The Difference Between A Fully Qualified Joiner And Window Installer

If you are looking to have your window installed, it is easy to be content with whichever company is on hand to do the job. However, not all window installation companies were created equal. There is a marked difference between a basic window installation company and one that hires fully qualified joiners. When the safety of your home is at stake, you want to choose the best so cutting corners when choosing a window installer is a bad idea. Poorly fitted windows ruin the energy saving properties of double glazing and can also cost thousands of pounds to repair.

There are a number of ‘cowboy’ window installers doing the rounds and they all have one thing in common: None of them hire qualified joiners. When hiring a company to install your windows in the UK, you have to ensure that they have qualified joiners on their payroll to ensure that your windows are installed correctly.

Education

Qualified joiners often have to go through long and difficult educational courses. There, they learn about health and safety and know how to avoid mishaps. Qualifications such as City & Guilds are common amongst experienced joiners and this achievement is hard earned. You will notice the difference between a qualified joiner and a ‘cowboy’ window installer if you viewed them side by side. One takes his time analysing the window and shows respect for the customer and the property. The other comes in, throws up the windows and leaves as soon as possible. No thought or effort goes into their work.

Experience

However, having education is not enough for a qualified joiner. A reputable joinery will not hire employees who don’t show evidence of adequate work experience. This can come either through a specific UK Government approved apprenticeship scheme or by spending time as a joiner’s understudy. Either way, the joiner gains invaluable experience and doesn’t just turn up on your doorstep having never installed a window before.

Certification

Once a newcomer joins a reputable joinery, he is not allowed into the field until he completes a length period of training and development. NVQ qualifications are the hallmark of a high quality joiner and include specialist study on topics such as site work, shop fitting and timber frame erection. Once these skills have been learned and a safety certificate has been earned, a joiner can look for a Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) card. If a joiner holds this card, you know he is highly skilled and has worked extremely hard to make it in his field.

Not all joiners are employed by large organisations so it’s important to ensure that anyone who comes to install your windows has the right qualifications to do so. Qualified joiners have the knowledge, experience and skill to do the job correctly and will gladly show you proof of their qualifications. Unqualified individuals on the other hand will try and skirt the issue. They are not to be trusted with your windows because there is every possibility that they will make a mess of it. 

How Bad Joinery Work Can Reduce The Value Of Your Home

The importance of good joinery is overlooked by a startling number of homeowners. The fact is, joinery is an extremely skilled profession that takes years to master. Attempting to duplicate the feats of a master joiner when you are a novice is a prelude to disaster. In fact, a large percentage of UK homeowners are actually incapable of adequately performing basic joinery tasks yet they are unwilling to allow a professional to come into their home and show them how it’s done. Why? Pride perhaps? Probably, but wanton stupidity is also a factor. Make a mess of a joinery project or hire a low quality joiner and watch the value tumble off your home.

The most basic element of joinery is getting measurements and angles right. If you can’t perform this simple task, you haven’t a hope in hell of embarking on a successful project. If you are fitting windows or doors, a bad measurement could be a very costly error. You must always err on the side of caution. If a measurement calls for 40 inches of wood, use an inch more in case of errors. If you overestimate a measurement, at least you can trim it down to size. You have no such luxury if the measurement turns out to be too small. Ill fitting fixtures will automatically make your home look dilapidated, greatly reducing its value.

When you are fitting a door or window, everything has to be perfect. If you are off by a few millimetres, the whole project will be a failure. Badly fitting windows and doors reduce the energy saving properties they are designed for and also greatly reduce the level of security in a home. Burglars have a much better chance of bypassing a badly fitted door than one installed by a professional. Windows that are incorrectly installed look cheap and amateurish. They need to be refitted and this costs thousands of pounds. This is either coming out of your pocket when you have them replaced or when a prospective buyer offers you £10,000 less than the home’s worth because of the windows.

One of the biggest mistakes made during DIY joinery tasks is the use of blunt tools. If you are trying to make a design with a blunt chisel, the whole block of wood could become cracked or chipped. A common joinery job involves creating, installing and fitting locks and handles on doors. There are a few amusing internet videos doing the rounds that show a so-called expert trying to perform joinery tasks. His tools are blunt and he always looks like an accident waiting to happen. As his exploits are recorded and controlled by him, who knows how many mistakes he made before perfecting the job? When it comes to tackling DIY joinery projects for the purposes of home improvements, you only get one chance.

Never underestimate the damage that a poorly performed joinery task can do to the value of your home. If you were paying hundreds of thousands of pounds for a house, would you pay the top rate for a house with badly fitted doors, windows and fixtures?

Finding A Good Joinery Company

Finding a high quality joinery company can be a searching task because of the absence of genuinely skilled joiners in the UK. It seems that everyone who can fit two pieces of wood together calls themselves a joiner. However, a real joiner can effortlessly put together a beautiful and unique piece of furniture or hang doors so perfectly that seeing light between the door and frame is virtually impossible. It is hard to find an exceptional joinery company amongst the high level of conmen and charlatans but below are a few tips that can help you make the right choice.

Go Online

The days of thumbing through your local newspaper and finding a true craftsman are long gone. Print advertising is extremely expensive and is beyond the scope of most small joinery companies. However, they use online advertising via a website because it is inexpensive and opens them up to potentially millions of people. If you are looking for something unique like hardwood window frames, you will find specialists online.

Review

Once you have found suitable candidates, it’s now time to compare. Your first step should be to analyse the customer reviews as these are a great indicator of a company’s competence. Although one or two reviews are easily falsified, a joinery company with several positive reviews can be trusted to do a good job. A recent survey showed that some 77% of people who purchased a product or service online looked at customer reviews before making their decision. This shows that the power has shifted from company to consumer.

Of course, if you’re looking for a local joiner, it’s just as easy to ask around and find out how good or bad a company is from the horse’s mouth. If a company has done a particularly bad job, people are usually pretty quick to speak out about it. If more than one person has had a poor experience with a company, tread carefully.

Quotes

There will probably be several joinery companies that interest you after this process. By now, it’s time to start comparing by price. Contact each joinery in turn and ask for a quote. Remind them that you are looking at the services of other companies too. This will keep them in check and make them more likely to offer an honest quote. Once they know that you’re also interested in a competitor, they will be on their best behaviour. Make sure that you receive quotes from at least three different companies.

Incidentally, after having work performed by a joinery company, you need to do your bit for your fellow customers. Take a few minutes out of your day to give an honest review on the joinery company’s website (if they have one). If they did an excellent job, don’t be afraid to extol their virtues. In the event that the job was badly performed, it is your duty to inform fellow consumers to make sure it doesn’t happen to them and that the company doesn’t get away with its low standard of work. 

Common Tools Used By A Joiner

No matter how skilled a joiner is, he still requires the best tools in order to produce a high quality end product. If it wasn’t for joiners, every piece of material made from wood would be one piece. Joiners combine pieces of wood with fasteners and adhesives and also have the ability to connect different pieces without the need of external products. Above all, joiners don’t require nails to create a finished product. Below are some examples of tools used by joiners.

Biscuit Cutter

Also known as a plate joiner, the biscuit cutter is a specialised piece of equipment that cuts small slots at the edges of stock in order to hold biscuits. Incidentally, a biscuit in this instance is a thin piece of wood that is oval shaped. The biscuit is usually glued into a specific slot on one end of the board with the other end of the board housing the opposite side of the biscuit. The blade of some biscuit cutters operates at some 10,000 RPM and is better than a router for the purposes of cutting biscuits. However, this tool doesn’t really have another use.

Router

This tool is used to hollow out wood. The process of routing means to cut, trim and shape wood at extremely high speeds. Wood is weak in small sections so the blade of a router is remarkably fast. This is one of the ‘coolest’ joiner’s tools and comes in stationary base and plunge form. Stationary base allows you to choose a certain depth which does not change when you’re cutting. As the name suggests, the plunge router enables you to plunge the machine into the material and pull it back out once you are satisfied with the cut.

Power Drill

This is one of the most commonly used joiner’s tools. A good power drill is an essential part of a joiner’s armoury. Although cordless drills are far more popular, there are many reasons why you should at least consider a corded version. For example, a corded drill is far more powerful and is necessary when holes of a large diameter have to be drilled. Cordless drills run on battery power, a power source that gets tested to the maximum when difficult drilling jobs are performed.

Bevel-Edged Chisel

As joinery is often about skill and finesse over power, it is no surprise to learn that a chisel is an important part of a joiner’s tool kit. Whenever a joiner needs to carve out a design on a piece of wood manually, a chisel is the first tool they turn to. Most chisels have a blade that is at least 4 inches in length with some chisels clocking in at double this length. If a chisel ends up in the hands of an amateur, the wood could be in danger. Put a chisel into the hands of a professional joiner however, and watch a masterpiece get created in front of you.

These are just a handful of the tools used by experienced joiners. Although power tools are more important than ever, the intricate designs that can only be created by hand ensures that tools such as a chisel will remain a staple of a joinery for years to come.

The Pros And Cons Of Becoming A Joiner

If you enjoy working with your hands and testing your skills, joinery could be the vocation for you. However, if waking up early and working outside in cold weather is not something that appeals to you, perhaps you need to look elsewhere. Like all things in life, if you really want something bad enough, you will make the sacrifices and prevail. Likewise, there are a million different excuses out there for anyone looking for them. Below are some pros and cons of being a joiner and hopefully, they will nudge you towards or away from this form of employment.

Pros

One thing you will find if you become a joiner is that it’s not a boring vocation. Far from it in fact. If the thought of sitting in an office all day long performing less than challenging tasks is anathema to you, joinery is just the ticket. From dawn till dusk, you will be out in the field, repairing various damaged windows and other broken wooden structures. You will travel all over your local area, becoming friendly with those you encounter.

There will also be occasions when you get to create brand new items back in your workshop. If you are interested in the joys of coming up with your own unique designs before bringing them to life, then joinery is a great choice for you. Unlike other jobs where you get paid the same no matter how much work you do, joiners are paid extra if they perform more tasks. If you have a great work ethic and a desire to earn, joinery could be extremely lucrative.

Cons

One man’s pros are another’s cons. Joiners have to wake up extremely early in the morning. This is no mundane 9-5 gig, you could be working from 6am in the morning until late at night if required. Joinery is not for someone who likes to have a carefully worked out schedule because things change in this job all the time. You may be ready to go home only to find that another important project needs doing.

You have to be a lover of the great outdoors or else you will quickly turn against the job. As a joiner, you will be asked to work on projects outdoors and in the UK, the weather is not always your friend. To be a joiner, you also have to be in good physical shape because it is a demanding job. The mental strain can also take its toll as deadlines need to be met. You will be asked to lift much heavier loads than you would in an office so if you can’t handle aches and strains, joinery is probably not for you.

Joinery is not your ordinary vocation but it still has plus and minus points like all other jobs. You don’t necessarily have to like waking up early in the morning, working long hours and lifting heavy loads to love life as a joiner. Your body and mind will get used to all these stresses. You need to ask yourself whether or not you enjoy being creative and working with wood enough to make the sacrifices that inevitably come with being a joiner. If you love joinery enough, the so-called cons will become pros in your eyes. 

Becoming A Joiner

There is an argument that joiners are born not made. The suggestion is that although joiners can be trained, natural skills will make the process much easier. Certainly, not everyone can become a joiner because it requires a level of skill, motivation, determination and hard work that may be beyond a lot of people. However, if you believe that you have what it takes to be a joiner, there are a number of ways that you can achieve your goal.

One of the best things about joinery is that you don’t necessarily need to have formal qualifications. This is great news for those who have excellent manual labour skills but never had the opportunity to finish their education. Instead of having to go back to school, you can earn money straight away by becoming a joiner’s mate. A joinery will not hire a full-time joiner unless he shows that he has some experience in the job as an understudy.

There are also various apprentice schemes in the UK but to be accepted, you need to have GCSE’s in subjects such as English, maths and design. Qualifications from vocational schools are often accepted as an equivalent educational qualification. If you believe that education is your best chance of becoming a joiner, there are dozens of colleges in the UK that have joinery courses at post-secondary level. An example of this kind of qualification is a City & Guilds Award. However, it should be noted that most employers still ask for experience on top of this educational achievement.

If you wish to steadily move up the rankings in the field of joinery, you could look for NVQ qualifications which can be achieved on the job. An example of one of these qualifications is Wood Occupations which has three different levels. There are several options on this particular course including Wheelwrighting (marking out, creating and assembling joinery products), bench work (producing joinery items) and shop fitting (manufacturing and installing frames internally and externally).

If you are looking to become a joiner on a site, you will need to have a Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) card. You need to pass stringent health and safety assessments and have a qualification which is equivalent to an NVQ in order to gain a CSCS card. If you gain this card, your employment prospects will rapidly increase.

If you are looking to become a joiner, you have to be prepared for the physical and mental demands of the job. As you will be measuring and calculating angles, you need to have a high level of mathematical skill, especially in the fields of geometry and trigonometry. You must be prepared to work long hours while keeping up a high level of energy.

As you can see, there are a variety of ways in which you can become a joiner. Although it is a demanding job, those with a love of working with wooden structures wouldn’t choose another job. It offers the kind of freedom that an office job does not.