February 22, 2025 • 27 mins
In the wake of the devastating fires in Southern California the focus now is rebuilding and recovery, but that process can be lengthy and officials in the fire affected areas are considering the idea of letting builders permit their own projects, which would shorten the length of time of a new build. But there are pros and cons to this consideration, Dean explores all of them and takes questions from callers.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp, the
House Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio app AFI AM.
It's forty live screaming in eighth D everywhere on the
iHeart Radio app. Hey, welcome home. Yeah you you, I'm
talking to you. I am the Dean Sharp, the house Whisperer,
(00:24):
custom home designer, custom home builder, and on the weekends
here I am your guide to better understanding that place
where you live. Thanks for joining us on the program today.
Today on the show, we're gonna do what we do
normally on Saturdays. Number one gonna take some calls. Any
of your calls. The number to reach me eight three
(00:46):
three two Ask Dean eight three three the numeral two.
Ask Dean. Our phone lines are open right now. The
phone board is completely blank, so it's just waiting for you.
Anything you want to talk about regarding your home today, inside, outside, landscape, hardscape, construction,
(01:10):
DIY design, Yes, please all of the above. Anything that's
got you scratching your head about your home. Eight three
three the numeral two Ask Dean. A three three two
ask Dean. In addition to that, I want to have
a conversation with you this morning about something that is
(01:30):
very pressing in southern California and may find its way
catching on across the country as well. And that is,
you know, given the fires in the aftermath of the
Eton and the Palisades fire, the mass destruction of thousands
of homes, and now the rebuilding process, which when we
(01:54):
say the rebuilding process begins, we don't mean that people
are starting to rebuild right now, but we're turning the
corner now and it's going to be some time before
that happens. But the question is this, given the in
rush of all of those properties being rebuilt and the
already loaded to the gill taxed system of permit and
(02:19):
planning approval in especially Los Angeles City and Los Angeles County,
should builders be allowed to permit their own projects. Oh
that's an interesting conversation. We're going to have that as
well this morning, along with your calls, and let me
(02:39):
introduce our awesome team to get it all started. Sam
is on the board. There are not so live Plutio audience.
Good morning, damn, good morning, Dean. How's it going? Good? Good,
good good. My friend, the legendary Michelle Cube standing by
to take calls this morning. Richie. I don't know what.
(03:02):
I don't where Richie's Richie. Oh, I know where he is.
He's sleeping in that's what he's doing. But Michelle is
with us this morning. Always an honor to work with Michelle.
She is the most awesome. Not near a microphone, but
she is on the board right now, ready to take
your call. So you want to talk to Michelle Cube,
call in. She'll tell you everything you need to know
(03:25):
and she'll pop you into the queue with your question
for the show. And my buddy Andrew Caravella at the
news desk, Good morning, how's it going, Oh, it's going.
Had my coffee so I am awaken? Alert? Your coffee full?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Here?
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Let me pour you a little bit more. Oh, thank you. Well,
hang up, got to leave room for cream. There it is, yeah,
all right, there it is right there. Everything well on
the news desk this morning. So far, so far. But
the day is young, it is. It's very young, a
little younger than i'd like it to be. Actually all right,
(04:01):
thanks for being with us here, Bud sitting across the
table from me. Oh there she is my better half,
no doubt, my design partner, the co author, co author,
co owner, co founder of Housewifter. That is her legendary
spirit animal. Right there, my best friend in all the world,
(04:23):
Tina is here. Welcome home. Good morning to you, Mado
morning to you, sir. I have no idea why I
just said that. Do you need some coffee? Here you go.
You know I'll be pushing that button again sometime very soon.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
And I do not need room for cream. No, no
room for cream for you, that black just straight up,
straight up, straight up, all right, y'all. Uh, we've got
a couple of calls popping in the board, plenty of
room for you. Let me give the number out one
more time, eight three three two, ass dean, eight three
to three the numeral two. Ask dean it is time
(05:06):
to dive into the show. When we come back, I'm
going to open up this conversation about builders permitting their
own work. Is that a thing? Should it be? All right?
We'll do that, damn hi Pean charp the house whisper. Hey,
it doesn't matter if your home is a castle, cottage,
(05:28):
a condo. I'm here to help it take it to
the next level. That's what we do around here. We're
going to be going to the phones in just a
smidge the number two. Reach me eight three three two.
Ask Dean eight three three the numeral two. Ask Dean.
All right, I wanted to at least open up this
discussion here begin it, and there's several things to talk
(05:53):
about the topic of whether or not builders should be
allowed to fast track or basically self permit. It's known
by different names fast tracked permits, but it comes down
(06:14):
to builders permitting their own projects. Now. First of all,
when people hear that, they get all sorts of reactions.
All of our friendly libertarian listeners are like, yes, away
with the Department of Building in Safety. Yeah, that's not me.
That's not where I fall because I think there is
(06:37):
a compelling public interest in safety when it comes to buildings.
I want, believe me, I want builders to be monitored,
double checked, and verified. Now, do I think that there's
in this industry that there's a lot of overreach of
(07:00):
government agencies into areas that just don't necessarily have to
do and just muddle up the works. Yeah, I think
there is. I think it's legitimate to say that, And
I'm not particularly thrilled. I've never have been thrilled with
the way that the State of California just deals with
builders in general. Now, I'm all for heavy enforcement of violations,
(07:27):
but the California State Contractors License Bureau basically treats all
contractors as though they are guilty and criminals before before
anything ever happens. I mean, I've had my contractor's license
for you know, decades, and still you know, it's it's
(07:48):
always a question of, yeah, what'd you do this time?
And so, you know, I'm not thrilled about that. But
that being said, I am not in favor of just
turning builders loose and the way some people would imagine
it would work and just letting them verify their own projects.
That is not what's being discussed. So let me just
(08:10):
be clear about that. This concept of self permitting is
really kind of a misnomer. What it really comes down
to is this, it's a program in this the way
it looks in most places where it's happening, and yes
it is happening, we'll talk about that too. It's happening
here in southern California already and has been for some time.
(08:33):
But generally speaking, when this program is in play, what
happens is it's not even really accurate to say builders
self permitting, because the programs that I am aware of
require a licensed architect or a licensed civil or structural
(08:55):
engineer to stamp the plans, which is not for a resident,
not a requirement for normal plan check to stamp the plans.
And then not just that, but then that architect and
or engineer of record essentially assumes responsibility for the plan
(09:17):
check process. In other words, that architect or engineer of
record then assumes full responsibility that everything about the project
comports with and is in accordance with everything that the
project would be subject to if it went through city
(09:39):
plan check. And that has to do with a lot
more than just whether the building itself and the design
of the building is meeting up with all the things
that are necessary for the California building Code. That's one
of the things that I want to kind of split
a hair here for everybody to understand this morning. If
(10:01):
you've never been through the building permitting process, then you
likely don't. You likely just think that getting a building
permit is about the city checking your plans to make
sure that you're following the building code. But that's actually
just a part of the project. It's a good part
(10:22):
of the project, but it's just a part of the process.
So in the case of self permitting, this question of
self permitting, what we would be doing, would we'd be
by check, by checking, bypassing that section of plan check,
and the engineer and or the architect, and ultimately the
(10:44):
homeowner because this all ultimately comes back to the homeowner,
but the engineer or the architect would be taking on
the responsibility to make sure those things are all in order.
If and then city in spaces would proceed per normal
with a city inspector. Now, if it's discovered that something
(11:06):
is outside, that something's been forgotten, that something's been overlooked,
then it has to get corrected, and the architect and
or engineer is held responsible for that. So you can
imagine that essentially what we're doing is deputizing licensed architects
and licensed civil or structural engineers, kind of deputizing them
(11:30):
to function as their own enforcement agency for their own clients.
And not a lot of engineers and architects are prepared
to step up and do that. Not a lot of
them are prepared to step up and put themselves on
the line for that, and those who do are likely
(11:51):
and usually turning around to their clients and charging a
pretty penny for it. Now, is a lot of that
going to happen in out Dina when we've got a
massive middle class families happening. Probably not. Will a lot
of more of it happen in the Palisades area where
upper class and wealthy clients have the money to say, yeah,
(12:17):
I'll pay you whatever you need to get paid. Let's
fast track this project. And the proposal has been placed
on the city council agenda by a city councilman and
as a result of that, this is going to be
an issue that's going to be discussed and is being
discussed currently. All right, I've got more on this, but
(12:38):
we've got some calls on the board, so let's hear
some news and we'll come back and we'll answer some
questions about your home. You're listening to Home with Dean
Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty, KFI AM
six forty live streaming and HD everywhere on the iHeart Radio.
(13:00):
It's Dean Sharp the House whisper with you this morning
like I am every Saturday morning from six to eight
and Sundays from nine to noon. Speaking of Sunday tomorrow,
the Big Show I'm gonna have a special guest in
studio with me, one of the finest concrete contractors that
I have come across in the course of my career,
(13:22):
and he and I are going to be sitting down
and talking all things concrete about your house. And so
it should be a fascinating discussion, a helpful discussion, a
fun discussion. What other words can I use? Anyway, a
very productive and practical one for you learn all about
concrete and what's going wrong with your house in concrete
(13:45):
tomorrow on the Big Show. All right, Today, we're talking
about a little conversation on the side here about whether
builders should be able to permit their own projects regulate
their own permitting for their own projects. We're going to
come back to that in a bit, but I've got
some calls on the board, so let's go to the phones.
(14:06):
I talked to Wayne A. Wayne, welcome home.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yes, good morning, Dan.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
How are you sir? How can I help you?
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Well, recently recently I took and recently recently I took
and changed out the sacrificial anode in the water heater
in our house, trying to prolong its life and use here.
And after I did that, I took and bled out
(14:38):
the system to try to get any air out of
the pipes and stuff. Unfortunately, we're getting a situation where
when we turn like the mixers onto the bathroom sinks
and such, or the the mixer to the tub, we
get kind of like a sneeze and stuff, which to
(15:01):
me sounds like air, but I've not been able to
bleed that. And we get a little bit of cross
over between the hot and cold. So somebody turns hot
on in one side of the house and cold on
the other side of the house. You get a little
bit of a mixing going on there.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Okay, So when you say you've tried to bleed it out,
you've literally turned on every faucet everywhere and let it
run for a few minutes.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Yeah, I'll let it run for about ten minutes or so,
and all of.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Them all together, I mean, yes, Okay, that's it. That's
just important because when when sometimes you know, people have
told me, yeah, I've run them all, and then I
found out that, well, I ran them all one by one.
And so when we're trying to get air, perje air
out of a plumbing system after repair or something like that,
(15:55):
and air is the cause of sputter. That's that's why
they sputter. Then Uh, then uh, everything has to be
turned on all at once in order to just get
the maximum opportunity for air courge out of the system
for several minutes. Having said that, you also get uh,
(16:15):
if you're getting some hot and cold crossover, Uh, it
shouldn't so much be cold in the it. You shouldn't
so much be hot water coming through the cold line.
Most of the time with a mixer valve. When people
say hot and cold crossover, what they're experiencing are spatters
or spurts of cold. Uh, you know, with the along
(16:38):
with the hot, and that my friend unfortunately probably points
back to the water heater. Again, when you when you
haven't resolved sputtering through normal means, when we haven't isolated
it down to you know, one aeriator out of one faucet,
(17:00):
When it's happening everywhere around the house, then it's not
a localized thing in the sense of like all the faucets.
And when you said hot and cold sputtering crossover, that
points back to the water heater and something else going
inside going on inside the water here. There could be
a blockage, There could be when you switched out the
(17:22):
How how bad was the sacrificial anode when you remove
the old one?
Speaker 2 (17:29):
I honestly, I've never seen one exposed before, so I
would say it was probably about half at least half life.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Okay, so it wasn't completely gone.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
It's probably eight years old.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Huh huh.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
We did this on the recommendation of a plumber, as
we had him out doing some other things, and he
said the water here looked to be in good repair,
and he thought it would help prolong the life of
the unit a couple more years than normal. Possibly when
I put the anode in, I did put teflon tape
(18:10):
around the spreading, and I did lock it down really
well with a break or bar. Maybe I need to
take it back out and then retape that. Possibly air
could be getting in at that point.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
It's a possibility. It is a possibility, And so yeah,
you give that another shot since you already kind of
are in the DIY mode there and then again. And
sometimes you know, depending plumbing systems are tricky. They go up,
they go down. It's sometimes tricky to purge it all out.
But I would do that. I would I'd reset that,
(18:44):
make sure that's sealed so that air isn't being sucked
into the water heater and causing spurting. If the water
heater isn't old, and it isn't at eight years, if
the plumber always already thought that it appeared to be
in good repair, If the arcrificial anode that you pulled
out it was not all the way eaten through, then
(19:06):
there's no reason to immediately think that there's other damage
inside the water heater. But it's always a possibility. But
let's just do this. You go ahead and reseal that
and the new anode, and just to make sure that
that's clear, make sure nothing's been cracked or leaking air,
(19:27):
and then again turn everything on, including including any outside
spigots water spigots that are attached to the house which
are also part of the interior, and let it run.
I mean, let them all run for even longer than
you expect it all at the same time, flush toilets
(19:48):
run fofits and just let them. Sometimes getting air out
of the system is just persnickety. And after all of that,
if you still are getting the same amount of spurting everywhere,
I'm afraid you really should call plumber back out and
have them take a look at the water here, right, Okay, okay.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
All right, good, yeah, very good advice. I appreciate that much.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Thank you, sir. I appreciate the question. Great question. Uh
and yeah, I know somebody right now is scratching their
head saying, what is a sacrificial anode? How about I?
Just before I take the next call, I'll explain that
I'll do it all. Hey bye. Being sharp for the
houseworks for a welcome home. Thanks for being with us
(20:35):
this morning. It's going to be a lovely day here
in southern California, cool, sunny, everything we want, not a
lot of crazy wind blowing. It's going to be a
gorgeous weekend. I hope you have plans to get out
into it and enjoy it. What are we doing right here,
I'm kicking off your weekend, just conversations about your home.
(20:56):
We're talking about the weather builders in life of you know,
the recent devastating fires, should be allowed to essentially pull
their own permits, regulate their own permits for their project.
That's that's the way it gets talked about out there.
I want to sit down and talk to you a
little bit more about that in a bit, just because
(21:18):
I want to kind of clarify what that really means
and what would be involved, and give you my opinion
as to whether that would be good or whether it's really,
you know, practically going to help. We're going to return
to that conversation just a bit, but I've got some
calls on the board, and that's also what we prioritize
on Saturday mornings. So I'm going to go back to
(21:39):
the phones. Let's talk to Oh. I'm sorry, I promised.
I was going to explain very quickly what a sacrificial
anode is. If people are like, you're talking to that
guy about a sacrificial anode in his water heater, What
are you guys in a cult or something. No, if
you look on the top of a water heater, you've
probably seen a big fitting up there, big square looking
(22:04):
nut up there with threads going into your water heater.
And you might have assumed, oh, well, that must be
some accessory or some pipe hook up that my house
doesn't require, and so there's just a plug in there. Nope,
at that right underneath that big old nut is a
rod sticking down into your water heater. That is called
(22:27):
a galvanic anode. We call it a sacrificial anode because
its whole job it's either made out of aluminium or magnesium,
and its whole job is to attract corrosive elements corrosive
minerals in your water supply, attract those minerals to itself,
(22:49):
basically saying, here, come, corrode me. Don't cling to the
sides of the water heater and eat away at the
steel tank. And that's what it's there for. It is
called the sacrificial anode. It sacrifices itself. And the reason
it's able to do that is because those corrosive elements
are far more attracted to it, because it's a far
(23:12):
more corrosive enabling material the aluminum or magnesium. And as
a result, it preserves the steel in your water heater
from being eaten away by corrosive elements. And so, yeah,
if your water heater gets to a certain age, especially
if it gets past if you have exceptionally hard water
(23:32):
and you get past like ten years, somebody should take
a serious look at popping that old one out and
putting the new one in. Because the day that the
sacrificial anode is completely eaten away is the day that
there's nothing else in there, attracting corrosion to it. Therefore boom.
That stuff then turns to the steel tank of your
(23:54):
water heater and prematurely ages it. So there you go.
Now you know, the more you know, Let's talk to
Wally real quick. Hey, Wally, welcome home.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Hi sir.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
How can I help you?
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (24:14):
I have no water heater? And how I have I
installed a tank little water heater? And how hot can
I have it here? To come up to the temperature?
Speaker 1 (24:25):
How hot can you have it come up?
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (24:29):
What is the upper limit? Uh? So let me take
a real quick here. I'm trying to remember. I think
one hundred and twenty degrees is the prob?
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Yeah, right now it's you say, I.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Have a Murray tankle little water here, and there's like
an led upper I could see the temperature. Is I
I could adjust the I think I think it's the
I'm right now. It could I could put it on
on winter or summer, but I brought it up. I
think it's ninety five ninety five on a ninety five
degrees So I'm gonna go up higher.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
But you won't get you can. All you have to
do is consult the the owner's manual, and you'll get
some directions in there. A tankless water heaters in California,
and I'm not sure if this is true in every state.
I'm assuming it is because you know, we're all human beings,
and they they come preregulated for a max temperature of
(25:24):
one hundred and twenty degrees, so you can adjust with
your thermostatic control. You can adjust it up to one twenty. Now,
there's also an override some of us, I'm not gonna
say who in this room, me, it's me. Some of
us like even hotter water than that coming out of
our water heater. Uh. And almost every brand of tankless
(25:46):
water heater can be adjusted higher. You're not invalidating anything.
There are instructions if they can be adjusted higher, they
are instructions in your instruction manual. As to the procedure
to override the one twenty or one twenty five whatever
your water heater is preset max to. There's usually an
(26:09):
instruction and it allows you to take it in most
cases up to one forty one hundred and forty degrees,
And for me, that makes all the difference in the world.
But it won't just do that automatically. There's an override
procedure that you go through in order to do that,
and you can just do it with the controller. It'll
(26:29):
say press this down, hold it long enough, bum bumb,
you know that kind of thing, and then you can
override and go up. And if, by the way, if
you have a power outage or something like that, or
the water heater gets worked on or serviced, it's going
to default back to its one twenty and then you're
going to have to reset the override again. So one
hundred and twenty degrees or lower. That is just free
(26:52):
flowing on your thermostat arrows up and down. And if
you want to get over one twenty, then you've got
to follow the instructions in the manual how to override that.
But yeah, that's right where a water heater should live
about one or if you're dean, about one thirty or so.
(27:14):
Because that's nice. All right, walle thanks for the call,
my friend. All right, look at us right here at
the top of the hour. When we come back, I'm
gonna have more thoughts for you on whether or not
we should be allowing builders to pull their own regulate
their own permits here in southern California. That and more
(27:35):
of your calls your Home with Dean Sharp, the House
Whisper on KFI. You're 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 AFI AM.
It's forty live screaming in eighth D everywhere on the
iHeart Radio app. Hey, welcome home. Yeah you you, I'm
talking to you. I am the Dean Sharp, the house Whisperer,
(00:24):
custom home designer, custom home builder, and on the weekends
here I am your guide to better understanding that place
where you live. Thanks for joining us on the program today.
Today on the show, we're gonna do what we do
normally on Saturdays. Number one gonna take some calls. Any
of your calls. The number to reach me eight three
(00:46):
three two Ask Dean eight three three the numeral two.
Ask Dean. Our phone lines are open right now. The
phone board is completely blank, so it's just waiting for you.
Anything you want to talk about regarding your home today, inside, outside, landscape, hardscape, construction,
(01:10):
DIY design, Yes, please all of the above. Anything that's
got you scratching your head about your home. Eight three
three the numeral two Ask Dean. A three three two
ask Dean. In addition to that, I want to have
a conversation with you this morning about something that is
(01:30):
very pressing in southern California and may find its way
catching on across the country as well. And that is,
you know, given the fires in the aftermath of the
Eton and the Palisades fire, the mass destruction of thousands
of homes, and now the rebuilding process, which when we
(01:54):
say the rebuilding process begins, we don't mean that people
are starting to rebuild right now, but we're turning the
corner now and it's going to be some time before
that happens. But the question is this, given the in
rush of all of those properties being rebuilt and the
already loaded to the gill taxed system of permit and
(02:19):
planning approval in especially Los Angeles City and Los Angeles County,
should builders be allowed to permit their own projects. Oh
that's an interesting conversation. We're going to have that as
well this morning, along with your calls, and let me
(02:39):
introduce our awesome team to get it all started. Sam
is on the board. There are not so live Plutio audience.
Good morning, damn, good morning, Dean. How's it going? Good? Good,
good good. My friend, the legendary Michelle Cube standing by
to take calls this morning. Richie. I don't know what.
(03:02):
I don't where Richie's Richie. Oh, I know where he is.
He's sleeping in that's what he's doing. But Michelle is
with us this morning. Always an honor to work with Michelle.
She is the most awesome. Not near a microphone, but
she is on the board right now, ready to take
your call. So you want to talk to Michelle Cube,
call in. She'll tell you everything you need to know
(03:25):
and she'll pop you into the queue with your question
for the show. And my buddy Andrew Caravella at the
news desk, Good morning, how's it going, Oh, it's going.
Had my coffee so I am awaken? Alert? Your coffee full?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Here?
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Let me pour you a little bit more. Oh, thank you. Well,
hang up, got to leave room for cream. There it is, yeah,
all right, there it is right there. Everything well on
the news desk this morning. So far, so far. But
the day is young, it is. It's very young, a
little younger than i'd like it to be. Actually all right,
(04:01):
thanks for being with us here, Bud sitting across the
table from me. Oh there she is my better half,
no doubt, my design partner, the co author, co author,
co owner, co founder of Housewifter. That is her legendary
spirit animal. Right there, my best friend in all the world,
(04:23):
Tina is here. Welcome home. Good morning to you, Mado
morning to you, sir. I have no idea why I
just said that. Do you need some coffee? Here you go.
You know I'll be pushing that button again sometime very soon.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
And I do not need room for cream. No, no
room for cream for you, that black just straight up,
straight up, straight up, all right, y'all. Uh, we've got
a couple of calls popping in the board, plenty of
room for you. Let me give the number out one
more time, eight three three two, ass dean, eight three
to three the numeral two. Ask dean it is time
(05:06):
to dive into the show. When we come back, I'm
going to open up this conversation about builders permitting their
own work. Is that a thing? Should it be? All right?
We'll do that, damn hi Pean charp the house whisper. Hey,
it doesn't matter if your home is a castle, cottage,
(05:28):
a condo. I'm here to help it take it to
the next level. That's what we do around here. We're
going to be going to the phones in just a
smidge the number two. Reach me eight three three two.
Ask Dean eight three three the numeral two. Ask Dean.
All right, I wanted to at least open up this
discussion here begin it, and there's several things to talk
(05:53):
about the topic of whether or not builders should be
allowed to fast track or basically self permit. It's known
by different names fast tracked permits, but it comes down
(06:14):
to builders permitting their own projects. Now. First of all,
when people hear that, they get all sorts of reactions.
All of our friendly libertarian listeners are like, yes, away
with the Department of Building in Safety. Yeah, that's not me.
That's not where I fall because I think there is
(06:37):
a compelling public interest in safety when it comes to buildings.
I want, believe me, I want builders to be monitored,
double checked, and verified. Now, do I think that there's
in this industry that there's a lot of overreach of
(07:00):
government agencies into areas that just don't necessarily have to
do and just muddle up the works. Yeah, I think
there is. I think it's legitimate to say that, And
I'm not particularly thrilled. I've never have been thrilled with
the way that the State of California just deals with
builders in general. Now, I'm all for heavy enforcement of violations,
(07:27):
but the California State Contractors License Bureau basically treats all
contractors as though they are guilty and criminals before before
anything ever happens. I mean, I've had my contractor's license
for you know, decades, and still you know, it's it's
(07:48):
always a question of, yeah, what'd you do this time?
And so, you know, I'm not thrilled about that. But
that being said, I am not in favor of just
turning builders loose and the way some people would imagine
it would work and just letting them verify their own projects.
That is not what's being discussed. So let me just
(08:10):
be clear about that. This concept of self permitting is
really kind of a misnomer. What it really comes down
to is this, it's a program in this the way
it looks in most places where it's happening, and yes
it is happening, we'll talk about that too. It's happening
here in southern California already and has been for some time.
(08:33):
But generally speaking, when this program is in play, what
happens is it's not even really accurate to say builders
self permitting, because the programs that I am aware of
require a licensed architect or a licensed civil or structural
(08:55):
engineer to stamp the plans, which is not for a resident,
not a requirement for normal plan check to stamp the plans.
And then not just that, but then that architect and
or engineer of record essentially assumes responsibility for the plan
(09:17):
check process. In other words, that architect or engineer of
record then assumes full responsibility that everything about the project
comports with and is in accordance with everything that the
project would be subject to if it went through city
(09:39):
plan check. And that has to do with a lot
more than just whether the building itself and the design
of the building is meeting up with all the things
that are necessary for the California building Code. That's one
of the things that I want to kind of split
a hair here for everybody to understand this morning. If
(10:01):
you've never been through the building permitting process, then you
likely don't. You likely just think that getting a building
permit is about the city checking your plans to make
sure that you're following the building code. But that's actually
just a part of the project. It's a good part
(10:22):
of the project, but it's just a part of the process.
So in the case of self permitting, this question of
self permitting, what we would be doing, would we'd be
by check, by checking, bypassing that section of plan check,
and the engineer and or the architect, and ultimately the
(10:44):
homeowner because this all ultimately comes back to the homeowner,
but the engineer or the architect would be taking on
the responsibility to make sure those things are all in order.
If and then city in spaces would proceed per normal
with a city inspector. Now, if it's discovered that something
(11:06):
is outside, that something's been forgotten, that something's been overlooked,
then it has to get corrected, and the architect and
or engineer is held responsible for that. So you can
imagine that essentially what we're doing is deputizing licensed architects
and licensed civil or structural engineers, kind of deputizing them
(11:30):
to function as their own enforcement agency for their own clients.
And not a lot of engineers and architects are prepared
to step up and do that. Not a lot of
them are prepared to step up and put themselves on
the line for that, and those who do are likely
(11:51):
and usually turning around to their clients and charging a
pretty penny for it. Now, is a lot of that
going to happen in out Dina when we've got a
massive middle class families happening. Probably not. Will a lot
of more of it happen in the Palisades area where
upper class and wealthy clients have the money to say, yeah,
(12:17):
I'll pay you whatever you need to get paid. Let's
fast track this project. And the proposal has been placed
on the city council agenda by a city councilman and
as a result of that, this is going to be
an issue that's going to be discussed and is being
discussed currently. All right, I've got more on this, but
(12:38):
we've got some calls on the board, so let's hear
some news and we'll come back and we'll answer some
questions about your home. You're listening to Home with Dean
Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty, KFI AM
six forty live streaming and HD everywhere on the iHeart Radio.
(13:00):
It's Dean Sharp the House whisper with you this morning
like I am every Saturday morning from six to eight
and Sundays from nine to noon. Speaking of Sunday tomorrow,
the Big Show I'm gonna have a special guest in
studio with me, one of the finest concrete contractors that
I have come across in the course of my career,
(13:22):
and he and I are going to be sitting down
and talking all things concrete about your house. And so
it should be a fascinating discussion, a helpful discussion, a
fun discussion. What other words can I use? Anyway, a
very productive and practical one for you learn all about
concrete and what's going wrong with your house in concrete
(13:45):
tomorrow on the Big Show. All right, Today, we're talking
about a little conversation on the side here about whether
builders should be able to permit their own projects regulate
their own permitting for their own projects. We're going to
come back to that in a bit, but I've got
some calls on the board, so let's go to the phones.
(14:06):
I talked to Wayne A. Wayne, welcome home.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yes, good morning, Dan.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
How are you sir? How can I help you?
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Well, recently recently I took and recently recently I took
and changed out the sacrificial anode in the water heater
in our house, trying to prolong its life and use here.
And after I did that, I took and bled out
(14:38):
the system to try to get any air out of
the pipes and stuff. Unfortunately, we're getting a situation where
when we turn like the mixers onto the bathroom sinks
and such, or the the mixer to the tub, we
get kind of like a sneeze and stuff, which to
(15:01):
me sounds like air, but I've not been able to
bleed that. And we get a little bit of cross
over between the hot and cold. So somebody turns hot
on in one side of the house and cold on
the other side of the house. You get a little
bit of a mixing going on there.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Okay, So when you say you've tried to bleed it out,
you've literally turned on every faucet everywhere and let it
run for a few minutes.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Yeah, I'll let it run for about ten minutes or so,
and all of.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Them all together, I mean, yes, Okay, that's it. That's
just important because when when sometimes you know, people have
told me, yeah, I've run them all, and then I
found out that, well, I ran them all one by one.
And so when we're trying to get air, perje air
out of a plumbing system after repair or something like that,
(15:55):
and air is the cause of sputter. That's that's why
they sputter. Then Uh, then uh, everything has to be
turned on all at once in order to just get
the maximum opportunity for air courge out of the system
for several minutes. Having said that, you also get uh,
(16:15):
if you're getting some hot and cold crossover, Uh, it
shouldn't so much be cold in the it. You shouldn't
so much be hot water coming through the cold line.
Most of the time with a mixer valve. When people
say hot and cold crossover, what they're experiencing are spatters
or spurts of cold. Uh, you know, with the along
(16:38):
with the hot, and that my friend unfortunately probably points
back to the water heater. Again, when you when you
haven't resolved sputtering through normal means, when we haven't isolated
it down to you know, one aeriator out of one faucet,
(17:00):
When it's happening everywhere around the house, then it's not
a localized thing in the sense of like all the faucets.
And when you said hot and cold sputtering crossover, that
points back to the water heater and something else going
inside going on inside the water here. There could be
a blockage, There could be when you switched out the
(17:22):
How how bad was the sacrificial anode when you remove
the old one?
Speaker 2 (17:29):
I honestly, I've never seen one exposed before, so I
would say it was probably about half at least half life.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Okay, so it wasn't completely gone.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
It's probably eight years old.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Huh huh.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
We did this on the recommendation of a plumber, as
we had him out doing some other things, and he
said the water here looked to be in good repair,
and he thought it would help prolong the life of
the unit a couple more years than normal. Possibly when
I put the anode in, I did put teflon tape
(18:10):
around the spreading, and I did lock it down really
well with a break or bar. Maybe I need to
take it back out and then retape that. Possibly air
could be getting in at that point.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
It's a possibility. It is a possibility, And so yeah,
you give that another shot since you already kind of
are in the DIY mode there and then again. And
sometimes you know, depending plumbing systems are tricky. They go up,
they go down. It's sometimes tricky to purge it all out.
But I would do that. I would I'd reset that,
(18:44):
make sure that's sealed so that air isn't being sucked
into the water heater and causing spurting. If the water
heater isn't old, and it isn't at eight years, if
the plumber always already thought that it appeared to be
in good repair, If the arcrificial anode that you pulled
out it was not all the way eaten through, then
(19:06):
there's no reason to immediately think that there's other damage
inside the water heater. But it's always a possibility. But
let's just do this. You go ahead and reseal that
and the new anode, and just to make sure that
that's clear, make sure nothing's been cracked or leaking air,
(19:27):
and then again turn everything on, including including any outside
spigots water spigots that are attached to the house which
are also part of the interior, and let it run.
I mean, let them all run for even longer than
you expect it all at the same time, flush toilets
(19:48):
run fofits and just let them. Sometimes getting air out
of the system is just persnickety. And after all of that,
if you still are getting the same amount of spurting everywhere,
I'm afraid you really should call plumber back out and
have them take a look at the water here, right, Okay, okay.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
All right, good, yeah, very good advice. I appreciate that much.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Thank you, sir. I appreciate the question. Great question. Uh
and yeah, I know somebody right now is scratching their
head saying, what is a sacrificial anode? How about I?
Just before I take the next call, I'll explain that
I'll do it all. Hey bye. Being sharp for the
houseworks for a welcome home. Thanks for being with us
(20:35):
this morning. It's going to be a lovely day here
in southern California, cool, sunny, everything we want, not a
lot of crazy wind blowing. It's going to be a
gorgeous weekend. I hope you have plans to get out
into it and enjoy it. What are we doing right here,
I'm kicking off your weekend, just conversations about your home.
(20:56):
We're talking about the weather builders in life of you know,
the recent devastating fires, should be allowed to essentially pull
their own permits, regulate their own permits for their project.
That's that's the way it gets talked about out there.
I want to sit down and talk to you a
little bit more about that in a bit, just because
(21:18):
I want to kind of clarify what that really means
and what would be involved, and give you my opinion
as to whether that would be good or whether it's really,
you know, practically going to help. We're going to return
to that conversation just a bit, but I've got some
calls on the board, and that's also what we prioritize
on Saturday mornings. So I'm going to go back to
(21:39):
the phones. Let's talk to Oh. I'm sorry, I promised.
I was going to explain very quickly what a sacrificial
anode is. If people are like, you're talking to that
guy about a sacrificial anode in his water heater, What
are you guys in a cult or something. No, if
you look on the top of a water heater, you've
probably seen a big fitting up there, big square looking
(22:04):
nut up there with threads going into your water heater.
And you might have assumed, oh, well, that must be
some accessory or some pipe hook up that my house
doesn't require, and so there's just a plug in there. Nope,
at that right underneath that big old nut is a
rod sticking down into your water heater. That is called
(22:27):
a galvanic anode. We call it a sacrificial anode because
its whole job it's either made out of aluminium or magnesium,
and its whole job is to attract corrosive elements corrosive
minerals in your water supply, attract those minerals to itself,
(22:49):
basically saying, here, come, corrode me. Don't cling to the
sides of the water heater and eat away at the
steel tank. And that's what it's there for. It is
called the sacrificial anode. It sacrifices itself. And the reason
it's able to do that is because those corrosive elements
are far more attracted to it, because it's a far
(23:12):
more corrosive enabling material the aluminum or magnesium. And as
a result, it preserves the steel in your water heater
from being eaten away by corrosive elements. And so, yeah,
if your water heater gets to a certain age, especially
if it gets past if you have exceptionally hard water
(23:32):
and you get past like ten years, somebody should take
a serious look at popping that old one out and
putting the new one in. Because the day that the
sacrificial anode is completely eaten away is the day that
there's nothing else in there, attracting corrosion to it. Therefore boom.
That stuff then turns to the steel tank of your
(23:54):
water heater and prematurely ages it. So there you go.
Now you know, the more you know, Let's talk to
Wally real quick. Hey, Wally, welcome home.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Hi sir.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
How can I help you?
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (24:14):
I have no water heater? And how I have I
installed a tank little water heater? And how hot can
I have it here? To come up to the temperature?
Speaker 1 (24:25):
How hot can you have it come up?
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (24:29):
What is the upper limit? Uh? So let me take
a real quick here. I'm trying to remember. I think
one hundred and twenty degrees is the prob?
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Yeah, right now it's you say, I.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Have a Murray tankle little water here, and there's like
an led upper I could see the temperature. Is I
I could adjust the I think I think it's the
I'm right now. It could I could put it on
on winter or summer, but I brought it up. I
think it's ninety five ninety five on a ninety five
degrees So I'm gonna go up higher.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
But you won't get you can. All you have to
do is consult the the owner's manual, and you'll get
some directions in there. A tankless water heaters in California,
and I'm not sure if this is true in every state.
I'm assuming it is because you know, we're all human beings,
and they they come preregulated for a max temperature of
(25:24):
one hundred and twenty degrees, so you can adjust with
your thermostatic control. You can adjust it up to one twenty. Now,
there's also an override some of us, I'm not gonna
say who in this room, me, it's me. Some of
us like even hotter water than that coming out of
our water heater. Uh. And almost every brand of tankless
(25:46):
water heater can be adjusted higher. You're not invalidating anything.
There are instructions if they can be adjusted higher, they
are instructions in your instruction manual. As to the procedure
to override the one twenty or one twenty five whatever
your water heater is preset max to. There's usually an
(26:09):
instruction and it allows you to take it in most
cases up to one forty one hundred and forty degrees,
And for me, that makes all the difference in the world.
But it won't just do that automatically. There's an override
procedure that you go through in order to do that,
and you can just do it with the controller. It'll
(26:29):
say press this down, hold it long enough, bum bumb,
you know that kind of thing, and then you can
override and go up. And if, by the way, if
you have a power outage or something like that, or
the water heater gets worked on or serviced, it's going
to default back to its one twenty and then you're
going to have to reset the override again. So one
hundred and twenty degrees or lower. That is just free
(26:52):
flowing on your thermostat arrows up and down. And if
you want to get over one twenty, then you've got
to follow the instructions in the manual how to override that.
But yeah, that's right where a water heater should live
about one or if you're dean, about one thirty or so.
(27:14):
Because that's nice. All right, walle thanks for the call,
my friend. All right, look at us right here at
the top of the hour. When we come back, I'm
gonna have more thoughts for you on whether or not
we should be allowing builders to pull their own regulate
their own permits here in southern California. That and more
(27:35):
of your calls your Home with Dean Sharp, the House
Whisper on KFI. You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp
on demand from KFI AM six forty
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