He also made some observations regarding my gutters and where they were failing to handle rain. I spoke with my gutter company and they are going to install a diverter that will move the water where it should go and off my wood porch and stairs. His work is beautiful and I am really grateful to him for helping my house.
Thank you, Brian!
Suzanne P.
Tampa Heights
Brian then proceeded to install the crown molding. When he was done the seams could not be found. In the corners, he did all the caulking so everything looked like one continuous piece of wood. He had also primed it. I was having a painter arrive the following week to paint the living and dining room, and the molding was ready for him.
This year (2012) I noticed that the exterior toes of my front porch hardwood floor were all rotting. I called Brian. One of the things I had noticed when he worked on my house last time was that he always made sure he did not leave a mess, even though my house was a horrible construction zone at the time.
When we talked about replacing all the porch flooring versus just replacing the toes, I decided to just replace the toes as replacing all the hardwood flooring on a 8’X32’ porch would be too expensive. As I have a wall that surrounds the porch, the decision was made to just replace the toes and put the new toes in such that the nails would be hidden under the quarter round on the outside of the wall. Brian then crawled under the house to find out what type of support structure was under the wall. To both our surprise, there was no support structure under the wall. What keep the wall up is the 4 columns and the hardwood flooring. There was nothing to nail the new toes to! Also, the beam between the pillars on the east side of the porch did not even attach to the pillars. So there was literally NO support under the front east half of the porch.
We talked at length about how to make sure the whole porch didn’t fall down in a year or two. Given my budget constraints, Brian created a new support under the porch between the two pillars so that the main beam on the east side of the porch had two places of attachment instead of the one he found when he crawled under the house. In all these instances, Brian took pictures of the underside of my house so I could see what was there. Upon my request he emailed the pictures to me so that, in the future, if I need more work done, I can explain to the next contractor what I have and what I need.
Brian did his entire sawing, etc., outside the porch so there was no sawdust or other debris left on my porch.
When I contacted Brian this year I had also mentioned that I had several doors that did not latch. The problems varied from bent hinges to locks with missing tongues, warped doors, improperly hung doors, etc. Brian repaired my doors and now they work beautifully.
Brian is extremely capable carpenter with many additional home repair skills. He was easy for me to work with. He arrived when he said he would and if something came up that delayed him, he called. He never left a mess (unlike most workers I have hired) and was considerate of my property. I find all of these to be highly desired qualities.
Dr. Susan L.
Old Seminole Heights
Brian has provided finish trim work in many of my custom homes. His talents and ability to think outside the proverbial "box" has given that finishing touch to my custom homes and remodeling projects. Thru the down turn in the real estate market the craftsmanship Brian has provided has helped my homes sell faster than those of my competition. He is a great asset to my company and I am sure to any others with whom he works.
I met Brian Manne in 1997 when I bought my 1926 bungalow. I wanted crown molding in my living room, dining room and hall and I needed an old aluminum window replaced with a wooden one to match all the others in the house. Brian helped me get a new wooden window and then proceeded to install it, providing all the weights, rope and spools. He made sure the window matched the one on the other side of the fireplace and installed it with mostly new trim. I was thrilled.
Nanette O.
Seminole Heights
I contacted Brian regarding some issues that I was having on the exterior of my 1907 Victorian. Restored only 3 years ago, the porch was in bad shape. I was in a hurry to get the house on the market and Brian quickly made the repairs, keeping me up-to-date with the progress so that I could coordinate with the painter.
Brian peeled back the trim and siding in a couple areas and showed me the issues that he discovered. It was obvious that the carpenters who did the previous work just did not have the knowledge and experience to work on such an old house. I think that they may have just lacked some basic carpentry skills also because even I could tell that some goofy decisions had been made!
Marc and Cindy Sutherland
OldSeminole Heights
Kurt Plum
Turk Holdings, LLC
Brian H. Manne: Testimonials
Testimonials
I have restored several historic homes, chaired historic preservation committees and produced many educational events about restoration. I have won awards for these efforts, as well as having had much of my work featured in national publications and architectural books.
Tell Us About Your Experience
Take a look at the photos of his finished work. Fantastic, really. Brian designed these structures pretty much on his own, working only from only a couple of photos we shared of a nearby house with similar awnings that we liked. The results complement our house perfectly. There’s a lot of attention to detail, and everything is built to last. Brian completed the job in the time he allotted at the outset, and the price for his work was a fair value.
Lastly, we’ll mention that Brian Manne is adept at sheet metal, too. The tops of our awnings and overhang are metal to match the metal roof on our house. But he also fabricated metal covering for a few windowsills and clapboard panels that called for added protection from the weather. Once painted, these pieces blend in seamlessly with the wood construction.
Two years have passed, and everything is still holding up like brand new. Great work, and we recommend him!
Brian Manne has repaired the original double-hung windows throughout our 1926 bungalow, as well as building beautiful custom wood screens for those windows. Brian is an excellent and precise craftsman who truly appreciates the unique qualities of historic homes and takes great care to preserve those features. If our experience, it's rare to find someone as knowledgeable about older homes as Brian, or as committed to preserving their architectural integrity.
We’ve used Brian Manne’s carpentry talents many times over the years, and have always been pleased with the quality of his work. We live in a 1926 bungalow, and Brian is really good at building or restoring wood casement windows and wood-framed window screens. But we eventually contracted with him for a much bigger project, because some of our windows were always under siege from the rain and required a more permanent solution. A small porch slab and door on the back of our house also needed better protection from the elements, so we asked Brian to construct two window awnings and a porch overhang.
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