Trim, Molding & Custom Carpentry
Crown, wainscot, board and batten, accent walls and rot repair — built and finished by the same crew, so the carpentry and the paint actually match.
Trim carpentry and painting are the same job at the end. A carpenter who doesn't paint leaves you to fill and finish; a painter who doesn't do carpentry leaves rotted sills coated over. Doing both means the person installing the molding knows how it's going to be finished, and the person filling the nail holes knows what's behind them.
We build and finish interior millwork, and we do the exterior wood repair that has to happen before an exterior repaint is worth doing.
Interior millwork we build
Crown molding in single or built-up profiles, coped at inside corners rather than mitred, so the joints don't open up as the house moves through the heating season.
Wainscoting and panel molding — raised panel, flat panel, beadboard or applied box molding on a dining room or stairwell wall. Laid out to the room's real dimensions so the panels are symmetrical to the eye rather than mechanically equal and visibly off-center.
Board and batten and geometric accent walls, which have become the single most requested feature we install. A well-executed accent wall changes a room more than any color choice and costs a fraction of a renovation.
Baseboard, casing and chair rail — upgrading builder-grade colonial casing to a taller, more substantial profile is one of the highest-impact changes available in a 1980s–2000s house.
Shiplap, window seats, built-in shelving, mudroom benches and cubbies, and mantel surrounds.
Exterior wood repair
Before an exterior repaint is worth paying for, the wood underneath has to be sound. We repair and replace rotted window sills and aprons, corner boards, fascia and soffit, frieze boards, brick mold, porch columns and railings, deck framing and skirting, and damaged clapboard or shingle siding.
The parts that fail first in this climate are predictable: horizontal surfaces that hold water, south and west elevations that take the most sun, and anywhere a gutter has been overflowing. We flag these at the estimate and quote the repair as its own line so you can decide, rather than discovering it as a change order halfway through the job.
Doors, hardware and the small things
We hang and finish interior doors, install and adjust hardware, fix doors that stick or don't latch square, replace exterior door thresholds and weatherstripping, and rebuild the trim around a door opening that's been patched too many times.
None of this is glamorous, and all of it is the difference between a house that feels finished and one that feels almost finished.
What's included
- Crown molding with coped inside corners, single or built-up profiles
- Wainscoting, panel molding, board and batten and beadboard
- Geometric and slat accent walls laid out to the room
- Baseboard, casing and chair rail upgrades
- Built-ins, window seats, mantels, mudroom benches and shelving
- Rotted sill, fascia, soffit, corner board and column repair
- Interior doors hung, adjusted and hardware fitted
- Everything filled, caulked, primed and finished by the same crew
Where trim and carpentry jobs come from
Two kinds of house keep this service busy. The first is the 1980s–2000s colonial in Monroe, Washingtonville, Chester, New Windsor and the developments around Highland Mills, where thin builder casing, a plain stair wall or a bare dining room is asking for wainscot, crown or a batten accent wall. The second is the old village house in Goshen, Warwick, Montgomery, Walden, Harriman or Newburgh, where original trim has to be matched or rebuilt and the sills and porch posts outside have often rotted. Wet, shaded lots in Cornwall, Woodbury and Central Valley, lake houses at Greenwood Lake and exposed farm properties near Florida go through fascia and corner boards faster than most, and rental buildings in Middletown need doors and hardware that keep working.
Trim we've painted and finished
Trim, molding and wood repair — questions
Yes — that's the point of using one crew. Everything we install is filled, caulked, primed and finished. You don't end up coordinating between a carpenter and a painter, and nobody can blame the other trade.
It depends on the wall size and the design, but a board-and-batten or geometric accent wall on a standard feature wall is one of the most affordable dramatic changes in a house — typically well under what people expect. We price it at the estimate with the design you actually want.
In most cases yes. Standard colonial and ranch profiles are readily available; unusual or historic profiles can often be matched with a combination of stock pieces or milled to match. We'll bring a sample to the estimate where it matters.
Yes, and we insist on it before an exterior repaint. Sills, fascia, soffit, corner boards, brick mold and columns are the usual suspects. We quote repair as a separate line so you see exactly what it costs.
Yes. Older homes rarely have flat ceilings or square corners, which is exactly why crown gets scribed and coped rather than cut to theoretical angles. It's slower and it's the only way it looks right.
We handle carpentry and finish work, plus commercial renovation projects. For structural work, plumbing or electrical we'll tell you plainly that you need a licensed trade for that portion.