Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp The
Speaker 1: House Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio app. Thanks
Speaker 1: for joining us on the program from wherever you are listening, however,
Speaker 1: you are listening via our broadcast, our terrestrial broadcast, that's
Speaker 1: what they call them these days, you know, radio waves
Speaker 1: going out terrestrial or whether you're listening digitally on the
Speaker 1: stream live from anywhere else on planet Earth. That's it's
Speaker 1: that's a reality. It's a reality anyway. Welcome to home,
Speaker 1: where every week we help you better understand that place
Speaker 1: where you live. I'm Dean Sharp, the House Whisper here
Speaker 1: with you live like I am every weekend, Saturday morning,
Speaker 1: six to eight Pacific time, Sunday mornings nine to noon
Speaker 1: Pacific time. This morning, I am having a discussion with
Speaker 1: you about was that? Was that? A? Yeah? Somebody, there's
Speaker 1: a squirrel on the hammock. I'm having a discussion with
Speaker 1: you about the stuff in your home that you would
Speaker 1: say it was this way when we bought it, the
Speaker 1: mistakes that you've inherited from somebody else when you bought
Speaker 1: your home, and finally, finally some advice on how to
Speaker 1: fix them. And we're going to get back to that
Speaker 1: in just a bit, but as is our custom, it
Speaker 1: is the top of the hour, which means it's time
Speaker 1: to go to the phones and talk to you about
Speaker 1: your call. So let's stock to Wayne. Hey, Wayne, welcome home.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you. So we're the ones in Irvine doing
Speaker 2: the unwanted house remodeling and I have We work for
Speaker 2: a Norwegian company. My wife is still in love with
Speaker 2: the Everybody in Norway has heated floors in the bathroom,
Speaker 2: so that's what we want to put in. So we're
Speaker 2: thinking of electric heated floors. We want to get your
Speaker 2: thoughts on it.
Speaker 1: Okay, electric heated. I mean, I love heated floors. If
Speaker 1: I had my way, I would never put four stair
Speaker 1: heating into another home ever. Ever. Again, now you know
Speaker 1: understanding that most people have four stair heating in their homes,
Speaker 1: and I'm not gonna spend people's money unnecessarily by just
Speaker 1: redoing it for the heck of it. But I love
Speaker 1: radiant heat floor. I just love radiant heat in general,
Speaker 1: and I think it's the best kind of heat. It's
Speaker 1: the most efficient kind of heat because it starts at
Speaker 1: the floor and it moves through the room. As it
Speaker 1: as it should, and so on and so forth. So
Speaker 1: I'm a huge fan. I have a feeling though your
Speaker 1: question is is geared more specifically towards I mean, can
Speaker 1: you do it? Should you do it? What kind of
Speaker 1: break should heat you let me know?
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, yeah, we're looking at electric heat under the
Speaker 2: tile that we tile flooring in both bathrooms and the
Speaker 2: heat under that.
Speaker 1: Okay, So generally speaking, electric heat under the bathroom floor
Speaker 1: and a bathroom remodel is that's the direction we normally
Speaker 1: nudge people when that's all that's happening. If you're going
Speaker 1: to do a whole house or a significant area of remodel,
Speaker 1: and you've got control of floor levels something I'm about
Speaker 1: to talk about here on the program of the Oh
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, it was that way when we bought it.
Speaker 1: I don't want you to to have to radically change
Speaker 1: the floor level of the bathroom versus the rest of
Speaker 1: the bedroom that you're walking into or the hallway that
Speaker 1: you're walking in from, because you've put radiant heat under there.
Speaker 1: And and in a lot of situations when you've already
Speaker 1: got a slab that you're working on, or you've got
Speaker 1: an established floor level that you can't change. If you
Speaker 1: go with a liquid system a hydronic system, then you're
Speaker 1: going to have to lift that floor considerably because you've
Speaker 1: got to have the tubes running through there, and it
Speaker 1: just takes up more space. Electric takes up about an
Speaker 1: eight of an inch of space, not consider because it's
Speaker 1: a pad. It's a very low lying Let me be generous,
Speaker 1: I'll say the electric system takes up a quarter of
Speaker 1: an inch because because it's an electric pad that lies
Speaker 1: out that you would set underneath the tile, embedded in
Speaker 1: the tile system. So the cool thing about electric radiant
Speaker 1: heat systems is that they don't significantly raise floor levels,
Speaker 1: and that's why we think that it's a really good maneuver.
Speaker 1: Also in terms of cost, initial cost, laying down electric
Speaker 1: radiant floor pads in a limited space like a bathroom
Speaker 1: area is going to be much less expensive than doing
Speaker 1: a whole hydronic system with pumps and tying it into
Speaker 1: a heat source and all of that kind of stuff. Now,
Speaker 1: ultimately a hydronic system will yield less expensive operating costs,
Speaker 1: but we usually only find that when it's tied into
Speaker 1: a larger area, like we're going to do the whole
Speaker 1: master suite or we're going to do the whole house
Speaker 1: or this half of the house or whatever, because the
Speaker 1: electric costs a little bit more to run as it
Speaker 1: operates on a regular basis. I would make the argument though,
Speaker 1: if you have solar, it's probably already offset, so no
Speaker 1: big deal. And even in a small space like a bathroom,
Speaker 1: it usually does not make any significant dent because the
Speaker 1: heating is so efficient an electric radiant heating system or
Speaker 1: any radiant heating system. Because it's heating you right up
Speaker 1: through your feet, right up through your legs, right where
Speaker 1: you are. As it passes by way of convection up
Speaker 1: to the upper areas of the room, you can get
Speaker 1: by with running it at a much much lower level
Speaker 1: than if you have to force air heat a room.
Speaker 1: Most of the time those vents overhead anyway really pushing
Speaker 1: the heat down. So I'm all for it. And the
Speaker 1: electric systems work really well. They also integrate well depending
Speaker 1: on what your tile system is, So I would say
Speaker 1: if you're just looking into it, look into like what
Speaker 1: a shlooter system has to offer, because schlooter has an
Speaker 1: integrated electric cabling system that's very customizable, plus the base
Speaker 1: that you're actually setting it on is already ready to
Speaker 1: receive the thin set for the tile. It's a great
Speaker 1: little system, not the only one out there, but well
Speaker 1: worth looking into.
Speaker 3: Great.
Speaker 1: Okay, thank you, all right, Wayne, good luck with that.
Speaker 1: We can we wait? No, all right, So we're gonna
Speaker 1: hear some news and when we come back more of
Speaker 1: your calls. Your Home with Dean Sharp, the house whisper.
Speaker 4: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 4: KFI Am six forty.
Speaker 1: We are talking about the stuff you have inherited, the
Speaker 1: mistakes you've inherited in your home from the previous owner owners,
Speaker 1: the kind of stuff that you say it was this
Speaker 1: way when we bought it. I want to get beyond
Speaker 1: that with you today. I want to actually help you
Speaker 1: identify it and change it so that so that your
Speaker 1: home is firing on all pistons, as it were. But
Speaker 1: right now we are in the middle of taking calls.
Speaker 1: So we're going to return to that conversation in just
Speaker 1: a bit. And I'm want to go back to the phones.
Speaker 1: I want to talk to George. Hey, George, welcome home.
Speaker 3: Good morning, signor Deine. I have a question. We are
Speaker 3: working in the nineteen twenties house in Glendale, and we
Speaker 3: tore up some walls and we found some horse hair
Speaker 3: plaster that is.
Speaker 1: There, and we're kind of worried.
Speaker 3: Do you think that has as asbestos? I know it
Speaker 3: was before the asbestos craze.
Speaker 1: Those like thirties and forties, but I was just kind
Speaker 1: of worried. What do you think, sir Ah. That's a
Speaker 1: very interesting question. I think this is maybe the first
Speaker 1: horse hair plaster question I've ever had on this show. George. So,
Speaker 1: when you say you were, can I just your home
Speaker 1: or you work? Are you a part of a crew
Speaker 1: remodeling this house?
Speaker 3: I'm helping a friend to some remodeling demo work.
Speaker 1: I guess you could. I got you, all right, So,
Speaker 1: nineteen twenties home. The likelihood that there is asbestos in
Speaker 1: that plaster is very, very very low, thank you. It's
Speaker 1: just it's not that asbestos wasn't around then, and it's
Speaker 1: not that it wasn't in use, but it wasn't being
Speaker 1: used in plaster walls, in residential plaster walls. To my knowledge,
Speaker 1: I've never encountered that before, and so but I will
Speaker 1: I'll tell you this if there's any concern. If there's
Speaker 1: any concern, then a test would be worth doing, okay.
Speaker 1: And a test is not an abatement. Okay, it's not like, oh,
Speaker 1: tens of thousands of dollars to get this stuff. Okay.
Speaker 1: A test is just a test, So you know, a
Speaker 1: couple three hundred dollars to have a section tested and
Speaker 1: sent away just to confirm. But generally speaking, no horse
Speaker 1: hair plaster fibers in the whole reason that horse hair
Speaker 1: plaster is what it is. And people are scratching there
Speaker 1: like what is horse hair plaster? All right? There was
Speaker 1: a time before World War two, pre war in which
Speaker 1: many many plaster walls, lime based plaster walls were mixed
Speaker 1: with a fiber in order to help them hold together
Speaker 1: and not crack. And guess what animal hairs? Yes, animal hair.
Speaker 1: Horse hair was probably most common, but there are other
Speaker 1: animal hairs that could be mixed into it as well.
Speaker 1: And when you tear up that plaster, you end up
Speaker 1: with these fibers in there, and some people have looked
Speaker 1: at those and said, oh no, that fiber must be asbestos.
Speaker 1: So if it's a real yeah, if it's a real
Speaker 1: horse hair plaster wall, now here I can tell you
Speaker 1: one thing. If you have a chunk of it in
Speaker 1: your hand. And this is a relatively safe test because
Speaker 1: you're not you know, even if there was asbestos there,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't be disturbing it. Okay, but you got a
Speaker 1: little a chunk of it in your hand. If you
Speaker 1: if you get out a lighter and and hold the
Speaker 1: lighter near those fibers. Uh, if it's asbestos, nothing will happen.
Speaker 1: Those fibers won't move, they will just be there. The
Speaker 1: whole point is asbestos is you know, fire resistant, fire retardant, Okay,
Speaker 1: so they won't be affected by the heat or the flame.
Speaker 1: If it's horse hair, just like regular hair, it'll shrivel
Speaker 1: up and just gone it'll be. It'll shrivel and change it.
Speaker 1: So you know what I mean. So a little, a
Speaker 1: little spot on the spot peace of mind investigation. This
Speaker 1: is not, however, me saying, oh absolutely you got free
Speaker 1: rein there. There's no way there can be any asbestos
Speaker 1: in those walls whatsoever. I'm not saying that. I'm saying,
Speaker 1: if there's any concern on your part, go ahead and
Speaker 1: have a little peace tested sent out to a lab
Speaker 1: for peace of mind. But what I am saying is
Speaker 1: the likelihood of there being a specied in that wall
Speaker 1: is very very very low.
Speaker 3: Thank you, sir, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: Good Thank you so much, George. I appreciate it, and
Speaker 1: have fun, have fun helping out with the friend and
Speaker 1: getting that house. I love houses built in the twenties. Now,
Speaker 1: they can be problematic because life. The problem with them,
Speaker 1: other than being one hundred years old, is is that
Speaker 1: they were designed for a different time and a life
Speaker 1: in a different time, and we don't live our lives
Speaker 1: in the twenty first century that exact same way, and
Speaker 1: so they can be tricky and tough. However, the level
Speaker 1: of craftsmanship, the level of integrity that goes into a
Speaker 1: ninth a typical just a typical nineteen twenties I'm not
Speaker 1: talking about luxurious or an ultra custom or just a
Speaker 1: typical house built in the twenties. The level of attention
Speaker 1: and craftsmanship that went into those homes is so high.
Speaker 1: It's why most of them that have even been marginally
Speaker 1: cared for are still standing in really good shape today,
Speaker 1: despite the fact that they don't have modern seismic engineering
Speaker 1: in them, despite the fact that they don't have any
Speaker 1: modern engineering in them, the fact that they are still
Speaker 1: standing loud and proud today has everything to do with
Speaker 1: the quality of the materials being used and the craftsmanship
Speaker 1: and the integrity that went into building homes pre World
Speaker 1: War Two all across the country. Plus the design elements
Speaker 1: were pretty dang sexy as well. So we love investing
Speaker 1: in century homes and reworking them. But there are things
Speaker 1: you have to be aware of. And by the way, George,
Speaker 1: if you're still listening, I would be more concerned myself
Speaker 1: now here you thought you were off the hook, I
Speaker 1: would be more con I'd be less concerned about finding
Speaker 1: asbestos in the plaster walls, and I'd be more concerned
Speaker 1: with lead paint on the surface of the wall kicking
Speaker 1: up and disturbing lead based paints. Now, if it's been
Speaker 1: redone and redone and modernized throughout the years, great, But
Speaker 1: if it's just been coded over with other things, that
Speaker 1: would be something to be concerned about disturbing lead based paints,
Speaker 1: because that was super common in the twenties. In fact,
Speaker 1: the more lead in the paint, the better. It made
Speaker 1: a very strong paint, very very strong paint, also very
Speaker 1: toxic and not something that you would ever want to
Speaker 1: encourage a child to lick the wall. Tina's like, Dean,
Speaker 1: why would you ever encourage a child to lick the wall?
Speaker 1: I wouldn't, But it happens. It happens. They're gonna, they're
Speaker 1: going to If you have a toddler in your home,
Speaker 1: just know this. You see are they are they in
Speaker 1: sight right now? Are they in can you see them?
Speaker 1: Are they in your line of sight right now? Good?
Speaker 1: Because the minute, the minute you lose sight of them,
Speaker 1: you can know this. They're in their room somewhere. They're
Speaker 1: licking a wall. That's what they're doing. So you better
Speaker 1: be sure that your walls are non toxic. All right,
Speaker 1: I'm just saying that's the kind of quality advice you
Speaker 1: get here on the program. All right, when we return,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to be coming back to calls later
Speaker 1: in the show, So if you're on the line and
Speaker 1: you can hold, please hold. When we return, we're going
Speaker 1: to go back to our list of stuff that was
Speaker 1: that way when you bought it.
Speaker 4: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 4: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: You are Home with Dean Sharp. The house whisper Elmer
Speaker 1: is picking some happy music today and I'm loving it.
Speaker 1: I'm loving He's reading my vibe like he does. He
Speaker 1: and I like this like this, just like Psychic Twins.
Speaker 1: Thanks Elmer, appreciate it, but exactly everybody loves it. Uh okay,
Speaker 1: it was this way when we bought it. Many of
Speaker 1: us have inherited somebody else's mistakes in our homes, and
Speaker 1: the question is how do you identify them? How do
Speaker 1: you fix them. We've talked about room editions that destroy
Speaker 1: light and flow in the first hour of the show.
Speaker 1: I just want to tack onto that very quickly, very quickly,
Speaker 1: the subject of house darkening patio covers. Patio covers are tricky.
Speaker 1: They are way trickier than they seem like they should be.
Speaker 1: And here's why. Number One, you do a patio cover
Speaker 1: for one of two reasons, almost always because you're looking
Speaker 1: for some shade, okay, looking for shade. Second reason you
Speaker 1: do a patio cover is you may you may be
Speaker 1: wanting a a weather proof cover overhead so that you
Speaker 1: could be out on the patio while it's raining or
Speaker 1: whatever the case may be, well in inclement weather, and
Speaker 1: so that you're not getting wet on you. These are
Speaker 1: the two main reasons for a patio cover in southern California.
Speaker 1: Mostly it's shade, and secondarily it becomes the whole oh,
Speaker 1: I want to be outside even if it's raining kind
Speaker 1: of thing. Okay, So here the tricky problem with a
Speaker 1: patio cover is that number one, the shade issue. A
Speaker 1: lot of people have committed to patio covers, which, by
Speaker 1: the way, because of that, darken the room that they're
Speaker 1: attached to. Right, that shade can make a room very
Speaker 1: very dark. Here's the thing. A patio cover on the
Speaker 1: south facing side of the house, Okay, south facing sun.
Speaker 1: That's where the sun is in the northern hemisphere. It's
Speaker 1: ever so slightly at the peak of summer, it's still
Speaker 1: a few degrees in the southern sky, and this time
Speaker 1: of year it's getting lower and lower in the sky. Okay,
Speaker 1: And so a lot of patio covers get planned and
Speaker 1: built without having ever figured out the shade study. In
Speaker 1: other words, where is the shade actually going to fall?
Speaker 1: Because with the sun a few degrees off kilter into
Speaker 1: the southern sky, the shade from a patio cover does
Speaker 1: not fall straight down under the footprint of the patio cover.
Speaker 1: It falls at least a few feet back. So let's
Speaker 1: say you build a twelve foot fifteen foot deep patio
Speaker 1: cover on your south facing side of your home. All right,
Speaker 1: there you go. Great, where does the shade show up? Well,
Speaker 1: maybe in the very very heighth of summer July and August,
Speaker 1: maybe most maybe twelve of that fifteen feet is in
Speaker 1: the shade this time of year, maybe three or four
Speaker 1: feet of that footprint is in the shade because of
Speaker 1: the angle of the sun. But regardless of whether you're
Speaker 1: getting shade where you wanted it, you're absolutely always going
Speaker 1: to get shade where you don't want it, which is
Speaker 1: more darkness inside the room. Now, some people are like, listen,
Speaker 1: I need a patio cover just because I don't want
Speaker 1: southern sun blazing in through my windows and doors on
Speaker 1: the south side of the house. I get that, and
Speaker 1: that's a valid concern. Uh, you just got to be
Speaker 1: very very careful how we're going to plan this out,
Speaker 1: because the sun moves, you know, I don't know if
Speaker 1: you've noticed that. Actually, let's let's not be too Copernican
Speaker 1: about this. Let's let's say that the earth moves and
Speaker 1: the sun comes up from our perspective in the east
Speaker 1: and sets in the west, so that shade is always
Speaker 1: constantly moving. And that's why patio covers are trickier than
Speaker 1: they see because what we're trying to do with one
Speaker 1: rigid structure is achieve something that kind of capture something
Speaker 1: that's always on the move. And some of them worn't great.
Speaker 1: A lot of them don't work so great at all,
Speaker 1: and a lot of them mess up the sightlines and
Speaker 1: the rooflines of the back of a house. And sometimes,
Speaker 1: again my previous advice, when it comes to a room
Speaker 1: edition that's untenable, sometimes the best thing you can do
Speaker 1: with the patio cover is just remove it. Now, I'm
Speaker 1: not a massive fan from a design perspective of contraptions
Speaker 1: that you put on your house, but I will tell
Speaker 1: you this, this is one of those areas where I
Speaker 1: even I would consider a retractable awning that can actually
Speaker 1: fit in a canister up against the house and only
Speaker 1: be put out when you need it and can be
Speaker 1: pulled back in when you don't, so that it doesn't
Speaker 1: just mess up a lot of stuff. That's not always
Speaker 1: going to be the case either. I'm just saying patio
Speaker 1: covers far far trickier than they would appear to be.
Speaker 1: I personally, if we want to spend time outside. I
Speaker 1: personally would rather build a shade structure detached from the
Speaker 1: house out in the yard than the one that's attached
Speaker 1: to the edge of the house by way of a
Speaker 1: patio cover. Why because further in your yard is a
Speaker 1: far more pleasant place to be a destination to go to,
Speaker 1: even in inclement weather, and right next to your house,
Speaker 1: right next to the stucco walls and all the concrete
Speaker 1: next to your house. It's used if you were to
Speaker 1: do an emotional tour of your home, right now, of
Speaker 1: your backyard, it's probably the least likely place that you
Speaker 1: would say, oh, yeah, this is my favorite spot, okay,
Speaker 1: because I love sitting next to a warm stucco wall
Speaker 1: on a hot day. No, it's probably out under the
Speaker 1: shade tree or out in the midst of the garden.
Speaker 1: So why not push it all out there? Anyway, just
Speaker 1: saying house darkening patio covers can be just as probablematic
Speaker 1: for the lightness of a room as a room addition
Speaker 1: in the wrong place. Well, what about that light I
Speaker 1: don't want streaming into my house? Get room darkening shades,
Speaker 1: light filtering shades on the windows, and just drop them
Speaker 1: down to accommodate those severe direct sundays. Just because the
Speaker 1: light is harsh, so diffuse it but eliminating it, you
Speaker 1: might end up inadvertently causing a room to go way
Speaker 1: darker than you ever wanted it to be. There, you go, okay,
Speaker 1: Now we move on to yet another issue that is
Speaker 1: a design mistake. I'm not going to mince words, and
Speaker 1: it quite often results from either a we didn't have
Speaker 1: the budget to do this right, or be the contractor
Speaker 1: didn't even mention to me that we could have changed
Speaker 1: this and done it a different way, or you just
Speaker 1: inherited this way. But this is how these things happen,
Speaker 1: and that is severe flooring height transitions inside a house.
Speaker 1: Flooring height transitions most likely to occur when we walk
Speaker 1: into a kitchen or a bathroom. Why because we've decided
Speaker 1: to tile in there, or to put some kind of
Speaker 1: surface in there that is much thicker than was originally planned,
Speaker 1: and the subfloor, the flooring underneath the new surface was
Speaker 1: never lowered to accommodate the thickness of the new material
Speaker 1: going on. This especially shows up as a problem in
Speaker 1: houses ironically with raised foundations, Because I say that ironically
Speaker 1: because a raised foundation house is a house that's the
Speaker 1: easiest to change the level of a floor inside a
Speaker 1: room because it's not like you're jackhammering up a slab
Speaker 1: in order to get to that. The reason why tiling
Speaker 1: in a bathroom that has a slab on it usually
Speaker 1: doesn't create massive floor height problems with the rest of
Speaker 1: the house is because tiles, which you are only three
Speaker 1: eighths of an inch thick, can be thin set directly
Speaker 1: to the slab as the base, and as a result,
Speaker 1: it's hardly you know, higher than the carpeting or the
Speaker 1: hardwood outside in the hallway. But if you have a
Speaker 1: raised floor house, in order to prep it what was
Speaker 1: originally wood or maybe plywood and linoleum in an older home,
Speaker 1: now we've got to do a build up. We've got
Speaker 1: to do a build up to stiffen that floor. We
Speaker 1: have to put a thick mortar base down in order
Speaker 1: to get ready for the tile. And the next thing
Speaker 1: you know, we're up an inch inch and a quarter,
Speaker 1: sometimes even an inch and a half in order to
Speaker 1: get tied on that floor in there. And you know,
Speaker 1: if it wasn't for that angled little threshold piece, you'd
Speaker 1: stub your toe walking into that room. It's weird, it's awkward.
Speaker 1: It didn't need to happen on a raised foundation house
Speaker 1: because when the floor was completely out and ready to
Speaker 1: be redone, that was the time to pull the sheathing
Speaker 1: off and to lower those floor joists in that room
Speaker 1: by an inch or an inch and a quarter so
Speaker 1: that after the build up, the tile planes with the
Speaker 1: rest of the surfaces on the outside room. Does that
Speaker 1: make sense. That's a problem, and what's the fix? Well,
Speaker 1: pretty much just what I said. The fix is. You know,
Speaker 1: it's a big commitment, but it can make a world
Speaker 1: of difference your experience of your home. And if you're
Speaker 1: remodeling that bathroom, then go the extra mile, spend a
Speaker 1: few more dollars to empty out the bathroom and lower
Speaker 1: that floor down. Now, it may require a little bit
Speaker 1: of engineering, especially if it's a second floor bathroom. We
Speaker 1: don't want to just shave floor joice and make them
Speaker 1: smaller and weaker than they were to begin with. It
Speaker 1: may require a little engineering input, but believe me, trust
Speaker 1: me when I say this, it can always be done.
Speaker 1: We can always do what needs to be done in
Speaker 1: order to level out flooring conditions, and maybe for the
Speaker 1: first time in decades of you living in your home,
Speaker 1: you just glide from one room to the next, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, in terms of even aging in place,
Speaker 1: is a really really good idea to not have these transitions. Aesthetically,
Speaker 1: from a design perspective, I don't want those transitions. I
Speaker 1: don't care if you're twenty five years old, but if
Speaker 1: you're seventy five years old, I don't want those transitions
Speaker 1: for you there either, because it's just an issue that
Speaker 1: you shouldn't have to put up with. So it's never right. Okay,
Speaker 1: sometimes you just have to live with it, but it's
Speaker 1: never right. There's always a way around it. So consider
Speaker 1: these things.
Speaker 4: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 4: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: Hope you're enjoying your Sunday morning. It is a beautiful
Speaker 1: Sunday morning here in southern California. And I don't mean
Speaker 1: to overlook those people who are have suffered from the
Speaker 1: Mountain fire and are still struggling with that. But outside
Speaker 1: of that pocket right now, to my knowledge, everybody else
Speaker 1: in southern California is enjoying a awfully, awfully pretty fall day.
Speaker 1: Hope you have plans to get out into it Today.
Speaker 1: You are listening to Home with Dean Sharp, the house
Speaker 1: Whisper here on KFI, and we are having a conversation
Speaker 1: this morning about your home, as we always do, specifically
Speaker 1: the stuff that makes you say it was this way
Speaker 1: when we bought it, in that kind of apologetic, embarrassing way,
Speaker 1: when you have inherited somebody else's mistakes in your home,
Speaker 1: and finally let's get around to fixing them. So we've
Speaker 1: talked about everything from bad room additions to house darkening,
Speaker 1: patio covers, of flooring height transitions, which I just covered
Speaker 1: with you. Now I want to talk briefly about flooring
Speaker 1: material changes happening too often at too many rooms, just
Speaker 1: from a design perspective. By the way, there's two things
Speaker 1: about a flooring material change. Now, I'm not against them
Speaker 1: at all. Sometimes they set off a space as very special,
Speaker 1: but I prefer Tina, and I prefer to have a
Speaker 1: in Following the theory of hierarchy in design, what does
Speaker 1: that mean? It means that in every kind of artistic
Speaker 1: endeavor you set up an order of priorities of and
Speaker 1: so homes and architecture no different. In fact, it could
Speaker 1: be argued that homes and architecture are the original source
Speaker 1: of hierarchy in design. It simply means you walk into
Speaker 1: a space, not everything is of equal importance. Some things
Speaker 1: are more important than others visually speaking, and it's like boom,
Speaker 1: that's the focal point, and then secondarily this and then
Speaker 1: third that. Usually have about three hits before you have
Speaker 1: to let go of it and tell people all right
Speaker 1: now you can just wander about and look wherever you want. Right, So,
Speaker 1: hierarchy is important, and when it comes to flooring material,
Speaker 1: we like to express that hierarchy in choosing a flooring
Speaker 1: material for the house in general. Now, maybe it literally
Speaker 1: goes into every room everywhere. Okay, maybe that can get
Speaker 1: a little monotonous at times. Usually not though, but it could.
Speaker 1: And in those cases we can spice it up by
Speaker 1: creating a different pattern using the same material, creating a
Speaker 1: different pattern in a room just to distinguish it kind
Speaker 1: of in texture and in line shape without changing the
Speaker 1: material itself. What we will often do is have a
Speaker 1: majority floor material in a space, and then if you're
Speaker 1: setting off a special room, quite often a bathroom, then
Speaker 1: we'll freely change that material up and oh, okay, we
Speaker 1: got hardwood in the hallway and of course tile in
Speaker 1: the bathroom, no big deal. A lot of homes, though,
Speaker 1: have changed the flooring material in every single room, and
Speaker 1: that gets to be like a patchwork quilt. And also
Speaker 1: visually speaking, and you remember earlier in the show I
Speaker 1: was talking about the importance over space of spacious nests
Speaker 1: and vista and flow and the vista, the visible view
Speaker 1: of every room. Having a different flooring material very quickly
Speaker 1: can shrink down a house and make a you know,
Speaker 1: the hallway feel small because it's on its own. Every
Speaker 1: room feels smaller because it's on its own and distinguish
Speaker 1: from every other room. If you live in a massive house,
Speaker 1: this is less of a concern. But generally speaking, much
Speaker 1: much larger homes have design input in them that kind
Speaker 1: of keeps us from happening. This we most often see
Speaker 1: in your average mainstream house where somebody has taken it
Speaker 1: upon themselves at some point to say every room will
Speaker 1: be different, every room will be unique, and you know
Speaker 1: what I'm all for it just not in patchwork quilting
Speaker 1: the flooring everywhere, So flooring material changes at every room
Speaker 1: much rather see something larger and monolithic happen. Now, some
Speaker 1: of you are saying, Aha, Dean, Nah, you don't understand
Speaker 1: my house though, because the hallway goes in one direction.
Speaker 1: I would love to put like a plank flooring throughout
Speaker 1: my whole house. But the hallway goes in one direction.
Speaker 1: The length of the living room is opposed to it,
Speaker 1: you know, and at ninety degrees another direction you're supposed
Speaker 1: to lay things, you know, the length of the room
Speaker 1: the length of the plank, and then I'd have to
Speaker 1: change direction down the hallway, and I'd have to change
Speaker 1: direction again, and then it's all broken up. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's true. That can happen. Sometimes. It can be tricky
Speaker 1: even in one open space, like, well, the room is
Speaker 1: technically long in this way, but out here where we're standing,
Speaker 1: it's long in that way. What do you do? Which
Speaker 1: one do you pick? Well? Here is where should I
Speaker 1: even let the secret out? Tina? I'm not sure because
Speaker 1: because I'm I'm I'm so used to walking in and
Speaker 1: being like the sorcerer who just solves the problem, and
Speaker 1: eyebrows go up and jaws drop, and they're like, I
Speaker 1: never thought, all right, I'm gonna let it out here.
Speaker 1: It is here. It is set the flooring at a
Speaker 1: forty five degree angle, not straight and not ninety At
Speaker 1: a forty five degree angle, you know what that does.
Speaker 1: It renders all directional questions moot because a forty five
Speaker 1: degree angle in a room for the flooring direction, if
Speaker 1: you have a linear plank flooring, it works with every room.
Speaker 1: It flows from one room into the next. It also
Speaker 1: makes a floor very alive, very dynamic, especially if you
Speaker 1: run it at the right angle, like you walk into
Speaker 1: a house. If a forty five degree angle of the
Speaker 1: flooring is conveying you because you tend to want to
Speaker 1: walk along the lines, it conveys you in the in
Speaker 1: the right direction into a home or into a room,
Speaker 1: it can be super super dynamic. And no, it's not weird,
Speaker 1: and no it's not anti traditional, Okay. Really, the flooring
Speaker 1: pattern has very very little to do with whether we're
Speaker 1: defining the home as traditional or this or that, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, if we're restoring a home, that's one thing,
Speaker 1: then we just keep things the way they were. But
Speaker 1: if we're going with a traditional motif or a contemporary motif,
Speaker 1: neither one matters when it comes to a forty five
Speaker 1: degree angle on the flooring, and it solves all problems
Speaker 1: and it runs right into rooms out of the hallway.
Speaker 1: It can be fantastic. And I have just released a
Speaker 1: design secret that we have used time and time again,
Speaker 1: and now everybody knows, and I've lost complete control over
Speaker 1: Now I can no longer amaze people on our next
Speaker 1: consult because they are, oh, yeah, we already heard that, Dan, Yeah,
Speaker 1: we already know all right, hand in your pearls. Today,
Speaker 1: my friends, we're going to return to this conversation, of course,
Speaker 1: but look at that top of the hour. You know
Speaker 1: what that means. When we come back from the news,
Speaker 1: we are going to the phones. If you're on the line,
Speaker 1: hold tight. If you haven't called in eight three three
Speaker 1: two ask Dean eight three to three the numeral two.
Speaker 1: Ask Dean. Go into your calls. Next, you are Home
Speaker 1: with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper on k 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
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