KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp the House Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio app. Here for you, like we always are here to be a mentor, a design mentor for you, because design matters most an advocate as you wrestle with construction issues in your home, and it's your friend as you take on the noble work of turning your ordinary house into an extraordinary home. Today, I want to talk to you about what's going on with your house. I have no agenda but to talk
with you. Let's talk to Judy.
I have a condo in Carlsbad, and I have about a thirty x twenty foot area of grass, and I have acquired two big dogs in the last couple of years, and like my daughter said, my lawn tern in looks like a cow pasture. Now they're digging, and I've got straw down where they're digging because it's a lot of mud and I want to replace it with another kind of natural grass, but I don't know what to put in.
I'm gonna I'll take a shot in the dark and say bermuda.
Bermuda is a is a pretty.
Dang resilient grass and once it takes it forms a good mat, and I think that's one of the things that will help the most because bermuda gets spongy as a mat of grass, and as a result, it's not the easiest thing for them to dig through. Bermuda is self healing, it's drought tolerant. It will put up pretty well with dogs with pea and the other stuff and
a lot of rough housing. Bermuda grass is usually the grass that's used on the outfield at natural grass baseball stadiums, so it's a it's a sport grass, it's it's it's better for rough and tumble kinds of things. But again, I'm not convinced that two large dogs in just a twenty by thirty foot area they got a lot of time on their hands and they got a lot of tools.
Okay, well that's good. There you go.
So just taking them on more walks, wear them out, and then pop them into the backyard. But that that's probably the best off. The cuff suggestion is take a look at at bermuda as as an opport. But if you're gonna plant there, of course you're gonna have to keep them off of it for a while. Even if you sawed the yard, you're gonna need Even though it's gonna look great on day one, you're gonna need to give it a few weeks for it to really root
in before they get out there and start tearing it up. Judy, good luck with that. I gotta go give Bermuda a shot. Okay, all right, let's talk to Nick. Hey, Nick, welcome home.
Yes, Steve, I have nineteen two storey vaulted ceiling with skylight, cementile, roof and stucckel frame. So had to hold on a track. And my problem is that I haven't lived in it that much since I bought it. I was in the Air Force, and then I also went to UCLA in nineteen ninety four, came on one weekend and I developed the slow leaks in the suit in the roof. I saved the water and fans and I was able to empty it and it was not livable after a time. And I'm wondering, what in the world can I do
and who do I find out? Whether or not, whether it's a contractor whether it's a roof or whatever. What can the house be saved?
Okay?
So where is so? Are we talking about the water damage? Inside the house that you're concerned about or up on the roof itself.
It's the roof that just leaks down on some of the drywall and also the beam that goes across the main part just short just underneath the skylight, and of course that was dripping down, but it was dripping down slow way I always connected it, and of course I was just irresponsible with getting it fixed.
So yeah, here's the good news Nick.
First of all, you got to get the roof fixed, right because you got a leak, and we got to fix the roof, so we have to fix the leak in the roof.
The good news about that you got concrete tile.
Then there's a really good chance that your tile doesn't have to be replaced. It will have to be removed in order to deal with leaks, and hopefully it's not pervasive all over the roof. But the concrete tiles in most cases are lifetime tiles, so they can be with
the right roofer. You got to get a roofer involved, pull up those concrete tiles, readdress the actual waterproofing, because the concrete tiles aren't the waterproofing of the roof, it's the membrane underneath readdress that and any flashing, because that's
likely where the actual problems are with leaks. So first of all, we fix the roof, the good news being it's sort of a reroof or a patch and repair job if it's isolated areas, but you're not going to necessarily have to replace your roofing material, just patch up that membring. Secondly, when it comes to the rest of the house, general contractor. Now there are specialty contractors quote unquote that work for insurance companies out there, mold remediation
contractors and that kind of thing. My first call would not be in that direction because you know, in my opinion, it's not such a specialized situation for you that you would need that and need to pay the higher price tag which generally accompanies that. But a general contractor to open up the drywall in the areas where there has been leaking. We got to open that up. We got to expose the wood. We need to see if there's any actual damage to the wood itself, dry or anything
like that. There probably isn't, not after just a decade or so. There might be, it depends on how pervasive the leaks have been. But we got to open that all up. Make sure that there's no mold growing underneath
the drywall and back of the drywall. Once the drywall has been pulled off and stud walls and ceiling rafters and ceiling joysts have all been exposed, that's where we can get to the mold really easily, spray it out, kill it, bleach it, do whatever we need to do, and then after the roof has been repaired, we rebuild
new drywall and whatever wood repairs are necessary. So you've got some work ahead of you, but not necessarily the end of your home or having to bulldoze it over the key is a forensic examination of where the real damage is, and for that we just need to pull the drywall off in most situations, and drywall is inexpensive to replace in the big scheme of things, So pull
it off. Let's take a look at where the damage is, let's address it, and then pop the skin back on, close the patient up as it were, and we should be off to happiness for the rest of your ownership of this home. Thanks Nick for the call. I appreciate it, buddy, really good question and good luck with that. Don't worry, it's not likely as extensive or crazy as you might think. 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.
Let's talk to Lou. Lou welcome home?
Yes Hi?
Can you hear me?
Okay, Dean, I can. You've been helping me a lot doing a remodel of a condo I have, and I just have a simple It seems to me like a stupid question. The person who's doing it, who's not a registered general contract or anything like that, but he's honest and he's good. We want to there's a toilet in one of the bedrooms that he's suggesting that we replace. The inside mechanism needs certainly needs replacing, but the outside
looks high. My wife says it's old fashioned because it's a low I don't know, a lowrider.
Okay, yeah, that's yeah, low seat toilet. Yeah, gotcha.
He's saying that it's going to cost just as much to replace the toilet as it is to just replace the mechanism. And this guy's honest, so I don't think he's trying to get extra money. Out of me.
All right, So very simple answer to your very and it's not a stupid question at all now unless there is some bizarre configuration going on. I mean, if this is an ancient toilet, like it's a sometimes we run into toilets that, you know, because we do restoration stuff, sometimes we'll use a toilet that literally is one hundred years old and because of the configuration it, you know, we have to do special things inside and we can't just use the standard replacement stuff on the inside. It
doesn't sound like that, like that's the case here. If this is a twenty year old toilets, if it's a thirty year old toilet, anything in that range there, then then no the guts, the flapper ball, the overflow, the water supply, the valve, the float, all of that stuff that goes inside a toilet. I mean we're talking maybe twenty thirty dollars to change that out. And so yeah, people ask all the time, Hey, this toilet's really really old,
so probably it's not going to work right anymore. And my point is there are two really dividing line parts or sections of parts in a toilet. One is the shell itself, a porcelain toilet is just that, and you know it could last for three hundred years. And then there's the mechanics on the inside, and most of the time the stuff that you can buy at the hardware store will pop right in and make the interior brand new. It's like keeping the great old body of a car
and putting a new engine inside. And no, that's not going to cost you one hundred or two hundred dollars to do. It should cost you thirty or forty bucks to do.
So.
I don't know why. I mean, he's an honest guy. Maybe he hasn't taken a look at the cost of those replacement parts yet, or ask him, is there something bizarre going inside that don't that will preclude using the standard replacement parts. So I don't want to impugne him, but I'm just telling you, ninety nine times out of one hundred, we can replace the guts of a toilet for like thirty bucks and boom, it's brand new and
ready to go. Lou, thanks for your question, buddy, really really good question.
All right, let's talk to Anna.
Welcome home, Anna Hidan, Thank you so much for taking my call. I had a question about tiles. I have these beautiful. I think they're called Turkish tiles, and they have these lovely crevices and dents and just little talk marks and holes in them, and I love the look, but I'm thinking of putting it in the kitchen, and I don't want my food and everything else getting stuck in those holes. And I don't know what to do.
So when you say Turkish tile, were we just talking about the shape of the tile?
I was looking them up online. I think another name is travertine.
Oh, okay, so they're made out of travertine. Okay, so yeah, this is a pit and you were thinking about using them on the countertop.
No, on the floor, Oh, on the floor of the kitchen. Okay. Travertine is a gorgeous material. Okay.
Travertine is kind of a stone, that is it is, Well, I'm not going to get all crazy scientific. Travertine is kind of a fossilized limestone. It kind of bridges the gap between limestone and marble. And there's a lot of fossilization in travertine. It's what gives its its it's attractive nature, but it also is what creates all the pitting in travertine. It is a very highly textured surface, as you know. So you only have a couple of choices when it comes to travertine and maintenance.
You either a.
Purchase a travertine in which the pitting has been filled with resins epoxy resins, so that there really isn't any pitting, but that's not really common with travertine, and it's not the easiest thing to do in your case. Your choice is this A you just keep that floor sealed like crazy. Now, ceiling is going to keep stains from developing, but it's not going to keep food and dirt out of the pits, because that's just called gravity and that's just going to happen.
The other option you've got, though with travertine is that when you actually have your tile set or set it, they can not only grout the joints in between the ale, but they can do a swash of grout across the surface and fill the pits in with the grout that you're using in the grout joints.
That will at least like.
Level the pits the look.
Yeah, So that's the thing. If you like the holes and you like the pits, and that's the that's the paradox of travertine. You're gonna have to put up with a little bit more annoyance when it comes to cleaning. That's all there is to it. If you're gonna have pitted areas in your floor tile, you keep it vacuumed, you keep it swept, and keep it clean. And it's going to require some more maintenance. And you know that's that's not me discouraging you from using it. Because Tina
and I quite often we will explain thoroughly to a client. Listen, we would love for you to use this material, but this is going to require more maintenance than not. That's not a deal breaker. It should never be a deal breaker. It should simply be something that you go into with your eyes open, fully aware. You know, I don't want people to put in artificial turf. Here's a perfect analogy. I don't want people to put in artificial turf to
replace their front lawn or their backyard. I don't mind artificial turf you have, like a little putting green or a sport cord or something, but not to replace your lawn. Now, I get it. Artificial turf requires zero maintenance. It's also look okay, I'm not gonna comment anymore on artificial turf, so I want you to have grass there instead, But grass needs watering and fertilizing and weeding and mowing. Is
it worth it to me? Absolutely, no question whatsoever. So are there hard scape materials that we put inside the house sometimes which need more maintenance than others?
Yes? Is the beauty and the look and the effect worth it?
Absolutely And I can't use an epoxy myself. Can I use the epoxy like you mentioned, if I already bought the tiles with the holes, can I use epoxy to fill the holes?
You can.
You've got to do it super carefully, though, because anybody epoxy residue that you get on the surface of the travertine is going to mar the finish of the rest of the travertine. But it sounds like to me when I even suggested you filling it up with grout, which is the easier way to do it, to fill up those holes with grout, If you're going to fill up the holes with epoxy, you're still filling up the holes, so you're losing that pitting effect that you want so much.
So the main issue I think, Anna is that is that you're going to have to decide do you want the look and is it worth the maintenance to deal with the pitting or do you just not so whether you fill it with epoxy resin or whether you fill it with grout. Either way you're going to fill up the holes. That's going to change the appearance of the tile. 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.
Brent, welcome home.
Hey, how you doing?
Dan?
Good good?
I have a question about the safety handrails in bathrooms. Okay, I've noticed at the home depot and stuff that they don't come in sixteen in intervals, like the studs.
In the wall.
Yes, how would I attach those to the wall without breaking them off if I fall?
That's a really good question. Yeah, questions. Yeah, you've got two choices here. Number One, whenever we rig out a bathroom for potential handrail safety rails, whether present or future, safety rails will when we frame the bathroom out, we will locate where we want those rails and we put solid blocking in between the studs at the height and at the width of where we want those future rails to be. That way, we don't have to depend on
the studs all by themselves. Uh and uh, and we simply uh, we've got all wood there, so a flat two by block in between studs all the way across. Now, if you're really serious about mounting your rails appropriately there wherever you want to mount them, than what you want to do is you're going to want to remove a little dry wall and uh and actually put in that solid blocking so that you can screw those rails in
exactly where they need to go. The other option is, and sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't, is you can put a you know, a sloped angle on a grab bar. Sometimes it's actually convenient if there's one adjacent to a toilet or adjacent to a shower, to actually put a little slope on it. In some ways it's easier to access, especially if the angle is kind of facing you, and by by putting a little bit of angle on the
grab bar. Now understand when I say this that that that this is a This is not the recommended American Disabilities Act methodology for doing this, but there is no direct requirement in a residential bathroom for ADA compliance to grab bars. So the point is you're free to put the grab bars anywhere you want, because you're not talking
about a commercial bathroom. There are the recommendations horizontal in certain locations, but if you need to angle it that way, you can actually get a grab bar sometimes that is longer than a stud a couple of stud bays to actually hit the stud left and right, because by angling it you're shortening the overall width of the of the bar application. But the primary method for doing it is to solid block the wall.
Well, I don't really want to tear apart my bathroom, right, but I thought about using the angles, but I wasn't quite sure of that. Now can the bars themselves be cut to fit?
Some bars can?
And yet another good point here there are some bars that you can find, whether or not they're available at your local hardware store. You can find some bars who's radius right at the end is actually an insert, okay, into the main tube. They have to be careful. These
can't just be any cheap old towel bar situation. But there are bars ADA approved that have reinforced ends inserts, and that means that the actual curve back or return to the wall is separate than the main tube, and that way you could take that main tube, cut it to size as necessary to fit your stud bay, and get at least a couple of those main anchoring screws right into the studs. But you got to find those online. Do a little searching around, but they're there.
Okay, Well, I thank you so much for helping me.
You are so very welcome, sir, and have yourself a great Sunday.
Let's talk to Gary. Hey, Gary, welcome home.
Moved into a new house, and my dryer is not drying the clothes.
Check it out.
That's all fine.
It goes through the wall, forty five goes up eight feet, another forty five goes out ten feet, so that puts me at about twenty eight feet, and I've read that it should be at thirty five feet. But it's just not getting enough.
I don't know.
I've run a camera the garden blower through their vacuum cleaner, so it's clean. What are your ideas other than put it in a booster fan.
I have no ideas other than putting in a booster fan, because putting in a booster fan is what you should do when they give you ratings about how far a dryer vent can go. You know, you take that, you know, with a grain of salt, because a dryer is not
a high pressure air blowing scenario. And you got to think you got all that humidity, all that moist air in there, and now we're asking it not only to travel twenty plus feet away from the dryer, which is enough on some dryers to just shut down their effectiveness right there, even if it was purely horizontal, but in addition to that, you're asking it to turn a couple of corners and go up eight feet vertical all at
the same time. In my opinion, it is absolutely too far to ask that moist are to go on the part of the dryer. But the good news is, as you are already aware, there are these things that when we run an extra long dryer vent out of necessity from design or the access in a laundry room and or a garage area, there are dryer vent booster fans, and they are air activated or switch activated along with the dryer. They turn on when the dryer's on, they
turn on when the dryer's off. And yeah, so what you need is a mechanical boost to the air flowing so that you get the moisture out of the dryer. Bottom line, booster fan is the way to go. Unfortunately, that's the only proper solution in that situation. But fortunately, you know, they don't necessarily break the bank to install them, and they're pretty easy to put in.
I just didn't want to climb up in the attic biletricity. I was hoping I could find one that I could just put right at the bottom of the dryer.
Yeah.
Their best, Yeah, no, they're they're actually best, you know. Okay, so you remember hot wheels. You know, I had a hot wheel set when I was a kid, and they in order to in order to keep your hot wheels going on the track, there used to be this little booster station, which are these two little discs that spin and they grab the car right as it's starting to kind of poop out on the energy, and that throws it forward and you can just keep your hot wheels
going in the loop all day long. The booster fan is not best at the dryer. It's it's best somewhere along the way, like at the halfway point or maybe a little further along, right as it's all starting to you know, to lose its momentum. That's where the fan is going to be most effective. You're going to have to get up in the attic and put that birthister fan up there. Thanks for your call, Gary, I appreciate your spirit. And yeah, booster fan on the dryer vent.
Do not run your dryer event a half mile away from your dryer and expect it to expect the air, which is just passive air coming out of the dryer to blow all the lint and the moisture out. It's not going to work. 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.
We are taking your calls, which I love. I love talking to you about whatever's going on with your home today, whether it's a DIY question, construction issue, a design question. I love design questions. So anyway, I would love to help. So why don't we just dive back in. All right, let's talk to Paul. Hey, Paul, welcome home.
Hey, good morning, Dean.
Thanks for getting my call.
Props.
So I'm building a fire.
Pit in the backyard and I'd like to run the gas line before I have a concrete pad port over it. So my question is what diameter pipe do I need to use.
That's a good question. It really all depends on how big the fire pit is. It's just kind of a standard little twenty four thirty six diameter fire pit. Then you could get away with a half inch line, but since it's all new, I prefer to run a three quarter inch line. I've got a three quarter inch line running to my fire pit. Of course, my fire pit, the rock itself is about eight and a half feet long, and the actual burners are two four foot a pair of two four foot linear burners, so there's a lot
of fire there line of fire. But as a general rule, you know, I like fire pits to be warm. I like fire at my fire pit because the whole point of a fire pit is not just to sit next to one when it's eighty degrees outside in the middle of summer, but to be able to enjoy it when it's cold outside. And when it's cold outside, you need more than just a little trickle of flame coming out. So I would say run the three quarter inch line. But and here's the important qualifier to that, you run
a three quarter inch line. You're not gonna want to run it most of the time at full bore. And so the key, the gas key that you're turning your firepit on and off with, you shouldn't use that to choke down the gas because if you do, it's so close to where the gas comes out of the actual burner that you're gonna get a hiss or a whistling
sound because of gas cavitation in the line. So pick you know, wherever the gas line is coming out of the house, away from the house, or you know, take twenty thirty feet away from the fire pit, run a three quarter inch line, and then put a linear valve right there. Then you can control the flow of the line and then use your key at the fire pit
to just full on, full off. If you put a valve, a flow control valve a twenty feet plus away, then the cavitation by the time it reaches the fire pit has settled down and you can set it to any intensity you want from the very faintest of flame all the way to the bonfire and you'll get no change in sound whatsoever. So my suggestion, yeah, I run the three quarter inch line and give yourself some options. Paul Thanks for your call, buddy. All Right, man, three hours
just blazes by, doesn't it. What a great time on the program today. Thanks for all of our callers, thanks for our crew here, and again, just hope you're gonna have a fantastic rest of your afternoon. I'm going to leave you with this thought today. I don't know if you've noticed, but the world can be an emotionally hazardous place. Oh, which is why one of the greatest treasures of my life is the precious handful of relationships in which I know it is safe to be fully myself, fully honest,
without fear of rejection. When we think about our tribe, the people to whom we belong, I think we often miss the point of tribe. Tribe is so often understood as a function of family of origin, or lifestyle or belief system. But what I have learned about finding my tribe is that none of those traditional categories hold up under real pressure. Just because somebody grew up in the same home with you does not make them your people.
Just because somebody looks like you, lives like you, is at the same financial level as you, believes like you, or votes like you, doesn't make them your people. Your people are the people with whom you can, for lack of a better term, be naked and unafraid with. Your people are the people who accept you and get you and truly value you. Regardless of whether those other factors are in play. The only creed they need to confess, The only litmus test is you. Those people are your people. Now,
how do you find those people well? To be honest, I am not exactly sure letting go of the false concepts of tribe would be a good start, but I think it also starts with being one of those people yourself, and most of all, nurturing a relationship with that one person at the top of the list from whom you need the most honesty and the most unconditional acceptance.
And of course I'm talking about you.
Self loathing, self condemnation, self doubt, self shaming, and endlessly rehearsing the long list of reasons why you are a fraud, why you don't measure up, why you aren't worth it, why you don't deserve it, why you need to do such and such or be more like so and so in order to prove your worth. It's exhausting, and we all do it, but Strangely, not liking or accepting yourself somehow feels like wisdom and tough love. But the truth is,
I mean, the real truth. None of it has ever helped, has it not ever?
Not once? Why?
Because it's not wisdom or keen insight or honesty or tough love. It's actually self abuse. Now, I don't know why it takes so long for most of us, me included, to truly become our own best friends. All I know is the day that that begins to happen, and is the day life truly begins. That is the day that you're ready to recognize your tribe. Perhaps they're not here yet, perhaps they've been here all along. Fortunately, you don't have to be the first person in your life to love
and accept you. You weren't actually, But you do have to be the first member of your own fan club before others are allowed to join in. Is that selfish? No, it's self care. It's what every lifeguard, first responder, and flight attendant knows about how to save others. In case of cabin depressurization, oxygen masks will drop from the compartment above.
Please fix your own mask first before helping those next to you, because you know what, if you're chasing someone else's misplaced belief of what it means to be a hero, it may kill you both. Honestly, the greatest gift you can ever give yourself is your own friendship, a friendship filled with regular day time for you to be with you, time for self reflection, wrapped up in complete and utter honesty, but without judgment. That is not always easy, but it's
always healthy. Everything meaningful in life must learn to survive honesty. Your tribe will survive your honesty. You will survive your honesty. Honesty and acceptance. Or how you build a great relationship honesty and acceptance, or how you build a whole safety net of relationships honesty with an acceptance of yourself, Well, that is how you build yourself a beautiful life. Everybody, enjoy the rest of today, and we'll see you right back here next week. 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 any time on demand on the iHeartRadio app.