September 7, 2025 • 30 mins
A caller is in the process of buying a near-completed home in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, and the foundation is being retrofitted. He wants to know who is responsible for finishing the work — the buyer or seller?
Another caller is terrified for a relative whose home is exhibiting every bad sign of foundation damage, it's rumored to have been built over a creek — and possibly even a landfill!
Another caller is terrified for a relative whose home is exhibiting every bad sign of foundation damage, it's rumored to have been built over a creek — and possibly even a landfill!
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 iHeartRadio app. Good morning
and welcome home. I am Dean Sharp, the house Whisper,
Custom home Builder, custom home Designer, and every week your
guide to better understanding that place where you live. We
are doing a heavy lift today in more ways than one.
(00:22):
Literally because we're talking about concrete foundations and figuratively because
concrete foundations, foundations, retaining walls, repairing them when there are problems.
This is something that is just so outside an average
homeowners wheelhouse. Most homeowners wheelhouses, most contractors wheelhouses. That's why
(00:44):
there are specialty contractors out there who do nothing but
address foundation repairs. And my two favorites are sitting across
the table from me in studio today, Mark and James,
the Foundation guys from Foundation Repair LA. These are my
foundation guys. Yeah, we work together on projects. They these
(01:05):
are literally the guys I am calling out to deal
with stuff like that crazy nineteen thirty five house in
Studio City with the full basement. What the heck is
a full basement doing in the thirties in the valley anyway,
leaking you're leaking, leaking like a sieve. That's what it
was doing. So it still is actually because we haven't
(01:28):
actually addressed it yet. But anyway, these are my foundation
guys from Foundation Repair LA, the co owners of Foundation
Repair LA, and we're talking about this kind of stuff today.
Now we've talked cracks, we've talked warning signs, we've talked moisture.
These are the things that usually alert a homeowner that
there's a problem. So let's say they make the call
(01:49):
and you have talked to them on the phone and
kind of figured out, well, maybe this is something we
should take a look at. Right, how do you guys
evaluate what's the step. You were telling me during the
break that you're looking at the neighborhood before you even
get to the house.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
So one of you tell me how this works. Oh,
that's exactly right. So as we're driving there, you drive
across LA. We know the areas already, we've been everywhere.
But as we're driving to your neighborhood, we'll be looking
at the terrain. If it's a hillside area, we'll be
looking at how the roads are built, houses are sitting,
some are above others flatlands, We'll be looking at that
(02:27):
we'll be looking for where the original river bed might
have been. Like out in the valley you have the
concrete river ways drainage pathways, and you know, back when
the Indians were there, that area was maybe one hundred
and two hundred yards wide, and now the drainage path
is forty feet across, all concrete ten feet deep. Well,
(02:49):
it wasn't that way way back in the day. So
even flatland areas can have problems. So we'll be looking
at the terrain hillside areas, we're looking for bedrock, looking
for where is a house above the street or below
the street? Does there look like there was a lot
of bulldozer work back in the day pushing the land.
You know, our houses generally are on flat lots, typically
(03:13):
unless it's actually descending down the hillside, and part of
that lot probably was filled, that's fill soil. So one
side of the house might be on literally bedrock or
on very solid material. The other half of the house
might be on twenty feet of fill where it got
pushed there by the bulldozer.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
And a lot of people live in those neighborhoods, right,
I mean, if you're not living in a completely flat neighborhood,
if you've got at least a little bit of a hill,
then you're probably living especially developmental tracks, like on what
we call a cut and fill development right in which
your if your house is a few feet above or
below the neighbor's house next to you, and it just
keeps descending down the street, down the hillside or up,
(03:53):
and so that's a cut and fill lot. They cut
in the part where the neighbor is above you. That's
probably where your house is sitting on something solid. But
the other part where it goes out and then heads
down to the neighbor below you, that's very likely phil
that has been transitioned from the cut over there, and
that fill if it wasn't compacted just perfectly and keyed
(04:17):
into the soil that was there, that stuff could be
moving some.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah, and that's where you'll get you know, the house
floors are at a level at times, and so we'll
look what we're looking as you're driving up. Next thing
we're doing is when we walk up to the front door,
we're looking at you know, does this house have gutters
down spouts?
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Is there?
Speaker 2 (04:35):
You know, do does the earth slope directly to the foundations,
which is actually backwards you want water all to drain
away from the house. Where's the water come off the hillside?
Does it go right to the foundation? Well, that's just
gonna worsen and loosen the soil. So we're looking at
that knock on the door. Go inside. We start our
(04:56):
inspections inside because we're looking for evidence sloping floors, walls,
I mean literally walls could be leaning because the house
has shifted so much. James was mentioned in the break
about you know houses had been flipped and stuff like that,
where you'll be looking at the floors. A perfectly level
place looks perfect, but you know that ceiling is three
(05:18):
inches out of whack. Why is the ceiling sloping three
inches but the floor is not? Yeah, well, I mean
somebody did a lot of work to make that thing
look pretty, or a minimal amount of work. And then
then you know, we take what we see inside the
house and then we go below and see why why
is it sloping there? Why do we have problems? And
(05:39):
then we're looking and then we're looking at the condition
of the foundation.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
So that's I mean, that's a very comprehensive. You know,
look at the house. How often do you find that,
you know, there's something going on here, but maybe it's
not something that has to be addressed immediately. Maybe well
it's a given. Let's say we've got a raised a
(06:03):
sub floor situation, raise foundation and you go underneath and
you find, like, you know, maybe some of the posts
and the connectors down there, you know, could use an upgrade,
but they're still in place, and they're still holding. Are
you guys the kind of guys who are like, all right,
so we're gonna put all new hardware, all of that,
We're gonna you know, you're both shaking your habits and James,
(06:24):
I know this gets your go James, That's why I
said it that way. So you're not the guy who's gonna,
you know, find every little thing under there that isn't
actually even foundation related per se, and say, well, we
could upgrade this for you, right exactly. We you know,
we are there to solve the problem that the homeowner
has or direct them if they perceive a problem that's
(06:44):
not a foundation problem. We're not there to give them,
you know, as we call it a bill of goods.
You know, posts and peers are responsible for holding up
the interior floors. They help stop it bouncing, but Frankly,
you could remove half of them. The house is not
going to collapse, so you won't see from us where
we recommend putting tea straps on all the posts and
(07:05):
peers and fixing every little minor crack. I mean again,
all concrete is cracked, it doesn't necessarily mean it's a problem.
So we're looking for the major problems and correcting those
major problems, you know, so there's there's no longer an
issue there. I don't need to go to a house
and find things for my guys to do. I think
that just left a major level of comfort for listeners
(07:29):
who are considering the fact that they're like, I don't
know what's going on in there, but you know, just
just to invite. It's kind of like, you know, you
invite a vampire into your house and now you've given
them free reign. That's how it goes, right, And I'm
going to offend now two professional groups that I respect immensely.
But I've always made this joke that you know, chiropractors
and orthodonists are two people you never go to and hear,
(07:53):
oh no, everything's fine, you don't need you don't need
an adjustment, and you don't need braces. No, that's fine. No,
you will never hear that. He's like, no, that back too. There.
We could, we could, we could, we could at least
get a retainer in there. And I just love the
idea that you guys are like, listen, we're out there
fixing real foundation problems. We've only got so many crews
and so much time, and so I'm not looking to
(08:15):
make a quick buck by putting t straps on the
posts underneath you. You know, if there isn't actually a reason
to do that related to the foundation of the house.
It's not like you're you're not against those no, No,
I mean, if it's new construction, those are current code,
and if we're replacing them, we do have to bring
them up to current code. But I'm not going to
do it for the sake of doing it if it's
(08:35):
not solving a problem with the house at that time. Exactly,
all right, when we come back, we're gonna take a
little break from this conversation. We're gonna answer some calls,
maybe some foundation calls. We'll find out your Home with
Dean Sharp, the House Whisperer.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI A M six forty.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
We're having a conversation today about foundation repair, something that
we're trying to explain in the simplest and most useful
way possible. It's a big topic and it's outside of
most people's wheelhouse. But to help me do it, I've
got my two favorite foundation repair experts, Mark and James
from Foundation Repair LA, the Foundation guys, sitting across the
(09:16):
table from you. Guys. Thanks again for being on the
show with me today. It's a hoot. Thanks, thanks you
having me. All Right, it's time to go to the phones.
Let me grab my little phone mouse over here. I
think let's talk to let's talk to Jonathan. Hey, Jonathan,
welcome home, Thanks Jane.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
So the question is I had a water issue from
an adjacent property and we notice it back in December. Now,
all of a sudden, I have some doors offset on
the property, so they're scraping as we open them, bedroom doors,
things like that, and also kitchen cabinet island where all
of a sudden, all the drawers are now sliding open
(09:55):
and they won't stay closed so they're slanting. Obviously, do
you started talking about this subject? It didn't even occur
to me that that water that was there in December
may have continued. And we're out in Thousand Oaks and
there's a lot of subterranean water out there and the
house was built about nineteen sixty. You know what happens
(10:18):
with these guys? How do I?
Speaker 5 (10:19):
How do I?
Speaker 3 (10:20):
How do we start this process? And it is there
a to do an estimate or come out and walk
the property? Is there a price or a fee or
you know, do you guys put estimates together? How does that?
How does that all work? Before you have to like
retain Dean and have them do the design.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Well, of course they're going to come out for free,
but I charge a finder's fee, So just so you know,
that's all right? So I get a percentage? No, I
don't know. I don't all right, guys, what do you
what do you want to ask Jonathan about what's going
on here? Well, first of all, just as long as
it's a homeowner and they're not selling the home, we
don't charge to come out and you know, walk the site.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
And okay, yeah, no I am I am the homeowner and.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Yeah, and Jonathan, are you on a slab?
Speaker 3 (10:56):
And unfortunately, yeah, we're on a concrete slab. It was
nineteen sixty and we have an adjacent property that is
probably so we're we're below them, probably by forty feet
the back of our property. I was going to talk
to these guys about a retaining wall because the wall
(11:17):
was built in nineteen sixty five when they built a
commercial facility behind us, and they obviously built it up.
They didn't build a retaining wall to the quality we
build retaining walls at this point. And so when I
went out there in December, I suck a piece of
refar in the ground and it went down three feet
through the soil like a hot knife through butter. So
(11:39):
I notified them immediately. They figured out that they had
an irrigation issue, said they've got it fixed. At this point,
I'm thinking maybe they don't have it fixed. And then
the other question would be would you be able to
give me enough information because if it turns out there's
liability from the adjacent neighbor, is that going to fall
into a wheelhouse where you guys cover or at least you
can give us some direction on it.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Well, let's start with the issue. You know, if you
oversaturate soil, especially if it's got a high clay content,
it'll tend to expand. As it dries out, it will contract,
and that can cause settlement of the slab and the footings,
which maybe sounds like that's what happened there. If it's head,
if it's heading toward lawsuit territory, we wouldn't typically get
(12:24):
involved in that end of it, though we do have
people we can refer you to that deal with that.
Is there anything else you can tell, Jonathan, just about
the scenario without you going out and seeing it. Have
you checked the level on the floors is it? Can
you tell if it's sloping?
Speaker 3 (12:47):
I'm pretty sure it's sloping. The kitchen island, we have
one drawer that was sort of sliding open that have
dishes in it, and all of a sudden, now all
four drawers on that side won't stay closed at all.
And then I have a bedroom door that and this
has all happened in the last probably sixty days, thirty days,
you know, Okay, Well, it's just all relatively new.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
It's something we look at. I mean, it's hard to
give too much information before seeing it, but sure may
want to get a soul's analysis done by a geological firm.
Jonathan I think these are the guys to call, just
saying you're gonna have to give them a call and
have them come out and take a peek. But this
is exactly the kind of stuff and it's unnerving, right,
(13:29):
it's unnerving, Like, Okay, the drawers on my kitchen island
are sliding out now they don't stay. But I've got
oversaturated soil. Man, there is nothing quite as unnerving as
thinking that there's something wrong with the foundation underneath your feet,
you know, So all right, when we come back, more
of your calls, and you know what, we'll we're going
to push into foundations even further. Here your Home with
(13:51):
Dean Sharp, the house Whisper.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Here to transform your ordinary house into an extraordinary home.
And you know what. In order to do that goes
without saying your home should still be standing and not
slipping down the hillside or sinking into the soil around it.
So today we're I'm doing a little you know, you
guys know that there are two people who live in me.
There's a designer that lives inside me. There's a contractor
(14:19):
that lives inside me. Sometimes they argue for airtime, sometimes
they wrestle. But the designer is like, you know, this
is a relevant question. I want to keep doing design
on homes. So he's letting the contractor talk today about
keeping homes standing. And I'm doing it with two of
my favorite guys, my Foundation Repair X, my Foundation repair experts,
(14:41):
the foundation guys, Mark and James of Foundation Repair LA.
They're sitting across the table from me today and we're
taking calls, and we actually have a couple of foundation
question calls. So let's go back to the phones. Let's
talk to Donald. Hey, Donald, Welcome home, gentlemen.
Speaker 6 (14:59):
I'm in the good morning. I'm in the process of
in escrow and I'm going to be buying a home
in the Laurel Canyon area of Los Angeles. We had
a home inspection, a general home inspection done and he
said that three quarters of the foundation was retrofitted, but
(15:19):
one quarter was not.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
My question is.
Speaker 6 (15:24):
Whose responsibility is it to repair that, the seller or
the buyer.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Okay, so generally retrofitting, as in being done after the
fact on a foundation, would be considered an upgrade. You
could talk to your realtor about this. But in my experience,
the sellers are not responsible for upgrading foundations unless there's
actually a problem with It's not a code requirement. Correct.
It's one of those things where the foundation you've got
(15:52):
is grandfathered in. Yes, and so this is an optional,
voluntary thing. So nobody's going to strong arm a seller
into doing. Now, if they're selling the house as a
retrofitted foundation and it's not, then that's a conversation probably
to have between the realtors and the real estate agents
(16:13):
to work out the fact that there's either a credit
due or finished the job, but it's not required. Is
it correct? Okay, does that make sense? Donald?
Speaker 7 (16:24):
It does?
Speaker 6 (16:24):
Thank you answered my question, unfortunately, but thank you pretty much.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Have a good date. We've answered his question unfortunately. All right.
I don't think that was the answer he wanted. I
think I think Donald wanted some cash. I tried, you tried, James, James.
You didn't hit the jackpot with James today, but you
did get the truth, and that's what's important. Let's let's
(16:50):
talk to Casey. Hey, Casey, welcome home.
Speaker 5 (16:53):
Hey, Hey, all right, hi, your two gifts have just
scared me completely.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
No no no, no, no no no no, no.
Speaker 5 (17:01):
No, no, no, no, no no. Let me explain to you.
A relative has her house has exhibited one of the defects.
The base boards are separating, doors are not closing, deep
cracks everywhere. I could place a ball in the middle
of the living room floor and it rolls. I opened
(17:25):
the refrigerator door, it doesn't stay open. It swings all
the way. The house was built in the sixties. I
believe it's part of a big development. And the house
lifts at the base of a hill. The rumor has
it that this whole area was built on a landfill
(17:48):
and there's a river or a creek running under the property.
How do we find out if it's built on a
landfill and if there's a creek underneath the house?
Speaker 2 (18:00):
All right, Mark, Well, you know what I would say,
first off, you definitely need us to come out and
take a look at it, because what you're talking about
is something that we would evaluate when we come out there,
and we'll look for the simple answers to those questions
that you have and the problems.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
What part of town are you in?
Speaker 5 (18:20):
What part of La La County? Do I have to
mention the city?
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Because no, I mean, you know they believe me, if
you mentioned the city, nobody's going to be tracking you down.
Don't give us your street address, just but what city
in Monterey Park? Okay?
Speaker 3 (18:37):
All right?
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Are you up on the hills? Yep, all right, there's
a lot of movement in Monterey Park depends, especially even
homes in the sixties. You think a sixties home is
not a very old one, but it is in number
the way construction was done back then. And the first
thing is we just come out. We'd look at it, okay,
and we'll tell you what you're running into and what
(19:00):
probably needs to happen. You're gonna want to get a
geo technical soils report. But before you go out spending money,
have us look at it, because that's exactly what in
our wheelhouse is.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Yeah, and it's not again, it's not Casey, it's not necessarily.
I mean, it sounds like there was a confluence of
issues clearly. Okay, So you you've you know, you've you
had me at the ball rolling across the floor on
its own. Other you know, unless the house is possessed,
unless you know, we need to call an exorcist. Otherwise
we're just gonna call Mark and James out James, you
look at you wanted to say something. A lot of
(19:32):
times people think it's worse than it is. I mean,
if you were to go on the internet and start
googling foundation problems, it's going to look horrific. You think
it's bad. It's like when you have some It's like
when you go on web md. It's exactly where I
was going. That small dot on my arm is fatal, right, amputation,
probably recommended correctly, and it's not usually that bad exactly.
You know, have us look at it. We're down to earth.
(19:54):
You know, if you go through our reviews too, I
mean half of our reviews or they gave us advice
in other areas of construction because we actually didn't have
a foundation problem.
Speaker 8 (20:03):
So okay, but would you be able to determine if
it was built the whole area was built on a landfill,
and or it was a river or a creek.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
So I can I can handle that question for you, Casey.
First of all, whether there's a river or creek underneath
you may be an issue, may not be an issue, okay,
because there are plenty of areas. Again, this is why
what what Mark was saying is so key. The key
is to look at what the situation is and start
evaluating it from the simplest answers forward. Because there are
(20:36):
a lot of areas in all of southern California where
there are underground water flows. There's I mean, there's there
are dry lake beds, there's I mean, there's all sorts
of conditions that you could say, aha, aha, look that's
the problem, but in reality not actually causing anybody a profit.
All right, So in this specific situation, uh, you've got
(20:57):
a specific set of problems tracking whether at there was
a landfill anywhere in southern California. Having having grown up
in a landfill myself and having my dad having run
one most of my life, I can tell you we
have a pretty good record of whether and where landfills
are in this area. So yeah, that information can be found,
(21:18):
but it doesn't necessarily mean it's the exact cause of
the problem. Okay, So the best thing to do is
have these guys out take a look at it and
get it onto an honest assessment of what this particular
house needs for what's happening to it, Because I'm guessing
there's a lot of homes in the neighborhood that aren't
(21:41):
moving at all and that aren't needing to you know,
call out this. So the point is it's very much
like climate. You know, there are micro climates, there's there
there are very isolated incidents sometimes when one piece of
property or two pieces of property are experiencing something that
nothing else in the neighborhood is experiencing. So it's not
too you know, today's show is not to overly concern
(22:01):
or frighten anybody. It's just to alert you to what
the signs are. And I think you're responding, well, these
are signs that definitely. I mean, these guys, they are nodding.
They're like, yeah, that's a house that should be looked
at all right, it should at least be looked at
all right. And then taken from that point. And by
the way, I don't know which one of you said
that a house built in the sixties is not really
an old house. I appreciate that, yeah, because I was
(22:23):
built in the sixties and so now I'm feeling a
little better about myself as well. All right, more of
your calls when we return your Home with Dean Sharp
the House Whisper.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on Demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
We're talking foundation repair today. I'm also taking calls. It
just so happens. We've had a lot of foundation questions
on the calls, and so you know, I'm not picking
them necessarily intentionally here, but they're just all over the board. Okay,
I'm just gonna throw a dart at the board and
we'll see if we get another one here. Let's talk
to Pat. Hey, Pat, welcome home.
Speaker 7 (23:00):
Oh thank you. I hope you guys don't think this
is a ridiculous question, and I'll hit your mute button
and start giggling. But I'm finding eighteen to twenty inch
mounds of gophers going against my foundation in front of
the house, on the back of the house, and I'm
just curious. Could they cause any damage? My house is
(23:23):
built in nineteen thirty six in Long Beach, three years
after the Big One, and of course I have that
nice crawl space underneath the house.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Have you seen any evidence of the gophers popping up
in the crawl space?
Speaker 7 (23:40):
Well, I'm not the type to go down there, okay,
so I would have to have somebody go look for me.
I'm sure they are. I'm sure they didn't go all
the way around and then dig another mound on the
opposite end of the house which leads out into the yard. Okay,
I'm thinking they are going under the house, right.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Let's ask the guys. Let's ask Mark and James gophers.
Are they a threat?
Speaker 2 (24:04):
I would say typically no, gophers aren't aren't going to
be a threat. The thing I think you're going to
need is pest control first. So what one we want
to know? First off, what's happening to the house. Is
there actually you see walls and floors sloping? Is there
any particular problem that you're getting besides the gophers.
Speaker 7 (24:27):
No, No, I do have one hallway where the floor
is raised a little bit, and I don't think that's foundation.
I think that's where the floor connects. I have these wooden,
beautiful wooden floors. But that's been for years before the gophers.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Yeah, so, Pat, it sounds like you have a gopher problem,
not a foundation problem.
Speaker 7 (24:48):
I want to make sure that because these mouths are huge.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Yeah, well, they're displaced. These guys displace a lot of dirt.
I mean, gophers are no joke as far as you
know the amount of ground that they cover under beneath
the ground. But I will tell you this, I know
a little bit about gophers, a little bit. I'm not
putting myself as the gopher expert, but I do know
this because animals always fascinate me, and I have to
do a lot of gopher research to help clients with
(25:12):
gopher issues out in their yards. Most gophers they're what
we call their traverse tunnels. The tunnels that they use
to get around in those tunnels are usually six to
twelve inches below the surface of the ground that they're
running around it. They're little tunnels. Now, if they decide
to actually the deepest part of their burrow system where
(25:35):
they would like nest and you know and actually you know,
raise their young, that could be like six feet down.
But that's the exception. Everything else is just running around
and the footings on your house are extending down, you know,
a good twelve sixteen, eighteen inches down into the ground,
and so they probably aren't tunneling under them and getting
(25:59):
up underneath the head house. But you should have somebody
peak anyway, because you know, maybe it's they're like, hey,
shady in here, let's let's do this thing. But the
point is it's it's yeah, it's it's it's not threatening
now though, it's just it's just a gopher issue. So
that would be that would be a pest control concern. Mark.
You got another thing.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Well, I say, all my years of crawling under houses,
probably ten thousand homes or stuff, I've never seen gophers
under a house.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Yeah, me, neither. You did see a bear though, you
did see a bear, didn't you. Well, that was one
of our guys. That was about a year ago. Yes,
that wasn't you bear. No, No, skunks are more common.
Oh yeah, yeah, that was a lot. I had pet
skunk for a while. Oh yeah, yeah, crazy. I found
a pet skunk up in the canyon. Or I didn't
find a pet skunk. I found a skunk that was wounded.
(26:45):
And my dad was very good of all the things
that my dad wasn't good at, he was very good
at helping me understand and be kind to animals. And
he actually we had a vet friend, a wild animal
vet friend. Here, I am just going off on a
tangent here that he actually he said, you know what, Dean,
this You know, we we can reset this broken leg,
but this guy's never going to be, you know, able
(27:07):
to get out in the wild. Anymore. But if you'll
promise to take care of him, I'll take out his
scent glands and you can keep him as a pet.
He's just a kind of an overgrown weasel, and I'm like,
let's do that. And for four years. You know, of
course I was a kid, so I named him Peppi
you know, yeah, Peppy Peppy, No, peugh is what I
(27:28):
called him, because he didn't have any senk. But you know,
look at my the look on my friend's face or
just people who had come over when I came out
holding a skunk that was worth its weight in gold. Yeah,
but you guys found a bear under it? No, not you,
but what you was it? Live? Yes, jeez, I'm crawling.
I have crawled under so many foundations and not to
(27:49):
not once in my entire career to this very moment
have I thought I could crawl them there and find
a bear. I knew it was possible because I've been
under houses where there has been damaged from the bears,
and you can see it in the framing, especially as
you get up into Sierra Madre Monrovia in the hills,
it's somewhat common that they have issues with bears like that,
(28:12):
all right, I would love you know what we're gonna
We're gonna probably wrap up calls and move on to
more foundation repair stuff. But I'm just saying, if somebody
has found a bear under their foundation, call me right
now and you will get on the air. I guarantee it.
You just tell our call screener. Yeah, I got a
foundation bear story. We will put you on the air
because that's just frightening and also highly amusing somehow, I
(28:36):
don't know what it is. I love bears, but I
don't want to find one under my house, not at all,
not in the least. All right, Hey, so we've talked
about all the problems, let's talk about how you guys
go about fixing some of these things, because I know
that's as much a mystery as it is anything. You know,
you do you when the corner of a house has
(28:58):
sloped down, you guys, do you jack it up? Do
you crane it up level again and pour something underneath it?
You know people have heard about I got a call
last week about somebody recommending there was an area underneath
a retaining wall, I think where there was a major
washout of water, and somebody was recommending injecting expansive foam
in there. I've heard all sorts of ideas about how
(29:23):
certain things get fixed, but I think people would be
very interested to how you would actually go about replacing
a foundation, retrofitting a foundation that maybe it's made out
of brick or stone, and you know, like a century
old house, or what if the floor on a slab
is out of level. We guys do about that. We'll
talk about that right on the other side. Your Home
(29:46):
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 Civic time, or anytime on demand on
the iHeartRadio app
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp The
House Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Good morning
and welcome home. I am Dean Sharp, the house Whisper,
Custom home Builder, custom home Designer, and every week your
guide to better understanding that place where you live. We
are doing a heavy lift today in more ways than one.
(00:22):
Literally because we're talking about concrete foundations and figuratively because
concrete foundations, foundations, retaining walls, repairing them when there are problems.
This is something that is just so outside an average
homeowners wheelhouse. Most homeowners wheelhouses, most contractors wheelhouses. That's why
(00:44):
there are specialty contractors out there who do nothing but
address foundation repairs. And my two favorites are sitting across
the table from me in studio today, Mark and James,
the Foundation guys from Foundation Repair LA. These are my
foundation guys. Yeah, we work together on projects. They these
(01:05):
are literally the guys I am calling out to deal
with stuff like that crazy nineteen thirty five house in
Studio City with the full basement. What the heck is
a full basement doing in the thirties in the valley anyway,
leaking you're leaking, leaking like a sieve. That's what it
was doing. So it still is actually because we haven't
(01:28):
actually addressed it yet. But anyway, these are my foundation
guys from Foundation Repair LA, the co owners of Foundation
Repair LA, and we're talking about this kind of stuff today.
Now we've talked cracks, we've talked warning signs, we've talked moisture.
These are the things that usually alert a homeowner that
there's a problem. So let's say they make the call
(01:49):
and you have talked to them on the phone and
kind of figured out, well, maybe this is something we
should take a look at. Right, how do you guys
evaluate what's the step. You were telling me during the
break that you're looking at the neighborhood before you even
get to the house.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
So one of you tell me how this works. Oh,
that's exactly right. So as we're driving there, you drive
across LA. We know the areas already, we've been everywhere.
But as we're driving to your neighborhood, we'll be looking
at the terrain. If it's a hillside area, we'll be
looking at how the roads are built, houses are sitting,
some are above others flatlands, We'll be looking at that
(02:27):
we'll be looking for where the original river bed might
have been. Like out in the valley you have the
concrete river ways drainage pathways, and you know, back when
the Indians were there, that area was maybe one hundred
and two hundred yards wide, and now the drainage path
is forty feet across, all concrete ten feet deep. Well,
(02:49):
it wasn't that way way back in the day. So
even flatland areas can have problems. So we'll be looking
at the terrain hillside areas, we're looking for bedrock, looking
for where is a house above the street or below
the street? Does there look like there was a lot
of bulldozer work back in the day pushing the land.
You know, our houses generally are on flat lots, typically
(03:13):
unless it's actually descending down the hillside, and part of
that lot probably was filled, that's fill soil. So one
side of the house might be on literally bedrock or
on very solid material. The other half of the house
might be on twenty feet of fill where it got
pushed there by the bulldozer.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
And a lot of people live in those neighborhoods, right,
I mean, if you're not living in a completely flat neighborhood,
if you've got at least a little bit of a hill,
then you're probably living especially developmental tracks, like on what
we call a cut and fill development right in which
your if your house is a few feet above or
below the neighbor's house next to you, and it just
keeps descending down the street, down the hillside or up,
(03:53):
and so that's a cut and fill lot. They cut
in the part where the neighbor is above you. That's
probably where your house is sitting on something solid. But
the other part where it goes out and then heads
down to the neighbor below you, that's very likely phil
that has been transitioned from the cut over there, and
that fill if it wasn't compacted just perfectly and keyed
(04:17):
into the soil that was there, that stuff could be
moving some.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah, and that's where you'll get you know, the house
floors are at a level at times, and so we'll
look what we're looking as you're driving up. Next thing
we're doing is when we walk up to the front door,
we're looking at you know, does this house have gutters
down spouts?
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Is there?
Speaker 2 (04:35):
You know, do does the earth slope directly to the foundations,
which is actually backwards you want water all to drain
away from the house. Where's the water come off the hillside?
Does it go right to the foundation? Well, that's just
gonna worsen and loosen the soil. So we're looking at
that knock on the door. Go inside. We start our
(04:56):
inspections inside because we're looking for evidence sloping floors, walls,
I mean literally walls could be leaning because the house
has shifted so much. James was mentioned in the break
about you know houses had been flipped and stuff like that,
where you'll be looking at the floors. A perfectly level
place looks perfect, but you know that ceiling is three
(05:18):
inches out of whack. Why is the ceiling sloping three
inches but the floor is not? Yeah, well, I mean
somebody did a lot of work to make that thing
look pretty, or a minimal amount of work. And then
then you know, we take what we see inside the
house and then we go below and see why why
is it sloping there? Why do we have problems? And
(05:39):
then we're looking and then we're looking at the condition
of the foundation.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
So that's I mean, that's a very comprehensive. You know,
look at the house. How often do you find that,
you know, there's something going on here, but maybe it's
not something that has to be addressed immediately. Maybe well
it's a given. Let's say we've got a raised a
(06:03):
sub floor situation, raise foundation and you go underneath and
you find, like, you know, maybe some of the posts
and the connectors down there, you know, could use an upgrade,
but they're still in place, and they're still holding. Are
you guys the kind of guys who are like, all right,
so we're gonna put all new hardware, all of that,
We're gonna you know, you're both shaking your habits and James,
(06:24):
I know this gets your go James, That's why I
said it that way. So you're not the guy who's gonna,
you know, find every little thing under there that isn't
actually even foundation related per se, and say, well, we
could upgrade this for you, right exactly. We you know,
we are there to solve the problem that the homeowner
has or direct them if they perceive a problem that's
(06:44):
not a foundation problem. We're not there to give them,
you know, as we call it a bill of goods.
You know, posts and peers are responsible for holding up
the interior floors. They help stop it bouncing, but Frankly,
you could remove half of them. The house is not
going to collapse, so you won't see from us where
we recommend putting tea straps on all the posts and
(07:05):
peers and fixing every little minor crack. I mean again,
all concrete is cracked, it doesn't necessarily mean it's a problem.
So we're looking for the major problems and correcting those
major problems, you know, so there's there's no longer an
issue there. I don't need to go to a house
and find things for my guys to do. I think
that just left a major level of comfort for listeners
(07:29):
who are considering the fact that they're like, I don't
know what's going on in there, but you know, just
just to invite. It's kind of like, you know, you
invite a vampire into your house and now you've given
them free reign. That's how it goes, right, And I'm
going to offend now two professional groups that I respect immensely.
But I've always made this joke that you know, chiropractors
and orthodonists are two people you never go to and hear,
(07:53):
oh no, everything's fine, you don't need you don't need
an adjustment, and you don't need braces. No, that's fine. No,
you will never hear that. He's like, no, that back too. There.
We could, we could, we could, we could at least
get a retainer in there. And I just love the
idea that you guys are like, listen, we're out there
fixing real foundation problems. We've only got so many crews
and so much time, and so I'm not looking to
(08:15):
make a quick buck by putting t straps on the
posts underneath you. You know, if there isn't actually a reason
to do that related to the foundation of the house.
It's not like you're you're not against those no, No,
I mean, if it's new construction, those are current code,
and if we're replacing them, we do have to bring
them up to current code. But I'm not going to
do it for the sake of doing it if it's
(08:35):
not solving a problem with the house at that time. Exactly,
all right, when we come back, we're gonna take a
little break from this conversation. We're gonna answer some calls,
maybe some foundation calls. We'll find out your Home with
Dean Sharp, the House Whisperer.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI A M six forty.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
We're having a conversation today about foundation repair, something that
we're trying to explain in the simplest and most useful
way possible. It's a big topic and it's outside of
most people's wheelhouse. But to help me do it, I've
got my two favorite foundation repair experts, Mark and James
from Foundation Repair LA, the Foundation guys, sitting across the
(09:16):
table from you. Guys. Thanks again for being on the
show with me today. It's a hoot. Thanks, thanks you
having me. All Right, it's time to go to the phones.
Let me grab my little phone mouse over here. I
think let's talk to let's talk to Jonathan. Hey, Jonathan,
welcome home, Thanks Jane.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
So the question is I had a water issue from
an adjacent property and we notice it back in December. Now,
all of a sudden, I have some doors offset on
the property, so they're scraping as we open them, bedroom doors,
things like that, and also kitchen cabinet island where all
of a sudden, all the drawers are now sliding open
(09:55):
and they won't stay closed so they're slanting. Obviously, do
you started talking about this subject? It didn't even occur
to me that that water that was there in December
may have continued. And we're out in Thousand Oaks and
there's a lot of subterranean water out there and the
house was built about nineteen sixty. You know what happens
(10:18):
with these guys? How do I?
Speaker 5 (10:19):
How do I?
Speaker 3 (10:20):
How do we start this process? And it is there
a to do an estimate or come out and walk
the property? Is there a price or a fee or
you know, do you guys put estimates together? How does that?
How does that all work? Before you have to like
retain Dean and have them do the design.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Well, of course they're going to come out for free,
but I charge a finder's fee, So just so you know,
that's all right? So I get a percentage? No, I
don't know. I don't all right, guys, what do you
what do you want to ask Jonathan about what's going
on here? Well, first of all, just as long as
it's a homeowner and they're not selling the home, we
don't charge to come out and you know, walk the site.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
And okay, yeah, no I am I am the homeowner and.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Yeah, and Jonathan, are you on a slab?
Speaker 3 (10:56):
And unfortunately, yeah, we're on a concrete slab. It was
nineteen sixty and we have an adjacent property that is
probably so we're we're below them, probably by forty feet
the back of our property. I was going to talk
to these guys about a retaining wall because the wall
(11:17):
was built in nineteen sixty five when they built a
commercial facility behind us, and they obviously built it up.
They didn't build a retaining wall to the quality we
build retaining walls at this point. And so when I
went out there in December, I suck a piece of
refar in the ground and it went down three feet
through the soil like a hot knife through butter. So
(11:39):
I notified them immediately. They figured out that they had
an irrigation issue, said they've got it fixed. At this point,
I'm thinking maybe they don't have it fixed. And then
the other question would be would you be able to
give me enough information because if it turns out there's
liability from the adjacent neighbor, is that going to fall
into a wheelhouse where you guys cover or at least you
can give us some direction on it.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Well, let's start with the issue. You know, if you
oversaturate soil, especially if it's got a high clay content,
it'll tend to expand. As it dries out, it will contract,
and that can cause settlement of the slab and the footings,
which maybe sounds like that's what happened there. If it's head,
if it's heading toward lawsuit territory, we wouldn't typically get
(12:24):
involved in that end of it, though we do have
people we can refer you to that deal with that.
Is there anything else you can tell, Jonathan, just about
the scenario without you going out and seeing it. Have
you checked the level on the floors is it? Can
you tell if it's sloping?
Speaker 3 (12:47):
I'm pretty sure it's sloping. The kitchen island, we have
one drawer that was sort of sliding open that have
dishes in it, and all of a sudden, now all
four drawers on that side won't stay closed at all.
And then I have a bedroom door that and this
has all happened in the last probably sixty days, thirty days,
you know, Okay, Well, it's just all relatively new.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
It's something we look at. I mean, it's hard to
give too much information before seeing it, but sure may
want to get a soul's analysis done by a geological firm.
Jonathan I think these are the guys to call, just
saying you're gonna have to give them a call and
have them come out and take a peek. But this
is exactly the kind of stuff and it's unnerving, right,
(13:29):
it's unnerving, Like, Okay, the drawers on my kitchen island
are sliding out now they don't stay. But I've got
oversaturated soil. Man, there is nothing quite as unnerving as
thinking that there's something wrong with the foundation underneath your feet,
you know, So all right, when we come back, more
of your calls, and you know what, we'll we're going
to push into foundations even further. Here your Home with
(13:51):
Dean Sharp, the house Whisper.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Here to transform your ordinary house into an extraordinary home.
And you know what. In order to do that goes
without saying your home should still be standing and not
slipping down the hillside or sinking into the soil around it.
So today we're I'm doing a little you know, you
guys know that there are two people who live in me.
There's a designer that lives inside me. There's a contractor
(14:19):
that lives inside me. Sometimes they argue for airtime, sometimes
they wrestle. But the designer is like, you know, this
is a relevant question. I want to keep doing design
on homes. So he's letting the contractor talk today about
keeping homes standing. And I'm doing it with two of
my favorite guys, my Foundation Repair X, my Foundation repair experts,
(14:41):
the foundation guys, Mark and James of Foundation Repair LA.
They're sitting across the table from me today and we're
taking calls, and we actually have a couple of foundation
question calls. So let's go back to the phones. Let's
talk to Donald. Hey, Donald, Welcome home, gentlemen.
Speaker 6 (14:59):
I'm in the good morning. I'm in the process of
in escrow and I'm going to be buying a home
in the Laurel Canyon area of Los Angeles. We had
a home inspection, a general home inspection done and he
said that three quarters of the foundation was retrofitted, but
(15:19):
one quarter was not.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
My question is.
Speaker 6 (15:24):
Whose responsibility is it to repair that, the seller or
the buyer.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Okay, so generally retrofitting, as in being done after the
fact on a foundation, would be considered an upgrade. You
could talk to your realtor about this. But in my experience,
the sellers are not responsible for upgrading foundations unless there's
actually a problem with It's not a code requirement. Correct.
It's one of those things where the foundation you've got
(15:52):
is grandfathered in. Yes, and so this is an optional,
voluntary thing. So nobody's going to strong arm a seller
into doing. Now, if they're selling the house as a
retrofitted foundation and it's not, then that's a conversation probably
to have between the realtors and the real estate agents
(16:13):
to work out the fact that there's either a credit
due or finished the job, but it's not required. Is
it correct? Okay, does that make sense? Donald?
Speaker 7 (16:24):
It does?
Speaker 6 (16:24):
Thank you answered my question, unfortunately, but thank you pretty much.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Have a good date. We've answered his question unfortunately. All right.
I don't think that was the answer he wanted. I
think I think Donald wanted some cash. I tried, you tried, James, James.
You didn't hit the jackpot with James today, but you
did get the truth, and that's what's important. Let's let's
(16:50):
talk to Casey. Hey, Casey, welcome home.
Speaker 5 (16:53):
Hey, Hey, all right, hi, your two gifts have just
scared me completely.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
No no no, no, no no no no, no.
Speaker 5 (17:01):
No, no, no, no, no no. Let me explain to you.
A relative has her house has exhibited one of the defects.
The base boards are separating, doors are not closing, deep
cracks everywhere. I could place a ball in the middle
of the living room floor and it rolls. I opened
(17:25):
the refrigerator door, it doesn't stay open. It swings all
the way. The house was built in the sixties. I
believe it's part of a big development. And the house
lifts at the base of a hill. The rumor has
it that this whole area was built on a landfill
(17:48):
and there's a river or a creek running under the property.
How do we find out if it's built on a
landfill and if there's a creek underneath the house?
Speaker 2 (18:00):
All right, Mark, Well, you know what I would say,
first off, you definitely need us to come out and
take a look at it, because what you're talking about
is something that we would evaluate when we come out there,
and we'll look for the simple answers to those questions
that you have and the problems.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
What part of town are you in?
Speaker 5 (18:20):
What part of La La County? Do I have to
mention the city?
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Because no, I mean, you know they believe me, if
you mentioned the city, nobody's going to be tracking you down.
Don't give us your street address, just but what city
in Monterey Park? Okay?
Speaker 3 (18:37):
All right?
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Are you up on the hills? Yep, all right, there's
a lot of movement in Monterey Park depends, especially even
homes in the sixties. You think a sixties home is
not a very old one, but it is in number
the way construction was done back then. And the first
thing is we just come out. We'd look at it, okay,
and we'll tell you what you're running into and what
(19:00):
probably needs to happen. You're gonna want to get a
geo technical soils report. But before you go out spending money,
have us look at it, because that's exactly what in
our wheelhouse is.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Yeah, and it's not again, it's not Casey, it's not necessarily.
I mean, it sounds like there was a confluence of
issues clearly. Okay, So you you've you know, you've you
had me at the ball rolling across the floor on
its own. Other you know, unless the house is possessed,
unless you know, we need to call an exorcist. Otherwise
we're just gonna call Mark and James out James, you
look at you wanted to say something. A lot of
(19:32):
times people think it's worse than it is. I mean,
if you were to go on the internet and start
googling foundation problems, it's going to look horrific. You think
it's bad. It's like when you have some It's like
when you go on web md. It's exactly where I
was going. That small dot on my arm is fatal, right, amputation,
probably recommended correctly, and it's not usually that bad exactly.
You know, have us look at it. We're down to earth.
(19:54):
You know, if you go through our reviews too, I
mean half of our reviews or they gave us advice
in other areas of construction because we actually didn't have
a foundation problem.
Speaker 8 (20:03):
So okay, but would you be able to determine if
it was built the whole area was built on a landfill,
and or it was a river or a creek.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
So I can I can handle that question for you, Casey.
First of all, whether there's a river or creek underneath
you may be an issue, may not be an issue, okay,
because there are plenty of areas. Again, this is why
what what Mark was saying is so key. The key
is to look at what the situation is and start
evaluating it from the simplest answers forward. Because there are
(20:36):
a lot of areas in all of southern California where
there are underground water flows. There's I mean, there's there
are dry lake beds, there's I mean, there's all sorts
of conditions that you could say, aha, aha, look that's
the problem, but in reality not actually causing anybody a profit.
All right, So in this specific situation, uh, you've got
(20:57):
a specific set of problems tracking whether at there was
a landfill anywhere in southern California. Having having grown up
in a landfill myself and having my dad having run
one most of my life, I can tell you we
have a pretty good record of whether and where landfills
are in this area. So yeah, that information can be found,
(21:18):
but it doesn't necessarily mean it's the exact cause of
the problem. Okay, So the best thing to do is
have these guys out take a look at it and
get it onto an honest assessment of what this particular
house needs for what's happening to it, Because I'm guessing
there's a lot of homes in the neighborhood that aren't
(21:41):
moving at all and that aren't needing to you know,
call out this. So the point is it's very much
like climate. You know, there are micro climates, there's there
there are very isolated incidents sometimes when one piece of
property or two pieces of property are experiencing something that
nothing else in the neighborhood is experiencing. So it's not
too you know, today's show is not to overly concern
(22:01):
or frighten anybody. It's just to alert you to what
the signs are. And I think you're responding, well, these
are signs that definitely. I mean, these guys, they are nodding.
They're like, yeah, that's a house that should be looked
at all right, it should at least be looked at
all right. And then taken from that point. And by
the way, I don't know which one of you said
that a house built in the sixties is not really
an old house. I appreciate that, yeah, because I was
(22:23):
built in the sixties and so now I'm feeling a
little better about myself as well. All right, more of
your calls when we return your Home with Dean Sharp
the House Whisper.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on Demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
We're talking foundation repair today. I'm also taking calls. It
just so happens. We've had a lot of foundation questions
on the calls, and so you know, I'm not picking
them necessarily intentionally here, but they're just all over the board. Okay,
I'm just gonna throw a dart at the board and
we'll see if we get another one here. Let's talk
to Pat. Hey, Pat, welcome home.
Speaker 7 (23:00):
Oh thank you. I hope you guys don't think this
is a ridiculous question, and I'll hit your mute button
and start giggling. But I'm finding eighteen to twenty inch
mounds of gophers going against my foundation in front of
the house, on the back of the house, and I'm
just curious. Could they cause any damage? My house is
(23:23):
built in nineteen thirty six in Long Beach, three years
after the Big One, and of course I have that
nice crawl space underneath the house.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Have you seen any evidence of the gophers popping up
in the crawl space?
Speaker 7 (23:40):
Well, I'm not the type to go down there, okay,
so I would have to have somebody go look for me.
I'm sure they are. I'm sure they didn't go all
the way around and then dig another mound on the
opposite end of the house which leads out into the yard. Okay,
I'm thinking they are going under the house, right.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Let's ask the guys. Let's ask Mark and James gophers.
Are they a threat?
Speaker 2 (24:04):
I would say typically no, gophers aren't aren't going to
be a threat. The thing I think you're going to
need is pest control first. So what one we want
to know? First off, what's happening to the house. Is
there actually you see walls and floors sloping? Is there
any particular problem that you're getting besides the gophers.
Speaker 7 (24:27):
No, No, I do have one hallway where the floor
is raised a little bit, and I don't think that's foundation.
I think that's where the floor connects. I have these wooden,
beautiful wooden floors. But that's been for years before the gophers.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Yeah, so, Pat, it sounds like you have a gopher problem,
not a foundation problem.
Speaker 7 (24:48):
I want to make sure that because these mouths are huge.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Yeah, well, they're displaced. These guys displace a lot of dirt.
I mean, gophers are no joke as far as you
know the amount of ground that they cover under beneath
the ground. But I will tell you this, I know
a little bit about gophers, a little bit. I'm not
putting myself as the gopher expert, but I do know
this because animals always fascinate me, and I have to
do a lot of gopher research to help clients with
(25:12):
gopher issues out in their yards. Most gophers they're what
we call their traverse tunnels. The tunnels that they use
to get around in those tunnels are usually six to
twelve inches below the surface of the ground that they're
running around it. They're little tunnels. Now, if they decide
to actually the deepest part of their burrow system where
(25:35):
they would like nest and you know and actually you know,
raise their young, that could be like six feet down.
But that's the exception. Everything else is just running around
and the footings on your house are extending down, you know,
a good twelve sixteen, eighteen inches down into the ground,
and so they probably aren't tunneling under them and getting
(25:59):
up underneath the head house. But you should have somebody
peak anyway, because you know, maybe it's they're like, hey,
shady in here, let's let's do this thing. But the
point is it's it's yeah, it's it's it's not threatening
now though, it's just it's just a gopher issue. So
that would be that would be a pest control concern. Mark.
You got another thing.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Well, I say, all my years of crawling under houses,
probably ten thousand homes or stuff, I've never seen gophers
under a house.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Yeah, me, neither. You did see a bear though, you
did see a bear, didn't you. Well, that was one
of our guys. That was about a year ago. Yes,
that wasn't you bear. No, No, skunks are more common.
Oh yeah, yeah, that was a lot. I had pet
skunk for a while. Oh yeah, yeah, crazy. I found
a pet skunk up in the canyon. Or I didn't
find a pet skunk. I found a skunk that was wounded.
(26:45):
And my dad was very good of all the things
that my dad wasn't good at, he was very good
at helping me understand and be kind to animals. And
he actually we had a vet friend, a wild animal
vet friend. Here, I am just going off on a
tangent here that he actually he said, you know what, Dean,
this You know, we we can reset this broken leg,
but this guy's never going to be, you know, able
(27:07):
to get out in the wild. Anymore. But if you'll
promise to take care of him, I'll take out his
scent glands and you can keep him as a pet.
He's just a kind of an overgrown weasel, and I'm like,
let's do that. And for four years. You know, of
course I was a kid, so I named him Peppi
you know, yeah, Peppy Peppy, No, peugh is what I
(27:28):
called him, because he didn't have any senk. But you know,
look at my the look on my friend's face or
just people who had come over when I came out
holding a skunk that was worth its weight in gold. Yeah,
but you guys found a bear under it? No, not you,
but what you was it? Live? Yes, jeez, I'm crawling.
I have crawled under so many foundations and not to
(27:49):
not once in my entire career to this very moment
have I thought I could crawl them there and find
a bear. I knew it was possible because I've been
under houses where there has been damaged from the bears,
and you can see it in the framing, especially as
you get up into Sierra Madre Monrovia in the hills,
it's somewhat common that they have issues with bears like that,
(28:12):
all right, I would love you know what we're gonna
We're gonna probably wrap up calls and move on to
more foundation repair stuff. But I'm just saying, if somebody
has found a bear under their foundation, call me right
now and you will get on the air. I guarantee it.
You just tell our call screener. Yeah, I got a
foundation bear story. We will put you on the air
because that's just frightening and also highly amusing somehow, I
(28:36):
don't know what it is. I love bears, but I
don't want to find one under my house, not at all,
not in the least. All right, Hey, so we've talked
about all the problems, let's talk about how you guys
go about fixing some of these things, because I know
that's as much a mystery as it is anything. You know,
you do you when the corner of a house has
(28:58):
sloped down, you guys, do you jack it up? Do
you crane it up level again and pour something underneath it?
You know people have heard about I got a call
last week about somebody recommending there was an area underneath
a retaining wall, I think where there was a major
washout of water, and somebody was recommending injecting expansive foam
in there. I've heard all sorts of ideas about how
(29:23):
certain things get fixed, but I think people would be
very interested to how you would actually go about replacing
a foundation, retrofitting a foundation that maybe it's made out
of brick or stone, and you know, like a century
old house, or what if the floor on a slab
is out of level. We guys do about that. We'll
talk about that right on the other side. Your Home
(29:46):
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 Civic time, or anytime on demand on
the iHeartRadio app
Home with Dean Sharp News
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
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
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.