About Hartwood Carpentry

I started Hartwood Carpentry in 2012 after ten years working for a shopfitting firm in Nottingham, mostly commercial jobs where speed mattered more than finish. I wanted to do the opposite: slower, more careful work in people's homes, built to fit properly rather than knocked together to a deadline.

The first few years were mostly small jobs, a wardrobe here, a rehung door there, while I built up the tools and the reputation to take on bigger work. Kitchens and staircases came later, once I'd proven the smaller jobs were done right. Fourteen years on, that's still the test I use on every quote: would I be happy with this finish in my own house.

I work alone on most jobs and bring in a second pair of hands for anything that needs it, rather than running a large team of varying skill. That means the carpenter who measures your room is the one who fits it, from the first visit to the last coat of finish.

I joined the Guild of Master Craftsmen a few years after starting out, once I had a body of finished work worth having checked. It's an independent accreditation, not something you can buy, and it gives a customer some outside assurance beyond just taking my word for it.

These days most of the work comes from Nottingham, Derby and Leicester, with a good number of repeat customers and referrals from people whose homes I've already worked in. That's still the best measure of whether the work's any good.