Hollow Core Concrete
Precast hollow-core concrete planks have been used for years in commercial construction because they’re quick and easy when you have the right equipment at hand. Lift them in place, tie them together, and you’re done. Yet we hadn’t considered hollow-core concrete for a Schultz Miller project until the structural engineer on one of our current jobs recommended them. The problem was a really long floor span over very poor soil. On top of the required helical anchors and grade beams, a poured-in-place concrete slab would have been too heavy, which would have necessitated larger grade beams and still more anchors.
Hollow-core concrete planks made sense, but never having worked with them, we approached them with due caution, as did our concrete subcontractor, Central Cascade Concrete, Inc., also unfamiliar with hollow-core concrete in residential applications. The installation turned out to be more complicated than the simplicity of the concept would suggest, but Central Cascade was up to the task, and the result has pleased everyone on the building team.
Schultz Miller in Italian
We are pleased that one of our projects, Mercer Island Residence, is featured in La Natura Come Amante, Nature as a Lover, Luca Maria Francesco Fabris’ recent book on the work of Seattle-based landscape architect Richard Haag. Schultz Miller collaborated on the house with Sullivan Conard Architects and on the landscaping with Richard Haag Associates Landscape Architects. Haag is known the world over for his design of Gas Works Park. The book was published by Maggioli Editore and includes text in both English and Italian. It is available locally at Peter Miller Books.
Top photo: Benjamin Benschneider
Opportunity Knocks
One of our clients called our Service Team this fall with an interesting problem. It seemed a pileated woodpecker had become a frequent visitor to their backyard. This was mostly a good thing, because our clients are nature lovers. The new house we built for them several years ago is surrounded by a naturalistic garden of native plants with a stream running through it. The house has huge walls of glass, perfect for observing wildlife in the garden. The pileated woodpecker was putting on a stunning show.
One of the more unusual features of the garden is an ancient cedar stump that juts into the air near the back patio. A pipe runs up the inside of the trunk to an embedded showerhead, making it possible to take an outdoor shower. The problem was, the woodpecker was pecking holes near the top of the stump. What to do to keep the bird from damaging the stump shower . . . without in any way hurting the bird!
Our client suggested that perhaps there was an opportunity to introduce some art into the solution. A little back-and-forth between her and one of our Service managers, and it was decided to block access to the pecked-out holes with bronze leaves that might appear to have floated in on a breeze. If the woodpecker returned, it would not be able to reach the old holes; if it started new holes, we could move the leaves or add a few more. It was worth a try.
The hero of this little tale is metalwork artisan Bart Turner, who runs a fabrication shop in Ballard called Flying Anvil Studio. Bart crafted three beautiful leaves that are unobtrusive from a distance and delightful upon closer inspection. They glint in the sunlight and radiate life. No further woodpecker damage has been reported.
We Know Condos
In the first few weeks of the New Year, we’ve started several condominium remodeling projects. Whether this marks a trend or simply a high water mark in the ebb and flow of condo work remains to be seen. Either way, one thing is for sure: We know condos. We like working on them (and not just because they’re indoors); we’re really good at it; and we’ve remodeled a lot of them—upwards of 60, not counting service and maintenance jobs.
Condo projects come with their own set of construction challenges: limited parking, cramped elevators, short working hours, neighbors who live just inches away from the jobsite! Over the years, we’ve learned how to take all of this in stride. We submit materials for sound transmission testing; we use radio imaging to locate post-tensioned cables within concrete; we haul framing materials on the tops of elevators; we carry 10-foot-long countertops up 32 flights of stairs; we provide electrical troubleshooting and plumbing advice for neighbors. Whatever it takes.
If you’re considering a condominium remodeling project, consider Schultz Miller. Here are a few reasons why you should:
* We work closely with the building manager
* We respect the requirements of the building and the condominium board
* We plan for noise abatement, safety, access, parking, and staging
* We’re respectful of adjacent neighbors
* We coordinate utility work that ties into other units or whole-building systems
* We’re careful in elevators, hallways, and public spaces
* We’re experienced with acoustical isolation mats and sound insulation systems
* We deliver our usual high level of quality and attention to detail
Perhaps this is why we’ve been invited back to multiple jobs in Continental Place, Washington Park Tower, First Hill Plaza, One Pacific Tower, Market Place Tower, Bay Vista Tower, The Concord, and other prominent Seattle condominium buildings.
Another Good Year
When one is standing in the bucket of a boom crane in December, high above a Schultz Miller jobsite, scanning across Lake Washington to the Seattle skyline and the distant Olympic Mountains, thoughts of how the year has gone come naturally. Whether from this lofty vantage point or any other, it’s clear 2010 has been another good year, not without its challenges but with a consistently strong effort from all and a solid body of work to show for it. We owe a debt of gratitude to everyone at Schultz Miller; to the many subcontractors, suppliers, artisans, and craftspeople who partnered with us this year; to the architects and designers with whom we collaborated; to the people who worked with us on the business end; and especially to our clients, past and present, who continue to provide us with an opportunity to do what we love to do. Thank you. We wish you the best in 2011 and hope you will take time to enjoy the view.
Safety First
At this month’s regular meeting for Superintendents, we invited Dennis Smedsrud of PSE to present a seminar on electric and natural gas safety for construction sites. Dennis has been perfecting his presentation over the last 17 years, and he more than lived up to his reputation for being both engaging and informative. The meeting at Mercer Island Community Center started promptly at 7:00am, as do all our monthly meetings, so you could say we put safety not only first, but first thing in the morning. Dennis brought along a diorama with fully live wires to demonstrate various safety situations, and he leavened is talk with a number of wry jokes. But safety, of course, is no laughing matter; Dennis and PSE take it very seriously, and so does Schultz Miller. Our Superintendents have many years in the field, First Aid and CPR training, and OSHA safety certification. For each of our jobsites, we prepare a site-specific safety plan; we conduct jobsite safety orientations and inspections; we use appropriate safety equipment; and we hold weekly safety meetings. Underpinning these efforts, ongoing education remains a critical part of our approach to safety.
Tight Quarters, Take Two
In our July 16 blog post, we looked at an underground garage we surgically implanted in a steep and narrow Queen Anne backyard. We now visit a different kind of surgical procedure at a remodeling job we recently started. The lot is large and level, with neighboring houses at a distance. The challenge this time is placing a deep swimming pool right up against the existing house. Not just any house, but a modern design by Suyama Peterson Deguchi Architects. It helps that the same firm is the architect again; indeed, the addition promises to be a stunning extension of the original. But one or two wrong moves with a pile driver or shovel, and we’ve damaged a masterwork. Thankfully our superintendent, John Kindblade, is up to the task. In fact, architect Ric Peterson requested John for this project, having worked with him successfully in the past.
Headroom
We have the privilege of renovating a magnificent 1904 home in collaboration with Indigo, Inc., Architects. The design calls for 18 inches of additional height in a large area of the basement to make room for an entertainment space. This being an historic home, we took an Old School approach: hand digging. A demo crew worked in 4-foot sections, removing the original concrete slab and shoveling the dirt below onto a conveyor that carried it up to wheelbarrows. We then poured new footings and a fresh slab.
To further open up the space, we added steel beams overhead, extending the span between posts. Where new posts were required, we milled square some of the no-longer-needed fir beams and turned them into stout columns. The tight-grained fir posts and beams support original turn-of-the-century 2x12 fir joists, some of which are 35 feet long, a lasting legacy of the Northwest.
Post and Beam
At the early framing stage of a new home we’re building on Mercer Island, it’s all about the posts and beams. Designed by Idaho architect Jack Smith, the home features a timber-framed structure being constructed by subcontractor Cascade Joinery. The timbers will be exposed inside and out, and are an an integral part of the design. The posts measure 8 ¾ in. by 8 ¾ in., and the beams 8 ¾ in. by 12 in.
To make up each solid-sawn, glu-lam post or beam, BC-based Fraserwood Industries saws a Douglas fir log into lams, then glues it back together so the grain matches (with a barely perceptible piece missing from each saw cut). The resulting timber looks like solid wood, but is far stronger and considerably more stable than the original log.
Beams projecting to the exterior are protected with copper copings on top and end caps, meticulously fashioned on-site by subcontractor Tecta America (formerly Sound Sheet Metal).
Those of you used to seeing steel painted a dark red may be wondering about the Caribbean pink steel plates, brackets, and structural bracing that augment the timber frame structure. The protective epoxy coatings can be pigmented any color, not just the standard red, no extra charge. So our client requested pink. Why not? The steel is going to be hidden away when construction is through.
Tight Quarters
Over the years, Schultz Miller has perfected the art of working in tight quarters. More often than not, it’s how we build in Seattle. We’ve worked on narrow lots with neighboring houses nearly to the property lines, super-steep lots, lots requiring alley access, and small lots with little room for storing materials or setting up equipment. Sometimes, as in the case of an underground garage we built recently on Queen Anne, we’ve confronted all of the above.
The garage would be bunkered into the backyard, facing a narrow alley below the house, where stood a wall of vintage concrete topped by a rusty chain link fence. Construction would require extensive shoring (a phalanx of “soldier piles,” steel I-beams sunk into the ground with timbers fitted between them during excavation to form a retaining wall), substantial concrete work, and careful re-grading, with all of the large machinery that goes along with these tasks. Neighboring houses would be just across the alley, perilously below the job site. There was literally no room for an error.
A job like this generates a certain amount of noise and commotion, but we made a concerted effort to reach out the neighbors, to keep reasonable working hours, and to schedule potentially disruptive work for opportune moments. The new garage is a welcome addition to the alley, in keeping with the ivy-covered walls but with a vibrant character all its own.
The piles were installed by subcontractor McDowell Northwest; excavation and sitework were by Active Environmental, Inc.; and concrete work was by Central Cascade Concrete.