How we chose
We started from the thirty-six carpentry and joinery firms Google Maps shows across Telford, matched each at Companies House [12] and read its own website for services, areas and terms. Scheme memberships were sourced from the TrustMark and Federation of Master Builders registers, the trade bodies, the firms' own sites and review platforms [1] [2] [3] [4]. Each business must first meet our basic checks: it is who it says it is, it is trading today and can be reached, and anything it must hold by law is in place. Eleven firms met all three. We looked first at what customers say — the star rating itself, since beyond a small handful of reviews volume adds nothing — then qualifications, then whether the firm has traded two years or more and whether its cover is stated, then pricing clarity and website detail. All evidence is dated early September 2026.
How to hire
Start by matching the worker to the job. A carpenter fixes timber on site — doors, floors, skirting, stairs and roof timbers — while a joiner makes the pieces in a workshop, from windows and staircases to kitchens and fitted furniture, and a cabinet maker handles fine furniture [7]. For a mixed list of small jobs, a handyman or property maintenance firm can own the lot. Where joinery sits inside insulation, extensions or whole-house work, look for a firm set up to run several trades at once.
Carpentry has no legal register, so memberships are evidence of standing rather than permission to trade. The voluntary schemes worth checking are TrustMark [1], the Federation of Master Builders [2], the Guild of Master Craftsmen [3] and the Institute of Carpenters, the trade body for the craft [4]. Search the register for the business name, ask for the membership number, and confirm it yourself rather than trusting a logo on a van or website.
Windows and doors play by stricter rules. Replacement glazing must meet the building regulations, and installers approved under the FENSA scheme — a government-authorised scheme for replacement windows and doors — can certify their own work [5]. Ask who will certify the installation and which certificate you will hold afterwards. Oak-framed garages and extensions are bigger still: building-regulations approval is separate from planning permission and you may need both, so agree who handles each application before work starts [6].
Get written quotes from at least three traders on the same written scope — Citizens Advice calls this the starting point for a fair price [11]. Each quote should separate labour, materials and VAT, name the timber and fittings, and set the start date, access arrangements, making-good and payment stages. A deposit for made-to-measure pieces is normal, while full payment before completion is not. Treat an outlier, far above or below the rest, as a question rather than a bargain.
Ask for public-liability insurance details and check any limited company on the public Companies House record [12]. Agree who takes the offcuts, old doors and packaging: any firm carrying waste must sit on the public register of waste carriers [10]. For pieces made off site, ask which workshop makes them and who is responsible if a piece arrives wrong — the firm you pay is the firm that owes you the fix.
Pay by card or bank transfer rather than cash, pay in stages, and keep every quote, invoice, guarantee and window certificate together [11]. Quotes often exclude VAT: at twenty per cent it changes the bill, and firms below the registration threshold need not charge it at all [9]. Walk the finished job before you pay the balance, testing every door, drawer and stair, and keep back the final payment until each snag is answered.
Telford and Wrekin runs its own building control service, and the route depends on the size of the work. Bigger jobs such as extensions and oak-framed additions go through a full-plans application, which ends in an approval notice and a completion certificate worth keeping for a future sale [13]. Smaller structural jobs can go through a shorter building-notice route instead, but nothing is checked in advance, so work that fails inspection must be put right at your own expense [13]. Permitted development and building regulations are separate tests: a garage conversion that creates a living room, or a new window opening cut through fresh structure, needs building-regulations approval even where planning permission is not required [14].
Some Telford streets play by extra rules. The borough holds eight conservation areas, including Wellington town centre and the Severn Gorge, and inside one of them work that would normally pass without consent can need planning permission [15]. The Gorge carries an Article 4 direction that removes some permitted development rights from every dwelling, so window and door replacements there need checking first; the council publishes a residents guide and runs free planning surgeries for Gorge households [16]. Like-for-like timber is the natural answer in these streets, which is exactly the brief the town's heritage joinery workshops are set up for.
A typical job runs the same course whatever its size. First contact carries photographs, measurements and the address, with parking and access notes for homes from Ironbridge and Madeley to Wellington, Dawley and Lawley. Then comes the home visit or workshop appointment, with written quotes on the same scope from at least three traders [11]. Agree the start date, the working hours, who takes the waste and the payment stages before anything is made or moved. At the end, walk every door, drawer and stair before paying the balance, and file the invoice, any guarantee, and the window or completion certificate where one applies [5] [13].
Pricing
As of autumn 2026, published guides suggest these rough Telford ranges. A Which? survey of traders from 2021 — the fullest independent carpentry price list we found — puts an hour of a joiner's time at around twenty-five pounds, a double fitted wardrobe at £495–£975 over two or three days, hanging eight customer-supplied doors at £300–£600, a made timber sash-window frame at £462–£965, skirting for one room at £203–£342, and boarding a loft in a three-bedroom semi at £390–£696, all including labour and materials but excluding VAT [7].
Staircases carry 2026 figures. A cost guide built from recent UK quotes puts the average new staircase at £1,550 fitted over about three days, with a straight softwood flight under a thousand pounds, hardwood or half-landing designs around £1,450–£1,950, and winding or spiral designs from £2,300 upward [8]. Oak framing for garages and extensions is quoted per project — expect a site visit and drawings before any number.
Timber choice moves the price most: hardwood and oak cost markedly more than softwood and MDF, and painted or veneered finishes add again [7]. Access matters too — straight walls, clear rooms and empty houses cut labour time — as do travel and parking across Telford, taking old fittings away, and whether painting and finishing sit inside the quote or on top of it.
Ask whether each quote includes VAT at twenty per cent, since published ranges exclude it and only firms above the £90,000 registration threshold must charge it [7] [9]. Treat any single fixed price for a large job with no breakdown as a question, not an answer. Get the scope, the timber specification, the certificates you will receive and the payment stages in writing before work starts [11].
Bespoke windows, doors and fitted kitchens are priced per commission, so the specification is the price. Hardwood against softwood, the glazing choice, the number of openings, and whether painting, finishing and ironmongery sit inside the quote all move the figure, as do awkward access and working around a lived-in home [7]. Made-to-measure pieces also carry workshop time that site-only jobs avoid. Treat a quote that names the timber, the glass, the finish and the fittings line by line as the honest one, and a single unexplained figure as a question [11].
Red flags
Quotes a staircase or fitted furniture without measuring up at home or asking for drawings and photographs.
Shows scheme logos but gives no membership number you can check yourself on the register [1] [2].
Fits replacement windows with no mention of building-regulations sign-off or a certificate for the work [5] [6].
Asks for full payment in cash before starting, with no written quote or terms [11].
Gives one fixed price for a large job with no breakdown of labour, materials and VAT [11].
Will not put the scope, timber specification, price and start date in writing before lifting a tool.
Plans to take old timber, doors and packaging away but shows no waste carrier registration [10].
Starts structural alterations or stair changes with no mention of building-regulations approval [6].
Starts exterior work in a conservation-area street with no mention of whether the change needs permission [15].
Cannot name the workshop that will make your bespoke pieces or show a single finished example of them.
The bottom line
For most Telford homes, start with Property Fix: one firm for the whole job list, long stated experience and dozens of published reviews. Its pages carry no insurance detail or prices, so ask for proof of cover and an itemised quote before work starts. If your joinery sits inside a bigger retrofit or multi-trade project, Rubik Builders is the better call, with registered trade cover and stated insurance behind it.
Match set pieces to specialists: Salopwood for oak frames, Salop Timberworks or Alliance for stairs, Dylan Hartley for fitted kitchens and wardrobes, and David Jackson, Viking or Manley for timber windows and doors. Then get two or three itemised quotes on the same written scope, and agree certificates, start date and payment stages before anyone lifts a tool.
Corrections and business responses
Tell us what needs checking, or ask to claim a listing and reply to an assessment.