Penguin Basements

So here is our experience working with Penguin, and you can judge things on you own. Hired the team for the kitchen and 2 bathrooms renovation, Guy, the owner, walked through the process and all very professional. The project got a bit delayed during pandemic but at the end they have completed the work. Now one year after, we discovered one of the bathroom grouts all got chip away, and clearly a design flaw. Especially the biggest selling point for us to hire them was because they told us they will waterproof the entire bathroom. So we reached out for warranty.

April
Contact the team on April 6th to get one of their team member to assist the damage. Sent over more than 10 emails finally they told us someone would come visit on April 21th, confirmed the date within hours of the emails. On the 21th, waited all day, no one showed up. Got a bit upset and emailed again finally able to get one of team members on 25th. The Penguin employee showed up on the 25th asked us to replace the bathroom fan and they would take care rest of the damages.

May
Used the contact they referred to us, and it took the fan guy almost one month plus $1000 to get the fan replaced. Contacted Penguin again since we fulfilled their request. Then we got completely ghosted by the project manager. Weve sent a daily email to follow up but he basically just ignored us at this point. Had to emailed to owner, and finally got a response after almost 2 weeks. Got a call and told us that he will be coming Friday, June 10th, to get the job done.

June
Forward to June 10th, again waited all day with no show, no email, nor call. Messaged the person at the end of the day got no response, messaged him again on Monday June 13th with no response.

So this is what weve experienced, and it just felt chaotic and unprofessional at this point. We are very disappointed at the outcome from this. When you work on any expensive home project, trust is always the number one things you look from a team. After weve been deceived so many times, it will be impossible at this point to trust this team anymore for us.

We wanted to do our basement in this house where we have been for almost 4 years. We had previously used Guy and his crew at a previous house and i think was their 246th basement, now years later we were around the 2000th basement. The company has grown into a well oiled machine. From the meetings with Guy and Stephanie all through to the end (which was very fast) we had great people helping along the way. The basement is stunning and now we have a perfect space downstairs to fill our needs. Thank you to Guy, Stephanie, Roberto, Victor, Fabio, Ryan, Lisa, Santi, Claudio and Josh, plus all the amazing trades, the framers, drywallers, painters, electricians and plumbers. They were all so professional and such experts at what they do. Would i go back for a third time, absolutely. Definitely would recommend you going to Penguin Basements for your space. Check out the photos of my new oasis.

We highly recommend Penguin Basements as they delivered the job we expected. We wanted a contractor that will get proper permits for the basement reno project to ensure work is done to code and no corners are cut. Secondly, we wanted quality sourcing of materials but at fair affordable pricing. Last but not least, we wanted the project to be completed within reasonable timeline and proper communication throughout the process. Penguin Basement delivered on all three criterias that are important to us!

I would recommend Penguin to anyone considering renovating or finishing their basements. Our project was large and appeared daunting just thinking about it - however the team at Penguin did an incredible job of making the process seamless in execution, completed in a timely manner and executing our vision and taste. The workers were respectful and diligent in their jobs and we were overall very impressed with our final product. We did not think it could be accomplished as quickly as it was! Our family is very happy with our basement.

OVERVIEW:
We all have the dream of being financially free and the true time-tested venture is without any doubt REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT.
I started my road to FINANCIAL FREEDOM in 2014 and armed with the knowledge gained by following a few financial gurus, I decided to do a few house flip to better POSITION myself and my family for the VISION and JOURNEY ahead.
Fast forward to 2020, with my first legal secondary suite basement apartment for my rental property in Wasaga Beach I decided to research and hire a company that can take my project from start to finish with minimal interruption or involvement from myself. After narrowing down the list, I decided to hire Penguin Basements.
The owner and his dedicated team members delivered on their promises and honored our contractual agreement without sacrificing quality or workmanship. The finished basement surpassed our expectations even though there were challenges on constraints during the Covid pandemic and my high expectations.
INITIAL QUOTE PROCESS/CONTRACT: The owner provided us with a well thought suggestions and ideas for our basement renovation as well as any drawbacks to ideas we had. His expertise and honesty were indeed a breath of fresh air after hearing about some renos gone bad with other friends and family. He provided us with a quote and also mentioned areas that may potentially increase the cost. He sat down with us and went through the detailed pricing and contract with us and answered all our questions. Having this pricing contract with all the related costs of services was useful as a reference guide as my wife and I used it to determine whether additional work would be within our budget or not.
DESIGN/MEASUREMENTS/ MATERIAL SELECTION: A Penguin team member visited us at our property to map out our basement dimensions and layout. Few days after we met with the design and selection team at Penguin Basements office in Toronto. The team have s great eyes and the ability to articulate design, colors and materials to fit our budget and appeal. Their suggestions were spot on and the teams professionalism was very much appreciated.
SEPARATE ENTRANCE: The concrete team came to the site and have the entrance cut out and a beautiful double entry door was installed with the sump pump as required per code.
PLUMBING WORK: George and his team came to the site to start the plumbing rough-ins for our washroom and kitchen. What a pleasure to have this plumbing expert work on our basement. His workmanship was impeccable and you could tell he completed the work as if it were his own home. They were even flexible and accommodating as I had decided to do some extra work on the upstairs. Of course, it came with an associated cost but I was thankful for the quality of workmanship.

ELECTRICAL- I met with the electrician and he took us through step by step the electrical components and work to be completed. However, like any project hiccups are unforeseen and with this project, it was a misunderstanding about separate meter/electrical panel. However, a meeting was held for clarifications with Penguin Basement team, the electrician, Wasaga Distribution and ESA to sort out everything. It was well handled and taken care of as I always wanted a hands-off approach to the project.
FRAMING & DRYWALL TEAM: The framing supervisor and his crew were amazing! The amount of work they completed and the quality were unbelievable. You honestly could tell these professionals took pride in their work and it showed. They were very respectful of our property and conducted themselves in that manner.
TAPING DRYWALL: The professionals who taped and sanded our drywall did an amazing job. I feel as though a major component of a good quality basement is the type of taping work done on the drywall. This team did not disappoint!
FINISHING TEAM: A review was done with myself and the project manager, who took pride and ensured any of my concerns were addressed. (I am a very picky client for sure lol). The finishing supervisor and his team exceeded every expectation that impressed us with their skills, workmanship and work ethic.
We were thoroughly pleased with Penguins Basements once our basement was completed. If you are looking for promises to be kept, a consistent work ethic, professionalism, skill level across all work teams and a quality finished basement, you need look no further than Penguin Basements!!!!

After an overdue 42 years, we finally convinced our mother to do a basement renovation. We choose Penguin Basements based on my sisters recommendation as she was very impressed with their work. Penguin completely transformed our dark cold dungeon into a bright, new, and updated living space we can enjoy as a family. Thank you to all the friendly and professional office staff for working and guiding us throughout this new project which was completely foreign to us. A very special thanks to all the contractors for their exceptional work they have done our basement. It was amazing to see our basement changing throughout each phase. The experienced contractors worked diligently on their specific jobs with smiles on their faces. We cant thank you enough, and throughly appreciate everything you all have done for us. We love our new basement!

D & M

basement!

We hired Penguin to finish our basement. Overall it was a very good experience. They completed the project in a very timely manner (1.5 months) and used quality materials throughout the build. The buildertrend app is very convenient and does a great job of keeping everything in one central place. The entire build was done with all the proper permits and inspections so I have peace of mind knowing everything was done right and in the future if I want to sell my house there will be no problems.

Overall, the entire experience was very smooth with any hiccups being quickly sorted out by Lisa and the penguin team. I would recommend Penguin to anyone who is looking to have quality work done at a competitive price.

We built our basement with them, on the last they asked us to leave a positive review even though they had some work left to finish, I left the review in good fate but that was my mistake, they never came back to finish the work even after several calls they kept gave us the run around and than later also we found out their Electritians installed fake fire alarms in the basement none of them worked. Thats such a big negligence. Their after service horrible and I highly doubt they will cover any kind of warranty if anything goes wrong. Please beware of their service it was my flowery expericne and they are highly unreliable

I do not recommend this company as they are very unorganized, and expensive and not very friendly. I do recommend you look elsewhere as you will not be happy with your project when dealing with penguin basement. It was our worst experience ever and would never use them again.

The project length was 8 month and finished this year. The location is in Kitchener