Cambi, I Am Sick forty live streaming and HD everywhere on the iHeart radio app. Dean Sharp the House Whisper with you live every Saturday and Sunday morning. Hey, follow us on social media the usual suspects. We are there, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, x Home with Dean, same handle for them all. And of course you know, this very program is also the House Whisperer podcast that you can listen to anytime, anywhere on demand. Hundreds of episodes, all searchable by topic. It
is your home improvement reference library. And if your home is in need of a little bit more personal house Whisper attention, I'm like Dean standing in my garage telling me exactly what junk to get rid of. Well, I'm not going to do that, but if you would like us to actually be looking at your space helping you figure it out, you can always book an in home design consult with us with me and t right here at house Whisperer dot Design. Just go to house Whisperer
dot design to make your consult request. All right, we are talking about this weekend ways of getting the most space for the least amount of money. To you know, I'm not completely unheard of ideas, but things to remind you of. Today, I'm talking about using the garage as a flex space, getting more useful living space out of the house by taking advantage of the garage by making it nicer. Tomorrow we'll be talking about to making outdoors outside a little bit better so that you've got some
more living space there. This, of course, is way less expensive utilizing these two areas than just building more, you know, adding on to the house, which is considerably more expensive. And you know a lot of times people just need a little extra space and you don't have the budget to do the rest. So listen up right now, though, I want to go to the phones take a call or two if we can, So let's talk to Steve. Hey, Steve, welcome home, Hi.
Deem, good morning. Thanks for taking my call.
You are welcome, sir. How can I help you?
I have off topic question, I apologize, but in my house, any faucet I go to, if I'm opening the faucet and I quickly close it, I get a pretty loud bang that comes afterward. I googled it. I guess this is called hammering. And I've tried everything I can to try to get this thing to go away, and it just comes back. I literally went upstairs, opened the shower
faucet and then drained the whole house out. I closed the main at the house, you know, at the meter, and literally drained the whole house out, opening the top and opening one at the bottom, and drained the whole house out. And it went away. But then just it came back. And I guess it's okay when I'm expecting it when I turn off the faucet and I'm expecting
you a bang right afterward. But when the washer is going on where it does its own draining and stuff, and you just hear boom bang out of nowhere.
Any conde that'll get you, that'll get you. Yeah, well, yeah, it's actually I've got some decent news for you. You know, nine out of ten times, maybe ninety eight out of one hundred times, we can get rid of water hammer. Okay, it's not that you're there's anything wrong with your plumbing system. Some people get very angry in a new build, a brand new build in the house that has water hammer in the pipes, and they're like, now they're raising their fist in the air at the plumbers like you guys
screwed up my house. Here's the thing, Uh, if you think of your plumbing system as a musical instrument, you know, it's usually a good way of kind of imagining this because you get water moving through it and it's making all sorts of weird turns, and then you open it up and the water comes out in some places and
holds in others. There's really no way to know when we're piping a house whether or not we're going to end up with creating some bizarre, just offhand set of turns as the water makes its way to certain locations that that creates a water hammer or you know, that kind of that back banging water hammering effect. There's just really no way to know. Sometimes you luck out, and you know, most of the time most people don't struggle
with it, but a lot of houses do. Here is the thing, though, There is a shock absorber that can be used, and what we do is we recommend that they get installed in the easiest of places and the place where it's most likely to cause the biggest bang, and then if that doesn't do the trick, then we'll start installing them in other places around the house. And by the time we get two or three sets of these installed around the house, most of the time, almost
all the time, the loud banging goes away. So that's the good news, Steve. Okay, water hammering is it's just something that happens as water is trying to move through pipes and hits you certain pipes at weird angles. The thing that I'm talking about are literally called water hammer arrestors, okay, and they go, they get installed. They don't have to be done in the wall. They are installed. This is
the good news. On the outside of the walls. The most commonplace and usually the very first place that I put a water hammer arrestor is where the hookups are to the washer to the washing machine, where the washer and dryer are in the laundry room. You can pick up a set of these. They are literally sitting on the shelf at the big box store, at your hardware store in the plumbing section. I think the ode version, which I trust is I think it's a pair of
these is like twenty bucks, twenty dollars. Okay. They will screw in, so you disconnect the washer and dryer hoses and you'll screw these in first to those valve settings, and they literally what they have. You see, they have a little tube on them sticking up a little nipple that sticks up out of the line, and inside there is literally a spring and a little valve body and a plate and it's literally a shot. Yeah. It absorbs the shock and as a result, it quiets down the noise.
And sometimes I would say maybe well over half the time, just one of these sets, on one of these hookup areas will get rid of the noise. Now a house that has really bad water hammer, you know, we can also add a under the sink and add a set under the you know, master bedroom faucets. In other words, you can keep adding these and they all work because they all absorb the vibration that is hammering away at the backside of the pipes.
And well, I think is an option also because I am getting it in the master a lot upstairs.
And yeah, yeah, absolutely absolutely. They basically you disconnect the hoses that are running to the faucet, uh, and then you would connect this little device to the angle stops the valves, and then you connect the hoses to this device, so it's just sitting in between. Doesn't take a plumber all you have to do is, you know, get your wrench out and you know, make sure you're you know, you're screwing them on properly. And you could put them under every sink in the house if you wanted to.
At twenty bucks a pop. And believe me, Uh, they do their job, they really do. And uh and I think you're going to see it go away.
Oh, thank you so much, Teene, last a little bit to this. Well, will this hammering damage any of the piping. It's copper piping, and from what I was told, it's actually relatively new, like within the last ten years or so.
Yeah. No, No, it's not going to damage the it's it's not hurting the pipes. It's just annoying the heck out of you. It's not hurting the it's just the just the weird combination of turns that are creating that kind of effect in the pipe. It is not a threat to the house, although it feels like the pipes are about to explode every time it pops like that. Use the dampener and uh and you know you're you're going to be loving life again.
Thank you, Dean.
You are so welcome, my friend. Thanks for the call. All right, Uh you know what, Yeah, Okay, when we come back, we'll take one more call and then we'll jump back into the garage. Stay tight with me, can't I team charged the house. Whisper at your service. Welcome to the program. So glad that you have spent your Saturday morning with me. And if you're sitting there thinking, I don't know, I just tripped upon you. I haven't decided to spend my Saturday morning with you yet, well
just hang tight. We're talking about your home, as we do every Saturday morning and Sunday morning, and specifically, I'm talking about inexpensive ways of getting a little bit more elbow room in your home. Tomorrow we're going to be talking about making out doors a little bit more comfortable so he can spend more time outside. Today talking about the garage. But right now, as is my custom, I'm taking some calls. I want to take one more call and then we're going to get back to garage talk.
Let's talk to Annie. Hey Annie, welcome home.
Ah.
Yes, on the Wednesday night, during or after the rain or during I heard a drip, drip, drip, and I looked in the fireplace in front of the fireplace, there was some water dripping, just a drip and a drip. And then sometimes even when it it's not raining, there's a dampness in front of the fireplace on the sidewalk. So I was wondering if that's something I should worry about.
Okay. So when you say in front of the side, okay, where the dripping was down in the firebox itself.
Yes, inside the house and in the front at the hearth that's the opening of the hearth.
There was a drip, oh, right at the opening of the hearth. Okay. And then you said, sometimes outside you see a dampness outside where where the chimney is? Okay? Do you know any whether or not your fireplace is a masonry fireplace, whether it's all bricked or whether it's a prefabricated fireplace surrounded by masonry.
I don't know.
But it's brick, okay. Well, it's brick on the outside. How old is the house seventy four it was built, okay, So chances are it's actually a masonry fire place, okay. A couple of things. It's not the it's not a bizarre and uncommon thing. And during heavy rains for a fireplace,
sometimes to get little drips down the chimney. Flu that may be happening, But my guess is that we may have something that we want to address in terms of looking up at the chimney and taking a look at flashings where the flashings connect to the chimney up at the roofline. There are a number of places where water can get into a fireplace. Number One, do you have an ere I'm sorry, Annie, hang tight? Do you have a cap on the top of your chimney?
No, I just have a regular. I didn't have anything added just to regular that was built with.
It, okay, So there's no little lid, there's no little te top on top of the chimney. Keep it, you know, exactly.
Just as is if it was built okay. And I did get a new flat roof, that new white emulsion two years ago, and I thought about maybe calling the roofer and having them check that.
Yeah, that's a good idea, because here's a couple of things. Number One, it's not a bad idea to actually get a an arrestor top that acts as a little umbrella over your flu just to keep out heavy rains, because heavy rains will eventually get down inside and they're not always easy to spot exactly where it's coming from. Because there's a what's called a smoke shelf built into a
masonry fireplace. That rain will come down, will saturate that, and will soak kind of the backside of the fireplace, which is maybe what you're seeing on the outside near the sidewalk, just water moving through masonry. That's the first culprit to look at. The second culprit to look at is if there's had any roofing work done lately. It sounds like you have, so yeah, I would call the roofers back out and check the flashings as they tie into that masonry fireplace to make sure that those things
are sealed. I'm a little concerned about the water that's dripping right in front of the hearth there. That seems a little excessive to me, and so I would probably look at the tie in between the chimney itself and the flashings in order to shut that down. Typically speaking, it's not the weirdest thing in the world to get a few drips, especially if you have a metal flu fireplace, but brick usually absorbs most of the water as it makes its way down, and then it hits the smoke shelf,
which is right behind the damper. You'd never see any of this, by the way. And then that water, if it builds up, will accumulate and soak the outer backside of the fire box and then the brick outside. It sounds like there's enough water for there to be a concern, so get yourself a smoke arrestor for the top. Call the roofer, have them take a look at the flashing.
And last thing, call an actual chimney sweep company to inspect the chimney flu because they actually not the roofers in the end are the experts as to how things are affecting your overall fireplace and your chimney, and it probably sounds like you're overdue for a little clean up there as well. So that's my best advice for you, Annie. Those are the three possibilities or the three directions to head. Always cap the top of your chimney, even if you
don't use it. Make sure that the flashings that are connected to the chimney where it hits the roof are sealed, And have your chimney looked at by an actual chimney professional, you know, a chimney sweep like from Mary Poppins. Yeah, except none of the dancing. That's all all right, y'all. When we return, we're getting back into the garage and we're going to take a look at the other issues that are standing between you how it is right now and making it a true through flex space. What are
all the things it can become? And most importantly, what do we do with that ugly cracked garage slab? All of this? When we return. You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty cam I SAM for forty live streaming in HD everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Hey, you are Home with Dean Sharp, the house whisper. How is your Saturday morning going? Ours
is going pretty good. We're talking this weekend here at the on the cusp of remodeling season, specifically speaking to people who are like you know, inflation has not let up at all. Funds are a little tight, but so is the room in my house, and so I need an inexpensive or at least a less expensive way of getting more space around here. Well, the very first place we look when it comes to extra space that you already have is the garage. I know, We've already discussed
this morning what those obstacles are. But now we're in it, we're in it to win it. How do you actually make that space livable? Now, for most people, it's pretty easy to understand what I've already told you about, which is insulating the walls and dry wall and finishing up the ceiling really nice, and you can imagine putting some lighting in there and all of that kind of stuff. This, of course, after we've dealt with the storage issues. But what about the floor. Well, there are two problems or
two issues I should say, with your garage slab. One is, even if it's in perfect condition, you just need to know that unless you live in a house that was built in the early sixties or earlier, your garage slab is sloped. It is not like level. It is probably pitched at about an eighth of an inch per foot towards the garage door. And that's quite intentional for leaks and water and all sorts of messiness to get out
of the garage. So that don't normally does not affect typical like game room or putting the sofa out there or anything like that. But just understand that if you're putting in cabinet tree along the slope side of the walls of the garage or anything like that. Those things are going to have to be leveled and accounted for. Otherwise they're going to be a little bit leaning one direction because they're sitting perfectly well on the slab. So that's something to take into account. And no, I don't
want you to level it up. I don't want you to put a damn there and chain, you know, because we're still a space to drive the car into. Okay, but just understand. So flooring levelers, furniture levelers, all of these these are inexpensive things, but there are things that have to be thought through. The second issue, and the most common issue, is the garage slab is cracked and
it's just but ugly. I mean just it's greasy. There's paint, there's grime, there's I mean, no, nobody wants to be in a garage when or any room when a floor looks the way it does. Well, let me tell you we have come light years, I mean light years away from having to put up with that. And no, no, no, no, I don't want you to paint your garage floor. That is not the answer to a long lasting thing here. And there are some concrete paints out there, but that's
not the fix. There aren't there. There is a quick fix, it's just not an immediate quick fix, okay. Quick fix meaning take a couple three days to work on this. Just not clean, you know, empty out the garage and slap a coat of paint on. That is never the right approach to anything around your house. Take some time,
do it right, and you will be shocked at the results. Now, if you were to go to the big box store right now, you could pick up a garage floor epoxy kit from Rustolium that basically gets you set up to put a new epoxy finish on your garage floor. That's all well and good. It's not my first recommendation. I like other epoxy kits better. But the point is this.
The Rustolium kit is going to have you etch the floor, wet the floor, all of this kind of stuff to get rich, to get it prepped, to get rid of grime and grease. A lot of scrubbing is involved. I want you to just bypo pass all of that, all right. For all of that, you can go to a place like home depot or a tool rental yard and rent yourself a concrete refinishing machine. I know that sounds intimidating,
but trust me on this. When you get a shot here, just go online, look up concrete refinishing rental machine and take a look at it. Okay, it is heavy, but it comes in its own little trailer. You can wheel it off and roll it into your garage. It is not a crazy, highly skilled thing. That's why they're at rental yards. In fact, it's about as calm and easy going of a machine as can possibly be rented to you. It's not going to fly out of control. It's not
a danger. You just follow the rules. It's gonna set you back about I'm going to say a couple hundred bucks for a day, and all you're going to need it for is a day. It is a big machine that has a diamond blade of refinishing disc on the bottom.
It sits there on its own weight, It controls its own dust, and you simply pull it across the garage floor with a little bit of a swishing motion as it goes, and amazingly, it will resurface the vast majority of garage floors smooth, get below the grease and the grime. It will open up the porosity of the floor so that it's ready for an epoxy finish or a concrete stain. It is really, really quite amazing. It'll even up a
little bit of uneven uplift at cracks. And then once you've refinished the floor and you are your jaw is a gap at how bright and beautiful and fresh your concrete slab in your garage looks. Then you can put a little bit of a patching epoxy into the cracks to let that set up and seal the cracks, and then you are ready. Essentially, I'm truncating this just a bit, but not much. Then you are to put a new coating, be it a stain or an epoxy over the garage slab.
That brings you to a beautiful, clean, heavy duty new garage floor that's not just great for the car, but entirely pleasant for human beings to spend time on. So check that out. The key to this whole thing is something that has changed over the last twenty years, and that is the rentability the diy ability of resurfacing your own garage floor. If you can push a vacuum cleaner around the house, you can resurface your garage slab. I'm
not gidding, it's true. Give it a look Sie, all right more, when we return you are home with Dean Sharp. The house whisper, Hey am I Dean Sharp the house whisper welcome home.
Here.
We are at the end of another two hours together. Don't forget. We're going to be right back here tomorrow yep, from nine to noon. Continuing our topic for this weekend, but with a little different twist. Today, I've been reminding you about your garage, the fact that it's there, that it's probably at least four hundred square feet of extra
space already attached to your house. Why have we concentrated there, Because it already has a roof, it already has walls, It already has a foundation and a slab underneath it. It is three quarters or more of the way to being truly an enjoyable, habitable space. If you just take it the rest of the way over the top, it can become, at very worst, at very minimum, a flex space.
A flex space. What does that mean. It simply means that it's a place where, Yeah, you can pull the car in park out there, you can have the washing dryer, out there the launder room, doing the normal garagey kind of things. But then if the rest of the garage is ready, then pull the cars out into the driveway, shut the garage door, and suddenly it becomes transformed into a different kind of space. Now some of you are asking, what all can we do out there, Deane, Well, it's
your workshop, it's your crafting area. It's a game room, game I mean, it's I mean, these are classic things that people have used garages for, you know, since garages have been used. But you know, ping pong, darts, billiards, garages make they're already kind of leaning in the direction of being dark and sound, isolated from the rest of the house, meaning that they can make a brilliant media room. It's the place to have everybody watching the big game
to movie night, you know, with a comfortable sofa. It can be slid off to the side to pull the car in and then engaged when the time comes. It's craft room, it's a gym. Okay, it's a good place for a garage band. Let's not forget garage bands. And of course it's a good place to park the car. The idea is this long long gone are the days when the garage is just barely a covered, enclosed space. It's cold, it's too hot in the summer, and all of that kind of stuff, and it's just filthy and
it's piled full of stuff. If your garage is still in that condition, I'm just telling you, I'm just being honest. You're not fully utilizing all the space that you have paid so much money for for your home. Insulate those walls, move electricity around where you want, dry wall those walls,
dry wall that ceiling. Maximize your storage. There are so many storage concepts and options, everything from tote rails that slide totes right above where the garage door comes in all across the ceiling, to winched platforms that you don't even have to get on a ladder to bring that storage stuff down. You can just winch it right down to the floor, access what you want, and cable it right back up. Brilliant cabinetry all around the outside perimeter
of the garage. All of this is, you know, it is based on I just want to choose my words carefully because I know it's a sensitive subject. All of this is just based on this getting read of stuff and getting yourself organized but let me tell you we
live in the golden age of garage capacity. If you just spend half an hour doing searches online for garage storage systems, garage storage optimization, garage transformations, garage game room conversions, you will feast your eyes upon all sorts of super creative ideas. This last week at the International Builder Show, there's always a very very large contingent of garage conversion ideas, from fully POxy floors to tile floors, to grid interlocking floors, bars,
billiard rooms, like I said, media rooms. That's just there is so much you can do with your garage, And all I wanted to do this morning was to encourage you to take a second look at it, because some of you are needing more space and you're not ready to build on to the back of the house. You have a room there, four hundred square feet that's already most of the way there. Just consider getting creative with your living and nudget the rest of the way. You
won't regret it all. Right, Tomorrow, we're going to take the same approach, except we're going to be talking about the little things we can do to push our outside space the rest of the way and get you at least probably the footprint of your entire house. More if it's a space that you feel comfortable being in it. And at the end of the day, that's all we're talking about. The elbow room necessary to live a little
larger in the house that you already have. Will do that tomorrow and until then, don't forget, don't forget that we are here for you. On social media. The house Whisper podcast is everywhere your favorite podcasts are found, and if you need a little personal house Whisper attention, you can book an in home design console with us at house Whisper Design. Until then, get out here and make the most of this beautiful day that is in your hand,
and busy building yourself a beautiful life. We'll see you tomorrow. 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.