Can you reproduce a moulding profile that no longer exists?

Yes, and it is most of what we do in this part of the county. We take a clean length of the original, set up knives to that exact section, and mill new stock to match. The new work then sits alongside the old without a visible transition. It is the difference between an addition that reads as part of the house and one that announces itself the moment you look at a door casing.

Is it better to repair original trim or replace it?

Repair, in nearly every case where the original is structurally sound. Original millwork is old-growth timber and it is part of what the house is valued for. A damaged section can be spliced and the profile matched across the joint. We recommend replacement only where the piece is too far gone to hold a repair, and we will tell you which situation you are in at the measure.

St Clair, St Clair County, MI

Crown & Trim in St Clair, MI

Name: Maceri Woodworking
Address: 33628 Bayview Dr, Chesterfield, MI, 48047, US
Telephone: (586) 823-2887
Price range: $$

The millwork in a St Clair historic-district house is the reason the house is worth what it is. Deep moulded casings, tall baseboards with a cap, plinth blocks, picture rails and often a panelled dado — profiles that were milled locally in the nineteenth century and that no supplier stocks today.

Which means the only real options are matching or losing it, and most of our work here is matching. We take a clean sample of an original profile, set up to reproduce that exact section, and mill new stock to run alongside it — for a room that lost its trim in a remodel, for an addition that needs to read as original, or to replace lengths damaged by water, radiators or a century of paint build-up. Repair comes before replacement wherever the original is sound: a casing with a damaged bottom can have a section spliced in and the profile matched across the joint, which keeps the original wood in the house. The other constant here is paint. These houses often carry a dozen layers, and the profile detail that makes the millwork worth keeping is buried under it — careful stripping and reinstatement of the detail is frequently more valuable than any new work we could do. Where a room is missing its picture rail or dado entirely we can reinstate it, but only in the same register as the surviving woodwork elsewhere in the house, never invented.

We mill matching profiles at our Chesterfield shop from your original sample and show you the milled piece against the existing before running the job. Repairs are quoted as repairs, not upsold into replacements.

St Clair is about twenty-one miles from our Chesterfield shop, well inside the area we cover along the river.

Crown & Trim questions from St Clair homeowners

Can you reproduce a moulding profile that no longer exists?: Yes, and it is most of what we do in this part of the county. We take a clean length of the original, set up knives to that exact section, and mill new stock to match. The new work then sits alongside the old without a visible transition. It is the difference between an addition that reads as part of the house and one that announces itself the moment you look at a door casing.
Is it better to repair original trim or replace it?: Repair, in nearly every case where the original is structurally sound. Original millwork is old-growth timber and it is part of what the house is valued for. A damaged section can be spliced and the profile matched across the joint. We recommend replacement only where the piece is too far gone to hold a repair, and we will tell you which situation you are in at the measure.