- The day for a bench joiner begins depending on the requirements of the project he's working on. A bench joiner is a carpenter who plies his craft entirely in his workshop. The vast majority of this involves making custom fittings for housing construction such as windows, doors and carpet skirting. Another big job a bench joiner might do is build custom furniture. A bench joiner will begin his day as early as 5 AM or as late as noon, depending on the severity of his deadlines. He goes to his workshop and looks over the blueprints for the construction project, identifying all the window fittings and fixtures that he will have to make. Then he writes up a cut list. This is simply a list off all the different types of wood he will need, specifying the dimensions at which each piece must be cut. He goes to his supply of wood and gets the necessary pieces, then carefully measures out and marks the dimensions on each board that he must cut. Next he uses a table saw and a chop saw to make the initial cuts. An angled chop saw is used to cut the ends of the wood to specific angles within a single degree margin of error. He then sands the wood smooth, applies glue, connects the pieces to make the forms and nails or screws them together. At the end of the day he either hauls the finished fittings to the construction site or has them picked up by someone else.
- Site carpenters pick up where bench joiners leave off. They work on site only and so must get up early, being on the job site by 8 AM typically. A site carpenter works with more rudimentary tools than a bench joiner. A cordless drill with assorted bits and hand-held circular saw are the most advanced tools he uses. Aside from that he just has a tool belt with hammer, nails, screws, level, tape measure and grease pencil. He takes the fittings that the bench joiner has delivered and spends each day installing them into homes or commercial buildings. This typically involves installing hinges on doors and making sure they work correctly. Floor skirting might have to be cut to the right size and nailed into the walls, and then the nail heads need to be covered from site with spackle. In some cases, a site carpenter might be required to install the wooden forms that make up the skeleton of a structure shortly after the building's foundation has been set, though in most cases this is left up to unskilled labor, as it is not seen in the finished structure. A site carpenter goes home when the job is done or it's too dark out to see, whichever comes first.
- Shopfitters specialize in remodeling previously built structures. They go to work in people's homes and offices at times set by appointment. A shopfitter typically has a truck, as he needs to carry with him all the tools of his trade, which are all the same things that a bench joiner would need, only mobile. He goes to someone's home or place of business and remodels. He might be asked to put up a few heavy duty wooden shelves. He might be hired to knock out a wall in a home in order to combine two rooms. This involves up to a week of steady work, as the wall would need to be cut down, ensuring it's not a load-bearing wall. Then the cut marks on the walls, floor and ceiling would have to be sanded away and covered over to match the surrounding décor. One of the most common tasks for a shopfitter is to install kitchen or bathroom cabinetry. A shopfitter must work quickly to avoid disturbing any daily business of the people inhabiting the building in which he is working. As a result, his working hours are the most reasonable of all the different types of carpenters, usually leaving for home at about 6.
- A formwork carpenter is a carpenter who works with heavy-duty lumber. He arrives at a construction site months prior to any of the others being called in. It is his job to construct the formwork into which cement is poured when concrete slabs for business, public or private structures are built. This requires the use of a chop saw, several different-sized sledgehammers, a posthole digger and a lot of lumber. He must consult the blueprints for the concrete slabs and then mark out the physical dimensions on the job site. He then digs holes at key points along the perimeter. He places support posts into these points and then connects them with the rest of the lumber, forming a dam that will hold back the weight of the cement until it can dry into shape. The lumber must then be tamped down by means of a heavy sledgehammer to ensure it doesn't shift over time. This is the most manually taxing forms of carpentry given the digging and weight of the lumber that must be lugged into place. By the end of the day, a formwork carpenter is typically exhausted and drenched in sweat.
