May 4, 2024 • 27 mins
In the second hour, Dean delves into plumbing challenges, particularly focusing on the descaling of drains. He discusses the costly process of mechanically rescaling old cast iron pipes and the risks involved, especially with older plumbing. Dean offers practical advice on using white vinegar as a regular, natural descaling solution and talks about enzyme treatments to break down food waste in pipes. He emphasizes the importance of preventative measures, like scraping food into the garbage before using the disposal, to maintain clean and functional drains.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharpon demand from KFI AM six forty KFI
AM six forty and live streaming inHD everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Hey,
welcome to home where Every week wehelp you better understand that place where
you live. I am Dean Sharp, the house whisperer, here with you
(00:25):
live like I am every weekend Saturdaymornings from six to eight Pacific time,
Sunday mornings nine to noon Pacific time. Welcome to the second hour of our
fine little program here on this lovelymisty southern California Saturday morning. Glad you're
up in about Glad you're with us. We are talking about well, I
(00:46):
have a kind of a pope Hoorilist of things important things to know about
your home that maybe and probably youdon't And so they cover everything from some
legal stuff to practical construction things,just some design things. And we're doing
(01:06):
that both today and tomorrow's show.It's all weekend stuff you need to know
about your home, fun stuff.So stay tuned and listen in and I
guarantee you're going to learn something alongthe way. But right now we are
going to the phones, and Igot to tell you as promised our previous
caller. I did a quick search, and I should have known this.
(01:29):
I should have known this in orderto tell her while she was still on
the line with me. But thequestion of her friends or her neighbor's mobile
home. Her neighbor has a mobilehome and he did some roof repair and
the mobile home park said, oh, you got to go get a permit
for that. And even though theylive in Los Angeles County, they sent
(01:56):
them to somewhere in San Bernandino Countyin order to at the permit, which
for most people doesn't make sense.To her, it didn't make sense.
But ah, here is the simpleanswer, and it is a very very
simple answer, even though it's kindof weird when it comes to mobile homes.
But here's the thing. You've heardme talk about this before. A
mobile home it's legal status. Whatis a mobile home? Well, in
(02:19):
the state of California, it dependson what your situation is. If a
mobile home is sitting on a pieceof property that is least okay, and
it is in your standard kind ofmobile home configuration on its Jackson kind of
there like in maybe most mobile homeparks, then that mobile home is technically
(02:39):
a vehicle. Okay, technically itactually has registration with the DMV. And
because people have asked this before,like do mobile homes depreciate or do they
appreciate in value? Well depends ifit's a vehicle. If it's in vehicle
status, it is depreciating in value, just like your car depreciates value.
(03:00):
However, if you own the pieceof property that the mobile home is sitting
on, and you permanently mount itto a foundation, in other words,
you anchor it down like you wouldany home, then suddenly your previously mobile
home is now a home. It'sjust a house, and it falls under
(03:21):
all of the normal house stuff,including its value, appreciating, take care
of it over the years. Okay, so that's the thing. Now Here
is the critical thing when it comesto permits for work done. If your
property is yours and you've permanently mountedyour mobile home to your property, it's
(03:43):
a house, and for a house, of course, you call your local
building department to get a permit.Ah. But if it's still a mobile
home, property is leased, it'snot permanently connected to the land that it's
sitting on, then all mobile homesand I knew this. All mobile homes
(04:04):
in the state of California fall underthe control of the California Department of Housing
and Urban Development HUD. So ifyou are in a least property mobile home
situation, which again most mobile homeparks fall under this category, then your
(04:24):
permits don't come from your local buildingdepartment. They come from wherever your nearest
HUD department or offices are. Andmy guess is that's the situation that your
neighbor found themselves in. They eventhough you're in La County. Maybe the
closest HUD office where the permit hasto be pulled is, you know,
(04:46):
is in San Bernardino County. Sothere it is. If you are in
a mobile home situation that isn't permanentlymounted to the founded to the property,
then your permits go through Housing andUrban Development, not your local building department.
But boom, there you go.All right? Uh, I just
wanted to make you know I'm committedto thoroughly answering calls and not missing it
(05:10):
as we go. So there youhave it. All right, let's talk
to Dan real quick. Dan,I'm probably gonna get you started and then
I'm gonna have to take you onthe other side of the break. But
welcome home and how can I helpHidine, Yeah, thanks for taking my
call. I I have a rentalunit that has a recurring kitchen drain doping
(05:31):
problem and about one thing here,I have to have its high proceed because
apparently it's and I've done everything youknow as part and it's not pretty all
that, thank you. It doeshave a garbage book, so that probably
(05:54):
as well. But the plumber toldme that most recently told me that the
problem is that my pipes are inbad shapes there the house. The pipe
is built and it has uh likeits iron pipe that goes under the contret
ape guests above the contrect but itsets the iron below. And he showed
(06:16):
me a video and it looks prettylumpy inside there, and he said that
catches a lot of stuff, andso he wants to, he said,
to solve the problem permanently, Ineeds to do a scaler, which I
had never heard of before. Andthen after it's some kind of chain device
that goes through and spins and takesoff the the accumulated stuff that's inside the
(06:41):
pipe and kind of boots it out. And then they want to put some
UH with the material, some kindof material that lines the inside of the
pipe and makes it smooth, soit's no longer we'll catch stuff that's going
by, and all the right thousanddollars there And there's the catch. All
(07:08):
of this can be yours. Allof this can be yours, Dan,
for the for the low low priceof sixteen thousand dollars. All right,
Dan, I'm gonna pop you on. Hold. We're gonna listen to some
news from Heather. And when wecome back, let's talk about your drains.
All of the information you got,how accurate is it? And where
(07:31):
do you go from here? Andwhat in the world is descaling a drain.
We'll talk about that and more whenwe return. Dan, you hold
tight, my friend. We willwe'll get this all worked out. I
promise your home with Dean Sharp thehouse Whisper. Can'f I Dean Sharp the
house Whisper at your service, Sam. Is this like Pentatonics or somebody?
(07:58):
No, this is Matre. It'sa group out of Japan. They do
theme songs to just about everything andthey're really cool, all acapella. At
first I thought it was just you. I thought it was you and Heather.
Just hey, I was. I'mhumming along here. I'm doing my
best, all right. All right, great stuff, I love it.
(08:18):
May the fourth be with you.Thanks for joining us on the program.
All right. I really want toget back to Dan here because he's got
a sitch and I want to makesure I can help him out the best.
Dan, Are you with me,my friend? Yes, Sean,
I'm here, all right, okay, So let me just review for everybody
really quickly. You got a condoand you've got old cast iron drain lines.
(08:46):
You know, it's typical when wasthe you and when the condo was
built in the nineteen forties, inthe nineteen I'm sorry, you're kind of
cutting out a little bit, sonineteen forties, in the nineteen forties,
all right. So we got someold drain lines, okay. And one
drain around the sink keeps getting clogged, keeps getting clogged. It calls the
(09:07):
plumber out. The plumber's looking atit, sent a camera down, seeing
a lot of rough and bumpy andthings going on inside, and the plumbers
like, you should descale, youshould descale the inside of these pipes and
then blow a liner into it,into inside the pipe, and we can
(09:28):
do that all for the low lowprice of sixteen thousand dollars and at which
point you're like, really, Ican also just move. So so here
is the thing, my friend.I'm not saying that that's not what you
want to do, okay, butI am going to say this. Okay,
the diagnosis, it's very We're goingto take it step by step.
(09:50):
Cast iron drain pipes they are,by their nature a little bit to course
on the inside, and so theyeah, they tend to have things want
to cling to them. What clingsto the inside of our drain lines two
things really, One is food sludgeor you know, bio material. And
(10:13):
in fact, when next segment,I'm actually going to be talking about garbage
disposals and how they do not help. They do not help our drains on
our infrastructure because we send food downthe sink via the garbage disposal. The
garbage disposal macerates that food, turnsit into sludge, and that sludge sticks
to the inside of our pipes,and that can build up and become a
(10:35):
problem. So we've got that.The second thing that can build up inside
a drain line is a mineral depositsfrom hard water. Okay, the same
kind of scale that happens around yourfaucets and on the tile and the bathroom
and all of that kind of stuff. Hard water deposits magnesium, calcium line,
(10:56):
that kind of stuff. Soft mineralsthat are very sticky that are in
our water supply, delicious minerals.By the way, you want them.
You want them in the water,you want them in your body. You
don't want them sticking to your pipes. But this is what happens. So
yes, you send a camera downwhen you have a regularly recurring clog.
It's almost a guarantee that in anolder drain system, it's because you've already
(11:20):
narrowed down the diameter of the drainline because of all of this stuff.
It's like, you know, youcan compare it to a lot of things.
You can compare it to like cloggedarteries inside a human body. There's
just too much stuff, and soyes, it's prone to clogging. So
the diagnosis of descaling these pipes iscorrect in my opinion. In other words,
(11:43):
mechanically descaling, which is specifically beyondjust a little router going in.
It's a device that they will putdown the drain and basically grinds away from
the inside, and you know,descales the pipe takes everything off right the
most part. So there you go. Now we have cleared out the crud
(12:05):
and the sludge and the mineral depositsin this pipe. And then your plumber
said, and we can blow aliner into this pipe, and the epoxy
based liner, which is much muchsmoother than the cast iron and far less
prone to having anything want to clingto it, and your problems are solved
forever. Okay, So all ofthat is true, But the question here
(12:31):
is the expense of scaling. Descaling. That's one thing, but that's sixteen
thousand dollars. The lion's share ofthat is all about this new liner thing.
So I'm going to put it inthese terms. You go to the
dentist because you've been neglecting your teeth, and your dentist looks at your teeth
and says, ah, we gota lot of a build up around the
(12:54):
base of your teeth, right,a lot of plaque build up. I'm
gonna have to get my head inhere. And it's you know, it's
beyond brushing. Now. We gotto get out that like that little hydrasonic
descaling wand we got to literally takethe little jackhammer and chick chip all of
this this plaque off of your teeth. Okay, true, good thing to
(13:16):
do above the gum line, belowthe gum line. Boom, Now we've
gone through that. Now our teeth, you know, we've got back to
the initial enamel. All right.Now what your plumber is suggesting to you
is now the equivalent of your dentistat that moment looking at you and saying,
(13:37):
well, you know what, Dan, to make sure this never happens
again, Let's pull all your teethand just give you implants and you will
never have to worry about plaque buildup damaging your teeth again. Which is
true, but it seems a littlemuch, okay, especially since your teeth
are still there. And that's mypoint. Yes, blown in liner an
(14:01):
epoxy liner inside a drain. Ifthe drain is damaged in the sense that
it is now leaking or that rootsare intruding in through you know, if
it is rusted to the point wherethe wall of the drain is compromised,
then yeah, you need a liner. Okay, But if it's just a
(14:22):
preventative measure, it's an awfully damnexpensive preventative measure. Considering the fact that
it has taken since the nineteen fortiesfor your drains to get to the shape
that they're in currently, and onceyou get them de scaled and cleaned out,
you're not going to be dealing withthis problem again. With with proper
use, you won't be dealing withthis problem again for you know, another
(14:46):
couple of decades. Honestly, itdoesn't build. If you change the way
you use your drains, you're notgoing to see it return like that.
Okay, does that make sense?That makes a lot of sense. Okay,
here's my concern. And yeah,the descaler I get some research and
(15:07):
of course the first case I foundwas a woman that got the descaling and
sure enough, it caused the polein her pipe some damage to her pipe.
Yes, they said, she hasto get the epopsy and they want
to to charge a thirty six thousanddollars. Okay, yeah, yeah,
scaler will cause them damage. Ihear you, I hear you. All
(15:28):
Right, this is so important,so many people have to deal with this.
I'm just tabling the other things.I'm sorry everybody. This is just
you know, I hope this isrelevant to you because it's just so important,
so Dan, you hang tight.We're gonna come back one more time
and we're going to address that issuebecause it's like a chicken in the egg
thing, because is there a possibilityon an older pipe that the d scaling
(15:52):
process could actually bust the pipe?Yes, there is, So we got
to talk about this, and thenI'm gonna roll right into my little soapbox
about garbage disposals and then proper maintenanceof your drain. So it all ties
in with one of the items onmy list anyway, So Dan, you
(16:12):
hang tight, and when we comeback, my special guest Dan, who's
been with us now for three segments, but he's got such a relevant issue,
we'll deal with it. Your Homewith Dean Sharp the House Whisper.
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharpon demand from KFI AM six forty KFI
(16:37):
AM six forty live streaming in HDeverywhere on the iHeartRadio app. You are
Home with Dean Sharp the House Whisper. This is what Star Wars sounds like
in Spanish. By the way,if you listen to Star Wars in Spanish,
this is what the music sounds like. It's mariachi. It's all mariacci.
(17:00):
That's not fair, but it isfunny. All right, Listen,
we have been talking about and cancontinue this morning to talk about. I've
got a list of things you shouldprobably know about your house that you probably
don't know. That's today and tomorrow. But I've paused a little bit.
I've spent a little bit more timeon the phones this morning, just because
(17:22):
I get this sense sometimes that's certaincalls not only are they important to the
collar, but are relevant to everybody. So I'm going to go back to
Dan. Dan, you're still withme, Bud, I'm still here,
okay. So yeah, so Dancast iron pipes. They are all gunked
up on the inside with you know, bio mass stuff that's clung to these
(17:45):
old cast iron pipes. These pipeshave been around since the nineteen forties in
Dan's condo unit and also hard watermineralization scale. The plumber took a look
scoped it said, you've got todescale these pipes. And descaling the pipes.
After they've been descaled, they arethere, you know, all that
(18:07):
stuff is gone, and so youstart over. Now. The first thing
the plumber said was, oh,also, you know, for a grand
total of sixteen thousand, dollars.We can put a liner inside the pipe
and epoxy liner and they you'll neverhave this issue again. And what I
had mentioned in the last segment wasokay, yeah, but it took decades
(18:30):
for them to get to this pointand now you've just descaled them. And
the reality is without the epoxy liner, it's gonna take decades for it to
get there again. So you know, you might be able to opt out
on the descaling. But there wasone other point I was about to make,
and then Dan made it, andI'm like, we we got to
talk about this, and that isthe descaling process on an old drain pipe,
(18:55):
an old cast iron drain pipe canbe pretty aggressive. You know,
it's again to use the dental metaphoror analogy. You know, you've got
a cavity, it's pretty deep,it's pretty large, and the dentist looks
at you and says, I don'tknow if I can fill this without just
(19:17):
totally weakening the tooth. So youknow, it might be time for a
crown, right, a root canaland a crown as opposed to just refilling
this cavity, because I may leavethe inside of this tooth so messed you
know that kind of story. Soyes, it is an aggressive mechanical system
(19:38):
by which you grind out the scaleon the inside of a pipe. So
it puts you in double jeopardy becausemaybe descaling the pipe breaks the pipe,
and now you absolutely have to havea liner and you're costing yourself sixteen thousand
dollars. So now what do youdo? Well, I don't absolutely know
(20:04):
to exactly what to tell you otherthan this, here is the thing.
If you understand what's on the insideof those pipes, okay, the biomass,
sludge and the build up of mineralizationover decades. Okay, if you
understand that, then and if it'snot an absolute clog, I know it's
(20:27):
regular clogging. But you know what, sixteen thousand dollars pays for a lot
of routering. It does pays fora lot of router service. So so
the thing is this, if itwere me my situation, would I take
the risk and clear out descale thepipes with this aggressive grinder or would I
(20:53):
start to treat the pipe and seewhat I could accomplish if if there was
a non mechanical means of doing it, I am gonna fall in the second
camp. Right, Because I'm aconservative doctor when it comes to treatment plans
for your home. So I willtell you this. Unless we're at a
(21:15):
point where where literally, you know, in a three inch cast iron drain,
there's only you know, half aninch of actual open room, okay,
left, and that's what keeps gettingclogged, that's one thing. But
I'm gonna say very simply, wecan treat it. And we can treat
it by number one, putting mildacids down the drain on a regular basis.
(21:41):
And when I mean mild acids,I mean vinegar, white vinegar.
Okay, white vinegar is a naturaldescaling acid, and so by introducing that
to those drains on a regular basis, and oh, by the way,
there are also descalers that you canbuy off the shelf at the big box
store, home depot, lows,places like that. By regularly doing a
(22:04):
treatment plan, you will halt,if not begin to reverse some of the
mineralization. And you can use enzymetreatments like green Gobbler not a sponsor of
the show. I just happen tolove their stuff. Green Gobbler enzyme treatments
to break up the actual food wastebuild up on the inside of the pipes
(22:27):
and you can stop sending so muchstuff down the garbage disposal, which I'm
going to talk about right on theother side of this news break. So
Dan, my point is this,if it were me, I think I'm
going to hold off on that therisk of having to go the full Monty
for sixteen grand I think I'm goingto start taking care of those old pipes
(22:49):
and see if we can't reverse throughfitness and through diet some of the effects
of aging that your pipes are experiencingas opposed to doing major surgery and going
in and just you know, puttingin stints and things like that. To
use the body metaphor. If thatmakes sense, I hope it does.
(23:12):
That's my recommendation. And I'll talka little bit more about descaling and enzyme
treatments on the other side of thenews So Dan, thanks for hanging tight.
That's my recommendation. Listen up forthe specifics on descaling and enzymes and
take it from there. But yeah, I would keep the sixteen thousand dollars
in your bank. And you maystill have to call out a router service
(23:36):
a couple of times before this takeseffect, but it's well worth it,
all right, y'all. More whenwe return your home with Dean Sharp the
house Whisper, I can't fin DeanSharp the house Whisper. Welcome home,
all right. I was hoping toget through more on my list this morning,
(23:59):
but we've had some fantastic calls,important calls. I just want to
say this about garbage disposals. Okay, I am not a huge fan,
and I'm not a fan at all. Tina and I when we remodeled our
place, did not replace the garbagedisposal. It's the age of composting,
of separating your trash. Okay,for the sake of your pipes, your
(24:22):
drains, scrape the food into thetrash can or into the compost bin and
minimize the amount of stuff that isgoing down the drain because that stuff doesn't
just disappear. Your garbage disposal doesn'tturn it into water. It turns it
into food paste, which sticks tothe side of your drains and becomes an
(24:44):
issue. And there are things youcan do. There are enzymes that eat
through that stuff on your pipes,if you get a bottle of it and
treat your drains regularly, maybe oncea week. In really bad situations,
maybe once a month, just asregular maintenance. Okay. Also you can
use solutions of vinegar. Don't takethe big draino stuff regularly because it will
(25:08):
eat your pipes. But vinegar,which is an ascetic acid which loosens up
and breaks the bonds of mineral deposits, you can descale and degoop your drain
lines with regular maintenance. Again,sounded like a doctor, but it's true
(25:29):
when it comes to your house.It's like, you know, hey,
if you brush your teeth and flossevery day, you're gonna have spend less
money at the dentist. And thesame is true maintenance wise for your drains.
Okay, the US is garbage disposalcrazy. Fifty percent of homes in
the United States have garbage disposals.I'm on a mission to see that,
(25:51):
to go way way down up northof US. Only three percent of homes
in Canada have garbage disposals, fivepercent or six percent of homes in Great
Britain have garbage disposals, And garbagedisposals in the EU. In Europe have
been banned. Why because they haveinfrastructure in their sewer systems that's hundreds of
(26:11):
years old and they don't want itdamaged. So there you go. All
right. Ugh, I really reallywanted to take Nancy's call on the air.
Nancy, I want you to hangtight. I'm going to take your
call off the air because I promisedyou I was going to take it.
For the rest of you. Weare going to continue our list tomorrow.
(26:33):
Tomorrow, my Friends Sunday show fromnine to noon, all sorts of things
that you should know about your housethat you probably don't know. You're not
going to want to miss it untilthen. Enjoy this beautiful day, Enjoy
May the Fourth be with you,Enjoy the Kentucky Derby this afternoon, and
(26:55):
get out there and get busy buildingyourself a beautiful life. We'll see you
tomorrow. This has been Home withDean Sharp the House Whisper. Tune into
the live broadcast on KFI AM sixforty every Saturday morning from six to eight
Pacific time, and every Sunday morningfrom nine to noon Pacific time, or
(27:18):
anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharpon demand from KFI AM six forty KFI
AM six forty and live streaming inHD everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Hey,
welcome to home where Every week wehelp you better understand that place where
you live. I am Dean Sharp, the house whisperer, here with you
(00:25):
live like I am every weekend Saturdaymornings from six to eight Pacific time,
Sunday mornings nine to noon Pacific time. Welcome to the second hour of our
fine little program here on this lovelymisty southern California Saturday morning. Glad you're
up in about Glad you're with us. We are talking about well, I
(00:46):
have a kind of a pope Hoorilist of things important things to know about
your home that maybe and probably youdon't And so they cover everything from some
legal stuff to practical construction things,just some design things. And we're doing
(01:06):
that both today and tomorrow's show.It's all weekend stuff you need to know
about your home, fun stuff.So stay tuned and listen in and I
guarantee you're going to learn something alongthe way. But right now we are
going to the phones, and Igot to tell you as promised our previous
caller. I did a quick search, and I should have known this.
(01:29):
I should have known this in orderto tell her while she was still on
the line with me. But thequestion of her friends or her neighbor's mobile
home. Her neighbor has a mobilehome and he did some roof repair and
the mobile home park said, oh, you got to go get a permit
for that. And even though theylive in Los Angeles County, they sent
(01:56):
them to somewhere in San Bernandino Countyin order to at the permit, which
for most people doesn't make sense.To her, it didn't make sense.
But ah, here is the simpleanswer, and it is a very very
simple answer, even though it's kindof weird when it comes to mobile homes.
But here's the thing. You've heardme talk about this before. A
mobile home it's legal status. Whatis a mobile home? Well, in
(02:19):
the state of California, it dependson what your situation is. If a
mobile home is sitting on a pieceof property that is least okay, and
it is in your standard kind ofmobile home configuration on its Jackson kind of
there like in maybe most mobile homeparks, then that mobile home is technically
(02:39):
a vehicle. Okay, technically itactually has registration with the DMV. And
because people have asked this before,like do mobile homes depreciate or do they
appreciate in value? Well depends ifit's a vehicle. If it's in vehicle
status, it is depreciating in value, just like your car depreciates value.
(03:00):
However, if you own the pieceof property that the mobile home is sitting
on, and you permanently mount itto a foundation, in other words,
you anchor it down like you wouldany home, then suddenly your previously mobile
home is now a home. It'sjust a house, and it falls under
(03:21):
all of the normal house stuff,including its value, appreciating, take care
of it over the years. Okay, so that's the thing. Now Here
is the critical thing when it comesto permits for work done. If your
property is yours and you've permanently mountedyour mobile home to your property, it's
(03:43):
a house, and for a house, of course, you call your local
building department to get a permit.Ah. But if it's still a mobile
home, property is leased, it'snot permanently connected to the land that it's
sitting on, then all mobile homesand I knew this. All mobile homes
(04:04):
in the state of California fall underthe control of the California Department of Housing
and Urban Development HUD. So ifyou are in a least property mobile home
situation, which again most mobile homeparks fall under this category, then your
(04:24):
permits don't come from your local buildingdepartment. They come from wherever your nearest
HUD department or offices are. Andmy guess is that's the situation that your
neighbor found themselves in. They eventhough you're in La County. Maybe the
closest HUD office where the permit hasto be pulled is, you know,
(04:46):
is in San Bernardino County. Sothere it is. If you are in
a mobile home situation that isn't permanentlymounted to the founded to the property,
then your permits go through Housing andUrban Development, not your local building department.
But boom, there you go.All right? Uh, I just
wanted to make you know I'm committedto thoroughly answering calls and not missing it
(05:10):
as we go. So there youhave it. All right, let's talk
to Dan real quick. Dan,I'm probably gonna get you started and then
I'm gonna have to take you onthe other side of the break. But
welcome home and how can I helpHidine, Yeah, thanks for taking my
call. I I have a rentalunit that has a recurring kitchen drain doping
(05:31):
problem and about one thing here,I have to have its high proceed because
apparently it's and I've done everything youknow as part and it's not pretty all
that, thank you. It doeshave a garbage book, so that probably
(05:54):
as well. But the plumber toldme that most recently told me that the
problem is that my pipes are inbad shapes there the house. The pipe
is built and it has uh likeits iron pipe that goes under the contret
ape guests above the contrect but itsets the iron below. And he showed
(06:16):
me a video and it looks prettylumpy inside there, and he said that
catches a lot of stuff, andso he wants to, he said,
to solve the problem permanently, Ineeds to do a scaler, which I
had never heard of before. Andthen after it's some kind of chain device
that goes through and spins and takesoff the the accumulated stuff that's inside the
(06:41):
pipe and kind of boots it out. And then they want to put some
UH with the material, some kindof material that lines the inside of the
pipe and makes it smooth, soit's no longer we'll catch stuff that's going
by, and all the right thousanddollars there And there's the catch. All
(07:08):
of this can be yours. Allof this can be yours, Dan,
for the for the low low priceof sixteen thousand dollars. All right,
Dan, I'm gonna pop you on. Hold. We're gonna listen to some
news from Heather. And when wecome back, let's talk about your drains.
All of the information you got,how accurate is it? And where
(07:31):
do you go from here? Andwhat in the world is descaling a drain.
We'll talk about that and more whenwe return. Dan, you hold
tight, my friend. We willwe'll get this all worked out. I
promise your home with Dean Sharp thehouse Whisper. Can'f I Dean Sharp the
house Whisper at your service, Sam. Is this like Pentatonics or somebody?
(07:58):
No, this is Matre. It'sa group out of Japan. They do
theme songs to just about everything andthey're really cool, all acapella. At
first I thought it was just you. I thought it was you and Heather.
Just hey, I was. I'mhumming along here. I'm doing my
best, all right. All right, great stuff, I love it.
(08:18):
May the fourth be with you.Thanks for joining us on the program.
All right. I really want toget back to Dan here because he's got
a sitch and I want to makesure I can help him out the best.
Dan, Are you with me,my friend? Yes, Sean,
I'm here, all right, okay, So let me just review for everybody
really quickly. You got a condoand you've got old cast iron drain lines.
(08:46):
You know, it's typical when wasthe you and when the condo was
built in the nineteen forties, inthe nineteen I'm sorry, you're kind of
cutting out a little bit, sonineteen forties, in the nineteen forties,
all right. So we got someold drain lines, okay. And one
drain around the sink keeps getting clogged, keeps getting clogged. It calls the
(09:07):
plumber out. The plumber's looking atit, sent a camera down, seeing
a lot of rough and bumpy andthings going on inside, and the plumbers
like, you should descale, youshould descale the inside of these pipes and
then blow a liner into it,into inside the pipe, and we can
(09:28):
do that all for the low lowprice of sixteen thousand dollars and at which
point you're like, really, Ican also just move. So so here
is the thing, my friend.I'm not saying that that's not what you
want to do, okay, butI am going to say this. Okay,
the diagnosis, it's very We're goingto take it step by step.
(09:50):
Cast iron drain pipes they are,by their nature a little bit to course
on the inside, and so theyeah, they tend to have things want
to cling to them. What clingsto the inside of our drain lines two
things really, One is food sludgeor you know, bio material. And
(10:13):
in fact, when next segment,I'm actually going to be talking about garbage
disposals and how they do not help. They do not help our drains on
our infrastructure because we send food downthe sink via the garbage disposal. The
garbage disposal macerates that food, turnsit into sludge, and that sludge sticks
to the inside of our pipes,and that can build up and become a
(10:35):
problem. So we've got that.The second thing that can build up inside
a drain line is a mineral depositsfrom hard water. Okay, the same
kind of scale that happens around yourfaucets and on the tile and the bathroom
and all of that kind of stuff. Hard water deposits magnesium, calcium line,
(10:56):
that kind of stuff. Soft mineralsthat are very sticky that are in
our water supply, delicious minerals.By the way, you want them.
You want them in the water,you want them in your body. You
don't want them sticking to your pipes. But this is what happens. So
yes, you send a camera downwhen you have a regularly recurring clog.
It's almost a guarantee that in anolder drain system, it's because you've already
(11:20):
narrowed down the diameter of the drainline because of all of this stuff.
It's like, you know, youcan compare it to a lot of things.
You can compare it to like cloggedarteries inside a human body. There's
just too much stuff, and soyes, it's prone to clogging. So
the diagnosis of descaling these pipes iscorrect in my opinion. In other words,
(11:43):
mechanically descaling, which is specifically beyondjust a little router going in.
It's a device that they will putdown the drain and basically grinds away from
the inside, and you know,descales the pipe takes everything off right the
most part. So there you go. Now we have cleared out the crud
(12:05):
and the sludge and the mineral depositsin this pipe. And then your plumber
said, and we can blow aliner into this pipe, and the epoxy
based liner, which is much muchsmoother than the cast iron and far less
prone to having anything want to clingto it, and your problems are solved
forever. Okay, So all ofthat is true, But the question here
(12:31):
is the expense of scaling. Descaling. That's one thing, but that's sixteen
thousand dollars. The lion's share ofthat is all about this new liner thing.
So I'm going to put it inthese terms. You go to the
dentist because you've been neglecting your teeth, and your dentist looks at your teeth
and says, ah, we gota lot of a build up around the
(12:54):
base of your teeth, right,a lot of plaque build up. I'm
gonna have to get my head inhere. And it's you know, it's
beyond brushing. Now. We gotto get out that like that little hydrasonic
descaling wand we got to literally takethe little jackhammer and chick chip all of
this this plaque off of your teeth. Okay, true, good thing to
(13:16):
do above the gum line, belowthe gum line. Boom, Now we've
gone through that. Now our teeth, you know, we've got back to
the initial enamel. All right.Now what your plumber is suggesting to you
is now the equivalent of your dentistat that moment looking at you and saying,
(13:37):
well, you know what, Dan, to make sure this never happens
again, Let's pull all your teethand just give you implants and you will
never have to worry about plaque buildup damaging your teeth again. Which is
true, but it seems a littlemuch, okay, especially since your teeth
are still there. And that's mypoint. Yes, blown in liner an
(14:01):
epoxy liner inside a drain. Ifthe drain is damaged in the sense that
it is now leaking or that rootsare intruding in through you know, if
it is rusted to the point wherethe wall of the drain is compromised,
then yeah, you need a liner. Okay, But if it's just a
(14:22):
preventative measure, it's an awfully damnexpensive preventative measure. Considering the fact that
it has taken since the nineteen fortiesfor your drains to get to the shape
that they're in currently, and onceyou get them de scaled and cleaned out,
you're not going to be dealing withthis problem again. With with proper
use, you won't be dealing withthis problem again for you know, another
(14:46):
couple of decades. Honestly, itdoesn't build. If you change the way
you use your drains, you're notgoing to see it return like that.
Okay, does that make sense?That makes a lot of sense. Okay,
here's my concern. And yeah,the descaler I get some research and
(15:07):
of course the first case I foundwas a woman that got the descaling and
sure enough, it caused the polein her pipe some damage to her pipe.
Yes, they said, she hasto get the epopsy and they want
to to charge a thirty six thousanddollars. Okay, yeah, yeah,
scaler will cause them damage. Ihear you, I hear you. All
(15:28):
Right, this is so important,so many people have to deal with this.
I'm just tabling the other things.I'm sorry everybody. This is just
you know, I hope this isrelevant to you because it's just so important,
so Dan, you hang tight.We're gonna come back one more time
and we're going to address that issuebecause it's like a chicken in the egg
thing, because is there a possibilityon an older pipe that the d scaling
(15:52):
process could actually bust the pipe?Yes, there is, So we got
to talk about this, and thenI'm gonna roll right into my little soapbox
about garbage disposals and then proper maintenanceof your drain. So it all ties
in with one of the items onmy list anyway, So Dan, you
(16:12):
hang tight, and when we comeback, my special guest Dan, who's
been with us now for three segments, but he's got such a relevant issue,
we'll deal with it. Your Homewith Dean Sharp the House Whisper.
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharpon demand from KFI AM six forty KFI
(16:37):
AM six forty live streaming in HDeverywhere on the iHeartRadio app. You are
Home with Dean Sharp the House Whisper. This is what Star Wars sounds like
in Spanish. By the way,if you listen to Star Wars in Spanish,
this is what the music sounds like. It's mariachi. It's all mariacci.
(17:00):
That's not fair, but it isfunny. All right, Listen,
we have been talking about and cancontinue this morning to talk about. I've
got a list of things you shouldprobably know about your house that you probably
don't know. That's today and tomorrow. But I've paused a little bit.
I've spent a little bit more timeon the phones this morning, just because
(17:22):
I get this sense sometimes that's certaincalls not only are they important to the
collar, but are relevant to everybody. So I'm going to go back to
Dan. Dan, you're still withme, Bud, I'm still here,
okay. So yeah, so Dancast iron pipes. They are all gunked
up on the inside with you know, bio mass stuff that's clung to these
(17:45):
old cast iron pipes. These pipeshave been around since the nineteen forties in
Dan's condo unit and also hard watermineralization scale. The plumber took a look
scoped it said, you've got todescale these pipes. And descaling the pipes.
After they've been descaled, they arethere, you know, all that
(18:07):
stuff is gone, and so youstart over. Now. The first thing
the plumber said was, oh,also, you know, for a grand
total of sixteen thousand, dollars.We can put a liner inside the pipe
and epoxy liner and they you'll neverhave this issue again. And what I
had mentioned in the last segment wasokay, yeah, but it took decades
(18:30):
for them to get to this pointand now you've just descaled them. And
the reality is without the epoxy liner, it's gonna take decades for it to
get there again. So you know, you might be able to opt out
on the descaling. But there wasone other point I was about to make,
and then Dan made it, andI'm like, we we got to
talk about this, and that isthe descaling process on an old drain pipe,
(18:55):
an old cast iron drain pipe canbe pretty aggressive. You know,
it's again to use the dental metaphoror analogy. You know, you've got
a cavity, it's pretty deep,it's pretty large, and the dentist looks
at you and says, I don'tknow if I can fill this without just
(19:17):
totally weakening the tooth. So youknow, it might be time for a
crown, right, a root canaland a crown as opposed to just refilling
this cavity, because I may leavethe inside of this tooth so messed you
know that kind of story. Soyes, it is an aggressive mechanical system
(19:38):
by which you grind out the scaleon the inside of a pipe. So
it puts you in double jeopardy becausemaybe descaling the pipe breaks the pipe,
and now you absolutely have to havea liner and you're costing yourself sixteen thousand
dollars. So now what do youdo? Well, I don't absolutely know
(20:04):
to exactly what to tell you otherthan this, here is the thing.
If you understand what's on the insideof those pipes, okay, the biomass,
sludge and the build up of mineralizationover decades. Okay, if you
understand that, then and if it'snot an absolute clog, I know it's
(20:27):
regular clogging. But you know what, sixteen thousand dollars pays for a lot
of routering. It does pays fora lot of router service. So so
the thing is this, if itwere me my situation, would I take
the risk and clear out descale thepipes with this aggressive grinder or would I
(20:53):
start to treat the pipe and seewhat I could accomplish if if there was
a non mechanical means of doing it, I am gonna fall in the second
camp. Right, Because I'm aconservative doctor when it comes to treatment plans
for your home. So I willtell you this. Unless we're at a
(21:15):
point where where literally, you know, in a three inch cast iron drain,
there's only you know, half aninch of actual open room, okay,
left, and that's what keeps gettingclogged, that's one thing. But
I'm gonna say very simply, wecan treat it. And we can treat
it by number one, putting mildacids down the drain on a regular basis.
(21:41):
And when I mean mild acids,I mean vinegar, white vinegar.
Okay, white vinegar is a naturaldescaling acid, and so by introducing that
to those drains on a regular basis, and oh, by the way,
there are also descalers that you canbuy off the shelf at the big box
store, home depot, lows,places like that. By regularly doing a
(22:04):
treatment plan, you will halt,if not begin to reverse some of the
mineralization. And you can use enzymetreatments like green Gobbler not a sponsor of
the show. I just happen tolove their stuff. Green Gobbler enzyme treatments
to break up the actual food wastebuild up on the inside of the pipes
(22:27):
and you can stop sending so muchstuff down the garbage disposal, which I'm
going to talk about right on theother side of this news break. So
Dan, my point is this,if it were me, I think I'm
going to hold off on that therisk of having to go the full Monty
for sixteen grand I think I'm goingto start taking care of those old pipes
(22:49):
and see if we can't reverse throughfitness and through diet some of the effects
of aging that your pipes are experiencingas opposed to doing major surgery and going
in and just you know, puttingin stints and things like that. To
use the body metaphor. If thatmakes sense, I hope it does.
(23:12):
That's my recommendation. And I'll talka little bit more about descaling and enzyme
treatments on the other side of thenews So Dan, thanks for hanging tight.
That's my recommendation. Listen up forthe specifics on descaling and enzymes and
take it from there. But yeah, I would keep the sixteen thousand dollars
in your bank. And you maystill have to call out a router service
(23:36):
a couple of times before this takeseffect, but it's well worth it,
all right, y'all. More whenwe return your home with Dean Sharp the
house Whisper, I can't fin DeanSharp the house Whisper. Welcome home,
all right. I was hoping toget through more on my list this morning,
(23:59):
but we've had some fantastic calls,important calls. I just want to
say this about garbage disposals. Okay, I am not a huge fan,
and I'm not a fan at all. Tina and I when we remodeled our
place, did not replace the garbagedisposal. It's the age of composting,
of separating your trash. Okay,for the sake of your pipes, your
(24:22):
drains, scrape the food into thetrash can or into the compost bin and
minimize the amount of stuff that isgoing down the drain because that stuff doesn't
just disappear. Your garbage disposal doesn'tturn it into water. It turns it
into food paste, which sticks tothe side of your drains and becomes an
(24:44):
issue. And there are things youcan do. There are enzymes that eat
through that stuff on your pipes,if you get a bottle of it and
treat your drains regularly, maybe oncea week. In really bad situations,
maybe once a month, just asregular maintenance. Okay. Also you can
use solutions of vinegar. Don't takethe big draino stuff regularly because it will
(25:08):
eat your pipes. But vinegar,which is an ascetic acid which loosens up
and breaks the bonds of mineral deposits, you can descale and degoop your drain
lines with regular maintenance. Again,sounded like a doctor, but it's true
(25:29):
when it comes to your house.It's like, you know, hey,
if you brush your teeth and flossevery day, you're gonna have spend less
money at the dentist. And thesame is true maintenance wise for your drains.
Okay, the US is garbage disposalcrazy. Fifty percent of homes in
the United States have garbage disposals.I'm on a mission to see that,
(25:51):
to go way way down up northof US. Only three percent of homes
in Canada have garbage disposals, fivepercent or six percent of homes in Great
Britain have garbage disposals, And garbagedisposals in the EU. In Europe have
been banned. Why because they haveinfrastructure in their sewer systems that's hundreds of
(26:11):
years old and they don't want itdamaged. So there you go. All
right. Ugh, I really reallywanted to take Nancy's call on the air.
Nancy, I want you to hangtight. I'm going to take your
call off the air because I promisedyou I was going to take it.
For the rest of you. Weare going to continue our list tomorrow.
(26:33):
Tomorrow, my Friends Sunday show fromnine to noon, all sorts of things
that you should know about your housethat you probably don't know. You're not
going to want to miss it untilthen. Enjoy this beautiful day, Enjoy
May the Fourth be with you,Enjoy the Kentucky Derby this afternoon, and
(26:55):
get out there and get busy buildingyourself a beautiful life. We'll see you
tomorrow. This has been Home withDean Sharp the House Whisper. Tune into
the live broadcast on KFI AM sixforty every Saturday morning from six to eight
Pacific time, and every Sunday morningfrom nine to noon Pacific time, or
(27:18):
anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Home with Dean Sharp News
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