Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp the
Speaker 1: House Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio app. Here
Speaker 1: for you, like we always are here to be a mentor,
Speaker 1: a design mentor for you, because design matters most an
Speaker 1: advocate as you wrestle with construction issues in your home,
Speaker 1: and it's your friend as you take on the noble
Speaker 1: work of turning your ordinary house into an extraordinary home. Today,
Speaker 1: I want to talk to you about what's going on
Speaker 1: with your house. I have no agenda but to talk
Speaker 1: with you. Let's talk to Judy.
Speaker 2: I have a condo in Carlsbad, and I have about
Speaker 2: a thirty x twenty foot area of grass, and I
Speaker 2: have acquired two big dogs in the last couple of years,
Speaker 2: and like my daughter said, my lawn tern in looks
Speaker 2: like a cow pasture. Now they're digging, and I've got
Speaker 2: straw down where they're digging because it's a lot of
Speaker 2: mud and I want to replace it with another kind
Speaker 2: of natural grass, but I don't know what to put in.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'll take a shot in the dark and
Speaker 1: say bermuda.
Speaker 3: Bermuda is a is a pretty.
Speaker 1: Dang resilient grass and once it takes it forms a
Speaker 1: good mat, and I think that's one of the things
Speaker 1: that will help the most because bermuda gets spongy as
Speaker 1: a mat of grass, and as a result, it's not
Speaker 1: the easiest thing for them to dig through. Bermuda is
Speaker 1: self healing, it's drought tolerant. It will put up pretty
Speaker 1: well with dogs with pea and the other stuff and
Speaker 1: a lot of rough housing. Bermuda grass is usually the
Speaker 1: grass that's used on the outfield at natural grass baseball stadiums,
Speaker 1: so it's a it's a sport grass, it's it's it's
Speaker 1: better for rough and tumble kinds of things. But again,
Speaker 1: I'm not convinced that two large dogs in just a
Speaker 1: twenty by thirty foot area they got a lot of
Speaker 1: time on their hands and they got a lot of tools.
Speaker 3: Okay, well that's good. There you go.
Speaker 1: So just taking them on more walks, wear them out,
Speaker 1: and then pop them into the backyard. But that that's
Speaker 1: probably the best off. The cuff suggestion is take a
Speaker 1: look at at bermuda as as an opport. But if
Speaker 1: you're gonna plant there, of course you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: keep them off of it for a while. Even if
Speaker 1: you sawed the yard, you're gonna need Even though it's
Speaker 1: gonna look great on day one, you're gonna need to
Speaker 1: give it a few weeks for it to really root
Speaker 1: in before they get out there and start tearing it up. Judy,
Speaker 1: good luck with that. I gotta go give Bermuda a shot. Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, let's talk to Nick. Hey, Nick, welcome home.
Speaker 4: Yes, Steve, I have nineteen two storey vaulted ceiling with skylight, cementile,
Speaker 4: roof and stucckel frame. So had to hold on a track.
Speaker 4: And my problem is that I haven't lived in it
Speaker 4: that much since I bought it. I was in the
Speaker 4: Air Force, and then I also went to UCLA in
Speaker 4: nineteen ninety four, came on one weekend and I developed
Speaker 4: the slow leaks in the suit in the roof. I
Speaker 4: saved the water and fans and I was able to
Speaker 4: empty it and it was not livable after a time.
Speaker 4: And I'm wondering, what in the world can I do
Speaker 4: and who do I find out? Whether or not, whether
Speaker 4: it's a contractor whether it's a roof or whatever. What
Speaker 4: can the house be saved?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 1: So where is so? Are we talking about the water damage?
Speaker 1: Inside the house that you're concerned about or up on
Speaker 1: the roof itself.
Speaker 4: It's the roof that just leaks down on some of
Speaker 4: the drywall and also the beam that goes across the
Speaker 4: main part just short just underneath the skylight, and of
Speaker 4: course that was dripping down, but it was dripping down
Speaker 4: slow way I always connected it, and of course I
Speaker 4: was just irresponsible with getting it fixed.
Speaker 3: So yeah, here's the good news Nick.
Speaker 1: First of all, you got to get the roof fixed,
Speaker 1: right because you got a leak, and we got to
Speaker 1: fix the roof, so we have to fix the leak
Speaker 1: in the roof.
Speaker 3: The good news about that you got concrete tile.
Speaker 1: Then there's a really good chance that your tile doesn't
Speaker 1: have to be replaced. It will have to be removed
Speaker 1: in order to deal with leaks, and hopefully it's not
Speaker 1: pervasive all over the roof. But the concrete tiles in
Speaker 1: most cases are lifetime tiles, so they can be with
Speaker 1: the right roofer. You got to get a roofer involved,
Speaker 1: pull up those concrete tiles, readdress the actual waterproofing, because
Speaker 1: the concrete tiles aren't the waterproofing of the roof, it's
Speaker 1: the membrane underneath readdress that and any flashing, because that's
Speaker 1: likely where the actual problems are with leaks. So first
Speaker 1: of all, we fix the roof, the good news being
Speaker 1: it's sort of a reroof or a patch and repair
Speaker 1: job if it's isolated areas, but you're not going to
Speaker 1: necessarily have to replace your roofing material, just patch up
Speaker 1: that membring. Secondly, when it comes to the rest of
Speaker 1: the house, general contractor. Now there are specialty contractors quote
Speaker 1: unquote that work for insurance companies out there, mold remediation
Speaker 1: contractors and that kind of thing. My first call would
Speaker 1: not be in that direction because you know, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: it's not such a specialized situation for you that you
Speaker 1: would need that and need to pay the higher price
Speaker 1: tag which generally accompanies that. But a general contractor to
Speaker 1: open up the drywall in the areas where there has
Speaker 1: been leaking. We got to open that up. We got
Speaker 1: to expose the wood. We need to see if there's
Speaker 1: any actual damage to the wood itself, dry or anything
Speaker 1: like that. There probably isn't, not after just a decade
Speaker 1: or so. There might be, it depends on how pervasive
Speaker 1: the leaks have been. But we got to open that
Speaker 1: all up. Make sure that there's no mold growing underneath
Speaker 1: the drywall and back of the drywall. Once the drywall
Speaker 1: has been pulled off and stud walls and ceiling rafters
Speaker 1: and ceiling joysts have all been exposed, that's where we
Speaker 1: can get to the mold really easily, spray it out,
Speaker 1: kill it, bleach it, do whatever we need to do,
Speaker 1: and then after the roof has been repaired, we rebuild
Speaker 1: new drywall and whatever wood repairs are necessary. So you've
Speaker 1: got some work ahead of you, but not necessarily the
Speaker 1: end of your home or having to bulldoze it over
Speaker 1: the key is a forensic examination of where the real
Speaker 1: damage is, and for that we just need to pull
Speaker 1: the drywall off in most situations, and drywall is inexpensive
Speaker 1: to replace in the big scheme of things, So pull
Speaker 1: it off. Let's take a look at where the damage is,
Speaker 1: let's address it, and then pop the skin back on,
Speaker 1: close the patient up as it were, and we should
Speaker 1: be off to happiness for the rest of your ownership
Speaker 1: of this home. Thanks Nick for the call. I appreciate it, buddy,
Speaker 1: really good question and good luck with that. Don't worry,
Speaker 1: it's not likely as extensive or crazy as you might think.
Speaker 1: How about some more of your calls when we return.
Speaker 1: You are listening to Home with Dean Sharp the House Whisper.
Speaker 5: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 5: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 3: Let's talk to Lou. Lou welcome home?
Speaker 6: Yes Hi?
Speaker 4: Can you hear me?
Speaker 6: Okay, Dean, I can. You've been helping me a lot
Speaker 6: doing a remodel of a condo I have, and I
Speaker 6: just have a simple It seems to me like a
Speaker 6: stupid question. The person who's doing it, who's not a
Speaker 6: registered general contract or anything like that, but he's honest
Speaker 6: and he's good. We want to there's a toilet in
Speaker 6: one of the bedrooms that he's suggesting that we replace.
Speaker 6: The inside mechanism needs certainly needs replacing, but the outside
Speaker 6: looks high. My wife says it's old fashioned because it's
Speaker 6: a low I don't know, a lowrider.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, that's yeah, low seat toilet. Yeah, gotcha.
Speaker 6: He's saying that it's going to cost just as much
Speaker 6: to replace the toilet as it is to just replace
Speaker 6: the mechanism. And this guy's honest, so I don't think
Speaker 6: he's trying to get extra money. Out of me.
Speaker 1: All right, So very simple answer to your very and
Speaker 1: it's not a stupid question at all now unless there
Speaker 1: is some bizarre configuration going on. I mean, if this
Speaker 1: is an ancient toilet, like it's a sometimes we run
Speaker 1: into toilets that, you know, because we do restoration stuff,
Speaker 1: sometimes we'll use a toilet that literally is one hundred
Speaker 1: years old and because of the configuration it, you know,
Speaker 1: we have to do special things inside and we can't
Speaker 1: just use the standard replacement stuff on the inside. It
Speaker 1: doesn't sound like that, like that's the case here. If
Speaker 1: this is a twenty year old toilets, if it's a
Speaker 1: thirty year old toilet, anything in that range there, then
Speaker 1: then no the guts, the flapper ball, the overflow, the
Speaker 1: water supply, the valve, the float, all of that stuff
Speaker 1: that goes inside a toilet. I mean we're talking maybe
Speaker 1: twenty thirty dollars to change that out. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: people ask all the time, Hey, this toilet's really really old,
Speaker 1: so probably it's not going to work right anymore. And
Speaker 1: my point is there are two really dividing line parts
Speaker 1: or sections of parts in a toilet. One is the
Speaker 1: shell itself, a porcelain toilet is just that, and you
Speaker 1: know it could last for three hundred years. And then
Speaker 1: there's the mechanics on the inside, and most of the
Speaker 1: time the stuff that you can buy at the hardware
Speaker 1: store will pop right in and make the interior brand new.
Speaker 1: It's like keeping the great old body of a car
Speaker 1: and putting a new engine inside. And no, that's not
Speaker 1: going to cost you one hundred or two hundred dollars
Speaker 1: to do. It should cost you thirty or forty bucks
Speaker 1: to do.
Speaker 7: So.
Speaker 1: I don't know why. I mean, he's an honest guy.
Speaker 1: Maybe he hasn't taken a look at the cost of
Speaker 1: those replacement parts yet, or ask him, is there something
Speaker 1: bizarre going inside that don't that will preclude using the
Speaker 1: standard replacement parts. So I don't want to impugne him,
Speaker 1: but I'm just telling you, ninety nine times out of
Speaker 1: one hundred, we can replace the guts of a toilet
Speaker 1: for like thirty bucks and boom, it's brand new and
Speaker 1: ready to go. Lou, thanks for your question, buddy, really
Speaker 1: really good question.
Speaker 3: All right, let's talk to Anna.
Speaker 8: Welcome home, Anna Hidan, Thank you so much for taking
Speaker 8: my call. I had a question about tiles. I have
Speaker 8: these beautiful. I think they're called Turkish tiles, and they
Speaker 8: have these lovely crevices and dents and just little talk
Speaker 8: marks and holes in them, and I love the look,
Speaker 8: but I'm thinking of putting it in the kitchen, and
Speaker 8: I don't want my food and everything else getting stuck
Speaker 8: in those holes. And I don't know what to do.
Speaker 1: So when you say Turkish tile, were we just talking
Speaker 1: about the shape of the tile?
Speaker 8: I was looking them up online. I think another name
Speaker 8: is travertine.
Speaker 1: Oh, okay, so they're made out of travertine. Okay, so yeah,
Speaker 1: this is a pit and you were thinking about using
Speaker 1: them on the countertop.
Speaker 3: No, on the floor, Oh, on the floor of the kitchen. Okay.
Speaker 3: Travertine is a gorgeous material. Okay.
Speaker 1: Travertine is kind of a stone, that is it is, Well,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to get all crazy scientific. Travertine is
Speaker 1: kind of a fossilized limestone. It kind of bridges the
Speaker 1: gap between limestone and marble. And there's a lot of
Speaker 1: fossilization in travertine. It's what gives its its it's attractive nature,
Speaker 1: but it also is what creates all the pitting in travertine.
Speaker 1: It is a very highly textured surface, as you know.
Speaker 1: So you only have a couple of choices when it
Speaker 1: comes to travertine and maintenance.
Speaker 3: You either a.
Speaker 1: Purchase a travertine in which the pitting has been filled
Speaker 1: with resins epoxy resins, so that there really isn't any pitting,
Speaker 1: but that's not really common with travertine, and it's not
Speaker 1: the easiest thing to do in your case. Your choice
Speaker 1: is this A you just keep that floor sealed like crazy. Now,
Speaker 1: ceiling is going to keep stains from developing, but it's
Speaker 1: not going to keep food and dirt out of the pits,
Speaker 1: because that's just called gravity and that's just going to happen.
Speaker 1: The other option you've got, though with travertine is that
Speaker 1: when you actually have your tile set or set it,
Speaker 1: they can not only grout the joints in between the ale,
Speaker 1: but they can do a swash of grout across the
Speaker 1: surface and fill the pits in with the grout that
Speaker 1: you're using in the grout joints.
Speaker 3: That will at least like.
Speaker 8: Level the pits the look.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So that's the thing. If you like the holes
Speaker 1: and you like the pits, and that's the that's the
Speaker 1: paradox of travertine. You're gonna have to put up with
Speaker 1: a little bit more annoyance when it comes to cleaning.
Speaker 1: That's all there is to it. If you're gonna have
Speaker 1: pitted areas in your floor tile, you keep it vacuumed,
Speaker 1: you keep it swept, and keep it clean. And it's
Speaker 1: going to require some more maintenance. And you know that's
Speaker 1: that's not me discouraging you from using it. Because Tina
Speaker 1: and I quite often we will explain thoroughly to a client. Listen,
Speaker 1: we would love for you to use this material, but
Speaker 1: this is going to require more maintenance than not. That's
Speaker 1: not a deal breaker. It should never be a deal breaker.
Speaker 1: It should simply be something that you go into with
Speaker 1: your eyes open, fully aware. You know, I don't want
Speaker 1: people to put in artificial turf. Here's a perfect analogy.
Speaker 1: I don't want people to put in artificial turf to
Speaker 1: replace their front lawn or their backyard. I don't mind
Speaker 1: artificial turf you have, like a little putting green or
Speaker 1: a sport cord or something, but not to replace your lawn. Now,
Speaker 1: I get it. Artificial turf requires zero maintenance. It's also
Speaker 1: look okay, I'm not gonna comment anymore on artificial turf,
Speaker 1: so I want you to have grass there instead, But
Speaker 1: grass needs watering and fertilizing and weeding and mowing. Is
Speaker 1: it worth it to me? Absolutely, no question whatsoever. So
Speaker 1: are there hard scape materials that we put inside the
Speaker 1: house sometimes which need more maintenance than others?
Speaker 3: Yes? Is the beauty and the look and the effect
Speaker 3: worth it?
Speaker 8: Absolutely And I can't use an epoxy myself. Can I
Speaker 8: use the epoxy like you mentioned, if I already bought
Speaker 8: the tiles with the holes, can I use epoxy to
Speaker 8: fill the holes?
Speaker 3: You can.
Speaker 1: You've got to do it super carefully, though, because anybody
Speaker 1: epoxy residue that you get on the surface of the
Speaker 1: travertine is going to mar the finish of the rest
Speaker 1: of the travertine. But it sounds like to me when
Speaker 1: I even suggested you filling it up with grout, which
Speaker 1: is the easier way to do it, to fill up
Speaker 1: those holes with grout, If you're going to fill up
Speaker 1: the holes with epoxy, you're still filling up the holes,
Speaker 1: so you're losing that pitting effect that you want so much.
Speaker 1: So the main issue I think, Anna is that is
Speaker 1: that you're going to have to decide do you want
Speaker 1: the look and is it worth the maintenance to deal
Speaker 1: with the pitting or do you just not so whether
Speaker 1: you fill it with epoxy resin or whether you fill
Speaker 1: it with grout. Either way you're going to fill up
Speaker 1: the holes. That's going to change the appearance of the tile.
Speaker 1: How about some more of your calls when we return.
Speaker 1: You are listening to Home with Dean Sharp the house Whisper.
Speaker 5: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 5: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 3: Brent, welcome home.
Speaker 9: Hey, how you doing?
Speaker 4: Dan?
Speaker 3: Good good?
Speaker 9: I have a question about the safety handrails in bathrooms. Okay,
Speaker 9: I've noticed at the home depot and stuff that they
Speaker 9: don't come in sixteen in intervals, like the studs.
Speaker 6: In the wall.
Speaker 9: Yes, how would I attach those to the wall without
Speaker 9: breaking them off if I fall?
Speaker 1: That's a really good question. Yeah, questions. Yeah, you've got
Speaker 1: two choices here. Number One, whenever we rig out a
Speaker 1: bathroom for potential handrail safety rails, whether present or future,
Speaker 1: safety rails will when we frame the bathroom out, we
Speaker 1: will locate where we want those rails and we put
Speaker 1: solid blocking in between the studs at the height and
Speaker 1: at the width of where we want those future rails
Speaker 1: to be. That way, we don't have to depend on
Speaker 1: the studs all by themselves. Uh and uh, and we
Speaker 1: simply uh, we've got all wood there, so a flat
Speaker 1: two by block in between studs all the way across. Now,
Speaker 1: if you're really serious about mounting your rails appropriately there
Speaker 1: wherever you want to mount them, than what you want
Speaker 1: to do is you're going to want to remove a
Speaker 1: little dry wall and uh and actually put in that
Speaker 1: solid blocking so that you can screw those rails in
Speaker 1: exactly where they need to go. The other option is,
Speaker 1: and sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't, is you can
Speaker 1: put a you know, a sloped angle on a grab bar.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's actually convenient if there's one adjacent to a
Speaker 1: toilet or adjacent to a shower, to actually put a
Speaker 1: little slope on it. In some ways it's easier to access,
Speaker 1: especially if the angle is kind of facing you, and
Speaker 1: by by putting a little bit of angle on the
Speaker 1: grab bar. Now understand when I say this that that
Speaker 1: that this is a This is not the recommended American
Speaker 1: Disabilities Act methodology for doing this, but there is no
Speaker 1: direct requirement in a residential bathroom for ADA compliance to
Speaker 1: grab bars. So the point is you're free to put
Speaker 1: the grab bars anywhere you want, because you're not talking
Speaker 1: about a commercial bathroom. There are the recommendations horizontal in
Speaker 1: certain locations, but if you need to angle it that way,
Speaker 1: you can actually get a grab bar sometimes that is
Speaker 1: longer than a stud a couple of stud bays to
Speaker 1: actually hit the stud left and right, because by angling
Speaker 1: it you're shortening the overall width of the of the
Speaker 1: bar application. But the primary method for doing it is
Speaker 1: to solid block the wall.
Speaker 9: Well, I don't really want to tear apart my bathroom, right,
Speaker 9: but I thought about using the angles, but I wasn't
Speaker 9: quite sure of that. Now can the bars themselves be
Speaker 9: cut to fit?
Speaker 3: Some bars can?
Speaker 1: And yet another good point here there are some bars
Speaker 1: that you can find, whether or not they're available at
Speaker 1: your local hardware store. You can find some bars who's
Speaker 1: radius right at the end is actually an insert, okay,
Speaker 1: into the main tube. They have to be careful. These
Speaker 1: can't just be any cheap old towel bar situation. But
Speaker 1: there are bars ADA approved that have reinforced ends inserts,
Speaker 1: and that means that the actual curve back or return
Speaker 1: to the wall is separate than the main tube, and
Speaker 1: that way you could take that main tube, cut it
Speaker 1: to size as necessary to fit your stud bay, and
Speaker 1: get at least a couple of those main anchoring screws
Speaker 1: right into the studs. But you got to find those online.
Speaker 1: Do a little searching around, but they're there.
Speaker 9: Okay, Well, I thank you so much for helping me.
Speaker 1: You are so very welcome, sir, and have yourself a
Speaker 1: great Sunday.
Speaker 3: Let's talk to Gary. Hey, Gary, welcome home.
Speaker 10: Moved into a new house, and my dryer is not
Speaker 10: drying the clothes.
Speaker 3: Check it out.
Speaker 9: That's all fine.
Speaker 10: It goes through the wall, forty five goes up eight feet,
Speaker 10: another forty five goes out ten feet, so that puts
Speaker 10: me at about twenty eight feet, and I've read that
Speaker 10: it should be at thirty five feet. But it's just
Speaker 10: not getting enough.
Speaker 9: I don't know.
Speaker 10: I've run a camera the garden blower through their vacuum cleaner,
Speaker 10: so it's clean. What are your ideas other than put
Speaker 10: it in a booster fan.
Speaker 1: I have no ideas other than putting in a booster fan,
Speaker 1: because putting in a booster fan is what you should
Speaker 1: do when they give you ratings about how far a
Speaker 1: dryer vent can go. You know, you take that, you know,
Speaker 1: with a grain of salt, because a dryer is not
Speaker 1: a high pressure air blowing scenario. And you got to
Speaker 1: think you got all that humidity, all that moist air
Speaker 1: in there, and now we're asking it not only to
Speaker 1: travel twenty plus feet away from the dryer, which is
Speaker 1: enough on some dryers to just shut down their effectiveness
Speaker 1: right there, even if it was purely horizontal, but in
Speaker 1: addition to that, you're asking it to turn a couple
Speaker 1: of corners and go up eight feet vertical all at
Speaker 1: the same time. In my opinion, it is absolutely too
Speaker 1: far to ask that moist are to go on the
Speaker 1: part of the dryer. But the good news is, as
Speaker 1: you are already aware, there are these things that when
Speaker 1: we run an extra long dryer vent out of necessity
Speaker 1: from design or the access in a laundry room and
Speaker 1: or a garage area, there are dryer vent booster fans,
Speaker 1: and they are air activated or switch activated along with
Speaker 1: the dryer. They turn on when the dryer's on, they
Speaker 1: turn on when the dryer's off. And yeah, so what
Speaker 1: you need is a mechanical boost to the air flowing
Speaker 1: so that you get the moisture out of the dryer.
Speaker 1: Bottom line, booster fan is the way to go. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: that's the only proper solution in that situation. But fortunately,
Speaker 1: you know, they don't necessarily break the bank to install them,
Speaker 1: and they're pretty easy to put in.
Speaker 10: I just didn't want to climb up in the attic biletricity.
Speaker 10: I was hoping I could find one that I could
Speaker 10: just put right at the bottom of the dryer.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Their best, Yeah, no, they're they're actually best, you know. Okay,
Speaker 1: so you remember hot wheels. You know, I had a
Speaker 1: hot wheel set when I was a kid, and they
Speaker 1: in order to in order to keep your hot wheels
Speaker 1: going on the track, there used to be this little
Speaker 1: booster station, which are these two little discs that spin
Speaker 1: and they grab the car right as it's starting to
Speaker 1: kind of poop out on the energy, and that throws
Speaker 1: it forward and you can just keep your hot wheels
Speaker 1: going in the loop all day long. The booster fan
Speaker 1: is not best at the dryer. It's it's best somewhere
Speaker 1: along the way, like at the halfway point or maybe
Speaker 1: a little further along, right as it's all starting to
Speaker 1: you know, to lose its momentum. That's where the fan
Speaker 1: is going to be most effective. You're going to have
Speaker 1: to get up in the attic and put that birthister
Speaker 1: fan up there. Thanks for your call, Gary, I appreciate
Speaker 1: your spirit. And yeah, booster fan on the dryer vent.
Speaker 1: Do not run your dryer event a half mile away
Speaker 1: from your dryer and expect it to expect the air,
Speaker 1: which is just passive air coming out of the dryer
Speaker 1: to blow all the lint and the moisture out. It's
Speaker 1: not going to work. You are listening to Home with
Speaker 1: Dean Sharp, the house Whisper.
Speaker 5: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 5: KFI Am six forty.
Speaker 1: We are taking your calls, which I love. I love
Speaker 1: talking to you about whatever's going on with your home today,
Speaker 1: whether it's a DIY question, construction issue, a design question.
Speaker 1: I love design questions. So anyway, I would love to help.
Speaker 1: So why don't we just dive back in. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk to Paul. Hey, Paul, welcome home.
Speaker 5: Hey, good morning, Dean.
Speaker 7: Thanks for getting my call.
Speaker 3: Props.
Speaker 4: So I'm building a fire.
Speaker 7: Pit in the backyard and I'd like to run the
Speaker 7: gas line before I have a concrete pad port over it.
Speaker 7: So my question is what diameter pipe do I need
Speaker 7: to use.
Speaker 1: That's a good question. It really all depends on how
Speaker 1: big the fire pit is. It's just kind of a
Speaker 1: standard little twenty four thirty six diameter fire pit. Then
Speaker 1: you could get away with a half inch line, but
Speaker 1: since it's all new, I prefer to run a three
Speaker 1: quarter inch line. I've got a three quarter inch line
Speaker 1: running to my fire pit. Of course, my fire pit,
Speaker 1: the rock itself is about eight and a half feet long,
Speaker 1: and the actual burners are two four foot a pair
Speaker 1: of two four foot linear burners, so there's a lot
Speaker 1: of fire there line of fire. But as a general rule,
Speaker 1: you know, I like fire pits to be warm. I
Speaker 1: like fire at my fire pit because the whole point
Speaker 1: of a fire pit is not just to sit next
Speaker 1: to one when it's eighty degrees outside in the middle
Speaker 1: of summer, but to be able to enjoy it when
Speaker 1: it's cold outside. And when it's cold outside, you need
Speaker 1: more than just a little trickle of flame coming out.
Speaker 1: So I would say run the three quarter inch line.
Speaker 1: But and here's the important qualifier to that, you run
Speaker 1: a three quarter inch line. You're not gonna want to
Speaker 1: run it most of the time at full bore. And
Speaker 1: so the key, the gas key that you're turning your
Speaker 1: firepit on and off with, you shouldn't use that to
Speaker 1: choke down the gas because if you do, it's so
Speaker 1: close to where the gas comes out of the actual
Speaker 1: burner that you're gonna get a hiss or a whistling
Speaker 1: sound because of gas cavitation in the line. So pick
Speaker 1: you know, wherever the gas line is coming out of
Speaker 1: the house, away from the house, or you know, take
Speaker 1: twenty thirty feet away from the fire pit, run a
Speaker 1: three quarter inch line, and then put a linear valve
Speaker 1: right there. Then you can control the flow of the
Speaker 1: line and then use your key at the fire pit
Speaker 1: to just full on, full off. If you put a valve,
Speaker 1: a flow control valve a twenty feet plus away, then
Speaker 1: the cavitation by the time it reaches the fire pit
Speaker 1: has settled down and you can set it to any
Speaker 1: intensity you want from the very faintest of flame all
Speaker 1: the way to the bonfire and you'll get no change
Speaker 1: in sound whatsoever. So my suggestion, yeah, I run the
Speaker 1: three quarter inch line and give yourself some options. Paul
Speaker 1: Thanks for your call, buddy. All Right, man, three hours
Speaker 1: just blazes by, doesn't it. What a great time on
Speaker 1: the program today. Thanks for all of our callers, thanks
Speaker 1: for our crew here, and again, just hope you're gonna
Speaker 1: have a fantastic rest of your afternoon. I'm going to
Speaker 1: leave you with this thought today. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you've noticed, but the world can be an emotionally hazardous place. Oh,
Speaker 1: which is why one of the greatest treasures of my
Speaker 1: life is the precious handful of relationships in which I
Speaker 1: know it is safe to be fully myself, fully honest,
Speaker 1: without fear of rejection. When we think about our tribe,
Speaker 1: the people to whom we belong, I think we often
Speaker 1: miss the point of tribe. Tribe is so often understood
Speaker 1: as a function of family of origin, or lifestyle or
Speaker 1: belief system. But what I have learned about finding my
Speaker 1: tribe is that none of those traditional categories hold up
Speaker 1: under real pressure. Just because somebody grew up in the
Speaker 1: same home with you does not make them your people.
Speaker 1: Just because somebody looks like you, lives like you, is
Speaker 1: at the same financial level as you, believes like you,
Speaker 1: or votes like you, doesn't make them your people. Your
Speaker 1: people are the people with whom you can, for lack
Speaker 1: of a better term, be naked and unafraid with. Your
Speaker 1: people are the people who accept you and get you
Speaker 1: and truly value you. Regardless of whether those other factors
Speaker 1: are in play. The only creed they need to confess,
Speaker 1: The only litmus test is you. Those people are your people. Now,
Speaker 1: how do you find those people well? To be honest,
Speaker 1: I am not exactly sure letting go of the false
Speaker 1: concepts of tribe would be a good start, but I
Speaker 1: think it also starts with being one of those people yourself,
Speaker 1: and most of all, nurturing a relationship with that one
Speaker 1: person at the top of the list from whom you
Speaker 1: need the most honesty and the most unconditional acceptance.
Speaker 3: And of course I'm talking about you.
Speaker 1: Self loathing, self condemnation, self doubt, self shaming, and endlessly
Speaker 1: rehearsing the long list of reasons why you are a fraud,
Speaker 1: why you don't measure up, why you aren't worth it,
Speaker 1: why you don't deserve it, why you need to do
Speaker 1: such and such or be more like so and so
Speaker 1: in order to prove your worth. It's exhausting, and we
Speaker 1: all do it, but Strangely, not liking or accepting yourself
Speaker 1: somehow feels like wisdom and tough love. But the truth is,
Speaker 1: I mean, the real truth. None of it has ever helped,
Speaker 1: has it not ever?
Speaker 3: Not once? Why?
Speaker 1: Because it's not wisdom or keen insight or honesty or
Speaker 1: tough love. It's actually self abuse. Now, I don't know
Speaker 1: why it takes so long for most of us, me included,
Speaker 1: to truly become our own best friends. All I know
Speaker 1: is the day that that begins to happen, and is
Speaker 1: the day life truly begins. That is the day that
Speaker 1: you're ready to recognize your tribe. Perhaps they're not here yet,
Speaker 1: perhaps they've been here all along. Fortunately, you don't have
Speaker 1: to be the first person in your life to love
Speaker 1: and accept you. You weren't actually, But you do have
Speaker 1: to be the first member of your own fan club
Speaker 1: before others are allowed to join in. Is that selfish? No,
Speaker 1: it's self care. It's what every lifeguard, first responder, and
Speaker 1: flight attendant knows about how to save others. In case
Speaker 1: of cabin depressurization, oxygen masks will drop from the compartment above.
Speaker 1: Please fix your own mask first before helping those next
Speaker 1: to you, because you know what, if you're chasing someone
Speaker 1: else's misplaced belief of what it means to be a hero,
Speaker 1: it may kill you both. Honestly, the greatest gift you
Speaker 1: can ever give yourself is your own friendship, a friendship
Speaker 1: filled with regular day time for you to be with you,
Speaker 1: time for self reflection, wrapped up in complete and utter honesty,
Speaker 1: but without judgment. That is not always easy, but it's
Speaker 1: always healthy. Everything meaningful in life must learn to survive honesty.
Speaker 1: Your tribe will survive your honesty. You will survive your honesty.
Speaker 1: Honesty and acceptance. Or how you build a great relationship
Speaker 1: honesty and acceptance, or how you build a whole safety
Speaker 1: net of relationships honesty with an acceptance of yourself, Well,
Speaker 1: that is how you build yourself a beautiful life. Everybody,
Speaker 1: enjoy the rest of today, and we'll see you right
Speaker 1: back here next week. 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
Speaker 1: Pacific time, and every Sunday morning from nine to noon
Speaker 1: Pacific time, or any time on demand on the iHeartRadio app.