Artisan Construction, Inc.

We have a 1000sq foot unfinished basement that already has a vapor barrier in place. We were hoping to finish only 450sqft of the basement into a large rectangular rec room while leaving the rest to finish another time. At every consultation and with each subcontractor, the consensus was that this would be an easy job. The HVAC system is adequate for the area and just needs two vents cut into the existing ductwork (about $800), the electrical work should be simple according to the electrician (about $2000 total), there is no plumbing work, we were going to have Lowes install the carpeting for us, so all that was left was the framing and sheet rock. We had our meeting to go over the estimate, and somehow our 450sqft rectangle room was estimated to cost something around $30,000! We were stunned and asked about what modifications we could make (like painting ourselves, etc) to bring the price down, and they seemed willing to work with us, but it somehow only took about 1-3 thousand dollars off the price. Keep in mind, there is no plumbing for a bathroom or anything like that.. no foundation work.. and a good vapor barrier is already in place along the entire wall. That averages to over $50/sqfoot for a very simple job of framing/sheet rock/trim/paint. That is well above any other estimate we received, and well above what my internet searches says to expect (between $10-$30/sqft). I imagine they do a very nice job since they include a lot of supervising the subcontractors and have a full-time project manager for their jobs, but it seemed very over-priced to us.

They do a very good job