Leaks and Drainage Issues | Hour 2

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp the
House Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio app. Thanks
for joining us on the program today. We are talking
here on the program today about roof leaks and yard
drainage and gutter issues and all of that kind of stuff.
Right before the break, I basically teased out the idea of,

(00:25):
you know, while we are working on this, how do
you know your roof needs replacing? And I had said
multiple leaks, and I took a little side jaunt to
just explain to you essentially what a roof is essentially
constructed out of, and that is the shingle on top
that you see, and then the actual weather barrier down below,
the water barrier, the underlayment, the roof sheathing, and on

(00:49):
top of that the underlayment.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
And so.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
One leak does not make a roof replacement. It just
means there's a leak for whatever reason. But if you're
getting multiple leaks all over the place, it's a good
sign that the seals between flashing and underlayment, or the
underlayment if it's all building paper, is starting to crack
or has cracked. And that, by the way, just to

(01:13):
top off what I was saying before, the reason why
I no longer recommend anybody put underlayment of building paper,
asphalt embedded building paper anymore, or roofing paper. And it's
simply because it's great. It's tough, it's absolutely waterproof. But
it's asphalt and bedded felt and eventually heat cold, heat cold,

(01:37):
over time, it will crack. The asphalt grows brittle, as
it is the case with all asphalt patches, and eventually cracks,
and then we've got leaks, and usually multiple leaks. And
the new underlayments don't have those issues. They stretch, they
self seal, they expand and contract in the heat without

(01:58):
breaking open. And that's why they're so so much better.
That's modern roofing, by the way, So don't let anybody
push the old building paper thing on you at this point.
But multiple leaks, that's a sign that that kind of activity,
that cracking and the failing of the seams is starting
to happen. Also curled up shingles, now, of course, i'm

(02:18):
talking about asphalt composition shingles, which about eighty percent of
Americans have on their roof these days. Curled up shingles
is a sign also that the asphalt fiberglass, the asphalt
embedded fiberglass sheets underneath have really lost a lot of
moisture and probably also lost a lot of granulation on

(02:40):
top and is pushing its way. Now, it's not a guarantee.
And by the way, there's a company out there that
services southern California, all of southern California through various distributors
of various locations, roof Max. Again not a sponsor on
the show, but I gotta tell you, roof Max makes
a fantastic restorative material. Kind of think of it in

(03:04):
terms of like you get dry skin on your hands
and your elbows, and you grab some lotion and the
next thing, you know, a good quality lotion and everything
has calmed down and now we don't have dry, cracking
skin on our hands anymore. Well, the roof Max material,
it's not a paint. Don't paint your roof, don't No,

(03:25):
it's not a paint, and it's not a surface coating.
It is essentially this is their main product, a material
that is absorbed into and rehydrates, re conditions and it's safe, okay,
safe effective oils to do this. Reconditions those asphalt shingles,

(03:48):
and if your roof is starting starting to show its age, okay,
you're a prime candidate because this stuff could extend the
life of your roof another five years. Sometimes people can
get an other ten to fifteen years out of their
roof if they reapply it every five years. So that's
a consideration. But yeah, when the curl when the shingles

(04:09):
start to curl up, when rock granules on the ground
are on the ground in large numbers after a rain,
it's a sign that that embedded granulization in your roofing
material has started to let go and that has gone
a long way toward protecting that roof so far. And then,
of course, if you see flashings up there that are
rusted or rusting out, that is a clear sign and

(04:32):
also the age of your roof. Okay, now, just know
that that no roof, no roof should be expected to
last the length of its warranty. I'm just being realistic
about this, okay. So let's say you put a thirty
year roof up there, or a forty year roof, well,

(04:53):
you know what, twenty five years in everybody should be
taking a serious look at their roof. I'm just saying
just saying, and I'm not saying that there is a
difference between a thirty and a forty or a fifty
year roof. Okay, I'm just saying that twenty twenty five
years in every roof should be looked at seriously. It's
kind of like, you know, aging. Just because you've hit

(05:14):
in middle age or you're you know, you're in your
fifties now does not mean that your body is going
to be riddled with disease and full of health problems.
But we all know things change, Things change, and so
now it's time to take a more serious look and
look more often. Does that make sense? I hope?

Speaker 2 (05:31):
So.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
Okay, So here's the deal. We are up against a
break and we are right here middle hour of the show,
and this is where I normally turn to the phones,
and we've got some calls on the board. So I'm
gonna do is I'm gonna invite you to call in.
In addition to the callers, we already have the number
to reach me eight three three two. Ask Dean eight

(05:52):
three three the numeral two. Ask Dean anything you want
to talk about regarding your home. I'm talking roofing and
roof leaks. You can talk to me about anything, and
we will go to the phones right after this your
Home with Dean Sharp, the house Whisper.

Speaker 3 (06:08):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI Am six.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
We're talking about after the storm, leak, drainage problems, gutter issues,
all of that kind of stuff. That's my topic for
the day for you, and we're going to return to
that in just a bit. But guess what, middle of
the show, time to go to the phones. I want
to talk to Jen. Hey, Jen, welcome home, Hey Dean.

Speaker 4 (06:33):
Thank you. I'm having my house some work done and
then it's going to be painted and I'm getting a
new front door. I'm wondering about the color of the
door hardware to choose. The house is going to be
tope with black trim, black gutters. The front door will

(06:56):
be natural would I don't know yet what color or
if I should go darker light. But then do I
go black hardware or shiny brass or brushed brass? What
are your thoughts?

Speaker 1 (07:15):
What style of house are we talking about? Jen? And
by the way, you've woken up the designer in me
who is getting not a lot of time on today's show.
So he's very very happy to field your call. So, so, yeah,
what what style house are we talking about?

Speaker 4 (07:31):
It's a story book house. O, it's.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
A story book house. Do you all know what a
storybook house is? Storybook actually is is one of the
rare true Southern California originated architectural categories born into existence
in the early nineteen twenties and as a result, specifically

(08:00):
kind of huddled around areas of like you know, Los
Angeles and the Southland, uh, basically built by set designers
in the Golden Age of Hollywood who were like, you
know what, we're hidden here every day working on these
movies and uh, and so why can't I go home
and uh and have a house that's uh that looks
like this Witch's cottage or this little you know, Hansel

(08:22):
and Gretel house or whatever. And they started designing and
building for themselves these beautiful houses. Most of them are
one offs as far as their their uniqueness, and they
got nicknamed and categorized storybook homes. And so they are lovely,
super charming homes. They have challenges because they're older homes,
like century homes, but nonetheless, all right, so, Jen, you

(08:46):
got a storybook house? It's great. It's great. So here's
the thing. Depending on the you know, I without you know,
sight unseen, I don't know what tell you what to
tell you about the color of the front door. Okay,
should it be painted, should it be dark wood stain,
light wood stain. But I will tell you this, a

(09:06):
storybook house definitely falls under the category of you know,
gopher broke on the front door, Okay. In other words,
it's an old style, old school kind of home, and
it could very well. I guess what I'm saying is,
you've got so much freedom here that you're probably it's
probably not going to be possible for you to make

(09:28):
the wrong decision. Hope, tell you that. That's why I
want to comfort you in that level. Because yes, of course,
the front door could match trim. It could be the
color of trump And I know you asked me about
the hardware. I'm not missing that point. But the front
door could be the color of the trim. It could
or it could be outstanding in the sense of, you know,

(09:51):
a standout color because you know of old world Enlightenment
and and you know Renaissance, even Elizabethan. On paying off
your mortgage, this is where the idea of like a
house with a bright red door came into play. Now,
red probably isn't the right move for the storybook house,
but the point is that door could be just about

(10:13):
any color to make it stand out unique from the
rest of the house, or it could be a continuation
of the theme of the rest of the woodwork in
the house. And the same is true with the hardware.
The hardware does not need to correspond to everything else
on the house if that's the way you decide to go.
But if you do, then then I want you to

(10:34):
get hardware that matches up with the other metal. Okay.
So theory of design very very important fundamental of design,
and that is in the world of design, in the
world of a material selection, hit it right on the
nose or miss it by a mile, okay, both are acceptable.

(10:55):
Both are acceptable. Hit it on the nose or miss
it by a mile. But close close only counts in
horseshoes and hand grenades. You know they say close in
the world of design is always looks like a miss
always looks like a mistake, always looks like something has
happened and we've fallen short. So that's the idea behind

(11:18):
that concept. So You've got the freedom, my friend, you
really do. You've got the freedom to either go with
the same metal finishes that are happening on the rest
of the house. Okay, And I'm a big believer in
creating kind of a bible, a rule book for the
exterior of a home, in which we do categorize things

(11:39):
like if it's metal, it's this, it's this color. Right,
most of the time we actually move towards like either
you know, it's either an espresso bronze, or it's a
brass or or it's a deep, deep kind of iron,
kind of cast iron, charcoal black kind of thing. If
that's why you want to go, then keep up that
look with the the door hardware itself, or change it

(12:03):
up completely so that it stands on its own along
with the door with its own character. Miss it by
a mile. This is why I don't you know, I,
as a designer, I will never put artificial wood flooring
of tile or vinyl next to real wood. Okay, because
it's a close facsimile. If that's the only thing you
have to compare it to, it's fine. But the two

(12:24):
together too close and it looks like a mistake. So
hit it on the nose or miss it by a mile, Jen.
And most of all, you got a storybook house. Have
fun with it. Jen, I gotta go. Thank you so
much for the call. So appreciate it. You woke the
designer up. He's so happy. More of your calls right
after this your Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.

Speaker 3 (12:46):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.

Speaker 1 (12:51):
Yes, it's critical to take care of your home. That's
essentially what we're talking about today. We're biasing toward the
builder side of things today because if you've got roof leaks,
if you've got drainage issues, you know, a house, above
all things, has got to at least start with being functional. Functional,
it's got to work. Okay, some of the greatest architects

(13:14):
of all time, well, you know, arguably the greatest American architect,
residential architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, you know, heralded as and
I love Frank and I love his stuff. I do,
I do. Okay, I'm as big a fan as most
other designers are. However, you know, I have a very
sober perspective when it comes to Frank, and that is

(13:36):
that just about if you know anything about his stuff,
just about all of his roofs leak because Frank was
attempting to do things back in the day that we
didn't have the technology to effectively do back then, and
so and he ignored that. And so I don't know
whether to pat him on the back for that and

(13:58):
call him a trailblazer, or say, listen, you have fundamentally
failed your client and there's no amount of cool design
that justifies the fact that your clients live in a
leaky home. So yeah, I've always struggled with that tension
when it comes to that. But the point that I'm
making here is that a home ultimately has to have

(14:22):
has to have proper function, and so that's why the
builder in me is talking to you today to make
sure that things are working properly. But never, never, are
we going to leave design behind because a house truly
becomes a home when it visually and emotionally begins to
express and amplify the best life of its user. And

(14:44):
so we will never lose perspective on that. Here in
the program, we are not just a midster fix it show.
Here we are all about designing and building beautiful homes.
And I'm here to help you with both. It is
middle of the show, and so I'm laying aside our
our flood leaks and the drainage issues in order to

(15:06):
take your calls. And we've got calls on the board.
By the way. The number to reach me eight three
to three two ask Dean A three to three, the
numeral two ask Dean eight three to three to ask Dean.
It's just that simple. You can call me about anything
that's going on with your home, anything, design, construction, DIY,
whatever the case may be. When it comes to your calls,

(15:26):
you set the agenda. And speaking of setting the agenda,
I would like to speak to Bruce. Hey, Bruce, welcome home.

Speaker 2 (15:36):
Yeah, Hi Dean, thanks for taking the call. I'm on
speaker phone. Is that okay?

Speaker 1 (15:41):
Ah, you're sounding okay so far. I may have you
go off if it starts to sound weird, but you
sound fine right now.

Speaker 2 (15:48):
Well, thank you. My question is we would like to
reduce noise from a lower floor to an upper floor.
The upper floor is a kid turning dining, low floor
bedrooms with young people sleeping in the bedrooms, and we
have two or twelve floor joys sixteen on center the

(16:10):
flooring upstairs in the kitchen dining room is TNG solid wood,
and pull that out and do it new because we're
redesigning the kitchen. So with light and tips. You did
a great show several weeks ago about noise reduction and

(16:30):
acoustics and things like that when I was driving, so
I just didn't have time to make notes, so I
just wanted to call in your professional experience what you
might recommend.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
Gotcha? Gotcha? Okay? How big is the floor air by
the way, just square footage of the house. I don't
know if it's evenly stacked one in two floors, But
how big is the ceiling areas or the floor areas
in question that you're trying to silence.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
We're looking at let's see about twenty eight by twenty two,
so roughly six hundred square feet okay, so.

Speaker 1 (17:12):
Not an inordinately large area. Okay, So here's the thing.
Let's see if I can quickly in four minutes give
you a primer on noise reduction. Noise reduction or soundproofing
as we call it, is a layered game. I am

(17:33):
so looking forward to the day when I can come
on the air here and tell everybody guess what they
did it. They invented a micro thin piece of material
that if you put this up blocks all sound from
one side to the other, complete sound insulation, and we're done.
That'll be great, And probably one day somebody will figure

(17:53):
that out, but not now. Right now, what we have
is a at best, a la approach. The studio that
I'm sitting in right now has to take a layered
approach in order to reach the amount of soundproofing and
noise reduction necessary in order to control everything that you're
hearing as we go on the air and keep it

(18:15):
isolated from all the busyness that's going on outside the studio. Right.
So it's a layered approach, so there are no absolute solves,
just so everybody knows. And floor material upstairs to downstairs
is particularly problematic because it's the same material that's being
walked on upstairs that's transmitting that sound, that energy, and

(18:39):
remember sound is energy, transmitting it down through those two
x twelve floor joists and into the dry wall down below.
Now here's the thing. There's no stopping that, the fact
that energy will travel through that piece of wood when
somebody steps on it up above. Okay, somebody steps on
the hardwood that goes to the plywood sheathing underneath it.

(19:03):
That energy passes directly into the floor joisse. That floor
choice passes that energy directly into the dry wall, which
is a sounding membrane, and then the kids are hearing it,
you know, in their rooms. However, however, energy moves through
those solid materials, especially wood, at a much slower and
a less energetic state than it does through air. Okay,

(19:27):
And the biggest issue with hardwood floors upstairs and you know,
sound resonant chain bedrooms downstairs is the fact that there's
air in between the joists. That sixteen on center floor
Joise means that there's a fourteen and three eighths wide
cavity full of air by eleven and a half for

(19:49):
every foot down below. So the air is the largest
resonant chamber that you could deal with if you really
really wanted to deaden the amount of sound. I say deaden,
not eliminate, but deaden the amount of sound so in
each bedroom in question, as opposed to approaching this from

(20:11):
up top, if you've got some budget set aside, this
is what I suggest, And people think this is a
radical concept, but think about this. Putting up drywall is
really of all the things and all the materials that
go on in a house on the less expensive side
of things. Okay, it seems like a big mess, and

(20:31):
it can be a big hassle. But here is what
I would recommend. If you want the maximum amount of
sound dampening, you will remove the dry wall lid from
the bedrooms that are experiencing this sound. You'll remove the
drywall completely, so we've got bare exposed studs, and we
will insulate each one of those floor joist bays fully

(20:54):
with rock wool sound insulation. And that's not rare stuff
these days. Rock wool sound insulation is sitting on the
shelves at home depot and lows right now. The inside
of a home, the interior walls and the interior floors
are not required by code to be insulated. Sound wasn't

(21:16):
an issue is not an issue in the building code.
The building code is concerned with thermal insulation. That means
the exterior envelope of the house has to be insulated
the outside walls, the ceiling of the of the roofline,
and so on, but not the interior floors and not
the interior walls. But filling those joyst bays with insulation,

(21:38):
which again is not incredibly expensive when it comes to
the overall scheme of a remodel, and then replacing the
lids on those bedroom ceilings. And if you really wanted
to go the extra mile, you could use a sound
deadening drywall, which is two for a half inch of drywalls,
two layers of quarter inch drywall that are sandwiching together

(22:02):
with a gelatinous kind of nylon or vinyl film in between.
That causes a break in energy transmission. So if you
were to do that to those bedrooms, I'm going to say,
just shooting from the hip, that you're going to reduce
the amount of noise transmission from upstairs into those bedrooms

(22:22):
by eighty plus percent, and that will be a huge victory.
It'll be a big victory, and honestly, it's the least
expensive way to get the most out of that situation. Bruce,
there are other tips and tricks that we could do,
but they'd be band aids. So I just went right
for the jugular with you, so you understand what will

(22:45):
really make the biggest difference. All Right, more of your
calls when we return your home with Dean Sharp.

Speaker 3 (22:51):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.

Speaker 1 (22:56):
Here to remind you every home deserves great design. Every
every home can have it. Every home including that Yeah,
that tracked home that you live in, that by definition,
was not designed for you or anyone for that matter,
just laid out and it appears in multiple angles, multiple positions,

(23:16):
throughout the track that you live in, throughout the neighborhood
that you live in. Sometimes it's flipped, Sometimes it's pointing
north south east west. Sometimes it's sitting on a piece
of property where you've got elbow room to the left
and right at the end of a cul de sac.
Sometimes you're soldiered in five feet on each side next
to other neighbors. That's a tracked home. That is the
way that they are typically put together. And yet even

(23:41):
that home, especially that home, if we look at it
the right way, if we ask it the fundamental design questions,
and you are willing to step up and say, you
know what, it's time for this house to start being
my house in my way on this property. Yeah, that
home can have great design. Great design, all right. We're

(24:02):
talking about after the storm issues, whether there was drainage
issues on the property, or gutter issues or roof issues.
We've been talking about that, but middle of the show.
Right now, I'm taking calls, and I can take calls
on any topic whatsoever, and then we will return to
that conversation at the top of the hour. Okay, and
right now, though, let's continue with calls. I want to

(24:24):
talk to Marie. Hey, Marie, welcome home.

Speaker 5 (24:28):
Oh here, I am hi.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
How are you here?

Speaker 4 (24:30):
You are?

Speaker 5 (24:31):
I call? This is a quick question here here in
North County and San Diego, and we have a two
story home built about I guess about thirty years ago
and stucco Tyler Riff and we had the flashing replaced
last November. You know, it gets rusting everything up here.
We're coastal, and I'm just wondering. I don't know anything

(24:53):
about building materials, but this flashing was is now kind
of rusting, and I don't think that's should be like
that after a year. You know, it was galvanized, and
I'm not sure what galvanized means, but I thought galvanized
means anti rust and it was primed and painted, so
I'm noticing a little bit of rust now, Is that right?

(25:15):
Kind of concerned about that.

Speaker 1 (25:17):
You know, it's not right.

Speaker 2 (25:19):
We don't we don't have gutter. We don't. We don't
have gutters.

Speaker 4 (25:22):
You know.

Speaker 1 (25:25):
You were talking about specifically.

Speaker 5 (25:28):
Oh, I'm sorry. Flashing is used for, I think to
draw the rain if it rains down, am I right?
Under tile? Is that correct? Well?

Speaker 1 (25:39):
Flashing is designed to, uh to trim out the end
of or the edges of your flat roof plane to
any time it makes a turn from that horizontal position
from that flat plane. So let's say the flat plane
runs into a you know, a penetration like a like
a roof event that's coming through that flashing, right, the

(26:01):
transitions it from that uh, that horizontal to the vertical
or at the edge of your roof, the edge of
metal on the edge of your roof when they when
we finally reached the out you know, the bottom edge
of the roof. It's a piece of flashing that transitions
and drops that water off the edge of the roof
or you know things like that. So it's a it's
basically when the flat roofplane change has to change direction

(26:22):
because of something, uh that we use flashings and we'll
use flashing sometimes in the valleys of a roof where
two roof planes come together and make that little low
end seame. So what flashing specifically?

Speaker 2 (26:37):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (26:37):
Did it is starting to rust out real quick?

Speaker 5 (26:42):
Oh, it's kind of like on this side. I just
noticed on the front now where we're coastal here, you know,
we're an infinitis. So I think everything rusts here. But
I think if it's galvanized this, I mean it should
not rust for a few years, you know, if it's
painted and kind of concern.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
Yeah, that's the thing. So galvanized flashings are my least
favorite flashings. I'm sorry to tell you that after the fact. Uh,
they're they're my least favorite flashings. Galvanized simply means that
it is a metal that has had a galvanic coating
put on it. And uh and so as a result,

(27:23):
if they you know, we are we are waterproof. Yes,
galvanized you know, like you like a feed trough outside
is galvanized metal. However, any crack in the galvanic coating,
and they tend to be fairly brittle, especially with age,
and they're they're notoriously attacked by coastal weather, heavy salt

(27:44):
content in the air, and so on. Any crack in
a galvanized coating exposes the non galvanic metal underneath and
rust can start, okay, And so number one, we like
to paint galvanized metal as quickly as possible, not leave
them fully exposed. And number two, I prefer edge metals

(28:05):
that are not galvanized, but that are powder coated from
the factory and whatever colors, because that kind of factory
powder coating, that's the kind of powder coating that's on
your car, okay, that's the kind of coatings that are
covering the metal sheets of your car. We would never
galvanize your car, okay, because just the movement of the

(28:28):
body and the flexing of the car panels would cause
that to crack and it would start rusting. So unfortunately,
it's not my preferred flashing material. I'd much rather have
a bonded powder coated material for flashings. Consider that. Let
me talk about this just for a couple of minutes.
On the other side of the break your Home with

(28:48):
Dean Sharp, the House Whisper. This has been Home with
Dean Sharp, the House Whisper. Tune into the live broadcast
on KFI AM six forty every Saturday morning from six
to eight Pacific time, and every Sunday morning from nine
to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the
iHeartRadio app