Going the Extra Mile: My Belief in the Value of a White Gloved Approach

At the finishing stages of one of my last jobs, I received an odd request from my client who was working from home one day. I was cleaning up my tools, had given the room a sweep and vacuum after removing the floor protection, and just as I was setting up my swiffer pad to clean their hardwood floor they said “Don’t worry about that, we will probably make a mess of it later anyways!”

While I appreciated their attempt to lighten my workload, this just isn’t how I’m wired to operate! One very special aspect of being in the trades for me, especially as a Finish Carpenter that is often in a person’s lived-in home, is that I have the privilege to be invited into many people’s lives, their beautiful homes, and hopefully leave a piece of work that will last for a century. A privilege that I do not take lightly!

I have worked on many different sizes and styles of homes and no matter the scale of the project, my approach remains the same, which is that of a white glove mindset that whatever my project is, that is my focus until the product is exactly what you had envisioned, with the utmost care and attention to detail. Over the years working for other contractors and now working on my own, I have seen first hand that our industry is severely lacking this mindset and heavily promotes the “getting it done” mentality for as cheap and fast as possible. 

Don’t get me wrong, there is definitely a time, place, and budget for these types of jobs, but those just aren’t for me. I may be a bit slower than a crew of multiple employees, I may even be a bit more expensive in my cost breakdowns, but throughout working with me I hope that you will find the value of having a carpenter who focuses solely on your home, educating you on the best processes and materials, working hands-on and behind the scenes on your project, and not leaving a spec of dust behind at the end of the journey.