A trim guy in Richardson asked to see my cut list and I wanted to crawl under the truck

Olivia Morgan · 2026-10-25T23:55:04.962335+00:00

So last Wednesday I'm on a kitchen remodel in Richardson and the finish carpenter, a guy named Duane who's been trimming doors since the 80s, asks to see my cut list before we hang the crown. I hand it over feeling pretty good about myself, and he just points at my scribble and says "this ain't a list, it's a wish." Turns out for about 4 years I've been cutting on the fly and just keeping numbers in my head, and my actual waste on this job was over $600 in poplar because I kept re-cutting pieces I'd already messed up. He showed me his sheet: every piece measured, labeled, checked off, room by room. I felt like a rookie at 41. Started doing it his way the next day and knocked out the rest of the job with two boards left over. How many of you actually write a real cut list before the saw fires up, and does anyone here do it on a tablet or are you all still paper like Duane?

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A trim guy in Richardson asked to see my cut list and I wanted to crawl under the truck | Contractor Talk - Rigidtalk