Finish carpentry is the most visible work in a house and the easiest to fake for about six months. Caulk and paint hide a lot on handover day. Here is what to look at before you sign anything off.
Crouch at one end of a run of baseboard and sight down it. The top edge should hold one line. Waves mean it was pushed to follow a bowed wall instead of being scribed or shimmed.
Inside corners should be coped, not mitered. A coped joint stays closed when the house moves through a Minnesota winter; a mitered one opens up by spring and no amount of caulk closes it twice.
The reveal is the small step where casing sits back from the edge of a door jamb. It should be identical on every door in the house. Inconsistent reveals are the fastest tell that trim was rushed.
A door should latch with a push, not a shove, and stay where you leave it half open. If it swings on its own the jamb is not plumb — a framing problem wearing a finish problem's clothes.
Tell Darius what the job is and roughly where. He will come and look, and you will get a price for the work before anything starts.
Crookston, MN · and the towns around it
custom.carpentryllc26@gmail.com
Custom Carpentry Solutions LLC is run out of Crookston and works across Polk County, into East Grand Forks and Grand Forks, and down through the smaller towns south and west.
Jobs are quoted on site, so there is no shop to visit — call and Darius will come to you.
Free estimates across Crookston and the Red River Valley.