July 20, 2025 • 30 mins
Dean shares practical tips on protecting your home during the peak of fire season. As high temperatures, dry conditions, and summer winds create the perfect environment for fire danger, Dean explains how embers—carried by the wind—can enter homes through vents and other vulnerable spots. Learn how to prepare your home before fire strikes, why ember defense matters most, and what simple steps you can take now to stay safe.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp The
House Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Today on
the show, well, it's not my favorite topic, honestly, don't
don't turn away. It's just not my favorite topic. I mean, disasters, trouble,
you know, not the thing that I prefer to talk about.
(00:20):
But it's a reality. We are in midsummer, no doubt,
there's no arguing with it. The weather is declaring it,
the calendar says so. The Major League Baseball All Star Game,
the Midsummer Classic, was just this week. It's undeniable. It's midsummer.
It is warm, and it's getting warmer. The green hillside
(00:42):
grasses of spring here in southern California are now fully
gold and brown and getting drier by the day, which means, yeah,
we have turned yet another corner and are headed into
the next fire season and to get ready, there is
stuff to do, and there's stuff to do right now.
And so today on our program, this episode of The
(01:05):
House Whisper podcast and this episode of Home, we are
talking mid summer fire season prep. There is a lot
of talk about what to do or what you don't
have to do to get a home ready for the
next wildfire. Fire hardening is what it's referred to as.
There's a lot of myth, a lot of misinformation, a
lot of misunderstanding, a lot of fear, a lot of
(01:28):
general ignorance about how a fire threatens a structure, especially
how a fire threatens our homes. And I don't want
to put poo any efforts to protect a home against fire,
but I'm just saying there's a lot of well, let's say,
excessive and not necessarily hitting the mark ideas out there,
(01:51):
a lot of stuff floating around on social media, and we,
you and I, we need to talk rationally about fire
and what your home's vulnerabilities really are and aren't. And
it might surprise you, it will definitely inform you, and
I hope it equips and encourages you to take the
right steps, because that's what we're here to do every
(02:13):
single weekend. We're also going to be as we do
taking your calls. The call board is open right now,
a couple calls sitting there even now. When it comes
to calls in the mid hour of the show. You
set the agenda. I'm talking fire prep today. You can
call me about anything that's got you scratching your head
(02:35):
about your home design, construction, DIY architecture, inside, outside, hardescape, landscape,
all the scapes I got you. We'll put our heads together.
We will get it figured out. I promise you. Here's
the number you can call in. Now you can sit
in the queue, listen to the show while you wait.
Eight three three two ask Dean A three three the
(02:56):
numeral two ask Dean A three three to ask Dean.
Phone lines are open. We are waiting for your callsen.
We'll go to calls in just a little bit. Sitting
across the table from me, my better half, clearly just
look at us and you're like, yeah, that's true. That's
a true statement. Dean, my design partner, the co owner,
(03:20):
co founder of House Whisperer, and the Dean Whisperer really
my best friend in all the world.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Tina is here, Welcome home.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
There was like a little dramatic pause there as you
stared at me. You're just hoping that I would break
under that pause. Pressure, the pressure. Yeah, how you doing
the long pause? I'm doing well? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
What's the plan for today? What are we doing later?
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Possibly working in the chicken yard.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Yeah, is that are we sanding up the run?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Very possibly? Yeah, Livy one's in on it too.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
So she does Was she actually going to do the work?
Is she going to do work?
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Something? No, pie, keep the chickens busy.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
We've got chicken sand, which, by the way, for those
of you who raise chickens, there is no such thing
as chicken sand in the building industry. It's just a
size twelve silica sand. It's just number twelve silica sand.
Which why is that important? Because if you order chicken
sand on Amazon, you're gonna pay like forty dollars for
(04:23):
a fifty pound bag. When I can go down to
the builder supply and pay what I think I'm paying
ten ten dollars for one hundred pound bag, forty dollars
fifty pound bag, ten dollars one hundred pound bag. You
do the math, but you know it's it's a good
idea sometimes to realize things just get called what they
(04:45):
call what they get called. Anyway, all right, well, I
guess one hundred pound bags of chicken sand are in
my future for this relaxing Sunday afternoon. All right, let's
dive into it, shall we. I already kind of set
you up on this for our mid season fire prep.
The thing that I'm most concerned about is people not
(05:08):
understanding the components of your home and how much your
home is already fire hardened, because you know, this is
the time when everybody's saying. Insurance companies are saying, everybody's
got something to say about you need to do more,
do more, do more, do more. And you know I
would be part of that bandwagon too, because there are
things that everybody needs to do a little bit more of.
(05:31):
But I don't want to be redundant and I don't
want to waste your money. So here are the things
that I'm setting up. I'm setting these up to knock
them down so that you know where we're going. I
want to talk about fire retardant, or what we call
fireproof paint. Okay, on the outside of a house. Should
you paint the outside of your house with an intermssent
(05:51):
fire proof paint? The answer to that question is not
as simple as it sounds. And you will thank me
for it when you really lies that. You know, a
gallon of into mess and fireproof paint can run you
upwards of over one hundred dollars. And so me saying
you don't necessarily need to paint the outside of your
(06:12):
house with this paint. That should be good news to you.
But there are some things that I would like you
to paint with this paint selectively. So we're gonna understand
how fire, you know, relates to your home. There are
two things that we need to do. We need to
divide it into two phases, and then when we come
back from the break, we'll start addressing those. Essentially, fire
(06:35):
hardening should always be separated into these two phases. When
the fire is near, what you have prepped or when
the fire is near, and then what you have prepped
for when the flames are here. All right, So when
the fire is near, off in the distance, sometimes as
much as two or three miles away, and when the
(06:56):
flames actually, if the flames actually arrive at your home.
We will explain all of that and more. Plus your
calls today. I so appreciate you joining in on the show.
More great stuff on the way.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Hey follow us on social medium if you're finding the
show appealing to you, and I hope you do. We're
on all the usual suspects, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook x Home
with Dean, Home with Dean, same handle for them all.
We don't overdo social media, and we definitely don't bug you,
but there are things that we post that are important
(07:38):
and interesting and things that go beyond the content of
the show even And so you don't want to miss
out Home with Dean. Wherever your favorite social media platform is,
we are very likely there, unless it's something you know,
stupid or crazy and we're not there. But we're on
the good stuff, all right. Midsummer fire season prep before
(07:59):
the break, I set you up to think about in
this way, fire hardening should be separated into two phases
or two camps or two phases phases. I like the
phases when the fire is near and then when the
flames are actually here. Okay, now, why is it important
(08:24):
that there is a phase of fire hardening of a
home for when the fire is near. I cannot emphasize
this enough. It may actually, in reality be statistically the
most important phase for your home, and it's simply this reality.
(08:47):
Eighty percent of the homes that burn in a wildfire event.
I'm going to say this slowly so that you really
hear me, eighty percent of the homes that burn in
a wildfire event ignite before the fire line arrives anywhere
(09:10):
near the house. How is that possible? Very simply embers,
tiny little embers. Now, every time you've seen wildfire coverage,
you have seen, undoubted, especially at night, you have undoubtedly
seen this, especially in southern California. You've seen palm trees
(09:31):
burning and wind blowing, and off of that, with that
burning palm tree or that burning pine tree or whatever
it is, you see a cloud of Maybe you've called
them sparks in the past, but they are embers. They
are tiny little bits of particulate matter that are burning
red hot, and they are ultra light. They are very
(09:55):
very small, and they get caught in the wind and
they travel in the wind. How far well you know what?
That maximum limit is still evolving. It was just a
few years ago that we said embers could travel up
to a quarter of a mile and ignite another structure.
Now we changed that to a half a mile, then
(10:17):
it got changed to a mile. Now I think officially
most fire resources will tell you that embers can travel
up to and beyond two miles away from the site
of the fire. Now, there's a lot of ifs and
a lot of dependent situations there. Okay, but again Southern California,
(10:39):
Let's say a sizeable fire is nearby, So there's a
lot of material that's being consumed by the flames, and
as a result, there are a lot of embers being produced.
Add to that, Santa Ana wind conditions and hot, dry
weather combined, it is optimal for the winds to carry
(11:00):
a massive amount of embers for a very very long distance. Okay,
I'm not trying to overshoot it. I'm not telling you
if you live fifteen miles away from a fire, an
ember is going to ignite your home. That's just not true.
But we have evidence of up to a couple of
miles away. And you know what, if you measure from
where your home is to open space in southern California,
(11:24):
especially a couple of miles of away open space, probably
puts the vast majority of homes in Southern California on
the you could be hit with flying embers list. And
that's why it's so important. Okay, Now, what is an
ember going to do to your home? Okay? Well, there's
(11:48):
a very very specific process by which an ember ends
up igniting your home. And by the way, before I
jump to that, this is why when you're watching fire
coverage looking at the fire line in the hillside, you're
looking at the cowfire and local fire departments fighting the
fireline on the hillside, and helicopters are dropping and all
(12:09):
of this stuff is going on, and then suddenly there's
a report a home is burning in a nearby neighborhood,
and then another home, and then another home. This is embers.
This is the work of embers. The fire line can
still be in the on the hillside, and then suddenly
homes start igniting, and guess what that happened? What that
(12:30):
creates another fire line, another front. Okay, And then when
those homes are burning, when that agriculture is burning, when
those trees and landscape is burning, now it's a secondary
source of new embers. And this is how a wildfire
can popscotch its way through an entire community very very quickly,
(12:53):
and it makes coverage of the fire by the firefighting
resources that much more difficult because then they have to divide,
and they have to divide, and they have to divide
again their resources to deal with these kinds of things
in a perfect storm situation, much like what we had
earlier this year in the Altadena Eaten fire and the
(13:15):
Pacific Palisades fire. In a perfect storm condition, you have
dry weather, you have older homes that don't have ember
protection built into them. You have Santa Ana wins in
February January in February perfect storm conditions. Now you've heard
a lot of stuff in the news about, Oh, it's
(13:37):
because of this, because of that, and these people are
to blame, and it's the water pressure that none listen
Before any of that happens, and I'm not commenting on that,
Before any of that even becomes an issue, ignition has
to happen. Things have to be burning for there to
even be a response to it, good or bad or otherwise.
(14:01):
And my point is very simply this. We have learned this.
Cal Fire knows this, the State of California knows it.
Every fire fighting agency within the state of California and
now in the nation knows this. Eight out of ten
homes that burn in a wildfire event ignite before the
(14:21):
fire arrives. So this is why we're dividing fire hardening
into these phases. When we come back, we'll talk about
how you protect your home from those embers. It's not tough.
It's not tough at all, all right, So much more
to come.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
We are going to do it together, you and me.
We got it figured out today. Here's something that we're
not so much transforming your house today. I'm actually trying
to keep it from being transformed by fire into ashes.
Today we are doing our mid summer fire season prep
talking about all of these critical areas in regards to
(15:02):
fire and your home, very very super important, very important
super things. Is that a lot? That's a lot? Okay,
let's get back to it, shall we. I've been talking
about separating this conversation into two phases, when the fire
is near and when the flames are here and before
(15:25):
the break. I emphasized why it's so critical that we
deal with when the fire is near, and that's because
eighty percent of homes that burn in a wildfire event
ignite before the fire arrives. Eighty percent. Dean, is that
true of Palisades? Yes? Was that true of the Eaten fire? Yes?
(15:46):
Is it true of every wildfire event? Every single Was
it true of Paradise, California. Yes, just just keep asking me,
and I'm just going to keep saying yes, because we
figured it out. We know this now. Okay, it's embers
floating on the wind. Now, does that mean that only
twenty percent of the homes that burnt would have burnt
(16:08):
if everybody had ember proof their home? Well, I can't
guarantee it, but the statistics point strongly in that direction.
Strongly in that direction. Eight out of ten homes that
burnt in these recent fires could have potentially been saved.
That's most of the neighborhood. Most of the neighborhood. That
(16:33):
reduces all the questions and the issues of oh, the
water pressure was low because too many hybrants were open
to No, that saves most of the neighborhood. That's why
this is so important. Okay, So how do you protect
your home from embers floating through the air? Well, First
of all, we need to talk about why those embers
(16:55):
end up becoming a problem for you. Okay. The first
step is that the embers that are floating through the air,
they're they're hot, they have ignition capability, but it doesn't
mean that that they're going to burn everything, and that
they're just going to somehow bore their way through your
(17:16):
house and uh, find it inside and you know, catch
everything on fire. That's not how it works. How it
works is this, you have an attic, that attic by code,
has been vented a certain way. Most attics are vented
in such a way the attic vents themselves. You've got
low vents down around the eaves. Okay, if your vent
(17:36):
if your attic is vented optimally, and this is one
of those situations, by the way, if you don't have
good attic venting, you're actually safer from a from a fire.
Then if you know, if you do have good addict thing,
now you're spending a tremendous amount of money on heating
and air conditioning bills, and you've got other problems. But
when it comes to a fire, you're safer to have
(17:56):
terrible attic venting. Uh. But here's the situation. You got
these low attic vents, those are sitting around the eve level.
They are drawing cooler air into the attic. And then
you've got higher attic vents, maybe dormer vents or gable vents,
a big square rectangular thing on the end of your
gable roof up high hot air rises goes out those vents,
(18:17):
draws cooler air in from down below. Okay, no, it's
not cool. It doesn't make your addic cool in the summer.
It's just cooler. Okay, it's just that's the venting process.
So what happens is these embers, which are so light
and they are so susceptible to the breezes and the
movement of air. That's why they arrived at your home,
because they got carried on the wind. They're so light
(18:40):
that the process of lower vents actually having suction on
them suck embers directly into the attic space, and the
attic space then becomes an optimal a like a weber
kettle barbecue, an optimal place to nurture the combust that
those embers can create. Okay. So the number one way
(19:05):
that embers intrude into a home and ignite is also
the most dangerous way because you can ask any firefighter
out there, any firefighting agency, and they'll tell you attic fires.
What are we supposed to do with attic fires? How
do you get in and defend an attic fire? You know,
you cut a big hole in the roof, maybe or
(19:25):
maybe the fire burns through the roof and creates the
hole itself, but they are virtually indefensible, okay, until they
destroy a large portion of the home. So this is
the thing that we're after. Vents. The first line of
defense against embers getting into your home are vents. Now, yes,
(19:45):
we have a sponsor on this show, which is an
attic ember vent company. It is absolutely true. I am
not saying this to make this an hour long commercial
for Brand Guard Vents. However, I will tell you this.
I went out and got Brand Guard and brought them
onto the show, begged them to come onto the show
and be a partner with us because they happen to
(20:07):
make the finest ember proof vents that you can buy.
And that's not just for Southern California, that's just period.
So what is an ember proof vent. Well, it can
be a number of different things, but essentially it's a
vent that replaces and or retrofits on the back side
of your existing vents if you don't want to tear
up the house. But it's a vent material that has
(20:30):
a baffle built into it so the ember has to travel,
it can't just get sucked straight into the attic, it
has to travel through a little maze. Essentially, airflow still
doesn't get occluded with a good vent, but the path
of the ember does get all messed up, so the
ember has to hit and make contact and drop and
(20:51):
it doesn't make it into the attic. And believe me,
they test these things, the ones that are on the
Cowfire approved list, which brand Guard is, They like cannons
of embers straight at these vents to see what will
make it through. So your normal attic vent mesh it's
not enough. Now you can retrofit your own, like down
(21:12):
to eighth inch that helps. Embers can still get through that.
So it's not just the size of the mesh we
used to think that was the case. It's also the
baffling effect. So like a Brand Guard vent, for instance,
not only does it have baffles built into it so
the ambers can't get in, but and we'll talk about
this later, when the fire actually arrives, if there is
(21:32):
substantial temperature from flames at the base of the wall,
a brand Guard vent has what's called an into messent
filler in it. Into mensine simply means that when it
experiences high heat, it swells and those vents literally swell
shut and they just self close and nothing can get
(21:54):
in at that point, including air, including flames and all
of that kind of stuff. So there you go. Ember
Proof vents. You hear me talk about them all the time.
I'm usually like reading a brand Guard commercial. But the
fact of the matter is, my friend, that you know,
get ember Proof vns. If you're not gonna get Brand Guard,
and I don't know why you wouldn't, but get Ember
provens on your home. You only have to do it
(22:16):
one time. It's a one time, one and done, lifetime
retrofit for your home, and it will make all the difference.
How much difference. Eight out of ten homes that burn
burn because of that. And so think about for that investment,
what you have changed so radically about your home? All Right?
I got so much more to come.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on Demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Always always, when it comes to transforming your home, what
is the secret? Design? Design matters most? I'm talking about
talking about proofee design. I'm talking that everything that goes
into our homes a permanent element, a permanent approach to
our home. We have to design it and design it well,
whether it's architecture or decor, or whether we are seriously
(23:05):
thinking about fire hardening the home, and we design the
fire hardening process, which is what we're talking about today.
It is our midsummer fire season prep. We are at
midsummer right now. We've turned the corner. The hills are
getting drier, the weather's getting warmer by the day, and
it won't be long before the winds kick up, and
we find ourselves right in the middle of yet another
(23:27):
fire season here in southern California. And you know what,
here's the thing, even if you're listening from outside the state,
even if you're listening from I don't know. One of
our callers called in from Minnesota yesterday. The fact of
the matter is the way that fire behaves once a
structure or an area of vegetation is burning, is the
same embers are created, they blow through the wind, they
(23:49):
affect other structures to their point of vulnerability. And that's
what I'm trying to clear up for you today. We're
having a rational conversation about how a home really is
vulnerable and how it's not. Okay, So I divided it
into two categories because I think it's easier for people
to think about when the fire is near and the
(24:10):
things we do about that, and when the flames actually
are here when they arrive. Thank God forbid, we're still
on that when the fire is near. Oh and by
the way, uh, I'm all over the place today, I know,
but understand. Coming up next hour after the break, we're
going to the phones. The number to reach me eight
three three two. Ask Dean A three three the number two.
(24:33):
Ask Dean eight three three two. Ask Dean. Whatever's got
you scratching your head about your home. We will be
going to the phones right after the next break, So
give us a call and jump into the queue. Okay,
all right, Uh, we're talking about when the fire is near,
and we've talked about ember proof vents, protecting, retrofitting, changing
(24:57):
out the vents on your house. Do you need to Yeah,
if you don't have a brand new built home, brand
new built in southern California under current codes. And by
the way, this is not even going to be an
absolute code requirement in Southern California until January first of
next year. January first, twenty twenty six, all major remodels
in all new builds in California will include ember resistant events.
(25:20):
That's how serious an issue this is. It's not required
on your house, you know, in your existing house, because
you know nobody's twisting your arm to do this. But
I'll tell you this, there's going to come a time
very shortly when your insurance company hits you up again
and says, guess what you want to keep your fire insurance,
You're gonna have to put mber proof vents on your home. Okay,
(25:41):
it's that important. Think of it this way. You got
a boat. It could be a big, beautiful boat. It's
got strong hull, it's got a great top deck. It
is a fantastic, seaworthy boat. Except it has twelve holes
in it. What are you going to do? Plug the holes.
Don't repaint the boat, plug the holes. So your home.
(26:06):
Most homes in southern California, by the way, are pretty
fire hardened. Now that's going to shock you to hear
me say that, because everybody else out there is like saying,
oh my gosh, your home is so vulnerable. It needs
to change so much. Yeah, here's the thing. Let's talk
about those embers we're still in the when the fire
(26:27):
is near Dean, what about embers just landing on my roof,
and my roof burns. Okay, first thing you got to
understand about that. Have very good friend who has been
with cow fire for decades. He likes to put it
this way. Homes burn up. Homes don't burn down. Right,
(26:49):
Homes burn up, not down, meaning that flames go upward.
They burn upward, they cast their heat upward. Okay, if
you live in southern California, in fact, you've lived virtually
anywhere if you don't have a wood shake shingle roof,
which there are virtually none left in southern California or
(27:11):
the state of California in general. But if you've got
an asphalt composite roof, the vast majority of homes have
that kind of a roof, an asphalt shingle composite roof
that is a class A fire rated roof, meaning an
ember a shower of embers just dropping on top of
that roof is going to do virtually zero things to
(27:32):
that roof. Okay, it does not catch it on fire
and burn down. When you see because you say, well, Dean,
what about all these shots on the news where I
just see people's roofs burning and burning and burning. Yeah,
they're burning from the inside out from the attic up
through the roof rafters, and out of the roofing material,
(27:52):
not from the roofing material down. Okay, an asphalt shingled roof,
any asphalt shingled roof that was installed anytime in the
last forty years in Southern California has a Class A
fire rating period. Stucco on the outside of a home,
(28:13):
no matter when it was put on. Stucco in good
condition is a Class A fire rated material. It's one
inch thick concrete on the outside of your home. I
hear people all the time, Well, you know what, we
should probably tear down our house and build a concrete
wall house. Well, you have concrete on the outside of
your house. If you have a stucco house, which most
(28:36):
Southern Californians do, Class A fire rated the walls of
your house. Now, if you've got wood shingle on your house,
you got to take a serious look at this. You
are the candidate for paying the exorbitant amount of money
to have fire retardant paint on the entire house. You
are that candidate. Okay, But if you have a stucco
home or a stone home, or if you have new
(29:00):
modern cement embedded or cement fiberboard siding that looks like
shake but is actually cement based. You have a Class
A fire rated exterior. So the walls are not the problem.
The roof is not the problem. Where is the problem
the vents. We've already discussed that they're holes in the hull,
(29:24):
the eaves of your home, the eaves of the roof,
not the roof top itself, not the top coating, the
underneath part of the roof that's hanging out over the
edge of the house. Those eaves are if they're not
stuccoed in, boxed in with stucco, which most aren't, and
if they are good for you. But if they aren't,
(29:45):
then those eaves are vulnerable and the windows are vulnerable.
And we're going to talk about all of this when
we return to this subject. But right now, after the break,
we're going to the phones. How's that sound sounds good
to me? Eight three three two, Ask Dean eight three
three the numeral two, Ask Dean give me a call.
We'll take your calls up next your home with Dean Sharp,
(30:08):
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 iHeart Radio
app
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp The
House Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Today on
the show, well, it's not my favorite topic, honestly, don't
don't turn away. It's just not my favorite topic. I mean, disasters, trouble,
you know, not the thing that I prefer to talk about.
(00:20):
But it's a reality. We are in midsummer, no doubt,
there's no arguing with it. The weather is declaring it,
the calendar says so. The Major League Baseball All Star Game,
the Midsummer Classic, was just this week. It's undeniable. It's midsummer.
It is warm, and it's getting warmer. The green hillside
(00:42):
grasses of spring here in southern California are now fully
gold and brown and getting drier by the day, which means, yeah,
we have turned yet another corner and are headed into
the next fire season and to get ready, there is
stuff to do, and there's stuff to do right now.
And so today on our program, this episode of The
(01:05):
House Whisper podcast and this episode of Home, we are
talking mid summer fire season prep. There is a lot
of talk about what to do or what you don't
have to do to get a home ready for the
next wildfire. Fire hardening is what it's referred to as.
There's a lot of myth, a lot of misinformation, a
lot of misunderstanding, a lot of fear, a lot of
(01:28):
general ignorance about how a fire threatens a structure, especially
how a fire threatens our homes. And I don't want
to put poo any efforts to protect a home against fire,
but I'm just saying there's a lot of well, let's say,
excessive and not necessarily hitting the mark ideas out there,
(01:51):
a lot of stuff floating around on social media, and we,
you and I, we need to talk rationally about fire
and what your home's vulnerabilities really are and aren't. And
it might surprise you, it will definitely inform you, and
I hope it equips and encourages you to take the
right steps, because that's what we're here to do every
(02:13):
single weekend. We're also going to be as we do
taking your calls. The call board is open right now,
a couple calls sitting there even now. When it comes
to calls in the mid hour of the show. You
set the agenda. I'm talking fire prep today. You can
call me about anything that's got you scratching your head
(02:35):
about your home design, construction, DIY architecture, inside, outside, hardescape, landscape,
all the scapes I got you. We'll put our heads together.
We will get it figured out. I promise you. Here's
the number you can call in. Now you can sit
in the queue, listen to the show while you wait.
Eight three three two ask Dean A three three the
(02:56):
numeral two ask Dean A three three to ask Dean.
Phone lines are open. We are waiting for your callsen.
We'll go to calls in just a little bit. Sitting
across the table from me, my better half, clearly just
look at us and you're like, yeah, that's true. That's
a true statement. Dean, my design partner, the co owner,
(03:20):
co founder of House Whisperer, and the Dean Whisperer really
my best friend in all the world.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Tina is here, Welcome home.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
There was like a little dramatic pause there as you
stared at me. You're just hoping that I would break
under that pause. Pressure, the pressure. Yeah, how you doing
the long pause? I'm doing well? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
What's the plan for today? What are we doing later?
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Possibly working in the chicken yard.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Yeah, is that are we sanding up the run?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Very possibly? Yeah, Livy one's in on it too.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
So she does Was she actually going to do the work?
Is she going to do work?
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Something? No, pie, keep the chickens busy.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
We've got chicken sand, which, by the way, for those
of you who raise chickens, there is no such thing
as chicken sand in the building industry. It's just a
size twelve silica sand. It's just number twelve silica sand.
Which why is that important? Because if you order chicken
sand on Amazon, you're gonna pay like forty dollars for
(04:23):
a fifty pound bag. When I can go down to
the builder supply and pay what I think I'm paying
ten ten dollars for one hundred pound bag, forty dollars
fifty pound bag, ten dollars one hundred pound bag. You
do the math, but you know it's it's a good
idea sometimes to realize things just get called what they
(04:45):
call what they get called. Anyway, all right, well, I
guess one hundred pound bags of chicken sand are in
my future for this relaxing Sunday afternoon. All right, let's
dive into it, shall we. I already kind of set
you up on this for our mid season fire prep.
The thing that I'm most concerned about is people not
(05:08):
understanding the components of your home and how much your
home is already fire hardened, because you know, this is
the time when everybody's saying. Insurance companies are saying, everybody's
got something to say about you need to do more,
do more, do more, do more. And you know I
would be part of that bandwagon too, because there are
things that everybody needs to do a little bit more of.
(05:31):
But I don't want to be redundant and I don't
want to waste your money. So here are the things
that I'm setting up. I'm setting these up to knock
them down so that you know where we're going. I
want to talk about fire retardant, or what we call
fireproof paint. Okay, on the outside of a house. Should
you paint the outside of your house with an intermssent
(05:51):
fire proof paint? The answer to that question is not
as simple as it sounds. And you will thank me
for it when you really lies that. You know, a
gallon of into mess and fireproof paint can run you
upwards of over one hundred dollars. And so me saying
you don't necessarily need to paint the outside of your
(06:12):
house with this paint. That should be good news to you.
But there are some things that I would like you
to paint with this paint selectively. So we're gonna understand
how fire, you know, relates to your home. There are
two things that we need to do. We need to
divide it into two phases, and then when we come
back from the break, we'll start addressing those. Essentially, fire
(06:35):
hardening should always be separated into these two phases. When
the fire is near, what you have prepped or when
the fire is near, and then what you have prepped
for when the flames are here. All right, So when
the fire is near, off in the distance, sometimes as
much as two or three miles away, and when the
(06:56):
flames actually, if the flames actually arrive at your home.
We will explain all of that and more. Plus your
calls today. I so appreciate you joining in on the show.
More great stuff on the way.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Hey follow us on social medium if you're finding the
show appealing to you, and I hope you do. We're
on all the usual suspects, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook x Home
with Dean, Home with Dean, same handle for them all.
We don't overdo social media, and we definitely don't bug you,
but there are things that we post that are important
(07:38):
and interesting and things that go beyond the content of
the show even And so you don't want to miss
out Home with Dean. Wherever your favorite social media platform is,
we are very likely there, unless it's something you know,
stupid or crazy and we're not there. But we're on
the good stuff, all right. Midsummer fire season prep before
(07:59):
the break, I set you up to think about in
this way, fire hardening should be separated into two phases
or two camps or two phases phases. I like the
phases when the fire is near and then when the
flames are actually here. Okay, now, why is it important
(08:24):
that there is a phase of fire hardening of a
home for when the fire is near. I cannot emphasize
this enough. It may actually, in reality be statistically the
most important phase for your home, and it's simply this reality.
(08:47):
Eighty percent of the homes that burn in a wildfire event.
I'm going to say this slowly so that you really
hear me, eighty percent of the homes that burn in
a wildfire event ignite before the fire line arrives anywhere
(09:10):
near the house. How is that possible? Very simply embers,
tiny little embers. Now, every time you've seen wildfire coverage,
you have seen, undoubted, especially at night, you have undoubtedly
seen this, especially in southern California. You've seen palm trees
(09:31):
burning and wind blowing, and off of that, with that
burning palm tree or that burning pine tree or whatever
it is, you see a cloud of Maybe you've called
them sparks in the past, but they are embers. They
are tiny little bits of particulate matter that are burning
red hot, and they are ultra light. They are very
(09:55):
very small, and they get caught in the wind and
they travel in the wind. How far well you know what?
That maximum limit is still evolving. It was just a
few years ago that we said embers could travel up
to a quarter of a mile and ignite another structure.
Now we changed that to a half a mile, then
(10:17):
it got changed to a mile. Now I think officially
most fire resources will tell you that embers can travel
up to and beyond two miles away from the site
of the fire. Now, there's a lot of ifs and
a lot of dependent situations there. Okay, but again Southern California,
(10:39):
Let's say a sizeable fire is nearby, So there's a
lot of material that's being consumed by the flames, and
as a result, there are a lot of embers being produced.
Add to that, Santa Ana wind conditions and hot, dry
weather combined, it is optimal for the winds to carry
(11:00):
a massive amount of embers for a very very long distance. Okay,
I'm not trying to overshoot it. I'm not telling you
if you live fifteen miles away from a fire, an
ember is going to ignite your home. That's just not true.
But we have evidence of up to a couple of
miles away. And you know what, if you measure from
where your home is to open space in southern California,
(11:24):
especially a couple of miles of away open space, probably
puts the vast majority of homes in Southern California on
the you could be hit with flying embers list. And
that's why it's so important. Okay, Now, what is an
ember going to do to your home? Okay? Well, there's
(11:48):
a very very specific process by which an ember ends
up igniting your home. And by the way, before I
jump to that, this is why when you're watching fire
coverage looking at the fire line in the hillside, you're
looking at the cowfire and local fire departments fighting the
fireline on the hillside, and helicopters are dropping and all
(12:09):
of this stuff is going on, and then suddenly there's
a report a home is burning in a nearby neighborhood,
and then another home, and then another home. This is embers.
This is the work of embers. The fire line can
still be in the on the hillside, and then suddenly
homes start igniting, and guess what that happened? What that
(12:30):
creates another fire line, another front. Okay, And then when
those homes are burning, when that agriculture is burning, when
those trees and landscape is burning, now it's a secondary
source of new embers. And this is how a wildfire
can popscotch its way through an entire community very very quickly,
(12:53):
and it makes coverage of the fire by the firefighting
resources that much more difficult because then they have to divide,
and they have to divide, and they have to divide
again their resources to deal with these kinds of things
in a perfect storm situation, much like what we had
earlier this year in the Altadena Eaten fire and the
(13:15):
Pacific Palisades fire. In a perfect storm condition, you have
dry weather, you have older homes that don't have ember
protection built into them. You have Santa Ana wins in
February January in February perfect storm conditions. Now you've heard
a lot of stuff in the news about, Oh, it's
(13:37):
because of this, because of that, and these people are
to blame, and it's the water pressure that none listen
Before any of that happens, and I'm not commenting on that,
Before any of that even becomes an issue, ignition has
to happen. Things have to be burning for there to
even be a response to it, good or bad or otherwise.
(14:01):
And my point is very simply this. We have learned this.
Cal Fire knows this, the State of California knows it.
Every fire fighting agency within the state of California and
now in the nation knows this. Eight out of ten
homes that burn in a wildfire event ignite before the
(14:21):
fire arrives. So this is why we're dividing fire hardening
into these phases. When we come back, we'll talk about
how you protect your home from those embers. It's not tough.
It's not tough at all, all right, So much more
to come.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
We are going to do it together, you and me.
We got it figured out today. Here's something that we're
not so much transforming your house today. I'm actually trying
to keep it from being transformed by fire into ashes.
Today we are doing our mid summer fire season prep
talking about all of these critical areas in regards to
(15:02):
fire and your home, very very super important, very important
super things. Is that a lot? That's a lot? Okay,
let's get back to it, shall we. I've been talking
about separating this conversation into two phases, when the fire
is near and when the flames are here and before
(15:25):
the break. I emphasized why it's so critical that we
deal with when the fire is near, and that's because
eighty percent of homes that burn in a wildfire event
ignite before the fire arrives. Eighty percent. Dean, is that
true of Palisades? Yes? Was that true of the Eaten fire? Yes?
(15:46):
Is it true of every wildfire event? Every single Was
it true of Paradise, California. Yes, just just keep asking me,
and I'm just going to keep saying yes, because we
figured it out. We know this now. Okay, it's embers
floating on the wind. Now, does that mean that only
twenty percent of the homes that burnt would have burnt
(16:08):
if everybody had ember proof their home? Well, I can't
guarantee it, but the statistics point strongly in that direction.
Strongly in that direction. Eight out of ten homes that
burnt in these recent fires could have potentially been saved.
That's most of the neighborhood. Most of the neighborhood. That
(16:33):
reduces all the questions and the issues of oh, the
water pressure was low because too many hybrants were open
to No, that saves most of the neighborhood. That's why
this is so important. Okay, So how do you protect
your home from embers floating through the air? Well, First
of all, we need to talk about why those embers
(16:55):
end up becoming a problem for you. Okay. The first
step is that the embers that are floating through the air,
they're they're hot, they have ignition capability, but it doesn't
mean that that they're going to burn everything, and that
they're just going to somehow bore their way through your
(17:16):
house and uh, find it inside and you know, catch
everything on fire. That's not how it works. How it
works is this, you have an attic, that attic by code,
has been vented a certain way. Most attics are vented
in such a way the attic vents themselves. You've got
low vents down around the eaves. Okay, if your vent
(17:36):
if your attic is vented optimally, and this is one
of those situations, by the way, if you don't have
good attic venting, you're actually safer from a from a fire.
Then if you know, if you do have good addict thing,
now you're spending a tremendous amount of money on heating
and air conditioning bills, and you've got other problems. But
when it comes to a fire, you're safer to have
(17:56):
terrible attic venting. Uh. But here's the situation. You got
these low attic vents, those are sitting around the eve level.
They are drawing cooler air into the attic. And then
you've got higher attic vents, maybe dormer vents or gable vents,
a big square rectangular thing on the end of your
gable roof up high hot air rises goes out those vents,
(18:17):
draws cooler air in from down below. Okay, no, it's
not cool. It doesn't make your addic cool in the summer.
It's just cooler. Okay, it's just that's the venting process.
So what happens is these embers, which are so light
and they are so susceptible to the breezes and the
movement of air. That's why they arrived at your home,
because they got carried on the wind. They're so light
(18:40):
that the process of lower vents actually having suction on
them suck embers directly into the attic space, and the
attic space then becomes an optimal a like a weber
kettle barbecue, an optimal place to nurture the combust that
those embers can create. Okay. So the number one way
(19:05):
that embers intrude into a home and ignite is also
the most dangerous way because you can ask any firefighter
out there, any firefighting agency, and they'll tell you attic fires.
What are we supposed to do with attic fires? How
do you get in and defend an attic fire? You know,
you cut a big hole in the roof, maybe or
(19:25):
maybe the fire burns through the roof and creates the
hole itself, but they are virtually indefensible, okay, until they
destroy a large portion of the home. So this is
the thing that we're after. Vents. The first line of
defense against embers getting into your home are vents. Now, yes,
(19:45):
we have a sponsor on this show, which is an
attic ember vent company. It is absolutely true. I am
not saying this to make this an hour long commercial
for Brand Guard Vents. However, I will tell you this.
I went out and got Brand Guard and brought them
onto the show, begged them to come onto the show
and be a partner with us because they happen to
(20:07):
make the finest ember proof vents that you can buy.
And that's not just for Southern California, that's just period.
So what is an ember proof vent. Well, it can
be a number of different things, but essentially it's a
vent that replaces and or retrofits on the back side
of your existing vents if you don't want to tear
up the house. But it's a vent material that has
(20:30):
a baffle built into it so the ember has to travel,
it can't just get sucked straight into the attic, it
has to travel through a little maze. Essentially, airflow still
doesn't get occluded with a good vent, but the path
of the ember does get all messed up, so the
ember has to hit and make contact and drop and
(20:51):
it doesn't make it into the attic. And believe me,
they test these things, the ones that are on the
Cowfire approved list, which brand Guard is, They like cannons
of embers straight at these vents to see what will
make it through. So your normal attic vent mesh it's
not enough. Now you can retrofit your own, like down
(21:12):
to eighth inch that helps. Embers can still get through that.
So it's not just the size of the mesh we
used to think that was the case. It's also the
baffling effect. So like a Brand Guard vent, for instance,
not only does it have baffles built into it so
the ambers can't get in, but and we'll talk about
this later, when the fire actually arrives, if there is
(21:32):
substantial temperature from flames at the base of the wall,
a brand Guard vent has what's called an into messent
filler in it. Into mensine simply means that when it
experiences high heat, it swells and those vents literally swell
shut and they just self close and nothing can get
(21:54):
in at that point, including air, including flames and all
of that kind of stuff. So there you go. Ember
Proof vents. You hear me talk about them all the time.
I'm usually like reading a brand Guard commercial. But the
fact of the matter is, my friend, that you know,
get ember Proof vns. If you're not gonna get Brand Guard,
and I don't know why you wouldn't, but get Ember
provens on your home. You only have to do it
(22:16):
one time. It's a one time, one and done, lifetime
retrofit for your home, and it will make all the difference.
How much difference. Eight out of ten homes that burn
burn because of that. And so think about for that investment,
what you have changed so radically about your home? All Right?
I got so much more to come.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on Demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Always always, when it comes to transforming your home, what
is the secret? Design? Design matters most? I'm talking about
talking about proofee design. I'm talking that everything that goes
into our homes a permanent element, a permanent approach to
our home. We have to design it and design it well,
whether it's architecture or decor, or whether we are seriously
(23:05):
thinking about fire hardening the home, and we design the
fire hardening process, which is what we're talking about today.
It is our midsummer fire season prep. We are at
midsummer right now. We've turned the corner. The hills are
getting drier, the weather's getting warmer by the day, and
it won't be long before the winds kick up, and
we find ourselves right in the middle of yet another
(23:27):
fire season here in southern California. And you know what,
here's the thing, even if you're listening from outside the state,
even if you're listening from I don't know. One of
our callers called in from Minnesota yesterday. The fact of
the matter is the way that fire behaves once a
structure or an area of vegetation is burning, is the
same embers are created, they blow through the wind, they
(23:49):
affect other structures to their point of vulnerability. And that's
what I'm trying to clear up for you today. We're
having a rational conversation about how a home really is
vulnerable and how it's not. Okay, So I divided it
into two categories because I think it's easier for people
to think about when the fire is near and the
(24:10):
things we do about that, and when the flames actually
are here when they arrive. Thank God forbid, we're still
on that when the fire is near. Oh and by
the way, uh, I'm all over the place today, I know,
but understand. Coming up next hour after the break, we're
going to the phones. The number to reach me eight
three three two. Ask Dean A three three the number two.
(24:33):
Ask Dean eight three three two. Ask Dean. Whatever's got
you scratching your head about your home. We will be
going to the phones right after the next break, So
give us a call and jump into the queue. Okay,
all right, Uh, we're talking about when the fire is near,
and we've talked about ember proof vents, protecting, retrofitting, changing
(24:57):
out the vents on your house. Do you need to Yeah,
if you don't have a brand new built home, brand
new built in southern California under current codes. And by
the way, this is not even going to be an
absolute code requirement in Southern California until January first of
next year. January first, twenty twenty six, all major remodels
in all new builds in California will include ember resistant events.
(25:20):
That's how serious an issue this is. It's not required
on your house, you know, in your existing house, because
you know nobody's twisting your arm to do this. But
I'll tell you this, there's going to come a time
very shortly when your insurance company hits you up again
and says, guess what you want to keep your fire insurance,
You're gonna have to put mber proof vents on your home. Okay,
(25:41):
it's that important. Think of it this way. You got
a boat. It could be a big, beautiful boat. It's
got strong hull, it's got a great top deck. It
is a fantastic, seaworthy boat. Except it has twelve holes
in it. What are you going to do? Plug the holes.
Don't repaint the boat, plug the holes. So your home.
(26:06):
Most homes in southern California, by the way, are pretty
fire hardened. Now that's going to shock you to hear
me say that, because everybody else out there is like saying,
oh my gosh, your home is so vulnerable. It needs
to change so much. Yeah, here's the thing. Let's talk
about those embers we're still in the when the fire
(26:27):
is near Dean, what about embers just landing on my roof,
and my roof burns. Okay, first thing you got to
understand about that. Have very good friend who has been
with cow fire for decades. He likes to put it
this way. Homes burn up. Homes don't burn down. Right,
(26:49):
Homes burn up, not down, meaning that flames go upward.
They burn upward, they cast their heat upward. Okay, if
you live in southern California, in fact, you've lived virtually
anywhere if you don't have a wood shake shingle roof,
which there are virtually none left in southern California or
(27:11):
the state of California in general. But if you've got
an asphalt composite roof, the vast majority of homes have
that kind of a roof, an asphalt shingle composite roof
that is a class A fire rated roof, meaning an
ember a shower of embers just dropping on top of
that roof is going to do virtually zero things to
(27:32):
that roof. Okay, it does not catch it on fire
and burn down. When you see because you say, well, Dean,
what about all these shots on the news where I
just see people's roofs burning and burning and burning. Yeah,
they're burning from the inside out from the attic up
through the roof rafters, and out of the roofing material,
(27:52):
not from the roofing material down. Okay, an asphalt shingled roof,
any asphalt shingled roof that was installed anytime in the
last forty years in Southern California has a Class A
fire rating period. Stucco on the outside of a home,
(28:13):
no matter when it was put on. Stucco in good
condition is a Class A fire rated material. It's one
inch thick concrete on the outside of your home. I
hear people all the time, Well, you know what, we
should probably tear down our house and build a concrete
wall house. Well, you have concrete on the outside of
your house. If you have a stucco house, which most
(28:36):
Southern Californians do, Class A fire rated the walls of
your house. Now, if you've got wood shingle on your house,
you got to take a serious look at this. You
are the candidate for paying the exorbitant amount of money
to have fire retardant paint on the entire house. You
are that candidate. Okay, But if you have a stucco
home or a stone home, or if you have new
(29:00):
modern cement embedded or cement fiberboard siding that looks like
shake but is actually cement based. You have a Class
A fire rated exterior. So the walls are not the problem.
The roof is not the problem. Where is the problem
the vents. We've already discussed that they're holes in the hull,
(29:24):
the eaves of your home, the eaves of the roof,
not the roof top itself, not the top coating, the
underneath part of the roof that's hanging out over the
edge of the house. Those eaves are if they're not
stuccoed in, boxed in with stucco, which most aren't, and
if they are good for you. But if they aren't,
(29:45):
then those eaves are vulnerable and the windows are vulnerable.
And we're going to talk about all of this when
we return to this subject. But right now, after the break,
we're going to the phones. How's that sound sounds good
to me? Eight three three two, Ask Dean eight three
three the numeral two, Ask Dean give me a call.
We'll take your calls up next your home with Dean Sharp,
(30:08):
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 iHeart Radio
app
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