Affordable Basement Finishing Co

Their $32,000 estimate was too expensive for me. The guy was nice and the work that he wanted to do was great.

The project went very well. Albie stopped by and gave me an estimate, which I thought was fair and reasonable. I accepted, and we set up a start date and time. Albie and his team showed up on time, every day, until the work was completed. They were respectful of my family while they were working in the house, and were extremely careful to cover or move all belongings with great care, to ensure we didn't have any damage, drips or dust. The work was meticulous, with Albie inspecting each part of it, before they could consider it complete. 60 days after the work was completed, we had some minor cracks show up in one of the great room walls, and I called and left Albie a message. He returned my call promptly, set up an appointment, and came out to see the crack. I don't think he had any obligation to cover the work under warranty, but he did. He carved time out of most of his Sunday to come in and do the work on the wall - and while he was here, found a couple of things I had missed earlier, and fixed those too. Affordable Basement Finishing Co. finished the work on time, within budget, and entirely as promised. Albie and his colleagues are professional, courteous, decent - and highly competent. I have no hesitation in recommending Affordable Basement Finishing Company for remodeling work.

Overall, the project went very well from start to finish, even though the job site was at least 40 miles from their location. Work began in late April after the County permit was obtained - ABF did all of the legwork on getting the permit and arranging inspections. This project involved a lot of initial and subsequent design work, as I changed a number of things before work began. I was in the process of selling a house and moving to the Denver area, so was in and out while the work was actually being performed. The framing work was excellent, as was the initial electrical and plumbing rough-in. Fortunately, I was in town for the electrical work, as there were some lines missing and others placed in the wrong location. This was corrected immediately, with the electrician returning that night to work directly with me in getting everything I needed installed. Insulation and drywall phases went well. A small problem arose when drywall dust entered the HVAC system while I was away and I needed to get an emergency house cleaning, as my family was arriving the next week with people allergic to drywall dust. ABF agreed to cover the cost of the house cleaning, and they did. They also worked around the movers, when the moving truck arrived and a number of items needed to be stored in the basement, though away from the work being performed by ABF. Texturing, painting, flooring and final electrical and plumbing occurred in a timely manner, with all work being completed professionally. There were minor bumps in the road that occur in all construction projects: some cable remained buried in the drywall, several speakers did not fit perfectly in the spaces allocated, some plumbing corrections needed to be made. In each instance, ABF worked with me to correct as many issues as they could. Where they couldn't fix the problem, they offered other solutions. Overall, the workers were professional and maintained contact with me throughout the project. They were obviously skilled and experienced at their craft, which led to them completing the job on time and they took the time to reproduce the look and feel of the rest of the house in the basement. The entire job took about 9 weeks, and I am quite pleased with the overall results of the project.

We selected Affordable Basements for several things. They were familiar with the city inspectors. They had their subcontractors already lined up. They offered an innovative solution to an HVAC problem left by the builder. They provided more details in their bid, such as a proposed floor plan, than other bidders. Unfortunately, there was an error in their measurements by 2 feet that we did not catch prior to the bid, which required rework of the floor plan after the fact and the loss of enough room for a ping pong table. What Affordable Basements does routinely, they did extremely well. The HVAC, plumbing, framing, and dry wall all went well, and are of good quality. They were very responsive on small issues that showed up in closet doors and insulation. That said, we had two significant problems. The first was that the schedule and responsiveness dropped dramatically once the owner left the country. The job was bid at 6-8 weeks and was supposed to finish before the holidays. It took 10 weeks and finished in early January. During the delays, we were unable to get reliable information from the foreman on when work would occur. On two occasions, workers did not show up when promised. This is why the responsiveness and punctuality ratings above are a C. Before the owner left they were an A. The second problem is that Affordable Basements consistently failed to perform on customizations, despite multiple discussions on what we required. Minor customizations like carpet pad thickness and shelving in the shower were incorrectly executed. The bid included conduit to the outside for a future hot tub. When it became clear that conduit wouldn?t work, I agreed to run wire. Affordable Basements then argued that hot tub wire had been outside of the bid which is correct but also means they misunderstood the point of the conduit. The bid also included running speaker wire to the house sound system. Despite more than one conversation on this with the owner and foreman, this wire was not installed and the electrician said he?d never been informed of the requirement. The major mishap was a customized hinged bookcase door. I had proposed a vendor and Affordable Basements persuaded me to let them build it instead. We had multiple conversations about what I wanted with both the owner and foreman. In fact, the owner came by on a Saturday for his sole stated reason of confirming how we wanted the bookcase to swing. This bookcase door was delivered late (after Christmas, and on the fourth of four promised delivery dates) and was not hinged per our agreement. It was clear that the bookcase designer had either not gotten the requirements or had completely blown them off. This destroyed its usefulness. Since we had no faith that the bookcase subcontractor could correctly fix the job, we negotiated a reduced payment so that we could end the project. In summary, right up until the owner left the country, I would have raved about Affordable Basements. I am particularly happy with how they dealt with the HVAC and insulation issues. They performed at an A+ level during that part of the project. The schedule issues and delays after the owner left, right before the holidays, were irritating but ultimately acceptable. They performed at a B level during this period. However, the screw ups on the bookcase door and stereo wire earn them F?s for that part of the project. Hence the overall rating of a C.

They were able to start within weeks of the completing the agreement to do the work. Pete came to my work to sign the papers since it was hard for me to make appointments in the day. The estimate was very competitive and his was the only group that provided all the services. (others might do all but electrical etc.) They initially suggested I act as my own 'contractor' to get the proper Denver county paperwork etc. but I did not have the time, so they quickly arranged to be in charge of that part too which worked out well. The thing I would do differently is keep my own detailed notes of what we planned to do on the first walk through for ease of communication since I work in the day- a few things were missed on first pass and most, but not all, were addressed without a fuss. However there were a couple of smaller details which were not completed as I expected. It is possible that all details would have been addressed if I was available in the day for walk-through but of course I can't say for sure. There were some pieces of furniture which ended up with some paint and wall texturing on them- so I would advise protecting your own furniture.

The work was done ahead of schedule with courteous workers. Despite unforeseen problems that were no fault of the contractor, he worked with us to correct them for reasonable extra charges. His workers are top notch and the end result is really nice.