Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp, the
Speaker 1: house Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app, talking about
Speaker 1: anything and everything that you want to talk about regarding
Speaker 1: your home. I want to talk to James. James, welcome home.
Speaker 2: Hey, thank you so much and I appreciate you taking
Speaker 2: my call, sir.
Speaker 3: You are welcome, sir. How can I help you?
Speaker 4: So?
Speaker 5: I've been running this home for the past ten years.
Speaker 6: It's three bedroom, two and a half bats.
Speaker 7: Approximately eleven hundred square feet. The owner decides he wants
Speaker 7: to sell because he's going back to his country and
Speaker 7: he hasn't put it out in the market yet.
Speaker 2: On red Fend the house is approximately between eight lower
Speaker 2: eight to eight twenty.
Speaker 5: He wants to give me.
Speaker 2: First DIBs at the at the house.
Speaker 8: And there is some.
Speaker 2: Fixes that the house's meets with the plumbing. There's termite,
Speaker 2: the chimney has cracks, and then there's like multiple cracks
Speaker 2: throughout the home.
Speaker 8: I did get an inspector to come out yesterday. Unfortunately
Speaker 8: he didn't inspect the foundation. Just by ayyballing it. He said,
Speaker 8: you know, you're going to need someone to come check
Speaker 8: out the foundation. There's going to be some.
Speaker 2: Fixes that the house is going to have to be addressed.
Speaker 5: My question to you is.
Speaker 6: It was build in nineteen thirty six, that's about ninety
Speaker 6: years old. Is it going to be a good investment,
Speaker 6: is it going to be a headache in the long run?
Speaker 6: And what would be a fair offer, because that's the
Speaker 6: owner said, I'm not gonna fix anything that the house needs.
Speaker 6: I'd rather give you credit on it. So what what's
Speaker 6: your opinion being?
Speaker 3: Okay, all right, really really good question, James. Okay, So
Speaker 3: first of all, just so as not to disappoint you,
Speaker 3: at the end of my answer, I can't give you
Speaker 3: a number on it. I can't give you a number okay,
Speaker 3: but because you know, there's just too many there are
Speaker 3: too many variables. We don't know what's going on. But
Speaker 3: it sounds like you're in a good position to make
Speaker 3: the decision. Okay. It sounds like he's being fair with you,
Speaker 3: he's being honest, he's being straight up front. He says, listen,
Speaker 3: I'm not fixing anything, but I'd rather give you credit. Okay. Well,
Speaker 3: so here are the layers that go into this layer.
Speaker 3: Number One, you got to know from a realtor or two,
Speaker 3: what the fair market value of the house is as
Speaker 3: is as it sits right there. What are the comps?
Speaker 3: What's fair and you get a sense of that. Number one.
Speaker 3: Number two, you've had the home inspection done. Now home
Speaker 3: inspection start is. The whole purpose of a home inspection
Speaker 3: is to find any potential things that could be an issue. Plumbing, foundation,
Speaker 3: you know where why you know, a house built in
Speaker 3: the nineteen thirties, you know, may have cracks, cracks in
Speaker 3: the plaster, cracks in the ceiling. Does not necessarily mean
Speaker 3: that the ceiling is failing. It just means that, you know,
Speaker 3: it's almost one hundred year old house at this point,
Speaker 3: and maybe those things have been neglected for a while,
Speaker 3: so he wants to give you first DIBs all. What
Speaker 3: you need to do, if you're seriously thinking about it,
Speaker 3: is to do your due diligence. In other words, if
Speaker 3: you know that if the home inspector has said somebody
Speaker 3: should look at the foundation, then you got to get
Speaker 3: a foundation company out there to take a look at
Speaker 3: the foundation. Uh, one who's going to give you a
Speaker 3: thorough inspection and a price. That's what the home inspector
Speaker 3: isn't doing. His job is to simply alert you to
Speaker 3: issues that he finds. He's not giving you an estimate
Speaker 3: of value. You need to get a couple of foundation companies.
Speaker 3: And this is how I would support my justification for
Speaker 3: the credit. I would have more than one contractor, a
Speaker 3: reputable contractor in every category of concern come out to
Speaker 3: the house. So if there's a potential foundation issue, I'd
Speaker 3: get two bids, two estimates from them, number one, so
Speaker 3: that you can show them, Hey, you know all the
Speaker 3: guys who look at the house, are they all have
Speaker 3: a consensus? You know, they all agree it should be this,
Speaker 3: this and this and this is the ballpark price for
Speaker 3: getting this done. Somebody to take a look at the framing,
Speaker 3: somebody to look at the plumbing, and so on. A
Speaker 3: lot of stuff when it comes to an older home
Speaker 3: may be superficial. But when you mentioned plumbing and foundation work,
Speaker 3: that's not superficial stuff. That stuff that needs to be
Speaker 3: seriously addressed. And what you do is you simply compile
Speaker 3: together the costs to you of realistically bringing the house,
Speaker 3: not making it brand spanking new in terms of every finish,
Speaker 3: because that's that's not you know, we're not crediting, we're
Speaker 3: not asking for a credit to make a house that's
Speaker 3: been you know, a little old, it has a dingy
Speaker 3: paint job to get it all bright and shiny. Because
Speaker 3: that's not the point. Okay, the house gets evaluated at
Speaker 3: the price that it's in given the condition, and then
Speaker 3: you say, listen, you know there's sixty thousand dollars worth
Speaker 3: of things here that have to be done to the house.
Speaker 3: So if you willing to take sixty off the price,
Speaker 3: then you know, maybe we're talking about me buying this
Speaker 3: house from.
Speaker 5: Okay, perfect, great advice and neither more so peace of mind. Soel, definitely,
Speaker 5: I do have plumber coming out tomorrow, and I do
Speaker 5: have someone that's gonna look at the foundation. But to
Speaker 5: get a second opinion, I think that would also ease
Speaker 5: the homeowner and say, well, it's just one person's opinion.
Speaker 5: I suppose to there's.
Speaker 3: Two, yeah, exactly. And that's the thing is that it's
Speaker 3: not See, it's really easy to argue down from a
Speaker 3: negotiating standpoint. It's really easy to argue down the idea like,
Speaker 3: oh so you had Joe blow come out and they
Speaker 3: gave you a crazy price. It's completely different to say, listen,
Speaker 3: I had three builders look at this specific prom I
Speaker 3: had three plumbers look at this, and I'm here. Let
Speaker 3: me show you they're written estimates. You see consensus between
Speaker 3: them all. This is at least a fifteen thousand dollars
Speaker 3: plumbing job. That's what I'm saying, between three different licensed
Speaker 3: plumbers and a couple of different foundation You see how
Speaker 3: that takes the argument to a completely different level. Plus
Speaker 3: it gives you peace of mind that you're not missing
Speaker 3: anything along the way. So, James, I think you're headed
Speaker 3: in the right direction. Just my opinion would be double up,
Speaker 3: at least double up on the estimates so that you
Speaker 3: really are standing on solid ground when it comes to
Speaker 3: the house. Good luck, my friend, and thanks for your call,
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening, thanks for your confidence in asking me
Speaker 3: the question.
Speaker 9: All right, you're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on
Speaker 9: demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 3: We're talking about a great architectural design being theater, and
Speaker 3: I'm using the idea of theater or movies, movies or plays,
Speaker 3: cinema and theater as things that your elements of artistic
Speaker 3: endeavor that you're more familiar with than you are evaluating
Speaker 3: an architectural space for improving its design. So I want
Speaker 3: to get your head more into your home, knowing what
Speaker 3: to look at, where to look, how to look at
Speaker 3: a space, to try and figure out what is wrong
Speaker 3: with this room, how can I make it better? And
Speaker 3: we're using cinema and theater as a metaphor for that,
Speaker 3: as a tool to get in your head because it's
Speaker 3: so so very true, it's so applicable. Of course, not
Speaker 3: everything is this equal across the board, but already, already
Speaker 3: I think we've crossed some boundaries and opened up your
Speaker 3: thinking in terms of how you evaluate a room. Anyway,
Speaker 3: We're going to be going back to that in a bit.
Speaker 3: But middle of the show right now, the ten o'clock
Speaker 3: hour means we're taking calls, and that is always a
Speaker 3: pleasure and a joy for me as well. So let's
Speaker 3: go back to the phones. I want to talk to Sandy. Hey, Sandy,
Speaker 3: welcome home, Thank you.
Speaker 10: Hi.
Speaker 11: I just have a quick question about an air conditioner
Speaker 11: versus the heat pump. Sure, And we live in Marino
Speaker 11: Valley and out closer to the desert, and we have
Speaker 11: a single story, nineteen hundred square foot home and it
Speaker 11: was built in two thousand and two, and the air
Speaker 11: conditioners still running from then, but we just put a
Speaker 11: capacitor in and it's still going. But wanted to kind
Speaker 11: of get some head up about heads up about whether
Speaker 11: heat pump. We spoke with the air conditioning gentleman, but
Speaker 11: he wasn't really excited about the heat pump. He said,
Speaker 11: they've had problems with them. So I just want to
Speaker 11: get your ideas on that.
Speaker 3: Okay, So my first idea is talk with more than
Speaker 3: one air conditioning gentleman. Okay, when it comes to that,
Speaker 3: you know, everybody has their experiences with things, but I
Speaker 3: am I'm actually I'm surprised, and not surprised, you know.
Speaker 3: I mean, I've got I got I know plumbers out
Speaker 3: there who are still telling me that you know, putting
Speaker 3: in copper piping is way better than pecks, or that
Speaker 3: you know, everybody's got their thing. Everybody's got their thing.
Speaker 3: But you want to educate yourself on a wider spectrum.
Speaker 3: So as the homeowner, I want you to have two
Speaker 3: or three I would say three at a minimum, ac
Speaker 3: take a look at the house and evaluate it and
Speaker 3: talk to you about it. Honestly, I have a very
Speaker 3: very different opinion about that than the one that the
Speaker 3: gentleman expressed to you, which is that heat pumps are
Speaker 3: probably very very they're very much becoming, especially here in
Speaker 3: California and in more temperate climates and even in more
Speaker 3: severe cold climates. Get pumps are gaining ground like no
Speaker 3: other innovation in the HVAC industry in a long, long,
Speaker 3: long time. And it really doesn't Yeah.
Speaker 11: Go ahead. He was something concerned about something about the
Speaker 11: free on issue. Yeah, there's something he was talking about.
Speaker 11: There's things going on with the free on about new
Speaker 11: ones and old ones and getting it and I don't know,
Speaker 11: I guess there were some free on questions.
Speaker 3: Okay, So that sounds like that you may be a
Speaker 3: little bit confused or maybe he wasn't really clear about
Speaker 3: certain things. Free on is a kind of refrigerant that
Speaker 3: we don't use anymore. It's out of date and older.
Speaker 3: Twenty thirty year old AC has a free on, a
Speaker 3: kind of free on in it that is not available anymore.
Speaker 3: And so in terms of like, you know, when it
Speaker 3: comes time to upgrade, do you just keep repairing the
Speaker 3: old unit and keep it going. The question is, next
Speaker 3: time you have to charge that thing up with the
Speaker 3: refrigerant that is no longer being sold or manufactured, you're
Speaker 3: going to be paying a mint for it because the
Speaker 3: only free on that's out there right now available is
Speaker 3: free on that has been bled off of old units
Speaker 3: that are being removed. So it's like it's like an
Speaker 3: antique now. And so that piece of furniture, now that
Speaker 3: it's been labeled antique, is like ten times more expensive
Speaker 3: than it normally would be. So there are new refrigerants,
Speaker 3: better refrigerants in existing modern units that you don't have
Speaker 3: to have that worry. That's a kind of a different conversation.
Speaker 3: But let me just very quickly explain the heat pump.
Speaker 3: The heat pump is really not about the AC. A
Speaker 3: heat pump question is whether you're going to buy an
Speaker 3: AC unit that is also a heat pump and that
Speaker 3: replaces not the air conditioner, but it replaces your gas
Speaker 3: fired furnace. A heat pump AC doesn't need the gas
Speaker 3: fired furnace anymore because of what it is. It's like
Speaker 3: an air conditioner that can also be turned in put
Speaker 3: in reverse. So during the hot summer months, the air
Speaker 3: conditioner is pulling hot air out of the house, pulling
Speaker 3: heat out of the house and distributing it outside. During
Speaker 3: the cold months. A heat pump unit, the same machinery
Speaker 3: works in the opposite direction and it pumps warm air
Speaker 3: into the house. And that's why I'm saying, when it
Speaker 3: comes to a heat pump unit, the question is do
Speaker 3: you want the gas furnace anymore? Do we need the
Speaker 3: gas furnit, do we need a fossil fuel burning gas
Speaker 3: furnace anymore? Or can the whole thing work efficiently and
Speaker 3: effectively off of a heat pump slash AC unit that's
Speaker 3: the biggest And it's all electric, correct, it's all electric. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's all electric, and so natural gas doesn't enter into
Speaker 3: it anymore.
Speaker 11: Okay, And are they a lot more expensive?
Speaker 3: They are more expensive than just a standard unit. But
Speaker 3: your unit is now, if it's twenty years old, you're
Speaker 3: at the age where you're also going to have to
Speaker 3: be replacing the furnace, and so the I think it's
Speaker 3: probably cost wise going to be a wash across the board.
Speaker 3: Either you get your less expensive air conditioner that only
Speaker 3: does cooling, plus a new gas furnace unit to mate
Speaker 3: with it, or you eliminate the new gas furnace unit
Speaker 3: and you get an air conditioner that also can operate
Speaker 3: as a heater, and so the cost is pretty much
Speaker 3: a wash across the board. Sandy. So here's my advice again,
Speaker 3: talk to two three at least vetted, well reputed, well
Speaker 3: reputed HVAC contractors about your specific situation. I think you'll
Speaker 3: find that they'll probably be inclining you toward the heat
Speaker 3: pump and not discouraging you away from it. They don't really,
Speaker 3: they don't have problem. I don't know what do you.
Speaker 3: I think what he meant was problems with maintaining your
Speaker 3: old unit a heat a new heat pump HVAC unit.
Speaker 3: They're very, very very reliable. There is really as you
Speaker 3: are conditioning you is because they are essentially you're air
Speaker 3: conditioning you. It's just one that has a reverse gear
Speaker 3: to it. Essentially it's a metaphor. But that's the way
Speaker 3: it works. Sandy. Thank you for your question. I've got
Speaker 3: to go. We're up against a break. Good luck with that.
Speaker 3: But again, again, like I harp on so often, get
Speaker 3: two or three opinions, educate yourself. Don't just go with
Speaker 3: the one guy who said the one thing. Okay, make
Speaker 3: sure it all proves out.
Speaker 9: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on Demand from
Speaker 9: KFI AM sixty.
Speaker 3: Home. This is the place where every weekend we talk
Speaker 3: about turning your ordinary house into an extraordinary home. No
Speaker 3: better way to do that than to understand how great
Speaker 3: architecture and great design is truly theater. And I'm using
Speaker 3: that as a metaphor and analogy for you so you
Speaker 3: can sink your teeth into understanding how to evaluate the
Speaker 3: spaces around your house that just aren't giving you everything
Speaker 3: you want them to give you. Get back to that
Speaker 3: conversation just a bit. But we're in the middle hour
Speaker 3: here of the program, which means we're taking calls, which
Speaker 3: means you set the agenda for what we're talking about.
Speaker 3: And let's go to one of our directors right now.
Speaker 3: I want to talk to Beth. Hey, Beth, welcome home,
Speaker 3: Thank you, Dian.
Speaker 10: So the question is what is the bare minimum that
Speaker 10: we need to do to keep a property alive, if
Speaker 10: you will, because the property is going to be closed,
Speaker 10: has been closed for about eight months, then it will
Speaker 10: be closed for a little while until one of the
Speaker 10: owners passed away. They were moved to a senior living
Speaker 10: assisted living, and it doesn't exist to sell the house
Speaker 10: because they are going to pay huge capital gain taxes,
Speaker 10: so we're going to wait until one dies. They don't
Speaker 10: need the money. So but I'm nervous that the house
Speaker 10: is just closed and is deteriorating.
Speaker 3: Ah Okay, well it's a good question, the really good question, Beth.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure anybody's asked me that in that way before. So,
Speaker 3: first of all, where is the house as far as Okay,
Speaker 3: so you're here in southern California. So the reason I
Speaker 3: asked that is because there are different requirements for doing
Speaker 3: this for different homes across the country. Obviously, when it
Speaker 3: comes to areas that get severe and freezing winters, there
Speaker 3: are things. There's additional things i'd say that have to
Speaker 3: be added to the maintenance of an empty house, including
Speaker 3: not just not just putting in bleeder valves so that
Speaker 3: the pipes don't freeze, and water plumbing, but also I
Speaker 3: would suggest at least running the bare minimum amount of
Speaker 3: heat and cooling in the house to keep it a
Speaker 3: moderate temperature. But here in southern California that's not as
Speaker 3: as critical unless you're out in the desert area where
Speaker 3: the temperature shifts to extremes. If you're in an extreme
Speaker 3: temperature environment, one of the best ways to take care
Speaker 3: of an unoccupied house is to keep the temperature within
Speaker 3: a moderate mid range. And that, you know, not a
Speaker 3: lot of people think about that. That a neglected home,
Speaker 3: meaning a house that just doesn't have anybody living in it,
Speaker 3: goes through more temperature extremes, and as a result, the
Speaker 3: expansion of materials during hot weather, the contraction of materials
Speaker 3: during cold weather can cause cracking in walls to start
Speaker 3: to peel off walls. All of that kind of stuff
Speaker 3: in Hinton Beach not so much an issue, right, very
Speaker 3: very temperate. Your main concern there will be letting, making
Speaker 3: sure that somebody's dropping by and flushing toilets and running
Speaker 3: water in all of the sinks. Okay. And here's why.
Speaker 3: There's this little thing underneath every sink and in every
Speaker 3: drain in the house called the pea trap. Okay. It's
Speaker 3: that way, not because we're peeing in it, because it's
Speaker 3: shaped like the letter P. And that pea trap holds
Speaker 3: water in it. It holds water. It's sitting there. It
Speaker 3: traps water. Okay, it's a trap for water. That water
Speaker 3: that's in the pea trap is what's keeping sewer gases
Speaker 3: from coming up out of the sewer and into the
Speaker 3: air inside the house. Okay, that's why the houses that
Speaker 3: have been not lived in for a long time, and
Speaker 3: realtors who have not been doing their due diligence as
Speaker 3: they're showing the house to keep this going. That's why
Speaker 3: you'll open up a door and you're like, oh, that's
Speaker 3: an odd smell in this house. And sometimes it's bad
Speaker 3: enough that it can start to permeate walls and things
Speaker 3: like that. We don't want that to happen. So the
Speaker 3: key is the reason that happens is because if those
Speaker 3: sinks aren't being used, and that new water isn't being
Speaker 3: put down into the pea trap, if the shower isn't
Speaker 3: being used at the isn't being used, then the water
Speaker 3: in the pea trap starts to evaporate out. And when
Speaker 3: it evaporates out, there's a point where it drops down
Speaker 3: and it's no longer blocking the sewer gases and those
Speaker 3: elements are inside the house. So as something as simple
Speaker 3: as getting by the house every week or so and
Speaker 3: just spending five minutes turning on faucets, turning on the shower,
Speaker 3: letting it run for about thirty seconds, turning them off,
Speaker 3: and going your merry way is going to keep the
Speaker 3: house smelling normal. And apart from that, there's not a
Speaker 3: whole lot at eight ten months a year, not a
Speaker 3: whole lot you've got to do on the inside of
Speaker 3: a house obviously, keep things watered on the outside, and
Speaker 3: you know, and let it be.
Speaker 10: How about the heater. Should I turn the heater onto
Speaker 10: you could?
Speaker 3: I mean you can always, you know, run the heater
Speaker 3: just to keep dust from building up in the ducts
Speaker 3: and or on the heater element. Sometimes you know that
Speaker 3: the first time you run the heater after you know,
Speaker 3: long summer, it's you're like, smells like burning dust. Well
Speaker 3: it kind of is, right, It can't hurt to do
Speaker 3: that for a couple of minutes. Same with the air conditioner,
Speaker 3: just to keep things limber and moving along. But again
Speaker 3: not in the same way of trying to keep the
Speaker 3: house at a certain temperature, just to keep everything, you know,
Speaker 3: moving along.
Speaker 10: Okay, great, well that that gives me a piece of mind.
Speaker 10: Thank you. I really appreciate the insight.
Speaker 3: You're very very welcome, Beth, and good luck on just
Speaker 3: keeping that house in good maintenance while nobody's inside. All right, y'all,
Speaker 3: more of your calls when we return.
Speaker 9: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 9: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 3: I want to go back to the phones. I want
Speaker 3: to talk to Peter. Hey, Peter, welcome home, Good morning.
Speaker 4: Being Dean. I have a second house up in the
Speaker 4: mountains in a high very high risk fire area, and
Speaker 4: I've been kind of researching the type of roof I
Speaker 4: want to put gotta the roof has been on the
Speaker 4: house now for about thirty five years. But I understand
Speaker 4: metal roofs are the best fireproof roofs, and they come
Speaker 4: in all sorts of types. I guess, uh, they got
Speaker 4: metal shake roofs, metal slate roofs, commercial panels, metal shingles,
Speaker 4: and I currently have a normal shingle roof on the house. Now,
Speaker 4: I kind of want your opinion on a metal roof.
Speaker 4: I understand that they can rust, they they're they're they're heavier,
Speaker 4: might have to have some some work done with the
Speaker 4: uh with a wood underneath, but I don't know whether
Speaker 4: it's you know by words you go to a shingle roof.
Speaker 4: They have fireproof shingle roofs that go of course with
Speaker 4: the vanguard bench also, But I just need your your
Speaker 4: opinion on a metal metal roofs.
Speaker 3: Sure, uh, I say, when you say you've got normal shingles,
Speaker 3: do you mean you've got wood shingles on the house
Speaker 3: right now?
Speaker 4: No? No, not would Uh. I don't know what the
Speaker 4: what they're made out of, but their shape.
Speaker 3: Some kind of Okay. So so here's the thing. I'm
Speaker 3: gonna throw a curveball at you, but but it's a
Speaker 3: very accurate one. I wanted to take me very seriously
Speaker 3: when I say this, because people ask me all the time, uh, hey, Dean,
Speaker 3: what kind of roof should we put up there to
Speaker 3: make sure the house is as fire safe as possible?
Speaker 3: And my answer is always this. It's like, I don't
Speaker 3: any roof that you want up there, because there isn't
Speaker 3: a single roof in the state of California that the
Speaker 3: State of California will approve that isn't a class A
Speaker 3: fire rated roofing material. And that means everything asphalt composition
Speaker 3: to metal roofs, to Spanish tile, to slate roofs, to
Speaker 3: stone roofs and so on. And I mean this in
Speaker 3: all seriousness. Now, of course, you know, if you were
Speaker 3: to take a flame thrower and shoot it down at
Speaker 3: your roofing material. Some roofs would give way before others.
Speaker 3: But the fact of the matter is, the fact on
Speaker 3: the ground is that houses don't burn down. They burn up.
Speaker 3: Fire burns up. Okay, And you can talk to any
Speaker 3: of my friends at cal Fire or any of the
Speaker 3: local fire captains. They will tell you that they don't
Speaker 3: come onto the scene to find houses with their roofs
Speaker 3: on fire. Okay. Now, I know when you watch local
Speaker 3: news coverage of the devastating fires, you see these gigantic
Speaker 3: holes in roofs and flames coming out of the top
Speaker 3: of the roof of the house. That is not the
Speaker 3: roof catching fire and burning down. Okay, unless it's like
Speaker 3: some house that's still for some bizarre reason, has a
Speaker 3: shake shingle, real wood roof. That is not the house
Speaker 3: the roof catching on fire and burning down, because that's
Speaker 3: not the direction that fire travels. Fire burns up. So
Speaker 3: a class A fire rated roof is the only kind
Speaker 3: of roof that you're going to be able to put
Speaker 3: on your home. All of the materials that you can
Speaker 3: choose from are going to be the same. The most
Speaker 3: important thing that you can ask, the biggest question to
Speaker 3: ask in fire rating your roof assembly is is not
Speaker 3: should I have metal roof versus versus composite shingles versus
Speaker 3: tile versus concrete. The most important question you can ask is,
Speaker 3: you know I've already brought it up, and that's what
Speaker 3: are my vents made out of? Are they ember proof
Speaker 3: vents as far as allowing embers into the attic space,
Speaker 3: because that's what catches on fire and burns a hole
Speaker 3: in the roof from underneath. And the bigger question is,
Speaker 3: or I should say an equal question is what kind
Speaker 3: of material am I going to put on the eaves
Speaker 3: the overhang that the the soft underbelly of the tortoise shell,
Speaker 3: as it were, the part of the roof that is
Speaker 3: overhanging that flame can get to from up underneath. Okay,
Speaker 3: So I am far more prone as a designer and
Speaker 3: a builder to advise my clients to, hey, let's spend
Speaker 3: extra money on the eves. Let's box in the eves.
Speaker 3: Or if we're gonna if the look of the house
Speaker 3: is to be exposed wood elves, because those are wood
Speaker 3: rafter tails that are sticking out, they're exposed to flame.
Speaker 3: What are we going to do with those? And we
Speaker 3: don't have to treat those like Fort Knox either. We
Speaker 3: can simply spend extra money when it comes to paint
Speaker 3: and paint the underside of the overhang of our eves
Speaker 3: with efflorescent fireproof paint, so that a combination of any
Speaker 3: class A fire rated roofing material, which is what you
Speaker 3: have to put on anyway by code, plus a fireproof
Speaker 3: painted eves. And I only say the eaves because fireproof
Speaker 3: paint is very expensive, so I only want you to
Speaker 3: put it on the overhang of the of the eves
Speaker 3: and ember proof vents. That combination Peter. Honestly, it's all
Speaker 3: you need to not worry about the house from the
Speaker 3: roof perspective, and why wildfire. And I say that so
Speaker 3: that we're not leading people astray. Metal roofs are great,
Speaker 3: tile roofs are great. Shingled roofs are great. As a designer,
Speaker 3: I look to the builder in me and I say, hey,
Speaker 3: what's the best one. The builder in me says, doesn't matter,
Speaker 3: pick your choice, and so that frees up the designer
Speaker 3: to put on the kind of class A roof that
Speaker 3: works best with the design of the house without putting
Speaker 3: it in any way, shape or form at risk does
Speaker 3: that make sense.
Speaker 4: That makes a lot of sense, And I really appreciate
Speaker 4: your input. All right, Okay, thank you very very much.
Speaker 3: You are very very well competed. I hope that doesn't
Speaker 3: confuse I hope it just opens up your opportunities and
Speaker 3: your options for what to do with house. Plus, may
Speaker 3: you know, not open your wallet as much because metal
Speaker 3: roofs are as beautiful as they are, they're also one
Speaker 3: of the most expensive roofs that you can put on
Speaker 3: a house. And I'm not saying there isn't a place
Speaker 3: for a metal roof. I would. I'm far more prone
Speaker 3: directly men a metal roof in because of snow than
Speaker 3: I am because of fire. So let me just make
Speaker 3: that really clear. Because metal roofs, standing seam metal roofs,
Speaker 3: not shingled metal roofs. They catch as much snow as
Speaker 3: any shingled roof, but the standing seam metal roof it
Speaker 3: handles snow in a way that most other roofs don't,
Speaker 3: kind of the teflon effects, so you don't get a
Speaker 3: bunch of snow load up on the roof. So we're
Speaker 3: more prone to doing that with metal roofs than we
Speaker 3: are worrying about metal and wildfire versus other materials. Just
Speaker 3: want everybody to understand houses burn up, they don't burn down.
Speaker 3: Fire ignites and it travels up right. You've never seen
Speaker 3: a fireplace where the flames are going down from the log.
Speaker 3: It's always when we light a fire wood fire in
Speaker 3: a fireplace, we're trying to catch the bottom of the
Speaker 3: log on fire, and then it will eventually burn up
Speaker 3: through the rest of that material until there's nothing else
Speaker 3: to burn fire. We could expose all sorts of flame
Speaker 3: material to the top surface of your roof down and
Speaker 3: not see anything happen. I mean, we might char the roof,
Speaker 3: we might even melt part of it. But a class
Speaker 3: A fire roof, rated fireroof is the only kind of
Speaker 3: material you can buy in the state of California to
Speaker 3: put on a roof. So you don't have to worry
Speaker 3: about whether the roofing material itself is better or worse
Speaker 3: for fire. You should worry about your vents and your eaves.
Speaker 3: There you go, that's why you're here, all right. You're
Speaker 3: listening to Dean Sharp the House Whisperer on KFI.
Speaker 1: This has been home with Dean Sharp the House whisper
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