Vetted carpenters near you. Book now.

Expect a call-out/first-hour fee of about R450 – R750, then labour of R350 – R650 per hour depending on the work — with day rates of R2,000 – R4,500 for bigger jobs. Materials are always quoted separately, from a R100 length of pine to full built-in board budgets, so ask for the labour/materials split.

Built-in cupboard and wardrobe repairs and installations, hanging and easing doors, kitchen cabinet work, shelving and custom storage, skirtings and trim, furniture repairs, and deck or pergola timber. If it's made of wood and part of your home, it's carpentry — batching several items into one visit is the value move.

Easing a sticking door takes about an hour, cupboard and hinge repairs a half-day for a room's worth, hanging a new door two to three hours, and built-in projects run from a day for shelving to a week for full wardrobes. Glues and finishes add curing time, so a repair finished today is often only back in service tomorrow.

Solid timber almost always deserves repair — older doors, real-wood furniture, and solid built-ins are frequently better material than their replacements, at a fraction of the cost. Water-swollen chipboard is the honest exception. A good carpenter tells you which side of the line your job sits on before any money moves.