By the Templateez Team · Licensed Attorney · June 2026

Carpentry Intake Forms: What to Capture Before Cutting the First Board

A carpenter who walks onto a job site without knowing whether the project is rough framing or custom crown molding, whether the client wants paint-grade poplar or clear-coat walnut, or whether the subfloor is level is going to waste the first hour figuring out what should have been settled before the truck was loaded. Carpentry is one of the most variable trades in construction — the gap between framing a wall and hand-fitting a curved staircase railing is enormous — and the intake process needs to reflect that range.

Most carpentry businesses collect a name, address, and a vague project description. That is not intake — that is a lead form. A real carpentry intake form captures everything you need to classify the project, source materials, estimate accurately, and protect both parties when the scope inevitably changes. Here is what that form should include.

Client and project information: who you are working for and where

Carpentry work happens in a chain of relationships. The person calling you might be the homeowner, a property manager, an interior designer, or a general contractor who is subcontracting the trim package on a new build. Each of those relationships changes how you communicate, who approves changes, and who pays. Your intake should capture:

• Client name and contact information — phone, email, preferred communication method. Carpenters spend significant time on-site and need a reliable way to reach the decision-maker when questions arise mid-project.
• Company name (if applicable) — for GCs, property management firms, design firms, or commercial clients. Knowing the company tells you whether this is a one-off residential job or the start of a potential ongoing relationship with a builder.
• Client role — homeowner, property manager, general contractor, designer, or tenant. A homeowner makes their own decisions. A property manager needs landlord approval above a certain dollar threshold. A GC has their own scope document and expects you to follow their specs. A designer has drawings but may not understand structural limitations. Each role changes how you run the project.
• Property type — single-family residential, multi-family, commercial, new construction, or historic. Historic properties often have preservation requirements that dictate materials and methods. Commercial jobs typically require different insurance minimums and may involve prevailing wage requirements.
• Project location — full address, plus whether the work is interior, exterior, or both. Interior trim work and exterior deck construction are fundamentally different in materials, weather exposure, and scheduling constraints.
• Timeline — is this flexible, deadline-driven, or tied to other trades? A homeowner who wants built-in bookshelves "sometime this summer" is a different scheduling proposition than a GC who needs the trim package done before the painter starts next Thursday. Carpentry is frequently dependent on — or a dependency for — other trades, and your intake needs to capture where in the construction sequence your work falls.
• Budget range — even a rough range helps you right-size the proposal. A client who says "we want custom walnut built-ins" but has a $3,000 budget needs to hear that early, not after you have spent four hours designing and measuring.

Project classification: what kind of carpentry this actually is

Carpentry is not one trade — it is at least eight, and your intake form needs to classify the project accurately because your tools, materials, crew composition, and pricing model all change based on category. The major classifications:

• Rough carpentry — framing and structural — wall framing, roof framing, floor joists, headers, load-bearing modifications. This is the structural skeleton of the building. It requires permits, inspections, and often an engineer's stamp. If this box is checked, your intake immediately needs to branch into permit and engineering questions.
• Finish carpentry — trim, molding, and millwork — crown molding, baseboards, chair rail, wainscoting, window and door casing, coffered ceilings. This is the visible detail work that defines a room's character. Finish carpentry is precision work where gaps of 1/32" are visible and unacceptable, which means your site assessment needs to capture wall and ceiling conditions in detail.
• Custom cabinetry — kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities, built-in bookshelves, closet systems, entertainment centers, mudroom lockers, window seats with storage. Cabinetry is a design-heavy category that requires detailed measurements, hardware selections, and typically multiple rounds of approval before fabrication begins.
• Doors and windows — new installation, replacement, or trim-out. Pre-hung vs. slab doors, standard vs. custom sizes, interior vs. exterior. Window trim-out on new construction is often bundled with the finish carpentry package.
• Stairs and railings — new construction, replacement, or refinishing. Stairs involve code requirements for riser height, tread depth, handrail height, and baluster spacing that vary by jurisdiction. This is one of the most regulated areas of residential carpentry.
• Decks and outdoor structures — while covered in depth in a dedicated deck and patio intake guide, there is significant overlap with general carpentry. Many carpenters build decks as part of their service offering, and the intake should capture whether the project involves ground-level or elevated construction, material preference (pressure-treated, cedar, composite), and ledger board attachment to the existing structure.
• Custom furniture and millwork — built-to-order tables, mantels, floating shelves, custom pieces, and restoration of existing woodwork. These projects require detailed design conversations, often involving sketches or 3D renderings before work begins.
• Structural repair — sistering joists, replacing beams, fixing rot damage, reinforcing load-bearing walls, repairing fire or water damage to framing. Structural repair almost always requires an engineer's assessment and permits, and the intake should flag this immediately so you can set expectations about the approval timeline before the client expects you on-site next week.

Site assessment: what you need to know before you start

Carpentry is unusually sensitive to existing conditions. A trim carpenter who discovers that no wall in the room is plumb and no corner is square — common in houses built before 1970 and not rare in houses built last year — has to adjust every single piece they cut. That is not a problem if you know about it from the site visit. It is a massive problem if you priced the job assuming plumb walls and square corners. Your intake should drive a thorough site assessment:

• Existing conditions — what is currently there? Are you replacing existing trim, adding new trim to bare walls, or modifying an existing installation? Renovation work takes longer than new-construction work because you are working around what exists rather than starting clean.
• Access and material delivery — can lumber and sheet goods be delivered to the work area easily? Is there a narrow hallway, tight staircase, or elevator-only access? A 12-foot piece of crown molding does not bend around a 90-degree corner in a 36-inch hallway. Access constraints affect what materials you can use and how you stage the job.
• Demolition required — are you removing existing cabinets, tearing out old trim, or doing structural demo before the carpentry work begins? Demo adds time, cost, and disposal logistics. It also often reveals surprises — the wall behind those old cabinets may be damaged, the trim you are replacing may be covering gaps in the drywall, or the beam you are replacing may have been notched for plumbing that nobody documented.
• Subfloor condition — is it level? Is it damaged? What type — plywood, OSB, concrete? A subfloor that is out of level by half an inch across eight feet makes cabinet installation significantly more complex. A damaged subfloor needs repair before finish work can begin. Concrete subfloors require different fastening methods than wood framing.
• Wall condition — are the walls plumb and square, or are they bowed? This affects trim work significantly. Crown molding on a bowed wall requires scribe-fitting each piece. Door casing on an out-of-plumb wall creates visible gaps on one side. Capturing wall condition at intake lets you price the job for the reality of the space, not the assumption that everything is straight.
• Ceiling height and condition — standard 8-foot, 9-foot, cathedral, coffered, tray? Ceiling height affects material lengths, ladder and scaffold requirements, and the scale of trim profiles. A 3.5-inch crown molding that looks proportional in a 9-foot room looks undersized in a room with 12-foot ceilings.
• Other trades and coordination — does the carpenter need to coordinate with an electrician (outlet placement behind cabinets, under-cabinet lighting), plumber (sink rough-in for vanity cabinets), painter (prime before or after trim installation), or flooring installer (trim goes on after flooring, or does the flooring tuck under)? Trade coordination is one of the most common sources of project delays. Your intake should identify every other trade involved so you can sequence your work correctly.
• Permit requirements — structural work almost always requires a building permit. Finish carpentry usually does not. Deck construction over a certain height or square footage requires permits in most jurisdictions. Establishing permit requirements at intake prevents the situation where work is half-complete and a building inspector shuts it down.

Site assessment for carpentry shares common ground with what a general contractor captures at intake — access logistics, trade coordination, and permit requirements appear on both forms. The difference is that a GC is orchestrating the entire project while the carpenter is focused on wood, and the carpenter's site assessment drills deeper into wall plumb, subfloor condition, and material access than a GC's broader overview.

Materials: species, grade, finish, and sourcing

Materials are where carpentry pricing gets complicated fast. The difference between paint-grade poplar and clear-coat quartersawn white oak can be a factor of five or more in material cost alone, before accounting for the additional labor that hardwoods require. Your intake needs to capture material decisions early because they drive everything downstream:

• Wood species — oak, maple, cherry, walnut, pine, poplar, mahogany, cedar, or exotic species like teak, ipe, or sapele. Each species has different working characteristics, costs, and appearance. Pine is forgiving and affordable. Walnut is beautiful but expensive and prone to tearout if your blades are not sharp. Cherry darkens dramatically with UV exposure. Exotic species may have lead times measured in weeks. The species decision affects every aspect of the project.
• Grade — select, #1 common, #2 common, or character grade. Select grade has minimal knots and consistent grain. #1 common has some knots but is still clean. #2 common has visible character marks. For trim work, select or #1 is standard. For a farmhouse aesthetic, character grade with filled knots may be what the client wants. Capturing this at intake prevents ordering the wrong grade and either wasting material or delaying the project.
• Finish — stain grade (natural wood visible through a transparent finish), paint grade (will be painted, so appearance of the raw wood matters less), clear coat, lacquer, oil finish, or unfinished. Paint-grade work uses less expensive wood and is more forgiving of joints and filler. Stain-grade work requires tighter joints, careful wood selection, and no filler — because filler does not accept stain the same way wood does, and the result looks amateur.
• Hardware — for cabinet and door projects: hinges (concealed European-style vs. exposed decorative), pulls, knobs, drawer slides (soft-close, full-extension, under-mount), catches, and specialty hardware. Is the client supplying hardware, or does the carpenter source and supply it? Client-supplied hardware needs to arrive before fabrication begins so the carpenter can drill hinge cups and pull holes to the correct specifications.
• Material source — standard lumberyard, specialty hardwood supplier, client-supplied reclaimed wood, or salvage material. Reclaimed wood is increasingly popular but adds complexity — it often needs de-nailing, planing, and may have inconsistent dimensions. Client-supplied material shifts responsibility for quality and quantity to the client, which should be documented.
• Custom milling — does the project require custom profiles, router work, or molding runs that are not available off the shelf? Custom profiles add lead time and cost. If the client wants crown molding that matches an existing profile in their 1920s home, and that profile is not in any supplier's catalog, someone needs to run it on a moulder — and that is a different cost structure than pulling stock profiles from the rack at the lumberyard.
• Matching existing — this is critical for renovation work. If you are adding trim to a room that already has trim, or replacing damaged sections, the new work needs to match the existing work exactly. That means matching the species, the profile, the stain color, and the finish sheen. Your intake should ask the client to provide a sample piece or photograph the existing profile with a ruler for scale. Matching existing work is one of the most time-consuming aspects of renovation carpentry, and it needs to be priced accordingly.

Measurements and specifications: the precision layer

Carpentry is a measurement-driven trade. The phrase "measure twice, cut once" exists because materials are expensive and cuts are permanent. Your intake should establish what measurement and design work has been done, and what still needs to happen:

• Room dimensions — length, width, height. For cabinetry, you need exact wall-to-wall measurements at floor level, mid-height, and ceiling level, because rooms are rarely perfectly square. For trim work, you need linear footage of each wall.
• Linear footage — for trim and molding projects, the total linear footage of crown, base, casing, and other profiles is the primary driver of material quantity and labor hours. Capture it at the site assessment or flag that a field measurement visit is required before quoting.
• Opening sizes — for door and window projects, each opening needs to be measured individually. Rough opening dimensions for new installations, finished opening dimensions for replacements. In older homes, no two openings are exactly the same size, and assuming they are leads to material waste and re-work.
• Detailed drawings — does the client have architectural plans, shop drawings, or a designer's renderings? Or does the carpenter need to design the project from scratch? Design work is a significant part of the scope for custom cabinetry and built-ins, and it should be quoted separately or explicitly included in the project estimate.
• Style references — photos, magazine clippings, Pinterest boards, or screenshots from Houzz. What does the client want the finished project to look like? Visual references are far more useful than verbal descriptions in carpentry. A client who says "I want simple, clean trim" might mean Shaker-style casing or they might mean ultra-modern flush baseboard — a photo eliminates the ambiguity.
• Existing style context — what does the rest of the house look like? New carpentry work should be sympathetic to the existing architectural style unless the client is intentionally creating a contrast. Craftsman-style baseboards in a mid-century modern home look wrong unless the client specifically wants that juxtaposition. Your intake should capture the overall style context so your design recommendations fit the space.

Pricing, payment terms, and change orders

Carpentry pricing varies more widely than almost any other trade because the work ranges from commodity framing to one-of-a-kind furniture. Your intake needs to establish the pricing model and terms before you start, because custom work almost always involves changes, and how those changes are handled determines whether the project stays profitable:

• Estimate structure — per linear foot (standard for trim), per opening (doors and windows), per piece (custom furniture), per square foot (decking), or hourly plus materials (common for repair work and small projects where the scope is uncertain). Some carpenters offer a fixed bid for defined scope. Others work time-and-materials with a not-to-exceed cap. Whatever your model, it should be documented at intake so the client understands how they are being charged.
• Deposit — custom carpentry typically requires a 50% deposit before work begins, with the balance due on completion. For projects involving expensive materials — walnut, exotic species, custom hardware — the deposit may need to cover the full material cost, because you cannot return custom-milled lumber if the client cancels.
• Payment schedule — for larger projects, a three-stage payment schedule is standard: deposit at contract signing, progress payment at a defined milestone (cabinets installed but not finished, framing complete and inspected), and final payment on completion and client walkthrough. The milestones should be defined at intake so both parties know what triggers each payment.
• Change order process — this is where carpentry projects go off the rails financially. The client decides mid-project that they want the shelves to be walnut instead of oak, or that they want an extra drawer in the vanity, or that the crown molding should be 5.25-inch instead of 3.5-inch. Each change affects materials, labor, and timeline. Your intake form should establish the change order process: changes must be documented in writing, priced before execution, and signed by the client. A verbal "go ahead and add that" should not be how scope changes happen.
• Warranty — workmanship warranty and material warranty are separate. You can warrant that your joints will not open and your installation will not fail, but you cannot warrant against wood movement (seasonal expansion and contraction is inherent to the material) or material defects from the supplier. Your intake should state your warranty terms clearly. One year on workmanship is standard; some carpenters offer longer warranties on structural work.
• Timeline — estimated start date, estimated completion, and what causes delays. Material lead times, permit approval timelines, coordination with other trades, weather (for exterior work), and client-supplied items (hardware, fixtures, appliances that need to be on-site before cabinet installation) are all common delay factors. Documenting them at intake manages the client's expectations before the project starts.
• Insurance — general liability and workers' compensation. Most general contractors require proof of insurance before allowing a subcontractor on their job site. Many homeowners, especially in higher-value properties, require it as well. Your intake should reference your insurance coverage and offer to provide a certificate of insurance on request.

Building the relationship from the intake forward

A thorough intake process tells the client that you are a professional who has done this before. When a prospective client receives a form that asks about wall plumb, wood species, custom milling requirements, and change order procedures, they understand that this carpenter has built enough projects to know where the problems hide. That level of detail builds trust — and trust is what wins the job when you are competing against three other bids.

Carpentry frequently intersects with other trades. If you are also handling deck and patio construction, the exterior carpentry sections overlap significantly. If you are working as a sub under a general contractor, your intake needs to align with theirs on scope, schedule, and trade coordination. For shops that specialize in one-of-a-kind furniture pieces, dining tables, or bespoke built-ins, a custom furniture and woodworking intake form goes deeper on design consultation, joinery selection, and finish specification than a general carpentry intake covers. Having a structured intake process that accounts for these intersections puts you ahead of competitors who are still scribbling job notes on the back of a material receipt.

If you are building documentation across a multi-trade operation, the Trade Services Bundle includes carpentry alongside 51 other service categories, each with trade-specific intake fields.