Speaker 1: Kf I am six forty.
Speaker 2: You're listening to Dean Sharp the house Whisper on demand
Speaker 2: on the iHeart radio app. You know, you can follow
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Speaker 2: all uplifting, informative, good kind of social media. Also, if
Speaker 2: your home is in need of some personal house Whisper attention,
Speaker 2: you can book an in home design consult with me
Speaker 2: and the t or just with Tina. If you don't
Speaker 2: want me a part of it, just go to house Whisper.
Speaker 2: I always say that, me and the tea. I'm like, well,
Speaker 2: what if they just want what if they just want
Speaker 2: to talk to you? Huh No, no, no, no, let's
Speaker 2: not exaggerate. Let's let's face the facts. People have often said,
Speaker 2: Tina's coming right right, and if I say no, They're like, hmm,
Speaker 2: host poem or cancel.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Anyway, if that is of interesting, you go to house
Speaker 2: Whisperer dot design for more information. All right, we're talking
Speaker 2: about organizing today organizing, and I'm leading you through my
Speaker 2: little system, as it were, the SIPs system SIPs, which
Speaker 2: stands for sorting, inventory, purge and store. I'm going to
Speaker 2: explain more of that and keep going as we go.
Speaker 2: But it is time. That's right, it's time to go
Speaker 2: to the phones find out what's going on with you today.
Speaker 2: I want to talk to Susan. Ay, Susan, welcome home.
Speaker 3: Hi Dean, thank you so much for your show and
Speaker 3: taking my call. Would you give me permission to make
Speaker 3: a very quick comment about the purge? Uh?
Speaker 4: Sure, okay.
Speaker 3: Just this something that has helped me and continues to
Speaker 3: help me, because it can be really difficult letting go.
Speaker 3: Is having someone in mind that I know isn't really
Speaker 3: in need, who doesn't have much of anything, and knowing
Speaker 3: that this item or these items are going to make
Speaker 3: a small difference in someone else's life is very, very gratifying,
Speaker 3: and it's really helpful for me when I have to
Speaker 3: decide on letting go. That's all I wanted to say.
Speaker 2: You know what, that's really really good advice, Susan. It
Speaker 2: reminds me of how I've come to feel about books,
Speaker 2: because if there's anything that I would tend to hold
Speaker 2: on to its books because I'm a book nerd. And
Speaker 2: if I lived in a bigger home, if I lived
Speaker 2: in one of the big homes that I designed for
Speaker 2: other people, I'd probably have.
Speaker 1: A library of my own, just walls and walls of books.
Speaker 2: But I'm kind of thankful that I don't, because I've
Speaker 2: came to the realization a few years back that you know,
Speaker 2: I could collect all these books and just have them
Speaker 2: sit on my shelf, or after I've read one and
Speaker 2: it's really impacted me, I can donate it or give
Speaker 2: it away and send it on so that more people
Speaker 2: can enjoy the thing that affected me so significantly. So
Speaker 2: you're absolutely right. Having other people in mind and just
Speaker 2: sharing the love of our stuff is such an important thing.
Speaker 2: So yeah, full process.
Speaker 3: By by the way, the rescue mission comes and picks up,
Speaker 3: it's absolutely amazing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely true. Thank you for that. All right, how
Speaker 1: can I help you?
Speaker 3: My question is I live in a very dark home.
Speaker 3: I'm repainting. I want bright, bright white. I know how
Speaker 3: difficult it is to figure out the right white, so
Speaker 3: I want to buy a few samples. And I question,
Speaker 3: and it's a two part question. The first part is
Speaker 3: do you think buying particle board I guess that's what
Speaker 3: it's called and painting those and then carrying them around
Speaker 3: is better than just going all around and painting walls.
Speaker 3: And then the second part of the question is I
Speaker 3: can't really afford Benjamin. I think you once suggested decorators white.
Speaker 3: I know you did. My question is, maybe do you
Speaker 3: know of a bear b eh or like a very bright, bright,
Speaker 3: wonderful white that might be similar to decorators white. That
Speaker 3: those are my two questions.
Speaker 1: Okay, so let me ask you the second question.
Speaker 2: First, I have no idea about it, even about you know,
Speaker 2: if you're to asked Tina, she's sitting right here. When
Speaker 2: it comes to her husband's ability to rename paint colors
Speaker 2: from any manufacturing, including Benjamin Moore, I know like five
Speaker 2: of them, five of them that I can remember, Okay, Okay, Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's not always decorators white that we use.
Speaker 1: Yeah, only because sometimes you know, there are may be
Speaker 1: five different whites that we'll look at, but in one
Speaker 1: house that looks very different than another house.
Speaker 2: Right, which leads to other So, first of all, every
Speaker 2: you know, I always say this, just you know, no
Speaker 2: guilt about that use the best paint that you can afford.
Speaker 2: Of all the major manufact just use the best paint
Speaker 2: you can afford. They all have a gabillion colors when
Speaker 2: it comes to tints. And to answer your question, when
Speaker 2: it comes to you know how to do that, you're
Speaker 2: right on target. Get to you know whether it's whether
Speaker 2: it's a piece of cardboard or whether it's a thin
Speaker 2: piece of masonite, some inexpensive but the largest piece possible.
Speaker 2: The easiest way to do samples of color in a
Speaker 2: room other than just putting it up on the wall
Speaker 2: is to, you know, make a big board and bring
Speaker 2: it in the room that way. And I love that
Speaker 2: idea because that way you can move it from one
Speaker 2: wall to the next. You can look at the way
Speaker 2: that the light hits it. Here, light hits it there.
Speaker 2: You can put the two boards next to each other.
Speaker 2: You can keep the board separated, which is usually the
Speaker 2: better way to do it. And that's the problem with
Speaker 2: painting samples on the wall. You'll put one white here
Speaker 2: and then about four feet away you'll put another white,
Speaker 2: and actually those two will interact with each other and
Speaker 2: give you a bias of both of them, because that's
Speaker 2: the way light works in transmitting color. So I prefer
Speaker 2: to have as large of a board as possible and
Speaker 2: bring it into the room by itself, let it stand alone,
Speaker 2: and then bring the other one in by itself, let
Speaker 2: it stand alone. Make your decisions that way. If you
Speaker 2: need to put them next to each other, just to
Speaker 2: get a sense of which one has more cream in it,
Speaker 2: which one has more blue in it, that's all well
Speaker 2: and good. But judge them as independently as possible, and
Speaker 2: putting them on boards, it's a brilliant way to do it, Susan.
Speaker 2: Just know that the larger the sample, the more accurate
Speaker 2: you're going to get in regard because the mass of
Speaker 2: any one color in a room changes the color the
Speaker 2: way that it reacts with the room. So you know,
Speaker 2: bringing in a little two by two square and taping
Speaker 2: it to the wall not going to give you a
Speaker 2: good representation of what that color is going to do
Speaker 2: when it's you know, eight by ten.
Speaker 3: Fantastic. Thank you, perfect, thank you.
Speaker 2: You are so welcome, Susan. Thank you for the question
Speaker 2: and for the call, and for the great comment and
Speaker 2: advice on purging, just passing it along, sharing the love
Speaker 2: with other people.
Speaker 1: Such such a good piece of advice.
Speaker 2: All right, let's take a quick break and when we
Speaker 2: come back, more of your calls.
Speaker 5: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 5: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us on the program today. We are
Speaker 2: talking about organization, purging, organizing storage. We're going to return
Speaker 2: to that conversation is just a bit, but right now,
Speaker 2: middle of the show, it's time to take calls. I'm
Speaker 2: going to the phones. I want to talk to Rod. Hey, Rod,
Speaker 2: welcome home.
Speaker 6: Hi Honda.
Speaker 4: How are you Dean?
Speaker 1: I am well, sir, How are you doing?
Speaker 4: Pretty good? Okay? I have a question regarding peers or footing,
Speaker 4: So it's underneath the how My house obviously has has
Speaker 4: a chrowned cross space, and I was down there doing
Speaker 4: something else because I had a leak on my refrigerator.
Speaker 4: And when I was down there, I noticed that one
Speaker 4: of the footings and the piers they were like moved
Speaker 4: over to the left and pretty close to I don't
Speaker 4: know how close to maybe coming off from holding the beam.
Speaker 4: But then I noticed that it wasn't only that one.
Speaker 4: There was three more like that. But it looks like
Speaker 4: they're all moved in the same direction, almost like it'll
Speaker 4: almost say the same distance. They're not leaning, they're not
Speaker 4: you know, they just seemed to be somebody just shifted
Speaker 4: them to the left. So I called the company to
Speaker 4: come and look at it, and they said that there's
Speaker 4: really you know, the house is not going to come down.
Speaker 4: There's really not much that needs to be done. They said,
Speaker 4: we have a minimum of three thousand dollars to do
Speaker 4: the work and you don't really need it. You know
Speaker 4: what you need to do. Then you look at me
Speaker 4: and it says you could probably go underneath the house
Speaker 4: and do it yourself with just take a car jack
Speaker 4: lift them and I would recommend you put the footings.
Speaker 4: You said. So, I don't know if it's something that
Speaker 4: I should be concerned about or what can I do
Speaker 4: about this?
Speaker 1: All right?
Speaker 2: My friends? So who did you call to come out?
Speaker 2: Who came and looked at it? A foundation company?
Speaker 4: Yeah, they do foundation repairs. And he came inside the
Speaker 4: house and he did a plumbing saying you know that
Speaker 4: he plumbed the house and he said everything was fine
Speaker 4: inside the house. I think that in the living room area,
Speaker 4: he said there was a it was off by like
Speaker 4: about a quarter inch, and he said that that's fine,
Speaker 4: he says, a lot of people would would love to
Speaker 4: have a quarter inch you know, the off under under house.
Speaker 1: How old is your hot How old is the house?
Speaker 4: It's pretty old. It was really in nineteen thirty eight. Yeah,
Speaker 4: you know, I've been here with all you know, the
Speaker 4: earthquakes that we had since since the North Reach earthquake.
Speaker 4: So I don't know if that happened with the earthquakes.
Speaker 4: You know, I've never begun underneath the house till recently,
Speaker 4: and that's when I noticed. So who knows how long
Speaker 4: that's been like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, here's the thing. First of all, that's great news.
Speaker 2: And if a foundation company has looked under your house
Speaker 2: and has literally said to you, listen, you don't need us,
Speaker 2: you could fix this yourself, then you know, I would
Speaker 2: take that as great news. I would not look at
Speaker 2: a stack in the mouth, you know, And I think
Speaker 2: I think they're absolutely right if they've looked at the
Speaker 2: overall footings. You know, it's a post and beam set
Speaker 2: up underneath your house, the subfloor. There's beams that are
Speaker 2: holding up the floor joists, and there are posts going
Speaker 2: down to concrete piers that are holding up the beams
Speaker 2: and quite often in an older home, and twenties home
Speaker 2: and nineteen thirties home, those posts are barely barely attached
Speaker 2: to the beams that they're holding up, and barely attached
Speaker 2: to the to the piers that are that they're sitting on,
Speaker 2: usually with a couple of nails a toenail into each one,
Speaker 2: sometimes not at all, or sometimes the nail has rust
Speaker 2: it out and so over. You know, what are we
Speaker 2: talking about ninety years of earthquakes, of vibrating that foundation.
Speaker 2: Sometimes those piers can just literally the vibration of the
Speaker 2: ground can cause them to shift left, shift right and
Speaker 2: either take the posts with them or not. So here
Speaker 2: is the thing that I would say, if you've got
Speaker 2: concern about it, then they're absolutely right. You could get
Speaker 2: under there and switch them out. You can put a
Speaker 2: little carjack underneath the beam, make sure it's supported, switch
Speaker 2: out the post, or slide the post over onto the
Speaker 2: pier better. Or you could replace the piers and the
Speaker 2: posts with what and this is what I would do
Speaker 2: with positive connecting hardware. Okay, So in other words, if
Speaker 2: you go down to like a place like a big
Speaker 2: box store, like home depot, right now, look in the
Speaker 2: building supply department. Right the building materials department, you'll find
Speaker 2: concrete piers very much like the ones that are underneath
Speaker 2: your home home, except they've got metal galvanized straps coming
Speaker 2: out of them, Okay, straps that get positively nailed into
Speaker 2: the posts that they support. And then if you go
Speaker 2: over to the hardware section, you can find that same
Speaker 2: kind of strapping material in a T form, a T
Speaker 2: shaped strap that would go the top of the T
Speaker 2: would get nailed in along the beam that the post
Speaker 2: is holding up and the bottom of the tee which
Speaker 2: would stretch down and actually connect the top of the post.
Speaker 2: That's the kind of hardware that we install by code
Speaker 2: these days for post and boom peer connections. And that's
Speaker 2: going to guarantee that whatever vibration happens in the future earthquakes,
Speaker 2: that that post, that peer, and that beam are all
Speaker 2: going to stay together and nothing's going to fall off
Speaker 2: or shift sideways. That's all I would recommend. My main
Speaker 2: concern was going to be, hey, have you had a
Speaker 2: foundation company look at it? Have they put a level
Speaker 2: on your floors? And they're absolutely right. You're living in
Speaker 2: a nineteen thirty eight house, and if you've got one
Speaker 2: room that might be a quarter of an inch over
Speaker 2: the course of the room out of level. That's wonderful.
Speaker 2: Just that, that's wonderful. Just get under there and add
Speaker 2: some hardware.
Speaker 4: Okay, so I just use a regular carjack.
Speaker 2: Uh yeah, if it'll rely, if it's got a high
Speaker 2: enough reach. And here's the thing though, use it if
Speaker 2: you bring a carjack underneath, because they're pretty easy to
Speaker 2: manipulate underneath the house. If it's got a high enough reach.
Speaker 2: What you want to do is you want to bring
Speaker 2: in a plank of you know, maybe like a two
Speaker 2: by twelve that's three or four feet long that you
Speaker 2: set the carjack in. So what you don't want to
Speaker 2: do is you put the carjack in the dirt under
Speaker 2: there and start putting pressure on it, because it's just
Speaker 2: going to push the wheels down into the dirt. So
Speaker 2: put the carjack on a plank so that you're kind
Speaker 2: of sitting on a ski as it were, and then
Speaker 2: you can jack up and you don't need to crank
Speaker 2: it up like lifting up the house. Okay, all you
Speaker 2: need to do is get it high enough up there
Speaker 2: so that you hear that little bit of tension form
Speaker 2: so that when you move the post over or remove
Speaker 2: it or replace it, that you know that that the
Speaker 2: beam isn't going to shift down at all.
Speaker 4: Great, Okay, well, I'm glad to hear that, and I'm
Speaker 4: going to see if I could give it a try.
Speaker 4: If not, maybe have to hire a handyman or something
Speaker 4: failed me out here.
Speaker 2: All right, my friend, good luck with that great question.
Speaker 1: You're very very welcome. Ron.
Speaker 2: All right, more of your calls when we return. Eileen,
Speaker 2: excuse me, I just gotta something flew into my throat.
Speaker 5: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 5: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2: We're talking an organization, kind of explaining the little system
Speaker 2: that I've come up with to help you sort of
Speaker 2: sort and purge and organize your home. We're going to
Speaker 2: get back to that conversation in just a bit, but
Speaker 2: it's middle of the show, which means it's time to
Speaker 2: go back to the phones. I want to talk to Barbara. Hey, Barbara,
Speaker 2: welcome home.
Speaker 3: Hy Jane.
Speaker 6: I called yesterday and then week with the effluorescence under
Speaker 6: the house, and we addressed that, and I did look
Speaker 6: up those dehumidifiers that you talked about. So I'm gonna
Speaker 6: look at getting one of those. But we didn't talk
Speaker 6: about the Well, there's two things. Today. I had a
Speaker 6: painters here on Father's Day, and Happy Father's Day. By
Speaker 6: the way he put the the you know, he used
Speaker 6: the painting machine and he put it all down the toilet,
Speaker 6: all the residue of the water, and I started thinking,
Speaker 6: oh my gosh, this is like this house is fifty
Speaker 6: five plus years old, and I'm worried that it's going
Speaker 6: to gum up my pipe. So I started in the
Speaker 6: toilet and I thought, well, this is cold water, so
Speaker 6: I have thirty percent vinekar and I did put it
Speaker 6: in the tank, maybe about three cups, and flustered about
Speaker 6: five times. And I'm wondering if that's even the right
Speaker 6: thing to do. I don't know that makes a difference.
Speaker 6: And my other questions about the orange mold on the outside.
Speaker 6: I was talking about that, Yesterdavid. It's like we got
Speaker 6: so in detailed with the cephalores and tissue. So I'm
Speaker 6: going to take take you up on everything you said,
Speaker 6: but I need to find out about those two things.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, Well, first of all, you know what
Speaker 2: you bring up one of those what do we call it?
Speaker 2: One of those gaps in the whole home improvement process,
Speaker 2: the fact that we often use materials on our home
Speaker 2: that are that there's excess and the question is what
Speaker 2: do you do with it? And we're pretty conscientious in
Speaker 2: California generally. In fact, the regulations are pretty ricked and
Speaker 2: rigid when it comes to all sorts of certain kind
Speaker 2: of construction debris and detritus and leftover things. But this
Speaker 2: is one of those gaps because here is somebody's paint
Speaker 2: in your house. Their sprayer needs to be cleared out.
Speaker 2: The spray has to be cleared, so they blow out
Speaker 2: the sprayer. They use water to blow out the sprayer,
Speaker 2: and you end up with wastewater that has paint residue
Speaker 2: in it.
Speaker 1: And what do you do with it? You know?
Speaker 2: I know most painters that I know ask permission from
Speaker 2: a homeowner to pour it down a sink or flush
Speaker 2: down a toilet, puts it into the sewer system, It
Speaker 2: puts it into the water system chemicals that aren't necessarily
Speaker 2: supposed to be there. But here's the thing, there's no
Speaker 2: place for a painter to go in most localities. There's
Speaker 2: no place where they've been ordered collect your paint spray
Speaker 2: or runoff collected in to you know, a tub or
Speaker 2: a sealed jug and bring it to such and such
Speaker 2: a place and deposit it here with us. I mean,
Speaker 2: there are paint stores technically will take old paint cans
Speaker 2: full of paint. I suppose I've never actually asked this question.
Speaker 2: You found a gap in my understanding. I've never asked
Speaker 2: the question whether paint stores will also take watered down
Speaker 2: jugs of paint spray or runoff. But I am not
Speaker 2: familiar in any way, shape or form with a painter
Speaker 2: who's ever done that kind of thing. And it's just one.
Speaker 2: It's just one of those things. And I'm sorry to
Speaker 2: say I don't have a perfect environmentally friendly solution for that. Otherwise,
Speaker 2: other than maybe that is something that should happen. Maybe
Speaker 2: maybe painters should collect that stuff and take it to
Speaker 2: the paint store along with the other, you know, paint
Speaker 2: leftover things. I just don't know about that, but I
Speaker 2: will tell you this, as far or is it going
Speaker 2: down the drain, whether it was a sink or the toilet,
Speaker 2: you did the right thing, which is to you know,
Speaker 2: dilute it, keep.
Speaker 6: Putting the thirty percent down and keep plushing it. It's
Speaker 6: like vinegar.
Speaker 1: Yeah you did, fine, you did fine.
Speaker 2: Vinegar is is not really a solvent, but it is
Speaker 2: an acid, and so it does break apart of those things.
Speaker 2: And the dilution, I mean, it was already diluted when
Speaker 2: it came out of the sprayer because it was already
Speaker 2: mixed with water in the sprayer. Plus you went so
Speaker 2: far as to dilute it even more. And if it
Speaker 2: was a regular occurrence, you you potentially have issues with
Speaker 2: that if it was a regular occurrence down your pipes
Speaker 2: with you know, painters, painters, fine fine art painters often
Speaker 2: find their pipes getting clogged at their home because they're
Speaker 2: constantly washing out their brushes and stuff in their own
Speaker 2: sewer system. But the one off every once in a
Speaker 2: while just because you were having your house being painted,
Speaker 2: not a problem. It's not a problem for your pipes.
Speaker 2: Don't worry about it. You did the right thing. You
Speaker 2: ran a lot of water after the fact, and it's
Speaker 2: not going to become an issue.
Speaker 1: So there you go.
Speaker 6: What's the mold issue? Then? What about that? I'm so
Speaker 6: worried about this whole thing. They look like okay, they
Speaker 6: look like avocado pits that are that are kind of
Speaker 6: orangey colored purplish orange and outside and again I have
Speaker 6: a lot of sand and soil up against the stucco
Speaker 6: flash foundation. I actually took a shovey the other day
Speaker 6: and we did put weed stop back there, and I
Speaker 6: think the weeds stop with the I have what's it
Speaker 6: called Lake Tahoe gravel. It's like a polished stone in
Speaker 6: my backyard. And it's a three level yard, so I
Speaker 6: have like like areas that are like three level and
Speaker 6: it goes. I'm the one that has the f inside
Speaker 6: of the house, so that's the side that gets all
Speaker 6: the moisture, right. I don't have anywhere else but on
Speaker 6: the back side of this house, And so I took
Speaker 6: a shovel pulled some of the sand slash dirt away
Speaker 6: from the stucco to let that dry. I actually have
Speaker 6: a really heavy dety tart kind of plastic tarp over it,
Speaker 6: so it still gets sun. But I don't want any
Speaker 6: more moisture because we have fog every single day. And
Speaker 6: so it's like, is I haven't seen any more of
Speaker 6: those bulbs come up since I've been doing this. My
Speaker 6: question is should I keep that dirt away, get rid
Speaker 6: of it? And well, sand, flash dirt and just get
Speaker 6: straight dirt and put it up there against the house.
Speaker 6: So I don't get those kinds of things or do
Speaker 6: what is it just something that I'm always going to
Speaker 6: have to do. But I think taking that weed stopped
Speaker 6: out and then we put the polished stone on top
Speaker 6: of it, I think that's adding to the problem. So
Speaker 6: I thought I would cut part of that, maybe that
Speaker 6: two feet out or three feet out, that all the
Speaker 6: way down the back side of the house still dead.
Speaker 6: At least the dirt flash sand could dry, because I
Speaker 6: think that's holding in the moisture it's got. Yeah, that
Speaker 6: has to be the issue. But should I Am I
Speaker 6: doing the right thing if I bring dirt in and
Speaker 6: take the weak stopped out.
Speaker 2: I think you're you're I think you're trying to figure
Speaker 2: it out, and I think that anything that you do
Speaker 2: that starts being more effective or less effective. I think
Speaker 2: you just find your way through it, my friend. Honestly,
Speaker 2: the molds on the outside of a house are not
Speaker 2: a big concern of mine. Okay, molds. In fact, what
Speaker 2: you're describing might actually be not so much a slime
Speaker 2: mold as it is an orange fungus or fungi. Okay,
Speaker 2: I don't know for certain, because there are couple of
Speaker 2: different very orange growths that can occur outside and around
Speaker 2: in a very moist area. One are in a category
Speaker 2: called slime molds. The other is in a category of fungi.
Speaker 2: You know, a kind of mushroom ey kind of thing,
Speaker 2: but they can take on a very very similar appearance.
Speaker 2: And so the thing is on the outside of a house.
Speaker 2: I mean we address this yesterday, you and I moisture
Speaker 2: under the house, Moisture that's going to get into the
Speaker 2: house that can cause those kinds of issues. That is
Speaker 2: a concern. Molds and fungi on the outside of a
Speaker 2: house that occur just naturally in nature because there's a
Speaker 2: lot of moisture. You reduce the moisture and whatever it
Speaker 2: is that you're shifting around the weeds, stop the soils
Speaker 2: and so on. Anything that can reduce that great, that's great.
Speaker 2: So I would head in the direction of whatever works
Speaker 2: so that you don't have to keep coming out and
Speaker 2: knocking those off or bleaching them down or anything like that.
Speaker 2: But just understand that whatever you do, I just don't
Speaker 2: want you to panic about it because it's on the
Speaker 2: outside of the house, and and that is not an
Speaker 2: area where we're concerned about a health issue unless there's
Speaker 2: just so much of it and you've got somebody in
Speaker 2: the home who's got allergies to that kind of a thing.
Speaker 2: Apart from that, generally speaking, they don't pose any kind
Speaker 2: of a problem or a threat to anybody. They're just there.
Speaker 2: They might be unsightly, but they are what they are.
Speaker 6: Should I add more dirt to the little channel that
Speaker 6: I just dug out the other day? Thinking long and
Speaker 6: dry this dirt out flash dirt slash stand? Should I
Speaker 6: add more dirt in that? Or that doesn't make a difference.
Speaker 2: Well, I'll tell you what. Dirt holds more moisture than
Speaker 2: other things. And so if I were you and I
Speaker 2: was trying to limit it right up against the house,
Speaker 2: if you've dug a channel out, I'd be more prone
Speaker 2: to put something like pea gravel there so that moisture
Speaker 2: isn't retained against the house, so that it finds its
Speaker 2: way down and out, Because the more dirt that you
Speaker 2: put up against the house, the more you're basically, you know,
Speaker 2: reserving a moisture sponge there to hold onto it. Dirt
Speaker 2: is full of organic compounds, and it holds moisture much
Speaker 2: more readily than rock does, even though rock can hold
Speaker 2: moisture too, So pea gravel up against the house would
Speaker 2: do I think more effective than dirt. And sand holds
Speaker 2: a lot of moisture too, not because it absorbs moisture,
Speaker 2: but because moisture has a very water has a very
Speaker 2: very high surface tension value to it, and all those
Speaker 2: particulates of sand being so compact next to each other,
Speaker 2: they will hold on to the water. But something like
Speaker 2: pea gravel, a larger aggregate like that. That's why we
Speaker 2: use pea gravel as a drainage system around French drains
Speaker 2: and things like that. Pea gravel might be a much
Speaker 2: much better solution for you, Barbara, Barbara, thank you so
Speaker 2: much for the callum up against a break. I'm just
Speaker 2: telling you, as you start to see results, keep heading
Speaker 2: in that direction to get rid of it. But don't
Speaker 2: panic about molds or fungi on the outside perimeter of
Speaker 2: the house, because they're outside in nature. We might not
Speaker 2: want them there, but they're generally not doing any damage
Speaker 2: to the house or to us being there. All right, y'all,
Speaker 2: We're gonna take a couple of more calls when we
Speaker 2: return and then return to our subject of organization of
Speaker 2: your home.
Speaker 5: Right now, you're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on
Speaker 5: demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us on the program today. We're talking
Speaker 2: all things organization. We're going to get back to that
Speaker 2: topic in just a smidge, but right now I want
Speaker 2: to finish up taking calls for the day.
Speaker 1: Let's talk to Kenneth. Hey, Kenneth, welcome home. H Hello Dean, Hello, sir,
Speaker 1: how can I help you?
Speaker 7: Hiding? We had our house inspected by a plumbing company
Speaker 7: and they discovered pinhole leaks, leaks in the piping material.
Speaker 7: There's copper, there's galvanized pipe, and there's a hole in
Speaker 7: the cast iron drainage which has been leaking for probably
Speaker 7: quite a while, and it's pulling up underneath the crawl
Speaker 7: space underneath the house. And their recommendation is to repipe
Speaker 7: the whole house and redrain the whole pipe the whole house,
Speaker 7: And wanted to get your opinion on when when to
Speaker 7: repipe and when to redrain and when not to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it sounds like it's time, my friend. It sounds
Speaker 2: like it's time.
Speaker 1: For sure. How old is the house?
Speaker 7: First of all, the house was built in nineteen fifty six,
Speaker 7: and we've had copper pipe partially installed in the in
Speaker 7: the system, we've had abs partially installed in the system.
Speaker 7: But they took video and pictures and and there's a
Speaker 7: lot of corrosion, a lot of leaks. And there's one
Speaker 7: leak that comes down from the washer and the sink,
Speaker 7: the kitchen sink, and it's when you turn it on,
Speaker 7: it just flows right out as well to the main drain.
Speaker 7: So their recommendation is to repipe and redrain. But you know,
Speaker 7: north of forty five.
Speaker 1: Grand, that's a lot.
Speaker 2: That's that's an awful lot. So here's here's my advice
Speaker 2: to you, my friend. First of all, it sounds as
Speaker 2: though the conditions are present that would warrant repiping the house,
Speaker 2: no question about that. It's just it's time. It sounds
Speaker 2: like it's time. If there's pitting, if the copper is
Speaker 2: starting to fail, if you have galvuys, that's a given
Speaker 2: that I want you to repipe the house. Okay, that's
Speaker 2: one thing. That's one thing. The drainage system, this is
Speaker 2: a different subject. Now you may still have cast iron
Speaker 2: lead lines coming up through and vents coming up through
Speaker 2: the house, you might have cast iron in the ground.
Speaker 2: When it comes to the drains, part of the expense
Speaker 2: that plumbers sometimes want to charge is they want to
Speaker 2: dig up all the old drains all the way out
Speaker 2: to the curb and replace it all with abs piping,
Speaker 2: which is fine and noble if you've got the budget
Speaker 2: for that kind of thing. But when it comes to
Speaker 2: cast iron drain lines, if they are not occluded, of
Speaker 2: course there's going to be corrosion in an old cast iron,
Speaker 2: But if they're not occluded, they came like an artery
Speaker 2: with a lot of cholesterol in it. Right, If they're
Speaker 2: not occluded, right, if they could be rooted out and
Speaker 2: cleaned out for the most part, But there is a
Speaker 2: hole or a crack in them that is leaking. If
Speaker 2: it's not that the pipe, If the pipe has just fractured,
Speaker 2: but it isn't displaced one side from the other, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean, If it's still in line, then
Speaker 2: as opposed to digging out all of that cast iron
Speaker 2: all the way down out of the house and replacing
Speaker 2: it with abs, you should also look into the idea
Speaker 2: of blowing an epoxy liner into that pipe. Inside the pipe,
Speaker 2: which is basically a pipe inside a pipe and makes
Speaker 2: it brand new on the inside. Okay, as opposed to
Speaker 2: digging it all out. But the moral of the story,
Speaker 2: my friend, is this, explore all those options. I appreciate
Speaker 2: that a plumbing company has come out and given you
Speaker 2: a quote and done a thorough inspection, but you don't
Speaker 2: owe them anything past that. At this point, I want
Speaker 2: you to get two or three more estimates from reputable
Speaker 2: plumbers on the situation. I want to hear what they
Speaker 2: all have to say and get pricing from everybody, because
Speaker 2: forty five thousand dollars for a repie. I don't know
Speaker 2: how big the house is, but forty five thousand dollars
Speaker 2: for a repipe is a pretty sizable number. And so
Speaker 2: just because they're the first one who found the treasure
Speaker 2: does not mean they need they to claim the treasure
Speaker 2: from you. So I just want you to know. The
Speaker 2: only way you're going to know the only way I
Speaker 2: would know. Okay, I can't walk through your house, look
Speaker 2: at it all and say, okay, it's going to cost
Speaker 2: this much. The only way I will know whether or
Speaker 2: not you're getting a good price for your home is
Speaker 2: if you hand me four estimates from four different plumbing companies,
Speaker 2: and I get to see basically where the ven diagram
Speaker 2: where they all over overlap, and we get a general
Speaker 2: sense of who the outlier is price wise that and
Speaker 2: we realized, wow, three or four of these guys are
Speaker 2: all coming in, you know, relatively close to each other.
Speaker 2: I think this is reasonable to assume this is the
Speaker 2: price for repiping this house.
Speaker 7: Mm hmmm, we're we're talking about three three bathrooms, one
Speaker 7: hundred and uh well about two thousand square feet.
Speaker 2: And yeah, that's a lot of money for a two
Speaker 2: thousand square foot house, My friend, that's a lot of money.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's good to know.
Speaker 4: Good.
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's why I called you because we're we're at
Speaker 7: a point we have to do it because water has
Speaker 7: been pulling up under one of the rooms when the
Speaker 7: when we wash use a washer, and the sink of
Speaker 7: the kitchen sink. So I so anyway, that's that's where
Speaker 7: we're at. Thanks for the advice, really appreciate it. Now,
Speaker 7: are there any kind of remediation we need to do
Speaker 7: in terms of that water sitting under the house for
Speaker 7: quite a while now?
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, if if it has caused any kind
Speaker 2: of of a mold issue. That may be a concern,
Speaker 2: but I think at this point just let's just a
Speaker 2: dress getting those pipes sealed up so that we don't
Speaker 2: keep adding moisture to it. And my assumption is that
Speaker 2: the moisture will dry itself out and go away. But
Speaker 2: if there's a visible mold issue, you get under there
Speaker 2: with some bleach bleach and water mixture and knock that
Speaker 2: all down and maybe, you know, put a little of
Speaker 2: drawing element into the soil. But that's really it's a
Speaker 2: secondary concern at this point. The main concern is stop
Speaker 2: the leaks, stop the water intrusion. Deal with the rest
Speaker 2: of it later. Don't worry about that stuff right now.
Speaker 2: Just focus on the reed pipe and the redoing of
Speaker 2: the drain lines that are necessary, and get it done
Speaker 2: for the right price. My friend, good luck with that.
Speaker 2: I'm up against a break. I wish you well, and
Speaker 2: I'm sure now if you're on the right track, right
Speaker 2: you get those multiple bids, you'll get it figured out.
Speaker 2: All right, everybody, when we return, let's get back into
Speaker 2: organization mode, shall we. I will finish telling you about
Speaker 2: storing inventory purging and or sorting inventory purging and storing
Speaker 2: my SIPs. Method for getting your life a little bit
Speaker 2: more organized. At home, you're listening to Dean Sharp, The
Speaker 2: House Whisper on KFI. This has been Home with Dean
Speaker 2: Sharp the House Whisper. Tune into the live broadcast on
Speaker 2: KFI Am six forty every Saturday morning from six to
Speaker 2: eight Pacific time and every Sunday morning from nine to
Speaker 2: noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio
Speaker 2: app