mark foster

To expand on your question.  The pre-manufactured masonry fireplaces are usually about 8′ tall (total height) with a chimney heigh (from top of firebox to top of chimney) of about 3 1/2-4′.  I have never had a fireplace “backdraft” from the firebox outward–smoke problems happen when the wind pushes down the smoke after it comes out of the top o…[Read more]

Great question.  
Wow, where to start?  The screw ups that really bug me usually revolve around a choice of material or process which do not hold up over time, or cause maintenance headaches.    
I’m in design/build and we are usually the first to find and use a new thing., which means a lot of thin ice.  For example:
1.  The early trex type of de…[Read more]

I agree with Andrew.  The unit price method gets you in trouble on the extremes.  As a young man I supervised a landscape crew and we got a job to put in 200, 3″ caliper trees on a horse farm.  My boss got the work using the basic 3.5% rule and was pleasantly surprised at the small fortune he made in profit– because we installed with machinery an…[Read more]

I don’t know about the actual manufacturing, but I can address the durability question.  If you are looking for lights on a smaller scale, the low voltage industry is quickly moving to LED’s.  The underwater LED’s are usually completely sealed–no removable portions/gaskets in the casing or wiring– which is where water usually leaked in the old…[Read more]

yes.  but anything beyond the plant itself would be extra (earth moving, drainage etc)

My understanding is that the “draw” considerations required for an indoor fireplace are not needed in an outside one, because temperature and pressures differences don’t exist like they do inside a structure..  All of the pre-manufactured outdoor fireplaces I have installed or seen reinforce this:  they are really simple— nothing but a s…[Read more]

I agree with all.  Too bad about the politicization of the word “green”.  I have seen this too.

In this part of the country,  it seems to be @  2 1/2-3 times the wholesale cost of the plant.   That said, the quickest way to A. loose your shirt, or B. price yourself out of the market, is to depend too heavily on unit prices.  
Work associated with the plantings (added topsoil, amendments, drainage) should be priced separately.  Cin…[Read more]

The challenge with planting along artificial waterfalls is using plants which look like they are water edge plants, but are actually in an micro environment which is not all that wet.  I don’t know your plant zone is, but I would suggest plants which take a somewhat dryer environment and which mimic those in the more moist environment of a…[Read more]

Thanks everyone.  This plant is intense–very aggressive when in the right conditions, almost kudzu-like.  
My client told me they bought this plant!  It is a lovely, but I my advice to everyone out there—definitely discourage it’s use under any circumstance. 

Our “value proposition” is uniqueness.  We are blessed (and cursed!) by our medium– a tiny portion of the earth–every case a different one.
On the bright side, never underestimate the hunger for the unique– especially from the uber $. 

Architect vs. Landscape architect
flat surfaces vs. slopes
forms (buildings) creating space vs. space creating forms
drainage above the head (roofs) vs. drainage at the feet
lighting fixtures vs. natural light
central heating and cooling vs. 4 seasons
static components (furniture) vs. growing ones (plants)
ceiling height measured in feet/meters…[Read more]

I have found that some vines don’t like to climb wire.  Maybe the coating shown Boilerplater’s system helps.  Anyone else experienced this?

Sara,
We have done this many times.  With a standard soil cloth, the incisions are dictated by the size of hole you need to dig to plant.  
I would second many of the other comments.  Soil cloth will not stop the soil from eroding underneath, so the plants you choose will need to do this job.  And any ground cover which spreads from the root sho…[Read more]

Thanks for this–reminds me that there were voices in the wilderness against not only city planning orthodoxy of the time but also the original modernist ethos.  Good thing to keep in mind during this time of “new” modernism. 
Having lived through the end of the first modernist age, I have been wondering how long it will take people to catch o…[Read more]

I have found trade organizations to be really helpful– especially the ones specific to a particular material. Masonry and concrete (NCMA.org),  and brick (BIA.org) are two that come to mind, but there are many more out there.  

I landscape the homes I have lived in using mostly “dumpster plants”.  I also pay keen attention to the “infirmary” sections of the wholesale nurseries.  Very unusual things can be found there.

I would add to Andrew’s–don’t get the micro and the macro confused.  If you made a list of actions to take  today (or in the next few weeks) to find work, you will find that “tackling the state of licensure between LA’s and Architects” will be way down on the priority list.   
I found licensure to be important when working for a firm without one…[Read more]

I am also in agreement.  Instead of worrying about the legal turf wars, perhaps it may be more important for us to be the best at what we do (which engineers, architects etc. are not).  I never worried much about the turf.  I just concentrated on what an LA is uniquely good at–site planning being one of them.

J.A.
I have used gabions in this application (we used “river rounds” because they are a locally available resource).  
The wire in the gabion panels is pretty stiff and would be limited to large curves (unless you have it molded to shape in a machine shop), but I have made round columns using thinner guage meshes (aka agricultural livestock…[Read more]