Residential Carpenter in Wilmington
Built-ins, trim, doors and outdoor timber for houses on the Carolina coast.
Six Things We Build
The same six on every job. What changes is the room, the wood and the finish.
Custom Built-Ins & Cabinetry
Bookcases, window seats, banquettes, laundry and pantry cabinetry. Drawn to scale, built at the studio, finished on site so the paint line meets your wall and not a factory edge.
Finish Carpentry & Trim
Base, casing, crown, wainscot and shelving. On a 1920s house downtown we match the profile that is already there; on a new build we will tell you honestly when stock trim is the better spend.
Decks & Outdoor Timber
Decks, screen porches, pergolas and outdoor showers in cedar, cypress and ipe. Flashed and detailed for salt air, because on this coast the failure is always water, never load.
Doors & Windows
Hanging doors, rebuilding openings that have dropped, and casing replacement windows. Old coastal houses move; we plane and shim to the opening you have, not the one the catalog assumed.
Framing & Structural Repairs
Wall openings, headers, joist sistering and porch posts that have gone soft at the base. Anything that changes a load path gets an engineer's drawing before we touch it.
Wood Restoration & Repairs
Rotted sills and thresholds, split treads, swollen doors and shelves that have sagged. Small jobs are charged hourly — most of them cost less than the quote for replacing the whole thing.
Not sure which of these your job is? Describe it in the form and we will tell you.
Two Carpenters, One Job At A Time
Norrsted is two people and a workshop on Castle Street. We take one job at a time because the alternative — three half-finished houses and a phone that rings all day — is how carpentry gets a bad name in this town.
Everything starts as a drawing. We measure, draw it to scale, and send it with a fixed price and a start date. You change the drawing, not the cabinet. It costs nothing at that stage and it is the single reason our jobs finish when we said they would.
- ✓Drawn to scale and approved before any wood is ordered
- ✓Fixed price and a start date on the same page as the drawing
- ✓One job at a time, start to finish
- ✓Timber acclimatised in the shop before it goes in a coastal house
What Salt Air Does To Woodwork
Four things we do differently within a mile of the water — none of them optional, all of them invisible once the job is finished.
Acclimatise before you cut
Timber arrives at whatever moisture content the yard kept it at. We let it sit in the shop for a week so it moves before it is a cabinet, not after.
Leave the gaps on purpose
A door fitted tight in February binds in August. Reveals here are set for the wet season, which is why ours look slightly generous in winter and right in summer.
Stainless, not galvanised
Galvanised fasteners bleed rust streaks down cedar within two seasons near the water. Stainless costs more per box and saves a repaint.
Seal the end grain
Water goes into a board through its ends first. Every cut end on an outdoor job gets sealed before it is fixed — it is ten minutes and it is most of the lifespan.
Built In New Hanover County
Two recent pieces. We photograph everything we build — ask and we will send the rest.
Three Questions Worth Asking Every Carpenter
Ask us too. If an answer here is vague, that is the answer.
Will I see a drawing?
A verbal description of a built-in is not a specification. Without a scale drawing the first time you see the thing is the day it arrives, and by then changing it is a bill rather than a conversation.
Who is actually in my house?
Plenty of quotes come from someone you never see again. Ask who does the work, how many jobs they are running at once, and whether the person quoting will be holding the saw.
What happens when it moves?
Wood moves, especially here. Ask what the reveal is set for, what the fasteners are, and what happens if a door binds next August. A carpenter who has thought about it will answer in one breath.
Nothing In A 1920s House Is Square
The historic district is full of houses that have settled, been re-roofed twice and had a porch added by someone's uncle. A built-in cut to the numbers on a tape measure will show a wedge of daylight down one side. Here is what we do instead.
Scribed, not caulked
The back of the cabinet and the filler are both cut to the shape the wall actually is. A bead of caulk down a tapering gap is the tell that someone skipped this.
Profiles matched from a cut-off
We take a piece of the original trim, grind a knife to it and run the new stock to match. Modern equivalents are close enough to look wrong.
Floors checked for fall first
Set out a run of cabinets off a floor that drops 20mm across the room and every door reveal tapers. We measure the fall before we cut a single part.
An honest no
Sometimes matching costs more than the room is worth and new stock trim throughout is the better spend. We will say so rather than sell you the harder job.
Four Steps, No Surprises
Tell us about it
The form or a phone call. Photos help more than measurements at this stage.
We measure and draw
One visit, then a scale drawing with a fixed price and a start date.
We build it
Most of the work happens at the studio. Timber acclimatises before it is cut.
We fit and finish
Two to five days on site, then we walk it with you before the final invoice.
What Our Clients Say
We live four blocks from the water and our last carpenter's work started swelling in the second summer. Norrsted asked about the humidity before they asked about the budget, and three years on the doors still close the way they did in week one.
I have never been handed a drawing by a tradesperson before. It came the week after the measure, it was to scale, and the finished thing looks exactly like it. That alone was worth the six-week wait.
Small studio, so they are honest about what they can take on. They turned down our whole-house job and did the two rooms that actually needed them instead. I would rather that than a yes and a disaster.
Got Something In Mind?
Send us the room and a rough idea. We will tell you what it takes, what it costs and when we could start — usually within two working days.
Before You Get In Touch
Why is there a six-week wait?
Because there are two of us and we run one job at a time. The alternative is starting your job sooner and leaving it half done while we start someone else's. The wait is on the quote in writing, and if we are going to miss it you will hear from us before the date, not after.
Do you take small jobs?
Yes. A sticking door, a rotted threshold, one shelf in an awkward corner. Small work is hourly rather than quoted, which is nearly always cheaper for you than a fixed price with padding in it, and we keep space most weeks for it.
Painted or stained — which should I pick?
Painted work can use poplar and a good panel product, so it costs less and hides the movement that coastal humidity causes. Stained work has to be solid hardwood with grain matched across every door and it shows everything. If the room gets hard sun and salt air, painted is usually the better call and we will say so.
Can you work from my designer's drawings?
Often, and we like it. We will read the drawings first and flag anything that will not behave in real wood — a 900mm unsupported shelf span, a reveal that will close up in August — before the timber is ordered rather than after.
Are you licensed and insured?
North Carolina general contractor license #84213 for residential work, plus general liability and workers' compensation. Certificates go out with the quote without you having to ask.
How far do you travel?
New Hanover and Pender counties — Wrightsville Beach, Carolina Beach, Ogden, Porters Neck, Hampstead, Castle Hayne and Leland are all routine. Further than that and the travel starts showing in the price, which we would rather tell you now.
Start A Project
Two of us read these. You will get a real answer, including an honest no if we are not the right studio for the job.