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Joinery & Grain — A Monograph No. 01 · Timber, Square & Slow Ring the bench · (03) 9042 6180
A half-built hardwood deck at golden hour in a leafy Melbourne backyard, fresh spotted gum bearers casting long shadows, fine sawdust hanging in the low sun.
Carlton · Fitzroy · Brunswick
Northcote · Kew · Hawthorn Edition No. 01
Printed in Melbourne

Carpenter & Joiner · Licensed & Insured

Joinery &
Grain

Carpentry and joinery built to outlive the trend. We frame it to last fifty years: square, plumb, and finished the way you'd want it in your own home.

Twenty‑three
years on the tools
$20M
public liability cover
4.9★
across two hundred & ten jobs
Reg. 7
registered building practitioner

Chapter One — On building to outlive the trend

There is a way to set a bearer level so the timber moves where it should, and a season later nothing has cupped, nothing has lifted.

Most of a carpenter's work is invisible by design. The framing disappears behind plaster. The packing under a wardrobe disappears under a scribed reveal. The decision to let a hardwood deck breathe — to leave the gap a board wants, rather than the gap a brochure wants — disappears until the summer it doesn't. Joinery & Grain is a workshop that builds for the season nobody photographs: the one five years on, when the latch still closes with a single push and the mitre is still tight.

We work across Melbourne's inner north and east — decks and pergolas, built-in joinery, doors and hardware, framing and structural alterations, finish carpentry, and full home renovations run end to end. What ties them together isn't a service list. It's a standard: square, plumb, level, and finished as though we'll be the ones living with it.

"Square, plumb, and finished the way you'd want it in your own home."
A completed timber-clad pergola and hardwood deck at dusk in a Hawthorn courtyard, spotted gum glowing under low warm light, batten screen casting striped shadows.
Plate II — Decks & pergolas · Hawthorn courtyard, dusk The timber moves where it should, so nothing cups or lifts a season later.

Chapter Two — What we put our name on

Six kinds of work. One standard underneath all of them.

A carpenter who does everything badly is easy to find. We'd rather be accountable for a shorter list, done to the millimetre. Below is the full range of what leaves this workshop — written not as a menu, but as the things we'll happily come and measure up.

i.

Decks & pergolas

Hardwood and composite decks, pergolas and outdoor structures. We set the bearers level and let the timber move where it should, so nothing cups or lifts a season later.

ii.

Built-in joinery

Wardrobes, window seats, shelving and entertainment units made to the millimetre of your wall. Built in our workshop, fitted on site, finished flush.

iii.

Doors & hardware

Hanging, rehanging and bespoke door work — solid timber, cavity sliders, barn runners. Gaps even all the way round and a latch that closes with one push.

iv.

Framing & structural

Wall framing, subfloors, roof framing and structural alterations. We work to the engineer's plans and leave it ready for the next trade to walk straight in.

v.

Finish carpentry

Skirtings, architraves, cornices, panelling and stairs. The detail you notice last and trust longest — mitred tight, scribed to the wall, sanded by hand.

vi.

Renovations

Kitchens, bathrooms and full home renovations managed end to end. One carpenter accountable for the trades, the timeline and the finish you signed off on.

A Japanese pull saw, a marking gauge and a sharpened chisel resting on a freshly planed length of American oak, plane shavings beside them in warm window light.
Plate III — The bench, before the cut Sanded by hand.
A finished floor-to-ceiling built-in oak wardrobe and window seat in a renovated Fitzroy terrace, flush shaker doors scribed to an old plaster wall, brass cup handles.
Plate IV — Built-in joinery · Fitzroy terrace Scribed to the wall.

Chapter Three — The part nobody sees

Framing is the work you trust most and notice least.

Before a single sheet of plaster goes up, the shape of a room is already decided. A wall that's out by three millimetres at the top plate will read as wrong to anyone who walks in, even if they could never tell you why. So we chase the square and the plumb early, while it's still cheap to fix — because the alternative is a skirting that won't sit and a door that catches for the next thirty years.

We work to the engineer's plans, not around them. Wall framing, subfloors, roof framing and structural alterations all leave our site swept, set out, and ready for the next trade to walk straight in. The electrician shouldn't have to apologise for our framing; the plasterer shouldn't have to pack out our studs.

That discipline is the same one that shows up at the very end, in the finish carpentry — the mitred architrave, the scribed cornice, the stair that doesn't creak. The detail you notice last is held up by the framing you never saw. One carpenter is accountable for both, which is the only way the two ever truly agree.

A newly framed open-plan extension in a Melbourne renovation, clean pine wall framing and exposed roof trusses, light pouring through a future window opening onto sawdust on the slab.
Plate V — Framing & structural · open-plan extension Left ready for the next trade to walk straight in.

Printer's notes

What you get the day you book us.

Not a sales clause. The standing terms of the bench — the things we'd want in writing if we were the ones hiring a carpenter for our own home.

  1. a.A fixed quote in writing before a single board is cut.
  2. b.One carpenter who answers the phone and runs the job.
  3. c.We protect your floors, furniture and gardens every day.
  4. d.Site swept and rubbish gone before we leave each evening.
  5. e.A workmanship guarantee in writing, honoured in person.

BackOnTools × Joinery & Grain — how it works

The phone rings while you're on the saw. It's already handled.

This site catches the eye. BackOnTools catches the call you can't: it answers in your voice, books the job, and drops it in your pocket before you've put the tools down.

  1. 1It rings. A built-in quote you'd have missed: you're on the saw and can't stop mid-cut.
  2. 2BackOnTools answers in your voice. It takes the job and the address, gives your lead time, and books the measure-up.
  3. 3It lands in your app. The quote and the visit land in your app. You just turn up with the tape.

Your site, built around your jobs — half price when it’s on a BackOnTools number.

One-Pager$1,490$490Live this week
Full Site$2,990$1,4904–5 pages + SEO
The Lot$5,990$2,990Full custom build
Put it on your number →

Correspondence

Tell us about the job. We'll come measure up and quote it properly.

A short note is plenty. We read every one, and we reply within two business days.

(03) 9042 6180

Rather talk it through? Ring the bench. The carpenter who'll run your job is the one who answers.

Where we work: Carlton, Fitzroy, Brunswick, Northcote, Kew, Hawthorn, Richmond and the inner north and east.
Instagram · @joineryandgrain

An editor's note on this edition

A confession, set in the colophon: Joinery & Grain isn't real. Yours would be.

This monograph is a concept Maison Turco set and printed to show what a carpenter's website can look like when it's made with the same care as the work itself. The brand, the photography, the figures, the two hundred and ten jobs — all invented. The craft of the site is real.

If you're already on BackOnTools, the calls you can't reach get answered. This is the other half: a website that makes a stranger trust you before you've said a word. We build one of these per trade. If you're a carpenter or joiner in Melbourne, the next edition could carry your name.

Claim your member site → Maison Turco BackOnTools More trade concepts