Chris Basani

Chris Basani came back at our request.  We had planned on building a Trex deck off of the back of our 1929 house, but Belleville Building Department requires that we hire an architect to sign off on any drawings.  Even for a deck less than 2 feet off the ground, designed by my father (who's been doing this for about 15 years).  And Belleville's permit cost is a PERCENTAGE OF THE COST OF MATERIALS, so doing a responsible build in an area known to have termites would have been prohibitive.

Chris suggested that we instead replace the patio (which was sinking into mud at back) with a brick paver patio, raised to surround the tiny landing outside the back door.  He was able to reuse some of the blue stone as steps into the garden and then added river rock between the two for better drainage.  Belleville inspected it and confirmed it didn't require railings; it turned out to be a fantastic outdoor space, fit our blown-brick house beautifully, and even, we think, insulated our fig tree which came back from dead and has been prolific!

The only downside is that he had to rip up the lawn a bit getting his truck back there.  But that was on us - we'd seeded the entire lot the year before, before planning this work.  Still, Chris came and filled in the tracks.  We sold our house in 2014.  When we get a new one, we will be planning on using Chris again!

This was our first project with Chris.  He came, talked it all through, took care of permitting, and dropped catalogs and samples of bricks for our approval.  Team was on time, professional, courteous and very very skilled.  Cleaned up carefully, even did a nice broom finish on the sidewalk which fit right in.  He put a nice curve in front walk, leaving me a planting bed, which changed the curb appeal completely.

They are very professional, the results were extraordinary. They had some great ideas that saved us a lot of money.