Jan Saeger

Jan is great. I had a sub-​par chair that needed fixing and he did a quick fix that will keep the chair alive for quite some time. He gave me some great advise regarding taking care of the type of chair I brought in, charged a fair price AND showed me his gorgeous bowl collection. He is great. I am going back for one of his hand-​made madrone wood bowls… and recommend him for furniture repair.

Jan Repaired a rocking chair that’s been in my family for a couple of generations (It’s not special objectively but I like it!!); he was fast, very reasonably priced, did a great job, and couldn’t have been easier to work with. (He’s in Rockridge now, not north Berkeley — or maybe both?)

Jan did a great job repairing two of my chairs from a 30 year old dining set! He was able to squeeze my repairs in between projects, turning them around in just a few days and under the price he initially quoted me! Will definitely use him again for my furniture repair needs! Thanks for a job well done, Jan!

Jan came over on a moments notice since he happened to be free and removed a piece of trim around a recessed mirror in a cabinet in hardly twenty minutes. Had the right tools for the job, good attitude and gave me some good tips to finish the project. Well done.

Communted from Marin after reading all the great reviews. Thanks so much! I broke two legs on an old chair when I stood on the chair to reach a bookcase.
He repaired the chair in two (!) days and for half the estimated price we talked about.
Truly a skilled, honest and reputable master woodworker.
Worth communting to from any of the Bay Area counties!

Great Work, Nice Guy
Based on other Unilocal reviews I contacted Jan regarding a needed repair on an older chair that is part of special dining set we’ve had for years. Jan was easy to contact and within 2 days I had my repaired chair. Really could not have been easier. I’m very happy with the work done, and the cost was quite reasonable. I’d recommend Jan in a minute. Thanks for your help Jan!

Another overdue review. I had two dining chairs that had both been broken in two parts by shippers. I wasn’t sure they could be repaired. I found Jan on Unilocal and could see he was the right person to go to. Boy, was this right. I brought him the chairs in the morning and they were perfectly repaired by that evening and the price was fair.
I would use him again for any wood related repair, big or small.

I’m a believer! One of my rosewood chairs from my 35 yr old dining room set collapsed when I sat on it. The front legs splintered apart, and a piece from the backrest chipped off. My husband was petty sure it was beyond repair. I decided to look through Unilocal!,and when I found this business and read the reviews, I gave him a call.
Jan’s workshop is only a ten minute drive away, so I headed over there with the broken chair. He said he’d be able to repair the legs as well as the chip on the backrest, and have it ready for me tomorrow, and at an unbelievably low price. REALLY!!! We had a chair that wasn’t as broken a few years ago, and we took it to a place in Concord that charged almost 2 and a half times more and took 2 months to repair.
The chair was repaired wonderfully! Can’t even tell where it had broken. Thank you, Jan, for your superb handiwork!

Jan is great! I had a cabinet that needed to be repaired. I figured I’d drop it off there. He actually fixed it on the spot. Charged very fairly. Nice guy, too!

He came to my home to fix my dresser. He was prompt, efficient, a nice guy, and did the job cost-​effectively. What more can I ask?

Jan can be trusted to perform high quality work, at a fair price and with impeccable attention to detail. I can be no more effusive than that.
This review is not about master woodworking, but rather about a master woodworker who can combine other skills and produce aesthetically pleasing results.
Our new place lacks storage, of any kind. There are some architecturally interesting exposed beams which held promise. Unfortunately, I was unable to find anyone capable of working with this level of abstraction until I found Jan here on Unilocal.
Jan made multiple visits to measure, eyeball and discuss what he might be able to do. As soon as he cleared his plate of some personal issues which were otherwise consuming his time, he completed the project in a couple of week.
He is meticulous, skillful and fun to work with. He performed a design-​build and secured the new shelving with custom-​fabricated aluminum brackets to the existing beams.
I’m pretty sure, like others have stated, he likes challenges. This was a challenge. He absolutely nailed it.
Highly recommended.
PS…he prefers SMS TEXT messaging to email. ;-)

Jan repaired my Mom’s 1961 sewing machine cabinet so now I can sew again! He came to my house to give an estimate and then did the job the next day. While at my house Jan also advised me on some chairs that he felt were at the end of their life and not worth spending $ 100 on repairing. He suggested an adhesive I could use to repair another piece myself. If you need a trusted artisan to repair your family heirlooms Jan is the man. His tiny shop is perfectly clean and organized… full of hand and machine tools saws and a lathe. This is old world craftsmanship here. Prices are totally reasonable though not cheap… because you get what you pay for!

Recently the leg and cross brace snapped off our Victorian piano stool — a valued family possession for more than a century. I was at a loss as to where to bring it for repairs, when I saw all the positive reviews for Jan Saeger on Unilocal!I called him, and he said he was backed up and would not be able to work on it for a week. So, a week later I called him again and, good as his word, he said bring the stool over. I took it to his small shop in the Rockridge district of Oakland and he had it back to me in less than 24 hours. Jan charges by the hour, and he only charged me for an hour and twenty minutes. Quality workmanship and reasonable prices. Highly recommended!

We had an old couch with broken springs and other structural problems. Unrelated to that, we also needed to get a small child-​sized bed. Since we liked the couch design so much and wanted to keep it, we decided that we’d combine the two problems and sought out someone to repair and upgrade the couch into a narrow bed.
We contacted several furniture repair specialists, but every single one of them flaked out and either never replied or never followed through — except Jan Saeger, who not only was the most responsive and accessible, but who also quoted the lowest price. So we hired him and were not disappointed.
He followed our instructions for how we wanted the couch to be reconfigured (replacing the broken springs with wooden slats), and completed the whole job in one afternoon (most of which was spent simply shopping for the right wood). Very quick, very efficient, good craftsmanship, and he doesn’t charge an arm and a leg.
Now the couch is stronger than it ever was before. The one disappointment is that the slats don’t have a lot of «bounce» or spring to them (as we had envisioned), but Jan explained that the expansion and contraction of springy slats would over time weaken the couch’s structure, so it wasn’t a good idea to have springy slats anyway.
Overall, we were very satisfied. We got our couch repaired and got a new «bed» for ¼the the price it would have cost us to buy stuff new. And it’s better quality that modern furniture. Recommended.

I chose to contact Jan because of his excellent reviews. My experience matched what I had heard. Jan is a very competent woodworker and is a pleasure to work with. His shop is a little hidden, in a garage behind an apartment building — but do not be discouraged. He was available to meet me after work, and was prompt returning my phone calls.
As for my project: I have a vintage trailer and needed to repair a built-​in type table. It is a complicated piece, a corner table with a slide out to make a bigger table with leaves. Jan provided me with a new top and leaves, re-​glued the joints, and repaired a cabinet. He seemed to understand the needs of this unusual piece of furniture. I am very pleased with the outcome.
Jan charges by the hour for his work. Having as much done as I did was expensive, but considering how elaborate the work I needed was and Jan’s professionalism, it was a bargain.

I called Jan after reading the reviews on Unilocal.I have two antique wood chairs that were damaged in move, and I wanted to get fixed. I spoke to Jan on the phone and brought the chairs by for a quote, and his pricing was very reasonable. He got them back to me earlier than I expected, and it cost exactly what I expected. The chairs now look better than they used to! We use them in the living room and they are as good (probably better) than they ever were. I will go back to Jan for wood furniture or antique repair. Recommended.

Long story short: we bought a chair online for a great price. Couldn’t get the bottom piece on, convinced it was defective. Ready to return it. Jan put it on for us – we didn’t even have to take it all the way out of my car! Less than $ 50 AND we got a huge credit from the site we bought it from. Awesome! But Jan is the story here. Super nice, super quick. Amazing workshop.

Jan did a great job repairing a little gingerbread side table for me last month. One leg had fallen off and the rest were wobbly. Originally I was planning to sand and paint the table a wild color since it isn’t really much of an antique, but Jan also polished it up very nicely. When I picked it up, I decided it was looked too good to paint for the time being! He was very easy to work with; if we have any other furniture repair needs in the future we’ll be calling him.

Jan Saeger has many years of Handyman experience– projects large and small. And he also Turns wood and repairs furniture. I have used him for 10 years or more for all my smaller projects (not requiring a Contractor with crew). I have never had to ask him to re-​do anything. My clients have also used him with the same results.
Jan is also a Woodturner. I commissioned a couple pieces (a wedding and for a pet urn) and they were really nice. He uses reclaimed trees and lets you pick the wood and have some design input if you wish.
Im a fan!
Taree Lyn

There is a photograph of my mom holding court from a velvet chair at a Christmas party in about 1963, before I was born. The picture imparts the kind of glamor that was particular to that era: sophisticated, slightly hedonistic, attainable. That glamor, in this photo, is conveyed by three elements: my mother’s broad, blood-​berry smile; the faceted highball glass in her hand, and the green velvet chair on which she is throned.
Forty-​six years later I stand un-​showered in sweat pants looking at that velvet chair lying on its back like a dead spider, one leg torn completely off. I don’t know how either us — the chair or I — got into the states we’re in, but there is a unifying thread: I have two sons under the age of ten.
I turn to Unilocal and search for furniture repair. There I find Jan’s listing and call him for help. He was able to look at my chair the very next day. I brought it in and he fixed it while I waited, browsing his cabinet of smooth, carved wood bowls, boxes, and urns.
His wee shop was occupied with a set of immaculate, mid-​century modern dining chairs undergoing some kind of loving refurbishment. The fact that my chair was getting a speedy treatment with furniture glue indicated something about the quality of the «piece» I had brought him, but I was getting exactly what I wanted.
An hour later the velvet chair was back in my house, and once the glue had dried, I seated myself, enrobed in poly-​cotton sweat pants and a Target t-​shirt. Even without the leaded-​crystal glass, without the lipstick or grosgrain Christmas gown, I am a queen restored to her throne.