never again.
i have hired the stripp joynt on 8 different projects (more than $15K) over 3 years. i've been very patient and forgiving, but in the end there were so many mistakes, damages and difficulties, it really just scared me to have them in the house anymore. the most accurate and fair rating i could give would fall somewhere between -3 and -5 stars.
they have screwed up in some spectacular and totally unnecessary ways, like the time five of the guys came into our house early in the morning, without permission, and walked in on my wife, totally naked in our bedroom, scrambling to cover herself up and totally confused why these guys were in her house. but that's not what got them fired -- their sloppy work, broken agreements, denials and excuses is what did them in.
they quit in the middle of the last job, with 8 windows incomplete. moises said he didn't think they could meet my expectations. of the 8 windows, i found two had chains too long to hold top sashes closed. one had chains too short, so it didn't fully close. all 8 were assembled improperly, so that good seals were not made. none of the chains were attached to sashes with safety screws and one chain pulled out within 24 hours. i had to take all 8 windows apart and reinstall them myself, making proper seals. in the process, i found other small things done poorly, like using the wrong kind of nails for the job.
in an earlier job, 5 other windows were declared finished, but they were obviously not sealing or fitting. i refused to pay and called moises to come inspect. at first he assured me that they were just old, that this is how my windows fit. when they finally took the windows apart, it turns out that they'd just ignored their own markings and put them all in the wrong places, with top and bottom sashes mismatched. it's a small detail on top of that, but the handles and locks were installed with 6 or 7 different kinds of screws, rather than one uniform kind.
in their 2nd windows job, we asked them to use the same satin finish they used in the first, to match their own work. instead they sprayed 4 windows and 2 rooms of baseboards and door frames with semi-gloss that did not match. when they resprayed, they mixed the lacquer incorrectly, so all of those pieces developed a foggy, hazy white finish. we waited a year for it to clear up, which it eventually did, but now that the weather has turned cold again, it is hazing up again. having this job fully paid but not finished is why i hired them again, hoping that if i stayed with them they could eventually make this job right, but then they walked out.
along the way, they ate food out of our garden, failed to return tools they borrowed, lost original parts of our windows, replaced but did not properly replicate other window parts (so proper seals were not made), stained a brand new concrete front porch, and left their lunch trash in our yard. their floor refinishing guys tried and failed to repair a prominent mistake and some damage they did to previously refinished floor. some time after that 1st window job, i found out they charged me an additional $100 for hardware that cost $35.
the first job they did, a simple clear coat of a new wood door turned out great. they did a nice job on a set of french doors, except that they didn't bother to remove the hinges from the doors, so that when they put them back together, one side of each hinge is lacquered and stained, the other half is stripped and polished... creating a zebra effect. the same sloppiness shows up in the 3 casement windows they refinished, as well.
because i did all my own exterior painting on the four different window jobs they worked on, i can tell you their glazing job was sloppy. i asked for a cost reduction on our last job and had all the glazing done by another company, so it would look good on the front of the house. along the way, they did so much damage to the other guys' glazing job, half of the sixteen windows had to be glazed a second time to make it right.
if all you need is a simple coat of spray lacquer, or need six layers of paint removed, the stripp joynt can do that. if your job requires any special attention, or if anything around your job is already finished and in good condition, having them in is risky. be ready for agreeable promises but potentially surprising, frustrating, delayed and perhaps even irreparably damaged results.
moises' typical first response will be to assure you that what you're complaining about did not happen, is not a problem, or is only the fault of some other worker or the age of your house. after five guys walked in on my wife, he told me it didn't happen even though he wasn't even there. he assured me that our windows didn't fit because they were just old, but of course we then found, very objectively by their own numbering, that their own work was to blame.
you don't want these guys working in your house. it's just not worth the hassle. read more