Crisp corners. Tight Joints. Level moldings. These are the patents of superlative finish carpentry – each requisite for creating the polished look that elevates any home interior.
Finish carpentry deals with the finest details an interior can feature. Whereas imperfections often aren’t noticeable in rough carpentry, which focuses on the structure’s frame, floors and walls, finish carpentry leaves zero room for error. When window trim, door trim, crown molding, baseboard, chair rail and wainscoting are off by even a fraction of an inch, they create a lopsided, amateurish aesthetic that gives a multi-million dollar mansion an ambiance comparable to that of a nine-year-old’s treehouse.
Look at it this way. A master butcher can work marvels on a side of beef using only a few long knives and a saw. Even so, you wouldn’t trust one to perform plastic surgery.
Take care if you’re choosing a remodeler for your home. Many carpenters say they have mastered the finest form of their craft, but only expert finish carpenters truly lay claim to the precision, attention to detail and experience they need to transform an ordinary room into a work of art.
Precision
A tailored suit is bespoke: created for a singular customer, whose proportions were carefully measured to ensure a perfect fit.
Tailored woodwork is no different. In order to truly conform to and complement a room’s dimensions, the finish carpenter must take painstaking effort to measure every square inch of it just so. A standard tape measure, which must be accurate to within 1/32″, is inadequate for an expert finish carpenter’s purposes. Only an instrument that boasts scientific accuracy can guarantee bespoke woodwork.
Precision isn’t only born out of tape measures. An adept finish carpenter must possess several specialized tools, such as a laser measure, glazing bar, rubber mallet and block plane. You don’t need to know all of these tools by sight. Just know that a carpenter armed with only a hammer is no finish carpenter.
Attention to Detail
A tape measure will only take a finish carpenter so far. True attention to detail can only come from holding a board in place to mark its length – multiple times per board. “Measure twice, cut once” is the finish carpenter’s mantra.
Attention to detail extends far beyond taking flawless measurements, of course. A true finish carpenter avoids flush edges while they are creating window and door trim, favoring reveals instead. They place shoes across areas where baseboards meet floor boards so as to avoid the presentation of gaps. They take all due care to cover end grains with perfectly fitted returns. They line up nails so they are perfectly parallel to one another. “Random placement” is not an acceptable concept to an accomplished finish contractor.
Reveals. Shoes. Returns. Excuse us for using so much of finish carpentry’s lexicon in the preceding paragraph. If anything, our five dollar words evidence just how much detail we pay attention to. We’re dealing with features a layman would find difficulty pointing out, much less naming.
Experience
Although a great finish carpenter must be born with some amount of talent, experience is of inestimably greater importance. In his book Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell said that 10,000 hours of practice are needed in order to master a skill. We can’t verify whether he was correct or off by a few thousand hours, but the principle is correct. Experience is what truly separates the dilettante from the master.
Angell’s finish carpenters have over 27 years of experience. Granted, large percentages of those years were spent doing things other than finish carpentry, such as fishing and eating sandwiches. Even so, we hope we will not come across as arrogant when we say we have the experience we need in order to deliver masterful results. We have done this for a very, very long time.
If you would like to witness what craftsmanship excellence looks like at your Twin Cities area home, then we welcome you to contact Angell’s Construction Services Inc. today. We are standing by to take care of all your home remodeling needs – finish carpentry, and everything else.