The Carpenter worked from a building's foundation to its roof ridge. He laid floors, chiseled mortise-and-tenon joints, framed walls, raised rafters, carved moldings, hung doors, and nailed weatherboard. Carpenters sometimes acquired building materials from less-skilled laborers, frequently using planks cut from logs by a sawyer and shingles made by slaves at a building site.

In colonial times, a cooper was a person who made leak proof wooden barrels, tubs, and pails. Coopers worked in villages, on plantations, and on ships. Barrels were used to hold food and liquids. Tubs were used for washing clothes and people, and pails were used for carrying liquids and food.  Without a cooper nearby, people would have to hollow out a log to carry or store liquid and dry items. A cooper also made yokes for oxen, laundry tubs, and powder buckets. The laundry tubs had to be water tight to hold water while clothes were washed. The cooper used staves or narrow strips of wood to make a barrel.