Matrix Basement Finishing

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.

Went extremely well. Project completed from design to finish with no big surprises. Very clean every evening. Minimal disruption to routine. Extremely satisfied.

The finished product is beautiful! My 1970's outdated basement is now gorgeous! Oscar, our main installer was wonderful to work with;he is a great craftsman, personable,hardworking, and very conscientious. He cleaned up the work space nightly and took care of minor imperfections promptly. Having that said, there are some things to keep in mind. First off, please allow more than the advertised 1 1/2 hours for your initial consultation and note that if you sign on the spot, Matrix offers a slightly discounted price. If you prefer to have several estimates before starting a project,you might want to save Matrix for last to take advantage of the discount. Secondly, allow for some extra time for the project itself. The timing (and communication about it) of subcontracted work was sometimes delayed...windows didn't come in, flooring guy didn't show, etc. If you have had construction on your house before, I am sure you have experienced this. In the end though, Matrix did a wonderful job and I am EXTREMELY pleased.

Matrix brings along their computer with a neat powerpoint presentation to show you more about their services, facts about basements, shows you their materials and examples of basements they have finished. Initially you discuss what you want to do with the basement, then look at the basement together and share your ideas, then they take their measurements and need some time to populate the information in their system. After they have everything populated there is some more presentation materials, you guess what the estimate will be and then you see what the the estimate actually is. While there is a financing option they offer, the monthly fee was still too much for us to take on. The project manager tried giving us some different options like increasing/decreasing the down payment and what the financing would look like from there but we simply couldn't afford their services. At some points I felt pressured. From start to beginning the meeting took about 3.5 to 4 hours. This was the highest quote we received to finish our basement. It is almost two times the cost of our house.

The experience was not good except for the workers who actually did the job and the quality of the end product. The project did not start when they had promised, actually didn't even start the permit process until two months after the contract was signed. the project manager did not understand the permit process in Chicago and I was initially told that they would do all the work to get the permit but I ended up doing it all. The company did not have complete or accurate information on the permit application which I had to deal with whch was frustrating because they told me that the permit process was something that they would take care of. The installation went well only because their carpenters assigned to our project paid great attention to detail and communicated well with us throughout. Several mistakes were made in ordering a window and door but were corrected quickly. The frustration with communication with our project manager over details and the complete lack of knowledge of the permit process in Chicago was very disappointing and I would not recommend them to others in our area. They are very expensive but we thought it was worth it to protect against mold and mildew as well as the insulation that this system provides..

They were very nice and professional. I would recommend them to anybody. We had a little bit of confusion with our homeowners association but it all worked out. They're very good. They cleaned up every night before they left. The left their tools down in the basement, but all the dust and everything else was cleaned up every night. I could go down and do my laundry at night and not worry about falling all over their equipment.

We actually went to an open house for this product and were very impressed. I didn't look at Angie's List until after we set up a consultation and was slightly dismayed to find that there were some people who were treated to a high pressure sales pitch. Not so with Joshua. He arrived and we began to tell him that the basement used to be finished until we had had a sump pump go out some years ago and got a couple of inches of water in the basement. Also we have some seepage issues. He immediately stopped the presentation and went to look at the basement. He started looking at the basement and said that 1st we needed to get a company out to look at the water issues, but once that was fixed, for them to demo what was left of the finished basement and rebuild with their materials was probably way more than we could ever get back from the sale of our home in just two years. He then spent the next thirty minutes advising us on what to look for in a good contractor and what he thought would be the best way to tackle the problem quickly. His honesty about our situation was admirable. He obviously put himself in our shoes and realized there were better ways for us to accomplish our goal. Thanks, Joshua!

The crew that did the work were awesome and I gotta tell you I love their product. It has already been put to the test with banging ladders, some minor flooding and general use and there is not a mark or dent to be seen. The install was quick and clean and done on time.

The project was completed in about 5 weeks.

My bad experience started with the project managers. I hired Matrix in June of 2012 to start my project in Sept.2012. I gave them a large down payment at that time. This was my first mistake. The Salesman took down my scope of work that was to be done. Within a short time I received a detailed copy of my scope of work along with a diagram of this. It was incorrect. My bathroom did not have a hole for the shower that was being put in. Yet the scope of work said I did. I contacted the person in the office and let him know this was incorrect. He said he would note this and then send me a new scope of work. Two copies of this later still did not have this correct info. Additionally, there was some question on the layout of the bathroom. They came out twice to help me get this decided. They did not agree with my wishes. This went on thru July and August of 2012. Finally I had to go to there office to have them sign the paperwork re the bathroom and the lack of the hole. In the mean time I had tried to cancel this whole job as I was very disgusted with the attitude of everyone in the office but was told they would then keep one third of my down payment whether they did this job or not. That would have been 8K. I certainly did not want that. So after having the details signed off on and noted it was decided they would start in mid Oct. I explained to them that I would be leaving town in Nov for Thanksgiving so hoped they would be done by then. Due to them sending only one worker most of the time, or just not showing up, this did not occur. When I returned from my trip it took me at least another week to get them back on the job. Again, one person at a time. They were not even close to being finished when Christmas finally arrived. In the mean time I called the office regularly or emailed them to let them know that I was not happy with all the delays and the sloppy work. I even let them know that they had ruined my Christmas as I would not be able to host it due to the mess that was constantly around me. They left several garbage bags in the basement and told me they would take them out when the job was completed. They sub contacted for the Electrical and the Plumbing. The Matrix workers left all this mess for these contactors to get around and move so they could complete their work. I called the office several times to ask if this garbage could be removed, finally they did take care of it but not befor telling me that they needed to be informed about this so it could be taken care of. This constant back and forth was something I did not want to have to do and that was one of the reasons that I hired a contractor. The Project manager changed as did other office assistance more then once througout this ordeal. They were never nice, they called me a liar once when I told them I had contacted the site supervisor in Sept of 2013 when I had returned from another trip, to let him know that I was back and they could again proceed. Please note, started in Oct.2012 and still here in Sept of 2013, still in my house in 2014. The new treads and risers for my stairs were not done correctly and one stair had to be replaced as it was cracked. They finished working on the stairs and the walls that were damaged in Feb of 2014. During this time I have had cracks in the walls that they have had to repair. I still have the stickers on my new windows that they never took off. They have had to redo the pocket door to the bathroom as it would not open. The stairs are just okay. They did not put an access panel in the bath to get to the pipes. Additionally they never discussed the cosmetics of these panels when they put one on my crawl space opening and my electric box opening. They just did them. When I questioned them they did not speak English so did not understand. Truthfully this was my worst nightmare. I paid a lot of money to this company and I did check them out before hiring them. In fact I looked them up on Angies list. I also knew someone who had used their services. For the most part he was happy with them. It took them two weeks to do his basement which was three times as big as my little space. The odd thing with this company was in Dec of 2012 the project manager in the office called me and wanted to come out and see the work and have me sign a release that the work was done. I told him it was not done and I would not sign anything until it was. Nevertheless he contacted the bank that was financing the remainder of the money I would owe to them and told them it was done and that I should start being billed. When I called the bank to let them know it was not done they in essence told me too bad, need to pay. Honestly I have never encounted people like this. I now know that the horror stories one hears from people regarding their contractors are true. I would never recommend them. The people in the office had the poorest customer service I have ever encountered. They were rude and indifferent. They just did not care that they had not completed my basement in even a timely manner. Frankly they acted like it was my fault in my eyes.

Salesman came over and provided quote for approximately 400-500 sq ft unfinished basement. The Salesman (was like a pushy used cars Salesman) did the usual start for cost around $28,000 then after several exchanges we settled on 17,500. The reason we picked this company because of the wall system that seems perfect for basements and the 0% -60mths financing that was offered. So after we went over everything we wanted we were contacted by the Project Manager. There were some changes that needed to be made to the original floor plans completed by the Salesman. It took about 2 weeks to complete the job. The workers that actual did the basement did a good job and the basement looks good. Some issues I had with the Matrix Company. After we were approved for the special financing I wanted a commitment letter stating we will receive the financing. I had to call and email them several times. After 3-4 weeks I finally recieved the letter I wanted. After the job was completed no one did a final walk through. The workers finished and we waited 3-4 weeks for someone to contact for a walk through and no one called us. They also left the lock box on the door. We had to call them and advise them about the lock box and if someone is going to do a walk through. Well they got the lock box but the walk through never happened. It would be nice when you spend that much money someone would do a follow up. I would not recommend this company until they work on their customer service.

We are trying to finish the basement and as part of the search for companies who could do it, Matrix Basement Systems had a flyer. I believe I filled their Contact Us form over a month back, got the call on 11/13, they scheduled it for Monday initially and called back to to see if we could make it the same day and I said yes , showed up at our door at 5:30PM. They told me it will be a 60-90min appointment but yikes..!! it lasted over 3.5hours and that's just the little of the whole problem. The guy did not have his write up material, he borrowed papers from us to write up the need analysis. He has no clue about the software he was using to create a 3D view of the basement. It took about 1.5hrs or even more to take measurements and draw it on paper. After all the wait at 8:00PM he comes up with a number of 50K and a presentation as to why we should choose Matrix Basement Systems. From 8:15PM onwards until the end it was only about pressurizing us to take a decision of Yes or No. It was really suffocating for us, we have been repeatedly telling him it was a big decision and we have to discuss among ourselves before we say yes or no. It really felt like a car dealer doing a construction estimate. He throws up a paper to sign that says I will be declining the savings, in fact I believe we are declining the estimate and the company as a whole as we will not choose Matrix Basement Solutions for our basement needs. I believe the first visit should be a pleaser not a frustrating one. Not sure what it would look like if we have accepted and what we have to go through.

They have kept in touch with me every time they are coming, I know exactly how long they're going to be here for the day, they clean up after themselves and they're not at all intrusive and they've been very professional to work with.

We did not have any services performed by them, and we may not. We just sat through a 4hr 20min consultation at our house, that ran until 1120pm!! When we were presented the final price of things, it was right in the neighborhood of what we expected. The price started at $53,000 and had come down to $48,000 in short order. However, the sales pitch is what was insulting. We were given the price finally after 4 hours (at 11pm), and then were given some discounts if we were to commit to the entire project at that moment. No time to think about it. Had to commit today to get the discounts, which included some 0% financing for 60 months. We were shown a hand drawing on graph paper, and verbally given a list of items that would be included. That was it. I was not going to commit to a hand drawing. I would gladly pay some money to move to the next step of a drawing and rendering. But not commit 100%. The real issue i have is the breakdown of those items, and the work that was going to be performed. There was not any itemized list of work that I was presented. There was not a single CAD drawing or rendering. Just a hand drawing and a spreadsheet he showed us on his laptop. In order to see a CAD drawing/rendering, we would have to commit to the entire project. We were going to put in a mini bar/sink area and although it was included in the price, we were never given any choice of colors/materials. What if i dont like the included options? Are there upgrades available and how much? The whole sales process was very unprofessional in my opinion. It was 11pm and I was being pressured to sign, or forego any discounts (I was even asked to sign a piece of paper saying i was declining the discounts). I had even referenced the time multiple times and said I have to get up at 6am. The sales consultant repeatedly said how they were regulated by Lisa Madigan and this is why they can give a discount. I didnt understand how that was. Maybe it's true....maybe it's not. But there were enough red flags to simply aggregate me. Either way, he didn't get the fact he had overstayed his welcome and I had stopped listening or caring. The whole process was like buying a used car from a shady dealer....or more comparable to the sales teams that try to sell you a condo in Hawaii/Mexico/etc. It was insulting. That's really too bad too....i thought their product was a great product. I saw an open house and thought they did excellent work. But, i was insulted with the and quot;sign now to get the good dealand quot; approach. Especially when it was 11pm!

It was a rather obnoxious experience overall. We went to their showroom in Arlington Heights to take a look at the product. Seemed like something worth investigating further so we had them come over to look at the basement and provide an estimate. Like the person who provided a review on 10/27/11, their high pressure sales tactics and exorbitant price were a major turn-off. The first estimate they gave was ridiculous, over $40,000. As they tried to get us to commit right then, the price came down about $15,000. Part of their overall estimate included an egress window which, because of the age of the home, we didn't have. They insisted that they absolutely had to put in an egress window to comply with building code. I was skeptical of that claim and later confirmed that it was BS. We were not going to commit without receiving more estimates and getting them to leave was difficult as they tried basically every sales trick in the book - eventually, we had to (almost) literally push them out of the door.

It was superb. They came in and they didn't bother me. They got their work done and they cleaned up every single night. I would definitely use them again.

.Matrix Basements are a terrific group of people to deal with. The people I dealt with specifically, were respectful, patient and above all very professional. Matrix gets a bad rap (on Yelp especially), and I think it is because the company is going through some growing pains. There is significant demand in the product they are offering, which delivers high quality, mold-free basements. They don't come cheap, but quality rarely is. What you do get is professional and courteous treatment throughout the entire process. Where the growing pains come in is in their selection of some of their contractors. Because they need to partner with several contractors local to the area, they can't always control the quality of those contractors, many of whom are rushing to finish the job because there is such high demand for Matrix' product. However, no matter what happens, I can guarantee they will make good on their promise of a high quality finished product. In the instances where I noted a defect, it was almost always corrected promptly. The Matrix guys I dealt with, Josh and David P mostly, would even respond to calls at 8 or 9 PM. I have a busy work schedule during the day and can mostly only reach them easily in the evenings. I felt bad calling and figured I would leave voice mails, but they always answered. Matrix even went out of their way to have make a change at their expense for me when I realized one of their specs did not account for a projector I had wanted mounted. This was not a one-time event either. There were other instances where the company threw in items/favors just to ensure satisfaction. The one instance where I was unhappy had to do with a particular contractor they used. However, all it took in the end was a single phone call to Josh and everything got resolved to my satisfaction. The contractor that was so hard to get ahold of was suddenly at my doorstep the next day at 8 AM. Matrix is trying to get as many customers through word of mouth and sheer goodwill. Because their founder Nate understands that fundamentally, it is about pleasing the customer, they will do right by you all the time. You just need to make sure you are dealing directly with the company itself and not through their contractors who may not necessarily share their vision of what the customer experience needs to be like. Overall, this young company comes highly recommended. If they can continue to scale and maintain the high quality of customer service (their product speaks for itself and doesn't need to be sold), they will become very successful.