July 26, 2025 • 34 mins
Dean takes your calls and tackles a wide range of home improvement challenges. He shares tips for silencing those annoying squeaky floors, explains why some LED light bulbs run hotter than expected, and offers expert advice to a caller dealing with a problematic water system. Plus, Dean helps a listener figure out what’s going on with their “floating” hardwood floor.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome home. I'm Dean Sharp, the house whisperer, custom home builder,
custom home designer, and every weekend your guide to better
understanding that place where you live today on the show,
as we do on Saturday mornings, it's your calls. The
number to reach me eight three three two. Ask Dean
(00:32):
A three three two Ask Dean eight three three the
numeral two and then you just spell out, ask Dean
anything that's got you scratching your head about your home, construction, architecture, design, DIY,
stuff inside, outside, all around. Give me a call. We'll
put our heads together and we will get it worked out.
(00:54):
All right, let's go back to the phones. I want
to talk to Adam. Hey, Adam, welcome home.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Hey, Yeah, there's a going Dean. Don't we just don't
mind me. I'm just working here. I'm a truck driver,
so deliver it doesn't speak, so I'll make it quick
with my questions and maybe I can take my answers
off the air.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Sure a thing.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
So I got two questions.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
I got a office in my house that I'm trying
to close up, and I want to install a door,
but I don't want to go grab a door from
a home depot and just throw that in there and
just be your normal white, you know type shaker door.
My opening for my office is kind of wide, so
(01:45):
this is the hard part. I think that I'm having
trouble with. It's ninety six by sixty six wide, so
that it's a little bit above average. So my I'm
thinking of something made be steel, made glass, just to
make it pop, you know, black steel glass not doesn't
(02:07):
need to lock, because I know that's extra when they
you know, and they ask for that if you ask
for that. But office two doors like French style. Yeah,
there's options of maybe like a sliding door, but I
definitely like that black look steel looked. So that's my
(02:27):
first question, and I wanted to see what your thought
on that was and maybe if you know of any
good options. I've been looking out there and I'm.
Speaker 5 (02:35):
Getting quoted in the five thousand and forty four thousand
range four to five thousand, So I'm trying to find
something affordable right that won't break the bank. So do
you have maybe my eighty eight no of some of
ideas on where to look?
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Second question, simple question, fast question. Flooring. I'm installing vinyl
luxury flooring throughout the house click style, the whole house,
not the bedrooms. The bedrooms have carpet because I wanted
to go with that carpet in the bedrooms. Vinyl click
style flooring throughout the house. Now where I get where
(03:13):
I get stuck, is do I also do it in
the kitchen because right now the kitchen has a little
bit of tile. You know, they are a little you know,
kitchen with a little bit of tile and a ceramic Kyle.
So the wife wants vinyl in the kitchen and the
whole house. Leave the bedrooms. But my idea was to
put vinyl flooring, but in the kitchen throughout the house.
(03:37):
Put in the kitchen tile and the bathrooms tile same tile,
colored matching, you know, same Kyle. So what do you
think about that house with vinyl flooring in the kitchen
matching the whole thing?
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Okay? Or how connected is the kitchen to how open
is the kitchen.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
To the It's My house is twenty years old, so
it's one of those you know, Rancho Cucamonga looking type
homes where you walk into the kitchen and it's just
like a like a second bedroom. Left side is the
whole kitchen, cabinets, and on the right side it's you know,
a big open empty space, you know, open space with
(04:16):
with the fireplace. And that's pretty much our second livery
and we have another pitch piece of couch there and
another TV and we spent all our time in that place.
But I like the tile thing, you know, have a
little bit of tile in case when you people drop
liquids and the kids and stuff like that. I kind
of I think tile will just hold up longer, a
(04:37):
little bit more old school, you know. But everybody now
seems to be put when they put down vinyl. They
do it throughout the whole house, you know. Y, So
what are.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
You, friend? Here's my opinion. Here is my opinion about that.
It's virtue. And I'm going to disappoints you, not because
I'm picking a side, but because I don't know what's
best without actually getting eyes on it myself. Because neither
is a bad choice. Okay. They are plenty of kitchens
(05:11):
that we work on for clients in which I'm the
one saying, you know what, we should change up the
material in here. We don't need to run that material
that's running everywhere else into this space, and it'll be
a good look and it'll kind of offset it. It'll
set it off to itself in its own little design vibe.
(05:33):
And there are just as many instances in which I
am saying, no, no, let's take this flooring and run
it all the way through. So from a design perspective,
it is not the easiest thing for me to be
able to blindly tell you one or the other. So
I guess I'm afraid I can't come down on that argument.
All I'm going to say is this, I don't care
(05:55):
what your flooring material in there is. Make sure you're
the same page with your wife if you want that
flooring material not to come back and haunt you for years.
So you guys work it through, have some reasonable conversations
with each other. But I will tell you this.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
You know, luxury vinyl plank is a bomb proof material.
It's a resilient floor. Resilient meaning that it's a you know,
it's a soft touch floor. So yeah, in one sense,
a tile in a in a kitchen is uh, is
tougher in one sense, but it's uh. The luxury vinyl
(06:34):
is just as waterproof as it's actually technically more waterproof
than tile as far as moisture is concerned. Uh, it's
a lot less expensive. You can afford to have a
couple of boxes of extra planks just sitting in the garage.
Should you ever screw up anything in the kitchen, Uh,
you know, something sharp gets dropped on it and it
(06:56):
nicks it, or it dense it, or it cuts it.
But that's actually pretty rare. And because it's a resilient
a soft touch floor, the odds of something breaking falling
onto it versus falling onto the ceramic tile are much
less because it absorbs shock as things fall onto it.
So for people who spend all of their time in
(07:18):
the kitchen, I'd rather give them a soft, resilient floor.
It's more comfortable for them to stand on than a
tile floor, if that is something that they love. So
from a design perspective, I'm gonna be Switzerland and tell
you that I, you know, not having seen it, if
I put eyes on it, I'll give you my opinion
(07:38):
for sure, and there'll be no backing away from it.
But not blind I can't tell you that. All I
can tell you is that both of those materials will
work and both have their strengths in that kitchen environment.
And the best thing you can do is, you know,
get on the same page with your wife. Now, let
me go back to your original question about the double doors.
(07:58):
A good steam door is gonna run you. You know,
it's gonna run you at least something a pair of
steel doors and you said about five six the opening
is about five six wides, So a pair of steel
doors is gonna it's gonna run you somewhere in the
area of twenty five hundred dollars or more. That's just
(08:19):
the way it is, so uh they My advice on
that is this, if you're gonna go steal, and you
live here in southern California, then you should talk to Pinkies.
Pinky's Iron Doors, Okay, one of the classic vendors that
we turn to for entry doors that are iron and
(08:40):
steel and for interior doors, and for for the value
that they give you, for the quality of the door
that they give you. Their prices are pretty unbeatable. So
Pinky's p I n k y s just like the
classic hot Dogs stand, except their iron doors. Pinkisrondors dot com.
(09:04):
You should check them out at them just to make
sure that you understand what the right priced steel door
is going to cost for an interior However, like I said,
it's going to be expensive, it's not going to be
you know, you're not going to pick a pair up
or of good steel doors for less than like twenty
five hundred dollars, Okay, is it worth it? Don't know?
(09:26):
Is if it's the color that you're going for, If
it's the color and that vibe and that look, and
you're using glass, then then shop out some exterior grade
lad like aluminum clad open glass panel doors. You might
find a pair of them for less or just a
(09:49):
couple of interior doors that are wood okay with the
glass in it. And then pick the right paint color.
Pick a beautiful iron steel p and allow a good
painter to lay on two or three coats of you know,
high sheen iron steel paints so that you get the
(10:11):
effect with a wood door. So one of the things
that everybody just needs to realize is that know yourself,
know what it is that you're going for, whether or
not you're looking for a color vibe out of the door,
or whether you really want the steel to the touch.
If it's the steel. Gotta go with pinkies. If it's
just the color. You could go with a wood door
(10:32):
and paint it steel or iron colored and get you know,
ninety percent of what you're looking for with about fifteen
percent of the cost. All right, Adam, thank you for
your question, buddy, and good luck on the roads there.
Stay focused as you continue to drive, and the rest
of you guess what happens next. Right after this break,
(10:54):
more of your calls Your home with Dean Sharp, the
house whisper Dean Sharp, the house whisper here to tell,
here to help you take your home to the next level. Sorry,
I just got caught up in the bubber music there. Hey,
follow us on social media. We're on all the usual suspects, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, x,
(11:15):
Home with Dean, same handle for them all. Thanks for
joining us on the program this morning. We are having,
as we normally do, an all call Saturday morning. You're
in charge of today's topics. Whatever has got you scratching
your head about your home. The number to reach me
eight three three two Ask Dean eight three three the
(11:36):
numeral to ask Dean. Let's go back to the phones.
Talk to Kevin. Hey, Kevin, welcome home.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
Hey, Hey, thank you Dean. We have a problem that
we pursued legally and didn't get anywhere, so I thought
I'd approach it in a household manner. We have neighbors
that yepp several smokers, and the wind always blows the
same direction in our area, and we are smelling cigarette
(12:07):
smoke when we're sitting in our patio or outdoor patio,
and sometimes it wastes into our kitchen and living room.
We've purchased some very tall, twelve foot trees with some
girth to them. No help. We bought a fan that
we turn on and off. But we're just we're spinning
our heads. Do you have any ideas?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
I'm sorry, yeah, I'm sorry about that. I don't know
that these well, yeah, I got a couple ideas for you.
In usually erecting a barrier helps. But again, man, I mean,
if there are a lot of smokers out there and
they're just they're just two close, I mean, I get it.
(12:51):
I get it. I so get it. Okay, I've got
two ideas for you that may not thrill you, but
it may make a difference. They're only their effort. You're
going to have to put out. They're not permanent in
the sense that they're always working for you. Right. Two
(13:14):
things that I have found effective. And by the way,
I live next door to somebody who often smokes out
on their patio. And I don't know how one person
in their eighties can produce that much cigarette smoke. But
let me tell you, it just it just kind of
unnerves me. So I get you two things. Smoke is
(13:35):
a tiny particulate matter floating through the air. Okay, it's
dry and it catches on the wind and that's why
it goes everywhere that it goes and annoys us so much.
One thing that I have actually seen work before, and
it takes a little effort. But along your fencing, do
you have a fence in between you and the neighbor?
Is it a wall? What do you got?
Speaker 4 (13:57):
It's a fence, one fence.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Okay, so this might help. We have suggested this in
the past and some people have said, you know what,
that's it solve the problem. It's not the smoke that's
going up twenty feet in the air. It's the stuff
that's coming right over the fence that you're smelling that's
allowing to waft through. So you go out and you
buy a mister set okay, the kind of misters that
(14:23):
you would put on your patio cover or under the
eaves of your house for those really hot summer days.
You know, you hook it up to a water supply,
and you know, it mists the air and as a result,
cools the air. That's not what we're concerned about cooling
the air. But a mister set attached to the top
of your fence, pointed straight up, okay, And what that
(14:46):
will do is it will send about three to five
feet of mist up into the air. And what the
mist does, it's all that fine particulate water. It interacts
with those smoke particles and it drops, just drops. Smoke
cannot move through mist because those fine microscopic particles get
(15:07):
wet and they fall to the ground. And as a result,
it is essentially kind of a hidden filter between you
and the neighbors. And we've actually seen people, you know,
with a lot of good results on that. So that's
one thing. Now, Yeah, it's one of those things where
you're smelling it, it's happening, you want to be outside,
and so you just turn it on. It's not going
(15:28):
to annoy them. It's not going to annoy you. It's
just a missystem that is creating the barrier between the
two yards at the top of your fence already, and
we found it to be very effective. Now, that's one
way that's to deal with the smoke head on the
other way to do this, and this is something I do.
(15:50):
I don't have a missystem on my fence, okay, so,
but we've suggested it for some clients and they've seen
some good results. The other way to do this is
to ask the smoke that is coming from your neighbors
with something more powerful and pleasant and lovely. And that's
what I use. It just so happens. Now I live
(16:11):
on a corner lot, right, so I don't have one
a neighbor on each side of me. I only have
a neighbor on one side of me, and the neighbor
on the side of me who smokes, and that smoke
sometimes finds its way into our yard. It just so
happens that on that side of the yard is where
my smoker is not my neighbor, the smoker, I mean
(16:34):
my barbecue smoker, and it's a pellet grill smoker. And
there are days Tina will tell you that when the
smoke is coming across the yard. I'm like, forget this.
I want to sit outside. I want to be in
my hammock. I want to be on the deck with friends.
And so you know what I do. I just load
(16:54):
up the pellet grill because it burns pellets very very slowly,
and I just turn on the pellet grilled smoker. And
then suddenly my yard doesn't fill up with smoke. It
fills up with the pop pourrit aroma of hardwood, hickory
or mesquite. And everybody's like, what for dinner, Dean, I'm
like nothing. I just really am enjoying the potpourri of
(17:17):
a smoker, putting it to a roman into the air.
And once that starts going the neighbor's cigarette smoke that
doesn't stand a chance. There's no competition to it. And
so on one sense, one solution. What I'm telling you
is that you might be able to actually defeat the
smoke with a mister system. And on the other side
(17:37):
of the attempt is masking it and overwhelming it with
a pleasant smoke smell, which you know, I don't know
anybody who even if you're a vegan, I don't know
anybody who does not enjoy the smell of mosquite or
hardwood burning nearby. We're just like, oh my gosh, that's
(17:58):
just the best smell and the cigarette smoke doesn't stand
a chance against it. How about that or a creative solution.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Kevin wonderful. I'm excited and you may have saved our marriage.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Oh oh my gosh. Well please please, you know you
guys talk talk that through, think about it, and please
call me back and let me know if you enact
one of those solutions and how it works.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
All right, these are brilliant ideas. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
You are so welcome, my friend, so so welcome. You know, hey,
I'm just just just doing my best here. And it
always thrills me when something you know hits home and
helps out more of your calls. When we return your
home Dean Sharp the house Whisper.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Dean Sharp the House Whisperer, transform your ordinary house into
an extraordinary home. That's what we do. That's what I
do for a living, actually, and that's what we do
every weekend here on our little program. It is our
Saturday morning all calls show thanks you for joining us.
The number to reach me eight three three to ask
(19:19):
Dean eight three three, the numeral two ask Dean eight
three to three to ask Dean anything that's got you
scratching your head about your home. Let's go back to
the phones. I want to talk to Loretta. Welcome home.
Speaker 6 (19:35):
Hello, Hello, I'm here.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
So am I? How can they help you?
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Hard water?
Speaker 6 (19:44):
Hard water issues? And I didn't know if all these
years living in Burbank there are symptoms of hard water.
I had a family member use my shower in the
back and said, hey, you got kelsey in the new water?
Speaker 4 (19:55):
What the heck?
Speaker 6 (19:56):
It was a white ring around the corset around the
why the water comes out of When I checked the Burbank.
He says, we'll get two shower heads with filters in them.
What do I do about hard water? If there's two
shower heads are going to solve the problem? What about
the water that runs through the rest of the house.
I didn't know that Burbank had hard water. And they
get their water from where over now? And I didn't
know this, hun. I'm in one of these flocky homes.
(20:16):
But go way back, you know, And over the years
over the years. You just got the water on Burbank water,
no biggie. But when I called burd Bank, he said, well,
you can get two shower heads with filters in them.
But what happened to the rest of the pipes that
the water is going through? If I saw that white
ring around that they have a bathroom that was put
in in the late nineties and the water apparently left
(20:38):
the film. And when I had that family member visit
and it comes out and says, hey, you got calcium
in your water? What the heck did that mean? Well,
it turns out it was hard water. So now what's
my plan?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Yep? All right, all right, I hear you. I hear you.
You are adorable, by the way. I love your accent.
And so here's the thing, Loretta, here's the thing. Hard
water is water, Okay, hard water, it's what we call.
You know, all all good tasting water has mineral content
(21:09):
in it. That's why we're not we're not all sitting
around drinking distilled water, which by definition is water that
has had all of its mineral content removed. In fact,
your doctor will tell you that he doesn't want you
drinking distilled water unless you have a very very specific
medical reason. Because you put enough water in your body
(21:31):
that doesn't have mineral content, your body is going to
want to try and neutralize that water ad mineral content.
And guess where it gets it from from you, So
it'll leach calcium right out of your bones in order
to balance out the mineral content. I only say that
because hard water is not it's not a disease, not
(21:54):
a it's not something wrong with the water. All good
tasting water or has calcium, it has magnesium in it,
it has potassium in it. But the problem is with
our pipes. And I don't mean your pipes in your body.
I mean the pipes in our homes and our surfaces.
(22:14):
Because those minerals, okay, calcium, magnesium, potassium, they tend to
they're they're soft, they're soft minerals. They get sticky to use,
I'm gonna use some layman terms here, they get sticky,
and so as that water passes out of our pipes,
you know, we end up with a hard water ring
(22:35):
left behind because they tend to stick to tile, and
they stick to shower heads and all that kind of
And you're absolutely right, You're absolutely right, Loretta. They can
stick to the inside of pipes and the inside of appliances,
and that can become a problem and put strain and
stress on your system. So what's the solution. Well, water
(23:00):
softeners are one way of solving it. I don't really
recommend water softeners. I don't like them myself. They're like
one hundred year old technology. By the way, water softeners
were never designed to solve residential hard water issues. They
were originally designed for factories and industrial industrialized scenarios in
(23:25):
which mineral content gummed up machinery. Okay, a water softener
uses salt, uses sodium ions. That's why you have to
keep feeding at rock salt in order to grab onto
because the sodium ion will grab on to the the potassium,
the magnesium, the calcium, grab those minerals right out of
(23:47):
the water, pull them right out, and as a result,
you get soft water, hence water softener, soft water with
a lower mineral content in it, and you know, you
don't get the scale and the build up and all
of that kind of stuff. Still not the healthiest water
to drain, not the best tasting water, and water softeners
are not water filters. So what do I like? Well,
(24:09):
if you're a fan of the show. You've heard me
say this a billion times. But in the twenty first century,
there's a better way to do it. In my opinion,
I like a whole house filtration system. A filter that
number one filters all the yuck out of the waters,
like chlorine and chloramines and other nasties that the city
actually puts in in order to keep bacterial and viral
(24:34):
growth you know down or you know, non existent, just
like you chlorinate a pool. So you've got chlorine, and
then a crystal matrix filter, which is a descaling or
a scale reducing filter. It doesn't actually stop the minerals
from coming into your house, but it changes their molecular
(24:54):
structures so they're not sticky anymore. So they stay in
the water, they get into your body where they're needed,
but they don't stick to pipes, and they don't stick
to faucets and so on. Now it's not absolute like
a water softener, but it's the better way to go.
It is a massive, like ninety eight percent massive reduction
(25:17):
of scale and hard water issues. Uh, And so that's
what I would recommend. That's by the way, our partner
Life Source Life Source, they're in Pasadena they're just down
the road from you. That's what they do, whole house
water filtration and descaling, and that, in my opinion, is
the right way to go. That's what we did to
our house. We have hard water out here and now
(25:39):
scale build up not a problem anymore. The water is delicioso.
It has everything in it that it's supposed to have
in it. Plus we get the whole house filtration, which
means we've got drinking water coming out of everything everywhere.
So that's the story, Loretta. Hard water is not the enemy,
but yeah, it can mess with the pipes. So let's
(26:02):
get it changed so that that stuff isn't sticky anymore.
We run it through a crystal matrix cartridge as opposed
to a water soft All right, Loretta, thank you so
much for your call. I know Burbank water. I know
it well, and that that'll get it fixed for you.
So give Life Source a call and let them take
a look at your home. All right, when we come
(26:23):
back more of your calls. You're listening to Home with
Dean Sharp, the house Whisper. Dean Sharp, the house Whisper
here to remind you that design matters most when it
comes to your home design matters most. Think it through,
Get it designed right before you start the work. Get
it designed right. That's the whole soapbox that I stand
(26:48):
on every single weekend. Yes, I'm a home designer. No,
I'm not just feathering my own nest. It's just the truth.
It's the truth. Take your time, press pause, take a beat.
Make sure the design is right before you start spending
money on that project, because design matters most. Also, what
matters most right now is that I get back to
(27:08):
the phones because it is our all call Saturday morning.
Here we are at the end of another two hours,
but we're not done yet. Okay, we've got more calls
on the board than I can deal with right now.
But some lucky caller or two. I think it's gonna
be Carl right now. Hey Carl, welcome home.
Speaker 7 (27:28):
Hey Dean. Can you hear me?
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Yep, I can hear you. How are you my friend?
How can I help you?
Speaker 7 (27:36):
Goodness?
Speaker 4 (27:36):
No?
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Have you sire your morning?
Speaker 7 (27:37):
I got a question. I have a two story house
within two thousand and six. I believe it was second floor,
got squeaking heartwood floor all throughout. Bottom floor is slab
obviously with hertwood on that second floor. The problem is
I get up at four am. Everyone my wife is
still sleeping, seek speak to the house. So I forgot
how I can. Some people said, put a stand on
(27:59):
a track, sweep that up, powder, sweep that up. None
of that's working. And it's not to mention a mess.
But any ideas of justice, How I can?
Speaker 2 (28:08):
I mean it is, yeah, I do, and I'm gonna
tell you it's gonna be a bit of a process. Okay,
it's gonna be a bit of a process, but but
we can get it. We can get it done. You
just stay you stay true, you stay with it and
uh and you'll get it done. Okay. So there is
(28:33):
a product out there that I have used multiple times
for clients and I've recommended to contractors to use and
they get it. But but you can do it yourself.
You got a little bit of just a little bit
of drill gun skills, you can get this done to
your yourself. It's called Stop Squeak. Okay, Stop Squeak Repair Kit.
(28:54):
All right. It costs about forty bucks for a full kit.
And what it is. Say, by the way, let me
get to the heart of the problem here, Carl. You
got a hardwood floor that is squeaking. It's one of
two things. If it's an old style well two thousand
and six, it's probably a glued down hardwood floor, but
it's glued down to plywood subfloor, and that plywood subfloor
(29:17):
for whatever reason a two thousand and six home. That's
an embarrassment. It shouldn't have been the case, but they
should have glued that plywood down to the floor joist
glued it and screwed it. But it may have just
gotten nailed without some glue. And the squeak in a
floor is the sound of wood traveling up and down
(29:39):
on the shaft of a nail. Okay. So whether it's
the hardwood itself that's been nailed in and the hardwood
is now rubbing up and down on a nail, or
whether it's the subfloor underneath the hardwood, doesn't matter either one.
They're both a problem and this will deal with them both.
(29:59):
And what this is, this is a brilliant idea. It's
been out for a few years. Uh. It is a
very very small screw setup that will screw in through
the hardwood down into the subfloor plywood below. Okay, And
(30:19):
you find the location of the squeak, and the screw
will screw down, and then as soon as it actually
hits maximum tension, the screw shears off just below the
surface of the hardwood. So it's as if it goes down,
it'll grab onto both, pull them together, suck them up tight,
(30:41):
and then it shears itself off and all you're left
with is the tiniest little what essentially is a finished
nail hole on the surface of your hardwood that that
a lot of people don't do anything with. But some people,
you know, you can put a little a little bit
of patch or get a get a floor a wood crayon,
and just fill it up super easy, and boom it
(31:02):
goes away. Now the problem is this, squeaks are notorious
for running through a floor. In other words, if you've
got that condition in the upstairs, genuinely speaking, and you're
probably gonna have to address it in quite a few places.
And what you might find is, well, I had a
squeak here today, and I use the stop Squeaks screw kit,
(31:23):
and that squeak went away. But guess what, now, it's
like seven feet over there. Because we're putting a little
tension on the hardwood here and that tension might end
up resulting in a squeak a few feet away. That's
why I said, you're just gonna have to be patient
with it. But if you keep chasing it, Carl, Okay,
So you resolve the squeak here, it moves seven feet
(31:45):
and you go deal with it there. It may move
a few feet more. Eventually you'll shut it all down.
It may take a little bit of practice and a
little bit of time to alleviate them all. But we
have yet to encounter a hardwood floor squeaky hardwood floor
that we haven't eventually been able to tame with this kit,
(32:07):
and I think it's the best thing out there. Don't
use the sand idea. There's no injecting glue. I mean, there,
that's a whole thing. I get it, I get it.
You know, you can drill. That's the kind of thing
that you want to call in a professional hardwood company
to deal with. But it even the glue underneath the
hardwood floor, which might already be glued, might not be
(32:28):
a fix if it's the sub floor plywood that's squeaking
on it. And that's the kind of stuff that these
screws deal with and and fix and that's my best advice.
Speaker 7 (32:38):
Carl, fantastic, Thank you. I appreciate that it's only in
certain areas too. I think it's it has something to
do with the weather because the seam is bad in
the winter. You know how they expanded contract is spanic
attract based on the heat. So but either way, yeah,
I'm gonna stop Squeak. I'm gonna get some of that
you media and try to out I have the patient.
(32:59):
It's not a problem figure.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Yeah this stuff. Yeah, absolutely, my friend, this stuff's going
to help you out. And last time I checked it,
I think it's sitting on the shelf at Home Depot
and Low's. You can also order it on Amazon, or
you can order it from floor Fix Pro floor Fix
Fix Pro anyway, just check it out, the Stop Squeak
Repair Kit. It is really a brilliant little fix. It's
(33:27):
not a not a magic bullet, but it'll get it done.
You keep up with it, it'll get the job done.
All right, y'all. Far as getting the job done, I
think I got the job done this morning. Here we
are right at the end of our program. Join me tomorrow,
the Big show Tomorrow from nine to noon. We're going
to be talking about the trickiness of outdoor patio furnituings.
(33:49):
It's not as easy as it seems. It's not as
straightforward as it seems. How do you deal with shade outside?
How do you deal with furniture? What's the right kind
of furniture. I'm going to have Brian Gold from Aldick
Home in here in studio with me. We'll be talking
about the right kind of furniture, how to tell the difference.
It's going to be a great, great show. Your patio
(34:11):
will appreciate you listening in. That's tomorrow from nine to noon.
Until then, get out into this beautiful day and get
busy building yourself a beautiful life. We'll see you tomorrow.
This has been Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
Tune into the live broadcast on KFI AM six forty
(34:33):
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):
Welcome home. I'm Dean Sharp, the house whisperer, custom home builder,
custom home designer, and every weekend your guide to better
understanding that place where you live today on the show,
as we do on Saturday mornings, it's your calls. The
number to reach me eight three three two. Ask Dean
(00:32):
A three three two Ask Dean eight three three the
numeral two and then you just spell out, ask Dean
anything that's got you scratching your head about your home, construction, architecture, design, DIY,
stuff inside, outside, all around. Give me a call. We'll
put our heads together and we will get it worked out.
(00:54):
All right, let's go back to the phones. I want
to talk to Adam. Hey, Adam, welcome home.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Hey, Yeah, there's a going Dean. Don't we just don't
mind me. I'm just working here. I'm a truck driver,
so deliver it doesn't speak, so I'll make it quick
with my questions and maybe I can take my answers
off the air.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Sure a thing.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
So I got two questions.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
I got a office in my house that I'm trying
to close up, and I want to install a door,
but I don't want to go grab a door from
a home depot and just throw that in there and
just be your normal white, you know type shaker door.
My opening for my office is kind of wide, so
(01:45):
this is the hard part. I think that I'm having
trouble with. It's ninety six by sixty six wide, so
that it's a little bit above average. So my I'm
thinking of something made be steel, made glass, just to
make it pop, you know, black steel glass not doesn't
(02:07):
need to lock, because I know that's extra when they
you know, and they ask for that if you ask
for that. But office two doors like French style. Yeah,
there's options of maybe like a sliding door, but I
definitely like that black look steel looked. So that's my
(02:27):
first question, and I wanted to see what your thought
on that was and maybe if you know of any
good options. I've been looking out there and I'm.
Speaker 5 (02:35):
Getting quoted in the five thousand and forty four thousand
range four to five thousand, So I'm trying to find
something affordable right that won't break the bank. So do
you have maybe my eighty eight no of some of
ideas on where to look?
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Second question, simple question, fast question. Flooring. I'm installing vinyl
luxury flooring throughout the house click style, the whole house,
not the bedrooms. The bedrooms have carpet because I wanted
to go with that carpet in the bedrooms. Vinyl click
style flooring throughout the house. Now where I get where
(03:13):
I get stuck, is do I also do it in
the kitchen because right now the kitchen has a little
bit of tile. You know, they are a little you know,
kitchen with a little bit of tile and a ceramic Kyle.
So the wife wants vinyl in the kitchen and the
whole house. Leave the bedrooms. But my idea was to
put vinyl flooring, but in the kitchen throughout the house.
(03:37):
Put in the kitchen tile and the bathrooms tile same tile,
colored matching, you know, same Kyle. So what do you
think about that house with vinyl flooring in the kitchen
matching the whole thing?
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Okay? Or how connected is the kitchen to how open
is the kitchen.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
To the It's My house is twenty years old, so
it's one of those you know, Rancho Cucamonga looking type
homes where you walk into the kitchen and it's just
like a like a second bedroom. Left side is the
whole kitchen, cabinets, and on the right side it's you know,
a big open empty space, you know, open space with
(04:16):
with the fireplace. And that's pretty much our second livery
and we have another pitch piece of couch there and
another TV and we spent all our time in that place.
But I like the tile thing, you know, have a
little bit of tile in case when you people drop
liquids and the kids and stuff like that. I kind
of I think tile will just hold up longer, a
(04:37):
little bit more old school, you know. But everybody now
seems to be put when they put down vinyl. They
do it throughout the whole house, you know. Y, So
what are.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
You, friend? Here's my opinion. Here is my opinion about that.
It's virtue. And I'm going to disappoints you, not because
I'm picking a side, but because I don't know what's
best without actually getting eyes on it myself. Because neither
is a bad choice. Okay. They are plenty of kitchens
(05:11):
that we work on for clients in which I'm the
one saying, you know what, we should change up the
material in here. We don't need to run that material
that's running everywhere else into this space, and it'll be
a good look and it'll kind of offset it. It'll
set it off to itself in its own little design vibe.
(05:33):
And there are just as many instances in which I
am saying, no, no, let's take this flooring and run
it all the way through. So from a design perspective,
it is not the easiest thing for me to be
able to blindly tell you one or the other. So
I guess I'm afraid I can't come down on that argument.
All I'm going to say is this, I don't care
(05:55):
what your flooring material in there is. Make sure you're
the same page with your wife if you want that
flooring material not to come back and haunt you for years.
So you guys work it through, have some reasonable conversations
with each other. But I will tell you this.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
You know, luxury vinyl plank is a bomb proof material.
It's a resilient floor. Resilient meaning that it's a you know,
it's a soft touch floor. So yeah, in one sense,
a tile in a in a kitchen is uh, is
tougher in one sense, but it's uh. The luxury vinyl
(06:34):
is just as waterproof as it's actually technically more waterproof
than tile as far as moisture is concerned. Uh, it's
a lot less expensive. You can afford to have a
couple of boxes of extra planks just sitting in the garage.
Should you ever screw up anything in the kitchen, Uh,
you know, something sharp gets dropped on it and it
(06:56):
nicks it, or it dense it, or it cuts it.
But that's actually pretty rare. And because it's a resilient
a soft touch floor, the odds of something breaking falling
onto it versus falling onto the ceramic tile are much
less because it absorbs shock as things fall onto it.
So for people who spend all of their time in
(07:18):
the kitchen, I'd rather give them a soft, resilient floor.
It's more comfortable for them to stand on than a
tile floor, if that is something that they love. So
from a design perspective, I'm gonna be Switzerland and tell
you that I, you know, not having seen it, if
I put eyes on it, I'll give you my opinion
(07:38):
for sure, and there'll be no backing away from it.
But not blind I can't tell you that. All I
can tell you is that both of those materials will
work and both have their strengths in that kitchen environment.
And the best thing you can do is, you know,
get on the same page with your wife. Now, let
me go back to your original question about the double doors.
(07:58):
A good steam door is gonna run you. You know,
it's gonna run you at least something a pair of
steel doors and you said about five six the opening
is about five six wides, So a pair of steel
doors is gonna it's gonna run you somewhere in the
area of twenty five hundred dollars or more. That's just
(08:19):
the way it is, so uh they My advice on
that is this, if you're gonna go steal, and you
live here in southern California, then you should talk to Pinkies.
Pinky's Iron Doors, Okay, one of the classic vendors that
we turn to for entry doors that are iron and
(08:40):
steel and for interior doors, and for for the value
that they give you, for the quality of the door
that they give you. Their prices are pretty unbeatable. So
Pinky's p I n k y s just like the
classic hot Dogs stand, except their iron doors. Pinkisrondors dot com.
(09:04):
You should check them out at them just to make
sure that you understand what the right priced steel door
is going to cost for an interior However, like I said,
it's going to be expensive, it's not going to be
you know, you're not going to pick a pair up
or of good steel doors for less than like twenty
five hundred dollars, Okay, is it worth it? Don't know?
(09:26):
Is if it's the color that you're going for, If
it's the color and that vibe and that look, and
you're using glass, then then shop out some exterior grade
lad like aluminum clad open glass panel doors. You might
find a pair of them for less or just a
(09:49):
couple of interior doors that are wood okay with the
glass in it. And then pick the right paint color.
Pick a beautiful iron steel p and allow a good
painter to lay on two or three coats of you know,
high sheen iron steel paints so that you get the
(10:11):
effect with a wood door. So one of the things
that everybody just needs to realize is that know yourself,
know what it is that you're going for, whether or
not you're looking for a color vibe out of the door,
or whether you really want the steel to the touch.
If it's the steel. Gotta go with pinkies. If it's
just the color. You could go with a wood door
(10:32):
and paint it steel or iron colored and get you know,
ninety percent of what you're looking for with about fifteen
percent of the cost. All right, Adam, thank you for
your question, buddy, and good luck on the roads there.
Stay focused as you continue to drive, and the rest
of you guess what happens next. Right after this break,
(10:54):
more of your calls Your home with Dean Sharp, the
house whisper Dean Sharp, the house whisper here to tell,
here to help you take your home to the next level. Sorry,
I just got caught up in the bubber music there. Hey,
follow us on social media. We're on all the usual suspects, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, x,
(11:15):
Home with Dean, same handle for them all. Thanks for
joining us on the program this morning. We are having,
as we normally do, an all call Saturday morning. You're
in charge of today's topics. Whatever has got you scratching
your head about your home. The number to reach me
eight three three two Ask Dean eight three three the
(11:36):
numeral to ask Dean. Let's go back to the phones.
Talk to Kevin. Hey, Kevin, welcome home.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
Hey, Hey, thank you Dean. We have a problem that
we pursued legally and didn't get anywhere, so I thought
I'd approach it in a household manner. We have neighbors
that yepp several smokers, and the wind always blows the
same direction in our area, and we are smelling cigarette
(12:07):
smoke when we're sitting in our patio or outdoor patio,
and sometimes it wastes into our kitchen and living room.
We've purchased some very tall, twelve foot trees with some
girth to them. No help. We bought a fan that
we turn on and off. But we're just we're spinning
our heads. Do you have any ideas?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
I'm sorry, yeah, I'm sorry about that. I don't know
that these well, yeah, I got a couple ideas for you.
In usually erecting a barrier helps. But again, man, I mean,
if there are a lot of smokers out there and
they're just they're just two close, I mean, I get it.
(12:51):
I get it. I so get it. Okay, I've got
two ideas for you that may not thrill you, but
it may make a difference. They're only their effort. You're
going to have to put out. They're not permanent in
the sense that they're always working for you. Right. Two
(13:14):
things that I have found effective. And by the way,
I live next door to somebody who often smokes out
on their patio. And I don't know how one person
in their eighties can produce that much cigarette smoke. But
let me tell you, it just it just kind of
unnerves me. So I get you two things. Smoke is
(13:35):
a tiny particulate matter floating through the air. Okay, it's
dry and it catches on the wind and that's why
it goes everywhere that it goes and annoys us so much.
One thing that I have actually seen work before, and
it takes a little effort. But along your fencing, do
you have a fence in between you and the neighbor?
Is it a wall? What do you got?
Speaker 4 (13:57):
It's a fence, one fence.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Okay, so this might help. We have suggested this in
the past and some people have said, you know what,
that's it solve the problem. It's not the smoke that's
going up twenty feet in the air. It's the stuff
that's coming right over the fence that you're smelling that's
allowing to waft through. So you go out and you
buy a mister set okay, the kind of misters that
(14:23):
you would put on your patio cover or under the
eaves of your house for those really hot summer days.
You know, you hook it up to a water supply,
and you know, it mists the air and as a result,
cools the air. That's not what we're concerned about cooling
the air. But a mister set attached to the top
of your fence, pointed straight up, okay, And what that
(14:46):
will do is it will send about three to five
feet of mist up into the air. And what the
mist does, it's all that fine particulate water. It interacts
with those smoke particles and it drops, just drops. Smoke
cannot move through mist because those fine microscopic particles get
(15:07):
wet and they fall to the ground. And as a result,
it is essentially kind of a hidden filter between you
and the neighbors. And we've actually seen people, you know,
with a lot of good results on that. So that's
one thing. Now, Yeah, it's one of those things where
you're smelling it, it's happening, you want to be outside,
and so you just turn it on. It's not going
(15:28):
to annoy them. It's not going to annoy you. It's
just a missystem that is creating the barrier between the
two yards at the top of your fence already, and
we found it to be very effective. Now, that's one
way that's to deal with the smoke head on the
other way to do this, and this is something I do.
(15:50):
I don't have a missystem on my fence, okay, so,
but we've suggested it for some clients and they've seen
some good results. The other way to do this is
to ask the smoke that is coming from your neighbors
with something more powerful and pleasant and lovely. And that's
what I use. It just so happens. Now I live
(16:11):
on a corner lot, right, so I don't have one
a neighbor on each side of me. I only have
a neighbor on one side of me, and the neighbor
on the side of me who smokes, and that smoke
sometimes finds its way into our yard. It just so
happens that on that side of the yard is where
my smoker is not my neighbor, the smoker, I mean
(16:34):
my barbecue smoker, and it's a pellet grill smoker. And
there are days Tina will tell you that when the
smoke is coming across the yard. I'm like, forget this.
I want to sit outside. I want to be in
my hammock. I want to be on the deck with friends.
And so you know what I do. I just load
(16:54):
up the pellet grill because it burns pellets very very slowly,
and I just turn on the pellet grilled smoker. And
then suddenly my yard doesn't fill up with smoke. It
fills up with the pop pourrit aroma of hardwood, hickory
or mesquite. And everybody's like, what for dinner, Dean, I'm
like nothing. I just really am enjoying the potpourri of
(17:17):
a smoker, putting it to a roman into the air.
And once that starts going the neighbor's cigarette smoke that
doesn't stand a chance. There's no competition to it. And
so on one sense, one solution. What I'm telling you
is that you might be able to actually defeat the
smoke with a mister system. And on the other side
(17:37):
of the attempt is masking it and overwhelming it with
a pleasant smoke smell, which you know, I don't know
anybody who even if you're a vegan, I don't know
anybody who does not enjoy the smell of mosquite or
hardwood burning nearby. We're just like, oh my gosh, that's
(17:58):
just the best smell and the cigarette smoke doesn't stand
a chance against it. How about that or a creative solution.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Kevin wonderful. I'm excited and you may have saved our marriage.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Oh oh my gosh. Well please please, you know you
guys talk talk that through, think about it, and please
call me back and let me know if you enact
one of those solutions and how it works.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
All right, these are brilliant ideas. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
You are so welcome, my friend, so so welcome. You know, hey,
I'm just just just doing my best here. And it
always thrills me when something you know hits home and
helps out more of your calls. When we return your
home Dean Sharp the house Whisper.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Dean Sharp the House Whisperer, transform your ordinary house into
an extraordinary home. That's what we do. That's what I
do for a living, actually, and that's what we do
every weekend here on our little program. It is our
Saturday morning all calls show thanks you for joining us.
The number to reach me eight three three to ask
(19:19):
Dean eight three three, the numeral two ask Dean eight
three to three to ask Dean anything that's got you
scratching your head about your home. Let's go back to
the phones. I want to talk to Loretta. Welcome home.
Speaker 6 (19:35):
Hello, Hello, I'm here.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
So am I? How can they help you?
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Hard water?
Speaker 6 (19:44):
Hard water issues? And I didn't know if all these
years living in Burbank there are symptoms of hard water.
I had a family member use my shower in the
back and said, hey, you got kelsey in the new water?
Speaker 4 (19:55):
What the heck?
Speaker 6 (19:56):
It was a white ring around the corset around the
why the water comes out of When I checked the Burbank.
He says, we'll get two shower heads with filters in them.
What do I do about hard water? If there's two
shower heads are going to solve the problem? What about
the water that runs through the rest of the house.
I didn't know that Burbank had hard water. And they
get their water from where over now? And I didn't
know this, hun. I'm in one of these flocky homes.
(20:16):
But go way back, you know, And over the years
over the years. You just got the water on Burbank water,
no biggie. But when I called burd Bank, he said, well,
you can get two shower heads with filters in them.
But what happened to the rest of the pipes that
the water is going through? If I saw that white
ring around that they have a bathroom that was put
in in the late nineties and the water apparently left
(20:38):
the film. And when I had that family member visit
and it comes out and says, hey, you got calcium
in your water? What the heck did that mean? Well,
it turns out it was hard water. So now what's
my plan?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Yep? All right, all right, I hear you. I hear you.
You are adorable, by the way. I love your accent.
And so here's the thing, Loretta, here's the thing. Hard
water is water, Okay, hard water, it's what we call.
You know, all all good tasting water has mineral content
(21:09):
in it. That's why we're not we're not all sitting
around drinking distilled water, which by definition is water that
has had all of its mineral content removed. In fact,
your doctor will tell you that he doesn't want you
drinking distilled water unless you have a very very specific
medical reason. Because you put enough water in your body
(21:31):
that doesn't have mineral content, your body is going to
want to try and neutralize that water ad mineral content.
And guess where it gets it from from you, So
it'll leach calcium right out of your bones in order
to balance out the mineral content. I only say that
because hard water is not it's not a disease, not
(21:54):
a it's not something wrong with the water. All good
tasting water or has calcium, it has magnesium in it,
it has potassium in it. But the problem is with
our pipes. And I don't mean your pipes in your body.
I mean the pipes in our homes and our surfaces.
(22:14):
Because those minerals, okay, calcium, magnesium, potassium, they tend to
they're they're soft, they're soft minerals. They get sticky to use,
I'm gonna use some layman terms here, they get sticky,
and so as that water passes out of our pipes,
you know, we end up with a hard water ring
(22:35):
left behind because they tend to stick to tile, and
they stick to shower heads and all that kind of
And you're absolutely right, You're absolutely right, Loretta. They can
stick to the inside of pipes and the inside of appliances,
and that can become a problem and put strain and
stress on your system. So what's the solution. Well, water
(23:00):
softeners are one way of solving it. I don't really
recommend water softeners. I don't like them myself. They're like
one hundred year old technology. By the way, water softeners
were never designed to solve residential hard water issues. They
were originally designed for factories and industrial industrialized scenarios in
(23:25):
which mineral content gummed up machinery. Okay, a water softener
uses salt, uses sodium ions. That's why you have to
keep feeding at rock salt in order to grab onto
because the sodium ion will grab on to the the potassium,
the magnesium, the calcium, grab those minerals right out of
(23:47):
the water, pull them right out, and as a result,
you get soft water, hence water softener, soft water with
a lower mineral content in it, and you know, you
don't get the scale and the build up and all
of that kind of stuff. Still not the healthiest water
to drain, not the best tasting water, and water softeners
are not water filters. So what do I like? Well,
(24:09):
if you're a fan of the show. You've heard me
say this a billion times. But in the twenty first century,
there's a better way to do it. In my opinion,
I like a whole house filtration system. A filter that
number one filters all the yuck out of the waters,
like chlorine and chloramines and other nasties that the city
actually puts in in order to keep bacterial and viral
(24:34):
growth you know down or you know, non existent, just
like you chlorinate a pool. So you've got chlorine, and
then a crystal matrix filter, which is a descaling or
a scale reducing filter. It doesn't actually stop the minerals
from coming into your house, but it changes their molecular
(24:54):
structures so they're not sticky anymore. So they stay in
the water, they get into your body where they're needed,
but they don't stick to pipes, and they don't stick
to faucets and so on. Now it's not absolute like
a water softener, but it's the better way to go.
It is a massive, like ninety eight percent massive reduction
(25:17):
of scale and hard water issues. Uh, And so that's
what I would recommend. That's by the way, our partner
Life Source Life Source, they're in Pasadena they're just down
the road from you. That's what they do, whole house
water filtration and descaling, and that, in my opinion, is
the right way to go. That's what we did to
our house. We have hard water out here and now
(25:39):
scale build up not a problem anymore. The water is delicioso.
It has everything in it that it's supposed to have
in it. Plus we get the whole house filtration, which
means we've got drinking water coming out of everything everywhere.
So that's the story, Loretta. Hard water is not the enemy,
but yeah, it can mess with the pipes. So let's
(26:02):
get it changed so that that stuff isn't sticky anymore.
We run it through a crystal matrix cartridge as opposed
to a water soft All right, Loretta, thank you so
much for your call. I know Burbank water. I know
it well, and that that'll get it fixed for you.
So give Life Source a call and let them take
a look at your home. All right, when we come
(26:23):
back more of your calls. You're listening to Home with
Dean Sharp, the house Whisper. Dean Sharp, the house Whisper
here to remind you that design matters most when it
comes to your home design matters most. Think it through,
Get it designed right before you start the work. Get
it designed right. That's the whole soapbox that I stand
(26:48):
on every single weekend. Yes, I'm a home designer. No,
I'm not just feathering my own nest. It's just the truth.
It's the truth. Take your time, press pause, take a beat.
Make sure the design is right before you start spending
money on that project, because design matters most. Also, what
matters most right now is that I get back to
(27:08):
the phones because it is our all call Saturday morning.
Here we are at the end of another two hours,
but we're not done yet. Okay, we've got more calls
on the board than I can deal with right now.
But some lucky caller or two. I think it's gonna
be Carl right now. Hey Carl, welcome home.
Speaker 7 (27:28):
Hey Dean. Can you hear me?
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Yep, I can hear you. How are you my friend?
How can I help you?
Speaker 7 (27:36):
Goodness?
Speaker 4 (27:36):
No?
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Have you sire your morning?
Speaker 7 (27:37):
I got a question. I have a two story house
within two thousand and six. I believe it was second floor,
got squeaking heartwood floor all throughout. Bottom floor is slab
obviously with hertwood on that second floor. The problem is
I get up at four am. Everyone my wife is
still sleeping, seek speak to the house. So I forgot
how I can. Some people said, put a stand on
(27:59):
a track, sweep that up, powder, sweep that up. None
of that's working. And it's not to mention a mess.
But any ideas of justice, How I can?
Speaker 2 (28:08):
I mean it is, yeah, I do, and I'm gonna
tell you it's gonna be a bit of a process. Okay,
it's gonna be a bit of a process, but but
we can get it. We can get it done. You
just stay you stay true, you stay with it and
uh and you'll get it done. Okay. So there is
(28:33):
a product out there that I have used multiple times
for clients and I've recommended to contractors to use and
they get it. But but you can do it yourself.
You got a little bit of just a little bit
of drill gun skills, you can get this done to
your yourself. It's called Stop Squeak. Okay, Stop Squeak Repair Kit.
(28:54):
All right. It costs about forty bucks for a full kit.
And what it is. Say, by the way, let me
get to the heart of the problem here, Carl. You
got a hardwood floor that is squeaking. It's one of
two things. If it's an old style well two thousand
and six, it's probably a glued down hardwood floor, but
it's glued down to plywood subfloor, and that plywood subfloor
(29:17):
for whatever reason a two thousand and six home. That's
an embarrassment. It shouldn't have been the case, but they
should have glued that plywood down to the floor joist
glued it and screwed it. But it may have just
gotten nailed without some glue. And the squeak in a
floor is the sound of wood traveling up and down
(29:39):
on the shaft of a nail. Okay. So whether it's
the hardwood itself that's been nailed in and the hardwood
is now rubbing up and down on a nail, or
whether it's the subfloor underneath the hardwood, doesn't matter either one.
They're both a problem and this will deal with them both.
(29:59):
And what this is, this is a brilliant idea. It's
been out for a few years. Uh. It is a
very very small screw setup that will screw in through
the hardwood down into the subfloor plywood below. Okay, And
(30:19):
you find the location of the squeak, and the screw
will screw down, and then as soon as it actually
hits maximum tension, the screw shears off just below the
surface of the hardwood. So it's as if it goes down,
it'll grab onto both, pull them together, suck them up tight,
(30:41):
and then it shears itself off and all you're left
with is the tiniest little what essentially is a finished
nail hole on the surface of your hardwood that that
a lot of people don't do anything with. But some people,
you know, you can put a little a little bit
of patch or get a get a floor a wood crayon,
and just fill it up super easy, and boom it
(31:02):
goes away. Now the problem is this, squeaks are notorious
for running through a floor. In other words, if you've
got that condition in the upstairs, genuinely speaking, and you're
probably gonna have to address it in quite a few places.
And what you might find is, well, I had a
squeak here today, and I use the stop Squeaks screw kit,
(31:23):
and that squeak went away. But guess what, now, it's
like seven feet over there. Because we're putting a little
tension on the hardwood here and that tension might end
up resulting in a squeak a few feet away. That's
why I said, you're just gonna have to be patient
with it. But if you keep chasing it, Carl, Okay,
So you resolve the squeak here, it moves seven feet
(31:45):
and you go deal with it there. It may move
a few feet more. Eventually you'll shut it all down.
It may take a little bit of practice and a
little bit of time to alleviate them all. But we
have yet to encounter a hardwood floor squeaky hardwood floor
that we haven't eventually been able to tame with this kit,
(32:07):
and I think it's the best thing out there. Don't
use the sand idea. There's no injecting glue. I mean, there,
that's a whole thing. I get it, I get it.
You know, you can drill. That's the kind of thing
that you want to call in a professional hardwood company
to deal with. But it even the glue underneath the
hardwood floor, which might already be glued, might not be
(32:28):
a fix if it's the sub floor plywood that's squeaking
on it. And that's the kind of stuff that these
screws deal with and and fix and that's my best advice.
Speaker 7 (32:38):
Carl, fantastic, Thank you. I appreciate that it's only in
certain areas too. I think it's it has something to
do with the weather because the seam is bad in
the winter. You know how they expanded contract is spanic
attract based on the heat. So but either way, yeah,
I'm gonna stop Squeak. I'm gonna get some of that
you media and try to out I have the patient.
(32:59):
It's not a problem figure.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Yeah this stuff. Yeah, absolutely, my friend, this stuff's going
to help you out. And last time I checked it,
I think it's sitting on the shelf at Home Depot
and Low's. You can also order it on Amazon, or
you can order it from floor Fix Pro floor Fix
Fix Pro anyway, just check it out, the Stop Squeak
Repair Kit. It is really a brilliant little fix. It's
(33:27):
not a not a magic bullet, but it'll get it done.
You keep up with it, it'll get the job done.
All right, y'all. Far as getting the job done, I
think I got the job done this morning. Here we
are right at the end of our program. Join me tomorrow,
the Big show Tomorrow from nine to noon. We're going
to be talking about the trickiness of outdoor patio furnituings.
(33:49):
It's not as easy as it seems. It's not as
straightforward as it seems. How do you deal with shade outside?
How do you deal with furniture? What's the right kind
of furniture. I'm going to have Brian Gold from Aldick
Home in here in studio with me. We'll be talking
about the right kind of furniture, how to tell the difference.
It's going to be a great, great show. Your patio
(34:11):
will appreciate you listening in. That's tomorrow from nine to noon.
Until then, get out into this beautiful day and get
busy building yourself a beautiful life. We'll see you tomorrow.
This has been Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
Tune into the live broadcast on KFI AM six forty
(34:33):
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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