Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp The
Speaker 1: House Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio app.
Speaker 2: Ami AM forty Live Dreaming and HD everywhere on the
Speaker 2: iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1: Hey, welcome home. I'm Dean Sharp, the House Whisper. I
Speaker 1: design custom homes, I build custom homes, and on every
Speaker 1: Saturday morning, I am your guide to better understanding that
Speaker 1: place where you live. Today on the show, as per usual,
Speaker 1: we are taking your calls. It's an all calls Saturday morning. Man.
Speaker 1: I just love sitting here talking with you about your home.
Speaker 1: And you set the agenda today. Anything you want to
Speaker 1: talk about regarding your home, whether it's a construction issue,
Speaker 1: DIY concern, a design or architectural issue for inside, for outside,
Speaker 1: for landscape, for hardescape, for general construction, you name it,
Speaker 1: I'm here. We're gonna put our heads together and figure
Speaker 1: out what's going on with your home. Producer Richie is
Speaker 1: standing by. The phone lines are open right now, and
Speaker 1: of course every Saturday morning. Right as we kick off
Speaker 1: here in the early morning hours of southern California, which
Speaker 1: is where we are broadcasting the show from. UH there
Speaker 1: is always room on the call board for you so
Speaker 1: if you've tried calling in before, now is your chance.
Speaker 1: Your odds are greatly improved because we're just rolling out
Speaker 1: and you can jump into the queue. The number to
Speaker 1: reach me eight three three two, ask Dean. That's as
Speaker 1: simple as it gets. Eight three to three the numeral two,
Speaker 1: Ask Dean. A three three two ask Dean, there you go.
Speaker 1: We'll be going to the phones very very soon. Let
Speaker 1: me introduce you to our awesome team. Sam, of course
Speaker 1: is on the board wrangling. Are not called live studio audience?
Speaker 2: Where they are?
Speaker 1: They are chipper this morning? How are you doing?
Speaker 3: Sam?
Speaker 1: They brought good energy today.
Speaker 4: I feel good too.
Speaker 1: Hi, I feel a lot like I When I receive
Speaker 1: good energy, I reflect good energy. Yeah, well, there you go,
Speaker 1: Sam is Uh. Sam is believing and receiving today absolutely Uh.
Speaker 1: Producer Richie standing by to take your calls. Uh doing
Speaker 1: the outstanding job that he's already doing. Already a call
Speaker 1: up on the board, And of course we're waiting for
Speaker 1: a few more eight three three two asked. Maybe we're
Speaker 1: waiting for you, maybe waiting for you to start the
Speaker 1: show with me. There you go A three three two,
Speaker 1: ask Dean, A three three the numeral two ask Dean. Eh,
Speaker 1: let's see here II. Leen Gonzalez of course at the
Speaker 1: news desk. Good morning, I Leen, Good.
Speaker 4: Morning, sunshine. How's it going good?
Speaker 1: I didn't actually bring the sunshine yet today.
Speaker 4: You're very sunshiny. You're always so positive.
Speaker 1: I'm calling.
Speaker 4: Maybe that was Sam?
Speaker 1: Oh that was Sam. Sam is more positive than well.
Speaker 1: I don't know that he's more positive than me today,
Speaker 1: but he's certainly a little bit more chipper. He's vocal
Speaker 1: and energetic. Oh my gosh, see there he goes again,
Speaker 1: swe speaking of beverages. Uh, what do you got going
Speaker 1: in there? Eileen? Right?
Speaker 4: I started with a decaf green tea, but yeah, I
Speaker 4: got to get the caffeine going. It can be more
Speaker 4: like Sam.
Speaker 1: Don't We all want to be more like Sam? So,
Speaker 1: you know what, I I don't even ask that question anymore.
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't actually start my morning's thinking maybe
Speaker 1: this morning just decaf. No, No, it's never that way.
Speaker 1: It's just black coffee.
Speaker 4: I think you're not supposed to until you have food, right,
Speaker 4: So that's what I try to wait till I eat.
Speaker 1: Is that the case?
Speaker 4: Yeah, supposed to be to acidic for your system. I
Speaker 4: don't know.
Speaker 1: Well, maybe I need somebody to bring me some toast.
Speaker 4: There you go, h hint.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's the key, speaking of hints of somebody to
Speaker 1: bring me toast. Sitting across the table from me, my
Speaker 1: better half, my design partner, my breakfast provider. No, I'm
Speaker 1: just kidding. My best friend in all the world, the
Speaker 1: co founder, co owner of House Whisperer, Tina is here.
Speaker 4: Welcome home.
Speaker 1: How you doing, Bud?
Speaker 4: I'm tired?
Speaker 1: You sound Uh. I think you sound kind of Schwepper
Speaker 1: vesselt I like that. Are you're tired? You're tired?
Speaker 4: I am.
Speaker 1: You were out partying late last night, big.
Speaker 4: Black, a wild round of cards.
Speaker 1: Yes, it was Friday night card night. Yes, and you
Speaker 1: did really good. I feel like I've been practicing you well,
Speaker 1: you have been practice. Yes, your play has improved significantly.
Speaker 1: I can't even I can you were you were dominant?
Speaker 1: All right? Oh my goodness. We've got some calls on
Speaker 1: the board. Guess what that means. It means we are
Speaker 1: going to the phones. Uh, you are home with Dean Sharp,
Speaker 1: the House whisper The number to reach me eight three
Speaker 1: three two. Ask Dean. We will start it up with
Speaker 1: our first call. Can't hi Dean Sharp the house whisper.
Speaker 1: Whether your home is a condo or a cottage or
Speaker 1: a castle, it matters not. The rules apply across the board,
Speaker 1: and I am here to help you take it to
Speaker 1: the next level. And that's what we do every Saturday morning,
Speaker 1: here live from southern California, taking your calls. You've asked
Speaker 1: the questions, We'll put our heads together, we'll fix whatever
Speaker 1: it is that's ailing you with your home. The number
Speaker 1: to reach me eight three three to ask Dean, eight
Speaker 1: three three the numeral to ask Dean. It's time to
Speaker 1: go to the phones. Let's do it. I want to
Speaker 1: talk to Bill. Hey, Bill, welcome home. Hello Dean, Good morning, sir.
Speaker 3: Well, I've got a town home that was built in
Speaker 3: the mid to late seventies. I'm going to refinish it
Speaker 3: and I tore up the carpet and some old parquet flooring,
Speaker 3: and it turns out that the sub floor on the
Speaker 3: main floor there is concrete. But it's not like you know,
Speaker 3: the real hard concrete you get on a foundation slab.
Speaker 3: It seems like more porous and light. And where the
Speaker 3: parquet came up, it's really pitted. There's some cracking, and
Speaker 3: I'm wondering how do I finish that or seal that
Speaker 3: before I put in a you know, wood floor or
Speaker 3: a laminate floor or something.
Speaker 1: Okay, so really important questions. So when you say that
Speaker 1: it doesn't look like a regular lab, are you on
Speaker 1: a subfloor? Is this lightweight concrete or some or infill
Speaker 1: gypsum concrete or floor level or that is that what
Speaker 1: we're staring at or we actually looking at a slab here?
Speaker 3: Well, it's like a slab.
Speaker 1: So the main.
Speaker 3: Floor is up from the garage. It's it's kind of
Speaker 3: one level up and you know, the whole main floor
Speaker 3: has got concrete on it, and it seems like it's
Speaker 3: least an inch or too thick.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, So yeah, so it is a it's
Speaker 1: not a concrete slab. It is concrete of some nature,
Speaker 1: but it is not a slab. It's a either a
Speaker 1: self leveling or a lightweight concrete that was poured in,
Speaker 1: especially during the seventies. It was nineteen seventy when the
Speaker 1: place was built in the seventies, and so very likely
Speaker 1: it's foamed concrete, which is how we used to do
Speaker 1: lightweight concrete back there, real concrete with a foam in it.
Speaker 1: And lots of holes, lots of you know, it's just
Speaker 1: it's kind of the cappuccino of of flooring layers, and
Speaker 1: you know, it provides some insulation. It also allows you
Speaker 1: to to you know, put stone or tile down in
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. Uh, the best way to do
Speaker 1: to infill there? Now? Are you missing pieces or is
Speaker 1: it just cracked?
Speaker 3: There's some places where there might be a crack that's
Speaker 3: half an inch wide, you know, it's a foot long,
Speaker 3: but mostly and where I took the carpet up, it's
Speaker 3: pretty it's pretty clean and flat. But where I pulled
Speaker 3: up the parquet with that all of the glue on it,
Speaker 3: it's pretty pitted and.
Speaker 1: Right. So my suggestion is, uh, you know, because it's
Speaker 1: not a structural floor, Okay, there's no need to go
Speaker 1: to any any big you know, heroic measures like epoxy
Speaker 1: injecting or anything like that. Honestly, if I were you,
Speaker 1: I would consider going down and actually mating that concrete,
Speaker 1: that existing stuff with how we do this these days,
Speaker 1: and that is with a really good self leveling compound.
Speaker 1: And self leveling compound is essentially gypsun based like dry wall,
Speaker 1: except it's got these strong epoxy adhesives mixed into it.
Speaker 1: You can go pick this up a self leveling compound
Speaker 1: at the big box store, at the hardware store, at
Speaker 1: the builders supply, and you can literally you mix it
Speaker 1: up like running pancake batter, and you can pour it
Speaker 1: out across You can pour it in the cracks number
Speaker 1: one of the existing until it comes up to the surface.
Speaker 1: You can pour it out across the entire surface if
Speaker 1: you want to seal and close up most of those pits,
Speaker 1: and and you know, you wait a couple hours and
Speaker 1: it's fully walkable and you can get back to putting
Speaker 1: down your new flooring.
Speaker 3: It's great. That sounds like a solution.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, And it's the nice thing is now you're
Speaker 1: probably in your situation, you're probably gonna want to have
Speaker 1: a trowel, actually a wood float. That's a trowel that's
Speaker 1: made out of wood. It's a float on hand so
Speaker 1: that you can do a little smoothing and make sure
Speaker 1: it doesn't hump up when it fills up the cracks,
Speaker 1: that kind of thing, just to kind of trowl it in,
Speaker 1: just to get it connected to all the porosity of
Speaker 1: the existing lightweight cement. But you won't have to work
Speaker 1: very hard, because, like I said, the whole idea is
Speaker 1: this stuff is self leveling. If you didn't have any
Speaker 1: of that concrete on the floor and we wanted to
Speaker 1: put a layer of level floor down, you'd literally be
Speaker 1: pouring this out onto the floor. It finds its level,
Speaker 1: it cures very very quickly, and then you get back
Speaker 1: to business. And so I think in your case, mating
Speaker 1: the two would not be a problem. It's the easiest
Speaker 1: way to fill up the cracks, the pits, anything that's missing,
Speaker 1: and then allow it if you're willing to allow, you know,
Speaker 1: another quarter inch or so of layer on top of
Speaker 1: it all. It'll re level your floor for you as well.
Speaker 3: Very good, I appreciate that. Thanks so much.
Speaker 1: All right, Bill, take care, good luck with that floor, buddy.
Speaker 1: All right, see we're off to the races. We've got
Speaker 1: more calls on the board. There's room for you too.
Speaker 1: The number to reach me eight three three to ask
Speaker 1: Dean eight three three, the numeral two beep, ask Dean
Speaker 1: more of your calls.
Speaker 5: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 5: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: I AM forty live streaming in HD everywhere on the
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app. It's Dean Sharp the House Whisper with you
Speaker 1: here live this morning, on this lovely Saturday morning, the
Speaker 1: seventh of June twenty twenty five. We are taking your
Speaker 1: calls as we do on Saturday mornings. There's still room
Speaker 1: on the callboard for you, though. Eight three three two.
Speaker 1: Ask Dean eight three three the numeral too. Ask Dean
Speaker 1: anything you want to talk about regarding your home to
Speaker 1: you got a question for me? You got something you've
Speaker 1: been scratching your head about construction, diy, architecture, design, the
Speaker 1: artsy stuff, the craftsmanship stuff, the builder stuff, whatever the
Speaker 1: case may be. Give me a call. I'm going to
Speaker 1: help you through it. We're gonna work together and transform
Speaker 1: your ordinary house into an extraordinary home. All right, we're
Speaker 1: going back to the phones. I want to talk to Nancy. Nancy,
Speaker 1: welcome home.
Speaker 6: Hello, Dean, thank you. Well. I've had two contractors that
Speaker 6: have to do different things, and they said they were
Speaker 6: doing certain things. They promised pictures, they promised other things,
Speaker 6: No pictures, don't know how the work was really done. Complication,
Speaker 6: and they deviated from things. And then they even the
Speaker 6: plumber people took Mike Fossts out put mis match faucets
Speaker 6: in the shower, and you know, and said everything was okay,
Speaker 6: even if there's a screw and that's about six inches long,
Speaker 6: and you're you know, you want to turn the cold
Speaker 6: water off because the hot water gets too hot. What
Speaker 6: if it comes out of the wall, and or in
Speaker 6: an effort to do that, I'm also handicapped. I don't
Speaker 6: want to fall on the floor and this in the
Speaker 6: shower while I'm trying to get the cold water to
Speaker 6: even out the hot water. And you know, and they
Speaker 6: promised pictures and they say, oh, well, we didn't take
Speaker 6: pictures because it wasn't wet there, and yet they from
Speaker 6: the from the curb to the house, it didn't need
Speaker 6: all that, and but it looked like it might have
Speaker 6: needed it somewhere. But they just made up something. And
Speaker 6: then they said it would be a certain price. And
Speaker 6: oh and they seemed real, real, real nice. But they
Speaker 6: always do and then they do things, they change things around.
Speaker 6: They created a hazard even walking out of my house
Speaker 6: for them, you know, just going down two steps and
Speaker 6: going out to my driveway. Now I would have to
Speaker 6: cross a hose and another line that was already on
Speaker 6: the side of the porch where the yard is, and
Speaker 6: that's where it was when I bought the house.
Speaker 1: And like Nancy, it sounds like that you've you've definitely
Speaker 1: had some frustrations with a plumber and some other contractors.
Speaker 6: U what and then and then then they turn around
Speaker 6: and they say, you promise he'll pay you so much.
Speaker 6: Then they they won't let you read the contract. They
Speaker 6: raise the price on it. And they're the ones pushing
Speaker 6: the buttons on the gmail that you get. They say, oh,
Speaker 6: you push here, here, here, here, as if I okayed
Speaker 6: with my signature.
Speaker 1: Right, Okay, Well, my friend, I hear you. I hear
Speaker 1: your frustration clearly clearly. What do you do with situations
Speaker 1: like that?
Speaker 6: Man?
Speaker 1: It it gets I wish this wasn't the case. I
Speaker 1: wish there weren't contractors out there who kind of push
Speaker 1: themselves on people, take advantage of people who have their
Speaker 1: systems that they're interested in just getting through a job,
Speaker 1: getting the money, getting out, not worrying about how it
Speaker 1: turns out in the end. Unfortunately, that is a reality.
Speaker 1: It's out there in the world. How do you protect
Speaker 1: yourself against such things? It's not an easy answer. There
Speaker 1: are a number of things that you have to do.
Speaker 1: But I want everybody who's listening to understand this that
Speaker 1: the number one thing is, you do not abdicate your
Speaker 1: responsibility for the project. You do not let anybody rush
Speaker 1: you through the decision making for the project or the
Speaker 1: decision making for signing a contract. You don't let anybody
Speaker 1: rush you through that process. You don't let anybody push
Speaker 1: the buttons for you. And getting your signatures on a
Speaker 1: digital contract especially, it all seems so easy and so quick,
Speaker 1: but it all needs to be read, it all needs
Speaker 1: to be understood ahead of time. Then when I say,
Speaker 1: don't abdicate your responsibility, the other part is for everybody.
Speaker 1: And I know this is tougher for some people than others,
Speaker 1: but you know, you've got to do some background checking
Speaker 1: on a contractor you've got to vet them if you
Speaker 1: want to. If you're working with somebody who've never worked before,
Speaker 1: you've got to know that they know what they're doing
Speaker 1: and that they have a great reputation for doing it.
Speaker 1: You want to check with the California State License Board.
Speaker 1: You check their license number, make sure that they're licensed
Speaker 1: to do the job number one. Make sure that they're bonded,
Speaker 1: that they are ensured to do the job. Then you
Speaker 1: want to check their references and you want recent references
Speaker 1: from them, numbers to call and clients to talk to about. Hey,
Speaker 1: these guys just finished your place last week, how did
Speaker 1: it go? If you don't mind, could I just take
Speaker 1: a couple of minutes, sure of your time, and ask
Speaker 1: you did you like them? How was your experience with them?
Speaker 1: You want to vet people. You make sure that you're
Speaker 1: working with somebody who is highly recommended by others recently
Speaker 1: who have done the job. And then the big question
Speaker 1: of whatever it is that they're doing, if they're fixing
Speaker 1: a major problem, if they're just switching things out. You
Speaker 1: want to make sure that if the job needs permits,
Speaker 1: there are permits. And that means that a city inspector
Speaker 1: shows up on the job, a neutral third party who
Speaker 1: holds their feet to the fire to make sure that
Speaker 1: the work got done properly. You get that inspection report
Speaker 1: and you get that permit signed off by the city inspector.
Speaker 1: They don't necessarily need to show you photographs of that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. They're not legally obligated to show you
Speaker 1: photographs of what they did in the wall, but they
Speaker 1: are legally obligated when there is a permit to fulfill
Speaker 1: the permit process, which means the inspector is going to
Speaker 1: make sure they did what they were supposed to do
Speaker 1: in the wall. And then, finally, and maybe most importantly,
Speaker 1: the thing that I want to again underscore for everybody
Speaker 1: is that design matters most when it comes to a project.
Speaker 1: And what does that mean. It means that you want
Speaker 1: to reach out to somebody with design knowledge because when
Speaker 1: people say, hey, I want this project to turn out right,
Speaker 1: I want it to be done properly. What I have
Speaker 1: learned over the years is there are two definitions of
Speaker 1: project done properly. There is the design of the project,
Speaker 1: meaning that the faucets, that, the fixtures, that, the tile
Speaker 1: that was selected, the colors, all of this was designed well.
Speaker 1: And we do not look to a contractor to do
Speaker 1: our designing for us. We do not. That is not
Speaker 1: what contractors. Every contractor out there is going to make suggestions,
Speaker 1: Oh well, once you use this oncet, you try that,
Speaker 1: that's all well and good. I don't ignore a contractor's suggestions.
Speaker 1: But a contractor is not a designer. They are there
Speaker 1: to implement the design. And yeah, this seems like a
Speaker 1: lot of work, and it is a lot of work
Speaker 1: when it comes to getting your home done right. But
Speaker 1: these are the steps that we have to take. And
Speaker 1: so one of the purposes, one of the reasons I'm
Speaker 1: on the radio with you, is to bring kind of
Speaker 1: a new era of understanding to home remodeling and DIY
Speaker 1: and all of this stuff. Design matters most, my friends,
Speaker 1: and it is not a contractor who's going to do
Speaker 1: the design work. So when I say there are two
Speaker 1: kinds of well the project turned out well, that is
Speaker 1: number one is the design of good design. And so
Speaker 1: in the end, was it designed properly? And that is
Speaker 1: very very different from whether the workmanship on the job
Speaker 1: was done properly. That is the contractor's responsibility to do
Speaker 1: the workmanship properly, to make sure all the pieces of
Speaker 1: the design were executed appropriately according to code, in a
Speaker 1: workmanlike manner. So, Nancy, I feel you. I feel your frustration.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately it may be a little late in your situation.
Speaker 1: Hopefully now, if there's still something left to be resolved,
Speaker 1: you can take action with the contractor. But when it
Speaker 1: comes to selecting somebody to do the work in your home,
Speaker 1: don't abdicate that responsibility. You're the boss. You're the boss
Speaker 1: of your place. It's yours to handle all the way through,
Speaker 1: and these the steps to take. So hopefully, Nancy, that
Speaker 1: helps you out, my friend, and good luck as you
Speaker 1: proceed forward. And you know what, if you feel like
Speaker 1: it's over your head, reach out to a friend or
Speaker 1: family member and simply say, I need your help with this.
Speaker 1: I need your help representing me in front of these
Speaker 1: people because they're pushing me around. All right, when we
Speaker 1: come back, more of your calls your home, Dean Sharp,
Speaker 1: the house whisper, caymbye, Dean Sharp, the house whisper, welcome home.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us on the program today. We're taking
Speaker 1: calls this morning, as we do on Saturday mornings. Eight
Speaker 1: three three two Ask Dean is the number to reach me,
Speaker 1: eight three to three the numeral two. Ask Dean. Anything
Speaker 1: you've got regarding your home, construction, DIY, design and architecture, advice,
Speaker 1: anything that's going on. Give me a call. We'll put
Speaker 1: our heads together and we'll figure it out. Let's talk
Speaker 1: to Yvonne. Hey von welcome home.
Speaker 7: Hi, thanks Stein for taking my call. I love you,
Speaker 7: first of all, I know your wife does too, but
Speaker 7: I have a question about a smell in our new house.
Speaker 7: We bought a house four years old, and I could
Speaker 7: spend half an hour talking to you about the different things,
Speaker 7: but I'm not going to. I just have two questions. One,
Speaker 7: we had black mold remediation done and we walked into
Speaker 7: the house and it smells really bad. And the reason
Speaker 7: we started this whole process is the house smelled like cats.
Speaker 7: Ah okay, yeah, so we bought it, we moved in,
Speaker 7: it smelled, we moved out, it's done the remediation, and
Speaker 7: we're wanting to move back in again. I want to
Speaker 7: know how do we know for sure that there's not
Speaker 7: going to be a cat smell after they've done the
Speaker 7: mold remediation. I know that's not to take care of smell.
Speaker 7: Do we need to pull up the floor on the
Speaker 7: whole house? And if so, once they've done that, what's
Speaker 7: the process to get rid of the smell. So that's
Speaker 7: the first question. The second question is if we're going
Speaker 7: to put new flooring in, I'd like to have your
Speaker 7: opinion on the on trend flooring that's going to last
Speaker 7: ten or fifteen years until we die looking good, not
Speaker 7: looking dated.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, I'm happy to help you out. I'll
Speaker 1: tell you what, Yvonne, you've been waiting for a little bit.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask you to wait just a smidge longer
Speaker 1: because we're right at the top of the hour now,
Speaker 1: and so if I can pop you on hold when
Speaker 1: we come back from break, I'm going to give both
Speaker 1: of those questions everything that they deserve. How does that sound?
Speaker 3: That sounds wonderful?
Speaker 7: Thank you?
Speaker 1: All right? You hang tight, everybody hang tight. We're gonna
Speaker 1: fix this cat smell in Yvonne's new house, relatively new house. Wow,
Speaker 1: that was some serious cat intrusion for the first four years.
Speaker 1: I will give you my advice on that and the
Speaker 1: new flooring right after the break your Home with Dean
Speaker 1: Sharp the house Whisper on KFI.
Speaker 5: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 5: KFI Am sixt