LEAD CARPENTER / RENOVATION SPECIALIST

Full-Time | Hamilton, Ontario | Red Seal Preferred

Dollhouse Design + Build is looking for an exceptionally skilled and experienced carpenter to join our renovation team.

This is a senior, hands-on role for someone who knows residential construction inside and out. You might already have the skills to run your own renovation company - or perhaps you have in the past - but would rather spend your time building great things than quoting jobs, finding clients, answering emails, chasing invoices and running a business.

That's our problem.

You get to build.

THE ROLE

We need someone capable of independently running the construction side of a residential renovation from start to finish.

Our projects range from beautiful kitchens and bathrooms to whole-home renovations, structural alterations, additions, dormers and complicated transformations of Hamilton's old and century homes.

You should be extremely comfortable with:

- Residential framing and structural carpentry
- Additions, dormers and major renovations
- Kitchens and bathrooms
- Finish carpentry, trim and millwork
- Windows and doors
- Drywall and general renovation work
- Reading plans, drawings and construction details
- Coordinating with trades and other crew members
- Planning ahead and keeping a project moving
- Troubleshooting the weird things old houses inevitably throw at you
- Producing excellent work without someone standing over your shoulder

Red Seal certification is strongly preferred, but exceptional experience and demonstrated skill matter to us more than collecting credentials.

THIS ROLE IS PROBABLY FOR YOU IF...

You're the person other people call when they can't figure something out.

You take enormous pride in your work. You're fast because you're experienced - not because you cut corners. You can look at a set of drawings, understand what needs to happen and make it happen.

You notice the next thing that needs doing without waiting to be told. You spot problems before they become expensive problems. You communicate well, show up when you say you will, treat clients' homes with respect and genuinely enjoy solving construction problems.

And while you could probably work for yourself, maybe you don't particularly want to.





Because here's the nice part:

We find the clients.
We design the projects.
We estimate them.
We order things.
We answer the emails.
We deal with the clients.
We send the invoices.
And we chase the money.

You come to work, build cool things, get paid and go home.

A LITTLE ABOUT US

Dollhouse Design + Build is a women-owned and women-led Hamilton design-build company specializing in thoughtful, design-forward residential renovations.

Since April 2020, our crews have completed more than 1350 projects and have become known for our work on Hamilton's century homes - the beautiful, crooked, occasionally baffling houses that require equal parts craftsmanship, creativity and problem-solving.

We're multiple Readers' Choice Award winners and recipients of a YWCA Women in STEM & Trades Award. We're proud of those things, but we're probably proudest of the crew we've built.

We're a small, tight-knit team. We genuinely like each other. Designers and builders work collaboratively instead of operating in separate worlds, and the people actually doing the work have a voice in how the work gets done.

We're women-owned and led, proudly LGBTQ+ allies, and committed to being a workplace where different kinds of humans feel welcome and respected. Construction doesn't have to come with all the macho bullshit sometimes associated with the industry, and ours doesn't.

We take our work seriously. We don't take ourselves nearly as seriously. WORK SHOULD FIT INTO YOUR LIFE - NOT CONSUME IT. We believe strongly that having a life outside of work is a good thing. People have kids. Appointments happen. Life happens. We work hard, take enormous pride in what we build and expect everyone on our team to be dependable - but we don't believe dedication should be measured by someone's willingness to sacrifice everything else for their job.



We offer flexibility because we want excellent people to work with us for a long time.

And importantly: we work where we live.

Our projects are almost exclusively in Hamilton, so you won't spend your life commuting across Southern Ontario or disappearing out of town for weeks at a time.

WHAT WE OFFER

This is an employee position, not subcontract piecework.

You'll receive:

- Competitive hourly pay based on experience
- Consistent, year-round work
- CPP and EI
- Full employee benefits
- Paid vacation
- Flexibility around hours and real life
- Almost exclusively Hamilton-based projects with no out-of-town travel
- A collaborative, supportive and tight-knit crew
- Interesting, creative projects instead of endless cookie-cutter construction
- The chance to work on some genuinely beautiful and unusual homes
- A workplace where craftsmanship, experience and good ideas are respected
- The freedom and autonomy to do your job without being micromanaged

Because we're a design-build company, our construction team isn't simply handed a generic set of drawings and told to execute them.

Designers and builders collaborate throughout the project. If you see a better way to build something, identify a problem in the design or have an idea that will make the finished project better, we want to hear it.

Your experience matters here.

MOST IMPORTANTLY

We're looking for a grown-up construction professional who can be trusted with a job.

Someone who can walk into a 120-year-old Hamilton house, discover that absolutely nothing is square and somebody made a deeply questionable decision in 1974, and figure out what we're doing about it.

Someone who cares about the details nobody else will notice.

Someone who takes ownership without needing to own the company.

We don't need you to own a business.

We need you to own the work.

If you're exceptionally good at what you do and this sounds like the kind of place you'd like to do it, we'd really like to meet you.

Pay: $30.00-$38.00 per hour

Expected hours: 30.0 – 40.0 per week

Benefits:

- Casual dress
- Company events
- Dental care
- Extended health care
- On-site parking

Experience:

- Renovation: 5 years (required)

Work Location: In person

📌 LEAD CARPENTER / RENOVATION SPECIALIST (Hamilton)
🏢 Dollhouse Collective
📍 Hamilton