Matt Wiley has 20+ years of experrience building historic homes and large scale commercial restoration projects. Matthew’s father taught and trained him in the carpentry and building trades from 12 years old and on. As his father was a general foreman builing residential homes Matt was trained in lumber calculation for project management in his early teens. Time saving job order, and the use of custom made ‘jigs’ to speed repetitive tasks was taught and practiced from Matt’s formative years. Matt moved from the rural hills of western virginia to Richmond’s most historic district – Church Hill before it was popular. Building the late 90’s and early 2000’s in Church Hill Matthew found a severe shortage in historically accurate building materials that caused a project management problem in restoring the row houses of the 19th century. From balusters to windows, historically correct materials where nearly unavailailable and using vinyl windows in a beautiful 3 story six digit home just did not keep the aestetic alive.
And in a beautiful turn of fate Matthew had the opportunity to buy “Beckstoffer’s Millwork” at 1207 N 28th Street in the early 2000’s. At that point the facility was 100 years old and many of the tools and records were still in tact. The formative experience of a lifelong craftsman was now turned to the speciaty that provides a lifetime of challenge and project variety. Throughout the real estate boom and urban return of the 2000’s Matthew ran a shop of 20+ employees supplying everything from basic kitchens to historic retrofits of much of Tobacco Row warehouse conversions. In the full market stop of the financial crisis of 09; Matthew’s operation had to re-size with the rest of the industry and it was the demand for historically accurate building supplies that carried Matthew’s interest, as well as cashflow.
Regulations provide a federal income-tax credit for owners of historic buildings that undergo substantial rehabilitations into income-producing uses. A credit equal to 20% of a rehabilitation’s qualified rehabilitation expenditures may be subtracted directly from the owner’s federal income taxes. A program of the National Park Service (NPS), the federal tax credits are administered by the State.
Historic Building Tax Credit Benefits
Helps close the financing gap between the cost of a rehabilitation project and its return on investment
Gepetto Millworks of Richmond VA is proud to have supplied many of the museum quality restoration woodworking pieces for instalation at the historic estate of George Washington.
Restoration Builders of Virginia’s History
As both the birthplace of the American Colony, and the capital of the much disputed Confederate states Virginia’s counties, cities and towns hold the richest living history of any state in the Union. Gepetto craftsmen fashion historically accurate windows for private homes in historic neighborhoods like Church Hill, or The Fan in Richmond, as well as historic communities like the
One of these is not like the other
Can you see the difference?
PREAPPROVED hand crafted details
To finish the fences in an historically authentic look and feel, Gepetto Craftsmen used hand cut templates emulating the mistakes a 1700’s carpenter might have made in the process of fashioning hundreds of newell posts. The post tops are cut from solid pieces just like 200 years ago. However, our craftsmen are accustomed to 21st century levels of detail and repeatability and work with some of the highest quality machine tools – to produce the same result craftsmen working with steel that had only been tempered by a blacksmith 200+ years ago. The post tops were cut with varying templates to give a pre-approved – hand fashined look and feel allowing the museum historians as much input as possible in their final product.
Historic Restoration and Building projects require specified wood products build using historic methods and our Richmond shop has years of experience producing hand made wood building products.
We have finished one of our single largest historic renovation contracts creating 860 historic replica windows. Built by hand from African mahogany they passed all physical wear and environmental challenge tests before we began building. The Montgomery Building in Spartansburg SC renovated by Harper Construction. Our team has put in overtime, thought through materials problems and worked diligently through some long hours to make sure we met the project deadlines. Thank you all for your skills and dedication!
Built on a Modern Timeline
Gepetto craftsmen specialize in matching and remaking historic pieces for accurate and lasting renovations qualifying for historic tax credits. While the woodworking may not have changed, people’s expectations as to how long something should take sure have!
The solid mahogany window frames are to the millimeter replicas of the originals, however our bid and the general contractor’s timeline called for a 100 day turnaround on 860 windows. We had to devise a workflow that built 5 windows a day to meet that timeline!
Wooden windows over 70 inches tall
When the tallest guy on your team can walk through a window frame without ducking, it’s a big job. The window frames are of pine, and so sourcing stable quality pine planks 8×2″ over 6ft long is also a trick of the trade that you’ll have to hire us to take advantage of fully. Part of our ability to meet detailed project requirements are our network that sources the raw wood materials right for your construction. The window frame boxes must be accurately joined to square and plumb and so in the video you see us filling the window frame boxes with the window sashes. We have a few more trade secret tips for weather sealing and glazing that helped us pass the stress and efficiency tests that were required by the contractor before they signed off on the whole project. Historically accurate, but meeting modern energy efficiency and weather resistance standards are a modern manufacturing success.
Master Craftsmanship Passed On
Matthew (with the logo t-shirt in the foreground) intently solving the positioning and fit puzzle that manufacturing wood projects presents on a daily basis. He teaches the craftsmen who are observing the process as well as the sensibility for checking the work. Unlike metals, cement or fiberglass – wood can only be shaped once. Forming a miter joint must be done with exacting precision or it’s too loose and fails. The solid wood construction of these windows include over 20 joints that must be tended to individually. The decision making process of the craftsman guides the fitting and because we have such a large manufacturing scale – the craftsman makes better choices. If piece A is too tight, he can choose from the source stack of forty or fifty pieces to find a better fit without creating wasted pieces or time.
Manufacturing scale at your service
Contact us to bid your historic renovation and you might be surprised at the price. We have managed many large construction orders for clients across the Eastern United States. The windows in the video are shipped to South Carolina where the coastal towns of Charleston and Savannah Georgia have beautiful sections of historic homes. We supply warehouse and industrial space reconstruction projects in Maryland, Delaware and as far north a Connecticut as the move to re-purpose industrial spaces trends throughout the building and architectural trades.
Project Management
20 years of experience in the field of mill-work has brought Matthew to the level of managing million dollar contracts for large scale production. Nothing in the wood construction field is quite as organized as you might assume, in the above picture Matthew is measuring and calculating the quantity of raw beams needed to be transported from the warehouse to the shop. Materials management, time management and building a skilled workforce that can solve problems as they develop in manufacture all contribute to meeting your project demands.
Big Projects Lost in Small Details
Raw lumber comes from raw nature – she’s not perfectly uniform. These planks are from 8ft to 12ft long and any width from 4 inches to 34 inches! We have to mill the mahogany from it’s beam size to a 3.8 ” wide window sill. The plank mahogany will be sorted and ripped before the decorative edge is milled into the side to replicate the historic windows from the 1920’s era building.
Timelapse video of Replica Wooden Windows being built on our woodshop assembly line in Richmond VA. Built for a historic renovation in Spartansburg SC our craftsmen forge raw mahogany planks into finely tuned handmade windows.
Historically accurate wooden window supplier South Carolina
Gepetto Millworks makes to order any type of historic replica of existing windows. For historically accurate renovation or commercial re-purposing projects that wish to keep the historic charm and effectiveness of mahogony built windows.
