Carpenter and Joiner in Reigate (RH2)
Reigate runs from the old town and its conservation streets, where there are larger period and listed properties, out to 1930s to 1960s housing and newer builds in the southern suburbs. Joinery in the first of those is a different job from joinery in the second, and it does not start in the same place.
When the joinery is part of what is protected
In a listed building the protection covers the inside as well as the outside, and internal joinery, meaning doors, staircases, panelling, shutters and mouldings, is often exactly what somebody thought was worth listing. That changes where a project starts. The question stops being what you would like and becomes what can be done without losing original fabric, and consent may be needed for work that would be unremarkable in a house down the road. In practice the answer is usually repair rather than replacement, and new work designed to be reversible: built-in units fixed so they could come out again without damage behind them, and no original section cut about to make a modern piece fit. It is worth establishing the position before drawings are commissioned, because it shapes the design rather than decorating it. The carpentry on a job like that is done in house, so the joiner giving you that view at the survey is the one doing the work; an electrician or decorator, where the job needs one, is engaged through us and stays our responsibility.
Repairing old timber
Repair sounds like the cheap option and often is not, because it is slower and it needs a joiner who can match a section. A split panel, a dropped door joint, a worn stair nosing or a length of skirting lost to damp can each be cut out and new timber let in, matched for profile and grain direction, so the repair disappears under paint. Where a moulding no longer exists in any catalogue, the profile can be run from a sample taken off the house itself. The alternative, ripping out a whole run because part of it has failed, is quicker and takes something out of the building that cannot be put back.
The later houses to the south
The 1930s to 1960s stock and the newer housing in the southern suburbs are usually a more straightforward proposition, although whether a particular street sits inside a conservation area is worth checking rather than assumed. These are houses where built-in storage does the most good: fitted wardrobes taking a bedroom wall from floor to ceiling, an understairs cupboard built out properly instead of left as a triangular void with a door in it, a media wall with the cabling run behind it. Internal doors and mouldings in houses of that age are often the cheapest thing in the building and the easiest thing to improve, and doing a whole floor at once keeps the profiles and the heights consistent. Where a house is neither listed nor in a conservation area, the real constraints are the budget and what the rooms are actually used for.
More in Reigate
Everything we do in Reigate is on the Reigate area sheet, and the full detail of how we approach this trade is on the carpentry & joinery page.
Common questions
Q.01Do I need consent to change internal joinery in a listed house?
You may well, because listing normally covers the interior too. We give an honest view at the survey and would far rather flag it early than have work stopped part way through.
Q.02Can new built-in furniture go into a period room without damaging it?
Yes, if it is designed to be reversible. Fixings go into later fabric wherever possible and the unit is built so it could be taken out again without pulling original material with it.
Q.03Can you match a moulding that is no longer made?
Usually. A short sample taken off the house is enough to have the profile run, and the new section is then spliced into what is already there rather than replacing the whole length.
Q.04Do you take on smaller jobs, such as doors and skirting?
Yes. Hanging a set of internal doors, or replacing skirting and architrave through a floor, is normal work and is priced on its own terms rather than only as part of something larger.
Thinking about carpentry & joinery in Reigate?
Tell us what you are planning. We come out, look at the job properly and give you a price for it.