FINISH CARPENTRY · BARROW MILLS · SINCE 2011
Doors that close with one finger. Corners that never crack.
Dead Square is a two-person trim crew in Barrow Mills. We cope every inside corner, scribe every transition, and set hardware with a six-inch level and a bad attitude toward gaps. Paint-grade or stain-grade, the joint is the same: cut to hold, not to photograph.
312 trim packages since 2011 · zero open punch lists · Lic. FC-20417
Services
What we hang, cope and set
01
Base, casing & crown
Full trim packages for new builds and re-trims: poplar for paint, white oak for stain, and every inside corner coped — a miter opens with the season and a cope cannot.
02
Built-ins & libraries
Floor-to-ceiling bookcases, window seats with storage, mudroom bench-and-hook walls. Drawn at the bench, built in the shop, installed in one to three days.
03
Stairs, treads & rails
Oak treads and risers, skirt boards scribed to the wall you actually have, newel posts bolted through the frame — a rail you can lean on with everything.
04
Mantels & surrounds
Floating mantels on hidden steel, paneled fireplace walls, hearths scribed to stone that has not been square since 1932.
05
Doors & window stools
Doors hung to a nickel-slide and latched like they mean it; stools and aprons returned clean, so a window reads as one piece.
Client rooms
Straight work, photographed straight
Every photo is a client room on walkthrough day — no staging, no color grading, no borrowed furniture.
They cased thirty-four openings in our 1927 foursquare and the profiles match the originals within a hair. Our painter took photographs of the inside corners. I have never once seen that.
How it goes
How a trim package happens
The same sequence on every job — the only variable is your project.
Day 0
The measure visit
Sixty to ninety minutes with a laser, a story about your house, and honest talk about budget. Free — the drawings are yours whoever you hire.
Day 2
The fixed number
A line-item quote by opening and by foot, not a lump sum with a shrug built in. Holds for thirty days.
Week 2
Install days
Two carpenters, one truck, mats and plastic down. A 2,000-square-foot package runs eight to twelve working days.
Last day
The walkthrough
You hold the level and we walk every corner together. Anything your finger touches gets fixed before the truck loads — not after an email chain.
The scoreboard
Why cope a corner instead of mitering it?
Wood moves with humidity — across the grain, not along it. A miter pins two end grains against each other and opens every winter; a cope follows the profile of the first piece, so the joint moves and stays tight. It costs us about a day per house and it is the reason our corners still look new in year ten.
Do you paint or finish the trim?
We install, caulk and fill; your painter sprays. On stain-grade we finish ourselves — oil-based, hand-rubbed, three coats minimum — because a stain hides nothing and a bad one cannot be fixed later.
Can you match the trim in an older house?
Usually. We keep knives for forty-one historic profiles and can have a matching knife ground for about $180 if yours is not on the rack. The Farr house casing ran on a custom knife; the splice sits under the windowsill where nobody will ever find it.
What does a full package cost?
A 2,000-square-foot paint-grade package runs $9,800 to $16,500 installed, before paint; stain-grade white oak runs 60 to 80 percent above. The measure visit ends with a number on paper, not a range with a wink.
Get the number for your rooms
Sixty minutes at the house, free, and the drawings are yours whoever you hire.