Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2: You're listening to Dean Sharp, the House Whisper on demand
Speaker 2: on the iHeartRadio app. Hey, welcome to home Where. Every
Speaker 2: week we help you better understand that place where you live.
Speaker 2: I am Dean Sharp, the House Whisperer, here with you
Speaker 2: live like I am every weekend. Saturday morning, six to
Speaker 2: eight Pacific time, Sunday mornings nine to noon Pacific time.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Sunday Morning Show. Welcome to the second
Speaker 2: hour of our show. We are talking about the home
Speaker 2: monitoring revolution that has taken place over the last few years.
Speaker 2: All of your options for monitoring your home from from AFAR,
Speaker 2: both energy, safety, security, and on and on, so many options.
Speaker 2: We're going to try and cover as many of them
Speaker 2: as possible today so that you are aware of of
Speaker 2: all the amazing things that you can do with your
Speaker 2: home to take care of it better. What right now
Speaker 2: is our custom. It is the top of the hour,
Speaker 2: and it is time to go to the phones. And
Speaker 2: when it comes to phone calls, you set the agenda.
Speaker 2: Anything you want to talk about regarding your home. I
Speaker 2: want to talk to Wayne.
Speaker 1: Wayne, let's get it started, Hidane.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're doing some un wanted home remodeling, and in
Speaker 3: the kitchen we're looking at replacing ranite countertops with recycled
Speaker 3: glass countertops. I want to get your thoughts on that.
Speaker 2: Okay, first of all, though you've piqued my interest unwanted
Speaker 2: home remodeling.
Speaker 1: What happened fire fun?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 1: Oh all right, I'm sorry about that.
Speaker 2: Okay, kitchen counter tops glass versus granite or quartz or
Speaker 2: quartzite or whatever.
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Uh, what what got you intro interested in glass?
Speaker 3: By the way, I love glass. I do glass work,
Speaker 3: I do letted glass and fascinated with blown glass, but
Speaker 3: also as a marine biologist. Our home has an ocean theme.
Speaker 3: So this men only has glass in it, but it
Speaker 3: has oyster shells.
Speaker 1: I see. Excellent, excellent.
Speaker 2: Well, okay, I'm not sure ive been asked that question
Speaker 2: directly before. I mean, we talked, we've talked about glass
Speaker 2: when it comes to our hard surface stone materials in
Speaker 2: those shows, but I don't think a listener has actually
Speaker 2: directly asked about glass countertops. Right off the top. As
Speaker 2: soon as I say that word glass countertop, people are
Speaker 2: cringing because they're just fearful, because they're like, that's exactly
Speaker 2: what I need I need to spend a lot of
Speaker 2: money on a very fancy countertop and then drop something
Speaker 2: on it and have it shatter or break, and then
Speaker 2: you know I'm screwed. So what's the truth behind glass countertops. Well,
Speaker 2: one thing you should know for certain is that not
Speaker 2: all glass countertops are made the same. Some are tempered,
Speaker 2: some are not tempered. Some are mixed with concretes and
Speaker 2: resins to make them strong, others are not so much.
Speaker 2: The thing with glass countertops is that glass is such
Speaker 2: as you know if you've worked with it. It is such
Speaker 2: a malleable material. You can do so many things with it.
Speaker 2: It's unlike stone in the sense that you know, here's
Speaker 2: a piece of granite.
Speaker 1: There, it is, there, it is, that's the color, that's
Speaker 1: what it is.
Speaker 2: But when we say glass, we can be transparent, we
Speaker 2: can be semi transparent. We can be back painted glass
Speaker 2: so that you've got color, but the color is coming
Speaker 2: from the far side of the glass, and the whole
Speaker 2: thing kind of glows in a three dimensional style. We
Speaker 2: can run led lights through glass in order for it
Speaker 2: to glow uniformly. We can put things like seashells into glass,
Speaker 2: suspended as if we were doing, like you know well,
Speaker 2: technically in the area of design and building. Glass falls
Speaker 2: under the category in this case of functional art, in
Speaker 2: which we're doing a design in something a medium that
Speaker 2: becomes a functional thing. But as a whole, a well designed,
Speaker 2: well manufactured glass countertop can in fact compete and even
Speaker 2: exceed stone in its usability and durability. They can be very,
Speaker 2: very tough. They are without question, incredibly temperature resistant. You
Speaker 2: can usually trust that they are at least fourteen fifteen
Speaker 2: sixteen hundred degrees fahrenheit resistant about anything being put on it.
Speaker 2: The other advantage that they have over a natural stone
Speaker 2: like granted, especially Granted, it's very hard, but it's very porous,
Speaker 2: meaning that if you don't keep it sealed, you're going
Speaker 2: to lose bits of stuff down inside the granite that
Speaker 2: you can't get to to clean. It's why Granted is
Speaker 2: actually not permitted in most executive kitchens in restaurants because
Speaker 2: health department says, you know, you can't keep that thing
Speaker 2: clean enough to keep the standards up. Glass is completely
Speaker 2: non porous, so nothing gets down in it, and as
Speaker 2: soon as you wipe it and clean it on the surface,
Speaker 2: it is sterile and clean and ready to go. So
Speaker 2: it can be fabricated in just about any shape and size.
Speaker 2: Like stone, you can put just about any edge on it.
Speaker 2: And yeah, so I'm a big fan. I'm a huge
Speaker 2: fan of glass. Glass is not a common topic though,
Speaker 2: that gets brought up these days, just because it takes
Speaker 2: somewhat of a courageous homeowner even be thinking in that
Speaker 2: direction because of all I think the innate stuff in
Speaker 2: the back of our heads saying oh it's fragile. And
Speaker 2: I will say, this glass is going to be typically
Speaker 2: more expensive than granite, stone, quartzite or so on, just
Speaker 2: because of the manufacturing process that it goes through in
Speaker 2: order to get it to that point of durability and
Speaker 2: usefulness on a countertop. But it can be absolutely stunning.
Speaker 2: It's bold, but it can be incredibly incredibly beautiful.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, this is a recycled glass and cement using
Speaker 3: oyster shells, Georgia marble and architectural class.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's a typically very very durable combination, very beautiful.
Speaker 2: And you know, at the end of the day, my friend,
Speaker 2: if you are loving the look, you can trust the
Speaker 2: durability of that kind of piece, whether or not it
Speaker 2: should be on every single counter serve in the kitchen,
Speaker 2: or whether it becomes a center piece kind of sitting
Speaker 2: on the island or on a peninsula, and then you
Speaker 2: run complementary stone elsewhere. These are all the kinds of
Speaker 2: design decisions that you have to make, but feel free
Speaker 2: to make them. There's absolutely nothing wrong with doing the
Speaker 2: whole kitchen out of it, but you can also, you know,
Speaker 2: limit your budget somewhat and also maybe get as much
Speaker 2: bang for the buck as possible if you've got an
Speaker 2: island or a peninsula, to make it a focal point
Speaker 2: and let everything be the supporting actor as it were
Speaker 2: with it at center stage.
Speaker 3: We're putting on the island and the kitchen countertaps and
Speaker 3: there's an overhang. So what's the strength compared to granted.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, tempered glass. If it's a tech well
Speaker 2: in your situation that resin mix. I think it competes
Speaker 2: with granted in overhang strength though one to one, if
Speaker 2: not a little bit stronger. That is where you need
Speaker 2: to check with your fabricator or the actual manufacturer and
Speaker 2: ask them those specific questions, because that's the kind of
Speaker 2: question that I can't answer because glass comes in so
Speaker 2: many different forms. Because it is a manufactured item. It
Speaker 2: doesn't have just a standing rating that applies to all
Speaker 2: glass countertops. That's something. Check with the manufacturer. Check with
Speaker 2: them and say, all right, we need to know, we
Speaker 2: need to know exactly where it rates in tensile strength
Speaker 2: versus granted, how much does it need to be supported?
Speaker 2: How vulnerable will it be depending on their mix and
Speaker 2: their structure as they manufactured it. So again, check with
Speaker 2: the manufacturer. You'll get your questions answered there. Wayne, good
Speaker 2: luck on that. Sorry about the fire, but sounds like
Speaker 2: you're putting together a gorgeous redo, a great comeback for
Speaker 2: your house and for your kitchen. Keep us posted as
Speaker 2: to how well it goes. All right, y'all when we
Speaker 2: return more of your calls. You are Home Sharp the
Speaker 2: house Whisper.
Speaker 5: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 5: KFI Am six.
Speaker 2: All right, we're talking about the home monitoring revolution, but
Speaker 2: right now we're taking calls. We're going to come back
Speaker 2: to monitoring in just a bit, but right now, go
Speaker 2: into the phones. Joe, Hey, Joe, welcome home.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Dean. I have a shower valve that leaked
Speaker 4: in my shower and the water is now or was
Speaker 4: coming out the wall where it meets the floor and
Speaker 4: then the adjacent wall at about thirty two inches. It
Speaker 4: would weep out real slowly, and I put sands, cut
Speaker 4: open all the dry wall, put sands on it for
Speaker 4: about four days five days, and it seems like it's slowing.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's stopped. Do I have to pull out
Speaker 4: the floor to fix us?
Speaker 1: All right? So what floor are we talking about?
Speaker 3: It?
Speaker 2: We upstairs, we downstairs. We're in a raised foundation. Where's
Speaker 2: what tell me what the dynamics of the floor is.
Speaker 4: It's a it's a raised foundation mm hm. And it's
Speaker 4: on the first floor and the floor joaces when I
Speaker 4: looked underneath were wet and the skip sheeting was wet,
Speaker 4: but it wasn't so wet that it was getting, you know,
Speaker 4: drifting on the dirt. And there was mud and so
Speaker 4: I don't know how long it's been leaking, but it
Speaker 4: wasn't horrible, I didn't think because they didn't have a
Speaker 4: big puddle in the mud.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, So leaky valve.
Speaker 2: It's dropped down, it's kind of spread out onto the floor,
Speaker 2: and but it seems to be slowing now or stopped.
Speaker 4: Right, it's it seems like it's stopped after about five
Speaker 4: four or five days.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's a lot of wonder yes, Okay, So I
Speaker 2: don't want to suggest anything radical yet. I just want
Speaker 2: you to be patient and wait and just keep monitoring it.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: If you can get a fan underneath the house blowing
Speaker 2: up against those joice and the sheathing from below, that
Speaker 2: will help as well. So I get as much air,
Speaker 2: as much exposure to it as possible, and then be patient,
Speaker 2: be patient and wait. If you don't see any deformities,
Speaker 2: if you don't see any bubbling, if you don't see
Speaker 2: any excessive soft spots on the floor as a result
Speaker 2: of this, if you don't see anything bizarre happening down below.
Speaker 2: We just want to make sure it gets thoroughly, thoroughly
Speaker 2: dried out. A little heat underneath would also be of
Speaker 2: benefit if that's feasible, but it's not critical. Airflow is
Speaker 2: the most critical part. The evaporative process is the most
Speaker 2: critical part. And now we play a waiting game. I
Speaker 2: say this a lot to people. It's true, and I
Speaker 2: don't want to give you false hope.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: At the same time, because there may be some stuff
Speaker 2: there that maybe has to be dealt with, but it's
Speaker 2: never a problem usually that wood gets wet. Now, when
Speaker 2: I say that, I'm not talking about your one hundred
Speaker 2: year old hardwood floor that has just got soaked with
Speaker 2: water and now is cupping and that kind of that's
Speaker 2: a problem. But I mean structural wood in a house.
Speaker 2: It's very very very very rarely a problem that wood
Speaker 2: gets wet. It's a problem when wood stays wet. And
Speaker 2: I don't mean stays wet for a couple of weeks.
Speaker 2: I mean simply stays wet, because that is when dry
Speaker 2: rot starts to kick into play. That's when mold and
Speaker 2: mildew become an issue, and that's when we get systemic
Speaker 2: problems in that regard. So when wood gets wet and
Speaker 2: then it dries out, if it hasn't warped, tweaked, or
Speaker 2: lost its structural integrity like an applywood situation because adhesives
Speaker 2: have been affected or it's delaminated. If those things have
Speaker 2: not happened, then just be patient. Dry it out, see
Speaker 2: what you get in the end, and then even afterwards,
Speaker 2: if you feel like you know what, it's all dry,
Speaker 2: it's just dry. Everything's dry. Now come back in, you know,
Speaker 2: two months, six months, get up underneath, poke around, make
Speaker 2: sure nothing else has started, make sure it's still dry,
Speaker 2: and you should be good to go. So it's the
Speaker 2: kind of thing that now is a waiting game. Take
Speaker 2: the right action and wait, as opposed to just getting
Speaker 2: worried and tearing up a bathroom potentially unnecessarily in order
Speaker 2: to fix a floor that really probably didn't you know,
Speaker 2: that may not need fixing to begin with. It will
Speaker 2: tell you you just keep an eye on it, and
Speaker 2: it'll send signals there's not that much house there hiding
Speaker 2: from you in a raised foundation, especially if you've already
Speaker 2: opened up the walls and you're drying out the wall
Speaker 2: cavity and you've replaced and fixed the valve. You know,
Speaker 2: you've resolved the water leakage problem, so there's no more
Speaker 2: additional water coming in.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: It's a question of just making sure it dries out,
Speaker 2: and you know, you can talk to remodeling contractors or
Speaker 2: you know, a restoration conscious. Some of them will come
Speaker 2: in and say, you know, because they would love to
Speaker 2: make a buck, and they're like, oh.
Speaker 1: Just tear it all out. That's the only way, you'll know.
Speaker 1: Just be patient, just be patient.
Speaker 2: Nobody's going to walk in the bathroom and fall through
Speaker 2: the floor because it's rotted overnight. It's a very very
Speaker 2: slow process even when something is going wrong in this
Speaker 2: kind of situation. So dry it out, be patient, keep
Speaker 2: an eye on it, and you'll know you'll know it.
Speaker 4: So there was there's skip sheeting agents boards and they
Speaker 4: I went underneath and they're dry. I had a friend
Speaker 4: look and pretty knowledgeable, and he says, it's dry here
Speaker 4: because we weren't sure if we had the six leap
Speaker 4: six because it kept weeping. But now the weeping has
Speaker 4: seemed to stop. So how long did it? I mean,
Speaker 4: it's it's dry now, with it dry rot? I check
Speaker 4: in a month, two months, did you say?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I would check in a month or two and just
Speaker 2: see if there's any other side of moisture or softness
Speaker 2: or discoloration other than the discoloration of the staining of
Speaker 2: the water.
Speaker 1: Okay, just to go up.
Speaker 2: Under the there, take a take an all you know
Speaker 2: or a sharp flathead screwdriver or something, and just poke
Speaker 2: around and see if what you're feeling is just dense wood,
Speaker 2: or if all of a sudden you're hitting a soft
Speaker 2: spot okay, but there's really not a huge mystery to
Speaker 2: moisture and damage with wood. If it's held on to
Speaker 2: it for a long, long period of time, that's when
Speaker 2: dry rot begins to do its work in a dark,
Speaker 2: moist environment. But if it's already feeling dry, I think
Speaker 2: you're probably you've moved out of the danger zone and
Speaker 2: you're in the clear. But being patient, giving it extra air,
Speaker 2: waiting even longer than it seems is not going to
Speaker 2: do you any harm.
Speaker 4: Well, And some people say the silicone the grout on
Speaker 4: the floor, we're or the wall going down, And then
Speaker 4: I've never siliconed, I've only sealed it in the past.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's it's a moot point. It's a moot point.
Speaker 2: It's like putting a band aid on a gaping wound.
Speaker 2: You've fixed the moisture problem. I don't worry about siliconing
Speaker 2: grout on the floor because you know, waterproof areas, they
Speaker 2: either have a moisture protection under them or they don't.
Speaker 2: And we don't rely on the tile and the grout
Speaker 2: to keep moisture away from the framing. And so if
Speaker 2: there's there's probably at least some elementary building paper under there,
Speaker 2: and in that case, it's going to do its job.
Speaker 2: So yeah, the rest of it just becomes this kind
Speaker 2: of futile attempt to seal up a floor that isn't
Speaker 2: going to be sealed unless you completely redo the thing,
Speaker 2: in which case you could make the whole bathroom floor
Speaker 2: a shower pan if you wanted to. But it's really
Speaker 2: those are heroic measures beyond the scope of what is
Speaker 2: normally needed. What's important is that you fix the leaky
Speaker 2: valve now, let it dry out, and get back to
Speaker 2: your life. That's my advice to you. And don't worry
Speaker 2: about all of the possible don't look on web MD
Speaker 2: about your house. It's like, if anybody wants to find
Speaker 2: out that they're about to die because of the cut
Speaker 2: on their elbow, look on webnd.
Speaker 1: You'll find out that.
Speaker 2: Chances are you know you've contracted a rare disease in
Speaker 2: that cut, and you know you may have to amputate.
Speaker 2: Don't do that. Don't do that. You're on the right path,
Speaker 2: my friend. Thanks for the question, Thanks for the call, buddy,
Speaker 2: and good luck. I think you're on the right path,
Speaker 2: and I doubt that you have much to worry about.
Speaker 1: There, all right, joall.
Speaker 2: When we come back, why don't we dive back into
Speaker 2: the home monitoring revolution.
Speaker 1: We will do that.
Speaker 5: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 5: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: You are Home with Dean Sharp, the house whisper.
Speaker 2: That's me and we're talking about the home monitoring revolution today.
Speaker 2: Is it a revolution? It is a revolution because it's
Speaker 2: taken the world of homeowners by storm, and it's happened
Speaker 2: relatively quickly, so we're going to call it a revolution.
Speaker 2: At some point, all of our connected technology has kind
Speaker 2: of rolled together, and now we have such an opportunity
Speaker 2: to take care of and watch over our homes even
Speaker 2: when we are not there. We were on the subject
Speaker 2: of security before. I just want to wrap that up
Speaker 2: because there are a couple of little devices and points
Speaker 2: that I wanted to communicate with you. Where'd I leave
Speaker 2: off garage doors? I left off with garage doors. Motion detectors,
Speaker 2: of course, are as things that can be placed anywhere
Speaker 2: inside the house, outside the house, outside the house, connected
Speaker 2: to floodlights. Great idea inside the house for the sake
Speaker 2: of knowing where and if somebody is moving through an
Speaker 2: area of the house, to let you know and again
Speaker 2: we're talking about the kinds of systems that communicate back
Speaker 2: to your smartphone in addition potentially to a monitoring service
Speaker 2: if you want to pay that additional fee for that
Speaker 2: kind of thing. Remote access is part of the monitoring revolution.
Speaker 2: And by remote access we simply mean having the kind
Speaker 2: of hardware in your home that allows you to let
Speaker 2: somebody in. This is the opposite of security. I suppose
Speaker 2: it is a security device that keeps you know, door
Speaker 2: is locked. But let's say you're you know, you're away
Speaker 2: and family member, a friend needs to get into the
Speaker 2: house for some reason somehow, maybe you have left your
Speaker 2: keys and you're the person who needs to get into
Speaker 2: the house. Here's your phone, and you can grant with
Speaker 2: the right kind of hardware. Schleg makes some quick Set
Speaker 2: makes some Baldwin makes some direct automated home hardware that
Speaker 2: will unlock a door or lock a door. And this
Speaker 2: is in addition to what is now a keyless biometric
Speaker 2: I don't think we've got I don't trust facial recognition
Speaker 2: door hardware yet to do that, but biometric locks and
Speaker 2: where you you know, put your thumb on the pad
Speaker 2: and boomp, it opens up. Because it's you. These are
Speaker 2: things that are all available for your house. Remote communication
Speaker 2: is a big part of this as well. Communication meaning
Speaker 2: well what most of you have. If you've got like
Speaker 2: a smart doorbell or ring or a Nest doorbell, not
Speaker 2: only do on your phone, can you actually hear the
Speaker 2: door chime when someone's there, And not only do you
Speaker 2: have a video feed, but you also have audio and
Speaker 2: you can talk back and forth to the individual who's
Speaker 2: on the front porch, at the front door and so on,
Speaker 2: because there are microphones that enable that kind of communication,
Speaker 2: not just listening, but two way communication so that there's
Speaker 2: a speaker so that they can hear you things like
Speaker 2: you don't belong on my front porch and I've already
Speaker 2: notified nine to one one that kind of stuff, or hey, sorry,
Speaker 2: we're not coming to the door right now, or whatever
Speaker 2: the case may be, or just leave it there, we'll
Speaker 2: get to it in a couple of minutes, even if
Speaker 2: you're on vacation. So that kind of stuff very very
Speaker 2: useful again, just part of your arsenal Monitoring services have
Speaker 2: their place, they really really do. They add that extra
Speaker 2: layer of security knowing that there is also another set
Speaker 2: of eyes looking at the house even if you've not
Speaker 2: carrying your phone around right now, or you left it
Speaker 2: somewhere else, or whatever the case may be. Remote lighting control. Now,
Speaker 2: I said earlier, this is the connected monitored home is
Speaker 2: not just about all the fancy controls that you can
Speaker 2: do for inside your house. But the fact of the
Speaker 2: matter is all that fancy lighting control that you can
Speaker 2: put inside your house also can serve a really important
Speaker 2: security function because you can program smart lights in your
Speaker 2: home to go on and off at different times, and
Speaker 2: go on and off at different times on different days,
Speaker 2: so that anybody who's, as they say in the old
Speaker 2: detective speak case in the joint, if they're watching your
Speaker 2: home over a period of two or three days, they'll
Speaker 2: notice the fact that, oh, the kitchen light turned on,
Speaker 2: and then it turned and now a bedroom line is
Speaker 2: on and that off, and it just simply implies that
Speaker 2: somebody's there, even if you aren't. Okay, the most amazing
Speaker 2: I've got to close with this one before we go
Speaker 2: to break the most amazing high tech security measure that
Speaker 2: I am aware of. All Right, if you want the
Speaker 2: the ultimate or you just want to be entertained by
Speaker 2: this thought, Okay, the ultimate home security for you is
Speaker 2: a fog cannon mounted in the exterior rooms where egress
Speaker 2: into the house can happen. A fog cannon. There are
Speaker 2: fog cannon security systems. You owe it to yourself. If
Speaker 2: that sounds fun, to look it up. Okay, they're not cheap, Okay,
Speaker 2: but man are they effective? Okay, So think about this now.
Speaker 2: Think about You've got a dedicated criminal who's going to
Speaker 2: get into your home. They don't care about your motion detectors,
Speaker 2: they don't care about your alarms because they've got a
Speaker 2: plan to get in, get to the thing they're getting to,
Speaker 2: and get out before it even matters. They're hardened. They're
Speaker 2: going in. So they open the window, they open the door,
Speaker 2: they step inside, and suddenly, from out of the ceiling
Speaker 2: comes a gush of fog. Theater fog, okay, the kind
Speaker 2: of stuff you know, special effects fog. It fills the
Speaker 2: room and they see nothing. They can't They are blizzard blind.
Speaker 2: They cannot see two inches in front of their face.
Speaker 1: Guess what.
Speaker 2: A criminal that cannot see where they're going has no
Speaker 2: incentive to step further into the house and to get
Speaker 2: it done. They just freak out, especially if that's combined
Speaker 2: with lights and sirens and they are out of here.
Speaker 2: One of the most potentially the most effective security systems.
Speaker 2: So if you're really, really committed, if you're really committed
Speaker 2: to home security on a passive level, meaning that you're
Speaker 2: not going to put bars on your windows and you know,
Speaker 2: booby traps on the front door or anything like that,
Speaker 2: fog cannon. Fog cannon is an unbelievable and we're talking
Speaker 2: about the kind of canon. Not a fog machine that
Speaker 2: slowly puts fog in, but a cannon that literally is
Speaker 2: size to fill the room with fog in less than
Speaker 2: three seconds. I mean just literally go from from empty
Speaker 2: room to I can't see a thing, I am out
Speaker 2: of here in three seconds. Amazingly effective and fun to
Speaker 2: watch happen too. All right, when we come back, let's
Speaker 2: move on to safety, not security, but safety.
Speaker 5: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 5: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2: Welcome home, Thanks for joining us today. We are so
Speaker 2: so glad that you are here, especially considering I don't
Speaker 2: want to sell myself out of a job here. But
Speaker 2: have you looked outside? It is gorgeous outside. So when
Speaker 2: we're done, when we're done, not now. But when we're done,
Speaker 2: you got to get out there or you know it,
Speaker 2: put us on the iHeartRadio app on your phone, pop
Speaker 2: in your headphones and get out there anyway and take
Speaker 2: me out with you. Let's go together, Yeah, into the day.
Speaker 2: Listen to me and digital HD and hear all the
Speaker 2: tones of my melodious baritone voice. All right, we're talking
Speaker 2: about the monitored home. I want to get off of
Speaker 2: security and move to safety. What's the difference between security
Speaker 2: and safety. Security is about, you know, baddies trying to
Speaker 2: get in and do you wrong. Yes, baddies, that's a
Speaker 2: technical term, baddies. Safety is about mishaps in your home.
Speaker 2: I'm talking about fires. We're talking about carbon monoxide, floods, freezes,
Speaker 2: and you know, electrical problems basically all of which nowadays
Speaker 2: we have a monitored solution to if you are interested
Speaker 2: in moving in that direction. Fire smoke alarms, and I'm
Speaker 2: not talking about fire sprinkler systems. That's obviously awesome, and
Speaker 2: those are by nature monitored. And if you go to
Speaker 2: the expense of having a fire sprinkler system installed in
Speaker 2: your home, you should definitely have it set up so
Speaker 2: that you get at notice. Should any of those sprinklers
Speaker 2: go off for any reason whatsoever, but long before that happens.
Speaker 2: Far less expensively than that is your basic smoke alarm
Speaker 2: system in your home. Smoke alarms, one in every bedroom,
Speaker 2: one in a hallway or area leading to the bedrooms.
Speaker 2: These are the smoke alarm needs of a home, not
Speaker 2: in the kitchen, you know, anything like that. These days, though,
Speaker 2: connected smart smoke alarms. We use Nests here in our
Speaker 2: home because again they feed into the same app that
Speaker 2: my cameras and thermostat all feed into. I also like
Speaker 2: the Nest alarms because they are combination fire and CO
Speaker 2: two carbon monoxide detectors, so they you know, they get
Speaker 2: you covered both directions. I also like the Nest, and
Speaker 2: they're not a sponsor of the show. I'm just saying
Speaker 2: I like the Nest because they can be battery operated
Speaker 2: or hardwired or both. And I also like the Nest
Speaker 2: because they talk to you. They give you some options.
Speaker 2: So when our Nest smoke alarm first detects smoke, instead
Speaker 2: of just going crazy with an alarm, she and it
Speaker 2: is a she actually talks to me and says, smoke
Speaker 2: detected in the hallway, and what do you want to
Speaker 2: do about it basically, and so we can go wave
Speaker 2: it off, or we can, you know, find out what
Speaker 2: the real issue is. Wave it off if it just
Speaker 2: happens that I'm smoking up the steak a little bit
Speaker 2: too much in the kitchen, or go deal and see
Speaker 2: what the real reason for the smoke is there. So
Speaker 2: and their networked and connected and all talking to each
Speaker 2: other and all talking to the apps that are on
Speaker 2: our phones. Another thing, now, this is not something that
Speaker 2: a lot of people are aware of, but now there
Speaker 2: are very very small devices about the size of a
Speaker 2: matchbook that can be placed under sensitive water leak areas,
Speaker 2: like one under the sink, one under the water heater area,
Speaker 2: and so on. These are water detectors. They detect when
Speaker 2: any water or moisture hits the surface that they're sitting on,
Speaker 2: and they alert you to stop a potential flood or
Speaker 2: serious damage from taking place. In addition to the remote
Speaker 2: water detectors at each of these sensitive spots, you can
Speaker 2: of course also have a smart water main valve like
Speaker 2: a flow flo by Mowen, you know, the faucet company.
Speaker 2: You put a mow and flow valve on your maine.
Speaker 2: It will actually monitor regular water usage and alert you
Speaker 2: if it feels like there's water just seeping, not a
Speaker 2: full faucet, not a full turn on of anything, but seeping.
Speaker 2: It will actually let you know if there's a leak
Speaker 2: somewhere happening, and if there's a full pipe burst or
Speaker 2: this chronic leak. It has the ability to shut off
Speaker 2: the main to the house before anything goes further than
Speaker 2: it needs to go. And you can remotely shut off
Speaker 2: the main to the house via your mow and flow valve.
Speaker 2: So another incredibly incredibly useful tool. Now not so much
Speaker 2: in southern California unless you live in the mountains, then
Speaker 2: you need to listen to this. And if you live
Speaker 2: outside of southern California, in any area where there's a
Speaker 2: real winter that sets in there, there are now freeze
Speaker 2: sensors and basically it can either be built into your thermostat,
Speaker 2: your smart thermostat, or a separate sensor that you can
Speaker 2: have inside the house. And what we're talking about is, Okay,
Speaker 2: your away from the house is really important if you're
Speaker 2: taking a trip during the winter, or if you are
Speaker 2: you've got a vacation home that isn't necessarily occupied during
Speaker 2: the winter. In freezing areas. It's the ever present problem
Speaker 2: of the temperature inside the house dropping so much that
Speaker 2: the pipes freeze. And the problem with pipes water freezing
Speaker 2: inside your pipes is that water expands when it freezes,
Speaker 2: and as a result, it can burst open your pipes
Speaker 2: and cause major, major damage all over the house. Just
Speaker 2: one bad freeze that will result in leaks and lots
Speaker 2: and lots of plumbing issues. One of the reasons, by
Speaker 2: the way, that I like pecks as a pipe system
Speaker 2: as a plumbing system is it has a fifteen percent
Speaker 2: expansion capacity. It can actually expand if frozen water is
Speaker 2: inside it. Now I'm not saying that you use that
Speaker 2: and rely on it as your safety. I'm just saying
Speaker 2: it's one of the pros of having a PEX plumbing
Speaker 2: system as opposed to a rigid system like copper or
Speaker 2: what have you. Anyway, the point is we can put
Speaker 2: a air temperature detector, you know often that's called a thermostat,
Speaker 2: but this is not necessarily in control of the rest
Speaker 2: of your system to alert you when the air temperature
Speaker 2: inside the house drops to a point where we're beginning
Speaker 2: to be concerned about possible freeze. And then if you
Speaker 2: have a smart thermostat, you can remotely, you know, turn
Speaker 2: on the heating system, warm the house back up again,
Speaker 2: so you can avoid that very very very costly mistake. Okay,
Speaker 2: when we're going to return to this subject, I want
Speaker 2: to talk to you about something that a lot of
Speaker 2: people are unaware of, and that is the transition that's
Speaker 2: taking place in the electrical community to smart electrical panels
Speaker 2: and even more importantly, smart breakers and what those do.
Speaker 2: But that's when we return to the subject. When we
Speaker 2: come back from the break here at the top of
Speaker 2: the hour, we're going back to the phones. Your Home
Speaker 2: with Dean Sharp, the House Whisperer on KFI. This has
Speaker 2: been Home with Dean Sharp, the House whisper. Tune into
Speaker 2: the live broadcast on KFI AM six forty every Saturday
Speaker 2: morning from six to eight Pacific time and every Sunday
Speaker 2: morning from nine to noon Pacific time, or anytime on
Speaker 2: demand on the iHeartRadio app.