A Passion for Joinery

What do you do when you have a passion for beautifully designed homes filled with bespoke furniture, but you just aren't able to source pieces that perfectly suit your needs? If you're anything like Brad Caldon and Tori Pitman, you take matters into your own hands, and create the pieces yourself. 

When building their first home, Brad and Tori struggled to find affordable, high quality timber bathroom vanities. Using his contacts as a construction supervisor, Brad still wasn't able to source products he was happy with. "I was frustrated that we were building million dollar homes and installing cheaply constructed vanities that clients had paid thousands for," said Brad. 

With his collection of carpentry tools, a trip to the hardware store and the help of a joiner friend, Brad constructed a bathroom vanity, perfect for their new home. "The end result was better than we thought it was going to be, so we decided to try and sell it online," said Brad. "It only took Tori half an hour to sell it, and we quickly started getting enquires to make more." 

From these humble beginnings, Brad and Tori have nurtured HowsThatHouse from an at-home operation in their double garage to what it is today - a thriving complete custom timber joinery shop in a large industrial facility that employs an apprentice, a carpenter and several joinery contractors.

Together, Brad and Tori are now able to filter their passion into their customer's projects. "All of what we do is unique, no product is ever exaclty the same," said Tori. "Customers come to us with an idea of what they are looking for, and we work with them to come up with custom designs."

Being able to offer this level of quality and customisation meant that the HowsThatHouse factory needed to be fitted out with machines that could keep up with the demands of the flexibility required for unique designs. 

"As a small business, we had to make sure that the investment we made into the machinery was going to give us the most return. I did a lot of research and was consistently recommended SCM machines by other joiners," said Brad. "After inspecting some machinery in SCM Group Australia's Sydney warehouse, we were impressed by the exceptional build quality and knew the machinery was right for the job." 

Investing in an SCM Si400 EPC Panel Saw and DMC 30 RCS Wide Belt Sander has made a significant impact on production times and the level of quality in HowsThatHouse pieces.

"The SCM machines are key to our business. I use them every day, I clean them every day, and they help feed our family. They are a very important part of our lives," said Brad. "The Si400 EPC Panel Saw helps us to produce high quality furniture at a consistent rate. Before we owned the Panel Saw, our clients had to wait up to 12 weeks for furniture, we are now able to sometimes deliver within a matter of 2-3 weeks."

The accuracy offered by using the Si400 Panel Saw and the DMC SD 30 RCS Wide Belt Sander has resulted in increased production and accuracy in cutting, which has almost doubled efficiency in the manufacturing process. "The DMC Wide Belt Sander has enabled us to sand all our timber slabs in-house. Previously we had to transport each slab to the local timber mill to be sanded," said Brad. "So we've essentially eliminated the risk of damaging slabs in transit, as well as saved hours in travel time to the mill."

"We have seen a lot of benefits since introducing the SCM machines to our production line," said Brad. "We are no longer viewed as joinery hobbyists, thanks to our SCM machines. People know that we have the gear to get the job done for them now."

Brad and Tori have been so happy with their SCM machines that they have recently purchased another three. Soon to be arriving in the HowsThatHouse factory are a S630 Class X Thicknesser, an F520X Class Surface Planer and a MiniMax S600P US.

"We want reliability and quality from our machining," said Tori. "We produce a very high quality product for a niche market. Our attention to detail makes us stand out from the broader joinery market, and the SCM machines have played a very big part in that."

For further information contact SCM Group Australia 1300 42 22 38.