Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp the
Speaker 1: house Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Hey follow
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Speaker 1: friends and family, and little reminder. If your home is
Speaker 1: in need of some personal house Whisper attention, like personal
Speaker 1: like you and my house, yep, you can book. If
Speaker 1: you live, especially in the southern Greater Southern California area,
Speaker 1: you can book an in home design consul with me
Speaker 1: and T Just go to house Whisperer dot design. All right,
Speaker 1: we are today doing part two of our two part
Speaker 1: series this weekend of the Best of the International Builders Show,
Speaker 1: which wrapped up in Las Vegas this last weekend. We're
Speaker 1: gonna get back to that list. Uh and it is
Speaker 1: a big list, so I want to take as much
Speaker 1: time as possible for it, but never gonna neglect calls.
Speaker 1: It's top of the hour, It's time to go to
Speaker 1: the phones. And uh so let's take a call or
Speaker 1: to you. I want to talk to Wayne. Hey, Wayne,
Speaker 1: welcome home.
Speaker 2: Stein. I'm watching at taking putting in an electronic fireplace,
Speaker 2: building a pony wall in front of the existing fireplace.
Speaker 2: But I want to ask you, how should I close
Speaker 2: up the existing fireplace? Is just closing the damper sufficient
Speaker 2: or sorry to do more than that?
Speaker 3: Ah?
Speaker 1: Okay, So you're gonna build a pony wall in.
Speaker 4: Front of it?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 5: So all right.
Speaker 1: Every situation in this uh for this procedure is a
Speaker 1: little different, Wayne, And so what I'm not I'm not
Speaker 1: going to tell you a step by step process here,
Speaker 1: because the configuration of the brick, opening of the fireplace,
Speaker 1: the relationship to the wall, so on and so forth.
Speaker 1: But I'm going to give you some principles. Some principles.
Speaker 1: Number one one thing you may want to do, just
Speaker 1: for the heck of it is you may want to
Speaker 1: check with the building and safety and see if they
Speaker 1: have and some cities do. Some don't have a pull
Speaker 1: sheet or a procedure if you're going to abandon a
Speaker 1: fireplace in a house, a masonry fireplace in the house.
Speaker 1: Some do a lot don't, but it never hurts to
Speaker 1: check just to make sure, and it's not going to
Speaker 1: be like a big permit thing or anything like that.
Speaker 1: It's just that there are certain things they want to
Speaker 1: see happen. So that being said, I'll tell you the
Speaker 1: things I want to see happen. What we've got to
Speaker 1: do is we have to deal with the fact that
Speaker 1: we're still leaving this ventilation, uninsulated moisture trap next to
Speaker 1: our house on what's going to now be the backside
Speaker 1: of a new wall. So here are the things that
Speaker 1: I'm most concerned about. I am concerned Number one, that
Speaker 1: we block off the entire chimney. That means up on
Speaker 1: the roof up at the top. I want to seal
Speaker 1: it off up there. I don't want rain getting in,
Speaker 1: I don't want bees getting in and taking up residence
Speaker 1: in your chimney. And so I actually would love to
Speaker 1: create a sheet metal cap up there now. I don't
Speaker 1: want it to look like it's not the chimney because
Speaker 1: you're not demoing the chimney out. You still wanted to
Speaker 1: have that look on the outside of the house, you're
Speaker 1: just not using it now. So and I don't want
Speaker 1: to destroy it for anybody, including you, who might decide
Speaker 1: to use it. In the future. So I just want
Speaker 1: to make sure that we've got a nice sheet metal
Speaker 1: cap on the top of the chimney, and that we
Speaker 1: seal that off with a weather sealed caul, and we
Speaker 1: don't just sit it there so that insects or bees
Speaker 1: can get inside. Feel it off at the top. No
Speaker 1: more rain, no more you know, humidity going down inside
Speaker 1: the chimney. That's number one. Number two is inside that
Speaker 1: firebox down at ground level. We want to make sure
Speaker 1: it's super clean, get it all cleaned up, don't leave
Speaker 1: it all, you know, groedy. And we want to get
Speaker 1: some insulation in there, all right, insulation to keep air
Speaker 1: and drafts from rising up the chimney and causing back
Speaker 1: drafting on the back of the wall. Number three. Ideally,
Speaker 1: I don't know if your fireplace has an ash dump,
Speaker 1: like a little vent where ash can be pushed out
Speaker 1: to the to the outside. But ideally, since since we're
Speaker 1: since we are creating an open cavity of masonry in
Speaker 1: there that has for its entire existence, had the freedom
Speaker 1: of air flowing through it to keep it dry. I
Speaker 1: don't want humidity building up inside that chimney and becoming
Speaker 1: a moisture problem. So I like the idea that down
Speaker 1: at the firebox, if there's not already an ash dump,
Speaker 1: going to the outside to you know, get.
Speaker 6: Out a.
Speaker 1: Concrete saw. And I like the idea of cutting in,
Speaker 1: removing a brick, at least one brick sized from the
Speaker 1: back of the fireplace outside and getting an actual vent
Speaker 1: through there. It's going to be all closed off, non accessible,
Speaker 1: but it basically gives the chimney down low okay, not
Speaker 1: up at the top, but down low at the firebox.
Speaker 1: It gives moisture of a chance to escape out so
Speaker 1: it doesn't build up inside the chimney. Apart from that,
Speaker 1: the face of the firebox itself, if you are going
Speaker 1: to build building a wall in front of it, then
Speaker 1: I would probably just make sure that I would get
Speaker 1: a nice firm piece of wood or sheet metal over
Speaker 1: it and again seal it off to the face of
Speaker 1: the existing brick, so there are no drafts and no
Speaker 1: heat transfer, no cold transfer, that kind of stuff. We
Speaker 1: don't have to worry about doing it, you know, we
Speaker 1: don't have to brick it in, and you don't have
Speaker 1: to worry about doing it in a way that's noncombustible
Speaker 1: because we're not there's not gonna be any combustion in
Speaker 1: that chamber anymore at all, and so that's you know,
Speaker 1: you just need to close it off to make sure
Speaker 1: that draft and moisture. Drafts and moisture and insulation are
Speaker 1: my main concerns about closing up an old fireplace that
Speaker 1: we're going to leave in place. Those are my primary concerns.
Speaker 1: And of course, if there's a gas line going into it,
Speaker 1: you want to pull that out, Okay, not just cap
Speaker 1: it off inside. You want to pull that gas line
Speaker 1: out so that there's no chance whatsoever that even a
Speaker 1: broken gas pipe or a leaking gas pipe will fill
Speaker 1: that chamber with gas unbeknownst to you. So those are
Speaker 1: the keys. Those are the principles involved in closing off
Speaker 1: a masony fireplace, and you can apply them to your
Speaker 1: situation as you see fit, and also check with the
Speaker 1: city to see if they've got a pull sheet on it. Great,
Speaker 1: thank you very much, You're very welcome.
Speaker 7: Wayne.
Speaker 1: Good luck on that sounds like it's a cool project.
Speaker 1: I know what you're all thinking, How does he know that?
Speaker 8: That's what I did?
Speaker 5: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 5: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: Hey, thanks for joining us on the program today. I'm
Speaker 1: so glad you showed up. I'm so glad you're here.
Speaker 1: Look at you. Uh No, I truly am glad that
Speaker 1: you're here with us today. It is as a lovely
Speaker 1: spring kind of day here in southern California. Breezes are
Speaker 1: blowing clouds, a little cloud, a little not little sunshine.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think spring has sprung here. It's March,
Speaker 1: is it not, Yes, it is, And so we're only
Speaker 1: a few days away from spring officially beginning anyway, and
Speaker 1: I think it's like, I'm done, We're ready, let's go.
Speaker 1: Hopefully that'll bring us some more rain. I hope that's
Speaker 1: the case. Some spring showers would be very very welcome here.
Speaker 1: Not too much, too fast, just enough, you know, keep
Speaker 1: our fingers crossed for that. We are talking about the
Speaker 1: International Builder Show, which just took place this last week
Speaker 1: in Las Vegas. I've got a list of some highlights
Speaker 1: for you, and we're enjoying going through that list because
Speaker 1: there's some cool stuff out there that happened this year.
Speaker 1: But right now I'm on the phone. I'm on the
Speaker 1: phone taking calls, and I want to do it again.
Speaker 1: Let's talk to Bob. Hey, Bob, welcome home.
Speaker 3: Yes, hi, how are you?
Speaker 1: I am well, sir. How can I help you?
Speaker 3: I'm thinking of changing my regular round toilets to the
Speaker 3: odd blow and I'm wondering if the hole that's in
Speaker 3: the concrete underneath it is going to match up the
Speaker 3: new oblong toilet.
Speaker 1: That's a good question. Good question. Yeah, so elongated toilet
Speaker 1: bowls versus the round, you know, kind of standard toilet bowls.
Speaker 1: So here is the good news, Bob. The drains are
Speaker 1: all the same. The shape of the bowl has nothing
Speaker 1: to do with the shape of the drain down below. Okay.
Speaker 1: The most important thing, just so you know, FYI, is
Speaker 1: that whatever new toilet you're looking at has the right
Speaker 1: offset from the wall, the same off set.
Speaker 3: That's what I was wondering.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, And they're all they're all okay, so they're
Speaker 1: relatively standard. Now there are exceptions. There are exceptions, but
Speaker 1: they're all really relatively standard. When an oblong toilet, or
Speaker 1: what we call an extended toilet bowl, it really stretches
Speaker 1: out from the back. It doesn't thicken up the backside
Speaker 1: too much, all right, So the distance off the wall
Speaker 1: to the drain rarely changes. It's really the distance from
Speaker 1: the drain forward that changes about the toilet. So most toilets,
Speaker 1: or well all toilets in the US are either set
Speaker 1: up for three inch or four inch drain down below.
Speaker 1: And if we are designing a house blind, which is
Speaker 1: not something I do because I'm a custom home designer,
Speaker 1: so we've already had our clients select the toilet that
Speaker 1: they want. But and as a builder, you know, I
Speaker 1: want to go for those specs. But if we're just
Speaker 1: working with a standard tract house which was designed blind,
Speaker 1: you know, without knowing who or what's going to get
Speaker 1: put in there. The standard offset off the back wall
Speaker 1: for a toilet drain to the center of the drain,
Speaker 1: not to the edge the center of the drain, either
Speaker 1: three or four inch, is twelve inches twelve inches off
Speaker 1: the back wall to the center of the drain, and
Speaker 1: most toilet manufacturers, because they want you to buy their toilet,
Speaker 1: are honoring that. Now, sometimes it's a little less, sometimes
Speaker 1: it's a smidgey more, but believe me, toilet manufacturers want
Speaker 1: their toilet to fit on your existing setup and so
Speaker 1: buy and large the vast majority of them work with
Speaker 1: the twelve inch offset rule, So one foot off that
Speaker 1: back wall.
Speaker 3: Should I should I change the big wax ring while
Speaker 3: I'm doing that?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, I mean that's you know, the wax ring.
Speaker 1: That's a that is a three dollars item. So whenever
Speaker 1: you change out a toilet, even when you service a toilet,
Speaker 1: I mean anytime that I just take the existing toilet
Speaker 1: off just to check something or scope a pipe or whatever,
Speaker 1: I don't put it back down on the old wax ring.
Speaker 1: We just you know, have a new wax ring available
Speaker 1: three bucks. We pop it in there and you're good
Speaker 1: to go. So anytime you take the toilet off the
Speaker 1: floor and set it aside, replace the wax ring with
Speaker 1: a new one, and you should be good to go.
Speaker 1: My friend, Well that's what I'll do.
Speaker 3: And thank you for your health.
Speaker 1: You are very very welcome. Good luck with that joy
Speaker 1: the new toilet. The new toilets are a huge part
Speaker 1: of the International Builder Show. The Colar Coler as a brand,
Speaker 1: this is the expectation that we've we've come to. Coler
Speaker 1: doesn't have a booth. No no, no, no no no no.
Speaker 1: Coler is usually in the West wing, or at least
Speaker 1: in the north the north. I don't know what they
Speaker 1: call it room anyway. Space at the convention center usually
Speaker 1: up on the well. Yeah, they last year on the
Speaker 1: first floor. It doesn't matter. Coler has a city. I
Speaker 1: mean it is a it is a city.
Speaker 8: It is.
Speaker 1: The Colar display at the International Builders Show is probably
Speaker 1: half the size of my price. It's probably a quarter
Speaker 1: acre display. I mean, I mean that, I'm not exaggerating.
Speaker 1: I may have the dimensions wrong, but it is massive
Speaker 1: because every year they and other plumbing manufacturers like Toto
Speaker 1: and American Standard, I mean, they go all out to
Speaker 1: show you all the latest and greatest the colors. The
Speaker 1: amazing thing about bathroom design right now and kitchens in
Speaker 1: terms of fixtures, plumbing fixtures is man. The technology has
Speaker 1: advanced so much. The sky truly is the limit. Every
Speaker 1: color imaginable, every shape, every functionality. And you know you've
Speaker 1: heard me talk now about the modern toilet, which Toto
Speaker 1: designed and invented. Actually, you know, the self cleaning the
Speaker 1: day set up every luxury toilet, and you've probably experienced one,
Speaker 1: or at least walk by one or whatever in somebody's
Speaker 1: home or some business somewhere where you know, you just
Speaker 1: walk into the room, and the toilet lights up and
Speaker 1: it opens its lid, and you know, I'm shocked that
Speaker 1: most of them don't just talk to you like welcome,
Speaker 1: have us seat, welcome home. But they are, they are
Speaker 1: pretty advanced, and yet all of that still obeying the
Speaker 1: old standard of twelve inch offset to the middle of
Speaker 1: the drain off the back of the wall because they
Speaker 1: want you to buy their toilet. Okay, I got more.
Speaker 5: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 5: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: I'm taking calls right now, and then we're going to
Speaker 1: be getting back to our list of the best of
Speaker 1: the International Builder Show, which just closed up and finished
Speaker 1: up in Las Vegas this last week. But right now
Speaker 1: I'm still knocking down calls on the callboard for as
Speaker 1: long as I can because I love your calls, I
Speaker 1: really do. I love the surprising nature of them. So
Speaker 1: let's talk to Josie. Hey, Josie, welcome home. Josie. Are
Speaker 1: you with me all right? I think Josie is not
Speaker 1: paying attention right now. Let's talk to Vicky. Hey, Vicky,
Speaker 1: welcome home.
Speaker 8: Hi, hy, thank you. I have a question. I'm out
Speaker 8: of my wheelhouse here. I need to know what to
Speaker 8: keep in mind when vetting and talking to roofers for
Speaker 8: my mom's vintage nineteen fifties Adobe house. When it rains heavily,
Speaker 8: there's two small leaks. No big deal right now, but
Speaker 8: we want to tackle it. And you know, it was
Speaker 8: a house that was the bricks were made right there
Speaker 8: on the premises and it's just a lovely house. But
Speaker 8: I don't know when I should be asking the roofers,
Speaker 8: and I don't want to be completely, you know, ignorant.
Speaker 8: So you have a couple of suggestions.
Speaker 1: I'd love it all right, Well, let me ask you
Speaker 1: some questions. Adobe House. Where is it?
Speaker 8: It's in San Diego?
Speaker 1: Okay, it's in San Diego. And the roof right now
Speaker 1: is Spanish tile.
Speaker 8: It is, and it's those large orange kind of curved
Speaker 8: tiles that stack on each other, and I think they
Speaker 8: go back to the fifties to also possibly it looks
Speaker 8: really good. I mean, to save money. Could we keep
Speaker 8: the tile and repair and put them back or is
Speaker 8: there something?
Speaker 1: Well is I was going to ask you what condition
Speaker 1: are the tiles in?
Speaker 8: And you know what, I think they're in good condition.
Speaker 8: Funny enough, there's no crumbling now Obviously I haven't been
Speaker 8: up there. I'm just eyeballing it from the ground, but
Speaker 8: they look good from my perspective.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, So here's the thing. It's an Adobe house.
Speaker 1: It's a classic homes got a classic roof to it.
Speaker 1: So the designer and the builder and me have things
Speaker 1: to say about this. Okay. First of all, the designer
Speaker 1: doesn't want any contract roofing contract to getting near this place.
Speaker 1: That isn't first thinking, how can we preserve the existing tiles? Okay,
Speaker 1: now pulling off pulling off existing Now these are these
Speaker 1: are These are cap and trough tiles. Right, They're just
Speaker 1: one kind of tile. There's a there's a row upside down,
Speaker 1: then there's a row right side up and upside down
Speaker 1: and right side up.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: I mean that's just your traditional Spanish tile roof, which
Speaker 1: means all those tiles are all the same. Okay, which
Speaker 1: is great and uh, for the most part, a roofer
Speaker 1: that's going to be conscientious can in fact remove those
Speaker 1: tiles and reuse them. Now, no roofer, and rightly so,
Speaker 1: is going to promise that there won't be some breakage
Speaker 1: in trying to remove a tile. Just never ever happens.
Speaker 1: So the first thing, the first thing in the strategy
Speaker 1: to save the money on you know, putting a whole
Speaker 1: new tile roof on. The first strategy is where can
Speaker 1: we source tiles? Unfortunately, there are a lot of places,
Speaker 1: and so take the time, take the time to and
Speaker 1: a roofer is going to get this job, is going
Speaker 1: to take the time to source the right color, the
Speaker 1: right shade, the right shape of traditional Spanish tile, so
Speaker 1: that you've got a little pile of replacements on hand,
Speaker 1: because you know, you could expect up to ten percent breakage. Okay,
Speaker 1: ten percent is not an insigni It's not the whole roof,
Speaker 1: but it's not an insignificant number. Okay, so not as
Speaker 1: not all of those tiles are going to go back
Speaker 1: on the house. But if you have a source of
Speaker 1: replacement tile, then you're way ahead of the game. At
Speaker 1: that point. This is a piece of cake because it's
Speaker 1: just the the conscientious removal of the tiles and then
Speaker 1: we're gonna strip back whatever is underneath it. If it's
Speaker 1: built in the fifties, there's going to be double sheets
Speaker 1: of fifteen pound or thirty pound roofing felt under there
Speaker 1: that's cracked and old and aging. We're going to strip
Speaker 1: all of that off, and you want a roofer who's
Speaker 1: going to put down a new beautiful self ceiling membrane
Speaker 1: moisture barrier membrane on top of the roof, sheathing itself
Speaker 1: and then put the tiles back on, so the right
Speaker 1: roofing membran. So we're gonna put a twenty first century
Speaker 1: roofing membrane that's gonna last decades, I mean decades. It's
Speaker 1: gonna self seal around the nails, every nail penetration that
Speaker 1: we put through it. We're gonna lay that under. I
Speaker 1: mean the day that they put the new membrane on
Speaker 1: without putting a single tile on the roof, that roof
Speaker 1: is watertight. You could go through them, onsoon with it
Speaker 1: and now have no more leaps.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 1: At that point, the tiles go back on decoratively and
Speaker 1: to protect that membrane from getting blasted by the UV
Speaker 1: rays of the sun. Okay, so the decorative Spanish tile
Speaker 1: goes back on and we are done. Here's what I
Speaker 1: don't want. I don't want you to to give in
Speaker 1: to a roofer who is like, yeah, you know, we
Speaker 1: don't do that, and nobody does that anymore, and that's
Speaker 1: just no, that's not true, or get you like well,
Speaker 1: you know, it'd be far less expensive to go with
Speaker 1: an S tile, which is a Spanish tile in which
Speaker 1: the the the mound of the tile is connected to
Speaker 1: the trough. That's what most quote unquote Spanish tile tracked
Speaker 1: homes these days are built with. But they are not authentic.
Speaker 1: They are they are not the real deal. They are
Speaker 1: a simulation and I wouldn't want that to happen to
Speaker 1: your mom's beautiful Adobe house. So the point is source
Speaker 1: the right material ahead of time, before you even start
Speaker 1: the game, and then get the best membrane on there
Speaker 1: and a conscientious riffer who's going to take it all
Speaker 1: apart and put it all back together for you, and
Speaker 1: you are good to go.
Speaker 8: Nice. Oh, I can't thank you enough. This is just
Speaker 8: you've just taken a load off my shoulders.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Oh and Vicky, make sure you get two or three
Speaker 1: qualified bids for this so that you're also getting this
Speaker 1: done for the right price.
Speaker 8: I will do that. Oh, excellent, Thanks again.
Speaker 1: You are so welcome. Great question, and man, that's I
Speaker 1: would please send me pictures of mom's house an authentic
Speaker 1: San Diego Adobe brick home. All right, listen, I am
Speaker 1: going to set aside one more segment for calls before
Speaker 1: we get back to my list, because we've just got
Speaker 1: a lot of calls on the board. I'm not going
Speaker 1: to be able to get to everybody, but you guys,
Speaker 1: hang tight.
Speaker 5: Thing to Home with Dean Sharp on Demand from KFI
Speaker 5: AM six forty.
Speaker 1: We're talking about the best of the International Builder Show.
Speaker 1: I'm going to get back to my list right after
Speaker 1: our next news break, but this is my last shot
Speaker 1: today to answer some questions for callers. So I want
Speaker 1: to get back to the phones. See if fucking fit
Speaker 1: two in here. I don't know. We're going to try. Oh,
Speaker 1: Josie is back with us. Hey Josie, welcome home.
Speaker 7: Okay, can you hear me now?
Speaker 1: I can hear you now?
Speaker 9: Okay.
Speaker 7: I think I hit the mute but accidentally and you couldn't.
Speaker 1: Oh no, yeah, no worries, No worries. I'm glad you
Speaker 1: hanker you he.
Speaker 7: Okay.
Speaker 8: I have got a house that has a very large.
Speaker 4: Skylight over the green room that leads to the outside
Speaker 4: the backyard, and somewhere along the line something made it
Speaker 4: chip up in a corner of.
Speaker 6: That skylight, and it looks like it's actually not just
Speaker 6: a chip, but a missing piece of the skylight there.
Speaker 6: It looks maybe like it's four or five inches.
Speaker 7: More or less all around. But I'm not positive how
Speaker 7: I should handle that situation. Is it something that a
Speaker 7: patch can be done for that, or am I going
Speaker 7: to have to think of replacing the entire skylight? I
Speaker 7: have no idea what to do.
Speaker 1: Okay, So I want you to describe the skylight to me.
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you two options. This skylight when
Speaker 1: we look at it from the outside, is either perfectly
Speaker 1: flat glass skylight or it's a kind of a dome
Speaker 1: shaped skylight.
Speaker 4: It's kind of a dome shaped, kind of a bubble
Speaker 4: shaped to it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what I thought, all right, Well, the good
Speaker 1: news and the bad news. So the bad news is
Speaker 1: if it was cracked, If it was just a crack
Speaker 1: like a fracture, you know, but all of the that's
Speaker 1: an acrylic skylight. By the way, it's plastic. It's kind
Speaker 1: of plastic up there. If it was cracked, then we
Speaker 1: could get up there with some silicone and kind of
Speaker 1: pump it along the crack and smear it over the
Speaker 1: top of the crack, just like you would do any
Speaker 1: kind of window celan kind of thing, and that would
Speaker 1: pretty much protect it from leaking and being a problem
Speaker 1: for you. It wouldn't necessarily stop that crack from spreading,
Speaker 1: but it would be a stop gap that you know,
Speaker 1: you could put up with for a long long time. However,
Speaker 1: it wouldn't look attractive from down below. But there are
Speaker 1: ways of getting around that too. But you've got a
Speaker 1: chunk missing, something hit it and actually bust it out,
Speaker 1: a little piece something maybe flying through the air.
Speaker 6: I'm not positive because i haven't been able to get
Speaker 6: it's way way up high, and i haven't been able
Speaker 6: to get close to look at it.
Speaker 4: I'm just thinking that it may be okay.
Speaker 1: Well if there if it's just a crack, then a
Speaker 1: little bit of treatment with silicone from the outside clear
Speaker 1: silicone should keep you from it being a problem for you.
Speaker 1: But if there is a chunk missing, if a piece
Speaker 1: has actually busted through and there's a hole, there really
Speaker 1: are no good ways that I I mean, you could
Speaker 1: find some YouTube videos say well, god, I've used this
Speaker 1: roofing material and this sticky membrane. Yeah, but at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, that's not the right way to
Speaker 1: fix it. So the bad news is if there's a
Speaker 1: chunk missing, then it probably needs to be replaced. Now,
Speaker 1: the good news is those acrylic skylights, the bubble shaped
Speaker 1: acrylic skylights, they're not usually custom made, they're usually standard sizes,
Speaker 1: and they are the least expensive of all skylights. And
Speaker 1: so it really isn't a big deal to get up there.
Speaker 1: It's probably attached with a few nails through a curb
Speaker 1: that's standing up on the roof, or a couple of screws.
Speaker 1: It's no big deal for a handy person or a
Speaker 1: contract or somebody to get up there on the roof
Speaker 1: and actually take that skylight off and replace it with
Speaker 1: a brand new one. And they're not that expensive. And
Speaker 1: so it's time to have somebody get up there and
Speaker 1: take a close look at it, Josie and just kind
Speaker 1: of see what it needs and if it needs to
Speaker 1: be replaced. You know, it's really not the end of
Speaker 1: the world because those are relatively inexpensive. You could replace
Speaker 1: it like for like for not a whole lot.
Speaker 7: Oh, that's good news, it's okay. Well, I appreciate the information.
Speaker 7: Thank you so much. You've taken a big worry off
Speaker 7: off of my brow.
Speaker 1: And I'm so glad. I'm so glad. Good luck with that, Josie.
Speaker 1: Oh and by the way, those of you who are thinking,
Speaker 1: you know, if you even if you repair a crack,
Speaker 1: then you're looking up at that smear. I'll tell you
Speaker 1: a little secret. The old deanster here is not a
Speaker 1: fan of looking directly up at most skylights anyway, whether
Speaker 1: they are ultra custom, super expensive skylights or just acrylic skylights,
Speaker 1: whenever I get the chance. Now, it's different if it's
Speaker 1: a vaulted ceiling and like a mid century house and
Speaker 1: we don't have any distance in between the skylight and
Speaker 1: the ceiling below. But most skylights are moving through an
Speaker 1: attic space of some sort. In other words, there's a
Speaker 1: bit of a shaft there. What I love to do
Speaker 1: is come just a few inches below the skylight itself,
Speaker 1: and I love to put a rim of something a
Speaker 1: molding or a ledger, something just very low profile, blends
Speaker 1: in with the dry wall, and set on top of
Speaker 1: that ledger inside the house. Okay, a piece of diffused
Speaker 1: glass material like water glass or ripple glass or anything
Speaker 1: like that. Sometimes maybe frosted glass, so all the light
Speaker 1: comes through, but that we don't have a direct view
Speaker 1: of the skylight itself. Why because they get dirty. The best,
Speaker 1: most expensive skylights in the world get dirty. And you
Speaker 1: look up and you're like, wow, it's like looking through
Speaker 1: the dirty windshield of a car that you can't easily
Speaker 1: get up and just you know, you can't turn the
Speaker 1: wipers on. So a fool proof way of doing that
Speaker 1: is to come a few inches below and set your
Speaker 1: own panel in there to let the light through, but
Speaker 1: to fuse the view of the actual glass up above,
Speaker 1: so you never have to worry whether it's dirty or not.
Speaker 1: And if you really want to get fancy these days,
Speaker 1: right up above that little glass panel that you put
Speaker 1: in the shaft, you can run a little row of
Speaker 1: LED lights and have that skylight as a light source
Speaker 1: at night. Amazing, All right, trying squeeze in one more
Speaker 1: call here, just one more, uh, Mary, welcome home.
Speaker 9: I have stamped concrete on the entire outside of my house,
Speaker 9: you know, everything, the patio, walkways, everything, anyway, because I
Speaker 9: didn't know at the time that I put it in
Speaker 9: that it was going to have to be maintained. As
Speaker 9: you talked about a couple of weeks ago on your show.
Speaker 9: So I'm trying to find out is there anything that
Speaker 9: I can do to mitigate this without, you know, putting
Speaker 9: some other I want to put some other kind of
Speaker 9: concrete on there. Can I do that without demolishing the
Speaker 9: entire slabs of the stamp concrete?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Not really? Not really. Where are we got two choices?
Speaker 1: We pull out what's there and go with something brand new,
Speaker 1: or we figure out how to decify what you've got.
Speaker 10: Yeah, okay, I've I've gotten an estimate on my repainting,
Speaker 10: power washing and repainting.
Speaker 9: And resealing and all of that with just thousands, and
Speaker 9: then I'm going to have to keep doing that.
Speaker 10: So it was so yeah, nothing short of demolishing.
Speaker 1: I will tell you this, Mary One. If I was
Speaker 1: going to help you restore or bring to life your
Speaker 1: old stamp, concrete, painting would not be a part of it. Okay,
Speaker 1: Concrete and paint not friendly with each other because it's
Speaker 1: gonna peel, it's going to push off from the back,
Speaker 1: it's gonna get all cracked and chipped and whatever. So
Speaker 1: this might make a slight difference to you. But just
Speaker 1: so you know, what I would do is I would
Speaker 1: get it all cleaned off, whether it's power washed, anything
Speaker 1: that we can do to rough up the surface again
Speaker 1: to neutralize it. And I would consider staining the concrete.
Speaker 1: Staining it okay, because the stain penetrates, it doesn't crack,
Speaker 1: it doesn't peel off. It'll be a modeled finish, which,
Speaker 1: you know, color wise, which is kind of in keeping
Speaker 1: with whatever this stamped you know, kind of stony look
Speaker 1: is supposed to be. You can do it darker, it'll
Speaker 1: last long, longer. I'm not saying it's the solution, but
Speaker 1: I would never approach a stamped concrete job that has
Speaker 1: lost its luster with paint, and anybody who is is
Speaker 1: kind of leading you down the wrong path anyway. Think
Speaker 1: about stained concrete stains because they penetrate and they last
Speaker 1: longer and they look more natural anyway. Other than that, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to pull it and replace it. Sorry,
Speaker 1: it's just the way it goes. Yeah, stamp concrete. Shockingly,
Speaker 1: a lot of people found out last week my least
Speaker 1: favorite concrete finish of all and so and in the
Speaker 1: industry also pretty consistent.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 1: My friend Chris Carson was here, master concrete and masonry expert,
Speaker 1: not a fan of Stamp concrete, there are so many
Speaker 1: other looks that are better to go with. All right,
Speaker 1: my friends, when we come back, we will dive back
Speaker 1: into our list of the best of International Builders Show
Speaker 1: twenty five. You are listening to Dean Sharp, the House
Speaker 1: Whisperer on KFI. This has been Home with Dean Sharp,
Speaker 1: the House whisper. Tune into the live broadcast on KFI
Speaker 1: Am six forty every Saturday morning from six to eight
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