Finish Carpentry
Trim work that actually fits.
Baseboards, door installation, casing, crown molding, chair rail, caulk and seal. The finish details that separate a good job from a great one — and the first thing people notice when they're skipped.
Finish carpentry, the right way.
Trim is the picture frame around your house. Done well, you don't notice it — everything just feels finished. Done poorly, you see every gap, every miter that doesn't quite close, every baseboard that's wavy where the wall is wavy. The wall is never as flat as you think it is. Good trim work hides that. Bad trim work amplifies it.
Most painting outfits in Palm Beach County either skip carpentry entirely ("call your handyman") or sub it out to whoever's free that week. We don't. Our crew installs trim, doors, and molding because we know how it has to look after the paint, and how to set it up so the paint job actually finishes clean.
We use coped inside corners (not mitered) on baseboard so the joint stays tight when the wood moves with humidity — and in South Florida, the wood always moves. We use brad nails plus construction adhesive so things stay put. We caulk every joint with paintable caulk, fill every nail hole, and only then do we paint.
The full job.
The full carpentry list — not just baseboards.
Baseboard install
MDF, primed pine, or solid wood. Standard 4 1/4" colonial profile or custom heights to match what's there. Coped inside corners, mitered outside corners, scribed to the floor where it dips.
Door installation
Pre-hung, slab, or replacement. We level the rough opening, plumb the jambs, mortise the hinges, and adjust the strike plate so the door actually closes without slamming. New construction or retrofit, interior or exterior.
Casing & jambs
Door and window casing. Square or beveled reveals, mitered corners, jamb extensions for thick walls. Custom profiles ordered when needed — we won't substitute a stock profile for a profile that doesn't match the house.
Crown molding
Single-piece, two-step, or three-piece built-up. Coped inside corners. We measure twice for ceiling height variations — in older PBC homes, ceilings are rarely level end-to-end.
Chair rail & wainscoting
Standard 32–36" rail height, board-and-batten paneling, raised-panel wainscot. We layout to avoid weird half-panels at corners. Whole-room or accent-wall installs.
Trim repair
Replacing damaged baseboards from water, dogs, or just age. Splicing in matching profiles, blending nail-pop and gap fills, fixing the spots where the trim has pulled away from the wall.
Caulk & seal
Every joint, every reveal, every place wood meets drywall. Proper bead size — not so thin it cracks in a season, not so thick it telegraphs through paint. Paintable caulk only.
Touch-up & paint
Trim primed and painted in-place after install. Color-matched to existing trim if you're not repainting, or finished as part of the larger paint job. The trim work doesn't end with the install.
Material, install, caulk, paint.
Walk-through & spec
We measure linear feet, look at existing profiles, and decide together what you want: keep what's there, upgrade to a taller baseboard, change the casing reveal. Material called out: MDF for paint-grade, pine or hardwood for stain-grade.
Order & prep
Trim ordered (most stocked, some custom-profile). On install day, we pull old trim if needed, repair drywall behind it (small holes, anchor wounds), and pre-prime any raw cuts.
Layout
Long walls first, then break to short walls and corners. We lay everything out before nailing — nothing worse than trimming an entire room and discovering the closet wall is 1/4" out of square.
Cut & cope
Inside corners coped, not mitered — one piece runs square to the wall, the next is jigsawed to the profile so it sits flush. Outside corners mitered. Long runs scarf-jointed, not butt-jointed.
Install
Brad nails (15ga or 18ga depending on profile) plus construction adhesive. Adhesive matters — nails alone work loose with humidity cycles.
Caulk, fill, paint
Every joint caulked. Every nail hole filled. Sanded smooth. Then primed (raw MDF absorbs) and painted. The trim becomes part of the wall, not an attachment to it.
Why people call us for trim.
Coped corners, not mitered.
Most carpenters miter inside corners because it's faster. We cope. The reason: when the wood expands or contracts with humidity, a mitered joint opens up; a coped joint stays tight. In Florida humidity, that difference shows up within a year.
We do the drywall too.
Old trim almost always covers some kind of damage — small holes from previous installs, gaps where the drywall didn't reach the floor, mouse access points. We're already drywall finishers. We fix the wall before we cover it.
Caulk and paint included.
Some carpenters install bare and leave; you have to hire someone else to paint. Our trim work is finished — primed, caulked, painted, color-matched if needed. One crew, one finish.
Florida humidity considered.
Solid wood for stain-grade. MDF for paint-grade because it doesn't warp. Adhesive on every install. We size the caulk bead for movement, not for a single perfect day. The trim still looks good in year three.
How trim work goes in PBC.
Older PBC homes (1970s–1990s in Greenacres, Lake Worth, Boynton, Lantana, West Palm) almost always have ranch-style 2 1/4" baseboard that's looked dated for twenty years. Replacing it with 4 1/4" or 5 1/4" colonial profile is one of the fastest cosmetic upgrades you can do — bigger visual lift than people expect, low cost relative to repaint, takes a few days for a whole house.
Newer construction in Wellington, Palm Beach Gardens, and the Boca Mizner-style developments often used builder-grade MDF that fails after five to seven years — especially around bathrooms and exterior doors where humidity gets at it. We replace it with primed pine or finger-jointed pine for paint-grade work, or solid poplar for trim that needs to hold up better.
HOA architectural review boards in some of the gated PBC communities — especially Mizner Country Club, Old Palm, BallenIsles — have specific molding profile and paint color requirements. We've worked through approvals at most of them. Bring us the spec sheet and we'll match it.
Common questions.
Can you replace just the baseboards without repainting the walls?
Yes — that's a common job. We pull the old trim, patch any drywall damage where the trim was nailed, install the new trim, caulk it to the wall, and paint just the trim itself. The wall paint typically gets a fine line of fresh caulk along the top of the new trim — we'll touch up the wall in that line if needed. Most clients are surprised at the visual lift from a baseboard upgrade alone.
MDF or solid wood — which is better in Florida?
For paint-grade trim, MDF is better. It doesn't warp with humidity changes, it has no grain to telegraph through paint, and it's cheaper. The trade-off is it's softer — if you're worried about dogs, kids, or vacuum impacts, primed finger-jointed pine is a step up. For stain-grade trim (where you can see the wood), use solid poplar, oak, or maple — never MDF, it can't be stained.
How much does crown molding cost?
Single-piece colonial crown runs $7–$12 per linear foot installed (material + labor). Two-step or three-piece built-up crown runs $14–$25 per linear foot. A standard 12×14 living room is roughly 52 linear feet, so $360–$650 for single-piece or $730–$1,300 for built-up. Whole-house crown across 200–300 linear feet of main rooms is typically $1,500–$4,500 depending on profile.
Do you handle exterior trim and door casings?
Yes. Exterior trim has different requirements — UV stability, paint adhesion, expansion. We use PVC trim or primed cedar for exterior, depending on the look you're going for. Exterior door casings, fascia, soffit trim, and porch ceiling trim are all part of the work.
Can you match the existing trim profile if I don't want to replace everything?
Usually yes. We bring a profile gauge to the walk-through, take a section to a millwork supplier, and either find a matching stock profile or order a custom run. Custom profile orders take 7–14 days. If the original is a 1970s ranch profile that's been discontinued, we'll show you the closest stock option and the differences before you commit.
How long does whole-house baseboard replacement take?
A 2,000–2,500 sq ft house is typically 3–5 working days end-to-end: half a day to remove old trim and patch the walls, two to three days to cut and install, half a day to caulk and fill, half a day to paint. Pulling the trim and prepping the walls is the part that adds time on older homes.
Do you paint the trim after install?
Yes — that's part of the job. MDF and primed pine both need a coat of primer and two coats of trim paint to look right. We use semi-gloss or satin enamel depending on what's already in the house. If you're replacing trim in just one room, we'll color-match the existing trim paint so the new pieces blend.
We do more than this.
Ready to upgrade the trim?
Same crew. Same standards. Your trim next.
Free walk-through. No deposit. No pressure. We'll come measure, look at what's there, and tell you what we'd recommend.