Thoughtful Craftsmen
P.O. Box 11537
Shorewood, WI 53211
phone: (414) 963-1901
email: ideas (at) thoughtfulcraftsmen (dot) com
Our goal is to train employees in a wide variety of operations so that they will eventually be able to understand and approach the exterior of homes as systems whose parts and integration require specific approaches. We aspire to do this a nurturing and understanding way. While we expect honesty, diligence, and hustle, we also hope that employees are willing to push themselves, take risks, and learn from mistakes in a safe environment. This process, we hope, might allow each member of our team to find his or her strengths while growing and learning. We are eager to have team members take initiative and accept new responsibilities in a way that fosters personal growth and new opportunities.
Our Mission: To help maintain the historic and pre-WWII housing stock of Milwaukee and its older suburbs by way of comprehensive exterior restoration that treats the exterior as a set of interconnected systems. Using the highest quality materials, applied and installed with keen historic and architecturally sense, we endeavor to return houses to their original appearance in a way that will last for as long a time as current materials and customers’ budgets will allow.
Part of this mission can be best understood by contrasting our approach to other companies. It is easy to find someone who will shingle the roof, but not fix the crown molding or rafter tails. It is easy to find someone who install replacement windows, but not restore the existing ones. It is easy to find someone who will install new siding, but will ignore the flashings. There are about five local companies which reline built-in gutters, but who perform the carpentry repairs with inferior materials and mismatched moldings, none of which are primed or painted.
Most of all, it easy to find people who will paint the house, but without ensuring the underlying wood is properly restored with appropriate materials and products. We treat the house as a system, focusing on the larger and more obvious items and issues, and the connective tissue that lies between. There are no other major firms in Milwaukee with this approach.
