There are more than 50 guides on this site and the library grows every month, so it's worth two minutes to learn the filing system.

Think of the categories as aisles in a hardware store. A real job might send you down three aisles - but every guide lives in exactly one, filed by the thing you're trying to get done. When one job needs several guides, they link to each other in the order you'd actually do the work.

Most guides also carry a difficulty level (1, 2, or 3) and a per-unit time estimate - here's exactly what the levels mean.

Doors & Openings #

Anything that makes an opening operate - or the opening itself. If it swings, slides, folds, rolls, or latches, it's here: pre-hung doors in every size and core, slabs, pocket doors, bifolds, bypass doors, barn doors, French doors, exterior doors, and adjustments to all of the above. Cased openings live here too - no door, but the opening is the job.

Not in this aisle: installing the lockset (that's Hardware) and casing the opening (that's Moldings). You'll be sent there at the right step.

Browse Doors & Openings.

Moldings #

The boards that make it look finished. Casing, baseboard, base shoe, window trim and stools, jamb extensions, and built trim pieces like attic access covers. The sorting rule: if the task ends with profiled boards nailed up and a caulk gun in your hand, it's Moldings.

Closets #

Storage build-outs: shelving systems, rods, and the layout thinking that comes before the first cleat goes on the wall. The basic closet series runs start-to-finish in three parts, and the printable cheat sheets carry the standard heights and depths so you don't have to memorize them.

Browse Closets.

Stairs / Handrails #

What you step on and what you hold: garage steps, stair skirt boards, wall-mount handrails, full rail systems, newel posts, and balusters. This is the one aisle where the building inspector routinely has opinions - rail heights, graspability, baluster spacing - so these guides call out code where it applies. Expect more Level 3 here than anywhere else on the site.

Browse Stairs/Handrails.

Specialty #

Feature walls and decorative surfaces. Today that's shiplap - walls, ceilings, and fireplace wraps at every height. As the library grows, wainscoting and paneling land here too.

Browse Specialty.

Hardware #

Bolt-on function: the stuff that arrives in a box with screws and a paper template. Locksets, bath accessories - and over time, catches, stops, and the rest of the small parts that make finish work actually work.

Browse Hardware.

General Carpentry #

The cross-cutting material that serves every other aisle: how a whole house gets trimmed start to finish, the printable cheat sheets, and reference pages like this one.

Browse General Carpentry.

Coming soon: Fixes #

A new aisle is on the way for when something's already wrong - filed by symptom ("door won't stay shut," "miters opened up"), each one paired with a video walking through the diagnosis and the repair. If your door is misbehaving right now, start with the existing guide on adjusting an exterior door.

When a job spans aisles #

File by the outcome, follow the links. "Trim out a new door" is really three guides in three aisles - hang it (Doors & Openings), case it (Moldings), install the lockset (Hardware) - and each guide hands you to the next at the right moment. You never need to know the filing system to follow the work; the links do it for you. But now you know where everything lives.