Chosen Wood Window Maintenance

My painters discovered the rot in my window sills and suggested I get Chosen to repair them.. The window frames had to be repaired before painting.. The estimate was prompt and seemed reasonable for the amount of work needed and the company seems very expert on wooden windows. We had some rain delay, we've had an unusually cold and wet spring, so I was okay with reasonable delay. I was very concerned about my fancy fabrics in my window treatments and Chosen didn't offer any help or suggestions about how to deal with that problem, so I figured out it might be a good time to have drapery cleaners come out and remove the window treatments (at extremely short notice, bless their hearts). The guys covered their feet and kept things clean when they worked inside and didn't damage anything. The work went fairly fast, guess it isn't so hard when you know how! The job didn't take as many man hours as I had thought it would. Since most of the cost was labor, the final cost seemed a bit high. Then again, it is a job that takes a lot of expertise, not a do it yourselfer. My crew was a little delayed because the window above the door was a bear to complete and mother nature didn't cooperate, so a second crew showed up to, I think, expedite the completion of the job and I found the guys in the second crew to be rude and abrasive. One of the guys threw around the F bomb when doing what he thinks passes for communication with his fellow workers.. I have no idea what his problem was, but I wanted him out of my home.. I'm no expert, but I think the final job is very good and I'm glad to have the windows repaired. Frank, the supervisor I communicated with was very responsive to my concerns. A very positive thing to mention, the painting work was waiting on the window repair and scheduling was a bit out, but Frank was able to move the date up because of a delay on another job, I certainly appreciated that they did so..

One of our 15 year old Pozi 3' by 4' windows had started to fog up. I called Chosen Wood for an estimate and they promptly showed up a few days later and gave me the estimate for replacing just the glass, which was unusual since most glass places wanted to replace the entire frame. The work was scheduled for the next week and the two man crew showed up on time and completed the job within two hours. They washed the new window and cleaned up before submitting the 90% remainder of the bill. You could tell these guys were very expert at repairing older wooden frame windows because they knew just how to get the old window out and you could not tell afterward that the frame had been touched.

We contacted the company through their display at the Seattle Home Show. Vern came to the house to review the job and put together a quote. Vern provided several options and clarified the approaches to be used. It was clear from the start that these people know what they are doing - all of my questions were answered and through the quotation process they indicated their dedication to preserving the heritage character of my home. Staff arrived on time with a fully-equipped mobile workshop. They performed the work carefully with an eye toward future maintenance and in a manner that kept my home clean. They completed the work on-time and on-budget. A minor issue with window hardware was noted by Travis of Chosen Wood Windows and he offered replacement hardware to address this issue. Travis made a special trip to the house as a follow-up to deliver this hardware, which was much appreciated.

Most everything went well until the final finish work. The latch was installed in the wrong place, like way off, then installed crooked. Figured at this point I would fix it myself. Called the company about a question on the opening window, and also noted the problem with the latch. Told him the overall job looked great, but I was just a little surprised at the finishing work and thought they might want to know. Said I didn't mean to be nit-picky, just something for his information. His response was, "Yes you do, you are being nit-picky. I think you don't want us to do anymore work for you." I was stunned. I have been in sales and dealt with many kinds of complaints, and couldn't imagine that a person who represents a company would respond like that. Anyway, I agreed, with that kind of response, I don't care to do anymore business with them.

Workers showed up on time, as scheduled. They completed all of the repair work in half a day (faster than I had expected), and returned about ten days later with the newly constructed windows. The new windows were installed in a professional manner, with no problems encountered. When the workers had to enter the house to do some of the work, they wore paper booties to prevent dirty shoes from damaging the carpet.

It went well. A work crew was sent out to assess the job. They reported the issues to Frank the manager, then he set the price. The work crew was friendly. Frank, the manager, is well informed and understood the ins and outs of wood window maintenance. He gave me the technical lowdown on why my Pozzi wood windows were not performing as I would expect. They were also happy to show me how to repair the windows myself, which I valued.

This project costs exactly $4861.00 Labor cost was. 4350.00. I think that the labor cost was high.

Terrible.

The estimater came and quickly measured the windows. He was very rushed and maybe took seven minutes to measure twelve windows. We had marked the defective windows with tape. The workmen replaced the windows and were polite and did a quality job. However, I noticed on some windows they were only replacing one sash instead of both in a window. The estimator had missed several windows evidently. After work was completed, we noticed the awning windows had not had the operable part repaired. When I contacted ''Frank'' the owner, I was given another estimate to repair these two tiny windows, with a labor charge almost half of the cost to replace all other 12 windows. When I commented that the estimator had missed these windows and we shouldn't have to pay another minimum service charge, I was told ''Then find another company to replace your windows!''. I did.

Craftsmanship is great. This company doesn't mess around with trendy, off the ''big box store'' shelf solutions. Only quality materials are used, such as vertical grain fir; pieces are milled on-site or in their shop to fit your unique needs; and on a DAILY basis, the lead worker asked me to view and walk around and bring up questions -- all as a way to plan the next day! RARE communication! Almost every phone call or email was answered within 24 hours. I have NEVER received this from any other company! Chosen isn't cheap -- in any sense of the word. But you get what you pay for--impeccable record keeping, communication and craftsmanship.

THEY WERE ALL PROFESSIONAL AND HAD GOOD COURTESY. I DON'T HAVE ANY BAD THINGS TO SAY ABOUT THEM. AS FAR AS I KNOW THEY WERE EXCELLENT. THEY WERE PROMPT, THEY SET UP A TIME FRAME AND STUCK TO IT.