An entrance treatment on a historic home

 It was many years ago, and I was a young carpenter. I didn't take a before shot, but if you can imagine just the finial and the shape of the turning within, capping off a door casing with buttons in the corner, that was pretty much it. This would be about 20 years ago.

I had just finished off framing and trimming a glass roofed guest house, including mantles and kitchen, as well as a tennis court fence that took a crew of 50 nearly 3 months to build and now the main entrance to the house was looking a little shabby for it's new neighboring guest house.

The house is in the Barrie Ontario area, and if you can believe it, the owner received a gift from a friend just as I finished the headpiece... the 5 birds on a branch concrete casting you see in the middle. It was finished and I was packing up the tools when the owner walked up with the casting saying... "Just work this in ok?".

How it was done?  Just nested and built up trim, with a proper roof flashing tucked into the siding. It is sort of like a mantle, however everything needs to be sealed as you go, and you certainly cannot use Poplar... that would rot within a couple of years. Believe it or not I salvaged the old lead flashing from the original installation and used that to seal the turned finial and lower part of the curve after making it deeper.

By Lawrence Winterburn

Basements in the Toronto Area -( Step by Step part 1 )

Here is a basement done by Luke Simonovski--Our Builder in East Toronto Ontario. He renovates basements all over the GTA Toronto area. We are going to walk you through the entire process of professional basement refinishing using this Toronto home's basement as an example.

When you are hiring people to finish basement space you need to keep in mind that they will all use different specifications for the build...and some leave important issues at substandard levels. This will illustrate why you are often better off using a more experienced contractor to finish your basement--since you will have a more functional finished product that won't need repairs for decades.

Any functional basement renovation starts with a layout that takes into account what the space needs to be used for, as well as obstructions and plumbing tie in locations.

 Luke starts out by insulating all the exterior walls using Blue Styrofoam SM rigid insulation. Here you can see the plumbing stack left open until the tie in. We will show you how that is done in a later post.

 Code dictates that the fuse panel can be closed in, but only in an approved enclosure. It has to provide clearance. Circuits need to be added for receptacles and lighting in the basement as well. Luke brings in qualified tradesmen for all plumbing and electrical work.

 It is always a good idea to fire proof the furnace room just in case of a malfunction. Furnaces have been known to explode on occasion and closing it in with a double layer of fire rated drywall can buy the homeowners time to escape.

 Luke likes to use steel stud for framing basements because nearly every piece of framing needs to be a different length. Steel stud costs more...however you save money in the end because it is more efficient. He always uses wood around the openings so that the doors don't work loose over time.

Posts need to be factored into the design so that it doesn't obstruct. There are many ways of decorating or hiding posts within walls. Often posts can be moved, however that is a labor intensive and often cost prohibitive thing to do. Stay tuned... more photos of this project to come!

L

A Restaurant Makeover on Bloor West in Toronto

 A modern diner on Bloor West Toronto--

 Here's a restaurant makeover on Bloor West in Toronto by Luke Simonovski-- Skl Group. Working with a designer friend of Luke's, they had the booths refinished, walls updated and these gorgeous dineresque porcelain patterned floor tiles.

 In the 50's they used asbestos floor tiles--and in commercial applications they would only last a few years. These new floor tiles last far longer. In Restaurant use, good quality porcelain tiles will last 20-30 years.

 The key to renovating restaurants is that everything you do needs to be durable and cleanable. Plastic laminent, ceramic and metal are often materials of choice when it comes to the lower 4' of restaurants. Things get dropped--kids splash juice and food everywhere. I am not a fan of carpet in restaurants--it just traps dirt and bacteria.

If you are looking to do Restaurant Renovations anywhere in the Toronto area you can speak to Luke or Lawrence at 416-951-9998

Exterior Renovations near Wasaga Beach Ontario

Exterior Renovations in Wasaga Beach / Allenwood Beach

Dan Maragno of Maragno Contracting does renovations in the Oakville and Wasaga Beach area year round. Summers he is an Authorized Design builder for GardenStructure.com and since his family has a cottage in Wasaga Beach, he shares his time between the two places.  This cottage owner approached us to add a porch to this home, however, the building department nixed their plans for the porch. They simply were not allowed by Tiny Township to build the look they wanted. 

Above is the before photo.

 

Here is Dan and his crew during the renovations project near Wasaga Beach.  (Dan is on the right).

They added cultured stone to the lower part of the wall, pre-finished board and batten siding, New casings, and a fairly substantive eve beam up top. They also re-built the existing deck and added a more modern glass rail system.

If you are in need of a facelift to your home or cottage in Oakville or Wasaga Beach, please get in touch with us at 705 322 9919, (Lawrence at the local design office--GardenStructure.com) or in Oakville at (289) 242-9162 (Dan Maragno)

Kitchen Renovations in Whitby Ontario

  This is what our talented craftsmen do in the off season!  Quite a few of our people are carpenters, however Luke Simovski is a Tile and Stone expert installer as well as a professional kitchen installer. 

 

This Galley style Kitchen was designed and built by Luke Simonovski--Yes, the same guy that builds beautiful decks for GardenStructure.com in the summer. He has an eye for detail and it shows!

This reworked kitchen has all the features a kitchen needs and they made it work in the space on offer. Luke tends to redo all the plumbing from the stubs below adding shutoffs where possible. They also strip the flooring down as required for a good durable base when they are using stone or ceramic flooring.

 Now, this is a new floor tile available from Luke that looks exactly like stone without the budget. Shining gleaming stone... with about 1/3 the cost. I've seen a lot of tile floors in my day, but this one is actually convincing. I looked close and couldn't see the difference.

Well done Luke!

L

Another Trade Secret-- to do with Levels

You walk into a tool store and pick up a level. Is it? Is it really Level? How do you know it is accurate?

Here's a hint. 70% of all levels on the shelf at our local stores are not accurate.

Check a nearby shelf for level. Then rotate the level... check again. Flip it and check again. The bubble should be precisely in the same place. If not... it is not accurate. DON'T BUY IT!

Check for vertical level-- Plumb. Same procedure. Rotate the level, flip.

Try to imagine building something perfect when each time you check something with your level you get a different reading.

Don't assume that just because a level is expensive, that it is accurate. I've gone into a store with the intention of buying a good level--and after checking them I left with an $8.00 level because it was the only accurate one on the shelf.

L

Marketing a Carpentry Contractor Today

Marketing a Carpentry Contractor has become more difficult these days.

Back 20 years ago when I started in the business we could get a yellow page ad and get a call every week or two. That was in Burlington Ontario and if you try that these days it is akin to signing on as an indentured servant.

So few people use the yellow pages these days that you may as well heat your house with the money you would pay them under their contracted print advertising. I know general contractors that were getting leads in years past from the phone book--but those dwindled in the last few years. For all intensive purposes the Yellow Pages are Dead.

I am sure you get hundreds of call from directory companies and SEO companies guaranteeing #1 listings in google. If they promise it, they are talking paid advertising in the margin... Adwords. And you can buy Adwords on your own. You don't need their middleman services. Basically, Google is the new yellow pages. The people that used to use yellow pages now go to their computer because it is easier than finding their phone book.

Starting a website for a Carpentry Contractor?--now that is an ambitious strategy. If you are planning to do this you need to have a marketing campaign to go along with it. Top level categories are dominated by players that have had websites for a decade now, directories, and sites that have actual content. Creating content is difficult unless you are an english major and a decent photographer. The average new website in 2010 will see 30 visits a month by the end of the year... that won't give you consistent leads.

Directories often play on ignorance to gain your confidence. "We get MILLIONS of hits every month"... the question you need to ask is how many Unique Visitors do you get every month? How many of those are contractors looking for leads or setting up their account, and how many are actual customers looking for a contractor. Divide the number of unique visitors by the number of services they are marketing for and the number of contractors listed within those services and then make an informed decision. Some niche marketers like GardenStructure.com will have your pages getting 30-300 visits a day... which makes sense. 1o visits a month just doesn't make sense. You would be better doing a few hundred direct mailings of something glossy.

Lead Generation Services that send the lead out to multiple companies are a scourge that should not be supported EVER. This victimizes you and every other builder using the service. You will devote your time and money towards being low bid... and increases the amount of time you will spend doing estimates. You pay for the privilege of working the lead... and so do your competitors. Keep perspective. It's not just $20 for a deck lead... the other guys paid $20 too... and there may have been 20 of them, and everyone wasted their time. It is not good for our industry. It just makes more overworked and poorer tradesmen.

Networking is important. Your friends and family and every client you work for can give valuable word of mouth referrals. Make friends with every client and they will help you for decades to come. (and keep in touch) Strategic alliances with companies that actually deliver non-competitive leads, and solid direct marketing should be part of your strategy in the 21st Century.

L

When you do a solid wood hardwood floor, sometimes you get a client that wants you to put more effort into the job--and sometimes they even want to pay you for your efforts. A hardwood flooring job can often be judged by what they do with the stair rails and treads.

There are ready made stair treads, however the species is rarely a perfect match, and often they are made of veneer plywood or laminate, which doesn't last particularly well when given the daily beating that stair treads take.

When people are spending money on real hardwood--or wide plank hardwood, they deserve to have the stairs done properly as well.

For this job I chose wood directly from a wide plank flooring mill near Barrie Ontario . Merv Gardener dries his lumber to 6% for flooring--so I know that these treads will be stable.

When it comes to biscuits we used a Beech Biscuit, with an exterior epoxy glue which when mixed with sawdust from the sander, I can tint to the same oak color.

Of course when I went to do this I realized I lent a number of my clamps to one of our builders, and haven't seen them return yet! So, I glued them up in a number of small batches. This job was about 15 treads including the stairs down to the basement.

When it comes to putting the flooring down, we use PL Premium adhesive and a few well hidden finish nails, or countersunk and plugged screws.

Really, with a good bed of screws you will find that treads are not removable... without destroying the sub tread.

We always make an extra tread just in case something goes wrong. This time we had the lowest tread break as we spun the newel into place--just a bad grain. I ended up having to score the tread in about 10 places and using a chisel to be able to remove it from the sub tread.

We'll get into the hand rails next post--they wobbled about 2 inches before we installed the new treads, so the third installation

was certainly a challenge. Salvage may save some trees, however it is never fun!

L

Trim Carpenters Barrie - Wasaga Beach-Orillia

Great Trim Carpenters are hard to find !
Many Designers have a hard time knowing what trims work together. We find it best if they just sketch their concept in rough form and we will work the trim profiles from there. We've been doing trim in the Barrie, Wasaga Beach and Orillia areas for more than 20 years now.

Jamie Elliott works the trade full time and Lawrence Winterburn is now part time, only accepting the more interesting projects. (His regular job is as Senior Designer for http://www.gardenstructure.com . ) He was a trim carpenter for many years and enjoys keeping his skills up.To get in touch with Jamie or Lawrence call 705-322-9919 or 888 293 8938.

A Taxing year for Ontario Renovators

The Federal "Stimulus" is now done and most renovators in Ontario have a strange echo in their mid-winter offices. Is it phones ringing? Is it customers beating down their doors? No, that will be March when that happens. They are alone with their thoughts for the most part.

The federal government rung out the sponge and every little job (most under $2k), has been done to take advantage of a 15% discount thanks to the feds. It will be quiet until the next sense of urgency and spring season starts.

You will see some very angry customers we have to tell people that the deck or fence they want done before the new July tax comes into effect will carry the tax anyhow.

"Any job not contracted before May 1/2010 and substantively complete by July 1 will have an additional 8% PST on it". In fact it is a May 1 effective start date for the tax--no matter how they spin it.

This is a wrong headed tax change. With a 13% tax on renovations it will have one major effect--It will drive the renovations business underground.

If you think people won't want to save 13% by paying cash to builders working out of old minivans you are sniffing solvents--certainly jobs that run less than 10k anyhow. There are tens of thousands of laid off or recently unemployed carpenters and factory workers with some skills that are happy to take that money. It will serve to punish legitimate renovation contractors.

My prediction-- after the first year of Ontario's HST there will be 50% fewer registered contractors in the province.

I love how politicians always say the same thing... It is a revenue neutral change. If it doesn't get them more money, why would they do it?

The other thing I have heard lately is that Canada has remained relatively unscathed through this whole economic turmoil. Next breath -- but we have the largest provincial and federal deficit in 30 years. Doesn't that mean that less taxes were generated because people and companies made less money? Of course it does. But we are unscathed.

Get those larger jobs booked by May 1/2010.

An old friend used to say, "Carpenters never Starve". When you have skills you will make a living. When you are smart and have skills you will do even better.

L

Bathroom Renovators - Barrie Wasaga Beach Elmvale

Washrooms are tricky business. Not very often can you leave anything from the old washroom. This one had structural issues and needed joists replaced so it was framing up renovation due to an unsealed shower being used for many years. There was rotted wood everywhere and anything with mold needed removing entirely.

We used the opportunity to superinsulate, even insulating the floor of the shower and using modern materials to ensure no moisture entering the wood framing or tile backer.

The client chose travertine, which is very difficult to work with. Tolerances are tight and walls need to be straightened and leveled perfectly. We brought our tile setter in from 5 hours away for the job.

For washroom renovations in the Barrie, Wasaga or Elmvale areas please call Jamie Elliott (705) 487-5353 or Lawrence at (705) 322-9919.

Stimulous-Helping our Local Contractors?

Our US builders are turning the corner, but in Canada is the government stimulous helping?

photo (builders of pergolas)

The Americans are seeing a recovery in numerous sectors which is adding up to our builders becoming much busier. Infrastructure projects are breaking ground and unemployment numbers should see some relief soon. It may be our new website for the most part, but it has been a very positive spring for our people on the American Side.

In Canada--Not so much.

A promise of being able to write off the tax on 12-13k spawned a flurry of low budget work and made everyone busy during the extremely cold spring pricing the smallest jobs we have ever seen for the most part.

Our new website has helped our people--however there is certainly more competition for less work these days.

Barely a penny of actual stimulous money has hit the ground yet in Canada and increases in unemployment rates earlier this spring were astonishing. Nearly 3x what it was south of the border at the same time. We have a government claiming to save the day when in reality--they sat on their hands.

The way to prosperity for builders is to market consistently. Staying local to keep overhead low is also an excellent strategy.

L

ACQ Lumber - Corrosion of Hardware

ACQ Lumber is standard pressure treated lumber in many areas now. We've noticed many big box stores not stocking ACQ rated bolts and Joist Hangers.

It is worth finding a supplier for proper ACQ Rated Hardware--

Here's an inspirational photo of non-ACQ rated hardware used on a deck. When this deck was removed it was 2 years old and the screws were mostly missing.

L

Stone and Tile Contractors in Mississauga

Tile Setter in Etobicoke-Mississauga


We do Tile, Washrooms and Kitchens in Mississauga Ontario. When you are looking for classically trained tile and stone setters, Give us a call. Carpentry Contractors often have more than 1 specialty. As you can see--our professionals are very skilled tile tile, marble and stone contractors.

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Summer or winter, we can do your stone and tile work quickly and efficiently.
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We are happy to price everything from european curbless showers, to commercial stone installations to small backsplashes.
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When it comes to design Daniel can obviously help you plan your tile, marble or stone setting project so that it looks great and lasts a lifetime. .

Contact Lawrence or Luke at (416)-951-9998

Carpentry Contractors in Barrie - Newmarket Ontario

Carpentry Contractor in Barrie - Newmarket Ontario
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Barrie is a small city about 40 minutes drive north of Toronto. For many of the last 20 years Barrie has been the fastest growing city in Canada.
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Newmarket is another fast growing city that is located about 20 minutes south of Barrie.
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It is for this reason there is a very competetive carpentry contractor market in both Barrie and Newmarket.
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We have been in business nearly 25 years now and have gained a reputation for honest and reliable dealings with clients in Barrie and Newmarket.
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So, if you need someone to do a set of french doors, crown moulding, a washroom or kitchen with ceramic tile features, or to build an entire home in the Barrie or Newmarket areas, we are a capable and honourable builder that will keep you on budget and schedule.

Get in touch with Jamie at (705) 322-9919

Carpentry Contractors in Brampton - Bolton Ontario

Carpenter, Contractor in Brampton and Bolton


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When you look for a carpenter in the Brampton - Woodbridge area you want an eager and reliable builder with a bit of a design flair.

Interior trim and framing takes a little creativity to do well.

We put pride in everything he does. From your first phone call about a skylight or hardwood flooring, we put your needs and desires first. A good contractor keeps you advised of scheduling and tries to organize the job to be the least disruption possible.
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Mantles and built in cabinetry are one of our specialties.
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We will help you design these kind of woodwork features and build in a timely way. Much of the work happens off site in a workshop which means less mess for you.
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WE have skilled frame carpenters, Trim Carpenters and Stone and Tile installation Experts. Skylights are one of the most challenging tasks for any builder. This one was done the hard way, with a coffered opening. Centering this kind of skylight is not an easy task.
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Our Crews will also do the drywall, taping and painting if required.
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French doors should be hung with enough space at the top for a nickel, and space at the side for a dime.
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Crown moulding can also be installed so that expansion and contraction is not obvious.
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There are numerous grades of french door, and they range from particle core, to ply core, to finger jointed and solid.
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Ask us to explain these things when you meet to discuss your project.
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Hardwood flooring is also a specialty. We can install pre-finished hardwood, like shown in this photo--or you can have traditional wide plank that gets finished in place if you like.
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We buy that product directly from the mill and it is gorgeous.
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click to visit the Wide Plank Flooring blog to learn about wide plank flooring.

Get in touch with us at 888 293 8938
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Charleston, South Carolina

If you have a Charleston SC Woodwork company--Get in touch

Contact Lawrence at : 888-293-8938

Carpentry Contractors Blog

Hi, I am Lawrence Winterburn and I am the founder of GardenStructure.com.

Our group of 27 carpentry contractors that do gorgeous outdoor woodwork for most of the year are without exception the finest group of carpentry contractors across North America that we could find.

From Florida to Toronto and over to Los Angeles our builders do stunning woodwork all summer long--possibly with the exception of Florida. They tend to work indoors in the heat of the summer, and outdoors all winter.

This blog's purpose to help connect these builders with people looking for a carpenter in their local areas, while educating the consumer so that they can identify good carpentry work--from poor carpentry work.

Whether you are looking for someone to frame and trim an addition, or simply add crown moulding or french doors you have found the right place.

Type your city into the search box above to find a great carpentry contractor or builder in your local area.