Joiner vs carpenter: what is the difference, and who should you hire?

In British usage, a joiner is someone who makes timber items, such as doors, windows, staircases and fitted furniture, usually in a workshop using fixed machinery. A carpenter works mainly on site, cutting and fixing timber into a building: roof structures, floor joists, stud partitions, door linings and skirting. The joiner makes; the carpenter installs and builds in place.

In practice the line blurs. Many tradespeople train in both, and small firms often do a mix. But when you are hiring, the distinction tells you where a person's skills and equipment are strongest.

Joinery is bench work. It relies on accurate machining, well-cut joints and controlled finishing. Because pieces are made away from the dust and disruption of a building site, it suits items where the quality of finish matters.

Carpentry is usually structural or first-fix and second-fix site work. A carpenter frames a loft conversion, builds a stud wall, lays a subfloor, hangs internal doors and fixes architraves and skirting. The work is often hidden behind plaster or finished by other trades.

On a renovation, carpenters tend to arrive early, when the building is being formed, while joinery arrives later, once walls are plastered and the room is close to finished.

If the job is about structure or fixing standard items, such as a new partition, replacement doors from a supplier or a boarded loft, you want a carpenter or a general builder. If the job is about something made to fit a particular space and meant to be looked at, such as a wardrobe that fills an alcove or a desk that greets visitors, you want a joiner.

Some projects need both. A loft bedroom may need carpentry to form the room and joinery to fill the eaves with storage. In that case, make sure the two trades share drawings, so openings and fixings are ready for the fitted pieces.

Ask what they will make themselves and what they will buy in. Ask whether they work from drawings, and whether you will see them before work starts. For fitted furniture, ask how they handle uneven walls and whether the people who make the pieces also install them.

It is also worth asking what is excluded. Electrical work, plastering, decoration and making good are often outside a joiner's scope, and knowing that early avoids gaps in your programme.

We are joiners and cabinetmakers. Our work is residential interior fit-outs, including walk-in wardrobes, fitted and floor to ceiling wardrobes, dressing rooms and bedroom furniture, and commercial office fit-outs, including office storage, reception desks, boardroom storage, shelving and media walls. We do not take on structural alterations or general building work.