John’s Custom Stairs

In short: True professionals, with old school craftsmanship at reasonable rates.
I recently contacted John’s custom stairs for 2 new stairs. One floating wood and another standard in my basement. After calling them the estimator, Anthony was kind enough to accommodate my schedule and meet me first thing in the morning.
He showed up on time, and took DETAILED measurements explained a few issues (with older Philly homes this is an EVERY TIME occurrence) and was able to give me a couple of options. He quoted me a price and said I could swing by the shop to take a look at samples of some finished products.
I went to the shop and met with John who was kind, professional and funny. (Totally someone you could have a beer with.) He showed me a few finished products and I gave a deposit and was told it would take a few weeks.
The stairs were completed on time and the installation team was again professional, on time and diligent. They treated my property with respect, completed the job on schedule and cleaned up after themselves. The finished products were both sturdy and beautiful and everyone compliments them.
Will be calling them for a railing next week and probably another stairway in a few months.
Do yourself a favor and leave stairs to these true professionals.

I’d like to take this opportunity to make a few corrections to the contents of your last review and its reviewer. We absolutely have no problem explaining how the work you requested is planning to be installed! We actually did it over the phone (several times), in person, at our office three times, we gave you the actual stair components to take home and view on site. You looked through 60 years of pictures of similar applications that we previously installed. All of which was captioned in a written contract dated 7÷10÷15. We only take offense when people like yourself, who admittedly have no experience or knowledge of any type of construction, come to our office and tell us how to do our job. We have absolutely no qualms when other «lay people» want to add or subtract items to the construction or decorative end of their installations. We enjoy educating people about the processes and stages on how our work is installed. It was the passive aggressive way in which you did it! In one hand, you’re telling us that you don’t understand what we’re saying! And in the other breath you want to tell us how to do our work!!! Your condescension was quite obvious and insulting! Please, don’t assume because we are a small three generational family stair company, that we are uneducated day laborers. It’s spectacularly not true! If you’d like to see our educational pedigree we be happy to walk you through that also! Actually, our academic achievements have nothing to do with stair work, but three generations and 40 years of personal experience which includes thousands of satisfied customers does! So in summation, John’s Custom Stairs wishes you and your friends the best of luck in all your lay person investments, and welcome to Philadelphia!
John’s Custom Stairs

These guys were pretty rude & impatient answering basic questions about how the finished job would look and cost. They rushed me for a deposit and used technical jargon I could not understand and got impatient if I asked for clarity. I went back and forth several times to their shop and the property because they initially would not visit the property (a few blocks away) to give an estimate. I even e-​mailed them some pics so we could have a common dialogue and they eventually did visit the property but were obtuse in explaining anything. When I asked to see a photograph to aid me in understanding how it would look-​so I could understand what they were talking about– they acted impatient like I was being difficult. They showed me multiple styles and options so quickly I could not grasp everything and the price kept fluctuating and the paperwork «documenting» our dialogue/​estimate was difficult to understand, handwritten, and on some internally used form that had no meaning to a layman.
They seem oblivious to the fact not everybody will plunk down a deposit without understanding how the finished product would look or cost and resented my questions. I really tried to work with them so I could use them again… I was a potential repeat customer. I flip houses… but the man finally shouted: «Don’t tell me how to do my job!». Moments before I explained I thought the communication between myself and the staff was not great and the back and forth could been avoided with better dialogue and understanding from their end that not everybody understands this stuff. He asked me to leave and handed me back my check for politely saying this. Interestingly enough, they were complaining about a another customer who also asked a lot of questions while I was there.
SUMMARY: They appear competent judging from the huge wood shop but they rush you for a deposit, were reluctant to give an on-​site estimate or explain anything. They were impatient and rude… even after my sincere attempts at dialogue/​understanding. If you are the type to blindly open your checkbook and leave the rest to chance with zero or impatient dialogue, reluctant on-​site estimate, & unhelpful documentation — these are the guys for you.