It all started with a pizza. More accurately, it started when I was doing the photos for our "A Little Pizza Your Heart" article (February 2022). I was sitting at Pizza One in Wayne (with owner Moe Ismail, waiting for his delicious entry for the article to finish cooking). We were discussing projects each of us was undertaking in our homes. He was raving about his new front door which I, not being a door connoisseur, didn’t understand the excitement so I asked him to pull up a picture on his phone. After seeing it, I immediately understood where he was coming from. It was gorgeous. It was elegant. And it completely upgraded the entire look of his home. He said RJW Exteriors handled it for him. Who? (I had never heard of them before) He said their headquarters was only about 25 minutes away and that they were the best. He said they also do a great job with windows.
Windows? Wait a minute… that’s one of my next projects.
For those of you who haven’t been to our house, let me explain some of the “charm” we’ve been dealing with. Our house was built in 1979 and except for the addition of the family room and the extension of the master bedroom in 2002, nothing else has changed in that house. Our windows were hideous-looking. They were old wood windows, some of broken handles and almost all had varying degrees of draft. If you stood in the right spot in Ava's room, your hair would move.
We called two companies to look into the initial windows we needed to replace: the upstairs bathroom, the huge window in the guest room and most importantly, all the windows in the kid’s rooms. We had “Company X” and RJW scheduled for back-to-back nights.
“Company X” had their guy here for just under 20 minutes before he was asking us to sign a contract. We were given very few options and when I asked why these were the windows we should get, we were told multiple times that “they are the best”. It didn’t matter that they didn’t go with the style of windows from the two additions to the house nor did it matter that we would have to essentially take out a second mortgage to buy their windows. It was clear that the style he showed us was all he was willing to sell us. Pass. No, thank you.
The next night, Matt Brockman from RJW came to our house. He sat and asked us questions, then went to look at the windows from the additions, both from inside and outside the house. After that, he showed us the various options they have and explained each one to us. We even saw ones that looked almost exactly like the windows from the additions. He explained each step we would take after that night, the service side of their business, the warranty, and the favorable financing of theirs ( that we took advantage of). Matt made it very easy for us to choose the right windows. More importantly, he made it very easy to choose RJW Exteriors.
A few days later I was connected with Joe Friedman. Joe was the guy who would be there with the installation team to make sure everything stayed on track, answered any questions, and did a final inspection. We had them do 7 windows that first time and things went perfectly, so good that we have called them back to our house 2 more times to keep switching out some of the old windows as we go. As of this issue's release, we have 3 windows left (not counting the kitchen or dining room because those rooms are complete remodels down the road).
Look, we’ve all dealt with projects on our homes. How many times did it go the way it was supposed to? Or in the timeframe it was supposed to? Or at the cost? That's why I wrote this- because my answer, before RJW Exteriors, was the same as yours.
Call them, trust me.
RJW Exteriors is based in Lake Hopatcong and serves North Jersey. They can be reached at (862) 263-9733. See more at rjwexteriors.com