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Pinto Carpentry

Find the Right Type of Carpenter for Your Home Renovation or Building Project

Updated: Jul 18

We want to help homeowners and business owners navigate the ins-and-outs of our industry to get exactly the right person for their project. Today on Carpenter’s Corner, we’re breaking down the different times of custom carpentry, and who is best suited for the job!  Learn all about the different sections of our field as we cover rough carpenters and framers, joisters, rail and stairs, finish carpenters, woodturners, and cabinet makers.  Soon, you’ll have enough knowledge to nearly be able to host your own HGTV show.



What are the types of carpentry work, what do they do?


When you're doing a search to find the right carpenter for your project, you'll come across several different skillsets. Let's look at the different titles and match their speciality area with your project needs.


Rough carpenters, or “framers”, build and create temporary framing shelters, rough wooden structures, scaffolding, and things like tunnel/bridge and sewer support systems. They use materials such as wood, concrete, steel cable, and brick and must understand the most complex and intricate blueprints as they establish the frame.  These carpenters are an essential part of the construction team, and without them there would be no foundations or framing structural support for larger buildings and forms. 


Joisters are a structural carpenter who specializes in making the joists that support a structure’s floors or decks.  Floor joists are horizontal boards connected to a building’s frame structure.  They are a very specialized field of carpentry, providing a vital role that ensures the floors are stable and strong while providing support.  It requires a keen eye for detail as these must be perfectly balanced to ensure flat, even flooring.


Railing and Stair Carpentry is a highly specialized field with an extremely precise craft suited for indoor handrails and stair design. There is no room for error here as these vital areas of your home must be built exactly to code.  No one railing or staircase can fit into another space, and each one is completely custom measured and designed to fit a very specific space.  These carpenters must follow very strict state and local municipal requirements for each railing and stair width and precise distance measurements. Bending and curving thin strips of wood to custom fit railing to specific angles, hallways, overhangs, and balconies requires intense precision and patience.  Specialty construction such as floating and cantilevered stairs, curved or bifurcated stairs require an immense understanding of architectural plans and blueprints to ensure a stair design can be engineered to fit a space.


Woodturner carpenters use special hand tools and a wood lathe to create custom wood pieces. A wood lathe helps the woodturner cut, turn, sand, drill, shape and knurl wood blocks and slices into intricate forms. Woodturners create everything from bowls to cutting boards to game pieces, to custom fittings for stairs, handrail components such as posts and rods and finials, and even musical instruments.  Additional tools of a woodturner carpenter include augers, a spindle gouge, bowl gouge, skew chisel, bedans and parting tools, and hollowing tools.


Cabinetmaker and millworker carpenters most often work in a shop that creates cabinets, millwork, and furniture.  They can fabricate and install both decorative and functional elements in a home or building, including exposed beams, decorative columns, displays and shelves, fireplace mantels, custom fit cabinets and pantries, kitchen makeovers, bathroom renovations, and even custom closets.


Finish carpenters, or “trim carpenters”, focus on the final stages of any carpentry or construction project. They handle all of the details which complete the interior of a building, such as installing cabinets, adding crown molding, shelving, railings, and finishing doors and window trim.  They’ll also handle repairs on molding and trim, baseboards, door and window casings. Hiring a finishing or trim carpenter to add those custom touches really creates a polished look to your building or home, and may add a lot of value.  They’ll have specialized skills in using hand tools such as scribing tools, hand-held coping saws, files, and chisels to create precise angles and details to create a seamless, clean look in highly visible areas.



Our 20+ years of industry experience have given Pinto Carpentry a reputation as a leading name in local indoor handrail and stair contractors serving most areas of New Jersey.  Peruse a full portfolio of our past projects and review our specialized case studies to learn more!  If you’re looking to improve your home or business’s stairs, or you're a general contractor working on new construction requiring a wooden stair builder, give us a call! Our trusted staff would be happy to speak with you, get you set with an appointment for a custom consultation, and provide you with an accurate quote and estimate for your upcoming project.  

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