Ep 058 What is the Best Outdoor Living Structure?

Join Mike and Trey in an other incredible episode of Poolside Perspectives Podcast as they discuss various types of outdoor structures such as cabanas, arbors, and louvered roofs, covering their design, functionality, and practical considerations. Listeners can learn about the pros and cons of each structure, the importance of proper drainage and foundation, and even explore outdoor living enhancements like screens, heaters, and strategic wall placements. The episode also touches on specific scenarios and customer requests, providing detailed advice on integrating these structures into existing home designs while adhering to city and HOA regulations. Through detailed discussion and expert tips, this episode aims to guide homeowners in making informed decisions to achieve their dream outdoor space. 00:00 Welcome to Poolside Perspectives 00:03 Meet Your Hosts: Kevin and Mike 01:02 Diving into Outdoor Living 01:44 Fall Season and Outdoor Enjoyment 02:33 Exploring Outdoor Kitchen Shelters 03:57 Cabanas vs. Ramadas 04:32 Louvered Structures Explained 05:31 Arbors and Pavilions 07:20 Polygal and Waterproofing 09:51 Design Considerations for Outdoor Structures 18:00 Barbecue Bits: Twin Eagles Grills 21:21 Solid Roof Structures 30:25 Maximizing Sun and Shade with Louvered Structures 30:57 Waterproofing and Brand Reliability 32:05 Handling Hail and Weather Concerns 33:11 Design Flexibility and Structural Considerations 34:10 Integrating Electrical and Lighting Features 37:26 Building Codes and Attachment Methods 43:43 True Crime: Driveway Damage 47:22 The Importance of Screens and Heaters 52:25 Foundation and Flooring Choices 57:36 The Role of Walls in Outdoor Structures 01:00:23 Conclusion and Additional Resources  

Episode Transcript

Intro (00:00):
Hello everybody.
Welcome to the poolsideperspectives podcast.
I am Kevin Woodhurst and with me is mygood friend, Mike Farley, and we're so
glad you found this podcast together.
We have been homeowner advocatesand outdoor living and the pool
industry for over 30 years.
So we understand the challenges youface creating your backyard paradise.
We know your curiosity is notenough to ensure your success.

(00:21):
So on this podcast, we're going to talkabout the design process and practical
steps to help you create that space.
We'll have some fun mixed in with it.
Some aha moments.
And this is no fluff.
No one has time for that.
So we're going to get serious and getvery particular about all of these topics.
Whether you are a new homeowner with yourfirst remodel or a seasoned homeowner

(00:41):
competing your last dream home, we arehere to help you end up with what you
dreamed of from pools to patios, pizza,ovens, to pergolas, porcelain, to pumps.
Pool Party to Permits, Ping Pong Tablesto the Processes to your Paradise.
This is Straight Talk and Action Steps.
Let's get started.

Mike (01:02):
So this is Mike Farley poolside perspective podcast, and we just
wanted to welcome everybody here today.
We're going to dive into another excitingepisode and talk about all things
luxury outdoor living and pools andeverything you can find in the backyard.
If you don't know whoI am, I'm Mike Farley.
I've been in the industry for 35years, been designing as a landscape

(01:24):
designer, was a licensed landscapearchitect in California for 45 years.
but specializing in pools andoutdoor living for the last 35.

Trey (01:33):
I'm Trey Farley.
I've been in the industry for six years.
Four of those years was in constructionparticularly the back end of construction.
And the last two have been indesigned working and shadowing my dad.

Mike (01:44):
It's definitely fall now.

Trey (01:46):
Yes, it is.
It's not summer.
That's for sure.

Mike (01:48):
was wonderful this morning to go on a walk.
me and Max had a great time this morningwalking around and, it wasn't 95 degrees.
It was great.
I hear that fall hasarrived to a lot of places.
I heard Phoenix is celebratingtheir first not 100 degree day.
Oh, that's cool.
We're not having our 90 degrees day.
it's a great time ofyear to enjoy outside.

(02:11):
Oh yeah.
Because in the summer we have poolsbecause we have to cool off because
it's so hot and intense outside,but this time of year, it's great.
You can, cook out, youcan eat out, you can.
Hang out it's a wonderful timeof the year to enjoy everything
that we create in your backyard.
You can still enjoy the pool too.

(02:32):
Yes, you can.
If you have to have it really warm, youmight heat it slightly, or you can be
enjoying the hot tub, but we're goingto talk about today is something that's
integral for all those spaces or, Possiblyyou may be looking for that and that
some kind of shelter and there's a lot ofdifferent shelters that we can look at a

Trey (02:53):
lot of different shelters for mainly coverage.

Mike (02:56):
Yeah.
So for people to be under oneof the number one requests I get
is I want an outdoor kitchen.
And when I want an outdoorkitchen, most people in Texas do
not want that out in the open.

Trey (03:12):
Typically when we see a job we're walking on a lot of the times, a builder
of a house, if it's new construction,they're going to have the basic grill
right on the side of the covered patio,if they have one where it's barely even on
the side where you barely get any vintage.

Mike (03:24):
what's really cool is when we do an outdoor kitchen outside, most
people don't want it just out in theelements they want some protection.
Now, a lot of new homes, they mayhave the kitchen on the back porch,
but, a lot of times they don'thave it on the back porch either.
And they want us to incorporate itsomewhere else because they want
the port space for the kitchen.

(03:45):
Living like dining and living room areas.
But we're going to talk aboutsome different structures
and see what the winner is.
we've got three differentcontenders today.
Yes.
we've got the.
Ramada, as Kevin used to alwayscall them they say that's what
they call them in Arizona.
we call them cabanas here.

Trey (04:04):
Oh, okay.
I had no idea what you were saying.
I was like,

Mike (04:06):
Ramada,

Trey (04:07):
what is that?

Mike (04:08):
It's the

Trey (04:08):
Ramada Inn.
I thought I was briefed onwhat we were talking about.
We're throwing in the curve ball.

Mike (04:13):
So yes but we call them cabanas here in Texas I'm sure they call them
other things in other places, but we'retalking about a solid roof structure.
It's generally open onthree to four sides.
There's usually not a lotof enclosure with this.
that's contender number one.
who else are we going tobring to the plate here?

Trey (04:32):
We have louvered structures as well.
There's many different products out there.
We typically work with Equinoxand then Apollo as well.
So we'll speak on those specificallyjust because we work with those a
lot more often, but feel free tocomment down below any opinions
or perspectives you have as well.
That's the whole reason we dothis podcast is for information.
So when

Mike (04:51):
you say

Trey (04:52):
louvered,

Mike (04:53):
so somebody that's doesn't know what we're speaking of,
how would you describe that?

Trey (04:57):
you'll have some kind of, Lack of better words, louver, or I guess shades
like on a blinds for a window on the roof.
so they can open up and be like apergola or they can close completely.
And the products we work with arecompletely rain proof, waterproof.
So it's enclosed so you can beout there while it's raining.
Yeah.
Be, sheltered from

Mike (05:17):
that, the elements.
Okay.
So we have everything from fullsunlight to partial shade to full.
Cool.
Rain protection.

Trey (05:25):
Yep.
Those are a little bit more costytypically just because of the
electronics function and it's metal.

Mike (05:32):
then we have an arbor.
now what I call an arbor and otherplaces the country, they'll call
them pavilions instead of an arbor.
And I heard a definition thatan arbor was a little garden
structure like an arched thing orsomething that you put a swing on.
That can be an arbor structure,I'm talking about something

(05:53):
that covers a large patio area.
That's what we call an arbor here.
But in other parts of the country, Iknow they call them pavilions as well.

Trey (06:02):
when I think of a pavilion, I'm thinking of like back when I was in
school, they would always have likepavilions around like a park area
and it was a complete solid roof.
What we're talking about usually isthat has that grid pattern in it.

Mike (06:14):
Usually.
Pieces of wood spaced, two tofour inches apart and creates a
percentage of shade, type situation.
Typically, built of wood, redwoodcedar depends on what wood is.
Good in your particular area thatholds up to not being decayed and
usually is a stained structure,although some are painted to match

(06:38):
architectural styles of the home.
those are the three contenders.
Do we have?
do you have a favorite?

Trey (06:44):
on one of the jobs he did with the Colorado boulders I think that created
a new love for pergolas for me causeit's a massive area, it's huge square
footage double kitchen, sunken kitchen.
And we didn't touch on this, but what'sthat plastic overlay called again?

Mike (07:00):
PolyGal.

Trey (07:01):
It has that on top as well, which kind of, Rain proofs that
area and love that set up havingit weatherproof and having that
aesthetic where the sun just bleeds in.

Mike (07:11):
that's all built of wood.
So you prefer to wood appearance,like stain type situation
over something that's painted?

Trey (07:18):
I believe so.
Yeah.

Mike (07:19):
Okay.
So polygal is a material thatcan be put on top of a arbor.
Or the slats on the top and you can putthat on and basically, but these pieces
together and there's a piece of trimwork that goes over the joint and it
creates a fairly waterproof situation.
So I always hesitate to say waterproofbecause, you believe your precious

(07:45):
homework that you're working on andit comes a rain and then out drips on
your homework, you're going to say,the pool guy said it was waterproof.
it's a nice structure.
Now there's one thing you have tothink about when you use polygal.
What's that?
Is it can't be flat.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
It's got to be pitched in a certaindirection to direct the flow of water.

(08:06):
Yeah.
And so the challenge that you havewith this is you have to decide
which direction you're pitching it.
So it's a challenge if thestructures, like we did a project.
Down in university park thatwe use the same material.
And it was up against the house, so wecouldn't pitch it back towards the house.

(08:28):
Okay.
The other thing is, causeit's up against the house.
You can easily see the beams liningup with all the brick masonry.
And if you pitch it to one side,then it's going to look crooked.
So we only could pitch it one other way.
Which was into the pool.

Trey (08:45):
Yes.

Mike (08:45):
because of the tight proximity on this structure literally went from
the edge of the pool to the building.
and that one was also wood, it wasstained custom stain color to match
the stain on the posts of the porch.
And so that.
Gave a really nice look and blendedwith the architecture and gave them
the solution that they wanted is theywanted to sit out and have a dining

(09:08):
area that they wouldn't be rained on.

Trey (09:10):
It's a perfect situation.
And some people might say you don'twant to pitch it to the pool because
then you're gonna contaminatethe water with the rainfall.
I would personally say when you geta heavy rain where this is an issue
you're going to have to balancethose chemicals anyways, because of
the rain in general and we alwayshave overflow on our pools too,

Mike (09:27):
and in some parts of the country, they actually, that is
a recommended practice becauseit's called rain harvesting.
So what they want todo is capture the rain.
In fact, they'll pitch the decks intothe pool, but this is a total side issue.
But rain harvesting is encouragedin a lot of different areas.
but in some areas we wantto pitch the water away.
there's different things to think about.

(09:48):
Your favorite would bethe Arbor to start with.
Now, pros of that particularstructure is it's probably the
most cost effective structure.
Oh, okay.
it can fit in a lot of different people'sbudgets, a lot more friendly than others.
The other thing that's really cool is itcan be attached up against a house and

(10:09):
you don't have to worry about or What'sabove it, because it's not real tall,
It's basically about, the heightof the beam, the post, excuse
me, plus about two feet of wood.
And so therefore you can usuallywork it in between the first
floor and the second floor.
So you don't have to worry aboutblocking like windows up above
or something along that line.

(10:30):
Yeah.
The other thing is a lot of times itwill work with the architecture of
the home better than if we came in andtried to do something with a pitched
roof and the pitch doesn't matchthe other pitches and, again, you're
blocking windows and things like that.
An arbor is really advantageous.

Trey (10:49):
One thing to be aware of cause I know we've done this
with the city and we checked.
Some people, if you put thepolygal on it, they don't care
they just count as an arbor.
And so that might not workagainst what's the word?
Permeability.
Yeah.
Permeability.
And then if some cities will countthat against it, cause then it's a
solid roof structure in their opinion.
So it does vary.
You have to check with the city.

Mike (11:07):
And there's different codes.
For non covered structures, like anarbor versus some covered structures.
And when you put the polygallonon top, yes, sometimes it
does change the requirements.
So you need to be awareof that on the front end.
So when you're designing it, you makesure you have the proper setbacks.
And Or you make sure yourdesigner does their homework.

(11:29):
Yeah.
When you do a structure like that,The posts that support it could
be a lot of different things.
So typically you'regoing to see a wood post.
Yeah.
Sometimes these posts are just like a sixby six, although sometimes with a six by
six, it doesn't seem like there's enoughmass to support this whole roof structure.

(11:51):
And it seems a little out of scale.
And so sometimes people willdo larger posts like, eight by
eight or 10 by 10 or a 12 by 12.
Those are things that you can lookat or, some people will do masonry.
With the masonry posts, we could tiein possibly some masonry that's on the
house, whether it be brick or stone.

(12:11):
Although, it's interesting, a lotof people, when we get into these
structures, they like the stone herein Texas and they don't have any
stone on the back of their house.
It's all brick because the stone was onlyat the accents like at the front door
or maybe the fireplace inside the house,we can still pull those things together.

Trey (12:30):
You always could use a little less and just do a boot.
So what's a boot?
So a boot is gonna be we're doingstone masonry stone, it would
go up, what, 36 inches about?
And it's just pretty much to wrap aroundthe column the wood post to give it
more of a grandiose bigger just look.

Mike (12:48):
Okay.
Now one thing it's nice also with a boot,if it's 36 inches, you end up the height
of a countertop and put your cup on it.
Yeah.
So it's a nice small table, mini table.

Trey (12:59):
It really does help though.
If you have an area where you're.
You have a grill and you have a littlebit of kitchen space, but not a lot.
And maybe that space isn'thave a full table or anything.
So it does add a little bitof counter space for cups.

Mike (13:12):
Those I usually do 36, like Trey mentioned, sometimes I'll do, if it's
structure is really tall, I'll do 42,which ends up being like a bar height.
The one thing that I neverwant to do is a 24 inch one.
Seat height.
And the reason why is when you'rewalking around, you don't see
it in your peripheral vision.
Ooh.
And you just bang your shin on the thingas you're walking around the post because

(13:35):
you think you got around it and thatmasonry just jumps out and bites you.

Trey (13:39):
That's a hazard.

Mike (13:40):
Yes.
So that's why I've never, therewas a point in time in my career
that a lot of people used todo them like 18 and 24 inches.
And I was like that.
It does.
those hurt.
Those aren't a boot.
That's a shoe . Yeah.
the other thing that you want to thinkabout if you do some type of column is
it does give you the advantage of runningyour conduit inside the masonry to get

(14:04):
up for a ceiling fan and some lights.
Yeah.
And so you don't have to strap theconduit on the side of the post.
But if you're not gonna do that, one ofthe things you want to think about is.
Where you're going to locate that conduit.
So it's not as visible for theusers that are using the space.

Trey (14:22):
This often comes up when we're talking about a sheer rain or some
kind of water feature off the lip.

Mike (14:27):
Yeah.
If we're running water up there as well.
One thing also to think about isif you're doing fans and electrical
and what really looks bad is youmight be able to hide the conduit.
If you have to put switches in,then you've got this big box sitting
there and it looks really bad.
So that's where a boot or a stub column,as some people call them, is really nice.

(14:52):
Cause you can hide all thathardware in that space.
Yeah.
The other thing that is getting donemore and more commonly is people
still like the wood look of above, butthey also want to tie in some metal.
And so we're doing more and moremetal posts six by six metal
posts or something like that.
So we've got a project here that'scoming up that they wanted to

(15:15):
come in and build some swings andhave a rainfall coming out of it.
And so one of the things that wasdecided is we were doing an 8x8 steel
post so we could run the water supplyup inside that post so we didn't have
to strap it to the outside of something.

Trey (15:32):
That makes it look a lot cleaner.

Mike (15:33):
Yeah.
Are there other things tothink about on the top?
So some people in some partsof the country are going to
use a two by two material andspace those with a two inch gap.
Some parts of the country use atwo by four material and put a
four inch gap or a two inch gap.

(15:55):
So it's.
Done a little bit differently, butone thing that I did in Northern
California that was really cool iswe pipes up there instead of wood on
the very top and they were paintedblack and it was for solar heating.
And so we were able to put thepipe up there and that was the way

(16:19):
you were able to heat the pool.
Now that particular subdivision.
Way back in the day wouldn't allowsolar panels on the roof because
it was against the HOA rules.
Now most states have made that illegal tosay you can't do that in an HOA anymore.
And solar panels are much moreprevalent than, back in the mid eighties

(16:42):
when I was doing that type of work.

Trey (16:44):
And you were in California at that time too.
I was in California.
Which is crazy because you think theywould be at the forefront for solar power.
I

Mike (16:49):
think they were at the forefront later on, but in these early days
in that particular subdivision, itwas, legal and in fact, I want to
say in that subdivision, there becamea lawsuit over the whole thing and
that probably is what helped startit because I work right outside of
the state capital in Sacramento.

Trey (17:08):
And I know you've talked about how California back then they would
have solar panels on the Equipment.
I know that's completely but Idon't see that often in Texas.
I see them on the roofs everywhere now,but yeah, not on the equipment pads.

Mike (17:19):
It's become a big deal because we have electric cars now.

Trey (17:23):
And electric robots.
Those are new.
Yeah.
Robots?
Yeah.
You ever see the movie iRobot?
Yeah, I saw that movie.
They got, Tesla's got this thingcalled Opness Opness robots, and
they pretty much look the same.
Yeah.
It's uncanny.
we're in the weird times.

Mike (17:35):
New

Trey (17:36):
times.
New times.

Mike (17:37):
Yes, we are.

BBQ Intro (17:40):
We're going to take a break here for a second
and get into outdoor living.
So with outdoor living, we liketo go to barbecue bits here.
We're going to share some informationof everything that you may want to
consider in your outdoor living space.
As far as features,especially for the kitchen.
Hope you enjoy this.

Mike (18:01):
So I know there's different manufacturers and I know one of the
ones that's at the top that a lot ofpeople really like is Twin Eagles.
Correct.
And so walk me through about their productline and what do you like about it?

Bobby (18:12):
Twin Eagles is a buy once grill and whenever you grab the
handle on a Twin Eagles grill,you're going to know its difference.
The way it's spring loaded lid,it's still really heavy, very thick,
robust, uh, 304 marine grade stainless.
They don't stop there.
They polish all theappointments from the hood.
There's ventilation on the backsideof the grill so it doesn't overheat.

(18:35):
all the backlit bezels that are LEDblue don't do anything but support
of what this grill can actually do.
It cooks and it cooks awesome.
One thing that a lot of peopledon't really know about is the
rotisserie and the value added piece.
It's got an interior wallchain driven rotisserie.
So if I were to take this particularspit rod and, and put it in this

(18:57):
grill and turn it on, it'll holdup to 35, 40 pounds of meat.
There's no counterbalance that's needed.
It has a stowaway warming rack.
And if I did a big nice juicyprime rib, uh, for Christmas, then
I could pull this lid down andit acts as an oven environment.
And you would only use the rearinfrared burner on this grill.

(19:19):
I've sold this grill forover 20 years and I've never
replaced a burner on this grill.

Mike (19:24):
Wow.
That says a lot about

Bobby (19:26):
their quality.
so when you build one in Yes.
an afterthought and a lot of thingthat we're seeing out there in the
market is a third party OEM cabinetry.
I'm going to mention names.
Danver, Naturecast, these particularcompanies that need a combustion sleeve.
This company offers an insulated jacket.
When you put the grill insideof the jacket, you would think

(19:48):
that it would compensate as faras airflow, uh, but it doesn't.
The air drafting runs right abovethe drip tray on this grill.
So if it's in an insulated jacket or oneof those, third party company cabinetry.
It does not deprive it of air.
It can breathe very, very well.
And they've, had some forethought onhow to build this grill to do that.

Mike (20:08):
Amazing.
Yeah.
So that's a, it's a quality grill.
If you're looking at that.

Bobby (20:14):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Hexagonal cooking grids,different pedigree than what
anybody does in the industry.
What does that do?
, more meat, , surface searing, , that'smore equal, easier to clean.
And then briquettes.
Uh, briquettes are foundin your higher end grills.
The briquettes evenly distribute the heat.
They'll minimize flare upsand they'll promote flavor.
Why should I buy sear?

(20:34):
You'll notice, and what is a sear?
So two versions.
I will ask your customers, do youwant a sear mark or do you want crust
on your filet, on that Wagyu filet?
Well, if you like crust, sell the sear.
It's going to give you that crust andcaramelization where the standard burner
will give you more of a sear mark.

Mike (20:53):
Awesome.
Yeah.
Appreciate the details.
Yeah.

Bobby (20:56):
You

Mike (20:56):
bet.

BBQ Eend (20:57):
So I hope you enjoyed the barbecue bits that we just featured today
and we'll have more coming up next week.
If there's something in particular thatyou're interested for, let us know and
we'll get back into the episode now.

Mike (21:11):
we started with your favorite, the Arbor.
Yes.
Then we have the other twostructures to really consider and
look at on, what we might consider.
If we come in with a solid roofstructure, this creates all kinds of
questions on what's going to happen.
with a solid roof, The first thingthat you have to understand is you

(21:34):
have the roof itself and the dimensionsfor it, and then you have what a lot
of people consider the structure,which is post to post is just real
important to understand on certaincities, because when it does come to.
Lot coverage and permeability is mostcities work with the footprint of post

(21:55):
to post, similar to wall with a house.
They don't count theoverhangs of the structure.

Trey (22:01):
Yeah.

Mike (22:01):
Okay.
Now, some cities are getting into withlot permeability, we're actually the
roof, we're not counting the walls.
Because the roof is what'scapturing this rain and not
allowing it to go on the ground.
So it's important for you to understandwhich one's going to take place.
The other thing that's come intoplay with some of these cities and
setbacks and requirements is peoplehave gotten more and more creative

(22:26):
and working with roof overhangs.
So a typical roof overhang is a footat least here in Texas we're at now
in some part, some architectural stylecustom homes, we may have a two foot or
a three foot overhang on the home itself.
And so if you're doing a structure,you're going to make it architecturally

(22:46):
similar, but some cities will onlyallow a certain size overhang.
Because again, if you're countingpost to post, like we had one the
other day, we met with the city andthis particular HOA only allowed a
thousand square feet of structure.
They wanted to do a garage and theywanted to do a shed roof structure.

(23:11):
And so the shed roof was designedto be a 10 by 10 post to post.
They put a two foot overhangon both sides of it.
So now it becomes a 14 by 14.
And so the city counted the roof.
Which the HOA was then going to notallow them to build their garage
because they took up too muchsquare footage with the anyway.

(23:32):
So we had to work with the city on thatand come up with a creative solution,
but overhangs become important whenyou're dealing with a solid roof.
So just, it's something to think about.
the first thing when you have asolid roof is when you walk into
the space, is the ceiling flat,like it is in this room here.
Or is it vaulted andfollows the roof itself?

(23:54):
there's a lot of people that it'smore cost effective to build a
flat ceiling because now I don'thave to worry about what the beams
look like and the electrical lookslike and all the stuff up there.
I can just put a flat ceiling in itself.
That's, nine foot tall call it good.
Although most clients don't want that.
Most clients like the vaultedsituation, which is more open.

(24:18):
And so if you're going to bevaulting it, the big discussion is,
what is the material that's goingto be on the ceiling going to be?
Is it just plywood?
Is it tongue and groove?
Cedar what is that?
Finish.
The other thing is, are there exposedbeams that I see and the plywood or
tongue and groove cedars on top ofthat, or is the tongue and groove cedar

(24:42):
below it and I don't see any beams.
It's just flat and smooth.
those are two differentapplications, they cost different.
it's something you need tothink about and understand.
Is this a exposed beam or is thisa flat ceiling that is vaulted?
those are things thatyou need to think about.
The other thing that comes intowith the roof is what's on it.

(25:03):
Is it a tile roof?
Is it a steel roof?
Is it comp shingles?
Most HOAs say you have to match the house.
Oh, okay.
But, sometimes the house willhave multiple roof types on it.
Therefore you have someflexibility of what you can do.
I had a project a number of yearsago and there was a steel roof

(25:25):
feature in the front of the house.
we use that for the roofing on thestructure and the city came back and
said, no, it has to be clay tile roof.
Because that's what's thepredominant roof of the house.
And so we had to change the structure, butthe problem was the framing is different.

(25:47):
As well when you do clay there's alot more load cause stuff's heavy.
So you got to frame it totally different.
those are important things tounderstand of what's going to be done.
And sometimes it's not the citydoesn't care what you put on.
Sometimes it's the HOA.
That's issue that you have to think about.
So we have a roof.
We know what roofing materials on it.

(26:08):
We know what the ceiling looks like.
Then we have all kindsof different pitches.
Oh yeah.
you have a favorite one?

Trey (26:15):
I think shed is one of my favorites for sure.
it's something I didn't reallynotice when I was younger.
And it just catches my eye now.

Mike (26:21):
It wasn't done as much when you were younger, so that's
probably why you didn't see it.
It's done with a lot of modernarchitecture today, and you'll
have a house that may have severaldifferent pitches on it, which
makes it really interesting.
And so it's a nice, simple,just sheds off one direction.
So that's the simplest one to build.

(26:41):
It's the most cost effective one to build.
But a lot of times what you wantto do is match what's on the home.
And so you look at, does the househave, the gable where it's like the
teepee thing that you can look intoand that comes down on two sides.
Or is it a hip where itcomes down on all four sides?
And for you that are justlistening, you don't get the cool

(27:03):
visual effects of me doing that.
We might actually include some picturesthere, so it would work better.
have different style roofs.
I'm a big fan of.
The hip roof, because itgives me more protection.
with your shed roof, it mightbe 12, 13 feet in the front.
And then just, eight ornine feet in the back.

(27:25):
But, want to look at where yourprevailing weather comes from,
especially in the winter time,like rain and stuff like that.
If you're.
Structures facing the north or the east,then you're going to get a lot of weather
into that structure here in Texas.

Trey (27:41):
I'm curious, is the name shed roof because of a, like a shed
cause it was easy to build or isit because it sheds off one side?
Cause I don't think I've ever seena shed with that kind of roof.

Mike (27:51):
Actually, our shed has that kind of roof.
Really?
Yeah.

Trey (27:54):
Oh,

Mike (27:55):
wow.
Okay.
I always thought it was because they wereon sheds, but now that you say it sheds
off one side that's a good question.
don't know the answer to that.
It's

Trey (28:05):
probably because it's

Mike (28:06):
a

Trey (28:06):
shed.

Mike (28:07):
Yeah.
But with the gable, it'sreally cool because.
I do a lot of gable roofswhere I don't wanna block view.
Yeah.
we've got a project rightnow, it's on the lake.
And so as you look out from thehouse, I wanted you to be able to look
through the structure and still see thelake and the roof's not blocking it.
And you got this visual tunnelthrough the roofings area

Trey (28:29):
It's a very good way to allure your eye, too.
Cause your eye catches that and it kindajust allures you, You see the structure,
which is gonna allure you in general.
And then you see also what'sbehind it which is cool.

Mike (28:39):
Yeah.
So I've done that with lakes and golfcourses and other things, but sometimes
you want the, like we did a shed roof justrecently, the last photo shoot and the
whole thing was to block the neighbor.
Because it went down low in theback and you had this real nice
open view into the space, which wasgreat, but also face the south.
So you don't have a weather issuebut you do get a lot of sun in

(29:03):
with that one, it doesn't provideas much shade as the hip would.
we've got different style roofs,we've got different materials on
the roofs, they have differentmaterials on the ceiling, the posts
are going to be basically the same.
Now, one thing to think about, wetalked about fireplaces last week.
So when you put a fireplace in and yougot a gable roof, if you do the fireplace

(29:26):
seven feet wide to get a nice size TV.
Are you going to run that allthe way up to the ceiling, which
might be 20 some odd feet up?
It depends on the job.
Yeah.
But that's a lot of times it'ssomething that a lot of people
don't think of initially.
They're like, Oh, we want the chimneyto go up about eight or nine feet
and then taper down and be smaller.

(29:47):
Gable that doesn't look realgood versus on the side of
the gable, not as big a deal.
Yeah.
So it's just all these things thatthink about if you're creating
the space that works best for you.

Trey (29:59):
we covered cabanas and we covered arbors.
So should we move onto louvered structures?

Mike (30:05):
louvers are fun.
Yeah, they are.
They provide the idealsituation all the time.

Trey (30:10):
Yeah.

Mike (30:10):
So a lot of times people are like I don't want to put.
A structure on the back becausein the winter time, it's going to
reduce the amount of sun in my house.
And so the house is going to seemdarker in the winter and dreary.
And so I don't want to do that.
The Louvre Arbor just open it up.
So you get more sun.
So I'm not restricting the sun at all.
Or wow.
I'm really in the late fall.

(30:33):
It's chilly in the mornings.
I'd like to sit out there inthe sun instead of the shade.
I can open it up and sit.
And whatever direction the sun'scoming from, it's not blocked.
And I can sit there in the sunversus, it's August and I want
as much shade as possible.
I can really get a lot of shade.
With that structure more than50 percent like a typical Arbor,

(30:55):
I can get 90 percent if I want.
Or gee, it's raining and I can shut it.
And I used to say it's mostly waterproofbecause I was like, there's no way this is
going to be a hundred percent waterproof.

Trey (31:08):
Yeah.

Mike (31:08):
But I've dealt with them for 12 years now.
I've never had anybody tell me thatit was not a waterproof situation.
Now, I've used only the two brandsthat Trey mentioned earlier.
That's an Equinox and an Apollo.
that's been the case with those.
Now, may have worked with somethingelse and had problems with that.

Trey (31:27):
I will speak from experience because I was in the field on the back end
stuff, so I would do a lot of punch outitems, and with the Equinox in particular
there was times where maybe we wouldhave an overlap of roofs, on installs.
This isn't your job or anything like that.
But we would have issues sometimeswith Like a small leak or
homeowner was complaining aboutthe drainage to the gutter systems.

(31:49):
We haven't talked about gutters really.
But they would come out and they wouldtinker with it and they would fix it.
And if they didn't get the firsttime, they always got the second time.
amazing people to work with.
I have to say that, but it'snot 100 percent just from the
get go to the install, installs.
who is installing themand stuff like that.

Mike (32:05):
one thing that I thought of when I first saw that as a product as I was like
what happens when we get a hailstorm isit going to just beat this thing to death?

Trey (32:14):
Yeah.
And how big is the hail like.
What was it a year ago in Argylewe got baseball sized hail out of
nowhere and destroyed everything.

Mike (32:21):
And, I can say that, The units that I used held up extremely well with hail.
Yeah.
Not to say that they weren't damaged atall but there was minimal damage to them.
And what I was explained when I firstheard it is if it totals a roof out,
it might damage the structure as well.
And that's what insurance is for.

(32:42):
Yeah.
makes sense to me.
But the louvered structuresare typically metal.
Yeah.
The louvers are metal, the postsare metal, the framing's metal.
So it lends to the style that's beenprevalent for quite a period of time with
more of the modern clean lines to it.
And it comes painted in anumber of different colors.

(33:05):
it is the least maintenance.
of any of the structuresover a period of time.

Trey (33:11):
Can you cantilever a louvered structure?
Oh yeah.
I've never seen that, I don't think.
I've seen it on arbors and cabanas.

Mike (33:19):
Yeah, so I've cantilevered equinox over it and put a
rainfall into one as well.
Okay, that's cool.
The one thing that you've got to thinkabout with the structures is also how
many posts are you going to have tosupport if you get greater than, 20 feet,
you're going to have additional posts.

(33:39):
Typically, when you get into wood, unlessyou get into a steel beam to support
your roof, which is totally doable.
Or a large laminate beam, which againis totally doable, but standard beams
usually come about 20 foot length.
And so then you're going to havea post in the middle and with your
louvered structures, they can gogreater spans without a post in the

(34:03):
middle is where I was going with that.

Trey (34:05):
That's good.
No one wants a post in the middle.
That's annoying.

Mike (34:08):
Most people feel that's very annoying.
So the other thing is a lot of timespeople are like can you still have
lights and ceiling fans in those?
Oh, a hundred percent.
Yeah.
that's all available to all these typesof structures that we've talked about.
In fact, I.
Not done a structure in a very longtime that did not have plugs in it.

(34:30):
Usually I'll set plugs high.
It's really nice to have a plugthat's on a switch that's up high so
you can put, some lights up there.
Christmas lights or

Trey (34:40):
whatever you want to do.
Yeah.

Mike (34:41):
Also, if you have a plug that's up high, you may mount a TV.
Yeah you're going to want some plugsdown low, but you're going to want
to have those plugs not close tothe, if there's water to the water.
you meet the safety requirements.
So you want to usually have those fartheraway from the pool but ceiling fans.

(35:01):
All the time are installed to create some,air current underneath the space and help
keep things cooler in the summer, andthen definitely lights so we can enjoy
the space in the evening time as well.

Trey (35:14):
Oh, yeah.
I think it might be a crime, sell someonea covered structure without lights
or a fan, or even offer it at least.

Mike (35:22):
Oh we might get into that with true crime.
Might do that.
Yeah, add that to the list.
So, louvered arbor gives you alot of advantages to structures.
has some of the advantagesof a standard arbor.
But it does give you more protectionand gives you flexibility of coverage.

Trey (35:46):
Real quick, we're gonna do a design concept.
so I'm wondering have you ever doneone of these structures, cabana arbor,
louvered roof but like a two story styletwo levels, you could walk up onto the
roof and stargaze or something like that.

Mike (36:02):
You have to come in and pour lightweight concrete.
Okay.
Similar to what we did on the projectright now that we're building on the lake.

Trey (36:11):
Oh,

Mike (36:11):
really?
So you have to come in with a beamstructure, lightweight, concrete
on the top, then you come inwith masonry on the top of that.
Yeah.
And you have to figure out howthe ceiling's gonna be addressed.
But yes, that is possible.
I've never built a roof onthe upper one in my experience
that hasn't come into play.

(36:32):
No, that's not true.
The Hunter project, we did atwo story cabana and the bottom
floor was all well, clines too.
Was all for equipment and then theupper story was from functional
it was covered with the roof.
yeah, it's something that can be done.
The one thing you have to be real carefulwith is certain HOAs won't allow it.

(36:56):
Even though a city may allowit that's going to be the
problem in some places is HOAs.
Thanks.
So you just got to makesure what's possible or not.

Trey (37:05):
That's probably because it's so tall that it pops up over the fence and
becomes like a eyesore to the neighbors.
It's I don't want tolook at their structure.

Mike (37:13):
And lack of privacy as well.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That makes sense
Any other particular things that you canthink of in regards to the structures?

Trey (37:26):
I would say something that's often pops up is when we meet with
customers, they are typically wantingto put these structures like add ons to
their house put it right on the side.
So with all these structures, isit ideal to chip away the house a
little bit and beam into the house?
Or is there a certain one thatmight be a little bit more easier,

(37:46):
a little bit flexible where you'renot puncturing a hole into the house?

Mike (37:49):
So again, it goes back to codes because case example in trophy club,
I don't know if this is a currentcode, but it used to be If I attach
the structure to the house, it nowbecame part of the house and it had
to have the building line setbacks.
Ah.
But if it was detached, and detached inTrophy Club meant it just wasn't attached.

(38:14):
So I would literally set apost right next to the house.
Half

Trey (38:17):
inch away.

Mike (38:17):
Half inch away and now it's detached.
Now.

Trey (38:20):
Yeah.

Mike (38:21):
Colleyville, on the other hand, would say if you're
within 10 feet, you're attached.
Okay.
So it doesn't matter,they have an invisible

Trey (38:29):
bridge going from one roof to the other.

Mike (38:31):
where it goes with some cities, it's fire code.
Okay.
That makes more sense.
Yeah.
So if I've got one structure that's onfire and it's like right literally next to
it, then it's going to catch on fire too.
And if you take it all the wayto the edge, then you're right
next to the neighbor's house.
It's catching on fire too.
So that's where the logic comes in.
There's a little bit of logic There's,there's a little bit of logic, although

(38:52):
sometimes you wonder if there'slogic at all when it comes to cities.
Yeah.
the other thing that comes in isa lot of times when I'm doing a
structure, especially an Arbor.
As I want it to look like it's integral.
And so, yes instead of adding a postup against the house, I'm going to
tear out a section of the brick andattach that beam into the frame of

(39:14):
the house and then re brick around it.
So now it looks like it wasalways intended to be there.
I did a project down inArlington a number of years ago.
And I said, there were no posts.
It was a C shaped house.
Oh, wow.
The Arbor was in the middle.
That's cool.
And I ran the beams onboth sides into the brick.

(39:37):
Yeah.
And so we had to tear the brick out.
We had get the angle just rightto spin these things in here.
So we had to take out a littlemore brick than we typically do.
Cause we had to.
Rotated in and we set the two beamsand then we bricked in around him
and the city was having a coronaryabout how in the world I was building
this structure without posts.

(39:57):
And so finally I said, cansomebody meet me on site?
Yeah.
Cause I sent drawings, I sentvideos, I sent all kinds of stuff.
They didn't get it.
the inspector was like,Oh, that's brilliant.
Yeah, that'll work.
That's fine.
it looked like it was partof the house initially.
Now, when you're doing a structureand you're attaching a roof.

(40:18):
To an existing home.
One of the things you wantto do is make it look like it
belonged there in the first place.
So you don't want to come off theexisting house and start the structure
and have, gable back or hit back tothe ridge of the, that looks real
added on there are people that do it.

(40:39):
There are people that do it because it'scost effective, because the other solution
is you're going to put a new ridge onand run all the way back to the house,
which means you're going to tear up someof the existing roofing and you're going
to have a lot more roofing that's goingto go in, but then it looks like it's
Was meant to be there in the first place.
Yeah.
So that's something real importantto discuss on if you're attaching

(41:03):
to a home, because that gets intoa lot bigger structural problem,
or not problem, but adventure.
Yeah.
And what you're building.
Especially if the roof has got areally steep pitch on it that brings
the ridge up really high and thenit has to run back to the house.
Like I had one a number of yearsago and the roof ended up close

(41:26):
to, I want to say 25 feet tall.
so for us to cantilever back into thehouse, and then it took out a whole
huge section of the roof on the housethat we had to, it looks beautiful.
It looks like it was always meantto be there, but it was very costly
because it was not estimated properly.
so I got to do that rooffor pretty much free.

(41:47):
Anyway.
it's just something that'simportant to discuss.
that's a place where three dimensionalmodeling becomes very helpful for people
to understand what they're getting.
Now, the one thing you want tobe real careful about is if.
You weren't intending on doingsomething, just throwing something in.
So it looks pretty.
And then, coming back later on and sayingthat's not what we were going to do.

(42:09):
That's bait and switch.
Which is not a very good thing to dobecause people get real upset about that.

Trey (42:15):
Yeah.

Mike (42:16):
Yeah, don't do that.
So attaching to the home is donevery commonly because, basically
we're going to make, the outdoorand indoor transition there.
But you have to understand what aregoing to be the setback requirements
because, okay, on your piece ofproperty, typically you have a building
line and that building line is Andthe front, usually 25 feet, sometimes

(42:40):
on the side, it's 10 feet, 5 feet.
And then on the back, a lot oftimes the building line's not
on any of the documentation.
You still have a building line.
a lot of times it's verysimilar to what the front is.
if you assume, oh, I can comein and do this structure.
And, but the building line kicksback 25 feet then you may not

(43:01):
be able to do that structure.
So if you detach it and put thepool first and then the structures
towards the back, sometimes thesetback isn't 25 feet, it's five.
Some cities it's three.
Oh, wow.
Dallas, there were areas wherethere was no setback and you go into
the older areas and literally thebuilding's built on the property line.

(43:22):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
you have to be aware of what's goingto be, because sometimes you're like
well, if you do it this way, thisis all we've got left to do pool
and it can only be so big versus ifI flip it, the pool can be bigger.
The structure can be bigger and wecan create more things, but it's not
that inside outside transition thata lot of people are looking for.

True Crime (43:45):
For all you true crime fans out there, we are
going to explore Pool True Crime.
And you guys will decideif this is a crime or not.

Mike (43:58):
is it a crime to drive a dump truck on the driveway?

Trey (44:03):
I think because majority of the time I would say that there's a high percentage
chance that driveway is going to crack.
Now, there's been a lot of jobs whereaccess is limited and the homeowner's
been briefed on that chance of happening.
And they don't even care.
They're like, dude, just get the job done.
I would assume, yes, it is a crime.
Because if you break someone'sdriveway and they didn't

(44:23):
know, that's a possibility.
That's messed up.

Mike (44:26):
And it's usually in the small print of their contract that they're
not liable for repairing that.

Trey (44:30):
Yeah the real small print where you need two readers and
a magnifying glass to read.

Mike (44:34):
Although I've had clients that the driveway's already cracked to pieces.
And their comment is, youcan't make it any worse.
And my comment is, yes, I can.

Trey (44:46):
Yeah, once it's already cracked, it can crumble a little bit more.
It's concrete.

Mike (44:49):
Now, if your comment is, We're planning on replacing
that after this project.
Okay, go ahead.
I'll drive my dump truckon an all day long.
Yeah.
and usually it's not the driveway.
It's the edges of the drivewaythat you have to be concerned
about because dump trucks goingin empty usually aren't a problem.

(45:09):
It's the dump truck going out.
That's full.
That creates the problem.
what this all goes back to ismake sure that you understand.
What's going to take place andwhat the penalties would be.
would say that driving a dump truck ona driveway, isn't necessarily a crime.
If you've communicated the risk andyou've also communicated, this driveway is

(45:35):
already, a dog, going to be replaced here,that's the next project that we've got
going, but if it's a brand new driveway.
And this was not discussed, thenthere's probably going to be a problem.

Trey (45:49):
I've seen some driveways with a turf accents, like we do on our deck.
you want to stay off of those, butI could definitely see a situation
where it'd be cheaper to have a dumptruck, just drive up on the driveway.
Versus adding a bobcat,hauling back and forth.
It reduces the amountof time and work needed.
It would be beneficial to some peoplethat already have a cracked driveway or
just don't care if their concrete, cracks,because it does that naturally over time.

Mike (46:11):
There's also one other thing I'm just going to bring
in as an asterisk on this.
Okay.
Not a concrete drive,but an asphalt drive.
an asphalt drive, in the middleof the winter usually can
handle quite a bit of load.
Okay.
But the asphalt drive in themiddle of the summer when it
gets hot, the asphalt gets soft.
It would just move it around and sink.

(46:31):
And it's gonna tear it to pieces.
Yeah.
So we did a project last year.
We had to drive.
a bobcat 400 feet because of course thiswas a country property and it was set
way back off the road and so we chosebecause the pasture land was all pipe
fence and the terrain made it difficultto drive a dump truck through there.

(46:57):
And trees that we just did a 400 footBobcat shuttle over the asphalt drive.
Yeah.
So just be cautious about drivewaysand the results that you might get
with heavy equipment going over it.
Typically a Bobcat being rubber tired,isn't going to create a problem.
But.
A fully loaded dump truckwill usually create a problem.

(47:17):
Hopefully that's helpful.
We talked about.
Lights, but there's a couple other thingsbecome real important to a lot of people
with structures and that's screens.

Trey (47:30):
Oh 100 percent actually someone mentioned that today
when I was at their house.

Mike (47:33):
Yeah.
Okay.

Trey (47:34):
Yeah, they wanted to screen the windows off Because have vantage point
that looks right directly into their

Mike (47:40):
backyard with a screen there's three reasons people do screens Okay, one is
I want a screen to protect me from bugs

Trey (47:50):
Yes, i've heard that before and sometimes it works.
Sometimes it doesn't

Mike (47:54):
well if you keep your screens down it works Yeah,

Trey (47:57):
does work.
Yes, they keep them out, butthey gather right on that screen.

Mike (48:01):
Oh, yeah.
Definitely.
Sometimes they're like,trying to get to you.
So when you do gooutside, you get ambushed.
Jump you and suck your blood.
Yeah.
And I tell people a lot of times ifyou're looking for screens just to
protect you from bugs, We've got othersolutions you may want to consider
that may be a good alternative for you,

Trey (48:21):
but if you're, staying just on that covered patio area it's screened
off and you're not going to the poolor the spa or anything, you just
want to watch the game outside, enjoythe breeze, it's a great option.

Mike (48:31):
Yeah, so I have a client and they had, three screen sections.
They probably had 800 square feet ofspace that they lived on that back porch.
They add screens.
Now, the other thing that screens can helpyou with is protect you from the wind.
There's a lot of people that are like,I want to drop the screens in the

(48:51):
fall, and I want to turn my heaters on,and I want to live out in that space.
Okay.
Now, one thing, you have tobe careful if you do that.
If you have a gas heater,you've got carbon monoxide.
Yeah.
That's not good.
So may want to look at what'srecommended from a safety standpoint.
If you're using those two things together,we could do an electric heater instead.

(49:12):
You can do an electric heater instead.
Now, heaters, was the next thingI was going to talk about, but the
other thing with screens is sometimespeople like them for privacy.
Yes.
we want to use the screen togive me privacy between me and a
neighbor that type of situationso that can be very helpful.
Although, you can also createsome really cool outdoor curtains.

(49:33):
I've done those on structures before aswell that, can be open and shut so can
add a lot of cool color and, the clothand that type of thing can be really neat.
especially if you got all three of them, Ineed privacy, I need protection for bugs.
And, I want to stay.
Create a warmer space and protect itfrom the wind and screens are awesome.
They're

Trey (49:53):
great for shade too.

Mike (49:54):
Yes.
In the summer.
they'll create shade as wellas protect you from the wind.
So they're basically creating somewhatof a barrier those reasons definitely
to have screens, but you may alsowant to consider some other things.
like staying warm, a lot of peopleput in heaters in the ceiling.
Yeah.
one thing you have to think about iswhere that heater is and what type

(50:15):
of heater it is and how far it'll putthe heat out in a particular space.
So there's some reallycool ones that are out.
Not cool as in cold,but cool as in awesome.
The Eclipse Bromic Heater is areally awesome looking heater.
there's several other heaters toconsider, but you have two choices, as you

(50:36):
mentioned, you have got gas and electric.
Electric has quite an electricdraw on each of those.

Trey (50:42):
Yeah, we talked about it before where you said you had to
switch out the actual electricmeter for the house or upgrade.
Yeah.
Sometimes

Mike (50:48):
they're 25 amps a piece.
I've got four heaters,that's a hundred amps.
And, all of a sudden, I'm takingup a lot of space a house.
Like we were working on thatbig project just here recently.
And there was discussion, we weregoing to have to redo, not just the
simple electric, that was a massivehome electric situation, because
we were using electric heaters.

(51:09):
And so they decided.
Not that important.
And so it saved tens ofthousands of dollars.
But gas heaters are also somethingyou may want to use that could, help.
And if you're using gas heaters andyou want to maybe look at gas lights.
Out on the structure as well,which can look really cool from a
visual standpoint in the evening.

(51:30):
the other thing is when you haveyour structure, what's your foreign
going to be in that particular space.
And most of the time people are goingto look at Trying to extend the home
surface to make it look good, or we'regoing to extend the pool surface.

(51:51):
So it looks good as well.

Trey (51:52):
You're going to extend the deck material you have
around the pool into there.

Mike (51:56):
Correct.

Trey (51:57):
Yeah.
That happens a lot sometimes theydon't match it up because they want a
cooler surface and maybe the surfacethat they have inside the home isn't.
Naturally cool with the sun,heating it up and stuff like that.
So they use something different.

Mike (52:07):
The other thing that you got to be real careful about extending
the material from inside out is it,frost proof, survive and not be
damaged and also traction, especiallyif you're using water features and
pools that you want to be somethingthat's not going to be real slippery.
But also, yes, porcelain tiles lookgreat inside the house and they will fry

(52:31):
your feet outside in the full sun in thesunbelt area, at least down here in Texas.
They will.
you're going to have to createsome type of foundation to
support this structure and.
The safest way to do that is to makesure that it is properly engineered.

(52:51):
different structures are goingto require different situations.
I would highly recommend having anengineered foundation versus just
coming in and putting a coupleof footings under each post and
saying that's going to be good.
Especially with a solid roof,
because a solid roof cantwist over a period of time.

(53:11):
And if it's twisting because thosefootings are moving separately,
then that's not a good situation.
If it's an Arbor, when there'ssome twisting well, it's just some
wood beams attached to each other.
Probably not too bad, but when you'redealing with ceiling materials and
roofing materials and all those things.
when I do cabana or a ramada, I'malways doing an engineered perimeter

(53:35):
beam similar to a house foundation.
if it works for the house, thenit works for that structure and
I don't have any problems with.
A deterioration over aperiod of time or movement.
In fact, some structures, we'regoing to have peers under it,
just like you would a home.
We're going to have voidcartons what may be required
because of bad soil situations.

(53:56):
So an engineered foundation isa good thing for your structure.
And then you come in and coverthat with your concrete or masonry
to match up with everything else.
So that's where I putthe deck material on top.
So we've got the floor.
mentioned also, in some parts ofthe country they don't use wood.
Arbor.

Trey (54:17):
Oh, okay.
cause I've been to a couple poolshows and I've seen the Arbors that
are really artistic and they havethis pattern on a pergola or arbor.
And it's cool 'cause like the design thatthey have and there's multiple designs.
A lot of 'em, and they're really awesome.
But.
when the sun moves, it changes theshadow of the roof and it's really cool.
And then it's also theabstract art style they do

Mike (54:38):
with the metal.
they're typically metal screensthat go on top of the arbor.
You got to realize to come in and do awood arbor in Phoenix is just a disaster.
Cause the wood is going to getcooked and warped and it's just
not going to hold up really well.
So if you look at like Phoenix,most of their structures are metal.

(55:00):
And they'll have those metalscreens up on top to provide shade.
they also do some really coolstuff there with a cantilevering.
The roof.
So there's only two posts to support thewhole structure and it cantilevers out,
over the pool and that type of situation.
you have to have a really goodmetal fabricator to do those type

(55:20):
of things and the footings that youneed for the two posts are usually
as deep as the structure is tall.
Okay.
So it's a big situation work out.

Trey (55:31):
Yeah.
But it's really cool.
I've seen the designs where they havethe, tree they have leaves and they
have branches and stuff like that.
And it's interesting.

Mike (55:39):
one thing you mentioned and I forgot to come back to it
earlier with a roof is gutters.

Trey (55:45):
Yeah.
Drainage is huge whenit comes to rooftops.
We've talked about that a bit.

Mike (55:50):
the most annoying thing in the world is to walk outside of your
house and you're walking into yourcoverage structure to go cook and
it's raining and all the water isrunning off the roof and it pours onto
you when you go out into that space.
So by just simply having getters onit, there's a lot of advantages to it.
One is.
You're not going to get as wet.

(56:11):
The other thing is now you can capturethat water and direct it to where it
needs to go through a drain systemunderground, tying into the down spout
as it comes off the gutter of the house.
there's a lot of things that Just onething you want to be aware of also
is what's being done on the house.
Are they large copper guttersor are they steel gutters?

(56:34):
What size gutters are they?
So you match up your structuresimilar in type and scale.

Trey (56:40):
Yeah.
It'd be a little jarring to havedifferent colored gutters on your
structure compared to your house.
And also there's so many jobsthat we've been on when we're
like, it's a first appointment andwe're measuring or whatever it is.
And you'll see these gutters that areran out like two feet past end point.
And it's like, if you were to justtook it like five more feet that way,
you could have caught it downhill andit would have been out of the walkway.

(57:02):
You wouldn't have all this erosion goingon in The area that they're trying to
live in because you know You're notgoing to go all the way to the back of
the yard You're usually going to playwherever it's closest to the porch.
So yeah, just make sure they runthe gutters where they should

Mike (57:15):
Well, just make sure you're all on the same page Yeah, is my gutters
going all the way to the back of myproperty to the front of my property
past the front gate Where is it going?
It all varies 10 feet.
Yeah.
Yes, it all varies And there'scosts associated with it.
Sometimes there's thousands ofdollars in drainage work and the
other guys not doing anything.

Trey (57:35):
Yeah, exactly.
So we haven't talked about walls.
But there are some structures,obviously the pergola.
I don't think therewould be a wall on that.
But there, there could be.
Done it.
Okay, so yeah, let'sget into the walls then.

Mike (57:47):
You want a wall because you gotta hang the TV somewhere, right?

Trey (57:50):
Yeah, and maybe you want privacy from one angle as well.

Mike (57:54):
So I've done that on structures three of them.
Solid roofs, hexagonal axes, and arbors.
Okay.
a lot of times it's the privacyissue that we're looking for.
Or the other thing that I've done withseveral of them is there's a fireplace.
Yeah.
Incorporated and so we want to come inand just make that a full masonry wall.

(58:15):
sometimes the poolequipment ends back there.
And great place to hide it.
Great place to hide it.
It's close instead of somewhere else,real far away, it shortens up our
plumbing runs, and that may pay forthe masonry that we have to put up.
It's nice to, Have protection,especially if it's a predominant wind
issue coming in that you may haveas well as privacy with neighbors.

(58:38):
sometimes I've done full wallsall the way to the ceiling.
I've done several designs where we'vestopped just short of the ceiling.
And so there's a post.
Steel post or a wood post connectingthe wall to the ceiling, which
is a cool architectural look.
We did that with a swinging bed structurethat we photographed earlier this year.

(58:59):
the masonry can be all differenttypes of things to bring in some cool
elements from a visual standpoint.
Also, you can bring in some reallyneat lighting on walls as well.
And then of course.
You've got a place forTV or TVs or a nice bar.
Lots of good advantageswith having a wall.
Now some cities will get intodifferent codes again if you have

(59:22):
more than 50 percent enclosure.
there's all kinds of different thingsthat you might get into considering
with the walls and you want to justbasically check to see what the
codes are for those situations.
the fall is a great time to be outside,if you have some shelter, you can
extend that long into the fall andeven into the winter and back into the

(59:44):
spring and enjoy it all summer as well.
So with.
Proper shade, proper windprotection, proper lighting.
I think, you're going to enjoy youroutdoor living space a whole lot.

Trey (59:56):
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
It was fun talking about thedifferent type of structures,
putting them up against each other.
There's a lot of stuff that wetalked about that actually correlates
with all of them because they'restructures at the end of the day.
And it's really cool to pickyour brain on some of this stuff.
I hope you all enjoyed it.
you think

Mike (01:00:10):
they should vote on a winner?
Yeah.

Trey (01:00:11):
Yeah, vote on what's your favorite after hearing all the details.
So that'd be actuallyreally interesting to see.

Mike (01:00:18):
Solid roof, louvered roof, marble roof.
Yeah.
Winner.
Chicken dinner.
One thing also that you maywant to check out we have an
Instagram page for Farley Designs.
And you may want to see some of theprojects that we've highlighted in that.
Also, we have a full YouTube channelfor both Farley designs, as well as

(01:00:40):
the poolside perspective podcast.
So those are both places you can checkout and get additional information.
Hopefully help for you andyour project to come up with
what's going to be best for you.
thanks again, and we'll lookforward to talking to you soon.

Outro (01:00:56):
This show is all about helping you become a better
buyer, a better pool owner.
And hopefully you're going to find someinsights into how to enjoy your pool, even
more so how to help your friends, yourfamily, anybody looking to buy a pool in
the future or that want to remodel theirbackyard, add an outdoor fireplace, fire
pit, add an outdoor kitchen area, addsome shade cells or whatever else it is.

(01:01:19):
We want to be that resource for you.
And that's the end goal here.
And we promise.
That there's going tobe a ton of information.
We'll try to go through it, youknow, as relatively quickly, but
also slow so people can understand.
But the intent of the show, thereason Mike and I are doing this
is because we just got a lot inour heads and we want to share it.
So we hope to see youhere every single week.
Thanks for listening.