October 19, 2024 • 26 mins
Dean talks about news and views surrounding your home. But focuses on answering all the burning questions callers have for him. Dean shares about the shift in need for smaller homes from an article he came across and breaks down the pros of it all. Dean advices a caller on points for hiring an independent inspector when building a home. Plus, Dean talks about the difference between composite or concrete pierce on a home.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp, The
House Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio app KFI
AM six forty and live streaming in HD everywhere on
the iHeartRadio app. Welcome to home, where Every week we
(00:21):
help you better understand that place where you live. Good
morning to you. I am Dean Sharp, the House Whisper,
custom home Builder, custom home designer, and most importantly, today,
your guide to transforming your ordinary house into an extraordinary home.
It is a beautiful, blustery, maybe well coolish, but I
(00:44):
think it's going to be a slightly warm autumn southern
California morning here, Saturday morning, October nineteenth, twenty twenty four.
Can you believe it? Can you believe October is more
than halfway done? I can't. I don't want that to
be true, but it is because we face the facts
around here, right, We're not making up our own realities.
(01:04):
Just got to face it. But I'm just saying, just
put my vote in. I could stretch October out a
good deal further because we're rolling into the holidays and
this is my favorite time of year, and I would
gladly do a two for one every single day of autumn. Nonetheless,
we are here, and I hope you are enjoying the
(01:25):
loveliness of this morning. Certainly, pour yourself a warm comfort beverage,
and settle in. If you're driving, stay awake, and if not,
settle in and enjoy our time together. Here. We're going
to be talking about some news and some views, and
taking calls and more calls. That's the agenda for today.
(01:48):
I've just got a mishmash of things that i want
to discuss with you tomorrow's show, by the way, we're
going to be talking about the marvels of the connected home,
the monitored home. That is where we'll take the entire
show tomorrow. But today we're gonna be all over the place,
most importantly with your calls. By the way, Producer Richie's
(02:11):
standing by the phone. Lines are open. He is ready
to pop you into the queue. Anything you want to
talk about your home? Eight three three to ask Dean
eight three three the numeral to ask dean eight three
three to ask Dean. It's just that easy. We will
go to the phones as soon as the lines start
(02:34):
to pop. It on here and if we do this
all right, we're gonna bring some light into your morning,
make you feel glad that you were here. The team
is here. Sam is on the board. Good morning, Dean,
Good morning. Here's Sam taking care of our live studio audience.
They are a dependable bunch, those guys. They're so reliable
(02:58):
they are. And you know what also nice about our
studio audience. The volume control just just be able to like, hey, everybody,
get louder, now get quieter, all right, thanks a lot,
total control of our live air quotes. Studio audience producer
Richie I said, standing by nowhere near Mike, but he's out.
(03:18):
Oh look at that calls flooding in already, So Richie
is busy handling all of that. Heather Brooker in the
KFI twenty four hour news room with her hands firmly
on the wheel. Good morning, Anther, Good morning. How you doing, Bud.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
I'm so good. I'm so glad to be here with you.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Are you really?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
I am?
Speaker 1 (03:40):
I mean, I know, you know, I mean we're friends
and it's nice for you to be here. But it's
in the morning A sad.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Well, okay, now that you put it that way, I
do miss my bed, but I will say I enjoy
your show so much. I find it a very like
calming and like beautiful way to kind of start the weekend.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
So yeah, I'm need to be here.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
There are worse ways, like we could start with like
murder shows and like crimes.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
There are which, by the way, is something Tina would
really be in favor of. Oh yeah yeah, and like
like the yea through crime Tina is, she'd be like
you know, she would She's She's often asked me, is
there any way that we can incorporate true crime more murdered?
(04:28):
A lot of murders take place in homes, That's true,
a lot of them do.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Maybe Robin will come up with a crossover between Home
and like Unsolved. There's got to be some kind of
crossover episodes there.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Here's what I would love. Here's what I would love,
you know what, And I would I would put in
an extra two hours of work on on a Saturday
or a Sunday if Tina actually hosted a true crime
show and I got to be like the sidekick, I'd
just been sitting over there occasionally not come in all
as she does. What what? Well?
Speaker 2 (05:05):
You well, good morning, good morning. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
I don't know if you noticed, but you weren't here
last week very much at all.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yeah, but it was also my birthday.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Yeah, I'm just saying, I'm just saying, Okay, sitting across
the table from me. By the way, my better half,
my design partner, my best friend in all the world.
You know her is True Crime Tina. I know her
as just the boss. Uh Tina, good morning. Wouldn't that
(05:34):
be cool? Though? Would you do that? Would you host
a Kafi show on True Crome? Not to take anything
away from Steve Gregory clearly, who's who's a real journalist.
Who's a real journalist, goes.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Into your house and then he's like, oh my gosh,
this is terrible. I was like, look at the lighting.
He's like, forget it. I'm going to a different house.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
He's a serial killer who also does remodeling. I think we're.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Onto something, guys. I'm not gonna lie. This feels good.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
We're I think it's on a good sitcom.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
I'm just saying.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Home improvement, okay, and I'm going to work on this.
I'm gonna come up with a title for this by
the time we come back.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Maybe people can like weigh in on what would this
crew time?
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Yeah, if you're already planning on calling in. Feel free
to call in and give me a title for our
new show, Sam call it. It should be a sitcom. I
think our new show based on the idea of a
serial killer who also remodels homes and does it, I mean,
does it really well, really well. I'll tell you one
(06:45):
thing about it serious, you know what, I'm just wasting
so much.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Time, he kills me.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
One thing about a serial killer. A lot of them
are very clean, you know, and people would appreciate that.
They would appreciate stir Yeah. Yeah, you'd appreciate coming home
to an instruction site and that's like, oh my goodness,
did anything happen here today? And the guy's like, nope, nothing.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
You're like, wait a minute, where's the bath?
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Absolutely nothing happened here today? Makescept construction, nothing else, I promise.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Why is there that new concrete?
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Don't get out the blue light? All right, all right, y'all,
we're clearly very tired and losing our minds, and we
will be back to discuss some very interesting news on
the home building front when we return Your Home with
(07:38):
Dean Sharp the House Whisper am I Dean Sharp, the
House Whisper at your service. Hey, thanks for joining us
on the program this morning. We've got so many things
to talk about, including the new show that our morning
crew here has in development. We're working on a new
show in which we combine a great home design with murder,
(07:59):
and uh, we're just we're trying to figure it out.
I got to tell you guys this. Okay. First of all,
I only came up with one name during the break
because you know, it's early, but I thought it would
be cool. You know, he's a fantastic decorator by day
and a serial killer by night. Welcome to felony or fabulous?
(08:22):
What do you think? No, No, that's a pass. That's
a hard pass. That's not gonna work. Okay, all right,
crying baby, be quiet.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
That feels like it could be a reality competition show.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
It would be, it would be all right. So all right,
So I regret having a little bit having having even
brought this subject up, because I went and I searched
and guess what there is on Oh my god, there
is there is one.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
How is that even possible?
Speaker 1 (08:52):
All Right? Tina and I do not watch you know,
any any reality or or home improvement television, but here
it is murder House Flip it's a show that's been
running since it's still running apparently since.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Funny enough, what I watched a true crime episode where
the people were going to be on that show.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Oh well, okay, well it's still it's a thing. It's
a thing since twenty twenty. It's they're in their fourth
season Murder House flip.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
I think it's about houses that they potentially had.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
They find houses that have had murders in them, and
then they decide to renovate them. Well, big deal. But
they also talk about the history of the thing, and
some people like the idea of living in a murder house.
I guess, or I don't know. Anyway, you know what,
now we get into ghosts. Let me tell you what's
unfortunate about the world we live in. If you've if
(09:48):
you've thought about it, someone's already doing it, whether you
should or not. Okay, even if you were just joking.
All right, anyway, Hey, we're going to be going the
phones when we return from break and let me give
you the number again, eight three to three two. Ask
Dean eight three three the numeral two, ask Dean. So
(10:11):
just no, we've got room. We've got some calls on
the board, but we've got room for you, and I
select calls randomly, so you've got as good a chance
if you called in right now then if you called
in an hour ago, which you know, actually a better
chance because the phone lines weren't open an hour ago.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Let me give you some news here, a little tidbit
of news our homes getting smaller. This was a report
out of let me pull up my notes here. Bump,
but a bump, bump bum. This was in US News
and World Report, an article talking about there is a
(10:47):
shift toward smaller homes.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
And they're almost apologetic about it. They're like, well, you know,
there is a shift happening towards smaller homes. But with
the right strategy, don't worry. You can still make a
big impression. Smaller homes are great, by the way, they're great.
And let's just talk about how out of control this
has gotten in recent years. When they say small. Okay,
(11:13):
During the second quarter of twenty twenty four, single family
home under construction in the United States had an average
square footage of twenty three hundred square feet. That's a
roomy house. That's a roomy house. Okay. And then now
now we're talking that, by the way, is down from
(11:35):
twenty four hundred and fifty five square feet during the
second quarter of twenty twenty three and twenty five hundred
and thirty five square feet the second quarter of twenty
twenty two. I mean, okay, we're down a couple hundred
square feet off of twenty five hundred square feet. That's big.
If you have ever questioned whether or not a small
(11:58):
home is the way to go, let me just stay
or this. From a design perspective for you, the advantages
of small home are numerous if you are ready to
step into one. Number One, they don't cost as much
period number because you know, housing prices are still countt
largely on square footage prices. Number two, a small home
(12:21):
is easier to maintain because there's less of it. A
small home costs less to heat, cost less to cool,
and so on. Number Three. From the pure home design perspective,
a small home means smaller square footages. Smaller square footages
mean that you could afford to buy the better material,
(12:43):
the stuff that costs a little bit more per square foot,
and plug it into your home and have a much
more gorgeous home. Why because you're not using as much
of it. Right, If you've got to cover you know,
a flooring, for instance, in a three thousand square foot house,
all right, you're gonna have to be pretty conscientious about
(13:04):
the price per square foot of the material that you're
laying down. But if you've got fifteen hundred square feet
half of that, then you can afford to go a
little bit more esiar on your materials and live in
a smaller but higher quality residence when you're done. So,
I don't think it's bad news at all whatsoever that
(13:24):
home sizes are reducing, especially since we're talking about a
two hundred square foot reduction and we're already in the
mid two thousands of square footage for the average that's
the average home being built right now, new homes being
built in the US, all right, So much more to
come your calls when we return your Home with Dean
(13:45):
Sharp the House Whisper. You're listening to Home with Dean
Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty am, I
AM forty live dreaming in ad everywhere on the Iheartrate.
You app just like the man said, you are Home
with Dean Sharp the House Whisper. It is time to
(14:06):
go to the phones. Let's talk to Henderson. Henderson, welcome home.
Oh day, I know, Henderson. Take me off speaker phone,
get close and personal. Guy. It sounds like you're in
a giant box. I'm actually on my computer. Uh oh, Okay,
(14:31):
we'll do our best, okay, and adorn a new construction.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
Are there points in which I should get an independent inspector?
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Okay, I'm gonna pop you on hold Henderson because the
feedback and the it's just a weird sound. But I
did hear your question. Henderson wants to know he's doing
a new construction. Is there are there points in which
he should get an independent inspector? That is a question
I get asked all the time because people are just
really unsure about making sure that the quality of the
(15:06):
construction is appropriate. So here is the thing. There are points,
especially in southern California and in other jurisdictions, in which
an independent inspection of sorts is required. And what I
mean by that there are things like, for instance, if
you pour concrete now in Los Angeles, City of Los
(15:26):
Angeles or Los Angeles County, a deputy inspector has to
be hired by the concrete company to be there, or
the contractor to be there present during the placement of
the concrete to verify that. And this is structural concrete,
not driveways or anything like that, but structural concrete concrete
that matters most. They have to be there and sign
(15:50):
off on it. There are inspectors that you can be
hired to walk through and examine phases of a job,
so I don't have a blanket opinion about it. I
would say this, The most important thing you can do
is number one, to make sure that the job is
(16:10):
being done legally with permits. And that means that the
city inspector is going to be there making sure in
every phase of the project that things are up to
spec As far as quality of workmanship is concerned, beyond
just the basics, youve got to trust your contractor. Don't
(16:30):
hire a contractor that you don't trust to have a
higher standard than the building department. I currently have a
side gig right now for one particular client. I am
assisting a particular client in Beverly Hills as kind of
an independent reviewer of their project because outside of their control,
(16:54):
their parents hired a contractor who is terrible, just terrible.
I'm trying to come up with the right word, terrible
contractor the kind of contractor who that they thought they
were saving money with. And I don't know why they
haven't fired him, honestly, but they're still with him, and
(17:17):
he has cost them more money than then they could
possibly imagine having saved by going with so. So, yeah,
there is a time. There is a time if you
lose faith or have hired the wrong contractor, no question,
there is a time to have an independent set of
(17:37):
eyeballs come in, knowledgeable, professional expert eyes to make sure
that things are going right, to basically catch the things
that are slipping through the cracks. But generally speaking, generally speaking,
the combination of the building department and an ethical, well vetted,
good quality general contractor eliminates the need for that kind
(18:00):
of thing because things should be done right. And again,
this is not an area where you want to pinch
every penny when you're finding your contractor. I know they're expensive,
the good ones are more expensive than the bad ones,
but there's a reason for that. You find somebody who's
passionate about what they do, who believes in what they do,
(18:23):
and who does it well and holds themselves to the
highest standard possible. So you don't have to hold them
to another standard as well. And that's the best advice
I've got for you, Henderson. Thanks for the call, buddy.
We will go back to the phones. Gee sharp, the
house whisper, welcome home. Thanks for joining us on the program.
You know what, it's almost seven o'clock. We're almost done
(18:44):
with the first hour of our fine little program here.
We are taking calls right now, and I've also got
some news and some tidbits and some interesting stuff to
talk to you about. Let's go ahead and take another call,
and then we'll move into some of the other material
and then we'll go back to calls in a little bit.
The number to reach me, by the way, eight three
(19:06):
three two. Ask Dean A three three the numeral two
ask Dean eight three three to ask Dean anything you
want to talk about regarding your home. Our phone lines
are open. Producer Richie's standing by. He'll tell you everything
you need to know. Poppy into the queue and then
you and I we can put our heads together. We'll
figure out what's going on with your home design, construction, DIY,
(19:28):
anything at all? A three three two ask Dean. All right,
let's talk to uh. Let's talk to Noreen. Noreen, welcome home.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Oh good morning, Dean, my favorite person on KFI. I'd
love your show.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
I have a question. We have a live in a
house probably brought in here, moved in here in the
nineteen fifties, and then that part of the house is
the old part of the house that the peers under
the house are concrete, and they're kind of deteriorating. And
I know it because when somebody walks behind me, when
(20:07):
I'm sitting in a rocking chair, I can feel the
floor bounce. So I called out. Two companies came out,
and the one they give me the estimates online on
my computer. One of them says that the peers he
wants to put in is going to be made of
composite with jack something another I don't know what that means,
(20:30):
but I guess it's a still bar that's on like
a like a car jack. I guess where they can
level the floor up. And he wants to use composite
instead of concrete. And the other man wants to bring
in concrete and poor peers underneath with buckets of concrete,
(20:54):
and he's even more expensive. I think the one that
wants to do the composite that wants sixty sixteen thousand,
five hundred dollars, and the other one that's going to
use concrete peers. He didn't tell me how many he's
going to put in, but he wants about twenty thousand dollars,
(21:15):
and I think he wants to put his about four
feet apart. Two do they need to be that close together?
Do you think? And do I need to use concrete
or should should I go with some one that is
going to put thirty peers under six hundred square feet? No,
(21:35):
nine hundred square feet of house? A new edition doesn't
need peers, right right?
Speaker 1 (21:43):
All right? Well, excellent question, and one that opens up
a whole category of conversation about how we go about
figuring out how to fix or improve or upgrade, especially
an older house like your house. So here is the thing.
(22:06):
I don't know for sure whether each of the guys
who came out, each of these contractors have their own
engineers that work for them, But it almost doesn't matter
to me because since they have engineers that work for them,
if they do, then they're going to be biased toward
their system and toward the quantities that they're suggesting, so
(22:30):
they have a vested interest in supporting what the contractor
is going to do. Secondly, a lot of shockingly, a
lot of foundation contractors who reading the fine print, they're
not guaranteeing that this is all the fix because this
is their opinion about what has to go underneath your
house to fix it, to restore it, and so on.
(22:52):
What I think you should do in cases like this
is it's interesting because you know, I answered a previous
caller about independent inspector. This is not because you have
a contractor. You don't have one right now. But what
I think you should do is you should actually have
a conversation with a structural engineer, okay, an independent structural
(23:13):
engineer or a foundation company that uses an independent structural engineer.
So the point is this, you want an unbiased opinion
from an actual structural engineer about number one, the condition
of your existing peers, and number two, what also needs
(23:35):
to be done to shore up the house. I can't
tell you how far apart new peers need to go.
In fact, I can't even tell you that you need
new peers. Okay, because quite often what happens over decades
and decades is settlement of the soil and the peers,
and the reason why a floor may be sagging or
(23:55):
maybe a peer appears to be quote unquote failing, has
everything to do with the fact that the wood post
on top of the pier is now not long enough
because the peer has settled into the soil some or
maybe the wood post has deteriorated some. Maybe you have
enough peers, but they just need to be recut for
their posts in order to jack the floor up and
(24:17):
hold it stable. Or maybe there's a need for more.
How many that's something truly that a structural engineer would
be the best person to tell you. You could call them out.
You're going to pay them a few hundred dollars to
give you an independent consult. They'll crawl under the house,
they'll take a look around, they'll examine the needs, and
(24:39):
they'll be able to give you a full perspective of
what is necessary. And then based on that report, based
on that structural engineering report, then you take bids from
these concrete guide or from the foundation people, so that
they're bidding apples and apples. Honestly, Nourene, I'll tell you it.
(25:00):
It's a toolbox. Concrete peers are great composite or steal
a screwjack peers. They're great, they just have to be
for the right situation, in the right condition. And so
it's not like, oh, one's better than other and other.
You know, it's all a tool bag and we reach
in and we pull out the ones that fit your
(25:20):
situation best. How do we know at this point we
need to get the real professional, unvested opinion in there,
and that would be a structural engineer. You're paying a
structural engineer just to look at your house and give
you a suggestion. Therefore, they're not going to be leaning
towards you know, they're going to get paid no matter what,
(25:42):
whether they say everything is fine and you just need
a few little things or whether you need sixty peers,
they're going to give you their unbiased opinion because they've
got no skin in the game as to what you
do next. So that is the best course of action
for you and then proceed from there because it all works,
But is it too much? Is it too little? Independent
(26:03):
opinion at this point would be the key. Dorian, thank
you for your call and for your question, So appreciated.
This is why we take calls because they open up
these subjects for everybody, and good luck with the proceeding
with that, all right, more when we return you are
Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper on KFI. You're
(26:23):
listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI
AM six forty
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp, The
House Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio app KFI
AM six forty and live streaming in HD everywhere on
the iHeartRadio app. Welcome to home, where Every week we
(00:21):
help you better understand that place where you live. Good
morning to you. I am Dean Sharp, the House Whisper,
custom home Builder, custom home designer, and most importantly, today,
your guide to transforming your ordinary house into an extraordinary home.
It is a beautiful, blustery, maybe well coolish, but I
(00:44):
think it's going to be a slightly warm autumn southern
California morning here, Saturday morning, October nineteenth, twenty twenty four.
Can you believe it? Can you believe October is more
than halfway done? I can't. I don't want that to
be true, but it is because we face the facts
around here, right, We're not making up our own realities.
(01:04):
Just got to face it. But I'm just saying, just
put my vote in. I could stretch October out a
good deal further because we're rolling into the holidays and
this is my favorite time of year, and I would
gladly do a two for one every single day of autumn. Nonetheless,
we are here, and I hope you are enjoying the
(01:25):
loveliness of this morning. Certainly, pour yourself a warm comfort beverage,
and settle in. If you're driving, stay awake, and if not,
settle in and enjoy our time together. Here. We're going
to be talking about some news and some views, and
taking calls and more calls. That's the agenda for today.
(01:48):
I've just got a mishmash of things that i want
to discuss with you tomorrow's show, by the way, we're
going to be talking about the marvels of the connected home,
the monitored home. That is where we'll take the entire
show tomorrow. But today we're gonna be all over the place,
most importantly with your calls. By the way, Producer Richie's
(02:11):
standing by the phone. Lines are open. He is ready
to pop you into the queue. Anything you want to
talk about your home? Eight three three to ask Dean
eight three three the numeral to ask dean eight three
three to ask Dean. It's just that easy. We will
go to the phones as soon as the lines start
(02:34):
to pop. It on here and if we do this
all right, we're gonna bring some light into your morning,
make you feel glad that you were here. The team
is here. Sam is on the board. Good morning, Dean,
Good morning. Here's Sam taking care of our live studio audience.
They are a dependable bunch, those guys. They're so reliable
(02:58):
they are. And you know what also nice about our
studio audience. The volume control just just be able to like, hey, everybody,
get louder, now get quieter, all right, thanks a lot,
total control of our live air quotes. Studio audience producer
Richie I said, standing by nowhere near Mike, but he's out.
(03:18):
Oh look at that calls flooding in already, So Richie
is busy handling all of that. Heather Brooker in the
KFI twenty four hour news room with her hands firmly
on the wheel. Good morning, Anther, Good morning. How you doing, Bud.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
I'm so good. I'm so glad to be here with you.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Are you really?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
I am?
Speaker 1 (03:40):
I mean, I know, you know, I mean we're friends
and it's nice for you to be here. But it's
in the morning A sad.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Well, okay, now that you put it that way, I
do miss my bed, but I will say I enjoy
your show so much. I find it a very like
calming and like beautiful way to kind of start the weekend.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
So yeah, I'm need to be here.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
There are worse ways, like we could start with like
murder shows and like crimes.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
There are which, by the way, is something Tina would
really be in favor of. Oh yeah yeah, and like
like the yea through crime Tina is, she'd be like
you know, she would She's She's often asked me, is
there any way that we can incorporate true crime more murdered?
(04:28):
A lot of murders take place in homes, That's true,
a lot of them do.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Maybe Robin will come up with a crossover between Home
and like Unsolved. There's got to be some kind of
crossover episodes there.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Here's what I would love. Here's what I would love,
you know what, And I would I would put in
an extra two hours of work on on a Saturday
or a Sunday if Tina actually hosted a true crime
show and I got to be like the sidekick, I'd
just been sitting over there occasionally not come in all
as she does. What what? Well?
Speaker 2 (05:05):
You well, good morning, good morning. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
I don't know if you noticed, but you weren't here
last week very much at all.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yeah, but it was also my birthday.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Yeah, I'm just saying, I'm just saying, Okay, sitting across
the table from me. By the way, my better half,
my design partner, my best friend in all the world.
You know her is True Crime Tina. I know her
as just the boss. Uh Tina, good morning. Wouldn't that
(05:34):
be cool? Though? Would you do that? Would you host
a Kafi show on True Crome? Not to take anything
away from Steve Gregory clearly, who's who's a real journalist.
Who's a real journalist, goes.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Into your house and then he's like, oh my gosh,
this is terrible. I was like, look at the lighting.
He's like, forget it. I'm going to a different house.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
He's a serial killer who also does remodeling. I think we're.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Onto something, guys. I'm not gonna lie. This feels good.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
We're I think it's on a good sitcom.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
I'm just saying.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Home improvement, okay, and I'm going to work on this.
I'm gonna come up with a title for this by
the time we come back.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Maybe people can like weigh in on what would this
crew time?
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Yeah, if you're already planning on calling in. Feel free
to call in and give me a title for our
new show, Sam call it. It should be a sitcom. I
think our new show based on the idea of a
serial killer who also remodels homes and does it, I mean,
does it really well, really well. I'll tell you one
(06:45):
thing about it serious, you know what, I'm just wasting
so much.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Time, he kills me.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
One thing about a serial killer. A lot of them
are very clean, you know, and people would appreciate that.
They would appreciate stir Yeah. Yeah, you'd appreciate coming home
to an instruction site and that's like, oh my goodness,
did anything happen here today? And the guy's like, nope, nothing.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
You're like, wait a minute, where's the bath?
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Absolutely nothing happened here today? Makescept construction, nothing else, I promise.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Why is there that new concrete?
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Don't get out the blue light? All right, all right, y'all,
we're clearly very tired and losing our minds, and we
will be back to discuss some very interesting news on
the home building front when we return Your Home with
(07:38):
Dean Sharp the House Whisper am I Dean Sharp, the
House Whisper at your service. Hey, thanks for joining us
on the program this morning. We've got so many things
to talk about, including the new show that our morning
crew here has in development. We're working on a new
show in which we combine a great home design with murder,
(07:59):
and uh, we're just we're trying to figure it out.
I got to tell you guys this. Okay. First of all,
I only came up with one name during the break
because you know, it's early, but I thought it would
be cool. You know, he's a fantastic decorator by day
and a serial killer by night. Welcome to felony or fabulous?
(08:22):
What do you think? No, No, that's a pass. That's
a hard pass. That's not gonna work. Okay, all right,
crying baby, be quiet.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
That feels like it could be a reality competition show.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
It would be, it would be all right. So all right,
So I regret having a little bit having having even
brought this subject up, because I went and I searched
and guess what there is on Oh my god, there
is there is one.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
How is that even possible?
Speaker 1 (08:52):
All Right? Tina and I do not watch you know,
any any reality or or home improvement television, but here
it is murder House Flip it's a show that's been
running since it's still running apparently since.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Funny enough, what I watched a true crime episode where
the people were going to be on that show.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Oh well, okay, well it's still it's a thing. It's
a thing since twenty twenty. It's they're in their fourth
season Murder House flip.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
I think it's about houses that they potentially had.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
They find houses that have had murders in them, and
then they decide to renovate them. Well, big deal. But
they also talk about the history of the thing, and
some people like the idea of living in a murder house.
I guess, or I don't know. Anyway, you know what,
now we get into ghosts. Let me tell you what's
unfortunate about the world we live in. If you've if
(09:48):
you've thought about it, someone's already doing it, whether you
should or not. Okay, even if you were just joking.
All right, anyway, Hey, we're going to be going the
phones when we return from break and let me give
you the number again, eight three to three two. Ask
Dean eight three three the numeral two, ask Dean. So
(10:11):
just no, we've got room. We've got some calls on
the board, but we've got room for you, and I
select calls randomly, so you've got as good a chance
if you called in right now then if you called
in an hour ago, which you know, actually a better
chance because the phone lines weren't open an hour ago.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Let me give you some news here, a little tidbit
of news our homes getting smaller. This was a report
out of let me pull up my notes here. Bump,
but a bump, bump bum. This was in US News
and World Report, an article talking about there is a
(10:47):
shift toward smaller homes.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
And they're almost apologetic about it. They're like, well, you know,
there is a shift happening towards smaller homes. But with
the right strategy, don't worry. You can still make a
big impression. Smaller homes are great, by the way, they're great.
And let's just talk about how out of control this
has gotten in recent years. When they say small. Okay,
(11:13):
During the second quarter of twenty twenty four, single family
home under construction in the United States had an average
square footage of twenty three hundred square feet. That's a
roomy house. That's a roomy house. Okay. And then now
now we're talking that, by the way, is down from
(11:35):
twenty four hundred and fifty five square feet during the
second quarter of twenty twenty three and twenty five hundred
and thirty five square feet the second quarter of twenty
twenty two. I mean, okay, we're down a couple hundred
square feet off of twenty five hundred square feet. That's big.
If you have ever questioned whether or not a small
(11:58):
home is the way to go, let me just stay
or this. From a design perspective for you, the advantages
of small home are numerous if you are ready to
step into one. Number One, they don't cost as much
period number because you know, housing prices are still countt
largely on square footage prices. Number two, a small home
(12:21):
is easier to maintain because there's less of it. A
small home costs less to heat, cost less to cool,
and so on. Number Three. From the pure home design perspective,
a small home means smaller square footages. Smaller square footages
mean that you could afford to buy the better material,
(12:43):
the stuff that costs a little bit more per square foot,
and plug it into your home and have a much
more gorgeous home. Why because you're not using as much
of it. Right, If you've got to cover you know,
a flooring, for instance, in a three thousand square foot house,
all right, you're gonna have to be pretty conscientious about
(13:04):
the price per square foot of the material that you're
laying down. But if you've got fifteen hundred square feet
half of that, then you can afford to go a
little bit more esiar on your materials and live in
a smaller but higher quality residence when you're done. So,
I don't think it's bad news at all whatsoever that
(13:24):
home sizes are reducing, especially since we're talking about a
two hundred square foot reduction and we're already in the
mid two thousands of square footage for the average that's
the average home being built right now, new homes being
built in the US, all right, So much more to
come your calls when we return your Home with Dean
(13:45):
Sharp the House Whisper. You're listening to Home with Dean
Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty am, I
AM forty live dreaming in ad everywhere on the Iheartrate.
You app just like the man said, you are Home
with Dean Sharp the House Whisper. It is time to
(14:06):
go to the phones. Let's talk to Henderson. Henderson, welcome home.
Oh day, I know, Henderson. Take me off speaker phone,
get close and personal. Guy. It sounds like you're in
a giant box. I'm actually on my computer. Uh oh, Okay,
(14:31):
we'll do our best, okay, and adorn a new construction.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
Are there points in which I should get an independent inspector?
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Okay, I'm gonna pop you on hold Henderson because the
feedback and the it's just a weird sound. But I
did hear your question. Henderson wants to know he's doing
a new construction. Is there are there points in which
he should get an independent inspector? That is a question
I get asked all the time because people are just
really unsure about making sure that the quality of the
(15:06):
construction is appropriate. So here is the thing. There are points,
especially in southern California and in other jurisdictions, in which
an independent inspection of sorts is required. And what I
mean by that there are things like, for instance, if
you pour concrete now in Los Angeles, City of Los
(15:26):
Angeles or Los Angeles County, a deputy inspector has to
be hired by the concrete company to be there, or
the contractor to be there present during the placement of
the concrete to verify that. And this is structural concrete,
not driveways or anything like that, but structural concrete concrete
that matters most. They have to be there and sign
(15:50):
off on it. There are inspectors that you can be
hired to walk through and examine phases of a job,
so I don't have a blanket opinion about it. I
would say this, The most important thing you can do
is number one, to make sure that the job is
(16:10):
being done legally with permits. And that means that the
city inspector is going to be there making sure in
every phase of the project that things are up to
spec As far as quality of workmanship is concerned, beyond
just the basics, youve got to trust your contractor. Don't
(16:30):
hire a contractor that you don't trust to have a
higher standard than the building department. I currently have a
side gig right now for one particular client. I am
assisting a particular client in Beverly Hills as kind of
an independent reviewer of their project because outside of their control,
(16:54):
their parents hired a contractor who is terrible, just terrible.
I'm trying to come up with the right word, terrible
contractor the kind of contractor who that they thought they
were saving money with. And I don't know why they
haven't fired him, honestly, but they're still with him, and
(17:17):
he has cost them more money than then they could
possibly imagine having saved by going with so. So, yeah,
there is a time. There is a time if you
lose faith or have hired the wrong contractor, no question,
there is a time to have an independent set of
(17:37):
eyeballs come in, knowledgeable, professional expert eyes to make sure
that things are going right, to basically catch the things
that are slipping through the cracks. But generally speaking, generally speaking,
the combination of the building department and an ethical, well vetted,
good quality general contractor eliminates the need for that kind
(18:00):
of thing because things should be done right. And again,
this is not an area where you want to pinch
every penny when you're finding your contractor. I know they're expensive,
the good ones are more expensive than the bad ones,
but there's a reason for that. You find somebody who's
passionate about what they do, who believes in what they do,
(18:23):
and who does it well and holds themselves to the
highest standard possible. So you don't have to hold them
to another standard as well. And that's the best advice
I've got for you, Henderson. Thanks for the call, buddy.
We will go back to the phones. Gee sharp, the
house whisper, welcome home. Thanks for joining us on the program.
You know what, it's almost seven o'clock. We're almost done
(18:44):
with the first hour of our fine little program here.
We are taking calls right now, and I've also got
some news and some tidbits and some interesting stuff to
talk to you about. Let's go ahead and take another call,
and then we'll move into some of the other material
and then we'll go back to calls in a little bit.
The number to reach me, by the way, eight three
(19:06):
three two. Ask Dean A three three the numeral two
ask Dean eight three three to ask Dean anything you
want to talk about regarding your home. Our phone lines
are open. Producer Richie's standing by. He'll tell you everything
you need to know. Poppy into the queue and then
you and I we can put our heads together. We'll
figure out what's going on with your home design, construction, DIY,
(19:28):
anything at all? A three three two ask Dean. All right,
let's talk to uh. Let's talk to Noreen. Noreen, welcome home.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Oh good morning, Dean, my favorite person on KFI. I'd
love your show.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
I have a question. We have a live in a
house probably brought in here, moved in here in the
nineteen fifties, and then that part of the house is
the old part of the house that the peers under
the house are concrete, and they're kind of deteriorating. And
I know it because when somebody walks behind me, when
(20:07):
I'm sitting in a rocking chair, I can feel the
floor bounce. So I called out. Two companies came out,
and the one they give me the estimates online on
my computer. One of them says that the peers he
wants to put in is going to be made of
composite with jack something another I don't know what that means,
(20:30):
but I guess it's a still bar that's on like
a like a car jack. I guess where they can
level the floor up. And he wants to use composite
instead of concrete. And the other man wants to bring
in concrete and poor peers underneath with buckets of concrete,
(20:54):
and he's even more expensive. I think the one that
wants to do the composite that wants sixty sixteen thousand,
five hundred dollars, and the other one that's going to
use concrete peers. He didn't tell me how many he's
going to put in, but he wants about twenty thousand dollars,
(21:15):
and I think he wants to put his about four
feet apart. Two do they need to be that close together?
Do you think? And do I need to use concrete
or should should I go with some one that is
going to put thirty peers under six hundred square feet? No,
(21:35):
nine hundred square feet of house? A new edition doesn't
need peers, right right?
Speaker 1 (21:43):
All right? Well, excellent question, and one that opens up
a whole category of conversation about how we go about
figuring out how to fix or improve or upgrade, especially
an older house like your house. So here is the thing.
(22:06):
I don't know for sure whether each of the guys
who came out, each of these contractors have their own
engineers that work for them, But it almost doesn't matter
to me because since they have engineers that work for them,
if they do, then they're going to be biased toward
their system and toward the quantities that they're suggesting, so
(22:30):
they have a vested interest in supporting what the contractor
is going to do. Secondly, a lot of shockingly, a
lot of foundation contractors who reading the fine print, they're
not guaranteeing that this is all the fix because this
is their opinion about what has to go underneath your
house to fix it, to restore it, and so on.
(22:52):
What I think you should do in cases like this
is it's interesting because you know, I answered a previous
caller about independent inspector. This is not because you have
a contractor. You don't have one right now. But what
I think you should do is you should actually have
a conversation with a structural engineer, okay, an independent structural
(23:13):
engineer or a foundation company that uses an independent structural engineer.
So the point is this, you want an unbiased opinion
from an actual structural engineer about number one, the condition
of your existing peers, and number two, what also needs
(23:35):
to be done to shore up the house. I can't
tell you how far apart new peers need to go.
In fact, I can't even tell you that you need
new peers. Okay, because quite often what happens over decades
and decades is settlement of the soil and the peers,
and the reason why a floor may be sagging or
(23:55):
maybe a peer appears to be quote unquote failing, has
everything to do with the fact that the wood post
on top of the pier is now not long enough
because the peer has settled into the soil some or
maybe the wood post has deteriorated some. Maybe you have
enough peers, but they just need to be recut for
their posts in order to jack the floor up and
(24:17):
hold it stable. Or maybe there's a need for more.
How many that's something truly that a structural engineer would
be the best person to tell you. You could call them out.
You're going to pay them a few hundred dollars to
give you an independent consult. They'll crawl under the house,
they'll take a look around, they'll examine the needs, and
(24:39):
they'll be able to give you a full perspective of
what is necessary. And then based on that report, based
on that structural engineering report, then you take bids from
these concrete guide or from the foundation people, so that
they're bidding apples and apples. Honestly, Nourene, I'll tell you it.
(25:00):
It's a toolbox. Concrete peers are great composite or steal
a screwjack peers. They're great, they just have to be
for the right situation, in the right condition. And so
it's not like, oh, one's better than other and other.
You know, it's all a tool bag and we reach
in and we pull out the ones that fit your
(25:20):
situation best. How do we know at this point we
need to get the real professional, unvested opinion in there,
and that would be a structural engineer. You're paying a
structural engineer just to look at your house and give
you a suggestion. Therefore, they're not going to be leaning
towards you know, they're going to get paid no matter what,
(25:42):
whether they say everything is fine and you just need
a few little things or whether you need sixty peers,
they're going to give you their unbiased opinion because they've
got no skin in the game as to what you
do next. So that is the best course of action
for you and then proceed from there because it all works,
But is it too much? Is it too little? Independent
(26:03):
opinion at this point would be the key. Dorian, thank
you for your call and for your question, So appreciated.
This is why we take calls because they open up
these subjects for everybody, and good luck with the proceeding
with that, all right, more when we return you are
Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper on KFI. You're
(26:23):
listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI
AM six forty
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