October 14, 2025 • 50 mins
Explore the world of fences, walls, and screens to elevate your outdoor living space with Mike and Trey Farley of Farley Pool Designs. With over 40 years of experience, they delve into the aesthetic and functional aspects of these crucial elements, offering tips on creating privacy, defining spaces, and enhancing views. Discover innovative materials, design trends, and practical advice to turn your backyard into a personal oasis. From horizontal cedar planks to laser-cut metal screens and gabion walls, learn how to combine functionality and style to create an unforgettable luxury outdoor environment.
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00:00 Welcome to Luxury Outdoor Living Podcast 02:07 The Importance of Fences, Walls, and Screens 10:17 Materials and Design Choices for Walls 11:08 Innovative and Trendy Wall Designs 13:10 Privacy and Aesthetic Considerations 24:16 Innovative Fireplace Designs 24:40 Trendy Laser Cut Metal Screens 25:12 Layering and Contrasting Materials 26:07 Outdoor Living Essentials 26:27 BBQ Bits Segment: Exploring Fire Magic Pizza Island 30:23 Decorative Elements for Outdoor Spaces 34:25 Creative Uses of Mirrors and Glass 36:42 Functional and Artistic Walls 37:37 Versatile Retaining Walls 41:19 Fences: Aesthetic and Functional Considerations 44:42 Regional Fence Styles and Materials 48:20 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Welcome to Luxury Outdoor LivingPodcast with Mike and Trey
Farley of Farley Pool Designs.
For over 40 years, we've helpedhomeowners turn their backyards
into personal retreats, spaces ofjoy, relaxation and unforgettable
memories, and whether it's a cozy as.
Scape or a resort style oasis.
We design it all.
(00:24):
We know how overwhelming a projectcan feel, and nothing feels worse than
a homeowner having a bad experience.
And that's why after decades of designingand teaching in this industry, we're
here to share our knowledge, helping you.
The process with confidence.
Every week we break down designtrends and insider tips that
turn your vision into reality.
(00:45):
And since this is about creating somethingamazing together, drop a comment.
If you have any questions, ideas, orjust want to be part of the conversation,
if you find this helpful, a like helpsget this out to more people like you.
And if you want to keep upwith what's next, go ahead
and hit that subscribe button.
We'd love to have you along for the ride.
Let's build your paradise together.
Mike (01:12):
Hello, it's Mike Farley Pool Designs, and we're hosting Luxury Outdoor
Living Podcast, and today is a great day.
We, got some cool stuff that's coming up.
So let me plug that real quick.
The International Pool Show we ask alot of guests if they're gonna be there,
and a lot of them are going to be there.
And so we'll get to see 'em all again.
So that's gonna be in a couple weeks.
(01:34):
The other thing that's really coolabout the International Pool Show is
on Wednesday at 11 o'clock, there'sthese two really cool speakers that
are gonna be going on down the hall.
we actually are speakingon fun in the outdoors.
Yep.
So me and Trey are going to beco-teaching that class together.
And so if you happen to bea listener that's in the.
(01:56):
Outdoor living industryor the pool industry.
Come check us out and say hi, and giveus the questions that you haven't sent
in that you want us to talk about.
Mm-hmm.
what are we gonna talk about today?
Trey (02:07):
Have you heard the phrase Good fences make good neighbors?
Yeah, I've heard that.
What about great ones?
So, Today we're gonna be not justtalking about boring fences, we're
gonna be talking about the walls thatmake your backyard, the screens that
breathe and the designs that moves.
And that turns yourproperty into an experience.
So that's pretty much what we'regonna be talking about today.
Mike (02:29):
Sounds like a great experience.
Yes, sir. Okay.
So we've got several different thingsin They're all a little different, but
they're all the same we've got walls,we've got fences, we've got screens.
So how would you describethe differences between them?
Trey (02:43):
For me when I first think about a wall, I think about
something that's very sturdy.
Load bearing holds somethingback or you know, you can use it
in a fence and fence, I think.
And fences and walls arepretty close together.
I think screens is the one that'sa little bit more different.
And that's not really a structural thing.
That's something that usually tiesinto something that's structural
or you could put it anywhere.
It's more flexible.
But obviously a fence I would assume islike something that creates a perimeter.
(03:06):
You think of your barrier.
Yeah, a barrier.
You think of you know your lot, youhave a a fence line and stuff like that?
Mike (03:13):
Yeah.
All the way around.
Or it could be around a pool.
Trey (03:15):
Yeah.
A kid fence, a safety fence.
Yeah.
Keep the kids out.
So yeah, or maybe livestockor something like that where
you have a pen or something.
Mike (03:22):
Keep the cows out of the patio,
Trey (03:24):
keep the coyotes out, or attempt to, you know,
Mike (03:27):
long ago when we lived in McKinney, we hit, the cows broke
down the fence and they were onthe back patio and in the garage.
Trey (03:34):
My mom loves cows, so I bet she loved that day,
Mike (03:36):
When they were jumping over the car.
Oh.
Not over the moon.
They weren't jumping over the moon,but they were jumping over the car.
It was crazy.
Trey (03:45):
Uh, I bet that beats the moment though, when we had that
ostrich and we thought it was ourpet, and it had those big old claws.
I couldn't even imagine beingparents and seeing your kids
like, want to pet that thing.
The fricking dinosaur.
Mike (03:55):
Yeah.
That was pretty bizarre.
Or emu?
It was an emu, yeah.
the one on the TV commercial and Yes.
If you the vet told usthat the number one.
Incident with animals back inthose days was Emo's, oh, really?
Kicking vets and breaking their ribs.
Geez.
So we found that out afterwards.
It was a big craze for a whileto raise ostrich and emu eggs.
(04:17):
Yeah.
'cause the eggs were so big.
Yeah.
And then the market crashed and all thesepeople that had 'em just dumped them.
Geez.
And so they were running around allover the place and yes, your sister
decided that was her newest and best pet.
Yeah.
big pet jewels.
Trey (04:32):
Who needs Clifford when you have a fricking dinosaur?
Mike (04:34):
Yeah.
Jewels the emu.
So anyway, back to our topic.
Trey (04:39):
Yeah.
Mike (04:39):
Okay.
why do we do these things?
Why do we do walls?
Why do we do fences?
Why do we do screens?
They all have differentreasons for us having them.
Trey (04:49):
in a way, it's establishing your territory.
It's like everythingwithin these walls is mine.
This is my house type deal.
You know what I mean?
There's that, there's privacy.
There's a lot of different reasons.
Mike (05:00):
Yeah.
I think that privacy is probably nearthe top on why people put these in.
But the other thing is you have views andwhen you're in your house, you have good
views and you have bad views and yeah.
Screens to me aresometimes what you put up.
Because you want to get rid of a bad view,whether it's, the trash cans in the side
(05:22):
yard or maybe it's, a utility type area.
Yeah.
The
Trey (05:25):
HVAC or something like that.
Yeah.
Mike (05:27):
The pool equipment.
Trey (05:28):
Yeah, the garbage cans.
You maybe put your bikesin a, behind a screen wall.
Mike (05:32):
Yeah.
Then you've got these fences which definespace but walls, I think sometimes they're
put up to Create different spaces, butalso to retain different things like,
hillsides and things along those lines.
But anyway to maybe separate apublic space from a private space.
(05:52):
That could be a screen too.
So
Trey (05:55):
I mean,
If you think about it, what happens whenyou remove, if you have a backyard, just
think of any backyard you've worked onor whatever it might be, and you remove
all the fences and you remove all thewalls, and you remove all the screens.
And you do this fortheir neighbors as well?
what happens?
Mike (06:09):
You have a commune,
Trey (06:10):
you have a wide open area.
Yeah, exactly.
There's no, sense of directionor the understanding, the
lines get blurred pretty much.
Mike (06:18):
Yeah.
In some places, in somecommunities, they try to do that.
And so good luck having dogs.
Yes.
But in some of the communities today, likethey don't have any solid walls or fences.
It's all iron.
And so they want the lines toblur in between all the two.
But yes, you have privacy issues.
(06:38):
And so it's interesting.
When you get into codes and regulations,a lot of times they won't allow
you, like I'm working on a projectright now and I can't have a wall.
On the property line becauseit'll block visibility.
'cause it's an alley lot.
And people driving throughthere, it's a corner.
And so you can't create a thing thatwhere people can't see around the corner.
(07:00):
So people run into each other.
Yeah.
Or kids or, that type of thing.
But if you pull something off theproperty line where it's not on
the property line, you can actuallythen build a screen or a wall.
Okay.
But you can't, that seemscounterintuitive, but you can't
have it right on the property line.
Trey (07:15):
Yeah.
Mike (07:15):
So it's pulled back.
Trey (07:16):
See, with that, it makes sense because it's like a
safety reason for like traffic.
But when you have another, 'causethere's a lot of neighborhoods out there
these days where the HOA wants you tohave a rod iron fence and that's it.
And it's like, come on,can't I have something else?
Can I add a little bit more screening?
That's why people use plans forscreening so they can actually
create a sense of privacy.
Yeah.
Mike (07:34):
I remember the one in Copper Canyon that we did, where we did the built in
bench and it had the big wall in the back.
And it was because they lookedout of their family room Right
into the neighbor's family room.
Yeah.
And so they came in withthe back of the pool.
And we built a screen walland it was eight feet tall and
we were allowed to do that.
And it was only, five feetoff the property line.
(07:56):
Yeah.
But we couldn't buildanything on the property line.
So you, your codes and regulationsare going to play, have a big play
in where you can put things and whereyou can't put things and sometimes the
amount of visibility that you block.
But then the other thing is,as you look at views and things
like that, is sometimes youwanna look at something that.
(08:18):
Doesn't impede a lot of the view,and that's where iron fence is.
And sometimes people will evenuse glass and acrylic fencing.
I saw something the other day, DannyWang posted it on his, instagram
and it was a retractable fence.
Okay.
Where this glass panelswent down into the ground.
(08:39):
Oh.
And then they would come back up.
That's cool.
So even when they were up, they weren'tblocking the view, but then they retracted
down so they weren't there at all.
Trey (08:49):
that's interesting you, I'm thinking about the other side of the
coin because we do have customers where.
They're on a lot.
And a lot of the time it's whenthey're on a waterfront and they
don't want to have fences at all.
And they're annoyed because they haveto have a fence because of code with
pools, you can't have people justrandomly running into the backyard and,
if they can't swim, they might drown.
Understandable.
But still, there's a lot ofcustomers that don't want those
(09:11):
fences because it's an eyesore.
Mike (09:13):
And sometimes the.
City will allow them touse water as a barrier.
Like low moat?
Well, No, in the fact that thelake or the pond or whatever.
Yeah.
You can take your fence down into thewater and therefore the water then creates
the barrier, which is, I guess they figureif they can swim through the lake, they're
(09:34):
not gonna go in your yard and drown.
Trey (09:36):
Yeah I'd assume so.
And it is just the.
The two sides.
You don't have to put the backline fence in the actual water.
Yeah.
Right.
Where the water's at.
So, yeah.
Mike (09:44):
Yeah.
there are some things like that.
I know a lot of lakes today have aretaining wall, fixed wall on the edge.
Mm-hmm.
So we can take something to that.
So we've got differentfunctions that we're doing.
We're in closing spacesand we've created privacy.
We've separated differentzones, private and public.
(10:08):
We've blocked ugly views.
We've provided security, isthere anything else that we might
want one of these things for?
Trey (10:15):
I can't think off the top of my head.
Mike (10:17):
Okay.
So what might we make these things out of?
Trey (10:20):
We can start with walls.
Mike (10:22):
Sure.
We can go down the list.
Trey (10:24):
Yeah.
You got walls that are madeoutta concrete, obviously.
Mike (10:27):
Yeah, that's done in a lot of parts of the country.
It's not done a lot here.
No.
'cause we have rock, but yeah.
So our predominant one is rock.
Where you don't have rock, Iknow in California we used to
do a lot of concrete walls.
Yeah.
So we've got.
Block, which is usuallyveneered with stone here.
Or you could just build the wall outtastone itself without any block concrete.
(10:51):
They do both those.
They can build it outta concrete block.
Trey (10:54):
Yeah, CMU cast in place.
Concrete walls, you got concreteand gunite walls that we use a lot.
We're obviously capping this.
Typically stone retainingwalls, boulder walls.
Gian walls.
Mike (11:07):
So that was really cool.
We just had the judging of themillion dollar pool challenge.
Mm-hmm.
And if you show up at the pool show, theclass gets the vote on who the winner is.
But there were severaldesigns that used gian walls.
They're kind of a coolconcept that's pronounced.
Gian Gab.
Well, I say Gian I probably.
Trey (11:23):
You're probably right 'cause it's spelled that way.
I don't know why I always say Gibon, but,
Mike (11:26):
yep.
They do those wire cages and thenthey fill it up with all these
stones in there and it it's acontemporary look, but organic.
And so that's where a lot ofdesign styles are going to.
I think that we'll probably see a lotmore of those in the next five years.
Trey (11:41):
Yeah, I've seen a lot of like wells built that way.
Some fire pits built that way onsocial media and stuff like that.
I think it's like that farmhouse vibe.
But it's not as modern as a lot ofthese farmhouses are these days.
But yeah.
Then you have timber retainingwalls and modular block walls.
Mike (11:57):
the timber ones.
So that's what we have at the house.
Is we have timber walls that were doneabout 20 years ago and actually 30
years ago, and they're on their way out.
you know, they decayover a period of time?
Yeah.
So that's one thing you have to becareful with is depending on the type
of wall you're doing, is how stable it'sgonna be over a long period of time.
(12:18):
Your stone walls and your blockand your masonry, those things
are gonna last a lot longer.
And so in this part of the country,that's what you see predominantly.
One thing that, we used in Californiawas, we used actually a modular block
that stacked paved Stone is a particularbrand out there that, does that.
(12:41):
In fact, during the recession in 92, Igot offered a job to sell Pavestone Block.
Trey (12:48):
Oh, okay.
Mike (12:49):
And it was, do I do pools or do I sell pavestone block?
Retaining walls, and it came downand I was like, as a landscape
architecture degreed person, theidea of selling block for the rest
of my life sounded a little boring.
Although it was lucrative Idecided to go to the pool route.
Good choice.
I think so.
(13:09):
Yeah.
I do too.
Trey (13:10):
You have also not just like structural walls that we've been talking
about that are usually weight bearing.
There's, Stuff that's used for divisionand privacy and design statements
like you have stucco walls, plasterwalls, we see stucco all over.
In this area specifically
Mike (13:23):
well That's real popular actually.
That's become popular here.
But in other parts of the country,California, that, that's much
heavier done because again.
They don't have the stone.
Now here.
We either frame it and stuccoit or we block it in stucco.
We do both of those.
So depending on the type of load bearingthat and one thing I should probably bring
(13:47):
up, we've brought up in earlier episodes,we're not gonna make recommendations
on heights and materials and thingslike that because engineers do that.
Yes.
So anytime you have a. A load bearing wallthat's over four feet, then it needs to be
engineered and they're gonna come up withhow it structurally needs to be built.
We're just talking about, howdo you do these things in the
(14:10):
functions of it and aesthetics.
Now, how would you pick, if you'redoing a wall in the backyard, how would
you pick which one you're gonna do?
Trey (14:18):
I think, for me personally I, would look at the house already and try to,
it depends on what you're trying to do.
'cause there's different styles.
Some people want to have abackyard oasis that doesn't even
connect to their house at all.
It's just something completelydifferent, which isn't my forte, but,
I would borrow from the house alreadyor the plans of what the remodel is
going to be and have that lined upso you can have something that's very
(14:40):
traditional uh, transitional, cohesive.
Yeah, cohesive.
Mike (14:42):
Yeah.
It all flows together.
Yeah.
So looking at inspiration, so one of thethings is materials that are used there.
But also colors, you know, if we've got.
I saw one place and it talked about, Iwent down Pinterest and looked at all
these different pictures of walls andso they were saying this white painted
fence, wood fence with the ideal wall.
(15:05):
Because it, it blended in with thishouse, but then somebody else was like,
black on all Black wall is the best one.
it was with the house thatwas all painted black too.
So two different architectural styles.
Yeah.
But their walls.
Tied into the colors that wereused on those houses respectively,
and they both looked great.
Yeah, black black is tricky.
Trey (15:26):
Look, I love black 'cause it creates a lot of contrast and it's very modern.
But
Mike (15:30):
you wear it well also.
Trey (15:32):
Yeah.
And also if you can't really see in thevideo, but I did a photo shoot with my
fiance for engagement photos yesterday,and I, it was outside, it was at sundown.
So I sprayed a bunch of bug spray.
The bugs spray left a bunch ofwhite marks all over my t-shirt.
I'm wearing it because I like theshirt and everything, and it still
smells good, but yeah it shows detailsof imperfections very, very well.
(15:52):
And I've worked on the backend and getting stuff finished
up on some projects before.
When people have black, they lovethe look, but there are certain
things that will show up like crazy.
And if you're one of those peoplethat will be, it just drives you
crazy to see some calcium or whateverit might be, pop out of that black.
I don't know.
Mike (16:10):
I don't think it's
Trey (16:11):
for
Mike (16:11):
everybody.
But the other thing about blackis you look at window screens.
What color are they?
Black.
They're black.
Yeah.
Black has a tendency to disappear.
It does In certain environments.
Oh
Trey (16:23):
yeah.
Mike (16:23):
Okay.
So what happens is if you use ablack fence, then the materials
that are in front of it arewhat shows up a little bit more.
Versus if you used a whitefence, then you're gonna really
notice the fence behind it.
So yeah,
Trey (16:36):
it's like it's a background that makes the foreground
pop a little bit better.
Mike (16:40):
Yeah.
So now what's really cool is.
Some yards today are almost like a room.
And so, oh yeah.
If you come in and use really lightcolors, it makes the space feel bigger.
You use really dark colors, itusually makes the space feel smaller.
So that's one thing that comes intoplay, especially in a small space.
If it's a big space, not somuch a big deal, but it's
(17:02):
just something to think about.
Now we did have Vista Folia on here.
Several episodes back and I was notproperly prepared and I didn't look
up which episode that they were on,but that's another thing that's really
cool that you can create a wall.
Yeah.
And where you have very small space,instead of coming in with planting in
(17:23):
front of it, you can come in with thisfoliage on the that and therefore create a
very green space and a very narrow space.
So that's a really cool thing.
And we've done that withboxwood, the synthetic boxwood.
Yep.
That's what I was thinking.
As well, that's becomea really popular thing.
In fact when you looked on, there was anarticle that was ranking the top 10 walls.
(17:47):
That was like number two.
So it's become very trendy inthe last, seven, eight years.
I
Trey (17:51):
love the look.
I really do.
I think the Vista foliage, I thinkit's, it takes the same concept but it
feels more or organic because there'smore variation in the designs itself.
The box wood is like a simple clean,yeah, clean look like a hedge.
But it works very well as well.
Yeah.
So it.
Mike (18:10):
It just, you're gonna have all these different materials.
Now, in some cases, when we're talkingabout, walls and fences and screens
the material, especially when it comesto screens, is gonna be not quite as
rigid, So you can get into things like,with a screen, it could be fabric.
(18:30):
Yes.
It might be as simple as, gee, I wanta screen between me and my neighbor.
Let's put curtains on the cabana.
So we can either close 'em or open them.
And that's something that I'mseeing more and more frequently
done to create privacy, still.
If we want air movement and things likethat, and there's times of the day that
it's not as big of an issue for privacy,we can leave the curtains open, but then
(18:53):
there's certain times we can close 'em.
Yeah.
So we're having dinner out there.
We can close those spaces, we'rejust out, sitting out by the pool.
We can have 'em open so there's moreair and sometimes it's just on one
or two sides that the curtains areclosed but we do 'em on all four sides.
'cause it looks.
Better from, it's like puttingcurtains in a room of the house.
(19:14):
You don't just put 'emon some of the windows.
You put 'em on all of them.
So it looks, the roomlooks right from, inside.
Trey (19:20):
I think also the louvered screens.
I like those a lot.
The only downside really is usuallythose are typically set in place and
you can open 'em or close 'em dependingon how much sunlight or whatever you
want to let in wind or et cetera.
But
Mike (19:34):
oh, I the Apollo screens or you just talking about No, you
Trey (19:37):
can have a screen wall that's louvered.
Yeah.
We've done it on a job like shutters.
Yeah.
Shutters pretty much made outta wood or.
Whatever you want to use, really, but now
Mike (19:45):
Apollo was the episode last week or two weeks ago.
So episode 1 0 2.
But that is something that theycan put that on a side panel
so it levers open and shut.
Oh, that's right.
Yeah.
It could match with the ceilingif you're doing that application,
which is a really cool situation.
I saw again on somebody's Instagram.
(20:06):
That they're coming in withglass panel doors on a structure.
And then they're puttinga louvered ceiling on it.
And so you can create anenvironment and seal that space.
So a lot of times people will do thatwith a screen, a retractable screen.
that's another form of screenis sometimes people use those to
(20:28):
create some privacy, but also createwind block or sunblock as well.
And so that's a flexible thing.
I saw one place.
It was really cool, and I've seen thisapplication in a couple different things.
It was a retractable like door kindof like a barn door that would slide
Trey (20:46):
Okay.
Mike (20:46):
So you could open and shut that situation.
And we've done those type of thingsalso with yards, with driveways.
Where we have a gate thatslides across the whole driveway
and then it retract back.
Type situation.
So like when you're down in HighlandPark, you know that's a very common
situation, is you have a retractablegate that you can then get shut and then
(21:10):
you know, you have the space inside thatyou know you have for the whole family.
Now, when we do those, we also haveto have A screen or a fence in between
the driveway and the pool area.
Which, it's one, it hides the cars sowhen you're sitting in your pool, you're
not looking right next to your car.
But that's where we've used thatboxwood again as a very effective.
(21:32):
Screening plus greenery aspect.
Trey (21:35):
Another screen that people might not think about is acoustic screens.
So if you live next to a highway orsomething like that, you can have
a dense panel designed for you todampen the sound of near traffic.
We've also done this with other kind ofwalls that have like water features and.
Using the water sound toeliminate the traffic noise.
But whether it be bugs or wind orsunlight you just need privacy
(21:56):
for a certain area in the yard.
There's a lot of different waysyou can use screens and they're
not always attached to structuralwalls and stuff like that.
Sometimes you use 'em asstandalone pieces, but
Mike (22:06):
In a standalone screen, one of the most effective ones a fireplace.
Oh, yeah.
' cause I can build a fireplace anda, it screens the neighbor's view.
A it blocks the sun.
Plus I get a fireplacehere that I can enjoy,
Trey (22:20):
retain the heat and the area, and
Mike (22:22):
retain the heat.
So I've even done fireplaces to divide.
Two different areas of the yard.
So I've got one area that was moreof a private zone off the master
bedroom, courtyard type thing.
And then the fireplace wasalso facing the, kitchen area.
So there were two different spaces, butthe fireplace actually acted as a divider.
(22:45):
It can act as basically a privacy screen.
Or it can create a room.
So now one thing I will say isa lot of people are like cool,
let's do a double sided fire box.
I love those.
So it's open on both sides.
Yeah.
Now here's the challenge withthose here, I can get the three one
Trey (23:04):
too.
Mike (23:05):
Three
Trey (23:05):
sided, one.
Mike (23:06):
The three where it's cantilevered and it's open, all it's hanging.
You got
Trey (23:09):
one little piece that's wall.
Yeah, it's cantilevered.
Yeah, it's, yeah.
It's really cool.
But
Mike (23:14):
That's a trick engineering wise.
Yeah.
To make all that happen.
'cause that's a lot of weight.
But it is a very cool visual effect.
I've designed a couple of those.
I've never built them.
Some sometime coming soon.
Trey (23:27):
We've had a job where the house had it.
Mike (23:30):
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Trey (23:31):
Paired up really well with your design.
Mike (23:33):
Yes, it did.
but.
The wind is a trickything with that situation.
'cause when you have adouble-sided fireplace, the
wind wants to blow through it.
And the fireplacedoesn't draw really well.
And if we're doing a standard wood firebox where we're gonna try to draw the
smoke up, that doesn't work really well.
(23:56):
So one of the things that I'vehad several clients do is.
They just did it as a gas operatedunit where we don't have the draw
issue, that we're trying to getthe smoke to go up the chimney.
Yeah.
And so that works as a better solutionthan trying to do a traditional wood
fireplace and be open on both sides.
(24:16):
Or I've had clients come in and.
Put a glass panel on one side sothe wind can blow through that side.
You're not gonna get any heat.
You get the visual but you don'tget the heat coming through that way
it would only draw up the one side.
So it's just something to think aboutif you're trying to pull off a double
(24:37):
sided or triple sided fireplace.
Yeah.
Trey (24:40):
Another cool one is the laser cut metal screens, like we've talked about
the roofs before on certain structures.
But you can do the sameconcept just on the wall.
And it's a cool look.
Mike (24:49):
I think this is a feature again, we were talking about
something that's gonna be trending.
It's artistic.
I think within five years you'regonna see this everywhere.
Okay.
I think it's something that's reallycatching on with a lot of designers
and we're sitting here in the studioand what do we have on the wall there?
We have three panels that areon the wall of the studio.
(25:11):
So it's something that.
Creates a very finished lookthat you can put layers into
your outdoor space by coming in.
And we can create, these three differentpanels that have three different
pots in front of it that have threedifferent other things in detail.
So it, it just gives a sense of layers.
(25:31):
and you can come in with.
Infinite number of designs.
Yeah.
Into that space.
Oh yeah.
That can create, the feel andthe characteristic of you, of
the space that you're wanting.
And they can be painted and they canbe corton steel and they can be black.
So you can get some contrasting materials.
It's something that really.
Is taking off, and I think it'sgoing to be even more prevalent
(25:55):
in the design of outdoor spaces.
Yes, you're gonna see it onceiling tops, you're gonna
see it as screens and fencing.
it's something that, goes intoa lot of different places.
BBQ Bits (26:08):
We are gonna 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 gonna share some information oneverything that you may want to consider
in your outdoor living space as far asfeatures, especially for the kitchen.
Hope you enjoy this.
So tell us about this Pizza Island.
(26:29):
Okay, so this is Fire Magic.
Uh, when you hear Fire Magic, see FireMagic, you're looking at the oldest
grill company in the United States.
We're looking at 80 plus years.
Wow.
They've been in the business.
They are an industry leaderin a lot of different things.
Uh, we love selling the product here.
Um, city of industry, again,great American made product.
(26:52):
They're, they're very innovative.
Um, I'm very forward on, onwhat they bring out as far as
qualities of what they sell.
So, going to the oven itself, thisis not only a pizza oven, but it
is an outdoor oven dimensional,meaning that the, uh, the, uh,
thermostat's built in, it's automated.
So whereas alpha, you have a highand low, this has a thermostat.
(27:15):
So if I wanted to bake cookies forthe kids and have ice cream out
there, I can bake cookies in here.
It's a full oven.
This Dales get up to the high spectrum,though it gets very, very hot.
There's a rack in there to play cookies.
I can take the rack outand do a full stone pizza.
It's ease of use, gas driven, um,for the person that does not have to
(27:35):
want to tender wood is what it is.
Gotcha.
This one is a built in.
This one is a built in.
They make a court model.
Okay.
Let's, this is the mostpopular for built in.
Um, it's got, it has their, uh,their key mark lock in tooth handle.
Uh, the rack can be taken ininterior lighting so you can
see what's actually going on.
One thing that they know reallywell as we've known as designers
(27:59):
and then, uh, salespeople, is thatwe can't really predict what mother
nature brings us as far as wind.
Well, this company has done that.
They've got an actual, their,uh, there canopy topp in there.
If I had a back wind blowing in behindthis oven, I can tilt this block
in here and keep this from pushing.
Heat back into the unit itself.
(28:19):
If I've got a particular front that'scoming in that can affect the way
this unit cooks, I can come allthe way down the front with this.
So sweet.
Something that, uh, thatfire magic has always done.
They provided wind breaks, but, butafterthoughts, hey, if I'm, if, regardless
of where I live, if I'm in the hillsand West coast, or if I'm in the hill
country here, or we've got a frontcoming in here this next week, and if
(28:41):
I'm baking pieces, this could really.
Uh, determine the outcome.
And this, this little add-onengineering piece is something
that Fire Magic, uh, adds.
But, uh, their engineering team has a lotof forethought on how they build products.
So backlit, bezels to let youknow where you're at, um, at
night, you can see at night here.
Um, and then this is their Echelon series.
(29:02):
It's got all polishedappointments on here.
Um, if you know, fire Magic, you know, so.
And then it has a storage unit down below.
It is, yes, that's a matchingstorage unit with, with the
pizza oven that you see there.
There they have, they havethe big, robust handles.
Um, we see a lot of these with,uh, this is the most common drawer
(29:25):
that we see mixed in with a lotof other companies that we sell.
Um, it has a water ledge herethat keeps, you know, drawers.
We want to tell customersdrawers are not sealed.
Hmm.
Um, the only sealed drawer is awarming drawer that has a seal on it
because it has an electric element.
But all of our drawers are not sealed.
They're never sealed, but hotinches, the water, it is seeks path.
(29:48):
At least it is.
It is.
So this is a deterrent for water.
This is a water, um, a moisture fin.
When the water hitsthis, it gets diverted.
You'll also see that front panelplenum, uh, is really thick.
And why is that?
Because when I've shut this drawer.
It will recess and soft close andit's less apt for moisture to get
inside of the containment drawer.
(30:10):
Very nice.
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 will get back into the episode now.
Mike (30:23):
one of the things that I think is your outdoor space.
gonna be different.
And one of the things we're tryingto point out is when you finish the
inside of the house and you move in,you've got walls that are painted.
But if you come five years later,that's not what the house looks like.
Or even a year later, or sixmonths later, when you finish
(30:46):
the house is, it's decorated.
Yeah.
I see that more and more outdoorspaces are going to be decorated.
And you're not just gonna have a fence.
Trey (30:56):
No.
Mike (30:56):
Or a wall.
You're going to accent it with things.
I think the metal screens are gonnabe one thing that's going to decorate
a lot of walls and fences, but canyou think of some other things?
Trey (31:09):
Are you talking about like a artistic way or just a
decorative way of screening?
Spider (31:14):
Yeah.
Trey (31:14):
I mean you have this brings in plants, but the bamboo is a big one.
Reed screens that kind of deal.
When you're talking about the fencespecifically, I was like thinking of like.
the lights that peoplehang from their fences.
That's like one of theeasiest ways to do it.
Yeah.
Lighting I think is to be
Mike (31:29):
decorative.
Gonna be Well, and you've got thethree panels that are gonna be there.
Yeah, exactly.
What are you gonna do?
You're gonna put lights onthose three panels so at night
you see the three panels.
'cause it's kind of afocal point type thing.
Yep.
But yeah, lighting I think is key.
And the string lights I think are Yes.
Becoming even more and more popular again.
Decorative lighting, I think is going tobecome huge in the next five years and
(31:54):
how people use that in the outdoor space.
And we've got so many morethings to use than we used to.
Anyway, you have
Trey (32:01):
backlit screens too, where you utilize LEDs with the lighting.
So it's bringing thosetwo concepts together.
Mike (32:06):
And sometimes speaking of backlighting is, it may
just be a piece of metal.
Decorative artwork that's there.
And I've seen several cases wherethey came in and back lit that.
So it wasn't noticeable during the day.
It was just a art piece on the wall,but then at night it really pops out.
From a visual standpoint, so you've got,the metal artwork that's on the walls.
(32:32):
But in addition to that there's allkinds of artwork that people are
putting into outdoor walls and spaces.
Mm-hmm.
And sometimes it's just how thewall or the fence or the screen is.
Painted.
Yeah.
I mean, So you could have a
Trey (32:45):
mural, you could have just the overall craftsmanship and they do some
kind of cool detail in the whole process.
Yeah.
So mosaic design too.
But
Mike (32:54):
there are a lot of different things that happen and some, of those things
people are using three dimensional tiles.
To create some differentpatterns and interesting concepts
from an artistic standpoint.
Trey (33:06):
I mean, You could have a water wall or maybe even a firewall.
Mike (33:09):
Yeah.
Trey (33:10):
Or
Mike (33:10):
both
Trey (33:10):
Combined together?
Both.
Yeah.
You've done that.
Do you have also the glass or acrylicscreens where you have the frosted or
the tinted little barriers for moremodern privacy, I guess you could say.
Mike (33:21):
Yeah.
That's something that's reallycool that is coming into play.
Is that.
Frosting that, you hit a button itfrosts it where it wasn't frosted before.
Oh, yeah.
That's the next
Trey (33:30):
level.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mike (33:31):
Yeah.
That's pretty cool.
I've never seen that outdoors,but I'm sure that's coming.
Uh,
Trey (33:37):
the one I've seen was, I think it was Danny Wang and he
posted it, it was like a bathroom.
But it had all glass windowsand it was right next to the
backyard and they pressed thebutton and then it was frosted.
Right.
I
Spider (33:48):
think, uh,
BMW did something like thatin a car, but that's cool.
It was like a electromagneticpulse between two sheets of glass
that would tint the windows.
Mike (33:57):
Cool.
That's that is something thatI for sure see is gonna come.
A bigger thing and thatcreates some privacy.
Anyway, thing
Trey (34:05):
there's also, with just speaking of glass, there's I don't know why people
do this, but it's my best, it costs alot of money, but people will like pre
crack the glass on certain screens sothey get that, the cracked glass look.
I don't know how sturdy itis, but it looks really cool.
Mike (34:20):
Yeah, I've seen that on interior staircases, I think.
Yeah.
It's pretty interesting.
So sometimes it's just as simple aswe're gonna hang a mirror on a space.
Yeah.
And a mirror is really funin the fact that the optical
illusions that it plays with you.
Mm-hmm.
And I've done this before in a designa long time ago where we framed up a
(34:45):
mirror to look like it was a doorway.
Okay.
Going into another roomand you saw it not head on.
You saw it at an angle.
Yeah.
And so it was, reflecting was somethingtotally different, but you thought
you were gonna be able to walkthrough that into a different room.
And that, this wall that washere was just a barrier to the,
another outdoor space when actuallythe wall was the property line.
(35:09):
Oh, that's cool.
We did that also with a gate.
Going basically to the alley.
We built this really cool structurewhere it looked like you could walk
through and it was gonna be more to it.
Yeah.
Thomas Church.
Who, if you know me very much,you know that I'm a huge fan of
Thomas Church's work, which isabout a hundred years old now.
(35:31):
When he first started he started inthe twenties, the 1920s, not the 2020s.
And one of the cool things that hedid was on the side of a garage.
He came in with hisintricate entryway and door.
Like you were gonna go into another room.
And you opened it up andit was just the wall.
(35:52):
But it looked like, again, this wasanother space you could go into now
that you literally could have madeit a door to go into the garage.
But he just made it look like itwas an illusion of transitioning
from one space to another.
So that's some fun things that you can doin smaller spaces to make 'em look like
they're actually bigger than they are.
Trey (36:12):
Yeah.
It's also a great way to borrow viewpointslike, like earlier you were saying
there's some great views in the yard.
You wanna be able to see, there's otherviews that you might not wanna see.
The ones that you do wanna see,you can provide another angle
or a viewpoint with a mirror.
So it's a way to open up.
For instance, if I think about the mirrorand pool design, I'm thinking about the
(36:32):
pool itself in a reflection pool, and thenthe ability to reflect everything that's
in the backyard, in that pool, you coulddo the same thing with a screen wall.
That's just a mirror.
Mike (36:42):
Yeah.
one thing too with walls a lot of peopleare doing is they're, you talked about
a water wall, but sometimes it's just.
A wall fountain.
It's more of a focal point that we're justgonna put some type of artistic fountain
that here, that hangs on the wall.
It's a self-contained unit.
Yeah.
That was done a lot in the past.
(37:02):
I haven't seen a lot of it recently,but the way design trends go,
they always come back around.
So that's something I'm sureyou're gonna see more and more of.
Over a period of time.
'cause people love water and sometimesthey want to just a little bit of water.
We're doing more and more water off masterbedrooms and bathrooms, and sometimes
(37:22):
there are water walls and things likethat, but that's a simpler case where
you can bring water into a space.
Yeah.
There are some what I call twofers.
It works like this, but italso brings this feature in.
The most simple twofer that I can talkabout is I'm gonna build a retaining wall.
So when I build that retainingwall, I want it to be 18 to 24
(37:46):
inches tall, so I can use it as.
A seat wall
Trey (37:50):
compared to the floor,
Mike (37:51):
Yes.
24 inches above the floor.
Could
Trey (37:53):
be a lot taller, just the floors.
Yeah.
Mike (37:55):
And sometimes I'm gonna build a series of walls instead of
building, one four foot wall, I'mgonna build two, two foot walls.
And that way I've got twoseat walls that I could use.
Are there any cases you can think ofwhere we've done something and it's used.
From a function standpoint as awall or a screen or a fence, but
then it also served another purpose.
Trey (38:16):
You, a lot of times we're using, 'cause a lot of times we're
doing hillsides and you're usingthe pool walls as a retaining wall.
That way you don't have to build upa retaining wall and then you use
that lower portion of the pool for adeck space or whatever it might be.
Mike (38:30):
But yeah.
Another one that we do a lotof times is we will incorporate
a wall with a sunken fire pit.
And we will have a bench back.
A seat.
So the height of that is typicallygonna be 36 inches in height.
Mm-hmm.
So again, if I have a, bigger wall,I could build a fire pit up against
(38:52):
it and do a, now if I do a benchback, I always like to slope those.
Yeah.
'Cause they're a lot more comfortableand you wanna set 'em up also so you
can have cushions and stuff like that.
But that's another thing.
And again.
That softens up about 36 inchesof the height of maybe a taller
wall, so it's part of a sunkenfire pit, or it could be a kitchen.
(39:14):
I've done a lot of kitchens thathave acted as a retaining wall.
Basically your kitchencounter's 36 inches tall.
You put a backsplash on it.
It's 42 from a minimum standpoint,but that's just a six inch backsplash.
You could have a 24 inch backsplash.
Mm-hmm.
So now you have a five foot.
Tall retaining wall, that's basically aback splash in a kitchen that's built in.
(39:35):
And so that looks a whole lot betterthan just having a straight wall.
Trey (39:38):
Yeah.
Mike (39:39):
Now when you do that type of thing, you always wanna make sure you
have waterproofing on the backsideof that wall so you don't have water
seeping through into your cabinets.
You want to have a good Frenchdrain back there as well.
So there's some thingsthat you want to do.
With all walls is to make sure youhave good drainage behind them.
Otherwise they're gonnacreate some problems.
(40:00):
Another one that we do quite commonlyand you've mentioned before, is
twofer, is it's a water wall, so it'sretaining wall plus it's a water wall.
So I've got both of those incorporatedtogether, and so that's a great feature.
sometimes people will come in andthey'll have a wall and will come
in and build shelves on that wall.
(40:21):
So it can create something really cool.
I've got one that we're working onright now, and that wall is gonna be
a, the back of it's gonna be a bar.
And so there's all theseshelves for all the liquor to
be placed on on that back wall.
So it's gonna be a bar areaas well as a retaining wall.
So those are several things that we do.
(40:43):
That, in the fireplace we talked ofearlier, that can also be retaining.
Wall plus also could be a fireplace.
It can conserve as both, so a lotof times people just build a wall
and it is just, it too massive.
So you want to tone it down andput something in front of it.
And sometimes it's just landscaping,so let's just put some plants in front
of it so that helps tone it down.
Trey (41:04):
Yeah, it's given the design a little bit more of versatility when you're
able to align it with multiple purposes.
And then also it's not just like thiswall you're walking next to that's only
places there for either some structuralreason or for some designated area reason.
It's actually adding a function to it.
But we haven't reallytalked about fences at all.
We've talked about screening,we've talked about walls.
(41:25):
We didn't really talk about fences much.
Do you wanna talk about 'em?
Sure.
Mike (41:29):
Well,
The fence is, usuallyjust on your perimeter.
It's defining a space.
Trey (41:34):
Mm-hmm.
Mike (41:34):
So a lot of times in this part of the country,
it's your property line fence.
That's gonna go up.
In a lot of cases, it'sjust a boring six foot.
Tall wood fence.
Yeah.
Just cedar.
Yeah.
So there's a lot of things that you can doto it to make it a little bit more visual.
One of the first things that you cando is just change the pattern of it.
(41:56):
Most of them they're builtwith vertical planks.
So if you come back with ahorizontal plank that lends to the
more clean layers of the designa little bit more modern aspect.
And so that's a really nicesituation is you just come in
with a horizontal board on it.
The other thing is I've seen some caseswhere people will actually alternate.
(42:18):
The pattern, they'll do ahorizontal and then a vertical
and a horizontal and a vertical.
So, You could do that type of situation.
Some people will come in and come inand mix materials where they might
have stone incorporated with wood.
You know, that's That's somethingthat's very commonly done.
Trey (42:35):
Yeah, some people use composite as well, or fences.
Mike (42:39):
Yeah.
So those are gonna hold upbetter over a period of time.
So the big challenge with fences sometimesis you're dealing with neighbors.
And so you have to figure out,are we good with the aspects
aesthetically on both sides?
And yeah, sometimes
Trey (42:56):
it's like, Hey, if I want this type of fence 'cause I like this aesthetic,
I guess I'm gonna have to flip the billand they can't say anything about it.
Mike (43:03):
Yeah.
That
Trey (43:04):
happens.
Mike (43:04):
That happens.
And then we have, people that,work out something where.
Something looks good from both sides.
'cause some fences don'tlook good on both sides
Trey (43:13):
typically don't.
Mike (43:14):
And you know that's something to think about and how you're gonna
incorporate that and share that.
So HOAs come into play with that as well.
Sometimes a. And what'sallowed and what's not.
And one thing from a safety standpoint,that's an issue is the climbing issue.
Yep.
And so most fences that are onthe property line from a safety
(43:35):
standpoint has to be non climbable.
So that.
Horizontal stringer that runs with a lotof wood fences that's on the outside in
your neighbor's yard or in the alley.
Something has to be done on thatto make it a non climb situation.
So sometimes it's a simple, boardthat's put in there that's cut on a 45.
(43:56):
So if you step on it,your foot slides off.
But that's typical.
I've had challenges.
Because the cities requirethat in the neighbor's yard.
And the neighbor won't comply.
Oh boy.
Because they're like, you're gonnamess up my decoration on this side.
Although if you're looking at.
Stringers.
It's not very decorative in the firstplace, but what they're worried about
(44:18):
is the stain or non-ST stain that's onthere and mine's weathered and you gotta
put a new board on there and it's notgonna look good or, those type of things.
But I had one project we submitted tothe neighbor for nine months and they
never responded or replied or anything.
So the city finallylet us just, not do it.
But anyway, that's a big issue with alot of cities is how that's handled.
(44:42):
One of the coolest fences I've ever seen.
it was done in Arizona and it was donewith a rebar, and they just put a footing
in and they put the rebar steel piecesin, but there were no cross pieces.
They were just verticals and theywere less than four inches apart.
So it meant the safety code but itwas a really clean, minimalistic
(45:07):
looking fence because it had no.
Horizontal bars attaching it.
So that was a really cool different one.
it did blend betweenthem and the neighbors.
and some people when theywant blending the iron fences
is a very popular situation.
Yeah.
But, different parts of thecountry have different, rules.
So when I lived in Jersey.
(45:29):
Nobody had a six foottall wood picket fence.
Everybody had fences Yeah.
On their property.
But no, that wasn'tsomething that anybody had.
In fact, a lot of fences were, a splitrail fence and that type of situation.
So you could easily see in theneighbor's yard and things like that.
But in Texas, almosteverybody's got a six foot.
(45:52):
Cedarwood fence, which is different.
Every part of the country's different.
So Kevin used to say in Arizona,most of the fences were.
Block.
Trey (46:01):
Oh really?
Mike (46:01):
Yeah.
They don't do a lot of wood becauseit warps so bad in the sun there.
Yeah.
And I guess it's notreadily available either.
So they do a lot of, a block thathas stucco on it or just colored
block and things like that.
That makes sense.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we just think about thefencing that we do here.
Mm-hmm.
I mean, There's a lot ofdifferent things that are done in
(46:22):
different parts of the country.
And it has a lot to do with thematerials that are available,
to make your fence out of Yeah.
Trey (46:29):
Yeah.
That pretty much covers the fences.
I have a whole list of differenttype of fences, but most of these
are different variations of thewalls we've mentioned as well.
I guess there's a couple differentones like chain link Fence, which
obviously you're gonna have, like oh,what do they call the Sport courts.
Remember we did the episode?
Yeah.
You're gonna have a chain link fencewith some of those sport courts as well.
Mike (46:48):
So in chain link, in a lot of cases is allowed by cities.
For a barrier.
And some cities don't allow it'cause they consider it climbable.
Some of 'em make them put a slottedmaterial in the chain link grid to
make it a non climbable situation.
But that's, again, varies fromcity to city, but yes, that's
(47:10):
used a lot on sports courts.
Mm-hmm.
Control balls and stuff like
Trey (47:14):
that.
Yeah.
I don't, in Texas I've seen it a coupledifferent locations, but I, they don't
typically have channeling fences for the.
It's the perimeter of their
Mike (47:22):
lot.
If you go into some older homesyou'll most definitely see chain
link fences before rod iron was done.
Mm-hmm.
On property lines.
A lot of older homes have chain link andsome people have barb wire Or stock fence.
'Cause all they're worriedabout is keeping their cows in.
And horses, they're not so much worriedabout, something that looks good.
(47:43):
Barbed wire's great becauseit's a minimalistic look.
Trey (47:46):
Yeah.
Mike (47:47):
Just a couple of wires going across there.
Trey (47:49):
Stone Columns is a big one in Texas that can be paired
up with iron or the wood.
Yeah.
Mike (47:54):
Yeah.
That
Trey (47:55):
is a popular,
Mike (47:56):
Thing that's done here in some parts of the country.
It's a brick.
That's used instead of a stone.
We
Trey (48:01):
haven't even mentioned brick yet.
Yeah.
So, bunch Brick in Texas,
Mike (48:05):
brick walls, brick columns is something that's done quite a bit.
Trey (48:09):
Brick coping.
Mike (48:10):
Yeah.
Back in the day.
Trey (48:12):
Yeah.
Mike (48:12):
Reach in or says it's coming back.
Trey (48:14):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I don't know about that one.
Maybe in Oklahoma.
Mike (48:18):
Yeah.
Maybe
Fences and barriers.
Screens are critical inalmost every single project.
And sometimes this is not a detail thatmuch time and thought is put into, but can
create a certain aspect as projects and.
Property gets smaller andsmaller, it's all about details.
(48:39):
Yep.
And the details that you put into yourwalls and your screens and your fences are
gonna have a greater impact on projects.
So it's something that'sreally important to consider.
As you develop your skills in thedesign aspect, as you as a homeowner
look at what you may want to do ina space to create the exact feeling
(49:01):
of the space that you want to have,and that's the whole thing, is you
want to create what's ideal for you.
And so hopefully these are somethings you can think about and how
to create the ideal setting for you.
So if you've got questionsabout this, give us a call.
Or probably social media is a little bitbetter way to reach us a little easier.
(49:22):
Or if you're at the pool show, youcan run us down and ask us questions.
You can show up to our classand give good reviews if you
show up to the class, please.
Anyway we'll look forward to seeing you.
Thanks for listening.
We'll talk to y'all later.
Trey (49:35):
Y'all have a good day.
This show is all about helping you becomea better buyer, a better pool owner,
and hopefully you're gonna 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
(49:55):
pit, add an outdoor kitchen area, addsome shade cells, or whatever else it is.
We wanna be that resource for you, andthat's the end goal here, and we promise.
That there's gonna bea 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 wanna share it.
(50:18):
So we hope to see youhere every single week.
Thanks for listening.
Welcome to Luxury Outdoor LivingPodcast with Mike and Trey
Farley of Farley Pool Designs.
For over 40 years, we've helpedhomeowners turn their backyards
into personal retreats, spaces ofjoy, relaxation and unforgettable
memories, and whether it's a cozy as.
Scape or a resort style oasis.
We design it all.
(00:24):
We know how overwhelming a projectcan feel, and nothing feels worse than
a homeowner having a bad experience.
And that's why after decades of designingand teaching in this industry, we're
here to share our knowledge, helping you.
The process with confidence.
Every week we break down designtrends and insider tips that
turn your vision into reality.
(00:45):
And since this is about creating somethingamazing together, drop a comment.
If you have any questions, ideas, orjust want to be part of the conversation,
if you find this helpful, a like helpsget this out to more people like you.
And if you want to keep upwith what's next, go ahead
and hit that subscribe button.
We'd love to have you along for the ride.
Let's build your paradise together.
Mike (01:12):
Hello, it's Mike Farley Pool Designs, and we're hosting Luxury Outdoor
Living Podcast, and today is a great day.
We, got some cool stuff that's coming up.
So let me plug that real quick.
The International Pool Show we ask alot of guests if they're gonna be there,
and a lot of them are going to be there.
And so we'll get to see 'em all again.
So that's gonna be in a couple weeks.
(01:34):
The other thing that's really coolabout the International Pool Show is
on Wednesday at 11 o'clock, there'sthese two really cool speakers that
are gonna be going on down the hall.
we actually are speakingon fun in the outdoors.
Yep.
So me and Trey are going to beco-teaching that class together.
And so if you happen to bea listener that's in the.
(01:56):
Outdoor living industryor the pool industry.
Come check us out and say hi, and giveus the questions that you haven't sent
in that you want us to talk about.
Mm-hmm.
what are we gonna talk about today?
Trey (02:07):
Have you heard the phrase Good fences make good neighbors?
Yeah, I've heard that.
What about great ones?
So, Today we're gonna be not justtalking about boring fences, we're
gonna be talking about the walls thatmake your backyard, the screens that
breathe and the designs that moves.
And that turns yourproperty into an experience.
So that's pretty much what we'regonna be talking about today.
Mike (02:29):
Sounds like a great experience.
Yes, sir. Okay.
So we've got several different thingsin They're all a little different, but
they're all the same we've got walls,we've got fences, we've got screens.
So how would you describethe differences between them?
Trey (02:43):
For me when I first think about a wall, I think about
something that's very sturdy.
Load bearing holds somethingback or you know, you can use it
in a fence and fence, I think.
And fences and walls arepretty close together.
I think screens is the one that'sa little bit more different.
And that's not really a structural thing.
That's something that usually tiesinto something that's structural
or you could put it anywhere.
It's more flexible.
But obviously a fence I would assume islike something that creates a perimeter.
(03:06):
You think of your barrier.
Yeah, a barrier.
You think of you know your lot, youhave a a fence line and stuff like that?
Mike (03:13):
Yeah.
All the way around.
Or it could be around a pool.
Trey (03:15):
Yeah.
A kid fence, a safety fence.
Yeah.
Keep the kids out.
So yeah, or maybe livestockor something like that where
you have a pen or something.
Mike (03:22):
Keep the cows out of the patio,
Trey (03:24):
keep the coyotes out, or attempt to, you know,
Mike (03:27):
long ago when we lived in McKinney, we hit, the cows broke
down the fence and they were onthe back patio and in the garage.
Trey (03:34):
My mom loves cows, so I bet she loved that day,
Mike (03:36):
When they were jumping over the car.
Oh.
Not over the moon.
They weren't jumping over the moon,but they were jumping over the car.
It was crazy.
Trey (03:45):
Uh, I bet that beats the moment though, when we had that
ostrich and we thought it was ourpet, and it had those big old claws.
I couldn't even imagine beingparents and seeing your kids
like, want to pet that thing.
The fricking dinosaur.
Mike (03:55):
Yeah.
That was pretty bizarre.
Or emu?
It was an emu, yeah.
the one on the TV commercial and Yes.
If you the vet told usthat the number one.
Incident with animals back inthose days was Emo's, oh, really?
Kicking vets and breaking their ribs.
Geez.
So we found that out afterwards.
It was a big craze for a whileto raise ostrich and emu eggs.
(04:17):
Yeah.
'cause the eggs were so big.
Yeah.
And then the market crashed and all thesepeople that had 'em just dumped them.
Geez.
And so they were running around allover the place and yes, your sister
decided that was her newest and best pet.
Yeah.
big pet jewels.
Trey (04:32):
Who needs Clifford when you have a fricking dinosaur?
Mike (04:34):
Yeah.
Jewels the emu.
So anyway, back to our topic.
Trey (04:39):
Yeah.
Mike (04:39):
Okay.
why do we do these things?
Why do we do walls?
Why do we do fences?
Why do we do screens?
They all have differentreasons for us having them.
Trey (04:49):
in a way, it's establishing your territory.
It's like everythingwithin these walls is mine.
This is my house type deal.
You know what I mean?
There's that, there's privacy.
There's a lot of different reasons.
Mike (05:00):
Yeah.
I think that privacy is probably nearthe top on why people put these in.
But the other thing is you have views andwhen you're in your house, you have good
views and you have bad views and yeah.
Screens to me aresometimes what you put up.
Because you want to get rid of a bad view,whether it's, the trash cans in the side
(05:22):
yard or maybe it's, a utility type area.
Yeah.
The
Trey (05:25):
HVAC or something like that.
Yeah.
Mike (05:27):
The pool equipment.
Trey (05:28):
Yeah, the garbage cans.
You maybe put your bikesin a, behind a screen wall.
Mike (05:32):
Yeah.
Then you've got these fences which definespace but walls, I think sometimes they're
put up to Create different spaces, butalso to retain different things like,
hillsides and things along those lines.
But anyway to maybe separate apublic space from a private space.
(05:52):
That could be a screen too.
So
Trey (05:55):
I mean,
If you think about it, what happens whenyou remove, if you have a backyard, just
think of any backyard you've worked onor whatever it might be, and you remove
all the fences and you remove all thewalls, and you remove all the screens.
And you do this fortheir neighbors as well?
what happens?
Mike (06:09):
You have a commune,
Trey (06:10):
you have a wide open area.
Yeah, exactly.
There's no, sense of directionor the understanding, the
lines get blurred pretty much.
Mike (06:18):
Yeah.
In some places, in somecommunities, they try to do that.
And so good luck having dogs.
Yes.
But in some of the communities today, likethey don't have any solid walls or fences.
It's all iron.
And so they want the lines toblur in between all the two.
But yes, you have privacy issues.
(06:38):
And so it's interesting.
When you get into codes and regulations,a lot of times they won't allow
you, like I'm working on a projectright now and I can't have a wall.
On the property line becauseit'll block visibility.
'cause it's an alley lot.
And people driving throughthere, it's a corner.
And so you can't create a thing thatwhere people can't see around the corner.
(07:00):
So people run into each other.
Yeah.
Or kids or, that type of thing.
But if you pull something off theproperty line where it's not on
the property line, you can actuallythen build a screen or a wall.
Okay.
But you can't, that seemscounterintuitive, but you can't
have it right on the property line.
Trey (07:15):
Yeah.
Mike (07:15):
So it's pulled back.
Trey (07:16):
See, with that, it makes sense because it's like a
safety reason for like traffic.
But when you have another, 'causethere's a lot of neighborhoods out there
these days where the HOA wants you tohave a rod iron fence and that's it.
And it's like, come on,can't I have something else?
Can I add a little bit more screening?
That's why people use plans forscreening so they can actually
create a sense of privacy.
Yeah.
Mike (07:34):
I remember the one in Copper Canyon that we did, where we did the built in
bench and it had the big wall in the back.
And it was because they lookedout of their family room Right
into the neighbor's family room.
Yeah.
And so they came in withthe back of the pool.
And we built a screen walland it was eight feet tall and
we were allowed to do that.
And it was only, five feetoff the property line.
(07:56):
Yeah.
But we couldn't buildanything on the property line.
So you, your codes and regulationsare going to play, have a big play
in where you can put things and whereyou can't put things and sometimes the
amount of visibility that you block.
But then the other thing is,as you look at views and things
like that, is sometimes youwanna look at something that.
(08:18):
Doesn't impede a lot of the view,and that's where iron fence is.
And sometimes people will evenuse glass and acrylic fencing.
I saw something the other day, DannyWang posted it on his, instagram
and it was a retractable fence.
Okay.
Where this glass panelswent down into the ground.
(08:39):
Oh.
And then they would come back up.
That's cool.
So even when they were up, they weren'tblocking the view, but then they retracted
down so they weren't there at all.
Trey (08:49):
that's interesting you, I'm thinking about the other side of the
coin because we do have customers where.
They're on a lot.
And a lot of the time it's whenthey're on a waterfront and they
don't want to have fences at all.
And they're annoyed because they haveto have a fence because of code with
pools, you can't have people justrandomly running into the backyard and,
if they can't swim, they might drown.
Understandable.
But still, there's a lot ofcustomers that don't want those
(09:11):
fences because it's an eyesore.
Mike (09:13):
And sometimes the.
City will allow them touse water as a barrier.
Like low moat?
Well, No, in the fact that thelake or the pond or whatever.
Yeah.
You can take your fence down into thewater and therefore the water then creates
the barrier, which is, I guess they figureif they can swim through the lake, they're
(09:34):
not gonna go in your yard and drown.
Trey (09:36):
Yeah I'd assume so.
And it is just the.
The two sides.
You don't have to put the backline fence in the actual water.
Yeah.
Right.
Where the water's at.
So, yeah.
Mike (09:44):
Yeah.
there are some things like that.
I know a lot of lakes today have aretaining wall, fixed wall on the edge.
Mm-hmm.
So we can take something to that.
So we've got differentfunctions that we're doing.
We're in closing spacesand we've created privacy.
We've separated differentzones, private and public.
(10:08):
We've blocked ugly views.
We've provided security, isthere anything else that we might
want one of these things for?
Trey (10:15):
I can't think off the top of my head.
Mike (10:17):
Okay.
So what might we make these things out of?
Trey (10:20):
We can start with walls.
Mike (10:22):
Sure.
We can go down the list.
Trey (10:24):
Yeah.
You got walls that are madeoutta concrete, obviously.
Mike (10:27):
Yeah, that's done in a lot of parts of the country.
It's not done a lot here.
No.
'cause we have rock, but yeah.
So our predominant one is rock.
Where you don't have rock, Iknow in California we used to
do a lot of concrete walls.
Yeah.
So we've got.
Block, which is usuallyveneered with stone here.
Or you could just build the wall outtastone itself without any block concrete.
(10:51):
They do both those.
They can build it outta concrete block.
Trey (10:54):
Yeah, CMU cast in place.
Concrete walls, you got concreteand gunite walls that we use a lot.
We're obviously capping this.
Typically stone retainingwalls, boulder walls.
Gian walls.
Mike (11:07):
So that was really cool.
We just had the judging of themillion dollar pool challenge.
Mm-hmm.
And if you show up at the pool show, theclass gets the vote on who the winner is.
But there were severaldesigns that used gian walls.
They're kind of a coolconcept that's pronounced.
Gian Gab.
Well, I say Gian I probably.
Trey (11:23):
You're probably right 'cause it's spelled that way.
I don't know why I always say Gibon, but,
Mike (11:26):
yep.
They do those wire cages and thenthey fill it up with all these
stones in there and it it's acontemporary look, but organic.
And so that's where a lot ofdesign styles are going to.
I think that we'll probably see a lotmore of those in the next five years.
Trey (11:41):
Yeah, I've seen a lot of like wells built that way.
Some fire pits built that way onsocial media and stuff like that.
I think it's like that farmhouse vibe.
But it's not as modern as a lot ofthese farmhouses are these days.
But yeah.
Then you have timber retainingwalls and modular block walls.
Mike (11:57):
the timber ones.
So that's what we have at the house.
Is we have timber walls that were doneabout 20 years ago and actually 30
years ago, and they're on their way out.
you know, they decayover a period of time?
Yeah.
So that's one thing you have to becareful with is depending on the type
of wall you're doing, is how stable it'sgonna be over a long period of time.
(12:18):
Your stone walls and your blockand your masonry, those things
are gonna last a lot longer.
And so in this part of the country,that's what you see predominantly.
One thing that, we used in Californiawas, we used actually a modular block
that stacked paved Stone is a particularbrand out there that, does that.
(12:41):
In fact, during the recession in 92, Igot offered a job to sell Pavestone Block.
Trey (12:48):
Oh, okay.
Mike (12:49):
And it was, do I do pools or do I sell pavestone block?
Retaining walls, and it came downand I was like, as a landscape
architecture degreed person, theidea of selling block for the rest
of my life sounded a little boring.
Although it was lucrative Idecided to go to the pool route.
Good choice.
I think so.
(13:09):
Yeah.
I do too.
Trey (13:10):
You have also not just like structural walls that we've been talking
about that are usually weight bearing.
There's, Stuff that's used for divisionand privacy and design statements
like you have stucco walls, plasterwalls, we see stucco all over.
In this area specifically
Mike (13:23):
well That's real popular actually.
That's become popular here.
But in other parts of the country,California, that, that's much
heavier done because again.
They don't have the stone.
Now here.
We either frame it and stuccoit or we block it in stucco.
We do both of those.
So depending on the type of load bearingthat and one thing I should probably bring
(13:47):
up, we've brought up in earlier episodes,we're not gonna make recommendations
on heights and materials and thingslike that because engineers do that.
Yes.
So anytime you have a. A load bearing wallthat's over four feet, then it needs to be
engineered and they're gonna come up withhow it structurally needs to be built.
We're just talking about, howdo you do these things in the
(14:10):
functions of it and aesthetics.
Now, how would you pick, if you'redoing a wall in the backyard, how would
you pick which one you're gonna do?
Trey (14:18):
I think, for me personally I, would look at the house already and try to,
it depends on what you're trying to do.
'cause there's different styles.
Some people want to have abackyard oasis that doesn't even
connect to their house at all.
It's just something completelydifferent, which isn't my forte, but,
I would borrow from the house alreadyor the plans of what the remodel is
going to be and have that lined upso you can have something that's very
(14:40):
traditional uh, transitional, cohesive.
Yeah, cohesive.
Mike (14:42):
Yeah.
It all flows together.
Yeah.
So looking at inspiration, so one of thethings is materials that are used there.
But also colors, you know, if we've got.
I saw one place and it talked about, Iwent down Pinterest and looked at all
these different pictures of walls andso they were saying this white painted
fence, wood fence with the ideal wall.
(15:05):
Because it, it blended in with thishouse, but then somebody else was like,
black on all Black wall is the best one.
it was with the house thatwas all painted black too.
So two different architectural styles.
Yeah.
But their walls.
Tied into the colors that wereused on those houses respectively,
and they both looked great.
Yeah, black black is tricky.
Trey (15:26):
Look, I love black 'cause it creates a lot of contrast and it's very modern.
But
Mike (15:30):
you wear it well also.
Trey (15:32):
Yeah.
And also if you can't really see in thevideo, but I did a photo shoot with my
fiance for engagement photos yesterday,and I, it was outside, it was at sundown.
So I sprayed a bunch of bug spray.
The bugs spray left a bunch ofwhite marks all over my t-shirt.
I'm wearing it because I like theshirt and everything, and it still
smells good, but yeah it shows detailsof imperfections very, very well.
(15:52):
And I've worked on the backend and getting stuff finished
up on some projects before.
When people have black, they lovethe look, but there are certain
things that will show up like crazy.
And if you're one of those peoplethat will be, it just drives you
crazy to see some calcium or whateverit might be, pop out of that black.
I don't know.
Mike (16:10):
I don't think it's
Trey (16:11):
for
Mike (16:11):
everybody.
But the other thing about blackis you look at window screens.
What color are they?
Black.
They're black.
Yeah.
Black has a tendency to disappear.
It does In certain environments.
Oh
Trey (16:23):
yeah.
Mike (16:23):
Okay.
So what happens is if you use ablack fence, then the materials
that are in front of it arewhat shows up a little bit more.
Versus if you used a whitefence, then you're gonna really
notice the fence behind it.
So yeah,
Trey (16:36):
it's like it's a background that makes the foreground
pop a little bit better.
Mike (16:40):
Yeah.
So now what's really cool is.
Some yards today are almost like a room.
And so, oh yeah.
If you come in and use really lightcolors, it makes the space feel bigger.
You use really dark colors, itusually makes the space feel smaller.
So that's one thing that comes intoplay, especially in a small space.
If it's a big space, not somuch a big deal, but it's
(17:02):
just something to think about.
Now we did have Vista Folia on here.
Several episodes back and I was notproperly prepared and I didn't look
up which episode that they were on,but that's another thing that's really
cool that you can create a wall.
Yeah.
And where you have very small space,instead of coming in with planting in
(17:23):
front of it, you can come in with thisfoliage on the that and therefore create a
very green space and a very narrow space.
So that's a really cool thing.
And we've done that withboxwood, the synthetic boxwood.
Yep.
That's what I was thinking.
As well, that's becomea really popular thing.
In fact when you looked on, there was anarticle that was ranking the top 10 walls.
(17:47):
That was like number two.
So it's become very trendy inthe last, seven, eight years.
I
Trey (17:51):
love the look.
I really do.
I think the Vista foliage, I thinkit's, it takes the same concept but it
feels more or organic because there'smore variation in the designs itself.
The box wood is like a simple clean,yeah, clean look like a hedge.
But it works very well as well.
Yeah.
So it.
Mike (18:10):
It just, you're gonna have all these different materials.
Now, in some cases, when we're talkingabout, walls and fences and screens
the material, especially when it comesto screens, is gonna be not quite as
rigid, So you can get into things like,with a screen, it could be fabric.
(18:30):
Yes.
It might be as simple as, gee, I wanta screen between me and my neighbor.
Let's put curtains on the cabana.
So we can either close 'em or open them.
And that's something that I'mseeing more and more frequently
done to create privacy, still.
If we want air movement and things likethat, and there's times of the day that
it's not as big of an issue for privacy,we can leave the curtains open, but then
(18:53):
there's certain times we can close 'em.
Yeah.
So we're having dinner out there.
We can close those spaces, we'rejust out, sitting out by the pool.
We can have 'em open so there's moreair and sometimes it's just on one
or two sides that the curtains areclosed but we do 'em on all four sides.
'cause it looks.
Better from, it's like puttingcurtains in a room of the house.
(19:14):
You don't just put 'emon some of the windows.
You put 'em on all of them.
So it looks, the roomlooks right from, inside.
Trey (19:20):
I think also the louvered screens.
I like those a lot.
The only downside really is usuallythose are typically set in place and
you can open 'em or close 'em dependingon how much sunlight or whatever you
want to let in wind or et cetera.
But
Mike (19:34):
oh, I the Apollo screens or you just talking about No, you
Trey (19:37):
can have a screen wall that's louvered.
Yeah.
We've done it on a job like shutters.
Yeah.
Shutters pretty much made outta wood or.
Whatever you want to use, really, but now
Mike (19:45):
Apollo was the episode last week or two weeks ago.
So episode 1 0 2.
But that is something that theycan put that on a side panel
so it levers open and shut.
Oh, that's right.
Yeah.
It could match with the ceilingif you're doing that application,
which is a really cool situation.
I saw again on somebody's Instagram.
(20:06):
That they're coming in withglass panel doors on a structure.
And then they're puttinga louvered ceiling on it.
And so you can create anenvironment and seal that space.
So a lot of times people will do thatwith a screen, a retractable screen.
that's another form of screenis sometimes people use those to
(20:28):
create some privacy, but also createwind block or sunblock as well.
And so that's a flexible thing.
I saw one place.
It was really cool, and I've seen thisapplication in a couple different things.
It was a retractable like door kindof like a barn door that would slide
Trey (20:46):
Okay.
Mike (20:46):
So you could open and shut that situation.
And we've done those type of thingsalso with yards, with driveways.
Where we have a gate thatslides across the whole driveway
and then it retract back.
Type situation.
So like when you're down in HighlandPark, you know that's a very common
situation, is you have a retractablegate that you can then get shut and then
(21:10):
you know, you have the space inside thatyou know you have for the whole family.
Now, when we do those, we also haveto have A screen or a fence in between
the driveway and the pool area.
Which, it's one, it hides the cars sowhen you're sitting in your pool, you're
not looking right next to your car.
But that's where we've used thatboxwood again as a very effective.
(21:32):
Screening plus greenery aspect.
Trey (21:35):
Another screen that people might not think about is acoustic screens.
So if you live next to a highway orsomething like that, you can have
a dense panel designed for you todampen the sound of near traffic.
We've also done this with other kind ofwalls that have like water features and.
Using the water sound toeliminate the traffic noise.
But whether it be bugs or wind orsunlight you just need privacy
(21:56):
for a certain area in the yard.
There's a lot of different waysyou can use screens and they're
not always attached to structuralwalls and stuff like that.
Sometimes you use 'em asstandalone pieces, but
Mike (22:06):
In a standalone screen, one of the most effective ones a fireplace.
Oh, yeah.
' cause I can build a fireplace anda, it screens the neighbor's view.
A it blocks the sun.
Plus I get a fireplacehere that I can enjoy,
Trey (22:20):
retain the heat and the area, and
Mike (22:22):
retain the heat.
So I've even done fireplaces to divide.
Two different areas of the yard.
So I've got one area that was moreof a private zone off the master
bedroom, courtyard type thing.
And then the fireplace wasalso facing the, kitchen area.
So there were two different spaces, butthe fireplace actually acted as a divider.
(22:45):
It can act as basically a privacy screen.
Or it can create a room.
So now one thing I will say isa lot of people are like cool,
let's do a double sided fire box.
I love those.
So it's open on both sides.
Yeah.
Now here's the challenge withthose here, I can get the three one
Trey (23:04):
too.
Mike (23:05):
Three
Trey (23:05):
sided, one.
Mike (23:06):
The three where it's cantilevered and it's open, all it's hanging.
You got
Trey (23:09):
one little piece that's wall.
Yeah, it's cantilevered.
Yeah, it's, yeah.
It's really cool.
But
Mike (23:14):
That's a trick engineering wise.
Yeah.
To make all that happen.
'cause that's a lot of weight.
But it is a very cool visual effect.
I've designed a couple of those.
I've never built them.
Some sometime coming soon.
Trey (23:27):
We've had a job where the house had it.
Mike (23:30):
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Trey (23:31):
Paired up really well with your design.
Mike (23:33):
Yes, it did.
but.
The wind is a trickything with that situation.
'cause when you have adouble-sided fireplace, the
wind wants to blow through it.
And the fireplacedoesn't draw really well.
And if we're doing a standard wood firebox where we're gonna try to draw the
smoke up, that doesn't work really well.
(23:56):
So one of the things that I'vehad several clients do is.
They just did it as a gas operatedunit where we don't have the draw
issue, that we're trying to getthe smoke to go up the chimney.
Yeah.
And so that works as a better solutionthan trying to do a traditional wood
fireplace and be open on both sides.
(24:16):
Or I've had clients come in and.
Put a glass panel on one side sothe wind can blow through that side.
You're not gonna get any heat.
You get the visual but you don'tget the heat coming through that way
it would only draw up the one side.
So it's just something to think aboutif you're trying to pull off a double
(24:37):
sided or triple sided fireplace.
Yeah.
Trey (24:40):
Another cool one is the laser cut metal screens, like we've talked about
the roofs before on certain structures.
But you can do the sameconcept just on the wall.
And it's a cool look.
Mike (24:49):
I think this is a feature again, we were talking about
something that's gonna be trending.
It's artistic.
I think within five years you'regonna see this everywhere.
Okay.
I think it's something that's reallycatching on with a lot of designers
and we're sitting here in the studioand what do we have on the wall there?
We have three panels that areon the wall of the studio.
(25:11):
So it's something that.
Creates a very finished lookthat you can put layers into
your outdoor space by coming in.
And we can create, these three differentpanels that have three different
pots in front of it that have threedifferent other things in detail.
So it, it just gives a sense of layers.
(25:31):
and you can come in with.
Infinite number of designs.
Yeah.
Into that space.
Oh yeah.
That can create, the feel andthe characteristic of you, of
the space that you're wanting.
And they can be painted and they canbe corton steel and they can be black.
So you can get some contrasting materials.
It's something that really.
Is taking off, and I think it'sgoing to be even more prevalent
(25:55):
in the design of outdoor spaces.
Yes, you're gonna see it onceiling tops, you're gonna
see it as screens and fencing.
it's something that, goes intoa lot of different places.
BBQ Bits (26:08):
We are gonna 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 gonna share some information oneverything that you may want to consider
in your outdoor living space as far asfeatures, especially for the kitchen.
Hope you enjoy this.
So tell us about this Pizza Island.
(26:29):
Okay, so this is Fire Magic.
Uh, when you hear Fire Magic, see FireMagic, you're looking at the oldest
grill company in the United States.
We're looking at 80 plus years.
Wow.
They've been in the business.
They are an industry leaderin a lot of different things.
Uh, we love selling the product here.
Um, city of industry, again,great American made product.
(26:52):
They're, they're very innovative.
Um, I'm very forward on, onwhat they bring out as far as
qualities of what they sell.
So, going to the oven itself, thisis not only a pizza oven, but it
is an outdoor oven dimensional,meaning that the, uh, the, uh,
thermostat's built in, it's automated.
So whereas alpha, you have a highand low, this has a thermostat.
(27:15):
So if I wanted to bake cookies forthe kids and have ice cream out
there, I can bake cookies in here.
It's a full oven.
This Dales get up to the high spectrum,though it gets very, very hot.
There's a rack in there to play cookies.
I can take the rack outand do a full stone pizza.
It's ease of use, gas driven, um,for the person that does not have to
(27:35):
want to tender wood is what it is.
Gotcha.
This one is a built in.
This one is a built in.
They make a court model.
Okay.
Let's, this is the mostpopular for built in.
Um, it's got, it has their, uh,their key mark lock in tooth handle.
Uh, the rack can be taken ininterior lighting so you can
see what's actually going on.
One thing that they know reallywell as we've known as designers
(27:59):
and then, uh, salespeople, is thatwe can't really predict what mother
nature brings us as far as wind.
Well, this company has done that.
They've got an actual, their,uh, there canopy topp in there.
If I had a back wind blowing in behindthis oven, I can tilt this block
in here and keep this from pushing.
Heat back into the unit itself.
(28:19):
If I've got a particular front that'scoming in that can affect the way
this unit cooks, I can come allthe way down the front with this.
So sweet.
Something that, uh, thatfire magic has always done.
They provided wind breaks, but, butafterthoughts, hey, if I'm, if, regardless
of where I live, if I'm in the hillsand West coast, or if I'm in the hill
country here, or we've got a frontcoming in here this next week, and if
(28:41):
I'm baking pieces, this could really.
Uh, determine the outcome.
And this, this little add-onengineering piece is something
that Fire Magic, uh, adds.
But, uh, their engineering team has a lotof forethought on how they build products.
So backlit, bezels to let youknow where you're at, um, at
night, you can see at night here.
Um, and then this is their Echelon series.
(29:02):
It's got all polishedappointments on here.
Um, if you know, fire Magic, you know, so.
And then it has a storage unit down below.
It is, yes, that's a matchingstorage unit with, with the
pizza oven that you see there.
There they have, they havethe big, robust handles.
Um, we see a lot of these with,uh, this is the most common drawer
(29:25):
that we see mixed in with a lotof other companies that we sell.
Um, it has a water ledge herethat keeps, you know, drawers.
We want to tell customersdrawers are not sealed.
Hmm.
Um, the only sealed drawer is awarming drawer that has a seal on it
because it has an electric element.
But all of our drawers are not sealed.
They're never sealed, but hotinches, the water, it is seeks path.
(29:48):
At least it is.
It is.
So this is a deterrent for water.
This is a water, um, a moisture fin.
When the water hitsthis, it gets diverted.
You'll also see that front panelplenum, uh, is really thick.
And why is that?
Because when I've shut this drawer.
It will recess and soft close andit's less apt for moisture to get
inside of the containment drawer.
(30:10):
Very nice.
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 will get back into the episode now.
Mike (30:23):
one of the things that I think is your outdoor space.
gonna be different.
And one of the things we're tryingto point out is when you finish the
inside of the house and you move in,you've got walls that are painted.
But if you come five years later,that's not what the house looks like.
Or even a year later, or sixmonths later, when you finish
(30:46):
the house is, it's decorated.
Yeah.
I see that more and more outdoorspaces are going to be decorated.
And you're not just gonna have a fence.
Trey (30:56):
No.
Mike (30:56):
Or a wall.
You're going to accent it with things.
I think the metal screens are gonnabe one thing that's going to decorate
a lot of walls and fences, but canyou think of some other things?
Trey (31:09):
Are you talking about like a artistic way or just a
decorative way of screening?
Spider (31:14):
Yeah.
Trey (31:14):
I mean you have this brings in plants, but the bamboo is a big one.
Reed screens that kind of deal.
When you're talking about the fencespecifically, I was like thinking of like.
the lights that peoplehang from their fences.
That's like one of theeasiest ways to do it.
Yeah.
Lighting I think is to be
Mike (31:29):
decorative.
Gonna be Well, and you've got thethree panels that are gonna be there.
Yeah, exactly.
What are you gonna do?
You're gonna put lights onthose three panels so at night
you see the three panels.
'cause it's kind of afocal point type thing.
Yep.
But yeah, lighting I think is key.
And the string lights I think are Yes.
Becoming even more and more popular again.
Decorative lighting, I think is going tobecome huge in the next five years and
(31:54):
how people use that in the outdoor space.
And we've got so many morethings to use than we used to.
Anyway, you have
Trey (32:01):
backlit screens too, where you utilize LEDs with the lighting.
So it's bringing thosetwo concepts together.
Mike (32:06):
And sometimes speaking of backlighting is, it may
just be a piece of metal.
Decorative artwork that's there.
And I've seen several cases wherethey came in and back lit that.
So it wasn't noticeable during the day.
It was just a art piece on the wall,but then at night it really pops out.
From a visual standpoint, so you've got,the metal artwork that's on the walls.
(32:32):
But in addition to that there's allkinds of artwork that people are
putting into outdoor walls and spaces.
Mm-hmm.
And sometimes it's just how thewall or the fence or the screen is.
Painted.
Yeah.
I mean, So you could have a
Trey (32:45):
mural, you could have just the overall craftsmanship and they do some
kind of cool detail in the whole process.
Yeah.
So mosaic design too.
But
Mike (32:54):
there are a lot of different things that happen and some, of those things
people are using three dimensional tiles.
To create some differentpatterns and interesting concepts
from an artistic standpoint.
Trey (33:06):
I mean, You could have a water wall or maybe even a firewall.
Mike (33:09):
Yeah.
Trey (33:10):
Or
Mike (33:10):
both
Trey (33:10):
Combined together?
Both.
Yeah.
You've done that.
Do you have also the glass or acrylicscreens where you have the frosted or
the tinted little barriers for moremodern privacy, I guess you could say.
Mike (33:21):
Yeah.
That's something that's reallycool that is coming into play.
Is that.
Frosting that, you hit a button itfrosts it where it wasn't frosted before.
Oh, yeah.
That's the next
Trey (33:30):
level.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mike (33:31):
Yeah.
That's pretty cool.
I've never seen that outdoors,but I'm sure that's coming.
Uh,
Trey (33:37):
the one I've seen was, I think it was Danny Wang and he
posted it, it was like a bathroom.
But it had all glass windowsand it was right next to the
backyard and they pressed thebutton and then it was frosted.
Right.
I
Spider (33:48):
think, uh,
BMW did something like thatin a car, but that's cool.
It was like a electromagneticpulse between two sheets of glass
that would tint the windows.
Mike (33:57):
Cool.
That's that is something thatI for sure see is gonna come.
A bigger thing and thatcreates some privacy.
Anyway, thing
Trey (34:05):
there's also, with just speaking of glass, there's I don't know why people
do this, but it's my best, it costs alot of money, but people will like pre
crack the glass on certain screens sothey get that, the cracked glass look.
I don't know how sturdy itis, but it looks really cool.
Mike (34:20):
Yeah, I've seen that on interior staircases, I think.
Yeah.
It's pretty interesting.
So sometimes it's just as simple aswe're gonna hang a mirror on a space.
Yeah.
And a mirror is really funin the fact that the optical
illusions that it plays with you.
Mm-hmm.
And I've done this before in a designa long time ago where we framed up a
(34:45):
mirror to look like it was a doorway.
Okay.
Going into another roomand you saw it not head on.
You saw it at an angle.
Yeah.
And so it was, reflecting was somethingtotally different, but you thought
you were gonna be able to walkthrough that into a different room.
And that, this wall that washere was just a barrier to the,
another outdoor space when actuallythe wall was the property line.
(35:09):
Oh, that's cool.
We did that also with a gate.
Going basically to the alley.
We built this really cool structurewhere it looked like you could walk
through and it was gonna be more to it.
Yeah.
Thomas Church.
Who, if you know me very much,you know that I'm a huge fan of
Thomas Church's work, which isabout a hundred years old now.
(35:31):
When he first started he started inthe twenties, the 1920s, not the 2020s.
And one of the cool things that hedid was on the side of a garage.
He came in with hisintricate entryway and door.
Like you were gonna go into another room.
And you opened it up andit was just the wall.
(35:52):
But it looked like, again, this wasanother space you could go into now
that you literally could have madeit a door to go into the garage.
But he just made it look like itwas an illusion of transitioning
from one space to another.
So that's some fun things that you can doin smaller spaces to make 'em look like
they're actually bigger than they are.
Trey (36:12):
Yeah.
It's also a great way to borrow viewpointslike, like earlier you were saying
there's some great views in the yard.
You wanna be able to see, there's otherviews that you might not wanna see.
The ones that you do wanna see,you can provide another angle
or a viewpoint with a mirror.
So it's a way to open up.
For instance, if I think about the mirrorand pool design, I'm thinking about the
(36:32):
pool itself in a reflection pool, and thenthe ability to reflect everything that's
in the backyard, in that pool, you coulddo the same thing with a screen wall.
That's just a mirror.
Mike (36:42):
Yeah.
one thing too with walls a lot of peopleare doing is they're, you talked about
a water wall, but sometimes it's just.
A wall fountain.
It's more of a focal point that we're justgonna put some type of artistic fountain
that here, that hangs on the wall.
It's a self-contained unit.
Yeah.
That was done a lot in the past.
(37:02):
I haven't seen a lot of it recently,but the way design trends go,
they always come back around.
So that's something I'm sureyou're gonna see more and more of.
Over a period of time.
'cause people love water and sometimesthey want to just a little bit of water.
We're doing more and more water off masterbedrooms and bathrooms, and sometimes
(37:22):
there are water walls and things likethat, but that's a simpler case where
you can bring water into a space.
Yeah.
There are some what I call twofers.
It works like this, but italso brings this feature in.
The most simple twofer that I can talkabout is I'm gonna build a retaining wall.
So when I build that retainingwall, I want it to be 18 to 24
(37:46):
inches tall, so I can use it as.
A seat wall
Trey (37:50):
compared to the floor,
Mike (37:51):
Yes.
24 inches above the floor.
Could
Trey (37:53):
be a lot taller, just the floors.
Yeah.
Mike (37:55):
And sometimes I'm gonna build a series of walls instead of
building, one four foot wall, I'mgonna build two, two foot walls.
And that way I've got twoseat walls that I could use.
Are there any cases you can think ofwhere we've done something and it's used.
From a function standpoint as awall or a screen or a fence, but
then it also served another purpose.
Trey (38:16):
You, a lot of times we're using, 'cause a lot of times we're
doing hillsides and you're usingthe pool walls as a retaining wall.
That way you don't have to build upa retaining wall and then you use
that lower portion of the pool for adeck space or whatever it might be.
Mike (38:30):
But yeah.
Another one that we do a lotof times is we will incorporate
a wall with a sunken fire pit.
And we will have a bench back.
A seat.
So the height of that is typicallygonna be 36 inches in height.
Mm-hmm.
So again, if I have a, bigger wall,I could build a fire pit up against
(38:52):
it and do a, now if I do a benchback, I always like to slope those.
Yeah.
'Cause they're a lot more comfortableand you wanna set 'em up also so you
can have cushions and stuff like that.
But that's another thing.
And again.
That softens up about 36 inchesof the height of maybe a taller
wall, so it's part of a sunkenfire pit, or it could be a kitchen.
(39:14):
I've done a lot of kitchens thathave acted as a retaining wall.
Basically your kitchencounter's 36 inches tall.
You put a backsplash on it.
It's 42 from a minimum standpoint,but that's just a six inch backsplash.
You could have a 24 inch backsplash.
Mm-hmm.
So now you have a five foot.
Tall retaining wall, that's basically aback splash in a kitchen that's built in.
(39:35):
And so that looks a whole lot betterthan just having a straight wall.
Trey (39:38):
Yeah.
Mike (39:39):
Now when you do that type of thing, you always wanna make sure you
have waterproofing on the backsideof that wall so you don't have water
seeping through into your cabinets.
You want to have a good Frenchdrain back there as well.
So there's some thingsthat you want to do.
With all walls is to make sure youhave good drainage behind them.
Otherwise they're gonnacreate some problems.
(40:00):
Another one that we do quite commonlyand you've mentioned before, is
twofer, is it's a water wall, so it'sretaining wall plus it's a water wall.
So I've got both of those incorporatedtogether, and so that's a great feature.
sometimes people will come in andthey'll have a wall and will come
in and build shelves on that wall.
(40:21):
So it can create something really cool.
I've got one that we're working onright now, and that wall is gonna be
a, the back of it's gonna be a bar.
And so there's all theseshelves for all the liquor to
be placed on on that back wall.
So it's gonna be a bar areaas well as a retaining wall.
So those are several things that we do.
(40:43):
That, in the fireplace we talked ofearlier, that can also be retaining.
Wall plus also could be a fireplace.
It can conserve as both, so a lotof times people just build a wall
and it is just, it too massive.
So you want to tone it down andput something in front of it.
And sometimes it's just landscaping,so let's just put some plants in front
of it so that helps tone it down.
Trey (41:04):
Yeah, it's given the design a little bit more of versatility when you're
able to align it with multiple purposes.
And then also it's not just like thiswall you're walking next to that's only
places there for either some structuralreason or for some designated area reason.
It's actually adding a function to it.
But we haven't reallytalked about fences at all.
We've talked about screening,we've talked about walls.
(41:25):
We didn't really talk about fences much.
Do you wanna talk about 'em?
Sure.
Mike (41:29):
Well,
The fence is, usuallyjust on your perimeter.
It's defining a space.
Trey (41:34):
Mm-hmm.
Mike (41:34):
So a lot of times in this part of the country,
it's your property line fence.
That's gonna go up.
In a lot of cases, it'sjust a boring six foot.
Tall wood fence.
Yeah.
Just cedar.
Yeah.
So there's a lot of things that you can doto it to make it a little bit more visual.
One of the first things that you cando is just change the pattern of it.
(41:56):
Most of them they're builtwith vertical planks.
So if you come back with ahorizontal plank that lends to the
more clean layers of the designa little bit more modern aspect.
And so that's a really nicesituation is you just come in
with a horizontal board on it.
The other thing is I've seen some caseswhere people will actually alternate.
(42:18):
The pattern, they'll do ahorizontal and then a vertical
and a horizontal and a vertical.
So, You could do that type of situation.
Some people will come in and come inand mix materials where they might
have stone incorporated with wood.
You know, that's That's somethingthat's very commonly done.
Trey (42:35):
Yeah, some people use composite as well, or fences.
Mike (42:39):
Yeah.
So those are gonna hold upbetter over a period of time.
So the big challenge with fences sometimesis you're dealing with neighbors.
And so you have to figure out,are we good with the aspects
aesthetically on both sides?
And yeah, sometimes
Trey (42:56):
it's like, Hey, if I want this type of fence 'cause I like this aesthetic,
I guess I'm gonna have to flip the billand they can't say anything about it.
Mike (43:03):
Yeah.
That
Trey (43:04):
happens.
Mike (43:04):
That happens.
And then we have, people that,work out something where.
Something looks good from both sides.
'cause some fences don'tlook good on both sides
Trey (43:13):
typically don't.
Mike (43:14):
And you know that's something to think about and how you're gonna
incorporate that and share that.
So HOAs come into play with that as well.
Sometimes a. And what'sallowed and what's not.
And one thing from a safety standpoint,that's an issue is the climbing issue.
Yep.
And so most fences that are onthe property line from a safety
(43:35):
standpoint has to be non climbable.
So that.
Horizontal stringer that runs with a lotof wood fences that's on the outside in
your neighbor's yard or in the alley.
Something has to be done on thatto make it a non climb situation.
So sometimes it's a simple, boardthat's put in there that's cut on a 45.
(43:56):
So if you step on it,your foot slides off.
But that's typical.
I've had challenges.
Because the cities requirethat in the neighbor's yard.
And the neighbor won't comply.
Oh boy.
Because they're like, you're gonnamess up my decoration on this side.
Although if you're looking at.
Stringers.
It's not very decorative in the firstplace, but what they're worried about
(44:18):
is the stain or non-ST stain that's onthere and mine's weathered and you gotta
put a new board on there and it's notgonna look good or, those type of things.
But I had one project we submitted tothe neighbor for nine months and they
never responded or replied or anything.
So the city finallylet us just, not do it.
But anyway, that's a big issue with alot of cities is how that's handled.
(44:42):
One of the coolest fences I've ever seen.
it was done in Arizona and it was donewith a rebar, and they just put a footing
in and they put the rebar steel piecesin, but there were no cross pieces.
They were just verticals and theywere less than four inches apart.
So it meant the safety code but itwas a really clean, minimalistic
(45:07):
looking fence because it had no.
Horizontal bars attaching it.
So that was a really cool different one.
it did blend betweenthem and the neighbors.
and some people when theywant blending the iron fences
is a very popular situation.
Yeah.
But, different parts of thecountry have different, rules.
So when I lived in Jersey.
(45:29):
Nobody had a six foottall wood picket fence.
Everybody had fences Yeah.
On their property.
But no, that wasn'tsomething that anybody had.
In fact, a lot of fences were, a splitrail fence and that type of situation.
So you could easily see in theneighbor's yard and things like that.
But in Texas, almosteverybody's got a six foot.
(45:52):
Cedarwood fence, which is different.
Every part of the country's different.
So Kevin used to say in Arizona,most of the fences were.
Block.
Trey (46:01):
Oh really?
Mike (46:01):
Yeah.
They don't do a lot of wood becauseit warps so bad in the sun there.
Yeah.
And I guess it's notreadily available either.
So they do a lot of, a block thathas stucco on it or just colored
block and things like that.
That makes sense.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we just think about thefencing that we do here.
Mm-hmm.
I mean, There's a lot ofdifferent things that are done in
(46:22):
different parts of the country.
And it has a lot to do with thematerials that are available,
to make your fence out of Yeah.
Trey (46:29):
Yeah.
That pretty much covers the fences.
I have a whole list of differenttype of fences, but most of these
are different variations of thewalls we've mentioned as well.
I guess there's a couple differentones like chain link Fence, which
obviously you're gonna have, like oh,what do they call the Sport courts.
Remember we did the episode?
Yeah.
You're gonna have a chain link fencewith some of those sport courts as well.
Mike (46:48):
So in chain link, in a lot of cases is allowed by cities.
For a barrier.
And some cities don't allow it'cause they consider it climbable.
Some of 'em make them put a slottedmaterial in the chain link grid to
make it a non climbable situation.
But that's, again, varies fromcity to city, but yes, that's
(47:10):
used a lot on sports courts.
Mm-hmm.
Control balls and stuff like
Trey (47:14):
that.
Yeah.
I don't, in Texas I've seen it a coupledifferent locations, but I, they don't
typically have channeling fences for the.
It's the perimeter of their
Mike (47:22):
lot.
If you go into some older homesyou'll most definitely see chain
link fences before rod iron was done.
Mm-hmm.
On property lines.
A lot of older homes have chain link andsome people have barb wire Or stock fence.
'Cause all they're worriedabout is keeping their cows in.
And horses, they're not so much worriedabout, something that looks good.
(47:43):
Barbed wire's great becauseit's a minimalistic look.
Trey (47:46):
Yeah.
Mike (47:47):
Just a couple of wires going across there.
Trey (47:49):
Stone Columns is a big one in Texas that can be paired
up with iron or the wood.
Yeah.
Mike (47:54):
Yeah.
That
Trey (47:55):
is a popular,
Mike (47:56):
Thing that's done here in some parts of the country.
It's a brick.
That's used instead of a stone.
We
Trey (48:01):
haven't even mentioned brick yet.
Yeah.
So, bunch Brick in Texas,
Mike (48:05):
brick walls, brick columns is something that's done quite a bit.
Trey (48:09):
Brick coping.
Mike (48:10):
Yeah.
Back in the day.
Trey (48:12):
Yeah.
Mike (48:12):
Reach in or says it's coming back.
Trey (48:14):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I don't know about that one.
Maybe in Oklahoma.
Mike (48:18):
Yeah.
Maybe
Fences and barriers.
Screens are critical inalmost every single project.
And sometimes this is not a detail thatmuch time and thought is put into, but can
create a certain aspect as projects and.
Property gets smaller andsmaller, it's all about details.
(48:39):
Yep.
And the details that you put into yourwalls and your screens and your fences are
gonna have a greater impact on projects.
So it's something that'sreally important to consider.
As you develop your skills in thedesign aspect, as you as a homeowner
look at what you may want to do ina space to create the exact feeling
(49:01):
of the space that you want to have,and that's the whole thing, is you
want to create what's ideal for you.
And so hopefully these are somethings you can think about and how
to create the ideal setting for you.
So if you've got questionsabout this, give us a call.
Or probably social media is a little bitbetter way to reach us a little easier.
(49:22):
Or if you're at the pool show, youcan run us down and ask us questions.
You can show up to our classand give good reviews if you
show up to the class, please.
Anyway we'll look forward to seeing you.
Thanks for listening.
We'll talk to y'all later.
Trey (49:35):
Y'all have a good day.
This show is all about helping you becomea better buyer, a better pool owner,
and hopefully you're gonna 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
(49:55):
pit, add an outdoor kitchen area, addsome shade cells, or whatever else it is.
We wanna be that resource for you, andthat's the end goal here, and we promise.
That there's gonna bea 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 wanna share it.
(50:18):
So we hope to see youhere every single week.
Thanks for listening.
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