Co-owners Dave and Lisa Sensi stand in J&S Home Improvement, the business their father started almost 50 years ago. (Photo by Brandon Gould.)
While most children his age were sitting around and watching cartoons on Saturday mornings, Dave Sensi was out with his father, supplying a helping hand to the family business.
“I started out at nine years old hanging storm doors every Saturday for free for my father,” the 48-year-old Sensi said. “I’ve been in this business a long, long time.”
Those Saturdays were just the start of J & S Home Improvements, Inc., which is located at 117 South Olden Ave. in Trenton today.
Dave’s father, Joseph Sensi Sr., established the corporation almost 50 years ago as a side business, while working full time doing terrazzo work.
The company’s original office was the garage of the Sensis’ home in Hamilton Township, a start that Dave vaguely remembers.
“I just remember there being 18-wheelers backing up into our driveway and (my dad) shoving siding into our garage in the very beginning,” Dave recalled.
Soon, though, Joseph Sr. began to expand his side work, and eventually it became his No. 1 priority.
“Over time, he found that it was more profitable than doing the back-breaking terrazzo work,” Dave said. “He went into selling storm windows door to door, opened up his own shop, and here we are today.”
After more than a decade of working out of his home, Joseph Sr. opened his first shop on South Clinton Avenue and started to establish a reputation. After nearly 40 years of building his business from the ground up, Joseph Sr. turned J & S Home Improvements over to his three children: Dave, Linda and Joseph Jr.
“He got up into the age where he didn’t really have to work, so he decided to leave it to us to run,” Dave explained.
With Linda running the office and Dave handling sales and workers, the company continues to offer a slew of services to residents of Mercer County and surrounding areas, including doors, windows, garage doors, roofing, siding, renovations, kitchens, baths, basements and decks.
Joseph Sr. prided himself on providing a “quality job at a great price, and his children are continuing that tradition,” according to J & S Home Improvements’ website.
“We try to hold the customer’s hand from start to finish,” Dave said. “We try to make sure everything goes as flawless as possible.”
Although the Sensis deal with larger competitors, Dave believes that his company provides something that others can’t.
“There are other companies out there that are a little bit larger than us, but I think that they’re not going to give their clients one-on-one relationships,” Dave said. “What we strive for is having a one-on-one relationship and making our customers 100 percent happy.”
Customer satisfaction is a key aspect of J & S’s service and the family tries to fix any “hiccups” as soon as possible— something that Dave said has been a staple in the company’s success.
“One of our main goals is that if a service issue comes in, we try to fix it within 48 hours,” Dave said. “A lot of companies out there today just don’t care, so we try to address everything as it comes up and make sure the customers are happy and get a lot of repeat business.
“I think that’s why we are still here (nearly 50) years later.”
J&S Home Improvements is fully licensed and insured, provides free estimates and guarantees all of its work. They are authorized dealers for name brand windows and doors such as BF Rich, Trimline and Guardian. J&S accepts payments in the form of personal checks, Visa, Discover, Mastercard, American Express and debit cards.
To contact J&S Home Improvements, call the office at (609) 695-440. On the Web: jandshome.net.
Co-owners Dave and Lisa Sensi stand in J&S Home Improvement, the business their father started almost 50 years ago. (Photo by Brandon Gould.),
