January 3, 2026 • 37 mins
Today’s first caller has a problem with termites and is wondering about the company that can turn wood into a metal-like substance that's stronger than steal and not termite prone? Do we really want to blow up the world’s rainforests for the building industry?
The next caller needs to correct his hardwood floor because the subfloor wasn’t laid properly and now it’s buckling, plus that kind of engineered hardwood is no longer available. How does he fix it?
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp, the
House Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio app.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Good morning, my friend, Welcome home.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
I am Dean Sharp, the house Whisperer, custom home Builder,
custom home Designer, and every week your guide to better
understand that place where you live. Whether home for you
is a castle or a cottage, it matters not to me,
you know why, because luxury does not a great homemake.
It is design that matters most. That's what warms the
(00:38):
cockles of your heart. Are there cockles in people's hearts?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
All right?
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Good design makes all the difference. Every house deserves that,
every house should enjoy it because you know what. Once
good design is at work in your home, that is,
when your house has a path forward toward becoming a truly,
truly great home. It is our all show, as we
do every week every Saturday morning. And the number to
(01:05):
reach me, of course eight three three two. Ask Dean
eight three to three the numeral two. Ask Dean whether
you are scratching your head about your home in a
design issue or a construction issue, Whether it's DIY that's
got you wondering about some things inside stuff outside stuff,
(01:28):
landscape decor, no matter what I got you, we'll put
our heads together.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
We will get it figured out.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
You get to set the agenda for our program today,
as is always the case with our All Calls shows.
And it is the first weekend twenty six, is it not? Yes,
it is happy New Year to you. It is a
rainy weekend here in southern California. I hope the weather
(01:54):
wherever you find yourself is treating you well and you
have a plan for taking full advantage of what for
most of us is that final couple of days of
holiday rest before we're back into it come Monday.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Isn't that the case?
Speaker 1 (02:11):
I mean, well, in this situation whenever the calendar favors
the last weekend here, so you know, for most of us,
Monday is the official beginning of the new work year.
A lot of stuff laid ahead for us this year,
a lot of a lot, a lot of stuff. And
(02:32):
I hope you are going to be with us throughout
the duration because as always, we're going to be spending
a lot of time and energy talking about your home.
And let's see, where's my boss? Where is she at?
I don't see her yet. We will get Tina to
you when she arrives here, my design partner, my better half,
(02:52):
my best buddy in all the world. She is abou
out and about, so we'll be talking to her in
just a bit. Let us also say good morning to Sam. Sam.
How you doing though, Good morning, Dean, how you doing?
I am well, I am well. It's a very calm,
quiet morning here. The rain is a drizzling. I don't
(03:12):
think it's raining right now at the moment, but is
it still actually in the forecast for rain for most
of the day today.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
I think it's still out there.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
I mean, I'm not the news person, so I couldn't
tell you for sure. But I did bring my kid
with me, and he's usually really good at telling me
when it's raining.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
He'll say, Hey, Dad, look outside, it's raining. There you go.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
So that's as good a weather man as I can
imagine right now, not.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
So much a predictive quality, just a on the spot reporter.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
Yeah, I'll put him. I'll send him outside with a
cell phone. He'll call in and give us updates. Hey,
it's raining back to you. We should definitely do that.
That would be awesome.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
And now to our man in the field standing outside
the building. Yes, it is raining. I can confirm it,
and then on we go. All right, good to be
with you, Sam, Happy New Year, Bud, Happy New Year.
So where do we go from here? Well, we're gonna
wait for calls. It's just you know whatever, Just return
to whatever you're doing.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
We'll wait for gold.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
No.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Look, I'm gonna give the number one more time, A
three three to ask Dean eight three three the numeral two,
ask Dean. We have got room on the callboard for you.
In the meantime, I'm been checking on construction trends and
the like for this year.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Now.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Last week's show, we spend a good amount of time
explaining to you my perspective on trends and predictions for
the year. And if you know the program, then you
know that I don't get I don't get all excited
and get you all worked up into a lather about
(04:55):
what the new design trends for the year are because
I don't like trends. I don't like them at all.
Trends are of no use to you when it comes
to construction. It's not like this is the fashion industry
and you can just you know, you're going out and
to buy a shirt and you know a few months
from now or next year, you decide, nah, not.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Interesting that anymore. Let's change the color or style of
this shirt.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
No, not when you're spending tens or hundreds of thousands
of dollars on your home. That's not the way it's
going to work, is it.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
No.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
So we don't want to follow trends. We follow movements.
And the difference between the two is the trends are
driven by fashion. They're driven by influencers. They're driven by
whatever anybody you know gets online and tells you, hey,
this is what I think the color of your sofa
should be this year. You know, it's all well and good,
(05:52):
it's semi entertaining and mostly frustrating.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
No, no, no.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
What I want to be is on always taking you
on the cutting edge of real movements. And real movements
are driven by three things. Essentially, They're driven by architecture
and the progression in architecture and where architecture is at,
specifically home architecture. They're driven by cultural shifts and you know,
(06:17):
our culture and the way we live, our lives always
changing and evolving, but not crazy fast, right, No, of
course not. And they're also driven by the development of
building science. And now other words, what are we capable
of doing in terms of architecture and shifting culture? What
(06:37):
are we capable of doing? How are we capable of
manifesting those changes that we want and desire into our homes?
These are all relevant things. I've got more thoughts on that.
We will get back to that and hopefully your calls.
Here's the number eight three three two. Ask de looks
like we've got a couple of calls coming in the board,
but there's a room for you. Eight three to three two,
(07:00):
Ask Dean, eight three three the numeral two. Ask Dean,
you are home with Dean Sharp, the house whisper.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
More on the other side.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Dean Sharp, the house Whisper here to help you take
your home to the next level. Thanks for joining us
on the program. This very dark, still very cloudy, and
rainy Southern California, Saturday morning. It is our all calls
Saturday morning, like we do every week. I hope wherever
(07:30):
you are, the weather's treating you well. I hope you're
warm and dry and you've got plans for the weekend.
No matter what, whatever the case may be, a lot
of good stuff happened out there we got some football,
we got well, there's just all sorts of stuff going
on this weekend. We are taking your calls, and we've
got calls on the board, so let's go to the
(07:52):
phones without any further ado, I want to talk to Joyce.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Hey, Joyce, welcome home.
Speaker 5 (08:00):
Hellogan, I'm so glad to get it through to you.
You mentioned a few weeks ago about making wood into
a different thing so that termites wouldn't gather it. And
we have such a problem with termites, and if we
could even use of wood over in the traffics and
(08:27):
make that into another kind of wood, that would be
great too, and get rid of all that where you
have to get rid of the wood and just make
it into wood that we can use for houses and things.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Yeah, yeah, you're absolutely right, Joyce. Thanks for that observation. Yeah,
it is something that is an ongoing conversation in the
building industry, and that is how do we improve the
materials that we're actually creating houses out of. Now, wood
is still and for the foreseeable future, still going to
(09:06):
be the primary building material for homes, especially simply because
of its cost, its cost efficiency, and its strength. A
lot of people ask me this question all the time,
when in the world are we going to get beyond
using wood for our homes? And I get it, the
(09:29):
termite issue is an issue, and I can address that
in just a second, But when it comes to a
general construction for homes, there's really no view currently on
the horizon for using anything other than would and there
are lots of different forms of it these days. Now,
(09:51):
you're absolutely right, if we could build a house out
of tropical hardwoods, then we would have a house that
is where the wood is both moisture resistant and incredibly
hard and dense, and also relatively termite resistant and critter proof.
As they say, here's the problem though, Tropical hardwoods number
(10:14):
one have to be grown in the tropics, and that
is an issue.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Now. There are farmed materials.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
For things like exterior sighting and deck work and and
the like out there, but we want to be careful
of you know, blowing down the tropical rainforests just in
order to you know, feed the building industry.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
And if we were building everything.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Out of that wood, then we would be you know,
deforesting at an even more intense rate. The other problem
is that that wood is very heavy, heavier than it
needs to be for construction, and it's also incredibly expensive
compared to you know, Douglas fir Pinel and so on.
(11:01):
That we can actually grow stateside here within the boundaries
of the US, and that's something that again keeps costs
down when it comes to construction. And believe me, we're
living in a time right now where if you can
avoid importing construction materials, you are ahead of the game,
(11:22):
especially when it comes to tariffs and things like that.
Already we're seeing prices going up all across the construction
industry because maybe not particular products per se, but the
materials those products are made out of. I was just
reading an article where I think aluminum has gone up.
(11:43):
Import aluminum has gone up thirteen percent. All sorts of
things have gone up, primarily because of tariff costs and
those kinds of things. But back to your point, there
is a whole slew of new building science. Like I
was talking about before we got rolling here, when I've
said that building science is one of the things that
(12:04):
moves movements forward as opposed to trends. Building science when
it comes to wood in a home, all sorts of
new things that have been out for a while, we
are finding more and more easier ways of actually making
basic construction materials out of lower you know, not to
(12:28):
old growth pieces of woods. So whereas right now, and
this is still the case because it's still the least
expensive way to go. Whereas right now, you know, your
typical two by four stud's that's the branch of a
tree that's coming out of the trunk of a tree.
That's why you see the grain of the wood all
the way through. But there are plenty of places around
(12:49):
the country right now where we're starting to build out of,
for instance, timber strand wall framing studs. If you're wondering
what that is, well, you've seen ausome weighted strandboard OSB.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
We call it.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
You know a lot of people just still call it
plywood because it comes in sheets, but you've seen it.
It's like chipboard. You see all these layers of chips
all laid together. Will studs now are beginning to be
made in that method, and the advantage is they are
very very strong, they're very very straight, so we'd have
(13:23):
to worry about bows and walls and things like that.
And they can have built in termite resistance as well,
because we can use borates when we're putting them all together,
which makes the wood essentially just unpalatable for little munching
critters like termites. So yeah, there are a lot of
(13:43):
developments now. Still, if you were to build a house
out of timber strand LSL wallframing studs or versus stud
LVL wallframing studs, you're still going to be spending more
maybe ten, fifteen, sometimes twenty percent more, not on the
who whole house, but on the actual framing aspects. And
(14:03):
you know, those are costs that a lot of homeowners
aren't ready to absorb yet, especially with the increased construction
costs happening across the board. So that's something to think about.
But Joyce, you're absolutely right, and believe me, trust me
when I say the industry is very very aware. We
are trying to move forward in the most efficient, cost
(14:27):
effective and as I was saying, from a design perspective,
architects and designers like myself always asking for and pushing
the industry to come up with better products engineering wise
that can in smaller spaces and with less material get
(14:48):
more done in terms of engineering. Another, because you know what,
I want to be able to build a wall in
which we hold up the house and make large expand
for more windows and more expansive openings and daylight to
be rushing into the house without having to resort to
(15:09):
structural steel or massive framing headers that lowers the height
of doorways. You know, I just want, of course, the
miracle material that I can simply lace across the wall
and know that it's structurally sound and architecturally creative at
the same time. So, Joyce, Yeah, you're absolutely right, And
(15:29):
those products are here, they're coming, and they're also coming
down in price, slowly but surely, but there's still quite
a few percentage points above good old fashion mainstream lumber.
And since there are ways of protecting good old fashioned
mainstream lumber, like treating a newly framed house before anything
(15:51):
at further goes on once the framing is up, treating
it in bor rates, which is something any homeowner can do,
and essentially rendering it termite roof for decades to come then,
and you know, we can talk a little bit more
about that on the other side. Yeah, sounds good, all right, Joyce,
thanks for your call. We're up against a break. Let
me explain the borate treatment process right on the other
(16:13):
side of the break and more of your calls. You
are Home with Dean Sharp, The House Whisper.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Dean Sharp, The House Whisper here to help you transform
your ordinary house into an extraordinary home, like we do
every week. By the way, tomorrow's big show, we are
going to be talking about whispering for you, in other words,
learning to think like a whisper so you can design
(16:49):
like a whisper when it comes to your home. A
lot of a lot of very very sweet, very kind
words from our listeners and people who turn into the show,
tune into the shit turned in, tune in.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Well both, that's fine.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
A lot of a lot of great feedback from folks
about how is it that you can figure out what
needs to get done inside a home a certain way? Dean,
I'm gonna you know, we're going to start a series
that won't be, you know, a consistent series in terms
of every single weekend, but we'll have the first episode
(17:26):
of a series tomorrow talking about for twenty twenty six,
the whole concept of thinking and designing like a whisper
and what you can do as the homeowner, a critical
component that you can utilize and step forward to really
(17:47):
start introducing to your home the most significant changes you
can make. And I don't mean in scope or cost.
I'm just talking about the most important changes that will
end up being the most transformational for your home on
the lowest possible budget. And isn't that the key? Isn't that?
(18:09):
Isn't that what we all want? We want the biggest
amount of change for the least amount of money. And
those aren't tricks or hacks. They come from application of
the most powerful design principles to your home. But how,
where and when do you do those? Well, that's what
we're going to be talking about tomorrow on the Big Show,
(18:31):
So nine to noon Pacific time. Don't miss it, or
you can listen to us on the stream, or you
can listen to the podcast after the fact if you
can't tune in live. But you're not going to want
to miss that show, all right. It is in all
calls Saturday morning calls are starting to roll in this
sleepy first Saturday of the new year. I appreciate you listening.
(18:54):
We've got room on the board for you, by the way,
eight three three two as Deans. So if you've ever
tried calling in or thought about calling into the show,
now's a great opportunity. Yeah, because traffic is light out there.
As they say, eight three three two, ask Dean A
three three the numeral two, and then you just spell
(19:14):
out ask Dean eight three three to ask Dean, let's
talk to Randy.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Hey, Randy, welcome.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Home, Good morning, Good morning, Dean's longtime listener and first
time caller. Really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Falling in. Happy New Year to you, Thank you, sir.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
I a few years ago I had someone put a
floor down in my home. It's an engineered wood floor
and the sub I have a raised foundation. The sub
floor is OSB. What I didn't realize when they put
the floor in they went wall to wall with no
(19:54):
gap between the wall and the floor. So what's happened
is over the the last few years, I have part
of the floor raising like it's pushing towards the walls.
So I'm not sure how to correct it. I've been
told so many different things I can do. Unfortunately, the wood,
the engineered wood, is now you know, not made anymore,
(20:16):
so I have to be careful. I have a few
pieces I don't want to destroy the floor. So what
would be the best way to correct the floor?
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Okay? Uh so.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
What tell me what's the extent of the damage thus far?
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Or you know that?
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Where are we seeing it out in the middle of
the room are we talking about? We've got significant buckling
in the floor.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
It is buckling. The room itself is about fifteen feet
white and about twenty five thirty feet long, and along
one side about i'd say maybe three feet from one
side of the wall. In terms of width the floor
sight down the lengthwise it's lifted. You know, how do
(21:09):
I describe it? Maybe a quarter of an inch I'm
guessing something like that, but it's almost the whole length
of the floor at about three feet from one side
of the wall.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Yeah, okay, Well, so here's the thing. You're absolutely right
that floor was not installed properly, only because they went
tight up against the walls. When we put in any
kind of material like that, a hardwood floor, we always
(21:39):
have to leave Manufacturers require this. It's standard building practice.
We need to leave a gap all around the outside
perimeter of the room. And what is that gap for.
It's for expansion and contraction, but especially expansion and you think, well, how,
I mean, these floors are supposed to be really, really stable.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
What's the deal.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Well, every wood product, even a stable engineered hardwood floor,
goes through seasonal and temperature expansion and contraction. Is it
perceptible to the human eye. Nope, it is not. We're
not talking about anything that extreme. But you know, as
a perfect example, and I'm going to exaggerate here a
(22:22):
little bit, but you know, let's say you've got a
fifteen foot wide room and we've got planks running across
that room. Let's say the planks are you know, every Well,
let's just make the math easy and say that those
planks are six inches wide. So a fifteen foot wide
room that has six inch wide planks running across, so
there's about thirty planks running across from wall to wall there,
(22:47):
if they're six inches wide, and those thirty planks, if
they expand, if each one of them expanded just just
you know, a thirty second or a sixty fourth of
an inch, then we would be talking about a half
(23:08):
inch plus of expansion overall of that floor during any
given time of the year. And that's a lot. And
so now, fortunately, a sixty fourth of an inch is
not even how much a floor expands, but it does
expand some and it adds up plank for plank for
plank for playing. This is why usually an eighth to
(23:29):
a quarter of an inch, and we normally go a
quarter of an inch or a quarter an inch plus
all around the perimeter of room to allow for length
expansion and the like. If you don't leave that room,
if you've gone tight to the dry wall or tight
to the stud wall with your floor, then the result
is that once that expansion happens, it's got to give
(23:52):
somewhere and we get buckling. And that's what you've experienced.
Two thirds of the way across the floor. That expansion
has the floor and now it has started to lift
up and buckle. So what can be done about? And
by the way, for those of you who are wondering, like, wait,
I see hardwood floors all the time. I don't see
a gap around the out No, no, we cover the gap.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
So there are two choices when you're running a hardwood
floor into a room. You can either a remove the
base boards of the room and then run the floor
underneath where the new baseboards are going to go, and
leave the gap and the baseboard is going to cover
the gap, the expansion gap, so you'll never see it.
Or if you've run the floor inside the baseboards, you
(24:35):
still have to leave the gap, and you've got to
lay down what's called a little base shoe or a
piece of quarter round molding onto the inside of the
baseboard to cover the gap. So the solution, well, you know,
if if it's a uniform buckle all the way across,
then a couple of things can be done. Number one,
you can pull either now is there a base shoe
(24:58):
and quarter around around the randy or is it underneath
the baseboards?
Speaker 3 (25:05):
It actually has two things. I have one side that's
butted up against a sliding glass window which is about
twelve feet long, and then on the opposite side of
that is I have a baseboard. And then because the
room is sunk in a little bit sunk in a
living room, I have tile that is butted up against
(25:26):
it as well. So there's an exposed area which probably
would have to be quart around put on that in
that area.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Yeah for sure. All right, Well, if it's esthetically possible.
The goal is now to remove anything that is blocking
the perimeter, obviously including a quarter round up against the
sliding glass door as well, or at least a piece
of trim low profile enough that it doesn't interfere with
the door but still allows for the gap. That gap
(25:58):
can still be cut into that floor. It is going
to take some time to do it, and you can't
do it with a reg circular saw because a circular
saw has a too much margin in between the edge
of the saw table and the blade. But it can
be done either with a grinder blade saw or a
(26:20):
vibration saw kind of like a dremal vibration saw. But
slowly but surely, that quarter inch gap can be retrofitted
into that floor, and then the molding's placed down. And
as for the planks in the center, Oh you don't.
We're up against a break. Okay, I have to honor
the break. Randy, you hang tight. I'm gonna leave everybody hanging.
(26:40):
What do we do with that raised plank in the center.
We'll talk about it right on the other side. Your
home with Dean Sharp, the house Whisper. Dean Sharp, the
house Whisper here to remind you every home deserves great design.
Thanks for joining us on the program this morning, this rainy, dark,
cloudy Southern California morning. Wherever you are, I hope you've
(27:02):
got some cool plans for the day. It is that
final weekend, even though yeah it's twenty twenty six, the
new year has begun, but for most of us.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
You know, Monday, Monday is that day. So we've got
today and tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Just a couple of more days to stretch it on out,
and you know, breathe deeply before the year begins.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
I think it's going to be a good one. Let's hope.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
We are taking calls as we do Saturday mornings. The
number to reach me, by the way, there's room on
the board for you, eight three three two. Ask Dean
eight three three the numeral two. Ask Dean eight three three.
You just press the number two and then spell out
ask Dean, and you will be with us. Anything that's
(27:47):
going on with your home today, inside, outside, structure, architecture, design, landscape, decor,
whatever the case may be. I'm here to see you
through it and to help you figure it out. So
give us a call. We're talking to Randy, and Randy
I didn't hang up.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
On you, right, No, I'm still here, thank you.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
So Randy has a hardwood floor he has a raised
foundation house, so he's got a crawl space under his house.
He had a hardwood floor laid down, and now it's buckling,
and the buckle is because the hardwood floor was run
wall to wall, edge to edge without any gaps for
expansion around the outside. We've already talked about the fact that,
(28:33):
you know, the easy part of it, if we want to.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Call it that.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
The easier part Randy, of course, is putting in that
gap now because whatever trim boards are around the outside,
even if there aren't in some spaces, we can add them.
We can cut that gap in. We can use an
oscillating saw. It's going to take time, but we can
cut in that quarter inch plus gap around the floor
and then reinstall, reinstall trim boards over to cover that gap.
(29:01):
That gap is critical just for this reason, so that
the whole floor can expand and contract without buckling. But
in Randy's case, it's a little too late for for well,
it's not too late to do that, but it's too
late to avoid the buckle, because he's got one about
two thirds the way across the floor, running lengthwise in
the planks, which is typical.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Now, the big question is all right.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Let's say we've cut in the gap, We've covered it over,
and so the floor is not going to keep doing it.
But what do we do with what we've got, which
is that buckle out there in the middle of the floor. Randy,
you said you don't have any more plank material left.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
I have a little bit left. I'm not sure if
I have enough to destroy any of the planks that
existing on the floor.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
My concern too, is is that I don't know how
it was nailed to the sub floor. I don't know
if they did every course or if it's several courses
and then put nails down. That's another concern I have.
So if it does get cut, if we do cut
the edges to treat this gap, well, the floor put
the nails in it eventually move over. I'll have to
(30:13):
do something else with that as well.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Oh yeah, the nails will allow for the expansion, So
that's not a concern.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
And but on the edges, the nice thing is if
you if you do cut that gap on the edges,
we don't have to We don't have to depend on
nails to hold down the new edge.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
In fact, it's preferable not to in that situation, because
what will hold down the edge will be the trim
board that you put on top of the cord around
that'll keep it flat and hold it down, And the
absence of nail right there on the edge will just
give it that much more freedom to expand into the
gaps as there's expansion and contraction. But the middle of
(30:57):
the floor, here's the tricky part. Here's the t without
boring everybody stiff with the construction of this, the middle
of the floor. Let me ask you this. When you
walk out onto that floor where the buckle is, if
you stand on the buckle or put weight on it,
can you force it down back down to the subfloor.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
You can't. That is the best news of.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
All, okay, because because if you couldn't, I mean, if
it was such a severe buckle that you can't force
it back down, then we've got to remove one of
those planks and which is going to damage it, which
means replacing it. And if you don't have them enough material,
you're stuck. So that's the thing. Now, it was the
(31:42):
floor only nailed down. Is this a is this an
engineered floor or is it a solid hardwood floor?
Speaker 3 (31:50):
It's an engineered floor, and it.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Was was it only nailed down, it wasn't glued correct. Okay,
So in this case, what we're gonna want to do
is we're gonna want to treat this like a squeaky floor.
We're gonna want to put pressure on that buckle. Once
the gap is there around the outside edge, force it down.
(32:13):
And I don't want to waste time with nails there.
What I want to do is tiny tiny pilot holes,
and I want to use screws. I want to screw
down that plank, that buckled plank, okay, into place I
would even you know, we can start with the screw
(32:33):
Sometimes a hardwood floor guy will say, you know what,
let's screw it and glue it, which means a tiny
injection holes along that plank in order to get a
little bit of glue underneath. But the key is we
want a real solid fastening down of that buckled area first,
and then is that going to put pressure on the
(32:53):
rest of the floor. Yes, Will that particular plank be
allowed to shift? No, But the point is from there
out to both in both directions. Now that you've got
the gap around the groom, you should have sufficient pressure
relief that you don't see another buckle forming anywhere else,
So pressing down on that buckle, forcing it down, and
(33:15):
then screwing it down into the sub floor so that
sucker who's already up has no chance of coming up again.
That will be what we call a fixed band running
through the floor that doesn't shift or move, but everything
to the left and the right of it can shift
and move back out to the wall again, and the
(33:35):
pressure should be relieved and compensated as it builds up again.
So as difficult as it may be, you're actually in
the best possible scenario if you can force that plank
back down. And yes, there'll be tiny, tiny little holes
across it that'll need to be filled, but that's far
better than replacing all the wood in the room and
(33:58):
probably won't be noticeable once it's all down, and you'll
save that floor.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
It's like I said, it's the buckles about thirty feet long.
So am I going to be placing screws every couple
of feet the whole length? Is that idea?
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Yep?
Speaker 3 (34:16):
All the way down and we're one more thing here. Actually,
two questions for you. If I use a a ninety
degree grinder, I can I put a wooden blade on
that and cut it if you recommend me to cut
the certain blades for that. And second question and I'll stop,
is where the we're in an area we have a
(34:39):
fireplace that the bricks go to the floor, and they're
not they're like a like a slumpstone. They're not They're
not flat and straight. They're irregular shaped. And of course
that would mean the floor would have to be cut
on that. I'll cut a quarter inch gap along that
brick area the fireplace, But what would I use using
(35:00):
the quarter round isn't gonna work because the brick is
they make a flexible one where you can kind of
conform to the uh, to the cartures of the brick. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Yeah, So when it comes to the brick work, that's it.
You know, that's always a trickier question. And are the
brick is the brick is the fireplace that's at the
end of the length of the boards or or across
the width of the floor like we were talking about before.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
It's both. Some of the wood get into it and
some of it goes alongside it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
In that situation, uh, we may do a micro cut,
not a big quarter inch gap. And actually fill it
with the colored culk colored cock, yeah, colored woodculk that
can expand and contract and you know, hide the edge
of the floor. That's a tricky one. Sometimes we'll choose
(35:53):
to not make that cut there, leave that tight. As
long as there's room on the opposite side for the expansion,
it may be enough. And so from an esthetic perspective,
I may not just go ahead and you know, put
an expansion gap there, because you let enough pressure off
everywhere else it may be enough. And as far as
(36:13):
the blade goes, I wouldn't use a grinder. Some people
have used grinders with open blade. I would use an
oscillating saw. Okay, So invest in an oscillating What was that?
Speaker 3 (36:25):
What is the oscillating saws that? I don't know what
that is?
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Okay, I will you tell you what, Randy. I will
explain it on the other side of the brake. So
everybody knows what an oscillating saw is. And it's going
to take some time, but it's the cleanest, safest, totally
safest way to do that cut. And they're not very expensive,
and you know it's worth it investing in one in
order to save your floor. So you hang tight Bud
(36:49):
and everybody hang tight and give me a call eight
three three two. Ask Dean. It's an all call. Saturday morning.
You're Home with Dean Sharp, the house Whisper.
Speaker 4 (36:59):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Kfi a M six forty
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp, the
House Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio app.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Good morning, my friend, Welcome home.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
I am Dean Sharp, the house Whisperer, custom home Builder,
custom home Designer, and every week your guide to better
understand that place where you live. Whether home for you
is a castle or a cottage, it matters not to me,
you know why, because luxury does not a great homemake.
It is design that matters most. That's what warms the
(00:38):
cockles of your heart. Are there cockles in people's hearts?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
All right?
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Good design makes all the difference. Every house deserves that,
every house should enjoy it because you know what. Once
good design is at work in your home, that is,
when your house has a path forward toward becoming a truly,
truly great home. It is our all show, as we
do every week every Saturday morning. And the number to
(01:05):
reach me, of course eight three three two. Ask Dean
eight three to three the numeral two. Ask Dean whether
you are scratching your head about your home in a
design issue or a construction issue, Whether it's DIY that's
got you wondering about some things inside stuff outside stuff,
(01:28):
landscape decor, no matter what I got you, we'll put
our heads together.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
We will get it figured out.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
You get to set the agenda for our program today,
as is always the case with our All Calls shows.
And it is the first weekend twenty six, is it not? Yes,
it is happy New Year to you. It is a
rainy weekend here in southern California. I hope the weather
(01:54):
wherever you find yourself is treating you well and you
have a plan for taking full advantage of what for
most of us is that final couple of days of
holiday rest before we're back into it come Monday.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Isn't that the case?
Speaker 1 (02:11):
I mean, well, in this situation whenever the calendar favors
the last weekend here, so you know, for most of us,
Monday is the official beginning of the new work year.
A lot of stuff laid ahead for us this year,
a lot of a lot, a lot of stuff. And
(02:32):
I hope you are going to be with us throughout
the duration because as always, we're going to be spending
a lot of time and energy talking about your home.
And let's see, where's my boss? Where is she at?
I don't see her yet. We will get Tina to
you when she arrives here, my design partner, my better half,
(02:52):
my best buddy in all the world. She is abou
out and about, so we'll be talking to her in
just a bit. Let us also say good morning to Sam. Sam.
How you doing though, Good morning, Dean, how you doing?
I am well, I am well. It's a very calm,
quiet morning here. The rain is a drizzling. I don't
(03:12):
think it's raining right now at the moment, but is
it still actually in the forecast for rain for most
of the day today.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
I think it's still out there.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
I mean, I'm not the news person, so I couldn't
tell you for sure. But I did bring my kid
with me, and he's usually really good at telling me
when it's raining.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
He'll say, Hey, Dad, look outside, it's raining. There you go.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
So that's as good a weather man as I can
imagine right now, not.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
So much a predictive quality, just a on the spot reporter.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
Yeah, I'll put him. I'll send him outside with a
cell phone. He'll call in and give us updates. Hey,
it's raining back to you. We should definitely do that.
That would be awesome.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
And now to our man in the field standing outside
the building. Yes, it is raining. I can confirm it,
and then on we go. All right, good to be
with you, Sam, Happy New Year, Bud, Happy New Year.
So where do we go from here? Well, we're gonna
wait for calls. It's just you know whatever, Just return
to whatever you're doing.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
We'll wait for gold.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
No.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Look, I'm gonna give the number one more time, A
three three to ask Dean eight three three the numeral two,
ask Dean. We have got room on the callboard for you.
In the meantime, I'm been checking on construction trends and
the like for this year.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Now.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Last week's show, we spend a good amount of time
explaining to you my perspective on trends and predictions for
the year. And if you know the program, then you
know that I don't get I don't get all excited
and get you all worked up into a lather about
(04:55):
what the new design trends for the year are because
I don't like trends. I don't like them at all.
Trends are of no use to you when it comes
to construction. It's not like this is the fashion industry
and you can just you know, you're going out and
to buy a shirt and you know a few months
from now or next year, you decide, nah, not.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Interesting that anymore. Let's change the color or style of
this shirt.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
No, not when you're spending tens or hundreds of thousands
of dollars on your home. That's not the way it's
going to work, is it.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
No.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
So we don't want to follow trends. We follow movements.
And the difference between the two is the trends are
driven by fashion. They're driven by influencers. They're driven by
whatever anybody you know gets online and tells you, hey,
this is what I think the color of your sofa
should be this year. You know, it's all well and good,
(05:52):
it's semi entertaining and mostly frustrating.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
No, no, no.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
What I want to be is on always taking you
on the cutting edge of real movements. And real movements
are driven by three things. Essentially, They're driven by architecture
and the progression in architecture and where architecture is at,
specifically home architecture. They're driven by cultural shifts and you know,
(06:17):
our culture and the way we live, our lives always
changing and evolving, but not crazy fast, right, No, of
course not. And they're also driven by the development of
building science. And now other words, what are we capable
of doing in terms of architecture and shifting culture? What
(06:37):
are we capable of doing? How are we capable of
manifesting those changes that we want and desire into our homes?
These are all relevant things. I've got more thoughts on that.
We will get back to that and hopefully your calls.
Here's the number eight three three two. Ask de looks
like we've got a couple of calls coming in the board,
but there's a room for you. Eight three to three two,
(07:00):
Ask Dean, eight three three the numeral two. Ask Dean,
you are home with Dean Sharp, the house whisper.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
More on the other side.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Dean Sharp, the house Whisper here to help you take
your home to the next level. Thanks for joining us
on the program. This very dark, still very cloudy, and
rainy Southern California, Saturday morning. It is our all calls
Saturday morning, like we do every week. I hope wherever
(07:30):
you are, the weather's treating you well. I hope you're
warm and dry and you've got plans for the weekend.
No matter what, whatever the case may be, a lot
of good stuff happened out there we got some football,
we got well, there's just all sorts of stuff going
on this weekend. We are taking your calls, and we've
got calls on the board, so let's go to the
(07:52):
phones without any further ado, I want to talk to Joyce.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Hey, Joyce, welcome home.
Speaker 5 (08:00):
Hellogan, I'm so glad to get it through to you.
You mentioned a few weeks ago about making wood into
a different thing so that termites wouldn't gather it. And
we have such a problem with termites, and if we
could even use of wood over in the traffics and
(08:27):
make that into another kind of wood, that would be
great too, and get rid of all that where you
have to get rid of the wood and just make
it into wood that we can use for houses and things.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Yeah, yeah, you're absolutely right, Joyce. Thanks for that observation. Yeah,
it is something that is an ongoing conversation in the
building industry, and that is how do we improve the
materials that we're actually creating houses out of. Now, wood
is still and for the foreseeable future, still going to
(09:06):
be the primary building material for homes, especially simply because
of its cost, its cost efficiency, and its strength. A
lot of people ask me this question all the time,
when in the world are we going to get beyond
using wood for our homes? And I get it, the
(09:29):
termite issue is an issue, and I can address that
in just a second, But when it comes to a
general construction for homes, there's really no view currently on
the horizon for using anything other than would and there
are lots of different forms of it these days. Now,
(09:51):
you're absolutely right, if we could build a house out
of tropical hardwoods, then we would have a house that
is where the wood is both moisture resistant and incredibly
hard and dense, and also relatively termite resistant and critter proof.
As they say, here's the problem though, Tropical hardwoods number
(10:14):
one have to be grown in the tropics, and that
is an issue.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Now. There are farmed materials.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
For things like exterior sighting and deck work and and
the like out there, but we want to be careful
of you know, blowing down the tropical rainforests just in
order to you know, feed the building industry.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
And if we were building everything.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Out of that wood, then we would be you know,
deforesting at an even more intense rate. The other problem
is that that wood is very heavy, heavier than it
needs to be for construction, and it's also incredibly expensive
compared to you know, Douglas fir Pinel and so on.
(11:01):
That we can actually grow stateside here within the boundaries
of the US, and that's something that again keeps costs
down when it comes to construction. And believe me, we're
living in a time right now where if you can
avoid importing construction materials, you are ahead of the game,
(11:22):
especially when it comes to tariffs and things like that.
Already we're seeing prices going up all across the construction
industry because maybe not particular products per se, but the
materials those products are made out of. I was just
reading an article where I think aluminum has gone up.
(11:43):
Import aluminum has gone up thirteen percent. All sorts of
things have gone up, primarily because of tariff costs and
those kinds of things. But back to your point, there
is a whole slew of new building science. Like I
was talking about before we got rolling here, when I've
said that building science is one of the things that
(12:04):
moves movements forward as opposed to trends. Building science when
it comes to wood in a home, all sorts of
new things that have been out for a while, we
are finding more and more easier ways of actually making
basic construction materials out of lower you know, not to
(12:28):
old growth pieces of woods. So whereas right now, and
this is still the case because it's still the least
expensive way to go. Whereas right now, you know, your
typical two by four stud's that's the branch of a
tree that's coming out of the trunk of a tree.
That's why you see the grain of the wood all
the way through. But there are plenty of places around
(12:49):
the country right now where we're starting to build out of,
for instance, timber strand wall framing studs. If you're wondering
what that is, well, you've seen ausome weighted strandboard OSB.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
We call it.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
You know a lot of people just still call it
plywood because it comes in sheets, but you've seen it.
It's like chipboard. You see all these layers of chips
all laid together. Will studs now are beginning to be
made in that method, and the advantage is they are
very very strong, they're very very straight, so we'd have
(13:23):
to worry about bows and walls and things like that.
And they can have built in termite resistance as well,
because we can use borates when we're putting them all together,
which makes the wood essentially just unpalatable for little munching
critters like termites. So yeah, there are a lot of
(13:43):
developments now. Still, if you were to build a house
out of timber strand LSL wallframing studs or versus stud
LVL wallframing studs, you're still going to be spending more
maybe ten, fifteen, sometimes twenty percent more, not on the
who whole house, but on the actual framing aspects. And
(14:03):
you know, those are costs that a lot of homeowners
aren't ready to absorb yet, especially with the increased construction
costs happening across the board. So that's something to think about.
But Joyce, you're absolutely right, and believe me, trust me
when I say the industry is very very aware. We
are trying to move forward in the most efficient, cost
(14:27):
effective and as I was saying, from a design perspective,
architects and designers like myself always asking for and pushing
the industry to come up with better products engineering wise
that can in smaller spaces and with less material get
(14:48):
more done in terms of engineering. Another, because you know what,
I want to be able to build a wall in
which we hold up the house and make large expand
for more windows and more expansive openings and daylight to
be rushing into the house without having to resort to
(15:09):
structural steel or massive framing headers that lowers the height
of doorways. You know, I just want, of course, the
miracle material that I can simply lace across the wall
and know that it's structurally sound and architecturally creative at
the same time. So, Joyce, Yeah, you're absolutely right, And
(15:29):
those products are here, they're coming, and they're also coming
down in price, slowly but surely, but there's still quite
a few percentage points above good old fashion mainstream lumber.
And since there are ways of protecting good old fashioned
mainstream lumber, like treating a newly framed house before anything
(15:51):
at further goes on once the framing is up, treating
it in bor rates, which is something any homeowner can do,
and essentially rendering it termite roof for decades to come then,
and you know, we can talk a little bit more
about that on the other side. Yeah, sounds good, all right, Joyce,
thanks for your call. We're up against a break. Let
me explain the borate treatment process right on the other
(16:13):
side of the break and more of your calls. You
are Home with Dean Sharp, The House Whisper.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Dean Sharp, The House Whisper here to help you transform
your ordinary house into an extraordinary home, like we do
every week. By the way, tomorrow's big show, we are
going to be talking about whispering for you, in other words,
learning to think like a whisper so you can design
(16:49):
like a whisper when it comes to your home. A
lot of a lot of very very sweet, very kind
words from our listeners and people who turn into the show,
tune into the shit turned in, tune in.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Well both, that's fine.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
A lot of a lot of great feedback from folks
about how is it that you can figure out what
needs to get done inside a home a certain way? Dean,
I'm gonna you know, we're going to start a series
that won't be, you know, a consistent series in terms
of every single weekend, but we'll have the first episode
(17:26):
of a series tomorrow talking about for twenty twenty six,
the whole concept of thinking and designing like a whisper
and what you can do as the homeowner, a critical
component that you can utilize and step forward to really
(17:47):
start introducing to your home the most significant changes you
can make. And I don't mean in scope or cost.
I'm just talking about the most important changes that will
end up being the most transformational for your home on
the lowest possible budget. And isn't that the key? Isn't that?
(18:09):
Isn't that what we all want? We want the biggest
amount of change for the least amount of money. And
those aren't tricks or hacks. They come from application of
the most powerful design principles to your home. But how,
where and when do you do those? Well, that's what
we're going to be talking about tomorrow on the Big Show,
(18:31):
So nine to noon Pacific time. Don't miss it, or
you can listen to us on the stream, or you
can listen to the podcast after the fact if you
can't tune in live. But you're not going to want
to miss that show, all right. It is in all
calls Saturday morning calls are starting to roll in this
sleepy first Saturday of the new year. I appreciate you listening.
(18:54):
We've got room on the board for you, by the way,
eight three three two as Deans. So if you've ever
tried calling in or thought about calling into the show,
now's a great opportunity. Yeah, because traffic is light out there.
As they say, eight three three two, ask Dean A
three three the numeral two, and then you just spell
(19:14):
out ask Dean eight three three to ask Dean, let's
talk to Randy.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Hey, Randy, welcome.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Home, Good morning, Good morning, Dean's longtime listener and first
time caller. Really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Falling in. Happy New Year to you, Thank you, sir.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
I a few years ago I had someone put a
floor down in my home. It's an engineered wood floor
and the sub I have a raised foundation. The sub
floor is OSB. What I didn't realize when they put
the floor in they went wall to wall with no
(19:54):
gap between the wall and the floor. So what's happened
is over the the last few years, I have part
of the floor raising like it's pushing towards the walls.
So I'm not sure how to correct it. I've been
told so many different things I can do. Unfortunately, the wood,
the engineered wood, is now you know, not made anymore,
(20:16):
so I have to be careful. I have a few
pieces I don't want to destroy the floor. So what
would be the best way to correct the floor?
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Okay? Uh so.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
What tell me what's the extent of the damage thus far?
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Or you know that?
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Where are we seeing it out in the middle of
the room are we talking about? We've got significant buckling
in the floor.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
It is buckling. The room itself is about fifteen feet
white and about twenty five thirty feet long, and along
one side about i'd say maybe three feet from one
side of the wall. In terms of width the floor
sight down the lengthwise it's lifted. You know, how do
(21:09):
I describe it? Maybe a quarter of an inch I'm
guessing something like that, but it's almost the whole length
of the floor at about three feet from one side
of the wall.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Yeah, okay, Well, so here's the thing. You're absolutely right
that floor was not installed properly, only because they went
tight up against the walls. When we put in any
kind of material like that, a hardwood floor, we always
(21:39):
have to leave Manufacturers require this. It's standard building practice.
We need to leave a gap all around the outside
perimeter of the room. And what is that gap for.
It's for expansion and contraction, but especially expansion and you think, well, how,
I mean, these floors are supposed to be really, really stable.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
What's the deal.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Well, every wood product, even a stable engineered hardwood floor,
goes through seasonal and temperature expansion and contraction. Is it
perceptible to the human eye. Nope, it is not. We're
not talking about anything that extreme. But you know, as
a perfect example, and I'm going to exaggerate here a
(22:22):
little bit, but you know, let's say you've got a
fifteen foot wide room and we've got planks running across
that room. Let's say the planks are you know, every Well,
let's just make the math easy and say that those
planks are six inches wide. So a fifteen foot wide
room that has six inch wide planks running across, so
there's about thirty planks running across from wall to wall there,
(22:47):
if they're six inches wide, and those thirty planks, if
they expand, if each one of them expanded just just
you know, a thirty second or a sixty fourth of
an inch, then we would be talking about a half
(23:08):
inch plus of expansion overall of that floor during any
given time of the year. And that's a lot. And
so now, fortunately, a sixty fourth of an inch is
not even how much a floor expands, but it does
expand some and it adds up plank for plank for
plank for playing. This is why usually an eighth to
(23:29):
a quarter of an inch, and we normally go a
quarter of an inch or a quarter an inch plus
all around the perimeter of room to allow for length
expansion and the like. If you don't leave that room,
if you've gone tight to the dry wall or tight
to the stud wall with your floor, then the result
is that once that expansion happens, it's got to give
(23:52):
somewhere and we get buckling. And that's what you've experienced.
Two thirds of the way across the floor. That expansion
has the floor and now it has started to lift
up and buckle. So what can be done about? And
by the way, for those of you who are wondering, like, wait,
I see hardwood floors all the time. I don't see
a gap around the out No, no, we cover the gap.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
So there are two choices when you're running a hardwood
floor into a room. You can either a remove the
base boards of the room and then run the floor
underneath where the new baseboards are going to go, and
leave the gap and the baseboard is going to cover
the gap, the expansion gap, so you'll never see it.
Or if you've run the floor inside the baseboards, you
(24:35):
still have to leave the gap, and you've got to
lay down what's called a little base shoe or a
piece of quarter round molding onto the inside of the
baseboard to cover the gap. So the solution, well, you know,
if if it's a uniform buckle all the way across,
then a couple of things can be done. Number one,
you can pull either now is there a base shoe
(24:58):
and quarter around around the randy or is it underneath
the baseboards?
Speaker 3 (25:05):
It actually has two things. I have one side that's
butted up against a sliding glass window which is about
twelve feet long, and then on the opposite side of
that is I have a baseboard. And then because the
room is sunk in a little bit sunk in a
living room, I have tile that is butted up against
(25:26):
it as well. So there's an exposed area which probably
would have to be quart around put on that in
that area.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Yeah for sure. All right, Well, if it's esthetically possible.
The goal is now to remove anything that is blocking
the perimeter, obviously including a quarter round up against the
sliding glass door as well, or at least a piece
of trim low profile enough that it doesn't interfere with
the door but still allows for the gap. That gap
(25:58):
can still be cut into that floor. It is going
to take some time to do it, and you can't
do it with a reg circular saw because a circular
saw has a too much margin in between the edge
of the saw table and the blade. But it can
be done either with a grinder blade saw or a
(26:20):
vibration saw kind of like a dremal vibration saw. But
slowly but surely, that quarter inch gap can be retrofitted
into that floor, and then the molding's placed down. And
as for the planks in the center, Oh you don't.
We're up against a break. Okay, I have to honor
the break. Randy, you hang tight. I'm gonna leave everybody hanging.
(26:40):
What do we do with that raised plank in the center.
We'll talk about it right on the other side. Your
home with Dean Sharp, the house Whisper. Dean Sharp, the
house Whisper here to remind you every home deserves great design.
Thanks for joining us on the program this morning, this rainy, dark,
cloudy Southern California morning. Wherever you are, I hope you've
(27:02):
got some cool plans for the day. It is that
final weekend, even though yeah it's twenty twenty six, the
new year has begun, but for most of us.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
You know, Monday, Monday is that day. So we've got
today and tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Just a couple of more days to stretch it on out,
and you know, breathe deeply before the year begins.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
I think it's going to be a good one. Let's hope.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
We are taking calls as we do Saturday mornings. The
number to reach me, by the way, there's room on
the board for you, eight three three two. Ask Dean
eight three three the numeral two. Ask Dean eight three three.
You just press the number two and then spell out
ask Dean, and you will be with us. Anything that's
(27:47):
going on with your home today, inside, outside, structure, architecture, design, landscape, decor,
whatever the case may be. I'm here to see you
through it and to help you figure it out. So
give us a call. We're talking to Randy, and Randy
I didn't hang up.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
On you, right, No, I'm still here, thank you.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
So Randy has a hardwood floor he has a raised
foundation house, so he's got a crawl space under his house.
He had a hardwood floor laid down, and now it's buckling,
and the buckle is because the hardwood floor was run
wall to wall, edge to edge without any gaps for
expansion around the outside. We've already talked about the fact that,
(28:33):
you know, the easy part of it, if we want to.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Call it that.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
The easier part Randy, of course, is putting in that
gap now because whatever trim boards are around the outside,
even if there aren't in some spaces, we can add them.
We can cut that gap in. We can use an
oscillating saw. It's going to take time, but we can
cut in that quarter inch plus gap around the floor
and then reinstall, reinstall trim boards over to cover that gap.
(29:01):
That gap is critical just for this reason, so that
the whole floor can expand and contract without buckling. But
in Randy's case, it's a little too late for for well,
it's not too late to do that, but it's too
late to avoid the buckle, because he's got one about
two thirds the way across the floor, running lengthwise in
the planks, which is typical.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Now, the big question is all right.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Let's say we've cut in the gap, We've covered it over,
and so the floor is not going to keep doing it.
But what do we do with what we've got, which
is that buckle out there in the middle of the floor. Randy,
you said you don't have any more plank material left.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
I have a little bit left. I'm not sure if
I have enough to destroy any of the planks that
existing on the floor.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
My concern too, is is that I don't know how
it was nailed to the sub floor. I don't know
if they did every course or if it's several courses
and then put nails down. That's another concern I have.
So if it does get cut, if we do cut
the edges to treat this gap, well, the floor put
the nails in it eventually move over. I'll have to
(30:13):
do something else with that as well.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Oh yeah, the nails will allow for the expansion, So
that's not a concern.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
And but on the edges, the nice thing is if
you if you do cut that gap on the edges,
we don't have to We don't have to depend on
nails to hold down the new edge.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
In fact, it's preferable not to in that situation, because
what will hold down the edge will be the trim
board that you put on top of the cord around
that'll keep it flat and hold it down, And the
absence of nail right there on the edge will just
give it that much more freedom to expand into the
gaps as there's expansion and contraction. But the middle of
(30:57):
the floor, here's the tricky part. Here's the t without
boring everybody stiff with the construction of this, the middle
of the floor. Let me ask you this. When you
walk out onto that floor where the buckle is, if
you stand on the buckle or put weight on it,
can you force it down back down to the subfloor.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
You can't. That is the best news of.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
All, okay, because because if you couldn't, I mean, if
it was such a severe buckle that you can't force
it back down, then we've got to remove one of
those planks and which is going to damage it, which
means replacing it. And if you don't have them enough material,
you're stuck. So that's the thing. Now, it was the
(31:42):
floor only nailed down. Is this a is this an
engineered floor or is it a solid hardwood floor?
Speaker 3 (31:50):
It's an engineered floor, and it.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Was was it only nailed down, it wasn't glued correct. Okay,
So in this case, what we're gonna want to do
is we're gonna want to treat this like a squeaky floor.
We're gonna want to put pressure on that buckle. Once
the gap is there around the outside edge, force it down.
(32:13):
And I don't want to waste time with nails there.
What I want to do is tiny tiny pilot holes,
and I want to use screws. I want to screw
down that plank, that buckled plank, okay, into place I
would even you know, we can start with the screw
(32:33):
Sometimes a hardwood floor guy will say, you know what,
let's screw it and glue it, which means a tiny
injection holes along that plank in order to get a
little bit of glue underneath. But the key is we
want a real solid fastening down of that buckled area first,
and then is that going to put pressure on the
(32:53):
rest of the floor. Yes, Will that particular plank be
allowed to shift? No, But the point is from there
out to both in both directions. Now that you've got
the gap around the groom, you should have sufficient pressure
relief that you don't see another buckle forming anywhere else,
So pressing down on that buckle, forcing it down, and
(33:15):
then screwing it down into the sub floor so that
sucker who's already up has no chance of coming up again.
That will be what we call a fixed band running
through the floor that doesn't shift or move, but everything
to the left and the right of it can shift
and move back out to the wall again, and the
(33:35):
pressure should be relieved and compensated as it builds up again.
So as difficult as it may be, you're actually in
the best possible scenario if you can force that plank
back down. And yes, there'll be tiny, tiny little holes
across it that'll need to be filled, but that's far
better than replacing all the wood in the room and
(33:58):
probably won't be noticeable once it's all down, and you'll
save that floor.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
It's like I said, it's the buckles about thirty feet long.
So am I going to be placing screws every couple
of feet the whole length? Is that idea?
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Yep?
Speaker 3 (34:16):
All the way down and we're one more thing here. Actually,
two questions for you. If I use a a ninety
degree grinder, I can I put a wooden blade on
that and cut it if you recommend me to cut
the certain blades for that. And second question and I'll stop,
is where the we're in an area we have a
(34:39):
fireplace that the bricks go to the floor, and they're
not they're like a like a slumpstone. They're not They're
not flat and straight. They're irregular shaped. And of course
that would mean the floor would have to be cut
on that. I'll cut a quarter inch gap along that
brick area the fireplace, But what would I use using
(35:00):
the quarter round isn't gonna work because the brick is
they make a flexible one where you can kind of
conform to the uh, to the cartures of the brick. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Yeah, So when it comes to the brick work, that's it.
You know, that's always a trickier question. And are the
brick is the brick is the fireplace that's at the
end of the length of the boards or or across
the width of the floor like we were talking about before.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
It's both. Some of the wood get into it and
some of it goes alongside it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
In that situation, uh, we may do a micro cut,
not a big quarter inch gap. And actually fill it
with the colored culk colored cock, yeah, colored woodculk that
can expand and contract and you know, hide the edge
of the floor. That's a tricky one. Sometimes we'll choose
(35:53):
to not make that cut there, leave that tight. As
long as there's room on the opposite side for the expansion,
it may be enough. And so from an esthetic perspective,
I may not just go ahead and you know, put
an expansion gap there, because you let enough pressure off
everywhere else it may be enough. And as far as
(36:13):
the blade goes, I wouldn't use a grinder. Some people
have used grinders with open blade. I would use an
oscillating saw. Okay, So invest in an oscillating What was that?
Speaker 3 (36:25):
What is the oscillating saws that? I don't know what
that is?
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Okay, I will you tell you what, Randy. I will
explain it on the other side of the brake. So
everybody knows what an oscillating saw is. And it's going
to take some time, but it's the cleanest, safest, totally
safest way to do that cut. And they're not very expensive,
and you know it's worth it investing in one in
order to save your floor. So you hang tight Bud
(36:49):
and everybody hang tight and give me a call eight
three three two. Ask Dean. It's an all call. Saturday morning.
You're Home with Dean Sharp, the house Whisper.
Speaker 4 (36:59):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Kfi a M six forty
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