S. Joshua Brincko

Josh’s Hit List and Shit List / March 1, 2024 by S. Joshua Brincko

From time to time, as an architect, I encounter products and services that are exceptional: exceptionally good and exceptionally bad. If you think about all the things you must buy to create a building, there are tons. Literally tons. Here’s my list of the “hits” and, well, the “shits.” I’ll continue to update this page when I get new hits and new shits.

THE HIT LIST

A1PNW Concrete: Tommy and Ruben and team totally rule. They build concrete walls with perfection. They are fair and easy to work with. Nothing is difficult with them.

Carstar Collision Clinic: This doesn’t have anything to do with architecture, but they are just so go that they need to be mentioned here. If you need body work on your car, they make this hassle into not-a-hassle! Bruce and his team are amazing.

Digital Reprographics: This company goes above and beyond. They are the lowest drama company I have ever dealt with. Everything is always, “OK, no problem!” And then it gets done (properly every time). They print and deliver drawings with no hassle. They even check our page numbers and let us know if we forget something. When all our computers and hard drives got stolen from our office, they went into work and emailed us every single file that we ever sent them…. and they did this on CHRISTMAS EVE!!! Thanks Clint!

Dunn Lumber: their lumber is slightly more expensive than other lumber yards, BUT their product and service is exceptionally better. The lumber is straight. Near perfect. Wood warps over time, and this makes the labor of installing it expensive if you have to build around a “moving target.” They source lumber from mills that actually properly kiln dry their material, so the carpenters don’t need to waste time building with curvy wood. They also do a great job of recommending the products you need and most importantly, they are very professional when putting together quotes and keeping them updated as quantities and needs change. Their delivery arrangement is also top notch. $40 will drop any size delivery at your job site, and they will pick up no-hassle returns at the same time.

Brondell: this company makes a great aftermarket toilet seat that turns any toilet into a bidet. You can convert any toilet to a bidet, and this will help you to save toilet paper, save water, and to stay clean. Their products work really well, they are easy to install, and they come in a wide variety of options. You can get fancy with heated water, or you can keep it simple with the basics. No toilet should be without one of these.

Grohe: these faucets are nice. Many other brands are nice too, but what separates this brand from others is their service. When I’ve had problems, they just send a new one. No questions asked.

Josh Architects: These guys are good. I’m talking like “chocolate sauce on chocolate ice cream with chocolate chips” type of good!

SSF: Swenson Say Faget engineers has been repeatedly a great structural engineering firm to work with. We do work with many great engineers, but we have done the most with SSF. When Karl and his team are available to take on a project, they never disappoint. Owen and Wade, yea, you guys are good too!

THE SHIT LIST

Electrolux: this was originally a vacuum cleaner company, and their original vacuums were heavy steel masterpieces. Today, they have gotten into kitchen appliances, and there is nothing special about them. They break faster than other appliances in my experience, and their customer service is the worst I have ever encountered. Never buy their products. Ever.

Miele: I want to like their products. They are nice, but when something goes wrong, they are not helpful at all. Their plastic knobs on a stove broke, and they wanted to charge $350 for them. EACH!!! No thank you.

The Building Department: You might be wondering which one? Well, every single one of them. Every government agency somehow seems to be inefficient, unprofessional, and have very poor customer service. It is exactly what we expect, but this is wrong. We should not have to expect this from our governments.

If you’d like to learn more about our design process, visit www.josharch.com/process, and if you’d like to get us started on your project with a feasibility report, please visit www.josharch.com/help

What Is High End? / February 1, 2024 by S. Joshua Brincko

You hear people talking about high-end finishes all the time. But what exactly is high end?

Let’s start by discussing what is not high end. If you would like to build some thing as cheap as possible, the finishes of your home will be mostly carpeting, drywall, thin painted trim work, laminate counters with 4” backsplash on press board cabinets, tub inserts, small and bulky white vinyl windows, and vinyl or hardie siding with thin roof shingles. This is as cheap as it gets. It is essentially a plastic house on the outside and drywall on the inside. These sort of homes are currently $350 or more per square foot in the Seattle area.

Notice the tiny slider windows with bulky white frames, white corner trim boards, the belly band across the middle, and thin shingles. There is a lot more wall than window area, and it is all hardie lap siding with nothing special. This home is nothing but beige drywall in the inside. This is the cheapest house you can build.

For mid-range quality, you can expect most of the same as above, but swap out some of the trim for thicker material (maybe stained instead of painted), some non-carpet floors here and there, granite countertops, some wall tile, thinner fiberglass black windows, and maybe some isolated accent walls on the interior and exterior that are of a bit nicer material. It is essentially a plastic house on the outside and drywall on the inside with better windows and a few natural accent materials for interest here and there. These kinds of homes are currently $400 to $600 per square foot in the Seattle area.

Notice the window frames are black and thinner than the previous example. They are also bigger, so there’s more window area compared to wall area. But, the space between the windows is ideally supposed to look like a thin structural column - not a bulky wall covered in hardie panel and cedar siding. The facade does have a bit of variation, but notice how the cedar siding is arbitrarily flush with the hardie panel siding to the right. This is a nice home, but the concept was bastardized from what was intended to make it more affordable to build.

A high-end house uses nicer, natural materials. Real stone, real wood, and exposed steel, concrete, and/or wood structure. There is not much drywall exposed. Instead, it is either covered with a nicer material or, better yet, the finish materials are an integrated part of the actual structure of the building. The exterior fits into the natural environment with its use of natural materials, and the windows are larger with thinner frames and either no trim or very well conceived trim that integrates with the architectural elements of the building. A high-end home also has more advanced systems for heating, ventilation, structural framing, home automation, insulation, and waterproofing. These kind of homes are usually around $1000 per square foot or more. Most homes you see in magazines cost over $1000 per square foot.

Notice the structure is exposed. It is not covered with siding. The glass abuts all the way to the structure, and the window frames are essentially non-existent. There is barely any use of drywall on the interior since the actual structure is exposed and glass spans between that structure. Also, notice how the exterior materials continue to the inside. This home has more window area than wall area, and this is very expensive to build.

Early in the design process, we help advise our clients on construction cost, and much of this is factored into the types of finishes desired. The same floor plan can be later developed to be high end in any style, or it could be kept simple and cheaper. The cost is all in the details.

Exceptional Trees / January 1, 2024 by S. Joshua Brincko

Trees are beautiful. They provide shade, they suck up groundwater to prevent basement flooding, they look pretty, and their roots hold hills together. They do provide a lot of benefits.

They also cause problems when they are too close to buildings. Their roots ruin foundations, the leaves clog gutters and sewers, their acidity ruins roofs, and they cause damage or injury when branches fall. For this reason, it is best to keep trees away from buildings and high use areas and to prune any nearby trees before they become problematic.

In many cities, you are not allowed to just cut down a tree or even prune it. There’s often rules about where trees are allowed to be cut down, how many are allowed to be cut down, and what size trees are allowed to be cut down. Many land use codes refer to large trees as “exceptional,” “significant,” or “protected.” These are trees that have strict limitations for removal due to their size. The size is commonly measured by the diameter of the trunk at “breast height,” which is 4.5’ above the ground. Different species have different thresholds of trunk diameter that cause them to be considered exceptional. Typically, if a tree is considered exceptional (or whatever special term your city uses), you simply cannot cut it down, AND you can’t even build or disturb the soil within a certain distance of it.

If a tree is classified as exceptional, most cities will require you to hire an arborist to document the species and size of the tree, and that arborist will be required to write a report to describe how it must be protected during construction with fences, excavation methods, and other techniques. Additionally, their report also prescribes the “dripline” which is the outer ring of its canopy. Generally, the roots stretch out as far as the branches, so the dripline distinguishes the land that often cannot be disturbed. In some cities, the dripline is divided into an “inner root zone” and an “outer root zone.” The inner root zone is an area that absolutely cannot be disturbed, and an outer root zone is an area that might be allowed to have certain minimal disturbance with special monitoring and expert oversight from a certified arborist.

This really puts a burden on construction since additional setbacks from exceptional trees paired with other limitations like setbacks from property lines, setbacks from steep slopes, limitations to the percentage of land allowed to be developed, and other limiting factors really makes it a challenge to build. With so many factors limiting development, land gets harder and harder to build on, it becomes less valuable while causing other available land to become increasingly more expensive, and consequently less housing gets built which contributes to the ongoing housing shortage and overpriced homes.

As a homeowner with trees on your property, you really need to be diligent about this. If a tree is getting larger and larger each year, at some point it might be considered “exceptional,” and you won’t be allowed to remove it even though it will literally start to destroy your home (and maybe even you). It is best to remove these beasts before they become a problem. Small problems are easier to solve than big ones (cheaper to remove smaller trees too). As a tree gets bigger and bigger, at some point cutting it down would cause it to fall on your home, and that causes tree crews to expensively dismantle it limb by limb to avoid costly damage. It would have been much cheaper to remove that tree when it was a little twig. Or better yet, it would have been best to just plant it far from your home in the first place.

In Seattle, there is new legislation that categorizes all trees into tier 1-4. Tier 1 trees have historic historic significance and cannot be altered. Tier 2 trees are any with trunks 24” in diameter or greater (and additional smaller trees on a special list). Tier 3 trees have trunks 12” to 24” that aren’t on the special list from Tier 2. Tier 4 includes all trees with trunks 6” to 12” that are not on the special list. When removing or pruning trees that are Tier 1-4, there are special reporting requirements and permit fees depending on the situation. More detail is provided at https://www.seattle.gov/DPD/Publications/CAM/Tip242B.pdf

The moral of the story is to remove your potentially problematic trees before their trunks become 6”, or you will have a hard time (and expensive time) dealing with them once they have matured. The other main point is to be very thoughtful about where you plant trees. Remember that they grow up to become monsters that will damage your property if planted too close to your home.

Trees And Houses Don’t Mix / October 2, 2023 by S. Joshua Brincko

To set the record straight, I love trees. They provide nice shade, they create nifty shadows, they suck up thousands of gallons of water so it doesn’t need to be sent into sewer systems, they create oxygen, they create homes for animals, they are fun to climb, and they are pretty to look at.

Despite all the benefits, there are drawbacks - especially when they are in close proximity to buildings.

The root systems of trees are very unkind to foundations. They are also capable of destroying underground plumbing. The roots will find their way into nooks and crannies of pipes and foundations and eventually clog and break them. This could be very expensive to repair.

The leaves from trees are also problematic when they fall. They clog sewers, and clogged sewers cause back ups that flood houses. Many people like trees because they are into sustainability, but there is nothing more unsustainable than needing to rebuild something that was already previously built. The leaves also pile up against portions of buildings that can cause rot to occur. Wet leaves not only promote rot, but they create habitats for rodents and other pests that pose a danger to your building (and your health) that result in required replacement.

When trees are nearby a roof, they tend to create excess shade and moisture in that vicinity which will eventually cause moss to grow on the roof. Moss will quickly deteriorate your roofing, and that will lead to leaks. There is nothing sustainable about needing to replace a roof more than completely necessary, or even worse, replacing parts of your house that get damaged by roof leaks.

The moral of the story is to keep your trees in a safe place. By keeping them away from your structure, you will preserve the longevity of your building and therefore be helping our environment.

In the image below, notice how the only portion of that roof that has moss on it is the portion that is below tree branches. Case and point.

Uni-Tasking / September 1, 2023 by S. Joshua Brincko

“Uni-tasking” is the opposite of multi-tasking. We have all heard that you can be more productive when you focus on one thing rather than dividing your attention among several things at a time (like watching Netflix while texting while “working” from home).

Designing buildings is much the same. While it is necessary to have several active projects to keep a business running, we certainly can be most productive if we can focus our undivided attention on one project at a time. Sometimes that means turning off the email and cell phone to prevent interruptions as you work toward a defined goal. All too often, we try to be too accessible to everyone all the time, but that uber-availability could actually be a disservice to others.

Sometimes clients will ask us to just “slip them in” or maybe “we are in no rush, so just work on it when you have spare time.” In their minds, they are being flexible with timing hoping it will cost them less money or something. The truth is that if you set a clear expectation, you can more effectively focus on that goal and have metrics in place to actually achieve it (instead of willy nilly working on something here and there).

To try to work more effectively, I accept the right number and type of projects, I divide their scope into manageable chunks, and I schedule them. I also schedule my production time the same way I schedule my meetings. I also do my emailing at the same part of each day. This enables me to have less interruptions and to have blocked out time to get stuff done.

People often ask me how I manage to get so much done. Planning as much “uni-task time” as possible is my solution. Of course we need to be flexible and be capable of managing unavoidable interruptions when they come at us, but we are in a much better position to be successful if we aren’t already multi-tasking when that happens.

Think about the last time you got overwhelmed. How many things were you doing at the same time? Keep it simple and focus.

If you’d like some tips to get more done in a day, check out this post from a few years ago: www.josharch.com/blog/2016/2/2/how-i-get-so-much-done-in-a-day

10 Things That Make A Cool House / August 1, 2023 by S. Joshua Brincko

Real, natural materials. (Not fake)
Black window frames. (Not white)
Big glass.
No trim.
Two simple, well-defined 3D shapes contrasted (consistently) with color, material, height, and depth.
BIG overhangs. (No, not 2 or 3 feet. 8 feet!)
Two or three materials maximum.
Get rid of clutter.
Exterior materials that continue seamlessly to the interior.
Don’t use so much damn drywall.
This one needs repeating: stop using so much damn drywall! Design a house to be smaller with nicer materials to stay on budget. McMansions are uninteresting giant boxes clad with boring hardie cement board or vinyl lap siding on the outside and drywall on the inside. A smaller home with nicer material is more enriching to live in:)

That’s it. Follow this format, and you will have a cool house.

Why Isn’t My Builder Calling Back? / May 1, 2023 by S. Joshua Brincko

When getting bids for construction, it can be quite a daunting process. When you reach out to a builder and ask for a bid, you may not hear back for several weeks. What is the builder doing during this time?

I compare construction estimating to going grocery shopping. When you go to the grocery store with a shopping list, you don’t always find exactly what you want. Sometimes you change your mind based on the things that you see at the store, and sometimes you simply forget things on your list. With grocery shopping, you might have 10 or 20 things on your list, and all of them cost under $20. With construction, you literally have hundreds or thousands of things on your list, you have to find most of them at different places, and most of them cost over $1000 each. Additionally many of the items a builder seeks pricing for are not retail items sitting on shelves with prices next to them. Many of the products are specialty items that are priced depending on the situation requiring a bit of negotiating, and others are services from subcontractors like plumbers and electricians which require those companies to spend significant time assigning prices to each step of their work. That might take a couple weeks for the builder to hear back from those subcontractors and specialty material suppliers.

Once you do get the bid from your builder, you may find that the builder is not as responsive as you would hope. There are several reasons for this. The most likely reason would be: the builder is devoting more time to another project that they are already currently building rather than speculating on the cost of your potential project that hasn’t started yet. In other words, your project is less important than the one in the middle of construction (that the builder is being paid to do)! Another reason for unresponsiveness could be that the builder just recently sent out five bids to other clients and is waiting to hear back on whether those got accepted or not. Out of those five bids, two of those projects probably won’t ever happen. One of those projects might get awarded to another builder. And the two remaining projects might actually get awarded to that builder that you’re hoping to work with. The builder might prefer working with THEM instead of YOU.

It is then up to that builder to decide which opportunity is best. The builder will evaluate things like which one yields the best profit. They will decide which one has the most conveniences like ease of parking, suitable space on site for storing materials, or proximity to their home, office, or hardware store. They will also evaluate the relationship with the potential client and whether or not that person will be a pain in the ass to work with. All of these factors play into whether a builder will choose to work on any particular project. YOU might not be as important to THEM as you think.

Finding the right builder is like a marriage. It takes hard work, patience, and a good bit of luck. The best advice I can offer is to work WITH you builder and commiserate with them. They carry the immense burden of building your project properly and on budget. It is no easy task, so being a good partner will certainly help in the overall success.

How To Build A House Cheaper / April 3, 2023 by S. Joshua Brincko

Learn tips and tricks for how to save money when you build a home, remodel, or addition

Seattle Modern Architect & Artisan