November 23, 2024 • 30 mins
Dean talks about leveling grass in a home, invasions of mustard plants and how to attempt to remove it. Dean provides a listener with the best type of attic installation to use in a home in SoCal. Plus, advices on how to keep a home warm without splurging on the electric bill.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
AMFI AM siporting live streaming and HD everywhere on the
iHeartRadio app. Dean Sharp The House Whisper Live every Saturday
and Sunday morning. Follow us on social media, why don't
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(00:34):
soon to be Blue Sky, Blue Sky. There you go.
We're everywhere, same handle Home with Dean on all of them,
very very easy to find us. And of course this
very program is also the House Whisper podcast that you
can listen to anytime, anywhere on demand. Hundreds of episodes,
(00:58):
all searchable by topic, your Home Improvement reference Library. I
mean truly hundreds and hundreds of episodes about every imaginable
facet of your home and understanding it better and making
the best decisions design and construction decisions when it comes
to your home. Okay, as promised, it's time to go
(01:20):
to the phones. Let me just say this. I have
one call on the board, just one, so I'm gonna
take it and then we'll if it's just not the
morning for calls. We'll move on to the rest of
our getting ahead of the holidays material. No problem. I
got plenty, always have plenty to talk about. But I'm
just letting you know that the boards are still open
(01:43):
and it's open for you to call. It's a good
time to call in because normally, normally, and you know,
there's always an odd day every once in a while
in which it's not going to happen. But normally I
leave a lot, lot lot of callers unanswered on our phones,
and people are like, oh wait, it's so long and
(02:05):
I didn't get a chance to talk to you about it. Well,
you know what, so this morning you got a pretty
good chance right now. It's all I'm saying, eight three
three two, ask Dean a three three the numeral two,
asking I know, I know it's not good radio. When
do we ever say that we did good radio here?
I'm supposed to like always act like there's like there's
(02:27):
eight hundred calls on the board and it's just not life. Okay,
we're just very we're very honest and transparent.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Here.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
There's one call here. I know there's a ton of
people listening. We know that for sure, but just one caller.
So I'm I'm not begging for calls. I'm just letting
you know you got a chance. Okay, let's talk to Robert. Hey, Robert,
my one caller this morning. How you doing, Welcome home.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Thanks, good morning.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Dean.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Got a little question on my backyard. I've got a
typical southern California track home. I got about a six
hundred square foot backyard, and during COVID, we put in
the sod, you know, we did the sprinklers in the
sod and put in the grass in the backyard. Well, now,
over the several years, it seems to have had has
(03:18):
like maybe I didn't compact it enough, but it's got
a lot of dips and valleys and little holes and
stuff under the grass where you can't see it, but
when you walk across it you can feel uneven. Yeah,
I was wondering what your recommendation would be to kind
of maybe or if there is a fix.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
There is actually now you know, unfortunately it's a little
bit tedious if you got a lot of these going on.
But here's the thing, Robert, what you need to understand
about your grass. Yes, grass is like every blade of
grass is technically kind of its own plant. Okay, but
(04:00):
as you know, you did sod, right, you didn't grow
it from seed, you did sod.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Yeah, we did the sod.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
So as you know that that beds of grass they have,
they've got about a one to two inch root base
of soil that they're hanging on to. And uh, you
know that grass was just happily growing in another field somewhere,
you know, a day before they cut it and removed
(04:28):
it and brought it to your house. Okay. So the
fact of the matter is you could do the exact
same right now with your own grass, uh, if you
wanted to. So, let me explain two ways. Number one,
everybody should know you can rent a sod cutter these
days at a good rental yard. I think you can
(04:49):
rent them at like if your local home depot has
a has a rental tool rental department, you can rent
a homeowner version of a sod cutter that will literally
do exactly what they did to your grass when they
cut it and brought it to your house. You can
cut your sad, lay it aside, roll it up, lay
(05:11):
it aside, and do whatever you need to do, whether
it's leveling the ground better underneath it, or doing more
prep work, or because you had a broken sprinkler line
and you had to get in there, or some you know,
whatever the case may be. For whatever reason, that plant
can be transplanted, which means cutting it, rolling it up,
(05:31):
keeping it moist, getting the work done, and then rolling
it back down and treating it like brand new sad again.
So you just know that you could pull your whole
yard up, you know, in a portion of a day
with a sad cutter and get back to the soil
if there are things that if you wanted, if there
were so many of these divots and unevennesses, you could
(05:54):
just pull up the whole yard and re level the
subsoil underneath it so that you know, make sure it's
nice and compacted well, and and so you know you're
ready to lay it back down. It's going to be smooth.
If it's just a few you can do it by hand. Okay,
you can use just literally. There's a there's a there's
a tool car called a gardening knife that basically looks
(06:18):
almost looks like a six inch gardening spade, but it
has like saw teeth on one side, and it's not
really as fully a spade. You can cut around a
section of grass. Cut. Let's say you cut out a
two foot section of grass and then start sliding it
underneath down at that two inches, get you know, a
good amount of soil underneath where the roots are really grabbing,
(06:42):
and you can remove a square oh grass and deal
with the affected area and then lay it back down. Okay,
And you got to do it carefully, and you want
to do it wisely, and then you want to make
sure that it gets extra water, you know, because you
have cut some of the roots, uh, and just nurture
it back into shape. But the fact is, yes, you
(07:04):
can go ahead and repair the worst of the divots
by hand if you want, or just roll up your lawn,
fix the whole thing, and roll it back down again.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Now I did see. Now I don't know if this
might just be for different climates, like maybe back east
they've taken like a sand and kind of gone through
the grass and kind of added sand and then it
kind of grows back up through Is that an option?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Is that it's it's it's a it's a procedure that
I wouldn't recommend for a homeowner to do. And uh,
and it's it's yeah, it's kind of a it's a
it's a weird kind of situation where they lay sand,
they kind of massage it into the scalp, as it were,
to use the the uh hair analogy for your lawn.
(07:55):
Massage it into the scalp, and then they'll grab certain
sections and pull it up in the hopes that the
sand actually it gets underneath. Okay, So and sand is
a good way of doing it. It's an easy way
of leveling. I just think you're better to pull a
flap back, okay, as opposed to trying to massage it
(08:15):
in from the surface, because the problem is if too
much stays on the surface, then you could be getting
in the way of sunlight and water penetration and that
kind of stuff. And we've seen people try that method
and they're like, oh, I've got now, I've got a
yellow patch of dead grass here and it didn't work out.
It's level, but it's dead. So I'd rather have you
(08:36):
make a nice, clean incision as it were. I'm sorry,
I've got surgeries on my mind because of Tina this week,
But make a clean incision and pull that back just
like regular sod. And that's really the message that your
lawn is still no matter how long it's been there,
it is still entirely a flexible living skin, as it were,
(09:00):
that can be carefully pulled back, things fixed underneath and
put back in place. We do it, Robert, all the time,
in order to install soaker lines underneath and eliminate the
need for sprinklers altogether. So it's totally totally doable, my friend.
Just do a little research, take a careful approach, and
(09:22):
uh yeah, get it leveled out.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Well. Thank you, and you guys have a great Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Oh, thank you so much, Robert, you too, and thanks
for your call. And guess what I asked for calls?
Now we've got like ten plus on the board. So
when we come back, more of your calls. Your home
with Dean Sharp, the house whisperyambye, Dean Sharp, the house Whisper,
at your service. We're talking getting ahead of the holidays today.
(09:50):
But suddenly, because I asked, we've got a board full
of calls.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
Now.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Now I'm not going to get through them all, but
I'm gonna try. I'm gonna do my best, all right,
So we're gonna to go back to the phones. Let's
talk to is it Marissa? Marissa welcome home, Hi, Geene,
appreciate you, Thank you so much. How can I help?
Speaker 4 (10:13):
I have property in the Conejo West facing hot and
sunny and dry, and we get the mustard every year
that we need to clear out. And I'm wanting if
there's any ground cover, like under two feet that I
could plant throughout hardy and and I need some suggestions
for that chow.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Okay, So we're not talking about lawn, and we're talking
about like back slope of your property or where exactly
side hillside.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
It's like a slope off the property.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Okay. So you've got a typical kind of pushed up
against open space. You got to slug, you got your yard,
and then you've got the backslope. And of course, yes, sir,
you are constantly being invaded by mustard plants.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
Yep, we have to cut it every years. It's pricey hassle.
But I'm just wondering if we could choke that stuff
out somehow.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Yeah, you can certainly reduce it quite a bit, quite
a bit of reduction. I'm not I'm not going to
give you any panacea here that like, oh, this will
solve the problem completely, because you know, because here's the reality.
About weeds. Uh, they've just learned to survive better than
normal plants. This is literally, I mean if you were
(11:29):
a plant, you know, as a human being, we would think, oh,
nobody wants to be a weed. But if you were
a plant, and you'd be like, yeah, oh, by the way,
I'm a weed, which means I know to grow way
better than you guys, and I can grow anywhere at
any time and survive all the other You know, weeds
are like the cockroaches of the plant world in that
(11:51):
they want to survive the nuclear holocaust, right.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
They have.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
They've simply evolved to do it. So so the idea
of like we'd free we'd free gardening, eye, I don't know,
we'ed reduction garden. That's the thing. And so yeah, for you,
the key is, I think you're thinking the right way.
There are a host of I mean so many more
than than I could even begin to mention to you,
(12:20):
of plants that are going to grow in the in
the one to two foot high category. So when it
comes to a back hill you what you want is
some kind of rugged chaparral kind of plant. There are
there are if you go to your local nursery and
I don't mean, let's see you live in the Caneo Valley.
I'm going to recommend that you go to Elegant Gardens.
(12:43):
Elegant Gardens off the twenty three and Tierra Rahata. It's
a wholesale nursery that contractors and designers like ourselves buy
from all the time and talk to them about and
they're going to show you like ten different very very
easy to care for, drought resistant, full sun, doesn't burn
(13:07):
in the heat of the summer, kind of shrubs. But
here's the key. You're on the right track. That's how
I'm gonna encourage you this morning. Because most people think groundcover.
They're thinking thin, thin, relatively thin ground cover, whether it's
ice plant or this or that, you know whatever. These
one to two inch groundcovers, those are the hardest ones
(13:30):
to keep weeds from invading. Because you think the little
seed of a weed falls into the ground and it
starts to grow, and if it gets even the smallest,
little one inch tall sprout up through the ground cover
into its own light, then then it's on its own.
(13:54):
Then it's now it's it's got its head above water,
and it's got its own source of sunlight and it's going,
and that weed is going to go. But on a hillside, especially,
you know, an untended area, you do you want something
between a foot to two feet of cover there. And
(14:14):
the reason is the weed seeds are going to fall
in just like they do everywhere else, but they're going
to be in the dark. They literally have to find
a way to be in darkness, which is not how
they grow for the first twelve inches of their growth.
It's virtually impossible, but it still does happen, but really
(14:35):
really super rare. And so the number of weeds that
will survive that first twelve full inches of growth before
they get their own leaves above the shrub line so
that they can continue to prosper on their own vastly, vastly,
vastly reduced. And so it's a long list, and that's
(14:59):
the good news. You can also check out Theodore Paine
Foundation in Sun Valley. They exist solely solely for the
purpose of propagating native southern California plants. And I'm telling you, mersa, there,
there are there. There's at least ten different kinds and
(15:20):
that you can choose from to put there. But that's
the right idea. The right idea is to have height
above these weeds so that they don't have a chance
to get started in the first place. You're not going
to stop the seeds from falling, but you can stop
the plant from finding its way up because it's got
(15:40):
to go so far before it breaks out. I hope
that makes sense, right, everybody? Right? The logic of that, Yeah,
as opposed to like a half an inch of growth. Yeah,
that's why. All right, Thank you so much for your call.
More calls when we return. I'm running late already. Your
Home with Dean Sharp the House Whisper.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six FORTYFI.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
AM six forty live streaming and HD everywhere on the
iHeartRadio app. You're Home with Dean Sharp the House whist Where.
We're back at it now. I got a board full
of calls, so let's get back to the phones, shall we.
I want to talk to you ann ay An, Welcome.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
Home, Good morning, Well, thank you, good morning, Gane. We
live in San Diego in a two story home about
eighteen hundred square feet. I'm wondering about the most reasonable
economical solution for attic insulation, and once we get attic
insulation about nine hundred square feet up there. Should we
(16:46):
at the same time, do the interior walls, particularly the
second floor.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Well, okay, attic insulation best attic insulation that well, yeah,
the best attic insulation that is the best value for
what it does, is going to be blown in insulation.
A nice, big, old, thick blanket of blown in. It's
counterintuitive as to what people normally see when they dream
of attic space, because they're like, I would like my
(17:15):
attic to look like that. You know that Hallmark Christmas movie,
you know when they go up in the attic and
they sit there and they search through the chests and
they find the old photos. That's all well and good.
But in the real world here in southern California, especially,
leave your attic messy, don't worry about that, don't store
stuff up there. Put the insulation up there. And blown
(17:38):
in is best because it covers everything. It gets all
the way out to the edges, it covers all the
tops of the wood ceiling joists. It truly makes an
effective blanket. Whereas some people would think, well, I just
want to run it again, nice and neat and clean,
so I'm gonna use roll bat insulation in there that
(17:58):
fits in between all the wood, and at least that
means I could put a plywood platform and have some
things and whatever. The problem is that that bad insulation
number one is very very difficult to get it all
the way over to the edge of the where the
roof joins the top of the wall, so it leaves
a hole. It's very very difficult to get it around
recess can lights and other things, so it leaves a hole.
(18:21):
And every single bat that fits in between the wood
joists doesn't go over the wood joist, so the joist
itself is essentially an insulating hole. And to maximize insulation
in a house, especially at an insulation, we don't want
any holes. You think of it like a boat, an
inverted boat. We don't want anything leaking through. You could
(18:45):
have the most brilliant, thickest strong titanic, like you know,
hull of a ship, but you know, once there's a
hole in it, it's going down and so blown in,
which also happens to be the least expensive way of
getting insulation in your attic. In fact, blown in these
days a lot of people decide to di wyatt because
(19:07):
places like well big box stores like Lows and Home Depot.
They actually will rent you a blower, and if you
rent the blower for a day, they even throw in
a few cubes of insulation for free to get you started.
So you can control the depth. You can overdo it,
which is never a bad thing, and it can be
(19:29):
one and done and you're set. And when it comes
to blown in, fiberglass is fine. I've got no particular
issues with it. I prefer cellulose myself as the material
to blown in to blow in, But either way, blown
in blanket of insulation in the attic is your best value,
and I believe your overall best form of insulation unless
(19:50):
you're going to do something much more expensive like filling
up the rafter bays with foam insulation. So blown in
that's the way to go.
Speaker 5 (20:02):
Okay. And then so the cellulose, is that the kind
that they blow in and it expands that foamy stuff
that it spans.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
No, No, that's that's that's a whole different animal there.
Cellulose and fiberglass. They will blow in and they will
essentially look the same. One is made out of shreds
of fiber. As you know, shred fiberus shreds of glass.
The other is made out of a paper product that
is treated with borates and acetate that are that are
(20:30):
you know, moisture resistant, rodent resistant, uh and a little
bit more dense. And so for for lesser inches you
can get you know, higher R value of insulation up
there plus no glass. So there's dust, there's dust, there's
a dust content up there, but there's no glass shreds,
(20:51):
so that if you have to get in the attic
or somebody has to get up there and service it,
it doesn't make you itch and irritate the skin the
same way got it.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
And for the interior walls, we have a guest bedroom
closet that butts up against the guest bedroom bathroom the
wall in between, so I was thinking for noise baffling
of maybe having that insulated and then the guests. The
other wall of the guest bathroom blots up against the
master bath. That's where the plumbing chase is. So I
(21:22):
was curious about insulation in those two walls. So essentially
it's bedroom, guest bath, master bath, you.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Know, master bedroom. I'm a huge proponent of interior wall insulation,
but just to be clear, for everybody. We're not talking
about thermal insulation. When it comes to interior walls, we
don't need to worry about thermal. But it's all about
sound and just keeping a room quiet, one room quiet
from another room, and layer upon layer room for room
(21:51):
from I mean, it's a brilliant thing and it's something
that we always do with all of our clients. It's
one of the things that kind of sets them apart
and gives them that much more of an awesome house
when it's done. So any wall that you can do
problem walls, and then in the future, you know, anytime,
anytime you've got drywall off the wall, do not put
that wall back together without slapping some insulation in there.
(22:13):
And the insulation you want is rock wool insulation, and
I think it's rock Sol the brand that we normally
use ro o x ul, but but you know they've
changed names a little bit recently. But here's what your
mineral wool insulation. And I believe the kind that you
want is safe n sound, safe and sound and it's
(22:37):
literally there doesn't have a massive R value, but it's
there intentionally designed to be sound baffling insulation.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Perfect.
Speaker 5 (22:46):
Well, I thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
All right, and I think we'll get it.
Speaker 5 (22:51):
I'm sorry, professional installation, and we're getting quotes anywhere from
seven dollars per square foot to fourteen dollars per square foot,
any price point we should be aware of.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
You know, it varies for house to house. So the
thing you should do is just do what you're doing.
Get those multiple quotes, Get as many quotes as you
can tolerate getting, and you will find the right price points.
Starts to form up for you. And it's like a
big ven diagram, so you know you'll see it as
it develops. That's the best way of knowing what the
(23:22):
right price is because different conditions vary from house to house,
so I can't just quote you it should be this.
Just get a bunch of quotes from reputable companies. You'll
see them starting to clump together in one zone and
you'll know like, oh, yeah, it's clearly it should be
this price. And thank you so much for your call,
my friend, and thanks for listening to the show. And
(23:45):
when we return, I'll try and tackle at least a
couple of more can't buy ben chart of the house
Whisper welcome home. We're wrapping up another Saturday together. I
asked for calls. You gave me calls. I got a
board full of calls. I want to try and take
at least one more before we're out of here, maybe two,
(24:05):
who knows. Let's go to Terry. Hey, Terry, welcome home.
Speaker 6 (24:10):
Oh yes, see, my house is coald. I have no attic,
and I close off the vents and the rooms we
don't use. I have to go outside to get warm.
I understand. The only thing I can do is poke
holes in the wall. Is that right?
Speaker 2 (24:29):
You mean as far as adding insulation. Are you saying
you don't have insulation in the house?
Speaker 6 (24:34):
No, I have no attic.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Oh you got no attic? Right? Okay?
Speaker 6 (24:40):
Ceilings. It's a four bedroom, so I close off rooms,
and I closed the vents in the rooms we don't use,
and I try to conserve the heat.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Yeah. Well, first of all, I wouldn't do that, Okay,
I would not. When it comes to your your heating system,
it was designed to breathe fully through all of those rooms,
as opposed to it being shut down, so longer term
use of heat.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Now.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
I know it sounds a little counterintuitive, but your heating
system really is designed. I don't want to put undue
stress on it. And when we close off a duct
at the vent at the very very end, back pressure
can build up and it can affect the way the
entire system is working in the house. So I wouldn't
close off the rooms. Right, You've got a leaky house,
(25:29):
I understand, I get it, But I would keep the
whole house breathing for the sake of your heating as
far as that is concerned. Now, as far as insulation
in your attic is concerned, which you don't have. You
don't have an attic space. Yes, the way to insulate
a ceiling up above you, you're going to have to
(25:49):
get access to the space in between those rafters. And
the only way, there's only two ways to get access.
Either you've got to drill a hole into the dry
wall and pump insulation in. There will be multiple holes
to do that to pump insulation into that void. Or
the drywalls just got to come down and then and
(26:10):
then fill those rafter bays with bats of insulation and
or foam and close it all back up again. And
I know that's inconvenient and it's pricey, but that's simply
the truth about how to get how to get insulation
in the house.
Speaker 6 (26:29):
Where is that area where you have to go into.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Well, it's literally every every bay, every space in between
the roof rafters up on your ceiling there, and it's
literally every sixteen inches. Yeah, it's a whole thing. It's
a whole that's why. That's why I'm so upset with
homes that were built without insulation in them when they
(26:55):
were built, because it was so easy to add when
it was all opened up. In the meantime, though, Terry,
let me tell you this, in the meantime, you don't
choke off the heating system for the house. Okay. And
here's a good piece of advice for anybody who's living
in a leaky place and you want to stay warm.
(27:15):
You should not have to go outside to stay warm
to get warm, all right, So here, but here's the reality.
Space heating in each room or or a portable space
heater you can carry with you. And and let me
be really clear about this. What you want is you
want to get a infrared space heater infrared, okay. And
(27:39):
the reason is this, You want to get a good
infrared space heater because infrared waves they don't heat the air,
they heat you Okay, So when you're in a room
with an infrared space heater, you will be warm. You
will get warm even without the heavy lift of having
to bring all of that cubic air of in the
(28:04):
room up to temperature. Okay, when you go out, when
you eat at a restaurant, okay, and I gotta, I
gotta rush out of here because we're literally at the edge.
What you know, when you go outside and you eat
at a restaurant at night, right, and those space heaters
that are out there, not just the ones with the flame,
but you know, the free standing ones with the little
(28:25):
cap on top, or maybe there's those bar heaters that
are running underneath a patio wanting if you ever thought
about this, those heaters are not heating up the air
it's outside. Okay, that would be a massive heater to
actually heat the air outside. But what they are infrared.
Infrared waves get under your skin and uh and warm
(28:48):
you up. So infrared heaters heat you and that's why
it's comfortable to sit out on a patio with one
of those heaters nearby. If you were actually to measure
the air temperature around you, it's not that much different
than the rest of the cold everywhere outside of that patio.
But you your plenty warm because they heat you. And
so if you live in an impossibly leaky cold space
(29:12):
and it just literally is going to you have to
mortgage the house in order to pay the heating bill.
Number one, Save up and think about what it takes
to retrofit insulation. Call insulation companies get quotes. But in
the interim, and you're in a cold room, infrared space heater,
get it near you. You'll be cozy even if the
(29:35):
room doesn't increase in temperature. Thank you, Terry for your call.
That's all I had time for today. I am so
grateful for those of you who respond. You know, at
the top of the show, I'm like, you know, only
got a couple of calls here on the board, and
you've got room, and now I have to let some
of you go. Just know, if you call back, then
(29:57):
you let producer Richie know that you were on hold
before and I didn't get you, and you get you
get priority access to the front of the line. All right,
Tomorrow our Holiday Home Show live from iHeart Studios in Burbank.
It's gonna be a hoot. You're not gonna wanna miss
(30:17):
it until then they drive today and get out there
and get busy building yourself a beautiful life. We'll see
you tomorrow. This has been Home with Dean Sharp, the
House Whisper. Tune into the live broadcast on KFI AM
six forty every Saturday morning from six to eight Pacific
(30:37):
time and every Sunday morning from nine to noon Pacific time,
or anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
AMFI AM siporting live streaming and HD everywhere on the
iHeartRadio app. Dean Sharp The House Whisper Live every Saturday
and Sunday morning. Follow us on social media, why don't
you show we only do the good kind of social media,
the uplifting, informative and inspiring kind. Instagram, TikTok, Facebook x,
(00:34):
soon to be Blue Sky, Blue Sky. There you go.
We're everywhere, same handle Home with Dean on all of them,
very very easy to find us. And of course this
very program is also the House Whisper podcast that you
can listen to anytime, anywhere on demand. Hundreds of episodes,
(00:58):
all searchable by topic, your Home Improvement reference Library. I
mean truly hundreds and hundreds of episodes about every imaginable
facet of your home and understanding it better and making
the best decisions design and construction decisions when it comes
to your home. Okay, as promised, it's time to go
(01:20):
to the phones. Let me just say this. I have
one call on the board, just one, so I'm gonna
take it and then we'll if it's just not the
morning for calls. We'll move on to the rest of
our getting ahead of the holidays material. No problem. I
got plenty, always have plenty to talk about. But I'm
just letting you know that the boards are still open
(01:43):
and it's open for you to call. It's a good
time to call in because normally, normally, and you know,
there's always an odd day every once in a while
in which it's not going to happen. But normally I
leave a lot, lot lot of callers unanswered on our phones,
and people are like, oh wait, it's so long and
(02:05):
I didn't get a chance to talk to you about it. Well,
you know what, so this morning you got a pretty
good chance right now. It's all I'm saying, eight three
three two, ask Dean a three three the numeral two,
asking I know, I know it's not good radio. When
do we ever say that we did good radio here?
I'm supposed to like always act like there's like there's
(02:27):
eight hundred calls on the board and it's just not life. Okay,
we're just very we're very honest and transparent.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Here.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
There's one call here. I know there's a ton of
people listening. We know that for sure, but just one caller.
So I'm I'm not begging for calls. I'm just letting
you know you got a chance. Okay, let's talk to Robert. Hey, Robert,
my one caller this morning. How you doing, Welcome home.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Thanks, good morning.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Dean.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Got a little question on my backyard. I've got a
typical southern California track home. I got about a six
hundred square foot backyard, and during COVID, we put in
the sod, you know, we did the sprinklers in the
sod and put in the grass in the backyard. Well, now,
over the several years, it seems to have had has
(03:18):
like maybe I didn't compact it enough, but it's got
a lot of dips and valleys and little holes and
stuff under the grass where you can't see it, but
when you walk across it you can feel uneven. Yeah,
I was wondering what your recommendation would be to kind
of maybe or if there is a fix.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
There is actually now you know, unfortunately it's a little
bit tedious if you got a lot of these going on.
But here's the thing, Robert, what you need to understand
about your grass. Yes, grass is like every blade of
grass is technically kind of its own plant. Okay, but
(04:00):
as you know, you did sod, right, you didn't grow
it from seed, you did sod.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Yeah, we did the sod.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
So as you know that that beds of grass they have,
they've got about a one to two inch root base
of soil that they're hanging on to. And uh, you
know that grass was just happily growing in another field somewhere,
you know, a day before they cut it and removed
(04:28):
it and brought it to your house. Okay. So the
fact of the matter is you could do the exact
same right now with your own grass, uh, if you
wanted to. So, let me explain two ways. Number one,
everybody should know you can rent a sod cutter these
days at a good rental yard. I think you can
(04:49):
rent them at like if your local home depot has
a has a rental tool rental department, you can rent
a homeowner version of a sod cutter that will literally
do exactly what they did to your grass when they
cut it and brought it to your house. You can
cut your sad, lay it aside, roll it up, lay
(05:11):
it aside, and do whatever you need to do, whether
it's leveling the ground better underneath it, or doing more
prep work, or because you had a broken sprinkler line
and you had to get in there, or some you know,
whatever the case may be. For whatever reason, that plant
can be transplanted, which means cutting it, rolling it up,
(05:31):
keeping it moist, getting the work done, and then rolling
it back down and treating it like brand new sad again.
So you just know that you could pull your whole
yard up, you know, in a portion of a day
with a sad cutter and get back to the soil
if there are things that if you wanted, if there
were so many of these divots and unevennesses, you could
(05:54):
just pull up the whole yard and re level the
subsoil underneath it so that you know, make sure it's
nice and compacted well, and and so you know you're
ready to lay it back down. It's going to be smooth.
If it's just a few you can do it by hand. Okay,
you can use just literally. There's a there's a there's
a tool car called a gardening knife that basically looks
(06:18):
almost looks like a six inch gardening spade, but it
has like saw teeth on one side, and it's not
really as fully a spade. You can cut around a
section of grass. Cut. Let's say you cut out a
two foot section of grass and then start sliding it
underneath down at that two inches, get you know, a
good amount of soil underneath where the roots are really grabbing,
(06:42):
and you can remove a square oh grass and deal
with the affected area and then lay it back down. Okay,
And you got to do it carefully, and you want
to do it wisely, and then you want to make
sure that it gets extra water, you know, because you
have cut some of the roots, uh, and just nurture
it back into shape. But the fact is, yes, you
(07:04):
can go ahead and repair the worst of the divots
by hand if you want, or just roll up your lawn,
fix the whole thing, and roll it back down again.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Now I did see. Now I don't know if this
might just be for different climates, like maybe back east
they've taken like a sand and kind of gone through
the grass and kind of added sand and then it
kind of grows back up through Is that an option?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Is that it's it's it's a it's a procedure that
I wouldn't recommend for a homeowner to do. And uh,
and it's it's yeah, it's kind of a it's a
it's a weird kind of situation where they lay sand,
they kind of massage it into the scalp, as it were,
to use the the uh hair analogy for your lawn.
(07:55):
Massage it into the scalp, and then they'll grab certain
sections and pull it up in the hopes that the
sand actually it gets underneath. Okay, So and sand is
a good way of doing it. It's an easy way
of leveling. I just think you're better to pull a
flap back, okay, as opposed to trying to massage it
(08:15):
in from the surface, because the problem is if too
much stays on the surface, then you could be getting
in the way of sunlight and water penetration and that
kind of stuff. And we've seen people try that method
and they're like, oh, I've got now, I've got a
yellow patch of dead grass here and it didn't work out.
It's level, but it's dead. So I'd rather have you
(08:36):
make a nice, clean incision as it were. I'm sorry,
I've got surgeries on my mind because of Tina this week,
But make a clean incision and pull that back just
like regular sod. And that's really the message that your
lawn is still no matter how long it's been there,
it is still entirely a flexible living skin, as it were,
(09:00):
that can be carefully pulled back, things fixed underneath and
put back in place. We do it, Robert, all the time,
in order to install soaker lines underneath and eliminate the
need for sprinklers altogether. So it's totally totally doable, my friend.
Just do a little research, take a careful approach, and
(09:22):
uh yeah, get it leveled out.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Well. Thank you, and you guys have a great Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Oh, thank you so much, Robert, you too, and thanks
for your call. And guess what I asked for calls?
Now we've got like ten plus on the board. So
when we come back, more of your calls. Your home
with Dean Sharp, the house whisperyambye, Dean Sharp, the house Whisper,
at your service. We're talking getting ahead of the holidays today.
(09:50):
But suddenly, because I asked, we've got a board full
of calls.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
Now.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Now I'm not going to get through them all, but
I'm gonna try. I'm gonna do my best, all right,
So we're gonna to go back to the phones. Let's
talk to is it Marissa? Marissa welcome home, Hi, Geene,
appreciate you, Thank you so much. How can I help?
Speaker 4 (10:13):
I have property in the Conejo West facing hot and
sunny and dry, and we get the mustard every year
that we need to clear out. And I'm wanting if
there's any ground cover, like under two feet that I
could plant throughout hardy and and I need some suggestions
for that chow.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Okay, So we're not talking about lawn, and we're talking
about like back slope of your property or where exactly
side hillside.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
It's like a slope off the property.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Okay. So you've got a typical kind of pushed up
against open space. You got to slug, you got your yard,
and then you've got the backslope. And of course, yes, sir,
you are constantly being invaded by mustard plants.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
Yep, we have to cut it every years. It's pricey hassle.
But I'm just wondering if we could choke that stuff
out somehow.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Yeah, you can certainly reduce it quite a bit, quite
a bit of reduction. I'm not I'm not going to
give you any panacea here that like, oh, this will
solve the problem completely, because you know, because here's the reality.
About weeds. Uh, they've just learned to survive better than
normal plants. This is literally, I mean if you were
(11:29):
a plant, you know, as a human being, we would think, oh,
nobody wants to be a weed. But if you were
a plant, and you'd be like, yeah, oh, by the way,
I'm a weed, which means I know to grow way
better than you guys, and I can grow anywhere at
any time and survive all the other You know, weeds
are like the cockroaches of the plant world in that
(11:51):
they want to survive the nuclear holocaust, right.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
They have.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
They've simply evolved to do it. So so the idea
of like we'd free we'd free gardening, eye, I don't know,
we'ed reduction garden. That's the thing. And so yeah, for you,
the key is, I think you're thinking the right way.
There are a host of I mean so many more
than than I could even begin to mention to you,
(12:20):
of plants that are going to grow in the in
the one to two foot high category. So when it
comes to a back hill you what you want is
some kind of rugged chaparral kind of plant. There are
there are if you go to your local nursery and
I don't mean, let's see you live in the Caneo Valley.
I'm going to recommend that you go to Elegant Gardens.
(12:43):
Elegant Gardens off the twenty three and Tierra Rahata. It's
a wholesale nursery that contractors and designers like ourselves buy
from all the time and talk to them about and
they're going to show you like ten different very very
easy to care for, drought resistant, full sun, doesn't burn
(13:07):
in the heat of the summer, kind of shrubs. But
here's the key. You're on the right track. That's how
I'm gonna encourage you this morning. Because most people think groundcover.
They're thinking thin, thin, relatively thin ground cover, whether it's
ice plant or this or that, you know whatever. These
one to two inch groundcovers, those are the hardest ones
(13:30):
to keep weeds from invading. Because you think the little
seed of a weed falls into the ground and it
starts to grow, and if it gets even the smallest,
little one inch tall sprout up through the ground cover
into its own light, then then it's on its own.
(13:54):
Then it's now it's it's got its head above water,
and it's got its own source of sunlight and it's going,
and that weed is going to go. But on a hillside, especially,
you know, an untended area, you do you want something
between a foot to two feet of cover there. And
(14:14):
the reason is the weed seeds are going to fall
in just like they do everywhere else, but they're going
to be in the dark. They literally have to find
a way to be in darkness, which is not how
they grow for the first twelve inches of their growth.
It's virtually impossible, but it still does happen, but really
(14:35):
really super rare. And so the number of weeds that
will survive that first twelve full inches of growth before
they get their own leaves above the shrub line so
that they can continue to prosper on their own vastly, vastly,
vastly reduced. And so it's a long list, and that's
(14:59):
the good news. You can also check out Theodore Paine
Foundation in Sun Valley. They exist solely solely for the
purpose of propagating native southern California plants. And I'm telling you, mersa, there,
there are there. There's at least ten different kinds and
(15:20):
that you can choose from to put there. But that's
the right idea. The right idea is to have height
above these weeds so that they don't have a chance
to get started in the first place. You're not going
to stop the seeds from falling, but you can stop
the plant from finding its way up because it's got
(15:40):
to go so far before it breaks out. I hope
that makes sense, right, everybody? Right? The logic of that, Yeah,
as opposed to like a half an inch of growth. Yeah,
that's why. All right, Thank you so much for your call.
More calls when we return. I'm running late already. Your
Home with Dean Sharp the House Whisper.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six FORTYFI.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
AM six forty live streaming and HD everywhere on the
iHeartRadio app. You're Home with Dean Sharp the House whist Where.
We're back at it now. I got a board full
of calls, so let's get back to the phones, shall we.
I want to talk to you ann ay An, Welcome.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
Home, Good morning, Well, thank you, good morning, Gane. We
live in San Diego in a two story home about
eighteen hundred square feet. I'm wondering about the most reasonable
economical solution for attic insulation, and once we get attic
insulation about nine hundred square feet up there. Should we
(16:46):
at the same time, do the interior walls, particularly the
second floor.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Well, okay, attic insulation best attic insulation that well, yeah,
the best attic insulation that is the best value for
what it does, is going to be blown in insulation.
A nice, big, old, thick blanket of blown in. It's
counterintuitive as to what people normally see when they dream
of attic space, because they're like, I would like my
(17:15):
attic to look like that. You know that Hallmark Christmas movie,
you know when they go up in the attic and
they sit there and they search through the chests and
they find the old photos. That's all well and good.
But in the real world here in southern California, especially,
leave your attic messy, don't worry about that, don't store
stuff up there. Put the insulation up there. And blown
(17:38):
in is best because it covers everything. It gets all
the way out to the edges, it covers all the
tops of the wood ceiling joists. It truly makes an
effective blanket. Whereas some people would think, well, I just
want to run it again, nice and neat and clean,
so I'm gonna use roll bat insulation in there that
(17:58):
fits in between all the wood, and at least that
means I could put a plywood platform and have some
things and whatever. The problem is that that bad insulation
number one is very very difficult to get it all
the way over to the edge of the where the
roof joins the top of the wall, so it leaves
a hole. It's very very difficult to get it around
recess can lights and other things, so it leaves a hole.
(18:21):
And every single bat that fits in between the wood
joists doesn't go over the wood joist, so the joist
itself is essentially an insulating hole. And to maximize insulation
in a house, especially at an insulation, we don't want
any holes. You think of it like a boat, an
inverted boat. We don't want anything leaking through. You could
(18:45):
have the most brilliant, thickest strong titanic, like you know,
hull of a ship, but you know, once there's a
hole in it, it's going down and so blown in,
which also happens to be the least expensive way of
getting insulation in your attic. In fact, blown in these
days a lot of people decide to di wyatt because
(19:07):
places like well big box stores like Lows and Home Depot.
They actually will rent you a blower, and if you
rent the blower for a day, they even throw in
a few cubes of insulation for free to get you started.
So you can control the depth. You can overdo it,
which is never a bad thing, and it can be
(19:29):
one and done and you're set. And when it comes
to blown in, fiberglass is fine. I've got no particular
issues with it. I prefer cellulose myself as the material
to blown in to blow in, But either way, blown
in blanket of insulation in the attic is your best value,
and I believe your overall best form of insulation unless
(19:50):
you're going to do something much more expensive like filling
up the rafter bays with foam insulation. So blown in
that's the way to go.
Speaker 5 (20:02):
Okay. And then so the cellulose, is that the kind
that they blow in and it expands that foamy stuff
that it spans.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
No, No, that's that's that's a whole different animal there.
Cellulose and fiberglass. They will blow in and they will
essentially look the same. One is made out of shreds
of fiber. As you know, shred fiberus shreds of glass.
The other is made out of a paper product that
is treated with borates and acetate that are that are
(20:30):
you know, moisture resistant, rodent resistant, uh and a little
bit more dense. And so for for lesser inches you
can get you know, higher R value of insulation up
there plus no glass. So there's dust, there's dust, there's
a dust content up there, but there's no glass shreds,
(20:51):
so that if you have to get in the attic
or somebody has to get up there and service it,
it doesn't make you itch and irritate the skin the
same way got it.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
And for the interior walls, we have a guest bedroom
closet that butts up against the guest bedroom bathroom the
wall in between, so I was thinking for noise baffling
of maybe having that insulated and then the guests. The
other wall of the guest bathroom blots up against the
master bath. That's where the plumbing chase is. So I
(21:22):
was curious about insulation in those two walls. So essentially
it's bedroom, guest bath, master bath, you.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Know, master bedroom. I'm a huge proponent of interior wall insulation,
but just to be clear, for everybody. We're not talking
about thermal insulation. When it comes to interior walls, we
don't need to worry about thermal. But it's all about
sound and just keeping a room quiet, one room quiet
from another room, and layer upon layer room for room
(21:51):
from I mean, it's a brilliant thing and it's something
that we always do with all of our clients. It's
one of the things that kind of sets them apart
and gives them that much more of an awesome house
when it's done. So any wall that you can do
problem walls, and then in the future, you know, anytime,
anytime you've got drywall off the wall, do not put
that wall back together without slapping some insulation in there.
(22:13):
And the insulation you want is rock wool insulation, and
I think it's rock Sol the brand that we normally
use ro o x ul, but but you know they've
changed names a little bit recently. But here's what your
mineral wool insulation. And I believe the kind that you
want is safe n sound, safe and sound and it's
(22:37):
literally there doesn't have a massive R value, but it's
there intentionally designed to be sound baffling insulation.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Perfect.
Speaker 5 (22:46):
Well, I thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
All right, and I think we'll get it.
Speaker 5 (22:51):
I'm sorry, professional installation, and we're getting quotes anywhere from
seven dollars per square foot to fourteen dollars per square foot,
any price point we should be aware of.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
You know, it varies for house to house. So the
thing you should do is just do what you're doing.
Get those multiple quotes, Get as many quotes as you
can tolerate getting, and you will find the right price points.
Starts to form up for you. And it's like a
big ven diagram, so you know you'll see it as
it develops. That's the best way of knowing what the
(23:22):
right price is because different conditions vary from house to house,
so I can't just quote you it should be this.
Just get a bunch of quotes from reputable companies. You'll
see them starting to clump together in one zone and
you'll know like, oh, yeah, it's clearly it should be
this price. And thank you so much for your call,
my friend, and thanks for listening to the show. And
(23:45):
when we return, I'll try and tackle at least a
couple of more can't buy ben chart of the house
Whisper welcome home. We're wrapping up another Saturday together. I
asked for calls. You gave me calls. I got a
board full of calls. I want to try and take
at least one more before we're out of here, maybe two,
(24:05):
who knows. Let's go to Terry. Hey, Terry, welcome home.
Speaker 6 (24:10):
Oh yes, see, my house is coald. I have no attic,
and I close off the vents and the rooms we
don't use. I have to go outside to get warm.
I understand. The only thing I can do is poke
holes in the wall. Is that right?
Speaker 2 (24:29):
You mean as far as adding insulation. Are you saying
you don't have insulation in the house?
Speaker 6 (24:34):
No, I have no attic.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Oh you got no attic? Right? Okay?
Speaker 6 (24:40):
Ceilings. It's a four bedroom, so I close off rooms,
and I closed the vents in the rooms we don't use,
and I try to conserve the heat.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Yeah. Well, first of all, I wouldn't do that, Okay,
I would not. When it comes to your your heating system,
it was designed to breathe fully through all of those rooms,
as opposed to it being shut down, so longer term
use of heat.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Now.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
I know it sounds a little counterintuitive, but your heating
system really is designed. I don't want to put undue
stress on it. And when we close off a duct
at the vent at the very very end, back pressure
can build up and it can affect the way the
entire system is working in the house. So I wouldn't
close off the rooms. Right, You've got a leaky house,
(25:29):
I understand, I get it, But I would keep the
whole house breathing for the sake of your heating as
far as that is concerned. Now, as far as insulation
in your attic is concerned, which you don't have. You
don't have an attic space. Yes, the way to insulate
a ceiling up above you, you're going to have to
(25:49):
get access to the space in between those rafters. And
the only way, there's only two ways to get access.
Either you've got to drill a hole into the dry
wall and pump insulation in. There will be multiple holes
to do that to pump insulation into that void. Or
the drywalls just got to come down and then and
(26:10):
then fill those rafter bays with bats of insulation and
or foam and close it all back up again. And
I know that's inconvenient and it's pricey, but that's simply
the truth about how to get how to get insulation
in the house.
Speaker 6 (26:29):
Where is that area where you have to go into.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Well, it's literally every every bay, every space in between
the roof rafters up on your ceiling there, and it's
literally every sixteen inches. Yeah, it's a whole thing. It's
a whole that's why. That's why I'm so upset with
homes that were built without insulation in them when they
(26:55):
were built, because it was so easy to add when
it was all opened up. In the meantime, though, Terry,
let me tell you this, in the meantime, you don't
choke off the heating system for the house. Okay. And
here's a good piece of advice for anybody who's living
in a leaky place and you want to stay warm.
(27:15):
You should not have to go outside to stay warm
to get warm, all right, So here, but here's the reality.
Space heating in each room or or a portable space
heater you can carry with you. And and let me
be really clear about this. What you want is you
want to get a infrared space heater infrared, okay. And
(27:39):
the reason is this, You want to get a good
infrared space heater because infrared waves they don't heat the air,
they heat you Okay, So when you're in a room
with an infrared space heater, you will be warm. You
will get warm even without the heavy lift of having
to bring all of that cubic air of in the
(28:04):
room up to temperature. Okay, when you go out, when
you eat at a restaurant, okay, and I gotta, I
gotta rush out of here because we're literally at the edge.
What you know, when you go outside and you eat
at a restaurant at night, right, and those space heaters
that are out there, not just the ones with the flame,
but you know, the free standing ones with the little
(28:25):
cap on top, or maybe there's those bar heaters that
are running underneath a patio wanting if you ever thought
about this, those heaters are not heating up the air
it's outside. Okay, that would be a massive heater to
actually heat the air outside. But what they are infrared.
Infrared waves get under your skin and uh and warm
(28:48):
you up. So infrared heaters heat you and that's why
it's comfortable to sit out on a patio with one
of those heaters nearby. If you were actually to measure
the air temperature around you, it's not that much different
than the rest of the cold everywhere outside of that patio.
But you your plenty warm because they heat you. And
so if you live in an impossibly leaky cold space
(29:12):
and it just literally is going to you have to
mortgage the house in order to pay the heating bill.
Number one, Save up and think about what it takes
to retrofit insulation. Call insulation companies get quotes. But in
the interim, and you're in a cold room, infrared space heater,
get it near you. You'll be cozy even if the
(29:35):
room doesn't increase in temperature. Thank you, Terry for your call.
That's all I had time for today. I am so
grateful for those of you who respond. You know, at
the top of the show, I'm like, you know, only
got a couple of calls here on the board, and
you've got room, and now I have to let some
of you go. Just know, if you call back, then
(29:57):
you let producer Richie know that you were on hold
before and I didn't get you, and you get you
get priority access to the front of the line. All right,
Tomorrow our Holiday Home Show live from iHeart Studios in Burbank.
It's gonna be a hoot. You're not gonna wanna miss
(30:17):
it until then they drive today and get out there
and get busy building yourself a beautiful life. We'll see
you tomorrow. This has been Home with Dean Sharp, the
House Whisper. Tune into the live broadcast on KFI AM
six forty every Saturday morning from six to eight Pacific
(30:37):
time and every Sunday morning from nine to noon Pacific time,
or anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
Home with Dean Sharp News
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