Of Steel and Other Holiday Things!
Ok, I want to wax heavy on this blog post on the beauty of steel in the landscape. As the trends have changed over the past few years, we have been able to capitalize on our abilities to add steel accents to many of our projects in sculpture, retaining walls, and planting beds.
We fabricate our retaining walls using ¼” or 3/16″ thick plate steel. We generally build the walls 4′ high or less so that no permitting through the city is necessary. Anything higher than 4′ will require extensive additional plans and input from the city, so we can generally build a series of terraced beds if the overall height is above 4 ft.
Once the steel plate is staged, we start to cut the 2×2″ and 1×1″ square tube steel for the framing behind the wall. The steel is cut using special metal cut-off and skill saws outfitted with steel cutting blades. The wear these saws endure is harsh, so depending on how much steel fabrication we do throughout any given year, we may go through 8-10 of these saws a year!
Once the framing pieces are cut, they are welded to the steel plate using small, wire-feed welders that are quite mobile and easy to maneuver around the job site. However, the welders need to be plugged into a gas generator as they will generally trip most breakers in a residential house. We weld a complex network of vertical and horizontal steel pieces for ultimate and complete support. There is also an additional step for the retaining wall installation process, called the ‘Tower of Power .’ This is a cardboard form set about 3 feet behind the wall. We then weld 3 or 4 lengths of steel splayed out from the back of the wall and anchored into the concrete form when they are filled with concrete. Another term for this is ‘dead man.’ I came up with this anchoring system when we started fabricating these walls about ten years ago, and everything is just fine!
The raised steel planting beds are fabricated in much the same way; however, there is no need for the ‘Tower of Power. We instead lock in the front and back of the beds by welding a series of 1″ square tube steel pieces. The corners are also fortified with a 1″ or 2″ piece of steel welded to the back framing steel at a 45-degree angle.
A client we worked with a few years ago requested a piece of sculpture. The house is on Beach Drive in West Seattle and is of modern, contemporary architecture. I told the client that we would design and fabricate the piece, which pleased all of us. So, I began to start sketching out some ideas. After a few modifications, I mocked up the sculpture to true scale with rigid, foam insulation pieces so the client could get a true sense of size. I was a hit! The sculpture comprises 6″ thick pieces of Pennsylvania Bluestone that we cut into various shapes with a circular cut-out in the center. We then ‘wrapped’ the Bluestone with angle iron around the sides, poured a concrete platform, and anchored the first piece on. Then, the rest of the pieces were welded to one another, and it was complete for the oxidation process that nature would eventually take to turn the steel into a hazy orange color in the months and years to come. You can’t see it from the road, but if you are paddling a kayak in the Salish Sea, enroute to Lincoln Park, you can’t miss it!
I look forward to our next piece to dream up and fabricate, which could be for you!
And now for the Holidays and the year in review!
We have finished an extensive project in the Schmitz Park neighborhood, and I’ll post some updated pics on our new website in the spring as things grow. However, in the meantime, I will post ‘just finished in winter’ pics on the Monetti Landscape Facebook and Google business listing. This project had it all! Extensive sandstone walkways and patios, steel work, recessed hot tub, gas fire pit, water feature, and new composite deck! The backyard, which is the main hang-out area, exhibits a Northwest-themed planting palate with plenty of Vine Maples, Conifers, Rhododendrons, and grasses. Still, I also included some hearty agaves and succulents to augment the numerous local granite and stone outcroppings. I have always loved the high desert feel of parts of Eastern Washington, which I also think relates a lot to certain microclimates of some of Nevada’s landscapes. This is what drove my inspiration, along with the client’s input!
The house was built in 1957 and is true to this neighborhood’s mid-century, ranch-style architecture. So it wasn’t a hard stretch to reintroduce a different theme to the front yard that includes Camellias, Mondo Grass, Conifers, Azaleas, and Japanese Maples to inspire an Asian style feel that was so traditionally paired with these houses in the past. This project was a high point in my company’s 20+ year journey!
Other projects throughout the past year include numerous decks, more steelwork, covered grill areas, and a lot of drip irrigation! We acknowledge the planet’s finite resources, and we here at Monetti Landscape are doing our part to promote the water-saving aspects of drip irrigation where it applies. We love to design and construct entire landscape projects. Still, we are also available to address individual landscape elements, so please let us know if you have smaller projects.
This has been quite a year in this world of ours. We here at Monetti Landscape hope you and yours have carved out some solace amid the many obstacles thrown at us.
We wish you a Calm and Happy Holiday and hope to see you and your project in the new year!
Cheers,
Mitch and the Monetti Landscape Crew
