Do you charge for the design visit?

No. The visit, the measuring and the drawing are all free and carry no obligation. It takes about an hour. If we are the wrong firm for the job we will say so during that hour rather than send a quote designed to be refused.

Is the price you give me fixed?

Yes. Once you have signed off the drawing and specification, the price does not move. There is no line called “contingency”. The only thing that changes a fixed price is you changing what you have asked for, and that gets priced and agreed in writing before anything happens.

How far in advance do I need to book?

Typically three to six weeks from sign-off to fitting, depending on what is in the workshop. Hand-painted work takes longer than sprayed because each coat has to dry properly. If you have a fixed deadline, say so on the first call and we will tell you honestly whether it is achievable.

Can I cancel after I have agreed?

If you signed at your home, yes. The Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 give you 14 days to cancel an off-premises contract, and we set that out in writing with every quote. If you ask us to begin work inside those 14 days, that changes the refund position, and we explain how before you decide.

Do you take a deposit?

Yes, to cover materials, with the balance staged rather than demanded up front. The exact terms are on your quote. We do not ask for the full amount before work starts and you should be wary of anyone who does.

Will you make a mess?

Some, unavoidably. Cutting timber produces dust. Floors get protected, dust sheets go down, and we clear up at the end of every day rather than only on the last one. Scribing has to happen on site because that is the only place it can honestly be done.

Do you do small jobs?

Yes, though a half-day job and a full room are priced very differently per hour, and it is worth grouping small work together. Ring and describe it. We will tell you whether it is worth a visit.

Questions

Straight answers, including the awkward ones.

If something you want to know is not here, ring and ask. We would rather answer it before you book than have it become a problem afterwards.

Do you charge for the design visit?: No. The visit, the measuring and the drawing are all free and carry no obligation. It takes about an hour. If we are the wrong firm for the job we will say so during that hour rather than send a quote designed to be refused.
Is the price you give me fixed?: Yes. Once you have signed off the drawing and specification, the price does not move. There is no line called “contingency”. The only thing that changes a fixed price is you changing what you have asked for, and that gets priced and agreed in writing before anything happens.
How far in advance do I need to book?: Typically three to six weeks from sign-off to fitting, depending on what is in the workshop. Hand-painted work takes longer than sprayed because each coat has to dry properly. If you have a fixed deadline, say so on the first call and we will tell you honestly whether it is achievable.
Can I cancel after I have agreed?: If you signed at your home, yes. The Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 give you 14 days to cancel an off-premises contract, and we set that out in writing with every quote. If you ask us to begin work inside those 14 days, that changes the refund position, and we explain how before you decide.
Do you take a deposit?: Yes, to cover materials, with the balance staged rather than demanded up front. The exact terms are on your quote. We do not ask for the full amount before work starts and you should be wary of anyone who does.
Will you make a mess?: Some, unavoidably. Cutting timber produces dust. Floors get protected, dust sheets go down, and we clear up at the end of every day rather than only on the last one. Scribing has to happen on site because that is the only place it can honestly be done.
Do you do small jobs?: Yes, though a half-day job and a full room are priced very differently per hour, and it is worth grouping small work together. Ring and describe it. We will tell you whether it is worth a visit.

By service

Questions about a particular job.

Fitted wardrobes

How long does a fitted wardrobe take?: The fitting itself is usually the short part; most of the elapsed time is making. Hand-painting adds a day or two on site because each coat has to dry properly before the next goes on, and doors are re-adjusted after the paint has cured.
Can you build around a chimney breast or a sloping ceiling?: Yes. That is usually the reason people call rather than buying something off the shelf. Awkward geometry is where a made-to-measure wardrobe earns its money — a sloped ceiling in particular is almost impossible to buy a solution for.
Do you paint on site or in a workshop?: Both, depending on the finish. Hand-painting on site gives a continuous finish across the whole run and is easy to touch up in five years. Spraying off site gives a harder, more uniform surface but means more pieces coming through the house and no easy touch-up later.
MDF or solid wood?: For a painted wardrobe, MDF is the better material, not the cheaper compromise. It is stable, it does not move with the seasons and it takes paint far better than softwood. Solid timber is the right answer only where you are going to see the grain.
Will it add value to the house?: Storage in a bedroom that has none is one of the few pieces of joinery that reliably makes a room easier to sell, because it removes a problem a buyer can see. We would not build one on that basis alone, though — build it because you need somewhere to put your clothes.
What happens to the skirting behind it?: It comes off behind the run and is either reused at the ends or replaced to match. Building a carcass over existing skirting pushes the whole wardrobe forward by 20mm and leaves a gap at the top that has to be covered.
Can you match an existing wardrobe or built-in?: Usually. Matching a moulding profile means either finding the same cutter or having one ground, which is worth doing on a whole room and rarely worth it on one door. Matching a paint colour is straightforward — most decorators’ merchants will scan a sample.

Alcove units

Do both alcoves have to match?: They should look matched, and we build them to appear so. The openings themselves are usually different by 20–60mm, which is absorbed in the construction rather than left visible. What actually creates the illusion is aligning the shelf heights, the door tops and the face line across the chimney breast.
Can you build around a live chimney or a stove?: Yes, with proper clearances. Where a flue is in use we keep combustible materials at the distances the appliance requires — these come from the manufacturer’s instructions, which vary a lot — and can specify non-combustible backing where needed.
MDF or real wood?: For a painted unit, MDF is genuinely the better material. It is stable, does not move with the seasons and takes paint far better than softwood. Solid timber makes sense where the grain is going to be seen.
How far can a shelf span before it sags?: About 800–900mm in 18mm board with normal book loading. Past that you want 25mm board, a hardwood lipping on the front edge, or a centre support. A lipping is the most efficient of the three: a 20mm deep hardwood strip on the front edge stiffens a shelf far more than adding 7mm of thickness would.
Can you hide the cables for a TV and speakers?: Yes, and it is much easier to do before the backs go on than after. Tell us at the survey what is going where — including anything you might add later — and we will route conduit rather than bare cable so a future swap is a pull-through rather than a rebuild.
Will the units cover the existing skirting?: The skirting comes off inside the alcove and is returned into the unit so the run looks continuous. Building on top of skirting is quicker and it is always visible afterwards.

Media walls

Can you fit an electric fire into it?: Yes. It has to be planned in from the start because the aperture, the clearances and the power supply all affect the framing. Choose the fire first — its instructions give the minimum distances to combustible material, and those figures set the frame dimensions.
What happens when I change the TV?: We size the recess with headroom for a screen a size or two larger and keep the bracket fixings accessible, so an upgrade later is usually a straight swap rather than a rebuild.
How much depth does a media wall take?: Typically 120–200mm depending on whether a fire is included and how deep the equipment shelves need to be. On a 3.6m wall that is roughly half a square metre of floor area, which is worth being aware of in a small sitting room.
Will the equipment overheat?: Not if the compartments are vented properly, which means air able to enter low and leave high rather than a single slot at the back. AV amplifiers in particular put out real heat and will throttle or fail early in a sealed box.
Do you do the electrics?: No — a registered electrician does, and certifies the work. New circuits in a dwelling are notifiable under Part P of the Building Regulations. We coordinate the sequence so they are in while the frame is still open.
Can it go on a stud wall?: Yes, though the fixing strategy changes. On masonry we can fix more or less anywhere; on stud we set noggins to suit the bracket centres before the face goes on, which means knowing the bracket at the framing stage rather than at the end.

Home offices

Can you fit an office under the stairs?: Often, yes. Understairs is one of the most rewarding spaces to work with because it is almost always wasted. The limiting factor is headroom at the desk position rather than floor area — you want roughly 900mm of clear height above the desk where you sit. Below that, it becomes very good storage instead.
What desk height should I ask for?: 730mm is the standard and suits most people with an adjustable chair. If you are much taller or shorter than average, say so at the survey — it costs nothing to change on a drawing and cannot be changed at all afterwards.
Can you build in a sit-stand desk?: Yes, though it changes the design considerably: the desktop has to be free of the carcasses on at least three sides, so you lose the built-in look on the desk itself. It is usually better to build storage and shelving around a bought sit-stand frame than to try to make one look fitted.
How do you deal with a landing that is a fire escape route?: Carefully, and sometimes not at all. A protected escape route has to stay clear and the materials in it matter. If your landing is the only way out of the bedrooms, we will look at what can go in it and tell you honestly if the answer is very little.
Can it close up so the room stops being an office?: Yes, and it is one of the most worthwhile things you can spend money on if the room is also used for something else. Doors on the whole run roughly double the door count, so it does show in the price.

Wall panelling

Do you paint it as well?: Yes, filled, caulked, primed and finished. Panelling that is fitted but not properly finished never looks right, so we treat it as one job rather than leaving you to find a decorator.
What about sockets and radiators?: Sockets are cut in so the faceplate sits flush on the panel — the back box is extended forward to suit. Radiators usually need the pipework adjusting or the panelling returning around them, which we set out at survey rather than discovering on the day.
How do you decide the panel widths?: The wall is divided into equal bays, with the divisions related to the doors and windows where possible. What we never do is start at one end and let the last panel be whatever is left, which is exactly what a kit forces you into and exactly what makes panelling look wrong.
Can you panel over an uneven wall?: Yes — the framing is packed to a true face, which is part of why hand-fitted panelling costs more than a kit. Fluted and reeded profiles are the exception: the shadows on them exaggerate any twist, so a badly out-of-plumb wall may need attention first.
Will it make the room smaller?: Marginally. A shaker grid adds about 20–25mm to the wall, full-height or fluted panelling 25–40mm. It is not usually noticeable, but it does matter behind a door that opens against the wall.
Is MDF or real timber better?: For a painted finish, MDF. It is flat, stable and takes paint beautifully. Solid tongue-and-groove is the right choice where you want the joints to move slightly with the seasons and read as an older surface — it is a different look, not a better material.

Kitchen fitting

Will you fit a kitchen I have bought elsewhere?: Yes. Most of the kitchens we fit are supplied by the client. We are happy to look over the plan before you order, because that is when layout mistakes are cheap to fix.
Do you do the plumbing and electrics too?: We coordinate with trusted trades rather than pretending to be them. You get one point of contact and a sequence that works, and each part is done by someone qualified to do it. Electrical work in a kitchen is notifiable under Part P and is certified by the electrician.
How long is the kitchen out of action?: Longer than the fit itself if you are having stone or composite worktops, because those are templated once the base units are in and then made off site. Plan for a gap between base units and worktops with the kitchen partly usable — a temporary sink connection is worth asking your plumber about.
My walls are visibly out of true. Is that a problem?: It is normal rather than a problem. Fourteen millimetres over 900 is unremarkable in an older house. It is absorbed with scribed fillers and end panels cut to the line of the wall, which is slower than packing and caulking and is the reason a properly fitted kitchen looks like it belongs there.
Can you make a larder or island rather than buying one?: Yes, and it is often where a bought kitchen most obviously runs out. A made larder can use the full depth and height available rather than the nearest catalogue size, which usually means noticeably more storage in the same footprint.
What about the old kitchen?: Stripped out and taken away for licensed disposal. Anything reusable we will set aside if you have somewhere for it to go, which is worth asking about before it is broken up.

Bathroom carpentry

Will it warp in a bathroom?: Not if it is built from the right board and sealed on every cut edge, including the underside and the back, which is where cheap units fail first. Moisture-resistant MDF is resistant, not waterproof — the sealing is what does the work.
Can I still get to the pipework?: Yes. Every panel we build over a trap, valve or cistern has a removable section. Boxing that has to be destroyed to reach a leak is not finished work.
Should the boxing go in before or after tiling?: Before, almost always. The tiles then finish onto the boxing and the junction is a tile edge rather than a silicone line. It means booking us and the tiler in the right order, which is worth the coordination.
Wall-hung or floor-standing?: Wall-hung looks lighter and makes the floor much easier to clean, but it needs proper grounds behind the plasterboard to fix into — that has to be planned before the walls are closed up. Floor-standing is more forgiving and better where the wall construction is unknown.
Can you build storage into a sloping ceiling or over the stairs?: Yes, and bathrooms in loft conversions are where this pays off most. The space under a slope is useless for standing in and ideal for storage, and nobody sells a cupboard that fits it.

Structural carpentry

Do you work to structural engineers’ drawings?: Yes, routinely. Where a beam, span or loading is specified we build to the drawing and leave it accessible for inspection rather than boarding over it.
Can you take on just the carpentry package on a build?: Yes. A good proportion of our work is the carpentry element of somebody else’s project, working alongside the main contractor.
Can a plumber notch my joists to run pipes?: Within limits, yes, and the limits are specific: top edge only, between 0.07 and 0.25 of the span from a support, and no deeper than an eighth of the joist depth. Holes are different — those go on the centreline, between a quarter and four-tenths of the span. What causes real damage is a notch mid-span in the bottom edge, which is exactly where the timber is working hardest.
What is the difference between C16 and C24?: Strength class. C24 is stronger and stiffer, so it will span further in the same depth, and it is usually visibly better timber with fewer and smaller knots. Where a drawing specifies C24 it is because the span needs it, and C16 is not an acceptable substitute.
My floor bounces. Can that be fixed?: Usually. The common causes are joists undersized for the span, missing strutting between them, or somebody having notched them badly for pipes or cables. Which one it is determines whether the fix is a day’s work adding strutting or something considerably bigger, so it is worth looking before promising.
Do you handle Building Control?: We build to what has been approved and we make our work available for inspection. The application itself normally sits with the homeowner, the architect or the main contractor — but tell us who is doing it, because the inspection points affect our sequence.

Garden joinery

What timber lasts longest outside?: Oak and cedar, comfortably — both sit at durability Class 2 under BS EN 350, against Class 5 for untreated softwood sapwood. But tanalised softwood detailed properly and kept off the ground will outlast oak that has been badly detailed. How water gets off end grain matters more than the species.
Why do gates drop?: Almost always because the brace is running the wrong way, or the post is undersized. A brace has to run upward from the hinge side so it works in compression. Run the other way it is in tension, and timber joints are weak in tension — so it does nothing at all.
Do you take the old fence away?: Yes — old fencing and posts are taken away for correctly licensed disposal rather than left in a pile behind the shed. As the householder you have a legal duty of care over where your waste ends up, so it is always worth asking any trade how waste will be disposed of.
How deep should fence posts go?: The usual rule is a quarter to a third of the post’s above-ground height, concrete-set, and always below the depth that freezes and moves. On a tall or exposed run, or in soft ground, deeper. A post that is too shallow will lean within a couple of winters and nothing you do at the top will fix it.
Do I need to treat it again, and how often?: Tanalised timber does not need treating to survive, but every cut you make exposes untreated wood and that does need end-grain preservative. If you want it to hold a colour rather than silver, expect to re-coat every two to three years on a south-facing elevation and rather less often elsewhere.
Whose fence is it?: The deeds decide, and the T-mark on the plan usually shows it: the T sits on the owner’s side. There is no reliable "left-hand side" rule despite what everyone says. It is worth checking before we start, particularly if a post has to go on the boundary line.

Tell us what you are trying to fit, and where it has to go.

Four quick questions, no essay and no obligation. We will come and measure, and you will have a drawing and a fixed price within a week.

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