Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp, the
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Speaker 1: back to the phones, because we're taking calls this morning.
Speaker 1: It's my favorite thing to do of all things, that
Speaker 1: just talking to you about what's going on with your home.
Speaker 1: I've got Fred on the line. Hopefully I did not
Speaker 1: hang up on Fred. Fred, you're still with me, yes,
Speaker 1: I am okay. So Fred's got a ranch style home,
Speaker 1: single story rand style home, and in his living room,
Speaker 1: family room area, the ceiling is sagging and he's concerned,
Speaker 1: and you should be concerned because that's not normal. But
Speaker 1: I want to try and get to the bottom of
Speaker 1: it for you. Yeah, you haven't had anybody go up
Speaker 1: into the attic to look, and so I'm just going
Speaker 1: to start off by saying Fred that we got to
Speaker 1: do that. We got to get up there and see
Speaker 1: because there's a couple of different things that can be
Speaker 1: happening when a ceiling is sagging and on a single
Speaker 1: story ranch style home and your home was built in
Speaker 1: the nineteen fifties, so it's an older home on a
Speaker 1: single story ranch style home. I will help you in
Speaker 1: this sense that even if it's what we call and
Speaker 1: I'm using my air quotes here, a structural problem, it
Speaker 1: is not an end of the world, you know, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, my house is going to fall down structural problem.
Speaker 1: What it is is one of two things. The way
Speaker 1: a home is built, the way homes were built in
Speaker 1: nineteen fifties and still most homes today, is the ceiling.
Speaker 1: What makes up the ceiling is first and foremost in
Speaker 1: the framing of your home what we call ceiling joists,
Speaker 1: and those are larger pieces of wood that are running
Speaker 1: all the way across from one side of the room
Speaker 1: to the other, and they're sitting next to each other
Speaker 1: with spaces in between. They're sitting sixteen inches on center.
Speaker 1: They're sitting thirteen and three eight inches apart from each other. Okay,
Speaker 1: you made me get technicality. Every sixteen inches there is
Speaker 1: a ceiling joist. Now, I don't know the size of
Speaker 1: the ceiling joists for your home because they vary from
Speaker 1: home to home and track to tract, and depending on
Speaker 1: the overall span, you say you've got about three hundred
Speaker 1: square feet. That's a nice sized room. So it's a
Speaker 1: good span that they're making across there. It wouldn't surprise me.
Speaker 1: I mean, they have to be at least two by
Speaker 1: six ceiling joye. Unless they're part of a trust system,
Speaker 1: that's a whole nother kind of magilla. I doubt it, though,
Speaker 1: if there's a structural sag chances are in nineteen fifty seven.
Speaker 2: A clue they call the Crashman home. I don't know
Speaker 2: that helps you on that.
Speaker 1: A craftsman home.
Speaker 2: That's what they call it. At least, yeah, that's what
Speaker 2: my neighbors told They call it Cushman home.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it doesn't help a whole lot. It doesn't help
Speaker 1: a whole lot because that's a style. That's an architectural style.
Speaker 1: It doesn't really refer to what's you know, what's being
Speaker 1: built in the bones. But the point is this, you've
Speaker 1: got these ceiling joys going across your ceiling that they're
Speaker 1: making the span they are the real ceiling and then
Speaker 1: screwed or nailed to the bottom. And in the nineteen
Speaker 1: fifties it is going to be nailed to the bottom
Speaker 1: of that those ceiling joys is going to be a
Speaker 1: layer of drywall. That's the wall. The ceiling that you
Speaker 1: look at all the time is the drywall. The drywall
Speaker 1: is five eighths of an inch thick, and its big sheets,
Speaker 1: big four by eight sheets that run across. So when
Speaker 1: we see a sag, a sag that concerns us, when
Speaker 1: our ceiling is bowing down, it's one of two things,
Speaker 1: almost always one. The dry wall has let loose, has
Speaker 1: detached itself, or a portion of it has detached itself
Speaker 1: from the bottom of those actual wood ceiling joists. The
Speaker 1: ceiling joists may be still sitting there straight as an arrow,
Speaker 1: strong as ever, but because of water damage leaky roof,
Speaker 1: water and drywall don't mix well. They get mutty. The
Speaker 1: drywall gets mushy, and then it lets go of its
Speaker 1: grip on the nails that have nailed it into the ceiling.
Speaker 1: Or just time age a few earthquakes. Who knows. It's
Speaker 1: hard to tell exactly what the reasons are, but sometimes
Speaker 1: dry wall ceilings let go of some of the joists
Speaker 1: that they are supposed to be held tight against, and
Speaker 1: as a result, the ceiling starts to bow down. Now
Speaker 1: is that a threat structural? Technically, it's not a structural
Speaker 1: threat because the structure is intact. Kind of the essence
Speaker 1: is that the skin is sagging but the bone is straight. Okay,
Speaker 1: The more serious thing would be if that sag that
Speaker 1: is happening is because the bone has sagged, meaning the
Speaker 1: I'm using my body metaphor here, but meaning that the
Speaker 1: wood joists themselves are deflecting down or sagging down. That
Speaker 1: could happen because a wood joye has a kind of
Speaker 1: intrinsic crack into in it that it eventually gave way,
Speaker 1: or the wood joist naturally sometimes wants to bow with
Speaker 1: age and it bows in the direction we don't want
Speaker 1: it to bow in, or something impacted it and it broke.
Speaker 1: But here is the thing, my friend Fred, we have
Speaker 1: got to get these are these are This is just
Speaker 1: me telling you what the the most likely possible causes are.
Speaker 1: And what we need to do is we got to
Speaker 1: get eyes on. We've got to get somebody, a qualified
Speaker 1: contractor up into your attic space to take a look
Speaker 1: at what's happening. And it'll be easy to see when
Speaker 1: somebody who knows what they're looking for is in the
Speaker 1: attic space. If I was to crawl into your attic
Speaker 1: space above the living room. There I could see whether
Speaker 1: it is the joysts that are bowing down or somehow damaged,
Speaker 1: or whether the at the bottom of the joyst there's
Speaker 1: a gap between the joist and the drywall. The best
Speaker 1: case scenario for you is that the drywall has let
Speaker 1: go and is delaminated, because it can a either be
Speaker 1: pushed up and put new screws in it. If it's
Speaker 1: in decent condition, it can be re adhered and then
Speaker 1: just a little drywall finishing and paint, or be a
Speaker 1: worst case scenario, it's the drywall sagging. The section can
Speaker 1: be removed and a new drywall sheet can be put
Speaker 1: up and then finished across, and you're good to go
Speaker 1: if the bones are straight. If the joyst is sagging,
Speaker 1: it's not the end of the world either. It just
Speaker 1: means that we may have to open up a slot
Speaker 1: in the ceiling and replace a joystore two and resolve
Speaker 1: that problem. So either way, the house is not falling down.
Speaker 1: But I do want you to address it soon, because
Speaker 1: I don't want anybody in the family room when the
Speaker 1: drywall collapses down on them and you know, bops them
Speaker 1: on the head. It's not hundreds of pounds or anything,
Speaker 1: but it'll scare the Bejesus out of whoever it happens to.
Speaker 1: And a bunch of insulation and yuck is gonna come
Speaker 1: down into the living room and mess up your stuff.
Speaker 1: And so I don't want that to happen. I want
Speaker 1: you to get somebody out there asap to diagnose what's
Speaker 1: going on. Either to again to use the body metaphor,
Speaker 1: and then I got to go here, Fred, either the
Speaker 1: bone is gone crooked and needs to be reset or
Speaker 1: the skin is sagging off the bone. I know that
Speaker 1: sounds gross. I'm just realizing I'm saying it sounds weird
Speaker 1: real quick.
Speaker 2: I have a lot of that pink.
Speaker 1: Very old.
Speaker 2: Uh, the heat protection on the and I don't know
Speaker 2: if he has any fatal sent or that is a
Speaker 2: safe to for somebody to go inside the attic insulation
Speaker 2: that it's pink insulation, very old and trumble.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not, it's not at The insulation is not asbestos.
Speaker 1: The insulation is not asbestos. Uh. The there may be
Speaker 1: some asbestos duct work up there that can be avoided.
Speaker 1: They put a respirator on, they'll go up there and
Speaker 1: stay away from it. But the insulation itself. Uh is
Speaker 1: is not asbestos, So no either way, Either way, Fred,
Speaker 1: somebody's got to get up in the attic and see
Speaker 1: it from the top side down and they'll be able
Speaker 1: to figure it out. At that point, either the joists
Speaker 1: are bowing down or the dry wall is letting loose,
Speaker 1: and you got to get eyes on Okay, don't let
Speaker 1: it go any further, get it addressed now, and then
Speaker 1: if necessary, get two or three opinions about it from
Speaker 1: different contractors. But an honest contractor up in the attic
Speaker 1: will give you, you know, they'll take some photos, they'll show
Speaker 1: you what's going on and help you get through it,
Speaker 1: and it won't be as bad as you think, I promise, Fred.
Speaker 1: Thank you for calling my friend, and good luck on that.
Speaker 1: But yeah, get eyes on that as soon as possible.
Speaker 1: All right, more of your calls when we return your
Speaker 1: home with Dean Sharp the house Whisper, Kaypie, Dean Sharp
Speaker 1: the house Whisper at your service. We're running a little
Speaker 1: late in our scheduling right now, so I'm going to
Speaker 1: take a quick call. I'm going to go back to
Speaker 1: the news and get ourselves all aligned again, and I
Speaker 1: want to talk to Jack Hey, Jack, welcome home, Jack.
Speaker 1: Are you with me? Hello? Jack? Okay, maybe Jack is
Speaker 1: not there. Let's talk to Rick. Hey, Rick, welcome home, Hidane.
Speaker 3: Hey, Hey, we have a concrete patio that wraps all
Speaker 3: the way around the house down to the front steps
Speaker 3: to the street. The previous owner had painted it with
Speaker 3: some kind of patio paint, and it looks like there's
Speaker 3: probably a couple of coats on there. It's peeling, there's
Speaker 3: some cracks in the con create, etc. So we had
Speaker 3: a company come out and the recommendation was to grind
Speaker 3: it all off with a sealer on it, put another
Speaker 3: color coat again, probably like some kind of a paint
Speaker 3: or coating, and then they put another layer on top
Speaker 3: of that as a And they're recommending that this is
Speaker 3: probably our best choice of trying to redress this concrete.
Speaker 3: We don't want to tear it out. It's a lot
Speaker 3: of surface area. We don't want to paint over it again.
Speaker 3: And so I'm just wondering what kind of options would
Speaker 3: I have or is this the best selection.
Speaker 1: Well, I don't know if it's the best choice. Painting
Speaker 1: concrete is something I always avoid, Rick, I just I
Speaker 1: just try and avoid it because concrete has a lot
Speaker 1: of moisture in it. And the problem with painting concrete,
Speaker 1: it's not the quality of the paint, it's not the
Speaker 1: it's not the weather bearing down on it. It's the
Speaker 1: moisture inside the concrete. The reason it cracks and flakes
Speaker 1: and bubbles and pops off is because concrete is a
Speaker 1: porous stone. It's a synthetic porous stone, and it's got
Speaker 1: moisture build up inside it. And outside patio concrete, walkway concrete,
Speaker 1: it is virtually impossible to keep moisture from getting up
Speaker 1: inside the concrete. It's just the nature of the beast.
Speaker 1: And normally, when we've just got wide open concrete, nobody
Speaker 1: notices it because moisture percolates through the concrete. The warmth
Speaker 1: of the sun evaporates it off the surface, and you know,
Speaker 1: it's just concrete, it's our patio. But when we put
Speaker 1: a finished surface on it, when we coat over it,
Speaker 1: then we're basically putting a membrane there. And water that
Speaker 1: is now inside the concrete still wants to get out
Speaker 1: and it will push its way out, and it's what
Speaker 1: we call hydrostatic pressure from underneath, and that's what causes
Speaker 1: the cracking, the peeling, the flaking, all of that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff I have yet, I'm just gonna be perfectly honest,
Speaker 1: And there are some really good concrete coating companies out there,
Speaker 1: but I have yet to see a paint job on
Speaker 1: a on a piece of exterior concrete just last forever.
Speaker 1: I just it's it is just going to peel, crack
Speaker 1: and bubble again. Now, maybe not in two years, maybe
Speaker 1: not in five years. Maybe it'll be ten years down
Speaker 1: the line. And based on the cost and all of that,
Speaker 1: you you think maybe that's the best move for you.
Speaker 1: You'd have to decide that. But but anyway, that's so,
Speaker 1: that's that's the setup for what I'm about to say, Uh,
Speaker 1: what I'm.
Speaker 3: About I'm sorry, but the are two other options that
Speaker 3: would present it to us. One was just grind it
Speaker 3: down and expose the aggregate and put a sailor on it.
Speaker 3: That was one.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So so Rick, here's the thing. Here's the thing, Rick,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I'm gonna cut you off real quick just
Speaker 1: because I've got to get I got to get our
Speaker 1: timing back a lined here. So we're gonna take a
Speaker 1: quick break. I'm gonna pop you on hold and Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're gonna address all of the options. So that's what
Speaker 1: I'm getting to I just wanted to address I wanted
Speaker 1: to speak to the problem first. The problem is moisture
Speaker 1: in the cement. Now the question of how to resolve it,
Speaker 1: we'll talk about that right on the other side. So
Speaker 1: many people have this problem. This is such an important question. Rick,
Speaker 1: you hang tight and will deal with it. You're listening
Speaker 1: to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM
Speaker 1: six forty KFI Jean Sharp, the house whisper. We are
Speaker 1: taking calls this morning, and one of my favorite things,
Speaker 1: maybe my favorite thing of all time to do with
Speaker 1: you here on the radio is just talk to you
Speaker 1: about what's going on with your home. I got Rick
Speaker 1: on the line held over from our last segment because
Speaker 1: Rick's got some a lot of outdoor concrete that was
Speaker 1: painted by somebody else and now the paint's cracking and
Speaker 1: peeling and doing its thing. And it's such a common problem,
Speaker 1: So many people have this situation that I wanted to
Speaker 1: take a lot extra time and just deal with it
Speaker 1: so that we can all benefit from it. So you're
Speaker 1: still with me, Rick, Yes, I am, okay. So here's
Speaker 1: the thing. We've talked about moisture inside the concrete. That
Speaker 1: is the enemy. That is the enemy.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: But it's just a it's an unavoidable state. And so
Speaker 1: that's why painted concrete exterior surfaces are never never my
Speaker 1: my preference ever because because no matter how good the
Speaker 1: initial bond is, water, you know, I mean, I'm headed
Speaker 1: to the Grand Canyon in a couple three weeks with
Speaker 1: some friends just to take a peek for a couple
Speaker 1: of days. And you know what, You look at something
Speaker 1: like that and you're like, water did that? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: did Uh. Water has its way with us. It's just
Speaker 1: water is in charge of the planet. So uh so
Speaker 1: that's the thing. So here is here's your situation.
Speaker 3: Rick.
Speaker 1: First of all, the first move is, without question, non debate.
Speaker 1: The first move is we've got to get the stuff
Speaker 1: that's on there off completely. So the advice that you
Speaker 1: were given about grinding off the existing paint, what however
Speaker 1: many layers of coatings and stuff on there, that's the
Speaker 1: right move. We've got to get the concrete back to
Speaker 1: its raw state. Okay, that is step one. That's and
Speaker 1: then then only then will you know what direction to go.
Speaker 1: Now I know you said you've got some cracking in
Speaker 1: some places. I don't know how severe or bad the
Speaker 1: cracking is. But the next part after that would be,
Speaker 1: of course, addressing the cracking and filling in the cracks,
Speaker 1: whether it's with an epoxy filler or whatever, and then
Speaker 1: grind that all smooth. But we got to get back
Speaker 1: to raw concrete. And honestly, somebody may have painted that
Speaker 1: patio because something got discolored or stained or you know,
Speaker 1: rust stains or something, and they themselves may not have
Speaker 1: known that they could have resurfaced the concrete and go
Speaker 1: past it. And so what you might find. What you
Speaker 1: might find is that once you've ground off all this
Speaker 1: paint coating, you'll also take a little of the top
Speaker 1: of the concrete off as well, and you might find
Speaker 1: you're like, look, this concrete doesn't look bad at all.
Speaker 1: Let's just let it be. In which case, you just
Speaker 1: let it be. Now, of course, you could put a
Speaker 1: sealer on it. I don't want to put a top
Speaker 1: coat sealer on it, because again, same problem gonna flake off.
Speaker 1: Anything that's sitting on the surface will eventually get pushed off.
Speaker 1: But a penetrating sealer into the cement to help it
Speaker 1: resist stains in the future, that kind of thing no problem.
Speaker 1: So you may find that you actually don't have a
Speaker 1: problem with the way the patio looks after you've ground
Speaker 1: off the old paint and stuff, because you can't assume
Speaker 1: that whoever painted it before had no other choice. You can't.
Speaker 1: You've got to assume that there's a possibility of homeowneror
Speaker 1: ignorant or somebody convinced them that their only option was
Speaker 1: to paint, and maybe the concrete just need to be
Speaker 1: treated and improved and boom its back. So that's a possibility.
Speaker 1: Rick if you find after you've reopened up the concrete
Speaker 1: that they are areas you're like, ugh, ugh, it doesn't
Speaker 1: look good for whatever reason, then we have to address
Speaker 1: the idea of how esthetically to bring it back. And
Speaker 1: that basically puts you in three situations. One, you're gonna
Speaker 1: cover it with something that isn't a seiler or a paint,
Speaker 1: meaning like tile or stone. And yeah, I know, I
Speaker 1: know you've got a lot of concrete and that's expensive,
Speaker 1: but I have to mention it because it's an option.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that that's a realistic option for you,
Speaker 1: but that's an option. Putting concrete. Putting mortar and stone
Speaker 1: on top of a concrete patio is a beautiful way
Speaker 1: to change it. And it bonds and it holds, and
Speaker 1: it will last forever, and it'll be great if it's
Speaker 1: done right. In terms of coatings, though inexpensive coatings coatings
Speaker 1: don't you know, aren't necessarily inexpensive. They can be very expensive.
Speaker 1: Thicker epoxy based coatings are going to last longer. But
Speaker 1: you have to like the look and the color and
Speaker 1: the texture, and you've got to find a company that's
Speaker 1: going to put a serious warranty on it, like that
Speaker 1: material is warranted for life to not chip or peel
Speaker 1: or crack or bubble. Of course, every one of those
Speaker 1: warranties has a lot of fine print about wear and
Speaker 1: tear and usage and normal usage and all of that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. But if you've got a company, you
Speaker 1: find a company that will stand truly stand behind a
Speaker 1: company that's been around a long time, that you expect
Speaker 1: to be around a long time and will stand behind
Speaker 1: a warranty, then you know you could give it a
Speaker 1: serious look. But epoxy coating exterior concrete the way you
Speaker 1: think of the way we epoxy coat like garage, slabs.
Speaker 1: It's a similar process, but just no outside. It's a
Speaker 1: lot more abuse, a lot more moisture in the concrete.
Speaker 1: Where I would go if I had the choice, and
Speaker 1: I don't always have this choice, but where I would
Speaker 1: go if we find that the concrete really needs to
Speaker 1: be esthetically improved from its raw state, I would I
Speaker 1: opt personally, opt toward darkening the concrete with a stain.
Speaker 1: A stain concrete UV resistant stain, not a paint, Because
Speaker 1: a stain will colorize the concrete, it will model it some.
Speaker 1: It stains the way that concrete absorbs stain does It
Speaker 1: doesn't absorb it perfectly uniformly, so again you've got to
Speaker 1: find a contractor who's really good at this. It gives
Speaker 1: it a modeled look, but that can be a very
Speaker 1: very pleasing artistic look, a little variational, a little darker,
Speaker 1: little lighter, little little light It can be a very
Speaker 1: overall pleasing look. And the advantage of a stain is
Speaker 1: it will not peel, it will not crack because it's
Speaker 1: absorbed into the concrete material. It will eventually lighten and
Speaker 1: need to be recoded. But applying a stain to concrete
Speaker 1: is the easiest of all of the other things, and
Speaker 1: it will last the longest and it will not structurally
Speaker 1: fail on you. So those are essentially your options. First,
Speaker 1: grind out the old stuff, see if you like the concrete.
Speaker 1: Maybe if you like it, you put a penetrating sealer
Speaker 1: and leave it be. Second, if you feel like it
Speaker 1: needs an aesthetic approach, call a staining company, have them
Speaker 1: look at it first and tell you, Nope, we can't
Speaker 1: make this nice. Because if they say, yes, we can
Speaker 1: make this nice. I would go that way ninety nine
Speaker 1: times out of one hundred, versus a top coating surface,
Speaker 1: which I know at some point in the future. Sure
Speaker 1: it's going to bubble, crack and peel. It will last
Speaker 1: and look beautiful for a while and then it won't.
Speaker 1: And and those are the things you have to evaluate.
Speaker 1: R Indeant.
Speaker 3: What about I've seen also companies that will put a
Speaker 3: top coat of like a self leveling No it's not concrete,
Speaker 3: but like a soft concrete like when you level floors.
Speaker 3: I've seen that they you know, like apply a level
Speaker 3: of concrete on top of the concrete or something like that.
Speaker 3: Do you know what I'm talking about?
Speaker 1: Yep. And it's essentially again, it is a very very
Speaker 1: precarious scenario. It has to be just the right mix
Speaker 1: and just the right conditions with just the right bonding.
Speaker 1: Otherwise you have essentially when you apply concrete to concrete,
Speaker 1: we get what we call the cold joint, which is
Speaker 1: those molecules just don't fuse the way that they would
Speaker 1: have fused when they were all wet and curing for
Speaker 1: the first time. And I know there are companies that say, listen,
Speaker 1: we put this sealer base and it grabs and it bonds. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it will for a while. But believe me, nature is
Speaker 1: not fooled by the fact that there is a seam
Speaker 1: in between those two coatings. And it is all so
Speaker 1: likely in the future at some point. Now if they
Speaker 1: tell you this is gonna last thirty years and it's
Speaker 1: on us if anything happens to it before, all right, fine,
Speaker 1: all right, go for it. But you know, the quality
Speaker 1: of the product and the confidence in the product is
Speaker 1: revealed by the length and the and the uniformity of
Speaker 1: the warranty. That's basically what it comes down to. Rick I,
Speaker 1: all I can tell you is I fear top coatings
Speaker 1: on concrete. I just I do. I fear them because
Speaker 1: I have seen so many of them fail, and I've
Speaker 1: never wanted to do one for one of our clients
Speaker 1: or recommend it for a design client. I always try
Speaker 1: and find a way to avoid it because I just
Speaker 1: don't want that call. Five years from now, seven years
Speaker 1: from now, I just don't want that call. And all
Speaker 1: I can express to you is my honest opinion and
Speaker 1: my own fear about it. But that's where I'm at Rick.
Speaker 1: I thank you for your call. I hope that gives
Speaker 1: you some perspective on what's possible with exterior concrete, and
Speaker 1: good luck, and please let me know because I do
Speaker 1: care about all of that, and it's I know it's
Speaker 1: a lot and it's a lot of money. Just know
Speaker 1: this the first step, there's no question about it. You
Speaker 1: got to strip all the old stuff off and then
Speaker 1: evaluate evaluate where your concrete stands from that point. All right,
Speaker 1: y'all more calls when we return your home with Dean
Speaker 1: Sharp the house whisper, Say Sharp the house whipper. Here
Speaker 1: we are at the end of another couple of hours
Speaker 1: spent together. It just flies by, doesn't it. All right,
Speaker 1: let's try and get one more call in real quick.
Speaker 1: Let's talk to Mary. Hey, Mary, welcome home.
Speaker 4: Hi, can you hear?
Speaker 1: Yes? I can. How can I help you?
Speaker 3: Mary?
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for your show. It's so informative
Speaker 4: and so fun. I have a question. I have a question.
Speaker 4: My water, my toilets, water tanks broke. So the whole
Speaker 4: area of the there are two bathrooms next to each
Speaker 4: other and not next to each other, across each other,
Speaker 4: and then there is a long hallway and then there
Speaker 4: is a space in front of the laundry room. So
Speaker 4: that whole area got wet, and my mom was the
Speaker 4: only one in home, so it took time for us
Speaker 4: to take care of it. So then we had to
Speaker 4: go through water mitigation and the area is dried out now.
Speaker 4: But now I have a questions about how I should
Speaker 4: do the repair. The home is laminate and it's a
Speaker 4: continuous laminate, So now I'm confused about the options of wood,
Speaker 4: lamine a tile, and if I have to do just
Speaker 4: affectional tile or if I have to do the whole
Speaker 4: area the whole home. So I just want to get
Speaker 4: some information about the ocean.
Speaker 1: Okay, So Mary, do you happen to have I don't
Speaker 1: know how large of an area got damaged, but do
Speaker 1: you happen to have you know, extra laminate planks or
Speaker 1: pieces that could replace the damage.
Speaker 4: You don't, and the discontinued the condo is from two
Speaker 4: thousand and five.
Speaker 1: Well, you know what, Mary, here's the thing. It comes
Speaker 1: down to essentially a design decision at this point. Uh,
Speaker 1: you can always stop a laminate floor at a doorway. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, as as you enter into a room, you
Speaker 1: can always create a stop in the material and a change.
Speaker 1: But you know, out in the middle of a large space, obviously,
Speaker 1: that's that can be kind of a weird thing, and
Speaker 1: not a lot of people would want to do that.
Speaker 1: So if you have a large open area, my suggestion
Speaker 1: would be, you know, to you know, to to go
Speaker 1: ahead and just use a single material. Whether or not
Speaker 1: you could come out of the bathrooms and go down
Speaker 1: the hallway and then stop at the end of the
Speaker 1: hall and transition, it's really a design decision. What I
Speaker 1: would recommend is that you don't, you know, try and
Speaker 1: match the material, because you won't quite match it. And
Speaker 1: like in so many things in the world of design,
Speaker 1: you either hit it right on the head, match it exactly,
Speaker 1: or try to miss it by a mile because close
Speaker 1: always looks like a mistake. Close but not quite always
Speaker 1: looks like a mistake. My heart goes out to you
Speaker 1: because you know you've got all these rooms or this
Speaker 1: area with the good lamin in it. So that so
Speaker 1: the first question is very quickly this and then I
Speaker 1: have to go. The first issue is find, you know,
Speaker 1: try and figure out if there is a way that
Speaker 1: you can change materials so you can limit the amount
Speaker 1: of laminate that you have to replace and keep as
Speaker 1: much of the old stuff. Or The second thing is
Speaker 1: so pull all the lamb in it up and know
Speaker 1: that these days the thing that would I would replace
Speaker 1: lamin it with without question is luxury vinyl plank, which
Speaker 1: is waterproof and won't have to be replaced the next
Speaker 1: time a toilet leaks. And it's also very very inexpensive
Speaker 1: in the world of flooring materials and so and in
Speaker 1: terms of insurance mitigation, make sure the insurance company is
Speaker 1: on the hook for everything, because if you can't replace
Speaker 1: a continuous floor, they need to understand that the replacement
Speaker 1: cost needs to extend and that you don't have to
Speaker 1: end up with a patchwork quilt on your floor. So
Speaker 1: even if the damage occurred in a hallway, but that
Speaker 1: same material runs into four other rooms. Guess what, it's
Speaker 1: not on you and now have a different material in
Speaker 1: the hallway than the four other rooms. It needs to
Speaker 1: be all replaced and changed. And the insurance claim should
Speaker 1: be on the hook for that. Mary Uh, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for your call, and best of
Speaker 1: luck with that. That's all I've got time for today. Everybody,
Speaker 1: come back tomorrow the big show. We're talking kitchen cabinets,
Speaker 1: and we're here. We're here for you because we care.
Speaker 1: Until then, get out here in this beautiful day and
Speaker 1: get busy building yourself a beautiful life, and we'll see
Speaker 1: you right back here tomorrow at nine am. This has
Speaker 1: been Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper. Tune into
Speaker 1: the live broadcast on KFI AM six forty every Saturday
Speaker 1: morning from six to eight Pacific time and every Sunday
Speaker 1: morning from nine to noon Pacific time, or anytime on
Speaker 1: demand on the iHeartRadio app.