Carpenter and Joiner in Godstone (RH9)
Our office is at 27 High Street, in the middle of the village, so Godstone joinery is work on our own doorstep. It is also a village with two conservation areas and a good number of period cottages and listed homes, and older fabric like that rarely offers a standard opening to work to.
Doors in a village cottage
Cottage door openings are a problem of their own.
They are frequently smaller than anything sold as a standard door, they have moved as the building has settled, and the frames are often part of the original structure rather than something added afterwards. A door for an opening like that is either made to size or cut down from a larger blank, and it is hung to the opening in front of it rather than to a nominal dimension. Latches, hinges and catches matter more here than in a modern house, because the ironmongery is on show and the wrong pattern is the first thing a visitor notices. Where an original door survives, repairing it is nearly always better than replacing it: easing the stiles, letting new timber into a joint that has dropped, and resetting the hinges so it sits properly in the frame again. Door work like that is done by our own joiners rather than passed on to somebody else. Painting it afterwards is a separate trade, and that decorator is booked, priced and supervised by us.
Built-in work where nothing is straight
Storage in an old cottage cannot be bought. Walls bow, ceilings are low and frequently uneven, and floors run away from level in more than one direction, so a carcass built square and pushed into the room will show a gap along one edge and touch along another. The way round it is to build square, then scribe every visible edge to the surfaces it actually meets, and to let the packers sit where they are out of sight. Shelving and alcove units are set out from the floor as it is rather than as it ought to be. That takes measuring in the room itself, more than once, which is why this kind of joinery is fitted on site rather than delivered finished and slid into place.
Timber moves, and we are round the corner
New joinery in an old building settles in.
Timber takes up and gives off moisture with the seasons, so a door hung in summer can catch in winter and a wide panel can move a little across its width in its first year. Good work allows for it, with gaps set knowing that and panels left free to move rather than pinned solid, but sometimes a door still wants easing once the heating has been on for a few months. Our office is on the High Street, so coming back to adjust something is straightforward to arrange.
More in Godstone
Everything we do in Godstone is on the Godstone area sheet, and the full detail of how we approach this trade is on the carpentry & joinery page.
Common questions
Q.01Our cottage doors are not a standard size. Can you still help?
Yes, and it is normal here. Doors are either made to the opening or cut down from a larger blank, then hung to the frame as it actually is rather than as it was originally meant to be.
Q.02Can you fit units in a room where the floor slopes?
Yes. The unit is built square and then scribed to the floor and the walls, so it stands true even though the room does not. Building it to follow the slope would be the wrong answer and it always looks it.
Q.03Is there anything we cannot change inside a listed cottage?
Possibly. Listing normally covers the interior, so original doors, stairs and mouldings can be protected. It is worth establishing at the survey rather than after work has started.
Q.04Do you take on small jobs in the village?
Yes. Rehanging a door, replacing a run of skirting or building a single cupboard are all normal work, and each is quoted as a job in its own right.
Thinking about carpentry & joinery in Godstone?
Tell us what you are planning. We come out, look at the job properly and give you a price for it.