Speaker 1: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 1: KFI AM six fortyf.
Speaker 2: I am six forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2: I am Dean Sharp, the house Whisperer, custom home builder,
Speaker 2: custom home Designer. It's an all calls weekend. I love
Speaker 2: these weekends. I love taking your calls, talking with you
Speaker 2: about what's going on with your home, and you know,
Speaker 2: hoping out if I can.
Speaker 3: So let's do it all right, Let's talk to Tom. Tom.
Speaker 3: Welcome home, Dean.
Speaker 4: Yes, sir, okay. I live on a hillside lot. My
Speaker 4: house is on the upper portion of the hill with
Speaker 4: a yard created by retaining the old style retaining wall
Speaker 4: with concrete about two hundred and forty feet front to back.
Speaker 4: And I want to get down to that lower pad
Speaker 4: to build an AD and I got to put in
Speaker 4: a driveway. If I bulldoze straight down the slope, I'm
Speaker 4: going to be over twenty percent. And I don't even
Speaker 4: want to be twenty percent. I'd like to be twelve percent.
Speaker 4: And I'm thinking, rather than try to stretch the driveway
Speaker 4: along the ridge to lengthen it and reduce my slope,
Speaker 4: is there some way like like an elevated boardwalk a
Speaker 4: driveway built on piers that somebody does. I mean, obviously
Speaker 4: it could be done, but you know, it cost a fortune.
Speaker 4: And I'm just wondering if if anybody does anything prefab
Speaker 4: like that.
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, yeah, you know what if somebody does, I
Speaker 2: have not heard of them. You know, we've had some
Speaker 2: tricky driveway grating scenarios before, and you know, it's not
Speaker 2: uncommon to have to get the structural engineers out and say, okay,
Speaker 2: we got to bring this driveway in on an estate
Speaker 2: property across this creek bed or across this gully, or
Speaker 2: you know, we've got an elevated portion of it and
Speaker 2: essentially build a bridge or an elevated platform for a
Speaker 2: portion of the driveway. But I know of no one
Speaker 2: out there, and I'm not saying that there isn't, but
Speaker 2: I personally don't have knowledge of anybody out there who
Speaker 2: has prefab systems that are just ready to go. And
Speaker 2: the problem is the problem with the reason is is
Speaker 2: because it's all site specific, it has to do with
Speaker 2: your you know, geological situation, your soil quality. Because it's
Speaker 2: not so much the structure itself, it's what it's bearing
Speaker 2: on and how much of a seismic and lateral load
Speaker 2: it has to withhold as well as the dead load itself.
Speaker 2: So geological engineer and structural engineer, those are going to
Speaker 2: be unavoidable in your situation. Doesn't necessarily have to be concrete.
Speaker 2: I've seen them. We've actually successfully built some some bridges
Speaker 2: over gullies out of wood, out of you know, kind
Speaker 2: of like the old covered wood bridges. We've successfully done
Speaker 2: it out of wood and steel and or concrete. But
Speaker 2: it's going to have to be one of those formats,
Speaker 2: and it's gonna be h it's gonna be site specific,
Speaker 2: and so you're just gonna, unfortunately have to price that out. Tom,
Speaker 2: Thanks for the call. It was super interesting question. I
Speaker 2: wish I could help more on that. I want to
Speaker 2: talk to Shannon. Hey, Shannon, welcome home.
Speaker 5: Hi, thanks for taking my calls. Well, I have a
Speaker 5: pervasive gopher problem in my yards in my back and
Speaker 5: my strint, which has prevented me hard planting anything, and
Speaker 5: mostly weeds are popping up and weeds die, and I
Speaker 5: have all these hills and mounds and holes, and so
Speaker 5: I wanted to do a native garden, but I don't
Speaker 5: know where to begin and how to get rid of
Speaker 5: the gophers.
Speaker 2: Gophers Nature's annoying, adorable rodent. Okay, so Shannon, here's the thing.
Speaker 2: Here's what I don't want you to do. Please do
Speaker 2: not poison your gophers with a rat poison blood thinning
Speaker 2: rat poison, because it is not only doing damage to them,
Speaker 2: and yes it will, you know, knock out your gophers
Speaker 2: in general, but it will end up damaging the entire
Speaker 2: ecosystem around you. I'm not going to get on my
Speaker 2: soapbox and talk about that. I'm just going to say,
Speaker 2: don't do it. Blood thinners end up in all the
Speaker 2: predators that eat the gophers as well, and it affects
Speaker 2: everything well beyond the edge of your house. Now, you
Speaker 2: can live trap gophers, or you can just kill them
Speaker 2: dead with the mechanical traps, but that doesn't solve the
Speaker 2: problem because you know, it's just an ongoing war. So
Speaker 2: in your situation and for everybody who has a gopher issue,
Speaker 2: what I'm about to suggest may sound extreme, but in
Speaker 2: reality it is actually the easiest, most stress free, permanent
Speaker 2: way to deal with gophers in your yard, and that
Speaker 2: is simply to not allow them in in the first place. Now,
Speaker 2: how do you do that? Well, you do that by
Speaker 2: again having a strong commitment we don't want gophers in
Speaker 2: this yard. What it means is this, let's take your lawn,
Speaker 2: your planterbed areas wherever it is that you are planning
Speaker 2: on planting and don't want gophers coming up. You're going
Speaker 2: to remove some soil okay, two, three, sometimes as much
Speaker 2: as four inches of soil in an area, and you're
Speaker 2: going to stake down and bury gopher cloth. And what
Speaker 2: do I mean by gopher cloth? I mean either a
Speaker 2: nylon cloth that is, and I say cloth, it's actually
Speaker 2: full of holes.
Speaker 3: Okay, it's more like a.
Speaker 2: Mesh, but basically think of chicken wire, but on a
Speaker 2: much much smaller scale opening so that a gopher can't
Speaker 2: get through a layer of chicken wire essentially, And please
Speaker 2: forgive me for using it. I just want everybody to
Speaker 2: picture what it is that I'm saying, a layer of
Speaker 2: chicken wire buried a couple of inches underneath the soil
Speaker 2: of everywhere in your yard.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: The simple truth of the matter is the gophers can
Speaker 2: tunnel underneath your house all they want and all around,
Speaker 2: but they're not going to be popping up and they're
Speaker 2: not going to be doing as much, if any, damage
Speaker 2: to the roots of everything that's going down. Now, will
Speaker 2: they occasionally gnaw on a deeper root, sure, but not
Speaker 2: to the extent that they're going to destroy anything. So
Speaker 2: without question, the once and for all solution for gophers
Speaker 2: is actually to just put a fence in between them
Speaker 2: and being able to pop up in your yard.
Speaker 4: Awesome that.
Speaker 6: It is simple.
Speaker 3: I mean simple for me to say.
Speaker 2: It's like, oh yeah, just to dig up all the
Speaker 2: dirt in your whole backyard and completely cover it over
Speaker 2: with seamless fencing. It's a it's a task, it's a chore.
Speaker 2: But honestly, when you think about, well, do we want
Speaker 2: to do that or do we want to forever have
Speaker 2: gophers making holes in the backyard. So this way, the
Speaker 2: gophers don't die, your plans don't die, your yard stays lovely,
Speaker 2: and you just have a barrier.
Speaker 3: So it's a gopher bear.
Speaker 2: If you go online, you're gonna find all sorts of
Speaker 2: options in that regard subterranean buried gopher barriers. You're gonna
Speaker 2: find them. You can price them out, you can make
Speaker 2: your own decisions. But they work.
Speaker 3: I know they work.
Speaker 2: We've seen them work and at the end of the day, boom.
Speaker 2: You do it once, you do it right, and you
Speaker 2: don't have to worry about it again. So Shannon, thank you.
Speaker 2: Good luck on that. Thanks for the call. When we
Speaker 2: come back, more of your calls. I'm so glad you
Speaker 2: joined me this morning. Hang tight, so much more to come.
Speaker 2: You are Home with Dean Sharp the House Whisper.
Speaker 7: Kay if I.
Speaker 2: Am six forty and live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 2: you are home with Dean Sharp the House Whisper.
Speaker 1: That's me.
Speaker 4: Hey.
Speaker 2: We are doing a all weekend here on the program.
Speaker 3: Every few weeks. We lay every.
Speaker 2: Topic aside so that we can concentrate on just the
Speaker 2: things that are on your mind regarding your home, be
Speaker 2: it a design issue, or a construction question, or a
Speaker 2: DIY concerned whatever, all of the above and anything in between.
Speaker 2: Anything you want to talk to me about your home today,
Speaker 2: that's what we're doing. It's time to go back to
Speaker 2: the phones to do it. I want to talk to Jane. Hey, Jane,
Speaker 2: welcome home.
Speaker 6: Thanks for taking my call.
Speaker 5: I have a quick question. We're looking to remodel our
Speaker 5: house and open.
Speaker 6: Up some of the walls and we're not sure if
Speaker 6: we should get a designer first to work out.
Speaker 7: The layout and the design, or if we should.
Speaker 5: Speak with a structural engineer to actually let us know
Speaker 5: which walls we can open up.
Speaker 2: Excellent question, a procedural question on how you get started
Speaker 2: with this kind of thing. The answer is a bit nuanced, Jane.
Speaker 3: Number one.
Speaker 2: The first call that you always make, that everyone should
Speaker 2: always make when they're thinking about remodeling or doing something
Speaker 2: different with their.
Speaker 3: House, is you call a designer. All right.
Speaker 2: You start with the creativity, you start with the art.
Speaker 2: You start with somebody who knows what they're doing in
Speaker 2: order to help you come with the absolute best possible
Speaker 2: design that works for you, that customizes your home, that
Speaker 2: expresses you. Because, as I say here on the program
Speaker 2: all the time, as you know, design matters most. We
Speaker 2: start with design. However, sometimes design choices end up leading
Speaker 2: towards Wow, we're going to move that wall, or we're
Speaker 2: going to eliminate that wall, and we want to change
Speaker 2: those windows, or we want to put in a much
Speaker 2: bigger door. Things that infringe and touch now upon structural issues.
Speaker 2: So this is why I say it's nuanced. What you
Speaker 2: want is you want to call the designer first, and
Speaker 2: you want to start having that conversation. What you don't
Speaker 2: want is to pay a designer for a th on,
Speaker 2: full blown finished design when you don't know what the
Speaker 2: structural ramifications are. Okay, So you call a designer and
Speaker 2: you begin to work with them in what we call
Speaker 2: rough design mode or rough sketch mode, in which we
Speaker 2: haven't you know, we haven't sold the farm yet for
Speaker 2: this design.
Speaker 3: But we get to the point.
Speaker 2: Where now we sense like, wow, we're really liking where
Speaker 2: this is going. And the big question now looms what
Speaker 2: about that wall? And that is when you call in
Speaker 2: a structural engineer for a consultation and it's a couple
Speaker 2: three hundred dollars, most structural engineers will show up and
Speaker 2: help you figure out what's going on. Sometimes it's pretty
Speaker 2: simple to do expect that they will. In order to
Speaker 2: make the most of a consult like that, that you're
Speaker 2: going to want to invest a little of a demo,
Speaker 2: and by demo, I just mean a forensic opening up.
Speaker 2: You know, if it's a wall in question, you don't
Speaker 2: know if it's a bearing wall, or if you don't
Speaker 2: know if it's a sheer wall, that's critical for the
Speaker 2: seismic strength of the house, then you.
Speaker 3: Want to pull some drywall off.
Speaker 2: Drywall is inexpensive to replace, Okay, it's just cost of
Speaker 2: getting ready for your remodel.
Speaker 3: A little bit of forensic analysis. So in other words, if.
Speaker 2: We're talking about you know, if we were talking about
Speaker 2: the house in terms of let's say the metaphor of
Speaker 2: a patient going in for some surgical procedure and there
Speaker 2: are some things that we don't quite know about, then
Speaker 2: we would call this exploratory surgery, in which we open
Speaker 2: things up just a little bit to take a look
Speaker 2: around and to verify what it is that we're dealing
Speaker 2: with there.
Speaker 3: So open up a little.
Speaker 2: Section of drywall on a wall, open up some drywall
Speaker 2: on the ceiling right next to the top of that wall,
Speaker 2: if we want to figure out what direction the ceiling
Speaker 2: joysts are going, what's bearing on that wall or not,
Speaker 2: that kind of stuff, and then have the structural engineer
Speaker 2: come out and give you an evaluation of like okay, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I see this. They might just say listen, hey, thanks
Speaker 2: for paying for the console. I think you're good to go.
Speaker 2: That's not a baring wall. That thing can be removed
Speaker 2: and you don't have to worry about it. Or they
Speaker 2: may say, yeah, now some engineering is going to be
Speaker 2: required here and it's a major deal, or some engineering.
Speaker 3: Is required and it's not that big of a deal.
Speaker 2: So that's the information you need, you need at that juncture,
Speaker 2: and then you return to the design process with that
Speaker 2: information under your arm in order to finish out the design.
Speaker 2: You may decide to abandon that design because you don't
Speaker 2: want to touch that wall, or it may be full
Speaker 2: steam ahead, so it's designer engineer, back to the designer.
Speaker 2: And then as you commit to a remodel, especially assuming
Speaker 2: that you're going to be pulling permits and doing it
Speaker 2: the right way, then once the designer is then committing
Speaker 2: to plans, the engineer is going to get involved again
Speaker 2: and put in their structural notes and pages in plans
Speaker 2: that you'll submit to the city. And that's kind of
Speaker 2: the hopscotch or leap frogging that happens. So don't pay
Speaker 2: a designer everything up front to do a complete design
Speaker 2: when you don't know the ramification structurally on the house.
Speaker 2: And just to let you know, just as a little topper,
Speaker 2: I'll tell you how Tina and I actually do even
Speaker 2: when we have been hired to do a full design
Speaker 2: on a home, we will still tell our clients listen,
Speaker 2: we are going to take you to rough design in
Speaker 2: which you're thrilled with the way everything's looking, and then
Speaker 2: we're going to get an engineer involved to spec out
Speaker 2: rough engineering specifications not even finished yet, but rough specifications,
Speaker 2: because only then do you have with our drawing down
Speaker 2: on the page and the engineering specifications. Only then do
Speaker 2: you have the information you need to turn around and
Speaker 2: hand it to two or three contractors to give you
Speaker 2: what's called a rom a rough order of magnitude or
Speaker 2: really rough estimate, and so you're not holding them to it,
Speaker 2: but these are contractors that you're vetting and you're thinking
Speaker 2: about using, and they give you a rough estimate, so
Speaker 2: you get an idea like, ah, and this is what
Speaker 2: our project probably is going to cost in the ballpark.
Speaker 2: At that point you may find out m Yeah, all right,
Speaker 2: that's in our budget, or no, that's too much, and
Speaker 2: then you go back to the design and tweak it again.
Speaker 2: So there's this interplay and this collaboration and that's generally
Speaker 2: how it works.
Speaker 6: Does that help, yes, Thank you so much?
Speaker 2: All right, Jane good luck on that project. All right,
Speaker 2: y'all when we come back, let's try and take a
Speaker 2: couple more before we are done today. Yeah, you are home?
Speaker 3: Who is this? Oh yeah, it's Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2: KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2: You are Home with Dean Sharp the House Whisper. Hey,
Speaker 2: thanks for joining us on the program this morning. All
Speaker 2: right to the phones, Eric, Welcome home.
Speaker 4: Hello Dean. How are you doing?
Speaker 3: I am well, sir. How can I help you?
Speaker 2: So?
Speaker 6: I'm planning on taking carpet out and putting new wood
Speaker 6: floors in the room.
Speaker 4: I just put these new moldings in like maybe two
Speaker 4: years ago, so I know there's going to be a gap,
Speaker 4: and I'm wondering what you think I should do replace
Speaker 4: the moldings or do like a pillar or something like that.
Speaker 2: Okay, So by moldings, you're talking about your baseboards. Okay,
Speaker 2: baseboards in the room and baseboards. Just so everybody can
Speaker 2: get caught up to speed here, when we install baseboards,
Speaker 2: knowing that carpeting is going in a room, the baseboard
Speaker 2: is actually we leave it off the ground. We leave
Speaker 2: it up above the floor about yeah, depending on the
Speaker 2: carpenter you talk to, anywhere from a quarter of an
Speaker 2: inch all the way up to about three eighths of
Speaker 2: an inch. So if Eric is going to yank all
Speaker 2: the carpet in the pad out of a room and
Speaker 2: put hardwood down in its place, then it's the chances
Speaker 2: that the hardwood is going to actually touch the bottom
Speaker 2: of those baseboards is unlikely. That means we got a
Speaker 2: little gap underneath. Two ways to handle it, Eric, just
Speaker 2: straight out you're either well, okah, yeah too realistically. Two
Speaker 2: ways you could You could try and remove the baseboards
Speaker 2: carefully and reinstall them, but.
Speaker 3: That never works out.
Speaker 2: So I'm not even gonna tell you that one because
Speaker 2: you know you're gonna end up tracking something and messing
Speaker 2: it up and messing up the wall. So number one,
Speaker 2: you pull the baseboards. You're just like, well, okay, fine,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna sacrifice this.
Speaker 3: Room full of baseboards.
Speaker 2: You pull the baseboards, you leave the walls bare, get
Speaker 2: the floor installed, and then nicest, best, absolute cleanest looking job.
Speaker 2: Once the floor is down, you install new baseboards, bump
Speaker 2: right on top of the hardwood, nice and tight, clean line,
Speaker 2: clean corner done. The other way to do it, if
Speaker 2: you really really want to save those baseboards is you
Speaker 2: simply use a base shoe, which is just a secondary molding.
Speaker 2: You don't want to fill in underneath the baseboard because
Speaker 2: that never ends up looking right. You try and glue
Speaker 2: it or try and nail it in, you're always going
Speaker 2: to see the seam. Even if you don't see it
Speaker 2: right away, you'll end up seeing a seam. So the
Speaker 2: traditional way, the conventional way is to use a base shoe,
Speaker 2: which is kind of like a quarter round, kind of
Speaker 2: like some people actually use cord around a quarter of
Speaker 2: a circle. But base shoe actually, if you get the
Speaker 2: right stuff, is actually taller than it is thick as
Speaker 2: far as coming out into the room, and so it's
Speaker 2: a little bit more just slightly more streamline than QRD around.
Speaker 2: And what you'll do is you'll go ahead and lay
Speaker 2: the floor, get it underneath the or up to at
Speaker 2: least the line of the baseboard, and then cover the
Speaker 2: gap with a piece of bass shoe. Now I prefer
Speaker 2: as a designer, it says, no, this has nothing to
Speaker 2: do with carpentry. I prefer as a designer, that you
Speaker 2: would paint that base shoe with your molding so that
Speaker 2: the floor stays the floor and the base shoe just
Speaker 2: becomes a part of your baseboard. From a design perspective,
Speaker 2: I think that's a cleaner, better look. Some people like
Speaker 2: to try and buy a base shoe, a base shoe
Speaker 2: that's the same material right as the floor. I think
Speaker 2: that just makes the floor feel like it's creeping up
Speaker 2: onto the wall, and for us, that's not a good look.
Speaker 3: So that's what.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna recommend my friend one of the two. If
Speaker 2: you pull out the baseboards, how tall are they?
Speaker 6: By the way, there's like about three inches, So I
Speaker 6: got all.
Speaker 3: Right, they're too short.
Speaker 2: They're too short for so no seven seven inches?
Speaker 6: Oh wow?
Speaker 3: Okay, I know right, I know everybody.
Speaker 2: Everybody's jaw drops every time I say that. But I'm
Speaker 2: just saying, if you've got a traditional house with kind
Speaker 2: of a traditional motif, don't hesitate to fill that house
Speaker 2: with taller base boards.
Speaker 3: I guarantee you A wall is.
Speaker 2: Visually, whether you've never thought of it this where or not.
Speaker 2: A wall is a column. It's like a column that
Speaker 2: has been split and laid out flat. So the base
Speaker 2: of that wall, you can imagine a big, strong column
Speaker 2: that has no base on it whatsoever, like a Greek
Speaker 2: column that just kind of runs into the dirt. A base,
Speaker 2: the base of a column needs a really nice pediment.
Speaker 2: And I guarantee you the general rule is seven is
Speaker 2: what we call the seven percent rule, the seven to
Speaker 2: ten percent rule. And so that basically means baseboards can
Speaker 2: afford to be seven percent of the height of a wall.
Speaker 2: That means in an eight foot ceiling they can be
Speaker 2: almost seven inches tall. It will look fantastic. So if
Speaker 2: you decide to replace the baseboards, all I'm saying is
Speaker 2: think about going taller with them.
Speaker 3: You won't regret it.
Speaker 2: And then, of course you can blame me for spending
Speaker 2: more money in the rest of the house, because after
Speaker 2: you love that room as much as you do, you're like, oh, great,
Speaker 2: Dean had me change this room. It's now the best
Speaker 2: looking room in the house, and now I have to
Speaker 2: replace all the baseba boards everywhere. You are welcome, all right,
Speaker 2: thanks study for the call. Do I have time to
Speaker 2: sneak another one in here? Let's do it, Ragnar, Welcome home.
Speaker 7: My wife and I just bought a new house in Hawthorne, California.
Speaker 7: It's built in nineteen fifty two, and we have retaining
Speaker 7: walls are on the outside of the property and from settling.
Speaker 7: The soil is clayish, and the settling has created a
Speaker 7: wall cracks in the retaining walls, and whether they've been
Speaker 7: made a center block but in institution is sick. How
Speaker 7: can I stick salibab and replace the walls?
Speaker 2: Okay, So when we say retaining walls, do we mean
Speaker 2: that these walls are actually retaining soil or when we
Speaker 2: say retaining walls, you just mean like a garden block
Speaker 2: wall that's dividing you and the neighbors, well.
Speaker 7: Garden block wall deviding me and the neighbors.
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, So just to be clear, if it's not
Speaker 2: actually holding, if the soil level on the other side
Speaker 2: of the wall isn't significantly higher than on your side,
Speaker 2: or vice versa, it's not a retaining wall.
Speaker 3: It's it's just a block wall. Okay. So a block wall.
Speaker 2: And if it's got it, if it's settled, uh, and
Speaker 2: you know there's and then that happens, you know, because honestly,
Speaker 2: a retaining if it were a retaining wall, you probably
Speaker 2: wouldn't see any cracks in it, because a retaining wall
Speaker 2: gets solid filled with concrete in all of the cells,
Speaker 2: in the grouts in between all of that, and there's
Speaker 2: steel and there's a significant footing.
Speaker 3: But a block wall can just be a simple garden wall.
Speaker 2: They kind of tend builders tend to minimize the footings
Speaker 2: under it. So I totally get it that it's settled some.
Speaker 2: If it has settled, then you've got cracking happening. You
Speaker 2: can actually you can actually find concrete epoxy patch kits
Speaker 2: at like a local hardware store, builder supply home depot,
Speaker 2: that kind of thing. It's not going to and that'll
Speaker 2: get you patched up so that the cracking doesn't continue,
Speaker 2: and it's not hard to use. A lot of it
Speaker 2: comes into calking tube form where you can put it
Speaker 2: in a calking gun, squirt it in there, fill up
Speaker 2: the crack, and then uh and then kind of trial
Speaker 2: it smooth. Now it's not gonna look pretty on your side,
Speaker 2: just to say not gonna look pretty. So you may
Speaker 2: want to consider at some point, once you fix all
Speaker 2: the cracks, you may want to consider actually painting the
Speaker 2: wall so that it all blends in better. Because there's
Speaker 2: no way, unfortunately, to patch that wall unless the cracking
Speaker 2: was actually just in the mortar joints. There's no way
Speaker 2: to actually crack to fix a cracked cinder block wall
Speaker 2: without the patch showing up unfortunately, just as much if
Speaker 2: not more visible, once you patch it than the crack
Speaker 2: was to begin with. So you get some options in
Speaker 2: after you've patched it. If you're going to keep the
Speaker 2: wall like that, you know, maybe paint the wall over,
Speaker 2: Maybe decide to grow something in front of it, or
Speaker 2: let something like a creeping fig kind of ivy sort
Speaker 2: of creeping plant cling to the wall and cover it over,
Speaker 2: make it more attractive in that sense. Or maybe at
Speaker 2: some point you say, you know what, we'll patch it
Speaker 2: for now, but let's replace this. Let's replace it with
Speaker 2: a fence, a wood fence of our choosing, so that
Speaker 2: you get a better architectural look. That's the best I
Speaker 2: can tell you. Thank you, Ragnar, and thanks Eric for
Speaker 2: your calls. How about some more of your calls when
Speaker 2: we return. You are listening to Home with Dean Sharp,
Speaker 2: the House Whisper canf i AM six forty and live
Speaker 2: streaming in HD everywhere on the iHeart Radio app Hey,
Speaker 2: welcome to home, where every week we help you better
Speaker 2: understand that place where you live. I am Dean Sharp,
Speaker 2: the house whisper, custom home builder, custom home designer, most importantly,
Speaker 2: today your guide to turning your ordinary house into something
Speaker 2: truly extraordinary. I tell you what we're doing today. It's
Speaker 2: an all calls day. It is it you set the agenda.
Speaker 2: Anything that is going on with your home, whether it
Speaker 2: be construction issues, DIY questions, design concerns, anything at all.
Speaker 2: The phone lines are open. I am here to help
Speaker 2: you sort it all out. We'll put our heads together
Speaker 2: and we'll get it sorted. On that note, how about
Speaker 2: we go to it. Hey, Mary, welcome home.
Speaker 6: I have a question about reroofing. I have a small
Speaker 6: house about fourteen hundred square feet, was built in nineteen
Speaker 6: eighty eight. But it needs the tile lifted and then
Speaker 6: the paper lad underneath it. And I'm getting bids on it,
Speaker 6: and some of the bids bidders are saying two layers
Speaker 6: of paper and others are saying one.
Speaker 2: Okay, So your question is is are two layers necessary?
Speaker 2: Is that a good idea? Is it too much? Is it?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I have a couple of thoughts about it.
Speaker 2: Number one is two layers always better than one when
Speaker 2: it comes to roofing paper, especially because roofing paper will age,
Speaker 2: it will become brittle eventually over time. And the more
Speaker 2: protection you have up there underneath the tie ailes, the
Speaker 2: better off you're going to be. A lot of people
Speaker 2: don't realize this, but you know, tiles, roofing tiles, any
Speaker 2: kind of roofing material. The surface material that we all
Speaker 2: look at and say, look, there's the roof. That is
Speaker 2: just the top layer, and it is not a guarantee
Speaker 2: in and of itself that the roof doesn't leak. What's
Speaker 2: really doing the true protection of the home is the underlayment,
Speaker 2: that is the building paper underneath the tiles. So I
Speaker 2: always tell people, do not shortchange your budget in terms
Speaker 2: of the underlayment. Get the best stuff possible. But Mary,
Speaker 2: since we're on that subject and you raise the subject,
Speaker 2: here is the thing I would prefer. And this is
Speaker 2: just me, and it's up to you, and you should
Speaker 2: bring this up to the roofers who are bidding your project.
Speaker 2: We don't use builder paper anymore, roofing paper anymore in
Speaker 2: the homes that we design and specify and in the
Speaker 2: homes that we actually participate in building because for so
Speaker 2: long now rubber rized membranes have been proven themselves so
Speaker 2: far superior to builder of paper. So I would recommend
Speaker 2: that you actually go back and say, okay, fine, fine, fine,
Speaker 2: two layers of building paper. That's fine, but let's talk
Speaker 2: about using a modern membrane underneath my tile. The modern membrane,
Speaker 2: they are self sealing. They lap onto each other, they seal.
Speaker 2: That's something that builder paper does not do unless the
Speaker 2: builders actually tar it all in which on a normal
Speaker 2: residential roof rarely happens. So the membrane seal, and as
Speaker 2: a result, Number One, when they're all done laying it,
Speaker 2: you have essentially, for all practical purposes, one continuous membrane,
Speaker 2: not just tiers of paper over the house.
Speaker 3: And two other things about them.
Speaker 2: Number one, they're rubberized, they're they're bitimus, they have stretch
Speaker 2: and give that they never actually lose, and so as
Speaker 2: a result, they do not become brittle and tend to
Speaker 2: break down as quickly over time. In fact, they last
Speaker 2: a lot lot longer than builder paper. They even go
Speaker 2: so far during installation as self ceiling around every single
Speaker 2: nail that gets punctured through them when the actual tiles
Speaker 2: are put on. So there is no doubt in my mind,
Speaker 2: no question in my mind that these new modern membrane
Speaker 2: unladed layments are superior to builder paper. Now, do they
Speaker 2: cost a little more, Yeah, they do do. A lot
Speaker 2: of builders lead with them when they're bidding a job. No,
Speaker 2: they don't, because it means that their bid comes in higher,
Speaker 2: and then they have to sit there and explain to
Speaker 2: you why it's higher, because you know, we're using a
Speaker 2: better material, and some homeowners just don't agree or don't
Speaker 2: believe them, but you can take it from me. I
Speaker 2: would zero in on the roofer that you're thinking about using,
Speaker 2: and then talk to them about a continuous, you know,
Speaker 2: more advanced underlayment. If you really want this this roof
Speaker 2: job to last forever, talk to them about a modern
Speaker 2: underlayment instead of the roofing paper.
Speaker 3: And there you go.
Speaker 6: And that's just one layer that they put down with that.
Speaker 2: That's all you need with that stuff is just one
Speaker 2: layer because it is thick, and like I said, it's
Speaker 2: self seals, seals around the nails and it remains pliable
Speaker 2: throughout the years.
Speaker 3: So one layer is.
Speaker 6: All you need and that lasts forever.
Speaker 2: It's gonna last. Yeah, yeah, I mean this is this
Speaker 2: is how we do lifetime roofs.
Speaker 3: I'll put it that way.
Speaker 4: Great.
Speaker 6: I really appreciate the help.
Speaker 2: You are so welcome, Mary, and I appreciate the call.
Speaker 2: All right, let's talk to Julie.
Speaker 3: Hey, Julie, welcome home.
Speaker 6: Hi Deine. We're looking at getting new windows and I
Speaker 6: love the black frame windows, but they're obviously a lot
Speaker 6: more expensive. So I was wondering, what are your thoughts. Honestly,
Speaker 6: just if someone just adjusted black frame windows in the
Speaker 6: back of the house and kept the traditional white frame
Speaker 6: ones in.
Speaker 2: The front, I have no general problems with that whatsoever.
Speaker 2: In fact, if you hear me talk on the show
Speaker 2: quite often, i'll talk about the tech. One of the
Speaker 2: techniques for upgrading a house without touching its traditional curb
Speaker 2: appeal is to treat the facade of the house differently
Speaker 2: than the backside of the house, because from the the
Speaker 2: facade of the house is something that is viewed from
Speaker 2: outside the house, standing on the curb in the street
Speaker 2: looking at the house. Then you move into the house,
Speaker 2: you walk in, and once you're past the face of
Speaker 2: the house. Now we're inside the house looking out through
Speaker 2: windows into the backyard. It's a completely different experience. And
Speaker 2: so the idea of using black frame windows for the
Speaker 2: backside of the house because you love them and because
Speaker 2: they work with the configuration that you're looking for, in
Speaker 2: my thinking, in most cases most cases. Don't quote me
Speaker 2: on this universally, but in most cases, yeah, your freedom
Speaker 2: to mix it up, I would even say, depending on decor.
Speaker 2: There are times when you know there are well, actually
Speaker 2: you know, I'll tell you this. We just finished designing
Speaker 2: from the ground up a new house in Studio City.
Speaker 2: Some of those windows are white traditional framed windows, some
Speaker 2: of them are dark bronze and black traditional windows. Just
Speaker 2: depending on room for room and the effect that we're
Speaker 2: looking for, and on some of the elevations of the house,
Speaker 2: you can see both at the same time. It all
Speaker 2: depends on whether it works with that theme. But as
Speaker 2: a general rule, you know, it's kind of the mullet approach, right,
Speaker 2: all business up front and party in the back. So
Speaker 2: keep your white frame windows facing the street and do
Speaker 2: back black towards the back of the house and have
Speaker 2: a blast. I think you're completely free to do that
Speaker 2: in most cases. Thanks, Julie for the call. Yes, Yes,
Speaker 2: it's my mullet theory. My mullet theory.
Speaker 3: Applies to lots of things. All the time.
Speaker 2: You're listening to Home We Dean Sharp, the House Whisper
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Speaker 2: House Whisper. Tune into the live broadcast on KFI AM
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