KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp the house Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app. This very program is also known as the house Whisper podcast that you can listen to anytime anywhere. We're live right now, right now, but you can listen anytime anywhere on demand. Hundreds of episodes, all searchable by topic. It's your home improvement reference library. And if you're thinking that's all great, but what we really need is Dean and Tina in
our house, well you can do that too. You can book an in home design console with me and the tea. Just go to house Whisper dot design and you can get more information there. All right, we are doing an all calls weekend and nothing but your calls today. And I want to get back to the phone so we can get as many calls in as possible. I want to talk to Ginger. Ginger, welcome home.
Here, thank you? Can you hear me?
I can? How can I help?
Well?
I have a question about the attic area in my home. My home has a little entry to the attic in the area between the two front bedrooms. There's a little opening there and I have to get a ladder to climb up and get up into the attic through that section. The section that is connected to the kitchen area is all floored and I can put things up there and store things there. But the whole other section of the house, the entire complete attic area, is just covered with the
foam insulation thing. And when I have made my way up into that little opening that's in the hallway between the bedrooms, it's dark and there's nothing but full m insulation. And I was wondering if it's okay for me to try and put down flooring up there so that I could get up there and do something with the space without having to have a license or or feeds that I have to pay with the city and things like that.
And also at one point in time, I had seen these ingenious little slats that are like roll They're like rolls that you roll out, and there's slats that end up being a floor. And I don't know if they're still around anywhere.
But if they are, I if you were aware.
Of them, and if that would be something I could do.
Okay, So a lot of pack a lot of stuff packed into those questions there, I am going to disappoint you on on a couple of levels, but let me start with a positive one. Yeah, I've seen those slats. Those are great. Uh they're basically roll mats. They're they're rigid roll mats, and uh they can come in they can come in handy in a lot of situations. Okay, So there's nothing wrong with them. There's they're out there around. You can probably find them on Amazon these days or other places like that.
Uh.
Here's the thing, Ginger, everybody wants to utilize as much attic space as possible these days for storage and stuff like that. I get it, I get it. I totally totally understand that. Uh, however, our homes and and and where where is it that you live, Ginger, that's to me valley out and see me valley.
Okay.
So uh, our homes uh in some in California buy and large are not designed for addicts to be a part. I mentioned this earlier in the show, to be a part of the conditioned air space of the house. That means that insulation a nice thick layer of insulation fiberglass or cellulose insulation, whether it's rolled bats or whether it's blown in, but a nice thick layer equivalent to R thirty for energy savings and all of that air conditioning expanse heating expense and the like, your general comfort in
the home. R thirty is what we're shooting for in the attic, and that's thick. That's thick stuff. When people go up into their attics and make platforms, in other words, create an area of flooring. I don't have any big issue with that, okay, but just got to understand every square foot of flooring that you create up in your attic space for storage, you are squishing down and minimizing, and you're reducing your attic insulation below the line of
what where the bar should be set. Okay, because if you've got I'm gonna guess in SeeMe Valley tracked home in SeeMe Valley, if we've got two by six ceiling joists running across the room, six inches or five and a half inches of space for insulation is not enough to reach that R thirty marker. So if we've squished it down because we've put plywood up there for storage, now you know, a few square feet fine, you know
who's gonna know the difference. You probably won't notice the difference, but the more you do that up in your attic, the more of that area that you squish down and minimize that insulation, then the more compromised insulation wise your home becomes. And and just to add on to that, some people will go overboard when it comes to the amount of storage up there. Some people even say, well, my roof is high enough, I could make a room
up there. Well, that's debatable because if it was never designed to have human habitation up in there, then there's also a very distinct chance that the ceiling joists themselves are not floor joist rated. They're just ceiling joist rated. They're not designed to support a tremendous amount of hundreds
or thousands of pounds of weight. So my answer to the question is a qualified Sure, you could add a little bit of storage area up in an attic, but no that every time you do it, we are compromising the insulation of the house. And that most Southern California single story homes, well second story homes too, it doesn't
really matter. Most attics in Southern California are not designed to be load bearing in any significant sense or insulation compromised attic space When you put a platform up there so that's my concern. My concern about accessing the attic in that way is that we run the risk of messing up the thermal continuity of the house, and you can overload an attic, and that's not a good thing as well. Now can it be done? Of course, I was just saying before the break anything can be done.
If you are so committed to storage in a certain area of your attic and you want to preserve the insulated quality, then you could spill that area underneath the platform with rigid insulation. It's going to be more expensive. Rigid insulation that compensates for the loss of the loft of the fluffy stuff basically, but that's more expensive, and
it's very intentional. And if we're really starting to put lots of load up there, and we need to talk to an engineer about whether the kind of stuff we want to store up there is actually going to be well supported by the house, or if it's going to put too much of a load on those poor little ceiling. Joyce, whose job originally was just to hold some insulation and hold up the drywall on the lid of the ceiling. That's the best I can tell you. Side unseen ginger.
So think those things through and then make decisions accordingly. And thank you so much for your call. All right more when we return your home Dean Sharp the house whisper on KFI.
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty.
You have landed right in the center of our all calls Sunday morning, nothing but your calls today. I'm just taking calls. Love doing this every few weeks. I want to get back to the phones right now so we can get as many calls in as possible. Let's talk to David A David, I'll come home.
Thank you, Dean. I'm in Venice Beach. I live in an apartment, so I feel like I represent all the apartment renters. We don't usually own a home. And the building I live in was built in nineteen twelve. There's
three stories and I'm on the top floor. There are three stories, and about seven or eight months ago the levelode replaced the water heater and since then it wakes me up at night because of I guess people taking a shower because the pipes are banging for between five and twenty seconds sometimes during the week, and I was wondering how I can explain to my lavelorad is I'm sorry to say, but lazy doesn't want to admit that
it's just bothering and keeping me awake. So how does it make such a noise that I think it's pipe expanding? Do their rub against something? And what can I say?
I don't know what you can say with a lazy landlord who doesn't want to do anything, but you can talk to him about the problem though, And so are we talking about? So there's two kinds of noise that people sometimes experience when it comes to their hot water systems or there's water in general. Number one is, Uh, there's this there's a like a what a lot of people describe as a creeping or clicking sound like that happens when when hot water is being used.
Uh.
And then there's that banging sound literally like you know this banging sound.
Which of the two are you experiencing?
It's a mix between the two. It's the sound is like the banging, but the space between the bang is more space are like dum dum dum dum dum dum dum tum or sometimes slower it slows down.
Yeah, yeah, all right, so what you get is, uh, is the the new it's weird. UH.
Plumbing systems are even really well designed systems, they are essentially it turns out sometimes like a giant, a giant instrument.
You know, you got a lot.
Of pipes, and you got stuff flowing through it, and depending on the twists and the turns that it makes and so on, you get weird noises out of pipes. Sometimes most common is what we call water hammer, okay, and that's that thudding sound. And you could be in a building for you know, one hundred years and not have water hammer, and then all of a sudden, you know, somebody changes out the water heater, changes the pressure relationship
of the building. Maybe the water heat. Maybe the new water heater is out putting hotter water than the previous one. Maybe it's putting it out at slightly a different pressure or flow level. There could all be all these little subtle changes, and all of a sudden, now we're getting water hager hammer. Fortunately, in most cases it's a pretty
simple fix. And that is and you could tell your landlord thisys, hey, you put in the new water heater, but now we're getting water hammer really bad in the house. Would you please have a water hammer a restor installed near the water heater, okay? And what a water hammer arrestor is. It's literally it's an extension of the pipe. You know, it inserts. It could insert, for instance, in between the water heater hoses and the hot water line
feed for the rest of the building. And it's literally got a little kind of a column sticking out from it. And inside that column is essentially a shock absorber for water. There's a big spring and a diaphragm, and as that water comes unevenly flowing through the pipes and that vibration starts to form, this thing will receive a lot of that vibration into itself and not send it knocking down
through the pipes. Now, sometimes it takes more than one, and sometimes it's a great idea to install them in different locations. But a you know, a water hammer a restor, I mean you can get a two pack of them for like twenty five dollars, so and they're an easy install okay, And so that would be I think that would be my first line of approach to your landlord, who obviously doesn't want to do a whole lot that
often just say listen. It is a problem, and a lot of us hear it, and I don't want to be, you know, complaining about it. But honestly, ever since the new water here went in, we're hearing this thing. And so you know, there's an I'm told there's an easy fix for it. You know, could you please step forward and deal with that? And you know what, when if it's an easy, inexpensive fix, you know, maybe he'll move on it. Maybe he'll he'll shift and make it happen.
But that's ultimately what that is, my friend. And do you happen to have our laundry facilities in each apartment? It's an old apartment building, so I'm guessing not. But do you have like a washer drug in your unit?
No?
No one does, Okay, nobody does.
Another place where you might be able to help yourself with this is you could install one of these you know, twelve fifteen dollars water hammer devices, like underneath your sink in the kitchen, okay, because anywhere they are located anywhere along the lines, or underneath the sink in the bathroom, or get a couple of them, put one in each place anywhere on that system where these shock absorbers are they will help mute the vibration, so ask your landlord first,
but maybe you go out and pop a couple underneath your own sinks and see if that helps as well.
Fantastic. I love that information. Thank you so much, David.
You are so welcome. Happy holidays, my friend. Thanks for calling. Great question. All right, y'all, we got more to come. More of your calls. Right after.
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty.
Live streaming and HD everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. You are Home with Dean Sharp, the house whisper. That's me and I am sitting here loving life because every few weeks we get to clear the decks and I just get to answer your questions because it's an all calls Sunday morning, and I want to get back to the phones right now.
Let's talk to Marie. Hey, Marie, welcome home.
Thank you. My question to you is if I want to explain what happens if it's usual or unusual. I had a water leak from the second flour. They came down through the wall in the dining room and the joining kitchen, so they had to remove the cabinet that was next to the wall that was compromised with this leak. But on top of that cabinet I have a gas countertop stove, So any rate, it was all. They replaced the counter the cabinet, and they did very nice job
as far as that goes. But my home is fifty years over fifty years old, and the original stove countertop was electricity, so somewhere along the line I had gas put in. So there is the gas line that was showing that. I never saw it in the cabinet under
the stove where I put all my pots and pants. Well, when this contractor came and they replaced the cabinet, and now all the the gas pipe is exposed inside the cabinet along with I didn't even know I had an electrical outlet under there, but I guess you need that. So the gas stove turned on the.
Stove.
Well, anyway, I did not see that prior to all this problem, and all I could think of this, there's one shelf in this cabinet and maybe it was below that and I never noticed. I don't know. Anyway, all this is exposed and they want to put like a little box around it. So I think it's a Mickey mouse job. But on the other hand, is this is this okay as it happened before? Do I need to really insist that they tear everything out do it all over again. I'm really up a creek. I don't know what to do.
I got you, Yeah you did, you did. Let me try and summarize. I had the cabinet switched out, and now you, for the first time noticed you never saw them before. You notice the gas line that's connecting the gas cook top. It's back there in the back, and you notice the electrical and.
So is it in the way or do you just see it?
Oh?
No, it's all the cable and the wire for the electricity. They're all exposed. So if they put a little box around it, I'm going to lose some space. Well, it's not that bad, but I just wanted to know. Is this something that if I go to sell this house, am I going to have a problem?
No, I doubt it, as long as as long as everything is in case the way it should be. In other words, any electricity that's running on the outside of a wall has to be inside a metal protective conduit. The gas line itself a lot of people have posed gas line connections underneath their cook tops in their homes, and so now ideally, ideally, okay, so you know I'm going to play both sides of the coin here, ideally, And understand, I come from a world of contracting where
every little detail matters to us a lot. Okay, So if I if I am reconfiguring a cabinet for a new cook top, you know we find out okay, the owner has selected this cook top, this gas cooktop. I get on the specs right away. I want to find out where does the gas connect to that cooktop? Okay, it's oh, it's the upper left hand corner. Okay, Where is the gas line coming out of the old cabinet bay? Now, oh, it's the lower right hand corner.
All right.
If that's the case, Dean does not run a diagonal pipe all the way across the backside of the cabinet to get from the old place where it popped out to the new connection. What I do is I open up the wall and we reconfigure the gas line so that it is popping out, if not directly behind the cook top, at least as close to it as humanly possible, so that it's as clean and as out of the way as possible, And the same is true for electrical conduits and all of that stuff. Now, I get it.
You know, other contractors come in and they're like, well, that's where it was sticking out of the wall, and that's where you make the connection.
That's what it has to be. Well, it's not what it has to be.
But at the end of the day, would it have been nice if the contractor had reconfigured the electrical and the gas in this cabinet so that it was high and tight and clean and clear and out of the way.
Yes.
Is it possible to completely make it all go away? No, But should it have been done as tight as possible.
Yes.
Now, if it's not completely in the way of everything, is it worth making a stink and having them pull the cabinet out and redo it? Only you, Marie, can make that decision based on how important this is to you and how much you know of a fight you want to have with the cabinet guy or the contractor at this point, because if it's not in your way, I mean, let's face it, it's not like one of these things that's out in the open, right, It's not like it's ruining the look of your kitchen. It's down
inside underneath it. So if it's not in your way, you know, I'm not going to tell you one way or the other. You got to make that decision. But I am agreeing with you wholeheartedly that Yes, wouldn't it be lovely to live in a world where every builder who walks into your home their first priority is how are we going to get this done the absolute best that it can be done, and suggest these things to the client, as opposed to them having to tell us
after the fact. Well, I would have preferred if you had taken a little more energy and time and effort and thoughtfulness. I never want to hear that from a client, so I try and stay out out here.
Yeah, thank you, I agree with that. I just also want to mention one other things to your listeners. I needed to have a restoration company come in to clean the mold, and so that company's person took out the cabinet because it did have mold on the bottom, So
I thought, okay. Then they recommended this construction company who came in, and those four souls didn't see how everything was lined up prior to this, so had I realized what was going on, I would have said that one person that took it out should be the one person putting it back in, or should have been around, And that didn't happen. So I think it was a little bit of a sloppy job, and I learned a great deal from this. I never had problems with contractors before,
but this I did. So it was a learning experience I truly didn't need. But anyway, thank you for your confirmation and on. It could have been done a little nicer, but it shouldn't prove problem if they put a little box around to hidle those I hate for my pots and pants to be touching that every time I go in and out. You know how you kind of push your pants in yep, and it's touching. Okay, thank you, thank you very very much.
And so.
Yes, and your wise wisdom about the insurance earlier, my my insurance company wouldn't pay for the leak in the in the in the wall, and I was with them for sixty six years. So yes, read that contract very very well. Yeah, thank you so much for your show. Thank you.
Huh, thank you, Marie, thank you. Good luck with that.
Yeah, that's a hard one, you know, like, you know, how how far do you twist a contractor's arm too, you know, if it's an aesthetic issue. I mean, honestly, I'm there's never there's never any leeway with Dean. I'm like, look right there, that looks terrible. You are fixing that if it's underneath and technically, I mean it's all done to code, but it was just not thought through as
well as possible. But it's hidden underneath the cabinet. Ah. That's where my contractor empathy and my lack of desire to tear out my kitchen again kind of piles up on me. And I'm like, oh fine, fine, don't want to have to make those decisions though, you all feel me.
All right more?
When we return your Home with Dean Sharp the house whisper on an All Calls Sunday morning.
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty.
Look at us.
We've come near the end of another three hours together, our final program before Christmas twenty twenty four and Hanukkah as well, all starting up right about the same twenty four hour period this time around. This is the week we're leading into we are doing an all calls Sunday, and I want to try and take one more call if I can, and then leave you with a quick closing thought, send you off on your way to where should I go? Let's talk to Barbara? Hey, Barbara, welcome home.
Hi, thank you for taking my call.
You are very welcome. How can I help you?
Well, while I've been waiting on the line, my question kind of expanded. It started out that I live in a house in the hills that was built in nineteen fifty five, and I have done nothing, absolutely nothing based on I have no money and I really kind of don't care. I mean, I'm not one of those people that wants the perfect house. So down the line, I'm realized that it's old. It's really old like me, I'm eighty five, and things are, you know, popping up, and
I'm wondering how safe is my house? It's an old, stuckold thing. And I originally what I was wondering about was the beam ceilings in the living room. How long do these guys live? I mean, are they going to collapse on me at some point? Or are they forever?
What do you think? Uh? Have you got it? You've got exposed beams in your living room.
Yeah, okay, uh is there any sign of like, uh, dry rod or termite damage or anything like that, not that I know of.
But I can't see up there, you know. I mean it's you know, up high, but to my knowledge, it's all.
Okay, okay, well you know it's old, yeah, but it's not that old, not in term not in house terms.
Okay, oh good, good good.
You know, you know, you and I we're not going to make it one hundred and twenty years, one hundred and fifty years, but a house can very easily if it's maintained. Okay, And I know you haven't really been concerned about that in the past. So here's my recommendation, Barbara.
And this.
Despite the expansiveness, it's actually the expansiveness of your question that makes this very concise recommendation for you give yourself a Christmas present this year of calling a home inspection service and having a home inspector. And when I mean by a home inspector, I'm not talking about the city
or anything like that. I'm talking about the kind of home inspection service that gets called out when the a realtor hooks you up with when a house is being sold, right, there's a home inspection that's part of the selling process of the house. An inspector walks through the house and they poke through the house, and they check the plumbing, and they check electrical and they check in the attic, and they look underneath and they and their whole job
is to do a superficial, superficial inspection. In other words, they're not going to cut into your home or drill into your but an observational, superficial inspection and give a report that evaluates the condition of just about everything, all the major systems, the roof, the plumbing, the HVAC, the you know, the condition of sinks and faucets and switches and just all that kind of stuff. If there is
evidence of dry rot, they'll let you know. If there's evidence of termite or other infestation, they'll let you know. It's a few hundred dollars. But for a house that admittedly you have not really put a lot into over the last few decades, maybe it's time for a professional an objective. And here's what I like about home inspection services.
They're not contractors. In other words, they're not there thinking, well, you know, I could certainly tell her to replace this, and then I could get the job to do it. They just do home inspections.
That's it.
So not unlike myself sitting here on this side of the microphone. They have no vested interest in telling you that there's something wrong with your house or not wrong with your house. You're paying them to make it.
I'm so good, right, I never, I never would have thought of something like this. I mean, I still have two prong outlets there. I go nothing. You know, nothing's been changed. But how can you recommend a home inspection? I never I mean I probably heard the name before, but I don't know how to start.
You're gonna have to dig into that because home inspections some where, some larger companies are kind of cover it, have a large coverage area. Others are very localized. So you I'm looking here. You live in Sherman Oaks, so you're looking for somebody in the valley. There's a ton of them. You can just go online, do a little research enter that in. If you've got a friend who's a realtor if you know anybody, they'll be able to recommend or ask relatives or neighbors or friends. These guys
are around, guys, gals, these people they're around. But that's what I think your house could really benefit for. And you'd have the peace of mind of knowing you just had this home inspection done. You're paying them to make a report. That's what they're gonna do, good, bad or otherwise, and they're not going to fudge the results one way or the other because they're not going to be doing the work or not doing the work. They're going to do their job, and you're going to get an objective
view of your home. And you know, if there's anything pertinent that really needs to be addressed right away, you'll be able to address it. And if they're isn't anything that needs to be addressed, then you can just go right ahead, not putting a whole lot in your house, and you know, continue on with your glorious life. Barbara, thank you so much. That was a great call. What an energized gal.
You know what I got out of Barbara Eardan, Yes, Andrew what but the very beginning of her calls, she lives in the hills and she has no money. As a broke millennial. Barbara is living the American dream. God, so God bless her.
That's so true. Oh it's so true. Andrew.
You're you're stepping up to the news now for how long afternoon?
Twelve to six?
So anyone that's in the traffic trying to get in and out of LA I'll be here for them.
All right.
Well you heard it.
Anybody who's in that situation, it's Andrew's fault, totally, Andrew's fault. From now until six, all traffic.
Is it.
I do know it's the end of your show.
So I just wanted to say Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you and your wife.
Brother. The same comes right back to you and you and Lucky the rooster, who I have not physically seen today yet, but you've seen him. You've seen Lucky, proof of life, proof of you have a photo of Lucky holding a newspaper. We can make that happen, all right, everybody here we are. You know, here's a quick thought. I didn't even bother to send this to Elmer today, So Elmer, just, you know, just roll the music whenever you feel like we're there. It's not going to take too long.
I just want to say that.
I want to watch everybody a very very happy holidays. I would leave you with this. However, you may celebrate this time of year. Just celebrate, Just celebrate. Life is short, life is uneven and imperfect, life is hard. Never turned down an opportunity to celebrate. You know, the oldest of wintertime celebrates. We're entirely tied to the fact that life is imperfect and tough. Okay, it's not this idyllic Norman Rockwell kind of vision that so many people get depressed over.
If you are having a hard time this year, just understand that, you know, that's what winter celebrations are about. They're about hanging on, holding on to hope, lighting a candle in the dark, and staying connected. So they're connected to these concerns about the future, how harsh everything is around us. You can relate. Yeah, it doesn't have to be snow and ice. It is sickness, loss, wind, fire.
Right.
Since the dawn of human history, this time of year has always been about meditations on whether we will have enough to get through the dark times and the tough times. And since the dawn of human history, humans have countered those concerns by celebrating what we have, are gathering together, sharing our food, our shelter, our family, holding each other close. That's what this time of year has always been about.
It's about overcoming a worrisome, fragile existence with powerful truths, the deepest magic that humans can conjure, love, joy, peace and hope.
And so.
Celebrate the holidays, celebrate them, and when you're done, meet me back here again next week and together we'll get back to work building yourself a beautiful life. Everybody, Merry Christmas, Happy Honika. We'll see you next weekend. This has been Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper. Tune into the Lie broadcast on KFI AM six forty every Saturday morning from six to eight Pacific time, and every sun Day morning from nine to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app