Nadia Cortez
Shop Foreman
Runs the bench room and the cut list. Fourteen years with us, and the only person allowed to argue with a drawing.
Home / About Us
Twenty-nine years at the same bench.
Westford began in a two-car garage off South Lamar in 1996. It is now eleven craftsmen and a 14,000 square foot shop, and the work is still cut to the same rule.
01
Our story
One commission taught us how to run the whole shop.
In 1998 we took on a library for a house on Pemberton Heights. The drawings were beautiful and the walls were forty degrees out of plumb. We spent three weeks scribing and lost money on the job.
It also set the rule we still work by. Measure the room, not the drawing. Cut the last inch on site. Never hand a client a piece you would not fit in your own house. Every craftsman who joins us learns that on their first commission, usually the hard way.
M. Westford
Founder & Master Joiner
1996Year we opened
14,000Square feet of shop
11Bench craftsmen
640+Commissions delivered
02
The workshop
Everything happens under one roof.
Rough milling, joinery, veneer work, finishing and packing all sit within thirty steps of each other. Nothing leaves the building until it is finished, and nothing is finished by anyone but us.
- Rough mill & kiln3,200 sq ft
- Bench room6,400 sq ft
- Spray boothDowndraft, dual bay
- Delivery radius150 miles of Austin
03
How we work
Three things we will not trade away.
A fixed price
You get one number against agreed drawings. It does not move for material cost, shop hours or anything else we failed to allow for. That is our problem, not yours.
Solid timber
Doors, face frames and drawer boxes are solid hardwood. We use sheet goods for carcass backs and nothing else, and we will tell you exactly where.
Ten years, in writing
Workmanship and structure are covered for a decade. If a door drops or a joint opens, we come back and fix it. We have had to twice since 1996.
04
The bench
The people who will be in your house.
Average tenure at Westford is eleven years. You will meet the same faces from survey to handover.
Elias Boyd
Lead Joiner
Veneer and curved work. If your commission has a radius in it, Elias is the one who will cut the forms.
Tom Reidy
Installation Lead
On site four days a week. Scribes by eye, checks by rule, and has never left a job without walking it with the client.
We specify Westford by name. The site meetings are shorter, and the snag list is empty.
Daniel Ortiz, AIAPrincipal, Ortiz Studio Architects
Visit the shop
Come and see the work before it is yours.
We keep finished samples and current commissions on the floor. Most clients visit once during drawings and once before install.