ARTICLES Archives - Page 72 of 312

Perfection in tile application is an attainable goal, writes Jimmy Reed, but as a look inside this magnificent project conveys, achieving that ambition takes time, patience, skill, precision and a day-to-day awareness on site that every last detail can (and will) make all the difference.

Perfection, Please

Many of the projects we work on could best be classified as show-stoppers: big, elaborate installations with undulating surfaces, multiple planes intersecting at odd angles and elaborate mosaic patterns - interior finishes with a level of technical difficulty that makes lots of tile applicators head in the other direction at a rapid clip. We at Rock Solid Tile (Calabasas, Calif.) enjoy just that sort of technical challenge. It's why we invest so much time in training, take our work so seriously and keep expanding the range of what we can accomplish for our clients. But truth be told, we occasionally like tackling installations where

Satisfying Feedback

It's happened before: I'll write one of these blogs or a Travelogue, and within a few minutes of releasing the newsletter a reader will send me something that either adds to, explains or (rarely, thank goodness) contradicts something I've written. Back in December, for instance, I wrote about the

Sustaining Quality

‘It seems that everyone’s talking about “sustainability” these days, with the usual thought being that, as exterior designers, good environmental stewardship must be one of our main missions.’ That’s the way Bruce Zaretsky opened his On the Level column five years ago before asking a string of key questions: ‘But what is sustainability? What do watershapers need to do to encompass this philosophy? As important, what does it mean to our clients, and where are

Toxin-Free Choices

Wrapping up his series on a comprehensive approach to healthier pool water, John Cohen goes into great detail in defining system components and making specific product recommendations.

If he ever had any doubts about the value of updating and maintaining his extensive portfolio, writes Kurt Kraisinger, this project and his clients' desire to weigh every possibility put them to rest -- with beautiful results.

The Clean Slate

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. In the case of this project, that old truism was right on the mark. From the start, what my clients seemed to want most was to look at every image I could muster and ask questions and make comments about each one. And it worked: Through their words and body language during these sessions, they offered me almost all of the information I had to have to deliver precisely what they wanted. And that was great, because when I

#28: Channel Drain

For the past ten years or so, high-end designers and builders have focused extensively on hiding things that disrupt a viewer's visual pleasure or violate the clean lines and sleek surfaces they've lavished on their watershapes. This may be why you see so few diving boards and slides these days. It may also be a contributing factor in the speed

A Toxin-Free Future

The three most recent editions of WaterShapes have carried trailblazing articles by John Cohen on his quest to define and develop a toxin-free approach to swimming pool and spa water. I offered no comment when the series started, basically because the articles had to stand straight and tall on their own - but also because

Interventions

Tireless in his quest for information about and approaches to the creation of toxin-free pools and spas, John Cohen has spent years weighing observations of nature and the human body and figuring out ways to use what he's learned to help people swim in pure, clean, safe water.

Stepping Up

‘I’ve written several times in the past about the fact that more and more landscape architects and designers are getting into watershaping. As evidence,’ wrote Brian Van Bower in his Aqua Culture column for December 2007, ‘all you need to do is look at design-award competitions in the pool and spa industry and note the increasing

Lighting the various planes, elevations and contours of today's swimming pools is a challenge: It takes familiarity with the capabilities of modern LEDs, notes Graham Orme, but it's also important to think about safety, angles, intensity and the goal of producing a warm, beautiful glow.

Shaping with Light

These days, using LED lights to illuminate rectangular or kidney-shaped pools is pretty simple: You just space the fixtures out at proper intervals on a wall facing away from prime viewing spots inside the house and on deck, specify the appropriate wattage, hook them up to a suitable control system and step back to bask in the warm nighttime glow. But that sense of routine quickly disappears when