Carpentry & Joinery

Carpentry With a Pride in the Detail

Carpentry is one of the few trades where the difference between competent and excellent is immediately visible to anyone who looks. A door that has been hung properly closes with a soft click; a door that has been hung carelessly either rubs at the top corner or springs back from the latch. A shelf that has been levelled to the spirit-level looks plumb; a shelf that has been levelled by eye in a Victorian terrace where the floor falls slightly to one side often looks crooked even though the shelf itself is straight. Our carpentry team have spent years developing the eye for these details, and we apply that eye to every job we do, no matter how small.

The work covered by carpentry and joinery is broad. We make and fit bespoke storage in alcoves, we hang doors, we replace skirting and architrave, we build decking, we install stairs and balustrades, we fit out home offices and lofts. Some jobs are pure carpentry on site, cutting and fixing material to suit the room. Others involve workshop joinery, where we make components in advance and bring them to site to install. Either way, the goal is the same: a finished result that looks as if it has always been part of the house.

Built-in Storage and Bespoke Joinery

The single most popular request we get is for fitted alcove cupboards: the floor-to-shoulder cupboards either side of the chimney breast in a Victorian living room, the matching pair of full-height wardrobes in an attic conversion, the under-stairs storage cupboard with shelves, drawers and a coat rail. We design and build these on site to fit the awkward dimensions of real rooms, and we paint them to blend invisibly into the wall colour. The result is bespoke storage that adds value to the house and looks far better than any flat-pack equivalent.

Other built-in carpentry jobs we cover include built-in window seats, bookcases, home-office desks and shelving runs, kitchen banquette seating and bedroom wardrobes. Each is designed for the specific room rather than purchased and forced to fit.

• Alcove cupboards and fitted shelving
• Floor-to-ceiling wardrobes
• Under-stairs storage and pull-out drawers
• Window seats with lift-up storage
• Bespoke bookcases and home offices
• Skirting board, architrave and dado rail replacement
• Internal and external door hanging
• Door frame replacement and re-fitting
• Stair refurbishment, including stringers, treads and risers
• New balustrades, handrails and newel posts
• Decking installation and replacement
• Pergolas, garden offices and bin stores
• Loft hatches and folding loft ladders

Doors, Frames and Skirting

Internal doors are responsible for a surprising amount of weekly frustration in older homes. They drag at the corner, they stick in winter and rattle in summer, the latch no longer aligns with the strike plate, and the hinges have started to creak. We re-hang doors properly: planing the bottom edge to clear new flooring, recessing the hinges crisply with a chisel rather than a router so the join is invisible, and adjusting the strike plate so the latch lands cleanly. For doors that need to be replaced entirely, we supply and fit a wide range of internal doors from oak veneer to traditional four-panel softwood, all primed and finished to your chosen colour.

Skirting and architrave is another common project. Whether you are replacing tired pine skirting in a 1960s semi with a chunkier Torus profile, or restoring the original ogee skirting in a Linthorpe townhouse, we cut, scribe and fit skirting to the wall properly, with mitred internal corners, scarf-jointed long runs and pinned-and-glued fixings rather than nails.

Decking, Stairs and Garden Joinery

Outdoor carpentry is its own specialist area. Decking has to be set out with a proper fall away from the house, with adequate drainage underneath and joists at the right centres for the deck board thickness. We use treated softwood from local merchants for budget jobs and hardwood or composite for premium installations. Stairs, both internal and external, are perhaps the most demanding carpentry work of all: the rise-and-run calculations have to be right, the going has to be consistent, and the balustrade has to meet building regulations. We are happy to undertake all of these, including loft conversions where new staircases are needed.

Quotes and Bookings

Carpentry quotes are usually based on a site visit because the dimensions and finish required vary so much. Visits and quotes are free and without obligation. Once a quote is accepted, we will agree a start date and a finished date, and we will keep to them barring exceptional circumstances. We carry out work across Middlesbrough, Stockton, Redcar, Yarm and the wider Teesside area.

Frequently Asked Questions