JEFF SEAL

Jeff Seal Homes

On Tuesday November 8^th Jeff Seal and his associate Abby where kind enough to take time out of their day to give our class a tour of a couple of their most recent projects. The enthusiasm that they shared about their projects was infectious, and the grandeur and beauty of these two homes where apparent from the first sight of the front door.

The aspects of the house that where the most outstanding and notable where the great variety of concepts in ceiling design. The rooms and hallways had a large quantity of different ceilings that despite their differences they all where cohesive within the home. The first home was almost finished and the idea behind the ceiling structures where very clear. From a groin vault in the front entry to arched ceilings in the kitchen, dining room, and hallway the view above was intriguing and eye catching. In the kitchen a low grade arch vault spanned the entire width of the kitchen ceiling. The Romans used concrete but Jeff Seal and his designer decided to manufacture the ceiling with a wood frame supporting an entirely antique brick ceiling. Many of the ceilings inside this home where dropped down lower than a normal ceiling to create an atmosphere of comfort and hominess. At the top of the stairs a gust room with a sixteen foot tall ceiling creates a tower to finish of the street that the house is placed on and the grandness emitted by the height would make any guest want to overstay their welcome.

Jeff Seal and his team do a great job of using an enormous variety of shapes, textures, and colors within their design without overwhelming the senses. Mr. Seal said that the goal when designing a house is to make everything unnoticeable. What he meant by this comment was that as beautiful and unique as everything in the house is a person walking through it should not be able to automatically walk into the room and pick something out that doesn’t really go with the rest of the space. All of the elements in a house including the structural elements should work together to create a comfortable living environment and nothing should stand out as odd or a little off.  

While listening to Jeff Seal talk about his designs, ideas, and process’s it was apparent from the beginning the amount of enthusiasm that he and his designers have for their projects. The amount of time, effort, and creativity that him and his staff is enormous and they would not be able to achieve the beauty in their designs that they do without the inspirations and enthusiasm that they all have for the job.

Collins Tile and Stone

 Collins Tile and Stone is a fabrication componey specalizing in Granite and other hard surphaces along with tile. Mr. Collins explained about each different product that they sell starting with granite. Granite is the highest selling product, selling at about forty five dollars a square foot all the way up to a hundred and fifty dollars a square foot. Granite comew from coaries which can be found all of the world, the granite that has the most amount of movement and susaquintly is the most expensive comes form Brasil. Granite comes in a great variety of different styles, some granite  has a great amount of movement and color while others are very uniform. A good rule of thumb to know is that the more movement granite has the lighter your poket will be after purchasing it. Another factor to consider when it comes to  pricing granite is the color, neutral colors such as brown, cream, and tan are very commin and therefore less expensive, colors such as blue however are very rare and can increase the price of a slab. Granite is typicaly used in kitchens because it is scratch resistant and very strong, it normaly comes in a pollished finish but more recently granite fabricaters have been providing the option to use a honed or leathered finish. One thing to keep in mind when selecting a counter top material is that granite is a very dense material and therefore very strong however it is not flexible so with any amount of bowing the granite can snap. 
    Marble is a nother hard surface material which has a vaining look and is not granuler like most granite. Like granite marble can come from all over the world. Marble is beautifle in kitchens however it will not stand up to a kitchens brutality like granite can, marble is absorbant and can stain and scratch easily. A good thing to suggest to a client who just has to have their marble kitchen is a honed finish which will hide the scratches and stains more affectively than a polished finish. Travertine is a calceum tipified by holes, these holes make the travertine very absorbant and not at all stain resistant. Limestone is a sea bed forming stone. 
    Collins tile and stone also caries man made materials such as Cambria and Corian. Cambria is quartz the can be made to look like granite and actually has peaces of granite along with an apoxy reson in it. Quartz has the capability of an enormis variety of colors and it has the consistency of color that granite does not. Because granite is a natural stone there is no guarintee on what you actually get will look like what you selectd, quartz does not have this same problem. Corian is virtualy impinitrable and is very good for hospitals because of the sanitation requierments. It was invented in the sixties by a man named dupant and it was very popular in the eighties and ninetys. When corian is instaled it is welded togethrer so that it is compleatly seamless. 
    There was a great variety of products that Mr. Collins talked about and the overall expereance at Collin's tile and stone was educational and interesting.

Leftwich Chapman

The Leftwich and Chapman show room caries a wide variety of flooring materials such as wood, soft textiles, tile, and stone. On the floor of the show room there is a patchwork application of different flooring materials so that clients can get a better idea of what the material looks like when it is instaled. sixty to seenty percent of Leftwich and Chapman's sails are of wood and tile and about thirty percent are from carpet. The most popular floor application is wood, wood used to be applied using nails however now it can be glued down using a crossplyed system to create more stability. Crossply is where there are multiple layers of wood alternating in directions of horizonatl and virticaly placed wood, this creates strengs and a more cost affective and universal way to apply wood to a floor. You can find really cheep versions of this at big stores like home depot however Mr. Leftwich told us "If it's cheeper, there is a reason" most of the time a wood is cheeper is because they use the nice wood only on the top layer of the crossply system and the rest is a soft would like basalwood which is not very sturdy and over time it will break down. The Products at Leftwich and Chapman are all American made using a hard wood venier all the way through. Wood floors are great for almost every room in the house however it is not recomended that they be applied in a bathroom or a kitchen because water and wood do not mix. When water is constantly put on wood the wood will swell and crack and it will eventualy lose its uniformity. A better option for those areas of the home would be tile or other sinthetic products that can be made to look like wood.
    There are some other options when it comes to flooring that can look a lot like wood and give the viewer the sense that a wood floor would give. A very high density corke, not like the corke in wine bottles, can be used very affectivly as a flooring material. A treatment is applied to the corke so that it is very easy to take care of. Bamboo is another specialty floor option which can look very similar to the typical woods. Bamboo is greatly cost affective because it grows very fast and is a very hard material. However bamboo is sensitive to heat, cold, humidity, and dryness. Bamboo needs humidity so it wont crack, a situation called checking. Normaly when Leftwich and Chapman is instaling a wood floor they bring the wood to the house a few days in advance so that the wood can aclamate to the climate in the house, bamboo requires around two weeks to aclamate to the inviernment. 
   One of the most interesting flooring materials at Leftwich and Chapman is a leather floor, thats right leather. Normaly one would expect that this leather floor would not be a very good choice because leather although great for furniture would not be able to stand up to the wear and tear that a normal floor has to stand up to. However this leather floor is rated for heavy residental use and light comercial use. You may be thinking "how is that possible", this leather floor is made of recycled leather with added palimers that makes it strong and has an applied sealent on it to keep it safe from moisture and other mishaps. 
    Overall the trip to Leftwich and Chapman was well worth the time and I was able to learn a lot, not only about wood floors but, about tile, carpite, stone, and other man made materials which are made to simulate all of the other materials.