June 21, 2025 • 26 mins
It’s All Calls Weekend! Dean lets listeners take the reins in this open-format hour. He kicks things off with wife Tina and the team before diving into listener questions—from boosting your home’s water pressure with a pressure regulator or booster pump, to natural weed-killing remedies using vinegar and sunlight. Plus, Dean shares smart sequencing tips for a successful kitchen remodel. Whether you're tackling weeds or hardwood floors, Dean's got practical advice to make home life easier!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp The
House Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Hey if
I am six forty live dreaming in HD everywhere on
the iHeartRadio app. Hey, welcome home. I'm Dean Sharp the
House Whisper. I design custom homes, I build custom homes.
(00:24):
And on the weekends and today, I am your guide
to better understanding that place where you live. Today on
the show, as has become the custom for us, on Saturdays,
it's an all calls Saturday morning. That means you get
to set the agenda for what it is that we're
talking about today. The phone lines are open. Producer Matt
(00:46):
is standing by already taking calls, but there is tons
of room for you. Saturday morning is always a great
time to call in because, just like the freeways, the
traffic is light because so many lazy people are sleeping.
But not you, my friend. You are up and adam,
So whatever has got you scratching your head about your home,
you should give me a call so we can talk
(01:07):
about it. The number to reach me eight three three two.
Ask Dean eight three three the numeral two ask Dean
A three three the numeral two, and then you just
spell out ask Dean. Let me introduce you to our
awesome team. Sam is on the board. Good morning, Sam,
(01:29):
Good morning Dean. How you doing. I'm good, I'm good.
How was your Friday evening? How was how Saturday morning
turning out for you? Friday evening was a delight.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I hung out with my kids, and obviously today my
son is here. I always have my live audience in
top of the live audience, so.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
It's all exactly, exactly, excellent, excellent, the family affair around here.
Glad to hear it. Producer Matt Is is is Matt
near a micro of No he's done near Micah, and
he's taking calls. But Matt is here faithfully handling the
callboard for us this morning. Again. The number to reach
(02:07):
me eight three three two. Ask Dean A three to three,
the number two, Ask dean. Eileen Gonzales at the news desk,
Good morning, Eileen, Good morning Dean. How are you. I'm good,
I'm good. What's going on? You know in your little
closet there.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Today, my little closet, I've got some tea brewing, I've
got some blueberries on standby.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
You know, it's.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Exciting blueberries on stand by. I love that image. Blueberries
on standby. That's my bread. Not exactly sure whether you're
gonna go for the blueberries, but you know, if things
reach a tipping point, you'll turn to the blueberries. You're like,
all right, everybody in the bowl, let's go in case
of emergency. Yes, that's awesome, that's awesome. Sitting across the
(02:54):
table from me, look at her, Just look at her. Gosh,
dang it, my better half, my design partner, my best
friend in all the world, the co owner, co founder
of House Whisper and her dog, Damn Tina is here.
That wasn't my dog? No, that wouldn't you would love
(03:14):
that if that was your dog. We were telling, who
are we telling the other day? That your favorite animal
is an elephant? Which is why Sam always plays the elephant. Obviously,
keeping an elephant at the house the little cumbersome also
illegally illegal in the most right and not right. But
(03:35):
what were we fantasizing about the other day? If you
could take a if you could get a baby elephant,
if you could breed an elephant. Is there is such
a thing as a pygmy elephant? Isn't there probably, and
I'm going to look it up. But if you could
get an elephant that's just about the size of a
large dog, gosh, you would so have it.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Have how you on my bucket list?
Speaker 4 (03:57):
By the way, Tina, it is yes.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Get a steamrolled, to get steamrolled by a baby elephant.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Oh, that would be there.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
You know I once had a hippopotamus for Christmas. Oh
that was a nice poll that.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
All right, y'all. I have Sam the Beagle. Yes, we
have Sam on the board and Sam the beast. Sam
the beagle eats like an elephant if we let him
and he howls, well, he makes more noise than most
elephants make in the morning if you fail to feed
him exactly exactly by four fifteen. Four fifteen, rolls around
(04:39):
and Sam has not eaten. Oh my goodness, everybody in
the house is up and unaware of it. Don't look
at me like that, Sam, you know exactly what the
situation is. He's like, oh what, all right, y'all, let's
take some calls, shall we. Let's talk about your house,
anything going on with your home, whatever's got you scratching
your head, whether it's a design issue, you a construction concern,
(05:02):
DIY question you name it. That's why I'm here. We're
gonna put our heads together and figure it out. Eight
three three two ask Dean. It's just that simple. Eight
three to three the numeral two. Ask Dean. We will
get it going if I can start the house whisperer.
(05:23):
That's me. Hey. Whether your home is a condo, a cottage,
a castle, matters not to me. I'm here to help
you take it to the next level. The good rules,
the best rules of building and design, they apply across
the board. It matters not I truly, truly, truly believe
(05:43):
that have seen it, have worked it, have done it
for decades. Now that's my business, and I'm here to
help you apply those same things to your home to
make it something extraordinary. It's an all calls Saturday morning
for us, as we do around here. Here's the number
eight three three two Ask Dean. A three to three
(06:05):
the numeral two. Ask Dean. It's time to go to
the phones. Let's talk to Dan. Hey, Dan, welcome home.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Hey. I'm hoping you can give me a basic primmer
on water pressure and how water pressure works in the house.
I have a My house has a pretty low water
pressure in general compared to previous houses I've lived in.
But the biggest problem is that one bathtub on the
far side of the house is useless because I can
(06:34):
only get like a tiny dribble of water to come out.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
Of the faucet.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
It would take like six hours to fill it. And
I've had a plumber tell me that there's nothing I
can do about that, and I just thought I would
check with you and see if that is in fact
the case.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Okay, well, why did the Why did the plumber say
there's nothing you can do about it?
Speaker 3 (06:54):
I think maybe because he was just too lazy to
do something about it. I'm thinking that maybe if something
could be done in terms of like altering the course
of the pipes or something to get water to that
particular bathtub a little bit better. But like I said,
the water pressure in general in the house is pretty low,
so I don't know if there's an adjustment that can
(07:15):
be made to get it going a lot higher. I
know that there are problems with water hammer when the
pressure gets too high. But if you could just give
some general thoughts about how water pressure works.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Okay, Well, water pressure is something that is provided by
the city, that is supplying your home, and you know,
it varies from neighborhood to neighborhood, from city to city,
from location to location. Generally speaking, you know, it's always
a toss up optimal water pressure. Optimal for a house,
it usually rests right around sixty seventy pounds per square
(07:54):
inch or sixty to seventy psi. If you have less
than sixty, you it's considered that you've got low pressure.
If you've got above eighty, you have high pressure, meaning
too high because your plumbing lines and especially like hoses
connecting your washing machine, appliances and the various other appliance
(08:17):
internal components are not rated to sit there with above
eighty psi water pressure in them. So the magic spot
of nice, healthy pressure is in the sixties and seventies.
And that's you know, ideally, most people who have sixties
and seventies don't complain about it. We get complaints below
(08:37):
sixty and their concerns above eighty. Now that pressure can
vary from moment to moment. As it comes to a home.
There is on the front of your home, right where
the main line comes into your home, a little device,
usually brass looking. It's usually conical and rare found in
(09:00):
shape around kind of cone device and it has a
nut and a bolt coming out of one end. It
is the pressure regulator for the house. Now, pressure regulators
can often and do often fail. They get worn out
over time. Occasionally they fail in the direction of like
(09:21):
obstructing pressure from coming into the house, but almost always
they fail in regards to regulating and keeping the pressure down.
So when a pressure regulator fails, you know, ninety nine
times out of one hundred, the water pressure in the
house goes higher than it should, not lower than it should.
But here's the thing. If you've had if the house
(09:43):
has a history of water hammer, which is that's a
whole different story, but it's it's water moving around and
cavitating through the pipes in such a way that it
creass that it causes vibration of the pipes and you
get that banging sound. Then perhaps somebody in the past
has gotten to the pressure regulator and turned it down,
because one of the ways that you can reduce water
(10:05):
hammer in the house is by reducing the pressure. So
the first question that I would have for you is
do you know where the pressure regulator is? Have you
tested the pressure in the house and have you tried
turning up the pressure regulator so that you get to
higher levels of pressure into the home.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Well, there generally be a psi. Is it intact psi
that we're looking at.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah, it's psi. And unfortunately the pressure regulator has no
gauges on it whatsoever. And so people are like, well,
how do I know? How do I figure this out? Dean? Well,
if a plumber and by the way, if the plumber
did not do this for you, you definitely had the
wrong plumber out there. The regular irrigation lines out in
(10:53):
your yard, they are not a gauge of this because
they usually are bypassed of the pressure regular later. But
if you've got any hose bibs that are coming out
of the wall of your house, any hose bibs that
are literally coming out of the siding of the stuccle,
then they those hose bibs are part of the internal
(11:14):
line of the house. And you can run down to
the hardware store and for about where they now, about
six or seven dollars, you can buy a little pressure
gauge that screws onto the hose big like a hose,
and you literally turn put screw that on turn the
valve on completely and you'll know instantly what the pressure
(11:37):
is in the house.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Oh okay, great, And is it likely to vary from
one side of the house to the other?
Speaker 1 (11:44):
No, well, well yeah, I mean it can. It can
based on the way things are plumbed. Obviously, things that
are furthest away struggle the most getting And this is
something that sometimes people get confused, the difference between flow
volume and water pressure. Okay, things that are far, far far,
at the far end of the branching system can sometimes
(12:08):
exhibit less flow than things closer by to the main inlet,
but the pressure can actually should be relatively constant through
the system. So the point is DAN one number one.
If you've got a hose bib on the side of
the house, go get a pressure regulator, a pressure valve
(12:31):
so that you can gauge. Valve, sorry, gauge for a
few bucks. Put that on there, and then find your
pressure regulator, grab a wrench and turn it, and as
you turn to that bolt, you should see the pressure increase.
Increase the pressure if you can until okay, don't go
(12:53):
over eighty, but until you start getting better results in
that far tub that's at the end of the house. Now,
if you end up with water hammer, don't worry about that.
There's better ways to fix water hammer then by turning
the pressure down, which is we can install under a sink,
under several sinks, these little water hammer arrestors, which are
(13:14):
just like these tiny little shock absorbers, again, very inexpensive
pieces that homeowners can install themselves right underneath their sinks,
and they can pick up in the plumbing department at
the hardware store. They are literally shock absorbers for water
inside a house, and one or two of these devices
installed throughout the house usually alleviates the water hammer issue
(13:36):
as well. So crank up the pressure. Find out if
you can get that now, if you've the worst case scenario,
and then I gotta go here, Dan. But the worst
case scenario is if you've just got unusually low city
pressure coming into the house. And if that's the case,
even that can be fixed. It's a bigger investment, but
you call the right plumber and they can install a
(13:57):
booster pump onto your entire home which makes up for
low pressure and repressurizes the house as it should. But
there's a good chance, well you can resolve it without
that having to happen.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Okay, terrific. You've helped me a lot. Thank you very
much for the helping me.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
All Right, buddy, go for it, Get out there, get
those little components. Do the test. I think you there's
a good chance that you can get some get some
results very in very short order, and for very little cash.
All Right, y'all, when we come back, more of your
calls your Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
Speaker 6 (14:37):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
IF I AM the forty live streaming and HD everywhere
on the iHeart Radio app. Dean Sharp the House Whisper
here with you like I am every Saturday morning from
six to eight Pacific time, Sundays nine to noon The
Big Show nine to noon Pacific time tomorrow show. By
the way, we're talking about sound control, not just soundproofing,
(15:07):
but sound control. That's even a larger subject. How to
get your home quieter, more pleasant, more relaxing, more subdued,
more beautiful sounding, all of those things. We're going to
do a deep dive tomorrow. You're not going to want
to miss tomorrow's show. But today, of course, Saturday Morning,
which means we are taking your alls and I want
(15:29):
to talk to Mary. Hey, Mary, welcome home.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Well, good morning, Dean. Enjoy your show every Saturday and Sunday.
It's really interesting, Jean. I am always challenged with weeds
on my easement and I hate to use the traditional
weed killers. Is there something that's more natural or that
(15:54):
would get those weeds so they don't keep coming up
at but take care of the problem, but that kinder
to the environment into the plants around them.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Uh, there is there is, and uh but I say so,
let me, let me, let me put it this way. Uh.
The reason why uh, chemically heavy, unnatural and that sometimes
just flat out toxic weed killers are so dang popular
(16:30):
is because they are a relatively easy and lazy way
to go. You know, you spray it down, you walk away,
everything dies and it stays killed for months at a time.
Speaker 5 (16:42):
Right.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
And even in saying that, I know there are people
listening right now who are like, oh, that's the one
that I want. I won't care about the rest of
that natural stuff. I just want to get these weeds
out of here. So uh yeah, So just understand there
are effective ways of controlling weeds that are far more
natural and less harmful to everything around. I prefer those
(17:05):
my methods myself, but a little bit more work along
the way. But the one that is usually like the
standard go to for most natural gardeners who don't want
to put you know, biophosphates down into their yard, you know,
age and orange essentially in their yard. It's a very
(17:26):
simple mixture of high acidic vinegar. Okay, Now you can
use white vinegar from the grocery store, but I recommend
getting the high acidic vinegar from It's still white vinegar,
it's just concentrated. The acidic is the acid in. It
is concentrated, but I recommend getting it from, you know,
from a big box store of the hardware store. It's
(17:48):
not the kind of vinegar you'd want to put on
your salad, but it's still vinegar, nonetheless, high acidic thirty
percent vinegar and a little bit of salt and some
dawn dishwashing liquid. You mix those together in put them
in a Hudson sprayer, and on a nice warm day
(18:09):
while the sun is out, while all the pores are
open on the leaves and the stems of these weeds,
which by the way, are just plants. Weeds, not a
technical definition of any kind of botany. A weed is
simply a term that human beings use for a plant
(18:33):
that is not where we want it to be. So
you basically use this in a Hudson sprayer. Spray it
down on a warm day, and you'll see within a
couple hours that plants start to shrivel up because the
acid in the vinegar, the astringent quality of the salt.
And if anybody's wondering why the dishwashing liquid, the dishwashing
(18:57):
liquid actually is just has a gelatinous substance to it
that allows the vinegar and the salt to stick onto
the plant for longer. Okay, it's just like a like
a like a Gela feature. So it's not about the
dishwashing liquid killing a plant. It's about allowing the other
two features to hold on and stay on the weed longer.
(19:19):
And uh and there you go. It is not it's
not going to guarantee that they won't come back, you know,
you know, for six months chemicals, they all come back,
You're right. So a combination of doing that boiling water
is something that people use effectively literally bringing out boiling
water and scalding a weed. Uh, Mulching after the fact
(19:41):
is something that I strongly recommend, and that is taking
the area that is a weed problem and covering it
in some kind of mult whether it's tree bark, whether
it is uh, you know, gorilla hair mult some kind
of ground cover to slow down and uh and inhibit
the seeds of more weeds from just finding direct access
(20:05):
to the soil. Mulching is super important. And if you've
just got a field of weeds and you're like, you
don't understand the whole thing is weeds, Dean, then after
hacking some of them off, getting them down to ground level,
then one of the things you can do to just
did de weed an entire yard is to get out
(20:25):
big black sheets of plastic and pin that down over
the area and again let the sun superheat the soil.
That's what we call solarization, covering weeds with clear or
black plastics so that it superheats the soil and the
weeds just do they cannot hold up to that. There's
(20:46):
also a thing called flame weeding, but I'm not gonna
recommend that to anybody in southern California. So yeah, those
are the ways that you go about doing it. Mary,
and you know what, if you're willing to take the
time in the effort and do it right, you want
to do it not on a rainy day where it
washes off right away, and not on a cold day
when the pores of the plants are closed up. We
(21:06):
want to do it as much as possible on a
nice summer day like we've got coming ahead of us here.
It doesn't have to be blazing hot, just nice and
warm and sunny, and those that that very very natural.
It's not going to toxify the soil or anything like that.
It's not going to hurt any animals or anything else,
but it will definitely kill a plant that it gets
(21:27):
applied to. And so there you go, my friend, good
luck with the weed control in your yard. All right.
I ran a little long last segment, so we're just
gonna leave it at that. Call for night. Now, let's
get some news, y bye. We can charge the house.
Welcome home, Welcome to our all calls Saturday morning. The
(21:48):
number to reach me eight three three two ask dean
eighth three three the numeral to ask dean. Let's go
back to the phone, shall we. Well, let's talk to Anthony. Hey, Anthony,
welcome home, hiding.
Speaker 5 (22:05):
Thank you for taking my call. I love your show,
and I wanted to ask. My kitchen was built in
nineteen fifty four and I'm redoing the whole thing. I've
gotten two opinions on when to do my floors, either
before or after the entire project. I'm sorry, at the
beginning or the end of the entire project. I'm replacing
my cabins. Thanks to your show, I learned it's best
(22:28):
to just go with the hardwood, save more money versus
pre fabricated. But I like to know when I should
do the floors. I'm going to put either vinyl or landlet.
It should be at the end of the project or
the beginning. And then if time, just any general kIPS
on doing your kitchen dose and don't the mistakes that
you commonly see people make.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
All right, I got you, all right, So I've got
time to address the flooring issue. And that's always it's
you know what, here's the thing. Depending on the kind
of cabinets that are being installed, and I'll explain what
that means in just a second, it may change the
order or the preferred order may change. Okay, Typically these days,
(23:10):
cabinets that you are ordering to have installed, are going
to come with the kick, the cabinet kick as an
integrated part of the cabinet. In other words, the cabinet
box already has the kick built into it, right, meaning
that little indentation down at the bottom where your toes
go where the cabinet separates, you know, and it breaks
away and the dives underneath and then heads down to
(23:33):
the floor. Some some cabinets have the kick as a
separate component, and the kick can be installed separately before
the cabinet boxes are sat on top of them. Okay,
in situations where the kick is separate from the cabinet,
(23:54):
we always try to have the kicks installed ahead of time,
and then when with no cabinets in the room, just
the kicks in place to define where the flooring material
is going to go, we go ahead and get the
floor installed while there's easy access to everything and minimal
risk of flooring people you know, bumping into cabinet brand
(24:17):
new cabinets are scratching them or anything like that. Okay,
So when there is a separated kick from the cabinet box,
we tend to go ahead and I ask my cabinet people,
I said, can we get those kicks in and then
I want to get the floor installed and then you
come set the boxes on top of it. All that's
the way we do it. But most of the time
the kicks are integrated. They're all a part of one
(24:40):
piece of the cabinet box, in which case there's no
need to pay for flooring material that you are simply
going to cover over with your cabinets. So I like
to go ahead install the cabinets and then tell the
flooring people be careful, don't scratch my cabinets, and get
in there and get the rest installed. If you're installing
(25:01):
a luxury vinyl plank, that's a floating floor, and floating
floor means you need access to the edge of that
floor in order to hold it down or if you
ever have to replace anything or anything like that, and
you wouldn't want to run that underneath your cabinets because
then it's trapped under there for good and there's no
(25:21):
access to it should there be any problems with it
in the future. So typically speaking, hardwood floor, floating floor tile,
you know it's expensive per square foot, and you don't
need to run it where you don't want to run it.
Speaker 5 (25:34):
Now.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Of course you're setting up your kitchen cabinets. We definitely
want to run the floor underneath where the dishwasher goes,
because that's not a part of the actual cabinet feature.
That's an appliance that's installed later, and where the refrigerator
goes and all of that kind of stuff. But generally speaking,
it's going to be flooring after cabinets unless the kicks
are separated. That makes sense.
Speaker 5 (25:57):
And thank you so much for clarifying everything.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
That really all right, Anthony. Good luck on that kitchen buddy,
and congratulations for new kitchen cabinets as it goes. All right, y'all,
more of your calls when we return. You are listening
to Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper on KFI.
Speaker 6 (26:16):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp The
House Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Hey if
I am six forty live dreaming in HD everywhere on
the iHeartRadio app. Hey, welcome home. I'm Dean Sharp the
House Whisper. I design custom homes, I build custom homes.
(00:24):
And on the weekends and today, I am your guide
to better understanding that place where you live. Today on
the show, as has become the custom for us, on Saturdays,
it's an all calls Saturday morning. That means you get
to set the agenda for what it is that we're
talking about today. The phone lines are open. Producer Matt
(00:46):
is standing by already taking calls, but there is tons
of room for you. Saturday morning is always a great
time to call in because, just like the freeways, the
traffic is light because so many lazy people are sleeping.
But not you, my friend. You are up and adam,
So whatever has got you scratching your head about your home,
you should give me a call so we can talk
(01:07):
about it. The number to reach me eight three three two.
Ask Dean eight three three the numeral two ask Dean
A three three the numeral two, and then you just
spell out ask Dean. Let me introduce you to our
awesome team. Sam is on the board. Good morning, Sam,
(01:29):
Good morning Dean. How you doing. I'm good, I'm good.
How was your Friday evening? How was how Saturday morning
turning out for you? Friday evening was a delight.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I hung out with my kids, and obviously today my
son is here. I always have my live audience in
top of the live audience, so.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
It's all exactly, exactly, excellent, excellent, the family affair around here.
Glad to hear it. Producer Matt Is is is Matt
near a micro of No he's done near Micah, and
he's taking calls. But Matt is here faithfully handling the
callboard for us this morning. Again. The number to reach
(02:07):
me eight three three two. Ask Dean A three to three,
the number two, Ask dean. Eileen Gonzales at the news desk,
Good morning, Eileen, Good morning Dean. How are you. I'm good,
I'm good. What's going on? You know in your little
closet there.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Today, my little closet, I've got some tea brewing, I've
got some blueberries on standby.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
You know, it's.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Exciting blueberries on stand by. I love that image. Blueberries
on standby. That's my bread. Not exactly sure whether you're
gonna go for the blueberries, but you know, if things
reach a tipping point, you'll turn to the blueberries. You're like,
all right, everybody in the bowl, let's go in case
of emergency. Yes, that's awesome, that's awesome. Sitting across the
(02:54):
table from me, look at her, Just look at her. Gosh,
dang it, my better half, my design partner, my best
friend in all the world, the co owner, co founder
of House Whisper and her dog, Damn Tina is here.
That wasn't my dog? No, that wouldn't you would love
(03:14):
that if that was your dog. We were telling, who
are we telling the other day? That your favorite animal
is an elephant? Which is why Sam always plays the elephant. Obviously,
keeping an elephant at the house the little cumbersome also
illegally illegal in the most right and not right. But
(03:35):
what were we fantasizing about the other day? If you
could take a if you could get a baby elephant,
if you could breed an elephant. Is there is such
a thing as a pygmy elephant? Isn't there probably, and
I'm going to look it up. But if you could
get an elephant that's just about the size of a
large dog, gosh, you would so have it.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Have how you on my bucket list?
Speaker 4 (03:57):
By the way, Tina, it is yes.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Get a steamrolled, to get steamrolled by a baby elephant.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Oh, that would be there.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
You know I once had a hippopotamus for Christmas. Oh
that was a nice poll that.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
All right, y'all. I have Sam the Beagle. Yes, we
have Sam on the board and Sam the beast. Sam
the beagle eats like an elephant if we let him
and he howls, well, he makes more noise than most
elephants make in the morning if you fail to feed
him exactly exactly by four fifteen. Four fifteen, rolls around
(04:39):
and Sam has not eaten. Oh my goodness, everybody in
the house is up and unaware of it. Don't look
at me like that, Sam, you know exactly what the
situation is. He's like, oh what, all right, y'all, let's
take some calls, shall we. Let's talk about your house,
anything going on with your home, whatever's got you scratching
your head, whether it's a design issue, you a construction concern,
(05:02):
DIY question you name it. That's why I'm here. We're
gonna put our heads together and figure it out. Eight
three three two ask Dean. It's just that simple. Eight
three to three the numeral two. Ask Dean. We will
get it going if I can start the house whisperer.
(05:23):
That's me. Hey. Whether your home is a condo, a cottage,
a castle, matters not to me. I'm here to help
you take it to the next level. The good rules,
the best rules of building and design, they apply across
the board. It matters not I truly, truly, truly believe
(05:43):
that have seen it, have worked it, have done it
for decades. Now that's my business, and I'm here to
help you apply those same things to your home to
make it something extraordinary. It's an all calls Saturday morning
for us, as we do around here. Here's the number
eight three three two Ask Dean. A three to three
(06:05):
the numeral two. Ask Dean. It's time to go to
the phones. Let's talk to Dan. Hey, Dan, welcome home.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Hey. I'm hoping you can give me a basic primmer
on water pressure and how water pressure works in the house.
I have a My house has a pretty low water
pressure in general compared to previous houses I've lived in.
But the biggest problem is that one bathtub on the
far side of the house is useless because I can
(06:34):
only get like a tiny dribble of water to come out.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
Of the faucet.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
It would take like six hours to fill it. And
I've had a plumber tell me that there's nothing I
can do about that, and I just thought I would
check with you and see if that is in fact
the case.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Okay, well, why did the Why did the plumber say
there's nothing you can do about it?
Speaker 3 (06:54):
I think maybe because he was just too lazy to
do something about it. I'm thinking that maybe if something
could be done in terms of like altering the course
of the pipes or something to get water to that
particular bathtub a little bit better. But like I said,
the water pressure in general in the house is pretty low,
so I don't know if there's an adjustment that can
(07:15):
be made to get it going a lot higher. I
know that there are problems with water hammer when the
pressure gets too high. But if you could just give
some general thoughts about how water pressure works.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Okay, Well, water pressure is something that is provided by
the city, that is supplying your home, and you know,
it varies from neighborhood to neighborhood, from city to city,
from location to location. Generally speaking, you know, it's always
a toss up optimal water pressure. Optimal for a house,
it usually rests right around sixty seventy pounds per square
(07:54):
inch or sixty to seventy psi. If you have less
than sixty, you it's considered that you've got low pressure.
If you've got above eighty, you have high pressure, meaning
too high because your plumbing lines and especially like hoses
connecting your washing machine, appliances and the various other appliance
(08:17):
internal components are not rated to sit there with above
eighty psi water pressure in them. So the magic spot
of nice, healthy pressure is in the sixties and seventies.
And that's you know, ideally, most people who have sixties
and seventies don't complain about it. We get complaints below
(08:37):
sixty and their concerns above eighty. Now that pressure can
vary from moment to moment. As it comes to a home.
There is on the front of your home, right where
the main line comes into your home, a little device,
usually brass looking. It's usually conical and rare found in
(09:00):
shape around kind of cone device and it has a
nut and a bolt coming out of one end. It
is the pressure regulator for the house. Now, pressure regulators
can often and do often fail. They get worn out
over time. Occasionally they fail in the direction of like
(09:21):
obstructing pressure from coming into the house, but almost always
they fail in regards to regulating and keeping the pressure down.
So when a pressure regulator fails, you know, ninety nine
times out of one hundred, the water pressure in the
house goes higher than it should, not lower than it should.
But here's the thing. If you've had if the house
(09:43):
has a history of water hammer, which is that's a
whole different story, but it's it's water moving around and
cavitating through the pipes in such a way that it
creass that it causes vibration of the pipes and you
get that banging sound. Then perhaps somebody in the past
has gotten to the pressure regulator and turned it down,
because one of the ways that you can reduce water
(10:05):
hammer in the house is by reducing the pressure. So
the first question that I would have for you is
do you know where the pressure regulator is? Have you
tested the pressure in the house and have you tried
turning up the pressure regulator so that you get to
higher levels of pressure into the home.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Well, there generally be a psi. Is it intact psi
that we're looking at.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah, it's psi. And unfortunately the pressure regulator has no
gauges on it whatsoever. And so people are like, well,
how do I know? How do I figure this out? Dean? Well,
if a plumber and by the way, if the plumber
did not do this for you, you definitely had the
wrong plumber out there. The regular irrigation lines out in
(10:53):
your yard, they are not a gauge of this because
they usually are bypassed of the pressure regular later. But
if you've got any hose bibs that are coming out
of the wall of your house, any hose bibs that
are literally coming out of the siding of the stuccle,
then they those hose bibs are part of the internal
(11:14):
line of the house. And you can run down to
the hardware store and for about where they now, about
six or seven dollars, you can buy a little pressure
gauge that screws onto the hose big like a hose,
and you literally turn put screw that on turn the
valve on completely and you'll know instantly what the pressure
(11:37):
is in the house.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Oh okay, great, And is it likely to vary from
one side of the house to the other?
Speaker 1 (11:44):
No, well, well yeah, I mean it can. It can
based on the way things are plumbed. Obviously, things that
are furthest away struggle the most getting And this is
something that sometimes people get confused, the difference between flow
volume and water pressure. Okay, things that are far, far far,
at the far end of the branching system can sometimes
(12:08):
exhibit less flow than things closer by to the main inlet,
but the pressure can actually should be relatively constant through
the system. So the point is DAN one number one.
If you've got a hose bib on the side of
the house, go get a pressure regulator, a pressure valve
(12:31):
so that you can gauge. Valve, sorry, gauge for a
few bucks. Put that on there, and then find your
pressure regulator, grab a wrench and turn it, and as
you turn to that bolt, you should see the pressure increase.
Increase the pressure if you can until okay, don't go
(12:53):
over eighty, but until you start getting better results in
that far tub that's at the end of the house. Now,
if you end up with water hammer, don't worry about that.
There's better ways to fix water hammer then by turning
the pressure down, which is we can install under a sink,
under several sinks, these little water hammer arrestors, which are
(13:14):
just like these tiny little shock absorbers, again, very inexpensive
pieces that homeowners can install themselves right underneath their sinks,
and they can pick up in the plumbing department at
the hardware store. They are literally shock absorbers for water
inside a house, and one or two of these devices
installed throughout the house usually alleviates the water hammer issue
(13:36):
as well. So crank up the pressure. Find out if
you can get that now, if you've the worst case scenario,
and then I gotta go here, Dan. But the worst
case scenario is if you've just got unusually low city
pressure coming into the house. And if that's the case,
even that can be fixed. It's a bigger investment, but
you call the right plumber and they can install a
(13:57):
booster pump onto your entire home which makes up for
low pressure and repressurizes the house as it should. But
there's a good chance, well you can resolve it without
that having to happen.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Okay, terrific. You've helped me a lot. Thank you very
much for the helping me.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
All Right, buddy, go for it, Get out there, get
those little components. Do the test. I think you there's
a good chance that you can get some get some
results very in very short order, and for very little cash.
All Right, y'all, when we come back, more of your
calls your Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
Speaker 6 (14:37):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
IF I AM the forty live streaming and HD everywhere
on the iHeart Radio app. Dean Sharp the House Whisper
here with you like I am every Saturday morning from
six to eight Pacific time, Sundays nine to noon The
Big Show nine to noon Pacific time tomorrow show. By
the way, we're talking about sound control, not just soundproofing,
(15:07):
but sound control. That's even a larger subject. How to
get your home quieter, more pleasant, more relaxing, more subdued,
more beautiful sounding, all of those things. We're going to
do a deep dive tomorrow. You're not going to want
to miss tomorrow's show. But today, of course, Saturday Morning,
which means we are taking your alls and I want
(15:29):
to talk to Mary. Hey, Mary, welcome home.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Well, good morning, Dean. Enjoy your show every Saturday and Sunday.
It's really interesting, Jean. I am always challenged with weeds
on my easement and I hate to use the traditional
weed killers. Is there something that's more natural or that
(15:54):
would get those weeds so they don't keep coming up
at but take care of the problem, but that kinder
to the environment into the plants around them.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Uh, there is there is, and uh but I say so,
let me, let me, let me put it this way. Uh.
The reason why uh, chemically heavy, unnatural and that sometimes
just flat out toxic weed killers are so dang popular
(16:30):
is because they are a relatively easy and lazy way
to go. You know, you spray it down, you walk away,
everything dies and it stays killed for months at a time.
Speaker 5 (16:42):
Right.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
And even in saying that, I know there are people
listening right now who are like, oh, that's the one
that I want. I won't care about the rest of
that natural stuff. I just want to get these weeds
out of here. So uh yeah, So just understand there
are effective ways of controlling weeds that are far more
natural and less harmful to everything around. I prefer those
(17:05):
my methods myself, but a little bit more work along
the way. But the one that is usually like the
standard go to for most natural gardeners who don't want
to put you know, biophosphates down into their yard, you know,
age and orange essentially in their yard. It's a very
(17:26):
simple mixture of high acidic vinegar. Okay, Now you can
use white vinegar from the grocery store, but I recommend
getting the high acidic vinegar from It's still white vinegar,
it's just concentrated. The acidic is the acid in. It
is concentrated, but I recommend getting it from, you know,
from a big box store of the hardware store. It's
(17:48):
not the kind of vinegar you'd want to put on
your salad, but it's still vinegar, nonetheless, high acidic thirty
percent vinegar and a little bit of salt and some
dawn dishwashing liquid. You mix those together in put them
in a Hudson sprayer, and on a nice warm day
(18:09):
while the sun is out, while all the pores are
open on the leaves and the stems of these weeds,
which by the way, are just plants. Weeds, not a
technical definition of any kind of botany. A weed is
simply a term that human beings use for a plant
(18:33):
that is not where we want it to be. So
you basically use this in a Hudson sprayer. Spray it
down on a warm day, and you'll see within a
couple hours that plants start to shrivel up because the
acid in the vinegar, the astringent quality of the salt.
And if anybody's wondering why the dishwashing liquid, the dishwashing
(18:57):
liquid actually is just has a gelatinous substance to it
that allows the vinegar and the salt to stick onto
the plant for longer. Okay, it's just like a like
a like a Gela feature. So it's not about the
dishwashing liquid killing a plant. It's about allowing the other
two features to hold on and stay on the weed longer.
(19:19):
And uh and there you go. It is not it's
not going to guarantee that they won't come back, you know,
you know, for six months chemicals, they all come back,
You're right. So a combination of doing that boiling water
is something that people use effectively literally bringing out boiling
water and scalding a weed. Uh, Mulching after the fact
(19:41):
is something that I strongly recommend, and that is taking
the area that is a weed problem and covering it
in some kind of mult whether it's tree bark, whether
it is uh, you know, gorilla hair mult some kind
of ground cover to slow down and uh and inhibit
the seeds of more weeds from just finding direct access
(20:05):
to the soil. Mulching is super important. And if you've
just got a field of weeds and you're like, you
don't understand the whole thing is weeds, Dean, then after
hacking some of them off, getting them down to ground level,
then one of the things you can do to just
did de weed an entire yard is to get out
(20:25):
big black sheets of plastic and pin that down over
the area and again let the sun superheat the soil.
That's what we call solarization, covering weeds with clear or
black plastics so that it superheats the soil and the
weeds just do they cannot hold up to that. There's
(20:46):
also a thing called flame weeding, but I'm not gonna
recommend that to anybody in southern California. So yeah, those
are the ways that you go about doing it. Mary,
and you know what, if you're willing to take the
time in the effort and do it right, you want
to do it not on a rainy day where it
washes off right away, and not on a cold day
when the pores of the plants are closed up. We
(21:06):
want to do it as much as possible on a
nice summer day like we've got coming ahead of us here.
It doesn't have to be blazing hot, just nice and
warm and sunny, and those that that very very natural.
It's not going to toxify the soil or anything like that.
It's not going to hurt any animals or anything else,
but it will definitely kill a plant that it gets
(21:27):
applied to. And so there you go, my friend, good
luck with the weed control in your yard. All right.
I ran a little long last segment, so we're just
gonna leave it at that. Call for night. Now, let's
get some news, y bye. We can charge the house.
Welcome home, Welcome to our all calls Saturday morning. The
(21:48):
number to reach me eight three three two ask dean
eighth three three the numeral to ask dean. Let's go
back to the phone, shall we. Well, let's talk to Anthony. Hey, Anthony,
welcome home, hiding.
Speaker 5 (22:05):
Thank you for taking my call. I love your show,
and I wanted to ask. My kitchen was built in
nineteen fifty four and I'm redoing the whole thing. I've
gotten two opinions on when to do my floors, either
before or after the entire project. I'm sorry, at the
beginning or the end of the entire project. I'm replacing
my cabins. Thanks to your show, I learned it's best
(22:28):
to just go with the hardwood, save more money versus
pre fabricated. But I like to know when I should
do the floors. I'm going to put either vinyl or landlet.
It should be at the end of the project or
the beginning. And then if time, just any general kIPS
on doing your kitchen dose and don't the mistakes that
you commonly see people make.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
All right, I got you, all right, So I've got
time to address the flooring issue. And that's always it's
you know what, here's the thing. Depending on the kind
of cabinets that are being installed, and I'll explain what
that means in just a second, it may change the
order or the preferred order may change. Okay, Typically these days,
(23:10):
cabinets that you are ordering to have installed, are going
to come with the kick, the cabinet kick as an
integrated part of the cabinet. In other words, the cabinet
box already has the kick built into it, right, meaning
that little indentation down at the bottom where your toes
go where the cabinet separates, you know, and it breaks
away and the dives underneath and then heads down to
(23:33):
the floor. Some some cabinets have the kick as a
separate component, and the kick can be installed separately before
the cabinet boxes are sat on top of them. Okay,
in situations where the kick is separate from the cabinet,
(23:54):
we always try to have the kicks installed ahead of time,
and then when with no cabinets in the room, just
the kicks in place to define where the flooring material
is going to go, we go ahead and get the
floor installed while there's easy access to everything and minimal
risk of flooring people you know, bumping into cabinet brand
(24:17):
new cabinets are scratching them or anything like that. Okay,
So when there is a separated kick from the cabinet box,
we tend to go ahead and I ask my cabinet people,
I said, can we get those kicks in and then
I want to get the floor installed and then you
come set the boxes on top of it. All that's
the way we do it. But most of the time
the kicks are integrated. They're all a part of one
(24:40):
piece of the cabinet box, in which case there's no
need to pay for flooring material that you are simply
going to cover over with your cabinets. So I like
to go ahead install the cabinets and then tell the
flooring people be careful, don't scratch my cabinets, and get
in there and get the rest installed. If you're installing
(25:01):
a luxury vinyl plank, that's a floating floor, and floating
floor means you need access to the edge of that
floor in order to hold it down or if you
ever have to replace anything or anything like that, and
you wouldn't want to run that underneath your cabinets because
then it's trapped under there for good and there's no
(25:21):
access to it should there be any problems with it
in the future. So typically speaking, hardwood floor, floating floor tile,
you know it's expensive per square foot, and you don't
need to run it where you don't want to run it.
Speaker 5 (25:34):
Now.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Of course you're setting up your kitchen cabinets. We definitely
want to run the floor underneath where the dishwasher goes,
because that's not a part of the actual cabinet feature.
That's an appliance that's installed later, and where the refrigerator
goes and all of that kind of stuff. But generally speaking,
it's going to be flooring after cabinets unless the kicks
are separated. That makes sense.
Speaker 5 (25:57):
And thank you so much for clarifying everything.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
That really all right, Anthony. Good luck on that kitchen buddy,
and congratulations for new kitchen cabinets as it goes. All right, y'all,
more of your calls when we return. You are listening
to Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper on KFI.
Speaker 6 (26:16):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty
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