Get to Know Junior a Little More
The man is a legend among carpenters, and he’s been leading our carpentry crews for going on ten years. Glenn “Junior” Banks is a man of few words, so we were thrilled he took some time away from our whole home remodel project on Town Mountain to answer a few questions for us.
Carpentry is at the heart of what we do, so its important we do it well and with a keen attention to detail. We’ve always said our greatest asset is our team, and Junior is a testament to the team we’ve built.
Questions and Answers
Q. Please introduce yourself and tell us how you got your start in carpentry.
I’m Glenn Banks. Everybody calls me Junior. I’ve been building houses since 1984, which is the year I graduated high school. Got my first partner helper job at $6.00 an hour and have been doing it ever since. I’ve been with Sineath Construction now as a lead Carpenter for 10 years.
Q. What’s your favorite tool?
I’d like to introduce you to my favorite tool, the Makita 7 ¾ skill saw. After 39 years, I’ve spent many an hour with one of these saws in my hand. You can do anything and everything with a skill saw.
Q. What do you love most about carpentry, about the work?
I love that at the end of the day, you can look back and you can see what you’ve accomplished. What you’ve done with your own hands. At the end of the project, you can look back and see what you and your crew have done. It’s just something I like doing.
Q. What are some of your favorite Sineath Construction projects?
Some of my favorite Sineath projects would be the nice ranch style house in Hot Springs. From start to finish, a beautiful house. Or the job down in Shelton Laurel. It’s actually a Deltech home, and the first one I’d ever worked on. A 10,000 square foot Deltec home, and it was three different Deltec homes in one. A beautiful, two-story house, and I had never worked on a round house before. It was different, and also trying to build two stories of deck around the round house was interesting. Then, putting the roof over it was even more interesting.
What makes a carpenter good at what they do?
I feel like what makes a good carpenter is someone who can read architectural drawings and engineering drawings. Someone who can stick-frame a roof, cut rafters, cut stairs, figure stairs and spanners. I think that makes a for a good Carpenter. And you also need to be good at math. There’s a lot of math involved in everything in carpentry. If you struggle with math, you’ll struggle with carpentry.
Q. From your perspective, what does quality construction mean?
Quality craftsmanship is when you use the right materials and the right tools to do the job properly the first time so that the client is happy with the work that’s being performed. You have to pay attention to what you’re doing. And there’s no cutting corners. It’s just attention to detail.
If you’d like to learn more about Junior, our carpentry crew or how we can help with your custom home, schedule a call with us.
