Carpenter and Joiner in Merstham (RH1)
Merstham runs from listed cottages and conservation-area lanes to Victorian and Edwardian terraces, larger houses above the village and the post-war estate to the east. In the terraces in particular, the storage problem starts under the stairs.
The understairs void and the hall
The space under a staircase is a triangle with a door cut into the flattest part of it, and left like that most of it cannot be reached.
Built out properly it becomes several useful things at once: shallow hanging space at the tall end, drawers or pull-outs where the headroom drops away, and shoe storage in the part nobody can otherwise get to. Doors set into the line of the stair, rather than into one flat panel, are what makes the deep end usable at all. It is a job that has to be measured in three dimensions, because the ceiling above it is a staircase and the floor underneath is rarely level. Done well it takes the coats and boots out of a hall that has no room for them.
Doors that have not opened properly for decades
An original door that has stayed in a house since it was built has usually been painted many times over. Mouldings fill in, the edges build up until the door binds in its frame, and hinges get painted through so they no longer sit down in their housings. Most of that is recoverable: stripping back, cleaning out the housings, easing the edges by the right amount and rehanging on ironmongery that suits the door. It is more work than fitting a new flat door and it keeps something in the house that cannot be bought back.
The rest of Merstham
The streets above the village hold larger turn-of-the-century and interwar houses, and a room of that size will take a full run of fitted wardrobes without feeling smaller for it.
On the post-war estate to the east the construction is later and simpler, which usually makes built-in storage a more straightforward job and a cheaper one, because the structure throws up fewer surprises behind the plaster. In the conservation lanes and on any listed cottage the position is different again and worth checking before work is designed, since listing normally covers the inside of a building as well as the outside. Original doors, stairs and mouldings can all be caught by it, and that is far better known at the survey than discovered halfway through.
More in Merstham
Everything we do in Merstham is on the Merstham area sheet, and the full detail of how we approach this trade is on the carpentry & joinery page.
Common questions
Q.01Can the understairs cupboard be made properly useful?
Nearly always. The trick is treating it as three different spaces by height rather than as one cupboard, and setting the doors into the line of the stair so the deep end can actually be reached.
Q.02Do we have to find our own decorator afterwards?
No. Carpentry is ours, so the doors and the built-in work are made and fitted by SG's own joiners. Decorating, and any electrical work behind a new unit, are brought in, but we bring them in, sequence them and stay answerable for them, so there is one firm to come back to.
Q.03Our doors are painted solid. Are they worth saving?
Usually yes. Stripping back, cleaning out the hinge housings and easing the edges recovers most doors, and it keeps a detail the house was built with rather than replacing it with a flat one.
Q.04Is fitted storage cheaper in a newer house?
Often, because later construction throws up fewer surprises behind the plaster. The joinery itself is the same work; it is the unknowns in an older property that add to the cost.
Q.05Do the conservation lanes change what we can do inside?
They can, particularly on a listed cottage where the interior is covered as well. We would rather establish that at the survey than have it come up part way through the job.
Thinking about carpentry & joinery in Merstham?
Tell us what you are planning. We come out, look at the job properly and give you a price for it.