You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty Dam I Dam forty live streaming on the iHeartRadio app. Dean Sharp The House whisper Here with you live like I Am every Saturday and Sunday morning Saturdays from six to eight Pacific time, Sunday mornings nine to noon Pacific time. Follow us on social media, why don't you? We only do the good kind, uplifting, informative,
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I'm my fault today, No it's not. Let's talk to Marcie. Hey, Marcy, welcome home. Well, good morning, Dean, good morning. Oh my gosh, you sound so chipper.
Well, second cup of espresso.
There you go, there you go. How can I help you?
Well, five years ago I had my renovator girlfriend remodel the kitchen and we have six recessed lights in the ceiling in the kitchen. And now what's happening is there's two switches that you can turn and dim and you know, dim the lights if you want. And when I put the switch on either switch, maybe four of the lights come on, or maybe five, and then sometimes after three
or four switches, all six come on. So my girlfriend and I unscrewed the recess light bulbs and change them around to see if it was a light bulb issue. It is not, so I don't know if it's a switch issue or a wiring issue. I assume I need electrician. What's your thoughts?
Okay, So is it always the same lights that don't come on? Or is it just a completely random it is?
Actually there's it's kind of random lately. I've been seeing it regularly on two of the six Okay.
And you've got two switches that control these same six six lights in other words, so you don't have that on separate circuits. You've got a three way switch so you can turn them off from one side of the room or turn them on them off on the other side of the room, right, correct. Okay, And those three way switches, are they both dimmers or is there just one dimmer?
Oh? Well, I'm running downstairs now to check. N Sorry, I didn't expect that question. Let's see here. Well, definitely we got on switch that's a dimmer and they are both on switches.
All right, So here's the thing, Marcy. So it may not be this, but I'm going to give you my best shot on on recess can lights. Are these LED lights, by the way, I.
Think they are. I think they are there. They're pretty modern. They're not your your antiquated ones.
My friends, they don't take screw in incandescent bulbs. They're it was five years ago. I'm assuming they're that they're LED. I'm assuming yeah.
I think you'd be right. My friend who has them in her place too, she says she's never had this happen, so I think they're I think you're right.
Okay, So LED housings, the housings themselves can end up with either a faulty little circuit power controller or a faulty thermal control unit. Okay, So that it may be. And if that's the case, then then it's probably a situation where you need to call electrician in to check each of the housings to make sure they're working right. But the reason I asked, if it's random or not, Okay, I'm just going to give you this piece of advice, and this is an inexpensive attempted fix. Okay, an inexpensive
attempted fix. We never when it comes to LED lights, we never ever put in two dimers on a three way circuit. Okay. In other words, dimmers have a way of really messing with fighting dimmers, I should say, fighting dimmers have a way of messing with the LED recess light fixtures that they're controlling. All right, because you've got you know, you've got the ability to control you know, variable current in two directions from two different sources, and
that tip typically is way more. It's just inviting trouble. Okay. So what we what we normally do when I set up a room, and it doesn't matter how many switches, okay, there can be. It could be a five way switch. I mean, we could be controlling this from all multiple different places. But when it comes to that set of lights, one dimmer, in other words, we control the dimness with one and all the others are on off on off period. Okay, So you may have I'm and my guess is, my
gut tells me that that may be the case. So your friend who has a got remodeling skill and you here is how you can see if that's the problem, and that is you simply go and buy an inexpensive three way on off switch, no dimmer control, okay, just digital led controllable on off three way switch and remove one of the dimmer switches and replace it with the on off so you pick which side of the room you'd prefer to have the dimmer control over and replace
the other switch just with a three way. Still it has to be a three way switch, but a three way just on off, no dimmer control. And I have a hunch that that's going to solve your weird random light problem.
Okay, but this sounds great. Thank you so much, all right.
And if that doesn't solve the problem, Marcy, if it doesn't solve the problem, then you can have to call electrician to have them take a look at the actual housing units. But I got a hunch, all right, Marcy. Thank you so much for your call. More of your calls when we return KFI. Dean chart the house whisper at your service. It is an all calls weekend for us. The number to reach me eight three three two. Ask Dean eight three three the numeral two Ask Dean eight
three to three two. Ask Dean there is room on the callboard for you, my friend, if you've got something that's got you scratching your head about your home. Very quickly before I jumped in the next call, I want to do Marcy an even bigger service. She was our previous caller. She's got a set of six recess can lights and a three way switches, and they're coming on
and off at weird times. They're behaving weirdly. I surmise that she had two dimmer switches controlling those can lights, and that's usually a no no. That usually just sends all sorts of confusing voltage signals to the lights, and it can create really weird behaviors, which is what she's got.
But I just wanted to make sure Marcy, if you're still listening and everybody else, it doesn't mean just because I said one dimmer only per circuit, it doesn't mean that you can't here in the twenty first century control have dimmer control in more than one location. But there are special systems set up for that, and they're not expensive either. The one I'm thinking of specifically is if you were to switch your switches in that room to what's called the lutron Lutron, you know, big big switch
manufacture the Lutron Cassetta system. Then you could have dimmer control as many places as you want. It still follows my rule though, because with a Lutron Cassetta system, there would be only one of those switches as what we call the master dimmer, but the other switch is actually a remote, a slave, a remote to the master. So you can have as many of those remote switches around the room or in other rooms, or in your car or you know next door, well next door a little
far away. But the point is, using a Lutron Cassetta system, you can have dimmer and on off control anywhere around the place. But it still follows the same rule because the those other switches are still remotes. They're not sending their own s signal to the lights like two conventional dimmers. They are simply a remote for the one master dimmer.
So any three way circuit, any time you've got more than one switch controlling the same lights, just one dimmer, you can just do it conventionally with one dimmer and one on and off, or you can do it with a Neutron system and have that control. But that's the only kind of system that to violate or overcomes that rule, and it doesn't really, it's just that they're using remotes along the way. Does that make sense? Okay, all right,
we are going to get back on time here. We're going to jump to a quick break and right after the news 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 five AM six sporting live streaming in HD everywhere on the iHeart Radio app. Welcome home, your Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper. That's me here to help you take your home to the next level. Whether it's a cottage or a castle,
it matters not. I am here to help you with your home. And it is an all calls weekend for us here on the show. Nothing but your calls. The number to reach me eight three three to ask Dean. Eight three three the numeral to ask Dean. Let's go back to the phones. I want to talk to Sarah. Hey, Sarah, welcome home.
Yeah, good morning, Dean, thanks for taking my call. I have a a house built in nineteen seventy two. I replaced my flooring. I have sheep vinyl flooring I replaced maybe twenty five years ago. That is an entryway kitchen, down the hall and in one bathroom. I want to replace that torm and I want to replace it with some type of playing flooring. And I want to know do I need to remove the sheet vinyl flooring or can I install the plank flooring over it? And I'll
have someone professionally do it. I'm not doing it.
Okay, really good question. And you're on a slab, right, yes, correct, Okay, you're on a slab. The answer to your question is maybe, but I'll give you exactly why you the here's the thing when it comes to and we're talking about like an engineered wood floor, that would be a glue down floor. Is that what you're thinking?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, or and that's my second question is for suggestions about the type of flooring.
Okay, Well, just so so I can answer the first question. So if you if you choose a floating floor system, something that is interlocking and just floating and other words, it only gets held down on the perimeter by the baseboard or base shoe or whatever the case may be, then it's an absolute no brainer. You can just keep the vinyl in place, okay, because the floating floor system is not dependent on what's underneath it. It just kind of lays there and there's no attachment dependency between the
floating floor and the vinyl. But that does not mean that that's the your only option there. Quite often, in certain conditions, we will lay down something that is the equivalent of sheet vinyl onto a slab to create what we call a vapor barrier in order to keep moisture from the slab from having a detrimental effect on our hardwood that we're gluing down. So and if we were to lay down a vapor barrier, a vinyl sheet product vapor barrier, it would be solidly glued to the slab,
I mean just incredibly well glued to the slab. And then we would we would the surface would be porous, not shiny and glossy, would be porous, and we use a special glue that is designed to grab onto the surface of the vinyl and hold the hardwood in place. And it's kind of the best of all worlds because now we know that that hardwood is fully protected from
any moisture in the slab. So that would be a special product that we would use in certain conditions anyway, And quite often when we find a well adhered and that's the key, my friend, well adhered vinyl floor, then we don't have to pull it up. We'll just use
it like we would use a vapor barrier. We will rough it up well, will scuff up the surface so that it's all roughed up, and the porosity of that vinyl has opened up so that the hardwood glue will grab onto it and bind and hold the floor really, really well. And the question in your case is simply this, whether or not that vinyl floor is really well adhered. And I'm not talking about just whether it was shoddy
work or whatever. But there were, you know, twenty years ago, there were a lot of vinyl floors that were going in that were specially designed to kind of themselves be floating floors, meaning that they are only sort of adhered on the perimeter that they get laid down sort of like carpeting, and that they themselves aren't really in most
places glued down to the slab. And you wouldn't know the difference unless you actually, you know, cut into them and try and pull up a piece and so The point is this, when the time comes, a flooring professional can evaluate that vinyl and they will I mean, knowing
that you're going to cover it anyway. It's either going to get covered or torn out, and they'll probably go through and try and cut out certain sections of the vinyl in certain areas to find out out in the middle of the room, to find out whether it's it itself is glued down and how well it's glued down. And most flooring pros will find that if it's glued down, well, they're just gonna leave it there, rough it up and use the proper adhesive to lay down your plank flooring.
So you really there's a good chance, there's a good chance that you can just keep the vinyl floor in place if it is a well installed vinyl floor. End of end of storm.
Yeah it's not. The flooring amazingly is not coming up or bubbled up in any way, shape or form anywhere, even though it's in a very large area.
Yeah, so that I think you have a I think you have a very high likelihood that you'll be able to keep it in place.
And the vinyl floor goes underneath the floorboards, so then I would put the new flooring. I don't have quarter round molding, so I would put the new flooring down if it's applicable and it's the right thing to do, and then I would maybe put some quarter round molding against the existing molding, because I don't want to expend an effort to pull up all the molding.
Yeah, that's what typically is done, is what we call it a base shoe. And yeah, it's a quarter round kind of molding that covers the edge and the flooring will be run up to your existing baseboards and then the base shoe laid down. And I recommend, by the way, when you do that, that the base shoe actually be not don't try and match the base shoe and make it part of the flooring pattern. In other words, you've got an oak floor, don't use an oak base shoe.
I prefer as a designer. It doesn't matter from a contractor's point of view. It holds it down either way. But I prefer that you lay down an inexpensive base shoe and paint it along with your baseboard. Let it become part of your baseboard.
Okay, yeah, I would do that. I agree with that. Okay. My last question, do you have any recommendation. I know that flooring can be from this price up to you know, a Cadillac style. Do you have any suggestions on brands or in your experience, because I have no idea.
I know, uh, there are so many out there, Sarah. I'm not going to zero down to one brand. I'm just going to tell you this. Start your shopping and start your investigation. Like I was saying earlier in the show, just get out to a really good flooring place. Only go with reputable brands when you're you know, when it comes to floating floors, there's so many options, so many options.
But when it comes to hardwood, if you're going to put down legitimate engineered hardwood, engineered, absolutely, I wouldn't.
I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't put down hardwood.
You would not put down hardwood. So you don't have to worry about that. No, Okay. Then then then then you're just in the You're just in that that phase where you just need to get out. You need to look at the look at the colors, talk about the durability, look at the warranties. The warranties are key, Okay, because, like you know, if you've got a manufacturer who basically, I always like to look for a floor for a
residence that actually has a commercial warranty, you know. I mean if a manufacturer says, well, if you put this in a home, we'll do a fifty year warranty on it. If you install it in a commercial space like a store that gets unbelievable amounts of traffic, we'll warranty it for twenty years. I'm like, that's a good floor. If you've got a floor that actually is is viable to go in a commercial space, then you know that you're
looking at a durable product. And the rest of it is simply just a matter of style and preference and all of those things. Sarah, good luck. Do your research. Like I always say, window shopping is free. Take the time, educate yourself, look at every imaginable option, look at prices per square foot, and then you know, pick the one that fits your best. Thank you so much for the call. All right, more of your calls. When we return your home with Dean Sharp, the house whisper, Hey bye, keep
the house whisper. Welcome home. Hope you're having a lovely morning here on this Saturday, March fifteenth. We are doing an all calls weekend. I love all calls weekend because I just love talking to you about your home. I've got time for at least one more before we're out of here today, and then we're gonna pick it up again tomorrow the Big Show Sunday from nine to noon.
If I leave any of you hanging on the line, which undoubtedly I will have to today, just know if you call back tomorrow and let producer Richie know, Hey, I was on the phone yesterday and Dean didn't get to me. We will give you a priority position tomorrow show. So that's my way of saying sorry, I couldn't get to everybody. Let's talk to Ken. Hey, Ken, welcome home.
Hey, Hey, good morning, Thanks for taking my call questions for you. I got a sixty plus year old house that has galvanized drade lines that run from one sire house to the other right kitchen to Washington Machiner on the far side, and it was slow draining. So I had a plumbing company come out and they brought their
rooter jet, their jetter. They called and they jetted out, so they got the water, They got the drain working, but they recommended doing something like they called it a de scaling operation, and then they can put in a POxy liner inside this pipe. That said that they would preserve the pipe for another fifty years. Do you know anything about that?
Yep, yep, yep, I do galvan I do you have a you got a crawl space under your house?
No, it's not. It's a slab. So they said there's two options. One is they can jackhammer up the slab and take out walls and take out the kitchen cabinets
that replace the pipe. Or they said they can go in through the clean out on the outside of the house, the inch and a half clean out on the outside of the house, do like a de scaling operation, and then they go in and put some kind of a POxy liner that lines the inside of this supposedly descaled pipe, and they said that that should give the pipe another fifty years.
Yeah, it's legit. It's legit. Ken. The reason I asked about whether you've got a crawl space or not because optimally, I mean optimally, and if you're planning on a major remodel or anything like that for your house, then this is something that you would want to consider, is to get rid of those galvanized pipes, galvanized anything in a home was very popular for a very short period of time, and I can just honestly tell you it was the worst idea ever. Okay, galvanized pipes are just steel pipes.
Steel as in yeah, rusts very easily covered with a galvanic coating. That's what makes it that kind of you know, shiny, you know, bright, kind of tin colored. That galvanic coating has two problems with it. Number one, over time, it'll crack, and as soon as it cracks, moisture gets into the steel and starts rusting out the pipe. And that galvanic coating is on the inside and the outside and on the inside. The second problem is as you could just tell by looking at a galvanized pipe, and if you
look under a microscope you'd be like whoa, yeah. The second problem with a galvanized pipe is that that galvanic coating is very rough. It is very I mean it is heavily textured on a microscopic level, very textured, and as a result, it grabs onto everything, including the poop and everything that goes down the pipes, and it creates sludge and sludge clings to it. And then it creates build up and the next thing you know, you're in your situation where you got slow running drains. Not only
are they deteriorating, but they're clogging all the time. So galvanized was just a terrible idea. If you have the option of pulling them out and replacing them with PVC or ABS piping, then yeah, do that. But I totally get it. If you're not planning on doing anything else to your house, you got all this stuff running underneath your house. Chances are, by the way, that once that galvanized gets down into the ground, the chances are it
transitions into a cast iron pipe. They're very, very few circumstances. I'm not sure I've ever seen a circumstance where galvanized runs in the ground all the way over to the sewer connection. It usually it's galvanized pipe above ground that transfers into cast iron under the ground. But still cast iron sewer piping. Same ultimate problem. So my friend, yes, now, make sure a couple of things. Make sure you get two or three estimates from two or three qualified companies.
But it's true if the pipe has not corroded, cracked, or you know, in other words, if it's still structurally holding solid and they've successfully cleaned it out, then yes, there is a procedure by which they will go in descale the inside of the pipe, which is just basically
clearing it, you know, as much as possible. And yeah, we can put in an epoxy liner inside the pipe, which is basically a pipe inside a pipe, and that epoxy liner is everything that the galvanized and or cast iron pipe is not, which is it is smooth, things don't cling to it. And yeah, you're essentially repiping the
sewer system from the inside out. And typically speaking, yeah, you'll get decades more as long as the galvanized and or cast iron pipe itself is still holding its structure on the outside, then that epoxy lining will definitely extend the life of your sewer system without having to get in and jackhammer up the slab. Now, getting rid of those pipes would be my first, you know preference, but not if you're not plenty, not if you're not doing a major remodel. I don't want you jackhammering up all
your floors in order to get to that stuff. So get some competitive bids and consider doing the epoxy line.
Okay, thank you, very much. I just didn't know if this was a legit thing or it just sounded kind of funny. I just don't know how they're going to get the how they get the epoxy in there, and then how they get it so it just coats the whole inside of the surface of the pipe instead of just like puddling in the middle of the pipe or something like that.
Yeah, that's why. That's why I want you to use a company and only get bids from companies that you know. I don't go with the plumber who's like, yeah, wait, yeah, we do that once in a while. Now, you want to go with a company that is fully legit on that and gives you a full warranty because there's a process that has to be taken. They use high pressure air blowing through the line, and the companies that do it all the time do it really well and they'll
warranty their work. So just make sure you're getting bids from those kinds of companies and you know it'll work. And thanks for your call. Thank you everybody for calling in this morning. We're going to do this right the same way tomorrow morning, starting at nine o'clock. Get your questions and your calls ready and give me a shout out tomorrow. We will see you then. Until then, get out into this beautiful day 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