Ethereal Elements

The fix is working, and the experience was great. Not that anybody enjoys water leaks and having their basement torn up, but Q and his crew did an excellent job in troubleshooting the problem and coming up with a cost-effective permanent solution to a long-standing problem. The price was very reasonable for the amount of work that was done, and the communication all throughout the project was excellent - I always knew what was going on and appraised of any changes to the work order as they happened. The crew was extremely respectful of my house and kept it clean as they worked, and cleaned up very well when they were finished. All in all, I would highly recommend this company.

So disappointing. I'll try to be brief. Took 5&1/2 months and CCB meet tba. I chose EE hoping we'd be a good match for this project, then future retaining wall projects on two homes and maybe a little neighborhood philantropy. I thought it was a sweet gig for them: empty house, could leave tools around, could work early or late and my residence is next door for easy check ins. I signed what looked like a thorough contract for a basement remodel. But its my fault probably for no time line other than "professional manner". There was a spreadsheet I should have gotten advice on. The mission was to finish a basement for my rental-to-be in a month or two (Sept-Oct). I asked and was assured multiple times that all I'd need to choose and pay for were light fixtures, door knobs, and similar accessories. One of the first questions I asked was if my project would be priority and that they didn't have multiple projects to juggle. I signed the contract with Amber just after Q (Qrys if you google) was in a terrible accident. And as it turned out there were more life events that Q seems to use as reasons for not holding up his end (like moving). I think with all the excuses and no timeline Q knowingly misled me knowing he was causing me financial harm (unrentable, utilities). This project could have been done easily in two months but Q took on a lot of drainage gigs (fast money) and probably averaged out to one day a week at my project. Of course my trench work was unexpected, and apparently I have special mucky clay dirt he said "he might get back to" (looks like a wreck). I kept handing out advances that were in a fuzzy timetable in the contract (demo, framing, etc). When I said I'd better c-m-a and not give another advance on what would be the final payment (and much to buy and do) it got uncomfortable, when I said I was not ok with the work and I will contact the CCB for their opinion it got ridiculous. Folks are welcome to contact me through Q. I am not moving or changing my phone #

Everything was done on time and as agreed. There were no surprises. What was explained to me as to how the job would progress happened just as described. The dirt was removed, the wall was cleaned & a skim coat of cement put on, then waterproofed, a french drain was installed and then backfilled. The only recommendation I have for improvement, and why I put a 'B' on professionalism, is that some cleanup could have been done a little earlier than it was. Everything was cleaned completely at the end of the job, but during the job drink containers and other nonconstruction debris were lying around the work area. This didn't bother me too much but my wife wishes that at least before a weekend things could have been cleaned up a bit more. Working with Q was a great experience and I wouldn't hesitate to do so again.

Q of Ethereal Elements was quick to respond to our request for a bid to repair a leak in the lower level of our home (aka basement). Q had an immediate sense of why we had the leak and how to go about repairing it. Once hired, Q and his men were on the job and moved quickly. I am happy to report that the leak stopped; although, we have not had any really heavy rains since this repair; I'm hopeful that the repair is permanent. After stopping the leak, Q and his men also repaired the water damage done to the inside of our home, to include laying down new carpet pad and the old carpet, sheet rocking and texturizing the walls, and replacing the baseboards. That's another thing we really appreciated about Ethereal Elements... Q is like a 1-stop contractor... capable of addressing so many different jobs... in fact, Q offered to also hook us up with a carpet cleaner; however, we had already promised the job to someone else. We will definitely use Q / Ethereal Elements again. And, it's so nice to know that a dependable contractor like Q is good at so many different jobs!

They did a great job. They were very good to work with. They were very conscious of keeping my house from looking like a wreck after they left. I would tell the other members to be sure to use them.

We have not had final inspection, but I anticipate all will go well. Thanks for working so quickly!

Crew was on time and on task throughout the project. Worked under wet conditions and made sure work area (much of it on the spilling over to the neighbor's driveway) was cleared and cleaned after each day's work. Lots of mud created due to the wet weather; however, by end of day you wouldn't know it. Very satisfied with how they finished up each day. Q supervised and communicated clearly the progress, purpose and scope of each day's work. He also presented several options and left it to me to decide. I was very impressed with Q's knowledge and understanding of drainage and how to remedy our basement problem. I would recommend Q and Ethereal Elements without hesitation or reservation.

we got our bid from them and they also gave us an estimate. I don't remember the estimate it is out of my head. But their estimate was reasonable. We actually got three quotes to decide, but after getting the quotes we thought it was not in our budget to do. The three people that came to give us their bids, they seemed least interested in the project. My wife and myself have been working on the budget and I'm going to call them again for sure.

They showed up at the day and time appointed, the work took about as long to do as Q had told us, and they cleaned up after themselves. Can't think of anything more they could have done. We will certainly use them again.

Pretty well, there were one or two scheduling glitches but the end result was that the job was done on time with excellent results. I plan to use Ethereal Elements again.

The only problem was, that he wasn't licensed and bonded. That was why we didn't go with him. He listed his license number on his Angie's List profile, and then when we went through with the state to check-up on him, he had problems. I'm sure he does excellent work, he's a great guy, he's super smart, and I'm sure he gets great reviews.

Water was coming into the basement during a week of heavy rains. We called multiple companies and couldn't get anyone to come out due to demand for 2-3 days. When I called Ethereal he said he could probably get out in a few hours so I confirmed the appointment then he showed up within the hour! He ended up cancelling a dentist appointment to come out and help. He found two culprits of the water, one was an easy fix and the other involved tearing out some sheetrook and mudding up a foundation crack. It was a mess, but we were pleased with their work and clean up afterward.

As a brand new Angie's list subscriber, this is my first experience making contact with a potential contractor. In sum, my experience with the contractor was awkward, disappointing and left me questioning his honesty. I called the number for the business that is listed on the Angie's list website to inquire about getting a job estimate for remediating water in my home's crawlspace. I was met with a "Hello?" on the other end (as opposed to any introduction of his name or his business's name); indeed, I actually had to ask if I had reached Ethereal Elements to ensure I had not mis-dialed. The male on the other end of the phone sounded disinterested and distracted; perhaps I was bothering him with my phone call? I informed him I had located his business from Angie's list and that I was interested in getting a estimate/quote for a job involving remediating water in my home's crawlspace. The male said nothing in response. Feeling a bit awkward--I was expecting some sort of response or at least an acknowledgement--I went on to ask him if he was interested in providing a job quote. He hesitated, said he might be, but also qualified his interested by stating, "we're a bit booked out." When I asked him what this meant, he said it would be about 5 months before he could do the job. Mind you, he hadn't even taken the time to ask me a single question about the scope of the potential job. Frankly, I was surprised to hear a contractor say that he was booked out 5 months--especially given the state of the economy. Quite honestly, my gut reaction to this response was this was a guy who didn't want to even entertain me as a potential client by coming out and providing a job quote/estimate. I promptly and politely ended the phone call after informing him that that time frame was not workable for me. As I mentioned at the outset, I don't have a ton of first-hand experience in hiring contractors or even having them out to investigate potential jobs, but it strikes me as incredibly odd that a contractor would be booked out for 5 months. That said, if I give him the benefit of the doubt and believe his statement, then this contractor must be top-notch to be booked out that far in advance, and perhaps he should consider hiring additional staff to meet the "apparent" demand for his work. However, from my perspective, the most plausible (realistic) explanation is that for some reason he wasn't interested in me as a potential client/job. If this is the real motivation behind his statement of unavailability, I would have held him in higher regard had he just been up front and honest with me, rather than dissuade me by stating (effectively) that he was too busy. Bottom line, I'd treat this contractor with caution with respect to the truthfulness of his statements. Beyond that, since I had no other interaction with him aside from the brief initial phone call, I can't comment about any other aspect of his work or professionalism.

The basement leaked during heavy rainstorms. Even though the leak was small, and basements were flooding all over the city, Q and Amber made time to look at the leak very soon after it happened, and to stay in touch with me as a I monitored the wall to see if it would recur. When it did happen again, Q and his team were very flexible about finding a time to actually make the repair. The repair itself went very quickly. They searched diligently but carefully, taking down small parts of an interior wall, until they found the spot. A continuing wet spring has allowed us to test the fix, and it's been very effective. Throughout the process, Q and his team were very professional, and very pleasant. They worked with the challenges of our schedule and accommodated requests to keep the price down as much as possible. During the work, they kept the site remarkably clean, despite the demolition and reinstallation of the interior wall. Nobody wants water to leak into their house, but if it should ever happen again, I'd be happy to have this team back!

I was quite happy with all the work that Q did. This was the third time Q has done work at my house.

I'll start by saying that Q is a very charismatic guy, and seems committed to his service. With that in mind, I was very frustrated by his approach to my project. I had a massive basement flood, and started to put in a drainage system, then decided I needed a more professional team on the project. I really feel like Q preyed on my weakness, and gave me an estimate that was almost double ($8000) what other highly reputable companies were giving me, and those were companies who offered a terrific guarantee. Also, he was completely inflexible about the details of the job. For example, I asked for an estimate to put in a water management system (internal trenches, perforated pipe, sump pumps, etc.). Q insisted that he would have to remove almost all of my internal stud walls to do the work, and would then do all of the repair to those removed walls. His estimate was for one (very large) lump sum to do everything including the sheetrock repair, even when I told him that I already had a very reasonable estimate for that work. He called me back to say that it was 'all-or-nothing' with his services, and that he would not break down his costs for me. This struck me as very odd for a very expensive project. It seems deceptive, in my humble opinion, to refuse to customize the job for a homeowner in a tough situation, and even more so to insist on doing work (sheetrock) that is not what I called for in the first place. I have the highest respect for the work that Q probably does on basement flooding, but very little respect for his insistence on charging me premium prices for a service that I really didn't want from him. It's an old saying that if you start to stray too far from your core business, you will eventually hurt your overall business. I felt that Q was doing exactly that, and trying to rope me in for a bunch of extra costs; even when I asked him to take out those parts of the project, he refused. This left me with a fairly easy decision to go with a contractor who would let me maintain some degree of control over my own project, and keep many thousands of dollars in my own pocket.

It is never fun finding a major problem with your home and water infiltration is about at the top of the list of things you don't want to find. If anything good can come out of such a situation having someone who is confident in being able to resolve the problem, educated on the right techniques and products and honest in evaluating the situation is a comforting thing. Angie's list provided the list of available people, previous reports provided the best choice among the mix and Q closed the deal with his prompt site visit and detailed recommendation for resolving the problem. In our situation the first quote was a hopeful less expensive option but upon further inspection and demo more issues were found. Q provided the two options available, a cheaper interior only sealant or an exterior excavation and full foundation seal as well as interial seal and water resistant rock to replace the existing sheetrock inside. Even though we were selling our house we didn't want anyone to buy into a known issue or half done job, kharma is a b****, so we went the long route but ended up with peace of mind and a job well done. Q and his team made very little mess, cleaned up thoroughly and covered the lawn with tarp during excavation and even saved the 2 plants that were mere inches from the trench. Overall the job was done very well and Q was very pleasant to work with and attentive with explanation when we were working through our options. Highly recommend Q and the Ethereal team.

I called for an estimate, he was in the area and came over within 30 minutes. He was nice, prompt, honest and professional.

Great, super responsive, thorough, punctual, and reasonably priced. Exceeded our expectations. Worked outside digging a deep hole during torrential rain and were real troopers, really considerate of new baby and keeping basement as clean as possible. Did great job working with structural engineer to come up with several repair options, and keeping us informed on entire process. Can't say enough positive things about Q and his wonderful crew!

Very professional. Crew was prompt, courteous and friendly. Q, the foreman, was excellent in communicating progress and any problems encountered. Crew showed great flexibility and ingenuity when problems encountered with non-level ceiling and flooring, as well as obsolete plumbing because of house's age. Q and crew did best to minimize the impact of the remodeling on home and family routine. In sum, a very positive experience in the face of big challenges that could have turned this project into a disaster. This outfit has my highest recommendation.

It went well. Q is nice and easy to work with. The quality of the wooden thresholds he installed is excellent and I love to see them in the house. This was a pretty small project for him but he handled it with his usual aplomb and good humor. FYI, he's also done work for me on other occasions that went well, too. Highly recommended!

After Q came to give me an estimate he stayed for about 30 minutes and fixed the pocket door for free. He and his team did a great job of matching the stain of the new chimney siding to the older siding on the house. He came up with a creative way to discourage the woodpeckers from returning to our chimney. They were always professional and friendly. We would hire them again.

Q was a delight to work with. He scheduled an estimate and arrived promptly. He was very personable and knowledgeable in his field. I felt confident in his ability to do the job and do it well. His quote came out much higher than some of the other bids I received but I do believe his to be much more thorough in detail and accurate as to the actual cost of the materials and labor needed. It seemed like a rather large job for his very small owner operated company.Though we did not ultimately hire this company to do the job, I will be calling him to come back out for another bid on another basement project.

Q Thornton and his crew started work for me in May when I hired them to complete an exterior paint job. They were so reliable and meticulous that I have continued to use them to replace windows, repair my garage door, awning work, dry rot repair amongst other projects. Additionally, I most recently hired them to do a complete bathroom tear out and replacement after extensive water damage at one of my investment properties. They were efficient and courteous and minimized the inconvenience for my tenants... A pleasure to work with...highly recommend Q and his crew!

Overall very well. I wasn't the only project Ethereal Elements was working on, so the 2-3 day project I was expecting went about 10 days. Everyone was very pleasant to work with.