Chosen Wood Window Maintenance

I feel as if my issues were shared in detail by previous reviews so I will not go in to detail. I just wish I had read them before I hired Chosen. I would not recommend this company. They don’t answer emails, their scheduling is difficult and the quality of work is poor. We were considering replacing all the windows in our house and did one as a test. It was not more energy efficient, the window was damaged more then it was before they started and I felt we spent $ 500 with zero results. If you are thinking about restoring your windows through Chosen I would recommend just buying a new energy efficient windows. I am glad we only did one window and not the whole house!

My husband and I were really excited about the possibility of refurbishing our old wood windows. Refurbishment seemed to be an efficient and cost-​effective alternative to new window installation.
Unfortunately our experience with Chosen was very disappointing. While the actual glass replacement went fairly smoothly, the finish work was sloppy and unprofessional. We were surprised that the job was considered «done» several times before it was actually completed. In the end, we elected to do some minor finish work ourselves rather than try to coordinate a final Chosen visit to our home. Ultimately we are concerned that our windows are in fact less efficient than before Chosen performed this job.
Here are a few concrete examples of our concerns:
Weather stripping was inconsistently installed in our windows (some were on inside of bottom sash, some were on inside of top sash). Other sashes were cut for weather stripping, but no weather stripping was installed. Technicians had to come back again to install weather stripping on the windows they missed.
The «fuzzy tabs» referred to in the Chosen video were not installed in any of our windows, leaving significant gaps for airflow. You could actually see the ground outside while looking through the crack inside the house.
When we expressed concern to the technician, he stapled a small piece of tubular foam insulation into one of the cracks and considered the job complete.
After extensive back and forth with Chosen staff, the technicians were finally sent out again to fill the holes with «fuzzy tabs.» These were also sloppily installed: some are clearly visible when the windows are closed. Still others did not get the tabs at all, even though the sashes clearly had gaps. We found one «fuzzy tab» stuck to one of our kitchen cabinets.
During his final visit, the technician also cracked the wood of one of our window sashes and left it unrepaired. Fortunately my husband was able to glue the sash back together.
Finally, Vern assured us that the sashes would be taken to the truck for sanding and cutting to minimize lead paint contamination. In practice, the technicians left a TON of paint chips in the areas around the windows — both in the soil outside and flooring inside our house. This continued until my husband requested they at least use a tarp to contain potential lead hazards. Fortunately we do not have young children, but we are planning to start a family soon and are very concerned about potential lead hazards in our home.
I would definitely NOT recommend using Chosen for your window refurbishment project.
This written feedback was also provided to Chosen staff. They apparently did not feel it justified a response.

2.5 stars. In short, much of the work was well done but given the poor communication and poor carry-​through, we would not recommend Chosen as your window contractor.
To give more of the story, we had contacted Chosen in May to repair a number of window sills suffering from dry-​rot in our newly-​purchased but built-​in-​1927 house. Their bid came in a little on the higher side but it felt like a worthwhile investment to go with a company that specialized only in windows, especially windows in old homes. While we were at it, we also chose to bring several windows up to better efficiency by installing slips (a second windowpane) on them; one window, a large one, required a new sash to be built in order to accommodate the additional glass. We understood that summer was their busy season and agreed at the beginning of June to a start date the first week of July. We were told this would be a 3-​day project which was great because that would leave us plenty of time to have everything done for when we moved in on July 31. The project start was delayed by a day (no big deal) but then it was stymied by the lack of the sash for our large living room picture window. Their excuse was that they didn’t have one ready — for a project that they had known about for more than 4 weeks. The sash was then built and installed on July 31^st, but several calls to the office during that time yielded no communication as to when we could expect it to be ready. Instead, we received a call on a Thursday afternoon asking if they could come by first thing the next day. Once that was done, we were just waiting on the painting. Fast forward another few weeks, to mid-​August, and we’re still waiting for the sills, sash and trim to be painted.
We had been informed in the beginning that Chosen did not do their own painting. Because of that, we had tried to get the name of their recommended painter so we could contact him ourselves and make sure we had him lined up. However, we were told that Vern (the owner) would take care of it. Throughout July and the beginning of August, numerous calls and emails yielded no definitive answer on when the painting would start. Communication was with Katie in the office who was nice but just had no information for us. Vern himself (or any other management person) never called to clarify what was going on. The final straw was when we were told that the recommended painter could «squeeze us in» in another 3 weeks after he finished a new project he would be starting the following week (which was already many weeks after we’d been peppering Chosen with questions about the painting process).
We understand that there are things out of Chosen’s control, but 1) they need to have a better relationship with their partners and 2) they need to be better communicators. If we had known that the process would be so drawn out, we would have just gotten painters ourselves. Two rainstorms on our unpainted new sills and nearly 5 weeks after we were told the project would be done, that is what we are doing.
We hope no one else has to go through this process. Please choose yourselves a more reliable outfit than Chosen.