The Basement Men & The Concrete Man

If you're looking at The Basement Men for your construction project, please think twice before signing a contract with The Basement Men. Overall :: This was the worst experience we?ve had with a business we found through Angie?s List. Steve Lauer, who represented The Basement Men as project manager, but is unprofessional, unethical, and has no respect for the homeowner?s needs. About the only good thing that came of our dealings with The Basement Men, is that the sub-contractors did some very nice work. Steve came to our house to remodel our basement. We were out of town at the initial basement review, but Steve met with our friend at our house to discuss the basement plans. Steve was specifically told from the beginning that the project would be completed with a building permit, and that our friend would act as the foreman of the job. My wife is disabled and weakened by Parkinson?s disease and years of cancer treatments so it?s important to keep her stress at a manageable level. Steve presented the contract to us on January 2, 2014. Steve presented himself as sloppy and inappropriate, wearing ripped up jeans to basically what was a job interview. I don?t expect contractors to come in wearing a 3-piece suit, but I also expect their dress and appearance to be one of respect and general care for ?selling? his services (Strike #1). The ?ripped jeans? look is a throwback from the ?80?s and is for 20-somethings. NOT for a professional business man who is the front man of the business. We overlooked Steve?s initial appearance faux pas, chalking it up to it being the day after New Year?s Day. We should have followed our first instincts from the beginning, but we were eager to get our basement finished so we could bring in a live-in aide for my wife. The first words out of Steve?s mouth when we began reviewing the contract were to pressure us to complete the work without a building permit (Strike #2). We told him AGAIN that the work would be done with a building permit. You would have thought once was enough, but sure enough, he brought up wanting to do the work without a permit multiple times throughout our first meeting. Again, this should have been a BIG red flag, but we were swayed by a very attractive contract price. We signed with Steve that day and were assured that he would have the documentation to us within 2 weeks that we needed for the REQUIRED village building permit. By the time we realized that Steve was giving us the run-around and doing everything he could to avoid doing the work with a building permit, it was too late to cancel the contract. It took 7 weeks to get the licenses, proof of insurance, and architectural drawings so we could apply for a building permit. The first architectural drawing was not even completed to the specifications that are outlined in the village building regulations. As we discussed with Steve about fixing the architectural drawing, WE had to remind HIS ARCHITECT multiple times of the village requirements about the specifications that must be documented on the drawings. After WE went back to HIS architect multiple times, the final drawing still did not provide all the required documentation, and was accompanied by a letter to the village written by the architect discussing the village building inspector concerns and items that were missing from the drawing . . . . a letter that was dated July 2012. The application date was 2014. The lack of attention to detail was just another sign of the lack of professionalism that entered our experience with Steve Lauer. We eventually did get the village building permit and work eventually started near the end of February. It was too late though as the ?fight? with Steve just to get documentation had taken its toll on my wife?s health (Strike #3). Unfortunately we were in for over $10k with Steve so we could not cancel the contract without losing money. Over the next 8 weeks, Steve continued to show up to our home in the ripped jeans look. His sub-contractors were better dressed than Steve was. The basement included a wet bar, a handicap accessible bathroom, bedroom, family room, gaming room and a sewing room. We had numerous problems with Steve with the wet bar and with the bathroom. We settled on a dry wall ceiling with the caveat that access panels would be put in for HVAC dampers, a water shut off valve, and any and all junction boxes. Not only did STEVE?S dry waller?s actually cover some existing ceiling vents, they didn?t bother to open the HVAC dampers to the basement vents. Of course they were closed previously because we didn?t use the basement and didn?t want to be heating and air conditioning at unused space. Obviously we would want heat and AC to be directed to the finished basement (i.e., open dampers). We had another argument with Steve and his subs about putting in the ceiling access panels that were agreed upon. Steve actually blamed US for having to redesign the wet bar when it was HIS architect who made the mistake on the drawing. HIS architect did not account for the HVAC duct work that was where the wet bar wall was supposed to go. Steve blamed us for the redesign and its effect on the work schedule. All we did was remove a free standing island and make the wet bar an ?L? shape. NOT a major redo. After two weeks of waiting for HIS kitchen designer to find time to work with us, we chose to go to another source for the wet bar cabinets and countertop. Again, additional aggravation on my wife and her health, which had declined since the start of our dealings with Steve Lauer. Steve misled us about what the bathroom shower would ultimately look like and what it would include. Steve did not build the handicap accessible bathroom to our specifications (Strike #4). As it stands now, the shower enclosure is not ADA compliant. To make it right would cost us 10?s of thousands of dollars more just to make it right. We ended up having to hire a separate plumber to do the some of the plumbing work in the shower that Steve said could not be done. Steve misinformed us about installing in-floor heating underneath laminate. Fortunately we had somebody else put in the flooring, because we had to spend another $1k to fix the heated floor mat in the sewing room to prevent a fire or other damage caused by putting a heating element UNDER a laminate floor! We have since found out from the manufacturer of the in-floor heating unit that the warranty on the heating mat is void because the required resistance testing was not completed at installation. The purpose of a resistance test on the mat is to ensure it is wired correctly and will not cause fire or other damage to the house. Throughout all this, Steve refused to work with our friend as the foreman for the work. The stress that Steve caused with all his arguing and refusal to work with our friend ultimately had an effect on my wife?s health. It became obvious that Steve took advantage of my wife?s health challenges and limitations to coerce her into authorizing contract changes that otherwise would not have been authorized if Steve had worked through our friend as stipulated from the beginning. Steve had the nerve to insult our intelligence by telling us that we didn?t know anything about construction contracts. My wife and I both have careers in I.T. Management. Between my wife and I, we hold multiple master?s degrees in Project Management, Business Administration, and Information Technology. We have available to us not only the knowledge in project management, but also other professionals in other industries, all of whom equally questioned Steve?s tactics and motives for his blatantly obvious lack of professionalism. While building construction and I.T. are obviously different, the way a project is started in any industry sets the pace for the rest of the job. The pre-construction development work, as in a development plan in I.T., is one of the MOST important phases in a project. My wife and I are very patient, flexible, and tolerant of work that is less than perfect. What we don?t tolerate from anyone is being lied to, being stolen from, and a sheer lack of professionalism. Steve?s subs ultimately completed very nice work but there are still flaws in the construction. We learned late in the job that Steve was not paying his subs so they ultimately came to us to complain about not getting paid. Again, Steve redirected the blame for HIM not paying HIS sub-contractors on the fact that we had to go to other sources to complete parts of the project that Steve would not address. Steve was the project manager throughout the life of the contract and should have been the one to communicate with his subs. We paid him everything he asked for, and even left in escrow until final inspection a smaller amount than what STEVE?S contract called for. I will never use The Basement Men again, and urge anybody who is contemplating hiring Steve to carefully consider our experiences. I know there are two sides to every story, and Steve will probably comment on this failing grade with rudeness and place the blame for everything that went wrong on us. He complained about project delays that we caused, but when we asked him for what delays he was referring to, he had no answer. The only delays were on Steve?s side of the project. We were paying HIM to do a job for us. I admit there were some communication problems but those could have all been avoided had Steve followed our instructions to direct all communications through our friend who was acting as the foreman. Ultimately, we sought out other sources to complete work that Steve either would not do, or did not complete to our satisfaction.

So what started as a 8K basement remodel, ended up in a 30k total cost project. Not that they "upsold" us, but more because I gained confidence in them and continued to give them more business. Now I abolutely love our two remodeled bathrooms, powder room and of course our basement. I would definitely use them again! The best value on Angie's List, by far!!

It started well. In middle of the project we decided to change the requirement, no fault of the basement men. Along the way there were other issues like our old water heater breaking down and existing fire alarms not to code. The crew re-worked details and ensured that additional requirements were met including village approval. The charges for extra work were reasonable. The end result was excellent. Make selection for tiles, light fixtures, shelves etc well in advance because work moves very quickly and there may be issues like incorrect size on incompatible outlet. Crew will help with schedule and specifications but choosing the fixtures is harder than we think. Only thing I would say is that look closely at the details and think ahead what ever you may need and get in on the contract like number of racks in the closet, light fixtures, who picks up material from store etc. I would say keep 10% buffer for ideas that come up in your mind later.

We had 5 proposals, all of whom we liked. One was so out of line that we decided he didn't want the job. Three submitted written proposals after seeing our basement, one gave us his proposal by phone, and one came out to talk over the proposal and offer a discount at the time of signing. We went with the last, The Basement Men, because his proposal was the most thorough. All the others gave us a base price and told us that, as the work progressed, we could make decisions at that time. Steve Lauer's proposal gave us a folder telling us who they were, what kind of work they do, and a list of references we could call. While he was forthright and very knowledgeable what needed to be done, I was hesitant about someone who comes out to give a proposal and wants a signature at that same time. While we did go with his company, that procedure of on site signing led to a few minor misunderstandings. However, they were corrected as Steve was a hands-on person and always on site to see the work being done. [It is very difficult to read a contract and grasp it all at one time.] For the people who submitted their contacts by phone, we were able to go back to the contract and reference and question what we didn't understand. With Steve's approach, we missed some items in his contract because it was a lot to grasp in a hour without having been able to think about it awhile. However, the Basement Men did excellent work and we are pleased with the result.. On November 11, the contract was signed. The work began a week after we signed . Two men came in and removed all the old paneling, framing, insulation, ceiling tiles and Electric in one day. They worked from 8 am until 6 pm without stopping. And they took a lot of the demolition with them that same day. The next day they came in with wood and drywall, and began the business of remodeling the basement. Two of the already existing door openings weren't framed correctly, so they had to tear them down and square them off so the doors would fit properly. {This was an extra cost.] They also roughed in the electric. Each day, Steve would come by to see the result of the day's work. Checks were appropriated throughout the work as each part of the remodel was completed. Several days later, the dry waller came in and seamed and patched the dry wall. They left a mess on the basement floor that they had to come back and clean it up as best they could, but much of it was already dried. I was concerned, but not overly, as I knew the carpet would cover the dried patching compound. After quite a few days, they returned to sand the seams and patch. Soon, The original construction team came in to build the bookcases, and work on the sump pumps, install the doors and windows, and fishing the hardware on the doors and lights. After that, they painted the walls a color chosen by us. The sump pumps were extra as after completing the new basements, we did not want to the old ones to die us, leaving us with a flooded basement. Steve suggested the battery operated pump and we went along with it.{Both the pump fixtures were extra.]. Lastly the carpet man came in to lay the padding and install the carpet. We ran into a problem where the demolition team did not take the previous nails out of the concrete floor, but left them in. [The carpet was being laid a few inches from where it was previously.] I stepped on these nails a few times. Steve did say it was unacceptable, so he had them remove them. However, after all was completed, I did find that the nails were still protruding in the floor of my workshop and they were never removed. Everyone passed the buck saying "it was the carpet layers' fault", "it was the demolition crews' fault." The main fact, whoever's fault it was, it did not get done. They still exist in my workshop. Another problem happened because of the on site contract signing. When Steve toured the basement on the original visit, we had a water meter closet with shelves and a sump pump closet with shelves. We told Steve we only wanted new doors put on those closets as the old ones were made of paneling that matched the original basement walls. In the contract, Steve wrote demolish closets. We never noticed that as we were having so much work done, it was unfortunately overlooked by us. So the walls were taken down and the closets rebuilt. But Steve did not want to put shelves back in the closet. So eventually, because I signed the contract, I had to abide by its statement, and pay extra to have this done. I also wanted a ceiling in the closet as one was in there originally, and after much heated discussions, the dry wallers put one in. Overall, we are very happy with our basement. The work was well done, the workers were all professional; we worked with them through Steve so that he always knew what each of us wanted, as opposed to a foreman making a decision that we made. It was a needed change from a 70's basement to a new century look. I would recommend using the Basement Men, but I would ask next time to let me have the contract for a few hours so I could think through everything that is in it, and then sign the same day which is how Steve works. He was always on call, answered our phone calls promptly, and was always professional in working with us. His price was in range of three other contracts, so a client has to go with whom he feels the most reliable and honest. For us, Steve and the Basement Men turned out to be that company.

Overall, a wonderful experience! Steve was prompt with providing an estimate and was able to schedule work to start within a few weeks. Steve, Peter, and Mike were helpful in providing design and finishing suggestions. Mike & Peter completed most of the work themselves (everything except the drywall), thereby reducing the stress of various workers in our home. They were very professional and polite. Their dedication to doing a quality job was remarkable. We chose to use our local carpet store (instead of using Steve's recommended carpet guy) & got a better quality carpet and pad for less money. We are extremely happy with our basement & have recommended Basement Men to our friends!

Couldn't have been more happy with the services of The Basement Men. Steve was able to come by on very short notice and provide me with a quote that was quite reasonable. Further, he was able to assemble a crew in order to meet a fairly tight deadline that I was working under. The work was done in a professional and timely matter, and his crew made sure to keep debris and mess to an absolute minimim (which was extremely important since we have two children under three years of age). Steve came back out at the end of the project to make sure that the work was all done to our satisifacton. I would certainly call them back for future projects.

Steve was very professional from our first conversation. He responded immediately to my phone call and worked well with my schedule to come take a look at what we need done. Since we have some of the work started, I wasn't sure if this is a job worth his time, but he was very gracious in taking the time to let me explain everything done, supplies we have and what I think we still need, and understanding that we basically want an extra family room and play area for our daughter. It is not a high end remodel for a space we plan to use ourselves to entertain. He provided a portfolio of past jobs he has done, and it all looked very nice. He called this morning, as he said he would, and he showed up at my house right on time.

The basement overall looks very good but I wanted to point out a couple of issues we had with Steve from the Basement Men that really left a bad taste in our mouth for the overall experience. Within a month after finishing the basement we started seeing some major cracks in the grout in the shower area of the bathroom. When the guys put up the tiles in the shower I noticed major gaps in the corners (over a half inch). When I asked about this I was told this was normal and they could fill this with grout. After seeing the cracks I contacted Steve and he told me he was very busy & to be patient which I understood. Finally after about 3 months he sent a guy to do the work (not the same workers). Unfortunately the guy he sent to do the work did a very poor & sloppy job. He put the wrong color grout over the cracking grout and didn't clean up any of the grout after he was done. So I had a very expensive shower with the wrong color grout & grout residue all over it. I had Steve come back out to look at it since I was so unhappy & he told me it wasn't that bad and that they gave their best effort. I told Steve this was unacceptable & had 3 other professional tile & grout experts come out and all of the agreed that the cracking grout needs to come out & put in new matching grout (not to mention poor clean up of grout residue on the tiles). I told Steve I was going to have to pay someone to fix his guys mistakes and he said that was fine since I wasn?t happy. I had to pay $500 to have the grouting issue fixed. They had to dig out the discolored grout that was put in over the cracking grout which was a nightmare. The new company I hired to do the repairs couldn?t believe how poorly the tile job was done (wide gaps in corners) and poorly the repairs were done. I got tired of waiting for Steve to have someone free up to help me and in the end I got tired of Steve telling me it wasn?t that bad. My suggestion is if you do hire Steve get a guarantee on satisfaction & I would hold $1000 for a year in escrow to make sure Steve is motivated to come back and fix any issues. When Steve was doing the work on my basement he always wanted his money right away which I always obliged. But now when I have issues I have to wait 3 months & argue with him over the poor quality of the repairs. We also had a door that was cut very sloppily & Steve's offer is to cut it even shorter which will make the door gap even more noticeable (really needs to replace the door). He also installed a laundry sink and the installation area by the wall was dented and looks very unfinished or sloppy (caulk globed all around pipe going into wall). Since these issues were small in comparison I am not going to even try and have Steve fix any of them as they would only get worse and I?d probably have to wait months to have them repaired.

I have contacted a couple of contractors to seek quotes for putting in one or more egress windows in the basement. All were happy to come inspect the basement and provide a quote. Not so with this contractor. I left a message and received a timely enough call back from Steve at the basement men. However, he wasn't very friendly and didn't want to come and look at the basement just to give a quote. He asked the same about 5 different ways, wanting to make sure that we were actually going to do this project and weren't just looking around. I get that, but after I told him once that we were serious and making a decision, he kept asking and prodding. Annoying. Regardless, they have a good AL rating so I made an appointment for him to come out. Just got a call this AM as he was scheduled to come to house later today. When I told him that my wife would be there to speak with him, he started whining and complaining again. He didn't want to meet with my wife. He wanted to meet with me. I informed him that my wife is quite competent and could make a decision... I'm not sure what Steve's problem is but he makes it hard for you to potentially hire his company. Looks like I'm not the first person to have this experience.

We contacted Steve to give us an estimate on our basement remodel. Our basement was previously demo'd due to a mold situation prior to our purchase of the home. After coming to look at the scope of work Steve sent us a list of references as well as coupons that would only be valid if the proposal was accepted on the spot, which I have always found to be a negative. On Monday Aug 19 we made an appointment to go over the estimate the following Monday 8/26 at 5:30 pm. Steve contacted us on 8/26 at 3pm to reschedule. After working with and meeting several contractors through Angie's List my wife and I decided that if a contractor can't make the initial appointment or the proposal appointment we don't hire them. I called Steve and said "thank you but we decided we are going to use another contractor" his response was "I figured you guys weren't serious" about hiring a contractor. The rudeness and arrogance continued when he called me back to say he didn't want my business.

From the beginning, Steve and everyone at the company made me feel at ease. He came out and provided an estimate the same day I contacted him. The rate was very reasonable, and throughout the whole process, Steve always made himself available to answer any questions. All of the workers were efficient and the results are high quality. My only complaint was some small confusion on work start times. Some of the work got pushed by a day or two due to scheduling conflicts with Steve's workers. Luckily, I'm a teacher and was home for the summer. Had I needed to be at work it could have been a bigger problem. Overall, I am very satisfied with the work of the Basement Men. Steve's company has been in his family for generations and they do great work.

I called many places on Angie's list for this type of work. Steve called me back promptly and scheduled an appointment that fit both our schedules. He came out on time and gave us a detailed written estimate. Steve came out again with Alex, his worker, to verify with us and Alex what work needed to be done. There was an error in measurement for drywall materials by Steve, on his initial visit, which added an increase in price for us. Steve apologized and we accepted the increase. My husband and I had a few other changes we wanted to make and Steve was easy to work with on these issues. We signed on to have some Chair Rail work completed and the we changed or minds to save ourselves some money. Steve accepted our decision with no issues. I feel Steve was nice to work with. He came out to our house several times to check on the work that was being done. He was easy to contact. The work ended up being completed in 8 days and we are completely satisfied!

Steve Lauer, the owner/contractor of the Basement Men was initially very responsive and helpful and gave me a very good quote for the job, but as soon as the contract was signed, there were major issues of miscommunication between him and his sub-contractors, which resulted in the WORST, most OFFENSIVE "professional" interaction I've ever had. This originated because his sub-contractors were not familiar with the free-floating tiles that I had purchased (they're a newer product). This is understandable, but his sub-contractors were telling me I needed to buy this and do that, in addition to what Steve had appraised the job for, without having talked to Steve, first. It was clear that Steve was an ineffective middle man, siding with his Polish-speaking, sub-contractors. Steve says to me, "It was a suggestion. Anyone else could just take a suggestion, another opinion, but not you!", catching me off-guard and putting me on the defensive. Steve knew that I was purchasing all of my own materials to cut down on cost, and just assumed I knew what the procedure would be, including removing all furniture, the possibility of having to go back and forth to my flooring supplier for more materials, etc. The only thing he warned me about was that I might lose some hardware on the sliding doors they would have to remove in our basement when they replaced them. Before we even signed the contract, I told Steve that I had a lot of concern about the different square footage measurements I'd received for our basement and that I wanted to get as precise a measurement as possible since I was purchasing all of the flooring materials, myself. Well, Steve came up with one square footage estimate and then Steve's sub-contractors', the ones doing the actual work, arrived at a significantly different sq footage estimate that forced me to make a last minute purchase for additional flooring and glue (which ultimately I did not need). Steve confronted me face-to-face in the most brazen, accusatory & inappropriate manner I've ever experienced in dealing with a "professional". Steve made me feel guilty and unreasonable for wanting to know when his crew would be at my house, for wanting to finish the job sooner rather than later and for politely trying to negotiate a more protracted payment plan for his services. He stated, "You're as demanding and complain as much as the rest of your [North Shore neighbors]" I never received a formal apology from Steve. The only admission he made is "I'm not perfect. I've been in this business for years, but clearly you know how to do my job better than me!" He did take $100 off of the job, but I would be remiss if I didn't submit an AL evaluation and warn others. I was so shaken by my contentious confrontation with Steve that I refused to have any further contact with him and so my husband dealt with him until the job was completed. However, Steve's flair for drama escalated when he started dealing with my husband, culminating in Steve crying on the phone to him. Nevertheless, the job was completed to our satisfaction; but if I never see Steve Lauer again, it will be too soon!

The overall experience with Steve and his crew was great. Steve was the very responsive with my call. He sat with me for more than 1 hour and brain-stormed for ideas for the basement floor choices. Our floor is terribly uneven, he helped me to come up with a practical choice. He also did some research on ceiling and confirmed that we had room to raise it by using the dry wall. After the the big idea were done, he also worked with me on details. He told me what I should provide and what he can do to save our money/time. We did all of these within 2 weeks so that his crew started in mid May. Since our relatives needed to use the basement in mid June, I had concerns of them finishing up. But he checked on his crew's schedule; Mike and Peter even worked to later hours (8 or 9PM) to make sure the job was done as long as we did not mind. They were here every day at 8AM. The work was done on time with high quality. My relatives were very impressed by their work. After this, I asked Steve to look at our Garage. He quickly gave me a quote and time frame of 5 days. Romen, the contractor, was punctuate, and paid a lot of attention to details. He was very quick as well. The work started on a Friday, and by the following Thursday, we had a brand new garage. During this time, Steve checked on the working schedule regularly and made appointment with me to discuss the work progress. Overall, Steve is very responsible to his work and crews. He is also very creative and helpful to think for the clients. At least he helped us to resolve the problems in our basement and garage.

Steve provided a detailed quote after his first visit and provided me a number of options on the radiant heat flooring. His crew, led by Ziggy, arrived promptly each morning and did excellent quality work. They started the job on the day scheduled and completed it within the time frame we had agreed on. They were also able to work in some changes that I came up with as the job progressed such as adding some vinyl tile in my utility room, replacing additional doors, and changing the wall color after I decided the first coat of the color I originally selected was too dark. If you want a quality job done on time, I highly recommend The Basement Men.

After I had water in my basement after the April storms- it was very difficult to even get a contractor to call me back because they were so busy- many did not even return my call. Steve was by far the most responsive and always returned my calls timely. the guy he sent to do the actual repairs did a great job and cleaned up after himself- I have had other contractors leave a mess behind. Basement looks wonderful - would definitely recommend. Plan to use him for redoing a shower.

Steve came out to our house and first sat down with me to understand what we were looking to do with the basement. It would be for a full finished basement since we had cement walls, floors and no finished ceiling. He was very detailed in the measurements he took and provided many suggestions. He then took the time to finish his notes while he was at our house so that we can answer any questions he had or to discuss options. During this time he provided me with books of previous work he had done to give us more ideas. Steve was very respectful, energetic and seemed like he would be very easy to work with. Also, his quote was very competitive. I would recommend bringing in Steve for a quote. I will definitely call him for any future needs we may have.

Our family was anxiously looking to get our basement finished for some more functional space! After getting 3 other estimates from similar companies we decided to go with The Basement Men b/c had they best price. Both Steve and his brother Rick were very friendly, on-time, and willing to work with us and our budget. The project is set to start in June and we are looking forward to working with Steve and his team. I would recommend The Basement Men for your home improvement projects!

They were pretty nice over the phone when scheduling and were able to accommodate me within a week. Someone other than the person I spoke to showed up for the estimate (no big deal) but he was nearly an hour late and didn't call to let me know. He stayed about an hour and a half for the estimate and had pretty similar ideas to what I had already imagined. Also, at no point was I offered to look at pictures of previous work or reference contact information (if that is important to you). After that, I didn't have any company initiated contact. I ended up calling them after about a week to see what the quote was and they were able to give it to me within a few hours. My wife and I decided to go with another Angies List company because The Basement Men's estimate was higher than the other bids for less work being performed - for example they didn't include ceiling, hvac, or lighting in the estimate) and they were quite a bit farther away (as you might imagine being an hour late because of traffic). In hindsight, the only thing that bothered me was that I had to call a week later without instruction to get the estimate. The other places gave me an estimate while still at my house or within a day.

He put $2000 down to get the basement done.?We were going to have the whole basement and bathroom done, but before they started the work my?husband had passed.?They worked with me?with the contract and rewrote it to just do the bathroom at this time.?The project?ended up being?$4000.They even did a?painted trim at my request.?Everyone really likes the bathroom and I have had compliments on it.

They did great work on drywall and finishing of my basement.

Steve is very nice, prompt and professional. He brought photo albums of past projects for me to look at while he worked on his estimate. He was able to give me an estimate on site. The price was a little high for us, but I can't say whether it was average or not. We've decided to do the work ourselves, but it has nothing to do with Steve or his company. Very nice people, and judging by their portfolio, very nice work. If we could afford it, we'd probably hire them.

Steve and team did an excellent job! From the first quote to the finished basement the team was very responsive and accommodating. They came in on budget and ahead of schedule which was a pleasant surprise. We couldn't be happier and now use the space every day! I would highly recommend the basement men to anyone looking for a solid team with reasonable prices. We are hoping to do a kitchen remodel in the near future and will certainly be calling Steve for a quote!

It is going very well so far and we are excited about the strong progress Steve and his team are making on the basement. Steve has been very punctual and professional in our dealings with him, from our first meeting with him to the regular progress meetings we have had since then. He had creative ideas that we implemented in our design process, and he has been very active every step of the way in overseeing the project. We couldn't be happier with the process and the progress that has been made so far on our basement. I would definitely recommend Steve and his team to someone that is looking to finish or remodel their basement.

Steve was prompt and professional in his estimate of my basement work. As other reviewers have stated, the price was excellent in comparison to other estimates. We are still in the process of refinishing my basement, but the quality of work so far has been outstanding. Before we could work on finishing, I wanted to replace my sump pump, water heater and ejector pump. Steve and his crew did a great job. The work was completed quickly and the crew cleaned up beautifully - which is greatly appreciated and beyond what I expected. Whatever misunderstandings happened with the last reviewer, Steve has always been friendly and professional in our conversations and has always responded immediately to phone calls. Contractors often have things come up during projects, so I don't think anyone can expect to never have to reschedule an appointment. I'm looking forward to working with Steve and his crews and can't wait to see the completed project.