Should Builders Be Allowed to Permit Their Own Projects? | Hour 1

Today on the show, we're gonna do what we do normally on Saturdays. Number one gonna take some calls. Any of your calls. The number to reach me eight three three two Ask Dean eight three three the numeral two. Ask Dean. Our phone lines are open right now. The phone board is completely blank, so it's just waiting for you. Anything you want to talk about regarding your home today, inside, outside, landscape, hardscape, construction, DIY design, Yes, please all of the above. Anything that's

got you scratching your head about your home. Eight three three the numeral two Ask Dean. A three three two ask Dean. In addition to that, I want to have a conversation with you this morning about something that is very pressing in southern California and may find its way

catching on across the country as well. And that is, you know, given the fires in the aftermath of the Eton and the Palisades fire, the mass destruction of thousands of homes, and now the rebuilding process, which when we say the rebuilding process begins, we don't mean that people are starting to rebuild right now, but we're turning the corner now and it's going to be some time before

that happens. But the question is this, given the in rush of all of those properties being rebuilt and the already loaded to the gill taxed system of permit and planning approval in especially Los Angeles City and Los Angeles County, should builders be allowed to permit their own projects. Oh that's an interesting conversation. We're going to have that as well this morning, along with your calls, and let me introduce our awesome team to get it all started. Sam

is on the board. There are not so live Plutio audience. Good morning, damn, good morning, Dean. How's it going? Good? Good, good good. My friend, the legendary Michelle Cube standing by to take calls this morning. Richie. I don't know what. I don't where Richie's Richie. Oh, I know where he is. He's sleeping in that's what he's doing. But Michelle is with us this morning. Always an honor to work with Michelle.

She is the most awesome. Not near a microphone, but she is on the board right now, ready to take your call. So you want to talk to Michelle Cube, call in. She'll tell you everything you need to know and she'll pop you into the queue with your question for the show. And my buddy Andrew Caravella at the news desk, Good morning, how's it going, Oh, it's going. Had my coffee so I am awaken? Alert? Your coffee full?

co owner, co founder of Housewifter. That is her legendary spirit animal. Right there, my best friend in all the world, Tina is here. Welcome home. Good morning to you, Mado morning to you, sir. I have no idea why I just said that. Do you need some coffee? Here you go. You know I'll be pushing that button again sometime very soon.

own work. Is that a thing? Should it be? All right? We'll do that, damn hi Pean charp the house whisper. Hey, it doesn't matter if your home is a castle, cottage, a condo. I'm here to help it take it to the next level. That's what we do around here. We're going to be going to the phones in just a smidge the number two. Reach me eight three three two. Ask Dean eight three three the numeral two. Ask Dean.

All right, I wanted to at least open up this discussion here begin it, and there's several things to talk about the topic of whether or not builders should be allowed to fast track or basically self permit. It's known by different names fast tracked permits, but it comes down to builders permitting their own projects. Now. First of all, when people hear that, they get all sorts of reactions. All of our friendly libertarian listeners are like, yes, away

with the Department of Building in Safety. Yeah, that's not me. That's not where I fall because I think there is a compelling public interest in safety when it comes to buildings. I want, believe me, I want builders to be monitored, double checked, and verified. Now, do I think that there's in this industry that there's a lot of overreach of government agencies into areas that just don't necessarily have to do and just muddle up the works. Yeah, I think

there is. I think it's legitimate to say that, And I'm not particularly thrilled. I've never have been thrilled with the way that the State of California just deals with builders in general. Now, I'm all for heavy enforcement of violations, but the California State Contractors License Bureau basically treats all contractors as though they are guilty and criminals before before

anything ever happens. I mean, I've had my contractor's license for you know, decades, and still you know, it's it's always a question of, yeah, what'd you do this time? And so, you know, I'm not thrilled about that. But that being said, I am not in favor of just turning builders loose and the way some people would imagine it would work and just letting them verify their own projects. That is not what's being discussed. So let me just be clear about that. This concept of self permitting is

really kind of a misnomer. What it really comes down to is this, it's a program in this the way it looks in most places where it's happening, and yes it is happening, we'll talk about that too. It's happening here in southern California already and has been for some time.

But generally speaking, when this program is in play, what happens is it's not even really accurate to say builders self permitting, because the programs that I am aware of require a licensed architect or a licensed civil or structural engineer to stamp the plans, which is not for a resident, not a requirement for normal plan check to stamp the plans. And then not just that, but then that architect and or engineer of record essentially assumes responsibility for the plan

check process. In other words, that architect or engineer of record then assumes full responsibility that everything about the project comports with and is in accordance with everything that the project would be subject to if it went through city plan check. And that has to do with a lot more than just whether the building itself and the design of the building is meeting up with all the things

that are necessary for the California building Code. That's one of the things that I want to kind of split a hair here for everybody to understand this morning. If you've never been through the building permitting process, then you likely don't. You likely just think that getting a building permit is about the city checking your plans to make sure that you're following the building code. But that's actually

just a part of the project. It's a good part of the project, but it's just a part of the process.

So in the case of self permitting, this question of self permitting, what we would be doing, would we'd be by check, by checking, bypassing that section of plan check, and the engineer and or the architect, and ultimately the homeowner because this all ultimately comes back to the homeowner, but the engineer or the architect would be taking on the responsibility to make sure those things are all in order. If and then city in spaces would proceed per normal

with a city inspector. Now, if it's discovered that something is outside, that something's been forgotten, that something's been overlooked, then it has to get corrected, and the architect and or engineer is held responsible for that. So you can imagine that essentially what we're doing is deputizing licensed architects and licensed civil or structural engineers, kind of deputizing them to function as their own enforcement agency for their own clients.

And not a lot of engineers and architects are prepared to step up and do that. Not a lot of them are prepared to step up and put themselves on the line for that, and those who do are likely and usually turning around to their clients and charging a pretty penny for it. Now, is a lot of that going to happen in out Dina when we've got a

massive middle class families happening. Probably not. Will a lot of more of it happen in the Palisades area where upper class and wealthy clients have the money to say, yeah, I'll pay you whatever you need to get paid. Let's fast track this project. And the proposal has been placed on the city council agenda by a city councilman and as a result of that, this is going to be an issue that's going to be discussed and is being

discussed currently. All right, I've got more on this, but we've got some calls on the board, so let's hear some news and we'll come back and we'll answer some questions about your home. You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty, KFI AM six forty live streaming and HD everywhere on the iHeart Radio. It's Dean Sharp the House whisper with you this morning like I am every Saturday morning from six to eight

and Sundays from nine to noon. Speaking of Sunday tomorrow, the Big Show I'm gonna have a special guest in studio with me, one of the finest concrete contractors that I have come across in the course of my career, and he and I are going to be sitting down and talking all things concrete about your house. And so it should be a fascinating discussion, a helpful discussion, a

fun discussion. What other words can I use? Anyway, a very productive and practical one for you learn all about concrete and what's going wrong with your house in concrete tomorrow on the Big Show. All right, Today, we're talking about a little conversation on the side here about whether builders should be able to permit their own projects regulate

their own permitting for their own projects. We're going to come back to that in a bit, but I've got some calls on the board, so let's go to the phones. I talked to Wayne A. Wayne, welcome home.

the pipes and stuff. Unfortunately, we're getting a situation where when we turn like the mixers onto the bathroom sinks and such, or the the mixer to the tub, we get kind of like a sneeze and stuff, which to me sounds like air, but I've not been able to bleed that. And we get a little bit of cross over between the hot and cold. So somebody turns hot on in one side of the house and cold on the other side of the house. You get a little bit of a mixing going on there.

they sputter. Then Uh, then uh, everything has to be turned on all at once in order to just get the maximum opportunity for air courge out of the system for several minutes. Having said that, you also get uh, if you're getting some hot and cold crossover, Uh, it shouldn't so much be cold in the it. You shouldn't so much be hot water coming through the cold line. Most of the time with a mixer valve. When people say hot and cold crossover, what they're experiencing are spatters

or spurts of cold. Uh, you know, with the along with the hot, and that my friend unfortunately probably points back to the water heater. Again, when you when you haven't resolved sputtering through normal means, when we haven't isolated it down to you know, one aeriator out of one faucet, When it's happening everywhere around the house, then it's not a localized thing in the sense of like all the faucets.

And when you said hot and cold sputtering crossover, that points back to the water heater and something else going inside going on inside the water here. There could be a blockage, There could be when you switched out the How how bad was the sacrificial anode when you remove the old one?

into the water heater and causing spurting. If the water heater isn't old, and it isn't at eight years, if the plumber always already thought that it appeared to be in good repair, If the arcrificial anode that you pulled out it was not all the way eaten through, then there's no reason to immediately think that there's other damage inside the water heater. But it's always a possibility. But

let's just do this. You go ahead and reseal that and the new anode, and just to make sure that that's clear, make sure nothing's been cracked or leaking air, and then again turn everything on, including including any outside spigots water spigots that are attached to the house which are also part of the interior, and let it run. I mean, let them all run for even longer than you expect it all at the same time, flush toilets run fofits and just let them. Sometimes getting air out

of the system is just persnickety. And after all of that, if you still are getting the same amount of spurting everywhere, I'm afraid you really should call plumber back out and have them take a look at the water here, right, Okay, okay.

gorgeous weekend. I hope you have plans to get out into it and enjoy it. What are we doing right here, I'm kicking off your weekend, just conversations about your home. We're talking about the weather builders in life of you know, the recent devastating fires, should be allowed to essentially pull their own permits, regulate their own permits for their project. That's that's the way it gets talked about out there.

I want to sit down and talk to you a little bit more about that in a bit, just because I want to kind of clarify what that really means and what would be involved, and give you my opinion as to whether that would be good or whether it's really, you know, practically going to help. We're going to return to that conversation just a bit, but I've got some calls on the board, and that's also what we prioritize on Saturday mornings. So I'm going to go back to

the phones. Let's talk to Oh. I'm sorry, I promised. I was going to explain very quickly what a sacrificial anode is. If people are like, you're talking to that guy about a sacrificial anode in his water heater, What are you guys in a cult or something. No, if you look on the top of a water heater, you've probably seen a big fitting up there, big square looking nut up there with threads going into your water heater.

And you might have assumed, oh, well, that must be some accessory or some pipe hook up that my house doesn't require, and so there's just a plug in there. Nope, at that right underneath that big old nut is a rod sticking down into your water heater. That is called

a galvanic anode. We call it a sacrificial anode because its whole job it's either made out of aluminium or magnesium, and its whole job is to attract corrosive elements corrosive minerals in your water supply, attract those minerals to itself, basically saying, here, come, corrode me. Don't cling to the sides of the water heater and eat away at the steel tank. And that's what it's there for. It is

called the sacrificial anode. It sacrifices itself. And the reason it's able to do that is because those corrosive elements are far more attracted to it, because it's a far more corrosive enabling material the aluminum or magnesium. And as a result, it preserves the steel in your water heater

from being eaten away by corrosive elements. And so, yeah, if your water heater gets to a certain age, especially if it gets past if you have exceptionally hard water and you get past like ten years, somebody should take a serious look at popping that old one out and putting the new one in. Because the day that the sacrificial anode is completely eaten away is the day that there's nothing else in there, attracting corrosion to it. Therefore boom. That stuff then turns to the steel tank of your

water heater and prematurely ages it. So there you go. Now you know, the more you know, Let's talk to Wally real quick. Hey, Wally, welcome home.

your thermostatic control. You can adjust it up to one twenty. Now, there's also an override some of us, I'm not gonna say who in this room, me, it's me. Some of us like even hotter water than that coming out of our water heater. Uh. And almost every brand of tankless water heater can be adjusted higher. You're not invalidating anything. There are instructions if they can be adjusted higher, they

are instructions in your instruction manual. As to the procedure to override the one twenty or one twenty five whatever your water heater is preset max to. There's usually an instruction and it allows you to take it in most cases up to one forty one hundred and forty degrees, And for me, that makes all the difference in the world. But it won't just do that automatically. There's an override procedure that you go through in order to do that,

and you can just do it with the controller. It'll say press this down, hold it long enough, bum bumb, you know that kind of thing, and then you can override and go up. And if, by the way, if you have a power outage or something like that, or the water heater gets worked on or serviced, it's going to default back to its one twenty and then you're going to have to reset the override again. So one hundred and twenty degrees or lower. That is just free

flowing on your thermostat arrows up and down. And if you want to get over one twenty, then you've got to follow the instructions in the manual how to override that. But yeah, that's right where a water heater should live about one or if you're dean, about one thirty or so. Because that's nice. All right, walle thanks for the call, my friend. All right, look at us right here at

the top of the hour. When we come back, I'm gonna have more thoughts for you on whether or not we should be allowing builders to pull their own regulate their own permits here in southern California. That and more of your calls your Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper on KFI. You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty