KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp the House Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio app. All right, we are spending the morning talking about the small things, the small little fix it tips and tricks and techniques that end up, in my experience, really frustrating most di wires when they get into a project. It's not the big concept. It's not following the instructions. It's finding out I don't know how to use this damn screwdriver the
right way. Well, you know we're going to get there, and so I'm handing out pearls today. But right now, top of the hour, and is our tradition, it is time to go to the phones, and so let's talk to John. Hey, John, welcome home.
Dean, Thank you for taking the call. Appreciate it.
You're so welcome. How can I help you?
So we have a nineteen fifty six style stucco house in Riverside. It was probably last painted, who knows when ninety year old guy owned it. We've been there four years. It's going to need paint work and repair to the stucco, the rafters and so on. My question is do we do a regular paint job, or do we go with something like a rhino coat, which I know was advertised a few years ago, or on KFFI there's Fitztower, but
also I think it's doing a tech coat product. The interesting thing about those they say it's lifetime, although you're stuck with the color, but the fact it's also lifetime and it might have some fire retaught and built in. The Other thing is, since you're working with a contractor as opposed to a painter who does repair work, sometimes they do really lousy work. So what you're feeling on first the type of product and secondly, who's best to do that type of work.
Well, a painter is you know, a professional license paint is best to do the work in my opinion, or you as the homeowner. It's one of those things. Painting is one of those things where you know house painting, where the fact of the matter is if you're willing to go through the steps and do these same steps that even though there are a number of them, same steps that a regular contractor will do. They may do it quicker, a little bit more efficiently, but they won't
necessarily do a better job than you. So it's really a question of is somebody following through with all the steps. Okay, it's not so much the deft hand of the professional painter. We're not painting Mona Lisa's here. We're putting, you know, liquid materials on surfaces that have been prepped properly and masked off properly. So no denigration whatsoever to professional house painters. I love you. I love the work you do. But the fact of the matter is it's not fine art.
It is a craft, it is a trade. It is a series of well executed steps. So can a contractor do that? Of course? Can you do it? Yes, professional painter?
Yes?
Does it matter to me? Who does it not? Particularly? What matters to me is whether somebody is stepping through all of the necessary steps. And when I say all the necessary steps, I mean that. On any paint job, for any home, the standard rule is that you know, ninety percent of the work is prep preparation, patching done right, preparation done right, opening up the existing surface, priming the existing surface properly, and so on. The last thing. The
application of the paint itself is the easy part. It is the prep work and the elbow grease that goes into getting those surfaces ready for paint that not only make the difference in the appearance of the paint, but make all the difference in the world as to the longevity of the paint. And that takes me to your second question about materials. The fact of the matter is, since that house was painted, the entire there is there is,
it's kind of a misnomer. Should I use regular paint or some of this new fangled stuff that's come out. Everything is new fangled, Okay, it's all new fangled. Every paint company, Benjamin Moore, this is the pink, the paint brand that I use almost exclusively inside and out on most homes. But whether it's Benjamin Moore Paint, whether it's Done Edwards, whether it's any major brand of paint company, or it's these specialty products like rhino coat and these
other elastameric products. The fact of the matter is every major manufacturer is continuing their research and development and continuing to move their products forward. So the question is as a designer, well, I'll put it this way. As a contractor, I am confident in any well applied quality exterior product. So I know this may not help you because I'm not saying something like yeah, use the rhino coat. Forget
about regular exterior house paint or vice versa. What I'm saying is that any well applied quality exterior product is going to do great right. So, as a contractor, I know it's all in the prep and the quality of the product. Whether it's regular air quotes here house exterior house paint, whether it has a fire resistant element in it or which there are plenty of, and or whether it's an elastimeric stucco coating paint or coating. The fact of the matter is if the prep was done right
and if the application was done right, I'm confident. So that's the contractor, that's the builder in me, all right, So I'm turning away from the builder now and talking to the designer in me. The designer wants specific colors, specific textures, specific sheens on the outside of that house. And so the question is from a design perspective, which of those products are actually going to give us the
best look for the outside of the house. And that is what often not always John, but often leads us back away from some of the specialty stuff, the elastimeric rhinotype coatings. Back to the major paint manufacturers, with you know, ten gabillion colors and all of the finishes that I need, and their top of the line exterior paints applied well. Paint these days is a brilliant science. It's in its
golden age. It has only gotten better. And like I said, a well prepared house, well patched stucco in good condition without moisture intrusion in it. Any paint that you put on the house, I guarantee you done well, could take you thirty plus years. And the elastimeric coding never actually seen one that's more than thirty years old without some
issues in it. I know they say lifetime, but then again, you know, thirty forty years later, those companies, a lot of them don't exist anymore, so they don't have to worry about honoring a lifetime warrantine, right.
And I appreciate this very much. This is extremely helpful. And you know, you bring up a good point about color choices, because you know, most of the houses in the wood streets here in Riverside, they're Beiji. Everybody goes pretty mundane. And we would like to add a little sponkan to this house, obviously, and with detail and so on, as far as gabby rafters and things coming off the
roofline which will need to be replaced. Do you feel that a good paint contractor can handle that or are we talking about somebody who needs to have a greater expertise.
Well, as far as replacing rafter tails that are damaged, I would turn to a carpenter for that. If it's a matter of there's been some moisture damage or some bug damage, termite damage, and we just need to apply some bondo to an existing rafter, A qualified painter should be able to do that, just by.
As always, thank you very much. I don't know if you remember, but last year you helped you often to actually go get some UV material for us so my wife for says MS and we were going to redo her studio. We still are in the midst of doing that, so I might be in touch for that at some point. As always, thank you and Tina very much. Take care, be well and stay safe.
Thanks John, thanks so much for being such a committed listener, and good luck on that new project. All right, Kindness, patience, bit of creativity and respect. That's what you get when you call in here.
You're listening to home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty.
We're talking fix it tips and tricks, the kind of stuff that you're not hearing on YouTube videos. I'm talking about the little things, the little things that end up making all the difference, the tiny, tiny little tips and techniques that you have to do in a DIY project, maybe multiple times that nobody told you exactly how that works, and in my experience, it becomes one of the biggest points of frustration as you're working out your spring DIY stuff.
And so take an entire show today to just give you just a list of pearls of wisdom when it comes to that. We're going to get back to that in just a bit, but right now we're taking calls. I want to go back to the phones. I'm going to talk to John A. John A. Welcome home.
Hey, good morning, Dean, to you and your staff. My question is pertaining to I had a mahogany front door installed about just about a year ago and they put a stain on it. Well fast forward to now almost a year. It doesn't look too good, looks like it's starting to aid a little bit. So I'm looking to tackle the project and redo it myself. What they use was some bar thine premium wood stain from the big box store. Okay, And I just wanted something just like
a clear matt finish, keeping the natural color. And it did stain it, and they didn't prep it correctly because there's still some like factory small little holes and deans and stuff like that. So also what's the best stuff to use to cover up those holes? So later on this when you stain it, it doesn't bleed.
Through right right? Right? Oh? Okay? Uh? What direction does this front door face?
It faces south? And also it's uh, it's got vertical it's got about nine rectangular vertical windows going across it. But it does face south.
Okay, gotcha.
So it gets a good it gets it gets some exposure to the sun.
You know what. It does get like probably half to date from the bottom about the middle to the bottom. It gets sun. And then when it does rain, the uh, it does get a little bit of us splashing from the concrete toward the water hitting the concrete. So something to seal it up for elements.
Okay, I got you, all right, So here is my suggestion to you and understand and where oh you know what, you know what John we'll running a little.
Behind, as I do sometimes.
Can I pop you on hold real quick, because I'm gonna give you and everybody else who's listening, who is the exact same situation. They're thinking, Oh my gosh, finally he's going to answer this question. I just want to give it the time that it is due. So let me pop you back on hold. We're going to go to a break and we'll come back and I'm going to tell y'all how I feel about mahogany front doors and how to treat them.
Right. Does that sound good? All right? Pop John on hold.
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty.
We're taking calls. I've got John on the line. Let me make sure I didn't hang up on him.
John.
You're still there, Bud, Yes, I'm still here. Dean all right.
So John has got a mahogany front door face and said, gets a little sunlight, gets a little weather. That guys put it in about a year ago, stained it. Now it's not looking so great, fading back.
It's got a.
Little few little pock marks in it. And he wants to know what to do and what's the best way to treat this. So I'll tell you right now, John, And the reason I held you over is because I wanted to give this more thorough explanation and make an argument for my approach to this kind of thing. And you're free to do it anyway you want. There are two schools of thought when it comes to exterior grade doors.
One school, which is what I would call the traditional school of thought, or maybe the most popular school of thought along these lines of exterior doors, is that you know, you just you seal them up, you wrap them in plastic, and you do everything you can to protect them from all sorts of weather. And that basically means that if there's a stain on there that you're gonna prep it, you're gonna restain it.
Uh. And then you're gonna put on at.
Least two coats of exterior grade polyurethane and in hopefully a satin or a matte finish so it doesn't get all shiny on you, and you're just gonna seal up the door. Some people are gonna say, no, don't use polyurethane. Use marine grade spar varnished, you know, like you do on a boat. And uh and that's all.
You know.
These are all approaches, right, That's one school of thought, the seal it up, plasticize.
It, and and and done.
I agree with that on doors that are made of less I don't want to say lesser material, because I love all wood, but woods that aren't necessarily, you know, naturally prone to resisting moisture. So uh, you know pine doors, I mean those doors like that, Douglas fir doors, you're asic doors. Yeah, let's put as much protection on them as possible. You, my friend, have a mahogany front door. Understand that I, when it comes to woods like that, am of the other school of thought, and that is this.
I like wood. I love wood. I'm a woodworker, I'm a joiner, I'm a carpenter. And one of the things that just keeps me fascinated with doing that kind of stuff, despite the fact that I spend all my time designing houses,
is the fact that I just love wood. And so when I'm looking for a certain color out of a piece of wood, I prefer to just find the right species of wood that gives me that color and keep it natural, as opposed to buying a door, let's say, out of any species of wood and then staining it to try and get it look a different way. Okay, I love natural wood and I think it's just the most beautiful thing on the planet. And when it comes to an exterior door, a mahogany door, Mahogany is a
tropical rainforest hardwood. It is a wood that is as moisture resistant in and of itself as a wood gets okay for the most part, just short of being an iron wood. And so you have on your hands there an incredibly weather resistant door. And my approach to that is keep it simple and keep it beautiful. And what I mean by this is the first approach that I described.
It will last, but at some point down the line, no matter how quality the application is of plastic coatings, varnishes and polyurethanes, at some point down the line, there will be yellowing, there will be cracking, and there will be the need to redo it, at which point you've got all these layers of chemical all over this door,
and it's gonna be a whole thing. As opposed to taking the beauty of this mahogany and simply taking it from where it is now, giving it a good clean, a good sanding, a tiny little bit of patching and repair work with a stainable wood putty. Okay, a stainable wood putty. And they're out there, they're they're they're sold, and they go out of their way to tell you this is sustainable wood putty. And then here is my preference. Strip that door down, get it past its its old stain,
get it nice and uniform and looking beautiful. Sanded it down, smooth and beautiful and lovely, and cover it. Wipe it down with one or two coats of a great uv resistant penetrating mahogany oil. Okay, you can use teak oil. You could use tongue oil, any kind of oil like that that binds with the natural oils in the mahogany. It brings out nothing but the natural color of the mahogany. And it lasts, and it really really does last. And here is the key. It will not necessarily last as
long as the polyurethane stuff. If that's done well, maybe you get two or three years out of it, and then you start to see it looks like a little fade.
But guess what.
At that point, because you've just oiled this doore, all you do is walk into the garage, take your bottle of tongue oil, open it up, squeeze a little bit out on a rag, and walk out to your front door. You spend five minutes re rubbing your door, and you're good to go again, and it's like brand new once again. That is my opinion of the best way to maintain and treat what is already and incredibly beautiful and moisture
resistant exterior door. The idea of five minutes of touch up every couple three years, to me, seems like not a big deal. Versus I know at one point I'm gonna have to take this all apart, strip it all down, and redo it all again because it has this southern exposure and it's getting blasted by the sun. I'm way way more in favor of the beauty, the texture, the touch of a well oiled, natural, open grain piece of wood.
I'll give you one more example. The countertops. Half of the countertops in my kitchen are made out of black walnut. I know that because I installed them myself. Black walnut, no polyrthane, no sealers on them. All I do is use a food grade mineral oil, butcher block oil. To you know, every three months or so, give it a wipe down, and whoop, they're brand new, no moisture damage,
no color damage. Everybody loves the touch of the wood because when they touch these countertops, they're touching wood, not the plastic coating on top of it. And it just means all the world to me. That's what I would recommend to you. Does that make sense?
Oh, yeah, that makes sense, Dean, You're a life saver. Just to follow up on that, do you suggest I handsand it or I use a machine and just go real gentle with it. And it seems like it's still salvageable where I can take that coding or that staining that they did off. And I did listen to your show a couple weeks ago about a pencil trick where you kind of scribble with a lead pencil and that way you know that you're not going too deep. So just what are your thoughts on that?
Yeah, actually that was me and Conway talking on Thursday, and I'm as, actually, you've spilled the beans.
Now.
Now that's the.
Next trick that I'm going to have to discuss on the show today because I was going to talk about it anyway. So that's fine. Great, but yeah, no, I mean hand sanding. And if you can fit a you know, an orbital variable speed sander, use that because they do
the job without crossing the grain the wrong way. You know, why why put in all the elbow grease If you can fit a sander on the surface of the door, so variable grain, you start with maybe one hundred and eighty grit sandpaper and then work, you know, use the pencil trick which everybody else we will describe shortly, and use the pencil trick and uh, and then just keep up backing off on the grains, go to two hundred and plus until it's just really nice and smooth and beautiful,
and then you're ready to go. And and by the way, there are natural tongue oil is naturally UV resistant, but there are also some really good wood oils out there that have an extra UV resistant quality in them. They'll hold up longer that southern sun exposure.
Excellent. Sounds good, Dean, Thank you very much. I look forward to doing this, man. I can't thank you enough.
Well, John, send me a pick when you're done, buddy, I want to see that beautiful mahogany door that I'm just gonna want up you want to go up to and just rub my hands all over it because it's wood, real wood, not wood behind glass.
All right, y'all, how about this.
When we return, We're going to get back to our list and the very first thing on the list.
John just gave you a teaser for.
The sanding pencil trick if you weren't with me on the Conway Show Thursday night. It is, in my opinion, one of the best tricks tips out there in the world of DIY and construction and one of the least known by homeowners. And I'm going to reveal it right after.
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six Forty's.
A privilege and an honor as always to spend time with you on this sun every Sunday morning live here talking about this thing that is so important to all of us, our homes and turning our ordinary houses, if possible, and it is possible, into an extraordinary home.
How am I doing it today?
I'm helping you do it today by talking about the little things the DIY fix it tips that you're not going to necessarily see in that YouTube video or in that instructional sheet or those set of instructions for that big project that you're trying to take on. I'm talking about the things that once you're in it, you know, once you're in it, you find out, Oh I wish I actually knew a little bit more about this one thing that I'm doing now, because this is the thing
that frustrating me. That's what I'm trying to dress for you today. The little things kind of almost sub instructional tips that make all the difference. And I believe me in my experience, they really really do.
Now.
Our previous caller had a mahogany front door and we had a whole conversation about refinishing that in oil as opposed to sealing it. And he had brought up that he had heard me say he thought it was a few weeks ago. Was actually just Thursday night on Conway. By the way, on Tim Conway's show, I'm there every Thursday night from six twenty until six fifty, so you tune in. We always have a really good time. I loved Tim, and he loves talking to me about all things.
He loves throwing stuff at me just to see how well I can hit those pitches, and I you know, I do pretty good anyway. Talking to Tim in preview of today's show, I had mentioned something to him which is, in my opinion, it is one of the most This is a weird one. It's one of the most well known tips or tricks in the woodworking and anything having to do with sanding community among builders and crafts people, and simultaneously, I think it's one of the least.
Well known among di wires and homeowners. And so what is it?
Well, Johnny brought up the question of like sanding, you know, when you're standing a door or anything of importance. Let's say you've got a sanding project to do. Maybe you've got a table or patio table or something that you decided, you know what, it's all kind of screwed up. I want to sand it down and just give it a new look. How much standing is enough? How do we know once we start sanding a thing? You know, the problem is you forget where you've been with the sander.
You're not sure, and all of a sudden you're doubting, have I covered that area enough? Have I covered this thing enough? Have I sanded enough for this first sheet of sand paper? And you know the general rule by the way, when I say first sheet of sand paper, I'm not talking about that you standing until the sandpaper
is no good anymore. I'm talking about the fact that when we're sanding something back to a finish, we always start with the more coarse sand paper to give it a hit, take off the big stuff, the big problems, and then we pull that sand paper off the sander or off our sanding block, and we put on a finer grit sand paper and give it a once over, and then a finer grit sand paper and a finer
grit sandpaper. Sometimes on a project where we're really trying to get fine furniture finish on a thing, we may go through four or five steps of grit of sand paper from something that's more course to something that is super fine. But the question is, for each of those steps, for each of those layers, how do you know you've covered everything and how do you know you've sanded it enough? Well, here's how you know. All you need to accomplish this
task is a number two pencil. Now, you may have a lumber pencil if you're you've got a workshop and you use those kinds of that's fine. That's the same kind of lead, but a number two pencil. You know that you used to take the sat with fill in those boxes with a number two pencil, a number two pencil. And here's what you do. Here's the table before you that we're standing. Here's the surface. I want you to take that pencil, and there's a very important pencil. Not
a pen not a sharpie. We're not looking for something that is going to soak in. That's not good. A number two pencil, which is essentially a writing implement that leaves its residue on the surface of a thing. And I want you to just scribble all over the top of that table. I'm calling it a table because that's in my imagination. Here, that's what we're standing, from corner to corner, edge to edge, and all across the middle.
Just scribble all over it. And then take out your sander with your first course of sandpaper and sand off the pencil mark.
Ah.
Guess what When the pencil mark is gone, When the scribble that you just created is gone, you have done two things. Number one, you have sanded enough, and number two, you have sanded everything evenly because the scribble was all over the surface. That, my friend, is the sanding pencil trick. And then what do you do?
What do you do?
You change out your sandpaper to the next course of fineness and scribble all over the table again. It's fun and it works out your frustrations, and you can write notes to the people who've been annoying you and then erase them with your sander once again. Keep doing that until you have moved to the finest grit of paper that you are going to use to finish your project, and you will have sanded everything evenly and everything enough. Pencil doesn't just sit solely on the surface, otherwise you'd
be able to wipe it off like chalk. Pencil up in most wood surfaces is going to penetrate a fraction of a millimeter, and that's usually all we're looking for. Every time we change sandpaper, coarseness and hit it again the pencil trick. Mark it down. Mark this date down in history. Today is the day that you learned the sanding pencil trick. All right, I got more of them up my sleeve. We'll talk about it right after the break. You are 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 your app