Matrix Basement Finishing

I have had trouble with this company since the first day. The problems have ranged from them not starting on time (I took off work to get them started but they never showed up) to having their employees demand more money on site from my wife who was home alone. They cracked the tile in our bathroom during installation, and demanded that we pick up our selected shower ourselves because they were too busy. They were just generally unpleasant to deal with. Fast forward a couple of years when their hallmark subfloor began to bubble up underneath our basement carpet. The subfloor they touted as waterproof was soaking wet and rotted. They ignored me for over a year until I finally threatened a lawsuit, at which point they sent someone out. They tore up the floor and revealed the problem I described. I had to buy a huge amount of new subflooring and pay an outside company to come fix it because Matrix stonewalled me and refused to return my calls. It has been nothing but frustration and disappointment. I would never recommend them. My main contact, Anthony, was incredibly rude and disrespectful, and completely without empathy when their product failed. And then he just stopped returning my calls. So I had to pay someone else to fix their problem.

Matrix did an awesome job with our basement project. The contractors were great with communicating and keeping us in the loop. The final product is exactly what we wanted! Matrix did a great job to ensure we were happy with the final product and went out of way to ensure the project was done correctly.

They made the process such a breeze from start to finish and hit the timeline perfectly. We couldn’t be happier with the quality and everything looks great

From start to finish this company was amazing! Starting with the free design consultation. An array of materials to choose from, one stop shop, no hidden fees, and best of all a lifetime warranty on all labor and materials!! I could not be any happier with the project!! Thank you Matrix Basement Systems!!

We had a very positive experience with Matrix. The project was finished on time and they are easy to communicate with.

They did not return calls timely if at all. We had no idea when they would be working bc communication was horrible. The work was subpar and my husband is still fixing their mistakes. The salesman lied to us and told us they do not use subcontractors when every worker was a subcontractor. In addition to the basement remodel we asked for a quote to paint our ceiling and they quoted us over $2600 and we got it done for $325 paint included. They told us it would take 3 weeks and it took 6. I wish we would have done our research before we agreed to go with Matrix.

Overall, our basement looks good, but this did not happen without many pain-points throughout the process. After seeing an Open House in our neighborhood, I reached out to Matrix to set up an in-home consultation. Brian and Nick (Owner/Co-Owner) were the individuals who came out to our house. We received quotes from a few other companies, but Matrix seemed to be the best fit especially since they offered 0% financing. They also said that if we wanted our own painter…etc that was fine. We just needed to provide the contact name and they would coordinate everything. Nick and Brian very personable and expressed the least amount of a ‘sales pitch’ attitude of the few companies we reached out to. They went through all of the design options and even offered an additional discount if we signed with them that same evening. That pretty much sealed the deal. We have about a 1,400sq ft basement and requested an open concept look to accommodate a ‘game-room style’ with a lounging area with a TV and bar and a powder room. We provided the laminate flooring, bathroom vanity, toilet, mirror and accessories and Matrix was responsible for all the labor. Matrix provided us with a copy of our floor plans with all the measurement including where the walls would be and so forth. Here are some of the issues we experienced during the 7 or so week construction: Issue 1: One of our walls, which was only supposed to be 3ft from the water furnace, they framed 6ft away from the water heater. Our floor plans specifically showed 3ft, but one evening when my husband and I went to check the progress, noticed that one of the walls looked much closer than what we specifically discussed. We are putting in a shuffleboard table and because they placed the wall so close one of the support beams, there was no way that it would be wide enough to fit the table. After measuring ourselves and calling Rick (the GC/Area Manager), they had no good answer for us as to why the wall was pushed forward an extra 3ft. Not sure if they were trying to get away with something, so we let that one slide since they fixed over the next couple of days. Issue 2: During our initial meeting with Brian and Nick, we specifically informed them that we would be providing the flooring and even going to the extent of showing them the sample floor planks we received so they were aware of what they were installing. Towards the end of the project, we noticed that they brought our flooring down to the basement from the garage, but it was never installed. Finally, when my husband asked one of the contractors when they were going to install the flooring, they replied ‘we are not installing the flooring, this is not part of the contract.’ This was never the discussion from day one! My husband called Brian/Nick as our project was now delayed and they said that we told them we were having someone else install the flooring and this would be an extra charge! If this is what was initially discussed, why would we have shown them the floor on day 1? Why would they care what the floor looks like if they were not doing anything with it? Secondly, not once during the construction did they ever ask for the name of our so called flooring installer, like they said they would if we were using a different party to install the floor. After a yelling match between my husband and Brian/Nick, they agreed to install the flooring and in turn, we would do an open house for them for free. We agreed, but found out they only paid their worker $400 to install the floor! By this time, my husband the main contractor talked on a regular basis, so he told us. He also told us that there are a lot of ‘miscommunications’ like this between the customer and Matrix and Matrix sends him to jobs all the time to fix these 'miscommunications.' Issue 3: Don't expect to ever see or talk to Nick or Brian once you have given them your down-payment. If there is ever an issue, they always make you talk to their middle-man who has no clue what is going on. My husband basically had to threaten the Area Manager to get Brian/Nick to call us about the floor. *Note: Our project is done, but they decided not to install any quarter-round after they were done with the floor. My husband called asking why they did not do this and they said that would be an extra charge. Per our agreement, they were supposed to do the floor for us and in exchange, we would do an open house. When flooring is done, quarter-round is always included, so until they complete the job, we will not be doing any open-houses for them nor recommending them to anyone. *Note: They do not break out pricing on the contract, so you do not know what they charge for all the portions of the project. When I asked them how much we are paying for painting, they said $2,895!! I almost passed out. We got a quote from a company to paint our entire house (2500 sq ft) for $3,500. How is it that painting a basement costs almost as much? Needless to say, we told them we would have someone else paint and we were quoted half the amount.

Final result was fine, but getting there took 6 months, trips to the city inspectors offices, permit waivers of liability, and several modifications to the plan. Once work started, it became clear that their estimator did not understand what their workmen were capable of doing. We contracted for a floor, and estimator priced cost of leveling and and installing laminate floor, but workmen got a look at it, and determined that the existing floor was too uneven for flooring. Had to settle for carpeting. Would have liked to have known this up front. Said they had done jobs in our city before and knew how to work with local enforcement inspectors. Turned out not to be true. They sell MgO wall material that the city had never seen before. Took a lot of convincing and several visits to the building dept. to get the city to let us use it.

Originally, they were going to do the floors but then they got into it and found out it was going to be too complicated for them to do. The guy who did the estimation for selling the job did not have a good grasp of what their capabilities were. They priced it in to begin with but when they found out they couldn't do they took the cost of the floor out. We wouldn't have went with them if we didn't think the pricing was fair. They were very responsive but you can imagine that 6 months to do a basement, that's a pretty long time. Whenever they said they would be there, they were there. A big hold up was in the permitting process and that's as much a fault of the city as it was their fault. I wound up having to do more work, we were using a slightly different wall material, magnesium oxide instead of drywall, and the city wasn't real familiar with that. And I wound up having to do most of the homework in getting the city to buy off on using that material. They really over sold the job, we asked them twice in the process of giving them the work if we knew that magnesium oxide was different material. We also had dealt with the code enforcement folks in our city on several other projects and we knew how difficult they could be. So we asked them upfront have you done much work in Lake Forest, and are you familiar with our building codes and all that and how they're enforced. They said "oh yeah, sure, no problem". Just like the floor, it turned out no they hadn't done that much work in Lake Forest, and no they hadn't actually worked with the permit folks before. They told us what we wanted to hear to get the job, and when push came to shove, it made the job a lot more difficult and a lot more lengthy.

The process from start to finish was seamless. Brian W. (project manager) was awesome. His attention to detail and his vision really came to life at the end of the project. We give high praise to Victor and Daniel (carpenters) for all their hard work in our 18 week project. Not only was their work clean and impeccable, they were incredibly kind and respectful. The personnel assigned to our project were very accessible and kept us up to date every step of the way. I would highly recommend this company for your future basement project!

All of the men who worked were friendly, did a great job, and cleaned up rightly. They always kept us aware of work flow and where they were in progress. Crew was good about bringing items to my attention as project progressed. The cost never went up as additional outlets or additional little items were added on.

Rob Sanchez is great. He really cares about his work. Professional and on time.

Professional, kept us informed & updated on protect progress, answered questions when a shed open to our design adjustments requests.

We are very impressed with the workmanship, materials, quality, attention to detail, timeliness, and professionalism of the entire Matrix team from our salesman, Mike Z. to the open house rep, Gwen. Our installers, Mike and Jesse are true artisans who communicated with us throughout the project ensuring we were pleased with the work and progress. Although we added to the project, they still completed on time. Jon and his team went the extra step to bring our existing electrical up to current code. The expertise and efficiency of Raphael and the plumbers quickly resolved pre-existing issues. Even the warehouse staff, delivery team, and cleanup team were a pleasure to work with. The Matrix team led by Brian has provided us with a beautiful, multi-functional living space that greatly exceeded our expectations.

Went extremely well. Project completed from design to finish with no big surprises. Very clean every evening. Minimal disruption to routine. Extremely satisfied.

The finished product is beautiful! My 1970's outdated basement is now gorgeous! Oscar, our main installer was wonderful to work with;he is a great craftsman, personable,hardworking, and very conscientious. He cleaned up the work space nightly and took care of minor imperfections promptly. Having that said, there are some things to keep in mind. First off, please allow more than the advertised 1 1/2 hours for your initial consultation and note that if you sign on the spot, Matrix offers a slightly discounted price. If you prefer to have several estimates before starting a project,you might want to save Matrix for last to take advantage of the discount. Secondly, allow for some extra time for the project itself. The timing (and communication about it) of subcontracted work was sometimes delayed...windows didn't come in, flooring guy didn't show, etc. If you have had construction on your house before, I am sure you have experienced this. In the end though, Matrix did a wonderful job and I am EXTREMELY pleased.

Matrix brings along their computer with a neat powerpoint presentation to show you more about their services, facts about basements, shows you their materials and examples of basements they have finished. Initially you discuss what you want to do with the basement, then look at the basement together and share your ideas, then they take their measurements and need some time to populate the information in their system. After they have everything populated there is some more presentation materials, you guess what the estimate will be and then you see what the the estimate actually is. While there is a financing option they offer, the monthly fee was still too much for us to take on. The project manager tried giving us some different options like increasing/decreasing the down payment and what the financing would look like from there but we simply couldn't afford their services. At some points I felt pressured. From start to beginning the meeting took about 3.5 to 4 hours. This was the highest quote we received to finish our basement. It is almost two times the cost of our house.

The experience was not good except for the workers who actually did the job and the quality of the end product. The project did not start when they had promised, actually didn't even start the permit process until two months after the contract was signed. the project manager did not understand the permit process in Chicago and I was initially told that they would do all the work to get the permit but I ended up doing it all. The company did not have complete or accurate information on the permit application which I had to deal with whch was frustrating because they told me that the permit process was something that they would take care of. The installation went well only because their carpenters assigned to our project paid great attention to detail and communicated well with us throughout. Several mistakes were made in ordering a window and door but were corrected quickly. The frustration with communication with our project manager over details and the complete lack of knowledge of the permit process in Chicago was very disappointing and I would not recommend them to others in our area. They are very expensive but we thought it was worth it to protect against mold and mildew as well as the insulation that this system provides..

They were very nice and professional. I would recommend them to anybody. We had a little bit of confusion with our homeowners association but it all worked out. They're very good. They cleaned up every night before they left. The left their tools down in the basement, but all the dust and everything else was cleaned up every night. I could go down and do my laundry at night and not worry about falling all over their equipment.

We actually went to an open house for this product and were very impressed. I didn't look at Angie's List until after we set up a consultation and was slightly dismayed to find that there were some people who were treated to a high pressure sales pitch. Not so with Joshua. He arrived and we began to tell him that the basement used to be finished until we had had a sump pump go out some years ago and got a couple of inches of water in the basement. Also we have some seepage issues. He immediately stopped the presentation and went to look at the basement. He started looking at the basement and said that 1st we needed to get a company out to look at the water issues, but once that was fixed, for them to demo what was left of the finished basement and rebuild with their materials was probably way more than we could ever get back from the sale of our home in just two years. He then spent the next thirty minutes advising us on what to look for in a good contractor and what he thought would be the best way to tackle the problem quickly. His honesty about our situation was admirable. He obviously put himself in our shoes and realized there were better ways for us to accomplish our goal. Thanks, Joshua!