For carpenters
What it is like working for a carpentry contractor
Carpentry work with a contractor runs differently to a one-man band or an agency booking. More structure, more programme, more paperwork, and usually more continuity. Here is the honest version.
Most carpenters have worked at least two of the four common set-ups: on their own, for a small builder, through an agency, or for a contractor delivering a package on somebody else's site. They feel very different from the inside, and the differences are worth understanding before you take the job rather than after.
The four ways carpentry work comes to you
On your own. You find the work, price it, buy the materials, do it, invoice it and chase the money. Total control, total exposure. Great when the phone rings, uncomfortable when it does not.
For a small builder. Steadier, usually domestic, usually local. You are one of a handful of people and the range of work is whatever that builder happens to win.
Through an agency. The agency places you and takes a margin. Fast to arrange, but nobody in that chain has a long-term interest in you, and the work stops the day the placement stops.
For a carpentry contractor. The contractor wins a defined carpentry package on somebody else's project, brings its own supervision, method statements, insurance and accreditation, and delivers that package to a programme. You are part of a team with a scope, a start date and a finish date.
The rest of this page is about that fourth one.
The biggest change: you are one trade among many
On a contractor job you are never working in isolation. Somebody comes before you and somebody comes after you, and the whole thing runs to a programme that was drawn up before you arrived.
That means your dates are not really yours. If the bricklayers are three days behind, your first fix moves. If the scaffold has not been altered, the roof waits. Equally, when you are the one holding things up, twelve other people know about it by lunchtime. On the Alford Manor House job AJB followed J Turner Brickwork on the masonry package and had to be ready when the steel frame was. On the Hinchingbrooke Hospital job the shutter boxes had to be set to millimetre precision, on time, because 58 concrete pours were booked for the Friday and pre-fabricated pods were landing on them afterwards.
Carpenters who enjoy this find it satisfying: the job is a machine and you are a working part of it. Carpenters who hate being told when to do things find it grating. Both reactions are fair, and it is better to know which one you have.
Paperwork, and why it is not just box ticking
Expect a site card check, an induction on your first morning, and a risk assessment and method statement covering your package. On bigger sites you may also need permits for working at height, hot works or lifting operations.
It sounds like a lot before you have done it. In practice the induction takes an hour and the rest is a five-minute conversation at the start of a task. The reason it exists is that the four things which hurt carpenters are all in that pack: working at height on roof structures, lifting operations, temporary works, and power tools. A contractor that takes it seriously is a contractor whose sites are less likely to injure you.
A properly accredited contractor also handles this for you rather than leaving you to argue with a site manager on the gate. AJB is CHAS accredited and SMSTS certified with a retained health and safety consultant, which is set out on the accreditations page. From a carpenter's point of view the practical effect is simple: you get through the gate and you get on with the job.
What a normal week looks like
Early starts, because sites do. A morning briefing on what is being worked on and by whom. Materials checked against the drawing before you start, not after, because a missing steel or the wrong joist hangers can cost you a day.
Then the work itself, usually in a defined section: a plot, an elevation, a floor, a roof. On a development you may run the same operation across several plots, which is where price work and rhythm come in. On a conversion or a renovation, every day is a slightly different problem and the drawings only get you part of the way.
You clear up as you go, because the next trade needs the space and because a tidy area is the fastest thing to work in. At the end of a section somebody checks it, and if there is snagging you go back and put it right. That last part separates carpenters people rebook from carpenters they do not.
Money, price work and day work
Contractor jobs commonly carry both. Repeatable, measurable work like plots, roofs and joist sets suits price work, and a quick carpenter with a good standard does very well on it. Alterations, awkward one-offs and remedial work normally sit on day work, because nobody can price a problem that has not been uncovered yet.
Get the basis agreed before you start, in writing where you can, including what happens if the scope changes. Most disputes in this trade are not about rates, they are about what was included. Whether that arrangement suits you as an employee or as a self-employed subcontractor is covered in the self-employed or employed guide.
The honest downsides
You will travel. You will occasionally lose a day to weather or to another trade. Some sites are run badly and there is only so much you can do about it from inside a carpentry package. Handover weeks are pressured, and that pressure comes down the chain.
You also give up some autonomy. You are not choosing the specification, the sequence or the finish date. If you have spent years working alone, that adjustment is real.
The upsides that keep people in it
Continuity is the big one. A contractor with a full order book has the next job lined up before the current one finishes, which means you are not spending your evenings hunting for work. Variety is the second: a mixed workload puts you on jobs you would never see otherwise.
Then there is what it does to your ability. Cutting a 20 metre roof on a steel frame, hanging 72 fire doors to a schedule, working six storeys up on a mansard with three built-in dormers, setting shuttering to millimetre tolerance on a live NHS site: none of that comes your way as a sole trader doing loft conversions. It makes you a better carpenter and it makes you harder to replace.
How it works at AJB Group
AJB Group is a carpentry contractor based in Spalding with fourteen full-time carpenters plus a vetted network of self-employed carpenters and gangs, working across Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk. Pay is weekly, price work is available alongside day work on many jobs, and the workload spans domestic refurbishments, extensions, commercial projects and new build developments.
Most work is within about two hours of the PE12 area. Away jobs come up occasionally on bigger contracts and accommodation is covered when they do. You can see the range of projects in the project library, and if it looks like the sort of work you want to be doing, the carpentry jobs page has the roles and the application form.
Common questions
Carpentry work with a contractor
How is a carpentry contractor different from a builder or an agency?
A carpentry contractor takes a defined package of carpentry on somebody else's project and delivers it to a programme, with its own supervision, method statements and insurance. An agency simply places you and takes a cut, with no responsibility for the work. A one-man band takes whole small jobs and does everything itself. The contractor route usually means bigger projects, steadier work and more structure around you.
What paperwork do I need before starting on a commercial site?
Normally a valid site card, a site induction on your first morning, and awareness of the risk assessment and method statement covering your work. Some sites add permits for hot works, working at height or lifting operations. It sounds like a lot the first time and takes about an hour after that.
Is the work day rate or price work?
Both are common on contractor jobs, and often on the same site. Repeatable work like plots, roofs or joist sets suits price work, while alterations, awkward one-offs and remedial work usually run on day work because they cannot be measured sensibly in advance. Get it agreed before you start, in writing where you can.
Will I be doing the same thing every day?
Not with a contractor that runs a mixed workload. In a single year a carpenter at AJB might work on a hospital shuttering job, a village hall re-roof, a town centre apartment conversion, a private kitchen and a 300-home development. If you want repetition, a single large housebuilder site suits you better.
What makes a carpenter successful on contractor work?
Reading the drawing before touching the timber, flagging problems early instead of working around them quietly, keeping the area tidy so the next trade can get in, and finishing your section rather than leaving the last five per cent. Those four habits matter more than raw speed.
How much travel is involved?
At AJB Group most work sits within roughly two hours of the PE12 area across Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk. Bigger contracts occasionally mean working away, and when that happens accommodation is covered. Past away jobs have included Kent, North London, Northampton and Leicester.
Sound like the sort of work you want?
Send your details and we will tell you honestly what is on the books.