KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp the House Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Today. I want to talk to you about what's going on with your house. I have no agenda but to talk with you and see if I can help. Let's try and get to Brad. Hey, Brad, welcome home.
I have a nineteen sixty house with ten foot ceilings in the family room and I need to replace the light bulbs in the ceiling fixtures. And I was wondering how to determine how to get the correct bulbs for the correct for brightness and also that are safe.
Okay, So you've got obviously nineteen sixties fixtures, their standards, screw in type bulbs. There, there are LED, there are LED light fixtures and trims for those kinds of cans that come with a little adapter so that they plug from the LED fixture into a screw in adapter for an older can light, a non LED dedicated can light. So number one, that's what you're looking for. Number two, you're looking for one of those kinds of trims that are dimmable so that you've got complete control over all
of the lighting aspects. Through the room. Number three. You're looking for, if we're talking about living room lighting, you're looking for warm light. Warm not heavily ambered light, but warm light. And what that means is that every light package, now, especially LED lights, will have listed on it a temperature. It's a color temperature. It's not a heat temperature. It's
a color temperature in terms of degrees kelvin. And so it's gonna say it's gonna be a big number, and then it's gonna be followed by a K. It's gonna say something like four thousand K, five thousand K, three thousand K. What we are looking for in living room lighting, the LED equivalent of just old style incandescent bulbs is roughly in the area of twenty eight hundred kelvin. Twenty eight hundred K okay, definitely no greater than three thousand,
and that is not a that's color temperature. That's not about brightness. But you get over three thousand K, which is kind of daylight rated. At that point the light becomes blue. It gets really blue, really harsh and uncomfortably blue for an interior space. The closer you go down in the other direction under three thousand, the more amber the light gets. So, just to give you an idea, you know, four thousand K is essentially sunlight and eighteen
hundred K is candle light. Okay, so what we're looking for that replicates the old incandescent is basically, you know, roughly twenty eight hundred K. Now brightness. That's the tricky thing, but fortune lighting companies are making the transition easy. So take a look at the wattage of the incandescent bulb that you had in there, one hundred watts, sixty watt, eighty, you know, whatever that might be when you're looking and shopping for LEDs. The trick is that wattage was never
a measure of brightness. Okay, wattage is at is a measure of energy consumption, but with an incandescent bulb, the two go hand in hand. The more energy it consumes, the brighter it is. And that's why we've all gotten used to the idea like, oh, I think I need a hundred watt bulb here for brightness as opposed to a fifty watt bulb. LEDs don't work that way. LED's power consumption is like four watts or six watts or eight watts and so there's no way for us to
equate that except the manufacturers do it for you. On the package. What you'll see are terms like forty watt equivalent, one hundred watt equivalent. Okay, that's what you're looking for. And while we're at it, everybody, we need to start transitioning out of thinking about light bulb brightness in terms of watts and do what scientists and lighting designers and cinematographers have been doing forever, and that is using the proper term, which is lumens. Lumens is the quantity of
bright light in a room. Okay, there you go. Let's talk to Mike. Hey, Mike, welcome home.
Yes, we have a tankless tankless journal in our comedy club. Two days after changing the filter, the proprietor complains that it smells like that outhouse. Is there any fixed with that?
No?
Uh, okay, So when you say tankless you mean a waterless urinal.
Yes that.
I'm just writing this down here because I've literally never had this question before. Waterless urble at the comedy club is smelling. So the trick with waterless urinals is that they've got to be maintained properly. Of course, there's a filter system connected to it. But also you got to double check with your personnel to make sure they're being cleaned the right way. Most people make the mistake of
assuming that, hey, it's a waterless urinal. So every once in a while, when we clean this out, we better flush it with some water, because a waterless urinal couldn't possibly be cleaned in any other way, And in fact, that's the exact opposite thing to do, because of well, urine has scale, hard water scale deposits, and with that comes build up on the inside of the pipes, and then it becomes a place when it interacts with water
that bacteria starts to grow. So I am not an expert in this area, but I do know this when it comes to waterless urinals, there is a very very specific cleaning methodology for them. And once a filter has changed out, you may if anybody has induced water introduced water into that drain pipe, then you gotta let it dry out and then you got to return to standard
cleaning protocols, and they are very very specific. There's usually a puck or an additive to go into the waterless system, which begins breaking down the build up on the pipe. Wall and killing off the bacteria and allowing it to return to its clean, fresh smell once again. But the one thing you don't do, and the thing I've heard most often when a waterless urinal starts to smell, is that somebody has cleaned it with water, which is just not the right thing to do. That's the best I
can tell you, Mike. Return to those protocols. Make sure nobody at the comedy club is cleaning that thing improperly. If water was introduced, even in the change out of the filter, like somebody felt like, oh we should also, you know, we're changing out the filter, we should rinse this out while we're at That could be the whole
issue right there. Waterless means waterless, and so refer to your owner's manual when it comes to how to clean that thing, and it's usually a dry puck that goes in, starts absorbing on the sides of the pipe wall with what tiny moisture is there and neutralizes the bacteria, takes the smell away. There you go.
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty.
All right back to the phones, Tony, Welcome.
Home, Hi Dan, how are you. We're doing a complete kitchen remodel with cabinets, floors, and appliances, and my question is do the cabinets should those sit on the subfloor or do we install all of the wood floors first? And the part that seems the most trickiest from what I've read is how to handle the dishwasher?
Ah? Yes, okay, So it's a good question, really good question. And it depends. It depends. And I say that in all sincerity because I don't know. Maybe I would say maybe seventy five percent of the time. Typically we will not install on top of the floors, on top of the hardwood floor or the tile sometimes just purely from the practicality that you know, why do you want to run the expense of hardwood all the way underneath cabinet kicks where it will never be seen again, so simply
to save square footage of cabinets. But there's also another reason, I see, I'm sorry, save square footage of flooring material. The other reason is that sometimes, quite often floors are not perfectly level, and so your cabinet installers will quite possibly have to shim up the rough cabinet kicks. Now these days, rough cabinet kicks get shimmed, and then there is a finished kickplate that goes over it, and then the shims are hidden and they meet the floor very nicely.
So but that's a consideration as well. But I would say typically what we're aiming for is to not run material underneath the cabinet kicks because it's unnecessary. Now when it comes to the dishwasher, whatever the flooring is in the room that we do run into, because the dishwasher is just an area, a void area, So we go ahead and run that material into the dishwasher area so that the dishwasher doesn't get trapped behind flooring material down
in the recess there. And I know some people are like, well, I don't know if I want to run hardwood in there, because what if the dishwasher leaks. I guarantee you, if the dishwasher leaks and you've got hardwood in your kitchen, it's going to go way beyond just the wood that's directly underneath. It's going to affect wood in the whole area there. So it's kind of a moot point when it comes to of that argument. I just prefer the idea that we can easily slide the dishwasher in and
out for installation or service or what have you. So my recommendation is typically save the money on the extra flooring material. Now, occasionally there is a situation where it's like, well, I don't want to put the cabinets in yet because there's all this other stuff and if we have to set the cabinets then then they're going to get in the way and they're going to get beat up. So
I'd rather have the flooring go in without the cabinets. Well, you can ask your cabinet manufacture or installer to put in rough kicks, just the kicks themselves detached from the cabinet boxes, and that way, once the kicks are in place, they determine the cabinet set and then your flooring people can get in there and lay all the flooring in
the kitchen without the cabinets in their way. That's only something that happens though, when it comes to cabinets that have detachable kicks, where the kicks are separate from the boxes themselves, and you have to talk to your cabinet person about that. But typically, eh, we wouldn't you recommend wasting material underneath a cabinet Kate, does it matter, though not really, it's not really going to change the install much.
Always account for the height of the hardwood floor, though, so don't set yourself up for a thirty six inch tall countertop, then put in, you know, five eighths or three quarters of an inch of hardwood and find yourself with shorter cabinets. So the kicks have to be taller if they're going to go in before the hardwood. Thanks for the question, Tony Herman, Welcome home.
Thank you.
I got a question.
I want to build a retaining wall in my backyard by myself.
How can I go about.
That retaining wall in your backyard by yourself? It all depends on what you want the wall to look like. If you want it completely straight up and down vertical, you want it out of cinder block, you want to cover it with stucca or plaster or something like that. But I can tell you this. The general rule is this for most municipalities, and I say this as a qualifier. I say most municipalities, even though it's pretty much all there are depending on the size of your lot, the location,
and the soil conditions. Sometimes there are deviations of this, but for most municipalities, any retaining quote unquote retaining wall that is holding back less than three feet of soil you can do without a permit and without engineering. The easiest way to go about doing that is to head on down to the building supply, whether you've got a stone yard near you, a home depot, Low's, you know, a lumberyard, and get those interlocking, stacked, racked back retaining
wall blocks. There's several different versions, but they lock into each other and you can simply line out the bottom. Now they do slope back ever so slightly, because every course above the previous course sets back just ever so slightly, and you can build a nice little garden retaining wall out of that material in an afternoon or a couple of days, depending on how long obviously the wall is.
But basically, you lay a course, you backfill it with a little soil up to that course, set the next course, keep backfilling and setting and backfilling, and legally you can go in most municipalities up to three feet and that'll hold just fine, and it'll last long, and you'll get plant growth out of it, which I really like, because I don't like bare walls when it comes to that kind of landscaping stuff. So that's the general gist of it. Herman.
If you have special soil conditions on your property and you know it, then you might need a permit. If you are going to be retaining more than three feet of soil surcharging the back of the wall, then you're going to need a permit, and you need some engineering. And that engineering is going to be for the proper sized footing and steal in that footing so that the pressure of the soil behind the wall doesn't basically roll the wall over, doesn't doesn't knock it down. How about
some more of your calls when we return. You are listening to Home with Dean Sharp the house whisper.
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty.
Welcome home, Thank you, Dean.
I'm noticing a pattern. I am sixty, early sixties, and I'm noticing that guys that come in to quote me, the contractors, the four that have come in in the last three months, have all said, after I tell them what I want, you don't want that, and you don't want to go through the city, and we don't need to permit and no one's going to know because you live here now and you need to staff and now we want to save five grand or more, so you don't want to go through the city. So telling you this,
every one of them they don't know. I work with the city, not for but with them for my second job. It's just not even that so insulting. And they want to get someone younger. They're like, what do you want to do, and they're really straightforward. You're going to need a permit and there's no nothing else. They're just respectful.
So I don't know if it's something like on the slim shady like older generation, but I'm very disappointed because I left these strangers in my home and you know, with all the health to take you all the health situations is like it ends up not crash and burn. I can't hire any one of these four. And I'm I'm really disappointed, thank you. I'm very disappointed that I held out for these guys, you know, and I'm just there and when they come in, I tell them what
I want. I'm very professional, and they're like, you don't want that, and they've reconfigured my whole They're telling me what to do and I don't want to argue with them, which I could, because I'm scared if I'm the only one home. I don't want them to get hurt in my house because I will not back off, but I do because I'm intimidated by their quote. But we're bearing this. I just don't know if it's a whole thing that I should just go with a younger contractor that goes by the book. You know.
Yeah, I feel you. I feel you. I wish I wish that what you were telling me was something that was not very common surely, but you know what the truth is, there is just let's just talk about it for a second. There is a lot of agism in the contracting world, and there's a lot of sexism in the contracting world still, and yes, you're gonna find it in general now. I you know, I gotta be really
careful that because I don't want to. There are some brilliantly fantastic contractors out there who are older, you know, men and women who've been doing this for a long time. They've got a lot of experience and they are intensely respectful and they don't pull that kind of crap on people. But for whatever reason, there is a certain kind of neanderthalic old school builder still out there that and I hear stories about it all the time of that kind
of stuff happening. So let me just dissect really quickly a couple of things that you said, or deconstruct it, just to make sure that we're clear on this number one. There is no room for that kind of thing. And it's not just about somebody's mannerism. I say this all the time. When you start to work with a contractor, it is a relationship that you're having. Okay, You're going to be in that relationship through thick and thin, through very stressful moments, through all sorts of mess and trial
and circumstance. And if you don't feel comfortable with a vibe that is being put off, then I don't care. I don't care what their price is, I don't care how high their level of so called expertise is. Pass you know what, because they're not the only fish in the in the sea. They just aren't. There are a lot of contractors out there, and so, you know, unfortunately for you, it sounds like the first three or four were kind of all fell into that category. But I'm
just going to encourage you. There are more you do not want to enter into a relationship for a remodel something so important with a contractor who is going to talk down to you. And especially this as a designer, this just gets under my skin all the time builders coming in and saying, oh, no, no, you don't want that. Now, I will give this caveat Okay, if three builders come into a situation and look at a plan and they all have the same constructive critique of a particular plan,
my ears are open, and so should yours be. If somebody is coming in and saying because I do that sometimes as a designer, I do it all the time. Actually, I walk into a home and I'm like, this idea right here, I'm not sure this is the best way to approach this, because I think you're going to run into problem ABC and D. Okay. If you're getting a consensus of contractors you respect telling you I'm not sure this is a good idea, then it may be a good idea to step back and reevaluate the plan. But
just the idea. There is a kind of builder out there who has their opinion about what your house should look like, and you know it. Guess how much I care about that. As an actual home designer, I care about it zero percent. And how many times do I have this conversation with contractors whenever I need to? There are times when you know, and I have the advantage because I've been a builder myself for thirty five years and so plus years now, I'd like, I'm just going
to stick with thirty five instead of saying plus. But a lot of contractors actually shame designers and architects as well because are like, well, you guys don't have the hands on knowledge of what happens. I happen to have both. So I get to look back at them and say, listen, bud, I'm going to show you exactly right now how much I care about your opinion of what this should look like. I care zero percent. You are here to build this plan. You either do it or we'll move on to somebody else.
And that's the way it's going to be. I am not concerned about what your opinion of this is. Do you want to build this or don't you? So yeah, yeah, that's kind of a hot button for me too, surely. So Number one, don't ever get into a relationship with a contractor who you're not feeling a good vibe with number two, don't let them talk down to you or man explain you or tell you that what you want
is something that you shouldn't have. And finally, if it is a Now, there are some aspects of home remodeling that don't require permits. Flooring, kitchen, cabinet, tree, things like that, although when you do a kitchen cabinet remodel, if we're moving electrical and plumbing, that requires a permit. So there are facets of work in the house that don't require permit.
But if it's something that requires a permit and you want to pull the permit and you're the homeowner, you're the boss, and that's the way it's going to be. So there you go, very simply put, Sureley, thanks for the call. I am sorry that you've run into that kind of trouble, but my own encouragement to you is stick to your guns. There are more fish in the sea. Don't settle for these losers. You are listening to Home with Dean Sharp the House Whisper.
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty.
If your Home with Dean Sharp, the house whisper, It's time to go to the phone. Let's find out what's going on with you. Why don't we talk to well, let's just go right to the top, Karen, Welcome home.
I live in Los Angeles County and in my backyard, I have a detached twenty three by twenty garage twenty three wide, and I want to make an eight hundred tware foot accessory dwelling unit. So the garage is built in two thousand and five. Is it going to be cheaper for me knock down the garage and start all over again? And just so you know, the washer and
dryer is currently in the garage. Is it going to be cheaper to knock down the garage and start fresh and clean with that detex eight hundred square foot unit, or will it be cheaper to knock out the wall and extend it to forty wide from twenty three wides?
Okay, here is my answer. Okay, I don't know, I don't know. Oh no, but here are the factors involved. Okay, it may very well be cheaper to just to go with the existing structure, because you've got an existing structure, right, It's really a question of how well the garage is built. Is the garage built, Can the garage be brought Is it at code? Can it be brought up to code? Is the slab on the garage sloped? Are you gonna have to contend with that because it's got a eighth
inch per foot slope on it? Or is it perfectly flat and ready to become a floor of a dwelling unit. There are a lot of factors that go into play. Now, the question of as far as the city is concerned, Okay, as far as La County is concerned, they're just gonna put their hands up and say, hey, whatever you want to do, We're fine with you converting the garage, but it's going to have to be to code. We're also fine if you want to knock it down and go
for eight hundred square feet new. Ideally, if it works with your design and you've got structure there that's worth saving, ideally, it will probably be the best and least expensive route to keep it and just build off of it. You know, I always say this when it comes to room editions in general, and one of the reasons as a designer, when I come into your home and you're like, you know what, I just need, we need more space, so we're gonna push out, we need a new master bedroom
pushed out of the back of the house. And you know, room edition, room edition, room editions. So many people are talking room edition, and I put a pin in that at the beginning of our conversation and say, Okay, are you sure that you need more square footage or just to improve the flow of your existing home. And the reason I do that is not because I've got anything against room editions. I don't. It's just that slabs and roofs are expensive and they're not the kinds of things
that we experience on a daily base. So if you've already got one, you've already got half of the slab that you need. If you already have half of the roof that you need, why not you know, build onto it. So I think, Karen, your best situation is to figure out what a plan might look like back there, see
if the garage can become a part of it. Talk to a build or get a contractor or two over, have them take a look at the garage and give you their professional eyes on opinion as to whether the garage is just a you know, shambles in terms of current code or whether they're like, no, no, no, we can work with this relatively easy. And that's just that's just a whole nother segment of the new build that you don't have to duplicate.
Can the city say eight hundred like they had before the ADU, they.
Had a requirement that, as an example, a one bedroom must be like, let's say eight hundred square feet, right, I'm not exactly sure of the numbers, but let's just say it was a one bed. If I was going to build a branding place with the ADU, am I exempt from that? Can I still turn eight hundred square feet into two bedrooms? Or could they say no, under o les, eight hundred square feets not is only big enough one bedroom?
Nope, Now you can show them. You show them on the plan where you get two habitable rooms plus you know, a useful kitchen and bathroom and closet space out of that, and they are no longer in a position to shut you down on it.
So thank you, sir.
And my last question is on a contractor. Is there a contractor like to contractors do the plans and contracting or I have to get an architect and a contractor.
Okay, well, okay, a couple of modifications on both of your both of these answers. Yes, there are contractors that do design build. Okay, I'm always a little you know, I'm a I'm a home designer and have been a builder for many years, and as a design I'm always a little bit wary of design build contractors. Not that there aren't some fantastic designers out there who also build, but a lot of contractors who call themselves design build are really not going to give you all your money's
worth in the design department. So just be aware of that. But they are there, and you certainly should investigate that. Uh. You you asked the question about an architect, So just to be clear, yeah, you can totally hire an architect. But in the state of California, Uh, you don't have to be a licensed architect. You can be an experienced designer, a licensed art You don't have to be a licensed architect to build a residential structure up to three stories
in height. You could design it yourself if you want to.
Sure, Okay, that's very good.
You don't need a licensed architect, or you can hire a designer, a decorator, anybody who's got the talent to get that design just right for you, okay, and that thank you.
Great pay you too.
Karen, thanks for these questions, really really good. You're listening to Home with 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