The Basement Guys

Terrible - the Basement Guys canceled our appointment and advised our job was too insignificant for them.

They were prompt and informative. They cleaned up. They were on time. They did the job in the estimated amount of time. I have been satisifed with the job.

Overall we have a very nice living space. Make sure to talk over the products being used as most of their default products are cheap. ex: ceiling tiles, door knobs, light fixtures... Discuss heating vents as this is important in a basement. We had an egress window put in and so far that has turned out well.

The system seems to be working fine, but they were so messy and the concrete was so rough, they had to come back out to smooth it. The clean-up was not all that great either.

They started on October 4th and finished on October 7th. It went well. They finished in the time they said they would. They were friendly. The estimate was free and they charged us the price they said they would. I would recommend them.

It was excellent. They were very good. They did a good job. Their price was reasonable. I have used them again for other things.

on 5/8/2010 Dean Roland from this company came to our home for a free estimate advertised as part of a contest to win a free basement. he drew up a plan of what he thought best which was different than our original need for the space. he also said he would check on some more serious issues that were out of their scope or liscensure. ie: leveling our floor, our leaking HVAC. all issues that would have to remedied before we could go forward. we signed the contract and gave them a $1000 deposit for the work. after he left we discussed the plan and how it would not work and the issues for us that would make this impossible to go forward as planned. we called him to cancel the contract within the 24 hours that the contract stated. he said no problem. is null and void since not what we wanted. instead of leaving it at that, he continued to call and TEXT my husband asking why we wanted to cancel and then come back with all the work they could now do, ie: our HVAC, removing old carpet, etc. Which I would not trust a basement walll installer to fix our HVAC problem any day. My husband continued to tell them we did not want to do the work at this time and the contract was canceled. Dean said we needed to meet to sign off on the cancelllation but then would come back saying or rework the changes. He would not take NO for our answer and leave us alone. Now we are being called by the owner of the company who is wanting to meet with us and saying we may owe a 20% restocking fee for this job that should have never been submitted or known about by the company since it was over before it started. We want this company to give us our deposit back which Dean had said was no problem, tear up our contract and contact information and leave us alone.

I contacted the Basement Guys for an estimate, and it is impossible to get it. I signed up for their "basement remodel giveaway" on their website, which I should have known was bait. They proceeded to phone solicit me. The first occassion we went through a lot of information which had nothing to do with whether or not I won the "giveaway". When it finally came time to get the appointment, I set the information with one person, who then sent me to another person to confirm the same information. A few hours later, another person called to confirm the appointment and confirm the same information all over again! Finally, I was asked if I am the sole homeowner, and when I said my wife and I own the house, they wouldn't give me an appointment unless we were both present. That is a total pain because we both work long schedules, but I have more flex time. They offered to do a weekend estimate, but I don't want anyone bugging me on the weekend. We'd rather have our weekends on our own. So I told them I wasn't interested. Four months later I get a call to follow up, and I decide to give them another chance. Same process... many follow ups, lots of calls, and again, they ask if there is anybody else that lives in the house. So I ask them "does that matter?" and they say they want us both present. I tell them that's not practical most of the time, and ask that they just come look at it with me on my lunch break. Nope. Not without both of us there. Come on, guys... I'm just trying to get an estimate to get a sump pump! My suspicion is they lay the sales pitch on thick and want to pressure both of us and get a contract signed the same day they visit. This time I told them that we won't be doing business together if I'm already jumping through hoops just to get them to the house. Their excuse: evidently they were somehow sued by one couple when one spouse authorized the work and another didn't. It would seem to me that if we are both there to sign the contract, that's all that should matter. In the meantime, I don't see the legal justification to have both of us there for just an estimate. The whole thing smells fishy and lacks professionalism, in my opinion. "A" for punctuality, "D" for responsiveness to the point of annoyance, and "D" for professionalism for yanking us around. I don't want anybody with this high pressure sales mentality in my house.

They were excellent. They were very professional and quick. They honored a coupon that I found in the mail.

They have been out twice to help us with this. The second time they came out free charge to do some more work for us. I liked their professionalism and their genuine passion about wanting to do the job right and solving the problem.

Their sales person came to our house to give us a quote. All was going well with the process until he learned that my wife was not present. At that moment there was an instant attitude change. Because my wife was not present he refused to give me a written quote, and made the comment that if she were here he may be able to find other ways to reduce the price. I suppose if ALL my relatives were present I could get an even better price. Called another company for a quote, they came out the next day, gave me a written quote, without wife being present, said talk it over with your wife and let us know. They were several hundred dollars higher than The Basement Guys, but I was so impressed with their professionalism and the way I was treated that I called them the next day and signed contract.

My experience with them was very positive. They got everything done within an amount of time they said they would get it done. They were very professional and friendly. They were punctual every single day. They cleaned everything that they had to clean up. It looks like its doing a fantastic job. They were very expensive for the work they did. I have to do basement remodeling and I would use them for that project too. I would refer them to others.

The first time a guy came out and took some measurements and gave me a quote. The quote was far above my budget so I decided to get some other quotes. At this point, I was not upset. A few weeks later their receptionist calls me to say "We were reviewing your quote and it was brought to the owners attention. He figured out some ways that they could save you a lot of money on the job. Can we send someone out to requote the job." I told her that the new quote would have to be significantly cheaper for me to waste my time in having them come to my house again. Nope the quote was the same. This time they sent out a different guy with a much harder sales pitch. He wasted 2 hours of my time. They used the lie about talking to the owner to get back in the house to pitch again. At this point I still was not upset. I recieved another call yesterday from the recpetionist. She said (you guessed it), "We were reviewing your quote and it was brought to the owners attention. He figured out some ways that they could save you a lot of money on the job. Can we send someone out to requote the job." This is their scam to gain face-time. I will never recommend a company that uses manipulation and lies in order to gain access to you so they can waste more of your time. They seem to respond to all comments similar to this by saying that the poster must have the wrong company. I assure you that is not the case. I am looking at their business cards right now, Victor and Stan.

They did great work. They were excellent. They came on time. They were very clean and friendly. We were very pleased with them.

We had an appointment a couple weeks later with a man named Jason at 6:00. At a quarter till 7:00 we called them and left a message to cancel and not to reschedule. At 20 minutes after 7:00 he called and told us that he was just wrapping up and asked if he wanted us to come out or reschedule. I told him I wasn't sure if we wanted to reschedule. They called back the next week to try and reschedule. We told them that we did not want to reschedule since they were not professional with us before we had even signed a contract. They have called us back twice since then to try and schedule even though we told them we were not interested.

on-time and very professional. Took half day to install.

They did a wonderful job. The one thing we all appreciated was the attitudes of the two gentlemen doing the work. I would recommend them highly.

Poorly - never got past the initial call due to their requirement that my wife be present for their quote.

They (The Basement Guys) were unprofessional and down right insulting. There were so many disappointments throughout the experience that I've listed them in bullets below. - After a dozen requests to see a final drawing of the project, the best I got was a sketch on a piece of scratch paper. This lack of clarity between us and the workers led to several re-works in the project and of course, the price. Most times they replied "we'll get it to you." Two calls regarding this final drawing were not returned. - They made several promises during their sales pitch that turned out to be not true or were blatantly broken by their workers. They said that their material was developed by the Owens Corning Company - I later found out it was not. They said that no contractors that were not direct, background-checked employees of The Basement Guys, would be in our house without one of their employees supervising - my wife came home in the middle of the day to a random electrician in our basement and no Basement Guy employee to be found. They said the project would take 1 to 2 weeks - it took 6. They said it was "no mess" - there was plenty of dirt and dust. - When they were "finished" with the work, there was dirt all over the walls and ceiling tiles. Several of the tiles were chipped. EVERY seam was blatantly visible - and they promote this on their website as a "SEAMLESS SYSTEM". When my wife brought this do the attention of the project manager (PM) he said "You just know where to look. Once you get furniture down here, you won't be able to tell." - The PM and I had a payment agreement: 1/3rd up front, 1/3rd half way, and 1/3rd once I was satisfied. He pressured my wife into early payment when I was not home after he said the job was "finished." - When I had the project manager back out to discuss my disappointments he was 30 minutes late - this was typical. After voicing my concerns, he agreed with every one of them. He apologized for the mess, the terrible looking seams, the random contractor in our home, pressuring my wife into early payment, and the insulting comments about not noticing the seams. He said that he was just "walking the company line." The supervisor's offer to make amends, was to come in and install our TV wall-mount - assuming that I would ever let The Basement Guys in my home again. Overall, I've waited a month to calm down and still felt compelled to pay the Angie's List subscription fee and write this review. I simply would never want anyone I knew or cared about to be in a situation like we found ourselves with The Basement Guys.

awful I clearly set up the appointment for myself. If they were hoping to leverage my wife to get the sale, it wouldn't have worked anyway. Wasted my time. The not wanting me to check references, before buying, was a red flag that would have killed the deal with or without my wife. Will not do business with.

We had just moved into the home, so we had MANY boxes and furniture pieces in that room. I asked if I should cover our items, but I was told that it would not be necessary because the work causes very little dust due to the use of wet/dry vacuums that are used during the installation. The windows went in without a problem. During the instillation of the carbon fibers, the two men were having problems with the vacuums when they drilled into the concrete, but they continued without working equipment. I was left with a basement filled with concrete dust that had been blow thoroughout the room. Everything was covered with a white dust - floors, walls, furnace, appliances, boxes, furniture. I asked for the supervisor to come out to see the mess that was created (and which could have been prevented). His solution was to discipline his men by making them clean up the room. I was concerned about their care in cleaning up my things based on their lack of professionalism with the job. We decided that the two men and the supervisor would return to paint the carbon strips free of charge. Unfortunately, that job was not done very well, either.

I scheduled the appointment and two guys came out, a young guy and an older guy. To me as soon as they walked in I didn't like the tone or impression they gave. I could tell right off the bat the younger man was the sales guy and the older one had the knowledge of the job. We went to the basement and looked around, but then they started joking around about the basement and really did not do any measurements, or wrote anything down. They then told me that it looked as if the steel beam that the whole house rests on is bowing, and now they were trying to say that it would cost over 20k to fix this (another company laughed when I told them this as he put his level on the beam and confirmed it was straight). At this point I wanted to tell them to leave, but I went ahead and listened through the rest of their jargon. I never did get a formal estimate, and when they were there they kept commenting on how bad the condition of the basement was in. I used someone else to do that work that didn't lie to me or try to do any deceiving upselling. I will give them credit for returning calls and setting up appointments fast.

First, a field inspector came out to inspect our problem and provide the correct solution. After thoroughly looking it over (and crawling around in the crawlspace), he decided our best solution was to have 12 helix piers installed to lift and stabilize our home. The estimate was much less than a couple other competitors, and the manner in which he conducted himself was very professional and knowledgeable. He instilled in us much confidence in his company. A co-worker of my husband's recommended this company to us, as he used them for one of his basement problems and was very pleased. He did say that the sales tactics were very high-pressure and left a bad taste in his mouth. We didn't understand what he meant by that after the first inspector's visit - he was not high pressure at all. A couple weeks later, a senior inspector came out to re-verify what the first guy did. Then, the pressure was laid on. "If you give me a deposit tonight and sign a contract, we can give you a discount." Ah ha! That's what he was talking about! Besides that, we are still very confident that this company will provide us with the best solution for the best price, so we will most likely use them for the repair. More comments to come after the work is done.

Rob, the foreman, and his crew did an outstanding job on the work. They really exceeded my expectations!

They came promptly, evaluated the property and basement, and then gave me a quote. Compared to competitors, they gave us more options, which was very valuable to us. We plan on using this company when we do complete the work. The estimated cost for what we needed done is $17,000.