Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp, the
Speaker 1: House Whisperer on demand on the iHeartRadio app KFI AM
Speaker 1: six forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio App. Hey, welcome
Speaker 1: to home Where. Every week we help you better understand
Speaker 1: that place where you live. I am Dean Sharp, the
Speaker 1: House Whisperer, custom home Builder, custom home designer, and your
Speaker 1: guide to turning your ordinary house into an extraordinary home.
Speaker 1: We're talking about fences, walls, and hedges. What do these
Speaker 1: things have in common? They define boundaries. They also shape spaces,
Speaker 1: because that's what a boundary does. It defines the shape
Speaker 1: of a space, and they contour whatever setting they find
Speaker 1: themselves in in the third dimension. We so often think
Speaker 1: about our yards, our gardens front back, otherwise as forwards, backwards,
Speaker 1: left and right. These flat spaces, a fence, a wall,
Speaker 1: a hedge, regardless of its height, they rise up into
Speaker 1: the third dimension. They bring a three dimensional aspect to
Speaker 1: our yards, which is critically important for a dynamic and
Speaker 1: a romantic and a beautiful yard. And of course they
Speaker 1: also provide, to whatever degree they are able, if they're
Speaker 1: on the perimeter, privacy and or security. I'm going to
Speaker 1: try to attempt to do this today. I'm going to
Speaker 1: speak both from a builder side and from the designer side,
Speaker 1: flopping back and forth between the two so that we
Speaker 1: don't have to ignore one or the other. Where we're
Speaker 1: going to start is on the simple side of things.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about wood fences. Wood fences are
Speaker 1: still primarily the majority of fences that are out there.
Speaker 1: If we're deconstructing a fence, from a builder's point of view,
Speaker 1: a fence is not a thing. A wood fence is
Speaker 1: three things. It is an assembly of three things. It
Speaker 1: is the hole for the posts, post holes. Okay, that's
Speaker 1: the first thing that a fence is. The second thing
Speaker 1: is the frame, and that is the posts that go
Speaker 1: in those holes and the rails that run in between
Speaker 1: those posts. That's the frame of the fence. And the
Speaker 1: third thing on the fence is the skin or the slats. Right,
Speaker 1: chances are, if there's something wrong with your fence, there's
Speaker 1: something wrong with one or maybe a couple of those things,
Speaker 1: but maybe not all of them. The reality is that
Speaker 1: if you know, people often say, oh, my fence, it's
Speaker 1: falling apart, I need to replace it. Well, the reason
Speaker 1: I'm sharing these three distinct components assemblies with you. Is
Speaker 1: so that you can become a better doctor of evaluating
Speaker 1: your fence that may be in trouble on some level. Now, yeah,
Speaker 1: of course there are some fences that are just like done.
Speaker 1: They're done, they've been neglected, they are over and they
Speaker 1: need to be pulled and replaced. The point is you
Speaker 1: need to look at all three components of your fence
Speaker 1: to figure out what exactly is going on. Almost all
Speaker 1: the time, what is quote unquote falling apart on your
Speaker 1: fence is not all three components, but one maybe two.
Speaker 1: So you look at the posts and if the posts
Speaker 1: are solid, then they're solid. They can be they can continue.
Speaker 1: The rails, which are the horizontal boards that run in
Speaker 1: between the posts on a wood fence, and we're specifically
Speaker 1: talking about a wood fence here. The rails, that's a
Speaker 1: separate component. And if you've got a rail that's failing,
Speaker 1: then the slats can be removed carefully and the rail
Speaker 1: can be replaced, and then the slats reapplied and boom,
Speaker 1: what have you done. You've only spent money on you know,
Speaker 1: a two by piece of material and the little bit
Speaker 1: of time that it takes to reinsert that into the
Speaker 1: fence assembly and boom, your fence is back in action.
Speaker 1: Most likely, most of the time, it's slats that are
Speaker 1: taking most of the abuse from use in the yard
Speaker 1: and exposure to the weather, and slats fall apart, and
Speaker 1: slats can be replaced. So that's the point. The moral
Speaker 1: of the story is that now a lot of confusion
Speaker 1: when it comes to the most intimidating part of the fence.
Speaker 1: If we're doing a new fence, and what is that
Speaker 1: the post and the hole, Right, it's always the question
Speaker 1: how deep, how big of a hole do we need?
Speaker 1: The depth of a post hole for a wooden fence,
Speaker 1: typical wooden fence, and yes there are always exceptions to
Speaker 1: this role, but the depth of a post hole is
Speaker 1: at least a third. Sometimes you might want to go
Speaker 1: even further up to a half, but one third to
Speaker 1: one half the height of the fence. Okay, that means
Speaker 1: that if your fence is going to be a six
Speaker 1: foot tall fence, that means that you're going two to
Speaker 1: three feet down, all right, A six foot high fence
Speaker 1: post above the ground needs at least two feet down
Speaker 1: in the ground, and to really really sink it in
Speaker 1: three feet. So half of the height up is the
Speaker 1: distance that we go down for the hole. How about
Speaker 1: the width? Okay? Now, this is where I have been
Speaker 1: in so many situations and built so many different kinds
Speaker 1: of fences that I'm going to give you a couple
Speaker 1: of different points here. Not every fence has to be
Speaker 1: anchored into concrete or into some kind of fence anchoring material.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: There are fences all over my own yard here as
Speaker 1: a perfect example that Tina and I put in I
Speaker 1: don't know how many, ten fifteen plus US years ago,
Speaker 1: still standing, just perfectly fine. Okay. That are literally where
Speaker 1: the posts are inserted into a relatively tight hole. Okay,
Speaker 1: a temporary fence, a fence that you think, well, I
Speaker 1: think I need this fence for now, but maybe in
Speaker 1: two or three years we may change the contour of
Speaker 1: this fence. My suggestion would be drop it into a
Speaker 1: really tight hole. You want to keep the hole as
Speaker 1: tight to the size of the post as possible so
Speaker 1: that you get the most stability with undisturbed soil around it.
Speaker 1: All right, depth still the same, okay? So how wide
Speaker 1: is the post hole tight? If it's temporary tight okay,
Speaker 1: or if you're really going to go permanent. Now, the
Speaker 1: standard rule and that is three to four times the
Speaker 1: width of the post for wood, okay. And if it's
Speaker 1: a steel post, either a steel net. And I know
Speaker 1: you're saying, wait, you're talking about a wood fence. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the best, most permanent wood fences use often steel posts.
Speaker 1: The perimeter of fence around my property, for instance, we
Speaker 1: used steel channel posts that are specifically designed to have
Speaker 1: wood rails attached to them, and guess what, twenty three
Speaker 1: years later, those posts are still perfectly intact. And if
Speaker 1: at any point I'm going to redo my fence, the
Speaker 1: posts are not moving. They are just going to have
Speaker 1: new rails and new slats attached to them. So three
Speaker 1: to four times the width of the post, if it's wood, okay,
Speaker 1: That means if you're using a four by four, then
Speaker 1: it's about twelve inches of post hole in diameter down
Speaker 1: the two or three feet, and if you're using steel,
Speaker 1: then at least eight inches wide. There you go. You
Speaker 1: got that. You get all that written down?
Speaker 2: Good?
Speaker 1: Okay. If you didn't, you listen to the podcast later
Speaker 1: and pull those dimensions back up. When we return to
Speaker 1: this subject, I am going to talk about the posts themselves. Okay,
Speaker 1: what touches the dirt? What should that be made out of?
Speaker 1: And how when you are building a fence for the
Speaker 1: very first time, do you keep it all in a
Speaker 1: straight line? And what do you put in that hole
Speaker 1: to hold those posts in place? Your home with Dean
Speaker 1: Sharp the house Whisper, can't I Dean Sharp the house whisper.
Speaker 1: Welcome home. We're talking about fences and walls and hedges today.
Speaker 1: We're going to return to that conversation in just a bit.
Speaker 1: But time to go to the phones. Let's talk to Lou. Hey, Lou,
Speaker 1: welcome home.
Speaker 3: My question it's about toilets. I got two new toilets installed.
Speaker 3: Toilets were installed very well. They did a nice job.
Speaker 3: There is about a fashion of the water that my
Speaker 3: previous toilets had and I'm not sure if that's a
Speaker 3: good idea not. They say it's a new type of toilet.
Speaker 3: It's designed for that amount of water to function properly.
Speaker 3: Second question I have, Dean, is that it has a
Speaker 3: serpentine plumbing on the base and I was sureous why
Speaker 3: is it serpentem? And the third question I have would
Speaker 3: it be wise to flush them occasionally with the old
Speaker 3: garden host.
Speaker 1: First of all, congratulations on the new toilets. And yeah,
Speaker 1: these days California State of California requires this, and most
Speaker 1: states now across the nation require low flow toilets. And
Speaker 1: low flow is just kind of a given. It's you know,
Speaker 1: it was a big deal back in the past, and
Speaker 1: there were different ways of accomplishing it, and honestly, when
Speaker 1: it first came out, I wasn't all that thrilled with
Speaker 1: the way that they worked. But nowadays it's just a given.
Speaker 1: And yeah, there's nothing wrong with a low flow toilet.
Speaker 1: Does not hurt the toilet, does not hurt the pipes,
Speaker 1: does not hurt your plumbing. You are golden and good
Speaker 1: to go with a low flow toilet, and you know,
Speaker 1: just helps the fact that they don't have to use
Speaker 1: as much water anymore. A better design for a toilet
Speaker 1: not as much water to get the same work done. Secondly,
Speaker 1: if you're looking down underneath the toilet and you see
Speaker 1: kind of that squarely pipe there, that's because a toilet
Speaker 1: has a pea trap built into it. Okay, a pea
Speaker 1: trap is basically allows it to after a flush, hold
Speaker 1: on to a level of water, and that level of
Speaker 1: water acts as a stop gap plug basically to keep
Speaker 1: sewer gases from coming back up the line and into
Speaker 1: the toilet. And so it's simply a design of the
Speaker 1: toilet fixture. A lot of people are surprised that the
Speaker 1: piping underneath a toilet, like in your slab or in
Speaker 1: your house, does not have a pea trap located there.
Speaker 1: It's actually in the toilet itself, and that way we
Speaker 1: can just keep the flesh line nice and clean and straightforward.
Speaker 1: So you know, you've got a pea trap underneath all
Speaker 1: of your vessel in your house, all of the sinks,
Speaker 1: they've got this pe shaped kind of squirrely thing underneath it.
Speaker 1: That's just what you're seeing there, built into the actual
Speaker 1: structure of the toilet itself. Finally, should you ever have
Speaker 1: to flush them with a garden hose? Nope, you should
Speaker 1: be good to go. The only time you've got to
Speaker 1: put anything down there other than you know, the water
Speaker 1: that you've flushed with is if for some reason you've
Speaker 1: got some kind of a clog or otherwise. But otherwise
Speaker 1: you are golden. I want to talk to Henderson. Henderson,
Speaker 1: welcome home. Are you there?
Speaker 4: I am here. I'm building a house and one of
Speaker 4: the things I was listening at painting my Kiston walls,
Speaker 4: and I was thinking of paint in it, like semi
Speaker 4: glass or something along that line. But the contract is
Speaker 4: always say flat. Everyone always says take the siling flat.
Speaker 4: But my father is greases in the kitchen. The walls
Speaker 4: would be about My walls would be about ten feet high,
Speaker 4: and I was just taking for a maintenance flat. Would
Speaker 4: that be the best choice.
Speaker 1: You are absolutely right, my friend, that flat is not
Speaker 1: the best choice there for your kitchen. We want to
Speaker 1: avoid glossy paint in our home as much as possible, Okay,
Speaker 1: except on trim like casings, door casings, jams, those kinds
Speaker 1: of things, base boards, even at that. I'm not a
Speaker 1: big fan of high gloss anytime in those situations. And
Speaker 1: I'll tell you why, because the high reflectivity of a
Speaker 1: high gloss paint means that any imperfection, I mean anything,
Speaker 1: a dent, a nail hole, scratch, they it just comes
Speaker 1: blaring out. You can see it from across the room.
Speaker 1: So just know, as a general rule, the more reflective
Speaker 1: the paint is, the more perfect that surface has to be,
Speaker 1: otherwise it's going to show off all of its flaws. Okay,
Speaker 1: So we don't want shiny shiny shiny as a general
Speaker 1: rule anywhere. However, you're absolutely right. The reason why paints
Speaker 1: are as reflective as they are is because a high
Speaker 1: gloss paint. The more gloss that's in a paint. As
Speaker 1: a general rule, okay, as again a general rule that
Speaker 1: I'm going to make exception to it in just a second,
Speaker 1: but as a general rule, the more gloss that is
Speaker 1: in a paint, the higher the solids are in the resins,
Speaker 1: and that means that it's harder paint. It's a harder surface,
Speaker 1: and as a result, it's easier to keep clean from
Speaker 1: things like you know, grease splatters and dirt and so
Speaker 1: on and so forth. Any contractor with their salt should
Speaker 1: not be telling you to put flat paint in a kitchen.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 1: Flat paint has the lowest number of solids in the resins.
Speaker 1: It's almost an open, porous surface, and that's why flat
Speaker 1: painted walls are really really tough to clean. As a
Speaker 1: general rule, we don't want that. However, the contractor is
Speaker 1: right from a design perspective in that the flatter that
Speaker 1: a wall is, the flatter that a ceiling is, the
Speaker 1: less it reflects in perfections, and the more beautiful and
Speaker 1: soft and glowy the room becomes. So what do we
Speaker 1: do then with a kitchen. Well, I'm just going to
Speaker 1: make a direct product recommendation to you. And yes, Benjamin
Speaker 1: Moore is a sponsor of this show, but only because
Speaker 1: I went out to get them and said, you have
Speaker 1: to sponsor my show because I've been using your paint
Speaker 1: for thirty nearly forty years now professionally and I'm your
Speaker 1: best advocate. So Benjamin Moore has two paints here, Aura
Speaker 1: au are A or scuff X. Okay, I have painted
Speaker 1: the entire inside of my house, our cottage in scuff X.
Speaker 1: Tina and I have. And here is one of the
Speaker 1: reasons why the scuff X is actually designed to be
Speaker 1: a commercial paint for like educational institutions and libraries and
Speaker 1: public spaces, because it is so dang tough and it
Speaker 1: is easy to clean. However, it comes in multiple sheens
Speaker 1: and they're all cleanable, including Matt. That's the key Matt finish. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's scuff X does not come in a flat, but
Speaker 1: it comes in a Matt and Matt is just ever
Speaker 1: so slightly the tiniest bit of sheen, not enough to
Speaker 1: be reflective, but enough to be like tough, I mean
Speaker 1: like tough. So what you want, okay, regardless of what brand,
Speaker 1: you don't have to go with my recommendation, but whatever
Speaker 1: brand that you're looking for, that you end up with
Speaker 1: Henderson to paint the house with point is we want
Speaker 1: a little bit of sheen that makes it cleanable, but
Speaker 1: not so much that makes it shiny, so definitely not
Speaker 1: not gloss or semigloss. The secret of painting a kitchen
Speaker 1: is getting that, you know, balancing act between non reflectivity
Speaker 1: and clean ability. Thanks for calling in. When we come back,
Speaker 1: we're going to get back to that wood fence that
Speaker 1: we were talking about. We're going to talk about what
Speaker 1: we are putting in that fence, post hole, what's anchoring
Speaker 1: the post, what kind of a post, and how do
Speaker 1: you get them all lined up the right way? All
Speaker 1: of that and more. Your Home with Dean Sharp, the
Speaker 1: House Whisper.
Speaker 5: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 5: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: KFI Dean Sharp the House Whisper at your service. It's
Speaker 1: time to get back to talking about fences and hedges
Speaker 1: and walls. All right, we're right in the middle of
Speaker 1: We need to get this fence, this new wood fence
Speaker 1: of yours in the ground. How far apart should fence
Speaker 1: posts be? That has to do with your rails, the
Speaker 1: actual wood rails that you connect between the two. I
Speaker 1: personally would not put fence posts further than eight feet apart.
Speaker 1: Number one, it's a nice convenient to distance in terms
Speaker 1: of the rails because you get two by four lumber
Speaker 1: as rails that are eight feet long. Now, of course
Speaker 1: you can get larger two by fours than that longer
Speaker 1: two by fours, but anything beyond eight feet what we
Speaker 1: end up seeing is sagging, and what we don't want
Speaker 1: is a saggy fence. What goes in the hole? Well,
Speaker 1: the post, right, what is that post made out of?
Speaker 1: On a wood fence? Without question, the wood post should
Speaker 1: be pressure treated lumber. Pressure treated lumber is different than
Speaker 1: regular lumber. Regular lumber is in no way, shape or
Speaker 1: form ever rated to be in direct contact with soil
Speaker 1: or moisture. Pressure treated lumber is what that is. For now,
Speaker 1: some of you were saying, well, listen, we're going to splurge, Dean.
Speaker 1: We're going to use the best stuff. We're going to
Speaker 1: put in redwood fence with redwood posts or a cedar
Speaker 1: fence with cedar posts, and the redwood and cedar, as
Speaker 1: we all know, is totally moisture and rot proof and
Speaker 1: bug proof. That is incorrect, that's not true at all.
Speaker 1: Redwood and cedar, as a natural red product, is certainly
Speaker 1: far more rot and moisture resistant and far more insect
Speaker 1: resistant than standard Douglas fir or what have you. However,
Speaker 1: it doesn't even come close to the moisture resistance of
Speaker 1: pressure treated lumber. And that's why I'm telling you use
Speaker 1: pressure treated posts and rails. Use a pressure treated frame
Speaker 1: for your fence. Okay, now you're like, well, but our
Speaker 1: design of a fence, you're gonna see the post. Great,
Speaker 1: take a couple of extra of those cedar or redwood
Speaker 1: slats that you're using, those flat one by redwood slats
Speaker 1: and cut them to wrap the outside of your post
Speaker 1: so that it looks cedar or redwood and matches everything
Speaker 1: else but inside the heart of it. Use pressure treated lumber. Now,
Speaker 1: you could also use galvanized steel posts going down there,
Speaker 1: and like I said earlier, there is a whole slew
Speaker 1: of them that are made. They're more expensive by maybe
Speaker 1: twice as expensive as a pressure treated wood post, but
Speaker 1: they also, you know, last forever, and they're a lot
Speaker 1: stronger as well. The last thing to tell you right
Speaker 1: now is what do we fill that hole with? And
Speaker 1: how do you, if this is a brand new fence,
Speaker 1: make it all straight. We already know the kind of
Speaker 1: post you're going to use, a pressure treated post or
Speaker 1: some kind of galvanized steel post in your fence. Now
Speaker 1: what do we put in the bottom? About six inches
Speaker 1: of gravel? Okay, that's it, Just some loose gravel at
Speaker 1: the bottom. That's what the post is actually going to
Speaker 1: sit on, so that the water, whatever water works its
Speaker 1: way into that hole has a place to drain off.
Speaker 1: That is our preferred method for setting posts. Then the post.
Speaker 1: Now what goes in post hole cement? There is post
Speaker 1: whole cement mix available on the market today and this
Speaker 1: is not a hack on my part. This is how
Speaker 1: it's made ready mixed post whole cement. Literally, you break
Speaker 1: the bag open, you pour the dry stuff just right
Speaker 1: down into the hole, and then you pour the water
Speaker 1: in with the hose. You let it fill up in,
Speaker 1: swish it around, maybe just a smidge.
Speaker 5: And the end.
Speaker 1: Unless you really want to be twenty first century about this,
Speaker 1: and you use expansive post hole foam, and is it
Speaker 1: worth it? It is worth every penny. Post Hole expansive foam
Speaker 1: ways about half a pound. And you carry the package
Speaker 1: home with you in your pocket basically or in your
Speaker 1: little shopping bag, and you're going to break this stuff open.
Speaker 1: On the inside, you're going to mix one side to
Speaker 1: the other. There's a catalyst and the foaming agent inside.
Speaker 1: Then you cut it open and you pour it into
Speaker 1: the post hole. And amazingly, it's kind of like the
Speaker 1: same stuff that comes in the spray cands that expand
Speaker 1: out when you're trying to fill holes around the house,
Speaker 1: right expansive foam, except this stuff just keeps going and
Speaker 1: going and going, and it will literally fill up the
Speaker 1: entire post hole if you've sized it properly. Fifteen bucks,
Speaker 1: so as opposed to the ten that you're going to
Speaker 1: spend on the cement, you spend fifteen for this. You
Speaker 1: do not lug around one hundred pounds of the cement.
Speaker 1: And I don't know a single builder who is serious
Speaker 1: about post holes that hasn't switched over to this Honestly, now,
Speaker 1: I will tell you this, this is the one caveat
Speaker 1: not for structural stuff. Foaming posthole cement is not for
Speaker 1: setting the posts and the piers of your new deck
Speaker 1: or anything that has a foundation. Really, anything that's going
Speaker 1: to bear wait on top of these posts. Okay, but
Speaker 1: a regular fence, everything from the post that holds your
Speaker 1: mailbox out front, to the gate posts to just your
Speaker 1: regular perimeter fence posts. This stuff will get the job done.
Speaker 1: And the beautiful thing about it is that how long
Speaker 1: do you How much bracing do you have to do
Speaker 1: with the post? Right, because I'm about to talk to
Speaker 1: you about if you use cement, We've got to brace
Speaker 1: these posts in two directions with a board heading one
Speaker 1: way and another to get this post perfectly plumb, to
Speaker 1: hold it in place, preferably overnight, for the posthole cement
Speaker 1: to set up so that you go back the next day. Okay,
Speaker 1: Now with the foaming post hole foam, how long do
Speaker 1: you have to wait? Well, all you need is a
Speaker 1: very very simple little three dollars post hole level, which
Speaker 1: is a little right angle level with a rubber band
Speaker 1: around it. You just wrap it around the post and
Speaker 1: you put the phone in and you sit there, level
Speaker 1: it with your hand and stand there for all of
Speaker 1: two minutes, and then two minutes later you walk away
Speaker 1: and it's done. I will throw one more benefit at it.
Speaker 1: This is closed cell foam. Okay, it doesn't get all
Speaker 1: huge bubbles in it. Okay, it's closed cell foam. And
Speaker 1: so it actually forms a complete waterproof barrier around the
Speaker 1: post inside the hole in the ground. So post hoole
Speaker 1: cement is cement, and as you've heard me say so
Speaker 1: many times before on the show, cement is nothing but
Speaker 1: a stone sponge. Moisture moves right through it. So even
Speaker 1: though you surround your post in cement, you're not protecting
Speaker 1: it from moisture. That's why you used the pressure treated wood.
Speaker 1: Now you're still going to use the pressure treated wood
Speaker 1: no matter what. Okay. But the expansive post hole foam.
Speaker 1: The thing that I maybe love most about it, other
Speaker 1: than its utter lightweight, convenience and speed, is the fact
Speaker 1: that it is going to wrap the entire base of
Speaker 1: this post in a It's gonna seal it from moisture.
Speaker 1: One last thing, how do you make a fence line straight?
Speaker 1: Here's how you do it. You go to the corners.
Speaker 1: One corner, you set a post plumb and straight. Then
Speaker 1: you go all the way and the next post that
Speaker 1: you're gonna set is at the other corner, at the
Speaker 1: other end of the fence line. You set that post
Speaker 1: both end posts first, and then you run a string
Speaker 1: line or a laser between the two posts, and every
Speaker 1: post in between has to hit that line or line
Speaker 1: up with that laser. And that is how you're gonna
Speaker 1: get your fence perfectly straight, no matter how long the run.
Speaker 1: So much more to come your home with Dean Sharp
Speaker 1: the house Whisper kf I, Dean Sharp the House Whisper,
Speaker 1: Welcome home. We're talking about fences and walls and hedges.
Speaker 1: We're going to be talking walls next, but right now,
Speaker 1: near the top of the hour, it's time to go
Speaker 1: to the phones. I want to talk to Kelly. Hey, Kelly,
Speaker 1: welcome home.
Speaker 2: I have a question regarding a manufactured home that I
Speaker 2: have with a crawl space and a garage that's on
Speaker 2: the ground, and since the big rainstorm with over eight inches,
Speaker 2: where I'm at every evening or night, there's a light
Speaker 2: sewer smell emanating from both bathrooms and I'm not sure
Speaker 2: what it is. And I ran into a neighbory yesterday
Speaker 2: and he's having the same issue and has called out
Speaker 2: an environmental team, called out is ACA guy and no answers.
Speaker 1: A light sewer smell coming out of both bathrooms and
Speaker 1: only since the rains, Yes, your manufactured home, is it
Speaker 1: sitting on a slab?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 1: Well, exactly sure to tell you the truth, Kelly, just
Speaker 1: because of the circumstance. Now, Typically, typically when you get
Speaker 1: a sewer smell in a bathroom coming out of a bathroom,
Speaker 1: there's usually only two or three different causes for that.
Speaker 1: One is that the bathroom has not been used in
Speaker 1: quite a while, and therefore the water in the pea
Speaker 1: traps of the sink and the shower has evaporated out
Speaker 1: enough that sewer gas has now started to creep out
Speaker 1: of the pipes. Because the water in the pea trap
Speaker 1: is what blocks the sewer gas that's in the sewer
Speaker 1: line from getting into our homes via our sinks and
Speaker 1: tubs and so on. That is usually the reason for that.
Speaker 1: Kind of like when you walk into an empty home
Speaker 1: or a home that's for sale that hasn't been lived
Speaker 1: in for a while, sometimes you get that weird smell
Speaker 1: and you know what's going on with this. It's because
Speaker 1: probably the pea traps have dry out and there's a
Speaker 1: little bit of sewer gas leaking in, giving that off smell.
Speaker 1: The other reason, if it is a bathroom that gets
Speaker 1: used a lot, could be the same kind of thing
Speaker 1: happening underneath the toilet, if the toilet seal is starting
Speaker 1: to fail or has cracked. And that's because and the
Speaker 1: reason wouldn't apply the same way to sinks and faucets
Speaker 1: is I think I mentioned this to an earlier caller
Speaker 1: who just got brand new toilets. But the pea trap
Speaker 1: in a toilet is up inside the toilet itself. Therefore,
Speaker 1: even if the toilet's full of water, if the gasket
Speaker 1: or the seal underneath the toilet where it connects to
Speaker 1: the flange is cracked or broken open, then the sewer
Speaker 1: gas can leak out there because there's no pea trap
Speaker 1: stopping it before it hits that point. That's another thing.
Speaker 1: And the third reason for the typically that we get
Speaker 1: a smell in a bathroom or coming out of a
Speaker 1: sink or a tub drain is that there's for some
Speaker 1: reason or other kind of an overgrowth of bacteria that's
Speaker 1: not a hygiene thing. It's just something that can happen
Speaker 1: sometimes with water content and so on, and so have
Speaker 1: you Have you tried like a pouring vinegar or something
Speaker 1: down the drain there?
Speaker 2: Yes, I did vinegar and let it fit for about
Speaker 2: a half an hour, and then I ran water for
Speaker 2: ten minutes in a tub and a shower that are
Speaker 2: not used. In fact, the tub hadn't been used at all,
Speaker 2: even I clean it, but it doesn't get a lot
Speaker 2: of water. And that didn't work. But last night was
Speaker 2: the first night I didn't smell the smell, so I thought,
Speaker 2: maybe does it take time? And then eventually it worked.
Speaker 1: Yeah. That's the thing is that you may want to
Speaker 1: go for it a few times. Vinegar is a great
Speaker 1: solution for a bacterial That sounds gross to say that
Speaker 1: there's a bacterial infection growing in your drain lines, but
Speaker 1: it happens sometimes. Vinegar is a great solution for that.
Speaker 1: But it's not a one you know, if it's substantial,
Speaker 1: it's not a one time shot or one time fixed,
Speaker 1: so you may want to treat it two or three times.
Speaker 1: I'm not exactly sure though, Kelly, that that you know,
Speaker 1: just to that that's exactly putting your finger on the issue.
Speaker 1: But those are the three typical causes. What I'm trying
Speaker 1: to sit here and work through in my brain is
Speaker 1: that what what about the recent storm and influx of
Speaker 1: water would actually cause this to happen for you and
Speaker 1: your neighbors as well. I'm just one. I think it's
Speaker 1: probably a good idea to follow through with the environmental
Speaker 1: team just to have them take a look around and
Speaker 1: see if a sewer line hasn't opened up somewhere underneath
Speaker 1: the the you know the area, uh, and if that
Speaker 1: isn't somehow contributing to you. Because here's the thing. If
Speaker 1: there's going to be if there's sewer gases like underneath
Speaker 1: your house, if you're going to get into the house,
Speaker 1: they're more likely going to move through anything that is
Speaker 1: a penetration in the floor of your home. And those
Speaker 1: penetrations are most plentiful in the bathrooms, right because we
Speaker 1: got drain lines coming up through there, as opposed to
Speaker 1: bedrooms or anywhere else where the floor is just solid
Speaker 1: and there are no perforations. So you may I would
Speaker 1: definitely recommend that you continue to take a look at
Speaker 1: the other causes. It may just fix itself. But if
Speaker 1: it were for any reason one of the typical issues,
Speaker 1: it sounds most likely that it may be a bacterial
Speaker 1: thing in your drains, and that I would give it,
Speaker 1: you know, two three four treatments, or you can go
Speaker 1: down to the hardware store or the big box store
Speaker 1: and actually get an anti bacterial drain cleaner to kind
Speaker 1: of like nuke it, like a broad spectrum antibiotics sort
Speaker 1: of for your drains to really kick it back. Try
Speaker 1: that and you might actually end up seeing a resolution
Speaker 1: to the issue. Sometimes just bacteria will grow on the
Speaker 1: inside of our drain linings, and for whatever reason, given
Speaker 1: a certain set of circumstances, it just starts to flourish,
Speaker 1: regardless of how much hot water we run down the
Speaker 1: drain or how clean we keep our bathrooms. Kelly, thank
Speaker 1: you for your question, really good one. Do you are
Speaker 1: Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisperer on KFI.
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