UPSCALE DOWNSTAIRS

At the outset, the people from Upscale Downstairs seemed very professional, and they gave us a pretty good price to finish the basement. Once the work started, it proceeded steadily, and was completed in a reasonable amount of time. The quality of the construction seemed decent. There were some hiccups in the process: their drywall subcontractors were not so professional, and some mistakes were made that had to be corrected. At the end, though, all the problems were corrected to my satisfaction, and the company even ate the cost of mistakes it made. The reason I give this company an F overall is that, a few months after the construction was completed, I received notice that they had not paid their suppliers, who put a lien on our property and are now suing us (along with about 15 other households) for the cost of materials used. My advice is to avoid the people who ran this company!!

We paid a quarter of the amount and demolition began. We didn't hear from them for a few weeks and tried to contact them. We finally found out that they have had some financial/legal difficulties and are going out of business. Demo went well and quickly. We wish they had gotten back to us sooner to let us know that they would not be able to complete the work.

It turned out beautifully despite everything, however I credit my husband playing "bad cop" to my "good cop" to get them to get everything right. I felt that had they been remodeling their own homes, they would have made sure they'd gotten in right the first time. Instead, they seemed to want to do an adequate job in hopes of getting away with the least amount of work rather than doing a quality job the first try. I am not one who does well with confrontation and had my husband handle that. When we initially had our consultation, we were told that everything we wanted was very doable. When it came down to it though, it was one thing after another of how they couldn't do what we wanted. Finally, they did but it took time and time again of getting it re-done until it was what we were originally promised. It seemed as if the left hand never knew what the right hand was doing. Communication between the contractor, the original sales person, the workers, and us was poor to say the least. It left a bad taste in our mouths. I was completely turned off when they came out to bring us a gift for working with them only to have him make disparaging remarks about the political sign I had in my yard. Very unprofessional. I tried to order more supplies from them recently. After a couple months, I finally contacted them again to find out the progress and was told the supplies were in and I should have them within a couple days. A week later with no communication, I canceled the order and will not work with them again.

One of the endemic problems with the construction industry seems to be people being late or not showing up at all. This was absolutely not the case with Upscale Downstairs. When the direct employees had an appointment, we often saw them pull up in front of the house early so they could knock on the door right on time. Subcontractors also came though in a steady and rapid stream such that the work was done quickly. There was a little misunderstanding about the painting at one point, but the original plan of work said exactly what they did, so we can't really blame them for that. Some of the finish work didn't match the rest of the house exactly, but overall we were pleased with the quality of work and the final results.

I HIRED UPSCALE DOWNSTAIRS TO REMODEL MY BASEMENT. THEY ARE VERY HELPFUL. THEY WERE VERY FLEXIBLE WITH MY SCHEDULE. THE STAFF WAS VERY FRIENDLY. I WOULD DEFINITELY HIRE THEM AGAIN. THEY ARE GREAT.