How do you inspect for carpentry?

A good and thorough carpentry estimate and inspection requires two things attention to detail and to take the time to do it correctly.

A good carpentry inspection is done by physically touching all the areas of the house.

We check the soffits, fascia boards, the fascia corners, the corner boards, the window trim, window sash, doors, door frames, pediments, shutters, band boards, porch ceilings, porch rail systems, spindles, columns, siding, chimney cap,  frames, louvered vents, etc.

We make a detailed list of the particular pieces that need to be replaced and the location on the house of these pieces.

It is important to catch all the carpentry before the house is painted otherwise you will be doing carpentry and painting again the following year.

The reason for the physical inspection is that you actually have to touch a piece of trim of siding to actually see if it solid. Sometimes you can touch a brick molding of the window that looks solid and sound but is soft and rotten and hollow inside. These areas cannot be detected with a visual inspection.

Wood that is used in homes over the past 25 years is wide grain pine. Because the grain is so wide and porous this wood has a tendency to absorb moisture readily and rot quickly.

Older homes were built with a tight grain pine and were much less susceptible to the absorption of moisture and therefore did not rot quickly, if at all.

The difference between wide grain pine and tight grain pine is that the newer pine was planted and harvested therefore it grew with lots of space around the tree which allowed for quick growth. The sun and the rain accelerated growth because it was not crowded by other trees. The older pine grew in its natural state with other trees crowding it and therefore grew very slowly and the grain was very tight. When you cut a tree down and you look at the stump and count the rings you will notice on the old pine that the rings are very tight and on the new trees the rings are very wide and porous.

A detailed physical carpentry estimate takes approximately an hour to an hour and a half to complete correctly.

We feel it is a dis-service to our clients to overlook and miss carpentry items that will cause them a problem down the road.