November 9, 2024 • 31 mins
Discover expert tips on wildfire preparedness as Dean dives into fireproofing strategies for Southern California homeowners. Learn about ember-proofing, venting, landscaping, and the importance of fire gels. Plus, Dean emphasizes the critical need to follow evacuation orders and engages with listeners for real-time questions and advice on how to stay safe during fire season.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
KFI AM six forty live streaming in HD everywhere on
the iHeart Radio app. Hey, welcome to home where Every
week we help you better understand that place where you live.
I am Dean Sharp, the house whisperer, here with you
live like I am every weekend, Saturday morning, six to
eight Pacific time, Sunday mornings nine to noon Pacific time.
(00:33):
Thanks for joining us on the program. Thank you for
spending a little bit of your Saturday morning with us here.
On the second hour of our fine little program, we're
talking about hardening your house against wildfires. We've already discussed
the longer term. Okay, you've got some time to invest
some money into getting your house better prepared for wildfire.
(00:55):
Now we've turned the discussion for this morning's advice. Of course,
all brought to you by the Mountain Fire and the
fact that these these fires that kick up, they awaken
us to the fact that oh yeah, it's fire season,
and all it takes is is one ignition and just
the right wind conditions to have, you know, a devastating
(01:18):
fire like the Mountain Fire has already proven to be.
So what now do we do in terms of where
did my note go here? Let me find where are
we going in terms of fire hardening your home When
the fact of the matter is you don't have much
time if you know, we haven't invested in, uh, the
(01:43):
longer term fixes of changing outdoors and windows or emberproofing
our events, what do we do if now you're inside
the fire zone, you may be inside the evacuation zone.
And I've talked about two or three basic things. One
is getting the junk away from the side of your house,
ignitable things away from your house. Two, if you haven't
(02:06):
fire hardened your or ember proofed your vents for your attic,
just tape them up, tape them up, cover them, okay,
so that embers don't have the opportunity of getting in
you just take it off later, okay. But number three,
and this is something that I have found a great
deal of peace of mind giving clients and a friends
(02:26):
peace of mind with. I wish everyone who lives within
the possibility of a fire zone would consider this for
their home. And this applies, by the way, even if
there's a house on fire next to you for a
completely different reason. And that is fire gel. Fire Gel
has shown itself to be a massively effective defensive product.
(02:51):
You can order it right now today and have it
in very very short order, and then you are ready
for an evacuation. Now, what is firejel? Firejel is a substance.
It comes in one to five gallon containers. It is
totally safe to store, clearly, because it's the whole purpose
(03:12):
is that it's non flammable. You can store it in
your garage, you can store it in your outshd, wherever
the case may be. It will store for years and
years and be sitting there ready and waiting for you.
And here's what you do. Let's say you've been called
in for an evacuation order, all right, you're going to
have to evacuate. What you do instead of ignoring the
(03:36):
evacuation order like so many people foolishly do and staying
home with your garden hose as if you and your
garden hose are going to effectively defend your home against
a twenty to forty foot wall of wildfire flame, you
don't do that. What you do, though, is prior to evacuating,
(03:59):
as you're getting all the stuff ready to get out
of your house. You'll grab your garden hose and you
will hook up these fire gel containers to your garden hose.
They're set up with one of those you know, spray
drawing devices that draw the chemical out of the container,
mix it with water, and it becomes a foamy paste
(04:22):
that basically sprays out of your garden hose, and you
spray down the side of the house that is going
to be facing the open space or the fire.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
You spray the roof, you spray the eaves, you spray
the walls, the windows, the doors, everything down. It clings,
It clings to the side of your home. It clings
to everything. You can spray down the patio furniture, you
can spray down plants that are close to the house.
Anything that you can reach with this gel, you spray
(04:53):
it down with the gel clings for depending on weather conditions,
twenty four to forty eight hours. Now, that may not
seem like a long period of time, but if the
line of fire does reach your home, it's going to
move through very quickly. In minutes, it's going to move
through and pass your home. That's the key element, that's
(05:15):
the key moment. When this fire gel, which is incredibly
incredibly protective of a home. Really shines, really really shines.
And what happens is the fire moves through the home,
surfaces that are covered in the gel are protected, so
fire doesn't likely enter in through broken windows or through
(05:36):
those events, or whatever the case may be. When the
evacuation order is cleared and you get to return to
your home, whether the home has been threatened by the
fire or not, if the gel is there or not,
you simply get the hose back out and you just
rinse it all down and it comes off. It rinses off,
and you're done. Now, how much does fire gel cost
(05:59):
for an abe size home? A supply of fire gel
to protect an average size home, and you'll you could
talk to the fire gel people about your specific home size,
but it's about seven hundred dollars, and that it's a
chunk of change. But when you think about protecting a
home worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, your home, your
(06:22):
family home, having it still standing, seven hundred bucks not
a big deal. This is something those of you who
are concerned even about the Mountain fire encroaching towards you
now could potentially order and have sitting and ready for
you and certainly everybody within the sound of my voice
who is concerned about any other fires that may happen
(06:43):
this fire season. This is something that can happen very
very quickly. Now, you got to get on the stick
with this. The fire gel that I have that I
know the most about, and they are not the only
one on the market. They are simply the one that
I have been very very pleased with and and known
the most about is Barricade Barricade fire gel, and you
(07:05):
can find them at firegel dot com. Read all about
what it does, how you handle it, and where you
can order it and how quickly you can get it
into your home. And again, it is simply something that
you do like pre evacuation before you have to leave,
and there is a peace of mind that comes from
(07:26):
leaving behind a home that has a temporary barrier on.
It's like putting on a bulletproof jacket, you know, right
for your house, right before you leave in a war zone. Essentially,
it's really really good stuff and worth ten times more
than what you're paying for it in terms of its
(07:48):
ability to protect areas of your home that are going
to be vulnerable to the fire. And there you go.
So now you know long term hardening short term? What
do you do if you've been ordered to have accuate?
My best to everybody who is still facing those fire difficulties.
When we return, it's time to go to the phones.
(08:09):
I want to take a couple of calls. The number
to reach me eight three three two Ask Dean A
three to three the numeral two. Ask Dane. You can
call about anything you want, fire questions, construction design, DIY,
whatever the case may be. You said, the agenda will
put our heads together and figure out what's going on
with your home. You are home with Dean Sharp the
(08:31):
House Whisper am I Dean Sharp vows Whisper at your service. Uh,
so glad that you are with us this morning. We've
been talking about wildfires. I want to turn the page
now and move on to some calls because we've got
some calls on the board.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
And that, by the way, anything you want to talk
about regarding your home eight three three two ask Dean
eight three three the numeral two Dean. Before I do that, though,
I'm going to read this important important breaking news update.
Aldick Home presents the House Whisper Holiday home show, a
(09:13):
live audience event that's going to happen Sunday, November twenty fourth,
that that's coming up soon in the Helpful Honda Lounge
right here at iHeart Studios, Burbank. And here is the
press release. Visit the Home of Home at iHeart Studios,
Los Angeles. Hang out with Dean and his team, Enjoy refreshments,
(09:38):
meet Dean's special KFI guests, get expert advice from the
decor pros at aldick Holm. Watch the decor pros decorate
one of Aldick's incomparable seven and a half foot tall
Christmas trees, and then one lucky audience member will get
to take that tree home. That's right, That is unbelievable.
(10:03):
All you have to do to enter to win a spot,
and it is a limited space the Helpful Honda Lounge
at iHeart Studios. All you have to do to win
a spot in the live audience show or to enter
to win a spot is go to our social media
page Home with Dean on Instagram or Facebook. You will
(10:24):
find the Holiday Home show post. It should be posted
right at the top, right at the top, but you'll
find it there right near the top or at the top.
Follow the instructions. Read the post, follow the instructions and
boom you're entered to win and we will DM you
if you have won a seat, and give us your
(10:46):
best argument as to why you should be selected to
be a part of our studio audience, our live studio
audience on Sunday, November twenty fourth, that's the Sunday preceding Thanksgiving.
Is just a great, great time that we have every year.
Now we're making it a tradition. It's a great way
to start the holidays. I would love to spend time
(11:08):
with you on that Sunday, face to face right here
at the iHeart Studio. So there you go. Okay, can
we fit in a call before we have to go
to break, Yes we will. Let's talk to Pete. Pete,
welcome home.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
How you doing? I love your show?
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
I got a question that it concerns your water, like
you even touch on it, like with the quality of
houses that are in that area or any area. A
lot of pretty good percentage of people have tools, and
I was wondering why more people don't set up a
(11:47):
generator besides the generators anyway, and have a pump that
uses the water from the pool to like water down
you even touch song. Why you wouldn't want to have
like the garden hose. It's not going to do it
(12:07):
that much. And with even if a lot of even
if that was good, a lot of people are using
the water pressure and there's no water pressure because everybody's
using it. So if you had your own water pressure,
maybe you could even get that gell of stuff that
you were talking about out farther or better or just
(12:28):
more reliably. But then you would have your own power
and water to do it.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Yep, yep, good point. It's a really good point, Pete.
I will I'm gonna tell you one thing though, just
just so everybody knows. And by the way, there are
systems out there that you can purchase for your home
that are pumps and generators that work off of you know,
backup power in case the power goes down and uh.
(12:59):
And the kind of pump that you could actually use
in a reservoir and a pool would be you know,
a reservoir kind of situation. There are systems that are
set up that way. There are high volume sprinkler hillside
sprinkler systems that are built to actually go off of
reservoir and auxiliary pump power. Not a lot of people
(13:22):
invest in them, but they are a reality. You mentioned pools.
I just want to mention this about pools. Yeah, technically
you can use pool water to fight fire in certain situations.
It is not widely recommended, though, and I'll tell you why.
It's the presence of chlorine chemicals in a pool that
(13:45):
can potentially damage fire fighting equipment or create toxic fumes
when that water is heated to a certain degree. And
sometimes some situations, depending on the materials that are burning,
chlorine in the water can actually believe it or not
exacerbate a fire, depending on the chemical reactions that are involved. Now,
(14:11):
somebody asked me a while back, why doesn't the fire
department just utilize the pools on the fire line. They do,
sometimes they will, but they use it really as a
last resort because they don't want the chlorine messing up
their own equipment, causing any corrosion in their own equipment.
And there you go. Now, just so you know, if
(14:31):
you own a pool, and I don't want you to
get upset if suddenly you find a fire department helicopter
hovering over your pool, dipping a large water gathering device
down into your swimming pool as if somebody is violating
your eminent domain. Nope, the Fire Department cal Fire has
(14:53):
the right during a wildfire emergency to utilize any available
water anywhere, the water in your pool, in order to
fight this fire. They have the legal right to do that,
and occasionally they will, although you're not gonna find it
happening all that much. It's not that common again because
(15:13):
they avoid getting their equipment mixed with chlorinated water. And
also the big water gathering like the kind of the
water buckets as it were. They actually need a good
depth of water to gather water from and most pools
aren't deep enough for them to effectively scoop out of it.
(15:34):
But it has happened and it will happen again. Really
good question, buddy, Just raising the question, Pete, of why
not water in the pools. You definitely have a use
the resource there, but you got to be careful because
of the chlorine. All right, When we return more of
your calls your Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp, onto Man from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
FI AM six forty live streaming and HD everywhere on
the iHeart Radio app, your Home with Dean Sharp, the
House Whisper. I've given a lot of references to our
podcast today. I hope you know we have a podcast.
The Home podcast can be found on of course, the
free iHeart Radio app, or anywhere your favorite podcasts are found,
(16:29):
Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen to your favorite podcast.
All you have to do is enter Home with Dean Sharp.
You can even put in the house Whisper in most
cases and boom up it will come. You will find it.
Home with Dean Sharp hundreds of episodes, all listed by topic,
and I know for sure on the iHeartRadio app that
(16:51):
you can do searches just by topic, like Tina did
this morning very quickly finding the conditioned attic episode she
just put in, and all it populated all these shows
that where I discussed attic in the title of the program.
So it's very very fast and easy to search for
(17:12):
the information that you need. The hundreds and hundreds of
episodes that we have up there are a veritable home
improvement reference library for you that you can listen to
any time, including today's show. If you want to go
back and listen, it'll be in podcast form in about
an hour after we go off the air, So literally
(17:32):
all of this information available for you to listen to whenever, wherever,
however many times you want. It's kind of a house
whisper on demand, as it were. But it's free. All right.
Let's get back to the phones, shall we. I want
to talk to Marcia. Hey, Marcia, welcome home.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
Hi Dein Hey. I love your show and I've got
a question. I would love to hire you to design
our new approach to our home from the street, but
I know I can't afford you. So can you refer
me to a free online home design website?
Speaker 2 (18:14):
M I really shouldn't.
Speaker 5 (18:20):
Oh, okay, no, here's the reason.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
It's not pretty. It's not for any legal reasons. I'm like, oh,
I don't want to get in trouble here. No, no, no,
here's the thing with with free and I'm using air
quotes here free home design tools online free free is uh.
(18:46):
I'm sure there are there's an exception out there. And
if somebody has found an exception, because quite honestly, I
don't search the internet for home design uh software, free
online stuff. But if there's an exception out there, please
let me know and I will share it with everybody.
But when you search for free online design tools, you're
(19:10):
gonna find hundreds of websites saying, oh, use awesome, it's
always free to begin. In other words, whatever the most basic,
basic thing to kind of get you. I don't want
to use the word suckered into committing to a plan
with them. But but and then in order to go
(19:32):
further the way to get to the stuff that you
really would like to do, then you're gonna have to subscribe,
and then you're gonna have to pay for the upgrade,
and then you're gonna have to end da da da.
And I know of no free online design tools worth
anything that are just free. They all start free and
(19:55):
then they go to other places. But I will recommend
this to you, Okay, there, I'm not that's saying that
there isn't a a It's a bit of investment, a
little bit of investment in your time. But Chief Architect
is arguably the best home design CAD design tools out there.
(20:16):
In our opinion, we actually use the full suite of
Chief Architect for all of the plans that we create,
and they have levels of software starting with Little Baby
Design software for di wires all the way up to
the full professional suite that we use, which is something
that would be wasted on you and you wouldn't want to.
(20:38):
I mean, it's a whole thing. So but if you
go to Chief Architect dot com, I just look up
Chief Architect software and look for Home Designer, the DIY
version of Home Designer. I believe, if I'm not mistaken,
that the Home Design Suite, which is a really amazingly
(21:01):
capable little tool, is like one hundred and twenty nine
dollars and it's not a subscription. It's a one time thing.
You would download it, you would have it, and it's
going to take you some time to get used to
how to work with it. But if that's the kind
of thing that you're looking for, then then I'm going
to push you towards the baby version of the software
(21:23):
that we actually use to produce these things. And included
in that would be you know, interior three D renderings
and so on. And I believe, I believe I'm not mistaken,
exterior landscape or area plot plan design as well, that
you can start to fiddle with. That's that's where I
(21:44):
would push you in that direction. And in terms of
you know, here's the thing if you're interested in a consultation,
you can always inquire with Tina whether or not that's
a thing that can happen. You can just go to
house whisper dot Design and check it out. Whether or not.
(22:06):
We do a lot of consultations because so many people
are unable to take advantage of our full design services,
and we do consultations to help point people in the
right direction and to kind of break open their thinking
and get them you just get them thinking in the
right direction, and sometimes it can just literally make all
(22:26):
the difference. So don't price me out yet. But I
don't use the show that's solicit the business, so you
never hear me talk about this. But anybody can always
inquire at house whisper dot Design. But the home design
software that's made from the same people who do the
full scale CAD architectural software that we utilize in our
(22:49):
business every single day, and that one I can recommend
highly for one hundred and twenty nine dollars. It is
it's worth way way.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
More than that, okay. Chief Architect.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Chief Architect is the site that you go for and
then look for their DIY. You know, we look under
products for their design suite and under the DIY section
because that's okay, that's the amateur homeowner stuff and you'll
find it there.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Okay, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
You are so welcome, Marsha. Thanks for your call, and
thanks for listening to the show. All right, when we
come back, we're gonna try and fit at least one
more call in and wrap it up for the day.
Don't go anywhere your home with Dean Sharp. The house
whisper Pray by Dean Sharp, the house whisper Welcome home.
(23:42):
It's time to go back to the phones. Let me
throw a dartboard at the caller line right now. See
who we are left with today. We've got more phone
calls than we've got time for. I want to tell everybody.
If I leave you on the line and we don't
get to your call today, then you can always call
back tomorrow and we will give you a fast pass
(24:03):
to the front of the line. Is that dating myself?
Fast pass? Probably lightning lane. I don't know what is
the what's one of those things? I don't know? Tina
is like you know what, I live among Disney snobs.
That's the problem. And they're always correcting my terminology, and
that's a problem. Anyway, we'll give you a pass to
the front of the line. How about that. Okay, let's
(24:29):
talk to go go in van Ey's go go. Welcome home.
Speaker 6 (24:34):
Hey Dean, I just want to thank you for your show,
and you're.
Speaker 5 (24:40):
Kind of like the voice of reason in my darker days.
Speaker 6 (24:45):
And my fantasy of your life with Tina and the
chickens is just heaven heaven, So thank you for that.
Speaker 7 (24:53):
And I've recently become the guardian of my father's home
is very old and it's very unwell, and there's a
pipe where the washer dragon and outside of my house
that's about i don't know, three or four inches.
Speaker 6 (25:08):
Like a PVC looking like that comes out about me
see about two or three inches, and it's got a
wing nut and you know.
Speaker 5 (25:17):
A big screw singing out.
Speaker 7 (25:19):
And I found it popped.
Speaker 6 (25:21):
Off in the middle of the heat, and it was
all shriveled. It didn't look like it worked for anything.
And the plumber came out and just specked it back on,
and of course it popped off again.
Speaker 5 (25:29):
And it fixed it.
Speaker 7 (25:31):
I don't know what is making it pop off.
Speaker 6 (25:34):
I don't know what it's for. And it sometimes there's
water dripping out of it, and where that is the
steco is the paint's coming off the specle?
Speaker 2 (25:42):
What is that?
Speaker 5 (25:43):
I live in the bird houses, which you.
Speaker 6 (25:44):
Might know the bird houses, which are lovely, and so
I don't know what the heck that is. And I
still want to blow up. And I have a cinder
block wall that has just you know, it's separated where
I could put maybe my pink finger through, And I
want to know, should I just pick some silicon in there?
For now?
Speaker 5 (26:06):
What should I do?
Speaker 3 (26:06):
What? What?
Speaker 5 (26:07):
What is that mystery pipe?
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Yeah? Okay, so you're saying it's behind the washer and dryer.
Speaker 6 (26:13):
Yeah, but it's on the out side of the house.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
It's on the outside of the house. It's uh so
it's an ext it's a complete exterior piper. It's sticking
out it's is it is the pipe, yeah, sticking out
of the wall of the house. And and it's got
this it's got this little temporary uh rubberized pressure uh
plug in it is it coming.
Speaker 6 (26:35):
Out when he replaced it? Yeah, he put a piece
of rubber on him. Then he screwed it in. And
so from the outside you can't see that.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (26:43):
And it's got a.
Speaker 5 (26:44):
Wing and a big screw sticking out.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Yeah, that's that's that's a pressurized plug.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
And but I'm wondering what what what the function of
that that PVC pipe is Is it a white PVC
pipe or is it black?
Speaker 6 (26:57):
You know, I can't tell a lot. They painted around it,
and you know these are older houses.
Speaker 5 (27:06):
Yeah. Oh wait, here's another one.
Speaker 6 (27:10):
Oh okay, I didn't even notice this because this one's
got like a cemented capin and that's where the kitchen
sink is. So is that kind of for the sink
or something. I mean, I'm worried because the pressure's building up.
It was enough to blow it off twice. And if
he just so, okay at it all right, I.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Would I wouldn't be too worried about it. What it
sounds to me like you've got there is some kind
of vent. Okay, it's a vent pipe that's connected to
the drains. The the why there's a tea going to
the outside of the house. Maybe somebody thought back in
the day that this would be a good clean out
location for the U in case there was a clog
(27:51):
in those vents. If you got one by the kitchen sink,
and then there's one behind the washer. And dryer. It
sounds like a vent clean out. You could actually if
you got back away from the house and looked up
on the roof and you saw a pipe sticking out
of the roof in the generally aligned with where you
see it in the wall, then what we're dealing with
is event it could be PVC. It's probably ABS, which
(28:14):
is black plastic. A lot of people just think PVC
means plastic anyway, And it sounds like there's a temporary
plug in that as a cleanout. There are better plugs
for it than that than the interior kind of plug
where you crank down and they put pressure against it.
Those are usually not the kind that we would use
(28:34):
on that. Uh, if there's anything enough lips sticking out,
then you could use a low pressure, low viscosity PVC
cement and just glue a cap on, or you could
use a cap that covers over the top with a
hose clamp. That's what I would advise you or your
(28:56):
plumber to do is just let's just get the right
cap on the thing so stops blowing off every time
there's a little bit of pressure. And also let's make
sure that we know why there's pressure in the line
as far as what's causing the back pressure in those lines,
whether we've got a plug up top and it's not
actually venting out properly. But it's probably a relatively simple fix.
(29:19):
But let's get a plumber back out who will tell
you exactly. First of all, tell me what those lines are,
tell me what they're doing, don't just do a thing
and leave, And then tell me what's the best way
and most efficient way of capping it off. I bet
if I took a look at it, we could figure
out in like thirty seconds. But I can't see it
(29:39):
right now. So let's have a plumber out who's actually
going to educate you as well as resolved the problem.
But I doubt it's anything too serious. If it's a
larger line like that, it's a vent line coming off
of a drain. Nothing's going to explode or blow up,
I promise, But call the plumber back out.
Speaker 6 (29:58):
Go go.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Thank you so much, and thank you for listening to
the program, and thank you for all of your kind words,
and to all of you who are a part of
welcoming us into your home every morning, every Saturday morning
and Sunday mornings. We are very, very honored to be
a part of your weekend and to help you navigate
(30:18):
the ins and outs and the upside downs of your home.
And we'll be right back here tomorrow morning from nine
to noon. Guess what one of our most popular returning
segments are shows it was like this when we bought it.
The errors, the problems, the weirdnesses and the mistakes that
(30:40):
were made to your home that you inherited when you
bought it, and how to get them fixed. We'll talk
about that tomorrow when I see you yet again tomorrow
morning from nine to noon. Until then, get out in
this day and get busy building yourself a beautiful life.
We'll see you tomorrow. This has been Home with Dean Sharp,
(31:03):
the House Whisper. Tune into the live broadcast on KFI
AM six forty every Saturday morning from six to eight
Pacific time and every Sunday morning from nine to noon
Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
KFI AM six forty live streaming in HD everywhere on
the iHeart Radio app. Hey, welcome to home where Every
week we help you better understand that place where you live.
I am Dean Sharp, the house whisperer, here with you
live like I am every weekend, Saturday morning, six to
eight Pacific time, Sunday mornings nine to noon Pacific time.
(00:33):
Thanks for joining us on the program. Thank you for
spending a little bit of your Saturday morning with us here.
On the second hour of our fine little program, we're
talking about hardening your house against wildfires. We've already discussed
the longer term. Okay, you've got some time to invest
some money into getting your house better prepared for wildfire.
(00:55):
Now we've turned the discussion for this morning's advice. Of course,
all brought to you by the Mountain Fire and the
fact that these these fires that kick up, they awaken
us to the fact that oh yeah, it's fire season,
and all it takes is is one ignition and just
the right wind conditions to have, you know, a devastating
(01:18):
fire like the Mountain Fire has already proven to be.
So what now do we do in terms of where
did my note go here? Let me find where are
we going in terms of fire hardening your home When
the fact of the matter is you don't have much
time if you know, we haven't invested in, uh, the
(01:43):
longer term fixes of changing outdoors and windows or emberproofing
our events, what do we do if now you're inside
the fire zone, you may be inside the evacuation zone.
And I've talked about two or three basic things. One
is getting the junk away from the side of your house,
ignitable things away from your house. Two, if you haven't
(02:06):
fire hardened your or ember proofed your vents for your attic,
just tape them up, tape them up, cover them, okay,
so that embers don't have the opportunity of getting in
you just take it off later, okay. But number three,
and this is something that I have found a great
deal of peace of mind giving clients and a friends
(02:26):
peace of mind with. I wish everyone who lives within
the possibility of a fire zone would consider this for
their home. And this applies, by the way, even if
there's a house on fire next to you for a
completely different reason. And that is fire gel. Fire Gel
has shown itself to be a massively effective defensive product.
(02:51):
You can order it right now today and have it
in very very short order, and then you are ready
for an evacuation. Now, what is firejel? Firejel is a substance.
It comes in one to five gallon containers. It is
totally safe to store, clearly, because it's the whole purpose
(03:12):
is that it's non flammable. You can store it in
your garage, you can store it in your outshd, wherever
the case may be. It will store for years and
years and be sitting there ready and waiting for you.
And here's what you do. Let's say you've been called
in for an evacuation order, all right, you're going to
have to evacuate. What you do instead of ignoring the
(03:36):
evacuation order like so many people foolishly do and staying
home with your garden hose as if you and your
garden hose are going to effectively defend your home against
a twenty to forty foot wall of wildfire flame, you
don't do that. What you do, though, is prior to evacuating,
(03:59):
as you're getting all the stuff ready to get out
of your house. You'll grab your garden hose and you
will hook up these fire gel containers to your garden hose.
They're set up with one of those you know, spray
drawing devices that draw the chemical out of the container,
mix it with water, and it becomes a foamy paste
(04:22):
that basically sprays out of your garden hose, and you
spray down the side of the house that is going
to be facing the open space or the fire.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
You spray the roof, you spray the eaves, you spray
the walls, the windows, the doors, everything down. It clings,
It clings to the side of your home. It clings
to everything. You can spray down the patio furniture, you
can spray down plants that are close to the house.
Anything that you can reach with this gel, you spray
(04:53):
it down with the gel clings for depending on weather conditions,
twenty four to forty eight hours. Now, that may not
seem like a long period of time, but if the
line of fire does reach your home, it's going to
move through very quickly. In minutes, it's going to move
through and pass your home. That's the key element, that's
(05:15):
the key moment. When this fire gel, which is incredibly
incredibly protective of a home. Really shines, really really shines.
And what happens is the fire moves through the home,
surfaces that are covered in the gel are protected, so
fire doesn't likely enter in through broken windows or through
(05:36):
those events, or whatever the case may be. When the
evacuation order is cleared and you get to return to
your home, whether the home has been threatened by the
fire or not, if the gel is there or not,
you simply get the hose back out and you just
rinse it all down and it comes off. It rinses off,
and you're done. Now, how much does fire gel cost
(05:59):
for an abe size home? A supply of fire gel
to protect an average size home, and you'll you could
talk to the fire gel people about your specific home size,
but it's about seven hundred dollars, and that it's a
chunk of change. But when you think about protecting a
home worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, your home, your
(06:22):
family home, having it still standing, seven hundred bucks not
a big deal. This is something those of you who
are concerned even about the Mountain fire encroaching towards you
now could potentially order and have sitting and ready for
you and certainly everybody within the sound of my voice
who is concerned about any other fires that may happen
(06:43):
this fire season. This is something that can happen very
very quickly. Now, you got to get on the stick
with this. The fire gel that I have that I
know the most about, and they are not the only
one on the market. They are simply the one that
I have been very very pleased with and and known
the most about is Barricade Barricade fire gel, and you
(07:05):
can find them at firegel dot com. Read all about
what it does, how you handle it, and where you
can order it and how quickly you can get it
into your home. And again, it is simply something that
you do like pre evacuation before you have to leave,
and there is a peace of mind that comes from
(07:26):
leaving behind a home that has a temporary barrier on.
It's like putting on a bulletproof jacket, you know, right
for your house, right before you leave in a war zone. Essentially,
it's really really good stuff and worth ten times more
than what you're paying for it in terms of its
(07:48):
ability to protect areas of your home that are going
to be vulnerable to the fire. And there you go.
So now you know long term hardening short term? What
do you do if you've been ordered to have accuate?
My best to everybody who is still facing those fire difficulties.
When we return, it's time to go to the phones.
(08:09):
I want to take a couple of calls. The number
to reach me eight three three two Ask Dean A
three to three the numeral two. Ask Dane. You can
call about anything you want, fire questions, construction design, DIY,
whatever the case may be. You said, the agenda will
put our heads together and figure out what's going on
with your home. You are home with Dean Sharp the
(08:31):
House Whisper am I Dean Sharp vows Whisper at your service. Uh,
so glad that you are with us this morning. We've
been talking about wildfires. I want to turn the page
now and move on to some calls because we've got
some calls on the board.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
And that, by the way, anything you want to talk
about regarding your home eight three three two ask Dean
eight three three the numeral two Dean. Before I do that, though,
I'm going to read this important important breaking news update.
Aldick Home presents the House Whisper Holiday home show, a
(09:13):
live audience event that's going to happen Sunday, November twenty fourth,
that that's coming up soon in the Helpful Honda Lounge
right here at iHeart Studios, Burbank. And here is the
press release. Visit the Home of Home at iHeart Studios,
Los Angeles. Hang out with Dean and his team, Enjoy refreshments,
(09:38):
meet Dean's special KFI guests, get expert advice from the
decor pros at aldick Holm. Watch the decor pros decorate
one of Aldick's incomparable seven and a half foot tall
Christmas trees, and then one lucky audience member will get
to take that tree home. That's right, That is unbelievable.
(10:03):
All you have to do to enter to win a spot,
and it is a limited space the Helpful Honda Lounge
at iHeart Studios. All you have to do to win
a spot in the live audience show or to enter
to win a spot is go to our social media
page Home with Dean on Instagram or Facebook. You will
(10:24):
find the Holiday Home show post. It should be posted
right at the top, right at the top, but you'll
find it there right near the top or at the top.
Follow the instructions. Read the post, follow the instructions and
boom you're entered to win and we will DM you
if you have won a seat, and give us your
(10:46):
best argument as to why you should be selected to
be a part of our studio audience, our live studio
audience on Sunday, November twenty fourth, that's the Sunday preceding Thanksgiving.
Is just a great, great time that we have every year.
Now we're making it a tradition. It's a great way
to start the holidays. I would love to spend time
(11:08):
with you on that Sunday, face to face right here
at the iHeart Studio. So there you go. Okay, can
we fit in a call before we have to go
to break, Yes we will. Let's talk to Pete. Pete,
welcome home.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
How you doing? I love your show?
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
I got a question that it concerns your water, like
you even touch on it, like with the quality of
houses that are in that area or any area. A
lot of pretty good percentage of people have tools, and
I was wondering why more people don't set up a
(11:47):
generator besides the generators anyway, and have a pump that
uses the water from the pool to like water down
you even touch song. Why you wouldn't want to have
like the garden hose. It's not going to do it
(12:07):
that much. And with even if a lot of even
if that was good, a lot of people are using
the water pressure and there's no water pressure because everybody's
using it. So if you had your own water pressure,
maybe you could even get that gell of stuff that
you were talking about out farther or better or just
(12:28):
more reliably. But then you would have your own power
and water to do it.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Yep, yep, good point. It's a really good point, Pete.
I will I'm gonna tell you one thing though, just
just so everybody knows. And by the way, there are
systems out there that you can purchase for your home
that are pumps and generators that work off of you know,
backup power in case the power goes down and uh.
(12:59):
And the kind of pump that you could actually use
in a reservoir and a pool would be you know,
a reservoir kind of situation. There are systems that are
set up that way. There are high volume sprinkler hillside
sprinkler systems that are built to actually go off of
reservoir and auxiliary pump power. Not a lot of people
(13:22):
invest in them, but they are a reality. You mentioned pools.
I just want to mention this about pools. Yeah, technically
you can use pool water to fight fire in certain situations.
It is not widely recommended, though, and I'll tell you why.
It's the presence of chlorine chemicals in a pool that
(13:45):
can potentially damage fire fighting equipment or create toxic fumes
when that water is heated to a certain degree. And
sometimes some situations, depending on the materials that are burning,
chlorine in the water can actually believe it or not
exacerbate a fire, depending on the chemical reactions that are involved. Now,
(14:11):
somebody asked me a while back, why doesn't the fire
department just utilize the pools on the fire line. They do,
sometimes they will, but they use it really as a
last resort because they don't want the chlorine messing up
their own equipment, causing any corrosion in their own equipment.
And there you go. Now, just so you know, if
(14:31):
you own a pool, and I don't want you to
get upset if suddenly you find a fire department helicopter
hovering over your pool, dipping a large water gathering device
down into your swimming pool as if somebody is violating
your eminent domain. Nope, the Fire Department cal Fire has
(14:53):
the right during a wildfire emergency to utilize any available
water anywhere, the water in your pool, in order to
fight this fire. They have the legal right to do that,
and occasionally they will, although you're not gonna find it
happening all that much. It's not that common again because
(15:13):
they avoid getting their equipment mixed with chlorinated water. And
also the big water gathering like the kind of the
water buckets as it were. They actually need a good
depth of water to gather water from and most pools
aren't deep enough for them to effectively scoop out of it.
(15:34):
But it has happened and it will happen again. Really
good question, buddy, Just raising the question, Pete, of why
not water in the pools. You definitely have a use
the resource there, but you got to be careful because
of the chlorine. All right, When we return more of
your calls your Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp, onto Man from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
FI AM six forty live streaming and HD everywhere on
the iHeart Radio app, your Home with Dean Sharp, the
House Whisper. I've given a lot of references to our
podcast today. I hope you know we have a podcast.
The Home podcast can be found on of course, the
free iHeart Radio app, or anywhere your favorite podcasts are found,
(16:29):
Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen to your favorite podcast.
All you have to do is enter Home with Dean Sharp.
You can even put in the house Whisper in most
cases and boom up it will come. You will find it.
Home with Dean Sharp hundreds of episodes, all listed by topic,
and I know for sure on the iHeartRadio app that
(16:51):
you can do searches just by topic, like Tina did
this morning very quickly finding the conditioned attic episode she
just put in, and all it populated all these shows
that where I discussed attic in the title of the program.
So it's very very fast and easy to search for
(17:12):
the information that you need. The hundreds and hundreds of
episodes that we have up there are a veritable home
improvement reference library for you that you can listen to
any time, including today's show. If you want to go
back and listen, it'll be in podcast form in about
an hour after we go off the air, So literally
(17:32):
all of this information available for you to listen to whenever, wherever,
however many times you want. It's kind of a house
whisper on demand, as it were. But it's free. All right.
Let's get back to the phones, shall we. I want
to talk to Marcia. Hey, Marcia, welcome home.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
Hi Dein Hey. I love your show and I've got
a question. I would love to hire you to design
our new approach to our home from the street, but
I know I can't afford you. So can you refer
me to a free online home design website?
Speaker 2 (18:14):
M I really shouldn't.
Speaker 5 (18:20):
Oh, okay, no, here's the reason.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
It's not pretty. It's not for any legal reasons. I'm like, oh,
I don't want to get in trouble here. No, no, no,
here's the thing with with free and I'm using air
quotes here free home design tools online free free is uh.
(18:46):
I'm sure there are there's an exception out there. And
if somebody has found an exception, because quite honestly, I
don't search the internet for home design uh software, free
online stuff. But if there's an exception out there, please
let me know and I will share it with everybody.
But when you search for free online design tools, you're
(19:10):
gonna find hundreds of websites saying, oh, use awesome, it's
always free to begin. In other words, whatever the most basic,
basic thing to kind of get you. I don't want
to use the word suckered into committing to a plan
with them. But but and then in order to go
(19:32):
further the way to get to the stuff that you
really would like to do, then you're gonna have to subscribe,
and then you're gonna have to pay for the upgrade,
and then you're gonna have to end da da da.
And I know of no free online design tools worth
anything that are just free. They all start free and
(19:55):
then they go to other places. But I will recommend
this to you, Okay, there, I'm not that's saying that
there isn't a a It's a bit of investment, a
little bit of investment in your time. But Chief Architect
is arguably the best home design CAD design tools out there.
(20:16):
In our opinion, we actually use the full suite of
Chief Architect for all of the plans that we create,
and they have levels of software starting with Little Baby
Design software for di wires all the way up to
the full professional suite that we use, which is something
that would be wasted on you and you wouldn't want to.
(20:38):
I mean, it's a whole thing. So but if you
go to Chief Architect dot com, I just look up
Chief Architect software and look for Home Designer, the DIY
version of Home Designer. I believe, if I'm not mistaken,
that the Home Design Suite, which is a really amazingly
(21:01):
capable little tool, is like one hundred and twenty nine
dollars and it's not a subscription. It's a one time thing.
You would download it, you would have it, and it's
going to take you some time to get used to
how to work with it. But if that's the kind
of thing that you're looking for, then then I'm going
to push you towards the baby version of the software
(21:23):
that we actually use to produce these things. And included
in that would be you know, interior three D renderings
and so on. And I believe, I believe I'm not mistaken,
exterior landscape or area plot plan design as well, that
you can start to fiddle with. That's that's where I
(21:44):
would push you in that direction. And in terms of
you know, here's the thing if you're interested in a consultation,
you can always inquire with Tina whether or not that's
a thing that can happen. You can just go to
house whisper dot Design and check it out. Whether or not.
(22:06):
We do a lot of consultations because so many people
are unable to take advantage of our full design services,
and we do consultations to help point people in the
right direction and to kind of break open their thinking
and get them you just get them thinking in the
right direction, and sometimes it can just literally make all
(22:26):
the difference. So don't price me out yet. But I
don't use the show that's solicit the business, so you
never hear me talk about this. But anybody can always
inquire at house whisper dot Design. But the home design
software that's made from the same people who do the
full scale CAD architectural software that we utilize in our
(22:49):
business every single day, and that one I can recommend
highly for one hundred and twenty nine dollars. It is
it's worth way way.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
More than that, okay. Chief Architect.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Chief Architect is the site that you go for and
then look for their DIY. You know, we look under
products for their design suite and under the DIY section
because that's okay, that's the amateur homeowner stuff and you'll
find it there.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Okay, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
You are so welcome, Marsha. Thanks for your call, and
thanks for listening to the show. All right, when we
come back, we're gonna try and fit at least one
more call in and wrap it up for the day.
Don't go anywhere your home with Dean Sharp. The house
whisper Pray by Dean Sharp, the house whisper Welcome home.
(23:42):
It's time to go back to the phones. Let me
throw a dartboard at the caller line right now. See
who we are left with today. We've got more phone
calls than we've got time for. I want to tell everybody.
If I leave you on the line and we don't
get to your call today, then you can always call
back tomorrow and we will give you a fast pass
(24:03):
to the front of the line. Is that dating myself?
Fast pass? Probably lightning lane. I don't know what is
the what's one of those things? I don't know? Tina
is like you know what, I live among Disney snobs.
That's the problem. And they're always correcting my terminology, and
that's a problem. Anyway, we'll give you a pass to
the front of the line. How about that. Okay, let's
(24:29):
talk to go go in van Ey's go go. Welcome home.
Speaker 6 (24:34):
Hey Dean, I just want to thank you for your show,
and you're.
Speaker 5 (24:40):
Kind of like the voice of reason in my darker days.
Speaker 6 (24:45):
And my fantasy of your life with Tina and the
chickens is just heaven heaven, So thank you for that.
Speaker 7 (24:53):
And I've recently become the guardian of my father's home
is very old and it's very unwell, and there's a
pipe where the washer dragon and outside of my house
that's about i don't know, three or four inches.
Speaker 6 (25:08):
Like a PVC looking like that comes out about me
see about two or three inches, and it's got a
wing nut and you know.
Speaker 5 (25:17):
A big screw singing out.
Speaker 7 (25:19):
And I found it popped.
Speaker 6 (25:21):
Off in the middle of the heat, and it was
all shriveled. It didn't look like it worked for anything.
And the plumber came out and just specked it back on,
and of course it popped off again.
Speaker 5 (25:29):
And it fixed it.
Speaker 7 (25:31):
I don't know what is making it pop off.
Speaker 6 (25:34):
I don't know what it's for. And it sometimes there's
water dripping out of it, and where that is the
steco is the paint's coming off the specle?
Speaker 2 (25:42):
What is that?
Speaker 5 (25:43):
I live in the bird houses, which you.
Speaker 6 (25:44):
Might know the bird houses, which are lovely, and so
I don't know what the heck that is. And I
still want to blow up. And I have a cinder
block wall that has just you know, it's separated where
I could put maybe my pink finger through, And I
want to know, should I just pick some silicon in there?
For now?
Speaker 5 (26:06):
What should I do?
Speaker 3 (26:06):
What? What?
Speaker 5 (26:07):
What is that mystery pipe?
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Yeah? Okay, so you're saying it's behind the washer and dryer.
Speaker 6 (26:13):
Yeah, but it's on the out side of the house.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
It's on the outside of the house. It's uh so
it's an ext it's a complete exterior piper. It's sticking
out it's is it is the pipe, yeah, sticking out
of the wall of the house. And and it's got
this it's got this little temporary uh rubberized pressure uh
plug in it is it coming.
Speaker 6 (26:35):
Out when he replaced it? Yeah, he put a piece
of rubber on him. Then he screwed it in. And
so from the outside you can't see that.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (26:43):
And it's got a.
Speaker 5 (26:44):
Wing and a big screw sticking out.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Yeah, that's that's that's a pressurized plug.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
And but I'm wondering what what what the function of
that that PVC pipe is Is it a white PVC
pipe or is it black?
Speaker 6 (26:57):
You know, I can't tell a lot. They painted around it,
and you know these are older houses.
Speaker 5 (27:06):
Yeah. Oh wait, here's another one.
Speaker 6 (27:10):
Oh okay, I didn't even notice this because this one's
got like a cemented capin and that's where the kitchen
sink is. So is that kind of for the sink
or something. I mean, I'm worried because the pressure's building up.
It was enough to blow it off twice. And if
he just so, okay at it all right, I.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Would I wouldn't be too worried about it. What it
sounds to me like you've got there is some kind
of vent. Okay, it's a vent pipe that's connected to
the drains. The the why there's a tea going to
the outside of the house. Maybe somebody thought back in
the day that this would be a good clean out
location for the U in case there was a clog
(27:51):
in those vents. If you got one by the kitchen sink,
and then there's one behind the washer. And dryer. It
sounds like a vent clean out. You could actually if
you got back away from the house and looked up
on the roof and you saw a pipe sticking out
of the roof in the generally aligned with where you
see it in the wall, then what we're dealing with
is event it could be PVC. It's probably ABS, which
(28:14):
is black plastic. A lot of people just think PVC
means plastic anyway, And it sounds like there's a temporary
plug in that as a cleanout. There are better plugs
for it than that than the interior kind of plug
where you crank down and they put pressure against it.
Those are usually not the kind that we would use
(28:34):
on that. Uh, if there's anything enough lips sticking out,
then you could use a low pressure, low viscosity PVC
cement and just glue a cap on, or you could
use a cap that covers over the top with a
hose clamp. That's what I would advise you or your
(28:56):
plumber to do is just let's just get the right
cap on the thing so stops blowing off every time
there's a little bit of pressure. And also let's make
sure that we know why there's pressure in the line
as far as what's causing the back pressure in those lines,
whether we've got a plug up top and it's not
actually venting out properly. But it's probably a relatively simple fix.
(29:19):
But let's get a plumber back out who will tell
you exactly. First of all, tell me what those lines are,
tell me what they're doing, don't just do a thing
and leave, And then tell me what's the best way
and most efficient way of capping it off. I bet
if I took a look at it, we could figure
out in like thirty seconds. But I can't see it
(29:39):
right now. So let's have a plumber out who's actually
going to educate you as well as resolved the problem.
But I doubt it's anything too serious. If it's a
larger line like that, it's a vent line coming off
of a drain. Nothing's going to explode or blow up,
I promise, But call the plumber back out.
Speaker 6 (29:58):
Go go.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Thank you so much, and thank you for listening to
the program, and thank you for all of your kind words,
and to all of you who are a part of
welcoming us into your home every morning, every Saturday morning
and Sunday mornings. We are very, very honored to be
a part of your weekend and to help you navigate
(30:18):
the ins and outs and the upside downs of your home.
And we'll be right back here tomorrow morning from nine
to noon. Guess what one of our most popular returning
segments are shows it was like this when we bought it.
The errors, the problems, the weirdnesses and the mistakes that
(30:40):
were made to your home that you inherited when you
bought it, and how to get them fixed. We'll talk
about that tomorrow when I see you yet again tomorrow
morning from nine to noon. Until then, get out in
this day and get busy building yourself a beautiful life.
We'll see you tomorrow. This has been Home with Dean Sharp,
(31:03):
the House Whisper. Tune into the live broadcast on KFI
AM six forty every Saturday morning from six to eight
Pacific time and every Sunday morning from nine to noon
Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.