Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp The
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Speaker 2: So if you've missed any part of this critical discussion
Speaker 2: here today with my special in studio guests, the founding
Speaker 2: partners of Damage Law, as we talk about insurance claims
Speaker 2: and all of the trickiness of that. If you've missed
Speaker 2: any part of this show today and then we've been
Speaker 2: given out a lot of solid info, then just turn
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Speaker 2: that's all great, but what we really need is you
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Speaker 2: house Whisper dot Design. All right, we are back at it.
Speaker 2: I want to get back in to conversation, excuse me
Speaker 2: with my very special in studio guests from Damage Law,
Speaker 2: Aria Shack and a dear b guys. So we talked.
Speaker 2: We've kind of identified the players now I set up.
Speaker 2: I kind of teased this out before we went to
Speaker 2: break about advice of what I call it wasn't your words,
Speaker 2: but not corrupting the crime scene. Homeowners want to get
Speaker 2: in to the debris and the mess, and they want
Speaker 2: to start picking through stuff, and they want to start
Speaker 2: cleaning up stuff. And again we're talking about more than
Speaker 2: just the fires. I'm just talking about any time this happens, right, So,
Speaker 2: there's a there's a balance here. There is leaving things
Speaker 2: be and there's a good reason for that that I'll
Speaker 2: have you explain. But there's also what we call mitigation,
Speaker 2: which means if the damage has opened up potential more damage,
Speaker 2: we have to at least address it to the point
Speaker 2: where the damage isn't causing more damage which causes more
Speaker 2: of a claim or basically stuff that won't get covered
Speaker 2: under a claim. Because the homeowner has a certain responsibility there.
Speaker 2: So let's start with the crime scene first.
Speaker 3: Yes, So the biggest and the most crucial aspect of
Speaker 3: this all is to making sure that you don't dispose
Speaker 3: of any items that may have been contaminated or damaged
Speaker 3: through the fires or even if you had a water
Speaker 3: damage situation. Because you want to prove your loss to them,
Speaker 3: you have to give them the right to inspect, and
Speaker 3: if you immediately dispose of these items, they're going to
Speaker 3: ask what the condition was and you can't prove it
Speaker 3: no longer because you've disposed of it. So it's really
Speaker 3: key to keeping all the items in place so you
Speaker 3: can show the insurance carrier, this is what's wrong with
Speaker 3: this item. It's either miss smoke damage or water damage,
Speaker 3: and this is what I need in order to bring
Speaker 3: it back to its original condition or to get it replaced,
Speaker 3: because we have a duty to prove our loss. And
Speaker 3: another aspect of that is you also don't know whether
Speaker 3: these items are contaminated or not, so it's really key
Speaker 3: that you don't touch it because you can take that
Speaker 3: contamination with you to other places and you can get
Speaker 3: very sick from these items. So you want to test
Speaker 3: before we're even doing anything and cleaning. The biggest key
Speaker 3: is if you you know, we have an automatic instinct
Speaker 3: where when we see our homes are dirty or there's
Speaker 3: there's ash and smoke around, you want to clean it.
Speaker 3: But the problem is when you start touching that stuff,
Speaker 3: not only are you exposing yourself to contaminants, you're also
Speaker 3: making it more difficult for yourself throughout the claim process
Speaker 3: to show that how horrific this scene really was. So
Speaker 3: you want to keep everything as is so your adjuster
Speaker 3: can see what they need to do in order to
Speaker 3: bring you back to your home and safe and clearly.
Speaker 4: At the end of the day.
Speaker 2: So hence my metaphor, which is not a bad one, right,
Speaker 2: don't tamper with the crime scene until the investigation is complete,
Speaker 2: until you get the sign off that it's time to
Speaker 2: clean it up.
Speaker 5: Does all the contents that are within and all the
Speaker 5: damage structure that are within is that crime scene. It's
Speaker 5: the evidence that helps prove your case to the insurance carrier.
Speaker 2: Hey, you got to pay for this right exactly? All right?
Speaker 2: So what about mitigation? What does that word mean? And
Speaker 2: you know why? Is that an important factor here as well?
Speaker 4: So mitigation.
Speaker 3: Why it's so important is because most policies require their
Speaker 3: insured to mitigate their damages to prevent further damages. So,
Speaker 3: for instance, if your roof has been affected by these
Speaker 3: fires and now there's rain coming this week and you
Speaker 3: don't get a professional roofer to EXAs and your roof
Speaker 3: and to do some temporary fixes or tarping to prevent
Speaker 3: water from coming in, the insurance company's going to say, hey,
Speaker 3: you had a duty to mitigate and you failed, and
Speaker 3: for that reason, now we're not going to cover for
Speaker 3: the water damage portion of this claim, or they're going
Speaker 3: to try to open up a second claim. So it's
Speaker 3: really important that you mitigate. And this also includes like
Speaker 3: if you had a broken window and now there's looters
Speaker 3: in the area and they come in and they start
Speaker 3: ceiling or damaging your property. They're going to say, if
Speaker 3: you had just boarded up your windows and secured your property,
Speaker 3: this could have been avoided, and for that reason, we're
Speaker 3: not going to cover or they're going to give you
Speaker 3: a hard time covering those items.
Speaker 2: So there are certain elements of the scene that we document.
Speaker 2: This is damaged, this is messed up, this is part
Speaker 2: of the claim. But it also has opened up a
Speaker 2: vulnerability and we got we gotta seal it up. So
Speaker 2: we board up damaged windows, we cover up, we at
Speaker 2: least tarp over you know, exposed roofs so that the
Speaker 2: next bout of rain or like you said, you know,
Speaker 2: looters in the area or whatever that that it's not
Speaker 2: like a multi level uh, you know chain reaction of
Speaker 2: damage and more damage and more damage, and the homeowner
Speaker 2: in a in an insurance contract is responsible for mitigating
Speaker 2: the damage that happens so it doesn't spread further.
Speaker 3: Exactly, But you don't want to just use your handyman.
Speaker 3: You want to use someone who's license so in the
Speaker 3: event something goes wrong, you can show your insurance can
Speaker 3: be you use the professionals that are within that industry
Speaker 3: to do this work and not just someone who is
Speaker 3: a handyman that wasn't licensed.
Speaker 5: So to Aria's point, you don't want to hire a
Speaker 5: handyman to come up to the roof and do the
Speaker 5: tarping to the roof because that person doesn't know how
Speaker 5: to do proper it doesn't know the proper protocol in
Speaker 5: terms of.
Speaker 2: Tarping or exactly they're not for boarding a roof, so they're.
Speaker 5: Not qualified to do so, and you can show the
Speaker 5: insurance carrier. Hey, I use the licensed roofer, who's insured,
Speaker 5: who did the work, and even that even after they
Speaker 5: did the work, it's still caused damage and therefore.
Speaker 2: And then it's then then you're safe. You're safe if
Speaker 2: you're using license proper expert pieple correct. All right, there
Speaker 2: are a bunch of things that homeowners are entitled to
Speaker 2: in their claims that I'm guessing most of us don't
Speaker 2: know or aren't aware of, or at least not aware
Speaker 2: of the scope. Can we talk about that next? Yeah,
Speaker 2: all right.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2: I've gotten used to ignoring the sound of my regular voice,
Speaker 2: but I've got this little scratch in my voice, and
Speaker 2: now i feel like I'm back like on my first
Speaker 2: day ever on the radio, where I'm overly conscientious about
Speaker 2: the sound of my voice, and so I'm just kind
Speaker 2: of taking it in these weird directions, like, you know,
Speaker 2: maybe I should just do the gangster thing. I don't know. Anyway. Hey,
Speaker 2: now that I've wasted a minute of your time, thanks
Speaker 2: for joining us on the program today. I'm so glad
Speaker 2: that you are here. We're having a really really important
Speaker 2: conversation with my very special in studio guests, who happen
Speaker 2: to be the founding partners of damage Law right here
Speaker 2: in LA, a very very specialized form of law all
Speaker 2: about property damage claims, working with insurance companies, helping homeowners
Speaker 2: get everything that they deserve from their claims, which is
Speaker 2: a tricky thing at times. So I've got Aria and
Speaker 2: a deer here, and what are we up to now? Oh?
Speaker 2: I wanted to ask you guys specifically about because in
Speaker 2: the course of our conversation, there have been several times
Speaker 2: that you've mentioned, you know, there are things that are
Speaker 2: homeowners entitled to, and you'll mention things that I'm like, wow,
Speaker 2: I had no idea, you know, and I know this
Speaker 2: stuff fairly well. And so just off the top of
Speaker 2: your head, let's talk about things that you encounter all
Speaker 2: the time that homeowners are usually entitled to in their
Speaker 2: contracts with their insurance company that they don't really realize.
Speaker 3: So one of the biggest things that we're noticing right
Speaker 3: now that is happening is that insurance company are not
Speaker 3: relocating or providing housing. It's called additional living expenses for
Speaker 3: those who have been affected.
Speaker 2: So doesn't that mean that, you know, they pay for
Speaker 2: my hotel room.
Speaker 3: And that's the problem. You know, they're placing individuals into
Speaker 3: hotel rooms when they're entitled to more than just a
Speaker 3: hotel room. Especially for family, to all squeeze into one room,
Speaker 3: it's quite difficult. So they're entitled to comparable housing to
Speaker 3: their own home. So if they had a four bedroom house,
Speaker 3: they're entitled to a four bedroom house within the area,
Speaker 3: same similar square footage and to be placed comfortably during
Speaker 3: that time.
Speaker 4: But again, you want to be careful.
Speaker 3: With exactly where you go and you spend your money
Speaker 3: for those funds that you have available, because they can
Speaker 3: deplete quite quickly, and you want to choose your own
Speaker 3: location because if you go through the carrier themselves, they'll
Speaker 3: they have these services which they get the housing company
Speaker 3: to find you a location and they add on as
Speaker 3: a management fee. So before you know it, your funds
Speaker 3: are depleted and your home hasn't even started the process
Speaker 3: of rebuild, and now you're going out of pocket because
Speaker 3: they put you in some kind of housing that's at
Speaker 3: an inflated amount and it depletes your funds.
Speaker 4: So you want to be careful for that.
Speaker 2: So is there like a fixed in most contracts? Is
Speaker 2: there like a fixed allotment for housing?
Speaker 4: Yes, so there's certain amounts.
Speaker 3: Some people have coverage up to eighty thousands, some people
Speaker 3: have two hundred thousand, So it depends on what you
Speaker 3: paid for. But there's an available fund which will cover
Speaker 3: for your living expenses while you're out of the home.
Speaker 3: So if you had any out of pocket expenses. Let's
Speaker 3: say you're in a hotel and now you have to
Speaker 3: go purchase food outside because you don't have a kitchen
Speaker 3: to cook, so they should cover those costs for you.
Speaker 3: It's really important that they insured is the one that's
Speaker 3: making these purchases, not anyone else, because the policy holder
Speaker 3: can only get reimbursed. So if your wife is not
Speaker 3: on that policy or your kids and they're the ones
Speaker 3: making those purchases, they're going to have a difficult time
Speaker 3: getting reimbursement.
Speaker 2: Gotcha. So whoever is on the policy needs to be
Speaker 2: the one who's at the tip of the spear for
Speaker 2: those expenses. So now it does I if I want
Speaker 2: to exercise more control and stretch my coverage further, is
Speaker 2: that me decide in other words. What you said is
Speaker 2: I'm entitled to like one to one, like a three bedroom,
Speaker 2: two bath house. They should put me in a three
Speaker 2: bedroom to bath house. But if I've only got a
Speaker 2: certain amount of expense and that rolls off and clicks off,
Speaker 2: like what if I decide no, no, I'll just put
Speaker 2: me in a studio apartment right now because I need
Speaker 2: this to go twelve months instead of sex. We can
Speaker 2: do that, Okay, but those are my decisions. That's not
Speaker 2: the decision that the insurance company should be making on
Speaker 2: my behalf.
Speaker 3: So the biggest key is making sure that you don't
Speaker 3: deplete your funds too quickly, right, And what I like
Speaker 3: to do the most conservative route is you provide the
Speaker 3: location that you're interested in to your insurance company and
Speaker 3: have them approve it before you go and bind yourself
Speaker 3: to that contract or to that at booking because you
Speaker 3: want to be guaranteed that you're getting reimbursed.
Speaker 2: Okay, great? What else is out there that most homeowners
Speaker 2: aren't aware of?
Speaker 5: When you're conducting your remediation portion to fix the damages
Speaker 5: to your home, you're also allotted what's called pack out
Speaker 5: and pack back expenses in order to move the items
Speaker 5: that are in your home out and they have to
Speaker 5: pay for that along with the storage for those items.
Speaker 5: It really just depends on the situation. If you have
Speaker 5: tenants who are at the property and they were displaced
Speaker 5: because of the fires or whatever the loss was, you
Speaker 5: can get that loss of income as long as you
Speaker 5: have a landlord policy in place and there's a policy
Speaker 5: limit provision for the loss of income.
Speaker 2: Okay, now this is something really important that you just
Speaker 2: touched on. Yeah, because as we all know here in
Speaker 2: southern California, in California in general, in the last five
Speaker 2: to ten years, eighty us have become a massive thing,
Speaker 2: right acessory dwelling in its guesthouses, granny flat whatever you
Speaker 2: want to call them, the idea that be in order
Speaker 2: to curb the housing crisis. Right the state has said, hey,
Speaker 2: we're going to make it really easy and basically have
Speaker 2: strong armed every county into building in safety like you
Speaker 2: will allow ADUs to be made. That means a lot
Speaker 2: of homeowners are now landlords. Yes, okay, what if I've
Speaker 2: got an ADU and I've got people renting it from
Speaker 2: me legally, I've got a lease agreement, but I never
Speaker 2: thought to turn to my insurance company and say I
Speaker 2: need a specialized policy for that.
Speaker 5: That's and that's the problem. If you never informed the
Speaker 5: insurance carrier that you now have tenants in an ADU
Speaker 5: and it's not covered under the policy, meaning they didn't
Speaker 5: update the policy to provide a specific endorsement for that,
Speaker 5: it's unlikely that you're going to get coverage for them.
Speaker 4: You're gonna have a hard time.
Speaker 2: All right. So everybody who has put an ADU in
Speaker 2: needs to turn around. I mean, if it's if it's
Speaker 2: for a family member, that's one thing. But if you
Speaker 2: are actually if it's a source of income for you,
Speaker 2: which it is for so many people, you got to
Speaker 2: make sure that your insurance company is accounting for that
Speaker 2: as well.
Speaker 5: And I just want to take the time now to
Speaker 5: just let everybody know, you know, I think it's incredibly
Speaker 5: important to review your insurance policies now, to go through
Speaker 5: your coverages, your limitations, your endorsements, and everything that's excluded
Speaker 5: or included in your policy, just to make sure that
Speaker 5: you have adequate coverage in case of an event like
Speaker 5: the wildfires that have happened. Without doing so, you don't
Speaker 5: know what coverage you may or may not have at
Speaker 5: a time of loss, and you may want to bolster
Speaker 5: your coverages at this point.
Speaker 2: All right, excellent, excellent stuff. All right, I still get
Speaker 2: some calls on the board. I want to try and
Speaker 2: come back and hit a couple of these calls and
Speaker 2: then we'll come back with you guys and wrap it
Speaker 2: all up. So go know where we are in the
Speaker 2: thick of it with your insurance company right now. They
Speaker 2: are quaking in their boots because you are learning all
Speaker 2: the things you need to know about what to do
Speaker 2: once a claim is filed. So stay with us.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2: KFI AM six forty live streaming and HD everywhere on
Speaker 2: the iHeartRadio app. You are Home with Dean Sharp, the
Speaker 2: house Whisper. We are talking insurance claims and damage to
Speaker 2: your home and what do you do. And I'm doing
Speaker 2: it with my very special in studio guests, the founding
Speaker 2: partners of Damage Law here in Southern California, here in
Speaker 2: LA And we're going to get back to that conversation.
Speaker 2: But I also want to get back to the phone
Speaker 2: see what we can do with a couple of these
Speaker 2: calls if at all possible, Henderson, you have been on
Speaker 2: the line for a long time. I want to talk
Speaker 2: to Henderson. Is Richie there? Can we activate? Can I Henderson?
Speaker 2: Welcome home? Nope, I'm not here in Henderson.
Speaker 6: Can you hear me?
Speaker 1: There you are, sir?
Speaker 2: How are you?
Speaker 6: I'm doing well. I have two questions. One is in
Speaker 6: remondling or building a home, and you have your doing.
Speaker 6: You're reminding with the h fact. Should return vents be
Speaker 6: in the upper portions of the wall or the lower
Speaker 6: portions of the wall?
Speaker 2: Oh? The returns, the return vents? You know what either,
Speaker 2: I'm not so concerned about. Here's the thing about return
Speaker 2: vents and everybody you know, and an HVAC. HVAC system
Speaker 2: is based on the flow of air through the house,
Speaker 2: and flow is created and a lot of some people
Speaker 2: haven't really conceptualized this. The flow of a house is
Speaker 2: a current. It's a circuit. Okay. All of the smaller ducks.
Speaker 2: The vents that are going into every room, in every space,
Speaker 2: whether they're on the floor or on the ceiling, or
Speaker 2: up above a door or wherever, those are output vents.
Speaker 2: That's what's blowing in hot air when you're heating your home.
Speaker 2: It's blowing in cool air when you're trying to cool
Speaker 2: your home. If that's all that an air conditioning and
Speaker 2: heating system did, then what would happen to a house
Speaker 2: that has all of its doors and windows closed up
Speaker 2: is that we would just build up what we call
Speaker 2: static air pressure in a room. In other words, we
Speaker 2: keep pumping air into a room and it's not going anywhere,
Speaker 2: and it builds up, and at some point the whole
Speaker 2: efficiency of the system shuts down because the fan isn't
Speaker 2: strong enough to pump any more air into the room
Speaker 2: and it's just sitting there. Okay, So that's not how
Speaker 2: an HVAC system is designed. It's designed to have also
Speaker 2: a return air vent. And if you don't know what
Speaker 2: that vent is, it's the biggest one. It's that big one,
Speaker 2: and it's either in the ceiling in the hallway, or
Speaker 2: it's down by the bottom of the of a wall,
Speaker 2: or maybe if your unit, if your air handler and
Speaker 2: your furnace is inside your house, inside that closet, the
Speaker 2: retair and air vent is often right down at the
Speaker 2: bottom underneath it. It's where the filter goes to protect
Speaker 2: your system that you have easy access to and while
Speaker 2: the system is running. I'm shocked that a lot of people.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying you, Henderson, I know you know all
Speaker 2: of this, but a lot of people are like, really,
Speaker 2: that thing sucks, it doesn't blow. And so yeah, take
Speaker 2: a piece of paper when your system is running and
Speaker 2: just put it over that vent and it'll right up
Speaker 2: to the retair and air vent. It is taking the
Speaker 2: air out of the house running it back through the system.
Speaker 2: So the reason why I went into that whole explanation
Speaker 2: is because I want everybody to understand the fundamental principle
Speaker 2: and that is in new construction, like what you're doing, Henderson.
Speaker 2: What we want is we want the relationship. It's not
Speaker 2: a magic answer. The return airvent should be low or high,
Speaker 2: doesn't matter as much as the relationship of where the
Speaker 2: return is to the ducts that it is dealing with. Okay,
Speaker 2: So for instance, let's say you've got a let's say
Speaker 2: we have this a typical scenario and I hate when
Speaker 2: I see it. The return air vent is on a
Speaker 2: ceiling in a hallway, okay, right outside a bedroom door. Okay,
Speaker 2: So there's a door out of the hallway into a
Speaker 2: bedroom and the return air vent is right up there
Speaker 2: in the hallway on the ceiling. Okay. Now the question
Speaker 2: is where is the duct that the supply duct in
Speaker 2: that bedroom. If the supply duct in the bedroom is
Speaker 2: coming out on the door wall right above the door,
Speaker 2: like so many do and so many tracked homes, then
Speaker 2: if I was to like if I could magically make
Speaker 2: fog run through your system and colorize it so we
Speaker 2: could see what was happening. Here's what's going to happen.
Speaker 2: The duct is blowing air out into the bedroom, okay,
Speaker 2: and the return air vent is sucking it back out
Speaker 2: into the hallway, which means that the venting of the room,
Speaker 2: the air is not getting all the way over to
Speaker 2: the other side of the bedroom. Okay. The cold air
Speaker 2: isn't making it over there, the hot air isn't making
Speaker 2: it over there because the vacuum is right behind it, okay,
Speaker 2: literally like four feet away, sucking the air back. So
Speaker 2: that's a very very inefficient system. It's not about the
Speaker 2: fact that it's not about the fact that the return
Speaker 2: air is in the hallway in that situation, I want
Speaker 2: to put the supply duct in the bedroom on the
Speaker 2: far wall as far away as possible so that as
Speaker 2: the return air is sucking the air through the room,
Speaker 2: all of that cool or warm air travels all the
Speaker 2: way across the whole room and heats or cools the
Speaker 2: room the way it needs to before it goes back
Speaker 2: into the system. Again, does that make it vs?
Speaker 6: Yeah? So is it okay to have the output and
Speaker 6: the return both on the top. What does one need
Speaker 6: to be up high and one need to be down low?
Speaker 2: Higher low really isn't the critical thing. It really isn't.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I'm here and the problem is. The reason I say
Speaker 2: that is because you know, we've got most people have
Speaker 2: a forced air and heating system, heat and air, and
Speaker 2: it's going to be inefficient for one in order to
Speaker 2: make the other one work best. That's the point. So
Speaker 2: for you, the question is what's most important for you?
Speaker 2: If you live here in southern California, higher vents usually
Speaker 2: are the better answer. Why, Because we're more dependent on
Speaker 2: our We really need the air conditioner to work more
Speaker 2: than we need the heater to be super efficient. Okay,
Speaker 2: but remember hot air rises, so the best place for
Speaker 2: a hot air vent is on the floor, so it
Speaker 2: rises up through the room and does its job. If
Speaker 2: you pump hot air out at the top of the ceiling.
Speaker 2: Most of the heat remains up at the top of
Speaker 2: the ceiling. It's inefficient, but cold air descends right. So
Speaker 2: if we really want our air conditioner to be doing
Speaker 2: its best job, we put air conditioning vents high so
Speaker 2: that the cool air comes in and drops down on
Speaker 2: us and is most efficient. But since we have a
Speaker 2: heating and air conditioning system that doesn't differentiate, we have
Speaker 2: to choose which do we want to be the most
Speaker 2: efficient system. Usually in southern California, it's going to be
Speaker 2: prioritizing the effectedness of air conditioning. If you lived in
Speaker 2: South Dakota, I would say put the vents on the
Speaker 2: floor because we need to prioritize the effect of the
Speaker 2: heat in the room. And again, the return I'm not
Speaker 2: so concerned about high or low. What I am concerned
Speaker 2: about with the return air is how close it is
Speaker 2: to the other supply ducts because if it is literally
Speaker 2: sucking them right back into the system without allowing them
Speaker 2: to blow all the way across the room, that's when
Speaker 2: that's when air conditioning and heating star systems go really inefficient.
Speaker 6: Okay, then I had another question.
Speaker 2: Real quick atte I'm literally out of time, but I'll
Speaker 2: hear it.
Speaker 6: Quarts, cos I am porcelain countertops. Look, I know you
Speaker 6: covered it at one point and I couldn't find it.
Speaker 6: But what's your opinions on that in the kitchen on
Speaker 6: a porcelain countertop porcelain quasi or quart?
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, i'll tell you what. I've got to
Speaker 2: go to a break, uh and when we come back,
Speaker 2: I'm going to comment on that when I'm when I'm
Speaker 2: not breaking the rules here, Okay, Henderson, So I just
Speaker 2: keep listening, I'll hit it. And thanks for your call, buddy,
Speaker 2: and I appreciate a really really good question. All right, y'all,
Speaker 2: you're home with Dean Sharp the house Whisper. Kay if
Speaker 2: I Dean Sharp the house Whisper, Welcome home, Welcome to
Speaker 2: the program. Here we are, man. Did we burn through
Speaker 2: three hours of time this morning talking about insurance and
Speaker 2: claims when there's been damage to your home with my
Speaker 2: very special in studio guests, who we will hear from
Speaker 2: yet again in just a couple of minutes. Some closing
Speaker 2: thoughts from the guys that damage law who have just
Speaker 2: been stellar this morning helping us weed through the difficulty
Speaker 2: of that Henderson, who was just an awesome caller, and
Speaker 2: I ran out of time to answer his second question.
Speaker 2: I know, I know, one question for caller, I get it.
Speaker 2: But Henderson was a nice guy and he had a
Speaker 2: real quick question about whether I how I felt about
Speaker 2: quartz versus quartzite versus any other material on a countertop
Speaker 2: in a kitchen. And here's what I'm going to say.
Speaker 2: And I have spent whole shows talking about that. But
Speaker 2: you know what, everything has its strength, everything has its weakness.
Speaker 2: Sometimes its visual and esthetic strength and weakness. Sometimes it's
Speaker 2: actually a performance strength and weakness. Quartz is the general
Speaker 2: term we use in the industry to talk about synthetic
Speaker 2: man made composite countertops. Doesn't sound like it should be,
Speaker 2: but it is. Quartzite. Quartzite is a specific, very very
Speaker 2: hard natural stone. I love quartzite. I love it. I
Speaker 2: love natural stone. I'm a guy who puts hardwood counters
Speaker 2: into I mean, my own sink countertop in my own
Speaker 2: home is made out of two inch thick oiled black walnut. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: around the sink. Yeah. So the point is, I get
Speaker 2: asked to use a lot of materials, and it's all
Speaker 2: about the vibe and the look and how they perform. Okay,
Speaker 2: quartz products are very very high performing products. They're very dense.
Speaker 2: They they don't have a lot of porosity, which is great.
Speaker 2: Heat can affect them, but other than that, not much
Speaker 2: else affects them. My issue with quartz is that it
Speaker 2: never really fully looks and has the life and the
Speaker 2: glow of a natural stone. And the reason for that
Speaker 2: is that light isn't penetrating as deeply into it. Even
Speaker 2: though there's real quartz granulars in there, there's also resins
Speaker 2: that are opaque, the glue essentially that holds it all together,
Speaker 2: and that shuts the light down. So you're only getting
Speaker 2: surface light reflected back off of a quartz countertop, whereas
Speaker 2: a quartzite countertop. We know that light can go all
Speaker 2: the way down in and through and come back out,
Speaker 2: and so it's not an illusion or an exaggeration when
Speaker 2: somebody says, ooh, doesn't that natural stone just glow? Actually yes,
Speaker 2: it does. Literally, yes it does. It's refracted light coming
Speaker 2: back out, which is why natural stone is so beautiful.
Speaker 2: So it really is a toolbox that you really have options.
Speaker 2: There's no oh yeah, always use this, never use that. Okay,
Speaker 2: it's just something where again I'm just going to say,
Speaker 2: as I always say, open your eyes, educate yourself. We
Speaker 2: were talking about this yesterday. There are no such thing
Speaker 2: as bad ideas, only bad decisions. Right, You're not being
Speaker 2: asked to make a decision when you just go out
Speaker 2: and educate yourself and open your eyes and window shop.
Speaker 2: Window shopping is free. Learn everything you can about what
Speaker 2: it is you're about to do to your home, so
Speaker 2: you make an informed choice and you know it's the
Speaker 2: right one for you. That's the idea. And of course
Speaker 2: check the podcast and you can find shows where I'm
Speaker 2: talking about stones and all of that, and we get
Speaker 2: into all sorts of crazy detail. But right now I
Speaker 2: want to get back to my in studio guests. Get
Speaker 2: some closing thoughts from these young guys here, Aria and
Speaker 2: a Deer. You guys have been awesome. I'm so grateful
Speaker 2: that you're on the show today. Any last thoughts that
Speaker 2: you want to leave with the listeners in regards to
Speaker 2: where they stand with this whole process of making acclaim.
Speaker 2: We've covered mitigation, We've covered I mean, we've covered a
Speaker 2: bunch of stuff. Is there anything else just floating? Around
Speaker 2: that you want to make sure gets said.
Speaker 3: I think the most important thing right now is making
Speaker 3: sure that your insurance company is allowing you to come
Speaker 3: back to a safe and habitable home, and that everything
Speaker 3: has been tested and cleaned and abated through protocol, and
Speaker 3: making sure that they don't skip any steps because certain
Speaker 3: things need to go into play before other remediations go
Speaker 3: into place. For instance, let them asfess, this need to
Speaker 3: get remediated before smoke remediation is conducted.
Speaker 4: So don't let them skip that step.
Speaker 2: Okay, So now I'm again I'm gonna I'm gonna apply
Speaker 2: this to the to the recent fire situation here, because
Speaker 2: I know somebody right now is saying, well, I already
Speaker 2: know I abated that stuff from my house fifteen years ago.
Speaker 2: We're not even talking about stuff coming from your home.
Speaker 2: If an entire neighborhood is burnt down, the lead and
Speaker 2: asbestos and even arsenic that you may find on your
Speaker 2: property and your stuff didn't come from your property exactly.
Speaker 2: So these are steps that have to be taken no
Speaker 2: matter what. If we're going to do our due diligence.
Speaker 3: And even if your insurance company is not covering for
Speaker 3: the testing, it's worth getting that testing done for yourself
Speaker 3: so you know that you're safe and clear to move
Speaker 3: back into your home.
Speaker 5: Anything else, my friend, Just if you have any issues
Speaker 5: with your carrier, give us a call and we'll provide
Speaker 5: you with free consultation, free policy review, and just you know,
Speaker 5: we're here to help you. We want to make sure
Speaker 5: that you get to the finish line. It's unfortunate the
Speaker 5: situations occurred and transpired to date, but there is the
Speaker 5: light at the end of the tunnel, and we're here
Speaker 5: to help you get.
Speaker 3: There, get you all the free guidance you guys need
Speaker 3: to get back home safe.
Speaker 2: All right. These guys are the founding partners of Damage Law.
Speaker 2: They are a specialized law firm right here in southern
Speaker 2: California dealing with exactly the kind of stuff that we've
Speaker 2: been talking about this morning. They are full disclosure, not
Speaker 2: sponsors of this show. I hope they become sponsors of
Speaker 2: this show. But I can tell you right now there's
Speaker 2: one reason and one reason only they are sitting with
Speaker 2: me here today because I wanted to bring you the
Speaker 2: very best voices and minds to help you through this situation.
Speaker 2: And these are the guys. So if You're going to
Speaker 2: call me or email me and say, Dean, who is
Speaker 2: going to help me sort all of this out? Because
Speaker 2: I'm still confused and I'm not sure that I'm being
Speaker 2: treated the right way by my insurance company. Should I
Speaker 2: call another adjuster? Should I call a public Who should
Speaker 2: I call? And I'm telling you right now that you
Speaker 2: need to call these guys. They will work with you.
Speaker 2: They'll evaluate your claim for free. They'll tell you what
Speaker 2: you need. They'll tell you whether you need them or
Speaker 2: somebody else. But they are going to the same reason
Speaker 2: people love to call in to this show so I
Speaker 2: can help you kind of get your head on straight
Speaker 2: and point it in the right direction. This is exactly
Speaker 2: of what Aria and and Deer are going to do
Speaker 2: for you in regards to your claim. So, guys, here's
Speaker 2: your shot one more time. Tell everybody where they're going
Speaker 2: to find you.
Speaker 3: You can find us at damage law dot com or
Speaker 3: you can give us a call at eight sixty six
Speaker 3: Damage Law and we're here to provide you, guys, all
Speaker 3: the free services and consultation that we can provide at
Speaker 3: this time.
Speaker 2: Guys, thanks for being on the show Damage Law dot
Speaker 2: Com or eight sixty six Damage Law.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much for having us. Dean really had
Speaker 5: a great time.
Speaker 2: You guys are awesome. We'll do it again.
Speaker 4: Oh, we appreciate you. And Michelle, thank you guys, Thank
Speaker 4: you both.
Speaker 2: All Right, y'all, I just wanted to make sure we
Speaker 2: covered all that infro, So I do not have a
Speaker 2: lengthy closing thought for you today. I'm just going to
Speaker 2: tell you this. You know, due diligence in life in general,
Speaker 2: it's all about the little things. Life is about the
Speaker 2: little things. You cannot build a home without obsessing on
Speaker 2: the little things, and rightly so, you can't build a
Speaker 2: great life obs without obsessing on the little things that
Speaker 2: I mean, stuff that just is easy to overlook. Kind words,
Speaker 2: kind glances, gentle acts of kindness and appreciation. This is
Speaker 2: what a life is built from. And today it's a
Speaker 2: perfect day to get started doing exactly that. Get out
Speaker 2: there in this gorgeous Southern California, cool sunny day and
Speaker 2: get busy building yourself a beautiful life, and we will
Speaker 2: see you right back here next weekend.
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 iHeartRadio app