Carpentry and Joinery in Arundel

The window question, answered properly

Nearly every enquiry here includes it, and most people have been told something wrong. Being in a conservation area does not, by itself, stop you replacing a window. That control only exists where a council has made an Article 4 Direction, and there is no Article 4 Direction in Arundel removing householder permitted development rights. The one district-level direction Arun publishes restricts change of use to a house in multiple occupation.

Listing reverses the position entirely. On a listed building, replacement windows need listed building consent, because the designation covers the fabric inside and out. The National Heritage List description of 34 Tarrant Street records sash windows with glazing bars as part of what is protected there. To a conservation officer that is not decoration; it is the reason the building is on the list.

Two houses in one terrace can sit under different regimes. We look up the individual property, never the road it stands on.

Ask before you order anything. Call James on 07470 078236. Building in West Sussex since 2002.

Old timber here is better than what would replace it

Medieval frames, Georgian sashes, Victorian casements in flint cottages: the joinery here is older than most of the country's housing and generally sounder than modern stock. Failures are almost always local — a cill, a bottom rail, the last 200 millimetres of a stile where water stood for thirty winters.

So we splice the failed section, match the profile off what survives, re-cord the sashes, ease and adjust, then redecorate. Most of that happens in our own joinery workshop at Middleton, and on the odd job a specialist subcontractor takes it on instead. Where a unit really is beyond saving, mouldings come off the original and the replacement is run to match. Skirting and architrave here are not stock sections either, and running new lengths to an original profile is the difference between a repaired room and an obviously patched one.

Some of it has to be built in the room

Nothing parks outside for long on the older streets, they run steeply uphill, and the front door frequently opens straight onto the pavement. A four-metre length of skirting will not turn a Georgian half-landing. A made-up wardrobe carcass will not get past the newel post.

So a good part of it has to go up in pieces and be put together in the room where it will stand. That takes longer than screwing flat-pack together in a modern house, and it gets quoted as the slower job it is rather than the quicker one.

Got a list rather than one big job? Get an itemised quotation and every item is priced on its own. Rated 5 stars on Yell.

Structural carpentry on a hillside

Houses built into a slope give you floors that step between rooms, joists bearing into a wall with earth behind the far side, and timber that has spent decades against damp masonry. Before new structure goes back, the moisture in that wall is a question with an answer. Wall plates and any timber sitting in masonry get isolated properly, so the new work does not follow the old.

Roof timber repair, floor structures and new openings usually arrive as part of something bigger — see renovations in Arundel. Framing inside a roof sits with loft conversions in Arundel.

What we are usually asked for

• Sash and casement repair, and new joinery run to match
• Skirting, architrave and window boards to an original profile
• Internal doors hung, and certified fire door sets
• Staircases, handrails, newels and worn tread repair
• Fitted wardrobes, alcove cupboards and understairs storage
• Floor structures, studwork and structural first fix

Joinery is quoted as its own section rather than absorbed into a lump sum. The full trade is under carpentry and joinery.

All workmanship guaranteed for 24 months from completion. Manufacturer warranties on all materials and installed products passed to you in full — many run to 10 years or more. Structural work is signed off by Building Control and covered by our £2m public liability insurance. We're working towards an insurance-backed guarantee scheme and will offer it as soon as we're eligible.

Send a photograph of the windows or the doors and each one comes back costed. Message us on WhatsApp. Employers' liability, £2m public liability, and Company No. 16870716 on every document.