Carpentry & Joinery Across Cornwall and Devon

Roof structures: trusses and cut roofs

Trussed roofs are erected to the truss designer's layout, at the specified centres, with diagonal and longitudinal bracing, binders, gable ladder framing and restraint straps to walls and gables. Wall plates are bedded level and strapped down. Cut roofs, often the answer on extensions, dormers and roofs that have to marry into an existing structure - need rafters, purlins, ridge, hips, valleys and ceiling ties sized and supported to the engineer's design. Both need ventilation paths kept clear at eaves and ridge, insulation continuity thought about, and trimming around chimneys and rooflights done properly rather than improvised.

Floor structures and decks

Floors get set out from the drawings with joist size, span, spacing and grade following the design. Joists are hung on hangers or built into the wall as specified, strutted or blocked to control movement, and levelled across the room rather than to each individual bearing. Notching and drilling for services follows the permitted zones: depth, position along the span and distance from bearings - because an over-notched joist has lost strength that no amount of decking makes up. Decking is glued and screwed, staggered, and left protected until the building is watertight.

Stud partitions and first fix

Stud walls are set out from a datum line, built plumb, with head and sole plates fixed securely and studs at the centres the board and any acoustic or fire requirement demand. Openings are trimmed to give a square, correctly sized structural opening for door linings. This is also the stage where the build's future gets designed in: noggins for radiators, kitchen units, wall-hung sanitaryware, handrails, TV brackets and grab rails; service voids for cables and pipes; and fire stopping and acoustic detailing where the design requires it.

Timber frame and structural timber work

We erect and work with structural timber elements: timber frame panels, posts, beams, glulam and engineered joists - following the supplier's and engineer's details for fixing, bracing and tolerance. Timber frame work is unforgiving of an inaccurate base, which is one reason we like to have poured the slab ourselves. Where structural timber is exposed in the finished building, fixings, joints and finish are set out with that in mind, because it will be looked at closely for the rest of the building's life.

Second fix joinery

Second fix is what the client judges the build by:

• Door linings and frames fitted plumb and square, doors hung to swing and latch properly
• Skirtings and architraves with tight mitres and scribes, fixed to timber not to board
• Window boards, cills and reveals finished neatly against plaster
• Staircases fitted, with handrails, newels, spindles and balustrades to the required heights
• Loft hatches, access panels, boxing and casings around services
• Fitted joinery, shelving, cupboards, wardrobes and bespoke items
• Ironmongery: hinges, latches, locks, handles and closers - fitted and adjusted

Repairs, rot and structural timber replacement

In older Cornish properties failed timber is common: rotten joist ends built into damp solid walls, wall plates decayed under a leaking verge, rafter feet gone at the eaves, beetle-damaged floor timbers and split or sagging purlins. We cut out and replace the affected timber, splice and sister where that is the appropriate repair, and, critically - deal with the water that caused it, whether that is a roof detail, a failed gutter, drainage or ground levels. Treating and boarding over damp timber is not a repair, it is a delay.

Materials, treatment and moisture

Timber is specified by grade and treatment for its location: treated timber where it is at risk of moisture, in contact with masonry or in roof and external positions; correct engineered products where spans demand them. Moisture content matters more than most people realise for second fix, joinery fitted into a building that has not dried out will shrink, opening joints and leaving gaps at skirtings and architraves. Sequencing second fix after the building has dried, and storing joinery inside a dry building rather than on a wet site, is the difference between joints that stay tight and joints that do not.

New build, refurbishment and domestic versus commercial

New build carpentry is production work: repeatable details, accurate set-out and steady sequencing. Refurbishment carpentry is problem solving; nothing is level, nothing is plumb, and the skill is deciding what to correct and what to work with. Domestic work puts the emphasis on finish and living with the mess; commercial and developer work puts it on programme, consistency and documentation. We take on all of it across Cornwall and Devon as far as Exeter, either as part of a full build or as a carpentry package on someone else's site.