Essential Tools Part 1 | Hour 1

year to you. Today on the show, we're going to start out the year this weekend with something very basic, something very important. You have a home. You want to take care of your home. You need tools, and so we are going to be talking essential homeowner tools. No,

not just a list. Anybody could just throw together a list, but I'm gonna explain to you not only the kind of tool that you should have at your beck and call ready to take care of your home, but why and specifically the kind of tool that you're looking for in each category. It's gonna be fun. You're gonna learn things about tools that you never knew and all along the way, we're gonna equip you for a successful maintaining and caring for your home of twenty twenty five. Let

me introduce you to our awesome team. Sam Is on the board. Good morning, Hold, good morning, Dean. How's it going. It's going good, It's going good. I'm still trying to figure out a couple of things here this morning for twenty twenty five, but we're gonna get it worked out. And I am glad you're here, my friend. Right New Year, I hope you guys had a wonderful New Year. We we did, We did. It was it was pretty solid. I was sad to see it go, although you know,

I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm ready to get back to work. But yeah, we had a good time. All the holidays as a whole were surprisingly good, given the fact that Tina had unexpected surgery at the outset of the holidays and she's been recovering. But you know what, she's doing really really good. My buddy. Eileen Gonzalez on the board, Good morning, Eileen, Good morning Dean. Happy New Year. How are things going for you good.

eight three three two. Ask Dean A three three the numeral two Ask Dean A three three to ask Dean. I think are they are you? Yeah? I think the phone lines are open now, and so uh go ahead give me a call, jump into the queue. You and I can put our heads together. Whatever it's got you scratching your head about your home design construction DIY. You set the agenda when it comes to calls, So give me a call. Let's talk about what's going on with

your home today? Eight three three two, Ask Dean, A three three the numeral two, Ask Dean sitting cross the table, well from me, as always, my better half, as always, my design partner, co owner, co founder of House Whisper, and my best friend in all the world. Tina is here. Welcome home. How you doing good? Yeah? Tired? Sure? Why why are you so tired?

tools this morning, shall we. I think that's a good idea, is starting with well, you know, and it's going to be of course, from my perspective of decades of doing just this kind of thing, not only being a homeowner, but building homes, designing homes, my approach to tools is going to be different, so different than a lot of your typical just DIY list because I want to explain to you why these are the tools that should be in your toolbox. And Neil, we're going to start with this.

Should you even have a toolbox? Yeah? I'm serious about that. Do you need a toolbox? We will hit that one first. Up. Hi, Keam Sharp the house whisperer. Hey, whether you're home is a condo, a cottage, a castle, doesn't matter. I am here to help you take it to the next level.

just that simple, Producer Richie standing by. Phone lines are open now, all right, let's dive in right before the break. I tease you just a bit. The very first thing that we're going to discuss in regards to essential homeowner tools or the essential homeowner toolkit for your house in twenty twenty five is the toolbox, whether or not you should even have a toolbox. And you're like, wait, of course we should have a toolbox. Where am I gonna

put my tools? Well, of course there are those of you, and you know, if you're one of these people, then you don't really need to have the toolbox advice. There are those of you who love, you know, a good garage workshop, or you've got a shed that you've got rigged up set up where you've got peg board or other kinds of you know, tool display and storage stuff. This this bit of advice is actually still for you, just not in the overall storage sense of the word.

But what I'm really speaking to is the average homeowner who has been you know, has a drawer of a few items, or if you go out into the garage, we're like, where are the tools? I was like, well, I have this old screwdriver here and I have it. Yeah, this is for you especially, And my advice is very simply this, I think, and all the big box stores are going to hate me for this, but it is my opinion that by and large, the average home owner does not need to go out and buy into a toolbox.

And I'll tell you why. Toolboxes with their locking lids and all of that kind of stuff are really, really truly designed initially originally for a tradesman, for contractors, for builders who are taking tools and transporting them. Okay, hence an enclosed top toolbox, which, if you think about it in terms of around the house projects, why am I

lugging this toolbox around? Or not lugging it around because it's too big and I've got to keep it, you know, in the garage and I just carry you know, a handful of tools to wherever it is and the house that I'm actually working on a thing, when it could all be very very a lot easier and a lot less expensive. I love a good bucket. Quite a few years ago, Bucket Boss the company came out with this wonderful concept of taking a five gallon bucket, you know,

which is you know, the best buckets out there. Essentially the way they're building, you know, the five gallon bucket is the large bucket that you find in the aisles at the big box store, at the hardware store, metal handle with the plastic roller grip and the top great strong three dollars ninety five cents. Okay, now I'm not abandoning you just to that bucket. Because you get one of those five gallon buckets and you slide into it.

Something that these these range in price anywhere from the mid twenty tease to up to sixty dollars or so, but most most fall in about the thirty ish dollar category, and that is a bucket organizer. A good bucket organizer is made out of like a heavy duty Cordura material. It slides in like a perfectly tailored piece of clothing onto that five gallon bucket, and it holds on the outside of the bucket and on the inside of the bucket up a number of tools because it has a

number of open pockets. Now, a five gallon bucket. You could even make the argument that handled correctly, you can throw that in the back of a truck or a vehicle and take it to a location. But of course, you know, if it tipped over and spilled, then things are can flying out. But generally speaking, the average homeowner or what we're talking today again, the essential homeowner toolkit, right, I don't want to get any emails from you saying

you'll left out this, you'll left out that. This is the essential homeowner toolkits what I call a reactive toolkit, Okay, not a creative toolkit, all right. Creative tools means, oh, I've got a project, I'm gonna build something. All right, You're not gonna find like a circular saw discussed on our Essential Homeowner Toolkit list, because that's let's build something.

This toolkit here is for all of you who just really want to know what tools should I have standing by for when things go wrong, when things get a little wonky, when I've got to fix or tighten or adjust or whatever the case may be. This is a reactive toolkit. And those reactive tools, the thirty plus tools that we're going to be discussing this weekend, they can all fit inside a single, well organized five gallon bucket

with a good bucket organizer in play. And the cool thing about it is that even after these tools are all in place, you've still got space in the bucket for the screws or the nails, or the nuts and the bolts that you had to get to the hardware store to fix the thing. And you simply pick it up and carry it right to the location where you're doing the work, and then when it's done, it sits back in the garage again. So now do I have anything against toolboxes? No, you want to go for it,

go for it. All I'm telling you is truly, truly, I'm not one of those guys who are so deep into you know, this, this whole genre that that I'm going to tell you where you're gonna have to get, you know, a two hundred and fifty dollars set up like this, this that you know and shame you for

not having somehow a pro grade tool organization system. I'm telling you from from decades of experience that even around here at my place, the thing that is most likely to make its trip across the yard or down the hallway in my house is a bucket with a few items in it in order to get any particular task done. This is gonna get you through the five gallon bucket

with the bucket organizer. I like the idea of having two of them for storage and one of them standing empty, ready to load up for a project or whatever the case may be. That will get you through. All Right, what's next? How about just the most classic tool of all, the hammer. But I want you to buy the right hammer. We'll figure that out. You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty, heym I AM six forty live streaming in HD everywhere on the

iHeart Radio app. Dean Sharp the House whisper with you on this first Saturday morning of twenty twenty five. Yeah, we're We're up. You and I we are up. We're at it, We are awake, ish and we're getting it done. Looking forward to the spending the year with you, talking about all sorts of things regarding your home. Today, we're starting out essential tools, reactive tools. What does that mean? Reactive tool? It means if you drop water on them,

will they turn into a dinosaur? No? No, no, no. A reactive tool is a category of tools that, you know, a tool set that we've put together in order to be there in case something goes wrong with the house. That's a totally different set than if you've got a project, a building project. Well it's not a totally different set, but it's a different set then if you've got a building project, and then we're actually creating something as opposed to reacting to something that's gone wrong with the house.

This is your essential take care of the house toolkit for you. And believe me, once you put a set like this together, it's going to be your go to. You're gonna go to these tools, this little set far more often than use anything else along the way. Even if you're a tool officionado and you know, and you pride yourself on having thousands of dollars of tools, especially you guys, you guys should know that this little set of tools is essentially the go to for most things.

And that's what we're stepping through this weekend. Uh, we're also going to be going to the phones in just a bit. The number to reach me eight three three two Ask Dean eight three three The numeral to ask Dean. Producer Richie is standing by ready to tell you what you need to know and pop you into the queue anything that's going on with your house. All right, So we've covered the idea of a basic but super super effective tool organization system or toolbox, not the toolbox, but

the tool bucket. And now of course we have to talk about the quintessential tool, the quintessential tool that actually these days doesn't get used as often as as it used to, but still clearly, I mean, this is the universal thing. If you put tool into your phone, you want a tool emoji, what's gonna come up? Yep, I hammer an image of a hammer. You know, chances are if you're a contractor builder, you know you're gonna have an image an icon on your business card or your

letterhead and there's probably a hammer involved. It's just the classic carpentry tool. So the world of hammers is pretty cray. I mean it really is. It's pretty insane as far as all of the variations of hammers out there. So let me just cut through it for you as a homeowner. As a homeowner, what are we looking for. Let me cut to the chase. Look for a hammer that is somewhere in the twelve to sixteen ounce category. All right, pref preferably, I'm thinking about a fourteen ounce hammer. Okay,

twelve is a little light, it really is. It's a little light for everybody. Sixteen is starting these days to move into a larger scale hammer. Hammers have lightened up a lot because they they've come to a place where we're swinging them faster. And the speed at which a hammer can travel through the air in order to hit the object that you're aiming at makes up for in terms of force for the mass or the heavy weight of the hammer. So, you know, let's say fourteen or

so ounce hammer. Now, one of the most important piece of advice I can give you right now guarding a hammer that you're going to think about buying, is this the shape of the claws, the claws on the back of the hammer. Okay, I don't want them to be heavy curved claws for you, all right. And so what I'm saying is the hammer that you probably picture in your mind, okay, the heavy bent claws. In other words, if you're holding your hammer upright, it's perfectly straight upright.

And if the claws, the tips of the claws on the back of the hammer are essentially pointing down to the floor. That, in my opinion, not your optimal hammer. H Yeah, they have, they have their purposes, okay, but they really, in terms of general practicality, are extremely extremely limited. What we want is what's known as a straight claw hammer, which of course is also a misnomer because there are

very few hammers whose claws are perfectly straight. There's a tiny, tiny, gentle arc to them, but by and large, if you hold the hammer upright, the claws are pointing backwards. Okay, now, don't take this wrong, but the whole idea of the usefulness of these claws is not just in nail pulling, but at times in wedging them in between a couple of pieces of wood or an item, or using it as a wedge to lift something off the floor, to

pry something out. It's the usefulness of claws on a hammer go way, way, way, way beyond just pulling a nail. And you would think, if it's just about nail pulling, you would even think, oh, then the heavier bent claw on the back of the hammer, that's more effective. Well it's fine, it's fine, But here's the thing. The physics on a claw hammer. Well, you know what we're gonna we're gonna save this to the other side of the break.

I want you to hang tight. I'm gonna explain to you why the heavy claw hammer does not get as much done as you might think, and why I'm looking for that straight claw. We'll talk about that you can't fine in sharp the house whisper. Welcome home. Thanks for joining us on the program today. Yeah, if you just tuned in or you just stumbled across us here, you're asking the question, Wow, it's not even seven o'clock in the morning. Is this guy talking about tools? Is is

that what's going on here? Yes? It is, Yes it is. This is the most unique home improvement show that you will find anywhere. Why. Yeah, this morning, I'm talking about tools. I also, if you tune in, you might find me talking about the history of a particular architectural style or design tip for your home. I might be explaining to you why the circular saw that you need has to

have a certain feature to it. Or I may be helping you fix your toilet, or I may be telling you why you bought the wrong accent pillow for the bed. So anywhere in between architecture, design, decor construction that's what we're all about here. Yeah, you can find it all right here. All right, so we are talking essential tools for twenty twenty five. And yeah, Dina's hung up on hammers. I'm not hung up. I just want to explain to you, Okay,

I want you to buy the right hammer. And there's like a gabillion hammers out there that you can choose from. And so what are the essential things? Now? With all the bells and whistles that come with hammers these days, magnetic nail starters, side pulling nail removing slots, all of these kinds of things. I'm just gonna tell you this as an essential homeowner tool, I don't care. I don't care. Whatever you know. You want, all the bells and whistles, fine, just don't let it get in the way of the

essential physics of the hammer. The most important thing to me, other than all right, what we've discussed so far, it should be about a fourteen ounce hammer. Twelve to sixteen, you know, So I'm just picking fourteen right in the middle. About a fourteen ounce hammer. Okay. The claws. I haven't even talked about the face of the hammer yet. The claws are far more important to me at this point.

The claws of this hammer should be gently curved claws or what are known generally in the industry as straight claws versus heavily curved claws. Heavily curved claw When you hold the hammer upright is going to be those claws are going to be pointing down towards the floor. A gentle curve or straight claw hand those claws are going to be pointing out, so that Let's say you had a soft piece of wood or a tree stump in

the backyard. You've got a straight claw hammer if you can basically turn it around, take that and embed it just like bump like an axe right into that wood. A heavily curved claw hammer not so easy to do that because those things are hooked right, so you're not really going to be able to get those stuck into anything. And that's one of the reasons why I don't want

you to necessarily go for that one. Yeah, it has its purpose, and a lot of people think, well, you know, those heavy curves, that's great for pulling nails, is it, though? Is it? I'll tell you what I want you to imagine this and I'll get then I'm gonna get off the claws. Number one another item on our essential tool list here is a nail puller. So no, every professional carpenter will tell you should not be spending or i should say, wasting your time trying to pull a lot

of nails with your hammer. Yeah, of course you will. Of course there will be a nail that you'll pull with your hammer because it presents itself in the optimal situation. But if there are a lot of nails to pull, then you use a nail polar, a cat's pod, and whatever you want to call it. Okay, we'll get it to that. The hammer itself though, Okay, those claws, their primary use for you is not going to be pulling nails. And even if it were, okay, it does not make

a great nail. A nail polar for embedded nails. Okay, try digging into a surface to get to the head of an embedded nail with a claw hammer. It's gonna

be a mess. Okay. So if that nail head is popped up a little bit and you have the opportunity to pull it with your claw hammer, fine, great, super, But understand this, the curved claw set it turn it upside down in your or if you have one, you know, get it out and set it upside down, set it at the angle that it needs with those curve claws in order to get those claws over a nail head. Guess what, your handle of the hammer is going to be sticking out at about a forty five degree angle

because the claws are curved so much. And you think, well, good, I've got good leverage there. Well, yeah, if the nail is just right out in the open, in the middle of nowhere. But let's say that this nail is anywhere near a wall or another surface. Now you've got a hammer with let's say maybe a fourteen inch long handle sitting at a forty five degree angle, which means that the closest you can get this thing in nail pulling mode into a corner or against a wall is going

to be about nine inches away. So if that nail is anywhere closer than that, that curved claw hammer, it's not getting there. It's just not going to reach it. You won't be able to actually get the claws under the head of the nail and be in a tight situation. Hence, the straight claw hammer far far more useful. All Right, you get it. You got me, all right, And of course I would like the face of this hammer for you, for the average homeowner to be smooth, not to be

waffle faced. Okay, not the rough thing that's for larger framing and construction hammers. And it's all well and good if you know what you're doing. But the smooth faced hammer just is going to make do less damage for when it misses or even on a good contact on a nails you're finishing up, just less damage because a waffle hammer, I mean, if it even touches a piece of trim or finished carpentry, it's going to leave that waffle imprint, and now you've got a mess on your hands.

Not to say though, that you should be driving if you're just doing like a little molding repair at your house, that you should be driving that nail all the way into the material with your hammer. Okay. That's what a nail set is for. And that's also a part of your essential list. We'll get to that as well. Nail sets are to finish off that nail without the hammer head getting anywhere near that nice molding or that surface or that drywall or whatever the case may be. So

another just general rule. The hammer head, unless we're just doing rough construction, doesn't get anywhere near the finished material at all. All right. Yet, nevertheless, a smooth head hammer with straight claws about fourteen ounces and a decent handle. What's a decent handle. One that's got a little contour to it for an axe handle grip, then that feathers out and kind of curves forward at the bottom. Just something super ergonomic that fits in your hand real well.

Don't worry about fiberglass and shop absorbing or wood or you know what's the difference between all that, because unless you are planning on driving one thousand nails, guess what, it's not going to matter. It's not going to affect you either way. You're not going to get tennis elbow or sprain attendant in your forearm because you didn't got you know, you didn't buy the most expensive shock absorbing

hammer handle. The fact of the matter is there's two or three nails in your future for this project, and any of them will do. Got it? You got me? All right? When we come back, we've got calls on the board, We're going to the phones your home with Dean Sharp, the house whisperer on Kfi