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Dean And just another reminder. Today the last day to sign up for next week's Holiday Home Show, a live audience event that you can be invited to right here at iHeart Studios in Burbank, and we're going to fill up the helpful Honda Lounge. It's going to be a lot of fun special guests. Al Dick Home is sponsoring it. They're going to decorate one of their acculate Christmas trees right before our eyes during the show and then give
it away to a lucky audience member. All of that happening a week from today, and today is the last day that you can enter to win. All you have to do on social media is go to our Instagram or our Facebook page Home with Dean. You'll find the holiday post right at the top. All you have to do is comment and say, hey, I would love a chance to win a seat you and a plus one. By the way, that's how we give the seats away, so you don't have to come along, you and your
plus one. And if you've already entered, check your messages on Instagram and Facebook, because we very well may have reached out to you already to notify you, and you only have till the end of today to get back to us to confirm that you want to go. So there you go. All right, that's all happening next week. Very exciting. All right, it is time to go to the phones. Let's talk to Let's talk to Rick. Hey, Rick, welcome home.
Hello, and good morning. I have a electrical transformer in my backyard. There's one every five houses. I've had the DWP come out and they did a two week test
on it. It does operate within its margins. I also called eight hundred dig because I want to put up a fence, and eight hundred Dig came out and marked the ground down where the underground wires and piping is and for where not the dig So I know that, and I've been googling lots of fabric and material and using wood and a space put material make a space to absorb the vibration of the coils of this transformer.
Speaking to the DWP people, I've expressed that it's not the actual noise, it's the vibration hum that penetrates, and so he recommended. Also, I call my city council person who I'm talking to tomorrow morning, and all the neighbors have this same issue, but nobody's ever done anything about it. And I'm a new homeowner here, and if I'd known about it, I don't think i would have bought the place. And that's where I'm at. All types of material is
out there. A lot of it comes from other states back East though, and I don't know whether to build some type of a dome or you know, how to contain the vibration from the coils the sound. That's my issue.
Okay, all right, So you've got a ground based transformer sitting in the corner of your yard and and it's making it's making noise. And again, now are you feeling the vibration down through the ground or are You're just saying it's the vibration that's making its way through the yard and becoming a sound factor.
Correct. And also my next step is a noise ambient noise level complaint. That's that's the next thing. But yes, it's just the humming of it. Also found out that this is a sixty year old unit and where I used to live was also all electric and they were updated units and they're so quiet. So that's there's a big difference between this ancient device and new gyptology.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. All right, Well, here's my advice. Do not break the bank. Okay, it's wise. It's first of all, it's wise to consider a well planned uh sound reduction wall. Okay, it's a good idea. So I'm all for it, and uh and I want to help you understand how you can go about doing it. I I but I also don't want you to break the bank on on the highly expensive materials to get this done, okay, uh. And the reason the reason is this, Uh, there are there
are not uh a ton of soundproofing materials. In fact, I'll go so far as to say I know of zero. And this is from somebody who has built sound studios before recording studios. I mean, soundproofing is part of you know, what we do. I know of no soundproofing material that is specifically explicitly designed for exterior use. Okay, it's all just a carryover of standard soundproofing materials. And the problem with that is that it's never just Soundproofing is a
layered thing, and it's never just about the material. It's never there's no wonder material out there. Sometimes mass loaded vinyl. I'm sure you've researched it and come across some info that sometimes mass loaded vinyl is kind of touted as a wonderkinned material, like the ultimate wonder material when it
comes to soundproofing. In fact, when you go to and I'm giving you this illustration for a reason, when you go to the International Builders and Design Show, there's always a company selling mass loaded vinyl and you walk by their boot and what they've got is a massive speaker, I mean just a really loud speaker sitting on their counter and there's a box over it. Okay, literally, they've built a box that just sets over this speaker, and the inside of the box is lined with mass loaded vinyl.
This incredibly heavy, very thick, very dense material, and it's very very useful as a soundproofing material. The box sits over the speaker and it's silent, silent, and then they pull the box off and you realize that the speaker is blaring, I mean, just incredibly loud. But here's the thing. If there was a one inch hole in that box, Okay, all the mass loaded vinyl in the world would not keep that thing.
Okay, it has a vent on top. It has to be vented too.
Exactly exactly.
So what I'm doing with this illustration is I am adjusting your expectations. I think you are best to build a sound baffling wall, but I think you're also best to continue your efforts with the city. In fact, you know what, Rick, I don't want to go long into this break and make the next one short. But there are a couple other things that I want to tell you about this because a lot of people have sound issues in their backyard. Noise pollution is just part of
twenty first century life. So I want everybody to hear me. Can you hang on and we're going to go to We're going to here's some news, and we'll come back and I will continue to address this with you.
Is that okay?
Rick?
Appreciate it?
All right?
Rick, I'm gonna pop you on hold. You hold on, and all of you who are listening, who have wrestled with noise pollution in your yards, you hold on too, and we'll hit this thing head on.
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI A M six forty.
I've got Rick on hold. Let me get him back on the line. Rick, you're still with me, Bud?
All right? Rick is there? Okay? So Rick, Rick's got a town home.
He's got a an electrical transformer, the transformer for his little klump of houses. And now, in a lot of situations, some of you are thinking, wait, what what's that? Okay, if you happen to if you happen to have poles, you know, like power poles around your house, you'll as you drive around the neighborhood, you look up to the top of the pole and you'll see every few holes there's what looks like a gray trash can hanging at
the top of the pole. That's the transformer that's distributing the power from the main lines to a clump of houses. And it's usually four or five, maybe six houses per transformer. Okay, Rick happens to have a ground based one, an old one sitting and uh and it's sitting there and uh and it's vibrating and it's making noise, and so uh the question now.
And he's doing he's doing all the right stuff.
He's calling a city council, he's talking to water and power, UH to get this because it's a it's annoyingly noisy. So I wanted everybody to hang on because I because I wanted to talk have this conversation about noise pollution in our yards. So in your situation, Rick, I'm telling you about mass loaded vinyl and how you know, Uh, soundproofing material providers just want to they want to push their stuff at you. And it's very expensive. I mean,
it's expending stuff. And I don't want you to break the bank over it, because if you can't seal down the air space around the thing that's making noise, then you're not going to silence it. What you are able to do, though, is you can achieve some buffering and reflection and baffling of the sound. Okay, I just want to get your expectations set straight. That does that mean that mass loaded vinyl built into a fence around this thing wouldn't help. No, I'm not saying that it wouldn't help,
because mass is important, Okay, mass is important. I'm just want you to be aware that if you you know, you're spending your life savings on this wonder material and you can still you know, it hasn't shut it all down when it's said and done, because no material, no soundproofing material, when there is still air coming out.
You know, perfect example right here at kfive.
You know, uh, millions of dollars get spent soundproofing studios, recording studios and broadcast studios, and all you have to do to defeat it and is for somebody to leave the door to the studio open, right the door. If the door of the studio is open and we're on the we're on the air talking through our mics, and somebody you know, is talking loudly and walks down the hallway,
it's like, well, now there's noise in the studio. It's simply an illustration that if you can't shut all the airflow down, you're not going to completely shut it down. So with that bed stay that being said, the thicker the fence, okay, the better. I would recommend that you build a fence the like like you're building a wall, not just a typical Oh, put some posts in the ground and run flat two eyes and slats on the fence.
I would recommen that you build the kind of the equivalent of an exterior wall, and that is that you build the fence with panels that are as wide as possible, okay, and the transformer isn't too big, And this is going to be a relatively small fence that you're going to
build as the enclosure around it. So I would probably build it out of a two by six material with a top plate, bottom plate and studs in between, so that then then you could turn around and fill those empty that the void of the wall itself with mass. With more mass, Now what kind of mass? You could
use a layer of mass loaded vinyl. Sure, I wouldn't use much standard insulation because it's out there in the weather, and I don't want to get wet, moldy and mildew in all that kind of stuff because it's not weather protected. But you could use expanding spray foam insulation that you can get right off the shelf at the hardware store. Let it expand in those cavities. Let it over expand, you know, sheet one side of the wall, so that you've got a one side solid you can use the
expanding foam insulation. Let it expand up, mound up, get all thick, so you know that it's going to be nice and thick. And it's a MESSI let it harden and then you can just take a knife or a saw blade and slice off the excess so that it's flushed with the backside of the wall, and then encapsulate that in between, you know, two pieces of sheathing and then put some you know, attractive wood slats on and
that would be of great use. And you want to build that wall as low to the ground as possible so that there's a minimal amount of air gap underneath it for sound to get through. And you want to build it as tall as possible in front of that transformer so that that sound coming off the top of the transformer still has something to hit and baffle it and keep it from cross over into your yard. The best thing we can do is muffle what's coming right at you and reflect away from you up over your head.
The stuff that we can't control. And honestly, honestly, Rick, that's about as good as we're going to get.
I really appreciate the info, and I wrote it all down, and I was hesitant always. I listened to you on the weekend, and I hesitant to call because the topic is out of bounds of what I thought people might also have that issue. But when you say noise pollution, yeah, if you live in town, everybody's got noise pollution in some way or form. So I appreciate you going over this.
No trouble, Rick, my pleasure. Good luck with that. Let me know how that turns out. I would be fascinated to know what you especially what you end up accomplishing with your city council and the Department of Water and Power and such. But good luck with that, Rick. But yes, this is why we take calls. You know we take calls. Of course, I take your call to answer your specific
question when you call in. But the other reason we take calls is because you know what what you're struggling with, thousands of other people who are listening are also struggling with it, maybe not in that one specific not thousands of other people like Rick will have a transformer from the Department of Water and Power sitting in their backyard humming. But everybody I know wrestles with noise pollution, unless you just live out in the country somewhere out in the
middle of nowhere. Everybody wrestles with noise pollution. And then the solutions that are offered to you online or in the marketplace out there are relatively uninformed solutions. They're just people selling their goods who want you to buy their stuff. And there's nothing more frustrating than to have an expectation that a very expensive material or component or system is going to solve your problem, and then spend the money and find out that you know it helps, but it
didn't solve the problem. So this is all about understanding what we need to do when it comes to outside, my friends, higher the walls and fences the better, the thicker the better, and then what's left over. This is one of the reasons if you live in a sound pollution area, that I love things like water features because
it just so happens. For instance, if traffic is your noise pollution problem of choice, it just so happens that the sound of falling water covers over about ninety five percent of the exact same frequencies as traffic noise, which is why traffic in the distance kind of sounds like rushing water. You put that rushing water in your yard, you'll still be hearing the traffic noise, but it blends in with the water.
You would your.
Mind attributed it to the water, and now it's just beautiful water in your backyard and not water plus traffic or traffic alone. You see what I'm saying. So we can mask, we can mix. We can't shut it completely down, but if we step wisely, we can help it a lot. All right, more of your calls when we return.
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM sixty.
Your Home with Dean Sharp, the house Whisper. We're talking about stuff you've inherited from previous owners of your house. Mistakes specifically. I don't mean, like, you know, treasure tests full of diamonds and gold, I know, I mean mistakes, things that you don't like, things that you tell me when we walk through your home. It was like this when we bought it. I'm sorry, it wasn't us. That
kind of stuff. And we're going through a list. This is part three today of our three part series, and most importantly, I'm showing you how you can get it fixed, get it changed. But right now we're taking calls and I want to continue to do just that. So I want to talk to Perry. Perry, welcome home.
Oh thank you, sir. I have a quick question about my HVAC. So we recently had winter service performed and the technician has recommended two upgrades that I really wasn't familiar with. So one is a surge protector. The second is a UV light to help protect against mold and mildew build up in the unit. So I wasn't sure that these are really necessary, so I told my wife, well, I trust Dean. I'm going to call and ask for his honest opinion.
Oh how very cut. All right, So tell me about this surge protector. What was the justification for the surge protector?
Just to protect against electrical damage to the unit?
Oh? I see, I see.
So that they're just saying that we're not talking about another breaker at this point, but literally an incoming surge protector.
Okay.
Uh.
And and this is a gas furnace, yes, okay. And and they're talking about a surge protector on the gas furnace.
Yes, it's also an electrical air conditioning unit. Okay, so it's a mass of electric and gas.
Yeah, but now are they Are they talking about a surge protector for the outside condenser as well, or are we just talking about the air handler that's you know, the part that's inside the house.
No, outside of the unit is on the roof, And he wants to put the surge protector in the unit up on the roof, the same with the UV light up there in the unit.
Okay, all right, so here's the thing. There's nothing wrong with those options. I mean, there's nothing wrong with it at all. The question has been how long have you guys lived in the house and uh, and how long have you had unit? And how many electrical company power surges have you received?
Zero power surges? And the unit is seven years old?
Okay?
Yeah, so you know there, if you've got disposable income and you're like, what the heck?
Why not? You know, I mean, surge protectors do just that.
But generally speaking, generally speaking, okay, for instance, the condenser that actually starts up, I mean it is designed to be hit with a ton of electricity, right, it's two hundred and forty volts usually forty sixty amps. That is a lot of electricity that surges into an AC unit
when it starts up and goes running. It is virtually impossible to imagine a little bit of a power surge from the local power lines overwhelming the AC condenser because they're designed to be slammed with a large amount of power, and so does a surge protector potentially could it protect sensitive electronic equipment out there? Okay, yeah, maybe, but by and large is this is probably just an extra to be thrown in.
Yeah, And here's my proof.
My proof of concept is this, of all the air conditioning units that exist, let's just take a pool of southern California, which are hundreds of thousands of them. Of all the air conditioning units that exist, how many of them have SURG protectors on the main condenser unit? I would say less than a percent of a percent. And how many of those units constantly are getting hit and
destroyed by power company power surges? You it's just something you don't hear about, and so I would say the odds of it happening to you are incredibly, incredibly low, and so if you don't want to spend that money, I wouldn't. Now the UV side of things, and this is going to be in the air handling unit. This is where the air ducts connect UV. If moisture has been a problem, has been a problem, then sure address it.
But here's the funny thing about that. The funny thing about moisture and humidity is that an air conditioner, when the AC is running, air conditioners by definition, are dehumidifiers that they pull moisture out of the air and then deliver it through a condensate line to the outside of the house. If the heating element, which also by the way,
by definition kind of dehumidifies the air. If if the heating element during the winter is something where there's a lot of humidity building up in the house and there's a risk or you've in the past struggled with the mold or mildew build up, then yeah, I'm all for a technician coming to me and saying, Dean, we saw a little mildew build up around the coil, and I think this homeowner could benefit because of these conditions, you know, they could benefit from a UV light in there.
I'm like, all right, let's do it.
But it's one of those things that doesn't come with every AC unit, doesn't come with every install and for a very good reason. Most of the time they're not needed. So again I would just ask you if you guys have had that before, if the technician ever said to you, yeah, we got a little mold and mildew build up, I think we should knock it down with the presence of a UV light.
Thanks you very much. Yeah, I've never had that issue. And my thought was if those were so beneficial wire in our units, but with them to begin with when they're installed, So I aarreciate your honest opinion.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're exactly right, Perry. And and again this is not to say either one of those accessories and accessories is what they are did either one of those accessories is bogus.
They're not.
It's just a question of is that a particular problem for your unit, in your home, in your area, and if it's not, you know, don't waste the money. Don't waste the money. You know, it's one of those things where again you know, you know, I live in southern California.
I'm all about well insulating our homes.
And and you know, I want you to have the most efficient windows possible, but you know I don't install you know, six pain storm windows for clients that are designed for arctic conditions in southern California. Does that mean they're bad? Are they ripoffs?
No, they don't belong here. We don't need them here.
And so that's at the end of the day of the rationale. Perry, thanks for the call, Bud, appreciate And again, every time we take a call, other people are listening thinking, oh, yeah, that makes sense.
You know.
Do I have a problem with contractors, especially service contractors, swooping in and saying, all right, we got your ten point check the list here, and we also recommend that. You know, I don't really have a problem with them offering a recommendation, but you, as a homeowner, I want you to specifically ask them, why why do I need this thing? Why do I need it? Don't tell me what it does? I get that, I get what it does. Why do I need it? Do I have a problem
with this? Did you see something up there? And if the answer is yes, then continue the conversation. Otherwise, if the answer is well no, no, we didn't see anything in your Okay, thank you very much.
I'm going to pass on that and let me finish out your.
Bill, all right, Joell when we come back, Yeah, I've just decided to use this hour for calls when we come back, a couple more calls, and then we'll get back to It was this way when we bought it. The problems that you've inherited from the previous owner at your home.
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on Demand from KFI AM six forty.
Thanks for joining us on the program.
We're taking calls right now, and then we're going to get back to it was like this when we bought it. The mistakes you've inherited from the previous owner or owners of your home. Let's go back to the phones. I want to talk to Sarah. Hey, Sarah, welcome home.
Hi, good morning. Hi. I have you spark my brain when you were talking about noise canceling. I have two waterfalls about six or seven feet apart from each other. One of them faces my patio and it's about six and a half to seven feet calls. I had it installed horizontally correct, so I'm not having a problem with the water. However, my smaller three or four foot waterfall is also installed horizontally correct, and it's facing my kitchen windows so I could listen and see the water when I'm.
In the house.
In the beginning, it was working just fine, but now it seems like I need to kill the water every day. And I don't see any splash factor. I don't see any leaking. It can't evaporate that fast, So I don't know where to look next to solve my problem.
Ah, all right, So and.
I don't know if you can.
Yeah, well, I mean I can't look at it right now, but I've got it in my mind's eye. So when these were installed, the one that's giving you the problem at least, does it have like a rubber liner under it?
Is it? Is it one of those setup side?
How is it?
Well, I don't know what's attached to the bottom of the waterfall. However, it's sitting up on a like a table a platform, and it's covered with the corrugated metal to keep the wood of the platform from getting wet if it were going to get wet. Okay, all right, So it's sitting on metal, okay.
Uh So, and you don't you don't see and where is the pump.
It's inside the bottom of the So this is.
A pre this was a pre built unit that you purchased.
Yes, I bought both of them from the same place, made by the same people.
Okay, and you don't.
See that Mountain Valley.
You don't see any leak. Did you get it from Recita Fountain?
Yes?
Ah, I knew it. I love those guys all by the way over there, So you.
Don't see any evidence of of of at all.
No. And I even put cardboard all around it to see where it might be splashing that I might not notice it. But there's nothing splashing, and I don't know where the water's going.
And there's nothing leaky underneath.
No, H got your stump?
Yeah I would, No, I would. I would give them a call. Uh, receive a discount. Pottery and fountains by the way, everybody, if you've never been there and you're thinking about getting a fountain, you know what, you owe it to yourself to get over there and see the over one thousand.
That sounds like I'm doing a commercial. I am.
They're not sponsors on the show, but uh, over the one thousand fountains that they all have running at the same time, every single day over there.
It's amazing. But I would, I would.
I would get it to them, I really would. I would get it back to them, Sarah, because it's since it's a since it's a unit that you purchased, getting back to them and say, I don't know what's happening here. Is there a reservoir at the bottom that's exposed like overnight? Like I mean, are you getting visitors in the middle of the night who are drinking down the water or is it all hidden away?
It's well, I turn it off at night at sunset pretty much. I turn it off, so I don't know how they'd be getting into it. The bigger waterfall is more accessible, and I see squirrels and birds there, but I don't have any big critters.
All right, Well, my best advice is that you get it back to them because something's going hooey.
There's something weird. And normally when it.
Comes to a water feature and we see that it's starting to lose water, a there's a leak in the lining itself. And this is more you know, for people who have had water features built into their yard, the lining is leaking and so and they can't see it because it's just soaking into the soil right underneath them.
But there's a you know, there's a tear or you know, a hole in the lining somehow, and we're losing water that way, or it's been constructed in such a way that the water is hitting rocks and a good amount of water is splashing outside of the feature, so it's not you know, it loses water every time it runs because of splashing that it doesn't get returned into the reservoir. Or there's a busted pipe or a leaky fitting where the pump is and as a result, water again is
soaking into areas where we can't see it. That kind of stuff, and or just we use it a lot and evaporation. The more you use the fountain, the more it evaporates, you know, the more you expose the water to evaporation. And in those situations will put in a little auto fill valve and we'll run a little quarter inch waterline to it with a little plunger so that
when the water gets low, it activated. It's kind of like the the the ballcock in the the valve in the in the toilet of your tank, the tank of your toilet, toilet of your tank the tank of your toilet. You know, when the little float goes down, the valve turns on and refills the tank. We use those for pools and for fountains, just to keep the water level topped off all the time so you never have to
worry about refilling. And a really cheap way of doing this for those of you who have it built into the ground is you know, I've you just noticed mild evaporation over days of time. Run a little quarter inch line from your irrigation system, you know, your drip system into where the reservoir is, and that way, every two or three days, when your sprinklers come on, your eargation system comes on, you know, you get a little top
off every time we do that. With the bird feeder that we have sitting out here, it just gets topped off because the irrigation system runs. There's a lot of ways of addressing it. But if it's a mystery where the water is going and this is the prefabed unit, then take it back to them, have them figure it out for you. All right, Sarah, thank you for the call,
and here we are top of the hour. When we return back to it was like this when we bought it the problems you've inherited from the previous owners of your home. You are 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.