The Finished Basement LLC

Hired The Finished Basement (FB) company for a basement remodel in November 2020. My neighbor had used them and found there work acceptable. My opinion is different. If you are looking for a contractor to just finish your basement and do not care about quality or how it is done, then this company will do that for you. If you are concerned about getting what you want and making sure it is done right, then keep on reading. Cost without cabinets, countertop, flooring, lighting, and painting: $24,970 Things you need to know before hiring this company: 1. Contracts are vague and do not provide details for work. I had my three pages of requirements added as an addendum to the contract. 2. Told that all people working for FB were employees. They used contractors. 3. Their project manager only schedules work crews and handles county inspections. Does not review contractors work and make sure requirements followed. Makes excuses every time here is an issue. You must force them to fix issues by withholding payment. 4. You must make sure contractors are doing the work correctly and to your expected quality level. 5. FB does not review contractor’s work. Only care that it can pass inspection. 6. County inspectors doing permit reviews virtually (not on site) miss issues because they only see what the project manager shows them on his phone. He will skip over known issues to get the inspection passed because they do not care about quality. 7. Project manager does not read work contracts signed by owner. 8. FB may use cheaper products that what they tell you they use (i.e., Spray Foam) 9. FB does not honor their warranty and will not fix issues after final payment. 10. Owner gets a discount at Lowes so wants you to pick finishes he can buy there. 11. I purchased the cabinets, LED lighting and flooring from where I wanted and had delivered to job site. I also did all the painting. 12. I have had an electrical issue with some of the new breakers tripping after a power outage. Been trying to get FB to fix the issue for 4 months. Cannot get them to come fix the problem. Issues with contractor’s work: 1. I had to explain design plan to contractors when they arrived on site. 2. Contractors never asked you to review work, they just leave when done. 3. Framers did not allow for extra thick drywall (for soundproofing) when framing soffits causing cabinets to not fit correctly. Cabinets had to be modified to fit in space and doors open into walls since 1” spacing between wall and cabinets had to be eliminated. 4. Framers did not properly secure many wall 2x4s. 5. Framers incorrectly installed floor joist bridge blocking and left some out. 6. Framers incorrectly installed return vent duct work. 7. Framers incorrectly framed out soffit so cabinet would not fit under it. 8. Framers installed framing touching hot water line so rubbed and squeaked when hot water used. 9. Electrician forgot to wire for a row of can lights in the ceiling. 10. Electrician did not allow for double thick drywall for ceiling light boxes. (set to deep) 11. Plumber wanted to install sink drain venting that was not up to code. 12. Plumber moved a waste line and put it right next to a hot water line causing them to rub together and squeak when hit water used. 13. Plumber did not install nail plates on 2x4 with pipes through them. 14. Spray insulation installer sprayed code at a thickness from ½ inch to 4 inches in depth when code requires 2 inches of foam for insulation. Did not spray behind 2x4s in corners and missed other spots. Manager tried to fill areas with fire block foam. 15. Manager had contractor use ¼ of manufacturer recommenced amount of sound insulation glue between drywall sheets. Good things: 1. Framers’ laser leveled and squared all walls to near perfect. 2. Framers listened and worked well with me as design requirements were explained. We discussed how they were going to build something before they did it to try and make sure it was what I wanted. 3. Nothing good about the plumber. 4. Drywall crew did a really nice job with only a few fixes need before painting. 5. Finishing crew (framers) did a nice job fitting cabinets into shortened space. 6. Finishing crew did nice job on baseboards and laminate flooring. I caught most of the issues because I reviewed all the contractor’s work. I know how framing, electrical, drywall and finishes should be done so I knew when the project manager was trying to give me an excuse to not fix the issues. Here is one example of a major issue I had to fight to get fixed. FB uses spray foam insulation between the basement wall and framing. Functions as vapor barrier and insultation. Code in my area requires 2 inches of spray foam. The project manager got the building inspector to pass the permit on a virtual inspection. Something did not look right with the foam being very wavy instead of smooth. Some places it filled out past the wall studs. I started measuring the depth of foam and found it ranged from ½ inch to 4 inches in different places. I discussed this issue with the project manager since I’m paying for 2” of foam, He discussed this with the owner and said they purchased the correct amount of spray foam to insulate the space and would not do anything about it. (Tanks of spray foam are about $500+ so they do not want to buy more.) I talked to the owner and told him that I would contact the building inspector who approved the permit and ask if it this variance in levels was acceptable. If he said yes, then I would not press the issue. The owner was at my house the next day to review the issue. He made the same excuse that they had purchased the correct amount to insulate the space to code. I said that it is not my problem if they can not install it correctly. Code requires 2” of foam. They fixed the issue the next day. Overall I’m happy with the basement now that it is done, but I had to do A LOT of work to make sure I got what I wanted.

Wally and team did a wonderful job finishing our basement. We've worked with a number of contractors and remodelers over the years and Wally's team were particularly professional and experienced. They were helpful and flexible as we modified and expanded our plans over the life of the project. They listened to what we wanted, and when we weren't sure what we wanted, they had helpful suggestions and were able to guide us to a good decision. Most importantly, Wally and his project manager, Matt, were always responsive and in-touch and maintained great communication throughout the project. We're really happy with the final product and I'd recommend Wally and team to anyone.

We went under contract with the Finished Basement LLC on 17 Sep 2018 with a start date of 10 Oct 2018. The project was supposed to take 6 weeks. The project was completed on 18 Dec 2018 due to continual engagement by us as owners to help manage the completion and continue to push the owner to get the job done correctly. There were too many issues to name them all, but here are the top ones: 1. Overall, our project did not seem like a priority for the company. The onsite manager admitted he was overwhelmed with the number of projects he was overseeing and unable to provide adequate oversight of our project. This caused the project to take several weeks longer than contracted, several breaks in work of a week or more, and for us to be dissatisfied with the level of service and how we were treated throughout the process. We would not recommend this company to anyone from a management perspective. They were disrespectful, unengaged, and unprofessional. The actual workers that were contracted out were excellent, but it was overshadowed by the management. 2. The owner was reluctant to give us an itemized bill for the project. Once we forced the owner to give us an itemized bill by withholding the last payment, we recognized 2 accounting mistakes that charged us for work that had not been performed. We do not believe it was malicious, but the accounting was not accurate and the company made no effort to fix it. We had to find and fix the accounting errors on our own. The “itemized” list was not really itemized. There was no breakdown for supplies or labor. It was a flat fee for items, even when the work had not been performed. We never received notice that our final bill was paid. The owner cashed the last check and never visited the project to see if it had been done, did not ask us for any feedback, and has made no contact. 3. We ended up having to manage the manager. There were two of them and they were not very effective at organizing the correct support and coordinating with us for access to the home. The onsite manager was not honest with us about whether or not he had scheduled appointments with the county. He had something personal going on with the county inspector and it caused our project to be delayed. He was replaced by the owner. However, the replacement onsite manager was fired from the company about 2 weeks after that and we received the same dishonest onsite manager from before. We asked for a schedule of the work to be completed and the projected schedule since the project timeline was busted. We were told each week that this would occur and never received anything in writing. The onsite manager would promise to be present and not show up. He would tell us there would be no work on a particular day and then workers would show up. One of the onsite managers even asked us who the workers were and what they were working on that showed up one day. 4. The workers routinely stored trash and supplies in our garage and in our storage closet without coordination or permission. We had to engage the owner in order to get them to remove the trash because too much had piled up.