Carpentry
Carpentry and Rot Repair
Rotted headers, porch beams and fascia cut back to sound wood, plus doors, locks, trim and built-ins.
Soft wood gives itself away before it fails
Rot is quiet at first. Paint bubbles along a porch beam. A fascia board sags a little behind the gutter. A screwdriver pressed into trim sinks in instead of stopping. In Beech Grove and Greenwood, as anywhere in Central Indiana, the classic cause is a gutter that overflows for a few seasons and soaks the board it hangs from.
Inside the house it is usually hardware and fit. A door that drags and won't latch, a closet door that has come off its track, trim that moves when you touch it, cabinets that were hung on drywall alone. None of that is dramatic, and all of it is carpentry.
A new light wood board fitted into a porch header under the roofline where the old wood was cut out
Cut back to sound wood, then a new board
I probe the wood first to find where the soft stops. Then everything soft comes out, back to firm timber, even when that means taking more than the homeowner expected. Patching over a bad board with filler is how a repair fails twice. The new board is cut to fit, primed on every face and cut end before it goes up, fastened, caulked at the joints and painted to match.
Doors get hung plumb with the hinges shimmed so the gap stays even all the way around. Lock work means boring the edge, setting the latch and cutting the strike plate so it closes without a shoulder. Cabinets are leveled, scribed to the wall and fastened into studs. Brownsburg and Mooresville homes with built-in shelving ask for the same patience: every shelf checked for level before the next goes in.
All of it is my own hands. I'm a licensed general contractor with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Plan Commission and Building Authority, bonded and insured, and I don't hand carpentry to subcontractors.
Seal every edge so the rot stays out
New wood rots the same way old wood did if water can find an end grain. That is why the primer goes on the cut ends before installation, why the joints get caulked, and why the paint line runs right up to the roof edge. A new board that was only painted on the visible face is a short-term repair.
After the repair, watch the cause. If it was a gutter, get the gutter fixed or cleaned, which I do too. If it was a window or a door that let water in, the caulk is the real repair. Call 317-850-6427 and I'll walk the house and tell you what the wood is doing, with a written estimate.
The Residential Handyman — Licensed, bonded and insured general contractor. Call 317-850-6427.
Wood, hinges and hardware
The carpentry list, line by line
What this covers
- Carpentry
- Door installations
- Lock work and installations
- Cabinet installations
Related on the list
- Window caulking
- Furniture assembly
- General labor
Other work on the same visit
- Interior and exterior painting
Every new board is primed and painted before the job is done.
- Roof repairs and gutters
The gutter line is where most fascia rot begins.
- Drywall and garage finishing
Trim, shelving and board work for the garage.
Have a board or a door in mind? Describe it on the contact page or check the license, bond and insurance details.