Built like it's meant to outlast you.
East Texas · Est. by Kyle Igget

Built like it's
meant to outlast you.

Custom carpentry, restoration, and honest repair across East Texas — by a man who works with his hands and signs his name to it. No subs. No shortcuts. Just the kind of work your great-grandkids inherit.

Call Kyle · 936·635·5343 → The Wood Library
Look Closer
Crockett · Latexo · East Texas
The Trade

Heirloom isn't a style.
It's a standard.

Anyone with a nail gun can finish a punch list. We build the kind of work that gets handed down — porches your grandkids will sit on, mantles that get carved with new initials, doors that still close right in fifty years.

Every cut measured twice. Every joint set true. Every job signed by the same hands that started it. If it doesn't get better with age, it isn't ours.

If your great-grandkids can't sit on it, I haven't done my job.
— Kyle Igget · Owner
A carpenter's hands setting a chisel with a wooden mallet
Job no. 312 · Crockett, TX
i.

Restore

Old houses earned their character one weather season at a time. Period-correct millwork, hand-sawn replacements, the right joinery for the era.

ii.

Build

If you can draw it on a napkin, we can build it from rough lumber. Drawn, milled, joined, finished, installed by one crew.

iii.

Repair

The honest fix. Sticking doors, rotted sills, sagging joists, trim somebody else gave up on. Done once, done right.

The Wood Library

Eight species.
Each picked for a reason.

Wood isn't lumber. It's a hundred-year decision. Hover any specimen — I'll tell you what it's best for and where I source it.

i.
Heart Pine
Pinus palustris
Best for · historic restorations
Densest pine in America. Resin-soaked. Outlives the saw that cut it.
Salvaged · East Texas barns & antebellum homes
ii.
Quarter-Sawn White Oak
Quercus alba
Best for · built-ins, mission cabinetry
Cuts true. Holds a joint like nothing else. Mission-style was invented for this wood.
Premium yards · Houston & Tyler
iii.
Black Cherry
Prunus serotina
Best for · fine cabinetry, mantles
Starts pink, finishes the color of old leather. Gets better every year on your wall.
Pennsylvania-grown · milled in Tyler
iv.
Black Walnut
Juglans nigra
Best for · bar tops, statement mantles
Dark, rich, prized. Show me a single-slab piece and I'll show you a story.
Trinity County · salvaged when I can
v.
Sapele Mahogany
Entandrophragma cylindricum
Best for · exterior doors, marine trim
Honduran is hard to source legally. Sapele is its honest cousin — fights weather, takes a finish.
FSC-certified · Houston importer
vi.
Eastern Red Cedar
Juniperus virginiana
Best for · cladding, closet linings, fence posts
Smells like a grandmother's hope chest. Doesn't ask much of you. Refuses to rot.
Cleared off East Texas tracts
vii.
Hard Maple
Acer saccharum
Best for · kitchen cabinets, butcher block
What a kitchen wants when you cook in it for forty years. Tight, pale, honest.
Northern stock · Texas distributor
viii.
Bald Cypress
Taxodium distichum
Best for · porches, decks, soffits
Lives a thousand years. Keeps right on going after we cut it down.
Reclaimed · Neches & Trinity bottoms
100Year Decision

The wood I pick will outlast both of us.

I don't push the most expensive species. I pick the right one for the job — what it'll see in weather, how it'll be used, how you want it to age. Some jobs want pine. Some jobs want walnut. None of them want shortcuts. We'll talk it through before we order a stick.

The Shop

From a pencil sketch
to your front door.

Scroll through how a real piece comes out of my shop.

i. The Drawing

Pencil. Paper. Eraser.

Every job starts the same way — drawn out by hand, sized, dimensioned, and double-checked before a single board moves.

ii. The Lumber

Rough boards, hand-picked.

I drive the yards myself. I pick the boards myself. Knots, runout, figure — every stick gets looked at before it earns a place in your job.

iii. The Mill

Jointer. Planer. Patience.

Rough lumber comes off the truck warped. We flatten one face, square one edge, and bring everything to thickness. The patient hour that makes everything else possible.

iv. The Joinery

Mortise. Tenon. Time.

Glue and screws are for emergencies. Real joints — mortise and tenon, dovetail, bridle — are how you build something that lasts past the warranty card.

v. The Finish

Oil. Wax. Hand-rubbed.

Three coats minimum. Always hand-rubbed. The finish is the difference between a piece that looks new and a piece that looks like it belongs in your family.

vi. The Install

Delivered. Set true. Signed.

Same crew that built it installs it. Plumb, level, cleaner than we found it. One-year guarantee on everything, signed before we leave.

Recent Work

A few jobs worth showing.

Hover any row. Real East Texas work — porches, mantles, cabinets, repairs.

No. 01
Restoration · Crockett

1908 Wraparound Porch

Two seasons of weather had taken the column bases. We milled period-correct replacements from rough cedar and re-set every spindle by hand.

Restored historic wraparound porch with wooden columns
No. 02
Build · Latexo

Quarter-Sawn Oak Mantle

A single 9-foot slab hand-finished and floated above a stone hearth. Six weeks. Will outlive everyone in the room.

Hand-finished oak mantle floated above a stone hearth
No. 03
Build · Grapeland

Floor-to-Ceiling Library

Eleven feet tall, three walls, every joint hand-cut. The ladder rolls quiet and the doors close like a bank vault.

Floor-to-ceiling wooden built-in library with rolling ladder
No. 04
Repair · Lufkin

Storm-Damaged Sill & Subfloor

Three other guys quoted "tear it out and start over." We sistered the joists, replaced the sill, and saved the homeowner $14k.

Structural carpentry repair: sistered joists and sill replacement
The Process

How a real job runs.

No surprises. No "while-we're-in-there" upsells. Four steps, on paper, from the first phone call to the day we hand you the keys.

01

The Call

You tell me what you're trying to do. I tell you straight whether it's a job for me. No charge for the conversation.

02

The Walk-Through

I come look at it in person. Measure twice. Talk through what the job actually needs vs. what it doesn't.

03

The Estimate

Written, fixed-price where I can, hourly where I can't, and honest about both. You sign before we swing a hammer.

04

The Build

One crew. Started when I said. Finished cleaner than we found it. One-year guarantee on everything we touch.

The Service Area

Working out of Crockett, traveling all over East Texas.

If you're within an hour of Houston County, give us a call. We make exceptions for the right job.

CrockettLatexoGrapelandLufkinTrinityHuntsvillePalestineNacogdochesLivingston
Kyle Igget at work in his Crockett, TX workshop
Hand tools laid out on a workbench
Closeup detail of hand-finished wood grain
Words From Folks
Kyle showed up when he said he would, told me the truth about what my old porch needed, and built it like he was building it for his own mama. I'd hire him again tomorrow.
— Beth M. · Crockett, TX · 1908 Farmhouse Restoration
Tell Kyle What You're Building

One call. One straight answer.

Got a porch that needs saving? A mantle in your head? A repair three other guys gave up on? Pick up the phone — Kyle will tell you the truth about what it takes.

936·635·5343
or send a few photos kyle@heirloomcarpentry.com
Free conversation. Free walk-through within 50 miles. Written estimate, signed before any work begins.