We needed some office furniture, but could not find what we wanted in stores or on the Internet. We then looked into custom made furniture, getting bids from 4 companies, 1 of which was CA Custom Woodworking (Chris Ammenhauser, proprietor). We went with Chris, and now that the job is done, we are very pleased with the outcome. I would give Chris a high recommendation for any custom furniture you may need. The following is our experience, and compares Chris with his competition (stores and other custom contractors) in 4 areas:
1) MATCH TO WHAT WE WANTED: Store: Not good. We couldn't find what we wanted in a store or on the Internet. Chris: Very good. We documented exactly what we wanted (exact sizes, functionality, finish), & Chris built it exactly as wanted. We left the trim, molding, door/drawer panels up to Chris & he made good choices. We provided the knobs & pulls. Custom Competition: We were dealing with honest reputable companies and feel their results would have been as good as Chris's, for matching what we wanted.
2) QUALITY: Store: Varies from low to high. Chris: High quality, comparable to high quality store furniture. All solid wood or plywood, solid well built, good joints, quality drawer-guides & hinges, good finish. Custom Competition: From 2 of them we would expect quality equal to Chris's, but from 1 their quality clearly seemed inferior, using pressboard/plywood veneers with Rafix connectors.
3) PRICE: Custom furniture cannot compete on price with store furniture, which is usually mass-produced in volume in low wage countries using pressboard and wood veneers. Chris's price was lower than his custom competition, which made this project possible for us. We found this approximate rule-of-thumb: Store: (if we could find what we wanted) cost = X dollars. Chris: cost = 1.5X dollars. Custom Competition: cost = 2X to 2.6X dollars.
4) TIME: Store: If they have it, fastest = same day. If they have to order it, slowest = usually 3 months or more in our experience, in spite of their initial promises to get it faster. Chris: Our job (which I considered to be a large job) took 2 months. Custom Competition: their estimates varied from 4 to 14 weeks. read more