Mounting a handrail

For those of you that were asking about attaching a small handrail to a wall, I have the instructions finally written and to find it go here www.finishcarpentryhelp.com/wood-handrail.html . Again if you have any questions or comments let me know and thanks to all that have help me with corrections.

bidding

I would like to add a little about the bidding page at http://www.finishcarpentryhelp.com/how-to-bid-finish-carpentry.html. The example I used refers to a very simple house and is just a base to work off of. The higher end houses requires a little different approach due to the fact of extra trim work involved. Things like high windows, extra crown molding or just about anything extra, beyond the doors windows and base has to be taken into consideration. Example is your square footage price would not include something like 100' of crown molding installed in different rooms, in this case I would determine things like how much cutting is involved in the installation and the amount of footage of crown. I have done enough where I can estimate my time without cutting my own throat but for inexperienced people trying to bid do take your time and becareful to take everything into consideration.

Bidding Finish Carpentry

Bidding finish carpentry I recently added a page to my website at www.finishcarpentryhelp.com explaining a little about how to bid finish carpentry. Bidding is not that difficult and you if you follow the example you will be very competative. There are of course circumstances where this would not apply and circumstances where there is more work involved and the bidding process would have to be modified but this would give you a good starting point or a base to work off of. The link to this page is http://www.finishcarpentryhelp.com/how-to-bid-finish-carpentry.html

Another Good Website

Another web site I like is www.hometime.com with Dean Johnson. Again a lot of information regarding every aspect of your house and home like www.askthebuilder.com. Dean Johnson the host actually performed different jobs on Tv and I thought it was a pretty good show. Another very talented and knowledgable guy. Check him out.

Lots of Help

If you are looking for other information regarding building or remodeling, a good site that I like and follow is www.askthebuilder.com. He has just about all the information you could imagine when it comes to working on your house or even driveway or landscaping. The guys name is Tim Carter and he actually answers e-mails from people with all sorts of questions about there homes . He is a very knowledgable guy and I encourage you to check him out.

Finish Carpentry Advice To Help You

One common problem when applying casing to a door or window is the jamb does not come out flush with the sheetrock of the interior wall. This is particully true on outside doors or garage doors. One way to remedy this is to take your hammer and hammer down or crunch the sheetrock down next to the jamb. Be careful as to not damage the steetrock out past what your trim will cover. If you do, it can be fixed with a little spackle or sheetrock mud but try to avoid this. The idea here is to get the casing as flat against the wall as possible so it is not tipped in to the jamb. The more it is tipped the harder it is to get nice mitered corners.

Finish Carpentry Advice To Help You

When using hardwoods such as oak or maple or whatever stay away from knots in the wood. If you shoot near a knot you risk splitting the wood. The wood will undoubtably split on you at one point or another. If the wood splits off just glue and clamp the little piece and if possible use this piece in an area that is not noticeable such as inside a closet or back side of a bedroom door.

Finish Carpentry Advice To Help You

For casing windows for the first time:
With windows a lot of time curtains or window dressings will cover up the trim. Start in the bedrooms or back rooms first or where you think there may be curtains. Casing windows does take a little practice and patience so take your time with the miters. Try to keep your reveal as uniform as possible but if you do need to fudge it a little to tighten up a miter that is ok as long as its just a tiny adjustment. The reveal is not as eye catching as a loose miter. If you look at trim work in restaurants and businesses and other homes you will see a huge variety of the quality of work. Some of the quality is really nice and some is so bad you wonder how it passed.

Finish Carpentry Advice To Help You

No Experience No Problem

If for example you are going to hang doors for the first time. Start in the back of the house or in a closet or less visible places. Have someone help it just makes everything go better with an extra set of eyes and hands. Take your time. Refer to http://www.finishcarpentryhelp.com/finish-carpentry-tips.html page for problems you may run into. Learn from your mistakes, the more doors you hang the better you will get.

Finish Carpentry Advice To Help You

Accurate measurements

In finish carpentry to obtain those perfect measurements, set the wood in place and mark the wood. It’s quicker and much more accurate then using a tape measure for the precise cuts at joints and miters. I only use my tape when it is necessary.

Finish Carpentry Advice To Help You

Match your Wood
Let’s say for example oak. The wood grains and color of oak can vary quite a bit so match your trim wood ahead of time for a good uniform look in your trim work. For the pieces that don't match use them in closets and less conspicuous places or places only you will see like the laundry room. This applys to other varieties of wood also not just oak.

Finish Carpentry Advice To Help You

Finish carpentry information and simple advice for professional looking trim work. At www.finishcarpentryhelp.com I give some step by step instructions on applying trim work so the most inexperienced homeowner can do it. As you follow along through these steps all the different joints and miters can be a bit of a challenge at first so practice making miters or coping or doing outside corners before installing the actual pieces. You also get more use to and comfortable with the saw and other tools. More advice to come.

update

First I want to say thanks to all the people who visit my site and blog. I have been starting to work on some short how to videos. I have been getting a lot of e-mails on the page of baseboard returns at http://www.finishcarpentryhelp.com/baseboard-return.html wanting to know about pictures. I am working on that but also I think this will be one of the first short videos to start with and will definitely clarify things. If there is any thing anyone would like to see just let me know.