Speaker 1: Kf I Am six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp,
Speaker 1: the House Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio appf
Speaker 1: I Am six forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1: I Am Dean Sharp, the House Whisperer, custom home builder,
Speaker 1: custom home Designer, inviting you to join me for the
Speaker 1: next two hours in that magical space that exists somewhere
Speaker 1: between the world as it is and the world as
Speaker 1: it should be, as we work to turn your ordinary
Speaker 1: house into an extraordinary home. It's an all calls weekend.
Speaker 1: I love these weekends. I love taking your calls, talking
Speaker 1: with you about what's going on with your home, and
Speaker 1: you know, helping out if I can.
Speaker 2: So let's do it. Let's talk to Evan. Evan welcome home.
Speaker 3: So my problem is I had a waterline break the
Speaker 3: other night in my house. It's flooded the spare bedroom
Speaker 3: and bathroom and the hallway all the way into where
Speaker 3: the dining room and living room is. It bore up
Speaker 3: the floor and so my insurance adjuster is telling me
Speaker 3: they can't match it.
Speaker 4: I won't be able to match.
Speaker 3: It, so they're going to pay to replace the entire floor,
Speaker 3: the wood floor area in the house.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 3: And my my question to you is people are telling
Speaker 3: me to go with vinyl laminae, to go with a
Speaker 3: hard 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 space overhead.
Speaker 2: It was overhead. It was over fine, and the joint.
Speaker 3: Failed and it was raining and that My wife woke
Speaker 3: me up but ten thirty at night and said the
Speaker 3: house is flooding. And it was just literally flooding out
Speaker 3: of the Yeah, the overhead fan, the air conditioning vent
Speaker 3: around it. It was 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'm not a
Speaker 1: big fan of compromising the design of a house just
Speaker 1: because we get gun shy or we're afraid as the
Speaker 1: result of an accident that has happened before. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, It's kind of like it's like it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, the kids on the skateboard outside, he falls
Speaker 1: and and he broke his leg. Okay, we get it.
Speaker 1: We're riding a skateboard. That can happen. Once the leg heals,
Speaker 1: the parent who now wrap that kid up in like
Speaker 1: six layers of insulating foam on all the legs and
Speaker 1: has an oversized helmet and goggles. And you know, it's
Speaker 1: kind of like the kid who wears a helmet and
Speaker 1: goggles when they goes to chess club because the chance
Speaker 1: there's there's a chance one of those pieces could fly
Speaker 1: off the board and put an eye out.
Speaker 2: So to make that we just.
Speaker 3: Yeah, just had new carpet and new wood grain ceramic
Speaker 3: tile put in the bathrooms two weeks ago.
Speaker 2: Okay, And so my wife's like, well, do we match
Speaker 2: the ceramic tile?
Speaker 3: And I'm like, well, the people that install it with
Speaker 3: the price is going to be like thirty.
Speaker 2: Grand to do it.
Speaker 3: I don't think the wood forest then replaced bad.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you know you the insurance is going to
Speaker 1: pay for and should pay pay out for the replacement
Speaker 1: of what you've got. So if it's hardwood, they should
Speaker 1: write you a check equivalent to redoing it all in
Speaker 1: replacing hardwood. If you want to move up to the
Speaker 1: ceramic tile. From a design perspective, that kind of you know,
Speaker 1: kills two birds with one stone in that a ceramic
Speaker 1: plank floor is going to be bomb proof throughout the
Speaker 1: whole house and continuous flooring so that there's no change
Speaker 1: in between the house proper and the bathrooms. But again
Speaker 1: that isn't a necessity. So yeah, if you put in
Speaker 1: luxury vinyl plank, that's what we're talking about. If you
Speaker 1: put in luxury vinyl plank, yeah, it is now a
Speaker 1: waterproof and bomb proof throughout the whole house. And if
Speaker 1: there was another accident, then the it's not going to
Speaker 1: ruin a luxury vinyl plank floor. However, luxury vinyl plank
Speaker 1: is not the same as real hardwood. It is an
Speaker 1: emulation of hardwood. It's really good looking stuff. It's also
Speaker 1: way cheaper than hardwood. So I think you guys just
Speaker 1: have to sit down and make a decision of both
Speaker 1: financially and design wise, which way you want to go
Speaker 1: with this. I can't really push you one direction or
Speaker 1: the other because there's no right answer to it. The
Speaker 1: fact of the matter is, if we were always afraid
Speaker 1: that a pipe would burst in any house, we'd never
Speaker 1: put hardwood in any house ever, right because it's moisture
Speaker 1: sensitive and there's just no way around that right now.
Speaker 1: We don't have the technology to get around that right now.
Speaker 1: So I want you to have confidence in your plumbing system.
Speaker 1: I want your plumbing system rechecked, okay, especially if it's
Speaker 1: a peck system. Those joints should not be failing. So
Speaker 1: if you're confident that, okay, the plumbing issue has been resolved,
Speaker 1: then I know, you know it's always natural to feel
Speaker 1: gunshy after a big blow, but you know, why not
Speaker 1: put hardwood back? If hardwood is what you really want.
Speaker 1: Luxury vinyl plank is great. So just to be clear,
Speaker 1: the insurance company should is obligated to replace everything at
Speaker 1: the cost of the hardwood. If you want to turn around,
Speaker 1: then and do the luxury vinyl plank and save yourself
Speaker 1: some money as you go. Great or take the payout
Speaker 1: for the hardwood, and then throw a little extra of
Speaker 1: yours in and go porcelain plank everywhere. That's a good
Speaker 1: way too. Both of those choices would be bomb proof,
Speaker 1: and the hardwood choice gets you back to where you
Speaker 1: would go. So those are really your three options, and
Speaker 1: it's ultimately a design decision for you and your wife
Speaker 1: to work out. Just try to avoid feeling gun shy
Speaker 1: because you just had this disaster. I know that's a
Speaker 1: hard thing to do, but do your best with it. Evan,
Speaker 1: thanks for the call, buddy. I love our listeners questions.
Speaker 1: They stretch my brain. How about some more of your
Speaker 1: calls when we return. You are listening to Home Sharp,
Speaker 1: the house whisper y if I being sharp, the house
Speaker 1: whisper at your service, Welcome home. We are doing an
Speaker 1: all calls weekend, So let's go back to the phone,
Speaker 1: shall we.
Speaker 2: Carol, Hey, Carol, welcome home.
Speaker 5: Hi, thank you. I'm growing a dragon fruit and I'm
Speaker 5: making a dragonfruit trellis. I'm using a four by four
Speaker 5: redwood post attached to a concrete block post support that
Speaker 5: has a zinc coated strap. I'm going to place that
Speaker 5: into a twenty five gallon hard plastic nursery grade pot
Speaker 5: fill it with soil. And the reason I'm using this
Speaker 5: trellis is for stability because they get kind of heavy
Speaker 5: at the top. My question is will the strap or
Speaker 5: the concrete leach harmful chemicals into the soil, which we'll
Speaker 5: go into the roots then eventually into the fruit.
Speaker 2: Uh no, no, it won't.
Speaker 4: Wonderful.
Speaker 5: Okay, that's all I wanted to thank.
Speaker 3: You very so easy.
Speaker 2: That was so easy.
Speaker 4: You made my day.
Speaker 5: Thanks Carol, Thank you, enjoy your show, Thank you.
Speaker 2: Bye bye, Thank you so much. Yeah.
Speaker 1: No, you know, concrete is concrete. There are a lot
Speaker 1: of different forms of concrete. Concrete is a combination of
Speaker 1: an aggregate sand of different sizes, sand, gravel, and cement
Speaker 1: portland cement most of the time, Uh, it is. It
Speaker 1: is not a material that it leaches out harmful things
Speaker 1: to a garden. Somebody else asked about cinder blocks too,
Speaker 1: and cinder blocks are also cinder blocks are different than
Speaker 1: standard concrete.
Speaker 2: By the way. Uh did you guys know that?
Speaker 1: Yeah, well you probably you can tell right when you
Speaker 1: take a look at a cinder block, it's made out
Speaker 1: of concrete, but it's a combination of concrete and fly ash.
Speaker 1: What is fly ash? It's the leftover ash from burning coal. Yeah, cinders,
Speaker 1: That's where the cinder in cinder block comes from. Cinders
Speaker 1: of burnt coal. Carbonized coal ash gets added into a
Speaker 1: cement concrete mixture, and because the cinders are so lightweight
Speaker 1: and they take up space, the cinder block ends up
Speaker 1: being considerably lighter than it would be if it was
Speaker 1: just a pure poored cement block. Also, though it's not
Speaker 1: as strong, but you know, it does its job. So
Speaker 1: there you go. But none of those things are dangerous
Speaker 1: to the soil around them.
Speaker 2: My goodness, how does he know these things? Let's talk
Speaker 2: to Debbie. Hey, Debbie, welcome home.
Speaker 6: Many years ago law new house. It had a spa
Speaker 6: that had to be taken out because I had a
Speaker 6: crack at it, and I installed one in place of it,
Speaker 6: but never had it connected. And now that I want
Speaker 6: to do it, the fellows said, well, it's indoors. You
Speaker 6: can't hook it up inside. You've got to move it
Speaker 6: outdoors and take you six thousand dollars. So I really
Speaker 6: wasn't too happy about that because I thought, well, the
Speaker 6: heck with that thing costs a little more than that.
Speaker 6: But you know, you know, it has two seats, and
Speaker 6: you know the jets whatever all they come with, so
Speaker 6: maybe they won't stuff you, but it stumps me, and
Speaker 6: I hate to part with six thousand dollars for something
Speaker 6: that costs just a little more than that.
Speaker 1: I got you, all right, so let me ask you,
Speaker 1: so is this a Is this a free standing spa
Speaker 1: like a fiberglass spa sitting on its own platform and
Speaker 1: all that.
Speaker 2: Okay, yes it is.
Speaker 6: It's on wheels or whatever. I don't know what it's on,
Speaker 6: but anyway, it's movable. You know, it's a thermal spa.
Speaker 6: That helps Benny.
Speaker 1: Right now, Why does he Why did he tell you
Speaker 1: it was going to cost you six thousand dollars to
Speaker 1: move it outside?
Speaker 6: Well he said it couldn't be hooked up indoors and
Speaker 6: it's uh, it needs to be at two thirty stamps.
Speaker 1: Okay, so yeah, but it needs it needs two and
Speaker 1: twenty two hundred and forty. Actually we call two twenty,
Speaker 1: but it's actually two forty. It needs a two forty
Speaker 1: hookup power hook up.
Speaker 2: All right, that's understandable. But here's the thing with code. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: that's in code.
Speaker 1: When so convenient I Okay, So here's what I'm gonna
Speaker 1: recommend to you. I want you to call somebody else. Okay,
Speaker 1: Now there's a half truth here. Okay, the half truth is, yeah,
Speaker 1: it is a mess. By the way, Never, never, never,
Speaker 1: should they have had that spa indoors.
Speaker 2: It just shouldn't be.
Speaker 1: And there's a reason why we don't want you to
Speaker 1: put a spa like that indoor. You think about this
Speaker 1: like an indoor spa at like a health club or
Speaker 1: a gym. Okay, these are built in by allowance with
Speaker 1: like an indoor pool. But to build an indoor and
Speaker 1: I've done my share of indoor pools and spas, by
Speaker 1: the way, because I've had some clients who have been
Speaker 1: super happy to pay for them. But the structure that
Speaker 1: you have to build around that in terms of airflow
Speaker 1: of ventilation to get the chlorine gases that seep out
Speaker 1: of these bodies of water a pool and a spa.
Speaker 1: Also the heat, the mist, the humidity that builds up
Speaker 1: as the ring. There's just there's a whole lot of
Speaker 1: things that go into it, and it is almost always
Speaker 1: all well, it's always a mistake to just pull one
Speaker 1: of those spaws into the house, even if it's outside
Speaker 1: on an enclosed porch or whatever. So now that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean it has to sit out there cold and naked
Speaker 1: in the rain. You could have a structure over it
Speaker 1: or around it, but it can't be part of the
Speaker 1: interior structure of the house. You're just asking for all
Speaker 1: sorts of problems. So that part, my friend, is true.
Speaker 1: The part that isn't true is that it's just automatically
Speaker 1: going to cost you six thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: If this is a free standing spa, it was designed
Speaker 1: to sit outside, okay, because they aren't designed to sit inside.
Speaker 1: So it is sitting in its own little weather structure.
Speaker 1: If you put a nice foam cover on it probably
Speaker 1: has one that's a weather proof cover. You can add
Speaker 1: to the weather proofness of this spa by adding a
Speaker 1: more elaborate cover, like the kind of cover that you
Speaker 1: would put over your car that you park outside. You
Speaker 1: can get a really, really nice cover for it. It
Speaker 1: needs something to sit on out in the yard. It
Speaker 1: can sit on the patio, sit on the patio concrete.
Speaker 1: It doesn't need a big elaborate foundation underneath it, just
Speaker 1: something stable. It could sit on pressure treated six by
Speaker 1: six square of lumber. It could sit on a nice
Speaker 1: stable area of gravel. And as far as electricity is concerned,
Speaker 1: I would be hard pressed to imagine somehow that it's
Speaker 1: going to cost six thousand dollars to run two hundred
Speaker 1: and forty volt electricity to your SPA panel, regardless of
Speaker 1: where you put it in your house. So the point
Speaker 1: is this, Yes, it needs to go outside, and when
Speaker 1: it comes to how much is that going to cost,
Speaker 1: who's going to do it and where are you gonna
Speaker 1: put it? You need to make a few more calls.
Speaker 1: So the fella who was advising you on it, that's
Speaker 1: all well and good. Maybe he wasn't trying to maybe
Speaker 1: that was his best estimation of it, but uh, you
Speaker 1: should call a couple of other contractors, have them come out,
Speaker 1: get at least three estimates for this debbie, so that
Speaker 1: you know what it's really really going to cost you,
Speaker 1: because six thousand is a lot of money just to
Speaker 1: run one electrical line out there. I don't care if
Speaker 1: there's nothing magical about it being two forty versus one twenty. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's just you know, maybe a location's tricky. Maybe it is,
Speaker 1: but I'd be shocked if moving it outside is going
Speaker 1: to cost you six thousand dollars. So get more estimates
Speaker 1: from more reputable contractors, and then you'll know you'll see
Speaker 1: a concessant consensus starting to form among the numbers. You'll
Speaker 1: also get some good advice along the way. So that's
Speaker 1: where you go with it, all right, my friends, when
Speaker 1: we return more of your calls, your Home with Dean
Speaker 1: Sharp the House Whisper.
Speaker 7: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 7: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: KFI AM six Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. You
Speaker 1: are Home with Dean Sharp the House Whisper. That's me
Speaker 1: and you know what we're doing. We are taking your calls,
Speaker 1: whether it's a DIY question, construction issue, a design question.
Speaker 1: I love design questions, so anyway, so why don't we
Speaker 1: just dive back in.
Speaker 2: Hey, Dave, welcome home.
Speaker 4: My family lives in the thirty five hundred square foot,
Speaker 4: two story single family house in Orange County of bill
Speaker 4: Lyon Home and we a year ten years ago, I
Speaker 4: spent about fifty thousand upgrading the back put in, starring
Speaker 4: a hard roof, tile floor, granite countertops, in an outdoor
Speaker 4: kitchen with three different barbecues and sinks, and our kitchen
Speaker 4: needs a similar upgrade. We have hardwood cabinets that we like.
Speaker 2: They're oaked.
Speaker 4: We love wood. We have it's a nineteen sixty nine
Speaker 4: at home if I didn't mention that, and it's got
Speaker 4: tile countertops, and we put in a new tile on
Speaker 4: the floor when we redid the patio, but the floor
Speaker 4: is chipping. The tile was substandard. We need new flooring.
Speaker 4: We want to replace our countertops. We want to keep
Speaker 4: the oak cabinetry, and we like wood so much that
Speaker 4: we'd like to go hardwood countertops. So we'd like your
Speaker 4: recommendation there.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, I got you.
Speaker 1: Well, good on you and for you know, being bold
Speaker 1: and wanting to do some cool stuff. So here is
Speaker 1: the thing for just as a general recommendation, and I'll
Speaker 1: get back to this in a second. I have no
Speaker 1: issues whatsoever with hardwood countertops, none, zero issues. I know
Speaker 1: people all over southern California are like, oh, we would
Speaker 1: never do that. That's fine, then don't do it. But
Speaker 1: I'm just telling you, as somebody who's been building homes
Speaker 1: and designing homes for you know, almost forty years now,
Speaker 1: hardwood is a brilliant countertop. People are like, well, that
Speaker 1: will never last up to you know, spillage and moisture.
Speaker 1: And it's like, well, if you've ever been on a
Speaker 1: boat that has a galley in it, I guarantee you
Speaker 1: this one thing. The countertop on that galley is hardwood.
Speaker 1: If you've ever gone into a pub and sat at
Speaker 1: a bar, the bar is hardwood. So yeah, the idea
Speaker 1: that wood doesn't hold up to abuse and or moisture
Speaker 1: is a myth. Now you got to do it right, okay,
Speaker 1: So but there you go. There's my feeling about hardwood countertops,
Speaker 1: even so much so that Tina and I half of
Speaker 1: the counters half of them in our kitchen.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: The specifically, the counter that the sink is in is
Speaker 1: a two inch thick walnut, black walnut, and it just oiled,
Speaker 1: not finished with polyurethane or anything, just oiled with mineral oil.
Speaker 1: And it's years old now, and it years and years
Speaker 1: old now and it looks like brand new and all
Speaker 1: we have to do is just reoil it and gaboom.
Speaker 1: So anyway, now the trick for you, Dave is going
Speaker 1: to be this you've got you're thinking about putting hardwood
Speaker 1: floors in the kitchen, you've got oak cabinets, and you're
Speaker 1: thinking about wood. Now that as a wood lover, you
Speaker 1: know that that's a lot of wood. And so the
Speaker 1: key is this. I'm not going to tell you not
Speaker 1: to do all of that wood, but I am going
Speaker 1: to be very very specific. You need to wisely create
Speaker 1: contrast between the floor, the cabinets, and the tops. So
Speaker 1: whatever color the oak is of the cabinets, that's a lock, right,
Speaker 1: because they're all finished out. Whatever color that is, you
Speaker 1: want some contrast in lightness or darkness and in intensity
Speaker 1: of color for the countertops number one and number two
Speaker 1: for the floor. If we go oak on oak on it,
Speaker 1: Actually the material itself is irrelevant. I would not use
Speaker 1: oak for the countertops just because oak doesn't do as
Speaker 1: well with these things. But the floor, the cabinetry, and
Speaker 1: the counter if you went with the same kind of
Speaker 1: style and the same general tone, you're going to end
Speaker 1: up with a wood cave. And you don't want a
Speaker 1: wood cave in your kitchen where your kitchen used to be. Okay,
Speaker 1: So in order for it to really pop, for it
Speaker 1: to really shine, for it to really show itself off,
Speaker 1: you just want color contrasts. So if the cabinets are
Speaker 1: staying dark, then you want to go lighter with the
Speaker 1: counter or vice versa. Our cabinets our kitchen are white.
Speaker 1: They're just there. They're beautiful wood cabinets, but they are white.
Speaker 1: And so the dark wallnut's sitting on top of those
Speaker 1: cabinets and then we have a brick style tile floor
Speaker 1: underneath them. They all just show off and compliment each other,
Speaker 1: you know, super well. Uh, but we have done wood
Speaker 1: on wood on wood before. But the key is contrast,
Speaker 1: heavy contrast so that you don't get that cavy bleed
Speaker 1: out effect.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: And so there you go, and uh, my recommendation as
Speaker 1: far as the wood, there are several species of hardwoods
Speaker 1: that work really, really well. You should just get yourself
Speaker 1: down to a hardwood specialty shop or lumberyard that specializes
Speaker 1: in hardwoods and uh and check out what they've got
Speaker 1: and the you know, see how you guys feel about it,
Speaker 1: because it's one of the one of the fun things
Speaker 1: about picking out hardwoods for situations like this. Every piece
Speaker 1: is different, you know, it's not just standard lumber, and
Speaker 1: a lot of people are one like, Okay, where do
Speaker 1: I find such things? Because you know, I didn't see
Speaker 1: anything at the home depot or Lows or at the
Speaker 1: lumber yard down the street. Now, first of all, your
Speaker 1: lumber yard down the street may have some, but there
Speaker 1: are shops all over southern California that specialize in these
Speaker 1: kinds of woods. Two things you need to do. One,
Speaker 1: when you're talking about wood that you're going to use
Speaker 1: for finished products like countertops or furniture, it doesn't come
Speaker 1: in it's not sold in inches by inches. It's actually
Speaker 1: sold in quarter inches thicknesses. So if you're looking for
Speaker 1: a two inch countertop slab, you're going to be looking
Speaker 1: for an eight quarter or an eight over four, okay,
Speaker 1: because that's how they're rated that way. So if you're
Speaker 1: looking for an inch and a half, it's a six
Speaker 1: over four, and one inch is a four over four.
Speaker 1: That's just lingo. If you walk in speak in the lingo,
Speaker 1: they're gonna dig you. Where do you find it? All
Speaker 1: over the place. If you're up here in eastern Ventura
Speaker 1: County or the West Valley, then you know, get out
Speaker 1: here to a gore and go to Canao Hardwoods. If
Speaker 1: you're in La Bonhoff lumber of course, classic my buddies
Speaker 1: over at Angel City Lumber. Please go to Angel City
Speaker 1: and check out what they've got. If down in Anaheim,
Speaker 1: you've got a lot of choices, among which are California
Speaker 1: exotic hardwoods, and there are others. There are many, many others,
Speaker 1: but there just gives you a sample of North Valley,
Speaker 1: Northwest Valley, LA, and Orange County. These kinds of places
Speaker 1: are all over the place. The last thing I'm going
Speaker 1: to tell you is when we do a countertop, my
Speaker 1: preference is not to super seal the wood in terms
Speaker 1: of like putting multiple layers of polyurythane and making it
Speaker 1: like a bar top shiny like I said our would
Speaker 1: when in raw the black walnut, and we just keep
Speaker 1: it nicely oiled, water beads right on the surface. What
Speaker 1: if it gets scratched, Dean, Well, it's two inch thick hardwood.
Speaker 1: If you end up with a scratch or a gouge
Speaker 1: that you're just like uh oh uh, you know what,
Speaker 1: especially if it's only been oiled, you just get out
Speaker 1: the sand paper or a little sand er, a little
Speaker 1: palm sander and just gently, very very gently massage the
Speaker 1: area until the gouge goes away. Reoil it and you're
Speaker 1: back in the game again. That has not happened to
Speaker 1: our countertop, but you know it could. So there you go,
Speaker 1: my friend Dave. Thank you for the question, and good
Speaker 1: luck on the kitchen. All right, when we come back
Speaker 1: more of your calls. I'm so glad you join him
Speaker 1: this morning. Hang tight, there is more to come. You're
Speaker 1: listening to Home with Dean Sharp the House Whisper. Can
Speaker 1: if I Dean Sharp the House whisper, Welcome home. We're
Speaker 1: going back to the phones Jack, Welcome home, Hi Dean.
Speaker 8: My project is a shower that I need to totally
Speaker 8: remodel in the back of the house. It's just a
Speaker 8: stand up shower, has no tub and I want no
Speaker 8: grout back there. So I'm looking at using slabs on
Speaker 8: my countertops. I have Cambria quartz. I don't know if
Speaker 8: I can use Cambria quartz for the walls or if
Speaker 8: I should use marble or granite. And the last question
Speaker 8: is should I use it on the ceiling as well.
Speaker 4: As the walls.
Speaker 2: Okay, good questions.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes to all of the above, except for the
Speaker 1: ceiling question. You can use granted, you can use marble.
Speaker 1: I mean we put everything imaginable in a shower, and
Speaker 1: any slab material that is countertop worthy for your kitchen
Speaker 1: has no problem handling hot and cold water and steam
Speaker 1: in a shower. So yes, full slabs of cambria, any
Speaker 1: kind of quartz material whatsoever, And there are so many
Speaker 1: varieties on the market, many of which simulate stone pretty well,
Speaker 1: pretty well depending on the brand, in the style, and
Speaker 1: then the natural stones. The only thing I would say is,
Speaker 1: of course, with marble as always the same warning that
Speaker 1: we give when we put it in a kitchen. Marbling,
Speaker 1: granite need to keep sealed, and cambria are quartz, which
Speaker 1: is a man made material. It's only achilles heel. In
Speaker 1: the kitchen is really heat meaning you know, you can't
Speaker 1: just drop a four hundred degree pan on it without
Speaker 1: getting a little potential heat ring. But in the shower
Speaker 1: that's never going to be an issue whatsoever, So they're
Speaker 1: pretty bomb proof in shower applications. Quartz is not going
Speaker 1: to be as beautiful in most people's opinion as a
Speaker 1: natural stone like quartzite or granite or marble, but those elements,
Speaker 1: because they're natural stone. The price you pay for that
Speaker 1: level of beauty in there is you going to got
Speaker 1: to keep them sealed. But if you do that, you
Speaker 1: know probably in a shower once a year, I would say.
Speaker 1: Some marble guy out there is saying twice a year,
Speaker 1: Dean K fine, once or twice a year. But you
Speaker 1: keep them sealed and you'll have no problem. That's a
Speaker 1: life long, beautiful shower scenario. Now, as far as the
Speaker 1: ceiling is concerned, how tall is the ceiling in the shower?
Speaker 5: A set?
Speaker 2: Okay, so it's an eight foot.
Speaker 1: And are you planning on ever using this shower as
Speaker 1: a steam shower?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So my general feeling is we default to putting a
Speaker 1: hard surface material on the ceiling. Why because steam rises,
Speaker 1: because water condensates up above.
Speaker 2: But is that a.
Speaker 1: Guarantee if you don't that you're going to have a
Speaker 1: drywall problems? Number one, if you use green board, which
Speaker 1: you should up there, green board drywall, which is a
Speaker 1: moisture resistant drywall, and you use a moisture resistant paint
Speaker 1: in the bathroom area, something really good like an Aura
Speaker 1: bath and.
Speaker 2: Spa from Benjamin Moore sponsored the show.
Speaker 1: But an Aura bath and spa something that's really designed
Speaker 1: to resist moisture, and the shower doors aren't too tall
Speaker 1: so that you're trapping most of that steam. So if
Speaker 1: we've got good ventilation, if the shower doors aren't trapping
Speaker 1: most of the steam and moisture inside the shower chamber,
Speaker 1: then you really are not going to have a problem
Speaker 1: running a painted ceiling in there. However, the bomb proof
Speaker 1: solution is always to take the same materials that you're
Speaker 1: using on the shower walls and pop them up there
Speaker 1: as well. When you do, though, let me be clear,
Speaker 1: if you're going to have a painted ceiling, you can
Speaker 1: just run a standard ceiling through. If you're going to
Speaker 1: put a a hard surface up there, like marble, let's
Speaker 1: say you're doing marble on the walls and you're gonna
Speaker 1: put marble overhead, you're gonna want to slope that ceiling
Speaker 1: ever so slightly. Don't put it up completely level, put
Speaker 1: it in on the tiniest of slope. I'm talking about
Speaker 1: an eighth of an inch per foot slope, just ever
Speaker 1: so slightly sloped from the shower door back sloped down
Speaker 1: towards the back shower wall. Why because if we put
Speaker 1: stone up there, it's a cold material, and the steam
Speaker 1: and moisture that rises from your hot shower will condensate
Speaker 1: very easily on that material, and as it condensates and
Speaker 1: turns into droplets, what you don't want is a cold
Speaker 1: rainforest dropping droplets of water on you while you're taking
Speaker 1: your hot shower. And so what we do is we
Speaker 1: pitch and slope that ceiling back so that that water
Speaker 1: runs along the ceiling to the back wall and then
Speaker 1: runs down the back wall instead of dripping in the shower.
Speaker 1: And it is a weird thought. You would think, well,
Speaker 1: you know, it's all hot water.
Speaker 2: It's not.
Speaker 1: The temperature coming out of the shower head is one temperature.
Speaker 1: By the time the moisture condensates on the cooler tile
Speaker 1: up above or slab up above, when it starts to
Speaker 1: drop on you, it's kind of annoyingly cooler than the
Speaker 1: hot shower that you're taking. And so slope that ceiling
Speaker 1: back and change the you know, get that water so
Speaker 1: it doesn't drip on you.
Speaker 2: Jack, thank you for your question.
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