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?