Vance's Custom Interior Trim & Cabinets

Vance and his partner Chad did an excellent job at our home. The quality of the work they completed and their attention to detail exceeded our expectations. You can tell they have been doing this a long time and are perfectionists. The project took a little longer than expected but we did not mind at all b/c the quality of work was so good. They laid cardboard down to protect our hardwood floors and used our garage as their shop to cut everything since it is the middle of the winter and it wasn't possible to cut outside. Each day they cleaned up so we could pull our cars into the garage. I would definitely recommend them and plan to use them in the future for some other projects around the house.

Quite simply, Vance does excellent work. From beginning to end, Vance and his assistant, Chad, did a beautiful and professional job. We asked three people to give us estimates for the job. One company came out and promised an estimate, but we never heard back from them. Vance was the higher of the two bids that we did receive. We selected Vance despite his bid being the higher of the two bids. Although we were not concerned with how quickly the project began, we did want to make sure that once the project started, it would be completed as quickly as practicable. We selected Vance in part because we did not think that the other bidder would be able to satisfy this requirement, and we were impressed with the thoroughness of Vance's estimating process. We felt that Vance knew what he was doing, and that there would not be any surprises as the project proceeded. In fact, there were none. My only complaint is that Vance took longer to get his original estimate to us than he originally indicated that he would. Once the work started, Vance and Chad worked every day until it was completed. Vance's work took almost exactly the five days that he originally estimated. Vance and Chad were very professional, covering the existing wood floors with cardboard to prevent any accidental damage, and cleaning up both the interior work area and the garage each day. With our permission, they set up their saws and other equipment in the garage instead of outside due to the very inclement weather. However, they removed their equipment and cleaned up the garage at the end of each day, so that we were able to move our cars back in overnight. The end result is beautiful. The safety issues were solved. My wife and I both think that the finished stairs looks great, and match the original woodwork extremely well.. One caveat: Vance's work did not include staining and finishing and re-laying carpeting. However, he was clear about that during the estimating process. He indicated that he could add an additional amount into his estimate for those services, or he would recommend someone to do them. We chose the latter approach and were very happy with the folks that he recommended for both of those services. Those services added an additional $800 to the project cost.

Vance was extremely professional from start to finish. He came to the house multiple times to review what design I wanted and to take photos and measurements. He gave me a competitive quote with options for cost savings, and started and finished exactly when he said he would. His craftsmanship is perfect and he even fixed a previous contractors poor flooring work on my stair risers at minimal cost. I could not have asked for a better working experience or a more beautiful finished product. A+.

Overall very positive experience. We were able to schedule time for him to look at the space and talk through our ideas regarding look and functionality. He was very responsive and provided good insight. The quote seems reasonable and we are just trying to decide on timing for the work.

I believe they were wonderful and I think they did a wonderful job. They were very punctual and professional. They quoted me a good price.

I recently purchased my first home in Beechwold (Clintonville) in March of 2013. It is a 1920's home that was owned by a couple in their 80's. The house was dated and needed a face lift. We hired a separate company to drywall over damaged wainscoting throughout part of our kitchen and rear hall. There were no casings on the doors or several windows and it was also missing baseboard through out this rear area. I don't own a huge fancy house like many of the mansions in his pictures, but I wanted my woodwork to be done by the best of the best. The dry wall turned out great and I began my search for the right trim carpenter to finish the job. I met with several carpenters that I found here on craigslist. Around 5 or 6. Out of all of them, Vance was by far the most knowledgable and immediately began giving me suggestions on how the trim and crown should match the existing woodwork in the house. He immediately saw my vision and made better suggestions that I had not even anticipated. I originally only wanted 5 doors cased and one window. We were going to do crown through the area that got new dry wall and also add baseboard. We hadn't planned on doing the main part of our kitchen. Honestly, I didn't think I had the money. Vance said he could fix some of the glaring problems in the kitchen and make everything look cohesive. I was immediately on board. He showed me his binder of pictures and mentioned how he was a perfectionist. His work looked amazing. Compared to the others I met, he was clearly the most talented and professional. Vance mentioned he was busy and it might take a few weeks for him to get to me. 2 months later with a little persistence and some friendly follow up calls, he finally got me a quote. Maybe a 2 weeks later he said he could start next week. It was much longer than I wanted to wait. Our new house had unfinished drywall and I was anxious to get it finished. Vance was well worth the wait. Let me tell you this, it is just Vance. He doesn't work super fast and blast through the job. He takes is time. Everything is perfect and you can really tell he puts his heart and experience into what he does. It is in the details and you can tell he puts a lot of pride in what he does. He is truly a perfectionist and an artist. He ended up finishing the drywall throughout the whole kitchen area because "that's what it needed to be correct." He didn't add it to the bill. It just needed to be done and he did it to make the work he was doing correct. He went so far above and beyond. By the time he was done with the area we originally hired him for and his vision for our kitchen, I asked him to do new crown moulding throughout the whole main floor and add paneling to a wall in the dining room. The paneling is amazing and turned our average dining room into a masterpiece. Total for that addition was around $500. It is a focal point of our downstairs. We are so happy with it. I ended up having Vance basically transform our entire main living area by the time he was done. He did such a great job and honestly, I thought it would be tough to get him back since I figured he must have a ton of clients waiting for his services. A guy like this probably isn't begging for work. I imagine he has to turn it down. He cased the doors and windows EXACTLY like the existing ones in the house. I couldn't believe how the new window casings looked perfectly like the ones from 1920. You'd never know they weren't original. I plan on hiring Vance to cover our metal posts which hold up our porch with nice wood casings in the spring. Vance spent 4 weeks at our house. 4-5 days a week. 11-5ish. I work from home, so it was easy. I left him here several times alone also. He just seems trusting and he was very good about not letting our dog or two cats outside. That was extremely important to us. His schedule was kind of here and there, but it worked for us. If I could stress one thing, it is this... Vance is worth the wait. It is basically just him (though he had help for crown moudling) and he is such a perfectionist that it takes him a bit of time to complete things. But, the proof of his mastery is clear in the details of his work. If you want the best for your home, choose Vance. I would plan my whole project around him. It may take a while to get him on the job, but trust me, you will be glad you did.

Overall we were very pleased with our contacts with this company. It took awhile to get together and complete the project, but the results were well worth the wait. They designed the new mantle and surround, stained it to match our existing woodwork, and then installed it. They were very punctual and professional.

I was looking for woodworking providers and Vance & Lightner was on the top of my list to contact because of the excellent reviews they have on this site. I was extremely disappointed with the service I received. It just seemed that the person I talked to was not interested at all in getting the job and was quite inflexible in setting up an appointment. Perhaps the guy was having a bad day? Still, it meant I am going with other providers and most probably will not try to contact V&L again.

While Matt Lightner was busy with other work, he still fit my cabinet repairs into his schedule. He removed a cabinet section that had been damaged by a roof leak so I could get that kitchen area repaired. He rebuilt the cabinet section and reinstalled it after the wall repairs were completed. His price was very good and the quality was excellent. I highly recommend them!!

Matt Lightner was creative and designed just what I needed. He is truly an excellent craftsman. All emploees were very professional. They arrived on time and always cleaned up before they left for the day. I have used their services in my prior home and have always been very please with their work.

They did a fabulous job, and I would highly recommend them. They took a lot of time with the designs to ensure we were on the same page, and their attention to detail led to a beautiful result.

Matt came out to our house and provided an estimate to build a new handrail for our stairs. The previous one was damaged during a furniture delivery. The provided an estimate on the spot. He seemed very knowledgeable and I was confident he could complete the work appropriately. I agreed to the price and he left with the old railing and stain. He completed the railing and came out and installed it. It looked fantastic. Would definitely use again.

went very well considering the job was complex and their were no architectural drawings involved. I will call them again on the next project.

We wanted additional storage along the short wall of our loft with sloping ceiling. We wanted this to be done as a set of high quality oak shelving units with doors that would match the look of the oak library paneling that exists on one wall of the loft. During the design phase, Vance made about 4 trips to our house to take measurements, discuss design options, and review various iterations of the design with drawings. He and Matt also helped us choose lighting for the interior of the largest cabinet (a clothes closet with hanging bar and an inside light) and recessed ceiling lighting for the loft area near the cabinets. A few weeks after the design was finalized, the cabinets were built and pre-finished in their shop to perfectly match the look and color of the existing paneling. All the units were made right the first time and installation went very smoothly although our walls did not run very level throughout this area, so that had to be accounted for. Vance and Matt were the only 2 guys doing the work in our case, although they told us they do use other help depending on the size and type of job. These guys are wonderful craftsmen, hard workers and very personable and we enjoyed having them in our home. They were careful about not getting the house dirty in any way, cleaned up very well, and kept us fully informed of their progress every step of the way. They made no assumptions about any significant aspect of the installation without getting our input. When they accidentally dinged a ceiling in a couple of places, they were up front about it and repaired the very minor damage to our satisfaction. Vance and Lightner provided probably the best home improvement experience we have ever had, and I hope to have occasion to use them again.

I contacted this company several weeks ago to have someone come and quote installation of baseboards in several rooms in my house. The gentleman I spoke with said he needed to get back to me with when someone was available to get out to my house but I never received a call back. I was dissappointed in this lack of responsiveness considering how high their marks are on Angie's List. This was my only experience with this company so I cannot speak to their prices or quality of work. Update from original report: Not long after writing this review, I received a letter from Vance apologizing again for losing my number and lack of response. This was an unexpected and appreciated response from this vendor. I have undated their rating from me from a 'C' to a 'B'. I will be contacting the vendor to quote on the work that needs to be done.

Last Fall we had decided to use Vance & Lightner to replace some wood beams on the side of our house (a 1940's Tudor) that had some water damage. When Matt and team began to remove the beams, they found that we had water leakage issues which were rotting all of our wood beams and had actually spread beneath the stucco on the newer part of our house. Essentially we were faced with needing to remove all of the wood and replacing the stucco. Not only were we stunned about the scale of the job facing us, but Fall was drawing to a close and our window for completing the job was a matter of 2-3 weeks. Completely unsolicited Matt took it upon himself to contact Stucco companies and get competing quotes from us (all done in 1 day). When he got them back he was really unhappy with the costs they had quoted for removing our existing stucco (he though they were excessively high) as well as the timing they were proposing. Matt decided that Vance Lightner would remove our existing stucco for us (for far less money) and prep the entire job for the stucco team. Essentially he acted as a contractor for us (unprompted). At the end of the day the work got done in the brief window of time we had and it cost us about $600 less. Not only was the quality of work amazing but it was completely hassle free as Matt managed everything for us. In my ten years of owning our money pit old house, I have never encountered such professionalism, quality workmanship and honesty from a company. Vance Lightner is a company with old school values, professionalism and craftsman skills. They are a joy to work with and I have and will hire them again whenever possible!

Our experience has been great. Whenever someone comes to my home, they always comment on how beautiful the work turned out. They do great fine finished carpentry.

I choose them based on the other member's comments. They kept me informed of what was going on. If he was going to be a half hour late he would call you. He would give me a progress of the job daily. They would clean up after work each day. They cut cardboard to cover the other tiles so that there wouldn't be any scratches. Their price is fair.

I was thrilled with Matt's service. He saved me a lot of grief just by doing some simple measuring.

They are absolutely the 2 best carpenter and install guys we have encountered. They are superb and beyond A in every category. They virtually transformed a room for us with a closet on one wall and bookcases on another. They are dynamite. They have an extremely acute sense of design and what was needed. I have a lot of books and they knew exactly what to do. I can change the height for the bookcases if needed. The end result was just superb for what we wanted. They are artisans and true craftsmen. They are good guys, easy to get along with and very prompt. I felt for the work I had done the price was quite reasonable. They are 2 guys who are living the American dream. These guys should take on apprentices, they are that good. The future of America depends on the small, independent business man to some extent. These guys are nit like California Closets. They are independent artisans who does exactly what was required. We would use them again. We are looking to do some remodeling in our kitchen and I would love to get an estimate from them for cabinets. If I could give them higher than an A, I would.

Met with Vance and spoke about what design elements in which we were interested. He came back with several options which we then worked cooperatively together upon to reach a final design. Vance had worked with us in the past (new staircase, new customized leaded glass patio doors) and was very sensitive to our deliberative approach to things.

The work was of very high quality and we are very happy with the finished product. It looks beautiful. Vance worked with us to find the right style that would fit our house and helped us pick out the various parts we needed. I'm very happy with the work ? my only complaint was that they weren't always very good about keeping in touch when a few delays came up. I made it pretty clear that we wanted to go ahead with the job, but it took a little while for them to get in touch and arrange a time to make the final measurements. It also took a bit longer than expected once I paid a deposit for the job (the lead time for the parts was estimated at 2 weeks, but it closed to 3 or 4 by the time the work was done). The delay was not a big deal (it turns out there was a perfectly good reason...), but I would have preferred a little more communication about what was going on and when they were planning on doing the work. One other thing worth mentioning is that they promised a 5% discount to us as Angie's List members, which is nice... but when they sent the final bill, it didn't include the discount. My wife sent a check without noticing the difference, but Vance very promptly sent us back a check for the price difference ? which was great. I appreciated that a lot.

He was on time for the appointment. He was very thorough and took a lot of time to understand our needs and wants. He turned around the quote within a couple of days. Although we decided to hold off on the built-in at this time, Vance and Lightner were at the top of the list.

Their quality of work and professionalism was excellent.

This is the latest of several jobs that Vance and Matt have done for us, and once again we are thrilled with the result. The quality of the cabinetry is superb. They took great care throughout the project to assure we were pleased, and that included several small mid-project changes. We would absolutely hire them again.