Penguin Basements

I hired Pengiun Basements to finish the basement in my new-build home. We created an open concept family space, with a kitchen servery, kids play area, tv area and full bathroom. The project started on time. 90% of the work was complete within two weeks of the start date, incuding digging and refilling significant trenches. Some of the final steps like cabinetry installation took a couple of weeks longer. The process was well coordinated. I appreciated the attention that was paid to ensuring the work was done to Code and securing the appropriate permits. The site supervisor, Fabio, was professional and paid attention to every detail to ensure that the final result was beautiful. This is a company that is very proficient in completing basements. I recommend that anyone planning to complete their basement plan every detail before the work starts, as the plans are somewhat set in stone once the work begins.

I am really satisfied with the company performance in terms of workmanship and the quality of the materials and the construction. My only complain is the quality of work of the cleaners and the communication in terms of the time of response of my messages posted in buildertrend and the communication between traders, site Manager and Central office. However, I recommend 100% Penguin Basement for your basement finishing.

Our basement was completed quickly and in less time than promised! We were impressed with the efficiency of the workmen, as well as our Project Manager, Vince Sciarf. He always took the time to ensure the quality was up to the standards the company promised even if meant staying later to finish the job properly. We felt very comfortable with the project as a result of his management of our project. We would definitely recommend them.

We are so happy with our Reno from Penguin Basements. They were quick, clean and friendly and our project manager Josh went above and beyond to complete our Reno. We would highly recommend them if you are looking for a high quality basement renovation!

Very slick sales people. We interviewed several companies and went with Penguin based on the presentation given, apparent quality and supposed 9-day deliverable time-frame which to us, with a baby on the way and relatives coming to town, was important and worth the extra cost over competitors. In addition, the majority of reviews seemed to be good. One thing that was definitely not clear in the sales pitch is that almost everything is an add-on. The 'standard' basement they quote includes very basic materials and clearly the ones they show as examples are not that and include every add-on under the sun. You only really find out the true cost when you go to select materials.

The salesman also made it clear that the reason they can turn around basements so quickly is that they don't use sub-contractors, everyone is a Penguin employee. After talking to several of the tradespeople working on our basement, I have my doubts. Not only had they never met or worked with the site supervisor, they said they just get a call the day before and show up where they need to, some didn't even know his name. Even if they in fact were Penguin employees, there seemed to be a lack of communication and I wound up having to play coordinator (the majority didn't even have the code to the lockbox to let themselves in).

Payment schedule was conveniently set up on a 9-day timeline, to go along with the completion timeframe. Start date was June 7, 2018. We're now October 31, 2018 and it's still not fully complete (waiting for re-painting, sanding and finishing a wall that they had to come back and cut a hole in to finish the plumbing that was missing a part to be functional, fixing drywall on the bulkhead). There was no problem collecting the money on time, however. I even had the hot water tank and furnace moved along with associated duct work prior to Penguin beginning and so the major work really was electrical (which only took a day and a half or so), framing (which only took one day) and drywall and plumbing in the bathroom.

The job began well and it's a very simple basement and the site supervisor was responsive and on top of things. Part way through the job, I found out the site supervisor had quit, but no one ever told me. I only found out because no one was showing up when scheduled and I was getting no answer from him either via cell or on the Penguin app.

A new site supervisor was provided who initially seemed on top of things and then again, silence. Turns out he was promoted or changed positions and no one told me. Again, I found out by calling and emailing. Many times, contractors were supposed to come out, but either missed the days or the time/date wasn't communicated to them (plumber on several occasions - shower was only made operational one month ago - too late for the in-law visit) so we had to make do. Clearly once the major pieces of the basement are complete and they have your money, you drop to the bottom of the importance pile and here we are, almost 5 months later.

Overall the basement looks ok. You can still see joins in the drywall, some doors don't close properly, and the painting was less than stellar. There were delays getting materials throughout the project and the site supervisor even asked if I could source a part myself and they would reimburse me because he couldn't find where his team had put it when they initially removed it. I'm not amazed by the work and less so because of the delays, changes and lack of communication. I'm still waiting to hear back from the site supervisor who said last week that he would call on Monday to sort out coming out and finalizing everything. I'm not holding my breath and am pretty tired of having to chase people down and follow-up constantly. Maybe Penguin is taking on too many jobs to be able to service everyone appropriately and so they are understaffed. The employees they do have are very friendly, but that doesn't cut it when you want your basement finished.

We engaged Penguin after looking some options and visiting some basements done in the area by Penguin and other companies- it gave us a better idea. Overall, the project went well with some challenges, which were addressed properly.

The team (trades) who participated was courteous, friendly, open to answer questions and receptive to address minor concerns, thank you all! I had the opportunity to be there in the key steps of the process who allowed me to understand better and be closer to the experience.

We had some communication challenges at the beginning; a big thanks to Angie who helped us a lot! The use of the app was not fully adopted. It was easy to contact Vince our site Super directly, who was very professional and totally focused to meet our expectations and solve some arising issues. A big thanks to Vince for his dedication and for the attention to those details that made a whole difference.

The project ran behind 4 days, however at the end it was a positive balance since there was more time to review and address in a better way the outstanding activities and some details.

Overall we are happy with the look of our new basement. Thank you!

I would not recommend Penguin basement contractors to anyone.
they will never return your phone calls once you signed the contract.
meanwhile they keep cashing your checks.
Be aware about plumbing with these people they will decide to shut off your current plumping without asking your permission. and then they refuse to come out to fix their own caused problem.
If something you don't like about the work their answer would be oh this is how we do it. just like they don't give dam about your concerns .
I have about 10 major concerns in my basement but they refuse to fix them and the reason (This is how we do our work)
Pot lights never worked from day one and they have yet to come out and fix them as its been over six months from completion date.
Please don't sign any contracts with these people.

Let's break down my rating - unfortunately HomeStars aggregates the score for "How satisfied are you with this company" and "How likely are you to recommend this company" together. We would rate them 3/5 stars and 0/5 stars for the respective categories.

We will detail our experience below, which I have adapted from a letter originally addressed to Penguin Basements (a.k.a. Penguin Renos a.k.a. Penguin Kitchens) (dated August 28, 2018) - you can refer to the photos/tables attached to see the types of issues we encountered. If you want the short verdict, see the "BOTTOM LINE" at the end of this review.

Our family decided to finish our basement because we wanted to be able to accommodate our growing family; we decided to go through a contractor as it would save time (note, the project started and "finished" within 2 weeks starting July 3rd, but deficiencies were not completed to our satisfaction until October 16th, 2018). Our initial meeting was in May 2018. We were impressed by the professional sales presentation, complete with demo of construction material samples. Despite a higher estimate for the project (i.e., approx. 500 sq. ft open area + 3 piece bath), we felt that our commitment to have the basement showcased would be reassurance of Penguin's pride in experience, quality and workmanship.

We encountered several issues along the way, many of which I had to address (on my own time, on my own dime). I ended up acquiring the necessary equipment and materials and rushing to adjust the HVAC (if the HVAC return/supplies were not easily/conveniently adjusted, Penguin proposed to delete them, even though it was explicitly indicated to us that those adjustments would be included). It was to my surprise that Penguin did not have any experience (nor provide the recommendation) to switch out a round to an oval supply so that there would not be a "jog" in the wall.

We also had various framing issues (most notably, a twisted column that Penguin tried to have us sign off on as "complete"), some issues of which were rather reluctantly addressed after much back-and-forth. When we mentioned the various issues to Penguin, the response we got from them was along the lines of “you won’t notice the imperfections once there’s furniture!”. We also had various electrical placement issues, some of which I had to address myself (otherwise it was indicated to me that we would be charged for a change order to get the electrician back even though it was recognized that the electrical was not placed correctly). After I addressed these issues myself, Penguin's overwhelming commentary was "it just tests how handy you are"! There were other issues that I pointed out (cracked grout in shower along the edges - which should be caulked with silicone as per standard practice, but when I pointed this out, my concerns were initially dismissed. What I don't understand is why I am having to spend my personal time and energy on fixing things that I have already paid for!

Penguin aspires/prides itself on doing its projects efficiently. However, it does so sometimes at the expense of brushing off client concerns. At one point we were aggressively put on the spot to make a last minute decision about choosing between two shower bases - both of which were not agreed upon at the Design Selection meeting. “Efficiency” in and of itself is never an excuse for poor customer service – these cases are made worse when the homeowner is pointing out problems that could potentially save the contractor significant time and effort from returning to the site to rectify problems.

The 3/5 satisfaction rating reflects the fact that they came back to do a decent job of addressing the majority of the deficiencies - but it took them over 3 months to come around to come to terms with them and to address them! It wasn't until I wrote an extensive letter at the end of August, complete with photos, for Penguin to take us seriously about addressing the issues. For the significant cost associated with this project (and the time/money I ended up spending to DIY), we cannot say we are completely satisfied with the money we spent - hence we would not recommend Penguin Basements (hence 0/5 recommendation rating) unless they address their customer service/workmanship issues (and an over-reliance on the customer to do-it-myself)! That being said, all Penguin staff were friendly and efficient - but it should never come at the cost of workmanship and customer service.

We have requested to speak to Mr. Guy Solomon (President) in our August 28th letter, but to date (October 19th) we have not heard from him. We are "satisfied" in the sense that they came back to fix things, but it shouldn't have come to the point where we had to write an extensive letter to convince Penguin that the job wasn't finished to our satisfaction.

As an aside, Penguin has recently indicated that they will be taking photos of our finished basement (which we have agreed to) rather than conducting the agreed-upon showcase.

BOTTOM LINE: If I had more free time, I would have been much more satisfied trying to get the basement done myself while contacting additional subcontractors for tasks for which I had less experience and/or did not have the equipment to complete. Of course, this is coming from someone that Penguin representatives have identified as "handy".

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UPDATE October 22, 2018
Reply to company response:

Let's clarify the facts: my spouse did not sign off on everything on the substantial completion list on August 3rd. This was because the fix applied to the twisted column was simply unacceptable and therefore, she intentionally did not sign off on it. Surprisingly, we received a call from the site supervisor the next day, telling us that our last cheque was to be deposited because the job was 100% complete.

We understand things go wrong/ not according to plan during construction projects - being in Civil & Environmental Engineering, I know this is the norm rather than the exception. Rather than aggressively forcing us into an immediate decision (like with the shower base the morning it needed to be installed when it was not our fault that different ones were delivered), things could be handled a little differently. (Telling us the morning after that our last cheque was to be deposited and the project was complete when we did NOT sign off on everything also really irked us....as is the case with you indicating to us that we signed off on everything, which is categorically NOT true!). All we're trying to say is, schedule extra time and do it well the first time! And if things need to be fixed, don't try to get us to sign off on something (which we didn't) that is less than what you hold your standards to be. Admit the issue up front, and takes steps to address it - no if's, or's, and's and but's!

Electrical: As we indicated in our table (and in the letter that we hope Guy has read), the site supervisor AGREED with us that the pot lights were not installed as per our instruction ("centred and evenly spaced"). We requested Penguin to rectify the locations BEFORE the drywall went up. This change in electrical location was NOT because of us changing our minds.

The jovial rapport is fine - just not at the point in time that the comments were made about using furniture to hide things when Penguin hasn't come to terms with the fact that the twisted column was unacceptable. Also, under the circumstances where electrical/HVAC needed to be adjusted, we had no "personal choice" but to DIY because otherwise we were told that multiple change orders would be added. In other words, if we didn't DIY, we would've had to pay twice to get it done right once!

Speaking of the outstanding balance, a colleague at Penguin received my payment information and should have already processed the payment earlier this afternoon. The only thing that was not accounted for is my time/materials spent on making the various adjustments and touch-ups, and drafting that extensive letter to Guy that finally convinced Penguin that the column (amongst other half-fixes) was unacceptable. For example, it was never made clear whether or not we would be reimbursed for HVAC materials to make the adjustment (an offer was never made at least as a courtesy); but then again, we also never agreed upon an hourly rate to charge for a handy engineer.

We look forward to hearing from Guy. A written response would be much appreciated.

They did a beautiful job in a awesome and efficient way. The job is amazing the proffesionalism is top notch and the whole team was a pleasure to work with