A Stripping Workshop

I recently worked with John to have a door restored. Overall the experience was very good and the customer service was good as well. You need to be aware that this is a highly specialized service and extremely rare in California due to the fact that regulations make it almost impossible. As such, do not expect a cheap price unfortunately. That said, I think the results speak for themselves and I am happy I made the investment.

John did great work removing 90 years of paint layers on our cabinet doors. So happy that we decided to keep these cabinets instead of replacing them. Hard to believe this wood is almost 100 years old. John explained the wood is actually much older once you consider the redwood tree it was from.

John just dropped off our door and it looks great. It's got lots of history on it but in terms of removing the paint he did a great job and he also did some sanding so it's going to be a pretty quick process at this point to finish it up and get installed. We paid $388 and that included pick up and delivery in San Francisco as well as an environmental disposal fee

so it's only slightly more expensive then a couple of the other people I called. One of the other folks I called explain to me that they were not able to do paint stripping when the weather was cold and damp but John had no problem with that so I didn't have to wait extra weeks and instead he got the whole job done in a couple weeks

He's been doing this for 42 years so if you need something done you should call him before he retires! Nice guy.

Nice guy, horrible service.

I asked to get a coffee table stripped to get closer to matching a side table. He assured me this could be done. Took the drawer from both tables and then disappeared for over a month. I would text, I would call and the response was, oh yes, by the end of the week. Oh yes, I was going to call you. It's ready. But it never was.

Then he finally calls and says he has a woman who can paint the table to look like it's stripped to match the other. I tell him i don't need this, i just want it stripped. But he assured me it will look amazing and is worth the $500 (almost the cost of the table), so I stupidly trust him. Takes another month. Finally get the table. It looks nice but not 2 months worth of waiting and $500 nice AND the paint starts chipping in a week.

So I text John. Again. I don't hear back for days and then when i do he says he'll be by to pick it up and promises he'll have it back quickly.

Day comes to pick it up. He texts, I'll be there at 11:30. Great. 11 am rolls around and he texts, sorry, not going to be able to get it this week. But I can next week and I promise it will be fast.

Nope. I'm done. I have house guests in two weeks. I was already using a card table as a coffee table over the holidays. I'm not doing it again for god knows how long and for god knows what result.

Just chalking this up to an expensive and timely mistake. Should have just trusted my first instinct and asked for my drawers back because going down this three month journey.

The web page says he's looking for a buyer for his business. I am concerned that I might never get my stuff back. It's already two weeks overdue and he's not returning my phone calls.

Edit to add - took twice as long as estimated and required several phone calls and texts. The sanding was very rough and covered with dust. I had to do a massive cleanup with a bucket of water and a painter's rag so I would not have potential lead contamination in the house. Had to mop floors too. It was everywhere. The "wood putty" he complained gummed up the sandpaper is just a coat of 1920s era primer, which I could removed from a 2 X 2 foot area in 15 minutes with some Zip Strip and 000 steel wool. So, my pleasant summer is going to consist of winkling the rest of the paint out of the crevices (which should have come out in the tank with solvent) and re-sanding with 220 grit to smooth it out. Not what I planned. In future, I'm just going to do it myself. The hazmat facility is not too far from my house and I know about the dangers of lead paint and safe solvent handling.

I do not recommend A Stripping Workshop because of their competency, honesty, and ethics. They failed to remove the stain on our front door and did not stand behind their work.

I engaged A Stripping Workshop to remove the varnish and stain from our solid mahogany front door. The door's value is a approximately $4,000 - $5,000. It was important to have the door prpfessionally stripped because sanding would be difficult because of the corners, moulding, and tight spaces.

I chose A Stripping Workshop because John said they have over 40 years experience. Stain is hard to strip so I asked him three times if they would be able to remove the varnish and stain. Three times, John deliberately told me that it would not be a problem to strip the varnish and stain. He said they used commercial strippers that were stronger than I could get. I was quoted a price of $485. The work order stated "remove finish", and finish is understood to be the stain and topcoat.

When John came to pick up the door, he said he "forgot" to include $50 for an environmental fee to dispose of the stripping chemicals. I couldn't help but wonder if it was intentional to quote a lower price and later add the environmental fee.

When the door was finished, John, with his 40 years of experience, authoritatively stated twice the stain was removed. The stain was not removed. The picture clearly shows the stain and the newly sanded bare wood. A competent company would have removed the stain, and an honest company would not have stated the stain was removed when it wasn't.

Sanding the door was difficult, and I spent over fifty hours sanding both sides of the door to remove the stain.

When I complained to John, he said that some stains are not removed when stripping. I told him that if he had told me that when I first spoke with him, I would have wanted more information, and it would have been likely that I would not have engaged him. John suggested that I bleach the wood, but that didn't work.

I accept that sometimes things go wrong. What is important to me is that the company make things right by fixing the problem or refunding all or part of my money. When I requested a refund, John said he would refund my money. After a month, I hadn't received a refund so I contacted them again and was offered a refund of only $200. This was unacceptable because I paid them $535 and was originally offered a full refund. I offered to settle for $400, but they never responded. Would not a honest and ethical company stand by their work and refund what was originally offered or at least $400?

In conclusion, A Stripping Workshop was hired to remove the stain and varnish from my door, jacked the price up, returned the door claiming the stain was removed when it wan't, offered to refund $535 and then backpedaled and only offered $200. They did poor work and didn't stand behind their work.

Based on my experience with them, I have strong doubts about their competency, honesty and ethics. I do not recommend them.

Had John come by and pickup wooden handrails/bannisters for my staircase. They stripped, sanded, stained and sealed them and they look incredible...

The job was done ahead of schedule, but not until John was satisfied that they were done to his standards.

I could not wait to reinstall the handrails and they look amazinging!

When I first put in my order they promised to have doors stripped in 4-6 weeks. At 5 weeks I called to check if they would have doors ready the next week. For the next few weeks they ignored my calls and voice mails.

Once the owner picked up (by error while driving) he said he had been screening my calls and to just wait.
A week later nothing. Finally I got a hold of them and got a delivery date. I called the morning of delivery to see if I should take the afternoon of work and it turned out they hadn't even started until the night before and my doors were "stubborn".

A few weeks later they gave me a sob story about personnel issues. Sorry but you screened my calls for weeks and lied about how far along they were. Now you are asking for sympathy?

I just wanted my doors back. They initially promised to have doors labeled with a number and back in 4-6 weeks. 9 weeks later I am behind on project and had to hire new contractors to put the doors back on. None were labeled.

If you need your doors or stuff back at a predictable date - avoid this company at all costs.

Paint was peeling off my old interior doors, even after new paint job. I decided to strip the the doors. Found A Stripping Workshop on Google. John, the owner, responded very quick after the initial call, did not give me a sales pitch. Drove 1 1/2 hrs. to take the doors off the hinges, major saving, and to take them to the shop (did not charge for taking them off hinges).

Stripping work was very good quality. He then again went out of his way to help me find someone that can re stain the doors, helped me negotiate the price, delivered the doors and reinstalled the once I wanted to be reinstalled. Very polite and professional. I would recommend him.
Anyone that goes extra step as far as customer service, does good work and stands behind their work, is OK in my book. John went out of his way on all things. Could not have asked for better service.

I have resisted writing a review on yelp for years, but this is my final straw.
July 6th
John said he would be by between 12-3pm to pick up our door. He never showed up or called. I must have called him three times to follow up - no response. Called the following morning to say he would arrive between 10-12. Again, never showed or called and then randomly arrived around 5pm. Annoying!
John said the door would be done in a week...it's July 21st and no door. I have called him three times without any response. I am beginning to feel like a stalker. Finally he answered this morning and said he would bring the door on Friday - sorry John now I'm on vacation. Supposedly, the door will be delivered on Wednesday, July 28.
Message: DO NOT USE STRIPPING WORKSHOP UNLESS YOU HAVE LOADS OF TIME!
FYI: July 29th and STILL NO DOOR....