Charlie's Carpentry Services

I received three quotations from various Staircase installers. My gut feeling told me to hire Charlie however I was sceptical after reading one negative review. I heard Charlie's side of the story and decided to hire him. I am so very happy that I went with my instincts. Charlie takes great pride in his craftsmanship and my custom staircase exceeded my expectations. He is reliable, stays on schedule, and makes sure his clients are 100% satisfied. I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending Charlie's Carpentry Services.

Echoing the other clients review who gave a lot easier. Very good sales pitch, only the best snd only perfection would satisfy Charlie. He also said he used an outside company to do staining, then he said he wasn't happy with quality and would do the stating himself. When the stairs came, one string was too long and he proceeded to try and force it in with sledge hammer. I had to ask him to use wood block to protect stringer, after a couple of dents appeared. He said it didn't matter he would fill those. Then a large chip came off which he glued in later. The stairs had been assembled with glue on surfaces so the stain didn't take in large areas. He said it was normal. I paid a restoration company to fix the areas. The spindles were installed crooked and very strangely spaced - 1/2 inch from newels then big gaps. Also where the stairs wrapped around the bannister is over empty space instead of the tread surface below so a large uneven gap between newels. This was horrible and I wish I had just bought components from home depot as it would be way better than this both up. He also promised to deliver trim pieces and to finish between stairs and wall then that became 'oh I was just advising how you could do it, not part of the job'. When you point out deficiencies you get the response that it is 'up to code' well I paid for something way better than code but didn't get it. Contact me for pictures or to come and see it as I haven't fixed it as yet.

Charlie has built the most beautiful solid staircase to our specific requests. Charlie is professional, highly detailed, responds promptly to emails, courteous, works with other contractors well. Charlie was open to my specific requests and willing to try my ideas. However, may I suggest to listen to Charlie's suggestions as he knows what he is talking about. Charlie offers off site staining and painting of your staircase when it works out. I will recommend Charlie and use him for my basement stairs in the near future.

Charlie has exceeded my expectations! His work is absolutely beautiful! I decided to manage my parents entire main floor renovation and hired many different trades for the project. He was by far one of the best! Instead of refinishing the existing staircase, I decided to put a new one in. Charlie had some great ideas for the new staircase and the final product exceeded my expectations! He is very detail oriented, and perfectionist. With the combination of his talent and attention to detail, the end result is magnificent. Charlie was so professional, he was always on time, true to his word and made sure that we were happy with everything. I would recommend Charlie to everyone and would definitely use his services again.

About 6 months ago I used homestars to get recommendations for a carpenter to rebuild our staircase. I took comfort from the positive reviews when hiring Charlie's Carpentry Services. We had a very negative experience that I want to share so the next person in my shoes has the full picture.
In the beginning we had a very positive view of Charlie, who demonstrated great knowledge of his craft and worked with us to find solutions that met our needs.
By the time of install, we saw the other side. When the parts were delivered, our staircase that was meant to be solid oak and maple was substituted with poplar (a cheaper alternative) without our knowledge. Once we realized, we were able to reach an understanding and I chalked it up to a simple misunderstanding.
After day 1&2 of our install, things were coming together ok. While there was a big squeak in the middle steps, I was assured this was just rubbing and would go away. Terms of our deal called for a 50% deposit and 50% on final completion. I offered to pay half of the remaining balance ahead of time. Big mistake, the quality of work went way downhill. The last day on install was a totally different story. We came home to a filthy worksite, and a slap job of the remaining work, it was obvious this was low priority and had been hastily completed. The banister and newel post were not attached properly. When we brought it up to him that if it's in this shape now, it will only get worse, he agreed and offered to come fix it. And then he changed his story and said it was "to code" and that should be good enough for us. We could visibly see why it wobbled, the anchor he had used had glanced off the side of the floor joist but he refused to acknowledge this. The squeaking stairs have only gotten worse. Things escalated from there to borderline ridiculous, he refused to take our phone calls and abandoned the job. Now we are in the process of having to find somebody to come in and fix half the job. Not impressed and not worth the headache. I’m tempted to give a zero star rating because of the nightmare of the process but to be fair, we do have a usable set of stairs. I would not wish this ordeal on anyone else, buyer beware.

Charlie did a fantastic job taking our old stair case out (over 100 years old) and installing a new solid oak one. He completed the job in just one day and was calm, efficient and tidy. He even matched the stain on the stairs to match the rest of the wood throughout our house. All my correspondence with Charlie was seamless and we are so happy with his work. I would definitely recommend Charlie for all your stair repair or building needs. Thanks Charlie!

My wife and I had an oak staircase installation done recently by Charlie and we are both thrilled with how it turned out. I called Charlie after seeing his great reviews on this website. We booked an appt. and he gave me a quote on the spot. He was kind, patient and took a professional approach. Charlie is a very busy individual so I suggest that if you want, or are planning, to get new stairs installed you book 6 months ahead with a firm date.

Charlie managed to accommodate our requests and matched the colours of stains beautifully. His skills are amazing and he is a very personable guy to deal with. We had a lot of renovations in the home being done that week and Charlie did not mind at all working with the other contractors.
Very happy and would refer Charlie anytime.

Thanks again,

A and M (Hamilton)

Charlie was great. The top railing of our staircase was too short so it was a safety concern for our daughter. The job required rebuilding a gumwood staircase. Ii sourced the gumwood and Charlie came with me to ensure it was the right material and that there was enough to work with. He had to work with out other contractor who was managing replacing all our flooring. It looked great. You could never tell that it was different from the original.

Charlie found time in his busy schedule to add in the railings for his 3 flights of stairs, plus our walkway on the 3rd floor.

You know from these reviews Charlie's a great woodworker, but you should also know that he's a joy to have around. Friendly, professional and courteous. He was always respectful of the fact that our home is not a wood shop. He's careful about making too much of a mess, always asks if this or that "would be okay" before going ahead, and tidies up when he's done.

For our railings the design kept coming back to "no, simpler" until Charlie got to the design you see in the attached photo. We're just thrilled with his work.

After our previous stair builder completely messed up our order (wrong materials, and one staircase was even 2' too short!), Charlie came in and provided some great suggestions for changes to the original design. We gave Charlie an unusual order in that we didn't want chip board or plywood -- these were to be solid wood through and through. No problem.

He designed & built 3 great staircases in solid maple. I think the attached photos speak for themselves in terms of fit & finish. Absolutely beautiful. Can't wait to apply the finish and watch the maple really come to life!

We'll be having Charlie back to do our railings for us, for sure. He's a man who knows his bois!