New Stuff | Hour 1

simply keep this list going throughout the year. I always have a list sitting on my computer of new stuff that we've looked into that has fascinated me, that's caught my attention. And when the list gets long enough, I'm like, yep, that's a show, and so let's do a new stuff show and clear the board as it were. So that's what we're talking about today, and of course it will also leave a little bit more room than normal I

hope for your calls. So we'll be taking calls today as we always do, and maybe a few more than normal. The number to reach me eight three three two. Ask Dean A three three. The numeral two and then you just spell out, ask Dean. Eight three three two Ask Dean. Producer Matt Toffler is standing by. The phone lines are open right now. You can jump in the queue. You can listen to the show while you wait, and anything that you've got on your mind. The cool thing about

calls is you get to set the agenda. So I'm talking about new stuff, but you and I, we don't have to talk about new stuff. If you call in, we can talk about design issues, instruction questions, we can talk about architecture, we can talk about landscape, anything atall. We talk about you know, what color the friend on your pillow on your sofa should be, Anything and everything related to home. That's what I'm here for. So throw your head scratching questions at me and we'll put our

heads together. You and me, we'll figure it out. Eight three three two ask Dean. And the phone lines are open right now. All right, let me introduce you to our awesome team. Elmer is on the board. Good morning, Elmer, Good morning Dean. Did I did I catch you by surprise? There? Bud No.

already coming in? Maybe? Maybe my buddy Eileen Gonzales at the news desk, Good morning, Eileen, Good morning Dean. How's it going. It's going good. How are you? How are you doing good?

get the nervous jitters. Have you ever found that I think I've heard. I'll keep you posted on that. All right, tank it, tank as much as you can in the next half hour, and then report back in. Let me know how you feel. We'll do all right. Now, This is when I normally say, you know what, I think everybody needs to write some emails in because my partner here, she's been a little loose with with getting into the

studio on time. She's around here, somewhere. I don't know where she is, but this is when and she told me, she said, hey, I got to make a call, but don't worry. I'll be in there in time to say hi to everybody on the air. And no, no, she didn't make it. But this is when I normally say, my better half, my design partner, my best friend in all the world, Tina is here. And Tina is here. That is the shadow of her spirit moving through the halls.

But uh, she's close by, so again she will have to disrupt the show when she finally gets in and I can tell everybody that she's here. But she's here, She's here, I promise she's here. We'll prove it in just a bit. All right, new stuff plus your calls today. Here's the number one more time eight three three two ask Dean eight three three the numeral TWOEP ask Dean new stuff right after.

on dart. You were standing at the door as we went to break, looking at me like huh me, time for me now, I'm like, skill away, just go away, just go away. But here you are here. I am. As much as I want to be upset with you, I'm too cute. Yeah, pretty much, pretty much pretty much. You're just too adorable. You're too much my friend. That's right, that's a problem. Sometimes it's just a problem. Anyway, everybody, as promised, Tina delivered here. She is well, I delivered

her to you. She did not do this. It's me to give me the credit. But Tina's here, so everybody can relax. Okay, Yes, they're going to keep on. They're going to keep listening now because they're like, well, Tina's not showing up. But it's something you listen to that jackass talk for three hours alone. So anyway, all right, there you are good, Go your way, go your way now. Literally she's leaving the studio again, what is the deal? Oh my goodness, all right, she'll be back anyway. Hey,

follow us on social media. We only do the good kind. Just a reminder, we're on all the usual suspects. You know, I'm not going to name them all. We're probably there. Home with Dean is the handle, same handle for all of them. So you can find us. Whatever your favorite social media platform is, you can find it. Just follow us. Just just doesn't dive in. Take a look. Follow us. We're not gonna spam you. We're not gonna upset you,

we just send out the good stuff. Also, if your home is in need of some personal house Whisper attention. By that I mean literally not just even calling into the show, but if you want me and te to show up at your home. Yeah, for real, actually get our eyes on the problem. I'm using air quotes here the problem. You can do that. You can just get some more information. Go to house Whisper dot design for more information or to sign up for an in home

console house Whisperer dot Design. And one more time. The number to reach me this morning eight three three two Ask Dean A three to three the numeral two ask Dean. Phone lines are open now, Producer Matt standing by taking your calls all right, right off the top, I might as well just share with you the thing that everybody's wanted to talk to me about this week since I brought it up. I brought it up on Conway, we talked about it, and I brought it up on wake

up Call with Amy King. We talked about it right at the top of the pile of new stuff. Superwood. Superwood. What in the world is superwood? Well, it is something that I think I think is quite likely going to revolution ize certain aspects certain not every aspect, but certain aspects of home building and home construction on a lot of different levels, the residential level, and maybe even into

commercial and industrial levels as well. Super Wood, first of all, is not a wood, a one particular kind of wood. It's not like, oh, somebody have figured out how to grow a different kind of wood. No, no, no, no, it's better than that. Actually, it is actually a process through which any kind of wood virtually can pass in order to give it superior quality, strength, to weight ratios and things like that. So understand this that superwood is

a process. It's patented, I believe, it's developed by a company. And you can check this out. If you want to check it out more thoroughly than I have time to go in detail here on the show, you can go to I believe. Let me just make sure this link is correct here inventwood dot com. Yep, that's true. Invent wood dot com is the website. It's the only place where you're going to find it. It is the home

of Superwood. Superwood is put together by a research team, and that research team has now received funding, not a not an unbelievable amount of funding in today's world. It's something like fifty million or sixty million or so, which is enough to get the ball rolling if you're serious about actually producing a product. But you know in the end they're going to have to sell it and and it will grow from there. But here is the thing

about superwood. What's the deal. Superwood is a process that densifies regular timber, engineered to be stronger than steal and resistant to fire and rot and pests. Yeah, it's amazing, and it's really what it is the brilliance here. It's not an entirely new technology per se, but it is a combination of a couple of different technologies. Now if I can set these the scene for you for a while.

Now you've heard me talk about thermally treated lumber. Thermally treated lumber is when we take a species of wood, any species of wood, even species of wood or maybe especially species of wood that you wouldn't normally expose to outside weather conditions, and we put it under a moisture and heat intense heat process pressure process by which many of the well, let's just say in terms of food, carbohydrates and sugars in the wood are converted under high

heat and pressure into a form which renders them unsceptible to moisture, damage, to rot, and to bugs, to like termites, that kind of thing. That technology has been around for quite a while now, because I've been talking about it for years and years, and I've had the pleasure of using thermally treated lumber in order to produce certain effects. Like we want a certain deck to just look a certain way, and so we pick a species of wood

that is just perfect. But it's like, normally you're scratching your head saying you shouldn't put that wood outside. That's not the right wood to put outside. But it's okay if we use the thermally treated version of that wood, because it changes the way it behaves, all right, So set that process to the side. Okay. Pressure and heat, pressure and heat, okay, does some incredible things to natural materials.

And then there's another process. There's a process and you know, I had to look this one up because unless you're in the publishing industry or something, you wouldn't know about this. But there's a process of soaking wood or boiling wood in a couple of different chemicals, and those chemicals tend to hollow out what's called the the lignans and the

hemi cellulose, okay, inside of a piece of wood. And this is a process that's been around for a long time because apparently it's the beginning of taking wood and creating paper pulp. Okay, this is like the process of being able to break down wood into paper pulp. All right.

So if we take this process of boiling wood in these couple of chemical steps, and as a result, what we remove is not all the cellulose, but most of the hemicellulose and the lignans in the wood, which, by the way, fyi are the yummy parts if you're a termite. All right, So what we're doing is we're removing that's stuff. So imagine, imagine, if you will. Everybody has seen a piece of wood that has been devastated by termites. Right

you actually touch it, it feels a little spongy. The reason it feels spongy is because there's all sorts of hollow tube tubules channels in it now where hemicellulose and lignans used to be but have been eaten up. Okay, So now we take that piece of spongy wood and then we put it under the heat pressure. Okay, because the heat and intense pressure, and the heat and the intense pressure causes the walls of those empty cavities to molecularly bond with each other again, So we can reconnect

the wood. Now we can press it down. The wood ends up, as I understand it, reducing in thickness by four fifths. It ends up one fifth the dimension that it was before the process. But what we get, what we get on the other side, Well, i'll give you the specs right after.

it's a beautiful weekend here in southern California. I hope wherever you are that the weather is treating you as well as ours is. Here we whine and complain because oh, it's too hot. It's too hot. It's it's going to be like seventy eight today most places in socol. So yeah, I know we are whimps when it comes to that. It's lovely here, and it's going to stay lovely for most of the week as far as I know, mid seventies ish most of the time. Yeah, of course it's

going to get hot. Summer is on its way. Summer's like only that's close, right, like two three weeks away. Yeah, okay. Anyway, we have left you hanging with this first item on the list, which is worthy of, you know, a few segments to discuss it. Super Wood was tossed across my desk quite a few weeks ago. I don't just see a thing and then run and talk to you about it, because I like to look into things first, just to make sure that you know, I'm not promoting something that's

not real or fad or whatever. I had some conversations with the folks over it invent would. I've read several articles. I'm staring at one from Scientific American right now that was written back in February of twenty eighteen, when the process was first being discussed and released to the larger scientific and industrial community. So I'm telling you this is a real thing. It's a legit thing. And again, it's

not a wood, it's not a species of wood. It's not some way that we've figured how to genetically modify and grow a tree. More on that later. I do have a plant on our list today that's been genetically modified that we'll talk about in a bit. But super wood is a process, and it really is a brilliant combination of a couple of processes that already exist. One the way that we take wood and boil it and

get it ready to make paper pulp. And by the way, for those of you science nerds out there who are wondering what are those chemicals, the the two step process starts with boiling wood in a solution of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfite. That's a treatment very similar to the first step in creating a wood pulp used to make paper. So that's been around for long, long, long long time. Secondly, the thing that's also been around is putting wood under

high heat and high pressure. And if you do these two things one step after the other, if you then take the boiled wood, which as a result, has largely lost most of what's called hemi cellulose okay, and lignins, which are the yummy parts that bugs want, and also the areas that are most susceptible to moisture and rot and all that kind of stuff. We've removed that now from the wood. But now the wood is full of holes.

And if you then take that wood under heat and pressure, then those walls collapse that are holes maintain that compression as it's gently heated, and the pressure and heat encourages the formation of chemical bonds between large numbers of hydrogen atoms and neighboring atoms in adjacent nanofibers of cellulose. I'm just reading this off of this Scientific American article here therefore greatly strengthening the material, and the results are impressive.

The wood three times as dense as the untreated substance. They've increased its resistance to being ripped apart by more than ten times. It comes it becomes fifty times more resistant to compression, twenty times as stiff as it was in its natural form. It's more scratch resistant, more impact resistant. It could be molded into almost any shape, which is why. Yep, the automotive industry and the aerospace industry both now taking a serious look at superwood. Imagine the wings of a

jumbo jet. I mean some people were like, oh, that makes me uncomfortable, but instead of being made out of carbon fiber or aluminum, that they're made out of superwood. Or imagine driving in twenty or years or so a car whose frame stronger than any car ever made before it, whose frame is essentially constructed from and molded from the factory out of superwood. These are all realistic, serious things that are being looked at right now. In lab tests,

compressed samples of superwood incredibly moisture resistant. So let me look at this test result here. Lab tests compress samples exposed to extreme humidity for more than five days swelled less than ten percent, and then in subsequent tests a simple code of paint eliminated the swelling entirety, entirely. Okay, So it's not as though it can be absolutely exposed raw to the elements without any consequence, but a change of dimension because of extreme humidity that is minimal, I mean,

that is incredibly minimal. And then one code of paint completely shut down that process altogether. Okay, here's another thing. Five layer plywood made out of superwood, a very very thin plywood stopped bullets fired into the material, Okay, which means that they are actually researching the potential of using superwood as a low cost armor. Now, the material doesn't protect as well as kevlar of the same thickness, But but it only costs five percent as much to UH

to produce as the equivalent thickness of kevlar. All right, And and this one gets really funky and weird. Okay, really funky and weird. Well, you know what, Should I save it? Should I save it? All right? Let's talk about making glass for your windows out of super wood. No not no, not not the window itself, the glass.

I've given to it so far. And believe me, I've just scrap scratched the surface. So where as I at, I've now forgotten officially where I was at. In this description, we've talked about its strength. We've talked about the fact that this process has essentially rendered wood, any species of wood that undergoes this process moisture incredibly moisture resistant, rot resistant, termite and pest resistant, while creating a material stronger than steel.

Now people always ask, what does that mean? Stronger than steel? Stronger than steel? Simply means pound for pound stronger than steel, dimensionally stronger than steel. So here's an ibeam of a certain size, and then here's a piece of superwood or an ibeam made of superwood the exact same size. Guess what, the wood stronger than the steel. That's what it means, and considerably eighty percent lighter than the steel at the

same time. Yeah, it's pretty incredible. Now there are questions, and now what I want to do is I want to answer the questions or the concerns. On the other side like, okay, Dean, but but what is this going to do to things? I mean, aren't we already clear cutting forest? Aren't we already destroying the environment. You're talking about turning the entire manufacturing industry making it wood based. Well, obviously I'm not talking about that. Oh oh oh, this

is okay. I gotta pause that. I just realized where I was because I teased you about superwood also potentially being transparent. Yes, I have seen a piece of it now, not absolutely clear like glass, but this process there's a certain tweak that they can make to it. I saw a one of the researchers holding a chunk of wood that was amazingly not transparent, but letting light through. In

other words, it looked like frosted glass. Frosted glass, right, And they are telling me we're just a few steps away from being able to potentially mix this so that we end up with a product that could replace glass glass, making it stronger than remember, stronger than steel. So imagine a pane of transparent material made of wood in your wood window that's a stronger than tempered glass. And oh the fire resistance, yeah, I should mention that as well.

This superwood everything burns. You know, if you've ever seen a volcano and you see melt, rocks melt in front of you. Yeah, I got to understand. Everything burns at some temperature. Okay, but how about wood siding, wood decking, wood sheathing on the outside of your house. How about wood studs and wood framing and wood beams that burn roughly at the same temperature required to burn brick or stone or concrete. Because that's right about where superwood is

at in its in its heat resistance. Okay, Now under understand it was borne, the product was born in a process that is using heat far above the level of a typical wildfire or open flame. So again, it's impressive stuff. Now, am I saying it's going to take over the world? Now? Would I like it to? Sure? Of course I would. Now let's address those concerns. Here's the thing you need

to know. Yes, we have, we have sinned against the planet on many for a long time, especially at the beginning of the industrial age when it comes to trees, and it took a long long time for us to turn that around. But I just want you to understand,

and I'm not saying it's perfect. Please do not write me emails saying, well, Deane, did you also know that this is Yes, I get it, but the fact of the matter remains, about ninety eight percent of the US lumber industry uses trees from both public and private land that is grown sustainably. Understand that. Okay. Tim Conway asked me about this on Thursday night. And you know, I'm with Tim every Thursday night from about six twenty until about six forty five. Every week tune in. It's a

fun conversation. But Tim asked me about this. He's like, all right, Dean, but you know, uh what about He wasn't asking about super what he was commenting on the quality of lumber that you see at home depot and

lows at the lumberyard. And the reason I told him, yeah, the quality of lumber has changed over the years, and that's because the reason it's so wet and that it's got champered edges on some of those two by four studs and there are more knots than you've ever seen in the past, is because those are younger trees, because they are farmed trees, younger farm trees, not old growth five hundred year old redwoods and Douglas firs being cut down, okay,

to produce lumber. The lumber industry has changed. Ninety nine percent of the US lumber industry, or ninety eight percent, uses trees from public and private land grown sustainably. Lumber is now very clearly an agricultural product. So if there was a greater demand for lumber in the world, there will be a greater demand to farm trees, which means more forests being planted. While those trees are growing, they are larger sinks that capture carbon only help the environment

because the super wood process is carbon neutral or carbon negative. Okay, So you know, in my opinion, that's that's my dream of future technology, one that doesn't merely take from the planet but also gives back. Imagine what happens, what could

happen if there's an incentive for corporations. Yeah, those guys, incentives for corporations to reforest planet Earth because it means profits for them, Okay, affordable materials to the consumer, profits to the corporation, and an incentive for corporations to actually improve the biosphere of planet Earth in order to get it done. All right, I'm not making all these promises

to you, but I am telling you. This is why science, technology, and industry are all very very excited right now about the process of superwood, including airplane frames, automotive frames, and windows. So just imagine that. Tell I'm gonna read to you what the the Scientific American article concludes with here, and then we can move on. Someday soon it might be possible to live in a home made almost completely from one of Earth's most abundant and versible and sustainable building materials,

from floors to rafters, to walls to windows. In the garage, there may be a car who's chassis and bumpers could be composed of densified wood rather than steel and plastic. Knock on wood, it says the Scientific American article. Very cute, but a reality. So that technology is out there, it's a question of where it goes from here. I'm just introduced you to it so you understand that, you know what, the future is not always dark and gloomy. There are

these which you know. I'm not going to get into my opinion about how much we should be encouraging science and higher education, but at this point I see very very few things standing between us and screwing up this planet. Very few things other than well educated scientists who are thinking really good thoughts and putting together some things that

could change the game. That's all I'm saying, Super would it's here, and I believe, if I'm not incorrect, that invent Wood has now begun and they're going to begin this year selling the first release of it, siding and decking products and structural beams replacing steel beams and homes. And you got to know as soon as I use my first one, yeah, you'll be hearing about it as well. All right when we come back, Uh, we're going to the phones and you will get to decide what we're

talking about today on the show. Don't miss out, Don't go anywhere. Your 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