February 1, 2025 • 31 mins
Dean chats with a caller who lives a few hundred yards from where the Wayfarer Chapel used to stand in the Palos Verdes neighborhood and discusses landslides and what the community are dealing with. Dean advices a caller dealing with her LED lights that are projecting light even when the switch is set to off. Lastly, Dean talks about in-home smoke detectors and how they are not connected to the water systems.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six fortyfi.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
AM Forting live streaming and may be everywhere on the
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It is truly a home improvement reference library that you
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(01:41):
house Whisperer dot Design and there you go. All right,
we're I'm just sharing some news with you on some
various topics this morning, anything that I can get to.
But also I promise to take calls if we've got
calls on the board. And look at that, we got
calls on the board. Hey, we've got a call from
Bill who said he actually lives near Wayfarer's chapel. I'm sorry,
(02:05):
just because I was talking about that, I got to
take Bill first. Bill, welcome home, Hidine. How are you sir,
I'm well, thank you, How are you good? Good? I
got a note here that you live just a few
hundred yards from the chapel and that you were happy
(02:25):
to talk about landslides in the area.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Yes, sir, yeah, In fact, we're about one hundred yards
from where Wayfarer's Chapel stood and our house was completely
was built in nineteen forty nine, originally designed by Frank
Lloyd Wright, and then the design that is there now
done by Lloyd Wright. And they wanted that site because
(02:52):
they wanted to be able to look at the Wayfarers Chapel,
another Lloyd Wright design. Once that is completed, got you?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Got you? And what has it been like to live
in a Lloyd Wright house?
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (03:07):
It's spectacular the way it's designed, the kind of the
great room. Uh, it makes it feel like it's just
kind of hanging in the air because you look out
towards Catalina Island. But the way he built it, it's
all glass with glass corners and everything, and it rises
(03:31):
above all the vegetation, so you just feel like you're
suspended out there looking out at all the nature. So
it's it's spectacular.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
And and uh just amazing. And what what what's your
current status with everything that with with your home now?
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Well, and that's the thing, you know, it really goes
on a home by home basis. Bat there we have
neighbors whose home have been completely destroyed torn in half
twenty five foot creass running through the middle of it.
Multiple people that have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars
trying to rectify problems and then have to walk away,
(04:12):
and right next to them will be somebody whose house
is basically untouched, you know. And it goes back to
what you were saying. You know, it's all about what
it's been built on. And in that area, you know,
there's uh, you know, depending upon where you build at
greater or lesser depth, there is uh, you know, basically
(04:35):
solid rock, and the ones that seem to be closer
to that solid rock have less movement than the ones
that were built in area that you know, maybe it
was fill or you know, it had a lot of
uh set you know, silt settlement, you know, in a
canyon or something like that. So ours, thankfully was overbuilt
(04:58):
for whatever reason. And our although we inch closer to
beachfront property every day, ours has not sustained a lot
of damage. But we've had our close neighbors have to
leave because their houses are total.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
So so you haven't actually lost gas or power, so
I mean, you're still in your place, even though so
you guys have experienced some shifting, some some movement, but
not enough.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Oh yeah, no, it's our property is kind of three tiered,
so and it graduates up the hill. Our house is
at the top of the property and was cut into
the hillside, so it's a cut lot. So there hasn't
been much movement there. But down on the bottom part
of our property it's moved feet towards uh, the ocean.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
So that makes sense. The house itself is cut into
the hillside into some solid area, so the house itself
hasn't move, but but you've lost portions of your lower property.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
That's exactly correct. And like the numbers that you were giving,
the seven inch a week and stuff like that, that's
an average number, you know. So there were areas that
were moving twelve inches a week, you know, and then
areas that were moving you know, almost nothing. So, you know,
great variants. But I truly think out of this is
(06:27):
going to come at least I hope engineering that will allow,
you know, structures to exist in places kind of like this,
kind of like a surfboard on a wave in a way,
because the you know, it's not the first time the
(06:48):
land has moved back there, and so there has been
some engineering done on some of the houses that is
completely avant garde and yet completely affect and allows them
to remain essentially untouched, you know, throughout all of this.
So I'm I think that that will be the case.
(07:10):
But no, we uh, we have lost gas, We've lost electricity.
We've lost our electricity second of September, so we're essentially
completely off the grid with solar and wow, you know,
propane and pellet stoves and wow.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Yeah, we're camping next to the next to the.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Water, wow, in a in an absolute amazing helm at
the same time. And you know, by the way, Billy,
I think you're right about that. I mean, there, I'm
not sure that there's engineering that that can resolve any
kind of crisis. But uh, you know, the the big thing,
as I was saying before about Portuguese Bend, is that
(07:57):
the condition was always there. It's just that nobody really
knew about it. And so it's one thing to build
in an area where you're fully conscious of all of
the you know, surrounding conditions. It's another area to build
a conventional house with a conventional foundation in an area
that has unconventional ground movement and you just didn't know
(08:20):
about it, and that's That's one of those significant problems, uh,
in that area, is that so many of those homes
were built just normal without really being conscious of what
was going on deep underneath.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Them, right, and and a lot of them people thought,
you know, they had reports and stuff saying, well, the
land movement has stopped, and you know that it turned
out to, you know, just be a fallacy. And you know,
so those people, you know, have have really suffered because
(08:54):
they moved into an area where they were hoping to
have their dream and through no fault of our own,
but I do believe through fault of maybe geologic reports,
city allowing building to exist where it shouldn't, you know,
they've they've you know, had that dream the least compromised,
(09:14):
if not you know, changed altogether. And it's really a shame.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
It is.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Indeed. Well, Bill, I am glad that you guys, at least,
despite the fact that you're completely off the grid in
the middle of southern California. I'm glad that currently your
place is is where it's at and not shifting, even
though you've lost your property. And thank you so much
(09:39):
for calling in and giving us an update on everything
that's happening. Bill lives just a few hundred yards from
Wayfarer's chapel site everything I was talking about this morning, Bill,
thanks so much, buddy. I really appreciate the call, and
thanks for listening.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Thank you. And if you and Tina ever want to
come out and see unmolested did Frank Wood write junior
house existing as it was built in nineteen forty nine?
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Come on, bye, hey, do me a favor. Honestly, I'm
going to take you up on that. Do me a
fake because we're down there all the time. Do me
a favor and go to house Whisper dot Design and
drop me a note and I'll reach out to you
and and we'll do it. I would love to just
do a report in general, love to see the house,
love to do a report on what's going on in
the area in general. So reach out and I'll reach
(10:28):
back and we'll make it happen.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Cool. Keep doing what you do. Love your show.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Thanks Bill, Thank you so much. Buddy. Well there you
go right there. It's tragic. It's tragic anyway, all right,
when we come back. More of your calls your home
with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper. Yay bye Dean sharp
the house whisper at your service. This is my beautiful house,
and that is my beautiful wife right there. So I
(10:55):
don't know what you're talking about, talking heads. That was stupid,
That really was. It's early. It's still early. It's the
first day of February. I'm allowed. I'm allowed. Actually every
week people count on it. Deane's going to say something
stupid today. Let's just wait and see what it is.
All right, h we're taking calls and I'm going to
(11:18):
get back to the phones. I want to talk to Sherry. Hey, Sherry,
welcome home.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Good morning.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
How are you good morning? I am well, how are
you doing?
Speaker 4 (11:30):
Great? Great? I'm having an issue with my bathroom LED
lights and all of a sudden they started. They were
on a gimmer switch. All of a sudden at nighttime,
I turn them off and I get up in the
middle of the night and there was a little light
coming from them, but all them electrician. They replaced dow
(11:54):
of the lights and guess what they started coming back.
They're doing the same orn thing. So then he said
it was a switch that I the himmer switch was
incompatible with the LEDs, so he just replaced the switch
to a normal just switch and guess what one of
(12:16):
the lights is doing it? Again, I have no clue.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Okay, so after replacing some of the lights, it still happened,
and then after replacing the dimmer, now one of them
is still doing it.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Hmm uh So what kind of well, I don't want
to ask you stuff that you don't have a clue about,
but okay, So what you're talking about is sometimes it's
called after glow. Sometimes it's called ghosting led ghosting, and
there are different there are a couple of different versions
(12:55):
of it, just so everybody knows. It is not uncommon,
especially for older LEDs or I should say older and
or these days cheaper LED lights. They have a luminescent
layer built into the bulb structure, and it's not uncommon
at all after you flicked off and the switch for
(13:15):
an LED to see it actually still glowing, but that
that lasts a minute or two and then it just
fades away. That's kind of like almost like a bioluminescent
battery that was still stored in the light lens itself,
and it has a little bit of glow, like a
glow in the dark kind of one of those things,
(13:38):
and it lasts for a little while and then it
goes off. But you're talking about a different kind of
ghosting or after glow, which is not something that fades away.
You turn the light off and then you get up
in the middle of the night and you can still
see it on there. That and that almost always all
I mean. There could be something wrong with the wire,
(14:00):
but I really doubt it. I really doubt it. It's
hardly ever a wiring issue. Ever. It is usually either
a fixture itself or b the switch, especially a dimmer
And so all I can tell you is that that
(14:20):
unit that's still glowing might need to be changed out
yet again. Or here you could try this instead of
using a dimmer switch. You can just put a standard
switch in there and see if after turning that off
whether you get any after glow whatsoever. Okay, because that
(14:43):
the thing is with this, people don't realize that a
dimmer switch has a lot of dimmer switches, depending on
how they are constructed. They have a low end and
a high end. That's what allows them to dim and
increase the light. And sometimes the low end literally LEDs
(15:05):
are so sensitive too, They're so sensitive to current that
the low end of a dimmer is just literally not
low enough. In other words, it has dropped it down.
But if there's still a trickle, just a tiny, tiny
trickle of energy running through the dimmer switch in any
(15:26):
way shape or form, an led may pick it up
and show a tiny bit of a glow, not perceivable
like during the daytime, but in the middle of the night,
in pitch darkness, you can see that there is still
this tiny little glow happening. It's nothing serious, by the way.
It's not a concern like, oh, something's wrong and my
house is going to burn down or anything like that.
(15:47):
But you know, so, So here's the thing I would
if you've already changed out the light fixtures once and
there's still one that's doing it, I wonder, I would
wonder actually if that one in the chain of lights
that you have up on your ceiling is I wonder
if it's the first one in line by way of wiring.
(16:11):
You wouldn't be able to tell just by looking up
on the ceiling because you don't know where the wire
goes to first. But I wonder if it isn't the
first one in line with the output from the switch,
because that would typically be the case and whatever tiny
little trickle of energy is still there, then it's picking
it up and the others aren't getting it. So I
(16:34):
would say, attempt to replace the dimmer yet again, go
with a different brand. Definitely had an LED compatible, but
if the lustron switch, go with a different brand of switch.
If it's not a loutron, then try a loutron. Try
a new dimmer switch in there and see if you
can't get it to shut down completely in for a test.
(16:57):
You could pop in just temporarily in a standard on
off switch, no dimmer, okay, because an on off switch
is a total power cut total, So you click it
off and it's off. And if you find that you
that you put an on off switch in just for
one night, go back into the bathroom at night, look
up and if there are if there's still a glowing light,
(17:21):
then there's power trickling in there from somewhere else, and
it is a wiring issue. But I would my guess
is ninety nine percent sure if you put a standard
switch in there, then all the powers been cut off
and there will be nothing. You'll see darkness on your ceiling,
just like you would expect. And what that tells you
is to is that, for whatever reason, the dimmers that
(17:43):
you've been using aren't dropping the voltage for those LEDs
all the way to zero, and there's been a trickle
of charge passing through, So try another dimmer because the
right dimmer will shut it down.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
Well that's interesting because because the gimmer switch was replaced
with a regular on off switch and that fixed one
of the other problems. You know, one of the lights
which was staying on. But now I think it's the
first light that the guy replaced that's coming on. I
mean it's staying on. It's not as bright as the
(18:21):
other one with it says it could be.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
So so you so it was replaced with an on
off and there's still a glow. Yes, yes, okay, So
then then you've got to talk to your electrician about
the fact that there is some phantom current getting into
that system somehow, somehow that's not coming just from the switch.
(18:47):
So it is something wiring that needs to be looked at,
a wiring issue, because there is some because an on
off switch cuts the power, and if that is detecting
any kind of residual glow, then there is power into
that circuit apart from the switch access and so have
electrician look at it. Whether you're electrician or whether you
(19:09):
want to talk to somebody else, I'm not sure, but
have them take a serious look at where else power
could be getting into that line, because it's on or
it's off, the power is there or it's not. And
if it's if there's still residual power. LEDs are super
sensitive they might pick it up. And so there you go.
That's the best I can tell you, Sherry, thank you
(19:31):
so much for calling. I think you're on the right
path there for the hunt though. All right, when we
come back, more of your calls. Your Home with Dean Sharp,
the House Whisper.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six FORTYFI.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
AM six forty Your Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
We're having a morning. I'm taking calls. I'm giving you
a little news and inside. So far I've only been
able to talk about had time to talk about Wayfair's
chapel out on the Palace Verties Peninsula. Hopefully I can
slip in one more little tidbit of design news, not
(20:09):
so much from SoCal, but we'll try and get there.
But I also just want to honor our calls here,
So let's talk to John. Hey John, welcome home.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Hi Jean.
Speaker 5 (20:23):
I hope it's not too much background sound here for you.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Now, we're good. We're good.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
I live in a townhome community on Justin Ranch golf
Course and I have a fire sprinkler system in my
twenty four hundred square foot home. And when I replaced
a smoke detector, I found that I had to replace
all of them. I guess they're all connected and communicating
(20:51):
with each other, and it made me wonder. It made
me wonder about the sprinkler system. What would take to
cause for that to go off? Is it communicating also
with the smoke detectors and with the fire department be notified?
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Okay, good question. Good question. I can answer two out
of three of those questions for it. So number one, No,
your smoke detector system is not connected to your sprinkler system. Okay.
Your smoke detector system is communicating with itself. Smoke detection
(21:31):
is just that and the alarms are inside your place
to alert you to the presence of smoke. And very
very rarely are smoke detectors connected to outside services because
you know they go they'll go off for a number
of reasons. The whole point of a smoke detector is
(21:51):
hopefully to alert you to the presence of something starting
to brew that you can deal with without calling the
fire department. So smoke detectors never communicate directly to communic
emergency services. Some fire sprinkler systems are set up to
(22:13):
do that, and I couldn't tell you whether yours is
or not. You should look at the branding plate or
any information that you've got on your specific system at
the manifold, call the company and say, hey, this situation
am I hooked up to Actually does this go to
emergency services? Or is this just happening inside my house?
(22:35):
That part I couldn't tell you, but you can find
out pretty easily. As far as smoke detecting and fire
sprinklers go, I can explain that to you super simple.
Smoke detectors have what's called an obscuration rating. So what
does that mean. It means that there's a tiny light
(22:58):
emitter and receiver inside a smoke detector and a space
in between, and what it's waiting for. The receiver is
sitting there reading one hundred percent of the light that's
coming across this little gap and smoke gets up in
the detector and it obscures that amount of light. Now,
(23:20):
how sensitive are they. Well, different smoke detectors have different
levels of sensitivity, but most, i am told, work under
obscurations of just under one percent up to about thirteen percent.
Now you can get different details from other people, and
(23:42):
you know, this is sort of just like a science
trivia fact. It's not like, oh, I see thirteen percent,
Well that's very meaningful to me. Well it's not clearly,
But the point is this smoke gets up in there
and it obscures the vision. That's why. Sometimes it's not
even smoke. It's not like these things are smelling for smoke.
(24:03):
Sometimes a smoke detector gets set too close to a
bathroom and you take a hot, steamy shower, open up
the bathroom door, all that steam pours out, and suddenly
the smoke detector goes off. It's steam, it's not smoke,
but it's capable temporarily of obscuring that little light beam,
(24:23):
and therefore it goes off. And they are very sensitive,
and so that's their job. That's the smoke detector. And
as far as your sprinklers go, a lot of people
think that sprinklers. A lot of people don't want to
get sprinklers in their house because they're scared that if
they burn the fish on the skillet in the kitchen,
(24:45):
that all of their fire sprinklers are going to go
off and flood their house. Fire sprinklers don't work off
of smoke at all. Zero fire sprinklers are only a
temperature sensitive situation, So no fire sprinkler is going to
fire because too much smoke built up in the house.
A fire sprinkler fires off a little glass vial that
(25:09):
with a liquid in it is plugging the whole of
the fire sprinkler head individual heads, not the whole system.
It's head for head for head. So if there's a
fire in the living room, the sprinklers in the bedroom
are not going to fire and flood the bedroom. It
is looking for a temperature somewhere between one hundred and
(25:30):
thirty five to one hundred and sixty five degrees fahrenheit.
So up at the ceiling line where that fire sprinkler
is once temperature and the theory is that this is
temperature rays because there's actually a fire down below, not
just smoke, a flame producing that kind of heat boom
the vial, The liquid in the vial boils, it bursts
(25:54):
the vial, and the sprinkler head is then free to
douse the area where the fire is burning. That's how
fire sprinklers work versus how smoke detectors work. Smoke detectors
are warning only. Fire sprinklers are an active action against
a flame and have no relationship to smoke. You can
(26:15):
smoke all around, you can burn the toast right underneath
a fire sprinkler. You're never going to set it off.
Speaker 5 (26:23):
Well, very interesting, very insightful. I really appreciate your time
about that.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Do you no problem do you think?
Speaker 5 (26:30):
Yeah, you think those sprinklers would have helped any of
the victims of the fires protect their.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Home, no doubt, no doubt, no doubt, not all of them.
So because well, I'll tell you this. I will tell
you this in all candor. If a home has, you know,
all the things being equal, if those homes in the
Palisades had a combination of the ember resistant vents and
(27:00):
fire sprinklers for the interior, then most of them would
have survived. And I'll tell you why. Because the problem
is either flames getting inside the house or embers getting
inside the attic. Embers being stopped by getting in the attic.
That's what ember resistant vents are all about. That's the
(27:20):
first line of defense. Eight out of ten homes won't
burn because of mber resist in vents, because eight out
of ten homes burn not because the fire is there,
but because the embers have blown in from nearby. So
the fire resistant vents are number one. That's what keeps
the flames from starting in the attic. But otherwise one
(27:42):
the fire actually arrives at a house. Now, the flames
are just outside the outside of most homes. You know,
some homes are made out of wood siding and need
to be protected and upgraded, but most homes, like a
stucco home, a stucco home is a fire raided hoading
on the outside of a home. So I've said this before.
(28:03):
Heat will heat up a window and the glass will
shatter if it's not fire rated glass. And now the
flames have a chance to lick inside. But even at
that flames licking inside a room, that's where the interior
fire sprinklers would fire. They would feel that temperature heat,
they would activate and they would keep the flames from
(28:25):
coming inside the house. The inside of the house is
the vulnerable spot. The outside of most homes not that vulnerable, Okay,
not relatively speaking. I'm not saying that they don't burn,
but they're not that vulnerable. Far far more vulnerable the inside.
So if you've got a sprinkler system inside damping down
anything that gets inside the house, your chances of that
(28:48):
structure surviving are excuse me, frog in my throat, your
chance of that structure surviving are significantly, significantly increased. Okay.
You don't have to go through all these wild gizmos
and creative a so called creative ideas about how to
protect a home. You just have to follow the basics,
(29:09):
execute the fundamentals, okay, Ember resistant vents, fire, sprinklers inside
a home. Brilliant idea. And there you go, John, Thank
you so much for your call, buddy, really really great questions.
All right, more, when we return your home with Dean Sharp,
the house whisper kaf I, Dean Sharp, the house whisper,
(29:31):
Welcome home. Well, here we are at the end of
another couple hours spent together, always a pleasure and a privilege.
I really wanted to talk to you about another historic
structure in some design News. I think maybe I'll start
tomorrow's show off with this. I wanted to talk to
you about Notre Dame, the cathedral in Paris and what
(29:54):
it has undergone. I wanted to kind of set it
up as a parallel to Wayfarers, but I also wanted
to take calls and give you all the info about
Wayfarer's chapel and what it meant to me and what
it still means to me. So we will we will
find the time to do that, and we will do
it in the big show tomorrow, by the way, Tomorrow,
in addition to that little bit of design insight in news,
(30:16):
we're going to be talking about the Consumer Electronics Show, which,
if you live in southern California, just Bruise, you know,
just blue By, because our attention has been focused on wildfires.
Tomorrow the best of CES for Homes. It happened just
a couple of weeks ago, and I'll give you my
(30:37):
full review on all the cool stuff that came out
of CES. There. Big year, Big year for CES. You're
not going to want to miss it. All the new
smart home technology that's coming. Plus we'll start with talking
about Notre Dame Cathedral and some thoughts on that, and
of course your calls that all happens tomorrow. That's it
for us today. Follow us on social media TikTok, Facebook,
(30:59):
x at Home with Dean The house Whisper podcast is
everywhere your favorite podcasts are found. And of course, if
your home is in need of some personal attention by
the house Whisper, you can book an in home design
consult with us at house Whisper dot Design. We're right
back here tomorrow nine to noon. Until then, get out
(31:20):
there and get busy building yourself a beautiful life. This
has 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
(31:41):
on demand on the iHeartRadio app
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six fortyfi.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
AM Forting live streaming and may be everywhere on the
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It is truly a home improvement reference library that you
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house Whisperer dot Design and there you go. All right,
we're I'm just sharing some news with you on some
various topics this morning, anything that I can get to.
But also I promise to take calls if we've got
calls on the board. And look at that, we got
calls on the board. Hey, we've got a call from
Bill who said he actually lives near Wayfarer's chapel. I'm sorry,
(02:05):
just because I was talking about that, I got to
take Bill first. Bill, welcome home, Hidine. How are you sir,
I'm well, thank you, How are you good? Good? I
got a note here that you live just a few
hundred yards from the chapel and that you were happy
(02:25):
to talk about landslides in the area.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Yes, sir, yeah, In fact, we're about one hundred yards
from where Wayfarer's Chapel stood and our house was completely
was built in nineteen forty nine, originally designed by Frank
Lloyd Wright, and then the design that is there now
done by Lloyd Wright. And they wanted that site because
(02:52):
they wanted to be able to look at the Wayfarers Chapel,
another Lloyd Wright design. Once that is completed, got you?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Got you? And what has it been like to live
in a Lloyd Wright house?
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (03:07):
It's spectacular the way it's designed, the kind of the
great room. Uh, it makes it feel like it's just
kind of hanging in the air because you look out
towards Catalina Island. But the way he built it, it's
all glass with glass corners and everything, and it rises
(03:31):
above all the vegetation, so you just feel like you're
suspended out there looking out at all the nature. So
it's it's spectacular.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
And and uh just amazing. And what what what's your
current status with everything that with with your home now?
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Well, and that's the thing, you know, it really goes
on a home by home basis. Bat there we have
neighbors whose home have been completely destroyed torn in half
twenty five foot creass running through the middle of it.
Multiple people that have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars
trying to rectify problems and then have to walk away,
(04:12):
and right next to them will be somebody whose house
is basically untouched, you know. And it goes back to
what you were saying. You know, it's all about what
it's been built on. And in that area, you know,
there's uh, you know, depending upon where you build at
greater or lesser depth, there is uh, you know, basically
(04:35):
solid rock, and the ones that seem to be closer
to that solid rock have less movement than the ones
that were built in area that you know, maybe it
was fill or you know, it had a lot of
uh set you know, silt settlement, you know, in a
canyon or something like that. So ours, thankfully was overbuilt
(04:58):
for whatever reason. And our although we inch closer to
beachfront property every day, ours has not sustained a lot
of damage. But we've had our close neighbors have to
leave because their houses are total.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
So so you haven't actually lost gas or power, so
I mean, you're still in your place, even though so
you guys have experienced some shifting, some some movement, but
not enough.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Oh yeah, no, it's our property is kind of three tiered,
so and it graduates up the hill. Our house is
at the top of the property and was cut into
the hillside, so it's a cut lot. So there hasn't
been much movement there. But down on the bottom part
of our property it's moved feet towards uh, the ocean.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
So that makes sense. The house itself is cut into
the hillside into some solid area, so the house itself
hasn't move, but but you've lost portions of your lower property.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
That's exactly correct. And like the numbers that you were giving,
the seven inch a week and stuff like that, that's
an average number, you know. So there were areas that
were moving twelve inches a week, you know, and then
areas that were moving you know, almost nothing. So, you know,
great variants. But I truly think out of this is
(06:27):
going to come at least I hope engineering that will allow,
you know, structures to exist in places kind of like this,
kind of like a surfboard on a wave in a way,
because the you know, it's not the first time the
(06:48):
land has moved back there, and so there has been
some engineering done on some of the houses that is
completely avant garde and yet completely affect and allows them
to remain essentially untouched, you know, throughout all of this.
So I'm I think that that will be the case.
(07:10):
But no, we uh, we have lost gas, We've lost electricity.
We've lost our electricity second of September, so we're essentially
completely off the grid with solar and wow, you know,
propane and pellet stoves and wow.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Yeah, we're camping next to the next to the.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Water, wow, in a in an absolute amazing helm at
the same time. And you know, by the way, Billy,
I think you're right about that. I mean, there, I'm
not sure that there's engineering that that can resolve any
kind of crisis. But uh, you know, the the big thing,
as I was saying before about Portuguese Bend, is that
(07:57):
the condition was always there. It's just that nobody really
knew about it. And so it's one thing to build
in an area where you're fully conscious of all of
the you know, surrounding conditions. It's another area to build
a conventional house with a conventional foundation in an area
that has unconventional ground movement and you just didn't know
(08:20):
about it, and that's That's one of those significant problems, uh,
in that area, is that so many of those homes
were built just normal without really being conscious of what
was going on deep underneath.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Them, right, and and a lot of them people thought,
you know, they had reports and stuff saying, well, the
land movement has stopped, and you know that it turned
out to, you know, just be a fallacy. And you know,
so those people, you know, have have really suffered because
(08:54):
they moved into an area where they were hoping to
have their dream and through no fault of our own,
but I do believe through fault of maybe geologic reports,
city allowing building to exist where it shouldn't, you know,
they've they've you know, had that dream the least compromised,
(09:14):
if not you know, changed altogether. And it's really a shame.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
It is.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Indeed. Well, Bill, I am glad that you guys, at least,
despite the fact that you're completely off the grid in
the middle of southern California. I'm glad that currently your
place is is where it's at and not shifting, even
though you've lost your property. And thank you so much
(09:39):
for calling in and giving us an update on everything
that's happening. Bill lives just a few hundred yards from
Wayfarer's chapel site everything I was talking about this morning, Bill,
thanks so much, buddy. I really appreciate the call, and
thanks for listening.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Thank you. And if you and Tina ever want to
come out and see unmolested did Frank Wood write junior
house existing as it was built in nineteen forty nine?
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Come on, bye, hey, do me a favor. Honestly, I'm
going to take you up on that. Do me a
fake because we're down there all the time. Do me
a favor and go to house Whisper dot Design and
drop me a note and I'll reach out to you
and and we'll do it. I would love to just
do a report in general, love to see the house,
love to do a report on what's going on in
the area in general. So reach out and I'll reach
(10:28):
back and we'll make it happen.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Cool. Keep doing what you do. Love your show.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Thanks Bill, Thank you so much. Buddy. Well there you
go right there. It's tragic. It's tragic anyway, all right,
when we come back. More of your calls your home
with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper. Yay bye Dean sharp
the house whisper at your service. This is my beautiful house,
and that is my beautiful wife right there. So I
(10:55):
don't know what you're talking about, talking heads. That was stupid,
That really was. It's early. It's still early. It's the
first day of February. I'm allowed. I'm allowed. Actually every
week people count on it. Deane's going to say something
stupid today. Let's just wait and see what it is.
All right, h we're taking calls and I'm going to
(11:18):
get back to the phones. I want to talk to Sherry. Hey, Sherry,
welcome home.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Good morning.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
How are you good morning? I am well, how are
you doing?
Speaker 4 (11:30):
Great? Great? I'm having an issue with my bathroom LED
lights and all of a sudden they started. They were
on a gimmer switch. All of a sudden at nighttime,
I turn them off and I get up in the
middle of the night and there was a little light
coming from them, but all them electrician. They replaced dow
(11:54):
of the lights and guess what they started coming back.
They're doing the same orn thing. So then he said
it was a switch that I the himmer switch was
incompatible with the LEDs, so he just replaced the switch
to a normal just switch and guess what one of
(12:16):
the lights is doing it? Again, I have no clue.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Okay, so after replacing some of the lights, it still happened,
and then after replacing the dimmer, now one of them
is still doing it.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Hmm uh So what kind of well, I don't want
to ask you stuff that you don't have a clue about,
but okay, So what you're talking about is sometimes it's
called after glow. Sometimes it's called ghosting led ghosting, and
there are different there are a couple of different versions
(12:55):
of it, just so everybody knows. It is not uncommon,
especially for older LEDs or I should say older and
or these days cheaper LED lights. They have a luminescent
layer built into the bulb structure, and it's not uncommon
at all after you flicked off and the switch for
(13:15):
an LED to see it actually still glowing, but that
that lasts a minute or two and then it just
fades away. That's kind of like almost like a bioluminescent
battery that was still stored in the light lens itself,
and it has a little bit of glow, like a
glow in the dark kind of one of those things,
(13:38):
and it lasts for a little while and then it
goes off. But you're talking about a different kind of
ghosting or after glow, which is not something that fades away.
You turn the light off and then you get up
in the middle of the night and you can still
see it on there. That and that almost always all
I mean. There could be something wrong with the wire,
(14:00):
but I really doubt it. I really doubt it. It's
hardly ever a wiring issue. Ever. It is usually either
a fixture itself or b the switch, especially a dimmer
And so all I can tell you is that that
(14:20):
unit that's still glowing might need to be changed out
yet again. Or here you could try this instead of
using a dimmer switch. You can just put a standard
switch in there and see if after turning that off
whether you get any after glow whatsoever. Okay, because that
(14:43):
the thing is with this, people don't realize that a
dimmer switch has a lot of dimmer switches, depending on
how they are constructed. They have a low end and
a high end. That's what allows them to dim and
increase the light. And sometimes the low end literally LEDs
(15:05):
are so sensitive too, They're so sensitive to current that
the low end of a dimmer is just literally not
low enough. In other words, it has dropped it down.
But if there's still a trickle, just a tiny, tiny
trickle of energy running through the dimmer switch in any
(15:26):
way shape or form, an led may pick it up
and show a tiny bit of a glow, not perceivable
like during the daytime, but in the middle of the night,
in pitch darkness, you can see that there is still
this tiny little glow happening. It's nothing serious, by the way.
It's not a concern like, oh, something's wrong and my
house is going to burn down or anything like that.
(15:47):
But you know, so, So here's the thing I would
if you've already changed out the light fixtures once and
there's still one that's doing it, I wonder, I would
wonder actually if that one in the chain of lights
that you have up on your ceiling is I wonder
if it's the first one in line by way of wiring.
(16:11):
You wouldn't be able to tell just by looking up
on the ceiling because you don't know where the wire
goes to first. But I wonder if it isn't the
first one in line with the output from the switch,
because that would typically be the case and whatever tiny
little trickle of energy is still there, then it's picking
it up and the others aren't getting it. So I
(16:34):
would say, attempt to replace the dimmer yet again, go
with a different brand. Definitely had an LED compatible, but
if the lustron switch, go with a different brand of switch.
If it's not a loutron, then try a loutron. Try
a new dimmer switch in there and see if you
can't get it to shut down completely in for a test.
(16:57):
You could pop in just temporarily in a standard on
off switch, no dimmer, okay, because an on off switch
is a total power cut total, So you click it
off and it's off. And if you find that you
that you put an on off switch in just for
one night, go back into the bathroom at night, look
up and if there are if there's still a glowing light,
(17:21):
then there's power trickling in there from somewhere else, and
it is a wiring issue. But I would my guess
is ninety nine percent sure if you put a standard
switch in there, then all the powers been cut off
and there will be nothing. You'll see darkness on your ceiling,
just like you would expect. And what that tells you
is to is that, for whatever reason, the dimmers that
(17:43):
you've been using aren't dropping the voltage for those LEDs
all the way to zero, and there's been a trickle
of charge passing through, So try another dimmer because the
right dimmer will shut it down.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
Well that's interesting because because the gimmer switch was replaced
with a regular on off switch and that fixed one
of the other problems. You know, one of the lights
which was staying on. But now I think it's the
first light that the guy replaced that's coming on. I
mean it's staying on. It's not as bright as the
(18:21):
other one with it says it could be.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
So so you so it was replaced with an on
off and there's still a glow. Yes, yes, okay, So
then then you've got to talk to your electrician about
the fact that there is some phantom current getting into
that system somehow, somehow that's not coming just from the switch.
(18:47):
So it is something wiring that needs to be looked at,
a wiring issue, because there is some because an on
off switch cuts the power, and if that is detecting
any kind of residual glow, then there is power into
that circuit apart from the switch access and so have
electrician look at it. Whether you're electrician or whether you
(19:09):
want to talk to somebody else, I'm not sure, but
have them take a serious look at where else power
could be getting into that line, because it's on or
it's off, the power is there or it's not. And
if it's if there's still residual power. LEDs are super
sensitive they might pick it up. And so there you go.
That's the best I can tell you, Sherry, thank you
(19:31):
so much for calling. I think you're on the right
path there for the hunt though. All right, when we
come back, more of your calls. Your Home with Dean Sharp,
the House Whisper.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six FORTYFI.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
AM six forty Your Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
We're having a morning. I'm taking calls. I'm giving you
a little news and inside. So far I've only been
able to talk about had time to talk about Wayfair's
chapel out on the Palace Verties Peninsula. Hopefully I can
slip in one more little tidbit of design news, not
(20:09):
so much from SoCal, but we'll try and get there.
But I also just want to honor our calls here,
So let's talk to John. Hey John, welcome home.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Hi Jean.
Speaker 5 (20:23):
I hope it's not too much background sound here for you.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Now, we're good. We're good.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
I live in a townhome community on Justin Ranch golf
Course and I have a fire sprinkler system in my
twenty four hundred square foot home. And when I replaced
a smoke detector, I found that I had to replace
all of them. I guess they're all connected and communicating
(20:51):
with each other, and it made me wonder. It made
me wonder about the sprinkler system. What would take to
cause for that to go off? Is it communicating also
with the smoke detectors and with the fire department be notified?
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Okay, good question. Good question. I can answer two out
of three of those questions for it. So number one, No,
your smoke detector system is not connected to your sprinkler system. Okay.
Your smoke detector system is communicating with itself. Smoke detection
(21:31):
is just that and the alarms are inside your place
to alert you to the presence of smoke. And very
very rarely are smoke detectors connected to outside services because
you know they go they'll go off for a number
of reasons. The whole point of a smoke detector is
(21:51):
hopefully to alert you to the presence of something starting
to brew that you can deal with without calling the
fire department. So smoke detectors never communicate directly to communic
emergency services. Some fire sprinkler systems are set up to
(22:13):
do that, and I couldn't tell you whether yours is
or not. You should look at the branding plate or
any information that you've got on your specific system at
the manifold, call the company and say, hey, this situation
am I hooked up to Actually does this go to
emergency services? Or is this just happening inside my house?
(22:35):
That part I couldn't tell you, but you can find
out pretty easily. As far as smoke detecting and fire
sprinklers go, I can explain that to you super simple.
Smoke detectors have what's called an obscuration rating. So what
does that mean. It means that there's a tiny light
(22:58):
emitter and receiver inside a smoke detector and a space
in between, and what it's waiting for. The receiver is
sitting there reading one hundred percent of the light that's
coming across this little gap and smoke gets up in
the detector and it obscures that amount of light. Now,
(23:20):
how sensitive are they. Well, different smoke detectors have different
levels of sensitivity, but most, i am told, work under
obscurations of just under one percent up to about thirteen percent.
Now you can get different details from other people, and
(23:42):
you know, this is sort of just like a science
trivia fact. It's not like, oh, I see thirteen percent,
Well that's very meaningful to me. Well it's not clearly,
But the point is this smoke gets up in there
and it obscures the vision. That's why. Sometimes it's not
even smoke. It's not like these things are smelling for smoke.
(24:03):
Sometimes a smoke detector gets set too close to a
bathroom and you take a hot, steamy shower, open up
the bathroom door, all that steam pours out, and suddenly
the smoke detector goes off. It's steam, it's not smoke,
but it's capable temporarily of obscuring that little light beam,
(24:23):
and therefore it goes off. And they are very sensitive,
and so that's their job. That's the smoke detector. And
as far as your sprinklers go, a lot of people
think that sprinklers. A lot of people don't want to
get sprinklers in their house because they're scared that if
they burn the fish on the skillet in the kitchen,
(24:45):
that all of their fire sprinklers are going to go
off and flood their house. Fire sprinklers don't work off
of smoke at all. Zero fire sprinklers are only a
temperature sensitive situation, So no fire sprinkler is going to
fire because too much smoke built up in the house.
A fire sprinkler fires off a little glass vial that
(25:09):
with a liquid in it is plugging the whole of
the fire sprinkler head individual heads, not the whole system.
It's head for head for head. So if there's a
fire in the living room, the sprinklers in the bedroom
are not going to fire and flood the bedroom. It
is looking for a temperature somewhere between one hundred and
(25:30):
thirty five to one hundred and sixty five degrees fahrenheit.
So up at the ceiling line where that fire sprinkler
is once temperature and the theory is that this is
temperature rays because there's actually a fire down below, not
just smoke, a flame producing that kind of heat boom
the vial, The liquid in the vial boils, it bursts
(25:54):
the vial, and the sprinkler head is then free to
douse the area where the fire is burning. That's how
fire sprinklers work versus how smoke detectors work. Smoke detectors
are warning only. Fire sprinklers are an active action against
a flame and have no relationship to smoke. You can
(26:15):
smoke all around, you can burn the toast right underneath
a fire sprinkler. You're never going to set it off.
Speaker 5 (26:23):
Well, very interesting, very insightful. I really appreciate your time
about that.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Do you no problem do you think?
Speaker 5 (26:30):
Yeah, you think those sprinklers would have helped any of
the victims of the fires protect their.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Home, no doubt, no doubt, no doubt, not all of them.
So because well, I'll tell you this. I will tell
you this in all candor. If a home has, you know,
all the things being equal, if those homes in the
Palisades had a combination of the ember resistant vents and
(27:00):
fire sprinklers for the interior, then most of them would
have survived. And I'll tell you why. Because the problem
is either flames getting inside the house or embers getting
inside the attic. Embers being stopped by getting in the attic.
That's what ember resistant vents are all about. That's the
(27:20):
first line of defense. Eight out of ten homes won't
burn because of mber resist in vents, because eight out
of ten homes burn not because the fire is there,
but because the embers have blown in from nearby. So
the fire resistant vents are number one. That's what keeps
the flames from starting in the attic. But otherwise one
(27:42):
the fire actually arrives at a house. Now, the flames
are just outside the outside of most homes. You know,
some homes are made out of wood siding and need
to be protected and upgraded, but most homes, like a
stucco home, a stucco home is a fire raided hoading
on the outside of a home. So I've said this before.
(28:03):
Heat will heat up a window and the glass will
shatter if it's not fire rated glass. And now the
flames have a chance to lick inside. But even at
that flames licking inside a room, that's where the interior
fire sprinklers would fire. They would feel that temperature heat,
they would activate and they would keep the flames from
(28:25):
coming inside the house. The inside of the house is
the vulnerable spot. The outside of most homes not that vulnerable, Okay,
not relatively speaking. I'm not saying that they don't burn,
but they're not that vulnerable. Far far more vulnerable the inside.
So if you've got a sprinkler system inside damping down
anything that gets inside the house, your chances of that
(28:48):
structure surviving are excuse me, frog in my throat, your
chance of that structure surviving are significantly, significantly increased. Okay.
You don't have to go through all these wild gizmos
and creative a so called creative ideas about how to
protect a home. You just have to follow the basics,
(29:09):
execute the fundamentals, okay, Ember resistant vents, fire, sprinklers inside
a home. Brilliant idea. And there you go, John, Thank
you so much for your call, buddy, really really great questions.
All right, more, when we return your home with Dean Sharp,
the house whisper kaf I, Dean Sharp, the house whisper,
(29:31):
Welcome home. Well, here we are at the end of
another couple hours spent together, always a pleasure and a privilege.
I really wanted to talk to you about another historic
structure in some design News. I think maybe I'll start
tomorrow's show off with this. I wanted to talk to
you about Notre Dame, the cathedral in Paris and what
(29:54):
it has undergone. I wanted to kind of set it
up as a parallel to Wayfarers, but I also wanted
to take calls and give you all the info about
Wayfarer's chapel and what it meant to me and what
it still means to me. So we will we will
find the time to do that, and we will do
it in the big show tomorrow, by the way, Tomorrow,
in addition to that little bit of design insight in news,
(30:16):
we're going to be talking about the Consumer Electronics Show, which,
if you live in southern California, just Bruise, you know,
just blue By, because our attention has been focused on wildfires.
Tomorrow the best of CES for Homes. It happened just
a couple of weeks ago, and I'll give you my
(30:37):
full review on all the cool stuff that came out
of CES. There. Big year, Big year for CES. You're
not going to want to miss it. All the new
smart home technology that's coming. Plus we'll start with talking
about Notre Dame Cathedral and some thoughts on that, and
of course your calls that all happens tomorrow. That's it
for us today. Follow us on social media TikTok, Facebook,
(30:59):
x at Home with Dean The house Whisper podcast is
everywhere your favorite podcasts are found. And of course, if
your home is in need of some personal attention by
the house Whisper, you can book an in home design
consult with us at house Whisper dot Design. We're right
back here tomorrow nine to noon. Until then, get out
(31:20):
there and get busy building yourself a beautiful life. This
has 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
(31:41):
on demand on the iHeartRadio app
Home with Dean Sharp News
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