Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp the
Speaker 1: House Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio app. Hey
Speaker 1: follow us on social media. We only do the good
Speaker 1: kind of social media, I promise uplifting, informative, inspiring stuff.
Speaker 1: We're on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook x Home with Dean. That's
Speaker 1: the handle to find us. It's good for all of them.
Speaker 1: In fact, right now, Tina has got up on our
Speaker 1: social media a video A little blast from the past.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's a blast from the past that I pulled
Speaker 2: out of the archives from our YouTube channel, and it's
Speaker 2: very relevant to today's topic about tools and the essentials
Speaker 2: that you need in your home toolbox.
Speaker 1: There you go, little two minute video, very very similar,
Speaker 1: not exactly one for one my list today, but ninety
Speaker 1: eight percent of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's really cute.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's cute.
Speaker 3: Kid.
Speaker 1: He's very young and very young. No facial hair.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's just it wasn't that long ago, I know,
Speaker 2: but you look younger without the facial hair. It's just
Speaker 2: very cute, all right. But you are you trying to
Speaker 2: tell me something about my beard?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 2: I love your beard and you are so handsome.
Speaker 1: Oh no, but no, just stop, it's just cute. Just stop,
Speaker 1: all right.
Speaker 2: I haven't seen you that way in a while.
Speaker 1: It's there my face. Shush, I'm turning on your mic
Speaker 1: off right now. There her mic is off. No more
Speaker 1: of that anyway. Yes, social media, so while you're there,
Speaker 1: follow us like it in a video like that. If
Speaker 1: you've got a friend who's like, you know what, they
Speaker 1: need to hear this, just share it. Boom, you can
Speaker 1: just share it right across there you go. Also, if
Speaker 1: you're home, I know we're not talking design today, but
Speaker 1: if your home is in need of some personal house
Speaker 1: whisper attention, personal what does that mean, like you know
Speaker 1: you guys standing in my living room? Yeah, that's exactly
Speaker 1: what I mean. Then you can book an in home
Speaker 1: design consolet with me and tea and listen to her cuteness.
Speaker 1: Just go to house Whisperer dot design for more details
Speaker 1: on that. All right, we are finishing off. It's part
Speaker 1: two today of our two part first Weekend in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five series of tools Essential tools for your home.
Speaker 1: Whether you rent or own, doesn't matter. These are essential
Speaker 1: tools to have on hand to handle whatever comes up
Speaker 1: with in the place. That you live. We're gonna get
Speaker 1: back to that in a bit, but it's top of
Speaker 1: the hour. I asked for calls, I got calls. I
Speaker 1: got a board full of calls. So I want to
Speaker 1: get to it. Let's talk to Roger. Hey, Roger, welcome home.
Speaker 5: How you doing, Dean?
Speaker 1: I'm well, sir, Happy new year?
Speaker 5: All right, same to you. Love the show. All right,
Speaker 5: My mom's got an older house built early sixties. I
Speaker 5: noticed that there are no gfs cis anywhere in the house.
Speaker 5: Can you do that on a two wire? So I
Speaker 5: can't find a ground wire anywhere?
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, great, So all right, let me set
Speaker 1: this up for you for everybody who's listening. So Roger's
Speaker 1: mom lives in an older home. That was the electricity
Speaker 1: was running this home. You guys, you know you've seen
Speaker 1: this before. Electricity was running this home. All the outlets
Speaker 1: have two prongs. There's no third little grounding plug down below,
Speaker 1: just two prongs, no grounding plug. That means there's no
Speaker 1: ground wire run throughout the entire house. Those are that's
Speaker 1: old school ungrounded you know, plugs and switches running throughout
Speaker 1: the house. Now, Roger also mentioned a GFCI A GA
Speaker 1: for short, we'll just call it a GFI ground fault
Speaker 1: interrupt plug. You've also seen these. These are the little
Speaker 1: outlets that have a little button that says test and
Speaker 1: reset on them. Sometimes they are all one color, sometimes
Speaker 1: the button is red.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 1: And those are designed and required by current code for
Speaker 1: all sorts of areas that have water anywhere nearby, because
Speaker 1: they act like their own little miniature circuit breaker. They
Speaker 1: pop off and cut the power whenever there is any
Speaker 1: kind of a grounding fault, like, for instance, you know
Speaker 1: you drop a hair dryer into a sink of water. Okay,
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. So the question is Mom's house
Speaker 1: has no grounded outlets? Can you install a GFI outlet
Speaker 1: on an ungrounded house? And would it be worth it?
Speaker 1: Would they do anything if there are no ground wires
Speaker 1: running through the house. And the answer is yes, yes
Speaker 1: you can, and you probably should. In fact, Roger, it's
Speaker 1: one of the ways in which, without tearing into the
Speaker 1: walls and rerunning new electrical you can make her home safer.
Speaker 1: Now I say safer. So here's here's a couple of uh,
Speaker 1: here's a couple of you know, nuances to that. A
Speaker 1: GFCI is a grounding device. I mean a breaker in
Speaker 1: and of itself. It does not need the ground wire
Speaker 1: being attached to it in order for it to do
Speaker 1: its job. Okay, but without a ground wire attached to it,
Speaker 1: it won't be quite as sensitive to ground faults as
Speaker 1: it would be if it had the ground wire attached
Speaker 1: to it. Now what that means though, is it means
Speaker 1: sensitive electronic devices. Okay, A GFI plug will not protect
Speaker 1: is not going to save the circuit board on a
Speaker 1: sensitive electronic device if there's a ground fault the way
Speaker 1: it would if it had a grounding wire attached to it.
Speaker 1: But on the human being level, children us, Okay, it
Speaker 1: will do its job just fine, and that's why it's
Speaker 1: such a good idea. Okay, So if you want to
Speaker 1: protect humans, then you can go into a house that
Speaker 1: has no ground wires in it and replace as many
Speaker 1: of the outlets as you want with GFI outlets that
Speaker 1: will pop off and they'll just have to be reset
Speaker 1: once they go off. To protect human beings, and that's
Speaker 1: really what they're primarily for. If you've got sensitive electronic equipment,
Speaker 1: don't rely on those entirely. Plug into one of those
Speaker 1: a a power strip that is a surge protector specifically
Speaker 1: designed for electronic here, and you'll be good there too.
Speaker 1: But the good news is that there's an inexpensive way
Speaker 1: to make an ungrounded house safe. The outlet's safe, and
Speaker 1: that's by actually just switching out those outlets to GFCI outlets.
Speaker 1: They'll work fine, they just won't be as sensitive. And
Speaker 1: here's what's going to confuse some people. Part of my list. Actually,
Speaker 1: one of the tools on my essential toolbox list is
Speaker 1: a receptacle tester. Okay, these little receptacle testers. You plug
Speaker 1: them into a receptacle to make sure that it's been
Speaker 1: wired properly, and a lot of them have. The one
Speaker 1: that I want you to get has a little switch,
Speaker 1: a little button and you push that and it creates
Speaker 1: a little ground fault to test a GFI outlet. So
Speaker 1: here's the thing. If the house is ungrounded and you
Speaker 1: install a GFI outlet, that little tester is not going
Speaker 1: to work because it's very sensitive. It's like the sensitivity
Speaker 1: of electronic device. It's not going to be enough to
Speaker 1: test it. So it's going to be confusing because look,
Speaker 1: something's not working. So if it's an undergrounded house, the
Speaker 1: code actually says this to you. You're totally legally allowed
Speaker 1: to install those inside the box of a GFCI outlet.
Speaker 1: There are little stickers that nobody ever uses because they
Speaker 1: they you know, they just use them in normal grounded houses.
Speaker 1: But there is a sticker in there, a label that
Speaker 1: says no equipment ground And technically you're supposed to put
Speaker 1: that sticker on the outlets so that somebody knows that
Speaker 1: this is a GFCI. It works just fine, but there's
Speaker 1: no ground wire connecting it. And that way, when you
Speaker 1: go to test that, you realize, okay, the electronic tester
Speaker 1: doesn't work, but still the buttons work just fine. Does
Speaker 1: that make sense?
Speaker 5: It makes a lot of sense. And I will say
Speaker 5: it'll be a license electrician that does still work. I
Speaker 5: just want to educate myself on it before I, you know,
Speaker 5: have them come out and do the work. There.
Speaker 1: You go, yeah, and you know and so, and if
Speaker 1: any electrician is like, listen, these aren't any good, you
Speaker 1: just need to rewire the house, then you just show
Speaker 1: them the door because they're looking for, you know, a
Speaker 1: multi thousand dollars job when you actually just want them
Speaker 1: to install some outlets, and you know, honesty is the
Speaker 1: first threshold that every contractor must pass to get into
Speaker 1: your house.
Speaker 5: Agreed. That's great.
Speaker 1: Great, and so all right, Roger, thanks for listening to
Speaker 1: the show, Thanks for being a fan. Appreciate it. Hope
Speaker 1: that helps you out. I think it does, and it
Speaker 1: helped out a lot of other people who were like, oh,
Speaker 1: I didn't know you could do that.
Speaker 7: All right, you're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on
Speaker 7: demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: We are taking calls. I am talking to you about
Speaker 1: whatever is going on with your home. Let's go back
Speaker 1: to the phones. I want to talk to Jill. Hey, Jill,
Speaker 1: welcome home.
Speaker 4: Hi Deane, thanks for the great topic. What recommendation do
Speaker 4: you have for tools that are made in America?
Speaker 1: Oh you mean you mean what tool brands are made
Speaker 1: in America? Is that what you're asking?
Speaker 4: Yeah, yes, yeah, yeah, thanks.
Speaker 1: Fewer these days than used to be. So my recommendation
Speaker 1: is that. So it's here's here's the thing. If it's
Speaker 1: a important to you, okay, and so let me say
Speaker 1: two things about this. Number One, Yes, tools made overseas
Speaker 1: in some instances, especially when it comes to hand tools,
Speaker 1: are probably inferior to tools made here in the US
Speaker 1: as far as their quality is concerned. Now, I say
Speaker 1: that qualifiedly, and I say it specifically, keeping it the
Speaker 1: subject connected to hand tools. Right. I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: demean any foreign countries by saying that the stuff that
Speaker 1: comes from overseas is cheaper quality. But a lot of
Speaker 1: it is cheaper quality. There are some tool manufacturers that
Speaker 1: are simply born and belong to other countries that are
Speaker 1: among the top top of quality tool manufacturers, especially when
Speaker 1: it comes to power tools, names like Makita and Bosh
Speaker 1: which is a German company, and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1: So I'm just talking about hand tools, and yeah, quite
Speaker 1: often you will find that. So there are two things
Speaker 1: to look for when it comes to a tool. Number One,
Speaker 1: a brand name that you recognize, that you know has
Speaker 1: been around forever in the day. Now, that's not a guarantee. Okay.
Speaker 1: For instance, a few years back and around two thousand
Speaker 1: and eight or so, Craftsmen of all tool brands, Craftsmen
Speaker 1: went through some structural corporate changes and now a lot
Speaker 1: of Craftsmen tools come from overseas, not all of them,
Speaker 1: a few still made here, a lot of them made
Speaker 1: over there. Other tools like Stanley, you would think, oh,
Speaker 1: that's been you know, my grandpa used to use Stanley. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and a lot of Stanley tools made overseas, not all
Speaker 1: of them, but some maybe most these days. So here's
Speaker 1: the thing. The thing I look for when if you're
Speaker 1: looking for a US made tool, I say the same
Speaker 1: thing about tool packaging that I say that if you
Speaker 1: are shopping for organic foods. Okay, it costs more to
Speaker 1: make a tool in the US. Labor is you know,
Speaker 1: US labor. It's you know, we pay our people more
Speaker 1: than foreign manufacturers pay the Generally speaking, it's kind of
Speaker 1: understood that the quality that goes into it, the materials themselves,
Speaker 1: they're manufactured better, so they're gonna cost more. And to
Speaker 1: justify that that cost, just like growing organic it costs
Speaker 1: more than growing conventional food. Guess what, by the time
Speaker 1: it makes it to the grocery store, those organic growers
Speaker 1: want you to know that it's organic, certified organic, because
Speaker 1: that's how they justify. Listen, I know our eggs are
Speaker 1: more expensive than those eggs over there, but we're certified organic.
Speaker 1: So if you've gone through the trouble to grow food organically,
Speaker 1: you tell the world that you've done that and in
Speaker 1: the same vain. If you have manufactured a tool here
Speaker 1: in the USA, then you are going to let the
Speaker 1: world know. And so you just really have to look
Speaker 1: at the packaging and sometimes you look at the tool itself.
Speaker 1: Here's one brand, for instance, that I was just talking about.
Speaker 1: I was talking about channel locking plyers, okay, and I
Speaker 1: was very careful not to say channel locker pliers because
Speaker 1: channel Lock is actually a brand, a US brand. They
Speaker 1: happen to make channel locking plyers and that's how they
Speaker 1: got their start. Stamped right on the side of every
Speaker 1: channel lock wrench made in the USA, and it's going
Speaker 1: to be on the packaging and so on. So that's
Speaker 1: what I would recommend. If it's important to you that
Speaker 1: it's US made, then just look at the packages because
Speaker 1: if it is, you'll see it. It's going to say
Speaker 1: it clearly because they want you to know that they've
Speaker 1: gone to extra effort to get you that tool. It
Speaker 1: communicates two things. Number one, that's probably why our tool
Speaker 1: is a little more expensive. And number two, it should
Speaker 1: communicate that our tool is more expensive because it's better
Speaker 1: quality because we made it here. And that's the idea.
Speaker 1: Is that makes sense, Jill.
Speaker 4: Perfect sense? And yes, I was referring to hand tools.
Speaker 4: So that's really helpful. Thanks so much.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, just look for it, Just look for it
Speaker 1: and it's in. Yeah, it is, it is. It's tricky.
Speaker 1: It's trickier than you think these days. Because you know
Speaker 1: craftsman tools. You know, you would think of all kinds
Speaker 1: of tools, right, but there are brands that are here
Speaker 1: when it comes to wrenches, snap on tools, one hundred
Speaker 1: percent US made to my knowledge. Hopefully somebody correct me
Speaker 1: if it isn't. But there they're Cline, Cline, which makes
Speaker 1: a ton of electrical tools, I believe are one hundred
Speaker 1: percent US made. Pliers, those kinds of things, channel lock.
Speaker 1: You're safe, but you just got to check. You just
Speaker 1: got to check to make sure. And it'll say it.
Speaker 1: It'll screw eam it out if it is, because they're very,
Speaker 1: very proud of it as they go. All right, do
Speaker 1: I have time to squeeze another one in here? Let's
Speaker 1: try Anita, welcome home.
Speaker 6: Thank you for the call. I have a twenty year
Speaker 6: old home and we have a tankless water heater in
Speaker 6: our garage which is about thirty feet from our kitchen,
Speaker 6: and in the kitchen to get the water there faster.
Speaker 6: We put in a pump, and recently when you run
Speaker 6: the water in the kitchen, it'll run a little bit
Speaker 6: and then it loses the water pressure.
Speaker 1: And with good pressure, and then it loses it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's like it'll run, you know, like strong, and
Speaker 6: then all of a sudden it just weakens.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, you know it's only idea. It's only the
Speaker 1: kitchen faucet. Yes, no other facets in the house are
Speaker 1: reacting that.
Speaker 3: Way, no, okay, have you It goes through So the
Speaker 3: pipe runs from the tankless water heater to haul bathroom first.
Speaker 6: And then to the kitchen. But the pump is under
Speaker 6: the kitchen, okay.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so you've got a research pump there and
Speaker 1: you know, okay, and the hall bathroom is not experiencing
Speaker 1: this issue.
Speaker 6: Uh, you know, I don't use it that often, but
Speaker 6: I haven't noticed it.
Speaker 1: All right, assuming that it's not, let me ask you this,
Speaker 1: how how recently was this work done?
Speaker 6: By the way, how recently was it? What like?
Speaker 1: The how was the work done the tankless water heater
Speaker 1: and the pump and all that.
Speaker 6: The pump was put in probably two years ago, and
Speaker 6: the tankless water heater has been here from the beginning
Speaker 6: of belief.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, let me ask you.
Speaker 6: About the house we didn't buy brand new.
Speaker 1: So okay, have you checked the aerator on the kitchen faucet?
Speaker 1: Have you opened up the aerator and checked it to
Speaker 1: see if it's if it's clean and clear.
Speaker 6: I have not done then, And I have an attachment
Speaker 6: for a water filter on their machine. Okay, so I
Speaker 6: could take that off and check it.
Speaker 1: I would. I would take it off and check it.
Speaker 1: It sounds to me. Okay. Now if it was if
Speaker 1: there was a pressure drop issue for the house as
Speaker 1: a whole, then you'd experience it in all the faucets everywhere.
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, if it was water.
Speaker 1: Heater acting up, if it was a pump system acting up,
Speaker 1: or what have you. Since you're only experiencing this at
Speaker 1: the kitchen faucet, the first question. I don't know that
Speaker 1: it's the answer, But the first question that I have
Speaker 1: is because that's how this behaves. Sometimes pressure builds up
Speaker 1: in the line maximum pressure. When when you know nothing
Speaker 1: is running, you open up a faucet, pressure starts to flow. Now,
Speaker 1: if if that kitchen faucet has got you know, especially
Speaker 1: if it has like a filter attached to it too.
Speaker 1: If the filter is old and dirty and starting to clog,
Speaker 1: then it is then it's a cluding water pressure and
Speaker 1: water flow. If the aerator has got some sediment in
Speaker 1: it and has started to clog, then then it's a
Speaker 1: cluding water flow. And right when you turn it on,
Speaker 1: because all of that max pressure is right at the door,
Speaker 1: then for a half second or two it feels like
Speaker 1: it flows fine because there's a lot of pressure, But
Speaker 1: then the pressure neutralizes down to normal, and then the
Speaker 1: flow seems less than great. That usually is a sign
Speaker 1: of something clogged or sediment or dirt. And since you
Speaker 1: have a filter attached to it, my suggestion is check
Speaker 1: the filter clear, flush the filter out, check the aeriator,
Speaker 1: make sure that it's all clear, and before you if
Speaker 1: you can, before you reattach the filter and or reattach
Speaker 1: the aererator, go ahead and turn the faucet on and
Speaker 1: see what kind of flow you get then, and if
Speaker 1: it's still inadequate flow, then you know it's something a
Speaker 1: little bit more systemic, and then we have to look
Speaker 1: back line a little bit. But my guess is if
Speaker 1: the filter's not on and the aerator is detached, my
Speaker 1: guess is you're going to be very happy with the
Speaker 1: flow of that faucet, and that's lets you know that
Speaker 1: it's the aerator and or the filter that are clogging
Speaker 1: up the works.
Speaker 6: Okay, and just one quick question. I didn't think about
Speaker 6: this before I called, But if it was just the
Speaker 6: hot water doing that, and I can't remember, I usually
Speaker 6: use just the hot water mainly, and so would it
Speaker 6: be a difference if it was just the hot water
Speaker 6: doing that, Would that make any.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it might be. It might be. That might be
Speaker 1: an indication that it's something with the heater that's back
Speaker 1: line somewhere, as opposed to just all the water. But
Speaker 1: that's what this is the kind of differential diagnosis that
Speaker 1: you need to go through to really get to the
Speaker 1: heart of the problem before you commit to like, well,
Speaker 1: let's just throw you know, a few hundred dollars at
Speaker 1: this or that. Test it out. Number one, Go through
Speaker 1: the house, check out all the faucets, see how they flow.
Speaker 1: Number two. If the kitchen is different, okay, that tells
Speaker 1: you something. If the hot is different than the cold,
Speaker 1: that tells you something. If the hot is not different
Speaker 1: from the cold and it's still just the faucet. I'm
Speaker 1: saying it's the aerator or the filter, and you can
Speaker 1: start there, and if not, then maybe you got to
Speaker 1: get a plumber involved and get a little bit more
Speaker 1: deeper into the system with the hot water heater. Thank
Speaker 1: you for the call, my friend, and thanks for listening
Speaker 1: to the show. I hope that helps all right, y'all.
Speaker 1: When we return, I'm going to get back into our
Speaker 1: tool list, but we will be going back to the
Speaker 1: phones again at the top of the hour, so you
Speaker 1: can hang on the line, or you can call and
Speaker 1: wait and listen to the show while it all happens.
Speaker 7: Right now, you're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on
Speaker 7: demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us on the program today. Good to
Speaker 1: see you, well, I can't see you, but to know
Speaker 1: that you're here with me. Here we are on the
Speaker 1: first weekend of twenty twenty five, the first Sunday of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, and I'm spending it just laying the
Speaker 1: most basic foundation imaginable for all of our discussions this year.
Speaker 1: And that is not design stuff, not building stuff, not
Speaker 1: remodeling stuff. How about we just start with taking care
Speaker 1: of what you've got on hand. Maybe you rent, maybe
Speaker 1: remodeling is not in your future right now with this place,
Speaker 1: whether you rent, whether you own, it doesn't matter. We
Speaker 1: all should have at our disposal at least a small
Speaker 1: group of the right tools that will enable us to
Speaker 1: react to the places that we live, because the place
Speaker 1: is where we live. They are, you know, essentially, they're
Speaker 1: structures and machines, not unlike an automobile. They get used,
Speaker 1: and so as a result, something gets loose, something gets
Speaker 1: out of whack, something gets clogged, something, you know, things happen.
Speaker 1: And when those things happen, if you are at least
Speaker 1: semi competent and have a good set of tools on hand,
Speaker 1: you may be able to deal with it, or at
Speaker 1: least stop it or shut it down, or pause it
Speaker 1: long enough to get a professional involved before more damage occurs.
Speaker 1: And so this is the essential tool. And the good
Speaker 1: news is these are everything I'm talking about essentially fits
Speaker 1: in a five gallon bucket with a good tool organizer,
Speaker 1: and you can keep that in a hall closet, out
Speaker 1: in the garage wherever you know it's best for you
Speaker 1: to keep it. So this is for everybody, and this
Speaker 1: is part two. Today is the second part yesterday's program
Speaker 1: was part one, or yesterday's episode. If you listen to
Speaker 1: us on the podcast and to hear yesterday's episode, just
Speaker 1: go to the podcast because you know it's a podcast.
Speaker 1: So just find us Home with Dean Sharp, or you
Speaker 1: can look up Dean Sharp or the House Whisper. Believe me,
Speaker 1: you put in any of those words, you're gonna find
Speaker 1: us right there. And right after we go off the
Speaker 1: air for every one of our live shows, which is
Speaker 1: what today is about, an hour later, this show will
Speaker 1: be in podcast form, forever, living forever, right there wherever
Speaker 1: your favorite podcasts are found. All right, let's get back
Speaker 1: to our list of essential tools. We're going to move
Speaker 1: away from wrenches impliers and get into some reference devices.
Speaker 1: Number one tape measure. Boom goes without saying everybody needs
Speaker 1: a tape measure, but what kind of tape measure? Well, honestly,
Speaker 1: whatever works for you. But here's my recommendation. If you
Speaker 1: really want a tape measure that's going to last and
Speaker 1: that's going to do the most for you, then just
Speaker 1: get a really good quality, sort of pro grade tape
Speaker 1: measure into in the kind of tape measure I'm talking
Speaker 1: about is a twenty five foot tape measure. Okay, twenty
Speaker 1: five footers are the ones that have been around that
Speaker 1: most pro use most of the time. There are longer
Speaker 1: tape measures. You can buy thirty foot tape measures out there.
Speaker 1: Homeowners very rarely need a thirty foot tape measure. If
Speaker 1: you buy a shorter tape measure, not a big deal.
Speaker 1: There are twenties out there. There are twelves, sixteen's, ten
Speaker 1: foot tape measures out there. But here's the thing. If
Speaker 1: you are not a pro at using a tape measure
Speaker 1: at manipulating one, then the wider the blade of the
Speaker 1: tape that's the actual tape itself. The wider the blade,
Speaker 1: the stiffer the tape measure, the easier it is to manipulate.
Speaker 1: And so if you go below twenty five feet, what
Speaker 1: happens is the tape not only gets shorter, but the
Speaker 1: blade gets narrower. Now, believe me, I've got every length
Speaker 1: of tape measure imaginable for the stuff that we do.
Speaker 1: When Tina and I go out shopping decore wise for
Speaker 1: a client, I don't carry a twenty five foot tape
Speaker 1: measure with me when I'm trying to figure out if
Speaker 1: a so is the right size to fit in a
Speaker 1: client's house, or if the drapes or whatever, okay, we
Speaker 1: take up you know, one that I can slide in
Speaker 1: my pocket. I might bring a you know, a ten
Speaker 1: foot tape measure, a twelve foot tape measure in Tina's
Speaker 1: purse or wherever, something that's easy to carry that gets
Speaker 1: the job done. But for general home stuff, if you
Speaker 1: get below twenty five feet, then the tape itself gets narrower,
Speaker 1: which means it's flimsier, okay, And when you're trying to
Speaker 1: measure something out or trying to run a tape up
Speaker 1: a wall, the flimsy or the tape, the more frustrating
Speaker 1: it's going to be for you, especially if you're not
Speaker 1: a pro at manipulating tapes, you know, when you're measuring
Speaker 1: a thing from wall to wall or across a ceiling
Speaker 1: and so on. So a really good question. You can
Speaker 1: test this out in the store. By the way, it's
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. A really good tape measure that's
Speaker 1: in the twenty five foot range should have a snap
Speaker 1: rating to it. That's where it snaps at about well,
Speaker 1: it should snap after ten feet and it'll probably snap
Speaker 1: before twelve. If you can get twelve feet, and this
Speaker 1: is what happens. You extend the tape out horizontally, up
Speaker 1: a little bit, you know, up at a slight angle,
Speaker 1: but extending it out essentially horizontally. You keep extending it
Speaker 1: and extending it and extending it. You're not supporting it
Speaker 1: with your other hand, right, you just let it hang
Speaker 1: out of the canister. A good quality tape measure, you
Speaker 1: can easily get ten feet of tape sticking out, just straight,
Speaker 1: floating out there across the room without the tape actually
Speaker 1: bending and snapping and collapsing onto the floor. If you
Speaker 1: can get ten feet plus out of it, you got
Speaker 1: a good tape on your hand, and it's going to
Speaker 1: get the job done. And then the rest of it
Speaker 1: is just up to you. The color of the blade,
Speaker 1: how easy it is to read. Some are black with
Speaker 1: neon lettering and markings. Some actually give you fraction marks
Speaker 1: notated on them, Some are yell at, most of them
Speaker 1: are yellow. So you know, that's up to you, totally
Speaker 1: up to you. All I want is for you to
Speaker 1: buy a good quality tape measure that you're going to
Speaker 1: be able to use without getting frustrated. Does that make sense? Okay,
Speaker 1: all right. Next, this is something that I don't think
Speaker 1: is in that video that we posted online, and that
Speaker 1: is a laser level. A few years back, laser levels
Speaker 1: were way more expensive than they are now, and now
Speaker 1: they are incredibly affordable and easy to find and useful, useful,
Speaker 1: like crazy useful. How let's talk about that. Right on
Speaker 1: the other side.
Speaker 7: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 7: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us on the program today. We are
Speaker 1: talking about essential tools, and I want to get back
Speaker 1: to our essential tool lists for everybody. If you live
Speaker 1: in a home, you don't have to be a homeowner
Speaker 1: and be a renter. These are the tools you should
Speaker 1: have on hand to take care of stuff as we go.
Speaker 1: See what did I cover? Oh yeah, take bite? Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: a laser level. Why am I so hip on the
Speaker 1: laser level for everybody? That sounds very very you know,
Speaker 1: twenty first century. Really, a laser is an essential tool
Speaker 1: for the twenty first century, I think so I do.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you why, because they're so dang handy. You
Speaker 1: may be thinking, what in the world would I use
Speaker 1: a laser level for? And I don't even know how
Speaker 1: I would use a laser level. Well, the first of all,
Speaker 1: you don't use a laser level to just replace a level, Okay,
Speaker 1: just a standard you know, two or four foot level,
Speaker 1: and that's on my list too, a two foot level,
Speaker 1: just a basic level because it's easy and it's useful
Speaker 1: and it doesn't involve a whole bunch of stuff, right,
Speaker 1: But laser levels are when they really come in handy,
Speaker 1: when it's time to take the whole room into account,
Speaker 1: whether you're doing decor whether you are hanging pictures, and
Speaker 1: so like, how does that work, Dean, Well, a laser level,
Speaker 1: basic laser level throws two lines, okay, and a little
Speaker 1: bit more advanced laser level will throw a third, but
Speaker 1: it throws a horizontal line and a vertical line. The
Speaker 1: horizontal line especially just becomes super handy if like we're
Speaker 1: hanging stuff around the room. And no, you don't have
Speaker 1: to like get it way up there elevated at the
Speaker 1: tops of the pictures that you want to hang. That's
Speaker 1: not you use it as a reference line. So you
Speaker 1: just you could set the laser level on a tripod.
Speaker 1: You can just set it on a table somewhere, or
Speaker 1: elevated enough so that it's painting the wall with this
Speaker 1: one line. Let's say the line is at four feet
Speaker 1: just all around the room. And so from there, now
Speaker 1: you walk around and you decide, well, I want to
Speaker 1: hang this photo here, but I want to hang all
Speaker 1: the rest of the pictures in this room at this
Speaker 1: same level with it. Well, wherever you hung that first photo,
Speaker 1: you measure up from that laser line. Oh, it's three
Speaker 1: and a half three inches, three feet five and a
Speaker 1: half inches up from the laser line. Well, guess what
Speaker 1: you got The laser line painted on every single wall
Speaker 1: of the room now, and it's all at the same level,
Speaker 1: which means all you have to do is walk over
Speaker 1: and measure three foot five and a half inches up
Speaker 1: from it on that wall, and you will have put
Speaker 1: the picture there at the exact same level as the
Speaker 1: picture on the other wall. So you start to see
Speaker 1: how useful it is. And even at that level of usefulness, listen,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be recommending it to you if these were
Speaker 1: like two hundred dollars items, which is what they were
Speaker 1: just a few years ago. You can pick up a
Speaker 1: laser level now in the thirty dollars range and it
Speaker 1: will get the job done. So that's why I'm including
Speaker 1: it on this list. I just think it's well worth
Speaker 1: it as we go. Okay, so you got your tape,
Speaker 1: measure your laser level. What's another reference tool electronic is
Speaker 1: a stud finder. Stud Finders are again one of those
Speaker 1: tools that are better than ever, better better than ever,
Speaker 1: and more accessible for the average person than ever. You
Speaker 1: don't need to go buy some crazy, amazing, read through
Speaker 1: concrete stud find not the average homeowner. The need for
Speaker 1: the average homeowner is I would like to hang this
Speaker 1: thing on my wall, and I would like to find
Speaker 1: out where the studs are so I could hang it
Speaker 1: into the stud as opposed to the drywall next to
Speaker 1: the stud That's what a stud finder is all about, right,
Speaker 1: And sure do the fancier ones help you find plumbing
Speaker 1: lines and electrical wires and stuff. Sure they do. But
Speaker 1: does the average person need that?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: Not usually, So just a good stud finder, a simple
Speaker 1: stud finder. Don't break the bank with one. And here's
Speaker 1: a trick. The least expensive effective stud finder that you
Speaker 1: can buy has no batteries and it'll cost you about
Speaker 1: five bucks. And what is that, Dean? Is this a hack? No,
Speaker 1: it's a real Studfinder. It's a little plastic device that
Speaker 1: holds a magnet on a swivel. Okay, and why does
Speaker 1: this thing work Because the dry wall that is on
Speaker 1: your walls that is attached to the studs is attached
Speaker 1: to the studs with either nails and or drywall screws,
Speaker 1: and nails and drywall screws are magnetic. And so if
Speaker 1: you run this little guy, this little flippy magnet across
Speaker 1: your wall surface up and down, you've got to go
Speaker 1: up and down a little bit and across the wall surface.
Speaker 1: When it finds a dry wall screw, it will flip
Speaker 1: over and give you the green side pointing at you
Speaker 1: saying found it and guess what, Guess what that drywall
Speaker 1: screw is attached to thus stud Therefore, it's a super
Speaker 1: super inexpensive, super easy to use, no batteries required, stud finder.
Speaker 1: And you can go from there. Okay, there you go,
Speaker 1: tape manager, stud Finder, Laser level. Let's talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about adhesives, not glue, not crazy glue. Sure have
Speaker 1: some glue around, but that's a whole nother show onto itself.
Speaker 1: And I just decided when I was hanging out with
Speaker 1: Tim Conway on Thursday, night. He and I were talking
Speaker 1: about some various things, and I told him, I said,
Speaker 1: you know what, you bring up a good point here,
Speaker 1: I said, it's been a few it's been a while.
Speaker 1: It's probably been two or three years since I've done
Speaker 1: a show dedicated to adhesives. We're going to get one
Speaker 1: of those in this month, okay, So we'll talk about
Speaker 1: glues and how to use glues and what glues to
Speaker 1: use for what soon. I'm not so concerned about that.
Speaker 1: I think every homeowner should probably have some crazy glue
Speaker 1: in their drawer and maybe a little Elmer's wood glue
Speaker 1: or something, but that's not in the essential tool list.
Speaker 1: When I say adhesives, I'm talking about tapes, tapes, mainly
Speaker 1: electrical tape, masking tape, and guerrilla tape or duct tape,
Speaker 1: a really good quality duct tape. So here are the
Speaker 1: three tapes that I'd like you to have lying around.
Speaker 1: And here's why electrical tape has got so many uses.
Speaker 1: Other than just wrapping exposed wires, which of course it's
Speaker 1: great at doing. Electrical tape can give you some temporarily
Speaker 1: temporary weather proof insulation on something that gets exposed. Electrically speaking,
Speaker 1: it shouldn't be permanent. But electrical tape apart from electricity,
Speaker 1: it's stretchy, it's rubbery, and it can do so many things.
Speaker 1: It can hold on to so many things. You can
Speaker 1: wrap enough electrical tape around something like the top of
Speaker 1: a hammer handle to create a cushion. If it's a
Speaker 1: wooden hammer handle, a cushion that will keep the wood
Speaker 1: from being chumped up as it hits things that's not
Speaker 1: supposed to hit. You can use electrical tape to protect things.
Speaker 1: It's just something you should have a roll of laying around.
Speaker 1: And we're talking about like two bucks worth of stuff.
Speaker 1: Go for the Scotch gophers like Scotch Super thirty three
Speaker 1: electrical tape or something that's rated. Don't buy unlabeled, cheap
Speaker 1: electrical tape. It's just not worth it. Just go for
Speaker 1: mainline three m Scotch electrical tape. That kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: stuff you recognize. Go for that second kind of tape,
Speaker 1: masking tape. And there are whenever we do a paint show,
Speaker 1: I explain all the different kinds of masking tape there
Speaker 1: are out there, different colors for different purposes. How well
Speaker 1: does it stick, how well does it create a clean line.
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about any that right now in your
Speaker 1: universal toolbox. I'm talking about blue masking tape of whatever
Speaker 1: with is you know, like two inch two inch wide
Speaker 1: blue masking tape. Blue masking tape goes way beyond I
Speaker 1: mean I use it most of the time when unrelated
Speaker 1: to painting. Okay, I use blue masking tape to mark
Speaker 1: out furniture locations. When we're trying to lay out a
Speaker 1: room and wondering like, oh, do we have room for this?
Speaker 1: Do we have room for that? How big is that sofa?
Speaker 1: Let's mark it out on the floor. Why because it
Speaker 1: makes an easy line and then it comes right up
Speaker 1: and it doesn't stick to anything or leave any residue behind.
Speaker 1: Do it on the wall for the exact same reason.
Speaker 1: How big is that big screen TV? How big of
Speaker 1: a big screen do we want in this room? Well,
Speaker 1: let's get some sizes and mark them out with masking
Speaker 1: tape on the wall so we can visualize it ahead
Speaker 1: of time. It's a great way to draw on your
Speaker 1: house without leaving any marks behind. And that's just one use.
Speaker 1: So blue masking tape goes without saying. And finally, duct tape, Yeah,
Speaker 1: we all know there are whole websites, multiple websites dedicated
Speaker 1: to the various uses of duct tape. And there are
Speaker 1: a billion things I like to have sitting around in
Speaker 1: the universal toolbox. A good roll of black gorilla tape.
Speaker 1: That's a brand. I'm partial to it. What can I say?
Speaker 1: I love gorilla tape. It is thick, it's easy to tear,
Speaker 1: it lasts, it's strong. But you know, there are also,
Speaker 1: you know, many many, many, many many kinds of duct
Speaker 1: tape out there, but I'm just talking about a universal
Speaker 1: duct tape. Don't use this to mark things on your wall,
Speaker 1: because it'll pull the paint right off your wall. Use
Speaker 1: this when you've got to fix something and temporarily or
Speaker 1: patch something. It's really really good. And by the way,
Speaker 1: right before we go here, and we're going to be
Speaker 1: going back to the phones when we come back from break,
Speaker 1: FYI and I should throw the number out eight three
Speaker 1: three two. Ask Dean A three three the numeral two.
Speaker 1: Ask Dean go into the phones next. But before we
Speaker 1: go to the break, is it duck tape like the
Speaker 1: bird the aquatic bird? Or is it ducked tape like
Speaker 1: air conditioner ducts? Duct Which is it? Which is it?
Speaker 1: Which is it? I'll tell you when we come back.
Speaker 1: You're Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisperer on KFI.
Speaker 1: This has been Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
Speaker 1: Tune into the live broadcast on KFI Am six forty
Speaker 1: every Saturday morning from six to eight Pacific time and
Speaker 1: every Sunday morning from nine to noon Pacific time, or
Speaker 1: anytime on demand on the iHeart Radio app