Whittlesey: a C24 joist set and an open plan kitchen remodel

The brief

The same trade, at both ends of a house

Whittlesey has produced two jobs that between them show the whole range of what a carpentry contractor does inside a home. In June 2025 it was a traditional joist set, the structure of a floor, the part nobody ever sees once it is decked. In May 2026 it was a kitchen remodel, the part the client looks at every single morning.

Homeowners tend to think of those as two different trades and two different companies. They are not. They are the same carpenters, and the reason the finished kitchen looks right is often that somebody got the floor under it flat and solid first.

Both were private domestic clients rather than contract work. That changes the job in one important way: the client is living with the result, and they are standing in the room while it is being built.

What we did

A traditional joist set: C24, 400mm centres, 22mm Caberdex

The June 2025 job was a simple set of floor joists with a satisfying finish, fitted traditionally. The specification was straightforward and worth stating plainly, because it is the sort of detail most quotes leave out:

• C24 8x2 timbers. C24 is the higher of the two common structural grades for softwood joists. For a given span it either reaches further or deflects less than the same section in C16, and it comes with a straighter, tighter-grained stick to work with.
• 400mm centres. Closer than the 600mm you can often get away with. Closer centres support the deck better, reduce bounce and dramatically cut the chance of a squeak developing under a floor once the furniture is on it.
• 22mm Caberdex flooring. A moisture-resistant tongue and groove chipboard flooring panel, laid and bonded so the deck acts as one sheet rather than a set of loose boards.

And, in Ashley's own words, a little bit of talent from the fitters. Traditional joisting is unglamorous work where the whole quality of the job lives in the setting out: level bearings, joists at consistent centres, noggins and strutting where they belong, and a deck glued and fixed properly. There is no way to fix a bouncy floor cheaply afterwards.

An open plan kitchen remodel

The May 2026 job was a kitchen remodel for a domestic client in the same town: an open plan kitchen with a family seating area, a genuinely one off room, beautifully installed. It was a Wren kitchen, chosen by the client, and it featured:

• A Belfast sink, which needs its own base unit modification and a properly supported, level bearing to sit on
• Quartz worktops, which are templated after the units are set and fixed, so the carcasses have to be dead level and dead square before the templater ever arrives
• A family sized island to sit around, with services brought up through the floor

Open plan is the harder layout to fit well. In a galley kitchen a wall hides a multitude of tolerances. In an open plan room the island is seen from every side, the run of units is read against a long sight line, and any drift in the levels between one end of the room and the other is obvious. The floor, the walls and the ceiling are all usually out by something, and the fitter's job is to absorb that quietly so the finished room looks square.

Your choice, your style, our touch

The kitchen was supplied and fitted, which is one of two ways AJB Group works. Some clients want the company to source and install the whole thing. Others have already chosen and bought a kitchen and need it fitted properly by carpenters rather than by a delivery-day installer. Both are fine. What does not change is who turns up: employed carpenters who also fit second fix on commercial contracts.