Penguin Basements

Penguin Basements were recommended to us by our nephew. Our expectation was to have someone finish our basement legally, professionally and expertly and Penguin did not disappoint. Our first interaction was with the design consultant Dave Trumbull. He was friendly, honest and knowledgeable. After years of thought we had a design in mind for finishing our basement and yet after just a few minutes Dave suggested an alternative layout. Both my wife and I looked at each other and laughed because what he proposed was much better. Dave also found some ways to cut corners on the financial aspects of the project without sacrificing quality or appearance. Next we met with Amy Bray the interior decorator. She has a tremendous eye for matching colours and shapes to get the most eye-appealing design. We told her we were trying to keep costs down and like Dave she was determined to ensure we limited our upgrades to those items that would show a return if we ever sell our house. Finally we have Juliano Romagnuolo who was our project/site manager. He is simply outstanding. Personable, professional, responsive and eager to please. Send him a text and he gets back to you quickly with another text or a phone call as appropriate. No renovation is without mistakes. Some are cosmetic and others are more serious. We had a few cosmetic mistakes. Those we did have were identified by Juliano before we noticed them and he assured us they would be repaired. All of them were. One mistake we thought would be an issue was related to getting our floor tiled in the remaining unfinished area of our basement. When we mentioned it to Juliano he immediately contacted Dave Turnbull and asked him if his original design included tiling the unfinished area. Dave couldn’t recall but went to his notebook and found his design. He immediately called Juliano back and confirmed that the tiling should have been done. Thanks to Dave for his honesty and to Juliano who had the work done the next day. One last thing about Juliano, he has high expectations of himself and the people working with him. We never complained about the quality of work or the time being taken. In fact we were amazed by the work product at all times. But Juliano doesn’t wait for you to complain. If he isn’t happy with the workmanship (and he is picky) or the time the work is taking then he personally apologizes and sets out to get things done properly. He will even see if he can get an upgrade thrown in for your inconvenience. He is a true ambassador for Penguin Basements and a 10 out of 10!