof? Is it? Is it? Is there a ridge running over the roof? Or are they just an extension of the house roof? What's when I look up in your garage?
Yeah, it's a peaked roof and or there's no structure above it. There's no house or room or anything above it.
All right, so the garage has its own roof and uh and the ridge the ridge line is running right down the center of the garage. Two car garage correct? Okay, yeah, one hundred pounds of one hundred pounds here here it is. I'm playing structural engineer on the radio. One hundred pounds of of load there in one particular spot, connected well to the rafters, should be no problem whatsoever, No problem whatsoever. Okay, Okay, yeah, if everything you described, don't don't call me back later
with a lawsuit. Okay, Uh, if your description is not is not as accurate. But here's the thing. A two okay, A two x six laying flat, just running purely horizontally spanning let's say ten feet, okay, in other words, free spanning ten feet. A two x six is rated for somewhere in the area of thirty pounds per square foot of live load on top of it. I mean it will hold a lot. And so yours are at an angle at that that helps because roof rafters at an
angle they handle load differently. They are well supported by the ridge itself. And so the point is this. You know, I weigh over two hundred pounds, and I can crawl up on your roof, up on top of your roof without it bending, deflecting, or me falling through. Right, So you attach hid, Yeah, you attaching a hunt in fact, in fact, not just me. I could get me and ten of my friends up there are entire roofing crew all standing on your garage roof, and none of us
are worried about falling falling through. And all you're talking about is lifting a one hundred pound detachable you know, hardtop up on a winch so that you can store it in there. I'm saying, you got no problem.
Okay, great, Yeah. What I've also done is I've got two pieces of angle iron attached together and then others bolted to a jacent ribs.
Yeah, you want to distribute the weight. The best way to do it is to distribute the weight among as many of the rafters as possible. So as you set your winch up, instead of just bolting it to a single rafter, you know, you just attach it to as many of the rafters as near to the center of the garage where the ridge is as possible. That's your strongest connection and distributing the weight, distributing weight among all of the members there. Dennis, good luck on that. It's
going to work out just fine. And thanks for the call, and thanks for the question. I'm gonna sneak another one in here. But let's see where are we at Where there was some oh lydia Lydia, Welcome home, Good.
Morning, Dean. I have a question that's been posa think a few times to you or you've explained it, but I'm not sure if my problem applies or I have a problem where we did a remodel box and extension about twenty in twenty two, so it's been a couple of years. Immediately the shower, I thought the water went like hot and cold.
Now we did go from a regular.
Tank heater to a tank less and this is a direct vent tankless waters heater.
I don't know.
I don't know what information you need, but anyhow, it goes from hot too cold. I mean, it takes a long time compared to what it used to to get hot.
In my opinion, right, and then it.
Goes where it begins to get warm and then excuse me, and then it goes cold again and have wait like fifteen seconds in the middle of a shower for it to get hot again.
So, okay, I know you mentioned.
Like a recirculation pump and a bridge.
Now, but there's actually two things. We're actually talking about two different things there, Okay, So okay, first let's talk about the the the going cold on you situation. Okay, the going cold on your situation. Are you aware that of any other water being run when it does it always do this, no matter, no matter whether it's the old water that's running in the house, or does it go cold on you because somebody else turns a faucet on somewhere else or something like that.
No, absolutely not.
I'm home.
My husband's a fireman, so he's often you know, away from home, and so I can be home alone.
I'm not running anything. So I mean, I've looked at.
That, you know, But no, absolutely not.
That was the most important answer to the question. Okay, so I'm going to tell you this. I'm going to tell you that you need to have somebody look at that water heater. Okay, because a water heater should be a tankless water heater should be putting out out, putting a consistent temperature all the way through. It should not be dipping. There may be something wrong with a setting. There may be a problem with a thermo coupler or a thermostat inside the water heater. There may be an
issue with gas supplied to the water heater. I literally, it could be you know, one of ten different things or a couple of different things. And I know it's only a couple of years old, but you said you were having the issue right from the get go, So it is time to have somebody take a serious look at the water heater because that is not normal and
that's not related to the house. Quite often, the reason I asked the question is that quite often when it comes to tankless water heaters, a homeowner will pick one out for themselves, or a plumber will will pick one out, or plumbers usually don't make this mistake, but they'll pick
one out that is undersized for the home. Undersized meaning that you know, the idea of picking a tankless water heater is all about how many hot water things do you want running all at the same time, and that therefore you get a water heater that's capable of that kind of an output, so that if you're taking a hot shower and then somebody starts doing the dishes, running the dishwasher, and the laundry, that that water heater has got enough hot running through it that it can supply
to all of them without the temperature dropping. Typically, when a tankless water heater is dropping in temperature right in the middle of something, it's because another faucet has been turned on, and therefore now it's having to share its hot water load with another fixture, and the water heater isn't big enough sized enough for volume to be able to handle it. And that's a problem with the selection
of the water heater. But in your case, no other hot water is running anywhere else in the house, and it's still losing temperature. That's a problem with the water heater itself. Now, very quickly, let me answer your other question and the question of because it's a completely separate issue.
Tankless water heaters are endless hot water. They are not instant hot water because the hot water still has to travel the distance from the water heater to get to the faucet that or the shower head that is being used. And so yeah, there are ways of getting around that recirculation pump bridge valve underneath the furthest sink away from the water heater in the house. But just so people know, and it is true to a certain degree, some old schoolers are like, I'm not going for that tankless thing
because my old tanked water heater delivered hot water faster. Well,
technically it doesn't deliver hot water faster. The water moves at the same speed from the water heater to the faucet, but a tanked water heater is sitting there heating water all day long, So therefore that heat travels a little bit further down the pipe because it's constantly heating it, whereas a tank less water heater only heats on demand, and because it's not doing any heating of the water, the hot water in the water lines in between the water heater and the faucet have a chance to cool
down further, so the water's traveling the same speed. The hot water is taking just as long to get there, but residual hot water from a tanked water heater is a little closer to the faucet. This is absolutely true, but that's something that you can overcome design wise with a recirculation pump or a research pump. At the very very end, they're not very expensive these days, and they'll help draw that hot water in throughout the rest of
the house. That's something to consider lydia when you're having a plumber look at the situation. But most importantly, what's happening to you with this ducking of a water temperature in the middle of a shower when no other hot water is being used in the house. That's a problem with the water heater itself and somebody needs to take a look at it. Lydia, thank you for your question and your call. Awesome, awesome. This is why we do this because we just hit a full gambit across the board.
When we come back, more of your calls your Home with Dean Sharp, the house Whisper.
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty.
It's an all calls weekend. We are just taking your calls. You set the agenda about what the show is, what's going on today. So I want to get back to the phones. Let's see here. Let's talk to Sal. Hey, Sal, welcome.
Home, Hey Dean, how are you?
I am well, sir, how are you?
I'm one of your groupies.
Oh okay, all right, great.
I'm in my fourth house in here in La. My first house was a balloon construction. You ever seen one of those?
Yep?
My first house was the nineteen twenties Colonial. I could walk the stairwell all the way up to the attic.
That's brilliant, beautiful, beautiful.
I tend to buy houses in great neighborhoods but need a lot of work.
Okay, yeah, I get you. I feel it. I feel it.
And the one I'm in now, great house, a great neighborhood. Trying to deal with the front doors, original front doors, French doors with sidelights. Yeah, and I get confusing quotes. Every contractor is different. I'm thinking I wanted to just replace the slabs, and they say they can't do it. I'm trying to look for types of manufacturers. It's it's hard. I can't It's not like a Chevy or Ford. You know,
you can't compare. So I wanted to get some opinions whether or not to just try to change the slabs, you know, in the seventies home with you know the frame, you know, the door on the top it's a little off, and they're saying it's not going to be level. We have to just do pre hung. But the whole front unit is built into the house, and I wanted to keep the integrity and just change the slabs and the sidelights. What do you what do you think? What do you think is my best option?
Okay, all right, so we got double doors, double doors and sidelights, Yes, sir, okay, double doors and sidelights, and so you're not confused as to the style that you're going for, right, You're just going to go with the nineteen seventies. It's like a little bit modernist slab door or is it a different style.
Well, the glass is like this frosted yellow with like a diamond pattern in it, and it's you know, it's on the top half of the door, and but on one side of the door, the frame is off centered a little bit on the top jam to accommodate the linement of the of the glass. So they're saying, because of that, I can't just change I can't change the slabs because we're going to end up shaving it and it's going to be off again like the original door is.
And I thought maybe I could just change the slabs and the jams and the winterizing, you know, the weather stripping and all that. They don't want to, you know, put in the work. They just want to change the you know, do a pre hung system. But that's you know, we're getting into almost ten grand now.
So oh yeah, yeah, yeah, all right, all right, my friend. So here's the thing. It can be done. Of course, it can be done. And so the situation that you're in right now is uh, you know, and I grow weary. I'm not. I don't grow weary answering this question. I grow weary of giving this answer because I wish I didn't have to. But you're just going to need to search longer for the right builder to do the job. Okay,
because of course it can be done. Of course we can change out the jam and you can buy you know, you don't have to go with a pre hung situation where it's all been just factory put together. Of course, it can be custom installed and in a lot of ways it might end up saving you money along the way. Plus you get exactly what you want. Now. If there's some weird jam condition that can be resolved too, okay,
everything can be fixed. Everything can be fixed. It is just a question these days of there are so many builders out there who and believe me, you know, I mean I feel for them too. Construction is no is you know, is no get rich quick scheme. It really isn't. And the guys who use it that way, they usually
like end up in jail. But it's just it's tough because people want what they want and they want it for an unbelievably low price, and people have to really put the effort into it in order to get good work.
I'm not saying an unbelievable low price, but just the fact that, you know, everybody's quotation and manufactured representations are different. So it's very hard to choose.
And yeah, that's why. And you're in a good situation to do that website. Yeah, I can feel this, I can feel the vibe that you're in the right situation to do this. What you got to do is you have to take control of the situation. In other words, your best bet, I think from what I'm hearing from you, your best bet is to choose your doors. Okay, now what does that mean. Well, once you know the style of the door that you want, right, then you just
shop out that style of door. And yeah, they're going to be varying price points for that style of door, but you make that selection. You make the selection of the door that you want to go in that unit at the price point that you are comfortable of paying. There are a good billion doors out there, I know, and it can seem very very overwhelming. But first thing we do is we eliminate you know, ninety eight percent
of them. Because we've chosen the style, the specific style that you want, and within that category, you locally shop out what it is that you're looking for. Is it going to be a standard solid wood slab door and that's going to be at one price. Is it going to be a fiberglass resin door. Is it going to be a steeled you know, all of these choices that we've got, you can narrow that down right, forget about the manufacturers, just looking at price point and the construction
of the door. Then you pick out those doors, You're like, Okay, these are the two doors that I'm going to use, and these are the sidelights that I'd like to see. And then then you start showing contractors. Listen, here are the doors, these are the sidelights. There's the opening. I want you to make it work. And some guys are going to walk away saying, ah, you know, we don't do that. Other guys are going to give you that BS statement that I hear all the time. It can't
be done. It just means that they don't want to do it and they're not used to doing it at their convenience level for a profit. And that's fine too. You can let them walk. I just hate the fact that they say it can't be done. I'd rather a contractor just tell you that goes beyond what we normally do, and I don't want to do it. But to tell people a thing can't be done, that's not the world that I live in as a builder or a designer.
So get you take control of your materials and you say these are the doors I want to use, here's the configuration that I want. Give me a price accordingly, and if you look long enough and you take your time, sal you're going to find guys who are going to give you prices, and you'll see that those prices will start to align themselves and you'll be able to choose the person to do the work for you and get
it done the right way. It's a tough situation because when homeowners are ignorant of sort of how the process goes, then you know you're trusting a contractor to come in who has a vested interest in one direction or another, honest or otherwise, to give you all the information that's kind of the value of this. Well, because I don't
have a vested interest in your homes. I'm just here to give you my honest opinion and perspective and experience, and so you end up getting more information because I'm here to teach and to assist you and to inform you. Somebody else shows up at your door in order to make money, and if the situation starts veering away from what they are comfortable doing, their formula of how they approach things, then homeowners end up hearing, oh, it can't be done, and you get the wrong information in the
wrong impression. So find the doors you want, the style you want, the price points you want, find the sidelights that you want. That's going to take effort, Yeah, but it's effort well worth it because in the end you're telling the contractor it's these doors, it's this glass, it's that opening, give me a price and you'll find them. I promise you you'll find them. You just have to look a little further than normal. Soal, thanks for the call, buddy, and hang in there, and thanks for being such a
fan of the show. Appreciate you, Appreciate everybody, all right, when we come back, more of your calls your home Dean Sharp the house Whisper on KFI. 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