Construction forums and news articles these days about with labels and metrics.  “LEED Platinum building”, “Green Building”…. What are these things?  Quite simply, they are the bureaucratic imperative put to the test in building.

How do you know what quality is?  Chances are you don’t, except, perhaps, for within the small sphere of what you do for work and as a hobby.  Here’s the definition for “quality” (taken from the handy dictionary that came with my computer):

quality |ˈkwälətē|
noun ( pl. -ties)
1 the standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind; the degree of excellence of something : an improvement in product quality | people today enjoy a better quality of life.
• general excellence of standard or level : a masterpiece for connoisseurs of quality | [as adj. ] a wide choice of quality beers.
• archaic high social standing : commanding the admiration of people of quality.
• [treated as pl. ] archaic people of high social standing : he’s dazed at being called on to speak before quality.
2 a distinctive attribute or characteristic possessed by someone or something : he shows strong leadership qualities | the plant’s aphrodisiac qualities.

Quality is, obviously, a rather weak term.  What comes to mind is the Supreme Court’s definition of Pornography as something that can’t be defined, but that you know when you see it.  A rather nice waste of otherwise useful words as what it really means is that it’s whatever the winds of social mores decides it is at any given moment.  The same is very true of quality in construction, especially from outside of the industry.

What makes up anything that is constructed is a complicated group of things; design, material, how it’s put together and finished, and how it’s sold.  Each of these can be separated into separate topics, and each separate part can be done to an exacting standard, yet the end product is often garbage.  Why?  Mostly because the products we buy (and this includes all products from medicine to laws to the computer you’re reading this on) are a product mostly of sales and design with profit being the sole important motivator at the moment.

Huh?  Doesn’t that mean this argument is some sort of political/economical argument?

Yes.

When you are working in a field you can tell the difference between what is a sales motivator, what’s a profit motivator, and what is necessarily competence factors.  If you’re working in the food service industry you know that there is a huge level of difference in quality and supply.  There are the burger flippers at McDonalds, et al, who don’t need to know how to put together any of the product.  There are the chefs at the French Laundry who need to know the chemistry of the parts of the food, not just how to make it.  Anyone can afford McDonalds.  Most would have a hard time affording the French Laundry (if they could get a reservation).  Almost everyone could tell the difference between the two, although many would also have a very hard time justifying the difference in cost.

Same is true for construction, although I would argue that the innate level of understanding is much lower for construction than for food.  After all, nearly everyone has some experience cooking while many people have no experience in actually building anything.  You, for example, could look at a Hot House tomato grown in a sand pit in Florida and an heirloom from a local grower and be able to tell the difference merely by appearance.  Take a bite and you could tell the difference in flavor (whether you care is a different matter).  Chances are you would be able to tell me it’s a tomato, too.  At the same time, you probably couldn’t tell me if a piece of wood is Oak or Ash, or tell me the difference between SYP and Hem/Fir unless you are not only in the construction field, but fairly experienced by the industry’s current metric.

This all becomes relevant when looking at the buzz words tossed around in attempts to promote some company or house or project.  Most of them come from the bureaucratic imperative of measuring something for a group of people that is relatively inexperienced by a group of people that is relatively inexperienced to create a metric of quality that allows the building to be distinguished somehow from those around it.

The bureaucratic imperative…. a topic that fills many books.  For the moment, let’s use my definition, since that’s what I’m using for the argument.  Bureaucratic Imperative, to me, means the creation of sets of lists of metrics that can be checked off.  That means that the list has to be easily defined and understood- Solid wood v. particle board.  Industry standard v. best practice.  Those can be researched, they can be qualified and quantified.  What they can’t do is really tell you if the whole thing is put together well.

Another “Huh” is probably in order.  Let’s go back to the restaurant.

McDonalds is very precise.  They produce a product at a consistent quality everywhere in the world.  Every part of their product is cutting edge, from design to production to sales to execution, the recipes are precise and exact.  The people cooking the product do it precisely to a precise quality everywhere.  They are a nearly perfect bureaucracy: everything has a checklist, everything is done to a precise value.  The French Laundry has relatively few checklists.  The recipes are sometimes precise, but always tweaked to fit the ingredients changing qualities.  Excellence cannot be made to fit a precise checklist because there are too many variables.  Something can be defined as “quality” because it fits a metric of lists, but it’s quality that is a definition of “a quality” (like a color, like a Big Mac), but if you don’t know how to measure that thing, then you don’t know how it stacks up against other things of a similar kind.

So, how do you know what’s quality in construction?  Is it that the cabinets have dovetailed drawers or that the deck is treated wood or Ipe?  Is the design “Green” or is it designed to maximize the efficiency of materials and infrastructure… can it be “Green” without meeting that definition, or is it “Green” just because the components are listed as “Green”.  How about the skill of the people who put it together?  Do you know how to tell the difference between a roof framed by a true carpenter and one that is assembled from trusses?  Do you know how to tell when it matters which one is which?

All of this gets to this basic point about construction- Construction is about sales and very little else.  The value of the house you looked at is based on the square footage and what is near to it and nothing else.  The quality of the materials in the house, the quality of the construction, the care put into the design- none of that has any real value in the real estate market.  The construction industry has no metric to tell you the ability of the contractor building the house, or the skills of the people he hired (as employees or as sub-contractors) to build the house.  There is no “master carpenter” classification that is based on quality of trade skills, only as number of houses built.  That means that any market that has a “master carpenter” or “master builder” license bases it on volume- that means that the “master chef” would be the guy flipping burgers at McDonalds because the chef at the French Laundry just hasn’t served as many meals.

So, here’s a picture of a playhouse I built for my son…

Hollen deck, NE corner

The old deck was really just a landing with stairs, hardly enough to get out, much less to sit on.

Hollen deck, from Driveway

The old deck was just what was under the roof. We brought the details from the house out, wrapping the belly band around the top of the deck skirt, which is the same cedar siding as on the house. The railing is cedar with a bevel, and mimics the details on the entry porch. Decking is Ipe, which we pre-finished and used colored stainless screws to install.

Hollen deck, framing detail picture rail

All the framing sits on top of solid beams with metal caps to protect the beam from standing water. In addition, the picture rail sits on a secondary rim outside of the regular deck framing. This reduces the amount of places where water can be trapped on the deck, and also helped to create an easy detail for the newel posts and skirt framing.

Hollen deck framing

This shot really shows how everything fits together. The framing sits on beams, the Newel posts extend all the way down to the base of the skirt, and provide great attachment for the skirt; they also align with the post-beam connection, allowing the newel post to act as the post-beam connector, reducing the amount of hardware while making, I believe, a stronger connection. The framing for the skirt also holds the picture frame deck section, with a good air space around everything. All the posts are wrapped with a peel & stick waterproof membrane to protect that delicate area from water damage.

Hollen deck framing & hardware

This shows a beam with the framing on top, the newel is lined up over the post and connects the post & beam, and the Simpson Post hardware is used to ensure the rim doesn’t pull off. Waterproofing extends over the framing, and the piece of wood added to center the hardware on the post is cut with a bevel on the top and treated with Wolmer end-cut solution to protect the wood.

Hollen deck, picture rail

And this picture shows the picture rail getting notched around the newel. The string line is to ensure straightness of the decking and alignment with the posts. You can see that the skirt will follow the stairs down.

Hollen deck; miter, newel, & skirt

And here is one of the 22° miters with the newel post wrap and finished skirt below.

Custom kitchen

I will be adding galleries of some of the work I did while Lavrans Mathiesen Woodworking was up and running, and will hopefully be adding current work, too.

Zarling Deck

Zarling Deck, beam

Fossi stairs