Pavel Abaev, CEO

Pavel founded BasementRemodeling.com with a simple belief that still drives the company today: homeowners deserve a remodeling experience they don't regret — from the first conversation to the final walkthrough.

Over the past decade and a half, he has built BasementRemodeling.com into the DMV's most specialized basement finishing company — completing more than a hundred basement projects every year for homeowners across Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia. He did it by choosing focus over scale, craftsmanship over shortcuts, and people over process.

From Helper to CEO

Pavel arrived in the United States on July 4, 2006 — Independence Day — as a 21-year-old college student from Russia. He came on a summer cultural exchange program to improve his English and experience America firsthand, and within a week he knew he wasn't going back.

With limited English and no connections, he started in construction as a helper making $8 an hour. He learned the trade the way most people in his industry never do — from the ground up, with his own hands. Roofing in 110°F heat. Demolition work in row houses. Hotel renovations from Richmond to Phoenix. By the time he registered ACH Group LLC on July 7, 2009, he had already lived every role he would later lead.

Why Basements — and Why Specialization Matters

In the early years, ACH Group took on every kind of remodeling work that came through the door — bathrooms, kitchens, additions, even custom homes and commercial projects. The company built a strong reputation along the way, becoming a top-rated contractor on Angi (formerly Angie's List). But Pavel learned an important lesson during that time: doing everything means doing nothing exceptionally well.

In 2016, he made the decision that defines BasementRemodeling.com today: focus exclusively on basements. Not because basements were the easy choice, but because they were the right one. Basements are one of the largest projects a homeowner can take on, but unlike kitchens and additions, they don't disrupt daily life. They're an opportunity to expand a home meaningfully without turning it upside down for months.

By committing to one type of project, Pavel was able to build something most remodelers never can: a truly standardized, deeply-experienced operation. His designers don't guess at basement layouts — they've designed hundreds. His project managers don't learn basement permits on the fly — they've handled them in every jurisdiction across the DMV. His finishing crews don't approach each project as a new challenge — they bring lessons from a hundred past projects to every new one.

A Different Kind of Remodeling Company

Most remodeling companies operate the same way they did thirty years ago: paper estimates, phone tag, scattered emails, surprises mid-project. Pavel built BasementRemodeling.com to be different.

The company employs a full-time software engineer — almost unheard of for a residential remodeler — and has developed proprietary tools that power every stage of the client experience:

• Homeowners can get an instant cost estimate in under 60 seconds through the BasementRemodeling.com online cost calculator.
• Free in-home consultations can be scheduled online without picking up the phone.
• Detailed, professionally-designed proposals are generated in minutes, not days.
• Contracts are signed electronically.
• Project schedules, permit timelines, inspections, and weekly progress updates are all managed through custom dashboards built in-house.

The result: a team of fewer than 20 people completes over 100 basement projects per year — across DC, Maryland, and Virginia — while maintaining the kind of quality and consistency that most large companies can only promise.

A Team Built From Within

Pavel's director of operations, Elena Lupan, began as an office assistant eight years ago. His senior project manager, Gheorghe Chaminschi, started at BasementRemodeling.com as a helper more than thirteen years ago. Wilfredo Lopez, one of the company's top project managers, started by delivering materials. And Eric Campbell, the company's leading designer and salesperson, came up through the field as a project manager.

This isn't an accident. It's a philosophy.

"If you want to grow, there's no limit here. The company keeps expanding, so there's always room for the right person."

The team Pavel has built represents nine different countries, a wide range of backgrounds, and a shared standard of craftsmanship that comes from being trusted, invested in, and held to a high bar.

The BasementRemodeling.com Standard

Walk into a finished BasementRemodeling.com project and you'll notice things that most homeowners wouldn't. The trim sits flush. There are no visible nail holes. The cabinet reveals are even. The paint coverage is uniform on every wall, in every light condition. That level of finish doesn't happen by accident — it happens because the people doing the work have been trained, equipped, and supported to deliver it.

What Pavel wants every BasementRemodeling.com client to feel — from the first phone call to the final walkthrough — is the confidence that they made the right decision. That they're in the right hands. That when something on the project doesn't go as planned (because in construction, something always does), the team will own it, fix it, and move forward.

That's why, when something does go wrong, the response is always the same: full accountability, no excuses, and the project gets finished right.

Beyond the Job Site

Outside of work, Pavel's greatest joy is time spent with his young son. Weekends usually involve trips to the National Children's Museum, swim and gymnastics classes, long walks, playgrounds, and — almost always — a slice of pizza, even if his son only takes one or two bites.

Pavel is a constant reader of business and leadership books, listens to podcasts ranging from the Lex Fridman Podcast to Tony Robbins, and credits classic books like Good to Great, The One Thing, Think and Grow Rich, and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People with shaping how he runs his life and his company.

He also kept his teenage love of drumming alive — there's a drum set at company headquarters in DC, a small reminder of where the journey started.

What's Next for BasementRemodeling.com

Over the next five years, Pavel is focused on bringing the BasementRemodeling.com standard to homeowners in every major metropolitan area across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast — and eventually further south and west. The company will grow significantly, but the headquarters will remain in DC, and the standard for quality, craftsmanship, and customer experience will only continue to rise.

For Pavel, success isn't measured in revenue or square footage. It's measured in the homeowners who come back to BasementRemodeling.com years later for their next project — and the team members who started here as helpers, drivers, and assistants, and built their careers under one roof.

"Ordinary things, consistently done, provide extraordinary results."

That principle is the foundation of everything BasementRemodeling.com does — and it's the reason homeowners across the DMV trust the company to transform the most overlooked part of their home into the most loved.