October 18, 2025 • 28 mins
Dean's got a fever, and the only prescription is answering all your calls.
It's an ALL CALLS SATURDAY with Dean Sharp The House Whisperer!
It's an ALL CALLS SATURDAY with Dean Sharp The House Whisperer!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Good morning and welcome home. I am Dean Sharp, the
house Whisperer, custom home builder, custom home designer, and every
week your guide to better understanding that place where you live.
Today on the show, it's your call Saturday morning. If
you're listening to the podcast. Yeah, this is the initial
(00:29):
broadcast of this episode every Saturday morning from six to
eight Pacific time. That's why we're able to take live calls,
and we are live right now. The number to reach
me to talk about your home eight three three two
Ask Dean A three three. The numeral two ask Dean
A three three to ask Dean. It's just that simple.
(00:53):
We're gonna get back to the phones in just a sec.
But I want to announce our first set up winners
of our Haunted Ghost Tour, the House whisper Haunted Ghost Tour,
which I just announced last segment. Don't worry, by the way,
the rest of you we are going to do. I'm
going to be given two more tickets away before the
(01:14):
show is done today, and two tickets in every hour
of the show tomorrow as well. So there are going
to be many, many chances to win between now and
October Monday, October twenty seventh, which is the night of
the tour. But congratulations to Nancy and Lauren Enriquez and
(01:34):
you guys. I'm looking forward to seeing you both at
the Haunted House Whisper Ghost Tour of the historic Kellogg House.
So more on that when we get back to giving
away another couple of tickets. You hang tight, all and
by the way, yeah, the board's just exploded. So it's
nice to know that everybody. You've got a bunch of
(01:54):
adults out there who are looking for some interesting Halloween
adult fund. It's not spook well I'm not gonna say
it's not spooky, it's not scary. It's not a it's
not a haunted house like that you know, with people
jumping out at you. It's a it's an actual house
that's reportedly haunted and it's a custom home from eight
(02:17):
from the eighteen eighteen ninety eight, I believe, and more
on that actually next not tomorrow, but next Sunday. My
very own sister, who is a docent there, Darcy Anderson,
is going to be in studio with me. We're going
to be talking about the historicity of that house and
what life was like in Orange County and the eighteen
(02:37):
hundreds and so on. It's going to be great. We're
just we're just having some fun. That's all. There's no
other point to this other than we're having some fun
and we want you to be a part of it.
All right, it's time to go back to the phones.
I want to talk to Nicole. Hey, Nicole, welcome.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Home, Thank you, Dean. I have a home that was
built in the fifties, so made with plaster on the
ceilings and walls and so forth. We removed the popcorn
ceiling many years ago, and so now we have a
very large crack going through the middle of the ceiling.
(03:15):
We've had multiple people attempt to fix it, but it
has not worked thus far. So any ideas on your part?
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Okay, Well, let me ask you some info about this
large crack. So is it out in the middle of
the room. Yes, okay, is it and when we say large,
we mean long or is it like separating And there's
like no stuff from the attic falling through, no long, long, long,
(03:47):
nice long crack. And what has tell me what has
been attempted to fix it thus far?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
All right, so we've had a multiple I guess you
would call them handyman or part time contractor so to speak,
kind of work as far as getting it out by
making it a little bit bigger, putting in a fixative,
you know, like an expanding putting I guess, tape over it,
(04:25):
and then painting across it. But it still just keeps breaking.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Open, still keeps breaking open. How big is the room
that this crack is in.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
It's a smaller house, so I don't know, maybe fourteen
by fourteen, I'm guessing.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Okay, So here is here's what's typical Nicole, and I'm
not going I'm assuming this crack is probably pretty near
the center of the room, running the length of the
the correct Okay, So what this is, it's what we
call a deflection crack. Okay. In other words, the the
(05:12):
the ceiling joists are spanning the width of the room,
and they have, you know, started to sag a little bit.
Not in any any way that's a danger in any way,
shape or form to the structure of the house. It's
just you know, nineteen fifties, you know, they're they've the
bones are getting a little tired, and they're slumping a
(05:35):
little bit. So they're they're sagging, they're deflecting, and they're
deflecting downwards, and there is movement up in the attic.
Whether this deflection is just what we call flee free deflection,
meaning it's just their own weight that this is happening,
or whether you know, part of the roof is braced
(05:56):
down or lying on top of these joys are somehow
connected to it. Anyway, they are continuing to move a
little bit. Okay, there's a tiny bit of movement imperceivable
to us, except perceivable to the crack. Because you fill
the crack and then the crack shows back up again.
That means that there's still deflection happening, active deflection happening
(06:18):
in the ceiling. So my suggestion is that we move
past the handy people in this situation and that we
actually address it in terms of, you know, bringing in
a dry wall and plaster company to take a more
serious look at it from the esthetic side. That's what
(06:40):
I would have done up front, just because a plaster
home it's very very strong. The walls are super strong,
the ceiling is super strong. I mean, plaster is such
a you know, it's basically a form of concrete on
the wall, unlike dry wall, which is a very very
soft material. However, like concrete, plaster is brittle, so it's
(07:02):
strong compressively, but it's easy to crack, and it's easy
to break if you start to put a little deflection
in it and bend in it. That's why the crack
keeps showing up. So I would strongly recommend that you
have a plaster company come out, drywall company that also
you know, has experience with older plaster walls, come out
(07:22):
and address the crack. But while that's happening, somebody also
needs to take a look up in the attic and
see if there's a way that we can stiffen the
mid span of these ceiling joists across this room so
that we minimize the amount of movement that it's taking.
And that's actually that can sound like a weird like
is that a massive structural It's not. It's not. It's
(07:45):
not a complex structural thing. It could just be a
few two by fours or a few boards up there
in the right place, or moving a brace, that kind
of thing. But somebody who has an understanding of that,
So a contractor with an under standing or framing contractor
carpenter framing carpenter to take a look at what's going
(08:06):
on up in the attic in a plaster company to
address the actual crack because they have ways they can
use embedded mesh to bridge the crack and and so on.
But the key is once it's been fixed properly, which
will resist a lot of recracking. But you know, on
top of that, we actually want to see if we
(08:26):
can stop or minimize the deflection itself, because that is
that's that's what's getting us into trouble.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
In the first you're listening to Home with Dean Sharp
on demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Dang, I don't reckon, I recognize this. I can't put
my finger on it. What's happening?
Speaker 1 (08:48):
What's happening?
Speaker 2 (08:48):
What's happening? What is happening? Oh my gosh, yeah, all right,
all right, you know what that's I'm embarrassed because I
was literally talking about one of the last night. We
were watching a guy dance last night on video and
I'm like, you know what, that reminds me of what's happening,
and now here I totally forgot the remember they used
to do those dance routines. Oh yeah, Rerun was one
(09:10):
of the dancers on Soul Train back in the day. Exactly.
I wonder where those guys are now. All right, Dean Sharp,
the house Whisper here to help you take your home
to the next level. Hey, by the way, if you
have a thought to yourself, you know what, I wish
our house could get some you know, more personal house
(09:31):
whisper attention. I just need Dean and Tina, you know,
standing in our yard staring at the problem. Oh, that
can happen. You just need to go to house whisperer
dot Design to get more info. House Whisper dot Design.
All right, gonna be giving away some more Haunted Ghost
Tour tickets in just a bit. But right now it's
(09:52):
time to go back to the phones. I want to
talk to Viv. Hey, Viv, welcome home.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Hi.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
Thanks. So I had some eight x seven I'm gonna
call them concrete slabs, but they're designed like steps coming
towards my home and they were laid about a month ago.
They're mixed with a dark charcoal color. Well, because of
the recent rains that we just had here in southern California,
(10:20):
I'm starting to see some like maybe salt wines because
it hasn't been sealed. So I've been looking into a
good feller. But I realized in my research that the
state of California has a lot of VOC limits. So
I was wondering, what would you suggest to enhance the
(10:41):
color but not make it super glossy or slippery, that
is in compliance with those you know, VOC of one
hundred or less limitations that it has.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Yeah, okay, So the easy thing, the easy way to
get around that, I don't get around it, but to
not have to juggle with the big questions there is
simply to end up at a builder supply like a
you know, a place where concrete blocks and those kinds
of things are sold, or your local big box store
(11:16):
home depot lows they've got this kind of stuff too.
Whatever they've got on the shelf there has already passed
that compliance is and is good to go. I you know,
I'll throw your brand out there. It's not the only one.
There are a lot of good sealers out there, also
a lot of ones that are like h but I
am personally, We've never had any problem. I've been very
happy with Miracle Miracle seilants. That's just the brand name,
(11:41):
and there are a lot of specific sealers under that
brand name, but they you know, it's not miraculous, but
they are a really good brand and they hold up well.
Viv you mentioned something that I just want to illustrate
in kind of underscore for you and for everybody. Okay, yeah,
the salt lines. That's efflorescence. It's what that is is,
(12:02):
you know, the concrete from the bottom side soaking up
water from the yard, from the rains, whatever the case
may be. That water passing through the cement and it's
evaporating out of the top of the cement and it's
leaving mineral deposits behind. The minerals don't fly up into
the air, just the water, and that's what we get
(12:23):
that kind of salty white streaks. So when you get
around to actually sealing this stuff, you want to make
sure that you hose all that down, brush it down.
You could take a pressure washer and just make sure
those things are brushed off, because you definitely don't want
to accidentally seal that stuff into the surface of the cement.
And then after you have cleaned it. Let me just
(12:46):
just double triple emphasize, I want you to let them
dry out, I mean dry out like completely, because the
effectiveness of a penetrating seiler has everything to do with
if you think of the if you think of the
concrete like a sponge, which it really is kind of
a stone sponge. You know, you can't you can't add
water to a wet sponge, right, So we want that
(13:09):
sponge bone dry when you put the sealer on, so
it really goes in there, goes deep and does its
job of ceiling that all off, All right. Last thing
is this, These terms can get confusing, but you talked
about a color enhancing sealer. That is the key of
what you're looking for. Color enhancing. Okay. There are seilers
(13:32):
out there, same companies selling them called wet look okay.
And even though when we talk about color enhancing sealers,
we're really talking about permanently locking the concrete or the
stone in its you know, at that rich color that
we get when it's wet, wet look quote unquote in
(13:52):
sealer terminology is the thing that you don't want, which
is that literally like slick and shiny on the surface.
I don't advise anybody ever using one of those glossy
surface ceilers because water is going to keep coming up
through the concrete and it will end up pushing those off.
They they yellow, they crack, they flake eventually, and now
(14:16):
it's really problematic. But a color enhancing sealer, it will penetrate,
it will not leave any slickness on the surface, and
it will lock in the color of the of the
concrete when it's wet without having that slick surface. So
you can get exactly what you're looking for. Just look
(14:36):
for color enhancing. Don't go for the wet look sealer
because that means shiny on the surface. Does that make sense, yes,
thank you.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
So the Miracle filment should have the color enhancing chiller
and not the way.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Yeah, they have the wet look and the color enhancing
and a bunch of others, so that you know, most
sealer companies have all of these versions. But I know
the one that you're looking for. It's color enhancing. Whichever product,
whichever brand you buy, it's color enhancing. If you see
the word wet look, you know, don't don't do that one.
Do the color enhancing, because that's what you're looking for. Viv,
(15:12):
thanks for the call, my friend. Good luck with that
properly identified the situation. I know you're on the case.
You can get it, get it resolved. You just need
to get it cleaned up and then seal it off.
All right, more of your calls when we return your
Home with Dean Sharp the House Whisper.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI Am six forty.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Dean Sharp the House Whisper here to help you transform
your ordinary house into an extraordinary home. All right? You
got me on that one? Is that was that Barney Miller? Nope,
that was Night Court, Night Court courts Man. It's been
a while. Some of these rates. That was a great show.
(16:01):
Some of these files are they're a little they're a
little rusty back there. It's been a while, been a while.
I think there's a new night Court thing out too,
isn't there. I think so, yeah, they had a one
at least within the last ten years. I think yeah.
All right, all right, Well, Sam's playing classic TV show
theme songs as bumper music today and I'm doing okay,
(16:23):
I'm doing okay. I think I'm at a b I've
got it. It's not straight out, but I'm doing decent.
All right. It is an all call Saturday morning, So
glad that you were here with me. I want to
get back to the phones in just a bit, but
I'm going to give away a couple more tickets here.
So here's the thing. If you're looking for some grown
(16:43):
up Halloween fun. Monday night, October twenty seventh, that's the
Monday before Halloween, join me and Tina for a private
VIP house Whisper ghost tour of the historic Kellogg House,
a one and twenty seven year old custom built Victoria
mansion on the beautiful grounds of the Heritage Museum of
(17:04):
Orange County. Now, space is limited because there only take
so many people through on a tour, but for about
twenty lucky listeners eighteen now, because we've already given away
two tickets, your evening is going to start with an
hour long meet and greet with just me and Tina,
You and you all just sitting on the steps of
the mansion talking about whatever we want to talk about.
(17:25):
And then we're going to enter the Kellogg House for
a ninety minute tour to explore its architecture, in its history,
and its hauntings. And yeah, that's the thing. Are we
going to come back out alive? Yes we will, And
It's all going to be super fun. The Kellogg House
Whisper Ghost Tour is brought to us courtesy of Haunted
Orange County, Southern California's original and largest ghost tour company.
(17:49):
You can go to HAUNTEDOC dot com for more info
and brought to you by our very own Brand Guard Vents,
protecting homes with the finest ember proof vents made in
go more. Get more info at brand guard Vents dot com.
All right, right now, call Screen or Nikki is ready
and uh, the very first Haunted Whisper House Whisper, I
(18:12):
don't know what they call it, House Whisper Ghosts Tour.
Call that she picks up, will win two tickets to
that tour. So ready go okay, all right, meanwhile, let's
go back to the phones, and uh, I want to
talk to Lloyd. Hey, Lloyd, welcome home, Lloyd. Are you
(18:33):
with me?
Speaker 4 (18:35):
What are you there?
Speaker 2 (18:36):
I am here? I am here? Are you there?
Speaker 4 (18:40):
Yeah? I'm having trouble with my connection here. Yeah, I
mean that's kind of problem here. I've got a couple
of redwood dicks and uh, I'm not talking to putting
a coding on him that looks great until springs shipping
off and now it's uh streaking with coding here and
(19:02):
there on there, and I'm wondering what would be a
good lesson to that off or whatever I can do?
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Okay, Uh what kind of coding was on it? Was
there a brand name behind this coding or a company
that did it?
Speaker 4 (19:17):
Uh? Deck coat was the one I got from H
I think Home Depot.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Okay, all right, Uh Lloyd, I'm up against a break.
You hang tight, We're gonna handle this right on the
other side. Uh, Lloyd had a deck coding put on
his stuff and now there you go. Uh, all right,
take a quick break and then we're back. You're listening
to Home with Dean Sharp the House Whisper. All right,
this one's a giveaway, so not even gonna worry about that.
(19:45):
Dean Sharp the House Whisper here to remind you that
every home deserves great design. Thank you Sam for doing
lead ends with the TV show songs. That was great.
Uh you know what, By the way, the Gilligans Island
song theme song, now this was before my time. It
was it was before my time, but I used to
(20:07):
watch the reruns all the time. The uh they you know,
the original song used to say, you know, go through
the list, right, Gilligan the skipper, to the millionaire and
his wife, the movie star, and the rest. That's how
it was originally written. And there's only two more. It's
(20:29):
not like there was a whole list of castaways there.
They literally mentioned five of them and the rest. And
so when the show got started to air in color,
they changed that to you know, the professor and Marianne. Poor,
professor and Marianne, right, I mean, of the two people.
(20:49):
I'm just saying that was pretty funny. Okay, all right,
congratulations too. Wait a second, I got to here somewhere. Uh,
Debbie Broco and Peggy Dixon, who are going to join
us on the House Whisper Ghost Tour on Monday night,
October twenty seventh. Congratulations, looking forward to seeing you ladies there.
(21:11):
And don't worry, We're going to be given away more
tomorrow during the big show every hour and next weekend
as well, so you still have chances to win. By
the way, tomorrow's show, it's going to be a different
kind of a show. I think you're going to enjoy it.
Every year we get a lot of very very personal
questions that listeners ask and send in and I know
(21:35):
actould very very personal, but we get tons of hey
can you help me with my home questions? And then
we also just get questions about house whispering and design
and where Tina and I have come from. And so
we've decided once a year that we lump all those
questions together and basically let the listeners interview me via
(21:58):
Tina who's going to be asking the quest question. So
tomorrow is going to be a very kind of personal
house whisper show. I think you will enjoy it. It's
going to be a lot of fun for me, I hope,
unless she asked me some grilling questions that, you know,
rip my guts out, but I don't think that will
probably happen. So anyway, Tomorrow's show, great show. Plus we'll
be given away more more ghost tour questions. All right,
(22:21):
I left Lloyd hanging on the line. Lloyd, you're still
with me, Bud?
Speaker 4 (22:25):
I am all right.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
So Lloyd has a redwood deck, couple of redwood decks
around the house and he put a coating on them,
and then spring came around and Lloyd and I think
he used was it deck coat from Rustoliam? Was that
the product?
Speaker 4 (22:43):
I think it was.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Okay, So I don't want to pigeonhole any particular brand
for something they're not responsible for. But tell me what
started it looked great? Did you change the color of
the deck? Was it just to seal it or to
refresh it or what was the point?
Speaker 4 (23:00):
It did change the color? And I just wanted to
preserve the wood there. Okay, But like I say, over
the winter and then comes spring, it starts stripping off.
So about half of what's gone I suppose not. I've
got streaks and spots left. I'm wondering high I can
get that off and kind of restore the redwood like
(23:25):
appearance of it.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Okay, I got you, all right. So here's the thing.
And our connection is a little spotty, Lloyd, so I'm
just going to pop you back on hold so that
the noise of the connection doesn't come over the line,
but you can hear me. Here's the thing. It's very
similar to our earlier question on concrete ceiling, and I
just wanted to advise everybody on this that when it
(23:49):
comes to ceiling wood, exterior wood, it's different than furniture
ceilings inside the house, and inside the house we can
afford to and it's very nice to put like polyurethane
cealant surface seilers on because we don't want, you know,
a spill to stain the wood or something like that,
and we just want to keep it fresh and clean.
(24:10):
The problem with doing that outside is that there's never
going to be a ceilant that seals everything perfectly, and
moisture is always going to find its way into a wood,
especially a large piece of wood like decking boards. Okay,
So again, like the concrete ceiler that I talked about before,
I don't go for I strongly advise against going for
(24:31):
any kind of a quote unquote sealer that leaves a
thick top coat on top of the surface, whether it's
a shiny coat on top of concrete walkways or stone outside,
or whether it is some kind of a finished top
coat on wood decking, because it is inevitable. It is
(24:52):
an inevitability that moisture from inside the wood is going
to start pushing that top coat off. Okay, from underneath
that is simply an inevitability. It is an impossible process
to stop. You cannot stop water wanting to go where
it wants to go. Water always wins. It's what we
(25:14):
call hydrostatic pressure and it will always win. So if
you find yourself in a position and I'm thinking, maybe
it isn't deck coat that particular brand, because as far
as I know, the rustolium deck code is a penetrating stain.
That's the kind of stuff I actually recommend. But if
you find yourself in a position where you've a coating
has been put on a deck wood like Lloyd's, the
(25:37):
best you can do Lloyd at this point is maybe
get a pressure washer and get the rest of it off,
because we got to get back to Unfortunately, we got
to get back to square one again. Whether that involves sanding,
I hope not, okay, but for the rest of it
that's on there, we got to get the rest of
it off. And it sounds like it won't be too
tough to get the rest of it off, but it
(25:58):
may need a little assistance, so pressure washing it and
don't worry about penetrating the wood with extra moisture from
the pressure washer. It's just a one time thing, one
and done. But we've got to strip it all down again,
make it uniform if necessary, maybe hit the whole deck,
both of them with a large format sand er. It
doesn't have to be a lot of sanding, just enough
(26:18):
to kind of refresh and reunify the look of the deck.
And then what I want you to use is a
penetrating seiler. And that penetrating sealer can be clear or
it can have a stain body attached to it. In
other words, you can radically change the color of the deck.
But the key is that it soaks in. It's a stain.
(26:39):
You know the difference between a paint and a stain.
A paint lies on the surface and a stain penetrates
into the grains of the wood ceiling a deck, protecting it,
preserving it, extending its life and beauty outside. It's all
about penetration. It's not about what you're putting a protective
surface on because they just don't hold up. So a
(27:01):
really good quality penetrating seiler, and of course it can
have a stain along with it if you want to
alter the color of the wood. But that stuff is
going to soak in. There is literally nothing that can
peel off when it comes to a penetrating stain because
it has soaked into the grains of the wood. There's
no surface to get behind there. That's what I recommend
(27:23):
and then a really good one. You know you upkeep it,
maybe every couple of three years with you know, with
an upkeep cope and a new coat, and there you go. Lloyd,
thank you for your question. Thank everybody this morning for
their calls and their questions. If we didn't get you
on the phone lines, call back tomorrow, let our screener
know and we'll give you fast pass priority to the
(27:44):
front of the line. Plus we will be giving away
more Haunted Ghost Tour tickets tomorrow and tomorrow's big show,
very kind of personal House Whisperer show, Tina on behalf
of all of our beautiful listeners are going to be
interviewing me on any and or everything personal that you've
(28:05):
asked you know, over the last year or so. Don't
miss it nine to noon Pacific time tomorrow. Until then,
get out in this what looks to be a beautiful
day here in southern California and get busy building yourself
a beautiful life, and we'll see you tomorrow. This has
(28:26):
been Home with Dean Sharp, 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 (00:08):
Good morning and welcome home. I am Dean Sharp, the
house Whisperer, custom home builder, custom home designer, and every
week your guide to better understanding that place where you live.
Today on the show, it's your call Saturday morning. If
you're listening to the podcast. Yeah, this is the initial
(00:29):
broadcast of this episode every Saturday morning from six to
eight Pacific time. That's why we're able to take live calls,
and we are live right now. The number to reach
me to talk about your home eight three three two
Ask Dean A three three. The numeral two ask Dean
A three three to ask Dean. It's just that simple.
(00:53):
We're gonna get back to the phones in just a sec.
But I want to announce our first set up winners
of our Haunted Ghost Tour, the House whisper Haunted Ghost Tour,
which I just announced last segment. Don't worry, by the way,
the rest of you we are going to do. I'm
going to be given two more tickets away before the
(01:14):
show is done today, and two tickets in every hour
of the show tomorrow as well. So there are going
to be many, many chances to win between now and
October Monday, October twenty seventh, which is the night of
the tour. But congratulations to Nancy and Lauren Enriquez and
(01:34):
you guys. I'm looking forward to seeing you both at
the Haunted House Whisper Ghost Tour of the historic Kellogg House.
So more on that when we get back to giving
away another couple of tickets. You hang tight, all and
by the way, yeah, the board's just exploded. So it's
nice to know that everybody. You've got a bunch of
(01:54):
adults out there who are looking for some interesting Halloween
adult fund. It's not spook well I'm not gonna say
it's not spooky, it's not scary. It's not a it's
not a haunted house like that you know, with people
jumping out at you. It's a it's an actual house
that's reportedly haunted and it's a custom home from eight
(02:17):
from the eighteen eighteen ninety eight, I believe, and more
on that actually next not tomorrow, but next Sunday. My
very own sister, who is a docent there, Darcy Anderson,
is going to be in studio with me. We're going
to be talking about the historicity of that house and
what life was like in Orange County and the eighteen
(02:37):
hundreds and so on. It's going to be great. We're
just we're just having some fun. That's all. There's no
other point to this other than we're having some fun
and we want you to be a part of it.
All right, it's time to go back to the phones.
I want to talk to Nicole. Hey, Nicole, welcome.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Home, Thank you, Dean. I have a home that was
built in the fifties, so made with plaster on the
ceilings and walls and so forth. We removed the popcorn
ceiling many years ago, and so now we have a
very large crack going through the middle of the ceiling.
(03:15):
We've had multiple people attempt to fix it, but it
has not worked thus far. So any ideas on your part?
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Okay, Well, let me ask you some info about this
large crack. So is it out in the middle of
the room. Yes, okay, is it and when we say large,
we mean long or is it like separating And there's
like no stuff from the attic falling through, no long, long, long,
(03:47):
nice long crack. And what has tell me what has
been attempted to fix it thus far?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
All right, so we've had a multiple I guess you
would call them handyman or part time contractor so to speak,
kind of work as far as getting it out by
making it a little bit bigger, putting in a fixative,
you know, like an expanding putting I guess, tape over it,
(04:25):
and then painting across it. But it still just keeps breaking.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Open, still keeps breaking open. How big is the room
that this crack is in.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
It's a smaller house, so I don't know, maybe fourteen
by fourteen, I'm guessing.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Okay, So here is here's what's typical Nicole, and I'm
not going I'm assuming this crack is probably pretty near
the center of the room, running the length of the
the correct Okay, So what this is, it's what we
call a deflection crack. Okay. In other words, the the
(05:12):
the ceiling joists are spanning the width of the room,
and they have, you know, started to sag a little bit.
Not in any any way that's a danger in any way,
shape or form to the structure of the house. It's
just you know, nineteen fifties, you know, they're they've the
bones are getting a little tired, and they're slumping a
(05:35):
little bit. So they're they're sagging, they're deflecting, and they're
deflecting downwards, and there is movement up in the attic.
Whether this deflection is just what we call flee free deflection,
meaning it's just their own weight that this is happening,
or whether you know, part of the roof is braced
(05:56):
down or lying on top of these joys are somehow
connected to it. Anyway, they are continuing to move a
little bit. Okay, there's a tiny bit of movement imperceivable
to us, except perceivable to the crack. Because you fill
the crack and then the crack shows back up again.
That means that there's still deflection happening, active deflection happening
(06:18):
in the ceiling. So my suggestion is that we move
past the handy people in this situation and that we
actually address it in terms of, you know, bringing in
a dry wall and plaster company to take a more
serious look at it from the esthetic side. That's what
(06:40):
I would have done up front, just because a plaster
home it's very very strong. The walls are super strong,
the ceiling is super strong. I mean, plaster is such
a you know, it's basically a form of concrete on
the wall, unlike dry wall, which is a very very
soft material. However, like concrete, plaster is brittle, so it's
(07:02):
strong compressively, but it's easy to crack, and it's easy
to break if you start to put a little deflection
in it and bend in it. That's why the crack
keeps showing up. So I would strongly recommend that you
have a plaster company come out, drywall company that also
you know, has experience with older plaster walls, come out
(07:22):
and address the crack. But while that's happening, somebody also
needs to take a look up in the attic and
see if there's a way that we can stiffen the
mid span of these ceiling joists across this room so
that we minimize the amount of movement that it's taking.
And that's actually that can sound like a weird like
is that a massive structural It's not. It's not. It's
(07:45):
not a complex structural thing. It could just be a
few two by fours or a few boards up there
in the right place, or moving a brace, that kind
of thing. But somebody who has an understanding of that,
So a contractor with an under standing or framing contractor
carpenter framing carpenter to take a look at what's going
(08:06):
on up in the attic in a plaster company to
address the actual crack because they have ways they can
use embedded mesh to bridge the crack and and so on.
But the key is once it's been fixed properly, which
will resist a lot of recracking. But you know, on
top of that, we actually want to see if we
(08:26):
can stop or minimize the deflection itself, because that is
that's that's what's getting us into trouble.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
In the first you're listening to Home with Dean Sharp
on demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Dang, I don't reckon, I recognize this. I can't put
my finger on it. What's happening?
Speaker 1 (08:48):
What's happening?
Speaker 2 (08:48):
What's happening? What is happening? Oh my gosh, yeah, all right,
all right, you know what that's I'm embarrassed because I
was literally talking about one of the last night. We
were watching a guy dance last night on video and
I'm like, you know what, that reminds me of what's happening,
and now here I totally forgot the remember they used
to do those dance routines. Oh yeah, Rerun was one
(09:10):
of the dancers on Soul Train back in the day. Exactly.
I wonder where those guys are now. All right, Dean Sharp,
the house Whisper here to help you take your home
to the next level. Hey, by the way, if you
have a thought to yourself, you know what, I wish
our house could get some you know, more personal house
(09:31):
whisper attention. I just need Dean and Tina, you know,
standing in our yard staring at the problem. Oh, that
can happen. You just need to go to house whisperer
dot Design to get more info. House Whisper dot Design.
All right, gonna be giving away some more Haunted Ghost
Tour tickets in just a bit. But right now it's
(09:52):
time to go back to the phones. I want to
talk to Viv. Hey, Viv, welcome home.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Hi.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
Thanks. So I had some eight x seven I'm gonna
call them concrete slabs, but they're designed like steps coming
towards my home and they were laid about a month ago.
They're mixed with a dark charcoal color. Well, because of
the recent rains that we just had here in southern California,
(10:20):
I'm starting to see some like maybe salt wines because
it hasn't been sealed. So I've been looking into a
good feller. But I realized in my research that the
state of California has a lot of VOC limits. So
I was wondering, what would you suggest to enhance the
(10:41):
color but not make it super glossy or slippery, that
is in compliance with those you know, VOC of one
hundred or less limitations that it has.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Yeah, okay, So the easy thing, the easy way to
get around that, I don't get around it, but to
not have to juggle with the big questions there is
simply to end up at a builder supply like a
you know, a place where concrete blocks and those kinds
of things are sold, or your local big box store
(11:16):
home depot lows they've got this kind of stuff too.
Whatever they've got on the shelf there has already passed
that compliance is and is good to go. I you know,
I'll throw your brand out there. It's not the only one.
There are a lot of good sealers out there, also
a lot of ones that are like h but I
am personally, We've never had any problem. I've been very
happy with Miracle Miracle seilants. That's just the brand name,
(11:41):
and there are a lot of specific sealers under that
brand name, but they you know, it's not miraculous, but
they are a really good brand and they hold up well.
Viv you mentioned something that I just want to illustrate
in kind of underscore for you and for everybody. Okay, yeah,
the salt lines. That's efflorescence. It's what that is is,
(12:02):
you know, the concrete from the bottom side soaking up
water from the yard, from the rains, whatever the case
may be. That water passing through the cement and it's
evaporating out of the top of the cement and it's
leaving mineral deposits behind. The minerals don't fly up into
the air, just the water, and that's what we get
(12:23):
that kind of salty white streaks. So when you get
around to actually sealing this stuff, you want to make
sure that you hose all that down, brush it down.
You could take a pressure washer and just make sure
those things are brushed off, because you definitely don't want
to accidentally seal that stuff into the surface of the cement.
And then after you have cleaned it. Let me just
(12:46):
just double triple emphasize, I want you to let them
dry out, I mean dry out like completely, because the
effectiveness of a penetrating seiler has everything to do with
if you think of the if you think of the
concrete like a sponge, which it really is kind of
a stone sponge. You know, you can't you can't add
water to a wet sponge, right, So we want that
(13:09):
sponge bone dry when you put the sealer on, so
it really goes in there, goes deep and does its
job of ceiling that all off, All right. Last thing
is this, These terms can get confusing, but you talked
about a color enhancing sealer. That is the key of
what you're looking for. Color enhancing. Okay. There are seilers
(13:32):
out there, same companies selling them called wet look okay.
And even though when we talk about color enhancing sealers,
we're really talking about permanently locking the concrete or the
stone in its you know, at that rich color that
we get when it's wet, wet look quote unquote in
(13:52):
sealer terminology is the thing that you don't want, which
is that literally like slick and shiny on the surface.
I don't advise anybody ever using one of those glossy
surface ceilers because water is going to keep coming up
through the concrete and it will end up pushing those off.
They they yellow, they crack, they flake eventually, and now
(14:16):
it's really problematic. But a color enhancing sealer, it will penetrate,
it will not leave any slickness on the surface, and
it will lock in the color of the of the
concrete when it's wet without having that slick surface. So
you can get exactly what you're looking for. Just look
(14:36):
for color enhancing. Don't go for the wet look sealer
because that means shiny on the surface. Does that make sense, yes,
thank you.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
So the Miracle filment should have the color enhancing chiller
and not the way.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Yeah, they have the wet look and the color enhancing
and a bunch of others, so that you know, most
sealer companies have all of these versions. But I know
the one that you're looking for. It's color enhancing. Whichever product,
whichever brand you buy, it's color enhancing. If you see
the word wet look, you know, don't don't do that one.
Do the color enhancing, because that's what you're looking for. Viv,
(15:12):
thanks for the call, my friend. Good luck with that
properly identified the situation. I know you're on the case.
You can get it, get it resolved. You just need
to get it cleaned up and then seal it off.
All right, more of your calls when we return your
Home with Dean Sharp the House Whisper.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI Am six forty.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Dean Sharp the House Whisper here to help you transform
your ordinary house into an extraordinary home. All right? You
got me on that one? Is that was that Barney Miller? Nope,
that was Night Court, Night Court courts Man. It's been
a while. Some of these rates. That was a great show.
(16:01):
Some of these files are they're a little they're a
little rusty back there. It's been a while, been a while.
I think there's a new night Court thing out too,
isn't there. I think so, yeah, they had a one
at least within the last ten years. I think yeah.
All right, all right, Well, Sam's playing classic TV show
theme songs as bumper music today and I'm doing okay,
(16:23):
I'm doing okay. I think I'm at a b I've
got it. It's not straight out, but I'm doing decent.
All right. It is an all call Saturday morning, So
glad that you were here with me. I want to
get back to the phones in just a bit, but
I'm going to give away a couple more tickets here.
So here's the thing. If you're looking for some grown
(16:43):
up Halloween fun. Monday night, October twenty seventh, that's the
Monday before Halloween, join me and Tina for a private
VIP house Whisper ghost tour of the historic Kellogg House,
a one and twenty seven year old custom built Victoria
mansion on the beautiful grounds of the Heritage Museum of
(17:04):
Orange County. Now, space is limited because there only take
so many people through on a tour, but for about
twenty lucky listeners eighteen now, because we've already given away
two tickets, your evening is going to start with an
hour long meet and greet with just me and Tina,
You and you all just sitting on the steps of
the mansion talking about whatever we want to talk about.
(17:25):
And then we're going to enter the Kellogg House for
a ninety minute tour to explore its architecture, in its history,
and its hauntings. And yeah, that's the thing. Are we
going to come back out alive? Yes we will, And
It's all going to be super fun. The Kellogg House
Whisper Ghost Tour is brought to us courtesy of Haunted
Orange County, Southern California's original and largest ghost tour company.
(17:49):
You can go to HAUNTEDOC dot com for more info
and brought to you by our very own Brand Guard Vents,
protecting homes with the finest ember proof vents made in
go more. Get more info at brand guard Vents dot com.
All right, right now, call Screen or Nikki is ready
and uh, the very first Haunted Whisper House Whisper, I
(18:12):
don't know what they call it, House Whisper Ghosts Tour.
Call that she picks up, will win two tickets to
that tour. So ready go okay, all right, meanwhile, let's
go back to the phones, and uh, I want to
talk to Lloyd. Hey, Lloyd, welcome home, Lloyd. Are you
(18:33):
with me?
Speaker 4 (18:35):
What are you there?
Speaker 2 (18:36):
I am here? I am here? Are you there?
Speaker 4 (18:40):
Yeah? I'm having trouble with my connection here. Yeah, I
mean that's kind of problem here. I've got a couple
of redwood dicks and uh, I'm not talking to putting
a coding on him that looks great until springs shipping
off and now it's uh streaking with coding here and
(19:02):
there on there, and I'm wondering what would be a
good lesson to that off or whatever I can do?
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Okay, Uh what kind of coding was on it? Was
there a brand name behind this coding or a company
that did it?
Speaker 4 (19:17):
Uh? Deck coat was the one I got from H
I think Home Depot.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Okay, all right, Uh Lloyd, I'm up against a break.
You hang tight, We're gonna handle this right on the
other side. Uh, Lloyd had a deck coding put on
his stuff and now there you go. Uh, all right,
take a quick break and then we're back. You're listening
to Home with Dean Sharp the House Whisper. All right,
this one's a giveaway, so not even gonna worry about that.
(19:45):
Dean Sharp the House Whisper here to remind you that
every home deserves great design. Thank you Sam for doing
lead ends with the TV show songs. That was great.
Uh you know what, By the way, the Gilligans Island
song theme song, now this was before my time. It
was it was before my time, but I used to
(20:07):
watch the reruns all the time. The uh they you know,
the original song used to say, you know, go through
the list, right, Gilligan the skipper, to the millionaire and
his wife, the movie star, and the rest. That's how
it was originally written. And there's only two more. It's
(20:29):
not like there was a whole list of castaways there.
They literally mentioned five of them and the rest. And
so when the show got started to air in color,
they changed that to you know, the professor and Marianne. Poor,
professor and Marianne, right, I mean, of the two people.
(20:49):
I'm just saying that was pretty funny. Okay, all right,
congratulations too. Wait a second, I got to here somewhere. Uh,
Debbie Broco and Peggy Dixon, who are going to join
us on the House Whisper Ghost Tour on Monday night,
October twenty seventh. Congratulations, looking forward to seeing you ladies there.
(21:11):
And don't worry, We're going to be given away more
tomorrow during the big show every hour and next weekend
as well, so you still have chances to win. By
the way, tomorrow's show, it's going to be a different
kind of a show. I think you're going to enjoy it.
Every year we get a lot of very very personal
questions that listeners ask and send in and I know
(21:35):
actould very very personal, but we get tons of hey
can you help me with my home questions? And then
we also just get questions about house whispering and design
and where Tina and I have come from. And so
we've decided once a year that we lump all those
questions together and basically let the listeners interview me via
(21:58):
Tina who's going to be asking the quest question. So
tomorrow is going to be a very kind of personal
house whisper show. I think you will enjoy it. It's
going to be a lot of fun for me, I hope,
unless she asked me some grilling questions that, you know,
rip my guts out, but I don't think that will
probably happen. So anyway, Tomorrow's show, great show. Plus we'll
be given away more more ghost tour questions. All right,
(22:21):
I left Lloyd hanging on the line. Lloyd, you're still
with me, Bud?
Speaker 4 (22:25):
I am all right.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
So Lloyd has a redwood deck, couple of redwood decks
around the house and he put a coating on them,
and then spring came around and Lloyd and I think
he used was it deck coat from Rustoliam? Was that
the product?
Speaker 4 (22:43):
I think it was.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Okay, So I don't want to pigeonhole any particular brand
for something they're not responsible for. But tell me what
started it looked great? Did you change the color of
the deck? Was it just to seal it or to
refresh it or what was the point?
Speaker 4 (23:00):
It did change the color? And I just wanted to
preserve the wood there. Okay, But like I say, over
the winter and then comes spring, it starts stripping off.
So about half of what's gone I suppose not. I've
got streaks and spots left. I'm wondering high I can
get that off and kind of restore the redwood like
(23:25):
appearance of it.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Okay, I got you, all right. So here's the thing.
And our connection is a little spotty, Lloyd, so I'm
just going to pop you back on hold so that
the noise of the connection doesn't come over the line,
but you can hear me. Here's the thing. It's very
similar to our earlier question on concrete ceiling, and I
just wanted to advise everybody on this that when it
(23:49):
comes to ceiling wood, exterior wood, it's different than furniture
ceilings inside the house, and inside the house we can
afford to and it's very nice to put like polyurethane
cealant surface seilers on because we don't want, you know,
a spill to stain the wood or something like that,
and we just want to keep it fresh and clean.
(24:10):
The problem with doing that outside is that there's never
going to be a ceilant that seals everything perfectly, and
moisture is always going to find its way into a wood,
especially a large piece of wood like decking boards. Okay,
So again, like the concrete ceiler that I talked about before,
I don't go for I strongly advise against going for
(24:31):
any kind of a quote unquote sealer that leaves a
thick top coat on top of the surface, whether it's
a shiny coat on top of concrete walkways or stone outside,
or whether it is some kind of a finished top
coat on wood decking, because it is inevitable. It is
(24:52):
an inevitability that moisture from inside the wood is going
to start pushing that top coat off. Okay, from underneath
that is simply an inevitability. It is an impossible process
to stop. You cannot stop water wanting to go where
it wants to go. Water always wins. It's what we
(25:14):
call hydrostatic pressure and it will always win. So if
you find yourself in a position and I'm thinking, maybe
it isn't deck coat that particular brand, because as far
as I know, the rustolium deck code is a penetrating stain.
That's the kind of stuff I actually recommend. But if
you find yourself in a position where you've a coating
has been put on a deck wood like Lloyd's, the
(25:37):
best you can do Lloyd at this point is maybe
get a pressure washer and get the rest of it off,
because we got to get back to Unfortunately, we got
to get back to square one again. Whether that involves sanding,
I hope not, okay, but for the rest of it
that's on there, we got to get the rest of
it off. And it sounds like it won't be too
tough to get the rest of it off, but it
(25:58):
may need a little assistance, so pressure washing it and
don't worry about penetrating the wood with extra moisture from
the pressure washer. It's just a one time thing, one
and done. But we've got to strip it all down again,
make it uniform if necessary, maybe hit the whole deck,
both of them with a large format sand er. It
doesn't have to be a lot of sanding, just enough
(26:18):
to kind of refresh and reunify the look of the deck.
And then what I want you to use is a
penetrating seiler. And that penetrating sealer can be clear or
it can have a stain body attached to it. In
other words, you can radically change the color of the deck.
But the key is that it soaks in. It's a stain.
(26:39):
You know the difference between a paint and a stain.
A paint lies on the surface and a stain penetrates
into the grains of the wood ceiling a deck, protecting it,
preserving it, extending its life and beauty outside. It's all
about penetration. It's not about what you're putting a protective
surface on because they just don't hold up. So a
(27:01):
really good quality penetrating seiler, and of course it can
have a stain along with it if you want to
alter the color of the wood. But that stuff is
going to soak in. There is literally nothing that can
peel off when it comes to a penetrating stain because
it has soaked into the grains of the wood. There's
no surface to get behind there. That's what I recommend
(27:23):
and then a really good one. You know you upkeep it,
maybe every couple of three years with you know, with
an upkeep cope and a new coat, and there you go. Lloyd,
thank you for your question. Thank everybody this morning for
their calls and their questions. If we didn't get you
on the phone lines, call back tomorrow, let our screener
know and we'll give you fast pass priority to the
(27:44):
front of the line. Plus we will be giving away
more Haunted Ghost Tour tickets tomorrow and tomorrow's big show,
very kind of personal House Whisperer show, Tina on behalf
of all of our beautiful listeners are going to be
interviewing me on any and or everything personal that you've
(28:05):
asked you know, over the last year or so. Don't
miss it nine to noon Pacific time tomorrow. Until then,
get out in this what looks to be a beautiful
day here in southern California and get busy building yourself
a beautiful life, and we'll see you tomorrow. This has
(28:26):
been Home with Dean Sharp, 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.
Home with Dean Sharp News
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