Penguin Basements

We initially stumbled across Penguin basements through an open house that they were doing in our area. We went to see the work and the quality looked great.

The initial consultation was really long (3 hours). A lot of education on the right way to build basements and why Penguins materials are superior. I can totally see how it’s important for the company to highlight this but maybe it can be done in 20 minutes. It was meant to impress us but the consultation almost lost our business for Penguin. There is also an opportunity here to bring sample of materials such as baseboards to this meeting. Not having seen what a “standard selection” was prior to signing up….I was disappointed during the selection process at what the “standard” turned out to be. With 2+ hours of superior materials being thrown at me I assumed that it also applied to the finishings.

Amy in the design studio was great to work with. We aren’t the easiest customers (due to the standard selections) to work with but she was a trooper and put on a smile throughout some of our issues. Guy was also very accommodating here and we appreciated it.

The construction started very shortly after and the first step was floor and wall protection. I was impressed with the care they took and the materials used to protect my house. Well done here.

The phrase “too many cooks in the kitchen” is appropriate for the next couple of weeks. Robert the design guy, Eric the construction manager, Juliano the project manager, Seth the electrical guy and then Roberto the Finishing manager (Roberto is amazing and more on him later). I found it difficult to know who I should speak to when an issue came up. Communication between everyone was very poor. I often had to direct the “managers” to the buildertrend app to clarify what I paid for and was supposed to receive.

The buildertrend app is also either not being used properly by Penguin or not very useful overall. It was pitched during the initial consultation as a great way for me to communicate and know what is going on in my house at all times. A schedule was loaded when we started but is was static and never changed. Over half of the time the schedule was wrong and when there were days off scheduled trades still showed up to work. This proved to be a problem as I specifically asked to be notified of when the floor was going to be laid so I could ensure it was cleaned prior.

The trades treat your house like you would expect at a mass production home builder. Some showed your house respect and others not so much. Painters and framers were awesome. The drywallers and carpenters were not.

The construction process itself went fairly smooth.

However, there were many little things that happened during construction that in isolation aren’t big issues but combined they were significant. My internet was unplugged on two separate occasions, the furnace was turned off, the hot water tank unplugged, my central vacuum not installed correctly, heaters left on all night, disgusting food scraps left everywhere that I had to clean, cans of paint delivered and left on my driveway for 3 days until I decided to move them into the garage, wall stone not delivered.

It should be simple --- if you need to unplug something, plug it back in before you leave so I’m not calling Seth at 7:00 wondering why I have no hot water or my furnace isn’t working..…It became comical where every night I was wondering what I’d have to call Juliano or Seth about.

There were two larger issues that we encountered:
1. At least a dozen of my husband’s beer were drank from our fridge and the empties left for me. It didn’t bother us, it was hot and I’m glad they enjoyed them. Some people may have issues with someone going into your fridge and taking your beer without your consent.
2. I paid for upgraded tiles however the tiles used were the wrong ones and and they were also laid in the wrong pattern I selected.

The finishing manager Roberto was amazing. Penguin needs to clone him. He was always available for questions, took accountability for everything and in general just knew how to get stuff done. He wasn’t all talk. When I called him about the wrong tiles he even offered to come to our house at 9:00 in the evening to tear up the tiles before they set. We can’t thank him enough. Penguin is truly lucky they have someone like Roberto!

Overall, now that the basement is 99% completed we are very happy with the finished basement. Penguin has nailed the finished product. Throughout the process I was always confident that Penguin would resolve anything that went wrong.

Would I recommend Penguin basements? They are definitely more expensive than other contractors and aren’t afraid to tell you what makes them so good. Because of this, my expectations were high and until the finishing stage I would have said No, I wouldn’t recommend them. The value isn’t there. You can’t have so many mix-ups and at the same time charge a premium price. Roberto restored my faith and we’ve ended the project on a very positive note.