Bespoke Joinery & Carpentry in Dorset: What We Build

Ask most people what a building firm does and they'll talk about extensions, roofs, maybe bathrooms. Fair enough, we build plenty of those. But the trade that decides whether a finished room actually looks finished is carpentry. Gappy skirting and badly hung doors will let down an otherwise spotless renovation, and crisp bespoke joinery will lift a tired 1930s semi more than almost anything else you can spend money on.

Our carpenters and joiners work across Dorset, from Poole and Bournemouth out to Wimborne, Christchurch and the edge of the New Forest, on everything from first-fix stud work to fully bespoke fitted furniture. Here's what that actually covers, what it costs in 2026, and what good work looks like when it's done.

Carpentry or joinery, and does the difference matter?

In the trade, joinery is the making: units, wardrobes, doors and staircases built at the bench. Carpentry is the fitting, plus the structural timber work on site. Most decent-sized jobs need both, which is why we keep the two under one roof rather than subbing the making out.

Why should you care? Because almost nothing in an older Dorset home is square. The Victorian terraces around Boscombe and the 1930s semis in Wimborne have walls that lean, floors that dip and chimney breasts that were never symmetrical to begin with. Flat-pack carcasses can't cope with that. Bespoke joinery is scribed to your actual walls, which is the whole point of paying for it.

Alcove units, fitted wardrobes and media walls

This is the work we're asked for most. Chimney-breast alcoves in Poole and Bournemouth's older housing stock are rarely the same width on both sides, sometimes out by 40mm or more, so each unit is measured, made and hand-fitted individually. Based on what we're pricing this year:

• A single alcove unit with a cupboard base and floating shelves over typically runs £1,100–£2,600 fitted and spray-finished.

• A matching pair either side of a chimney breast is usually £2,200–£5,400 depending on depth, height and finish.

• Fitted wardrobes start around £1,800 for a simple painted MDF run, and most fully bespoke builds land between £3,600 and £7,200.

Timber choice moves these numbers more than anything else. An oak-veneered or solid-oak build can come close to doubling the price of the same design in painted MDF, so we'll always show you both options at the survey stage. Media walls with concealed cabling and recessed fires we price per design after a survey, because no two are alike.

Doors, skirting and staircases

The smaller jobs matter just as much, partly because they're what you touch and see every day. Current prices across our patch:

• Supplying and hanging a new internal door: £180–£420 per door, depending on the door itself and the ironmongery.

• Re-skirting a typical room: £270–£360 including materials.

• A full staircase refurbishment with new treads, handrail and balustrade: £2,400–£7,200.

If you're pricing up a bigger project by labour instead, an experienced carpenter on the south coast books out at £260–£340 a day through us, with materials on top.

As for judging the finished work: look for even margins around door edges, skirting scribed into corners rather than filled, and doors that stay put when you leave them half open. If a fitter reaches for the caulk gun in the first hour, that tells you plenty.

How we run a joinery job

We always survey before quoting. Every alcove gets measured at three heights, because the difference between the top and bottom of a Victorian chimney breast can be the difference between a unit that slides in and one that doesn't. From there you get drawings, a fixed price and a finish sample to sign off before anything gets cut.

A typical pair of alcove units takes two to three weeks from survey to fitting, with a day or two on site at the end. Bigger bespoke pieces, staircases especially, spend longer in the workshop but no longer in your house. And because joinery usually lands mid-renovation, it ties in neatly with our general construction and building work when there's plastering, electrics or decorating to coordinate around it.

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Got an alcove, wardrobe or staircase in mind?

Send us a photo of the space with rough measurements and we'll tell you honestly what it's likely to cost before anyone visits. Or book a free survey and we'll come and measure properly, anywhere in Dorset and Hampshire.