My advice is to avoid The Basic Basement Company. First, the company's 800 square foot/$9,999 advertisement is just a gimmick to get in the door. While the salesman was nice enough, the mathematical jiu jitso performed rapidly to explain why that price was impossible for my 344 square foot unfinished basement space made it clear no one gets that price. As I debated hiring them, I received numerous, urgent emails and calls saying I had to decide by a random date. I should have known better. I'm normally not taken in by these high-pressure sales tactics, but I fell for it. And I very much regret it. Second, the basement that was supposed to be done in 90-days took five months. Again, this was a 344 square foot unfinished space that required framing, electrical and drywall. They did not paint or install flooring. I was told they don't do flooring. Five. Long. Months. Third, the drywall guys left my garage door open. In their defense, I opened it for them and it was on me to close it. While this wouldn't have been a big deal under a normal situation, it was a big deal because when they left (never letting me know as I was working in my home office in the front of the house) they also left the door between my family room and garage wide open. When I got off a call to check on them, my 7-month-old Golden Retriever walked out of the office with me and into the family room (not unusual) ... and then ran right out the door, down the driveway and onto the main road. It took me more than 15 minutes to find him (he's fast) and another 10 to get him back to the house. Fortunately, he was not hit by a car. I called immediately to raise a little hell about this and the next day when they returned ... no apology was offered AND they did it again! I learned my lesson, though, and crated my dog for the duration of the time The Basic Basement Co. workers were at my home. Fourth, they left my basement - both the smaller space they worked in as well as the larger 900 square foot unfinished space with storage and exercise equipment - covered in lots of drywall dust. At no point in the drywall process did they cover the door to the separate, 344-sq.-ft. space that was being worked on. Everything I own down there is covered in an inch or more of dust. I'll be cleaning up for months. Also, the room itself was left a mess. The concrete floor was covered in dust and clumps of spackle. The door and door knob (both sides!) were also covered in spackle. And the last two bags of trash from their work sat in my driveway from early December until the middle of February. They also never consulted with me when decisions needed to be made during the project - the biggest one being that they decided on their own to create four different ceiling heights in this 344 sq.ft. space. I knew there would be two levels because some duct work runs through the middle of the room. But the third as created because they said that was the only way to connect the wall to the ceiling in one corner and the forth height variation was created because a single television cable wire ran across one section. They don't touch even low-voltage wires. But they never let me know this. I could have (and ultimately did) have the wire moved by a separate contractor. Instead, they had to make a second trip a week or so later to tear out some of these various ceiling heights and make it a bit more even. There were countless other issues too minor to detail individually. But the "basic" take away is I feel I paid a little too much, it took a little too long, the ability of their workers to be thoughtful and respectful of being in my home was non-existent, and the clean-up was unacceptable for what I paid. Workers showed up in some cases dressed like they were homeless (it's construction and I don't expect suits and ties, but no uniforms and literally looking bedraggled). Honestly, there were mornings when I opened my door and I wasn't 100% comfortable letting them in. I have a family to think about. They also snuck out like cats without a word and clearly weren't concerned with making sure the pieces of the project they were responsible for aligned with what I wanted or asked for. What I will say is the drywall work itself was decent (there were issues there, but nothing extreme in terms of quality) and the look of the space is good. But another contractor could have done it in less than one fifth the time and probably for a little less money. Also, I want to compliment Gail in their office. She was a genuinely respectful, responsive and helpful person to work with. I think she does the best she can with a pretty challenging organization whose workers made plain they are underpaid, overworked and not happy to be in my home or anyone else's. Stay away from Basic Basement. read more

I should have known. I had a bad sales experience which was replaced by a different sales person after the owner got involved who was great. The experience lead me to move ahead with the project. The Sheetrock day laborers they sent did a poor job. The framing people did a poor job and failed inspection. Job was riddled with complaints and issues. Completed job I'm left with nail pops in the Sheetrock, a door that doesn't close due to alignment, tons of access ports along the walls and ceiling due to left behind electric. Unreimbursed damage from their contractors. Hi-hat lighting that isn't flush with the ceiling. Electric also failed inspection. Cookie cutter jobs with little to no customization once work starts and you see opportunities for change. The owner steps in for disputes and is horrible to deal with. Go elsewhere. read more

STAY AWAY FROM BASIC BASEMENT!!!! We had our basement finished by Basic Basement back in 2011. Recently, we had to open up a wall and noticed basic basement left all of their garbage behind the sheet rocked wall (see photos). We also had a bathroom installed in the basement by them, which they had to come back out several times to repair a leak from the shower. After several years the wall next to the shower started to deteriorate. When I called a licensed plumber, he said "whoever installed this shower didn't do it right" it was slowly leaking. Ended up having to demolish the whole shower and redid it, the right way! We ended up paying close to $30,000 for the crappiest work ever. read more

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The company seems to be good and professional, but their 800 sq. ft 10k advertisement is misleading and just to get sales guy into your home. Good luck trying to get that promo ($12.5 sq. ft)!!! I didn't like deceptive marketing practice as they came back and said ah well your basement is 1000 sq. ft, so you don't qualify for that price and pay me 20 grand. I would rather work with honest people and pay more. read more

UPDATE (5/18/16): There was an issue with a pipe in the basement and Basic Basement returned with a plumber. They had to open up the wall to access the pipe but repaired it like nothing happened. This shows that they do stand by their work. The owner of the company called me and apologized for the trouble of the basement finishing, assuring me that they take pride in what they do, which is evident by the fact that they opened up and repaired a wall for no charge, something i appreciated. I've increased the rating from 2-star to 3-star for that and because all said and done, the final basement looks pretty good. --------------------------------------------------------------- Basic Basement is very basic and will do the least amount possible to get the job done and take way too long to do it. There were many issues along the way and while they responded to them, they shouldn't have happened in the first place. Our job, which began on October 26, was supposed to be three weeks and wound up being 9 weeks. Even with Thanksgiving in there, this is way to long for a simple basement refinishing. Things started poorly in September, when they sent our inspection paperwork to the wrong address. After a week of waiting for it, I contacted them and the error was discovered. They sent new paperwork and I took time off from work to drop it off at the township, only to be rejected on the spot because the paperwork wasn't signed. That meant more time to get new paperwork, which again wasn't delivered when we were told it would be. Once it was, more time off from work to drop it off. The first of many delays. The framing went well, though one day the guys had to quit halfway through because they ran out of wood. Deliveries were scheduled and I changed around my schedule for them, but then the deliveries didn't happen and that caused more delays. There were things about the job that were completely amateur. Some I pointed out, others I didn't, but had I not requested they be fixed, they would still be like that (see photos). Debris clogged our French drain and I asked multiple times to have it corrected. It took until after the trim was put on and three requests later for it to be cleared out. By that point, there was some water that came up. Where the drywall meets the stairs there were gaps that I wanted corrected. I requested this multiple times. Finally they sent over a carpenter to fix a couple issues and while I made a lot of noise about this one, he was never even told about it. Fortunately, a painter we hired separately corrected it (as well as other issues from Basic Basement). This speaks volumes about the annoying communication with Basic Basement. Any issues go through Gail at their office. Gail is not easy to get a hold of and I had emails to her go unanswered for days. Without a cell phone number, the only phone number is her office, which did not get picked up often. The company was supposed to clean around our house and barely did that. I had to tell them three times about trash they left around the house. Even after they finally did pick up some of the remaining stuff, I still had to go around and get a bunch of big stuff that they missed since my kids were touching the pieces of glass and large shards of wood leftover. Additionally, the workers left cigarette butts on our lawn and driveway. (they also had garbage sit for days in our driveway before finally having their truck pick it up. I almost would've preferred a dumpster). When the original contract was drawn up, I was going to be charged $550 for the framing and installation of an exterior door (which I also had to purchase). It turned out they did not need to frame it and instead, were able to simply cut the solid wooden door I purchased to fit the space. They also put hinges on it - all things they did for the interior doors too - yet for this one they charged me $200. I felt it was a petty charge since I would've done the couple minutes work on it myself had I known it would've cost that much. They felt differently, claiming they had told me it would still cost $200 without the framing. I don't have it in writing either way so I lose, but thought that as a courtesy and to make up for the amount of time the job took, they'd waive the charge. They didn't. read more

Basic Basement Company - amateur work. - General Contractors Near Me - Manalapan Township, New Jersey

Basic Basement just finished our basement remodel and we could not be any happier. Typically when having work done on your home, you have to anticipate at least a small number of headaches (and that's with a good contractor), with Basic Basement we had zero headaches. We had five contractors come into our home to give us a proposal before we decided on Basic Basement. They were very competitively priced, but in addition to that, they were extremely professional from start to finish, treated our home with care and under promised and over delivered. For the next project we do, we are certainly calling Basic Basement first. Our project manager was Kevin and he was excellent. Very friendly, knowledgeable and responsive. He made the process as easy on our family and our home as we could have imagined. Thank you Basic Basement. read more

From our salesman Todd to the final molding detail crew, we have truly enjoyed having our basement renovation done by Basic Basement Company. It was a big project and it flowed effortlessly, each crew that came was professional clean and courteous. We absolutely recommend Basic Basement Company and will call them again for future projects. Fair pricing, detail oriented nothing basic about this company! read more

There is nothing "basic" about Basic Basement! This company did a remarkable job on our basement & not to mention came in cheaper than 2 other companies I had received estimates from. A gentleman by the name of Dominick (I believe the owner) was sincere & precise on the whole project. From the moment he saw the basement to the final inspections everything was on point. Each group of guys whether it was the framers, sheetrock guys, etc. were polite, clean, & on time. I would recommend this company to any of my family and/or friends. I didn't go crazy on my basement but you can definitely tell the workmanship is there. So whether you are looking for just the basic basement or more these guys definitely are the way to go! read more

Courteous and professional!!! Working with this company was a pleasant experience and I'm glad to have chosen them to finish my basement.

BEWARE! BEWARE! BEWARE! I had them remodel my basement. They punctured my water proofing system by using nails vs. liquid nails which resulted in mold growing in our basement (health concerns) and now will not take ANY accountability. The water proofers (separate contractor) stepped up and fixed the issue right away for us because they were concerned for our health but Basic Basements could care less!!!! I've only requested Basic Basements to replace the moldy molding, a hole in the wall, and pay the balance for the work the water proofers did to fix Basic Basements mistake. As it is, the water proofers absorbed half of that cost so the out of pocket is only $1295.00 and Basic Basements has refused to help. They are requesting documentation that is going to cost me even more $$ out of pocket before they even agree to assist. We are the innocent victims in all this. We spent over $38k (all our savings) to have our basement water proofed and finished and instead of enjoying new construction that we paid for we now have a moldy mess and outstanding debt to correct their mistake! I've reported them to the "call for action" news and better business bureau and will continue to report them because I want other hard working consumers to know to avoid this company at all costs. We trusted in them, they were referred to us and they have done nothing to make this awful situation right!!! They out right refused. Don't make the same mistake we did! Just because they are licensed and insured doesn't mean they are a stand up company that cares about their customers. When they reply to my reviews they admit that they are only willing to make their issue right if I spend more $$ and provide them an engineers report and release them from all future liability. I have declined that offer. They should be embarrassed to ask a customer that has spent over $25,000 with them and is now out of pocket more money to fix the issue they caused and they won't even come replace the moldy molding. Disgusting! I'm moving forward with reporting them to the NJ Division of Consumer Affairs as well! read more

We used Basic Basement to finish our basement. I got numerous quotes before going to contract with Basic Basement. They offered a very fair price. We finished 1000 square feet and added a half bathroom. Gail, the project manager was amazing and very responsive to all requests. The quality of work was variable. The walls needed to be re-spackled three times. The company did keep sending people to fix whatever needed to be fixed. They stood behind their work. Stuart, the owner of the company, was very apologetic and acknowledged the problems we encountered. After a very long process, my basement looks amazing. read more