Carpenter and Joiner in Whyteleafe (CR3)
Much of Whyteleafe is Edwardian and interwar housing that climbs the sides of the dry valley, and older solid-wall construction comes with it. That matters more to a carpenter than most people expect, because anything built in has to be fixed to something, and a solid wall behaves nothing like a stud partition.
What you are fixing to
Behind the plaster in a solid-walled house you are into masonry rather than a timber stud, so there is nothing to find with a detector and nothing to screw straight into.
Built-in storage on that kind of wall lives or dies on the battens behind it: the right fixings for old and sometimes soft brick, set deep enough to hold a loaded wardrobe rather than just an empty carcass. Old masonry is also rarely flat or plumb, which is why the battens get packed and lined before any panel goes near them. Get that stage right and the doors hang true for years afterwards. Skip it and you see the result every time a wardrobe door closes against one corner and stands off the other. None of this shows in the finished job, which is exactly why it is the part that gets rushed.
Alcoves, chimney breasts and the scribe
The two alcoves either side of a chimney breast in an older Whyteleafe house are hardly ever the same as each other, and neither of them is square. The depth changes as you go up, the back wall bows, and the skirting already in place has its own thickness to allow for. That is why alcove units and built-in shelving are measured on site and cut on site rather than ordered against a size chart. The visible edges are scribed to the wall so the unit reads as part of the room instead of a box pushed into a gap, and any packing sits at the back where nobody looks. It takes longer than an off-the-shelf fit and it costs more in labour than in material. It is also the difference between joinery and furniture assembly.
Doors and mouldings at second fix
Second fix is where an older house shows whether the carpenter was paying attention.
Internal doors in Edwardian and interwar properties sit in openings that have moved, so they are hung to the frame in front of them rather than to a nominal size, and the ironmongery is set out to match the rest of the house. Skirting and architrave are the same story: the profiles used then are deeper and heavier than most stock lengths sold now, so new work either matches what is there or is run to suit. Get those two things right and the new work stops announcing itself. Get them wrong and a finished room reads as a repair rather than as part of the house.
More in Whyteleafe
Everything we do in Whyteleafe is on the Whyteleafe area sheet, and the full detail of how we approach this trade is on the carpentry & joinery page.
Common questions
Q.01Can you fit wardrobes to a solid brick wall?
Yes, and that is the normal situation in a solid-walled house. The work goes into the battening and the fixings behind the unit, because that is what carries the weight once it is full rather than empty.
Q.02Will new skirting match what is already in the house?
It can. Older profiles are deeper than most of what is sold off the shelf, so we either source a close match or have the section run. We will show you the profile before anything is fitted.
Q.03My internal doors bind in winter but not in summer. Can that be sorted?
Usually. Timber takes up moisture and moves with the seasons, so a door eased in one month can catch in another. We ease it with that in mind rather than taking off enough to leave a visible gap by the summer.
Q.04Is the joinery done by your own people?
The carpentry is. It is one of the trades SG keeps on its own books, so the joiner who measures your job is the one fitting it. Electrics and decorating are not ours: we bring those specialists in, run them and stay answerable for how the job ends up.
Q.05Do you make the joinery on site or in a workshop?
Both, depending on the piece. Carcasses are often built off site, but the fitting, the scribing and any part that meets an uneven wall is done in the room, because that is the only place the real measurements exist.
Thinking about carpentry & joinery in Whyteleafe?
Tell us what you are planning. We come out, look at the job properly and give you a price for it.