Property types & audiences
Carpentry in Victorian and Edwardian homes
Nothing is square, and that's the starting assumption rather than a surprise.
Work in a period house takes longer than the same work in a new one, and the reason is geometry. Openings are out of square, floors have settled, walls bow, and original mouldings are profiles you cannot buy off a shelf. None of that is a defect — it is the character people buy these houses for — but it means fitted work has to be scribed and made to the building rather than assembled from standard sizes.
Out-of-square openings
Door openings in settled houses are frequently several millimetres out over their height. A standard door hung square in a leaning frame shows a tapering gap. The route is either to adjust the lining, or to hang the leaf to the opening so the gap reads even to the eye — which is not the same as hanging it plumb.
Lath and plaster walls
Fixing into lath and plaster is not the same as fixing into plasterboard. Loads need to reach the studs behind, and cutting into the plaster risks cracking well beyond the cut if it is not scored and supported. Knowing what is behind the surface before drilling saves a lot of making good.
Matching original mouldings
Original skirting and architrave profiles are usually taller and more detailed than modern stock. Matching them means either sourcing a close profile and building it up, or having the profile machined. Mixing a modern profile into a room of originals is the detail that most visibly dates a repair.
Floors, joists and services
Original pine boards over undersized joists flex, and generations of plumbing and cabling have usually been run through notched joists. Anything involving lifting boards should assume services are present in awkward places, and that boards will need care to lift and relay without splitting.
Questions we're asked about this
Period property work you want done sympathetically?
Photos of the existing mouldings and the space are the best starting point — we'll talk through matching before quoting.
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