forming
Frank Wall Enterprises (Columbus MS) makes AquaForms, an aluminum forming system designed for vinyl liner…
Working on a large-scale project is a challenge when it happens even ten miles from your home base: Big jobs are just plain tough. But building that same project 150 miles away? That takes the difficulty to another level - and when you mix in an extremely difficult, environmentally sensitive site, it can feel as though you're operating on another planet. A case in point can be found in our participation in a design/build project on a remote cottage estate in the stunning
'Every single project I design and build,' wrote David Tisherman near the top of his Details column in July 2005, 'is fully, individually engineered, and I refuse to make any assumptions on my own about what might be needed in a set of plans to create a sound structure. If any builder anywhere thinks that he or she knows enough to get by without support from a structural engineer, well, that's just asking for trouble.' 'I know what I don't know, frankly, and I sleep well at night knowing that
Every once in a while, a project comes along that gives you a chance to step up and demonstrate your company’s capabilities. The construction of the swimming pool seen here was just that kind of exercise for our firm. Located in Potomac, Md., the property is just west of Washington, D.C., in an exclusive neighborhood remarkable for the outstanding caliber and quantity of its watershaping and landscaping projects. We became involved here through a custom homebuilder who was remodeling the property and wanted to do something special in the backyard. This represents a perfect example of how our firm, Alpine Pool & Design of Annandale, Va., thrives in this market. Through the years, we had already worked not only with the homebuilder, but also with the architect as well as the landscape architect. When it came time to consider watershape construction, all three recommended us for the job – testimony to the fact that ever since we opened shop in 1986, we’ve done all we can to establish a reputation for high-value collaboration as part of a community of like-minded designers and contractors. We pride ourselves on being able to execute the most challenging designs and
One of the things I've referred to repeatedly through the years is my interest in quality forming for watershapes. I look at it this way: If the job is about creating quality reinforced-concrete structures, then precisely controlling their dimensions and contours stands at the very heart of the art and craft of watershaping. And all I'm recommending here is simply following the lead of the experts who install building foundations and structural walls by using completely rigid materials and support frameworks. To drive that point home, I want to discuss the forming of one specific detail - and define a right way of getting it done. One of my trademarks is the fact that I build many pools that are
One of the things I've referred to repeatedly through the years is my interest in quality forming for watershapes. I look at it this way: If the job is about creating quality reinforced-concrete structures, then precisely controlling their dimensions and contours stands at the very heart of the art and craft of watershaping. And all I'm recommending here is simply following the lead of the experts who install building foundations and structural walls by using completely rigid materials and support frameworks. To drive that point home, I want to discuss the forming of one specific detail - and define a right way of getting it done. One of my trademarks is the fact that I build many pools that are
Edge treatments are important to me. They can lead the eye into the water, set up a barrier, break down a barrier. They're simply too critical to the overall impression made by a watershape to be left to chance. For the past ten years, I've found myself using one edge treatment more and more: a poured-in-place coping that uses colored concrete. I've now done it dozens of times, and my clients have always been thrilled by the results. In effect, I use the concrete to create soft and subtly colored rectangular
