May 16, 2026 • 28 mins
Today on an all-calls Saturday, Dean’s first listener is converting her bathtub into a walk-in shower and needs to know about best drains, tiles and doors.
The insurance company is requesting that our next listener has a shut-off valve installed for her plumbing. If she installs one, will this reduce her homeowner's insurance?
Got solar panels on your home? Need a battery backup system added to it? If so, let’s discuss the difference between purchasing and leasing.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp The
House Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio app. Good morning,
my friend, and welcome home. I am Dean Sharp, the
AKA the House Whisper, the aka AKA the House Whisper,
(00:20):
Custom home Builder, Custom home Designer, and every week your
guide to better understanding that place where you live. Whether
your home is a castle or a cottage, it matters not,
you know why, because the same rules apply across the board.
And by the way, luxury does not a great homemake.
(00:41):
It is design that matters most. And I'm here every
week to help you find that path through your place
to make it something significant. Good design makes all the difference.
Every house deserves it, every house should enjoy it because
once good design is at work in your home, that
is when it happened a path forward toward becoming something
(01:02):
truly great.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
It is Saturday morning. You don't know if you notice that.
Of course you do, and it's gonna I think it's
shaping up to be a lovely spring day here in
southern California, and we got to take those when we
get them, especially in May, especially with this big El
Nino headed our way. Things are they are saying, are
gonna get warm to an extreme this summer for us.
(01:27):
So let's take the spring mornings when we can get them.
But because it's Saturday morning, as you know or may
not know if you're new to the show, it is
an all calls Saturday, you're in charge today. I know
that's the last thing you wanted to hear when you
got up this morning. It's Saturday. I don't want to
be in charge of anything today. No, you just get
(01:50):
to pick the topic that we're going to be talking about,
because it's all about your calls, and you can call
me about anything. Whatever's got you scratching your head about
your home, be it design, yes, construction, sure, diy inside, outside, landscape, decor.
I got you. We'll put our heads together, we will
(02:10):
get it figured out. Here is the number to reach me.
The phone lines are open right now. Eight three three two.
Ask Dean A three three to ask Dean A three
to three, the numeral two and then you just spell
out ask Dean. It's just that simple, all right. As
we wait for calls to arrive, I'm gonna say good
(02:31):
morning to Sam. Good morning Sam, Good morning, Dean. How
you doing I'm good, I'm good. How are things in
the house, Whisper Control Central? It is bright and lively.
We are good. Associate producer Marley is currently licking my feet.
It let's yeah, let's clarify. Let's Marley. Let's just leave
(02:58):
it to people's imaginations. I just don't want to get
a call from the FCC saying, uh, you have an
associate producer licking your engineer's feet. Itsual. No, Marley's a dog.
Marley is a dog. All right, there we go, there
we go. All right? Great, Uh, let's see who could
(03:20):
possibly be in the newsroom this morning? Could it be
Heather Brooker?
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Hello?
Speaker 4 (03:28):
No one, No one is licking my feet right now.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Okay, you sound disappointed.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
I am a little, to be honest. You're definitely gonna
get calls now, like, what is going on? It's only
six in the morning.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Ever, that was your week How are things good?
Speaker 5 (03:45):
Good?
Speaker 4 (03:46):
My daughter is in a musical this weekend.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
And what is she doing.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
She's doing Beetlejuice. So we're I'm in full like mom
theater mom mode the past couple of weekends. So as
soon as I leave here today, we're going to go
and do matinee and all the fun stuff.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
So I love it. Did I somehow miss out the
Beetlejuice became a musical.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
Yeah it was. It opened on Broadways several years ago,
and now they have like a junior version for kids,
and it's really cute. It's really fun.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
It's a little dark, but yeah, it is a little
bit dark and a little funny.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Little emo.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
You know.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
They definitely for the junior version lean more into the
silliness of it all. But it's yeah, it's a really
fun musical, really fun.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
So what's your daughter's role?
Speaker 4 (04:37):
She is, well, right now, she's in the ensemble and
she's something called a cigar mob Beetlejuice because in this
version there's a bunch of different dead versions of Beetlejuice,
and so she's the cigar mobster version of Beetlejuice. So
she gets to have a cigar, which is pretty funny.
She's pretty excited about that. She's like, Mom, I get
(04:58):
to have a cigar, And I'm like, whoa, this is
big time.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
You've made it. Yeah, it is, she's made it. She
has made it now. Yeah, well good luck to her
on that break a leg.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
All right, y'all. Uh, here's our sitch. Uh. Oh, we
got a call on the board. That's great. We could
use a few more though, so, uh, why don't we
take a break. Heather's going to give us some news
and uh, you give me a call and then we'll
start the show. Since we're just now waiting for you,
our very special guest, to arrive. The number to reach
me eight three three two. Ask Dean eight three three,
(05:31):
the numeral two. Ask Dean more great stuff on the way.
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp, the house whisper.
Dean Sharp, the house whisper here to help you take
your home to the next level. Thanks for joining us
on the program. It is and all calls Saturday morning.
Here's the number eight three three two. Ask Dean eight
(05:52):
three three two. Ask Dean eight three three the numeral two,
and then you just spell out ask Dean and anything
going on with your home, anything that's got you scratching
your head, anything you want to talk about regarding your home.
All right, let's go to the phones. Nancy, Hey, Nancy,
welcome home.
Speaker 6 (06:13):
Oh thank you, Dean. How you doing?
Speaker 2 (06:16):
I am well? You know what, it's early in the morning.
On a Saturday. But I'm doing good. How are you perfect?
Is this your normal? Is this your normal rise and
shine time for Saturdays?
Speaker 7 (06:29):
Well?
Speaker 6 (06:31):
Kind of.
Speaker 7 (06:31):
I retired about a year ago and then I kind
of learned to sleep in a little bit, but I
wanted to. I've made a special point of being up
early to call into you today.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Oh you're so sweet? All right, how can I help?
Speaker 7 (06:46):
I am converting a tub to a walk in shower
and I want to use a tile in vertical drain.
And I have two questions for you regarding these drains. First,
I just wanted your opinion on vertical drains, and also
I wanted to know what size to use.
Speaker 6 (07:06):
My shower will be thirty seven inches by fifty seven and.
Speaker 7 (07:11):
I wanted to use a vertical drain on a thirty
seven inch wall because I don't want to use too
long of a tile in drain. They get really heavy.
I understand.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Okay, so a great choice. By the way, Now is
this for your primary bathroom or is this a guest bathroom?
Speaker 6 (07:31):
Primary primary bathroom?
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Okay? Great? Yeah, tile in vertical drains? Are you know? Now?
Let me be really clear here. Some people misspeak when
they're describing this. Are we talking about a linear drain
on the floor or a vertical a true vertical drain
(07:54):
in the shower wall.
Speaker 7 (07:57):
Oh yeah, good point. I'm talking about a linear drain
in the floor.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Okay, okay, because unbeknownst to a lot of folks, there
is now a version of a linear drain that actually
goes in the wall and there's no drain on the
floor whatsoever. It's basically like a crack at the bottom
of the a slot at the bottom of the tile wall,
and that's where the water goes in. So I just
wanted to clarify. So, uh yeah, so a linear drain.
(08:24):
Linear drains are great, love them, have no issues with them.
Most of them are built incredibly well. And when we
say that they're tile in, what they are is the
tray that covers the main drain slot can accept the
same tile that goes on the floor. So they kind
of just disappear, well they don't disappear, but they're they're very,
(08:47):
very downplayed as far as their presence on the bathroom floor.
They're just all you see is this rectangular line and
that takes care of the business in your case. Ye,
how why did you say the shower was going to
be thirty six thirty seventy thirty seven. Okay, So it's
never a good idea to go all the way edge
(09:09):
to edge with a drain because you're pushing against the
walls or the edges of the shower pan, and there's
no need to as well. So I would say a
thirty inch drain is as big as you need to
go for that, and you're going to just center it
and so you're still going to have three and a
(09:31):
half inches on both sides of the drain before it
actually gets to the edge of the shower pan, and
that is plenty. You could even get away with a
twenty four if you wanted to, but I think thirty
is a better shot, and it just will do a
better job collecting water off of the floor of the shower.
No real issues to be concerned with. It should be
(09:54):
just a few inches off the end of the shower wall. Again,
we don't want to put too close to the edge
of the shower floor. In fact, when you get your drain,
let's say it's a thirty inch drain, you're measuring the
overall depth of the shower and like I said, in
a thirty six inch shower thirty seven inch shower, you're
(10:14):
going to be at about three and a half inches
and to end off of the edge, you would then
if you want to make it really clean and stylish,
put it about thirty Put it about three and a
half inches off of the end wall. So there's an
even space all the way around it. That has nothing
to do with performance. That has just to do with
the vibe and the look that the drain is nicely
(10:35):
proportioned and fit there. And then the other advantage, of course,
as you already know, of a linear drain, is that
you do not have to bowl the floor of the shower.
The whole floor of the shower can be perfectly flat,
but not level. Of course, the shower is sloping toward
the drain, but it can do it in one complete
(10:58):
sheet flow instead of having to kind of be that
bowl shape. Which gives you a lot of options as
far as your tile is concerned. And when I say that,
I mean you could use larger tiles, or even plank
tiles if you were using, for instance, porcelain plank in
the floor of the bathroom that could run into the shower.
(11:18):
Larger tiles are a problem when we're trying to make
a bowl shape because they're big and we're trying to
curve them, and so it's always smaller tiles that do
better at that, so that the edges, you know, aren't
raised up in the points. But a large format tile,
it doesn't matter on a completely flat plane whether it's
(11:38):
sloped or not, because it's completely flat plane, and so
it gives you a lot of tile setting freedom.
Speaker 7 (11:44):
There.
Speaker 6 (11:46):
Awesome, boy, you have helped me a lot. I really
appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Let me ask you one quick question, not to complicate
your life at all, but if the bathroom is challenged
for space, have you considered doing a curbless shower as
opposed to a one with a standard dam.
Speaker 7 (12:08):
I've considered that, but I think I'm going to be
putting engineered hardwood in my bathroom.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Ah, there you go. Okay, So if you're going to
do hardwood in the bathroom, you definitely want a curb
in between the shower and the hardwood floor, which, by
the way, that's a beautiful choice, Absolutely beautiful choice.
Speaker 6 (12:31):
Yeah, I think it's going to be good.
Speaker 7 (12:32):
I was considering, though, reducing the curb down to four
inches rather than six inches, which seemed kind of standard.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yes, I would absolutely do that. Reduce the curb down,
make it a small you know, I mean, it needs
to be somewhat of a curb. But just remember we
live in a world where we could go curbless and
the shower works just fine, the drain works just fine.
So the idea that whatever the wood that runs across
that is the of the curb. Just remember you're gonna
(13:01):
have like an inch more of stuff, a half an
inch of tile board and thin set, and then another
close to half an inch of tile on top of it,
so that curb is gonna get wider by two inches
and taller by an inch. So just think in terms
of what the finished height of the curb wants to
(13:22):
be so it doesn't get out of control.
Speaker 6 (13:25):
Okay, good, thank you very much.
Speaker 7 (13:27):
Okay, Dean, I appreciate you, and I'm so glad I
was able to talk.
Speaker 6 (13:31):
To you today.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Oh Nancy, thanks for calling, Thanks for getting up early
just to talk to me about your shower. So sweet,
so sweet. I hope that helped all. Right, y'all, when
we come back, more of your calls, Your Home with
Dean Sharp the house whisper you're listening to Home With
Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty Dean Sharp.
(13:52):
The house Whisper here to help you transform your ordinary
house into an extraordinary home. Or as I like to say,
there is a dream home hiding in the house that
you have, and I am here to help you find it. Oh,
it's so true. By the way, if your home needs
some personal house Whisper attention, you can always book an
(14:13):
in home design consult with us. That would be me
and T who isn't here yet this morning, Me and
T showing up at your home, sitting there with you
staring at the problem. Just go to house Whisper dot
Design for more info house Whisper dot Design. All right,
it's an all call Saturday morning. We're going back to
(14:35):
the phones. I want to talk to Mary. Hey, Mary,
welcome home.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Well, thank you, and good morning.
Speaker 8 (14:44):
My question is regarding these regulators or gadgets that can
be put in line with your plumbing coming into the house,
the water coming into the house, to shut off the
water in.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Case it detects a leak or basically a leak or
anything wrong. The insurance company's homeowners insurance will give a
little bit of a credit if you have such a
gadget and I'd like to know more about it.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Okay, yeah, and you're absolutely right. The I think the
the in my opinion, the currently the best and most tested,
most proven of these devices would be the Mowen Flow. Okay,
it's by Mowen, the faucet company m O E N
and flow is spelled without the W. It's just f
(15:45):
l O A. Mowen Flow is a water a smart
water monitor and automatic shutoff, and so it would go
on the mainline into the house. Cost Wise, you know,
you can find kind of competitively priced these days, depending
on where you look. Definitely shop it around because it
(16:06):
all depends on the size of the line that it's
built for. But you know, it's about six hundred six
to seven hundred dollars, so it's not a cheap device,
but it's well worth it because what it does. It's
an intelligent whole home plumbing security system in that sense,
it constantly monitors water pressure and flow, right, It learns
(16:31):
the way that you use water in your home, and
it checks on temperature as well, and it combines all
those things together to detect leaks. It will warn you
if your pipes start to freeze, if you live in
that kind of area, and it'll automatically shut off your
water to prevent you know, catastrophic damage should a pipe
bust or anything like that. It also warn you if
(16:53):
you've got a pin leak somewhere, because it's it has
the ability to kind of just really know what's going on.
He knows the difference between faucets going on and off,
toilets being flushed and showers being run, and the endless
flow of water and or the kind of conditions that
lead to a leak. So they are a very very
(17:13):
very smart device, well worth every penny that you spend
for them as safety for a home. I've talked about
them for years and so now there are others on
the market, but in my opinion, the Flow is the best,
most substantiated one out there, and I've just heard no complaints.
And by the way, it's all fed via, of course,
(17:37):
as all things, an app on your smartphone, and so
you'll have an app, you'll get alerts you can check
any time, and yeah that and absolutely most insurance companies
will give you a break for having one installed because
for them, it's just another point of protection that you
are placing on your home. To keep them from having
(17:59):
to pay for all of your flooring to be replaced
and everything else that happens once you have a big leak.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
That is very useful. Thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
You're very very welcome. So check it out. It's flow
Flo not a sponsor the show, but a great product,
and you can find them all over. They're on the
shelf at Home Depot at Lows. It's probably just about
your best pricing too. I think they're the ones that
Home Depot and Lows are down in the just over
(18:35):
six hundred dollars category, which I as far as I know,
is probably about a good prices as you're going to
get on them.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Also, I was going to check on these whole house
filters water filters, yeah, for instead of just at the
bosset to get good drinking water.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
I guess there have some that manage the whole well.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yes, yeah, I talk about them every week in my
opinion here in southern California. The one that I share
with you guys on a weekly basis, Life Source is
the best there is for a whole house water filtration system.
Not only does it filter everything in the house, but
it also has and this is an option, of course,
(19:21):
but everybody goes for it. It also has a crystal
catalyzing filter cartridge which actually reduces scale by an extreme amount,
so basically kind of gives you the effects of a
water softener. But we don't call it a water softener
because it doesn't use salt. It doesn't use salt ions,
(19:43):
you don't have to keep refeeding it. It just is
what it is. Tina and I have had one in
our home for I don't even know how long now years.
I mean it just in my opinion, it transforms the
way you use water in your home because you're no
longer scared of the fact that you've got to go
(20:03):
to a filter or you've got to get bottled water
or something like that. It's just great water everywhere. It's
completely legit and it's worth looking into. So I would
look into the mow and Flow and the Life Source
system and tell Life Source when you call them that
I sent you there, they're going to treat you really,
really well.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
What kind of price tag goes along with the Life
Source system.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
It all depends on the size of your home and
your water usage, but it is a you know, it
is a pretty big purchase. Right up front. Excuse me, cough,
snuck up on me unexpectedly. It's probably, I would say,
in the four to five thousand dollars range for a
whole house. But then again, you're looking at something that
(20:50):
basically shifts and changes all the water in your house
for years and years and years, so it's a great
investment in the home.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
All right, I thank you very much, Mary.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Thanks for the call. You have good luck with finding
that shut off alve. All right, I'm gonna clear my throat.
We're gonna go to a break and when we come back,
more of your calls. Your home with Dean Sharp the
House I will survive. Dean Sharp the House whisper here
(21:24):
to help you transform your house from ordinary to extraordinary.
That's what we do here every weekend. Thanks for joining
us on the program. Every Saturday morning is an all
calls Saturday morning. So it's time to go back to
the phones. Let's talk to let's see, let's talk to Lloyd. Hey, Lloyd,
(21:48):
welcome home.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
Time. Thank you for taking my call.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
You're very welcome. How can I help you?
Speaker 5 (21:57):
Okay? I bought this house in twenty seventeen and the
original owner had solar panels installed on the roof and
I took over. I'm assuming the lease when I bought
the house because I've had the system ever since, and
here recently I've had a buried backup system installed and
(22:22):
will go online this coming week. But my question is,
pretty soon the lease on the solar panels system itself
will expire, and I'm wondering which is going to be
the best option, renew the lease or buy it outright.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Ah, it's a really good question. I don't know actually,
which is going to be best for you, because it
really does vary from a person to person and from
a household to household. There are pros and cons of
of both. So the first thing you've got to do,
(23:03):
of course, is collect all the relevant information. You should
talk to the lease company, ask them and get a
sense from them of what it's going to take to
renew the lease. What are they going to be looking for,
what are your payment's going to be versus buying out
the system. Now, a lot of systems when they come
(23:24):
to the end of their lease period, you know they
are they're reduced in value as far as you know
their overall cost because it's you know, most leases are
twenty year leases these days, and that effect is a
lot of leases these days are twenty five year leases
of brand new systems. So so those are older panels. Now,
that doesn't mean that they're not working and that they
(23:45):
won't keep going and going and going, but there is
a reduced cost for them. So that might be a
good value for you to buy it out at that point.
But here's the point. The point is between ownership and
a lease. There's pros and cons. It's not immediately uh oh,
you should always buy it if you can. Uh not
a lot of you know, not everybody thinks that way.
(24:06):
I'll give you an example, my solar system, which is
a really nice one. Uh, Tina and I decided to
lease it. We decided to lease it for several reasons.
One as opposed to buying it outright. We like the
idea that the that you know, what we are looking
for is is not to ultimately just bring our our
(24:28):
energy bill to zero and never pay anything for energy again.
But at the rate in which power companies keep increasing prices. Uh,
you know, on the average here in southern California about
seven percent a year at best. Uh And uh so
our electrical costs are fixed they're they're leveled out. We
(24:50):
have our lease payment and UH and our system net
zeros all of our electricity, so we don't actually pay
for electricity except for the connection charge. By the end
of the year, we've paid zero for our power. All
we've done is made this one level lease payment which
will continue to pay and it is so much lower
(25:10):
than everybody around us their energy bills that that's the
savings that we were looking for. And in addition to that,
you know, it went up, no money down. It just
showed up one day and started working for us, and
we started saving. And the other thing is that a
lot of people don't think about that. You know, these
(25:31):
are sensitive pieces of equipment at times, and so our
lease company they are on the hook for all of
this equipment, and they've guaranteed us a certain amount of
kill a watt production per year. So they're constantly monitoring
my system to make sure that it's working at its
optimal best. That's a very nice comforting thought. They monitor
(25:53):
the batteries, which, of course, you know, batteries aren't forever.
But I've got a twenty year you know, guarantee on
my battery. So if my twelve thousand dollars Tesla power
Wall three battery starts to poop out if I own it,
my only choice is that I got to buy a
new one. And in this case, anything that happens to
(26:14):
these batteries is on them, and it's up to them
to switch them out, get it fixed, and so on.
So we enjoyed the idea of all of that tech
and all of that equipment being on the back of
somebody else to make sure they take care of and
they have an incentive to take care of it because
(26:35):
they've guaranteed us certain rates. Otherwise they have to end
up paying us back for stuff and crediting us stuff
against our electric bill. So those are really the pros
of the least situation. Zero money down, you just start
saving right away, and somebody else is taking care of
all the maintenance of the system. The cons, of course,
are your ultimate ROI is not as low as it
(26:58):
could be, just because you know, at some point, if
you buy your system a few years down the line,
you will have saved enough to have paid it off
and and you know it has earned its value back,
and then from there on it's just pure savings from
there until you know the end of the system's life.
So I don't pooh pooh either, want I think different
(27:20):
people have different needs. Tina and I could have afforded
to buy our system, but we chose to lease it.
A lot of people say, you know, transferring a lease
when you sell a house can be a tricky thing
because maybe the new owner doesn't want to take over
the lease. I have never seen that actually be that
big of a case, because who doesn't want to be
(27:42):
guaranteed a low electric bill and from now until the
end of time. So the idea of people assuming lease
is not that big of deoffa. You did it yourself.
So those are the pros and cons. You just have
to kind of measure it against your own particular situation.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
Life are good, I understand it. I'd considered all the
factors you're saying already, and I do appreciate your advice.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Well, you're very very welcome, my friend. Just you know,
do your research and you'll make the right decision for you.
And it really is that, it really is the right
decision for an individual homeowner. The lease isn't a shortcut.
Buying is not a bad move either. It really has
to do with what your long term goals are and
what you were looking for out of your system? All right, y'all,
(28:29):
when we come back, more of your calls your Home
with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper. 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 on demand on
(28:49):
the iHeartRadio app
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp The
House Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio app. Good morning,
my friend, and welcome home. I am Dean Sharp, the
AKA the House Whisper, the aka AKA the House Whisper,
(00:20):
Custom home Builder, Custom home Designer, and every week your
guide to better understanding that place where you live. Whether
your home is a castle or a cottage, it matters not,
you know why, because the same rules apply across the board.
And by the way, luxury does not a great homemake.
(00:41):
It is design that matters most. And I'm here every
week to help you find that path through your place
to make it something significant. Good design makes all the difference.
Every house deserves it, every house should enjoy it because
once good design is at work in your home, that
is when it happened a path forward toward becoming something
(01:02):
truly great.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
It is Saturday morning. You don't know if you notice that.
Of course you do, and it's gonna I think it's
shaping up to be a lovely spring day here in
southern California, and we got to take those when we
get them, especially in May, especially with this big El
Nino headed our way. Things are they are saying, are
gonna get warm to an extreme this summer for us.
(01:27):
So let's take the spring mornings when we can get them.
But because it's Saturday morning, as you know or may
not know if you're new to the show, it is
an all calls Saturday, you're in charge today. I know
that's the last thing you wanted to hear when you
got up this morning. It's Saturday. I don't want to
be in charge of anything today. No, you just get
(01:50):
to pick the topic that we're going to be talking about,
because it's all about your calls, and you can call
me about anything. Whatever's got you scratching your head about
your home, be it design, yes, construction, sure, diy inside, outside, landscape, decor.
I got you. We'll put our heads together, we will
(02:10):
get it figured out. Here is the number to reach me.
The phone lines are open right now. Eight three three two.
Ask Dean A three three to ask Dean A three
to three, the numeral two and then you just spell
out ask Dean. It's just that simple, all right. As
we wait for calls to arrive, I'm gonna say good
(02:31):
morning to Sam. Good morning Sam, Good morning, Dean. How
you doing I'm good, I'm good. How are things in
the house, Whisper Control Central? It is bright and lively.
We are good. Associate producer Marley is currently licking my feet.
It let's yeah, let's clarify. Let's Marley. Let's just leave
(02:58):
it to people's imaginations. I just don't want to get
a call from the FCC saying, uh, you have an
associate producer licking your engineer's feet. Itsual. No, Marley's a dog.
Marley is a dog. All right, there we go, there
we go. All right? Great, Uh, let's see who could
(03:20):
possibly be in the newsroom this morning? Could it be
Heather Brooker?
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Hello?
Speaker 4 (03:28):
No one, No one is licking my feet right now.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Okay, you sound disappointed.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
I am a little, to be honest. You're definitely gonna
get calls now, like, what is going on? It's only
six in the morning.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Ever, that was your week How are things good?
Speaker 5 (03:45):
Good?
Speaker 4 (03:46):
My daughter is in a musical this weekend.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
And what is she doing.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
She's doing Beetlejuice. So we're I'm in full like mom
theater mom mode the past couple of weekends. So as
soon as I leave here today, we're going to go
and do matinee and all the fun stuff.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
So I love it. Did I somehow miss out the
Beetlejuice became a musical.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
Yeah it was. It opened on Broadways several years ago,
and now they have like a junior version for kids,
and it's really cute. It's really fun.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
It's a little dark, but yeah, it is a little
bit dark and a little funny.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Little emo.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
You know.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
They definitely for the junior version lean more into the
silliness of it all. But it's yeah, it's a really
fun musical, really fun.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
So what's your daughter's role?
Speaker 4 (04:37):
She is, well, right now, she's in the ensemble and
she's something called a cigar mob Beetlejuice because in this
version there's a bunch of different dead versions of Beetlejuice,
and so she's the cigar mobster version of Beetlejuice. So
she gets to have a cigar, which is pretty funny.
She's pretty excited about that. She's like, Mom, I get
(04:58):
to have a cigar, And I'm like, whoa, this is
big time.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
You've made it. Yeah, it is, she's made it. She
has made it now. Yeah, well good luck to her
on that break a leg.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
All right, y'all. Uh, here's our sitch. Uh. Oh, we
got a call on the board. That's great. We could
use a few more though, so, uh, why don't we
take a break. Heather's going to give us some news
and uh, you give me a call and then we'll
start the show. Since we're just now waiting for you,
our very special guest, to arrive. The number to reach
me eight three three two. Ask Dean eight three three,
(05:31):
the numeral two. Ask Dean more great stuff on the way.
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp, the house whisper.
Dean Sharp, the house whisper here to help you take
your home to the next level. Thanks for joining us
on the program. It is and all calls Saturday morning.
Here's the number eight three three two. Ask Dean eight
(05:52):
three three two. Ask Dean eight three three the numeral two,
and then you just spell out ask Dean and anything
going on with your home, anything that's got you scratching
your head, anything you want to talk about regarding your home.
All right, let's go to the phones. Nancy, Hey, Nancy,
welcome home.
Speaker 6 (06:13):
Oh thank you, Dean. How you doing?
Speaker 2 (06:16):
I am well? You know what, it's early in the morning.
On a Saturday. But I'm doing good. How are you perfect?
Is this your normal? Is this your normal rise and
shine time for Saturdays?
Speaker 7 (06:29):
Well?
Speaker 6 (06:31):
Kind of.
Speaker 7 (06:31):
I retired about a year ago and then I kind
of learned to sleep in a little bit, but I
wanted to. I've made a special point of being up
early to call into you today.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Oh you're so sweet? All right, how can I help?
Speaker 7 (06:46):
I am converting a tub to a walk in shower
and I want to use a tile in vertical drain.
And I have two questions for you regarding these drains. First,
I just wanted your opinion on vertical drains, and also
I wanted to know what size to use.
Speaker 6 (07:06):
My shower will be thirty seven inches by fifty seven and.
Speaker 7 (07:11):
I wanted to use a vertical drain on a thirty
seven inch wall because I don't want to use too
long of a tile in drain. They get really heavy.
I understand.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Okay, so a great choice. By the way, Now is
this for your primary bathroom or is this a guest bathroom?
Speaker 6 (07:31):
Primary primary bathroom?
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Okay? Great? Yeah, tile in vertical drains? Are you know? Now?
Let me be really clear here. Some people misspeak when
they're describing this. Are we talking about a linear drain
on the floor or a vertical a true vertical drain
(07:54):
in the shower wall.
Speaker 7 (07:57):
Oh yeah, good point. I'm talking about a linear drain
in the floor.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Okay, okay, because unbeknownst to a lot of folks, there
is now a version of a linear drain that actually
goes in the wall and there's no drain on the
floor whatsoever. It's basically like a crack at the bottom
of the a slot at the bottom of the tile wall,
and that's where the water goes in. So I just
wanted to clarify. So, uh yeah, so a linear drain.
(08:24):
Linear drains are great, love them, have no issues with them.
Most of them are built incredibly well. And when we
say that they're tile in, what they are is the
tray that covers the main drain slot can accept the
same tile that goes on the floor. So they kind
of just disappear, well they don't disappear, but they're they're very,
(08:47):
very downplayed as far as their presence on the bathroom floor.
They're just all you see is this rectangular line and
that takes care of the business in your case. Ye,
how why did you say the shower was going to
be thirty six thirty seventy thirty seven. Okay, So it's
never a good idea to go all the way edge
(09:09):
to edge with a drain because you're pushing against the
walls or the edges of the shower pan, and there's
no need to as well. So I would say a
thirty inch drain is as big as you need to
go for that, and you're going to just center it
and so you're still going to have three and a
(09:31):
half inches on both sides of the drain before it
actually gets to the edge of the shower pan, and
that is plenty. You could even get away with a
twenty four if you wanted to, but I think thirty
is a better shot, and it just will do a
better job collecting water off of the floor of the shower.
No real issues to be concerned with. It should be
(09:54):
just a few inches off the end of the shower wall. Again,
we don't want to put too close to the edge
of the shower floor. In fact, when you get your drain,
let's say it's a thirty inch drain, you're measuring the
overall depth of the shower and like I said, in
a thirty six inch shower thirty seven inch shower, you're
(10:14):
going to be at about three and a half inches
and to end off of the edge, you would then
if you want to make it really clean and stylish,
put it about thirty Put it about three and a
half inches off of the end wall. So there's an
even space all the way around it. That has nothing
to do with performance. That has just to do with
the vibe and the look that the drain is nicely
(10:35):
proportioned and fit there. And then the other advantage, of course,
as you already know, of a linear drain, is that
you do not have to bowl the floor of the shower.
The whole floor of the shower can be perfectly flat,
but not level. Of course, the shower is sloping toward
the drain, but it can do it in one complete
(10:58):
sheet flow instead of having to kind of be that
bowl shape. Which gives you a lot of options as
far as your tile is concerned. And when I say that,
I mean you could use larger tiles, or even plank
tiles if you were using, for instance, porcelain plank in
the floor of the bathroom that could run into the shower.
(11:18):
Larger tiles are a problem when we're trying to make
a bowl shape because they're big and we're trying to
curve them, and so it's always smaller tiles that do
better at that, so that the edges, you know, aren't
raised up in the points. But a large format tile,
it doesn't matter on a completely flat plane whether it's
(11:38):
sloped or not, because it's completely flat plane, and so
it gives you a lot of tile setting freedom.
Speaker 7 (11:44):
There.
Speaker 6 (11:46):
Awesome, boy, you have helped me a lot. I really
appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Let me ask you one quick question, not to complicate
your life at all, but if the bathroom is challenged
for space, have you considered doing a curbless shower as
opposed to a one with a standard dam.
Speaker 7 (12:08):
I've considered that, but I think I'm going to be
putting engineered hardwood in my bathroom.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Ah, there you go. Okay, So if you're going to
do hardwood in the bathroom, you definitely want a curb
in between the shower and the hardwood floor, which, by
the way, that's a beautiful choice, Absolutely beautiful choice.
Speaker 6 (12:31):
Yeah, I think it's going to be good.
Speaker 7 (12:32):
I was considering, though, reducing the curb down to four
inches rather than six inches, which seemed kind of standard.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yes, I would absolutely do that. Reduce the curb down,
make it a small you know, I mean, it needs
to be somewhat of a curb. But just remember we
live in a world where we could go curbless and
the shower works just fine, the drain works just fine.
So the idea that whatever the wood that runs across
that is the of the curb. Just remember you're gonna
(13:01):
have like an inch more of stuff, a half an
inch of tile board and thin set, and then another
close to half an inch of tile on top of it,
so that curb is gonna get wider by two inches
and taller by an inch. So just think in terms
of what the finished height of the curb wants to
(13:22):
be so it doesn't get out of control.
Speaker 6 (13:25):
Okay, good, thank you very much.
Speaker 7 (13:27):
Okay, Dean, I appreciate you, and I'm so glad I
was able to talk.
Speaker 6 (13:31):
To you today.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Oh Nancy, thanks for calling, Thanks for getting up early
just to talk to me about your shower. So sweet,
so sweet. I hope that helped all. Right, y'all, when
we come back, more of your calls, Your Home with
Dean Sharp the house whisper you're listening to Home With
Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty Dean Sharp.
(13:52):
The house Whisper here to help you transform your ordinary
house into an extraordinary home. Or as I like to say,
there is a dream home hiding in the house that
you have, and I am here to help you find it. Oh,
it's so true. By the way, if your home needs
some personal house Whisper attention, you can always book an
(14:13):
in home design consult with us. That would be me
and T who isn't here yet this morning, Me and
T showing up at your home, sitting there with you
staring at the problem. Just go to house Whisper dot
Design for more info house Whisper dot Design. All right,
it's an all call Saturday morning. We're going back to
(14:35):
the phones. I want to talk to Mary. Hey, Mary,
welcome home.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Well, thank you, and good morning.
Speaker 8 (14:44):
My question is regarding these regulators or gadgets that can
be put in line with your plumbing coming into the house,
the water coming into the house, to shut off the
water in.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Case it detects a leak or basically a leak or
anything wrong. The insurance company's homeowners insurance will give a
little bit of a credit if you have such a
gadget and I'd like to know more about it.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Okay, yeah, and you're absolutely right. The I think the
the in my opinion, the currently the best and most tested,
most proven of these devices would be the Mowen Flow. Okay,
it's by Mowen, the faucet company m O E N
and flow is spelled without the W. It's just f
(15:45):
l O A. Mowen Flow is a water a smart
water monitor and automatic shutoff, and so it would go
on the mainline into the house. Cost Wise, you know,
you can find kind of competitively priced these days, depending
on where you look. Definitely shop it around because it
(16:06):
all depends on the size of the line that it's
built for. But you know, it's about six hundred six
to seven hundred dollars, so it's not a cheap device,
but it's well worth it because what it does. It's
an intelligent whole home plumbing security system in that sense,
it constantly monitors water pressure and flow, right, It learns
(16:31):
the way that you use water in your home, and
it checks on temperature as well, and it combines all
those things together to detect leaks. It will warn you
if your pipes start to freeze, if you live in
that kind of area, and it'll automatically shut off your
water to prevent you know, catastrophic damage should a pipe
bust or anything like that. It also warn you if
(16:53):
you've got a pin leak somewhere, because it's it has
the ability to kind of just really know what's going on.
He knows the difference between faucets going on and off,
toilets being flushed and showers being run, and the endless
flow of water and or the kind of conditions that
lead to a leak. So they are a very very
(17:13):
very smart device, well worth every penny that you spend
for them as safety for a home. I've talked about
them for years and so now there are others on
the market, but in my opinion, the Flow is the best,
most substantiated one out there, and I've just heard no complaints.
And by the way, it's all fed via, of course,
(17:37):
as all things, an app on your smartphone, and so
you'll have an app, you'll get alerts you can check
any time, and yeah that and absolutely most insurance companies
will give you a break for having one installed because
for them, it's just another point of protection that you
are placing on your home. To keep them from having
(17:59):
to pay for all of your flooring to be replaced
and everything else that happens once you have a big leak.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
That is very useful. Thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
You're very very welcome. So check it out. It's flow
Flo not a sponsor the show, but a great product,
and you can find them all over. They're on the
shelf at Home Depot at Lows. It's probably just about
your best pricing too. I think they're the ones that
Home Depot and Lows are down in the just over
(18:35):
six hundred dollars category, which I as far as I know,
is probably about a good prices as you're going to
get on them.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Also, I was going to check on these whole house
filters water filters, yeah, for instead of just at the
bosset to get good drinking water.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
I guess there have some that manage the whole well.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yes, yeah, I talk about them every week in my
opinion here in southern California. The one that I share
with you guys on a weekly basis, Life Source is
the best there is for a whole house water filtration system.
Not only does it filter everything in the house, but
it also has and this is an option, of course,
(19:21):
but everybody goes for it. It also has a crystal
catalyzing filter cartridge which actually reduces scale by an extreme amount,
so basically kind of gives you the effects of a
water softener. But we don't call it a water softener
because it doesn't use salt. It doesn't use salt ions,
(19:43):
you don't have to keep refeeding it. It just is
what it is. Tina and I have had one in
our home for I don't even know how long now years.
I mean it just in my opinion, it transforms the
way you use water in your home because you're no
longer scared of the fact that you've got to go
(20:03):
to a filter or you've got to get bottled water
or something like that. It's just great water everywhere. It's
completely legit and it's worth looking into. So I would
look into the mow and Flow and the Life Source
system and tell Life Source when you call them that
I sent you there, they're going to treat you really,
really well.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
What kind of price tag goes along with the Life
Source system.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
It all depends on the size of your home and
your water usage, but it is a you know, it
is a pretty big purchase. Right up front. Excuse me, cough,
snuck up on me unexpectedly. It's probably, I would say,
in the four to five thousand dollars range for a
whole house. But then again, you're looking at something that
(20:50):
basically shifts and changes all the water in your house
for years and years and years, so it's a great
investment in the home.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
All right, I thank you very much, Mary.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Thanks for the call. You have good luck with finding
that shut off alve. All right, I'm gonna clear my throat.
We're gonna go to a break and when we come back,
more of your calls. Your home with Dean Sharp the
House I will survive. Dean Sharp the House whisper here
(21:24):
to help you transform your house from ordinary to extraordinary.
That's what we do here every weekend. Thanks for joining
us on the program. Every Saturday morning is an all
calls Saturday morning. So it's time to go back to
the phones. Let's talk to let's see, let's talk to Lloyd. Hey, Lloyd,
(21:48):
welcome home.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
Time. Thank you for taking my call.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
You're very welcome. How can I help you?
Speaker 5 (21:57):
Okay? I bought this house in twenty seventeen and the
original owner had solar panels installed on the roof and
I took over. I'm assuming the lease when I bought
the house because I've had the system ever since, and
here recently I've had a buried backup system installed and
(22:22):
will go online this coming week. But my question is,
pretty soon the lease on the solar panels system itself
will expire, and I'm wondering which is going to be
the best option, renew the lease or buy it outright.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Ah, it's a really good question. I don't know actually,
which is going to be best for you, because it
really does vary from a person to person and from
a household to household. There are pros and cons of
of both. So the first thing you've got to do,
(23:03):
of course, is collect all the relevant information. You should
talk to the lease company, ask them and get a
sense from them of what it's going to take to
renew the lease. What are they going to be looking for,
what are your payment's going to be versus buying out
the system. Now, a lot of systems when they come
(23:24):
to the end of their lease period, you know they
are they're reduced in value as far as you know
their overall cost because it's you know, most leases are
twenty year leases these days, and that effect is a
lot of leases these days are twenty five year leases
of brand new systems. So so those are older panels. Now,
that doesn't mean that they're not working and that they
(23:45):
won't keep going and going and going, but there is
a reduced cost for them. So that might be a
good value for you to buy it out at that point.
But here's the point. The point is between ownership and
a lease. There's pros and cons. It's not immediately uh oh,
you should always buy it if you can. Uh not
a lot of you know, not everybody thinks that way.
(24:06):
I'll give you an example, my solar system, which is
a really nice one. Uh, Tina and I decided to
lease it. We decided to lease it for several reasons.
One as opposed to buying it outright. We like the
idea that the that you know, what we are looking
for is is not to ultimately just bring our our
(24:28):
energy bill to zero and never pay anything for energy again.
But at the rate in which power companies keep increasing prices. Uh,
you know, on the average here in southern California about
seven percent a year at best. Uh And uh so
our electrical costs are fixed they're they're leveled out. We
(24:50):
have our lease payment and UH and our system net
zeros all of our electricity, so we don't actually pay
for electricity except for the connection charge. By the end
of the year, we've paid zero for our power. All
we've done is made this one level lease payment which
will continue to pay and it is so much lower
(25:10):
than everybody around us their energy bills that that's the
savings that we were looking for. And in addition to that,
you know, it went up, no money down. It just
showed up one day and started working for us, and
we started saving. And the other thing is that a
lot of people don't think about that. You know, these
(25:31):
are sensitive pieces of equipment at times, and so our
lease company they are on the hook for all of
this equipment, and they've guaranteed us a certain amount of
kill a watt production per year. So they're constantly monitoring
my system to make sure that it's working at its
optimal best. That's a very nice comforting thought. They monitor
(25:53):
the batteries, which, of course, you know, batteries aren't forever.
But I've got a twenty year you know, guarantee on
my battery. So if my twelve thousand dollars Tesla power
Wall three battery starts to poop out if I own it,
my only choice is that I got to buy a
new one. And in this case, anything that happens to
(26:14):
these batteries is on them, and it's up to them
to switch them out, get it fixed, and so on.
So we enjoyed the idea of all of that tech
and all of that equipment being on the back of
somebody else to make sure they take care of and
they have an incentive to take care of it because
(26:35):
they've guaranteed us certain rates. Otherwise they have to end
up paying us back for stuff and crediting us stuff
against our electric bill. So those are really the pros
of the least situation. Zero money down, you just start
saving right away, and somebody else is taking care of
all the maintenance of the system. The cons, of course,
are your ultimate ROI is not as low as it
(26:58):
could be, just because you know, at some point, if
you buy your system a few years down the line,
you will have saved enough to have paid it off
and and you know it has earned its value back,
and then from there on it's just pure savings from
there until you know the end of the system's life.
So I don't pooh pooh either, want I think different
(27:20):
people have different needs. Tina and I could have afforded
to buy our system, but we chose to lease it.
A lot of people say, you know, transferring a lease
when you sell a house can be a tricky thing
because maybe the new owner doesn't want to take over
the lease. I have never seen that actually be that
big of a case, because who doesn't want to be
(27:42):
guaranteed a low electric bill and from now until the
end of time. So the idea of people assuming lease
is not that big of deoffa. You did it yourself.
So those are the pros and cons. You just have
to kind of measure it against your own particular situation.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
Life are good, I understand it. I'd considered all the
factors you're saying already, and I do appreciate your advice.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Well, you're very very welcome, my friend. Just you know,
do your research and you'll make the right decision for you.
And it really is that, it really is the right
decision for an individual homeowner. The lease isn't a shortcut.
Buying is not a bad move either. It really has
to do with what your long term goals are and
what you were looking for out of your system? All right, y'all,
(28:29):
when we come back, more of your calls your Home
with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper. 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 on demand on
(28:49):
the iHeartRadio app
Home with Dean Sharp News
Popular Podcasts
Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb
Joy is essential. And it's also elusive. You can't order it, borrow it, or simply hope it into life. But now, there's a new and exciting way to start your journey toward a more joyful existence: The Joy 101 Podcast with Hoda! Best known for her Emmy-winning work and co-anchoring Today, Hoda Kotb infuses her authenticity, curiosity, and warmth into conversations with the world’s most fascinating people. Entertainment legends, sport icons, wellness experts, and everyday folks will share how they find, allow, and experience joy. Hoda will offer her own tips and takes on seeking a more balanced, harmonious life. If you're craving inspiration, support, and useful tools to maximize your joy, tune in to these candid, uplifting, and moving on-air chats. Joy after a breakup, joy as an empty-nester, joy after loss, joy as a caretaker — Hoda's new podcast will speak to you. Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb, an iHeartPodcast.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com