KFI AM six forty.

You're listening to Dean Sharp, the House Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app.

Let's go back to the phones.

Hey, John, welcome home.

I'm calling you from San Diego, and my story is to save a few dollars.

I installed my own water heater, all right, and in so doing I read the instructions and one of the things that I remembered was the water pressure.

They recommend the maximum eighty pounds per square inch pressure in the water lines.

Well, I installed the water heater and I had the city come out and test my pressure, and it's up around eighty six eighty seven.

And I'm concerned about that.

If what are the average home water systems of piping and everything, how much more than eighty can be tolerated?

What could I do about it to lower that water pressure?

Great question, and kudos for reading the instructions, John, Good job, my friend.

I learned how to read a long time ago.

So okay, first of all, water pressure around eighty five eighty six.

You know you don't have an emergency concern on your hand, okay, because it's just you know, it's just it's just etching over the the you know the upper limit.

However, you are right to address it.

You should address everybody should know.

This is why that's why I take calls all right, because not only am I gonna answered John's question, but it should help everybody who's listening understand a little bit more about their home.

So, residential water pressure should ideally fall in the sixty to eighty psi range.

Sixty to eighty, So that's the optimum range.

Okay, below sixty, it's not going to hurt your house, but you know everybody's going to be like, what the heck is wrong with my water?

Why is it clogged?

Right?

So we all like nice water pressure in our lines.

But above eighty psi, and here's the key, above adpsi, it puts a strain on the fittings in your water system, the fittings of the pipes themselves, and even more important than that, which you know, there are systems that, if they're well built and well put together, could withstand a heck of a lot more pressure than that.

But more important than that is all of your appliances.

The interior guts of the washing machine and the dishwasher, and water based appliance is like your water here.

None of them are rated to have more than eighty PSI sitting in the term right, So we just don't want to do that.

We don't want to damage.

We don't want to you know, I don't want to blow out the ice maker line to the refrigerator or anything like that.

So, yeah, we got to get your water pressure down, all right.

Uh So I recommend nattin for the house just to bring the pressure down.

No, there are no such things.

But here's the simple it's a simple fix.

Okay.

Every home has a pressure regulator on the mainline going into the house.

And I would say, well, okay, then then it's time to get yourself one, my friend.

UH a pressure regulator valve, all right, And it's and it's almost always located right where the main water cutoff valve is, right before the water lines enter the house.

I'm not talking about the meter out in the you know, on the UH in the sidewalk out there in the little concrete pit.

I'm talking about the irrigation and UH and water control valves, the gate valves right before water and your home right then and there, that is where we want a pressure control valve.

We don't have to have a pressure regulator on the irrigation lines for your home, because they don't hold pressure.

They're empty lines.

You know, the sprinkler system is empty until you activate it and then and then they fill up with water and then they irrigate your house, and then you turn them off and they drain out again.

They don't hold pressure twenty four seven three sixty five.

But the rest of the pipes inside your house do always standing water there under pressure.

So the point being, pressure regulators are not expensive in the long run of all.

You know, a lot less expensive than your water.

Here.

We're talking about two or three hundred dollars at the most.

And if you don't if there isn't a union hook up there to detach the existing one, if you don't actually have one, then you need to get one.

You can find them at any plumbing supply place, find them at the big box stores.

Make sure they're sized right to your line.

And if you don't feel confident, like well, how am I going to hook this up?

Then yeah, you call a plumber and stay listener.

I need you to install a pressure regulator right here, I would say, And I don't have a scientific this is not a scientific at scientifically accurate statistic.

This is just my you know, empirical experience.

But I would say probably eighty percent of the homes of the folks who are listening to me right now have a worn out pressure regulator.

They wear out, okay, overtime and so, and that's why.

So once originally it was doing its job holding back the pressure and reducing it, and now it has just given out, and as a result, we've got too high pressure in the house.

So everybody, it would.

Be the lifespan of a regulator.

You know, it's impossible for me to tell you, but I will tell you this.

I haven't seen many that are over twenty twenty five years old that are still doing their job.

Okay, Oh, I don't know.

You know, I can't tell you that for certain.

All I know is that you know, if you suspect that you've got high pressure, and if you haven't ever checked the water pressure on your house, you should.

Most people, by the way, can test this themselves because most homes.

Most homes have a wall mounted water spigot somewhere.

Okay, now I'm not talking about out in the yard.

You can't trust those.

If you've got a water spigot and you know, hooked up to a hose out in the yard somewhere, it's very likely that that is part of the irrigation system and not pressure regulated.

But if you on the outside of your house anywhere on the outside of your house, if you've got a just a hose spigot coming out of the stucco or the siding on the house, that is very likely part of the house water line system and it's regulated.

And a water pressure test valve, I mean gauge is like a ten dollars item at the hardware store and.

It screws on.

It screws on to the end of the hose bib just like a hose, and then you just turn on the hose bib and you wait to see where the needle goes.

And that's how you can pressure test your own water.

And everybody can check that out for themselves.

So, my friend, it's time for a pressure regulator and bring that out and take that expertly installed water heater of yours and make sure that as a long healthy life.

I did a good job on it for the first time.

And you know, there's another thing that I learned that I think other people should be aware of.

And these water heaters is the anode rod.

Yes, I'm thinking to change that every four years.

It is not all a bad idea, my friend John.

Thank you for your call, my friend, good luck.

It's no big deal.

You're going to get your pressure under control, bring it down to about seventy psi once that new regulator is in and happy water, happy house, happy life.

There you go, Thanks John.

More of your calls on the way.

You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty.

Here to help you take your home to the next level, which we're doing today by going to the phones.

Let's get back to them.

Why don't we talk to An Hey and welcome.

Home Hidin Okay.

I just have a quick actually two quick questions.

When I plug in my like vacuum or a fan or something like that, and of course you know your vacuum for a few minutes, when I go to unplug from the wall, well, the plug is so hot you can hardly hold it.

Is that something I should be concerned about?

The actual plug at the end of the vacuum planer, Yes, has has has gotten super hot?

Huh?

Yeah?

And you know I vacuum for let's say at least ten minutes, because the room is kind of large, and I go over to unplug it to take it to another room, and the plug when I unplug it from the wall, it's really hot.

Well that you know what that's that's a bit of a quandary, I got to tell you, because it's it's normal for an appliance plug to become warm after you've used it for a while.

It is abnormal for a plug to actually get hot.

Okay, it's usually some kind of internal electrical fault in the appliance itself that is ready to go off if it's drawing too much energy, like like if it's drawing so much power that it's going to overwhelm the wires in the plug.

Sometimes an improperly grounded electrical connection can also cause a device to draw more power than necessary.

So, you know what, it's a bit of a mystery to me, I have heard.

I haven't seen this firsthand, but I've heard that a properly an improperly grounded plug can sometimes allow an appliance to draw more energy than it should, and therefore the cord on the appliance gets way too hot.

Now, if it's warm, that's one thing, but hot like oohow, I can hardly hold it.

That would be a concern.

Does that happen to the vacuum cleaner, Let's say when you plug it into any of your outlets or just one in particular.

Well, that's what I was going to suggest, is maybe I should try another because normally I use the same outlet because it's centrally located, you know, so that I can do the whole room.

But maybe that's what I should do, is try another plug to see if the problem is that one particular outlet.

Yeah, exactly, So I'm going to suggest a couple of things.

Number One, that you do that first, let's see if that happens on every single outlet.

If that's the case, it's very likely.

By the way, when was your house built.

Well, the house was built in like around sixty But the two plugs that I use for the vacuum they are fairly new because I had a little remodeling done.

So when you said it could be not grounded, I just wonder if the electrician didn't you do something that he was supposed to do with those two new additional plugs outlets.

I mean, Okay, so Let's do what you were saying.

Let's plug the vacuum cleaner into a couple of other outlets in the house and see run it for the same amount of time.

See if we get the same reaction out of the vacuum cleaner for that, because it could just be an issue with the vacuum cleaner.

It really could.

But here's another thing that you can do.

If you run down to the hardware store or home depot or low someplace like that and you ask them, like I tell them that you want to get an outlet tester.

Okay, it's specifically an outlet tester.

It's a little block of plastic.

It's got three lights on the end of it, and it has a three prong plug, just like you plug in the any appliance.

The thing that an outlet tester it's going to do is when you plug it into any outlet in your house, depending on how the lights light up, and there's a little menu right on top that shows you depending on how the lights light up, it will tell you whether or not that outlet is properly grounded, whether the hot and the neutral have been revert whether there's a wiring issue with the outlet, so if you plug in this outlet, tester, it's only going to cost you like ten bucks to do this.

You could test every outlet in your house and you can know for sure whether or not the electrician properly grounded that plug.

Well, I was just concerned with it starting a fire, and that's what that was my main concern.

But in talking with you, that's that's a good idea to try another plug, another outlet, I mean, and then I also get that little tester thing.

That's a good idea.

And you definitely want to be concerned about starting a fire.

And you don't want to mess with your electrical.

If you're ever worried about your electrical just figure it out, get it tested, get it dealt with, because we don't want to fire in the house.

And thank you so much, sweetheart, thank you so much more to come your Home with Dean Sharp.

The house was.

You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI A M six forty.

Taking your calls.

Let's go back to the phones.

Hey, Adam, welcome home.

Hey, yeah, there's going Dean.

Well here, don't mind me.

I'm just working here.

I'm a truck driver, so deliver a speech, so I'll make it quick with my brit and maybe I can take my answers off the air.

Sure a thing.

So I got.

Two questions.

I got a office in my house that I'm trying to close up, and I want to install a door, but I don't want to go grab a door from a home depot and just throw that in there and just be your normal white, you.

Know type shaker door.

My opening for my office is kind of wide, so this is the hard part.

I think that I'm having trouble with.

It's ninety six by sixty six wide, so that it's a little bit of above average.

So my I'm thinking of something maybe steel made glass just to make it pop, you know, black steel glass not doesn't need to lock, because I know that's extra let me, you know, and they ask for that, if we'll if you ask for that.

But office two doors like French style.

Yeah, there's options of maybe like a sliding door, but I definitely like that black look.

Still looked.

So that's my first question, and I wanted to see what your.

Thought on that was, and maybe if you know of any good options.

I've been looking out there and I'm getting quoted in the five thousand and forty four thousand range four to five thousand.

So I'm trying to find something affordable right that won't break the bank.

So do you have maybe my ide eight, no, of some of ideas on where to look?

Second question, simple question, fast question.

Flooring.

I'm installing vinyl luxury flooring throughout the house click style, the whole house, not the bedrooms.

The bedrooms have carpet because I wanted to go with that carpet in the bedrooms.

Vinyl click style flooring throughout the house.

Now where I get where I get stuck, is do I also do it in the kitchen because right now the kitchen has a little bit of tile, you know, they a little you know, kitchen with a little bit of tile in it, ceramic, Kyle.

So the wife wants vinyl in the kitchen and the whole house.

Leave the bedrooms.

But my idea is to put vinyl flooring, but in the kitchen throughout the house.

Put in the kitchen tile and the bathrooms tile same tile, colored matching, you know, same Kyle.

So what do you think about that house with vinyl flooring in the kitchen matching the whole thing?

Okay?

Or how connected is the kitchen to how open is the kitchen.

To the It's my house is twenty years old, so it's one of those you know Rancho Cucamonga looking type homes where you walk into the kitchen and it's just like a like a second bedroom.

Left side is the whole kitchen, cabinets, and on the right side it's you know, a big open empty space, you know, open space with the fireplace, and that's pretty much our second livery and we have another pick piece of couch there in another TV and we spend all our time in that place.

But I like the tile thing, you know, have a little bit of tile in case when people drop liquids and the kids and stuff like that.

I kind of I think tile will just hold.

Up longer, a little bit more old school, you know.

But everybody now seems to be put when they put down vino.

They do it throughout the whole house, you know, ye.

Yep, So what are your friend?

Here's my opinion.

Here is my opinion about that.

It's virtue.

And I'm going to disappoint you, not because I'm picking a side, but because I don't know what's best without actually getting eyes on it.

Myself, because neither is a bad choice.

Okay, they are are plenty of kitchens that we work on for clients in which I'm the one saying, you know what, we should change up the material in here.

We don't need to run that material that's running everywhere else into this space, and it'll be a good look and it'll kind of offset it.

It'll set it off to itself in its own little design vibe.

And there are just as many instances in which I am saying, no, no, let's take this flooring and run it all the way through.

So from a design perspective, it is not the easiest thing for me to be able to blindly tell you one or the other.

So I guess I'm afraid I can't come down on that argument.

All I'm going to say is this, I don't care what your flooring material in there is.

Make sure you're on the same page with your wife if you want that flooring material not to come back and haunt you for years.

So you guys work it through, have some reasonable conversations with each other.

But I will tell you this.

You know, luxury vinyl plank is a bomb proof material.

It's a resilient floor resilient, meaning that it's a you know, it's a soft touch floor.

So yeah, in one sense, a tile in a in a kitchen is h is tougher in one sense, but it's h The luxury vinyl is just as waterproof as it's actually technically more waterproof than tile as far as moisture is concerned.

It's a lot less expensive.

You can afford to have a couple of boxes of extra planks just sitting in the garage.

Should you ever screw up anything in the kitchen and you know, something sharp gets dropped on it and it nicks it, or it dense it, or it cuts it, but that's actually pretty rare.

And because it's a resilient a soft touch floor, the odds of something breaking falling onto it versus falling onto the ceramic tile are much less because because it absorbs shock as things fall onto it.

So for people who spend all of their time in the kitchen, I'd rather give them a soft, resilient floor.

It's more comfortable for them to stand on than a tile floor, if that is something that they love.

So from a design perspective, I'm gonna be Switzerland and tell you that I you know, not having seen it.

If I put eyes on it, I'll give you my opinion for sure, and there'll be no backing away from it.

But not blind, I can't tell you that.

All I can tell you is that both of those materials will work, and both have their strengths in that kitchen environment.

And the best thing you can do is, you know, get on the same page with your wife.

Now, let me go back to your original question about the double doors.

A good steel door is going to run you.

You know, it's going to run you at least something a pair of steel doors, and you said about five six The opening is about five six wide, So a pair of steel doors is gonna it's gonna run you somewhere in the area of twenty five hundred dollars or more.

That's just the way it is.

So, uh, my advice on that is this, if you're gonna go steal, and you live here in southern California, then you should talk to Pinky's.

Pinky's Iron Doors, Okay, one of the classic vendors that we turn to for entry doors that are iron and steal and for interior doors, and for for the value that they give you, for the quality of the door that they give you.

Their prices are pretty unbeatable.

So Pinky's p I n k y s just like the plastic hot dog stand, except their iron doors pinkysrondors dot com.

You should check them out at them just to make sure that you understand what the right priced steel doors is going to cost for an interior However, like I said, it's gonna be expensive, it's not gonna be you know, you're not gonna pick a pair up or of good steel doors for less than like twenty five hundred dollars.

Is it worth it?

Don't know is if it's the color that you're going for.

If it's the color and that vibe and that look, and you're using glass, then then shop out some exterior grade lad like aluminum clad open glass panel doors.

You might find a pair of them for less or just a couple of interior doors that are wood okay with the glass in it.

And then pick the right paint color.

Pick a beautiful iron steel paint and allow a good painter to lay on two or three coats of you know, high sheen iron steel paints so that you get the effect with a wood door.

So one of the things that everybody just needs to realize, is that know yourself, know what it is that you're going for, whether or not you're looking for a color vibe out of the door, or whether you really want to steal to the touch.

If it's the steel, you got to go with pinkies.

If it's just the color, you could go with a wood door and paint it steel or iron colored and get you know, ninety percent of what you're looking for with about fifteen percent of the cost.

All Right, Adam, thank you for your question, buddy, and good luck on the roads there.

Stay focused as you continue to drive.

Okay, up next more of your calls your Home with Dean Sharp house whisper.

You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty.

Let's get back to it.

Hey, Jim, welcome home.

My question is I have a new plywood deck that I put out, that's I just had laid out my bedroom.

They put an ac X plywood on it, and before the people before when I moved in, had a They did a torch down on it, and I was wondering if there's something it's not covered.

There's no cover on it.

It's just a balcony that overlooks my pool out of my bedroom.

And I just need to know what I can put on that that would would be a good ceiler for that, you know, you could walk on.

I know, I don't know.

I don't want to use something like a like the stuff they put on garages, floors and stuff like that.

Do I want something like that or something to seal it so that I can, you know, sort of last out there.

So is this a new deck that was just built?

It's just to replace the other one had just got rotten, had gotten rotten.

So it's it's yeah, it's just a plywood deck right now, yea.

And I just need something to note what to put on top of that.

Okay, and what's directly underneath it.

I mean, the reason I'm I just want to give you the full ordered answer to your question this is, you know, one of the easiest ways of covering a you know, a deck is to not waterproof at per se, but to cover it in like decking boards, right planks.

But that's why to do that, we wouldn't use plywood on top of it.

We would just use open decking planks.

We would treat the supporting joysts underneath that are holding up the deck and uh and boarded on the tops.

That way, water doesn't have to be shed off of it.

It'll just run through the deck boards to what's underneath.

So that's why I'm asking you what's underneath.

Normally when we do a waterproof deck, it's because what's directly underneath, you know, we want coverage so that rain water doesn't you know, so we can be out there and rain doesn't get through.

Is that's what's going on.

Yeah, it's actually it's overlooking.

It's on top of my service porch.

You know.

Also I have the wash and dryer and it's farm of the house undernak there.

So it needs to be you know, water tight sealed.

So options, you got a lot of options.

One is the one option you don't have though, is to just put some sealer on that plywood, okay, because that's not going to hold up.

It won't hold up, so we've got to cover that up.

In the past, people have hot mopped right tar and asphalt.

You don't need to do that anymore.

If you're interested in making a decorative surface out there on the deck.

In other words, if we're going to put tile or stone or something like that.

Then you would use a brush on membrane or a PVC rollout membrane, or a roofing membrane that is designed not to be attractive but to become that waterproof membrane.

So you could use a regular roofing membrane that seals at the seams.

There are rush on materials like red Guard, which you can pick up.

It's not cheap, but again they work really really well.

Red Guard materials they roll on and you just put on several layers of it, so you get a thick mill rubberized coating finish on top of that plywood.

All of these things, though, are things that you would then proceed to cover with your actual, you know, attractive esthetic material on top.

If that's not the option, then you could have a decking company come out and do a fiberglass coating for that, and the fiberglass coating in itself is designed to have its own attractiveness.

Now, attractiveness is a question that you know, it's relative, right, because some people are like, I hate the way those fiberglass decks look well, But the point is that is a situation where the decking material itself has its own finish to it, and there are some companies out there that do some amazing stuff.

It isn't just the rough textured, beige colored material, which is pretty much the least expensive way to go.

They can do simulated stone, they can do simulated plank and so on.

So basically, I'm breaking it down into two categories.

You're either a going to go in that direction where the waterproof membrane is in and of itself, also the decorative finish has it built into it, or you're going to lay down any number of efficient waterproof membranes, be it a roofing membrane or roll on membrane like the Red Guard, but those you're gonna end up covering up with a finished material tile, wood, stone, what have you.

All Right, thank you very much, Jee.

And make sure, Jim, make sure that before any of that happens, make sure that that deck is properly pitched, because especially if you've got you know, space underneath it that has to stay dry.

It's not just about hopefully they rebuilt the deck with pitch to it.

That deck should be shedding water off to its edge at least an eighth of an inch per foot of drop, just like a driveway or so on.

Quarter inch would be better, but at least an eighth of an inch per foot, so that water will shed off and not pool on that decking surface.

Because if we're inviting the water to stay put, then you know, amazingly enough, any kind of decking membrane can be defeated ultimately by water that is hanging around too long.

All right, more of your calls right after this your home Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.

This has been home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.

Tune into the live broadcast on KFI AM six forty every Saturday month morning from six to eight Pacific time and every Sunday morning from nine to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app