Carpenter and Joiner in Caterham (CR3)
Caterham splits into the older settlement up on the plateau and the valley town below, with Victorian and Edwardian houses, interwar semis and post-war homes across both. We were based in Caterham for years before the move to Godstone, so it is ground we know well.
What happens to joinery during a refurbishment
When an older house is rewired and replastered, the joinery is what gets sacrificed.
Skirting comes off to let cables run, architrave is prised away from door linings, and a proportion of it splits on the way out because it has been painted in place for decades and pinned with cut nails. The plan usually assumes it all goes back on. It rarely all does. The honest way to handle that is to decide at the start whether the mouldings are being saved, matched or replaced throughout, and to price it as its own item rather than as a bit of making good tacked onto the end. Saving originals is perfectly possible if they come off carefully and there is somewhere dry to store them, but it takes time that almost nobody costs in beforehand.
Floorboards, and putting them back
Original boards are often the best floor in the building, and they are also the route to every pipe and cable underneath it. Lifting them without splitting the tongues, numbering them so they go back where they came from, and re-fixing them so the floor does not creak afterwards is joinery work rather than an afterthought for whoever is nearest. Where boards are damaged or missing, matching by width and thickness matters more than matching by species, because a board of the wrong dimension will always show once the floor is finished. If the floor is going to be sanded later, it is worth saying so before it is relaid, because the fixings and the tolerances both change.
Second fix, and who is doing it
Second fix is the stage where a refurbishment either looks finished or looks like a series of separate jobs stuck together.
Doors hung to the openings as they now are, architrave matched around them, skirting scribed into internal corners rather than mitred and filled, and heights kept consistent along a floor. That stage is our own joiners' work throughout. The electrician who wants the skirting off, and the decorator who follows the joinery, are brought in and managed by us, which is what keeps the order right: nothing gets boxed in before the cable is run, and nothing gets painted before it is fitted.
More in Caterham
Everything we do in Caterham is on the Caterham area sheet, and the full detail of how we approach this trade is on the carpentry & joinery page.
Common questions
Q.01Can our original skirting and architrave survive a rewire?
Some of it, if it comes off carefully and there is somewhere to store it. Expect losses and expect to need matching lengths, which is why it is better decided at the start than at the end.
Q.02Can you match the mouldings in an older Caterham house?
Usually. The profiles used in Victorian and Edwardian houses are deeper than most stock lengths, so we either find a match, or have the profile run from an offcut taken off the house.
Q.03Can original floorboards go back down after the services are done?
Yes, if they are lifted properly in the first place. Boards are numbered as they come up and re-fixed so they sit flat, which is what prevents the creaking people expect afterwards.
Q.04Do you take on joinery on its own, without the rest of a refurbishment?
Yes. A set of internal doors, a run of skirting or a single fitted unit is a job in its own right, and it is quoted as one rather than as a line inside a bigger project.
Thinking about carpentry & joinery in Caterham?
Tell us what you are planning. We come out, look at the job properly and give you a price for it.