Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp the
Speaker 1: House Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio app. Thanks
Speaker 1: for joining us on the program today. It is an
Speaker 1: all calls weekend. We are just going to the phones.
Speaker 1: You're setting the agenda today. The number to reach me
Speaker 1: eight three three two ask Dean, Hey, Jeff, Welcome home
Speaker 1: by Dean.
Speaker 2: Yes, I had a question for you. I've got this
Speaker 2: crack that's going across in my slab. I've got part
Speaker 2: concrete slab on my house foundation in it in the hallway,
Speaker 2: it goes a little bit into the bedroom, so it's
Speaker 2: just like a crack. And I've been wanting to lay
Speaker 2: some flooring there. I had a flying person in there
Speaker 2: checking it out, and they said they couldn't do it
Speaker 2: because they had the one the kind of flying that
Speaker 2: sticks to this lab. So I just wonder, is that
Speaker 2: something I need to get sixed before I can lay
Speaker 2: some flooring?
Speaker 1: Like, okay, so you're going to be using floating flooring,
Speaker 1: a laminate or a luxury vinyl plank, something that floats,
Speaker 1: something that doesn't stick down.
Speaker 2: I'd like to use something, you know, a crossair or
Speaker 2: even get it repaired.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, So yeah, yeah, a couple of questions
Speaker 1: now about the crack. You say it runs down the
Speaker 1: hallway and then into a bedroom. How wide is the crack?
Speaker 1: Is it what we call spider crack, just a nice long,
Speaker 1: ugly crack or has it spread open? And is their
Speaker 1: uplift meaning is one side now taller than the other
Speaker 1: or has it just opened up? You know, that's what
Speaker 1: we need to know about this crack, because not all
Speaker 1: cracks are created equal, and not all cracks are actually
Speaker 1: a concern on it from a structural perspective, and the
Speaker 1: way that we approach filling them up or ignoring them
Speaker 1: has everything to do with the nature of the concrete
Speaker 1: crack itself. So describe it to me a little bit
Speaker 1: more detailed.
Speaker 2: Then carbon covered with some cheap carpets for the last
Speaker 2: couple of years that when I last looked at it,
Speaker 2: I would have to say it was just a bit uneven,
Speaker 2: you know, not open to anything, Just a crack across
Speaker 2: the floor and just a tiny bit uneven on each side,
Speaker 2: if that makes sense.
Speaker 1: Okay, So, so it hasn't actually opened up. It's just
Speaker 1: a crack. It's it's just a crack. That's running. And uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the cracks can typically be a little uneven
Speaker 1: with each other. I mean, you know, once once a
Speaker 1: crack occurs. But when I'm talking about uplift, is one
Speaker 1: side like an eighth of an inch or a quarter
Speaker 1: inch or worse higher than the other or uh is
Speaker 1: it just you know, uneven concrete? Uh, you know, on
Speaker 1: each side of the crack.
Speaker 2: Not even an inside of an inch re quarter of
Speaker 2: an inch right in that area.
Speaker 1: Okay, it sounds to me like this is not an
Speaker 1: issue of any significant concern. People are always shocked when
Speaker 1: they find cracks in their concrete slab, and people quite
Speaker 1: often get really concerned that, oh no, okay, my foundation
Speaker 1: is failing. But here's the thing that we say in
Speaker 1: the industry, there are there are only two kinds of
Speaker 1: concrete in the world, concrete with cracks and concrete that
Speaker 1: hasn't cracked yet. It's just the nature of concrete for
Speaker 1: it to experience that kind of stuff. Probably everybody listening
Speaker 1: to us right now who has a concrete slab in
Speaker 1: their house has got a crack somewhere, if not more
Speaker 1: than one place. That doesn't mean the house is failing.
Speaker 1: So what we look for when we get word of
Speaker 1: a crack that has to be re paired, we want
Speaker 1: to hear if the crack has opened up. I mean like,
Speaker 1: if there's a gap now from one side to the other,
Speaker 1: that's something that is that has to be looked at.
Speaker 1: Or if one side of the concrete has raised up
Speaker 1: above the other side of the concrete what we call uplift, uh,
Speaker 1: then that's something to be concerned about. That that at
Speaker 1: least has to be looked at. Even those, by the way,
Speaker 1: does not mean that it's a failure and that can't
Speaker 1: be fixed. When there's when there is a spreading of
Speaker 1: a crack, an opening of a gap, but there's no
Speaker 1: uplift and the and the spreading of the crack is minimal,
Speaker 1: but there is a gap there, then we can come
Speaker 1: in with with high pressure concrete epoxy and simply fill
Speaker 1: that crack over and you end up making that crack
Speaker 1: actually stronger than the concrete around it once it gets filled.
Speaker 1: If this though is not opened up, if there's no
Speaker 1: gap and there's barely any disturbance or uplift at all,
Speaker 1: then it's what we would call a spider crack. And
Speaker 1: if you're concerned at all about like an uneven level there.
Speaker 1: Then a little bit of flooring leveler can be applied
Speaker 1: to the concrete just to hit the edge that's a
Speaker 1: little disrupted, and then feathered out over a foot or
Speaker 1: so to nothing, so that any flooring that you want,
Speaker 1: be a tile or hardwood or something that glues down,
Speaker 1: will have a smooth surface to work on. But if
Speaker 1: you're planning on putting in a floating floor, you know,
Speaker 1: carpet was a floating floor. It lays there, floats over
Speaker 1: the surface of the of the concrete and only connects
Speaker 1: on the edges. A luxury vinyl plank floor is a
Speaker 1: floating floor basically lays there like a carpet, so is
Speaker 1: a laminate floor. If that's the plan and this is
Speaker 1: a minimal, minimal, minimal disturbance edge, then the fact of
Speaker 1: the matter is you probably don't have to do anything
Speaker 1: at all or worry about it in any way, shape
Speaker 1: or form, because the floor is just going to float
Speaker 1: over it, cover it over and it shouldn't be an issue.
Speaker 1: So don't be alarmed just because there's a crack. Only
Speaker 1: be alarmed if we have a crack in which the
Speaker 1: concrete is gaping open, or one side is uplifting from
Speaker 1: the other, because that becomes an indication that there may
Speaker 1: be some deeper concerns that have to be looked at
Speaker 1: by a professional, but not just typical spider cracking, especially
Speaker 1: on an older slab, because it's gonna happen, my friend,
Speaker 1: It's going to happen.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. I appreciate all that information.
Speaker 1: You are so welcome, Jeff, thank you for the call.
Speaker 3: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 3: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: All calls weekends are great because we can kind of
Speaker 1: catch up with everybody and just have fun listening to
Speaker 1: what's going on with your home. If you didn't get
Speaker 1: through today or I didn't get to you, then just
Speaker 1: stick with us. Give me a call next Saturday, next Sunday.
Speaker 1: You'll get through. Persistence matters, you will make it through.
Speaker 1: But I do want to get back to the phone,
Speaker 1: so let's talk to Evan. Evan, welcome home.
Speaker 4: So my problem is I had a waterline break the
Speaker 4: other night in my house. It's flooded the square bedroom
Speaker 4: and bathroom and the hallway all the way into where
Speaker 4: the dining room and living room is. It bought the
Speaker 4: floor and so my insurance adjuster is telling me they
Speaker 4: can't match it. I won't be able to match it.
Speaker 4: So they're going to pay to replace the entire wood
Speaker 4: floor area in the house.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 4: And my question to you is people are telling me
Speaker 4: to go with Vinyl laminae, to go with a hard
Speaker 4: another hardwood, and I'm asking what your recommendations might be.
Speaker 1: Okay, really good question. So Evan, what was the water
Speaker 1: line that busted? Is it in the slab? Is it
Speaker 1: something overhead? Tell them give me a little more specific overhead.
Speaker 5: It was overhead.
Speaker 4: It was over fine, and the joint failed and it
Speaker 4: was raining in that My wife boke bea but ten
Speaker 4: thirty at night and said, the house is flooding and
Speaker 4: it was just literally flooding out of the Yeah, the
Speaker 4: overhead fan, the air conditioning vent around it. It was
Speaker 4: just raining water everywhere.
Speaker 1: What a mess. I'm sorry to hear that. Okay, here's
Speaker 1: the thing. If you are if you guys wanted hardwood,
Speaker 1: if you've always wanted hardwood, if hardwood is the thing,
Speaker 1: I know your gun you're feeling gun shy because of
Speaker 1: this disaster that just happened. But if we're confident that
Speaker 1: we've addressed the problem, addressed the leak. If we're confident
Speaker 1: with the rest of the system, then you don't go
Speaker 1: back with hardwood again. I'm not a I am not
Speaker 1: a big fan of compromising the design of a house
Speaker 1: just because we get gun shy or we're afraid as
Speaker 1: the result of an accident that has happened before. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, It's kind of like it's like,
Speaker 1: it's like, you know, the kids on the skateboard outside,
Speaker 1: he falls and and he broke his leg. Okay, we
Speaker 1: get it. We're riding a skateboard that can happen. Once
Speaker 1: the leg heals, the parents who now wrap that kid
Speaker 1: up in like six layers of insulating foam on all
Speaker 1: the legs and has an oversized helmet and goggles, and
Speaker 1: you know, it's kind of like the kid who wears
Speaker 1: a helmet and goggles when they goes to chess club
Speaker 1: because the chance there's there's a chance one of those
Speaker 1: pieces could fly off the board and put an eye out.
Speaker 4: So to make that mean, we just just had new
Speaker 4: carpet and new wood grain ceramic tile put in the
Speaker 4: bathrooms two weeks ago. Okay, it's like, well, do we
Speaker 4: match the ceramic tile, and I'm like, well, the people
Speaker 4: that insallve it with the price is going to be
Speaker 4: like thirty grand to do it, So I don't think
Speaker 4: the wood forest thing replaced that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you know you, insurance is going to pay
Speaker 1: for and should pay pay out for the replacement of
Speaker 1: what you've got. So if it's hardwood, they should write
Speaker 1: you a check equivalent to redoing it all in replacing hardwood.
Speaker 1: If you want to move up to the ceramic tile.
Speaker 1: From a design perspective, that kind of, you know, kills
Speaker 1: two birds with one stone in that a ceramic plank
Speaker 1: floor is going to be bomb proofed throughout the whole
Speaker 1: house and continuous flooring so that there's no change in
Speaker 1: between the house proper and the bathrooms. But again that
Speaker 1: isn't a necessity. So yeah, if you put in luxury
Speaker 1: vinyl plank, that's what we're talking about. If you put
Speaker 1: in luxury vinyl plank, yeah, it is now waterproof and
Speaker 1: bomb proof throughout the whole house, and if there was
Speaker 1: another accident then it's not going to ruin a luxury
Speaker 1: vinyl plank floor. However, luxury vinyl plank is not the
Speaker 1: same as real hardwood. It is an emulation of hardwood.
Speaker 1: It's really good looking stuff. It's also way cheaper than hardwood.
Speaker 1: So I think you guys just have to sit down
Speaker 1: and make a decision of both financially and design wise,
Speaker 1: which way you want to go with this. I can't
Speaker 1: really push you one direction or the other because there's
Speaker 1: no right answer to it. The fact of the matter is,
Speaker 1: if we were always afraid that a pipe would burst
Speaker 1: in any house, we'd never put hardwood in any house ever,
Speaker 1: right because it's moisture sensitive and there's just no way
Speaker 1: around that right now. We don't have the technology to
Speaker 1: get around that right now. So I want you to
Speaker 1: have confidence in your plumbing system. I want your plumbing
Speaker 1: system rechecked, okay, especially if it's a peck system. Those
Speaker 1: joints should not be failing. So if you're confident that, okay,
Speaker 1: the plumbing issue has been resolved, then I know, you know,
Speaker 1: it's always natural to feel gunshy after a big blow,
Speaker 1: but you know, why not put hardwood back? If hardwood
Speaker 1: is what you really want, Luxury vinyl plank is great.
Speaker 1: So just to be clear, the insurance company should is
Speaker 1: obligated to replace everything at the cost of the hardwood.
Speaker 1: If you want to turn around, then and do the
Speaker 1: luxury vinyl plank and save yourself some money as you
Speaker 1: go great, Or take the payout for the hardwood and
Speaker 1: then throw a little extra of yours in and go
Speaker 1: porcelain plank everywhere. That's a good way too. Both of
Speaker 1: those choices would be bomb proof, and the hardwood choice
Speaker 1: gets you back to where you would go. So those
Speaker 1: are really your three options, and it's ultimately a design
Speaker 1: decision for you and your wife to work out. Just
Speaker 1: try to avoid feeling gun shy because you just had
Speaker 1: this disaster. I know that's a hard thing to do,
Speaker 1: but do your best with it. Evan, thanks for the call, buddy.
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 3: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 3: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: It's an all calls day. It is it you set
Speaker 1: the agenda. Anything that is going on with your home,
Speaker 1: whether it be construction issues, DIY questions, design concerns, anything
Speaker 1: at all. The phone lines are open. I am here
Speaker 1: to help you sort it all out. We'll put our
Speaker 1: heads together and we'll get it sorted. I promise. Here
Speaker 1: is the number to reach me, and these lines are
Speaker 1: open now. The number to reach me eight three three two.
Speaker 1: Ask Dean eight three three two, ask Dean. You see
Speaker 1: it just rolls out the dump, So let's get to it. Ronan,
Speaker 1: welcome home.
Speaker 6: Thank you, sir, Thank you for taking my call. Well,
Speaker 6: we had the house bolters underneath the house and they
Speaker 6: told us that the shower in our boys room was leaking.
Speaker 6: They could see that with the water damages. So we
Speaker 6: brought in a team and they did the demo on
Speaker 6: the shower pan. The problem is that the whole bathroom
Speaker 6: the house was built probably in the late twenties, early thirties,
Speaker 6: and the whole bathroom has the same beautiful tile that
Speaker 6: I want to keep. It's, you know, it's not just
Speaker 6: in the shower, it's and then the rest of the
Speaker 6: bathroom and the floor and the walls and all that stuff.
Speaker 6: So I was hoping to try to save the tile
Speaker 6: in the shower, and I had them take off the
Speaker 6: first couple of feet so they can do the hot
Speaker 6: mop and you know, and rebuild the base and do
Speaker 6: the hot mop and then we'll just do a different tile,
Speaker 6: just a black tile on the floor because there's some
Speaker 6: black tower in the shower. But my buddy had any
Speaker 6: very worried that I'm making a mistake and the water
Speaker 6: can still potentially get inside. Oh no, if it's a mistake.
Speaker 1: No, I don't think it's a mistake. What you're doing.
Speaker 1: You just have to make sure that the people who
Speaker 1: are doing the work know exactly what they're doing. I
Speaker 1: don't think it's a mistake at all, because I totally
Speaker 1: get you. I mean, you've got a century home. You
Speaker 1: want to preserve that beautiful ben but you got to
Speaker 1: replace the shower pan, right, and so the way to
Speaker 1: do that is the shower pan has to go. That
Speaker 1: has to be redone. And then, you know it sounds
Speaker 1: like you've done it exactly right. Go a couple of
Speaker 1: feet up the wall, remove that tile, make a clean break,
Speaker 1: and then the wall itself, the wall tile has got
Speaker 1: it's got roofing paper behind it. Basically that is shutting
Speaker 1: down water. If that has not been a source of
Speaker 1: leaking or any issues like that, then carefully laying your
Speaker 1: your new hot mop, shower pan, or whatever material you
Speaker 1: decide to use under you know, tucking it up underneath
Speaker 1: that upper course of roofing paper and then just ceiling
Speaker 1: the heck out of it, uh and fixing any potential
Speaker 1: cracks and or tears that occurred in the roofing paper
Speaker 1: in the whole process. In other words, if you can
Speaker 1: get that tucked up underneath so that the overlap is
Speaker 1: is solid, then you should be good to go. You
Speaker 1: really should be good to go. And and here's the
Speaker 1: here's the thing. You don't have to wait until you
Speaker 1: retile to find out if you've done it right. And
Speaker 1: that's really really important for you to know. Again, this
Speaker 1: is a situation where, uh, you know, the tile was
Speaker 1: never the thing that was waterproofing the shower. It was
Speaker 1: simply you know, the first line of defense. But water
Speaker 1: gets behind tile, water gets into the grout lines, and
Speaker 1: it gets into the thin set the mortar behind the tile. Ultimately,
Speaker 1: the thing that's waterproofing that shower is that paper, is
Speaker 1: that roofing paper that's running up the walls. So once
Speaker 1: the new shower pan has been repaired and put in,
Speaker 1: before the new tile goes in, okay, before any tile
Speaker 1: goes in, you can run the water in that shower
Speaker 1: and run it at length, let water just directly hit
Speaker 1: that roofing paper and the tie in and the new
Speaker 1: hot mop or whatever it is that you're doing there.
Speaker 1: Let it run, Get somebody underneath the house to make
Speaker 1: sure that there are no leaks, no sign whatsoever. You
Speaker 1: could run it for an hour or two and simply
Speaker 1: let the water run to make sure that the tie
Speaker 1: in has no leaks in it. And if you don't
Speaker 1: see any water intrusion after that period of time, then
Speaker 1: you've got the green light to go ahead and put
Speaker 1: the mortar and finish tiling up that job.
Speaker 6: That's a great idea. I did never would have thought
Speaker 6: of that, and I feel so yes.
Speaker 1: There you go, yeah, yeah, yeah, you don't have to
Speaker 1: go into it blind, just to go ahead and test
Speaker 1: it once you're at the membrane stage, because the membrane
Speaker 1: is the thing that's doing the work anyway, and uh,
Speaker 1: and that way, if you get a leak, you can
Speaker 1: deal with it right then and there, uh and not
Speaker 1: be you know, worried about about it. But yeah, we
Speaker 1: do that kind of thing all the time, just fyi wan,
Speaker 1: especially when it comes to a century home restoration and repair.
Speaker 1: So I understand your friend's concerns. Totally understand it. But
Speaker 1: it can be done right, It can be done properly,
Speaker 1: and it shouldn't be a problem down the road. Ronan,
Speaker 1: thanks for your question and for your call. All right,
Speaker 1: let's dive back in. Let's talk to Karen. Karen, welcome home.
Speaker 5: Is there a way to stop cats from jumping on
Speaker 5: the roof? Okay, I have it. There's a we have
Speaker 5: a flat roof, and they they climb on the fence
Speaker 5: and then they jump on the roof and they're really loud.
Speaker 5: It sounds like a person walking up there. And they
Speaker 5: also have.
Speaker 7: Cat Oh my gosh, a cat cat fights on the roof. Yeah,
Speaker 7: it's a really good question. I'm not sure that I've
Speaker 7: encountered that question before. All I could think of is
Speaker 7: if there's somehow that you could put some kind of
Speaker 7: a barrier up on the roof that isn't going to
Speaker 7: be I mean, when we say a flat roof, do
Speaker 7: you have a parapet is there like a parapet wall
Speaker 7: around the outside of your roof? Or when you say
Speaker 7: flat roof, it's just flat and visible for everybody to see.
Speaker 5: There's like an obstruction. You can't really see it totally
Speaker 5: just from certain angles is where you can see it better,
Speaker 5: like the size and stuff, or it's flat.
Speaker 1: The best thing I could think of is, you know,
Speaker 1: there are those wires that have the small current in
Speaker 1: them that we use to keep other pests outside of
Speaker 1: the yard. Maybe there's a way of mounting it one
Speaker 1: up there that would keep a cat from having access
Speaker 1: to the roof. But of course we don't want to
Speaker 1: do something that you know, looks ugly from the street.
Speaker 1: So if it's something that you could pull off without
Speaker 1: anybody else seeing it, then you could get creative in
Speaker 1: that regard. But if I mean, if this is a
Speaker 1: roof that everybody can just kind of clearly see, I
Speaker 1: don't know, put a dog up on the roof. I'm
Speaker 1: I'm not sure.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a condo.
Speaker 2: So you know.
Speaker 1: Oh I got you, I got YOUA Yeah, I'm not
Speaker 1: sure I know how to advise you on that one, Karen. Yeah, No,
Speaker 1: that's a that's a good one. I think you stumped
Speaker 1: me on that one. Yeah, I'm I'm not sure how
Speaker 1: to keep cats off a flat roof. You got me?
Speaker 1: There you go, you got me. I surrender, all right, Kerry,
Speaker 1: good luck, Okay, thanks by bye. Bye. I'm so glad
Speaker 1: you join him in this morning. Hang tight, there is
Speaker 1: more to come.
Speaker 3: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 3: KFI AM sixty.
Speaker 1: Good morning to you and welcome home. We are doing
Speaker 1: an all calls weekend. Anything that's going on with your home, construction, design, issue, DIY, concern,
Speaker 1: anything at all. You said the agenda. We'll put our
Speaker 1: heads together, we'll figure it out, you and me. Okay,
Speaker 1: sound good? All right, all right, we're going back to
Speaker 1: the phones. I want to talk to Jason. Hey, Jason,
Speaker 1: welcome home.
Speaker 8: Hey, thank you. I'm an original homeowner and as such,
Speaker 8: I have all the original photos of the framing, plumbing, electric.
Speaker 8: The house is about fifteen years old, three thousand square feet,
Speaker 8: two story. I'm in Orange County. We want to do
Speaker 8: a modest extension or expansion of our existing dining room,
Speaker 8: so that we would push out an exterior wall to
Speaker 8: basically capture an existing outdoor alcove type area that also
Speaker 8: has there's an exterior entrance to the kitchen that goes
Speaker 8: into that ste area. So if you can imagine a
Speaker 8: first story, little maybe hundred square foot alcove, there's an
Speaker 8: exterior door from the dining room to that alcove. There
Speaker 8: is an exterior door from the kitchen to that alcove,
Speaker 8: and I'm like, well, hey, if we just pushed out
Speaker 8: that wall maybe eight feet, we could have a way
Speaker 8: to get into the kitchen from the dining room and
Speaker 8: we'd gather up another hundred square feet. I reach out
Speaker 8: to various contractors and they're like, hey, do you have
Speaker 8: the drawings? I'm like, well, what do you mean? Well,
Speaker 8: if when you go to get permits, they're going to
Speaker 8: want a drawing of the entire house, not just that
Speaker 8: little section. And I'm like, gosh, I'm yours aloner, but
Speaker 8: I don't have any drawings. Well, you know, you either
Speaker 8: have to get a firm to draw up the entire
Speaker 8: elevation of the house as it's existing and the plan
Speaker 8: for that wall, or find another way to get them.
Speaker 8: I'm sort of perplexed on like, a does the whole
Speaker 8: house really have to get drawn up just to move
Speaker 8: one wall? And secondly, do I, as like an original homeowner,
Speaker 8: do I have any sort of entitlement to maybe those drawings.
Speaker 8: Because I'm learning to hire an engineering firm to come
Speaker 8: in and draw the whole house. It's quite expensive a
Speaker 8: small project like this.
Speaker 1: Right, Okay, all right, so let me help you kind
Speaker 1: of break this down. First of all, your contractors are
Speaker 1: right ish, but they're probably correct. It changes municipality to municipality.
Speaker 1: But generally speaking, if you are doing a structural addition
Speaker 1: onto a house just for context sake, right, the city
Speaker 1: is going to be bare minimum. They're going to be
Speaker 1: looking for an exterior elevation of that three sides of
Speaker 1: that push out and three sides meaning three cardinal directions. Right,
Speaker 1: So if you're pushing out on the south side of
Speaker 1: the house, they're going to want the south elevation looking
Speaker 1: straight on. They're going to want the east and west
Speaker 1: elevations looking at the sides of that alcove. As a pushout,
Speaker 1: they won't care about the other side of the house, Okay.
Speaker 1: They basically want context, and they want context in relation
Speaker 1: to where this alcove is in relation to the first floor. Now,
Speaker 1: if you're not affecting anything on the second floor, they
Speaker 1: your city may not need second floor drawings. Okay, they
Speaker 1: may not care about that, or they may feel like, okay,
Speaker 1: what is this affecting upstairs? If anything, So that's the
Speaker 1: first thing you need to know, and the answer to
Speaker 1: those questions reside at your local building department, not with contractors,
Speaker 1: but actually just making a trip down and saying, hey,
Speaker 1: this is what we're planning on doing with our home. Secondarily,
Speaker 1: your city may may it's getting rarer these days, but
Speaker 1: they may actually have your original house plans on file,
Speaker 1: especially if it's only been fifteen years since the house
Speaker 1: was built. So while you're there, you should also ask
Speaker 1: the city at the planning department do you have the
Speaker 1: original blueprints for my home or at least my tract,
Speaker 1: And maybe they've got blueprints for your floor plan that
Speaker 1: are flipped that have been submitted by the builder of
Speaker 1: the day developer back in the day. Those will work.
Speaker 1: That gives you a massive head start. Now sometimes the
Speaker 1: city will say, well, yes, we do have that. We
Speaker 1: can't release it to you though without notifying the builder,
Speaker 1: the original developer, or the architects first. That's just a technicality.
Speaker 1: And most of the time what happens is they'll tell you, listen,
Speaker 1: we're gonna do the official notification and we will let
Speaker 1: you know in seven days if we haven't heard back
Speaker 1: from them, we're going to release the plans to you
Speaker 1: and you can have them on you know, usually a
Speaker 1: digital file that you can then turn into a PDF,
Speaker 1: and you're off to the races. As far as plans
Speaker 1: are concerned for your home, at least somebody doesn't have
Speaker 1: to pay. Somebody's still going to have to draw the plans, right,
Speaker 1: You can't just work off of those original plans, but
Speaker 1: you can use those original plans instead of somebody having
Speaker 1: to remeasure the whole house and go to that expense,
Speaker 1: So it's going to reduce the cost. Finally, the thing
Speaker 1: that I want to tell you is that never ever
Speaker 1: hire an engineering firm to draw your house. The engineers
Speaker 1: come in after the fact and just pay them to
Speaker 1: deal with the specific engineering issues that this thing involves.
Speaker 1: As far as the rest of the plan, whatever the
Speaker 1: city tells you the rest of the plan has to be.
Speaker 1: You can hire a draft I mean technically, Jason, you
Speaker 1: can do this yourself. You are a homeowner and you
Speaker 1: could actually draw the house yourself, but that is a
Speaker 1: headache for a lot of people. You can hire a
Speaker 1: drafts person. There are people out there for hire who
Speaker 1: will give you a really good price to draw up
Speaker 1: the layout of your home and draw the elevations for it.
Speaker 1: Believe me, there are a lot of drafts people out
Speaker 1: of work and looking for work. It's a good time
Speaker 1: these days to hire a drafts person. It does not
Speaker 1: require a licensed architect or a licensed engineer to draw
Speaker 1: your home. I am not a licen architect, right and
Speaker 1: yet I design and build custom homes and have for
Speaker 1: the nearly forty years now. Because in the state of California,
Speaker 1: you do not the city. The state does not require
Speaker 1: a licensed architect to be involved in most cases up
Speaker 1: to three stories in a residential home. Okay, so when
Speaker 1: it comes to residences, anybody who knows what they're doing
Speaker 1: can draw and submit those drawings generally speaking, as a
Speaker 1: general rule in most municipalities. So it all starts with
Speaker 1: you go into the city, getting the info you need
Speaker 1: from them, finding out if your plans are on file.
Speaker 1: If they're not, Yeah, you're going to have to break
Speaker 1: down to follow whatever they are looking for, and you
Speaker 1: just give them the minimum of what it is that
Speaker 1: they're looking for. They're not going to be super impressed
Speaker 1: if you give them extra extra ectorate. They just want
Speaker 1: what they want and you start it there, but don't
Speaker 1: hire an engineering firm to do it. Because yeah, those
Speaker 1: guys are Those guys are engineers and they make engineering money.
Speaker 1: Hire and don't hire an architect. Hire a drafts person
Speaker 1: who work for engineers and architects in order to actually
Speaker 1: put the drawings together. By the way, you hire an
Speaker 1: engineering firm to draw your house, they're going to hand
Speaker 1: it to their drafts person to actually do the measurement
Speaker 1: and the drawing. The engineers aren't going to do the
Speaker 1: drawings themselves until engineering time comes around. But you're going
Speaker 1: to get charged engineering prices for the whole thing. So
Speaker 1: there you go. You sub it out as you need
Speaker 1: to as you go along. Does that help?
Speaker 8: Thank you?
Speaker 4: That's great, all.
Speaker 1: Right, buddy, Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no, you can get
Speaker 1: that done for way less, okay, and get it done
Speaker 1: well all right, So but start with the city. That's
Speaker 1: the key. Jason, Good luck, my friend on that remodel.
Speaker 1: Hope everything turns out really really well. More of your
Speaker 1: calls when we return. You are Home with Dean Sharp,
Speaker 1: the House Whisperer on KFI. This has been Home with
Speaker 1: Dean Sharp, the House whisper. Tune into the live broadcast
Speaker 1: on KFI AM six forty every Saturday morning from six
Speaker 1: to eight Pacific time, and every Sunday morning from nine
Speaker 1: to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the
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