Clean Construction / Basement Makeovers / Medina, Ohio
Basement makeovers for Medina — Victorian cellars near the Square and tall poured basements in the new neighborhoods, finished by one crew with moisture solved first.
Medina basements span 130 years of construction. Under the Victorians near Public Square you'll find true cellars — stone walls, modest ceilings, mechanicals accumulated across generations. Under the newer streets off Route 18 you'll find poured nine-footers that the builder left as bare studs and potential. Brad finishes both, and the honest first step is telling you which kind of project you actually have.
The old cellars are the craftsman's version of the job: moisture management designed for stone, framing and soffits that make peace with a century of pipes and beams, and realistic talk about ceiling height — sometimes the win is a stunning office or den rather than pretending it's a great room. The new-build basements are the opposite: blank, tall, dry, and ready for the full makeover — family room, bar, guest suite, gym, theater wall.
Any bedroom below grade gets a code egress window. Insulation is below-grade-rated foam, not damp-prone batts. Electrical, plumbing, and finishing permits run through the City of Medina Building Department with inspections at the stages that protect you. One crew, Brad on site, from first stud to final trim.
Around Medina, finishing a basement without solving its moisture is just installing expensive mold food. Brad assesses how your foundation, grading, and sump actually handle water — and fixes what needs fixing — before a single stud goes up.
Bare fiberglass against block walls is how basements grow that smell. Brad builds with below-grade-rated foam insulation, moisture-tolerant flooring, and assemblies that can dry — so the finished room stays a room instead of becoming a science experiment.
A below-grade bedroom legally requires an egress window — a real escape opening cut and flashed into the foundation. Brad builds it into the plan from day one, along with the smoke/CO, outlet, and stair details the Residential Code of Ohio expects.
Your furnace, water heater, panel, and sump all live down there, and they'll all need attention someday. Brad frames access into the design — doors, panels, clearances — so the finished basement never has to be opened up with a drywall saw. Permits run through the City of Medina Building Department.
The finish carpentry shown here — millwork, trim, countertops — is the same work that goes into Clean Construction basement bars and built-ins. More in the full portfolio.
Family room, guest suite, bar, gym, office — or "all of it, somehow." Rough ideas are fine. If you know the basement has a damp history, say so up front; it changes nothing about whether Brad will take the job and everything about how he plans it.
Moisture evidence, ceiling heights, mechanical locations, where the sump discharges, where an egress window could go. This is where the honest constraints surface — and where the plan starts fitting your actual house in Medina, not a Pinterest board.
Layout, finishes, and a line-by-line number — framing, insulation, electrical, plumbing, drywall, flooring, trim. Nothing buried. Money is settled in the contract before anything starts.
Permits pulled, rough-ins inspected, insulation and drywall in, floors and doors and trim down, punch list closed. Brad is on site through it. Most basements run four to eight weeks depending on scope — you get the schedule before work starts.
Yes — finishing a basement is real construction: framing, electrical, usually plumbing and HVAC changes, each with its own permit and inspections through the City of Medina Building Department. Brad handles the drawings, applications, and every inspection. Unpermitted basement finishes are a classic problem at resale; yours won't be one.
Yes. The Residential Code of Ohio requires any below-grade sleeping room to have an emergency escape opening — in practice, an egress window cut into the foundation with a code-sized well. Brad cuts, flashes, and finishes egress windows as part of the job, and they have the side benefit of real daylight.
Usually, yes. If your home has a rough-in under the slab, it's the natural spot and saves real money. Without one, the options are slab cutting to reach the drain line or an up-flushing system — both legitimate, each with trade-offs Brad will lay out plainly, along with what your specific house makes practical.
Most run four to eight weeks of build time depending on scope — a straightforward family room lands at the short end; a suite with a bathroom and egress window at the long end. Rough-in inspections set the rhythm. You get a schedule before work starts, and Brad tells you the same day when something moves it.
Scope drives it — square footage, bathroom or not, egress, and finish level — so Brad doesn't quote blind. He walks the basement, then you get a written, itemized estimate with every line explained. The walkthrough and the estimate cost you nothing.
Often yes — with a design that owns the height instead of fighting it. Code allows finished basement spaces at lower ceiling heights than most people assume, and the tricks that work are real: shallow soffits only where ducts demand them, flat ceiling details instead of bulky drops, lighting that washes walls rather than hanging down. A 7-foot den done deliberately beats an 8-foot basement that never got finished.
Fill this out or call him directly. Either way you're talking to the person who builds it.
Brad will call you back the same day. If it's urgent, call him directly at 440-315-4438.