Ohio Basement Authority

Job crew were always on time. Were courteous and professional. Worked continuously. Did job described in the time predicted, on schedule. Explained system clearly and offered Dos and Don'ts for new system. Responded fast to call backs.

This company has been very professional from start to finish. All my questions were answered throughout the process. The job was done faster than quoted and their guys did a good job with the clean up after everything was finished.

On time both days. Guys did a great job, and cleaned everything up. Did everything they promised in a timely manner. The only negative thing was, a couple guys were smokers. They smoked only outside, but we could notice from inside. Overall, A really good experience.

On time always and did a great job. Also all areas were cleaned up!

No problem at all ! Same great several we experience 6 years ago !

Crew were on time as promised. Crew were courteous and professional. They knew their work, worked hard, and finished within half day as estimated.

Team arrived on time, all courteous. Did good clean up and excellent job of sealing. Should be much more energy efficient. Well done.

It was very hot work and they were wonderful. Over 100 degrees work condition. They were fantastic !! :)

Matt and Chris did a great job, were courteous, neat, and work hard with few breaks.

The fellows did a terrific job. They worked very efficiently under hot and humid conditions.

They are a little expensive. However, their work was very good. The people that installed the system were very nice and courteous. They finished the work on time (one week).

Dr. EnergySaver was out to my home in 12/10. While other companies were charging as much as $200 for an energy report, Dr EngergySaver completed one for FREE. We were concerned about several rooms in our home that were too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer, as well as what we considered to be high gas bills. To solve these problems, we contracted to have the home air sealed, the attic and garage ceiling insulated and the HVAC ducts sealed. The company showed up on the day scheduled and immediately prepared our home for construction. They began in the attic and started sealing areas. Once they finished the one area, they ran another air test and determined that the air leakage had dropped by 20%. They then sealed the basementand retested again, and as before, air leakage had dropped significantly. While they were sealing the basement, the one tech-Cody I think his name was, began sealing the ductwork with a combo of foil tape and duct mastic. He ran a smoke gun around the ducts while the blower motor was on, and I could see that there were no longer leaks in the area he was working on. Very cool to see! It took him the rest of that day, and a part of the nest to finish sealing all the ducts. The next day, Tristan and his assistant began blowing insulation into the attic. They built a wood structure they called an attic dam around the hatch opening, and filled the attic with new insulation. That took up most of the second day. On the 3rd day, they opened the drywall on one side of the garage, and sprayed foam along the outer edge aboue the drywall. They then blew insulation in between the boards along the entire garage wich was directly below my daughters room. This was one of the coldest rooms in the house! Finally, before they began to clean up the job, they showed me the air door test results. The air loss was cut by 50%!! Our bedroom and bath (which was also sealed along all the bathroom cabinets) flet warmer almost immediately. For the first time since we bought this home (7 years ago), we did not have leave my daughters bedroom door open to the warmer hall and other rooms on the second floor. Everything was cleaned up. I even got a follow up call from Jeremy Tenny (?) to make sure that everything was completed to our expectations. Oh, and our gas bill has dropped significantly beginning in Januarty. I cannot we lived with these problems for as long as we did. I would highly recommend an evergy inspection from Dr. EnergySaver, and would recomend Tristan's crew to anyone!

Salesman seemed more interested in selling products than selling me the correct products.

The 1st day started ok with them blowing in insulation in the attic. The 2nd day was not good. They were using caulk everywhere, they were supposed to be ductsealing, and using the foam insulation in the large areas that needed it. When we checked they were using foil tape to seal the ductwork, not the ductmastic that we were told they would use. And the great foam insulation they told us about was nothing more than lots of cans of great stuff foam. They also had the big fan in the front door the whole time and kept checking it to see what number it had. We were told that every home has an approximate number that is right, based on size so it has the correct airflow. One guy just kept walking around caulking everything in sight, but ignoring the trouble spots we had talked about. When it got to a certain number they started packing up and said they were done. We asked them about the areas that would still noticably cold, he said it didn't matter because they had reached the magic number. We reluctantly paid them the balance because the paperwork we had signed said payment due upon completion, although I pointed out that I didn't think it was complete, they thought it was. We called Jeremy (salesperson) and told him how disappointed we were. He did come out the following week, said some of the stuff was unprofessional, but didn't want to redo the ductmastic instead of the foil tape. We pointed out to him that none of the literature or their website says they use foil tape (we couldv'e done that) and that we thought it was false advertising and wanted to talk to the owner. He then said they would do it. They came back on 1/21/11 to caulk the skylights which he had told us they should have done, and put foam in areas which they previously had not. We thought they were going to do the ductmastic at this point but said they couldn't stay long that day and wouldn't time. The next morning we awoke to caulk dripping all over the 2 bathrooms from the skylights. Everytime it dripped, it would splatter all over walls, tub, floor. We called but it was a saturday and no one was there. So the caulk kept dripping all over until they came on tuesday. We asked them to just remove the caulk they put on and not add anymore. We were becoming extremely leary of them at this point. Finally after several calls and much stalling they came 2/9/11 to do the ductmastic and we haven't heard from them since. They never did take care of the problem areas completely that they assured us they would be able to fix for us. We feel at this point we got as much out of them as we are going to get especially since we already paid them. (Stupid on our part). However, we had used this company in another capacity 5 years earlier. They also have a company called Ohio Basement Systems. They finished half of our basement with owens corning panels, and were so professional, we loved what they did. That is why we were somewhat tolerant of them in the beginning. We had also discussed in the beginning about them finished the other half of our basement when they were done with this, so my husband didn't feel it was a big deal to pay them because he thought they would be back for that so they could finish anything then. At this point, we don't ever want them back in our house. We definitely feel that we were ripped off, and didn't get our monies worth. The only thing we were happy with was the blown in insulation in the attic, everything else we feel we couldv'e done ourselves and there is no way there services were worth that kind of money in labor or materials. The only reason we thought the price was fair in the 1st place was because the techniques they told us they were going to use was not something we would normally be able to do, like the spray foam insualtion (not great stuff) specialty foam that you use with tanks and the ductmastic that is painted on the ductwork and the fact that they assured us they could fix our trouble spots, which are 2 front closets that are so cold we can't even use them in the winter and they make the whole front of the house cold, our sons bedroom, that doesn't get much airfow out of the register, so its always cold, (they didn't address this at all) and an area in the basement that had lots of cold air coming in. If these people call you for an energy audit, don't even bother to let them in your home, it was totally not worth it.

To make a long story short, the interior waterproofing procedure performed by BSO did not fix the water problems at all. The salesman recommended the incorrect approach to solve our water problem. The basement already had a working interior waterproofing/drainage system, which he said wasn't working. What the basement really needed was the outside foundation excavated, repaired and re-waterproofed due to the corrosion of the existing, original material used 30 years prior. I must say, the crew at BSO that did the work was very professional, prompt and courteous. The technician that came out to service the water problems after it was installed wanted to solve the problem by drilling holes into our concrete block walls to allow the water to enter their system. Other than this bizarre "fix", which we refused, the company itself has not given me any problems with trying to collect or blame me for anything. I would imagine they realized their salesman was at fault in his recommendation. Thankfully, after filing claims with our credit card company, the attorney general's office and the Better Business Bureau, we were issued a full refund through our credit card company. We have since had the proper outside waterproofing procedure done by another company and have not had any water problems.

The work turned out okay for us. We chose them based on the descriptions and recommendations on Angie?s List. We would use them in the future.

(Note: This company appears to operate under several different names, including Basement Finishing Systems of Ohio LLC, Ohio Basement Systems LLC, and we believe they are/were affiliated with Owens-Corning Basement Finishing Systems.) We saw a booth for this company at a local festival and wanted them to come over to give us a "free" waterproofing estimate/evaluation, as well as some information on a basement finishing project. The representative we met at the festival pressured us to set up an appointment, and we found a time when my husband could be home to meet them. I wasn't able to be home during their working hours in the near future. Even though the representative pushed me to be there (which I just couldn't), she still set up the appointment. My husband then got a "reminder" phone call from this company the day before the appointment in which the caller again asked if I was going to be there, as well. When informed that my husband would be home alone for the appointment, the caller got rather belligerent and insisted that the appointment be rescheduled for a time when both of us could be there. My husband again demurred, saying that he was able to speak on behalf of both of us. The caller then stated that he would call back to find out when we could both be there, and the company rep never showed up for the appointment. I can't take time off work (and lose pay) just to be there for an appointment my husband is perfectly capable of handling without me.

It went well. It was on the expensive side. They did do the work when they were supposed to and did the work quickly. They did a good job. It was a little dusty after the job was done. They could have probably done a little better job at cleaning up.

The salesman was excellent and totally knew his product. He spent time making sure I understood without being condescending. Everything was great but the price. For several thousand less, I contracted for the service that Basement Systems of Ohio was selling, and had several other components that Basement Systems didn't suggest or offer.

It went horribly. It was supposed to take 3-5 days to complete. More than 3 months later, the work wasn't finished and I was still calling constantly to get them to finish. The crew they sent spent most of their time swearing and leaving trash on my neighbors' yards. On the first day they were supposed to remove all demolition materials, but I was cleaning up for months after the project. On the second day, they were jack hammering the basement floor and broke through the drain pipe from my kitchen sink. They didn't bother to tell me, and I found it after they left. I called to complain, and they sent out a plumber to fix the pipe. I had to call the next day because the plumber didn't fix the pipe properly and it was backing up in the sink. They disconnected my washing machine to demo and install the waterproofing system, and when I reconnected it (they couldn't bother to do it) it didn't work anymore. I asked them to send someone to take a look at it and fix it, but after a month of going to the laundry mat, I fixed it myself. After they finished the waterproofing system, they were supposed to install glass block windows. Instead of sending a professional, they sent someone that had never installed glass block windows. Instead of specifying the correct window size, they purchased an easily available size of window, and used 2x4s to "fill in" the extra space. Instead of using the same windows, they used mismatched windows with different vent types. Instead of using the proper cement, they installed the windows and 2x4s with regular cement. The 2x4s were visible from the outside, along with gaps so large you could see the cold air blowing into the house! After complaining for months, they finally sent out a professional crew that they outsourced from another company to redo the windows with the proper size glass block windows. They only ordered 5 windows for the company to install, and there are 6 windows in the basement. About 4 months after the project started, the other company finished the last window. I wish I had the name of the outsourced company, because the two men that came to my house were the most professional and sincerely nice people I worked with over the entire 4 months! HORRIBLE!!!!

The work was done professionally and on time. The crew of two to three people cleaned up after each days work. The work took a week and the crew showed up promptly at 8:30 each day. The job consisted of installing 4 new doors and a drop ceiling as well as the walls mentioned above. The doors, ceiling and floors were trimmed out with cherry molding that looks great!

The workers were very courteous and honest. They did damage one of our brand new windows, but they were up front about it and it was repaired so I am very satisfied with their work.

I did not select this company to do work because I have an older home. I had an understanding that was to inform the company by mid December 2007 to let them know whether or not I was going to use them. I did so via phone and had also asked for my refund. I have since called and left voice mail messages with the Billing (Finance) Department at least 5 times and have not received any reply. Needless to say, I am not pleased and extremely disappointed with this company. Even though I have seen this company's work thru an associate's referral. I may recommend them if you were ready to pay immediately. I COULD NOT recommend this company if you had to deal with any financial issues (refunds, payments) because of an incompetent Billing (Finance) Department.

They did not cover my belongings as they had promised. All my stuff got covered with dust and debris, my washer and dryer got a lot of debris in them, we had a hard time cleaning them out. My drain got filled with debris also. We went down and covered the stuff ourselves, when we saw what a mess it was. They did not do a good job of clean up as they promised. The sump pump does not look as if it is installed right. It sits up too high for floor water to go into it. Overall, I don't like the way it looks, some of the installation looks sloppy. I think they could have done a much better job. They came back out and inspected it and said they can't make it any better. Oh, they also apologized for the mess, and for getting debris in and on all my stuff. The price is way too high for what you get.

I did not get any other prices to compare to. It was a two day job. A day after it was completed, the sump pump alarm went off and it was malfunctioning. I left two voicemails Monday and someone called back later in the day. They came out Tuesday and fixed the problem. They were willing to work around my work schedule so I didn't have to take additional time off so I was please with that.