May 19, 2024 • 30 mins
Dean helps a caller dealing with buckling luxury vinyl and how to fix the problem. Dean says views and vistas are important and every house needs more windows for great views & that includes a nice landscape with your outdoor living. Dean shares about the biggest mistakes people make in their backyards and on outdoor furniture. Pus, Brian from Aldik Home furniture joins Dean as he talks about their products and how to bring your outdoor living area to life.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
KFI AM six forty. You're listeningto Dean Sharp The House Whisper on demand
on the iHeartRadio app. I AmDean Sharp, the House Whisper here with
you live like I am every weekend, Saturday morning, six day Pacific time,
Sunday mornings nine to noon Pacific time. Thanks for joining us on the
program. We are talking outdoor Livingtoday. We've been talking it all weekend.
(00:24):
We are continuing today. Today ispart two of a two part series.
If you missed yesterday's show, checkus out on the podcast. You
can find the Home podcast on theiHeartRadio app or wherever your favorite podcasts are
found, Apple Podcasts, Spotify.You just enter in Home with Dean Sharp
and boom, there you go.Hundreds of episodes, a veritable home improvement
(00:47):
reference library at your fingertips. Youcan listen whenever you like, however many
times you like. That's the podcast. So we'll get back to Outdoor Living
in just a bit. But it'stop of the hour, so we are
taken calls, and whenever we takecalls, you decide what it is that
we're talking about regarding your home.I want to talk to Bonnie. Hey,
Bonnie, Welcome, home. Hi, Deine. I had luxury vinyl
(01:14):
flooring installed in my condo about threeyears ago, and it is starting to
buckle and lift at the scenes,and when I walk on it, it
pops and crackles, and I'm thinkingthey probably installed it without enough float space,
and I'm wondering if I have anyother options other than to have it
(01:34):
pulled out and reinstalled. Yeah,okay, now, all right, describe
that to me one more time.As far as what you're experiencing, is
the floor raised it all or whenyou're walking across it you're hearing weird stuff.
Both, it's at all of thescenes that's kind of ridging up and
at the endpoints it's also kind ofpushing up, kind of like a plate
(01:55):
tectonic sort of thing. And alsocertain places where I step on it,
it pops and cracks and it's upthe whole house. Yeah, yeah,
uh okay, Yeah, that's it'sa It sounds to me like and it's
luxury vinyl plank. Yeah, yes, it is. Okay, a lot
of proof stuff. Yeah, itsounds to me like an installation problem.
(02:20):
Unfortunately, I don't I'm not goingthere's nothing that you're going to be able
to do from it for it,from up on top of it, where
you're standing it. Fortunately, we'renot going to lose the floor right because
it was. It's a click clockfloor, and it can be unzipped and
removed and reinstalled properly. But it'sreally critical. It is critical when you're
installing a floating floor of any kind, whether it's lamin it or SBC or
(02:47):
or luxury vinyl plank, that theinstallers take very very seriously. Two things.
Number one, the material itself shouldsit in its boxes. Doesn't matter
whether it's open or in it's butthe material itself should be sitting in the
room that it's getting installed in fora good forty eight to seventy two hours
(03:07):
or more before installed. I diddo that, Okay, good, good.
Then this I think is a pureinstall problem because floors expand. The
floating floors expand and contract in heatand cold as the weather changes, and
as a result, they need alittle bit of room to do that.
(03:29):
Now, it doesn't seem doesn't seemlike like you know, like that would
make sense because how much is thisplank going to expand? Well, you
think about it in this term,if one plank expands a sixty fourth of
an inch. I mean, justnothing. Right, if one plank expands
(03:50):
the sixty fourth of an inch,Well, you count the planks across the
large room. There may be fortyfifty, maybe even sixty planks across the
room. And if let's say youhave a space where there are sixty four
planks across the room, each oneis expanding one, that means that whole
floor is going an inch growing aninch. Okay, now that's an extreme
(04:13):
example, but I use that justso everybody realizes it is a real thing.
Okay, the struggle is real.So they did they remove the baseboards
and then install this plank material closeto the walls or did they just drop
a base shoe down after they installedthe floor, like a little trim piece.
(04:34):
I wasn't here when they installed it, but they did put in.
The room didn't have baseboards before,so then they did installed on top of
the planks a six inch baseboard that'sagainst the wall. Yeah, so what
they did is they covered the edgeof the floor with the baseboard, which
(04:54):
is great. I mean, Iactually prefer that. It's a much cleaner
installation, but U they needed tohave left at least a quarter inch gap
in between the dry wall and theedge of the floor all the way around
the entire room, per manufacturer specs. And that's what solves the expansion problem.
(05:15):
And hopefully they did nothing by wayof attaching the baseboards to the floor,
like no glue or or or orsilotar, because because if you because
that that stuff has to be ableto slide in and out underneath that baseboard
needs to be able to move backand forth, uh in an imperceivable way.
But strangely enough, this is whatcauses this problem. And so I'm
(05:39):
afraid, Bonnie, that you're gonnaneed to do a little forensic removal of
that floor and uh and then reinstallation. But the very first thing that you
should do is very carefully have thebaseboards, like in a given room that's
a problem room, have the baseboardsremoved so and don't touch the floor yet,
(06:00):
because what you want is you wantto be able to look down and
see what kind of a gap hasbeen left for you went how long ago
was it done? Let's say twoto three years ago, probably closer to
three. Okay, So all right, so that's so, so you've got
a ten year warranty on workmanship onthat floor now from the manufacture of the
(06:21):
floor. Just California state law.Okay, ten year warranty workmanship for any
contractor installing anything in your house.And I don't think he was a contractor.
He is like a friend of afriend who needed work. All right,
it's all clear. Now, body'sclear. Now, all right,
(06:44):
buddy. But again, just torule out that it's nothing else causing the
problem. When you address a room, take the worst room. Take the
baseboards off so you can look down, so we can visibly see. Yep,
it's way too close to the drywall. It's pushing up that kind of
a thing. If we don't findthat to be the case and it's still
welled up in the middle, thenwe have to think about other things.
(07:04):
But either way, I'm telling youright now that floor is gonna have to
be undone. Uh to get tothe root of the matter and laid back
down again. I am so sorryI have to tell you that, but
it's just the way it is.It's the truth. Oh that sounds very
expensive. I wish I uh,I wish I I had better news for
(07:27):
you, But that's just that's thethat's that's what it's gonna take Bonnie,
Okay, I was afraid of thatthat. I kind of wanted to get
your opinion before I started calling aroundfor quotes. So I appreciate the information.
You are very very welcome. Thanks. I appreciate your trust in me,
and definitely get quotes. Definitely getquotes, get two, three or
four right, they're all gonna befree estimates. You definitely want to get
(07:50):
quotes and other expert eyes on aswell. And just like a really good
ven diagram where everybody is commenting onthe same thing, they over lap of
all of these various contractors commenting onthat floor. That's the truth right there.
That's what's really going on where theyall share that opinion. That's why
we get multiple quotes on this kindof stuff. All right, y'all,
(08:11):
when we come back, let's let'stalk outdoor living some more, especially with
my in studio guest Brian Gold fromal Dick Home. So much more to
come. You're listening to Home withDean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six
forty. It's always a privilege anda pleasure to spend some time with you
(08:31):
on your very valuable Sunday mornings.And here you are here we are.
I'm glad we're together, and ifwe do our job right, we're going
to bring a little light into yourday and you're gonna be glad you tuned
in. We are talking outdoor livingtoday. I've got all sorts of stuff
going on, but i also havemost importantly a very special friend and in
(08:52):
studio guest with me today, ourpatio furniture expert, Brian Gold from ald
Comb is here. Brian, howyou doing, Buda, Thanks again for
being with us. As always,Brian is a friend, a veteran of
the show, as you can tellby his dynamic radio voice that we make
(09:13):
fun of all the time. ButBrian is just such a kind hearted guy
and knows so much about this becauseAl Dick has made all the right decisions
when it came a few years backto deciding to carry patio furniture, and
like everything Al Dick does, Igotta tell you, they just said,
you know what, let's just findthe best patio furniture in North America,
(09:37):
possibly on the planet, but we'rejust saying for sure that you can get
your hands on in North America.We'll just find the best stuff. And
they went and went and looked andlooked, I mean, did serious,
serious due diligence research, just turningstuff down left and right, and they
settled on Summer Classics, which issome great furniture. And here I am
setting this all up, and Idon't even want to talk about that right
(09:58):
now, because we're back talking aboutoutdoor living. And so here's where I'm
going to pull Brian in the beginningof solving these problems. This natural relationship,
this biophilic relationship that human beings havewith nature, the beginning of it.
As a designer, this is thedesigner talking to you now, not
(10:20):
the contractor. The designer. Iwill tell you right now, the beginning
of your outdoor, backyard design orjust design on your property period starts inside
your house. Starts inside the house. Okay with that, what I mean
is this, As you know wewere already talking earlier on the show,
(10:41):
views and vistas are critically important.Okay, every view, every vista,
and so here is my rule.It's very very simple, right, every
wind, every house needs more windows, every window needs a view. Okay,
So landscape design needs to serve ourtime inside the house as much as
(11:03):
it serves us outside the house.And I mean, yeah, every room
needs a view, including those bedroomswhose windows open up to the side yard
of the house. Right, ifyou're gonna do a masterful job with your
landscape design and your outdoor living,you're going to take into account that when
you open a window in your house, we are setting up like a just
like you were making a diorama whenyou were in a grade school as a
(11:26):
kid, that aperture that looks out. Okay, So knowing that, that's
how we're gonna deal with the outsideand that's a way of bringing outside in.
Another way of bringing outside in isactually bringing those natural shapes and textures
and colors literally inside the house.Now you can do it with houseplants,
(11:46):
of course, but there's another trickthat designers like me have up our sleeves
that we use even more powerfully andmore permanently, and that is with silk
flowers and trees that have been customdesigned to fit in a specific room with
a motif and a shape and allof that kind of stuff. And I'm
(12:07):
not talking about the kind of stuffyou just grab off the internet somewhere or
you run down to wherever and findsome plastic plant somewhere, because that ain't
helping anybody relax inside your home.If anything, it draws attention over to
like, oh, that's an interestingplastic plant you have sitting there in the
corner of the room. What I'mtalking about is the stuff literally that you
(12:28):
can find at Aldic, which arejust these custom made flower arrangements. I
mean, I've got two of themin my home that I have been sitting
there for I'm going to say yearand a half, year and a half,
and nobody even asks me whether ornot they are real. Even people
who come over all the time,they just assume, oh, that's beautiful,
(12:50):
that's just gorgeous. I get commentson it all the time, but
nobody ever asks. And that's whatwe're looking for. That's why I send
you to Aldic Holme by the way. Anyway, Brian, I know we
were talking. We're going to talkpatio furnture today, all right, but
you guys are also doing this yeartrees, I mean trees, And the
very first thing that's most impressive forme is that you're using real trunks,
(13:13):
real wood trunks, right, Soall of our artificial trees are made with
real trunks, so you get thatlevel of realism, right, off the
bat it's all the natural shapes,and then we use the trunks specifically for
whichever shape you're looking for. Sowe make the trees in house. And
if you're looking for a specific shapeor a specific size, it's just about
(13:35):
using the right trunk to get thatlook and going off of the inspiration that
that natural shape gives us. Andwhen we say custom in house, let
me just say this, and Isay this because this is a resource for
everybody in southern California. At alDick, they have had this policy for
I think forever. If you walkinto the store, over on the left
(13:56):
hand side is the flower bar andthe tree bar, and basically what you
do is you can move through theentire store and select the materials. You
select the materials that you're looking for, the flowers, the blossoms, the
stems, the tree truck, whateverthat case may be. You go and
you pay for the materials and youjust bring them all over to the tree
bar or the flower bar, andwe've got like professional designers there who will
(14:22):
set it all up, build it, arrange it free, you know,
free of charge. That's just builtin to the to the thing. You
just pay for the materials. Youmight be intimidated that we're gonna charge a
design fee or something like that,but you just pay for whatever goes into
that arrangement or the materials of thetree, and then we'll build it right
for you. Even if you startwith a picture that you saw somewhere or
(14:46):
a painting or something like that inspiration, we can use that as a jumping
off point and walk around and showyou exactly what will work for that project.
Perfect. I just had to getthat in even though we're gonna talk
patio furniture next, but I hadto get that in because it's such a
an amazing thing. And in thekind of trunks is it? Is it
(15:07):
Vietnamese vine, There's there's one that'swater vine. It's it's, oh my
gosh, it kind of spirals up. It's so incredible, it's it's so
fanciful. I mean, it's justso here's a problem. Here's literally a
problem. There's one problem with aldictrees. Okay, are you ready?
Uh? When when they get placedin commercial environments, the janitorial staff comes
(15:31):
by and waters them. They waterthem. They're not alive, but they
get watered and they get just theyget damaged because they look so realistic.
People are like, well, weshould water this, right, It's just
that's what we tell people. Yougo on vacation, you got to make
sure whoever's watching your house doesn't wantto don't water this tree. All right,
You're gonna be tempted, but don'tdo it. All right. All
(15:54):
right, when we come back,we're gonna talk about one of the biggest
mistakes that you very likely have madein regards to placement of your patio furniture
in your backyard, and then we'lltalk about the patio furniture itself. Go
know where your Home with Dean Sharpthe House Whisper. You're listening to Home
with Dean Sharp on demand from KFIAm sixty. Oh hi everyone, welcome
(16:19):
home. You are Home with DeanSharp the House with you. I was
just we were just talking about Royand I were just talking about the ability
to fall asleep immediately when it's timefor bed. You're just done, You're
done. And I was just mentioninghow my lovely wife, my bride,
is a borderline narcoleptic. This isnothing, this is nothing new. She
(16:41):
knows this is true. Yeah,Tina could sleep anywhere she could sleep through
a nuclear blast. I'm telling youthat girl. Uh, it's it's her
pure spirit. It's same with you. It's your soul, your's Your soul
is clean. Me. I justlay in bed and at the ceiling and
I just think dark thoughts. Ihave to distract myself. But your souls
(17:07):
are pure. That's what I'm saying. All right, KFI am six forty
your home with Dean sharp the housewhisper. We're talking outdoor, a living
own. By the way, wewill be going back to the phones today
again near the top of the hour. The number to reach me eight three
three two. Ask Dean eight threethree the numeral two. Ask Dean.
(17:30):
If you're already on the line youwant to hang, We're gonna get there.
But there's also room on the callboardfor everybody else as well. Eight
three three two ask Dean. Thereyou go. All right, before the
break, I teased you with thiswas gonna tell you one of the most
common design mistakes that a lot ofpeople make in regards to their patio furniture.
(17:52):
Talk about getting out and enjoying outdoorsspace. All right, part of
this biophilic drive to get spend moretime outside really from a design perspective,
has to do with a couple ofthings. Okay, Number one is if
we're gonna be spending time outside loungingabout, you gotta have some comfortable furniture.
(18:15):
And what I and I'm not justsaying that in terms of you know
it would be nice to have comfortablefurniture. I mean no, I mean
you. If you don't know that, you know that, you know that
the furniture outside is as lovely tospend time in as the furniture in your
living room, then you ain't going. When push comes to shove, if
(18:38):
there's any hesitation whatsoever, you're stayinginside, right. So that's why it's
important. It's important. One ofthe things I love about al Dick Brian
is the fact that you guys havegot so much of summer classics on display
everywhere. One of the things thatRoy and I love to do every time
we come down to the store fora meeting is and we have learned not
to come early because we will sitdown in that one set up by the
(19:02):
front door and just fall asleep.We'll just fall asleep there so and we
won't get out of that chair,and then we won't get any business done,
which is not good on a businessday. But that's exactly what you
want happening in your backyard when it'stime to chill out. All right,
So the idea is this, you'vegot you don't buy furniture online, okay,
(19:23):
never never, indoor outdoor, period. Don't don't do that, all
right, unless it's super easy toreturn because stuff can look you know,
anything looks good in a photograph,period. Right. The Internet tells you
nothing about whether you are when yousit down in a thing, whether it's
going to just welcome you in.But you've got to find yourself some patio
(19:47):
furniture that is comfortable so that youwill go outside and then here we go.
The number one mistake that most peoplemake in regards to their design of
their yards is that what the patio, This concrete patio is just right outside
the door, and you think that'sfor convenience sake? Is that? Well,
that makes sense or that's what thebuilders who originally built my house,
(20:11):
that's where they put the patio.That's fine, I get that. I'm
just saying, walk through your yard. Forget about furniture. Just walk through
your yard, okay, walk throughyour yard. And ask yourself the question.
Don't think about practicalities. Just askyourself the question as you walk around
your entire yard, where is thespot in your yard that you actually would
(20:32):
like to spend most of your time. I guarantee you it is right.
Is not right next to the hotstucco wall on the outside of your house,
okay. In other words, makeyour patio set up a destination,
draw people out into your yard,be able to see it, not have
(20:52):
to look over it when you're lookingout your windows. By the way,
that's another thing I talk about indoorviews of the yard. Okay. I
don't want the backs of patio furnitureblocking the lower third of your view out
there because it's shoved right up againstall your windows or your sliding doors.
I want it further out in theyard. Make it a destination. Make
(21:12):
me walk a path through the gardenin order to arrive at the best possible
spot. Maybe it's underneath that bigshady tree. Maybe it's out on the
edge of your property. Because you'reup on a hill and you've got a
view. That's where I want tospend my time. I want to sit
out there where I can see theview, not right next to the hot
(21:34):
concrete and stucco wall of the backof your house. All right, So
it is a combination of these twofactors. Number One, Place the patio
and I'm talking, of course,to those of you who have control of
this or I'm thinking about it's timefor a makeover for our rear yard area.
All right. Place the seating areain the best spot in the whole
(21:59):
yard, period right. I don'tcare where it is or how far we
have to walk. I mean,most of you are not living on multi
acre properties. Now, nobody's gonnahave to get on a golf cart to
go to the best spot in youryard. It's just a few more feet,
okay, but that few more feetI'm telling you, Trust me on
this. It makes a world ofdifference, a world of difference. And
(22:22):
if knowing that at the very bestspot to spend time in my yard,
there is some dang comfortable furniture tospend it on. Man, guess what
you're going outside. You're going outside, and then you're gonna pull in all
the benefits of outdoor living right there. Boom, All right, I'm handing
(22:44):
out pearls today. We got moreto come. You hang tight, your
Home with Dean Sharp, the HouseWhisper. You're listening to Home with Dean
Sharp on demand from KFI Am sixforty say. Beautiful, beautiful southern California
spring sun morning. I don't knowif it has cleared where you are,
but the sun is out now,kind of cut through the mist of May.
(23:08):
What is the term people have beencalling it? Stuff may gray.
That's what it is. Cut throughthe May gray here finally and just gorgeous
outside right now. I hope yougot plans for this day because there's some
good stuff happening outside, and we'retalking about outdoor living. We're talking about
you and your relationship to nature andwhy outdoor living and designing stuff outside your
(23:33):
house, on the property that you'vegot, whatever that may be, why
it's important. It's not just aluxury. It's not just a whimsy.
It's not just, oh, it'snice to have a barbecue and flip some
burgers on a Sunday afternoon. Butour relationship with nature is a serious thing
that we have been neglecting as aculture in general, in Western civilization,
(23:53):
and we are finding all sorts ofnot good things as a result. We
got to re connect, got toreconnect, got to spend some time.
Whether you think of yourself as anature person, a nature lover or not,
you are. Your body is right. Your body and your brain pre
programmed for a long, long longtime to want and yearn for and need
(24:18):
the patterns, the colors, thesounds, the textures that sendsorial experience of
being outdoors in nature. And we'redoing some very very simple, very reasonable,
very practical, but design sexy solutionsto that so that it happens right
(24:40):
in your backyard and you're not spendingyou're not breaking the bank on these things.
You know, for instance, you'regoing to make a seating area outside
your house in the backyard. Findthe best place in the yard to do
that seating area. Do you havethe money in your budget to pour another
little slab or a pad back there? Great? If you don't have it,
(25:02):
fine, right, define the area, put some bender board up,
define the area, fill that area, level it out with pea gravel,
right and boom. Now it's awell drained, semi soft surface out there.
Your feet crunch as you walk onit. I got pea gravel all
through my backyard, and Tina andI would never replace it with hard scape,
pure hardscape. One, it's permeable. It allows the rain to actually
(25:25):
soak into our yard and so whenit's raining we don't have to run our
irrigation as much. But two,I just love the sound of it.
There's nothing like getting up early inthe morning when everything is silent and listening
to my feet crunch across pea gravelin your backyard. It is simple.
It's pennies pennies on the dollar todo this, all right, but it's
the right moves to make if youreally want to enjoy it. Now,
(25:48):
we were talking about having comfortable furniture, right and we got to get to
it. We're going to spend acouple of minutes talking about it now and
then a little bit more after thebreak. But I've got Brian Gold,
my patio furniture expert from Aldcombe,sitting right across the table from me.
Brian, your patio furniture is myfavorite on the planet. Tell everybody why
(26:11):
our patio furniture that we have atAldacolm. It's all by summer classics,
so we're a little different than apatio furniture store. Have dozens of brands
and just a few pieces from eachone. Like you said, we scoured
through the market and found what wesaw was the best made, most comfortable
(26:33):
furniture, and then we figured outhow to fit a whole bunch of it
in the store. So we're showingi think two hundred pieces from thirty five
Summer Classics collections, just a celebrationof their furniture and how comfortable and how
well made it is. Everything fromsustainably harvested Indonesian teak to rod aluminum resin
(26:57):
wicker. There's a new collection that'smade using marine grade vinyl leather, so
it's the same material to use foryachts. So if you want to live
that yacht life in your backyard,it's you want to be the commodore.
You want to be the commodore ofyour backyard. It's that classic, like
(27:18):
creamy white yacht leather. Right,that's on that that captain's chair sitting up
there on the bridge, right,that stuff is and Roy and I sat
in the other day and we werelike, holy cow, holy cow.
All right, So all right,I want to talk about the build of
the furniture on the other side ofthe break, right, but right,
but right before we go swing themic over there to Roy, because from
(27:44):
a from a pure you and me, Roy from it, from a pure
consumer perspective, man, you andI have sat in every bit of summer
classics furniture at Aldick and the U, and the experience has been get that
right in your face, man,My experience has been it seems like every
(28:04):
piece I sit in is more comfortablethan the last piece. Yeah, I'm
with you, man, I meanliterally, you walk into the store,
you see a beautiful arrangement of chairsand tables, trees, flowers, and
the environment is already set up foryou, right, so you set in
it and automatically you just want todose off because the chairs are so comfortable
(28:30):
and beautiful. Then you leave thatone and you walk about thirty feet more,
twenty feet more, and you seeanother setup. You sit in that
and it's even more comfortable than thatarrangement that you set in. So from
a consumer perspective, there's so manychoices and colors to choose from, and
fabrics that you literally just fall inlove with, so many different pieces and
(28:55):
so many different chairs and tables there. It's a furniture shoppers paradise, it
really is. I mean that's andI just got to emphasize we're not just
just jabbering away here or exaggerating aboutit, because you know what, I
have to sit in a lot offurniture all the time, and there's tons
(29:15):
of furniture out there that looks great, and you sit it and you're like,
nope, sorry, nope, youknow, because I've got very demanding
clientele, and so I'm going fora look and I find a piece that
has a look, and then Tinaand I get out there and we're like,
all right, time to sit down, and we're like, no,
keep looking it, just keep looking, because at the end of the day,
(29:37):
furniture gotta feel good, and it'sgot to feel good. And I'm
just telling you, guys, uh, you don't even have to worry about
it at when it comes to summerclassics because every and radically different looking stuff
and yet just oh and that's comfortabletoo, of course, that's comfortable.
These are the kinds of things thata quality furniture manufacturer builds in and it's
(30:02):
not like it's screaming out I'm themost comfortable piece of furniture you've sat in
today, but chances are it probablywill be it just that's the way it
goes, all right. When wecome back, though, I want to
talk about the hidden stuff, thestuff that other furniture manufacturers don't want to
talk about, and why it's important. This has been Home with Dean Sharp,
(30:22):
the House Whisper. Tune into thelive broadcast on KFI AM six forty
every Saturday morning from six to eightPacific time, and every Sunday morning from
nine to noon Pacific time, oranytime on demand on the iHeart Radio app.
KFI AM six forty. You're listeningto Dean Sharp The House Whisper on demand
on the iHeartRadio app. I AmDean Sharp, the House Whisper here with
you live like I am every weekend, Saturday morning, six day Pacific time,
Sunday mornings nine to noon Pacific time. Thanks for joining us on the
program. We are talking outdoor Livingtoday. We've been talking it all weekend.
(00:24):
We are continuing today. Today ispart two of a two part series.
If you missed yesterday's show, checkus out on the podcast. You
can find the Home podcast on theiHeartRadio app or wherever your favorite podcasts are
found, Apple Podcasts, Spotify.You just enter in Home with Dean Sharp
and boom, there you go.Hundreds of episodes, a veritable home improvement
(00:47):
reference library at your fingertips. Youcan listen whenever you like, however many
times you like. That's the podcast. So we'll get back to Outdoor Living
in just a bit. But it'stop of the hour, so we are
taken calls, and whenever we takecalls, you decide what it is that
we're talking about regarding your home.I want to talk to Bonnie. Hey,
Bonnie, Welcome, home. Hi, Deine. I had luxury vinyl
(01:14):
flooring installed in my condo about threeyears ago, and it is starting to
buckle and lift at the scenes,and when I walk on it, it
pops and crackles, and I'm thinkingthey probably installed it without enough float space,
and I'm wondering if I have anyother options other than to have it
(01:34):
pulled out and reinstalled. Yeah,okay, now, all right, describe
that to me one more time.As far as what you're experiencing, is
the floor raised it all or whenyou're walking across it you're hearing weird stuff.
Both, it's at all of thescenes that's kind of ridging up and
at the endpoints it's also kind ofpushing up, kind of like a plate
(01:55):
tectonic sort of thing. And alsocertain places where I step on it,
it pops and cracks and it's upthe whole house. Yeah, yeah,
uh okay, Yeah, that's it'sa It sounds to me like and it's
luxury vinyl plank. Yeah, yes, it is. Okay, a lot
of proof stuff. Yeah, itsounds to me like an installation problem.
(02:20):
Unfortunately, I don't I'm not goingthere's nothing that you're going to be able
to do from it for it,from up on top of it, where
you're standing it. Fortunately, we'renot going to lose the floor right because
it was. It's a click clockfloor, and it can be unzipped and
removed and reinstalled properly. But it'sreally critical. It is critical when you're
installing a floating floor of any kind, whether it's lamin it or SBC or
(02:47):
or luxury vinyl plank, that theinstallers take very very seriously. Two things.
Number one, the material itself shouldsit in its boxes. Doesn't matter
whether it's open or in it's butthe material itself should be sitting in the
room that it's getting installed in fora good forty eight to seventy two hours
(03:07):
or more before installed. I diddo that, Okay, good, good.
Then this I think is a pureinstall problem because floors expand. The
floating floors expand and contract in heatand cold as the weather changes, and
as a result, they need alittle bit of room to do that.
(03:29):
Now, it doesn't seem doesn't seemlike like you know, like that would
make sense because how much is thisplank going to expand? Well, you
think about it in this term,if one plank expands a sixty fourth of
an inch. I mean, justnothing. Right, if one plank expands
(03:50):
the sixty fourth of an inch,Well, you count the planks across the
large room. There may be fortyfifty, maybe even sixty planks across the
room. And if let's say youhave a space where there are sixty four
planks across the room, each oneis expanding one, that means that whole
floor is going an inch growing aninch. Okay, now that's an extreme
(04:13):
example, but I use that justso everybody realizes it is a real thing.
Okay, the struggle is real.So they did they remove the baseboards
and then install this plank material closeto the walls or did they just drop
a base shoe down after they installedthe floor, like a little trim piece.
(04:34):
I wasn't here when they installed it, but they did put in.
The room didn't have baseboards before,so then they did installed on top of
the planks a six inch baseboard that'sagainst the wall. Yeah, so what
they did is they covered the edgeof the floor with the baseboard, which
(04:54):
is great. I mean, Iactually prefer that. It's a much cleaner
installation, but U they needed tohave left at least a quarter inch gap
in between the dry wall and theedge of the floor all the way around
the entire room, per manufacturer specs. And that's what solves the expansion problem.
(05:15):
And hopefully they did nothing by wayof attaching the baseboards to the floor,
like no glue or or or orsilotar, because because if you because
that that stuff has to be ableto slide in and out underneath that baseboard
needs to be able to move backand forth, uh in an imperceivable way.
But strangely enough, this is whatcauses this problem. And so I'm
(05:39):
afraid, Bonnie, that you're gonnaneed to do a little forensic removal of
that floor and uh and then reinstallation. But the very first thing that you
should do is very carefully have thebaseboards, like in a given room that's
a problem room, have the baseboardsremoved so and don't touch the floor yet,
(06:00):
because what you want is you wantto be able to look down and
see what kind of a gap hasbeen left for you went how long ago
was it done? Let's say twoto three years ago, probably closer to
three. Okay, So all right, so that's so, so you've got
a ten year warranty on workmanship onthat floor now from the manufacture of the
(06:21):
floor. Just California state law.Okay, ten year warranty workmanship for any
contractor installing anything in your house.And I don't think he was a contractor.
He is like a friend of afriend who needed work. All right,
it's all clear. Now, body'sclear. Now, all right,
(06:44):
buddy. But again, just torule out that it's nothing else causing the
problem. When you address a room, take the worst room. Take the
baseboards off so you can look down, so we can visibly see. Yep,
it's way too close to the drywall. It's pushing up that kind of
a thing. If we don't findthat to be the case and it's still
welled up in the middle, thenwe have to think about other things.
(07:04):
But either way, I'm telling youright now that floor is gonna have to
be undone. Uh to get tothe root of the matter and laid back
down again. I am so sorryI have to tell you that, but
it's just the way it is.It's the truth. Oh that sounds very
expensive. I wish I uh,I wish I I had better news for
(07:27):
you, But that's just that's thethat's that's what it's gonna take Bonnie,
Okay, I was afraid of thatthat. I kind of wanted to get
your opinion before I started calling aroundfor quotes. So I appreciate the information.
You are very very welcome. Thanks. I appreciate your trust in me,
and definitely get quotes. Definitely getquotes, get two, three or
four right, they're all gonna befree estimates. You definitely want to get
(07:50):
quotes and other expert eyes on aswell. And just like a really good
ven diagram where everybody is commenting onthe same thing, they over lap of
all of these various contractors commenting onthat floor. That's the truth right there.
That's what's really going on where theyall share that opinion. That's why
we get multiple quotes on this kindof stuff. All right, y'all,
(08:11):
when we come back, let's let'stalk outdoor living some more, especially with
my in studio guest Brian Gold fromal Dick Home. So much more to
come. You're listening to Home withDean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six
forty. It's always a privilege anda pleasure to spend some time with you
(08:31):
on your very valuable Sunday mornings.And here you are here we are.
I'm glad we're together, and ifwe do our job right, we're going
to bring a little light into yourday and you're gonna be glad you tuned
in. We are talking outdoor livingtoday. I've got all sorts of stuff
going on, but i also havemost importantly a very special friend and in
(08:52):
studio guest with me today, ourpatio furniture expert, Brian Gold from ald
Comb is here. Brian, howyou doing, Buda, Thanks again for
being with us. As always,Brian is a friend, a veteran of
the show, as you can tellby his dynamic radio voice that we make
(09:13):
fun of all the time. ButBrian is just such a kind hearted guy
and knows so much about this becauseAl Dick has made all the right decisions
when it came a few years backto deciding to carry patio furniture, and
like everything Al Dick does, Igotta tell you, they just said,
you know what, let's just findthe best patio furniture in North America,
(09:37):
possibly on the planet, but we'rejust saying for sure that you can get
your hands on in North America.We'll just find the best stuff. And
they went and went and looked andlooked, I mean, did serious,
serious due diligence research, just turningstuff down left and right, and they
settled on Summer Classics, which issome great furniture. And here I am
setting this all up, and Idon't even want to talk about that right
(09:58):
now, because we're back talking aboutoutdoor living. And so here's where I'm
going to pull Brian in the beginningof solving these problems. This natural relationship,
this biophilic relationship that human beings havewith nature, the beginning of it.
As a designer, this is thedesigner talking to you now, not
(10:20):
the contractor. The designer. Iwill tell you right now, the beginning
of your outdoor, backyard design orjust design on your property period starts inside
your house. Starts inside the house. Okay with that, what I mean
is this, As you know wewere already talking earlier on the show,
(10:41):
views and vistas are critically important.Okay, every view, every vista,
and so here is my rule.It's very very simple, right, every
wind, every house needs more windows, every window needs a view. Okay,
So landscape design needs to serve ourtime inside the house as much as
(11:03):
it serves us outside the house.And I mean, yeah, every room
needs a view, including those bedroomswhose windows open up to the side yard
of the house. Right, ifyou're gonna do a masterful job with your
landscape design and your outdoor living,you're going to take into account that when
you open a window in your house, we are setting up like a just
like you were making a diorama whenyou were in a grade school as a
(11:26):
kid, that aperture that looks out. Okay, So knowing that, that's
how we're gonna deal with the outsideand that's a way of bringing outside in.
Another way of bringing outside in isactually bringing those natural shapes and textures
and colors literally inside the house.Now you can do it with houseplants,
(11:46):
of course, but there's another trickthat designers like me have up our sleeves
that we use even more powerfully andmore permanently, and that is with silk
flowers and trees that have been customdesigned to fit in a specific room with
a motif and a shape and allof that kind of stuff. And I'm
(12:07):
not talking about the kind of stuffyou just grab off the internet somewhere or
you run down to wherever and findsome plastic plant somewhere, because that ain't
helping anybody relax inside your home.If anything, it draws attention over to
like, oh, that's an interestingplastic plant you have sitting there in the
corner of the room. What I'mtalking about is the stuff literally that you
(12:28):
can find at Aldic, which arejust these custom made flower arrangements. I
mean, I've got two of themin my home that I have been sitting
there for I'm going to say yearand a half, year and a half,
and nobody even asks me whether ornot they are real. Even people
who come over all the time,they just assume, oh, that's beautiful,
(12:50):
that's just gorgeous. I get commentson it all the time, but
nobody ever asks. And that's whatwe're looking for. That's why I send
you to Aldic Holme by the way. Anyway, Brian, I know we
were talking. We're going to talkpatio furnture today, all right, but
you guys are also doing this yeartrees, I mean trees, And the
very first thing that's most impressive forme is that you're using real trunks,
(13:13):
real wood trunks, right, Soall of our artificial trees are made with
real trunks, so you get thatlevel of realism, right, off the
bat it's all the natural shapes,and then we use the trunks specifically for
whichever shape you're looking for. Sowe make the trees in house. And
if you're looking for a specific shapeor a specific size, it's just about
(13:35):
using the right trunk to get thatlook and going off of the inspiration that
that natural shape gives us. Andwhen we say custom in house, let
me just say this, and Isay this because this is a resource for
everybody in southern California. At alDick, they have had this policy for
I think forever. If you walkinto the store, over on the left
(13:56):
hand side is the flower bar andthe tree bar, and basically what you
do is you can move through theentire store and select the materials. You
select the materials that you're looking for, the flowers, the blossoms, the
stems, the tree truck, whateverthat case may be. You go and
you pay for the materials and youjust bring them all over to the tree
bar or the flower bar, andwe've got like professional designers there who will
(14:22):
set it all up, build it, arrange it free, you know,
free of charge. That's just builtin to the to the thing. You
just pay for the materials. Youmight be intimidated that we're gonna charge a
design fee or something like that,but you just pay for whatever goes into
that arrangement or the materials of thetree, and then we'll build it right
for you. Even if you startwith a picture that you saw somewhere or
(14:46):
a painting or something like that inspiration, we can use that as a jumping
off point and walk around and showyou exactly what will work for that project.
Perfect. I just had to getthat in even though we're gonna talk
patio furniture next, but I hadto get that in because it's such a
an amazing thing. And in thekind of trunks is it? Is it
(15:07):
Vietnamese vine, There's there's one that'swater vine. It's it's, oh my
gosh, it kind of spirals up. It's so incredible, it's it's so
fanciful. I mean, it's justso here's a problem. Here's literally a
problem. There's one problem with aldictrees. Okay, are you ready?
Uh? When when they get placedin commercial environments, the janitorial staff comes
(15:31):
by and waters them. They waterthem. They're not alive, but they
get watered and they get just theyget damaged because they look so realistic.
People are like, well, weshould water this, right, It's just
that's what we tell people. Yougo on vacation, you got to make
sure whoever's watching your house doesn't wantto don't water this tree. All right,
You're gonna be tempted, but don'tdo it. All right. All
(15:54):
right, when we come back,we're gonna talk about one of the biggest
mistakes that you very likely have madein regards to placement of your patio furniture
in your backyard, and then we'lltalk about the patio furniture itself. Go
know where your Home with Dean Sharpthe House Whisper. You're listening to Home
with Dean Sharp on demand from KFIAm sixty. Oh hi everyone, welcome
(16:19):
home. You are Home with DeanSharp the House with you. I was
just we were just talking about Royand I were just talking about the ability
to fall asleep immediately when it's timefor bed. You're just done, You're
done. And I was just mentioninghow my lovely wife, my bride,
is a borderline narcoleptic. This isnothing, this is nothing new. She
(16:41):
knows this is true. Yeah,Tina could sleep anywhere she could sleep through
a nuclear blast. I'm telling youthat girl. Uh, it's it's her
pure spirit. It's same with you. It's your soul, your's Your soul
is clean. Me. I justlay in bed and at the ceiling and
I just think dark thoughts. Ihave to distract myself. But your souls
(17:07):
are pure. That's what I'm saying. All right, KFI am six forty
your home with Dean sharp the housewhisper. We're talking outdoor, a living
own. By the way, wewill be going back to the phones today
again near the top of the hour. The number to reach me eight three
three two. Ask Dean eight threethree the numeral two. Ask Dean.
(17:30):
If you're already on the line youwant to hang, We're gonna get there.
But there's also room on the callboardfor everybody else as well. Eight
three three two ask Dean. Thereyou go. All right, before the
break, I teased you with thiswas gonna tell you one of the most
common design mistakes that a lot ofpeople make in regards to their patio furniture.
(17:52):
Talk about getting out and enjoying outdoorsspace. All right, part of
this biophilic drive to get spend moretime outside really from a design perspective,
has to do with a couple ofthings. Okay, Number one is if
we're gonna be spending time outside loungingabout, you gotta have some comfortable furniture.
(18:15):
And what I and I'm not justsaying that in terms of you know
it would be nice to have comfortablefurniture. I mean no, I mean
you. If you don't know that, you know that, you know that
the furniture outside is as lovely tospend time in as the furniture in your
living room, then you ain't going. When push comes to shove, if
(18:38):
there's any hesitation whatsoever, you're stayinginside, right. So that's why it's
important. It's important. One ofthe things I love about al Dick Brian
is the fact that you guys havegot so much of summer classics on display
everywhere. One of the things thatRoy and I love to do every time
we come down to the store fora meeting is and we have learned not
to come early because we will sitdown in that one set up by the
(19:02):
front door and just fall asleep.We'll just fall asleep there so and we
won't get out of that chair,and then we won't get any business done,
which is not good on a businessday. But that's exactly what you
want happening in your backyard when it'stime to chill out. All right,
So the idea is this, you'vegot you don't buy furniture online, okay,
(19:23):
never never, indoor outdoor, period. Don't don't do that, all
right, unless it's super easy toreturn because stuff can look you know,
anything looks good in a photograph,period. Right. The Internet tells you
nothing about whether you are when yousit down in a thing, whether it's
going to just welcome you in.But you've got to find yourself some patio
(19:47):
furniture that is comfortable so that youwill go outside and then here we go.
The number one mistake that most peoplemake in regards to their design of
their yards is that what the patio, This concrete patio is just right outside
the door, and you think that'sfor convenience sake? Is that? Well,
that makes sense or that's what thebuilders who originally built my house,
(20:11):
that's where they put the patio.That's fine, I get that. I'm
just saying, walk through your yard. Forget about furniture. Just walk through
your yard, okay, walk throughyour yard. And ask yourself the question.
Don't think about practicalities. Just askyourself the question as you walk around
your entire yard, where is thespot in your yard that you actually would
(20:32):
like to spend most of your time. I guarantee you it is right.
Is not right next to the hotstucco wall on the outside of your house,
okay. In other words, makeyour patio set up a destination,
draw people out into your yard,be able to see it, not have
(20:52):
to look over it when you're lookingout your windows. By the way,
that's another thing I talk about indoorviews of the yard. Okay. I
don't want the backs of patio furnitureblocking the lower third of your view out
there because it's shoved right up againstall your windows or your sliding doors.
I want it further out in theyard. Make it a destination. Make
(21:12):
me walk a path through the gardenin order to arrive at the best possible
spot. Maybe it's underneath that bigshady tree. Maybe it's out on the
edge of your property. Because you'reup on a hill and you've got a
view. That's where I want tospend my time. I want to sit
out there where I can see theview, not right next to the hot
(21:34):
concrete and stucco wall of the backof your house. All right, So
it is a combination of these twofactors. Number One, Place the patio
and I'm talking, of course,to those of you who have control of
this or I'm thinking about it's timefor a makeover for our rear yard area.
All right. Place the seating areain the best spot in the whole
(21:59):
yard, period right. I don'tcare where it is or how far we
have to walk. I mean,most of you are not living on multi
acre properties. Now, nobody's gonnahave to get on a golf cart to
go to the best spot in youryard. It's just a few more feet,
okay, but that few more feetI'm telling you, Trust me on
this. It makes a world ofdifference, a world of difference. And
(22:22):
if knowing that at the very bestspot to spend time in my yard,
there is some dang comfortable furniture tospend it on. Man, guess what
you're going outside. You're going outside, and then you're gonna pull in all
the benefits of outdoor living right there. Boom, All right, I'm handing
(22:44):
out pearls today. We got moreto come. You hang tight, your
Home with Dean Sharp, the HouseWhisper. You're listening to Home with Dean
Sharp on demand from KFI Am sixforty say. Beautiful, beautiful southern California
spring sun morning. I don't knowif it has cleared where you are,
but the sun is out now,kind of cut through the mist of May.
(23:08):
What is the term people have beencalling it? Stuff may gray.
That's what it is. Cut throughthe May gray here finally and just gorgeous
outside right now. I hope yougot plans for this day because there's some
good stuff happening outside, and we'retalking about outdoor living. We're talking about
you and your relationship to nature andwhy outdoor living and designing stuff outside your
(23:33):
house, on the property that you'vegot, whatever that may be, why
it's important. It's not just aluxury. It's not just a whimsy.
It's not just, oh, it'snice to have a barbecue and flip some
burgers on a Sunday afternoon. Butour relationship with nature is a serious thing
that we have been neglecting as aculture in general, in Western civilization,
(23:53):
and we are finding all sorts ofnot good things as a result. We
got to re connect, got toreconnect, got to spend some time.
Whether you think of yourself as anature person, a nature lover or not,
you are. Your body is right. Your body and your brain pre
programmed for a long, long longtime to want and yearn for and need
(24:18):
the patterns, the colors, thesounds, the textures that sendsorial experience of
being outdoors in nature. And we'redoing some very very simple, very reasonable,
very practical, but design sexy solutionsto that so that it happens right
(24:40):
in your backyard and you're not spendingyou're not breaking the bank on these things.
You know, for instance, you'regoing to make a seating area outside
your house in the backyard. Findthe best place in the yard to do
that seating area. Do you havethe money in your budget to pour another
little slab or a pad back there? Great? If you don't have it,
(25:02):
fine, right, define the area, put some bender board up,
define the area, fill that area, level it out with pea gravel,
right and boom. Now it's awell drained, semi soft surface out there.
Your feet crunch as you walk onit. I got pea gravel all
through my backyard, and Tina andI would never replace it with hard scape,
pure hardscape. One, it's permeable. It allows the rain to actually
(25:25):
soak into our yard and so whenit's raining we don't have to run our
irrigation as much. But two,I just love the sound of it.
There's nothing like getting up early inthe morning when everything is silent and listening
to my feet crunch across pea gravelin your backyard. It is simple.
It's pennies pennies on the dollar todo this, all right, but it's
the right moves to make if youreally want to enjoy it. Now,
(25:48):
we were talking about having comfortable furniture, right and we got to get to
it. We're going to spend acouple of minutes talking about it now and
then a little bit more after thebreak. But I've got Brian Gold,
my patio furniture expert from Aldcombe,sitting right across the table from me.
Brian, your patio furniture is myfavorite on the planet. Tell everybody why
(26:11):
our patio furniture that we have atAldacolm. It's all by summer classics,
so we're a little different than apatio furniture store. Have dozens of brands
and just a few pieces from eachone. Like you said, we scoured
through the market and found what wesaw was the best made, most comfortable
(26:33):
furniture, and then we figured outhow to fit a whole bunch of it
in the store. So we're showingi think two hundred pieces from thirty five
Summer Classics collections, just a celebrationof their furniture and how comfortable and how
well made it is. Everything fromsustainably harvested Indonesian teak to rod aluminum resin
(26:57):
wicker. There's a new collection that'smade using marine grade vinyl leather, so
it's the same material to use foryachts. So if you want to live
that yacht life in your backyard,it's you want to be the commodore.
You want to be the commodore ofyour backyard. It's that classic, like
(27:18):
creamy white yacht leather. Right,that's on that that captain's chair sitting up
there on the bridge, right,that stuff is and Roy and I sat
in the other day and we werelike, holy cow, holy cow.
All right, So all right,I want to talk about the build of
the furniture on the other side ofthe break, right, but right,
but right before we go swing themic over there to Roy, because from
(27:44):
a from a pure you and me, Roy from it, from a pure
consumer perspective, man, you andI have sat in every bit of summer
classics furniture at Aldick and the U, and the experience has been get that
right in your face, man,My experience has been it seems like every
(28:04):
piece I sit in is more comfortablethan the last piece. Yeah, I'm
with you, man, I meanliterally, you walk into the store,
you see a beautiful arrangement of chairsand tables, trees, flowers, and
the environment is already set up foryou, right, so you set in
it and automatically you just want todose off because the chairs are so comfortable
(28:30):
and beautiful. Then you leave thatone and you walk about thirty feet more,
twenty feet more, and you seeanother setup. You sit in that
and it's even more comfortable than thatarrangement that you set in. So from
a consumer perspective, there's so manychoices and colors to choose from, and
fabrics that you literally just fall inlove with, so many different pieces and
(28:55):
so many different chairs and tables there. It's a furniture shoppers paradise, it
really is. I mean that's andI just got to emphasize we're not just
just jabbering away here or exaggerating aboutit, because you know what, I
have to sit in a lot offurniture all the time, and there's tons
(29:15):
of furniture out there that looks great, and you sit it and you're like,
nope, sorry, nope, youknow, because I've got very demanding
clientele, and so I'm going fora look and I find a piece that
has a look, and then Tinaand I get out there and we're like,
all right, time to sit down, and we're like, no,
keep looking it, just keep looking, because at the end of the day,
(29:37):
furniture gotta feel good, and it'sgot to feel good. And I'm
just telling you, guys, uh, you don't even have to worry about
it at when it comes to summerclassics because every and radically different looking stuff
and yet just oh and that's comfortabletoo, of course, that's comfortable.
These are the kinds of things thata quality furniture manufacturer builds in and it's
(30:02):
not like it's screaming out I'm themost comfortable piece of furniture you've sat in
today, but chances are it probablywill be it just that's the way it
goes, all right. When wecome back, though, I want to
talk about the hidden stuff, thestuff that other furniture manufacturers don't want to
talk about, and why it's important. This has been Home with Dean Sharp,
(30:22):
the House Whisper. Tune into thelive broadcast on KFI AM six forty
every Saturday morning from six to eightPacific time, and every Sunday morning from
nine to noon Pacific time, oranytime on demand on the iHeart Radio app.
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