Tom Southern - Carpenter

Description of Work: Tom was great! showed up on time, completed the job in a professional manner and was very skilled.

Description of Work: Tom put in a medium sized doggie door for me and did a great job. It is hard to find someone that will do small jobs so I was grateful that he was willing to do the job for a reasonable price.

Description of Work: I recently bought a home with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves in the library that were built in the 1950's. Although they were still in good condition, I wanted a few alterations made to the woodwork to modernize them and fit the needs of a modern home. Tom came to our home when he said he would, discussed all aspects of the job that would be required and gave us a reasonable estimate. This was not a big job, but it required a high degree of craftsmanship in order to be done properly. I am happy to report that the results exceeded our expectations.

Description of Work: I needed some fascia repaired on my very complicated roof, where the wood seemed to be starting to rot. I have a metal roof and several roofers came to give me an estimate, but despite me telling them when I first called that I had a metal roof, they would come for the appointment and then say, that they didn't or couldn't do the work. Ultimately I did get 3 estimates, but Tom was the only one who inspected all the fascia well for other possible problem areas and pointed them out to me. When the other two roofers had told me how they would repair the small area of retted wood, they said that they would just be using filler to "patch" the area, since I had caught it early. My family was in construction in Canada, so I know that a patch won't last as long as a proper timely repair and so I was uncomfortable with the anwers I got from others. Tom was very complete in how he analyzed the problem, clear in how he intended to fix the problem and explained that since my house is a two story house, he couldn't fully evaluate the two high corners that needed work until he was up on a scaffold, but he gave me a worst case scenario. In the end, the two high areas were in pretty good shape and didn't need much work. The two lower areas were more challenging and Tom had gone to the effort of contacting the roofers who put on my metal roof to make sure what to expect when fixing the fascia and even find out if he could order matching fasteners from them. None of the other roofers had done that. In the end, I believe he did a superior job, replacing wood where it was clearly rotted and patching and sealing where that was prudent. He was timely, in his appointments, always kept in touch by email and very fair with the pricing. His estimate was higher than the others, but the work he was doing was more clear and more labor intensive than the others and I suspect the quality was better than they would have been. Also, he came in under budget, since he had originally quoted me on a worst case scenario situation. Lastly, Tom showed up to work dressed cleanly and neatly, was so pleasant to talk to and was overall a pleasure to have work at my house

Description of Work: WE WERE PURCHASING A NEW FRIDGE. WE NEEDED TO TO RE-DO THE ADJOINING CABINETS BECAUSE THIS WAS A HUGE FRIDGE.

Description of Work: He replaced sections of my patio door that was damaged.

Description of Work: Tom did the product research on insulated, impact rated garages doors and foam insulation, found and interviewed the contractors most suited for the work and supervised them. He also did carpentry work in the garage (installing a bicycle lift and weatherstripping doors) and on furniture needing repair. He also arranged for replacement of gate hinges (again, finding the right product and contractor) and personally found and replaced the handles.

Description of Work: Pressure Cleaned outside walls and wood trim on house. Complete painting of the house, the walls and trim and shutters and wrought iron around the windows and doors.

Description of Work: Although the exposed beam porch we wanted was beyond our budget at this time (something we suspected before we contacted Mr. Southern), we were sufficiently impressed with him and his ideas that we will use him to repair the bad siding on the front of our home. Tom was prompt in returning my call, and together, we scheduled a time for him to come over within a couple of days. Whether on the phone or in person, I always felt like Tom was listening to me. I felt rushed, I always felt like he had time for me and all of my questions and concerns.

Description of Work: He changed some wood on the fascia.

Description of Work: All the work listed below was performed by Tom Southern Green House 1. Researched the available plastic panels for green houses, ordered the panels, and had on our panels delivered to our home. The panels were close to the top of the line for green houses. They are warrantied for 10 years which made the $2500 cost acceptable. 2. Removed UV deteriorated plastic panels from green house roof and replaced them with the new panels. Since the original roofs supporting boards where not installed vertically ( as should have been done by original carpenter who built the green house) additional supporting boards were installed for support of the heavier panels. 3. Just as the original panels allowed squirrels to squeeze through the gaps between the panels and the supporting boards, so did the new ones. To eliminate the gaps new boards were cut to fit around the support boards of the roof which over hanged the walls of the green house. This required a custom fit because the sides of the green house were not uniform. With the boards nailed into place the gaps through which squirrels could squeeze were eliminated and squirrels can not longer build nest in the green house. Doors and Locks 1. Replaced utility room to garage door with a heavy more secure door at my request. I did not like the original flimsy door. 2. Replaced the front door lock with a more secure lock. Made sure the deadbolt was positioned more to the center of the door jam thus making it more difficult for burglars to break it down as happened to others in the neighborhood. Replaced the garage-to-outside door lock and utility room-to-outside door lock. All locks required the same key making it simpler for us, the occupants. 3. A screen/glass door purchased in 2010 came with a unfitted lock. The lock needed to be placed into metal part of the door. Two slots were cut and the lock was inserted. The company who sold the door to us without the lock installed wanted $120 to install the lock. This was done for half that amount by Tom 4. One of two pocket doors in the house has come off its track. My self and a friend tried to use the mechanism presented to us by the original tracking and never succeeded in putting the door permanently on track. Tom found a few tracking mechanisms at a Gainesville,Fl door company. One of those track mechanism worked and the door rolled smoothly. Both this door and another pocket door in the house are not as wide as the door frame. In order that no one could view into the room ( one room was a restroom) from the other side of the pocket door a trim needed to be put around the door on both sides. That was recognized and done by Tom. Outside Trim Cedar wood trim was placed on each outside corner of the house from ground level to roof. This was done for cosmetic reasons Back Porches 1. One back porch which is accessible from the utility room has a flight of four steps to the garden. The vertical supports underneath each step were rotting. Each was replaced. 2. The other porch which is accessible from the sun room through a sliding glass door has a gate for entry from the garden and wrap-around seating on three sides. Unfortunately when the porch was rebuilt ( a couple years ago) a narrow shelf to hold glasses was placed above the seating. As a result when seated a person's back would be poked by the shelf. The shelf was removed from the fencing surrounding the porch was fencing was reinforced. 3. In one corner a wide shelf was built in the 90° angle between the fencing. This shelf was used to support planters Kitchen Cupboards: Hinges and Lazy Susan 1. Hinges on the cupboard (cabinet) doors in the kitchen would consistently loosen over time and the doors would tilt downward from the hinges. Basically this would mean that the opening of the cupboard would not be covered by the door. Tom perceived correctly that the hinges were not fixed securely enough to prevent the doors from tilting. New hinges were purchased which used two screws to attack a flange to the cabinet as opposed to one screw to attach to the cabinet as was the case with the old hinges. In all 28 hinges of higher quality replaced the old hinges. Now the cupboard doors are secure. 2. The corner cupboard has a folding door with the appropriate hinges. One of the hinges had broken and the door was tilting. The door with hinges was removed and taken back to the shop. New hinges were purchased and they replaced the old hinges. Then the door was attached back to the frame of the cupboard. The folding door is now as good as new. 3. Below the counter top the corner cupboard also has folding doors. The cupboard contains two static shelves which are extremely difficult to use since they require almost contortionist abilities of Harry Houdini to place items into and take items out of the cupboard. Therefore we asked for a lazy susan to replace the static shelves. Tom used his flexibility to get into the cupboard and remove the shelves which were securely fastened to the frame. All measurements were made of the cupboard space. We were shown a catalog of lazy susan assemblies of which one was most appealing. The lazy susan assembly of our choice was ordered and shipped to us. Tom then installed it and it works perfectly. We no longer are wrenching our backs in order to remove or replace items in the lower corner cupboard. Closet Hooks My bedroom does not contain enough hooks for hanging clothes. Hooks can be put into the closet but the closet is wide and narrow and shaped like a rhombohedron. This means the walls do not make 90° angles with each other. Only the walls which contained the front doors of the closet could be used for hooks. The space on the walls are no more than one foot wide. Supporting slats were cut to fit into the corners which contained non 90 angles. A special rigs was used to do this. The hooks were screws to the supporting slats. Compost Bin A compost bin was created by making squares of wood which could be stacked on each other. This design for pile was found in catalog and built to specification. Squares of 35"x6"x2" were made of cedar and stacked on the narrow edge parallel to the ground. As the compost pile accumulated more squares are added.

Description of Work: Tom Southern acted as general contractor for me on a bathroom remodel. He even went with me to the Tile store and helped me pick out the tile. He also found some deteriorated siding that needed to be replaced and took care of that for me. He rummaged around in my garage and found some old but still usable paint from the previous owner of the house and was able to use that to finish the siding.

Description of Work: Tom helped my husband and I by contracting different companies. One to do the roofing and take down the three walls that separated our kitchen, living room, and dinning room. Tom installed two sky lights and replaced a third. He took care of all of the fine details, even calling the different companies to insure things were going to be done on time. Tom spent many extra hours watching all of the workers and making sure things were left neat and clean. Our house is coming along nicely. We are a stand still only from a lack of money, so the floors will be finished later. Tom is still helping me, going above and beyond, getting the gas man to hook-up the gas stove and finding a man to do the soffits on the outside of the house. I have referred him to many of my clients, all with positive outcomes.

Description of Work: This was minor bathroom remodling that mushroomed. Eventually we replaces one electric water heater with another, added an or-demand gas water heater, replaced a tub, retiled the tub/shower enclosure and added new plumbing from the on demand heater to the entire master bathroom.

Description of Work: The service involved the designing, construction and installation of bookshelves in my home office located in Albany, Georgia.

Description of Work: Tom fixed woodpecker and water damage at roof corners. Coordinated replacement of siding over 2/3 of house and subsequent repainting. He handled all the interactions with the city for permitting and inspection.

Description of Work: Removed sliding glass doors and installed new French doors including new threshold and outside trim.