Advanced Basement Finishing

Advanced Basement Finishing is a small Swampscott outfit — a sole proprietorship at 1029 Humphrey Street with three employees, run by owner Ted Grab. The Better Business Bureau records it as started in January 2003, while a TrustedPros listing puts the start at 2000. The work is basement conversion: refinishing and remodelling basements into family rooms, entertainment rooms, home offices, storage rooms, wet bars, kitchenettes and bathrooms. It is demonstrably active. Building permit records show eight permitted projects, including six basement-finishing jobs in Medway and Westborough during 2025. The customer feedback that exists is bad, and it is specific. In a February 2022 review a customer wrote that they paid Ted Grab the full balance before the project was finished, said he took the money and did not complete the work, and told others to steer clear. That single review is the whole of BuildZoom's rating, which stands at 1.0 out of 5. A TrustedPros listing separately reports an overall customer rating of 2.3 from one review. Licensing is the other open question. BuildZoom's listing reports Home Improvement Contractor registration 140838 with an expiration date of 27 November 2015 and says no active licence is on file, while the permit record shows work continuing into 2025. The Better Business Bureau grades the business A+, which sits oddly against the rest of that picture. If you do consider them, do not pay in full ahead of completion — tie payments to milestones you can inspect. Ask for the current registration number and check it against the state registry yourself, and ask for references from the 2025 Medway jobs.