Customer Reviews

Trim Carpentry & Built-Ins

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought 5 copies as gifts for friends and family who love to work on their homes. The advice about using blocking to install crown makes this book worthwhile by itself, but this is just one example of dozens of tricks for completing carpentry jobs to dress up a home interior. Great photos throughout. I've worked my way up to tackling built-in bookcases, and found the stp-by-step advice on this as helpful as the rest.

I wish all how-to books could be so well illustrated and clearly written. This one takes you fom start to finish on a range of projects, like window trim, baseboard, crown molding, wainscot, book shelves and cabinets, and provides a slew of tricks in the margins. plus sidebars that tell you what you need to know at a glance. Niceley arranged. easy to get to what you want without having to read a lot of text. This book stands far above those in the same series.

My husband gave me this book as a gift, and it's provided wonderful encouragement (it's also a book he wanted, of course). Together we have completed some nice house projects together, such as converting our back porch into a sunroom and adding a new window in the dining room to bring in much needed light. We both agree the hardest part to do well is the wood trim, and it's what you see everyday afterwards. This book has been a wonderful guide and confidence builder for us both. It's not a beginner's book, but it's not at all too advanced. I pride myself on having learned some basic carpentry and how to use some tools, but with this book I've picked up some of the extras I wished I'd learned from my father (or any other family member when I was younger) about woodworking. The book's full of useful tricks and short cuts, as well as clear explanations about how all the pieces work together, and what the shortfalls we should be looking out for to get professional looking results. I'd recommend it to anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of carpentry who wants to take on some real carpentry jobs around the house. Next up for us: Wainscoting in the a bathroom, and then replacing the bland, little trim in our living room with elegant Victorian details!

Mr. DeKorne-- who I have read for years in Tools of the Trade magazine and the esteemed Journal of Light Construction, has written a marevelous, easy-to-read guide to trim carpentry. I would recommend it to anyone curious about the trade, the tools to use, and the techniques to get a pro-like finish. There is an old saying that "a little caulk and a little paint make a carpenter what he ain't" ... Well, you won't have to use that excuse after following the guidance of this book.

I got this book to figure out the details of some built-ins for my living room. As someone who tinkers around the house but has no real training I found DeKorne's book thorough, straightforward and down to earth. The photos were helpful and in the end the book really helped my project take shape.

The reviewer, scottwm, has a right not to like this book, but he does a disservice by misleading potential readers. Mr. DeKorne does discuss how to terminate a mouding (p. 58), and yes, he does'nt cover crown for a vaulted ceiling, but this is like saying a book on building paper airplanes doesn't cover jet engines -- it's one of the more difficult carpentry tasks. Indeed, anyone trying it is advised to build a horizontal shelf and install conventional crown below it as a way to trim this difficult junction. But the point is, this is hardly a slight to this excellent carpentry book. What's great about DeKorne's work here is that it's not full a minutia that bogs a reader down in unnessary detail, but get's right ot the heart of doing the work.

I find most Taunton books fair, at best. They are very expensive for the 20-30 minutes it takes to read. Many illustrations/photos in this book are small and difficult to see. (ie. making a jig for crown). There is no inormation on casing a door which the title includes. I know that it is the same as a window, however, the author does not mention this.
No info on ending a moulding mid-way by making a return.
No info on crown for a vaulted ceiling. I returned the book.
Yes, I learned one or two things, however, the book title:
"Trim Carpentry and Built-Ins: Expert Advice from Start to Finish" is not Expert or Finish.
It should be: Trim Carpentry and ?: Advice from Start ....."
by Clayton Dekorne

I consider myself a beginner but found this book outstanding. It
has enough detail to tell you how to complete a project properly. I'd recommend more pictures to the author to augment some of the trickier tasks he explains but it's written well enough to understand.

It covers the basics and the finer points all in one place. A great reference manual when you get stuck.

I'm a "advanced beginner" carpenter, and this book is BY FAR the best book I've read and used to give good, practical information and tips on finish carpentry. I orginially borrowed from the library, but liked it so much I bought it.

It's got a great balance between being accessible and detailed. Unlike most books of this genre, it doesn't assume you've got thousands of dollars of woodworking tools in your basement, but does assume that you know a bit about what you're doing, and are looking for someone more experienced to get you through some tricky projects. The best part is page after page of expert tips that help you do things more quickly and efficient, based on the author's 25 years in the business. The pictures and illustrations are also top notch, again, a great balance between detailed and accessible. A lot of thought went into writing this book and it shows.

This book had exactly what I needed for planning and building some built-in bookcases. The author provides construction techniques beyond simplistic instructions found in most books. The tips and tricks provided are very useful.