FINISH CARPENTRY & MILLWORK · GANTRY HILL · THIRD GENERATION, EST. 1957
Three generations on the same corner.
Gantry Hill Trim Works has quoted trim off the same counter since 1957 — grandfather’s card, daughter’s tolerances. Today the work runs in fixed-scope packages: what the card covers is printed on it, and what it does not is not on the invoice either.
Since 1957
The shop, by decade
A corner shop does not survive sixty-nine years by chasing every job. It survives by quoting what it can build, building what it quoted, and handing the counter down with the card still pinned to it.
1957
Walt buys the corner
One bench, one crosscut saw and a rate card nailed above the door. The first card’s prices are kept in the drawer; the handwriting on it is not for sale.
1984
Ray adds the mill
Profile knives bought by the dozen until the rack held a hundred runs. Matching a house’s own trim stopped being a favour and became the trade.
2009
June takes the bench
Third generation, same standard, new tolerances — reveals to a sixteenth, moisture read at the measure, hardware written onto a schedule per door.
2026
The card goes fixed-scope
Packages with printed scope, published piece prices, and the same five-year joint guarantee the first card promised in handwriting.
Services
Packages with printed scope
Three fixed scopes cover most of what the county asks us for. Each is quoted to your rooms after a free measure — the figures below are honest floors, not teaser rates.
The Room
from $2,900per room
- Casing, base and crown, coped corners
- One door hung, latched and tuned
- Hardware schedule drafted per opening
- Pre-finished stain-grade or paint-ready
- One to two install days
Most dining rooms, halls and studies land between $2,900 and $4,400 after the measure.
The Stair
from $9,800per flight
- Oak treads and returned risers
- Skirts scribed to the wall you have
- Newels bolted through the frame
- Rail and balusters, spaced to code
- Load-walked before we leave
Rebuilds over old carriages run higher; the measure prices the flight tread by tread.
The House
from $18,400whole package
- Every room, trimmed to one standard
- Doors and hardware on one schedule
- Custom millwork to match originals
- One site lead, start to walkthrough
- Sequenced with your painter
Fixed after the count; the invoice is the quote with dates on it.
Sixty-nine years, counted
Client work
The county’s woodwork
Gantry Hill and forty minutes around it, photographed on walkthrough day — the same corner, three generations of rooms.
The old sequence
How a package runs
The order has not changed since 1957 — only the tolerances have.
The measure
Ninety minutes at the house: rooms lasered, profiles identified off the rack, budget spoken plainly. Free, and the count leaves with you.
The quote
Package scope applied to your rooms, piece prices on every line, hardware schedule attached. Fixed thirty days.
The bench
Milled, coped and pre-finished flat at the shop on the corner — you can watch your own wood move through any morning.
The walkthrough
Level, lamp and card. The truck stays until the room matches the sheet — a standard older than everyone in the shop.
June quoted the stair off her grandfather’s card format and finished a week inside her own dates. The skirts were scribed to walls that have been leaning since the canal — the joint lines are straight anyway.
We priced the whole house three ways. Gantry Hill was the only shop whose scope sheet said what was NOT included — which is how we knew the number was real.
My parents hired Ray in the nineties; I hired June this spring. Different hands, same card, same corner. The casing matches the old work because the knife is literally the same one.
The bench today
June Ostrander, master carpenter, with two hands she trained herself. The counter, the card and Walt’s first rate sheet remain exactly where he left them.
shop@gantryhill.example · 1 Corner Shop Sq, Gantry Hill · Lic. FC-65314
The packages, explained
Asked across the counter
Why packages instead of open estimates?
Because scope is what makes a price honest. A package says what is included, what is not, and what a change costs before you ask for one. Open estimates are how a stair becomes a dispute with balusters.
Can a package be shaped to my rooms?
Shaped, never stretched. The measure applies the scope to your house — a room with eleven openings prices differently from one with four, and the quote shows that arithmetic line by line.
Do you still match old profiles?
It is the reason the mill exists. A hundred knife runs on the 1984 rack, custom grinding for about $190 when yours is not among them — and the knife stays with the shop so the house can be matched again in fifty years.
Who is on my job?
June and one hand, both named on the quote, both at the walkthrough. Three generations of not subcontracting the finish work is the whole reputation.
Autumn measures are booking two weeks out; package installs run four to six weeks from the count. The card’s prices hold through the winter reprint.