April 13, 2025 • 27 mins
Dean introduces his DIY’s fix-it tips type of show of advice on DIY projects and about Puzzle Lab, the puzzle company with various styles of them. Dean says it's all about the little things & the first step is to work with two wrenches when working on pipes and what to add into a DYI toolbox. Dean continues with the small things and approaches small DYI projects. Lastly, Dean talks about glueing wood with wood glue and says to clamp them together for the best results
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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 iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I'm Dean Sharp the House Whisper.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
I design custom homes, I build a few custom homes,
and I on the weekends, am your guide to better
understanding that place where you live. Today on the show, well,
you know it's springtime and the weather has been good
enough long enough for most of us that we're finally
(00:33):
giving up and we're saying, okay, I admit it. Winter's over.
I need to get out and get some of this
honeydew list finished up. And so I know there's a
lot of DIY stuff going on. It happens every year
right about this time. The flowers are blooming, the birds,
the bees. We've got all sorts of good shows along
those lines planned for you as well. But today, because
(00:56):
I know you're dusting off the tools and you're getting
get ready to knock down some of that list that
you've been writing down, saying yeah, i'll do it in spring.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
I'll do it in springtime.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Well, now here we are, so today it's DIY fix
it tips.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Now.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
My focus here is on the little things, because sometimes
it is the little things. For those of you who
are good at reading instructions and following directions and doing
a little research on YouTube or wherever it is that
you are looking for advice for your project. For those
of you who do well at that, that's really not
(01:35):
your problem. Some of you don't read instructions, that's your problem.
But for everybody these days who hey may or may
not have been raised with some hands on DIY tool
instructions and those kinds of things, I find that people
get frustrated on the little things. Little things, I mean
(01:56):
little things like how does this How do you really
screw in a screw with a screwdriver the right way?
I know that may sound ridiculous, Dean. You just put
the head in there and you turn it. And yet,
and yet I find so many people frustrated by this
thing is slipping. I don't know what's wrong. Is there
(02:17):
something wrong with the screwdriver? Is it the screw?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Is it me?
Speaker 1 (02:20):
There is a technique and if you don't understand what
that is, well you will by the time we are
done today. That and one hundred other little things, because
sometimes it's the little things. Successfully handling small problems around
the house can make a big difference in the quality
of your daily life, and the right fix comes down
to understanding those little things. All right, Before we start
(02:45):
with the little things, let me show you a couple
of big things. I want to introduce you to our team.
Let's say good morning to Elmer. How you doing, bud yeehaw,
I'm doing good. I'm a cowboy, you sounded though enthused.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yeah, ye, there's a snake in my boot.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Elmer is on the board handling pretty much doing all
the work. I'm just sitting here talking to the microphone
as per usual. Who else is working hard? Of course
our golden mic winning producer Richie, who is not near
a golden mic. White Well, he might be next to
his golden mic, but he's not near excellent mic.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
That's right, is in the hand.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
He is standing by to take your calls. The phone
lines are opened up, and of course we're taking calls today.
Here's the number eight three three two. Ask Dean eight
three three the numeral two. Ask Dean eight three three two.
Ask Dean. Also working hard today. Eileen Gonzalez at the
news desk. Good morning, Eileen, Good morning sunshine. How's it going? Oh,
(03:55):
you know you know Sunday morning, it's time to just
hang out with y'all and talk home stuff. It's going good,
it's going good.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
How is what's our tea of choice this morning?
Speaker 4 (04:06):
We're on Green Tea again. I've needed the extra caffeine
this weekend.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Oh, okay, all right? Does green tea have more caffeine
than like black tea or just the same?
Speaker 4 (04:15):
I have no idea. I know white tea has a
lot of caffeine. I found that out the hard way
by accident.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
One.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
Why am I shaking? Oh? Has more caffeine?
Speaker 2 (04:28):
All right, all right, good to know. I love tea.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
I'm just not a tea officionado. If somebody hands me tea,
I'm like, oh, thank you very much. This is lovely.
But I don't find myself. I think I'm more. Coffee
is on my brain most of the time, and there
is caffeine and coffee. By the way, did you know that?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Did you know that? Huh? It's working, it's working. Uh.
Who else is working hard today?
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Oh? Sitting across the table from me. Let's not forget her.
My better half, my design partner, the co owner, co
founder of House Whisper, pretty much the person who holds
my life together and my best friend in all the world.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Tina is here. Excuse me, Welcome home.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Welcome home to you. We were in Albuquerque earlier this week, Yes, Albuquerque,
New Mexico, with some lovely dear clients and working on
a home design, and we walked into Old Town. We
stayed near Old Town, Albuquerque, Albuquerque, very friendly place by
the way, extremely friendly. That was our experience, and we
(05:39):
walked in. We had a little extra time on our
hands on Wednesday morning, walked into old Town, found a
puzzle store in the shops in Old Town and found
a we love. Tina loves wooden puzzles. Wooden puzzles, and
because once you make them, first of all, they're very difficult,
and then once you build them, some of them are
(06:00):
so beautiful you want to just frame them. You just
want to mount them and frame them. We found a
wooden puzzle from a very reputable wooden puzzle manufacture with
an elephant on it. Sweet adorable lady elephant. She had
a big ear ring in one of her ears, and
she was trying to balance on some teacups and then
(06:24):
you could see there were broken teacups down on the ground.
But she was successfully balancing on a tea pot, which
I'm not sure that's working either, But the point was
she was a big old elephant and she was being
lovely and elegant and gracious. And it's an adorable painting
and it's in the puzzle and we nabbed it because
(06:47):
you and elephants.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
I know, right.
Speaker 5 (06:49):
Yeah, there is a beautiful puzzle company, puzzle Lab there.
I think they originated in British Columbia, but you can
look them up and you can probably even see that
puzzle there. They're so so pretty.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
They are, They're gorgeous. You should check it out. If
you're a fan of puzzle or just artwork, kind of
abstracted artwork, you should check out Puzzle Lab. There you go,
all right. Not a sponsor of the show.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Not a sponsor today Home sponsored by Puzzle Lab.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Hmm, that doesn't really follow. All right.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Uh, let's get into the little things tips and tricks
for your DIY season that lies ahead of you.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
We will do it all.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
If your home is in need of some personal house
whisper attention. Yeah, I mean, like me and T standing
in your family room staring at you know what you
consider the problem. Then you can book an in home
design consult with us. Just go to house Whisperer house
Whisperer dot design. Let's just s some that's our company website,
(08:01):
house whisper dot Design. All right, let us dive into
Dean's list of fix it tips for you. Just random things,
I mean stuff all over the board here, so hopefully
you'll just glean some things. Here is a thing that most,
if not all, YouTube instructional videos on plumbing fail to mention.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Are you ready?
Speaker 1 (08:30):
How do you properly tighten a threaded pipe? And how
many turns is tight enough?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Ah?
Speaker 1 (08:38):
That's the kind of stuff I'm talking about. It's the
little things that unnerve you or bug you or cause
you problems. Well, first of all, First of all, first step,
whenever you are working with pipes, plumbing pipes in your home, okay,
two wrenches, not one. Two two wrenches to support the pipe,
(09:04):
the part of the pipe that you are not removing, okay,
And the second one to actually hook onto and spin
off the fitting of the pipe that you are working with. Now,
why is that? Well, if you just grow up, walk
up to a you know, a piece of plumbing, and
(09:24):
you slap a pipe wrench onto the fitting that you're
trying to remove. A couple of things can happen. Number one,
you can cause damage back in the wall by putting
too much pressure intention on that pipe that that you're
weren't intending on touching. Okay, that's why you set a
(09:45):
pipe wrench in the opposite direction, okay, so that they
are uh, so that they are spinning against each other,
the pipe wrenches, and then you hold the one and
spin the other so that you're supporting the existing pipe.
The second thing is, let's say a common example would
be you've got a threaded pipe coming out of your wall,
(10:08):
maybe on the outside of the house, and there's a
water spigot valve attached to it. Okay, so you've turned
the water off, all things are good, and you just
grab a pipe wrench and you slap it on that
water spiggot valve and you start to turn it, and
you realize very quickly that the water spigot itself, that
(10:31):
valve is much tighter on that pipe than the pipe
is on the next fitting inside the wall. The whole
pipe is now spinning, and you're literally removing the pipe
from its fitting or its elbow inside the stucco wall
where you can't get to it, and you don't want
to do that. You don't want to do it because
if you undo it completely, that pipe may shift, it
(10:53):
might not be lined up anymore, you might not be
able to get it back in there. And number two,
there's no reason to take it out of that. You
only want to take the spigot off. And so again,
two two wrenches opposing each other in spin direction every
time you approach plumbing. So if you're building a toolbox
for yourself, a DIY toolbox, and you're like, yeah, you
(11:16):
know what, I think it's on every list. I should
get a pipe wrench. No, you should get two pipe wrenches.
Two Now, how many turns?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (11:24):
This is I've asked plumbers this and plumbers apprentices this
on job sites and they've scratched their head and they're like, well,
I don't know, I don't know. A fitting should cover
at least the first half inch of the threads of
the pipe that it's being thread onto. Okay, half inch
(11:45):
at least. Now you get beyond that and it feels
snug you can let it go. You do not have
to crank a fitting all the way onto a pipe
to cover all the threads. In fact, most of the
time when you attempt to do that, you may crack
the fitting or the union or the valve or whatever
is that you're trying to put on because it's too
(12:07):
much pressure. Half an inch half an inch okay, hand
tighten it and then one to two turns more usually
gets the job done. And here's a hint. If you're
using pipe tape pipe thread tape as a ceilant, and
I recommend it for di I wires because it's so
much more efficient and it usually works, you know, all
(12:28):
the time, as opposed to pipe dope, which is kind
of the sticky, goopy stuff that you can also put
on threads for a ceilant. If you're using pipe tape,
guess what. Pipe tape is usually half an inch wide.
So if you put the pipe tape on those outside
threads and then spin your fitting on so that it
covers the thread tape, you are good to go.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
How is that? How was that?
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Can I get Can I get a all right?
Speaker 2 (12:59):
That's fine?
Speaker 1 (13:01):
No, I was at We actually have a licensed plumber here,
and I wanted to get I wanted to get his
thumbs up, but he's busy doing other things.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
It's fine, it's fine, trust me. It's good advice.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
When we come back, we're going to go a little
bit deeper into plumbing and then we're gonna move on
to that squeaky door threshold.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
How does that sound all right?
Speaker 3 (13:26):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI Am six forty.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Dean Sharp, the house Whisperer talking to you here live
this Sunday morning. Is it the thirteenth? Today is the
thirteenth of April. Technically tonight the second night of Passover.
It is springtime in all its glory. It was sunnier yesterday.
Today we're a little overcast where I'm sitting right now,
and cooler. I was hoping the sun would break out today.
(13:55):
Maybe it will at some point. But spring is here,
and man, all of the flowers, all the plants in
our yards are just screaming out and so thrilled, so thrilled.
Spring in southern California. It's a beautiful thing. I hope
wherever you are, the weather is treating you well as
well well as well. There you go, all right, let's
(14:17):
get back to our list of the small things fix
it tips that make a difference. We talked about approaching
pipes with pipe fittings. How many turns actually of a
pipe fitting? How far onto a pipe on the threaded
pipe do you to spin something? And I talked about
pipe tape right thread tape for sealing it. There are
(14:40):
different kinds of thread tape, by the way, FYI be
aware of that. White is for water, yellow is for gas.
There's some purple out there, which I think I believe
it is universal, but just white and yellow. Be aware
of that. How many wraps of pipe thread tape a
(15:00):
pipe get and in what direction do you put it on?
I didn't mention that, but I'm going to make sure
we cover that so that you know everything. And the
answer is between three and five. Between three and five
wraps around the thread doesn't take much. You don't have
to go crazy on it. And if you find yourself
putting on a fitting and all the pipe tape is
(15:21):
getting all gummed up and peeling off as you put
it on, then you got a lot on there, or
you put it on the wrong direction and the right
The right direction is clockwise as you stare at the
end of the pipe. You put the pipe thread tape
on clockwise. Why because the fitting is going to spin
on clockwise as well, and it helps the thread tape
(15:44):
to lay down. So if the thread tape is going
on the same direction as the fitting, they lay down
and meld together. If you put it on counterclockwise and
then you put the fitting on clockwise, it'll be trying
to unwrap the thread tape as you put the pipe on.
The fitting not good. So just remember three to five
wraps clockwise, the same direction that you put the actual
(16:08):
fitting on when you start to screw it on. Was
in a home earlier. This was no last week. It
was in a home last week, and.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
The door threshold every time we went out through the
front door right at the end, gave it just a
nasty squeak. It wasn't really a squeak so much as
it was a chirp from metal on metal contact, and
the homeowner was concerned, like, what is going on with
my front door?
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Is it all falling apart? No?
Speaker 1 (16:37):
No, no, I look down now it may be a
different condition, but I would say the vast majority of
front doors are set up this way as far as
weather stripping, there's a threshold, be it wood or metal.
Quite often a metal threshold on even on top of
a wood threshold, but a metal threshold and a smooth
(16:58):
metal threshold. And then what you will find on the
bottom of the door itself is what we call a
door shoe. That is the other the second half of
that weather stripping combo. It is a U shaped channel
that is placed up underneath the bottom of the door
protects the bottom of the door from direct contact with moisture.
(17:20):
There's a little drip edge on the front that takes
water running off the door and gets it away from
the threshold. And there is or should be a gasket,
a rubberized gasket, a little bulb of gasket that sticks down,
goes into a little channel on that door shoe and
sticks down and rubs makes contact with just very light
(17:43):
contact when it's adjusted properly, makes light contact with that
bottom metal threshold and seals off the door. And what
do I mean by seals off the door? If you
can see light underneath your door that's not sealed off.
And if when you shut the door, that whole bulb
gets squished down and deformed in shape, then it is
(18:07):
also out of adjustment and too low. Now, in this situation,
not only was the bulb gone and there was light
underneath the door, but at one end. Because sometimes doors
expand sometimes over time the jam may shift. There's a
there's ten different reasons why this can happen. But the
door shoe, the metal of the door shoe is actually
(18:29):
rubbing at the very end of the swing against the
metal of the door threshold itself and causing that grinding, annoying,
high pitched metal on metal sound. So what do you
do if the door threshold squeaks. Well, first of all,
the easiest thing to do is to just re adjust
(18:50):
the door shoe. Now, the door shoe, you'll look down
and you'll notice on the inside or the outside, it's
actually going to be on the outside. It's going to
be on most pieces. On the outside, there should be
a series of screws, tiny little screws running across that
are holding that shoe on. That's all that's holding that
door shoe in place. You undo those screws and you'll
(19:11):
find that you can, maybe with a little bump from
a rubber mallet, just to knock it loose from the
paint or whatever. You'll find that it is fully adjustable,
and what you can do is leave the screws out,
shut the door again and adjust it. Now, make sure
you put some new gasket in there if the gasket
is for any reason worn. And that doorshoe gasket is
(19:34):
sitting on the shelf at the hardware store. It's sitting
on the shelf at the big box store. It is
the most common stuff in the world, and you can
go get some right now for just pennies. So you've
got a little section of new doorshoe gasket, slide it in,
make sure it's all fixed really nice in there, and
then let the put the doorshoe back on, no screws,
(19:57):
and let it kind of float as it goes up
over the lower metal threshold. And you know, you can
nudge it with a screwdriver or with your hand and
just get it making nice even contact all around, and
pop some screws back in. Now the screw holes may
be in a different location, that's okay. You're readjusting that
(20:18):
door threshold to its current conditions, and you will find
when you're all done that you can open and close
the door. No light underneath, no bugs crawling in, no squeak,
no sound ah like new.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Hey, just in just a bit, we're going to be
going to the phones and you can ask your question
of me about your house. Anything at all that you
want to talk about regarding your home. We can talk design,
we can get all froofy and talk design. We can
talk like architects, we can talk like builders, we can
(21:02):
talk like di wires. Anything at all that you are
curious and scratching your head about your home, give me
a call. I'll help you figure it out. I promise
the number to reach me eight three three two. Ask
Dean A three three the numeral two. Ask Dean eight
three three two ask Dean. It's just that simple. And
(21:25):
we'll be.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Doing that right after the next news breaks. So phone
lines are open. Producer Richie standing by. He'll tell you
everything you need to know. Pop you into the queue,
we'll put our heads together, we'll figure it out all right.
Back to our list of cool little important DIY fix
it tips. That's all we're doing today all through the show.
Just lots of pearls of wisdom, because sometimes it's the
(21:48):
little things that get in the way of you successfully
completing that DIY project. Not necessarily the big concepts. Not
necessarily you not following instructions. It's sometimes the little skill
sets that the instruction manual or the YouTube video or
wear it that it just failed to mention that ends
(22:10):
up becoming the big frustration. So we've talked about some
plumbing stuff. We've talked about door threshold squeaking. Here's one
in the world of gluing. Gluing is a thing that
is a big part a lot of projects. Some of
you are doing sprinkler work on your irrigation system, some
of you are putting in drains, some of you are
(22:33):
gluing together pieces of wood or trying to repair something.
So let's stick with the wood for the moment. How
much would glue do you need on a piece of wood?
So let me just give you this perspective. Almost in
all cases, less is more, all right. The idea of
gunking up something with a lot of glue so that
(22:57):
you're like, hey, we're just gonna smush that glue in.
It's going to be coming out the sides like too
much peanut butter and jelly on a sandwich. Right, you know,
you're just wasting a lot of glue. You're wasting a
lot because the best bond, almost always, in almost all circumstances,
the best bond happens with a very very thin layer
(23:19):
of glue in between the two surfaces that are being
glued together. That is just a general rule of gluing
when it comes to wood glue. Thoo, though, there is
a first step along the way. Wood glue has a
good amount of water in it, and wood is a
very absorbent material. So when we're taking two pieces of
(23:42):
wood and we're going to glue them together and we
want them to hold forever, what we're gonna do first
is we're going to put a thin coat of wood
glue on both surfaces, and we're gonna let it dry.
And what I mean a thin coat, I mean a
thin coat. And you're not going to put some glue
on and rub it off with a rag. But you
(24:02):
could put some glue on and take a putty knife
or a blade of a knife, or even just a
small scrap of wood and just scrape off most of
the excess there. Just want a thin coat, Now, what's
that going to do? That thin coat is going to
absorb into the wood somewhat. Whatever absorption the wood is
(24:23):
going to do, it's going to grab on. It's not
going to take it all down, but it's going to
take a good amount of it down, seal up the
pores of the wood, and leave an optimal gluing surface
left over. If we've just put some glue on two
pieces of in between two pieces of wood and smash
them together, and I'm not saying that it won't stick,
(24:46):
but i am saying that the wood both pieces are
going to absorb a lot of the glue into the
grain and not leave enough on the surface to bond
the two surfaces together as well as they could be.
Maybe you get a twenty percent strength bond instead of
one hundred percent strength bond. So the key is very
(25:07):
very simple. You just put a thin coat on both surfaces,
You let it dry for a couple of minutes, and
then you can apply a second good bead and push
those pieces together and clamp them. Clamping them together is
always key when you're using wood glue for wood, because
it gives again, puts the pressure on the bind, puts
(25:31):
the pressure on the seam, makes the thinnest possible layer
of adhesive between the two and the best possible bond.
So you're gonna clamp them together, walk away, let it
do its magic. You will not regret it. And of
course when you clamp it together, you might get a
little excess coming out the sides. And take a damp
not wet damp rag because we don't want to add moisture.
(25:53):
Do you know the difference between damp and wet. By
the way, there is a technical difference, especially.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
In the trail. Okay.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
A wet rag is anything that you can pick up
and when I squeeze it, I can get water out
of it.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Okay, the water still comes out. That's wet. Okay.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Damp is when let's say we've taken a dish towel
or something like that. It's been wet and I've wrung
it out and I can't get any more water to
come out of it. But when you feel it in
your hand, you know there's water there.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
It's damp. That is damp.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
A damp rag is what you use to wipe off
the excess glue that comes out of the seam so
it doesn't try and get all yucky and mess up
the wood on the outside of the seam damp damp rag.
The guarantee of using a damp rag is that you
know that you're not adding moisture to the seam and
diluting the glue. Water is not coming out of the rag,
(26:49):
but there's enough water there to act as a kind
of a lubricant and to allow the rag to clean
the surface adequately. It's very simple. Damp and wet. You
learned it right here. Okay, we got so many more
to share with you. We'll do it. But when we
come back, it's top of the hour, which means time
(27:11):
to go to the phones. We got some calls on
the board. There's also room for you. Eight three three two.
Ask Dean eight three three the numeral two. Ask Dean
your calls. When we return. You're listening to Dean Sharp
the House Whisper on KFI. This has been Home with
Dean Sharp, the House Whisper. Tune into the live broadcast
on KFI Am six forty every Saturday morning from six
(27:34):
to eight Pacific time, and every Sunday morning from nine
to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the
iHeartRadio app.
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp The
House Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I'm Dean Sharp the House Whisper.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
I design custom homes, I build a few custom homes,
and I on the weekends, am your guide to better
understanding that place where you live. Today on the show, well,
you know it's springtime and the weather has been good
enough long enough for most of us that we're finally
(00:33):
giving up and we're saying, okay, I admit it. Winter's over.
I need to get out and get some of this
honeydew list finished up. And so I know there's a
lot of DIY stuff going on. It happens every year
right about this time. The flowers are blooming, the birds,
the bees. We've got all sorts of good shows along
those lines planned for you as well. But today, because
(00:56):
I know you're dusting off the tools and you're getting
get ready to knock down some of that list that
you've been writing down, saying yeah, i'll do it in spring.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
I'll do it in springtime.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Well, now here we are, so today it's DIY fix
it tips.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Now.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
My focus here is on the little things, because sometimes
it is the little things. For those of you who
are good at reading instructions and following directions and doing
a little research on YouTube or wherever it is that
you are looking for advice for your project. For those
of you who do well at that, that's really not
(01:35):
your problem. Some of you don't read instructions, that's your problem.
But for everybody these days who hey may or may
not have been raised with some hands on DIY tool
instructions and those kinds of things, I find that people
get frustrated on the little things. Little things, I mean
(01:56):
little things like how does this How do you really
screw in a screw with a screwdriver the right way?
I know that may sound ridiculous, Dean. You just put
the head in there and you turn it. And yet,
and yet I find so many people frustrated by this
thing is slipping. I don't know what's wrong. Is there
(02:17):
something wrong with the screwdriver? Is it the screw?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Is it me?
Speaker 1 (02:20):
There is a technique and if you don't understand what
that is, well you will by the time we are
done today. That and one hundred other little things, because
sometimes it's the little things. Successfully handling small problems around
the house can make a big difference in the quality
of your daily life, and the right fix comes down
to understanding those little things. All right, Before we start
(02:45):
with the little things, let me show you a couple
of big things. I want to introduce you to our team.
Let's say good morning to Elmer. How you doing, bud yeehaw,
I'm doing good. I'm a cowboy, you sounded though enthused.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yeah, ye, there's a snake in my boot.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Elmer is on the board handling pretty much doing all
the work. I'm just sitting here talking to the microphone
as per usual. Who else is working hard? Of course
our golden mic winning producer Richie, who is not near
a golden mic. White Well, he might be next to
his golden mic, but he's not near excellent mic.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
That's right, is in the hand.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
He is standing by to take your calls. The phone
lines are opened up, and of course we're taking calls today.
Here's the number eight three three two. Ask Dean eight
three three the numeral two. Ask Dean eight three three two.
Ask Dean. Also working hard today. Eileen Gonzalez at the
news desk. Good morning, Eileen, Good morning sunshine. How's it going? Oh,
(03:55):
you know you know Sunday morning, it's time to just
hang out with y'all and talk home stuff. It's going good,
it's going good.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
How is what's our tea of choice this morning?
Speaker 4 (04:06):
We're on Green Tea again. I've needed the extra caffeine
this weekend.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Oh, okay, all right? Does green tea have more caffeine
than like black tea or just the same?
Speaker 4 (04:15):
I have no idea. I know white tea has a
lot of caffeine. I found that out the hard way
by accident.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
One.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
Why am I shaking? Oh? Has more caffeine?
Speaker 2 (04:28):
All right, all right, good to know. I love tea.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
I'm just not a tea officionado. If somebody hands me tea,
I'm like, oh, thank you very much. This is lovely.
But I don't find myself. I think I'm more. Coffee
is on my brain most of the time, and there
is caffeine and coffee. By the way, did you know that?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Did you know that? Huh? It's working, it's working. Uh.
Who else is working hard today?
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Oh? Sitting across the table from me. Let's not forget her.
My better half, my design partner, the co owner, co
founder of House Whisper, pretty much the person who holds
my life together and my best friend in all the world.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Tina is here. Excuse me, Welcome home.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Welcome home to you. We were in Albuquerque earlier this week, Yes, Albuquerque,
New Mexico, with some lovely dear clients and working on
a home design, and we walked into Old Town. We
stayed near Old Town, Albuquerque, Albuquerque, very friendly place by
the way, extremely friendly. That was our experience, and we
(05:39):
walked in. We had a little extra time on our
hands on Wednesday morning, walked into old Town, found a
puzzle store in the shops in Old Town and found
a we love. Tina loves wooden puzzles. Wooden puzzles, and
because once you make them, first of all, they're very difficult,
and then once you build them, some of them are
(06:00):
so beautiful you want to just frame them. You just
want to mount them and frame them. We found a
wooden puzzle from a very reputable wooden puzzle manufacture with
an elephant on it. Sweet adorable lady elephant. She had
a big ear ring in one of her ears, and
she was trying to balance on some teacups and then
(06:24):
you could see there were broken teacups down on the ground.
But she was successfully balancing on a tea pot, which
I'm not sure that's working either, But the point was
she was a big old elephant and she was being
lovely and elegant and gracious. And it's an adorable painting
and it's in the puzzle and we nabbed it because
(06:47):
you and elephants.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
I know, right.
Speaker 5 (06:49):
Yeah, there is a beautiful puzzle company, puzzle Lab there.
I think they originated in British Columbia, but you can
look them up and you can probably even see that
puzzle there. They're so so pretty.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
They are, They're gorgeous. You should check it out. If
you're a fan of puzzle or just artwork, kind of
abstracted artwork, you should check out Puzzle Lab. There you go,
all right. Not a sponsor of the show.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Not a sponsor today Home sponsored by Puzzle Lab.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Hmm, that doesn't really follow. All right.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Uh, let's get into the little things tips and tricks
for your DIY season that lies ahead of you.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
We will do it all.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
If your home is in need of some personal house
whisper attention. Yeah, I mean, like me and T standing
in your family room staring at you know what you
consider the problem. Then you can book an in home
design consult with us. Just go to house Whisperer house
Whisperer dot design. Let's just s some that's our company website,
(08:01):
house whisper dot Design. All right, let us dive into
Dean's list of fix it tips for you. Just random things,
I mean stuff all over the board here, so hopefully
you'll just glean some things. Here is a thing that most,
if not all, YouTube instructional videos on plumbing fail to mention.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Are you ready?
Speaker 1 (08:30):
How do you properly tighten a threaded pipe? And how
many turns is tight enough?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Ah?
Speaker 1 (08:38):
That's the kind of stuff I'm talking about. It's the
little things that unnerve you or bug you or cause
you problems. Well, first of all, First of all, first step,
whenever you are working with pipes, plumbing pipes in your home, okay,
two wrenches, not one. Two two wrenches to support the pipe,
(09:04):
the part of the pipe that you are not removing, okay,
And the second one to actually hook onto and spin
off the fitting of the pipe that you are working with. Now,
why is that? Well, if you just grow up, walk
up to a you know, a piece of plumbing, and
(09:24):
you slap a pipe wrench onto the fitting that you're
trying to remove. A couple of things can happen. Number one,
you can cause damage back in the wall by putting
too much pressure intention on that pipe that that you're
weren't intending on touching. Okay, that's why you set a
(09:45):
pipe wrench in the opposite direction, okay, so that they
are uh, so that they are spinning against each other,
the pipe wrenches, and then you hold the one and
spin the other so that you're supporting the existing pipe.
The second thing is, let's say a common example would
be you've got a threaded pipe coming out of your wall,
(10:08):
maybe on the outside of the house, and there's a
water spigot valve attached to it. Okay, so you've turned
the water off, all things are good, and you just
grab a pipe wrench and you slap it on that
water spiggot valve and you start to turn it, and
you realize very quickly that the water spigot itself, that
(10:31):
valve is much tighter on that pipe than the pipe
is on the next fitting inside the wall. The whole
pipe is now spinning, and you're literally removing the pipe
from its fitting or its elbow inside the stucco wall
where you can't get to it, and you don't want
to do that. You don't want to do it because
if you undo it completely, that pipe may shift, it
(10:53):
might not be lined up anymore, you might not be
able to get it back in there. And number two,
there's no reason to take it out of that. You
only want to take the spigot off. And so again,
two two wrenches opposing each other in spin direction every
time you approach plumbing. So if you're building a toolbox
for yourself, a DIY toolbox, and you're like, yeah, you
(11:16):
know what, I think it's on every list. I should
get a pipe wrench. No, you should get two pipe wrenches.
Two Now, how many turns?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (11:24):
This is I've asked plumbers this and plumbers apprentices this
on job sites and they've scratched their head and they're like, well,
I don't know, I don't know. A fitting should cover
at least the first half inch of the threads of
the pipe that it's being thread onto. Okay, half inch
(11:45):
at least. Now you get beyond that and it feels
snug you can let it go. You do not have
to crank a fitting all the way onto a pipe
to cover all the threads. In fact, most of the
time when you attempt to do that, you may crack
the fitting or the union or the valve or whatever
is that you're trying to put on because it's too
(12:07):
much pressure. Half an inch half an inch okay, hand
tighten it and then one to two turns more usually
gets the job done. And here's a hint. If you're
using pipe tape pipe thread tape as a ceilant, and
I recommend it for di I wires because it's so
much more efficient and it usually works, you know, all
(12:28):
the time, as opposed to pipe dope, which is kind
of the sticky, goopy stuff that you can also put
on threads for a ceilant. If you're using pipe tape,
guess what. Pipe tape is usually half an inch wide.
So if you put the pipe tape on those outside
threads and then spin your fitting on so that it
covers the thread tape, you are good to go.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
How is that? How was that?
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Can I get Can I get a all right?
Speaker 2 (12:59):
That's fine?
Speaker 1 (13:01):
No, I was at We actually have a licensed plumber here,
and I wanted to get I wanted to get his
thumbs up, but he's busy doing other things.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
It's fine, it's fine, trust me. It's good advice.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
When we come back, we're going to go a little
bit deeper into plumbing and then we're gonna move on
to that squeaky door threshold.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
How does that sound all right?
Speaker 3 (13:26):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI Am six forty.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Dean Sharp, the house Whisperer talking to you here live
this Sunday morning. Is it the thirteenth? Today is the
thirteenth of April. Technically tonight the second night of Passover.
It is springtime in all its glory. It was sunnier yesterday.
Today we're a little overcast where I'm sitting right now,
and cooler. I was hoping the sun would break out today.
(13:55):
Maybe it will at some point. But spring is here,
and man, all of the flowers, all the plants in
our yards are just screaming out and so thrilled, so thrilled.
Spring in southern California. It's a beautiful thing. I hope
wherever you are, the weather is treating you well as
well well as well. There you go, all right, let's
(14:17):
get back to our list of the small things fix
it tips that make a difference. We talked about approaching
pipes with pipe fittings. How many turns actually of a
pipe fitting? How far onto a pipe on the threaded
pipe do you to spin something? And I talked about
pipe tape right thread tape for sealing it. There are
(14:40):
different kinds of thread tape, by the way, FYI be
aware of that. White is for water, yellow is for gas.
There's some purple out there, which I think I believe
it is universal, but just white and yellow. Be aware
of that. How many wraps of pipe thread tape a
(15:00):
pipe get and in what direction do you put it on?
I didn't mention that, but I'm going to make sure
we cover that so that you know everything. And the
answer is between three and five. Between three and five
wraps around the thread doesn't take much. You don't have
to go crazy on it. And if you find yourself
putting on a fitting and all the pipe tape is
(15:21):
getting all gummed up and peeling off as you put
it on, then you got a lot on there, or
you put it on the wrong direction and the right
The right direction is clockwise as you stare at the
end of the pipe. You put the pipe thread tape
on clockwise. Why because the fitting is going to spin
on clockwise as well, and it helps the thread tape
(15:44):
to lay down. So if the thread tape is going
on the same direction as the fitting, they lay down
and meld together. If you put it on counterclockwise and
then you put the fitting on clockwise, it'll be trying
to unwrap the thread tape as you put the pipe on.
The fitting not good. So just remember three to five
wraps clockwise, the same direction that you put the actual
(16:08):
fitting on when you start to screw it on. Was
in a home earlier. This was no last week. It
was in a home last week, and.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
The door threshold every time we went out through the
front door right at the end, gave it just a
nasty squeak. It wasn't really a squeak so much as
it was a chirp from metal on metal contact, and
the homeowner was concerned, like, what is going on with
my front door?
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Is it all falling apart? No?
Speaker 1 (16:37):
No, no, I look down now it may be a
different condition, but I would say the vast majority of
front doors are set up this way as far as
weather stripping, there's a threshold, be it wood or metal.
Quite often a metal threshold on even on top of
a wood threshold, but a metal threshold and a smooth
(16:58):
metal threshold. And then what you will find on the
bottom of the door itself is what we call a
door shoe. That is the other the second half of
that weather stripping combo. It is a U shaped channel
that is placed up underneath the bottom of the door
protects the bottom of the door from direct contact with moisture.
(17:20):
There's a little drip edge on the front that takes
water running off the door and gets it away from
the threshold. And there is or should be a gasket,
a rubberized gasket, a little bulb of gasket that sticks down,
goes into a little channel on that door shoe and
sticks down and rubs makes contact with just very light
(17:43):
contact when it's adjusted properly, makes light contact with that
bottom metal threshold and seals off the door. And what
do I mean by seals off the door? If you
can see light underneath your door that's not sealed off.
And if when you shut the door, that whole bulb
gets squished down and deformed in shape, then it is
(18:07):
also out of adjustment and too low. Now, in this situation,
not only was the bulb gone and there was light
underneath the door, but at one end. Because sometimes doors
expand sometimes over time the jam may shift. There's a
there's ten different reasons why this can happen. But the
door shoe, the metal of the door shoe is actually
(18:29):
rubbing at the very end of the swing against the
metal of the door threshold itself and causing that grinding, annoying,
high pitched metal on metal sound. So what do you
do if the door threshold squeaks. Well, first of all,
the easiest thing to do is to just re adjust
(18:50):
the door shoe. Now, the door shoe, you'll look down
and you'll notice on the inside or the outside, it's
actually going to be on the outside. It's going to
be on most pieces. On the outside, there should be
a series of screws, tiny little screws running across that
are holding that shoe on. That's all that's holding that
door shoe in place. You undo those screws and you'll
(19:11):
find that you can, maybe with a little bump from
a rubber mallet, just to knock it loose from the
paint or whatever. You'll find that it is fully adjustable,
and what you can do is leave the screws out,
shut the door again and adjust it. Now, make sure
you put some new gasket in there if the gasket
is for any reason worn. And that doorshoe gasket is
(19:34):
sitting on the shelf at the hardware store. It's sitting
on the shelf at the big box store. It is
the most common stuff in the world, and you can
go get some right now for just pennies. So you've
got a little section of new doorshoe gasket, slide it in,
make sure it's all fixed really nice in there, and
then let the put the doorshoe back on, no screws,
(19:57):
and let it kind of float as it goes up
over the lower metal threshold. And you know, you can
nudge it with a screwdriver or with your hand and
just get it making nice even contact all around, and
pop some screws back in. Now the screw holes may
be in a different location, that's okay. You're readjusting that
(20:18):
door threshold to its current conditions, and you will find
when you're all done that you can open and close
the door. No light underneath, no bugs crawling in, no squeak,
no sound ah like new.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Hey, just in just a bit, we're going to be
going to the phones and you can ask your question
of me about your house. Anything at all that you
want to talk about regarding your home. We can talk design,
we can get all froofy and talk design. We can
talk like architects, we can talk like builders, we can
(21:02):
talk like di wires. Anything at all that you are
curious and scratching your head about your home, give me
a call. I'll help you figure it out. I promise
the number to reach me eight three three two. Ask
Dean A three three the numeral two. Ask Dean eight
three three two ask Dean. It's just that simple. And
(21:25):
we'll be.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Doing that right after the next news breaks. So phone
lines are open. Producer Richie standing by. He'll tell you
everything you need to know. Pop you into the queue,
we'll put our heads together, we'll figure it out all right.
Back to our list of cool little important DIY fix
it tips. That's all we're doing today all through the show.
Just lots of pearls of wisdom, because sometimes it's the
(21:48):
little things that get in the way of you successfully
completing that DIY project. Not necessarily the big concepts. Not
necessarily you not following instructions. It's sometimes the little skill
sets that the instruction manual or the YouTube video or
wear it that it just failed to mention that ends
(22:10):
up becoming the big frustration. So we've talked about some
plumbing stuff. We've talked about door threshold squeaking. Here's one
in the world of gluing. Gluing is a thing that
is a big part a lot of projects. Some of
you are doing sprinkler work on your irrigation system, some
of you are putting in drains, some of you are
(22:33):
gluing together pieces of wood or trying to repair something.
So let's stick with the wood for the moment. How
much would glue do you need on a piece of wood?
So let me just give you this perspective. Almost in
all cases, less is more, all right. The idea of
gunking up something with a lot of glue so that
(22:57):
you're like, hey, we're just gonna smush that glue in.
It's going to be coming out the sides like too
much peanut butter and jelly on a sandwich. Right, you know,
you're just wasting a lot of glue. You're wasting a
lot because the best bond, almost always, in almost all circumstances,
the best bond happens with a very very thin layer
(23:19):
of glue in between the two surfaces that are being
glued together. That is just a general rule of gluing
when it comes to wood glue. Thoo, though, there is
a first step along the way. Wood glue has a
good amount of water in it, and wood is a
very absorbent material. So when we're taking two pieces of
(23:42):
wood and we're going to glue them together and we
want them to hold forever, what we're gonna do first
is we're going to put a thin coat of wood
glue on both surfaces, and we're gonna let it dry.
And what I mean a thin coat, I mean a
thin coat. And you're not going to put some glue
on and rub it off with a rag. But you
(24:02):
could put some glue on and take a putty knife
or a blade of a knife, or even just a
small scrap of wood and just scrape off most of
the excess there. Just want a thin coat, Now, what's
that going to do? That thin coat is going to
absorb into the wood somewhat. Whatever absorption the wood is
(24:23):
going to do, it's going to grab on. It's not
going to take it all down, but it's going to
take a good amount of it down, seal up the
pores of the wood, and leave an optimal gluing surface
left over. If we've just put some glue on two
pieces of in between two pieces of wood and smash
them together, and I'm not saying that it won't stick,
(24:46):
but i am saying that the wood both pieces are
going to absorb a lot of the glue into the
grain and not leave enough on the surface to bond
the two surfaces together as well as they could be.
Maybe you get a twenty percent strength bond instead of
one hundred percent strength bond. So the key is very
(25:07):
very simple. You just put a thin coat on both surfaces,
You let it dry for a couple of minutes, and
then you can apply a second good bead and push
those pieces together and clamp them. Clamping them together is
always key when you're using wood glue for wood, because
it gives again, puts the pressure on the bind, puts
(25:31):
the pressure on the seam, makes the thinnest possible layer
of adhesive between the two and the best possible bond.
So you're gonna clamp them together, walk away, let it
do its magic. You will not regret it. And of
course when you clamp it together, you might get a
little excess coming out the sides. And take a damp
not wet damp rag because we don't want to add moisture.
(25:53):
Do you know the difference between damp and wet. By
the way, there is a technical difference, especially.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
In the trail. Okay.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
A wet rag is anything that you can pick up
and when I squeeze it, I can get water out
of it.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Okay, the water still comes out. That's wet. Okay.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Damp is when let's say we've taken a dish towel
or something like that. It's been wet and I've wrung
it out and I can't get any more water to
come out of it. But when you feel it in
your hand, you know there's water there.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
It's damp. That is damp.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
A damp rag is what you use to wipe off
the excess glue that comes out of the seam so
it doesn't try and get all yucky and mess up
the wood on the outside of the seam damp damp rag.
The guarantee of using a damp rag is that you
know that you're not adding moisture to the seam and
diluting the glue. Water is not coming out of the rag,
(26:49):
but there's enough water there to act as a kind
of a lubricant and to allow the rag to clean
the surface adequately. It's very simple. Damp and wet. You
learned it right here. Okay, we got so many more
to share with you. We'll do it. But when we
come back, it's top of the hour, which means time
(27:11):
to go to the phones. We got some calls on
the board. There's also room for you. Eight three three two.
Ask Dean eight three three the numeral two. Ask Dean
your calls. When we return. You're listening to Dean Sharp
the House Whisper on KFI. This has been Home with
Dean Sharp, the House Whisper. Tune into the live broadcast
on KFI Am six forty every Saturday morning from six
(27:34):
to eight Pacific time, and every Sunday morning from nine
to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the
iHeartRadio app.
Home with Dean Sharp News
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