We forge and weld according to your specifications, any safety lock feature can be incorporated.
We care about hand crafting processes and manufacturing techniques. Transforming raw and reclaimed materials into products with utility, durability, with a design approach.
Realising your interior design for homes, outdoor, exhibitions and product displays, store fronts, restaurants, bars, hotels.
A client planned for a fire place that should structure a wall of a living room, in a contemporary style . The Chicago-based architect Thomas Shafer developed this black-oxidized steel sheet metal design. It features a fire place with metal surfaces that wrap around a corner to match other door elements, such as a sliding door design on the second wall. Structuring of the entire wall was one task, while providing simultaneously storage for fire wood. We used hot rolled 1/4" thick mild steel, sand blasted the mill-scale surface, plasma-cut the pieces for thermal oxidizing with a rose bud torch, to welded this complex 3-D structure.
This building design won the "Best New Building 2023" award of the Pittsburgh Magazine.
From speciality excavator shovel to custom grating, you send us a sketch and we provide a quote.
Photos from various projects.
Many of our art work and hand crafted offerings include to custom-design and make. And our services are geared towards outstanding experiences.
The photos show one project for stairs we specialise in steel constructions and include realising the staircase walls with railings – that can include various materials.
Our clients planned to establish a home office for professional work. As the only space available was the living room, our task was a room separation without the appearance of a reduced living room area - while giving enough space for the future professional work. The L-shaped glass-screen gives a clear space separation, while the translucency of the screen avoids the feeling of a smaller living room. By proposing a rather small steel footprint of the frame elements, more individual glass panes were possible, that would provide an interesting sculpture-like element in the space catching the sun light but still enabling full daylight everywhere. The clients also liked recycled glass panes, so that the appeal of old factory windows would support their overall loft design. The steel surface is wire-brushed and clear coated, with the original millscale visible.
Glass in collaboration with Emerald Glass, Pittsburg, Pa.
The client envisioned a combination of a steel stair case with wooden steps and a railing that wraps around the upper stair case opening, as a contemporary steel structure well-visible in an open space. The architect Geoffrey di Beneditto of Hart Architects in Pittsburgh designed this stair case, that links a first flight of concrete steps and grab rail with a three-level steel construction featuring wooden treads. We wire-brushed and clear-coated the rectangular steel tube stringer with welded tread brackets, the wood was clear coated and the rail is painted in charcoal. The stringer meet the horizontal ceiling faces on matching tread-width steel plates.
WE ARE ECHT, HERE TO CRAFT.
WE BUILD THINGS WE`RE PROUD TO SAY WE`ve BUILT.
WE LIKE HOW WE MAKE IT. A LOT.
SO, WE BUILD TOWARDS THE FUTURE.
Our railing work includes welding and forging steel; we can incorporate wood, glass, and other materials. Photos show various examples.
An encounter with an admirable item in our life
— can touch our soul
— and leave a trace in us
— that never disappears
For spirals we can incorporate pre-fabricated elements, we offer custom welding and forging, and speciality railings. Fotos show one project in various stages.
A collaboration with Emerald Art Glass in Pittsburgh.Custom work can avoid conventional burglary bars, for back yards, basements and garages. A sturdy steel grid exhibiting a diameter of your choice reduces potential entry surface areas and replaces burglary bars. The window glass can be static or hinged, several windows in one frame are posible, the maximum angle for opening can be restricted.
Photos from various projects.
In our association of ECHT craftsmen, Vaughn Washburn focuses on steel forging and iron casting. Such custom work can be stand alone art, or part of ornamental elements in larger projects. E.g., elements in railings and fences, or an entire theme for a larger design project. Such theme may be inspired by your own ideas. Some of the examples here were developed for someone who wanted to present a gift to a special person, some as corporate memorabilia.
For Windows, safety features come first, of course. We can add functions like sturdy hinges and locks, to enable to open them securely. We also can make sure that your view is not to much compromised. If you have design features in your space that you like to see repeated in your window guards - please send a photo. To mention an example, a family had beautiful ornaments on their 1910 fire place mantle, that we translated into the design of matching window guards in that room. Photos show various projects.
The clients wanted to use their courtyard more often, on a property that sits in a very densely build area. They asked asked for sight protection and requested a structure that has a contemporary modern appeal, more like an architectural sculpture than a fence. We build this sight protection out of Corten steel, that rusts naturally but then stops to protect the structure. We includes burglary resistant gates and doors. To grow plants on the otherwise brick plastered ground, we added matching planter boxes out of the same materials.
Escape ramps and railings, fire door access - can all be custom build. If desired, with your design ideas. The doors can include fire-resistant glass and also sturdy burglary-resistant steel constructions with glass, to allow for daylight; also with translucent-only or patterned glass. A collaboration with Emerald Art Glass in Pittsburgh.
Photos show various projects.
Reception desks, display shelving and cabinets, multi-purpose exhibition installations can be offered according to your specifications. A collaboration with Emerald Art Glass in Pittsburgh.
Photos show various projects.
Our tasks included to provide maximum library wall space in front of walls that show chimneys and other irregularly protruding walls. We separated the shelving into individual but matching elements with various depth, so that the front of the shelving forms one line. As the clients liked a more intricate steel design, we worked with u-channel steel and cleared the "channel walls" between the touching channel elements to provide continuous lines along the horizontals and the verticals. The surface is wire-brushed and clear coated, with the original millscale visible.
Crafted with old-world methods from the 1880s – 1920s, that were established for artisanal “Jugend-Stil" crafting in Germany and Belgium. Semi-transparent glazing with a great depth, an almost three-dimensional aspect of the color.
In a collaboration with Emerald Art Glass in Pittsburgh, we offer custom steel windows. The work can include custom hardware and stained glass or speciality glass. Photos from various projects.
These are thought as conversation piece in a room. While they radiate interesting light they require general lighting in the space. Incorporate them to illuminate with highlights but not as light fixture. Ask us for custom- design. This work is a collaboration with Emerald Glass in Pittsburgh, our friends that can 3-D CAD cut, grind and polish crystal glass in various shapes, and vacuum high-temperature laminate color sheets in between glass panes.
Here, with color decoration laminated within the double safety glass panes. An outdoor decorative steel bar grid, that replaces conventional burglary bars and appears as art work on the outer facade. A collaboration with Emerald Art Glass in Pittsburgh. These photos show one project in all steps.
