The finish carpenter’s field manual.
Twenty-plus years of doors, trim, and stairs - the techniques, tolerances, and sequences we actually use on the job. Every guide free, no filler.
Straight to the work.
Every category is a full walkthrough - exact tools, cut lists, and quality checkpoints. Find the job in front of you and get building.
Doors
13Pre-hung, slab, exterior, pocket, bifold - hung plumb with an even reveal.
View guides →Moldings
14Baseboard, casing, crown, jamb extensions, window frames - tight and gap-free.
View guides →Stairs & Handrails
11Skirt boards, newel posts, metal balusters, garage steps, wall-mount rails.
View guides →Specialty
7Shiplap walls, ceilings, and three-sided fireplace wraps at every height.
View guides →Closets
3Standards, layout design, and building basic shelving that holds.
View guides →Hardware
2Locksets and bath accessories set clean, level, and solid.
View guides →A curated path through the basics.
Four guides, in the order we would teach them to a new hire.
1. Install Baseboard
It is the entry point on purpose: inside corners, outside corners, splices, and nailing patterns on walls and floors that are never quite square. Master this one and the rest of trim work gets easier, because every other molding guide assumes you already have these moves down.
Read the guide →2. Install a Cased Opening
It is trim without a door attached, so you learn to case a doorway cleanly before hardware, hinges, or a slab door complicate the picture. It assumes you already know how to cut and nail trim from the baseboard guide. What it adds is reading a rough opening and making it look planned.
Read the guide →3. Install a Pocket Door
Where trim work turns into a full door project. It assumes the casing and nailing skills from the first two guides and adds the frame and hardware: setting the split jamb, hanging the door in its track, and casing the finished opening. It is listed Intermediate on the guide itself for a reason, and it is the most common door type carpenters get wrong on the first try.
Read the guide →4. Build Garage Steps
It is labeled Advanced because stair math has zero tolerance for error, but the guide itself calls it out as often the first stair job a new carpenter builds: one to three risers, no landing, same rules as a full staircase at a smaller scale. Get comfortable here and a full interior staircase stops being intimidating.
Read the guide →Written by working carpenters - not copywriters.
Every guide reflects how we actually do the work: not theory, not textbook answers, but methods refined across thousands of homes.
Keep the cheat sheet in your truck.
Our finish-carpentry tool & setup checklist - the exact gear list and cut references we run on every job. One clean PDF.
Sun’s Up Construction’s crew-training library.
Let’s Build Stuff is published and maintained by Sun’s Up Construction, a finish carpentry contractor. Every guide states how Sun’s Up actually does the work: the tolerances we hold, the sequence we follow, and the exact tools we reach for on that specific task. None of it is written around a generic best practice pulled from somewhere else. It is our own standard, the one our crews already follow, and a guide gets corrected the moment a real job proves it wrong.
That standard works whether you are a homeowner tackling one project, an apprentice still learning the trade, or a working pro who wants to settle a shop debate. Nothing on this site is sold, gated, or padded out to rank higher. It is the same reference our own crews pull up on a job site, available to anyone who needs it.
How to use this site →Built from 20+ years on the job site.
Let’s Build Stuff started as the training resource for our own finish crews - a way to teach new carpenters the right techniques without pulling a lead off the job. We’re fourth-generation carpenters - passing the trade down is the whole point.
If it was valuable to our guys, it’s valuable to everyone. So we made it public. Every guide is battle-tested across thousands of homes.
More about us →We only list gear we actually run on the job.
