Leaks and Drainage Issues | Hour 3

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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. Every home,
every home has a path forward. Once you see it,
that is when everything changes. Trust me on this, and
I'm here to help you try and see it every
single week as well as simply take care of the
homes that we've got because they've got to work. They've

(00:22):
got to work roof leaks, gutter issues and the like,
drainage issues around the house. Because a lot of Southern
Californians are struggling with that right now. A lot of
people across the country are going to be struggling with
it as they do every year, every winter season that
rolls in. So that's where we're going on today. I
want to thank everybody who called in for the calls.

(00:43):
Great calls today, and I wanted to leave this one comment.
Our last caller had relatively new flashings installed about a
year ago, galvanized flashings in her home, and I didn't
want to be giving every roofer who was listening a
heart attack when I said that I prefer powder coated
bonderized flash over basic galvanized flashings. Galvanized flashings are tough.

(01:04):
They are tough. They are meant to last. However, anything
that breaks through that galvanic zinc coating gets right to
the very rustable steel below. And it has been my
experience that bonderized flashings, which by the way, don't have
to be silver, they can be any color you need
them to be for the kind of house that you've

(01:26):
got for the trim. But I've seen those powder coated
materials last much much longer than most galvanized flashings simply
be even though technically technically the surface is stronger, and
you could even make the argument that the zinc sacrificially

(01:47):
self seals, and that can be true as well, but
it lacks flexibility. At the end of the day, it
lacks flexibility, and so up there, exposed to heat and
cold and heat and cold, it can crack. And once
galvanized has cracked and exposes the metal below, that's when
things get vulnerable, and it can happen right off the bat.

(02:09):
Sometimes it never happens. I'm just saying. So it's a
perfectal preference of mine. I prefer bonderized on top of galvanized.
But that's the thing. Okay, it can be painted and
the rust can be stopped if it starts to happen. Okay,
it has to be treated carefully, so it's not the
end of the world. It's not like, oh, no, all

(02:30):
of our flashes are going to rust out. No, it
can be dealt with in its areas. But yeah, that's
the thing. Okay, let us return now to the conversation
about our homes after the rain. We've already talked about
how you track down a leak. I've talked about tips
and tricks for what I want to do in right now,

(02:53):
we've talked about how you know your roof needs replacing
or if your roof needs replacing. Let's get down on
the ground for a second before we go back to
the roof and talk gutters. I'd like to end with
gutters today, but let's get down to the ground. What
do we do with clogged or buried area drains? Okay,
area drains around the house, around the property. When they

(03:16):
clog up, they can become a major problem. And by
the way, I'm gonna just get on my soapbox here
as a designer and a builder and tell you this,
we as a people in America, notoriously, especially in cities Okay,
notoriously overpave and over hardescape our properties. Right. Therefore, we

(03:41):
end up relying upon area drains to take the water
and move it off our property, which, if you live
in southern California in terms of the overall environment, is
exactly one hundred and eighty degrees the opposite of what
we should be doing most of the time. I have
nothing against area drains, they are critical at moments, but

(04:05):
just understand, we should be allowing far more of the
rain water that hits our property to remain on our property,
not on the surface where it's flooding everything, but allowing
it to absorb in. So this is the builder and
the designer both telling you when it comes to hardescape
around your property, the ideal amount of hardscape is the

(04:27):
minimum amount of hardescape. So we track where cars have
to pull in and what driveway areas cars have to use,
and we keep the driveways that size and no larger,
no smaller, no larger. When it comes to moving around
your house in the backyard area, I want hardscape where

(04:49):
it counts, where furniture and people are standing and walking,
and I don't want it where it doesn't count. You
know which is a lot of it right up against
the side of the house, that huge patio of yours.
These are all areas where bit by bit, you know,
it's a game of inches and square footage, bit by bit,
we keep isolating the water that falls on our property

(05:12):
and allowing instead of allowing it to soak in and
water our own plants and trees and also become a
larger part of the aquafer for our neighborhood or our city,
or our region, we just grab it and we convey
it off the property via drains. They go out to
the curb. The curb drains flow into the storm drain,

(05:34):
and the storm drain pushes all of that fresh water
right out to the ocean, where it is of no
use to anyone. In southern California, trillions of gallons of
water every year are conveyed out to the ocean, water
that we could use for all sorts of practical purposes.
So that's just me, and I'm telling you this from

(05:55):
a design perspective. Hardscape does not a lovely backyard make Okay,
it is a component. It should not be the majority
of it. Now now that we can understand that and
understand that most of us are very dependent upon area
drains for our hardscape. We need to talk about what
happens if we're getting clogging or buried area drains that

(06:19):
aren't functioning properly. What are the steps that we should
take along the way to at least approach that area
that that subject and maybe improve the drainage so that
we don't have flooding up against the house. Why don't
we talk about that? Right on the other side your
Home with Dean Sharp, the house whisper.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI am six forty Here with.

Speaker 1 (06:42):
My buddy Tina, who just brought in a fresh cup
of coffee for herself and none for me. What do
you have to say for yourself?

Speaker 2 (06:53):
Do you like a cup of coffee?

Speaker 1 (06:58):
I would, I would love a cup of coffee, But
you just stay put. You're more valuable here than any
cup of coffee, babe. See see how I rolled that
one in so I didn't sound insensitive, even though I
really really would love a cup of coffee. All right,
we're talking about what we do with the house after

(07:18):
the rain, drainage issues, roof stuff, leaks, gutter issues. I'm
gonna get to gutters in just a couple of minutes here,
but I want to finish up this idea of our
area drains. First of all, you need to map out
your drain system. If you do not understand the area
drain system, you don't know understand what connects to what
and what goes where. You need to understand it, okay.

(07:41):
And so whether that is opening up the drains, taking
the actual grates off the drains, putting a hose in
the furthest drain away from where you suspect it might
be running, and then going to one of the other
drains closer to the street and looking down through that grate,
or take off the grades and see if you can
see the water running there. In other words, map out

(08:03):
the drain system the worst case scenario. Hire a company
to come out and map it out for you. That'll
cost you a couple three hundred dollars, but it's well
worth the understanding and the knowledge. And also get them scoped.
Make sure we don't have root intrusion in there, make
sure that they're clear, make sure that they're functioning properly
in that regard too. Okay, So map out the drain

(08:26):
system you got to know what you're working with. That's
first thing. You might want to scope it for slope,
for obstructions, for damage. Right. You may in some cases
just need to alter the drain head in order to
get a drain functioning. Again, Now what do I mean
by that, Well, there are drains that have been placed,
and I hate these kinds of drains, by the way,

(08:46):
I really do. They're builder specials. Really, these are drains
that are like in planting beds, right that they're designed
to keep planting beds from overflowing, or they're maybe they're
in hard scape, but they're right next to an area
that gets it's a lot of leaf fall from trees
and stuff. Flat drains that are just above the surface
of the soil, and flat grates that are you know,

(09:09):
embedded into the concrete. I get it. Of course we
want it as flat, but not if it's not working.
And the problem is a flat drain, one big old
sycamore leaf that's wet and soggy can cover over and
seal off a drain. And now that drain is not
working anymore, and now we've got you know, compounding issues

(09:29):
and problems. Now it may be the case that you
keep that great flat through the summer in spring months
when big rain is not an issue, okay, for convenience,
But it may be the case that you should have
on hand some storm drains, some storm grates, and what

(09:49):
the storm grate would be would be the domed version
of a grate. There. Now it's trippable, right because it's
sticking up. But because it sticks up, it means that
leaves and debris can't clog it, can't cover it and
seal it over. So during the storm, when you're not
interested in walking out there anyway, you could pull out

(10:10):
the other grates, put them in the garage, pop these
in and say, okay, now we're storm ready because this
drain is not gonna get clogged up anymore. That's food
for thought, Okay, if possible, Instead of those drain heads
that are coming up in flower beds, I would rather
dig down a little bit, follow the pipe down until

(10:30):
we get to the horizontal run of the drain. Okay,
So in other words, take the riser out that the
riser is where nineties and it comes up through the soil,
and I would rather replace that superficial drain which is
always gonna get clagged you're just inviting debris to go
into it. I would rather replace that with a French drain,
a perforated drain that's under the ground, that's down in

(10:54):
the soil. Now it's not making direct contact with the soil.
You're gonna dig a little trench and you're gonna fill
part of that trench up with gravel, pea gravel or
full gravel, and then you're gonna lay this perforated drain
pipe in there, and then you're gonna sleave it, and
then you're gonna cover that with more gravel, and you're
gonna make a gravel envelope around this drain and then

(11:15):
soil on top. And what's gonna happen with all the
water that collects in that area is that it's gonna
soak in down through the soil. It's gonna hit that
void of the gravel. It's gonna run right into the
perforated drain and boom out it goes. It is a
very very precarious thing for your drainage system to be
dependent on these small three and four inch diameter openings

(11:37):
in the hardscape. It just is okay. So they have
to be in places where they are receiving the water efficiently,
not getting clogged, not getting blocked, and also they have
to work, and quite honestly, a lot of it. I mean,
I've got a very dear friend, one of my dearest friends,
and in a very very big, beautiful home, and the

(12:00):
exterior hardscape drainage system is kind of a joke at
his place. He's got seven or eight drains on one
side of his property and it's sizable, okay, collecting a
lot of water, all feeding into one trunk line, and
it's just not a good idea, not a good idea
at all. So drain systems are tricky. Yes, what can

(12:24):
you do about it? We can add more French drains.
I love the idea of French drains right next to
the foundation of a house. Okay, down again, buried and
in gravel. Because the whole purpose of a drainage system
ultimately is not to get the water out of your backyard.
It's to keep water away from the foundation of your house.

(12:46):
As for the rest of the water, let it go
where it needs to go, let it soak in wherever
it can soak in. You don't need to do the
heavy lift of taking every rain drop that falls on
your property and getting it out into the street. It
is a wasted effort, and it's an unhealthy effort in
terms of the overall environment for your yard. Okay, So

(13:09):
clearing those drains, adding multiple drain heads or French drains
wherever possible. And then of how I started reducing the hardscape. Okay,
if we're thinking about remodeling or redoing things in the backyard,
let's minimize the hard scape. I wanted on walk paths only.
I want it on areas just big enough for the

(13:30):
furniture and for people only. I want to cut it away,
expose more soil, let more water absorb down in. Plus
the beauty of minimizing hard scape, all right, there's nothing
lovely about walking in. There's nothing romantic about a tarmac. Okay,
in your backyard, nothing lovely about it at all, soft, green, burdened.

(13:54):
There are so many surfaces, so many materials that can
be used. All right, when we come back, let's talk
about your guys, all right, we'll do that right after this.
Your Home with Dean Sharp the house Whisper.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.

Speaker 1 (14:10):
The aftermath of the rains. You know, as a longfellow
once said that into each life, some rain must fall.
But he also in that same poem the rainy Day.
You should pull it out and read it. Just look
at online, find it. It's good, it's good. It really
doesn't have anything to do with rainy days. It has
to do with your life in general. I would strongly

(14:31):
encourage it. But in the same time that he said,
into each life, a little rain must paul, he wanted
to encourage us. He said, be still, be still, sad heart.
Behind the clouds, the sun is still shining, and that
is the truth, and we will see it yet again
here shortly southern California. You hang in there, buddy, I

(14:54):
don't know we really are. We're weather whimps. I love
I love inclement weather, just because we just don't get
enough it. But anyway, it's time to talk about gutters
and the builder Dean would like to invite the designer
Dean into this conversation. The builders had all morning to
talk about stuff, and I still got some things to

(15:14):
share with you. But the designer has a critical role
to play in this conversation because when it comes to
the gutters, on your house. You have minimize You've been
taught to minimize them, and as a result, they sag,
they fail, they give you problems all the time. And

(15:34):
I want that to stop. I want that to stop.
And one of the key areas to get that to stop, Dean,
would you like to comment on this, designer Dean, all right,
I will, thank you very much. The best way to
get your gutters to stop being neglected is to embrace
them from what they are, which is a significant potential

(15:58):
architectural detail for the front of a house. We I
don't know why. I think it's just because builders. Again,
it just goes back to the tracked home building process.
Builders have generally wanted to They've they've felt the need
to throw gutters on a house where necessary, and they
have tried to convince us, by their practices that the

(16:20):
best thing for a gutter to do is just go away.
And I strongly, strongly disagree with that premise. If you
live in a super contemporary home and our goal of
the design of your home is to hide the gutters,
then guess what We're gonna hide the gutter. We're not
gonna see them at all. But if gutters are appropriate

(16:43):
to the kind of architecture that your home is. There's
no reason to be embarrassed by them. In fact, I
go one hundred and eighty degrees the opposite direction. I
want you to jush up your house by accentuating your gutters. Now,
I don't want you to paint them knee on green
or anything, but I also want you to stop. By

(17:03):
and large, it doesn't apply to every situation, right, it's
not a law to guideline, but I want you to
stop painting them the same color as the facia and
the rest of the trim. They are a metal component
on the front of your house or on the perimeter
of your house, and to paint them and their down spouts,

(17:24):
by the way, all one strong, bold, metallic color. Quite
often we go for something that's in the kind of
the charcoal black, sort of like cast iron kind of tone.
Sometimes we go with the bronze. Sometimes, you know, on
our estate homes, we just simply put copper up everywhere

(17:46):
and just let it find its own patina. But here's
the idea. A gutter is essentially a crown molding mounted
to the outside of your house. Why would you want
to de emphasize it? Why would you want it to
go away? And why would you want to buy the
cheapest possible gutter so that that crown molding isn't standing
strong and proud and true and lasting just like everything

(18:09):
else on the outside of your house. So here's where
the designer in the builder shake hands again and say, yes,
the best gutter possible, and let's draw emphasis to it. Okay,
so great gutter designs. Gutters are highly visible, ignoring their
architectural value. Does a disservice to a house. Okay, don't

(18:30):
try to hide your gutters with camo paint. Now what
do I mean. I don't mean, like, you know, camouflage
colors like military camo. I mean you guys should know
what I mean. I mean, the gutter is painted the
color of the facierboard so that we don't draw attention
to it. And then as the downspout comes out of

(18:51):
the gutter and transitions at an angle over to the house,
then we draw a line and we change the paint color.
Now the gut, Now the downspout is painted the color
of the stucco or the sighting, and it goes down
the house because we're trying to get it to blend
in is if we're not gonna see it, why why
not emphasize that. Okay, I want you to take some

(19:15):
time go online and just search for decorative gutters. That's
all you have to do, decorative gutters. And here's what
you're gonna find if you do a search for decorative gutters.
It's not it's not that you're gonna find million dollar gutters,
but you're gonna find gutters that a designer has had
their hands, uh in choosing the esthetic of and you're

(19:37):
gonna find that most of them, by and large, are
painted a distinct color from the house because we want
to see them because they're cool. Now I'm gonna hand
this back over to the builder because when it comes
to a cool gutter, here's what we're looking for. We're
looking for good hangers. Okay, not nails, good good gutter hangers.

(19:58):
We're looking for a sufficiently thick gauge of well, these days,
it's chances are it's going to be aluminum for most houses.
And we're looking for a nice down spout, not the
cheap o building center stuff. And we're gonna need to
make a decision about what the difference is in gutters
and the builder will explain that to you right after

(20:19):
this break your Home with Dean Sharp the house Whisper.

Speaker 2 (20:23):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.

Speaker 1 (20:28):
There is never any phase of a house construction, even
in the most practical sense, in which design is not
a significant component or pre component to having that done. Okay,
let's face it, We've got to design a thing before
we build it. Once we build it, it's there and

(20:49):
it's harder to redesign it after the fact, but it
still can happen. It's important, It's very very important. Design
is what changes your life for the better. Construction is
what executes that design. And so part one of the
things that I'm all about here on the program is
bringing design into the major leagues. Not you know, I'm

(21:10):
taking it. I'm not taking it away, but I'm transporting
it from just the big house on the hill behind
the double gates down into mainstream American homes and mainstream
American homeowners. Because if we want this country of ours
to read residentially more beauty, if you want your city

(21:30):
to just be a shining example of beauty, you know,
the big houses are already doing their thing and They're
just a small, tiny fraction. It's all the neighborhoods that
have to raise their game. That's what I'm about with you,
trying to help you. We're talking about all these things
today after the storm, roof leaks, drainage issues, and now

(21:54):
I'm talking about gutters, and from a design perspective, I
want to again underscore the fact that I want you,
in no way, shape or form to be hiding your
gutters unless the architectural design of your house has specifically
been done to hide the gutters, and we can make
gutters utterly invisible. I'm not talking about just de emphasizing

(22:16):
your gutters. If we can see your gutters from the street,
if we can see your gutters from the yard, I
want you to seriously consider accentuating them along the way.
And that accentuation will also help you make the proper
choices in the quality of the gutter, because once it's
important to you, then you'll stop cheaping out along the way.
What does that mean? Okay, well, let's talk for a

(22:38):
second about gutters. You know, gutter facts. The materials that
gutters are made out of are vinyl aluminum. Some usually
this is commercial, some galvanized steel gutters and copper. Okay,
residential these days it's vinyl, aluminum or copper almost all
the way. Okay, copper reserved for you know, the exclusive

(23:00):
kind of high end stuff or if you are trying
to make a statement on your little home and you know,
I'm all for it. Okay, aluminum is is the is
the widest swath right and they're they're good quality gutters
given the right gauge, and we'll talk about that in
a second. And vinyl gutters they're least expensive, they're a

(23:20):
DIY option. They look the worst, they sag the most,
they leak the most off. And does Dean like vinyl gutters? No,
I don't. I really really don't like vinyl gutters. I
mean really from a construction or a design perspective, you
know what we're in twenty twenty six. One of our
goals is to up our game on our YouTube channel,

(23:43):
the house Whisper YouTube channel. We've let it go, I
should say, we haven't given a lot of attention. We
haven't let it go, and it's not like it's falling apart,
but we haven't given a lot of attention because we've
been busy we've been busy running a design business and
doing you know, a radio show in a podcast, but
we're going to be giving some more emphasis to it
in twenty six and so as we increase the number

(24:05):
of visual aids that we do on that YouTube channel
and videos, I guarantee you that, just for the heck
of it, I'm going to do a video on vinyl
gutters and that will be entitled how to properly install
a Vinyl gutter. And you'll see me purchasing a length
of vinyl gutter at the big box store for like
one dollar and bringing it home, that ten foot length

(24:27):
of gutter, and then throwing it in the trash, putting
on my tool bag and throwing it in the trash.
And that will be my entire how to video of
what to do with vinyl gutters, because that's how much
I dislike them they are. Anyway, let's just move on.
I'm just not going I don't want to waste the
last three minutes of the show talking about vinyl. I
want to talk about illuminum. UH Home Center aluminum gutter

(24:52):
stock rages in gauge from what's considered very very lightweight, okay,
point zero one to nine gauge or nineteen gauge. Sometimes
you can find twenty five gauge there nineteen and twenty
five gauge, both of which are lightweight. They're susceptible to warping,
even collapsing under accumulated snow. Now, I know, southern California

(25:15):
not a big snow issue unless you live in the mountains.
But still, you just got to understand. The gauge of
the gutter means a lot. Okay, contractors these days kind
of building industry standard uses a better gauge of gutter.
If if you have a gutter person come out to
your house, chances are they're going to be using twenty
seven gauge. You could ask them to use thirty two,

(25:35):
which in southern California would kind of represent my high
end gutter gauge. Thirty two gauge gutter copper varies. It
has a different to It has a sixteen gauge is
super heavy duty, twenty four gage is light. Twenty gauge
is the most common kind of medium duty. I'm a
huge fan of continuous gutters. Why because leaks occur at

(25:56):
seams and we want the minimal amount of seams and
a continuous gutter means a gutter service coming out to
your home, not with the gutters pre made, but with
big rolls of the right gauge of material on their trailer,
and they will pull those rolls of material off and
they will form the gutter right in front of your
house in place to length. So it means the entire

(26:19):
length of run up to about fifty five fifty six
feet or so can be done out of a single
piece with no seams, which means no leaks out of seams.
That is the best way to get this done. Okay,
So a good gauge twenty seven gauge or thirty two

(26:39):
point zero three to two or point zero two seven
and continuous aluminum gutters formed out in front of your house. Now,
the last thing to talk about is attachment, the connection.
The rule of thumb is to put gutter hangers about
every three feet. Okay, unless you live in an area
with a lot of snow or ice load than every
two feet is better. But that connection point, that is

(27:03):
the other thing that eventually leads to leaks and or
failure of the gutter. No nails, no, none of those
giant gutter nails. I got nothing wrong with nails. But
nails are not designed to hold something from falling out
of a wall. They're designed for their sheer value, and
they do just fine with that. But a nail into

(27:24):
a piece of facierboard or a roof rafter, all it's
gonna do is guarantee that somewhere down the line, the
wood around it expands and the nail gets loose, and
then the gutter underweight will start to sag. Okay, I
want a different kind of hanger, a better hanger, and
so this is the Now there's about twenty different styles
out there, So this is the conversation I want you

(27:45):
to have with your gutter people. Say, listen, I want
lasting hangers, screw in hangers at the absolute least, and
if not, straps that run up underneath your roofing material
a few inches around the roof hold those gutters in place.
And then solid down spouts, not ridged down spouts, but

(28:06):
solid smooth down spouts. That means heavy gauge metal on
the down spouts, because let's face it, that's the only
part of the gutter system that gets banged up and
abused by traffic. There you go, that's your gutter system guide.
That's everything that you need to know in dealing with
the aftermath of the rain. I hope today that these

(28:26):
things have helped you at least pointed you in the
right direction. You don't forget to look up decorative gutters
and find out just how much jush you can put
on your house by making a simple paint choice different
with your gutters. Ah, get out into this beautiful week
and get busy building yourself a beautiful life. We'll see
you next week. This has been Home with Dean Sharp,

(28:50):
the House Whisper. Tune into the Lie broadcast on KFI
AM six forty every Saturday morning from six to eight
Pacific time and every Sunday morning from nine to new
Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.