Foundation Carpentry

Our 5 day (or splitter weekend) Foundation Carpentry Courses at The Builder Training Centre are very practical and ‘hands-on’ courses, and are ideal for beginners looking to learn carpentry and joinery for DIY or handyman skills, experienced people looking to extend their trade skills or perfect their carpentry and joinery skills, or those looking for a new career as a carpenter or joiner.

The Builder Training Centre (The BTC) offers high quality structured Carpentry Courses, which can be attended as a 5 day course during the week (Monday to Friday) or, for those that have commitments during the week, a weekend course (2 consecutive weekends).  

Our instructors are qualified, highly experienced, knowledgeable and enthusiastic Tradespersons, so students can take advantage of all the tips of the trade, personal experiences and advice they offer.  

This short course is intensive, but the atmosphere is relaxed and enjoyable which creates a good learning environment. If you have a particular project in mind, or some building plans you wish to gain advice on, our instructors will be more than happy to discuss these with you. 

You will get dirty so you should bring working clothes. We have changing room facilities for men and women!  You will find our prices are competitive, and include the use of tools and materials for your Carpentry Course whilst you are here, but for health and safety reasons you are required to have steel toe capped footwear to wear throughout the course.  These can be purchased from reception on your first morning for £20 if required.

Full instruction will be provided in the use of carpentry and joinery tools, and a wide selection of tools will be available for purchase from reception at any time during or after your course.

This practical Carpentry Course is set out to enable you to learn the skills of carpentry and joinery. The course will give you as many carpentry and joinery skills as possible.

You will learn how to construct a variety of commonly used joints such as a mortice and tennon joint, corner leg joints, etc. You will be tasked with projects to complete to enable you to put your new found skills into practice.

This course focuses on the mastery of hand tools, such as chisels and planes, where practical skill is emphasised rather than theory. If you have any planned or ongoing DIY projects, your instructor will be more than happy to provide expert advice.

Tasks Will Include:

• Making a halving and mortice and tennon joint
• Making a two panel door
• Scribing in the beading with quadrant and practice mitres
• Making up a frame to the door and fitting the door with hinges
• Cutting a lock for the door
• Building a stud partition wall
• Boarding the wall with plasterboard
• Fitting a frame into stud wall
• Hanging a door in a frame
• Fixing doorstops
• Fixing architrave
• Scribing in skirting
• Glueing timbers and fashioning an edge and a side to timber
• Sharpening chisels
• Developing skills in sawing, planeing, chiselling, sanding, hammering, measuring and marking out