Beautiful Basements No Longer In Business

Stay as far away from this company as you can get. Merek and his crew are bad news. They did terrible work and walked out on the job while it was far from finished. They are the worst company we have ever dealt with for anything. Do yourself a favour and do not hire them.

I hired Beautiful Basements [removed owners name] to finish my basement,WHAT A MISTAKE. Much like many of the previous comments, he takes almost all of your money and then walks off the job. Then the contractor actually doing the work offers to finish the job, but of course you must pay him as well. His pattern is clear, and seems to be continuing.

The only time you see or hear from him is when he wants to get paid, otherwise he is like a ghost. Trying to get in touch with him is next to impossible, he claims his phone is off or in a basement or in an area where his phone has no reception.

Now I know why he did not answer his phone, he was screening his calls so that the many other unsatisfied people could not get a hold of him.

His subs all claim he is not paying them and try to make you feel guilty and sorry for them so that you will pay them directly.

He will promise you the world, but in the end all you get is frustrated and a half finished basement (if you're lucky).

His showroom is full of samples of material but when it is time to deliver he claims that it is out of stock and that you can get a better selection if you buy it yourself and he will credit you. Don't you believe it.

Overall, he turned my dream basement into a nightmare.

Our basement is finished, finally; however, Marek is now over four months in arrears to the tile company for the tile installation which was completed on June 24, 2007. The owner of the tile company has been very patient, but he is considering putting a contrator's lien against our house because of this unpaid bill. Marek's own tile subcontractor refused to take this job so he contacted the company from which we purchased the tile and used their installer. His plumber also was not available to do our job, so Marek contacted our plumbers. He also did not pay them in a timely manner. This seems to be a pattern. He has told us he will make the payment over and over again, and even knowing that we have contacted the Better Business Bureau and the Ministry of Consumer Affairs has not prompted Marek to actually make the payment. Marek, if you read this, you need to understand that we won't stand for a lien against our home. Pay the bill. We emailed you the address of the tile company again today, Nov 8, 2007.

We engaged in a project with Beautiful Basements to re-construct and finish our basement. We were very pleased with the quality of the work as well as the timeline and how it was followed closely. We were also very pleased with the company representative, Marek, and how he was always available to assist us in any way, or answer any questions at any time. We would definately recommend Beautiful Basements to anybody looking to finish their basement in the future! Our experience was great!

Wow...what a bad experience ! We were outright lied to over the phone many, many times, the building code was not followed in many places, AND they cashed all the cheques but left with over $2000 of unfinished work. Good luck complaining to Marek or Dave, they just don't return phone calls after a while. The work that was completed was OK quality. If you MUST use them, don't use their contract, make your own and include everything down to the smallest detail and stick with your hold back until everything is done. Enough venting !

In response to Marek's response for more information, I sent him a 500 word email on September 6th outlining the issues.....still no response, what a shock !

With all the bad press about his company, its hard to believe anyone would use them in the future.

Just as the previous reviews, this was a BAD experience. The company is shady, they use subcontractors for all aspects, therefore timelines and quality are all blamed on the subs. Originally we were told the job will take 3 to 4 weeks, they worked on it for 3 months, after which Marek walked away claiming lack of resources and left the basement unfinished.

He demands payment up front, please do not fall for it, as you can see from these reviews he does not deliver. Any reputable establishment takes a downpayment, and majority is paid once the job is done. CUSTOMER BE AWARE

This company left us with an unfinished basement project, having received substantially all progress payments.
The ventiliation to the upper floor kitchen was cut off and required opening the basement ceiling to restore heat/air flow.