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, We're gonna have some fun today. Today is
one of my regular fixtures every year. We usually do
it maybe once or twice a year. New stuff. I
(00:23):
got a pile of new stuff for you, new stuff
related to home building, home design and decor, outside landscaping,
all just all sorts of new stuff. And has there
been any special event that has prompted this, Nope. I
simply keep this list going throughout the year. I always
(00:45):
have a list sitting on my computer of new stuff
that we've looked into that has fascinated me, that's caught
my attention. And when the list gets long enough, I'm like, yep,
that's a show, and so let's do a new stuff
show and clear the board as it were. So that's
what we're talking about today, and of course it will
also leave a little bit more room than normal I
(01:07):
hope for your calls. So we'll be taking calls today
as we always do, and maybe a few more than normal.
The number to reach me eight three three two. Ask
Dean A three three. The numeral two and then you
just spell out, ask Dean. Eight three three two Ask Dean.
(01:29):
Producer Matt Toffler is standing by. The phone lines are
open right now. You can jump in the queue. You
can listen to the show while you wait, and anything
that you've got on your mind. The cool thing about
calls is you get to set the agenda. So I'm
talking about new stuff, but you and I, we don't
have to talk about new stuff. If you call in,
(01:49):
we can talk about design issues, instruction questions, we can
talk about architecture, we can talk about landscape, anything atall.
We talk about you know, what color the friend on
your pillow on your sofa should be, Anything and everything
related to home. That's what I'm here for. So throw
your head scratching questions at me and we'll put our
(02:12):
heads together. You and me, we'll figure it out. Eight
three three two ask Dean. And the phone lines are
open right now. All right, let me introduce you to
our awesome team. Elmer is on the board. Good morning, Elmer,
Good morning Dean. Did I did I catch you by surprise? There?
Bud No.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
I was waiting for it, anticipating it.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Good to be with you, my friend. Good to be
with you likewise, like I said, producer Matt Toffler, not
near a microphone. I don't think he is Matt near
a mic Matt, Yes, there you are. Good morning Matt.
Good morning Dean. That is the beautiful voice that you're
(03:00):
going to hear when you call in. Matt will tell
you everything you need to know, set you all up
so that you can come on the air with me
and we can talk about your home. So Matt is
standing by waiting and looks like, is there a call
already coming in? Maybe? Maybe my buddy Eileen Gonzales at
the news desk, Good morning, Eileen, Good morning Dean. How's
it going. It's going good. How are you? How are
(03:22):
you doing good?
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Just waking up?
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Still working on it. Beverage of choice over there in
the booth there.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Yeah, today I switched it up. I'm doing a yerbamate.
It's exciting, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Your bamt. That's like a whole thing. Yeah, that's a
oldish Have you ever done have you ever actually like
gone down into South America and you know Argentina, Brazil
where where erbamates are like the culture and shared like
a communal yerbamt.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
No, but I've seen it. I'm familiar with how they
do it. They put in these like wooden mugs, right,
put it in wooden mugs.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Yeah, it's kind of tea and for them, and it's
more popular than coffee, which is amazing in South America
that you know, where so much of our coffee comes
from South and Central America. And uh, and everybody's got
their own little stainless steel straw that they that they
that they use and it's kind of it's kind of
(04:22):
a cool thing.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Well I'm just using a paper cup today, so all right,
not getting fancy here, but yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
No, it just it just just sparked all of that
thing in my brain where I just connect all the dots.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Yeah, it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
How the tradition of it's pretty cool. Yeah, College students
South American college students swear by yurbamonte because they they claim, now,
I I've had it a few times, but never never,
I mean I've never really gotten you know, hooked on
it per se. But they claim that just the chemical
compounds in urbamonte, you know, the caffeine has its full
(04:57):
effect without it, and it smooths you out same time,
wakes you up and smooths you out so you never
get the nervous jitters. Have you ever found that I think
I've heard. I'll keep you posted on that. All right,
tank it, tank as much as you can in the
next half hour, and then report back in. Let me
know how you feel. We'll do all right. Now, This
(05:20):
is when I normally say, you know what, I think
everybody needs to write some emails in because my partner here,
she's been a little loose with with getting into the
studio on time. She's around here, somewhere. I don't know
where she is, but this is when and she told me,
she said, hey, I got to make a call, but
don't worry. I'll be in there in time to say
(05:41):
hi to everybody on the air. And no, no, she
didn't make it. But this is when I normally say,
my better half, my design partner, my best friend in
all the world, Tina is here. And Tina is here.
That is the shadow of her spirit moving through the halls.
But uh, she's close by, so again she will have
(06:05):
to disrupt the show when she finally gets in and
I can tell everybody that she's here. But she's here,
She's here, I promise she's here. We'll prove it in
just a bit. All right, new stuff plus your calls today.
Here's the number one more time eight three three two
ask Dean eight three three the numeral TWOEP ask Dean
(06:26):
new stuff right after.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI.
AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Uh TARTI she got a TARTI slip welcome home. Tina's here.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
I am here, here, I am Oh look at that
excuse you.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
I had an important phone call. I know you did.
I told everybody you had an important Well. I didn't
say it was important. I just said you had a
phone that's important to me. And I said that you
told me you're going to take that call, and that
you promise you would be in here on time. And
then I wasn't. Then you weren't. I was standing at
the door. You're like, it's too late. I'm like, ah
on dart. You were standing at the door as we
went to break, looking at me like huh me, time
(07:10):
for me now, I'm like, skill away, just go away,
just go away. But here you are here. I am.
As much as I want to be upset with you,
I'm too cute. Yeah, pretty much, pretty much pretty much.
You're just too adorable. You're too much my friend. That's right,
(07:31):
that's a problem. Sometimes it's just a problem. Anyway, everybody,
as promised, Tina delivered here. She is well, I delivered
her to you. She did not do this. It's me
to give me the credit. But Tina's here, so everybody
can relax. Okay, Yes, they're going to keep on. They're
going to keep listening now because they're like, well, Tina's
(07:52):
not showing up. But it's something you listen to that
jackass talk for three hours alone. So anyway, all right,
there you are good, Go your way, go your way now.
Literally she's leaving the studio again, what is the deal?
Oh my goodness, all right, she'll be back anyway. Hey,
(08:15):
follow us on social media. We only do the good kind.
Just a reminder, we're on all the usual suspects. You know,
I'm not going to name them all. We're probably there.
Home with Dean is the handle, same handle for all
of them. So you can find us. Whatever your favorite
social media platform is, you can find it. Just follow us.
Just just doesn't dive in. Take a look. Follow us.
(08:37):
We're not gonna spam you. We're not gonna upset you,
we just send out the good stuff. Also, if your
home is in need of some personal house Whisper attention.
By that I mean literally not just even calling into
the show, but if you want me and te to
show up at your home. Yeah, for real, actually get
(08:57):
our eyes on the problem. I'm using air quotes here
the problem. You can do that. You can just get
some more information. Go to house Whisper dot design for
more information or to sign up for an in home
console house Whisperer dot Design. And one more time. The
number to reach me this morning eight three three two
(09:20):
Ask Dean A three to three the numeral two ask Dean.
Phone lines are open now, Producer Matt standing by taking
your calls all right, right off the top, I might
as well just share with you the thing that everybody's
wanted to talk to me about this week since I
brought it up. I brought it up on Conway, we
talked about it, and I brought it up on wake
(09:40):
up Call with Amy King. We talked about it right
at the top of the pile of new stuff. Superwood. Superwood.
What in the world is superwood? Well, it is something
that I think I think is quite likely going to
revolution ize certain aspects certain not every aspect, but certain
(10:03):
aspects of home building and home construction on a lot
of different levels, the residential level, and maybe even into
commercial and industrial levels as well. Super Wood, first of all,
is not a wood, a one particular kind of wood.
It's not like, oh, somebody have figured out how to
(10:24):
grow a different kind of wood. No, no, no, no,
it's better than that. Actually, it is actually a process
through which any kind of wood virtually can pass in
order to give it superior quality, strength, to weight ratios
and things like that. So understand this that superwood is
(10:45):
a process. It's patented, I believe, it's developed by a company.
And you can check this out. If you want to
check it out more thoroughly than I have time to
go in detail here on the show, you can go
to I believe. Let me just make sure this link
is correct here inventwood dot com. Yep, that's true. Invent
(11:07):
wood dot com is the website. It's the only place
where you're going to find it. It is the home
of Superwood. Superwood is put together by a research team,
and that research team has now received funding, not a
not an unbelievable amount of funding in today's world. It's
something like fifty million or sixty million or so, which
(11:30):
is enough to get the ball rolling if you're serious
about actually producing a product. But you know in the
end they're going to have to sell it and and
it will grow from there. But here is the thing
about superwood. What's the deal. Superwood is a process that
densifies regular timber, engineered to be stronger than steal and
(11:55):
resistant to fire and rot and pests. Yeah, it's amazing,
and it's really what it is the brilliance here. It's
not an entirely new technology per se, but it is
a combination of a couple of different technologies. Now if
I can set these the scene for you for a while.
(12:15):
Now you've heard me talk about thermally treated lumber. Thermally
treated lumber is when we take a species of wood,
any species of wood, even species of wood or maybe
especially species of wood that you wouldn't normally expose to
outside weather conditions, and we put it under a moisture
(12:38):
and heat intense heat process pressure process by which many
of the well, let's just say in terms of food,
carbohydrates and sugars in the wood are converted under high
heat and pressure into a form which renders them unsceptible
(13:01):
to moisture, damage, to rot, and to bugs, to like termites,
that kind of thing. That technology has been around for
quite a while now, because I've been talking about it
for years and years, and I've had the pleasure of
using thermally treated lumber in order to produce certain effects.
(13:22):
Like we want a certain deck to just look a
certain way, and so we pick a species of wood
that is just perfect. But it's like, normally you're scratching
your head saying you shouldn't put that wood outside. That's
not the right wood to put outside. But it's okay
if we use the thermally treated version of that wood,
because it changes the way it behaves, all right, So
set that process to the side. Okay. Pressure and heat,
(13:45):
pressure and heat, okay, does some incredible things to natural materials.
And then there's another process. There's a process and you know,
I had to look this one up because unless you're
in the publishing industry or something, you wouldn't know about this.
But there's a process of soaking wood or boiling wood
in a couple of different chemicals, and those chemicals tend
(14:09):
to hollow out what's called the the lignans and the
hemi cellulose, okay, inside of a piece of wood. And
this is a process that's been around for a long
time because apparently it's the beginning of taking wood and
creating paper pulp. Okay, this is like the process of
(14:31):
being able to break down wood into paper pulp. All right.
So if we take this process of boiling wood in
these couple of chemical steps, and as a result, what
we remove is not all the cellulose, but most of
the hemicellulose and the lignans in the wood, which, by
(14:52):
the way, fyi are the yummy parts if you're a termite.
All right, So what we're doing is we're removing that's stuff.
So imagine, imagine, if you will. Everybody has seen a
piece of wood that has been devastated by termites. Right
you actually touch it, it feels a little spongy. The
reason it feels spongy is because there's all sorts of
(15:14):
hollow tube tubules channels in it now where hemicellulose and
lignans used to be but have been eaten up. Okay,
So now we take that piece of spongy wood and
then we put it under the heat pressure. Okay, because
(15:36):
the heat and intense pressure, and the heat and the
intense pressure causes the walls of those empty cavities to
molecularly bond with each other again, So we can reconnect
the wood. Now we can press it down. The wood
ends up, as I understand it, reducing in thickness by
(15:58):
four fifths. It ends up one fifth the dimension that
it was before the process. But what we get, what
we get on the other side, Well, i'll give you
the specs right after.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
We are having some fun this morning. We're talking about
new stuff, which is something I do from time to
time as soon as my list of new stuff gets
large enough to say, hey, I got a whole show
of it. Now. So today's the day? Here? The uh
is today? The yes, it is. It's first day of
June twenty twenty five. Holy cow, Where where is the
(16:42):
year going? Oh? My goodness, already in June. Well, it's
it's a beautiful weekend here in southern California. I hope
wherever you are that the weather is treating you as
well as ours is. Here we whine and complain because oh,
it's too hot. It's too hot. It's it's going to
be like seventy eight today most places in socol. So yeah,
(17:05):
I know we are whimps when it comes to that.
It's lovely here, and it's going to stay lovely for
most of the week as far as I know, mid
seventies ish most of the time. Yeah, of course it's
going to get hot. Summer is on its way. Summer's
like only that's close, right, like two three weeks away. Yeah, okay. Anyway,
(17:27):
we have left you hanging with this first item on
the list, which is worthy of, you know, a few
segments to discuss it. Super Wood was tossed across my
desk quite a few weeks ago. I don't just see
a thing and then run and talk to you about it,
because I like to look into things first, just to
(17:50):
make sure that you know, I'm not promoting something that's
not real or fad or whatever. I had some conversations
with the folks over it invent would. I've read several articles.
I'm staring at one from Scientific American right now that
was written back in February of twenty eighteen, when the
(18:10):
process was first being discussed and released to the larger
scientific and industrial community. So I'm telling you this is
a real thing. It's a legit thing. And again, it's
not a wood, it's not a species of wood. It's
not some way that we've figured how to genetically modify
and grow a tree. More on that later. I do
(18:31):
have a plant on our list today that's been genetically
modified that we'll talk about in a bit. But super
wood is a process, and it really is a brilliant
combination of a couple of processes that already exist. One
the way that we take wood and boil it and
get it ready to make paper pulp. And by the way,
(18:53):
for those of you science nerds out there who are
wondering what are those chemicals, the the two step process
starts with boiling wood in a solution of sodium hydroxide
and sodium sulfite. That's a treatment very similar to the
first step in creating a wood pulp used to make paper.
(19:13):
So that's been around for long, long, long long time. Secondly,
the thing that's also been around is putting wood under
high heat and high pressure. And if you do these
two things one step after the other, if you then
take the boiled wood, which as a result, has largely
(19:35):
lost most of what's called hemi cellulose okay, and lignins,
which are the yummy parts that bugs want, and also
the areas that are most susceptible to moisture and rot
and all that kind of stuff. We've removed that now
from the wood. But now the wood is full of holes.
And if you then take that wood under heat and pressure,
(19:58):
then those walls collapse that are holes maintain that compression
as it's gently heated, and the pressure and heat encourages
the formation of chemical bonds between large numbers of hydrogen
atoms and neighboring atoms in adjacent nanofibers of cellulose. I'm
just reading this off of this Scientific American article here
(20:21):
therefore greatly strengthening the material, and the results are impressive.
The wood three times as dense as the untreated substance.
They've increased its resistance to being ripped apart by more
than ten times. It comes it becomes fifty times more
(20:42):
resistant to compression, twenty times as stiff as it was
in its natural form. It's more scratch resistant, more impact resistant.
It could be molded into almost any shape, which is why. Yep,
the automotive industry and the aerospace industry both now taking
a serious look at superwood. Imagine the wings of a
(21:09):
jumbo jet. I mean some people were like, oh, that
makes me uncomfortable, but instead of being made out of
carbon fiber or aluminum, that they're made out of superwood.
Or imagine driving in twenty or years or so a
car whose frame stronger than any car ever made before it,
whose frame is essentially constructed from and molded from the
(21:33):
factory out of superwood. These are all realistic, serious things
that are being looked at right now. In lab tests,
compressed samples of superwood incredibly moisture resistant. So let me
look at this test result here. Lab tests compress samples
(21:55):
exposed to extreme humidity for more than five days swelled
less than ten percent, and then in subsequent tests a
simple code of paint eliminated the swelling entirety, entirely. Okay,
So it's not as though it can be absolutely exposed
raw to the elements without any consequence, but a change
(22:23):
of dimension because of extreme humidity that is minimal, I mean,
that is incredibly minimal. And then one code of paint
completely shut down that process altogether. Okay, here's another thing.
Five layer plywood made out of superwood, a very very
(22:43):
thin plywood stopped bullets fired into the material, Okay, which
means that they are actually researching the potential of using
superwood as a low cost armor. Now, the material doesn't
protect as well as kevlar of the same thickness, But
(23:03):
but it only costs five percent as much to UH
to produce as the equivalent thickness of kevlar. All right,
And and this one gets really funky and weird. Okay,
really funky and weird. Well, you know what, Should I
save it? Should I save it? All right? Let's talk
about making glass for your windows out of super wood.
(23:27):
No not no, not not the window itself, the glass.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI A M six.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Forty Welcome home. Yes, we are nearing the top of
the hour. Yes, that does mean that right after this segment,
right after our next break, I will be going to
the phones. Yes, our number is eight three three two.
Ask Dean, eight three three the numeral two, ask Dean,
(24:00):
And yes, I am going to conclude my thoughts and
share with you what's going on with this whole thing
super would because today's show new stuff, new stuff, and
superwood it has. It is well worth the time that
I've given to it so far. And believe me, I've
just scrap scratched the surface. So where as I at,
(24:22):
I've now forgotten officially where I was at. In this description,
we've talked about its strength. We've talked about the fact
that this process has essentially rendered wood, any species of
wood that undergoes this process moisture incredibly moisture resistant, rot resistant,
(24:43):
termite and pest resistant, while creating a material stronger than steel.
Now people always ask, what does that mean? Stronger than steel?
Stronger than steel? Simply means pound for pound stronger than steel,
dimensionally stronger than steel. So here's an ibeam of a
certain size, and then here's a piece of superwood or
(25:06):
an ibeam made of superwood the exact same size. Guess what,
the wood stronger than the steel. That's what it means,
and considerably eighty percent lighter than the steel at the
same time. Yeah, it's pretty incredible. Now there are questions,
and now what I want to do is I want
to answer the questions or the concerns. On the other
(25:27):
side like, okay, Dean, but but what is this going
to do to things? I mean, aren't we already clear
cutting forest? Aren't we already destroying the environment. You're talking
about turning the entire manufacturing industry making it wood based. Well,
obviously I'm not talking about that. Oh oh oh, this
(25:48):
is okay. I gotta pause that. I just realized where
I was because I teased you about superwood also potentially
being transparent. Yes, I have seen a piece of it now,
not absolutely clear like glass, but this process there's a
certain tweak that they can make to it. I saw
(26:09):
a one of the researchers holding a chunk of wood
that was amazingly not transparent, but letting light through. In
other words, it looked like frosted glass. Frosted glass, right,
And they are telling me we're just a few steps
(26:29):
away from being able to potentially mix this so that
we end up with a product that could replace glass glass,
making it stronger than remember, stronger than steel. So imagine
a pane of transparent material made of wood in your
(26:50):
wood window that's a stronger than tempered glass. And oh
the fire resistance, yeah, I should mention that as well.
This superwood everything burns. You know, if you've ever seen
a volcano and you see melt, rocks melt in front
of you. Yeah, I got to understand. Everything burns at
(27:11):
some temperature. Okay, but how about wood siding, wood decking,
wood sheathing on the outside of your house. How about
wood studs and wood framing and wood beams that burn
roughly at the same temperature required to burn brick or
stone or concrete. Because that's right about where superwood is
(27:33):
at in its in its heat resistance. Okay, Now under
understand it was borne, the product was born in a
process that is using heat far above the level of
a typical wildfire or open flame. So again, it's impressive stuff. Now,
(27:54):
am I saying it's going to take over the world? Now?
Would I like it to? Sure? Of course I would.
Now let's address those concerns. Here's the thing you need
to know. Yes, we have, we have sinned against the
planet on many for a long time, especially at the
beginning of the industrial age when it comes to trees,
and it took a long long time for us to
(28:16):
turn that around. But I just want you to understand,
and I'm not saying it's perfect. Please do not write
me emails saying, well, Deane, did you also know that
this is Yes, I get it, but the fact of
the matter remains, about ninety eight percent of the US
lumber industry uses trees from both public and private land
that is grown sustainably. Understand that. Okay. Tim Conway asked
(28:41):
me about this on Thursday night. And you know, I'm
with Tim every Thursday night from about six twenty until
about six forty five. Every week tune in. It's a
fun conversation. But Tim asked me about this. He's like,
all right, Dean, but you know, uh what about He
wasn't asking about super what he was commenting on the
quality of lumber that you see at home depot and
lows at the lumberyard. And the reason I told him, yeah,
(29:03):
the quality of lumber has changed over the years, and
that's because the reason it's so wet and that it's
got champered edges on some of those two by four
studs and there are more knots than you've ever seen
in the past, is because those are younger trees, because
they are farmed trees, younger farm trees, not old growth
five hundred year old redwoods and Douglas firs being cut down, okay,
(29:28):
to produce lumber. The lumber industry has changed. Ninety nine
percent of the US lumber industry, or ninety eight percent,
uses trees from public and private land grown sustainably. Lumber
is now very clearly an agricultural product. So if there
was a greater demand for lumber in the world, there
(29:51):
will be a greater demand to farm trees, which means
more forests being planted. While those trees are growing, they
are larger sinks that capture carbon only help the environment
because the super wood process is carbon neutral or carbon negative. Okay,
(30:13):
So you know, in my opinion, that's that's my dream
of future technology, one that doesn't merely take from the
planet but also gives back. Imagine what happens, what could
happen if there's an incentive for corporations. Yeah, those guys,
incentives for corporations to reforest planet Earth because it means
(30:37):
profits for them, Okay, affordable materials to the consumer, profits
to the corporation, and an incentive for corporations to actually
improve the biosphere of planet Earth in order to get
it done. All right, I'm not making all these promises
to you, but I am telling you. This is why science, technology,
(30:58):
and industry are all very very excited right now about
the process of superwood, including airplane frames, automotive frames, and windows.
So just imagine that. Tell I'm gonna read to you
what the the Scientific American article concludes with here, and
(31:21):
then we can move on. Someday soon it might be
possible to live in a home made almost completely from
one of Earth's most abundant and versible and sustainable building materials,
from floors to rafters, to walls to windows. In the garage,
there may be a car who's chassis and bumpers could
(31:42):
be composed of densified wood rather than steel and plastic.
Knock on wood, it says the Scientific American article. Very cute,
but a reality. So that technology is out there, it's
a question of where it goes from here. I'm just
introduced you to it so you understand that, you know what,
(32:02):
the future is not always dark and gloomy. There are
these which you know. I'm not going to get into
my opinion about how much we should be encouraging science
and higher education, but at this point I see very
very few things standing between us and screwing up this planet.
(32:23):
Very few things other than well educated scientists who are
thinking really good thoughts and putting together some things that
could change the game. That's all I'm saying, Super would
it's here, and I believe, if I'm not incorrect, that
invent Wood has now begun and they're going to begin
this year selling the first release of it, siding and
(32:47):
decking products and structural beams replacing steel beams and homes.
And you got to know as soon as I use
my first one, yeah, you'll be hearing about it as well.
All right when we come back, Uh, we're going to
the phones and you will get to decide what we're
talking about today on the show. Don't miss out, Don't
go anywhere. Your Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper
(33:09):
on KFI. This has been Home with Dean Sharp, the
House Whisper. Tune into the live broadcast on KFI AM
six forty every Saturday morning from six to eight Pacific time,
and every Sunday morning from nine to noon Pacific time,
or anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app