Carpentry and Woodwork in the Triangle

One crew, booked ahead

Carpentry is our smallest trade by headcount and our longest by lead time. We run a single carpentry crew, which means this section books out further than any other on the site.

That is a deliberate choice rather than a shortage. Finish carpentry is the work people notice most and forgive least: a mitre that opens up, a cabinet door that sits proud, a stair tread that creaks. It is slow, and it is done by the same two people rather than by whoever is free that week.

If you need something quickly, tell us at the quote and we will be honest about whether we can do it. Sometimes we cannot, and saying so is more useful than a date we will miss.

What we make and what we fit

Made in the shop, fitted on site. Custom cabinetry and most built-ins are fabricated off site, which is why they carry the long lead times you will see on those pages. Shop work produces a better result than building in place, and it means the mess and the noise stay out of your house.

Made on site. Trim and moulding, stairs and railings, and most repair work happen in the house, because they have to be scribed and fitted to what is actually there. Triangle houses are rarely square, and a skirting run cut to a drawing will not fit a wall built in 1974.

Timber in this climate

North Carolina humidity swings hard between an August afternoon and a January morning, and wood moves with it.

That matters in ways that show up as complaints if a job is done carelessly. Solid timber panels need room to expand. Interior trim should be acclimatised in the house for several days before it is cut, and we do that rather than fitting material off the van. Exterior timber needs a finish maintained rather than applied once.

It also means that some of what looks like poor workmanship in an older house is just seasonal movement: doors that stick in July and swing free in February are usually doing exactly what they should. We will tell you when that is the case rather than plane a door that will be too small by winter.

What we do not do

We do not do structural framing. A wall coming out, a beam going in or a floor being levelled is a construction project and is assessed by that crew, often with an engineer.

We do not refinish hardwood floors. It is a specialist trade with specialist equipment and we refer it.

We do not disturb lead paint without certified containment. On Triangle houses painted before 1978 this comes up constantly in trim and door work. We hold the certification and we will use it, but it changes the method and the price, and we would rather tell you at the quote.

We do not take on cabinetry refacing. Where the boxes are sound, refacing can be good value, but it is a different supply chain from the one we work in and we would be the wrong company to do it.