Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2: You're listening to Dean Sharp the house Whisper on demand.
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Speaker 2: is in need of some personal house Whisper attention, you know,
Speaker 2: if you want this weirdo actually standing on your patio
Speaker 2: telling you what you need to do, then you can
Speaker 2: book an in home design consult with me and the tea.
Speaker 2: Just go to house Whisperer dot design. All right, we
Speaker 2: are continuing our theme for the weekend of essentially where
Speaker 2: to get the most space for the least amount of money.
Speaker 2: Yesterday I talked about garages. Today I'm talking about outdoors
Speaker 2: and we're breaking it down in a way that I
Speaker 2: hope you've never really thought it through this way before.
Speaker 2: We're breaking it down to the essentials so that you
Speaker 2: don't have to spend a lot of money, but you
Speaker 2: get the biggest bang for the buck essentially along the way,
Speaker 2: in other words, what's it gonna take to get you
Speaker 2: outside to keep your comfy and to enjoy the experience
Speaker 2: so that you can utilize outside as more space for
Speaker 2: your living. And we're going to return to that con
Speaker 2: conversation in just a bit, but right now, top of
Speaker 2: the hour, time to take some calls. Oh and by
Speaker 2: the way, Michelle just producer Michelle handed this to me,
Speaker 2: She said, a listener asked me to pass on this joke.
Speaker 2: What is green and stays out all night? Patio furniture?
Speaker 3: Perfect?
Speaker 1: All right?
Speaker 2: All right, yeah, it's is that denigrating to the Irish
Speaker 2: people patio furniture? No, in no way, I don't believe
Speaker 2: among my people that you can actually insult us when
Speaker 2: it comes to those kinds of things, because all we're
Speaker 2: gonna do is say shrug our shoulders and say yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's true.
Speaker 1: It's true, sad but true. All right.
Speaker 2: Anyway, there you go, there's your stupid joke for the day,
Speaker 2: but timely because Saint Patrick's Day is just around the corner.
Speaker 2: All right, let's go to the phones. I want to
Speaker 2: talk to Al. Hey, Al, welcome home, Hidine.
Speaker 4: Thanks for taking my call. My wife and I moved
Speaker 4: into a center old home located in the Pacific Northwest
Speaker 4: spot two years ago. The house came with an unfinished
Speaker 4: bear stud attached to gar garage with an attached room
Speaker 4: that I currently use at the workshop. We're looking at
Speaker 4: a second level to the garage and used it as
Speaker 4: a studio and office space and then later converted to
Speaker 4: a just a living space. However, the problem there's only
Speaker 4: a one and a half foot setback from the proper line.
Speaker 4: The county requires a five foot step back for any
Speaker 4: new or remodeled constructure structures. We submitted the revised site
Speaker 4: planned and the new setback is byfoot and we've already
Speaker 4: been interested a permit for the garage assessory unit and
Speaker 4: our starting to look at construction in a few weeks. However,
Speaker 4: the general contractor came back out to do a reassessment
Speaker 4: of the garage and it's recommending a complete tear down
Speaker 4: of the existing structure for the new build. So here's
Speaker 4: my question. It's a two parter A. What's the cost
Speaker 4: of lumber potentially going up? Is there anything I can
Speaker 4: do pre construction to salvage any good lumber from the
Speaker 4: old structure which looks to be in pretty good condition,
Speaker 4: especially the four by fourteen solid beam that spans the
Speaker 4: length of the unit. The rafters themselves and walls all
Speaker 4: want to be in good conditions. Are there any rules
Speaker 4: against using recycled lumber on a new build? The garage
Speaker 4: itself looks like it well according to you. The previous
Speaker 4: zoneer was re built about ten years ago. I would
Speaker 4: like to use some of that lumber for a backyard
Speaker 4: shed slash tiny home and then later to refinish the
Speaker 4: basement on the main home. And second part the question,
Speaker 4: what would you recommend as a procedure for removing the
Speaker 4: wood from the wall, seatings and the roof without the
Speaker 4: whole thing collapsing on me? I want to reuse some
Speaker 4: of the newer windows, the intry door, garage door, electrical wires,
Speaker 4: and metal roof for that you build and later projects.
Speaker 4: Why is it all worth it?
Speaker 1: Okay, gotcha? Well, whether it's all worth it?
Speaker 2: Has to do with the you know, your time and
Speaker 2: energy put into it to get it done. You know,
Speaker 2: that's that's the biggest question. You know, sweat equity is
Speaker 2: always the question that DI I wires have to contend with, like, ugh,
Speaker 2: is this worth it? Or should we just let this go?
Speaker 2: But all right, century homes, So we're talking about something
Speaker 2: built in the nineteen twenties in the Pacific Northwest, anywhere
Speaker 2: on the west coast. When something's built in the nineteen twenties,
Speaker 2: you're talking about old growth wood, very very stable would
Speaker 2: and now, so to answer the first question of very quickly, no,
Speaker 2: there are no prohibitions about using older wood versus newer wood,
Speaker 2: recycled lumber versus new lumber. The only thing that it
Speaker 2: the building department or inspects or your structural engineer is
Speaker 2: going to be concerned about is the condition of that lumber.
Speaker 2: And the condition of the lumber. In other words, it
Speaker 2: can't be dry rotted, it can't be termite infested, and
Speaker 2: it can't be broken or split or anything like that.
Speaker 2: So salvaging solid pieces of wood, and you know, and
Speaker 2: the point is this, the logic extends this way, and
Speaker 2: I understand that's a very common thing that you know,
Speaker 2: a century home. Even here in southern California, quite often
Speaker 2: a lot of detached garages were built right on the
Speaker 2: property line. Literally, I've got a project in Studio City
Speaker 2: right now where the existing garage it was built in
Speaker 2: the nineteen thirties, is only twenty four inches off the
Speaker 2: property line. And now some work has to be done,
Speaker 2: and we're trying to get it around the idea that
Speaker 2: the new zoning set back and by new I mean
Speaker 2: like nineteen sixty forward is five feet, which is common right,
Speaker 2: and so we're trying to, you know, work massage the
Speaker 2: city to allow us, and we're not adding a second floor.
Speaker 2: If we were doing that, it would have been a no,
Speaker 2: a no from the get go. And that's why, you know,
Speaker 2: in your jurisdiction it's a it's a no, just a
Speaker 2: flat out no no. You know, if you were just
Speaker 2: rehabbing that garage, I'm sure they would allow you to
Speaker 2: keep it there, grandfathered in place. But a brand new
Speaker 2: second story on top of it, No, that's going to
Speaker 2: have to fall within the five foot the new five
Speaker 2: foot setback. So the point is they would have allowed
Speaker 2: you to just work with that existing lumber anyway if
Speaker 2: you were just rehabbing that first floor. And so the
Speaker 2: logic is the wood has to be in good shape,
Speaker 2: that's all. It has to be in good shape, and
Speaker 2: especially century old old growth lumber from the region that
Speaker 2: you're building in, actually very likely if it's in good shape,
Speaker 2: it's in good shape and there should be no concerns
Speaker 2: about it. The only thing that has happened to that lumber,
Speaker 2: if it's been protected well from the elements, is that
Speaker 2: it has dried out. And that's what we hope will
Speaker 2: be the case with all lumber in all homes that
Speaker 2: eventually the kiln dried process removes most of the moisture.
Speaker 2: And that's what actually makes wood homes more stable over
Speaker 2: time is when they eventually, you know, fully dry out.
Speaker 2: So answer to your first question shouldn't be a problem.
Speaker 2: Second question, how to get the most out of it.
Speaker 2: You want to take your time. You don't want to
Speaker 2: leave nails in the structure. So my recommendation is not
Speaker 2: going to be that you saws all the studs loose
Speaker 2: and things like that that will leave cut nails inside
Speaker 2: the existing structure. Withdrawing all the fasteners, cleaning all the
Speaker 2: lumber up, so that there's no residual fasteners in the
Speaker 2: lumber is probably your best bet, but the overall process
Speaker 2: of pulling it all down really needs to happen to
Speaker 2: do it efficiently in the order, in the reverse order
Speaker 2: that it went up. And so what this means is
Speaker 2: is very simply, if there are windows or doors that
Speaker 2: you're going to salvage, then those need to be removed
Speaker 2: first because they were the last things to go in.
Speaker 2: Then you're gonna have to go up onto the roof
Speaker 2: and start dismantling the roof sheathing and the roof rafters
Speaker 2: and the ridge beams and work your way back down
Speaker 2: because the way it was built originally was from the
Speaker 2: ground up, the roof being the last thing to go on,
Speaker 2: and so logically speaking, the safest and best for all
Speaker 2: of those framing members is to dismantle it from the
Speaker 2: roof down in reverse order.
Speaker 1: Does that make sense?
Speaker 5: Yes?
Speaker 4: It is, Yes it is. I'm concerned about the weight
Speaker 4: of the beam is about twenty four by thirty seven structure,
Speaker 4: and I don't know if I'm going to be able
Speaker 4: to remove that beam or just wait till they actually
Speaker 4: demolish it. See if I can salvage that yeah.
Speaker 2: I have no doubt. I have no doubt that you're
Speaker 2: going to be able to remove the beam. It's just
Speaker 2: a question of whether you're going to be able to
Speaker 2: do it by yourself. And to remove a beam like that,
Speaker 2: what you're going to want to do is you're going
Speaker 2: to want to temporarily brace it up. You may build
Speaker 2: a temporary wall or set of supports underneath the beam
Speaker 2: in the open clear space while you dismantle it from
Speaker 2: its connections to the rest of the house. And then
Speaker 2: you need to make a clear open slot to be
Speaker 2: able to lower one end of the beam down while
Speaker 2: the other one stays supported. That kind of thing, there's
Speaker 2: a process for that. If it doesn't seem one hundred
Speaker 2: percent clear to you, then have a conversation with your
Speaker 2: general contractor about that and about how to most efficiently
Speaker 2: get that beam out of the wall. But again, with
Speaker 2: no roof above it, you're leaving yourself a lot of
Speaker 2: options and a lot more flexibility. And then you can
Speaker 2: remove wall around it and keep it temporarily braced in
Speaker 2: place and then be able to drop the beam down safely.
Speaker 2: But it's probably not almost guaranteed, not a one man procedure.
Speaker 2: We often will just FYI and then I got to
Speaker 2: go here out. We will often set a beam in
Speaker 2: place like that if we don't have a huge framing
Speaker 2: crew around with a motorized electric lift system, and you
Speaker 2: may want to consider that that may be the easiest way.
Speaker 2: In fact, in theory, you could do that as a
Speaker 2: single man show if you got an electric lift in
Speaker 2: on the slab, got that lift up forked underneath the
Speaker 2: beam so that it is now the support, and now
Speaker 2: you can just dismantle the walls around it. The beam
Speaker 2: is sitting on the lift, it'll transfer its weight onto
Speaker 2: the lift and then with a click of a button
Speaker 2: you just lower it down to the ground and now
Speaker 2: your beam is free and clear. Just a little bit
Speaker 2: of demolition theory from an old framer. Al thanks for
Speaker 2: your call. I'm running late, so let's jump into some
Speaker 2: news and then we'll take some more calls.
Speaker 1: On the other side.
Speaker 6: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 6: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2: Always a pleasure and a privilege to spend some time
Speaker 2: with you on a Sunday morning talking about your home.
Speaker 2: We're talking about getting you outside today and we're going
Speaker 2: to return to that conversation in just a bit. But
Speaker 2: right now I'm taking calls, so I want to go
Speaker 2: back to the phones. Let's talk to Al. I'm sorry,
Speaker 2: Let's talk to Oscar. Oscar. Welcome home, Good.
Speaker 3: Morning, Dean. Thank you for taking my call, Tina, Michelle,
Speaker 3: Miss and Zalez. Thank you for being so helpful. I
Speaker 3: had a leak on a skylight and I called American
Speaker 3: windows to come out, but they only come out only
Speaker 3: if Dave installed it. I've had handyman that came out
Speaker 3: hawked around the windows, around the edges of the window,
Speaker 3: and now the water is still leaking and it's coming
Speaker 3: into the house onto my dry wall. So uh, I'm
Speaker 3: trying to figure out. I've already cleaned out the wheepholes,
Speaker 3: I've cleaned out the window drain tracks, both vacuum and
Speaker 3: blowed them. I sent you an email with the pictures
Speaker 3: on them. I don't know if you have access to that,
Speaker 3: but desperately seeking Susan for help, I.
Speaker 2: Mean speaking from all right, hang on just one second
Speaker 2: you Oh yeah, here's your Oscar, Oscar.
Speaker 1: There you go.
Speaker 2: So this is a weird skylight, Oscar, this is a
Speaker 2: you got a window sitting out with a little wall
Speaker 2: alcove behind it. This skylight is mounted directly to the
Speaker 2: top of a of a window here.
Speaker 3: Yes, that's correct. It's really odd.
Speaker 2: Now now is this did you do this? Is this
Speaker 2: a replacement window? I mean, tell me the story, I
Speaker 2: mean was it? It looks like the structure has always
Speaker 2: kind of accommodated it. What is the story behind this? This?
Speaker 3: This purchased My wife and I purchased our house three
Speaker 3: eight years ago, and it came along with that. We've
Speaker 3: just replaced the windows again now and talking to contractors
Speaker 3: that things should have never been there.
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: Now you replaced the windows again, including this skylight above
Speaker 2: or that is still all right?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: And and how how long ago did you replace this skylight?
Speaker 3: When?
Speaker 1: When when were these windows replaced?
Speaker 3: Two thousand and seven?
Speaker 1: Okay, And it has just started leaking.
Speaker 3: It started leaking about a year or so. And I've
Speaker 3: gone up there and I spread against a stucco thinking
Speaker 3: it's a stucco and it was a repellent so the
Speaker 3: water would not seep in. And then we did the cawking.
Speaker 3: That stopped a little bit, but it continues to leak.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you're gonna be chasing this one like a
Speaker 2: dog chasing its tail. My friend, I don't know. Here's
Speaker 2: here's what I can tell you. Okay, anything is possible.
Speaker 2: Anything is possible. So I'm not I'm not going to
Speaker 2: be the guy to tell you that you cannot have
Speaker 2: a skylight above this window setting like this. I wish
Speaker 2: you guys could see this. It's just literally imagined kind
Speaker 2: of a kind of a situation where it's almost like
Speaker 2: a kitchen picture window sticking out from the kitchen sink
Speaker 2: with glass up above that's horizontal. But the point is
Speaker 2: three sides of this is touching stucco. And what I'm
Speaker 2: seeing he is that I'm seeing that this retrofit style
Speaker 2: glass skylight has got it looks like a vinyl and
Speaker 2: or metal curb that's or flashing. That isn't actually going
Speaker 2: into the stucco. It's just up against the stucco, and
Speaker 2: you're relying on calking to keep that seal.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: That's problematic in and of itself because water gets inside stucco,
Speaker 2: and water is going to get down inside past the
Speaker 2: window flashing eventually. Especially you probably started to notice it
Speaker 2: because of the age of the window, and at this
Speaker 2: point for as long as it's been there, and the
Speaker 2: heavy rains that we've had in the last couple of
Speaker 2: winters now really starting to saturate stucco. The water in
Speaker 2: the stucco has got to have a place to go,
Speaker 2: and the water in the stucco is bypassing the window
Speaker 2: flashing all together. So I'm just going to tell you
Speaker 2: this and so that everybody can understand when it comes
Speaker 2: to skylights and or any kind of window or element,
Speaker 2: whether it's a fireplace sticking into a stucco wall, whether
Speaker 2: it is a skylight that's you know, partially pushed up
Speaker 2: against stucco, or anything like that. Anytime a plane of
Speaker 2: sorts is intersecting stucco on a house and we've got
Speaker 2: vulnerable room space below it, that thing has to be
Speaker 2: flashed into and underneath the stucco, into and underneath the stucco.
Speaker 2: So the thought now retrofit windows. And I can see
Speaker 2: that you've got retrofit vinyl windows here. Retrofit windows only
Speaker 2: work on a house because we're not disturbing the original
Speaker 2: frame of the original window, which is still flashed into
Speaker 2: the stucco, and the retrofits slide on top and then
Speaker 2: a heavy calking seal is sealed around them, so we
Speaker 2: kind of glue them to the old window frame that's embedded,
Speaker 2: and you know, they save money because you don't have
Speaker 2: to tear up the stucco. But in this situation, this
Speaker 2: was a mistake from the window stallers who retrofit the windows,
Speaker 2: because this never should have been a retrofit situation. This
Speaker 2: is a situation that needed to have stucco removed around
Speaker 2: the three sides of that skylight and an actual metal
Speaker 2: flashing put up underneath the stucco paper, backing up the
Speaker 2: stucco paper so that all the moisture in the stucco
Speaker 2: itself hits that flashing and is transferred to the outside
Speaker 2: over the lip of the skylight flashing. So the point
Speaker 2: is this, everybody flashing is key and not everything. Nothing
Speaker 2: is ever is ever universally everything fool proof, even retrofit
Speaker 2: windows and a horizontally positioned flat retrofit window up against stucco.
Speaker 2: We never want to rely on just caulking to keep
Speaker 2: that to surface waterproof because it ain't gonna work, and
Speaker 2: in this case it is the It is the example
Speaker 2: that proves the lesson so Oscar you can keep a
Speaker 2: skylight there. You can have that window there, it may
Speaker 2: not be that one in particular, but what you really
Speaker 2: need is a stucco contractor to come out and remove
Speaker 2: about six inches of stucco above that skylight around that
Speaker 2: three walled area. Get a good roof z bar flashing.
Speaker 2: We call it Z bar because it's shaped in a
Speaker 2: Z and get it underneath the stucco paper and out
Speaker 2: over the skylight itself, so that all the moisture, not
Speaker 2: only the rain falling from the outside, but the water
Speaker 2: that is collecting inside the stucco itself, all of the
Speaker 2: moisture is being channeled to the outside of the house
Speaker 2: and not dripping down inside. All right, guys, oscar, that's
Speaker 2: the best I can do with that answer, and I
Speaker 2: hope that clarifies that it's gonna leak until that fix
Speaker 2: is put into place.
Speaker 1: Sorry to tell you that, but it's true.
Speaker 2: All right, y'all, We've got to go to a break
Speaker 2: and when we come back, how about a couple more calls.
Speaker 1: Sounds good?
Speaker 6: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 6: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2: Dean Sharp, the house whisper, custom home designer and builder,
Speaker 2: here to help you transform that ordinary house into an
Speaker 2: extraordinary home. Here with you live every weekend right here
Speaker 2: from nine to noon on Sundays and from six to
Speaker 2: eight on Saturday mornings. We're gonna get back to our
Speaker 2: topic of the least expensive ways to get yourself a
Speaker 2: little bit more elbow room, specifically today doing some more
Speaker 2: outdoor living in the most practical and inexpensive ways possible.
Speaker 2: We're coming back to that, but right now I am
Speaker 2: taking calls and I want to get back to the phones.
Speaker 2: Let's talk to Dennis. Hey, Dennis, welcome home.
Speaker 7: Good mornings. I'm sure I'm like a lot of other people.
Speaker 7: The patio is a place where the overflow from the
Speaker 7: garage goes. Moving on to the main question, popcorn ceilings. Yes,
Speaker 7: I have a nineteen eighties house where the cathedrals kind
Speaker 7: of ceiling. The highest part's probably north of twenty feet tall,
Speaker 7: and the bedroom is the same way on the second floor.
Speaker 7: So trying to decide the best way to take the
Speaker 7: popcorn ceiling off or putting new drywall center drive all
Speaker 7: on top and covering out with this new plaster, and
Speaker 7: to throw one more thing into it where the house
Speaker 7: that's old would the would it be worth changing out
Speaker 7: the insulation and the ceiling since there's no attic obviously,
Speaker 7: so would it be worth taking down on the dry
Speaker 7: wall putting in all new insulation And I'm putting up
Speaker 7: drywall from scratch?
Speaker 2: Gotcha all right, my friend? Well three questions rolled into one.
Speaker 2: There of actually two. Okay, popcorn ceilings. You have a
Speaker 2: home built in the nineteen eighties, and that means that
Speaker 2: and there's really no reason to mess with this because
Speaker 2: asbestos was gone from acoustic ceilings in the late seventies
Speaker 2: at the that was the tail end of asbestos. So
Speaker 2: a home built in the nineteen eighties does not have
Speaker 2: asbestos in the popcorn ceiling, in the acoustic ceiling mix,
Speaker 2: So no need to abate, no need to go to
Speaker 2: the cost of all of that, safe to say, safe
Speaker 2: to say that there's no asbestos in that popcorn ceiling. Also,
Speaker 2: the lack of asbestos makes that acoustic popcorn texture very
Speaker 2: soft as a general rule, unless it's been painted over
Speaker 2: eight hundred times with paint, at which point it gets hard.
Speaker 2: But underneath, underneath, it's very soft. Acoustic ceilings with asbestos
Speaker 2: in them, asbestos being a fiber in them, tend to
Speaker 2: be very very hard and rigid and far more difficult
Speaker 2: to remove. If it's a normal eight foot bedroom ceiling
Speaker 2: with a nineteen eighties or later asbestos coating on it,
Speaker 2: typically you could just take a room. You could lay
Speaker 2: down plastic, empty out the room, lay down plastic on
Speaker 2: the floor, and take a Hudson's sprayer with a fine
Speaker 2: mist of water, dampen that ceiling, and a scraper and
Speaker 2: you will find that that stuff comes off pretty dang easily.
Speaker 2: And if you hire an acoustic ceiling removal company, that's
Speaker 2: pretty much exactly what they're going to do. They're going
Speaker 2: to dampen the acoustic and scrape it off and get
Speaker 2: that ceiling clear. Probably the least expensive way to go
Speaker 2: in your situation. You could also encapsulate, meaning that you
Speaker 2: could put up, as you mentioned, another layer of drywall
Speaker 2: to just trap that acoustic in there. But in your situation,
Speaker 2: I usually recommend encapsulation when we've got asbestos in the
Speaker 2: acoustic because encapsulation versus a batement huge cost difference. Encapsulation
Speaker 2: saves big time the money in if we're talking about
Speaker 2: encapsulation versus scraping off the existing stuff, and then you
Speaker 2: know retaping in a little bit of drywall mud to
Speaker 2: float out the smoothness in the ceiling. Generally speaking, it's
Speaker 2: almost always least expensive to just scrape the acoustic and
Speaker 2: then patch up the ceiling with whatever finishing touches are needed,
Speaker 2: versus slapping up a whole new ceiling worth of drywall.
Speaker 2: So encapsulation cheaper than abatement. Removing soft acoustic almost always
Speaker 2: cheaper than encapsulation. That's the general rule of thumb. Now,
Speaker 2: as to whether or not you want to take all
Speaker 2: the drywall down in a vaulted ceiling and reinsulate, that
Speaker 2: is entirely up to you, and whether it's worth it
Speaker 2: to you has to do with your energy bills and
Speaker 2: do you notice it and so on. I am sure
Speaker 2: if the house was built in the eighties, then it
Speaker 2: has sufficient insulation for code in the eighties. Now right now,
Speaker 2: our attic insulation recommendations and requirements, I mean we want
Speaker 2: to shoot to R thirty and not a lot of
Speaker 2: fiberglass hits that in just regular open rafters for a
Speaker 2: true vaulted ceiling without an attic. So would that increase
Speaker 2: your insulation quality, especially if you put up a denser
Speaker 2: insulation either a spray foam insulation would be a no brainer,
Speaker 2: but a more dense insulation like a rock mineral insulation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you could.
Speaker 2: Increase the insulated value of the ceiling while you're up
Speaker 2: there getting the other work done. But again that's a
Speaker 2: whole different expense. Now we're removing all the dry wall
Speaker 2: and we're essentially putting up new ceiling. You've just got
Speaker 2: to figure out whether that's going to be worth it
Speaker 2: to you. And the way you get that done, my friend,
Speaker 2: is by taking bids, getting multiple estimates, and you know,
Speaker 2: comparing that against whatever sweat equity, labor you might have
Speaker 2: been thinking. I think at a twenty foot ceiling, you're
Speaker 2: probably going to be paying somebody to do it anyway,
Speaker 2: So compare all those bids out and make a decision,
Speaker 2: because it's not just a one for one, you know,
Speaker 2: no brainer this way or that way. You're going to
Speaker 2: have to find the value there. Ultimately, is it nice
Speaker 2: to have best insulation possible in a ceiling? Of course
Speaker 2: it is. If the expense is going to be oh well,
Speaker 2: it's gonna by the time we're all said and done,
Speaker 2: it's going to cost me ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: How fast.
Speaker 2: Are your energy savings in that room alone going to
Speaker 2: repay that ten thousand dollars. It's going to be years
Speaker 2: and years and years, honestly, the energy because it's not
Speaker 2: like there is no insulation up there. We're just improving
Speaker 2: it somewhat. So the energy saving, it's not like it's
Speaker 2: going to pay for itself in the first six months.
Speaker 2: It won't because energy is pretty cheap relative to the
Speaker 2: cost of construction. So those are the things to consider,
Speaker 2: my friend, And hopefully now you've got.
Speaker 1: A little bit better perspective on it as well.
Speaker 2: All Right, when we return one more call, I'm going
Speaker 2: to be able to take before we dive back into
Speaker 2: our conversation of you getting yourself some more outdoor space.
Speaker 1: We'll do that right after.
Speaker 6: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 6: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2: We're talking about saving money on getting more elbow room
Speaker 2: in your home by just increasing the amount of time
Speaker 2: we spend outside. But the big question is what's it
Speaker 2: going to take to get you out there and how
Speaker 2: inexpensively can we do it. It's a very very specialized
Speaker 2: look at getting outside for the least amount of money,
Speaker 2: and in the best possible way, and I'm just guiding
Speaker 2: you through it today. We're going to return it that
Speaker 2: conversation right after the next news break at the top
Speaker 2: of the hour. But right here, last bit before we
Speaker 2: hit the top of the hour, I'm taking calls. I
Speaker 2: want to take at least one more, and let's talk
Speaker 2: to Zach. Hey, Zach, welcome home.
Speaker 5: Thank you Dean for taking my call. I appreciate you.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 5: We've got a family cabin up in the San Diego Mountains,
Speaker 5: and about ten years ago we built a outbuilding. It's
Speaker 5: a bedroom and a bathroom only, and that house, that
Speaker 5: little cabin, that room tends to the water. The hot
Speaker 5: water tends to smell like sulfur. Done as much as
Speaker 5: we can, it's all off the same water source. A
Speaker 5: well goes through a filter and then it splits, and
Speaker 5: those to the two different cabins. And we have put
Speaker 5: things in it and replaced the little water heater. And
Speaker 5: no matter what we do, it's always turns to smell
Speaker 5: like sulfur. The hot water out of that little cabin.
Speaker 1: Mmmmmmmmmmmm.
Speaker 3: Just the hot water, just the hot water, yes, or
Speaker 3: the all right?
Speaker 1: How new? How new is the water heater? And what
Speaker 1: kind of water heater is it. It's a traditional tanked water.
Speaker 5: Heater, traditional tank. Actually no, I'm sorry, it's an electric
Speaker 5: tank about forty gallons, and we've probably replaced it three
Speaker 5: times for several reasons. But no matter. Even after a
Speaker 5: new tank, it will.
Speaker 2: Produce that all right, So brand new water heater still
Speaker 2: get that water smell in that house?
Speaker 5: Sure do?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 5: From what way can we call?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 1: Hmm? Okay?
Speaker 7: Uh?
Speaker 2: And and that's an outhouse, I mean an out you know,
Speaker 2: a disconnected building from the primary cabin and the same
Speaker 2: water supply. And you don't have that problem in the cabin.
Speaker 2: It does it happen to be downhill from the cabin.
Speaker 5: No, they're about the same level building, maybe just some
Speaker 5: four or feat higher.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, all right, so this is a tricky one.
Speaker 1: This is a tricky one. Zact. Here's the thing, same
Speaker 1: water source, two buildings.
Speaker 2: One of them has a sulfur kind of rotten egg
Speaker 2: smell going on in the hot water supply. The other
Speaker 2: does not. Okay, the main cabin does not, but the
Speaker 2: same water supply.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: As strange as this sound, the almost inevitably what you've
Speaker 2: got is and I don't want to freaky out here,
Speaker 2: but what you have is a some kind of sulfur
Speaker 2: bacteria build up in the second structure in the in
Speaker 2: the water line to the second structure. And it makes
Speaker 2: sense that it is in the hot water, not the cold. Okay,
Speaker 2: it's in the hot water, because heavy sulfur content in.
Speaker 1: Water, in you know, well water or water in the.
Speaker 2: Area at some point, at some point that sulfur, that
Speaker 2: heavy sulfur content in excited by the water heater itself, okay,
Speaker 2: is not being completely eliminated by the water heater. Now
Speaker 2: you've got a traditional water heater, which means that there's
Speaker 2: a self sacrificial anode rod inside the water heater. That
Speaker 2: anode rod is one of the things that should be
Speaker 2: attracting the sulfur to itself, and and sulfur it corrodes
Speaker 2: and eats away at those rods really fast. So one
Speaker 2: of the reasons I asked, like, what is it a
Speaker 2: new water heater, is it an old water heater it's
Speaker 2: a traditional water heater, is that those anode rods can
Speaker 2: just go in like in a heartbeat. They can be
Speaker 2: eaten away by extra hard well water, especially with sulfur
Speaker 2: content and then that sulfur bacteria, and it's not harmful
Speaker 2: to humans, right, it just doesn't smell right or taste right.
Speaker 2: But that sulfur bacteria builds up on the corrosive layer
Speaker 2: of the pipes, of the copper lines and in the
Speaker 2: water heater, So can you purge it? Usually what you
Speaker 2: have to do is you're going to have to go
Speaker 2: to the extent of installing a specific sulfur filtration system
Speaker 2: for the outbuilding to catch that so that it goes through.
Speaker 2: And we may also have to run a form of
Speaker 2: disinfectant through the copper pipes in order to flesh out
Speaker 2: as much of the sulfur that has embedded itself corrosively
Speaker 2: on the wall of the salt of the copper pipes,
Speaker 2: which itself is not great for the pipes. Again, not
Speaker 2: a problem for you, but almost inevitably, almost inevitably, what
Speaker 2: you're dealing with is some layer of sulfur bacteria that
Speaker 2: thrives once it has corroded the magnesium anode rod in
Speaker 2: a water heater, and then it starts attacking the walls
Speaker 2: of the pipes. And so it may at this point
Speaker 2: unfortunately be systemic in that, but there are ways still
Speaker 2: of purging it. So if the and I would, I
Speaker 2: would act on that immediately so as to prevent any
Speaker 2: further corrosion of the copper pipes and to get the
Speaker 2: taste of the water back normal. Again, the fact that
Speaker 2: it's coming through the hot water system is the chief
Speaker 2: indicating diagnostic there, because if it's not in the cold
Speaker 2: then it is definitely, in my opinion, backia based. And
Speaker 2: I know it sounds gross and weird, but again, this
Speaker 2: is not a bacteria that's harmful for you drinking the water.
Speaker 2: It is just the nature of it attacking the copper
Speaker 2: pipes on the hot water side of things. So a
Speaker 2: repipe for hot might be in order to abandon those
Speaker 2: other lines just the hot and also a sulfur protective
Speaker 2: filter system to be added to the water heater. How
Speaker 2: it happened, why it happened to the outbuilding and hasn't
Speaker 2: been a struggle for the main cabin I do not know.
Speaker 2: I do not know how to explain that. All I
Speaker 2: can tell you is that when we get that result,
Speaker 2: there is usually only one cause of it taking place,
Speaker 2: and it sounds like it's happening to you, my friend.
Speaker 2: That's the best I can do right now, and I'm
Speaker 2: out of time, Zach, so give that a look. You
Speaker 2: may want to call a water expert in to just
Speaker 2: test some of the water and verify what it is
Speaker 2: that I'm talking talking about before you go to any
Speaker 2: extreme measures with the rest of the plumbing. That's the
Speaker 2: best advice that I can give you. All right, y'all,
Speaker 2: when we return, we're going to go back outside as
Speaker 2: inexpensively as possible and make your time in the out
Speaker 2: of doors just beyond your doors of your house as
Speaker 2: a pleasant and elbow space clearing as possible without draining
Speaker 2: your bank account. And we will do that all right
Speaker 2: after we get the news. You are listening to Dean Sharp,
Speaker 2: the House Whisperer on KFI. This has been Home with
Speaker 2: Dean Sharp, the House whisper Tune into the live broadcast
Speaker 2: on KFI AM six forty every Saturday morning from six
Speaker 2: to eight Pacific time and every Sunday morning from nine
Speaker 2: to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the
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