What makes a home a home? At minimum, you need a solid foundation, good insulation, and a roof over your head. But these requirements describe a house more than a home. To transform a house into a home, you need some personal touches, which come in many forms, such as the colors you choose for interior painting, and the furniture, paintings, and pictures you choose to fill your rooms. Also included in this list: finish carpentry.

But what exactly is finish carpentry, and what can it do for your home? Even if you’re not sure what finish carpentry is, you’ve most likely seen it before, in your own home or in someone else’s.

Rough vs. Finish Carpentry

To understand finish carpentry, it helps to distinguish it from its counterpart, rough carpentry. As its name lets on, rough carpentry is more basic, less refined, and more structural than finish carpentry. In other words, rough carpentry refers to the framing and structuring of a house. Without competent rough carpentry contractors, there would be no foundation, no shelter, and nothing to build upon inside or out.

Finish carpentry, on the other hand, comes much later in the home building process, towards the end (hence, “finish”) but still typically before professional painters do their job. While rough carpentry is practical, finish carpentry is fashionable, more concerned with aesthetics than function. This is the process where intricate details in woodwork are crafted and installed, including trim, crown molding, baseboards, stairs, and more.

How Finish Carpentry Completes a Home

As mentioned earlier, finish carpentry serves as a unique stamp and adds visual flair to many features of a home. Everyone’s tastes are different, so the woodwork they choose may vary in its intricacy, design, depth, and placement. Without finish carpentry, a home will look simpler and more rigid. Some homeowners appreciate this minimalist approach, but others like the aesthetic appeal of finish carpentry, especially for their windows, shelves, fireplaces, etc.

While we often think of finish carpentry as a purely interior effort, this type of work is just as useful for exterior features as well. Every deck, porch, and balcony can benefit from finish carpentry. Maintaining your exterior woodwork takes more effort, of course, as it is exposed to the elements.

Professional Personal Touches

Finish carpentry is not a simple matter. It takes practice and skill to carve precise details and designs into wood, and to install and fit these pieces to existing structures or features. This is why homeowners should hire professional carpenters to perform these tasks. Some residential painting contractors might even include finish carpentry services in their packages. All American Painting Plus, for instance, provides finish carpentry services in addition to our painting services and other home improvement options.

Whether you want to install or update finish carpentry inside or outside your home, the professionals at All American Painting Plus can get the job done. Unlike many other painting companies, we can take care of all your home improvement needs. To learn more about all that we do, give us a call at (703)-620-5563!