October 27, 2024 • 32 mins
Dean is giving the load down on how to properly hang items on your walls. Dean talks about dry walls, wood sheeting and the importance of knowing the wall conditions in your home. Dean dives into talking about plastered walls. He also talks about hanger sizes, anchor points on the objects that are being used. Plus, he teaches on how to prevent water intrusion from entering walls when it rains.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp, the
House Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio app. I
Am Dean Sharp, the house Whisperer, custom home builder, custom
home Designer. Most importantly, today, your guide to turning your
ordinary house into something truly extraordinary. Guess what we're talking
(00:22):
about today? Big construction stuff? No, no, no, no no.
We're just gonna keep it simple and sweet today. But
we're gonna address an issue that a lot of people
have issues with, and that is how to hang stuff
properly in your home. So today's show, how's it hanging?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Uh? Not well for most of you.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Not only what to do, what kind of walls you've got,
what kind of hanging implements, and you know, and hardware
you're gonna use, but where and how on a wall?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
What you know, how high? Where?
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Left right? Otherwise, all of that we're going to go through.
So from the I guess, the practical kind of construction
side of it, if you want to call it, it's
not really construction decor tips all the way into the
design of how you want to frame and hang art
and family photos and the like on your walls. That's
(01:19):
today's show, and of course we're going to take calls
as we do, and if we do it all right,
we're going to bring some light into your morning and
hopefully make you feel glad that you were here. The
team is here for you again. Week two, Tony Sorrentino
on the board. Good morning, Tony morning. I'm just gonna
(01:41):
leave it at that. Yeah, everything's back to normal next week.
I'm just leaving it there right there. It is always
such a joy to work with Tony. Tony's our master chef.
He is our wizard of all things. You know, board
op here at the station and do it while Yeah,
you've been doing it a while, and so whenever, whenever
(02:04):
I get a chance to hang out with Tony, it's
just the best thing my world always.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Man.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Producer Ritchie is standing by, uh not by a mic,
but ready to take your calls. Oh I could call
on the board already. I know, I haven't even said
the phone lines are open.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Well, guess what. The phone lines are open, and Producer
Richie is standing by to take your calls. The number
to reach me eight three three two Ask Dean A
three three. The numeral to ask Dean eight three three
two ask Dean to ask Dean two pep ask Dean,
(02:41):
all right, A three three two as Dean, anything you
want to talk? You know, I'm talking about hanging stuff
inside your house today. You know, we're taking a we're
taking a break from the heavy, sweaty labor of building
your house and now we're just talking about some decor
elements that are super practical. Especially you know around the holidays,
you're gonna start thinking about moving stuff around, hanging things, and.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
It's just a good time for it. So, uh, that's
what I'm talking about today. But when it comes to calls,
you've set the agenda. Anything construction, design, DIY, whatever the
case may be. Give me a call. We'll put our
heads together. We're going to figure out what's going on
with your house. I promise you A three three two
Ask Dean. Lines are open now. Jackie Ray at the
(03:25):
news desk, Good morning, Jackie, Greetings.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Greetings? Oh, I got a greeting. So we're using the
Queen's English.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Teachings and salutations. How are things there in the booth?
Things are great. Here. I'm with Tony. Of course, life
with Tony. It sounds like a sitcom. It's a sitcom.
It's a new sitcom life with Tony.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
We're all going to do me Jackie, will all be characters,
and it's all going to be around Tony Sorrentino. I
love it life in times of Tony Sarantina. I wish
you could see his face right now. Canceled send a
gross the table from me. There she is, Oh my gosh,
just look at you, my better half, my design partner,
(04:12):
my best friend. We're gonna take a bike ride today, Yes,
you and me. Let's got's after the show. We're just
going to jump on the bikes and go to go places.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Tina is here.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Oh no, it's that was so good.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Welcome home. How you doing good? Yeah, you're feeling it? Okay?
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Well, first of all, super excited because the Dodgers won
last thing.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
It wasn't quite as exciting a game as Game one.
I mean, how could it be.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
But they keep waiting till, you know, eighth ninth inning
to really spice things up.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
I know, right, we got to the we got to
the last two innings and now all of a sudden,
we're biting. I was sitting there the whole game, like,
you know, this is kind of nice. It's just you know,
my stomach isn't tied up in knots. I'm relaxed. You
were dozing off at one point during the game. You
woke up, You're like, what's happening?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Now?
Speaker 1 (05:04):
We're still ahead, and it's fine. And then right at
the end, oh no, oh no, and then we pull
it out. So yeah, go Dodger. So today a break. Today,
everybody gets to rest except them they're traveling. And then
tomorrow night it all picks up yet again. Game three.
We're going to New York with two games under our belt. Yeah,
(05:26):
all right, shall we get to it? I think we should.
We are going to dive into how it is hanging
in your house. Here's the point. Sometimes getting your home
right isn't about all the heavy construction stuff. Sometimes it's
as simple as hanking a piece of art or a
cherished photo on the wall. But when you count up
(05:48):
the millions of scars and holes left on walls from
failed attempt, I don't think anybody can can do anything
but assume that hanging things in your home not as
easy as it looks, not as easy as it looks
at first glance. And so that is what we are
(06:08):
tackling today. Plus your calls.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Hey, whether you live in a condo or a cottage
or what's another c word, castle, if it's the place
that you call home, I'm here to take it to
the next level for you. That's it. It doesn't matter.
And today we're talking about something that is truly, truly
a universal struggle regardless of where you live, and that
(06:38):
is hanging stuff on the wall. And if you think,
if you think, if you're if you're a condo dweller
or an apartment dweller, and think that the rich and
famous have no problems whatsoever hanging stuff perfectly on their walls,
you would be grossly mistaken. I mean grossly mistaken. So
(06:59):
just take it for me. It's a universal problem. I've
seen it all and so that's why we're gonna dive
into it today. Plus of course, in just a bit
we're going to be going to the phones taking your
calls as we do. So the number to reach me
if you're interested in calling into the show and getting
your question about your home answered eight three three two
(07:22):
Ask Dean eight three three. The numeral two ask Dan.
All right, let's talk about your walls and stuff that's
going on. There are some basic steps here, and that's
what we're going to just roll through this morning. What
do you need to know first? What do you need
to know other than okay, the thing that you're hanging,
(07:43):
all right, fine, there it is. But what do you
need to know first? You need to know what the
wall condition is? Okay, and by wall condition, I mean
what is that wall made out of? How is it built?
What do you expect when you know you you go
to pierce the surface of that wall or attach something
(08:04):
to the surface of that wall. What's our expectation? And
we're talking about lots of choices here now, most commonly,
of course, drywall. The vast majority of homes and apartments
and condos and castles drywall on the wall, half inch
drywall on most walls. And behind that drywall are lots
(08:28):
of open void spaces. Now behind the drywall, might you
might find plywood or OSB oriented strand board, because that
wall may be, in addition to just being a stud wall,
it may be some form of sheer wall, meaning that
a diaphragm of wood is placed across the studs. First,
(08:51):
to give it some lateral side to side shifting support.
There's numerous reasons why there could be some form of
sheathing on that wall underneath the drywall. But our most
two common situations is that we've got drywall and then
just right on studs, and then drywall with some kind
of wood sheathing behind it. That's great if you got
(09:12):
wood sheathing behind the drywall. It's great if you know that,
because that means you've got, you know, some real strong,
secure surface to hook something into other than just the
drywall itself. It's not great if you've got sheathing behind
the wall and you don't know it, and you're trying
(09:32):
to use a typical drywall type hangar and it's getting
blocked by the wood sheathing behind. So again, wall conditions,
knowing them is key. So drywall that's our most common
situation for most homes. But a lot of older homes
across the country, a lot of older homes now here
in Southern California, because you know, time is passing. So
(09:55):
a century home in southern California is built in the twenties,
now at the point a hundred year old home, and
no doubt whatsoever since drywall was not a thing. It existed,
but it wasn't a thing for homes. Drywall wasn't a
thing for homes, by the way, until we get well
into the nineteen fifties. Okay, late nineteen fifties. So if
(10:18):
you own an early nineteen fifties house or earlier, chances
are you don't have drywall that you've got some form
of plaster walls. Now, plaster walls come in two forms.
They come in They always have a large coat of
plaster on them on the surface, but behind the plaster
(10:39):
you may have, you know, nearly three quarters or more
inches of plaster and then would laugh. In the oldest
of homes, you've seen this. If you haven't experienced it
in your own home, you've seen this. It's in every
classic movie with a rundown house or a broken wall
(11:00):
or whatever, and that is behind the plaster. They are
these wood slats running horizontally on the wall, right wood slats,
or in the secret passageway behind the walls, or in
between the walls and the haunted house. You see those
wood slats on the studs from the backside, and you
see the plaster has oozed through. That's exactly what it's
(11:23):
supposed to do. That's what those slats are for. They
originally they're put up with these gaps in between them
so that when the plasters applied, the first coat of plaster,
and there are multiple coats of plaster if you have
a wall like this, But when the first coat goes on,
it keys into it oozes onto the backside, and then
as it hardens, now it's locking itself in place, so
(11:44):
it stays on the wall. Anyway, plaster is at the
end of the day. Oh I didn't describe the second form,
all right, the other form, the newer form, the more modern,
the most modern form of plaster before it was replaced
by drywall altogether. Could you know a lot of people
mistake as drywall, because they'll they'll open up a part
(12:05):
of their wall and they'll call me and say, all right, well,
I've got a like a half an inch of plaster
on top of a half an inch of drywall. It's
not drywall, but it is gypsum based plasterboard which replaced
the wood lath. And that plasterboard actually has holes all
the way through it, and the stuff oozes through and
(12:27):
locks on the backside. Anyway, did not intend to give
you an entire lesson on plaster walls, But you need
to know that if you've got plaster walls, you treat
them very, very differently than dry wall walls.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Why is that.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Because drywall has its strengthen weaknesses the strength of dry walls.
It's very light and as a material for hangars, you
can easily drill through or poke something through drywall because
it's that soft, and you can do it if you're careful,
(13:03):
very cleanly. Plaster is somesed.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
It is a.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Kind of concrete in essence, and so poking something through
a plaster wall not gonna happen. Drilling through a plaster
wall with a regular drill bit, a wood or metal
oriented drill bit as opposed to a masonry drill bit
not gonna happen cleanly, all right, You end up with
(13:30):
a big divot out of the wall, or cracking or
chipping or flaking, the kind of stuff that you just
weren't planning on wanted to have happen just because you
want to hang a picture of Grandma up on the
bedroom wall. So very important that we know whether we've
got dry wall or plaster, we're gonna handle them differently.
(13:52):
And then of course, other walls that are kind of
self evident. Maybe the surface of the wall is wood,
maybe it's paneling of some form or another. Maybe we've
got a concrete wall, maybe it's a basement wall, you know,
a live in basement. Or maybe you've got some form
of just full on concrete or cinderblock walls in your
(14:12):
dwelling for whatever reason. Whether it's a solid surface meaning
that there's no gaps behind the wall, or a hollow
wall with studs. These are all the things we must
find out about your wall conditions before we move on
to the next step. And what is the next step?
Speaker 3 (14:29):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Yes, Tony's playing some Halloween music because guess what what
is this? It's October twenty seventh. You know, I decided
not to do specifically a Halloween show this year. You know,
I like mixing it up. When Halloween falls like really
really close to the show or on the show, then
we're all in. Last year, I had my sister on.
We were talking about a house, the Kellogg House down
(14:57):
in oc where she does ghost tours of the Kellogg House.
She's expanded her repertoire. By the way, you should check
that out. But you know, so we approached it from
a ghostly and an architectural perspective. In years past, we've
done all sorts of fun stuff. This year Halloween, I'm
(15:18):
all in, We're all in. Tina's got her costume. We're
going trick or treating with the nieces and the grandchildren
and all of that, walking around with them. But it's
a little late. Is it Thursday or Wednesday? It's Thursday. Yeah,
it's a little lad. So anyway, I thought instead we
were just, you know, we'll play some cool, funky Halloween
(15:39):
music and we'll talk about something that haunts all of
you regularly, and that is hanging stuff poorly on your walls.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
So there you go, haunted by that. All right. It's
not a good talie in, but I tried. AnyWho.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
And by the way, when we're done with this segment,
I think we'll be going to the phone. So there
you go, And now is your chance to call in
a three to three to ask Dan eight three three
to ask Dan. Okay, we've talked about wall conditions. That's
the first thing you need to know when you're trying
to hang something on your walls. You got to know
what you're going to be biting into. Next thing you
(16:18):
need to know is the weight of the object, because
not all hangers are the same or I'll put it
this way. Uh, if you've selected the style of hanging
device or hardware that you think is going to be
the best way to go, just know that in many
many cases that hardware comes sized in multiple sizes. Like
(16:41):
you're like, for instance, your classic nail driven hook, right,
you know what I'm talking about, little brass hook. It's
got a little fold over triangle on the top where
there's a whole two holes in it actually that align
the angle optimal angle of a nail into drywall. It's
a classic classic hook for hanging stuff on the wall.
(17:03):
You've seen them, you've used them. Those come from the
very very very small to the relatively big and beefy
when it comes to that, and they come weight rated.
So you need to know, you know, generally speaking, how
heavy this thing is, so that you don't use something
too big or too small. Use something too big, well,
it's not going to fall off the wall, but you
(17:24):
don't want that hook to be pushing the frame off
the back of the wall up at the top so
that it's hanging you know, at an angle that's weird
and nobody likes that look. So size the hangar to
the weight of the object. And then the third thing
we got to know is where are the anchor points
on the object itself? Okay, now when it comes to
(17:47):
I'll just talk about, you know, your classic photo or
piece of artwork, and there are various things that you
might find on the back if you've just if you're
framing this yourself. Of course, you get to choose what
you're doing, and I have a recommendation for you there.
But you may have just bought this artwork or received
it from somewhere to plaque or whatever. Here are the
(18:09):
most common anchor points. And what do I mean by
anchor points? I mean the thing that is on the
back of the item that is supposedly there for hanging it.
Most common, probably the cheapest as far as what the
manufacturers themselves are spending on it is that little toothed bar.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
It's a you know, an inch inch and a half
long depending and it's usually brass or aluminum, and it's
it's got two little finished nails that they drove it
into the edge of the frame with the backside of
the frame, and it's got little teeth at the bottom.
Now those teeth are handy in one respect in that
(18:52):
if for some reason you didn't quite get it hung
exactly dead center and you find that it's going to
tip one way or the other, then you just you know,
kind of bump it up and slide it over to
the next tooth until you get it centered. But the
toothed bar number one does not allow for much security
(19:13):
in terms of you know, for instance, an earthquake or
the wall rattles, because it's really designed to kind of
hook over the small head of a finished nail or
something like that. And if the nails sticking out too
far and the toothed bar sticks out from the back
of the frame, you again have that situation where you're
pushing the top of the frame away from the wall,
(19:37):
and now the thing is hanging at an angle. There's
a gap at the top and not at the bottom,
and it just doesn't look as clean as it could look. Okay,
So yeah, but there's some situations where the tooth bar
you know, goes okay. Also, by the way, since it's
the cheapest of all things for a manufacturer of frames
to put on the back of a frame. You will
(19:58):
find occasionally that it is it has not been meticulously
centered in the frame, so thankfully it's They're usually wide
enough that you can adjust it left or right, but
quite often the toothbar is not centered most of the time.
When Tina and I inherit something that we want to
hang and it's got a toothed bar in the back,
(20:19):
well we'll probably take a look at it and then
just pop that right off. We'll carefully pry it off
and abandon it and go for another form of hanging
that takes up less space and doesn't give us that
angle on. So there you go the toothbar. The other thing,
now this comes a lot with like wood plaques, is
the drilled hole. Right, So if you've got a plaque
(20:41):
that has been designed to hang on a wall, chances
are it doesn't have any kind of hardware on it.
It's probably got a hole drilled in the back and
then a little slot upwards so that the hole is
large enough to receive the head of a large nail
or a screw, and then it slides down onto that's
good for secure and it's also good for holding that
(21:06):
plaque flat against the wall. You just got to be careful.
Now we're going to be using the head of a
screw or the head of a nail. We've got to
make sure that we get that exactly where we want
that to go, because there's no left and right adjustment
on that kind of situation. And you should always double
check to make sure that whoever manufactured the plaque actually
(21:29):
got their hole drilled centered on the back so that
the thing is going to hang straight. And then there
are ways of accommodating for this, so don't worry, because
you can always use a little bit of you know,
if you find that the only way to hang a
plaque on a wall is to use the hole provided.
And once you hang it, you stand back and you're like,
the dang thing is crooked.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
It's not.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
They did not put the hole directly in the center.
It's not balanced. You don't have any other choices, though,
except to use that hole. Here's what you can do.
You get a little tiny piece of adhesive velcrow and
you're gonna stick one side onto the wall, the other
onto the bottom of the plaque, and then peel off. Well,
(22:14):
actually you can stick them both together, stick it all
onto the plaque, peel off the adhesive that's gonna face
the wall, and then line that plaque up exactly how
it's supposed to hang on that nail, and then push
it in the velcrow.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Is gonna grab.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
It's gonna grab the wall, and even though it's technically
going against its balance point, it will hold it nice
and straight for you, and it won't hold it against
you out from the wall in any significant way of consequence.
So there you go. Right, So you got the toothbar,
you got the drilled hole d rings. D rings are
(22:49):
especially for larger pieces of art or frames. A d
ring is not anything a top of the frame, but
you'll they're on the sides of the frames down a
few inches. You're gonna there's a little kind of almost
a hinge plate and then a ring or a loop
in the shape of a d okay on both sides.
(23:09):
They may be facing up, they may be able to
swivel and pivot. Most of the time they're facing inward.
And a d ring can be a great thing, but
I'll just tell you right now, it can be a
super frustrating thing. If you're thinking that the D ring
should have a you know, a nail or a screw
(23:29):
in each ring on each side, because then you've got
to get the spacing exactly right, and you got to
get those screws and or nails in the wall perfectly
level with each other. Assuming again that the D rings
have been hung on the frame perfectly level each with
each other. A better way to go if you find
a D ring is to celebrate, Yay, it's a D ring,
(23:54):
and then get yourself a nice length of picture wire
and run wire in between the D rings so then
we can actually put a hanger or two on the
wall and hook the wire over the hangar. That's really
actually what the D rings originally made for. Okay, And
(24:14):
then you might have found nothing on the back of
something that you want to hang on a wall, and
now it's a dealer's choice as to how you want
to address it. And we'll talk about that as well,
because the very next step are the types of hangers
that we can use other than what came on the frame,
and we'll well, you know what, like I said, when
(24:35):
we come back from the break, we're going to table
this conversation. Just press pause, and we're going to take
some of our calls, because we got a lot of
them waiting for us on the board. When we return
to this subject, we'll talk about those hangers, everything from
the angled nail to the expansion anchor to one of
my favorite, the monkey hook. So go nowhere, we will
(24:59):
take make your calls when we return.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI Am sixty.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
There you go, little Beetlejuice music. We just we just
watched that last night, Tony, not the new one. We
got the new one, but we don't want to watch.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
The new one yet.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
We wanted to go back and watch the original Beetlejuice
so we could just kind of be in the flow.
And I think we're going to watch Beetlejuice Beetlejuice later today.
But yeah, you know what, if you're going to become
demon possessed, do it to Harry Belafonte music.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
That's the best way to do it. That's the best way,
is it?
Speaker 4 (25:39):
Not?
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Lay right?
Speaker 4 (25:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Well that seems a little dark. Except a little dark.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
I would rather, you know, I'd rather be dancing if
I had to, all right, Some people who have seen
me dance say that I am possessed, so you know,
it just works out that way.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Anyway, Tina wanted to where did she go? She wanted
to let me have tell me.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
She told me to tell you that she has posted
a couple of videos on our social media Home with
Dean or at Home with Dean on Instagram, Facebook X
probably TikTok.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
I didn't ask her about that, but we got a
couple of videos that we've popped up. One that I
took this morning just letting the chickens out. Another one
talking about our lightning bug lights that we've are experiment
that we've been moving forward with. So anyway, you can
go to our social media at Home with Dean check
(26:40):
them out. You should check them out while you're there.
Won't you press follow or share them? Even better, just
share them with friends if you find them interesting. So
that's going on as well. All right, as promised, it's
time to go to the phones. We're going to get
a call in before we take our next break. Here,
let's talk to the bump bumb Judith. Judith, welcome home.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
Thank you. I have a quick question about retaining walls.
If you couldn't expand a little bit on that. I
had water and children in my home during heavy rains,
and my patio outside is raised, so even if I
dig the dirt away from the wall it's in a corner,
it's still going to be a lot of water coming in.
(27:27):
So I've heard some ideas though, what do I need
to know about putting in a retaining wall, like some
distance from that place so it's water doesn't come right
to the wall and sits there when it rains.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Okay, all right, so the soil, even if you say
if you dig down away right there, there's still a
lot of water happening there.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Why is there a lot of water happening right.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
There because the patio is raised. I have a raised,
tiled patio and it's higher than that little area that
the water is coming down. So I'm thinking it's still
going to be because the patio is in the middle
of the yard outside and it's just a small narrow
(28:16):
area that goes from the fence back fence into the house.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
To the house.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
Okay, so it's a little bit more of a problem thing.
I did a lot of things, but it's just the
last thing I think I need to do, just to.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Make sure, Okay, I got you all right, So so
Judith and everybody who has experienced water getting too close
to the house. There's a number of things we can do.
One is the big mistake is don't do nothing. Because
we got to keep water away from the house.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
We have to.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Everything about the building code begs you to have water
moving away from the base of your walls, not toward it. Okay,
So anything number one to divert a large amount of
water that's coming toward your house. Another thing that a
lot of people struggle with is that they've got gutter
(29:14):
down spouts that are dropping rain water from the roof
and the down spout comes to the base of the
wall and it just ends right there and there's no
concern about where all of that water goes once it
hits the soil. So again, we need to lengthen that
down spout, the actual bend at the bottom. We need
to put an extension on it. We got to get
(29:36):
that water away from the house. If we can change
the pitch of the soil at all. If we've got
just a situation where there's too much water flowing on
grade towards the house, then we need to think about
maybe digging down doing a little bit of water proofing
(29:56):
on the edge of the slab, digging down six eight
ten inches. It doesn't have to be a massive trench,
but we just need to dig down enough to get
some roll on waterproofing mastick or surface waterproofing on the
edge of that concrete so that again the slab which
is concrete, which is a stone sponge, is not in
(30:19):
a position where it is absorbing too much water and
then conveying that up into the walls, which it will
because water will travel against gravity through a process called
surface tension percolation up for quite a ways, and so
we want to stop that from happening. So a little
bit of that, and while we have that open trench,
(30:41):
maybe a small French drain which is a pipe with
perforated holes in it to receive the water that's coming
towards the house, and again running that along away from
that critical area before it lets out and distributes the
water elsewhere, or tie it into the yard drains, what
have you. It's hard for me to picture the exact
(31:03):
solution for you, Judith, just because I don't have the
full picture in my head. But these are the things
we have to do to keep water away from the house,
even something as simple as digging down and creating a deeper,
little gravel filled well there so that surface water doesn't
build up right there and creep into the wall line
(31:28):
at the bottom of the sole plate of the wall.
Anything we can do to keep the water from getting
near the wood bottom of the wall, that's what we
need to do. So anything you can do in the
yard to keep it from getting there in the first place.
But if you can't avoid that, then once it's there,
we've got to grab it and convey it elsewhere. Drain gravel,
French drain, waterproofing, and generally speaking, all of the above,
(31:53):
a layer after layer after layer approach, because there's usually
no one silver bullet for the whole thing. All right,
thank you for your call, Judith, appreciate the question. When
we come back, more of your calls. You are home
Dean Sharp, the House Whisperer on KFI. This has been
Home with Dean Sharp, the House whisper. Tune into the
live broadcast on KFI AM six forty every Saturday morning
(32:15):
from six to eight Pacific time, and every Sunday morning
from nine to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand
on the iHeartRadio app,
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp, the
House Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio app. I
Am Dean Sharp, the house Whisperer, custom home builder, custom
home Designer. Most importantly, today, your guide to turning your
ordinary house into something truly extraordinary. Guess what we're talking
(00:22):
about today? Big construction stuff? No, no, no, no no.
We're just gonna keep it simple and sweet today. But
we're gonna address an issue that a lot of people
have issues with, and that is how to hang stuff
properly in your home. So today's show, how's it hanging?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Uh? Not well for most of you.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Not only what to do, what kind of walls you've got,
what kind of hanging implements, and you know, and hardware
you're gonna use, but where and how on a wall?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
What you know, how high? Where?
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Left right? Otherwise, all of that we're going to go through.
So from the I guess, the practical kind of construction
side of it, if you want to call it, it's
not really construction decor tips all the way into the
design of how you want to frame and hang art
and family photos and the like on your walls. That's
(01:19):
today's show, and of course we're going to take calls
as we do, and if we do it all right,
we're going to bring some light into your morning and
hopefully make you feel glad that you were here. The
team is here for you again. Week two, Tony Sorrentino
on the board. Good morning, Tony morning. I'm just gonna
(01:41):
leave it at that. Yeah, everything's back to normal next week.
I'm just leaving it there right there. It is always
such a joy to work with Tony. Tony's our master chef.
He is our wizard of all things. You know, board
op here at the station and do it while Yeah,
you've been doing it a while, and so whenever, whenever
(02:04):
I get a chance to hang out with Tony, it's
just the best thing my world always.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Man.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Producer Ritchie is standing by, uh not by a mic,
but ready to take your calls. Oh I could call
on the board already. I know, I haven't even said
the phone lines are open.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Well, guess what. The phone lines are open, and Producer
Richie is standing by to take your calls. The number
to reach me eight three three two Ask Dean A
three three. The numeral to ask Dean eight three three
two ask Dean to ask Dean two pep ask Dean,
(02:41):
all right, A three three two as Dean, anything you
want to talk? You know, I'm talking about hanging stuff
inside your house today. You know, we're taking a we're
taking a break from the heavy, sweaty labor of building
your house and now we're just talking about some decor
elements that are super practical. Especially you know around the holidays,
you're gonna start thinking about moving stuff around, hanging things, and.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
It's just a good time for it. So, uh, that's
what I'm talking about today. But when it comes to calls,
you've set the agenda. Anything construction, design, DIY, whatever the
case may be. Give me a call. We'll put our
heads together. We're going to figure out what's going on
with your house. I promise you A three three two
Ask Dean. Lines are open now. Jackie Ray at the
(03:25):
news desk, Good morning, Jackie, Greetings.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Greetings? Oh, I got a greeting. So we're using the
Queen's English.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Teachings and salutations. How are things there in the booth?
Things are great. Here. I'm with Tony. Of course, life
with Tony. It sounds like a sitcom. It's a sitcom.
It's a new sitcom life with Tony.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
We're all going to do me Jackie, will all be characters,
and it's all going to be around Tony Sorrentino. I
love it life in times of Tony Sarantina. I wish
you could see his face right now. Canceled send a
gross the table from me. There she is, Oh my gosh,
just look at you, my better half, my design partner,
(04:12):
my best friend. We're gonna take a bike ride today, Yes,
you and me. Let's got's after the show. We're just
going to jump on the bikes and go to go places.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Tina is here.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Oh no, it's that was so good.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Welcome home. How you doing good? Yeah, you're feeling it? Okay?
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Well, first of all, super excited because the Dodgers won
last thing.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
It wasn't quite as exciting a game as Game one.
I mean, how could it be.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
But they keep waiting till, you know, eighth ninth inning
to really spice things up.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
I know, right, we got to the we got to
the last two innings and now all of a sudden,
we're biting. I was sitting there the whole game, like,
you know, this is kind of nice. It's just you know,
my stomach isn't tied up in knots. I'm relaxed. You
were dozing off at one point during the game. You
woke up, You're like, what's happening?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Now?
Speaker 1 (05:04):
We're still ahead, and it's fine. And then right at
the end, oh no, oh no, and then we pull
it out. So yeah, go Dodger. So today a break. Today,
everybody gets to rest except them they're traveling. And then
tomorrow night it all picks up yet again. Game three.
We're going to New York with two games under our belt. Yeah,
(05:26):
all right, shall we get to it? I think we should.
We are going to dive into how it is hanging
in your house. Here's the point. Sometimes getting your home
right isn't about all the heavy construction stuff. Sometimes it's
as simple as hanking a piece of art or a
cherished photo on the wall. But when you count up
(05:48):
the millions of scars and holes left on walls from
failed attempt, I don't think anybody can can do anything
but assume that hanging things in your home not as
easy as it looks, not as easy as it looks
at first glance. And so that is what we are
(06:08):
tackling today. Plus your calls.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Hey, whether you live in a condo or a cottage
or what's another c word, castle, if it's the place
that you call home, I'm here to take it to
the next level for you. That's it. It doesn't matter.
And today we're talking about something that is truly, truly
a universal struggle regardless of where you live, and that
(06:38):
is hanging stuff on the wall. And if you think,
if you think, if you're if you're a condo dweller
or an apartment dweller, and think that the rich and
famous have no problems whatsoever hanging stuff perfectly on their walls,
you would be grossly mistaken. I mean grossly mistaken. So
(06:59):
just take it for me. It's a universal problem. I've
seen it all and so that's why we're gonna dive
into it today. Plus of course, in just a bit
we're going to be going to the phones taking your
calls as we do. So the number to reach me
if you're interested in calling into the show and getting
your question about your home answered eight three three two
(07:22):
Ask Dean eight three three. The numeral two ask Dan.
All right, let's talk about your walls and stuff that's
going on. There are some basic steps here, and that's
what we're going to just roll through this morning. What
do you need to know first? What do you need
to know other than okay, the thing that you're hanging,
(07:43):
all right, fine, there it is. But what do you
need to know first? You need to know what the
wall condition is? Okay, and by wall condition, I mean
what is that wall made out of? How is it built?
What do you expect when you know you you go
to pierce the surface of that wall or attach something
(08:04):
to the surface of that wall. What's our expectation? And
we're talking about lots of choices here now, most commonly,
of course, drywall. The vast majority of homes and apartments
and condos and castles drywall on the wall, half inch
drywall on most walls. And behind that drywall are lots
(08:28):
of open void spaces. Now behind the drywall, might you
might find plywood or OSB oriented strand board, because that
wall may be, in addition to just being a stud wall,
it may be some form of sheer wall, meaning that
a diaphragm of wood is placed across the studs. First,
(08:51):
to give it some lateral side to side shifting support.
There's numerous reasons why there could be some form of
sheathing on that wall underneath the drywall. But our most
two common situations is that we've got drywall and then
just right on studs, and then drywall with some kind
of wood sheathing behind it. That's great if you got
(09:12):
wood sheathing behind the drywall. It's great if you know that,
because that means you've got, you know, some real strong,
secure surface to hook something into other than just the
drywall itself. It's not great if you've got sheathing behind
the wall and you don't know it, and you're trying
(09:32):
to use a typical drywall type hangar and it's getting
blocked by the wood sheathing behind. So again, wall conditions,
knowing them is key. So drywall that's our most common
situation for most homes. But a lot of older homes
across the country, a lot of older homes now here
in Southern California, because you know, time is passing. So
(09:55):
a century home in southern California is built in the twenties,
now at the point a hundred year old home, and
no doubt whatsoever since drywall was not a thing. It existed,
but it wasn't a thing for homes. Drywall wasn't a
thing for homes, by the way, until we get well
into the nineteen fifties. Okay, late nineteen fifties. So if
(10:18):
you own an early nineteen fifties house or earlier, chances
are you don't have drywall that you've got some form
of plaster walls. Now, plaster walls come in two forms.
They come in They always have a large coat of
plaster on them on the surface, but behind the plaster
(10:39):
you may have, you know, nearly three quarters or more
inches of plaster and then would laugh. In the oldest
of homes, you've seen this. If you haven't experienced it
in your own home, you've seen this. It's in every
classic movie with a rundown house or a broken wall
(11:00):
or whatever, and that is behind the plaster. They are
these wood slats running horizontally on the wall, right wood slats,
or in the secret passageway behind the walls, or in
between the walls and the haunted house. You see those
wood slats on the studs from the backside, and you
see the plaster has oozed through. That's exactly what it's
(11:23):
supposed to do. That's what those slats are for. They
originally they're put up with these gaps in between them
so that when the plasters applied, the first coat of plaster,
and there are multiple coats of plaster if you have
a wall like this, But when the first coat goes on,
it keys into it oozes onto the backside, and then
as it hardens, now it's locking itself in place, so
(11:44):
it stays on the wall. Anyway, plaster is at the
end of the day. Oh I didn't describe the second form,
all right, the other form, the newer form, the more modern,
the most modern form of plaster before it was replaced
by drywall altogether. Could you know a lot of people
mistake as drywall, because they'll they'll open up a part
(12:05):
of their wall and they'll call me and say, all right, well,
I've got a like a half an inch of plaster
on top of a half an inch of drywall. It's
not drywall, but it is gypsum based plasterboard which replaced
the wood lath. And that plasterboard actually has holes all
the way through it, and the stuff oozes through and
(12:27):
locks on the backside. Anyway, did not intend to give
you an entire lesson on plaster walls, But you need
to know that if you've got plaster walls, you treat
them very, very differently than dry wall walls.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Why is that.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Because drywall has its strengthen weaknesses the strength of dry walls.
It's very light and as a material for hangars, you
can easily drill through or poke something through drywall because
it's that soft, and you can do it if you're careful,
(13:03):
very cleanly. Plaster is somesed.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
It is a.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Kind of concrete in essence, and so poking something through
a plaster wall not gonna happen. Drilling through a plaster
wall with a regular drill bit, a wood or metal
oriented drill bit as opposed to a masonry drill bit
not gonna happen cleanly, all right, You end up with
(13:30):
a big divot out of the wall, or cracking or
chipping or flaking, the kind of stuff that you just
weren't planning on wanted to have happen just because you
want to hang a picture of Grandma up on the
bedroom wall. So very important that we know whether we've
got dry wall or plaster, we're gonna handle them differently.
(13:52):
And then of course, other walls that are kind of
self evident. Maybe the surface of the wall is wood,
maybe it's paneling of some form or another. Maybe we've
got a concrete wall, maybe it's a basement wall, you know,
a live in basement. Or maybe you've got some form
of just full on concrete or cinderblock walls in your
(14:12):
dwelling for whatever reason. Whether it's a solid surface meaning
that there's no gaps behind the wall, or a hollow
wall with studs. These are all the things we must
find out about your wall conditions before we move on
to the next step. And what is the next step?
Speaker 3 (14:29):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Yes, Tony's playing some Halloween music because guess what what
is this? It's October twenty seventh. You know, I decided
not to do specifically a Halloween show this year. You know,
I like mixing it up. When Halloween falls like really
really close to the show or on the show, then
we're all in. Last year, I had my sister on.
We were talking about a house, the Kellogg House down
(14:57):
in oc where she does ghost tours of the Kellogg House.
She's expanded her repertoire. By the way, you should check
that out. But you know, so we approached it from
a ghostly and an architectural perspective. In years past, we've
done all sorts of fun stuff. This year Halloween, I'm
(15:18):
all in, We're all in. Tina's got her costume. We're
going trick or treating with the nieces and the grandchildren
and all of that, walking around with them. But it's
a little late. Is it Thursday or Wednesday? It's Thursday. Yeah,
it's a little lad. So anyway, I thought instead we
were just, you know, we'll play some cool, funky Halloween
(15:39):
music and we'll talk about something that haunts all of
you regularly, and that is hanging stuff poorly on your walls.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
So there you go, haunted by that. All right. It's
not a good talie in, but I tried. AnyWho.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
And by the way, when we're done with this segment,
I think we'll be going to the phone. So there
you go, And now is your chance to call in
a three to three to ask Dan eight three three
to ask Dan. Okay, we've talked about wall conditions. That's
the first thing you need to know when you're trying
to hang something on your walls. You got to know
what you're going to be biting into. Next thing you
(16:18):
need to know is the weight of the object, because
not all hangers are the same or I'll put it
this way. Uh, if you've selected the style of hanging
device or hardware that you think is going to be
the best way to go, just know that in many
many cases that hardware comes sized in multiple sizes. Like
(16:41):
you're like, for instance, your classic nail driven hook, right,
you know what I'm talking about, little brass hook. It's
got a little fold over triangle on the top where
there's a whole two holes in it actually that align
the angle optimal angle of a nail into drywall. It's
a classic classic hook for hanging stuff on the wall.
(17:03):
You've seen them, you've used them. Those come from the
very very very small to the relatively big and beefy
when it comes to that, and they come weight rated.
So you need to know, you know, generally speaking, how
heavy this thing is, so that you don't use something
too big or too small. Use something too big, well,
it's not going to fall off the wall, but you
(17:24):
don't want that hook to be pushing the frame off
the back of the wall up at the top so
that it's hanging you know, at an angle that's weird
and nobody likes that look. So size the hangar to
the weight of the object. And then the third thing
we got to know is where are the anchor points
on the object itself? Okay, now when it comes to
(17:47):
I'll just talk about, you know, your classic photo or
piece of artwork, and there are various things that you
might find on the back if you've just if you're
framing this yourself. Of course, you get to choose what
you're doing, and I have a recommendation for you there.
But you may have just bought this artwork or received
it from somewhere to plaque or whatever. Here are the
(18:09):
most common anchor points. And what do I mean by
anchor points? I mean the thing that is on the
back of the item that is supposedly there for hanging it.
Most common, probably the cheapest as far as what the
manufacturers themselves are spending on it is that little toothed bar.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
It's a you know, an inch inch and a half
long depending and it's usually brass or aluminum, and it's
it's got two little finished nails that they drove it
into the edge of the frame with the backside of
the frame, and it's got little teeth at the bottom.
Now those teeth are handy in one respect in that
(18:52):
if for some reason you didn't quite get it hung
exactly dead center and you find that it's going to
tip one way or the other, then you just you know,
kind of bump it up and slide it over to
the next tooth until you get it centered. But the
toothed bar number one does not allow for much security
(19:13):
in terms of you know, for instance, an earthquake or
the wall rattles, because it's really designed to kind of
hook over the small head of a finished nail or
something like that. And if the nails sticking out too
far and the toothed bar sticks out from the back
of the frame, you again have that situation where you're
pushing the top of the frame away from the wall,
(19:37):
and now the thing is hanging at an angle. There's
a gap at the top and not at the bottom,
and it just doesn't look as clean as it could look. Okay,
So yeah, but there's some situations where the tooth bar
you know, goes okay. Also, by the way, since it's
the cheapest of all things for a manufacturer of frames
to put on the back of a frame. You will
(19:58):
find occasionally that it is it has not been meticulously
centered in the frame, so thankfully it's They're usually wide
enough that you can adjust it left or right, but
quite often the toothbar is not centered most of the time.
When Tina and I inherit something that we want to
hang and it's got a toothed bar in the back,
(20:19):
well we'll probably take a look at it and then
just pop that right off. We'll carefully pry it off
and abandon it and go for another form of hanging
that takes up less space and doesn't give us that
angle on. So there you go the toothbar. The other thing,
now this comes a lot with like wood plaques, is
the drilled hole. Right, So if you've got a plaque
(20:41):
that has been designed to hang on a wall, chances
are it doesn't have any kind of hardware on it.
It's probably got a hole drilled in the back and
then a little slot upwards so that the hole is
large enough to receive the head of a large nail
or a screw, and then it slides down onto that's
good for secure and it's also good for holding that
(21:06):
plaque flat against the wall. You just got to be careful.
Now we're going to be using the head of a
screw or the head of a nail. We've got to
make sure that we get that exactly where we want
that to go, because there's no left and right adjustment
on that kind of situation. And you should always double
check to make sure that whoever manufactured the plaque actually
(21:29):
got their hole drilled centered on the back so that
the thing is going to hang straight. And then there
are ways of accommodating for this, so don't worry, because
you can always use a little bit of you know,
if you find that the only way to hang a
plaque on a wall is to use the hole provided.
And once you hang it, you stand back and you're like,
the dang thing is crooked.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
It's not.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
They did not put the hole directly in the center.
It's not balanced. You don't have any other choices, though,
except to use that hole. Here's what you can do.
You get a little tiny piece of adhesive velcrow and
you're gonna stick one side onto the wall, the other
onto the bottom of the plaque, and then peel off. Well,
(22:14):
actually you can stick them both together, stick it all
onto the plaque, peel off the adhesive that's gonna face
the wall, and then line that plaque up exactly how
it's supposed to hang on that nail, and then push
it in the velcrow.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Is gonna grab.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
It's gonna grab the wall, and even though it's technically
going against its balance point, it will hold it nice
and straight for you, and it won't hold it against
you out from the wall in any significant way of consequence.
So there you go. Right, So you got the toothbar,
you got the drilled hole d rings. D rings are
(22:49):
especially for larger pieces of art or frames. A d
ring is not anything a top of the frame, but
you'll they're on the sides of the frames down a
few inches. You're gonna there's a little kind of almost
a hinge plate and then a ring or a loop
in the shape of a d okay on both sides.
(23:09):
They may be facing up, they may be able to
swivel and pivot. Most of the time they're facing inward.
And a d ring can be a great thing, but
I'll just tell you right now, it can be a
super frustrating thing. If you're thinking that the D ring
should have a you know, a nail or a screw
(23:29):
in each ring on each side, because then you've got
to get the spacing exactly right, and you got to
get those screws and or nails in the wall perfectly
level with each other. Assuming again that the D rings
have been hung on the frame perfectly level each with
each other. A better way to go if you find
a D ring is to celebrate, Yay, it's a D ring,
(23:54):
and then get yourself a nice length of picture wire
and run wire in between the D rings so then
we can actually put a hanger or two on the
wall and hook the wire over the hangar. That's really
actually what the D rings originally made for. Okay, And
(24:14):
then you might have found nothing on the back of
something that you want to hang on a wall, and
now it's a dealer's choice as to how you want
to address it. And we'll talk about that as well,
because the very next step are the types of hangers
that we can use other than what came on the frame,
and we'll well, you know what, like I said, when
(24:35):
we come back from the break, we're going to table
this conversation. Just press pause, and we're going to take
some of our calls, because we got a lot of
them waiting for us on the board. When we return
to this subject, we'll talk about those hangers, everything from
the angled nail to the expansion anchor to one of
my favorite, the monkey hook. So go nowhere, we will
(24:59):
take make your calls when we return.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI Am sixty.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
There you go, little Beetlejuice music. We just we just
watched that last night, Tony, not the new one. We
got the new one, but we don't want to watch.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
The new one yet.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
We wanted to go back and watch the original Beetlejuice
so we could just kind of be in the flow.
And I think we're going to watch Beetlejuice Beetlejuice later today.
But yeah, you know what, if you're going to become
demon possessed, do it to Harry Belafonte music.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
That's the best way to do it. That's the best way,
is it?
Speaker 4 (25:39):
Not?
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Lay right?
Speaker 4 (25:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Well that seems a little dark. Except a little dark.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
I would rather, you know, I'd rather be dancing if
I had to, all right, Some people who have seen
me dance say that I am possessed, so you know,
it just works out that way.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Anyway, Tina wanted to where did she go? She wanted
to let me have tell me.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
She told me to tell you that she has posted
a couple of videos on our social media Home with
Dean or at Home with Dean on Instagram, Facebook X
probably TikTok.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
I didn't ask her about that, but we got a
couple of videos that we've popped up. One that I
took this morning just letting the chickens out. Another one
talking about our lightning bug lights that we've are experiment
that we've been moving forward with. So anyway, you can
go to our social media at Home with Dean check
(26:40):
them out. You should check them out while you're there.
Won't you press follow or share them? Even better, just
share them with friends if you find them interesting. So
that's going on as well. All right, as promised, it's
time to go to the phones. We're going to get
a call in before we take our next break. Here,
let's talk to the bump bumb Judith. Judith, welcome home.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
Thank you. I have a quick question about retaining walls.
If you couldn't expand a little bit on that. I
had water and children in my home during heavy rains,
and my patio outside is raised, so even if I
dig the dirt away from the wall it's in a corner,
it's still going to be a lot of water coming in.
(27:27):
So I've heard some ideas though, what do I need
to know about putting in a retaining wall, like some
distance from that place so it's water doesn't come right
to the wall and sits there when it rains.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Okay, all right, so the soil, even if you say
if you dig down away right there, there's still a
lot of water happening there.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Why is there a lot of water happening right.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
There because the patio is raised. I have a raised,
tiled patio and it's higher than that little area that
the water is coming down. So I'm thinking it's still
going to be because the patio is in the middle
of the yard outside and it's just a small narrow
(28:16):
area that goes from the fence back fence into the house.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
To the house.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
Okay, so it's a little bit more of a problem thing.
I did a lot of things, but it's just the
last thing I think I need to do, just to.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Make sure, Okay, I got you all right, So so
Judith and everybody who has experienced water getting too close
to the house. There's a number of things we can do.
One is the big mistake is don't do nothing. Because
we got to keep water away from the house.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
We have to.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Everything about the building code begs you to have water
moving away from the base of your walls, not toward it. Okay,
So anything number one to divert a large amount of
water that's coming toward your house. Another thing that a
lot of people struggle with is that they've got gutter
(29:14):
down spouts that are dropping rain water from the roof
and the down spout comes to the base of the
wall and it just ends right there and there's no
concern about where all of that water goes once it
hits the soil. So again, we need to lengthen that
down spout, the actual bend at the bottom. We need
to put an extension on it. We got to get
(29:36):
that water away from the house. If we can change
the pitch of the soil at all. If we've got
just a situation where there's too much water flowing on
grade towards the house, then we need to think about
maybe digging down doing a little bit of water proofing
(29:56):
on the edge of the slab, digging down six eight
ten inches. It doesn't have to be a massive trench,
but we just need to dig down enough to get
some roll on waterproofing mastick or surface waterproofing on the
edge of that concrete so that again the slab which
is concrete, which is a stone sponge, is not in
(30:19):
a position where it is absorbing too much water and
then conveying that up into the walls, which it will
because water will travel against gravity through a process called
surface tension percolation up for quite a ways, and so
we want to stop that from happening. So a little
bit of that, and while we have that open trench,
(30:41):
maybe a small French drain which is a pipe with
perforated holes in it to receive the water that's coming
towards the house, and again running that along away from
that critical area before it lets out and distributes the
water elsewhere, or tie it into the yard drains, what
have you. It's hard for me to picture the exact
(31:03):
solution for you, Judith, just because I don't have the
full picture in my head. But these are the things
we have to do to keep water away from the house,
even something as simple as digging down and creating a deeper,
little gravel filled well there so that surface water doesn't
build up right there and creep into the wall line
(31:28):
at the bottom of the sole plate of the wall.
Anything we can do to keep the water from getting
near the wood bottom of the wall, that's what we
need to do. So anything you can do in the
yard to keep it from getting there in the first place.
But if you can't avoid that, then once it's there,
we've got to grab it and convey it elsewhere. Drain gravel,
French drain, waterproofing, and generally speaking, all of the above,
(31:53):
a layer after layer after layer approach, because there's usually
no one silver bullet for the whole thing. All right,
thank you for your call, Judith, appreciate the question. When
we come back, more of your calls. You are home
Dean Sharp, the House Whisperer on KFI. This has been
Home with Dean Sharp, the House whisper. Tune into the
live broadcast on KFI AM six forty every Saturday morning
(32:15):
from six to eight Pacific time, and every Sunday morning
from nine to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand
on the iHeartRadio app,
Home with Dean Sharp News
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