Matrix Basement Finishing

I had dreamed of having a finished basement for a long time. As a musician, the basement is where I spend the majority of my leisure time. My unfinished basement was dark, dingy place to practice and write, not to mention the sound and vibration disturbing my wife upstairs. Matrix brought that dream to reality. From design which took into consideration space, lighting and sound proofing requirements and put those into a professional and solid construction approach. The craftsmanship and quality of materials, everything came out the way I hoped. The carpenter Wes and the painters were amazing. Their work is meticulous and thorough right down to the smallest details. They are a credit to their craft. Beautiful! There were others - the framing crew - great job and professional. The electricians - thorough and looking out for our best interest on the job. All of the workers were polite and considerate. But most of all, I must say that Steve Trevino our Field foreman/project manager was always there - from the beginning to the end of the project. Communication was perfect! He would always answer my calls, texts, etc. He speaks clearly and with integrity with respect to all of my concerns along the way and would see that those issues would be resolved. He wanted to make sure we were happy with the outcome. In my opinion, if your planning to have your basement finished, Call MATRIX BASEMENT SYSTEMS.

We had an idea of what we wanted to do with our basement and Matrix really helped us bring it to life. From the initial consultation, throughout construction, and down to the small details - everyone at Matrix was great to work with. The workers were professional, courteous, and cleaned up after themselves. The project was done faster than we had anticipated, which was very exciting. We never had to wonder if crews were going to show up. When the crews said they were coming, they were there. Whenever we had questions or minor changes to make, the team at Matrix was very accommodating. We couldn't be any happier with the way our project turned out and we would recommend Matrix to anyone

We are very pleased with our finished basement. Matrix was very professional with all trades sent to our home to perform the work that needed to be done. Would highly recommend to anyone needing a basement to be finished.

Ahead of schedule, quality workmanship, and great tradesmen working for them.

Went very well, many families came out to see the basement. Matrix was very professional, courteous and knowledgeable. Will reccomend to everyone. Look forward to showing again.

Matrix Basement Systems was one of the most professional groups i have worked with. Their communication was prompt and concise, every person who came into my home was respectful and just good people. I had conversation with many of them. The project was complete in a timely manner and to the high quality standard that was expected.

The salesman Yon was great to work with did an excellent job. Matt, Kirk and Bailey finished up the job and I feel was done perfect.

Exceeded expectations by all measures!!! Amos was our installer and was the most professional part of the company, along with Carter making us feeling like family from the beginning! Will be recommending Matrix Bathroom Systems to all of my friends and family!!

Went great and it was done in 1-day

It was beautiful, Amos was fast, courteous, well spoken and took pride in his work. Joe was great when I called the company with a ton of questions, and Carter was extremely helpful when we were designing the project!!!! Would definitely hire again!!

The process was very stress free and enjoyable. Carter came out and was able to show us all of the different options that Matrix had to offer and went into great detail on the advantages of the luxury product that they offer. At the end it wasn’t even a question of did went want the product it was how fast could we get it installed. The install only took two days and the crew that came to do it were very respectful of our house and super easy to work with. Now we have a maintenance free shower with a life time warranty that looks as good if not better than our tile shower. We would recommend Matrix 100% to anyone that needs to have there shower or tub replaced as we feel they were the best option out there after talking with 3 other companies.

I have had trouble with this company since the first day. The problems have ranged from them not starting on time (I took off work to get them started but they never showed up) to having their employees demand more money on site from my wife who was home alone. They cracked the tile in our bathroom during installation, and demanded that we pick up our selected shower ourselves because they were too busy. They were just generally unpleasant to deal with. Fast forward a couple of years when their hallmark subfloor began to bubble up underneath our basement carpet. The subfloor they touted as waterproof was soaking wet and rotted. They ignored me for over a year until I finally threatened a lawsuit, at which point they sent someone out. They tore up the floor and revealed the problem I described. I had to buy a huge amount of new subflooring and pay an outside company to come fix it because Matrix stonewalled me and refused to return my calls. It has been nothing but frustration and disappointment. I would never recommend them. My main contact, Anthony, was incredibly rude and disrespectful, and completely without empathy when their product failed. And then he just stopped returning my calls. So I had to pay someone else to fix their problem.

Matrix did an awesome job with our basement project. The contractors were great with communicating and keeping us in the loop. The final product is exactly what we wanted! Matrix did a great job to ensure we were happy with the final product and went out of way to ensure the project was done correctly.

They made the process such a breeze from start to finish and hit the timeline perfectly. We couldn’t be happier with the quality and everything looks great

From start to finish this company was amazing! Starting with the free design consultation. An array of materials to choose from, one stop shop, no hidden fees, and best of all a lifetime warranty on all labor and materials!! I could not be any happier with the project!! Thank you Matrix Basement Systems!!

We had a very positive experience with Matrix. The project was finished on time and they are easy to communicate with.

They did not return calls timely if at all. We had no idea when they would be working bc communication was horrible. The work was subpar and my husband is still fixing their mistakes. The salesman lied to us and told us they do not use subcontractors when every worker was a subcontractor. In addition to the basement remodel we asked for a quote to paint our ceiling and they quoted us over $2600 and we got it done for $325 paint included. They told us it would take 3 weeks and it took 6. I wish we would have done our research before we agreed to go with Matrix.

Overall, our basement looks good, but this did not happen without many pain-points throughout the process. After seeing an Open House in our neighborhood, I reached out to Matrix to set up an in-home consultation. Brian and Nick (Owner/Co-Owner) were the individuals who came out to our house. We received quotes from a few other companies, but Matrix seemed to be the best fit especially since they offered 0% financing. They also said that if we wanted our own painter…etc that was fine. We just needed to provide the contact name and they would coordinate everything. Nick and Brian very personable and expressed the least amount of a ‘sales pitch’ attitude of the few companies we reached out to. They went through all of the design options and even offered an additional discount if we signed with them that same evening. That pretty much sealed the deal. We have about a 1,400sq ft basement and requested an open concept look to accommodate a ‘game-room style’ with a lounging area with a TV and bar and a powder room. We provided the laminate flooring, bathroom vanity, toilet, mirror and accessories and Matrix was responsible for all the labor. Matrix provided us with a copy of our floor plans with all the measurement including where the walls would be and so forth. Here are some of the issues we experienced during the 7 or so week construction: Issue 1: One of our walls, which was only supposed to be 3ft from the water furnace, they framed 6ft away from the water heater. Our floor plans specifically showed 3ft, but one evening when my husband and I went to check the progress, noticed that one of the walls looked much closer than what we specifically discussed. We are putting in a shuffleboard table and because they placed the wall so close one of the support beams, there was no way that it would be wide enough to fit the table. After measuring ourselves and calling Rick (the GC/Area Manager), they had no good answer for us as to why the wall was pushed forward an extra 3ft. Not sure if they were trying to get away with something, so we let that one slide since they fixed over the next couple of days. Issue 2: During our initial meeting with Brian and Nick, we specifically informed them that we would be providing the flooring and even going to the extent of showing them the sample floor planks we received so they were aware of what they were installing. Towards the end of the project, we noticed that they brought our flooring down to the basement from the garage, but it was never installed. Finally, when my husband asked one of the contractors when they were going to install the flooring, they replied ‘we are not installing the flooring, this is not part of the contract.’ This was never the discussion from day one! My husband called Brian/Nick as our project was now delayed and they said that we told them we were having someone else install the flooring and this would be an extra charge! If this is what was initially discussed, why would we have shown them the floor on day 1? Why would they care what the floor looks like if they were not doing anything with it? Secondly, not once during the construction did they ever ask for the name of our so called flooring installer, like they said they would if we were using a different party to install the floor. After a yelling match between my husband and Brian/Nick, they agreed to install the flooring and in turn, we would do an open house for them for free. We agreed, but found out they only paid their worker $400 to install the floor! By this time, my husband the main contractor talked on a regular basis, so he told us. He also told us that there are a lot of ‘miscommunications’ like this between the customer and Matrix and Matrix sends him to jobs all the time to fix these 'miscommunications.' Issue 3: Don't expect to ever see or talk to Nick or Brian once you have given them your down-payment. If there is ever an issue, they always make you talk to their middle-man who has no clue what is going on. My husband basically had to threaten the Area Manager to get Brian/Nick to call us about the floor. *Note: Our project is done, but they decided not to install any quarter-round after they were done with the floor. My husband called asking why they did not do this and they said that would be an extra charge. Per our agreement, they were supposed to do the floor for us and in exchange, we would do an open house. When flooring is done, quarter-round is always included, so until they complete the job, we will not be doing any open-houses for them nor recommending them to anyone. *Note: They do not break out pricing on the contract, so you do not know what they charge for all the portions of the project. When I asked them how much we are paying for painting, they said $2,895!! I almost passed out. We got a quote from a company to paint our entire house (2500 sq ft) for $3,500. How is it that painting a basement costs almost as much? Needless to say, we told them we would have someone else paint and we were quoted half the amount.

Final result was fine, but getting there took 6 months, trips to the city inspectors offices, permit waivers of liability, and several modifications to the plan. Once work started, it became clear that their estimator did not understand what their workmen were capable of doing. We contracted for a floor, and estimator priced cost of leveling and and installing laminate floor, but workmen got a look at it, and determined that the existing floor was too uneven for flooring. Had to settle for carpeting. Would have liked to have known this up front. Said they had done jobs in our city before and knew how to work with local enforcement inspectors. Turned out not to be true. They sell MgO wall material that the city had never seen before. Took a lot of convincing and several visits to the building dept. to get the city to let us use it.

Originally, they were going to do the floors but then they got into it and found out it was going to be too complicated for them to do. The guy who did the estimation for selling the job did not have a good grasp of what their capabilities were. They priced it in to begin with but when they found out they couldn't do they took the cost of the floor out. We wouldn't have went with them if we didn't think the pricing was fair. They were very responsive but you can imagine that 6 months to do a basement, that's a pretty long time. Whenever they said they would be there, they were there. A big hold up was in the permitting process and that's as much a fault of the city as it was their fault. I wound up having to do more work, we were using a slightly different wall material, magnesium oxide instead of drywall, and the city wasn't real familiar with that. And I wound up having to do most of the homework in getting the city to buy off on using that material. They really over sold the job, we asked them twice in the process of giving them the work if we knew that magnesium oxide was different material. We also had dealt with the code enforcement folks in our city on several other projects and we knew how difficult they could be. So we asked them upfront have you done much work in Lake Forest, and are you familiar with our building codes and all that and how they're enforced. They said "oh yeah, sure, no problem". Just like the floor, it turned out no they hadn't done that much work in Lake Forest, and no they hadn't actually worked with the permit folks before. They told us what we wanted to hear to get the job, and when push came to shove, it made the job a lot more difficult and a lot more lengthy.

The process from start to finish was seamless. Brian W. (project manager) was awesome. His attention to detail and his vision really came to life at the end of the project. We give high praise to Victor and Daniel (carpenters) for all their hard work in our 18 week project. Not only was their work clean and impeccable, they were incredibly kind and respectful. The personnel assigned to our project were very accessible and kept us up to date every step of the way. I would highly recommend this company for your future basement project!

All of the men who worked were friendly, did a great job, and cleaned up rightly. They always kept us aware of work flow and where they were in progress. Crew was good about bringing items to my attention as project progressed. The cost never went up as additional outlets or additional little items were added on.

Rob Sanchez is great. He really cares about his work. Professional and on time.

Professional, kept us informed & updated on protect progress, answered questions when a shed open to our design adjustments requests.

We are very impressed with the workmanship, materials, quality, attention to detail, timeliness, and professionalism of the entire Matrix team from our salesman, Mike Z. to the open house rep, Gwen. Our installers, Mike and Jesse are true artisans who communicated with us throughout the project ensuring we were pleased with the work and progress. Although we added to the project, they still completed on time. Jon and his team went the extra step to bring our existing electrical up to current code. The expertise and efficiency of Raphael and the plumbers quickly resolved pre-existing issues. Even the warehouse staff, delivery team, and cleanup team were a pleasure to work with. The Matrix team led by Brian has provided us with a beautiful, multi-functional living space that greatly exceeded our expectations.