Working with floors and walls that have moved
In a house that has settled over sixty years, nothing is level and the trim has to hide that without looking wrong.
Baseboard gets scribed to follow the floor rather than leaving a wedge of daylight underneath. Casing gets set to the door, not to a level line, so the reveal stays even. Crown gets coped rather than mitred at inside corners, because a coped joint survives seasonal movement and a mitre opens up.
Nail holes get filled and sanded, and the caulk line at the wall gets tooled properly. Those two details are most of what people register as quality.
Matching original profiles in older Ottawa homes
Century homes in Centretown, Sandy Hill and the older streets near the core often have deep, distinctive casing that is no longer stocked anywhere.
Sometimes a close match still exists. Where it does not, the profile can be milled to match, or we use a deliberately simple profile in a new area so it reads as a considered choice rather than a failed copy.
We hold samples against your existing trim before ordering, in the actual room, in daylight. Profiles that look identical in a showroom often do not match on the wall.
Paint grade or stain grade, decided before ordering
Paint grade trim can be finger jointed and filled, which is fine because paint hides the joints. Stain grade has to be solid clear material with matched grain, and it costs considerably more.
That decision changes the material order, so we settle it upfront rather than discovering a mismatch when the stain goes on. Our interior painting crew finishes either way.
What a trim carpentry quote includes
- Profile and material: named, with paint grade or stain grade stated.
- Scope by room: baseboard, casing, crown and any feature walls.
- Stairs: nosings, risers, skirt boards and railing work.
- Joint method: coped inside corners, mitred outside corners.
- Finishing prep: nail holes filled, sanded, caulked and paint ready.
- Removal: old trim taken off and disposed of.
Where trim carpentry sits in the bigger job
This work is part of our carpenter service, so it can run on its own or as one stage inside a larger project. When it is part of a bigger renovation we sequence it with the other trades rather than treating it as a standalone visit.
Clients booking this often pair it with cabinet installation, deck building, fence installation or door installation. One contract covers whichever combination you need, with a single schedule and one point of contact.
Trim Carpentry across the Ottawa area
We take this work on throughout the greater Ottawa area. Recent jobs have run through Nepean, Merivale, South Keys, Kanata and the surrounding neighbourhoods. The consultation is free wherever you are in the city.