Penguin Basements

Penguin basements is a great company to do any renovation you have the workers are great very polite and respectful and they they work long and hard to finish my basement . We are so please with the difference in our basement from what it looked like so much better its amazing how they designed it and made it look bigger and brighter we are so pleased with there work that we have a nother project for them and thats my kitchen remodel cant wait for them to get started on it they are a great company and fair cost call penguin basements for your next project you wont be disappointed with there work its amazing

I selected Penguin Basements after an online design consultation held over Zoom due to Covid. After meeting with several other basement renovation companies, Penguin stood out with their ability to create multiple designs on-the-fly and help us land up with a very practical and usable basement design which we want to be a flexible living & entertaining space. During the sales process, everything we were paying for was made clear and an easy to understand contract was sent out to us detailing everything we were getting. (The best part, there were no surprises or extra charges during the process)

Arranging Finance for the project through Sergei was a breeze and as soon as that was arranged, our project start date was scheduled in their brilliant app. I loved that I could see the start date and when everything would be done. I was very surprised that it was all scheduled to be completed within two weeks.

On Day 1, Roberto (our site manager and lead framer) arrived with his team to frame the basement. He confirmed I was happy with the plans, drew chalk lines and gave me the opportunity to stand in the space and ensure I was happy how the plans were transferred to reality...and I was very happy. The basement design was excellent! The best part of Day 1 was how the team put up plastic sheeting allow us to live unaffected in our safe bubble while the construction was ongoing - it kept the dust out and kept our family safe eliminating any risks of COVID (the team was also fully masked while on site). Our floors were also protected with special non-slip blue foam material.

The entire process was smooth with teams arriving on schedule and completing their work without any supervision or guidance necessary, executing on the plan as if they had done it 100 times before. Electrical and plumbing on day 2, boarding on day 3, taping and mudding, flooring and painting. Each team were specialists of their trade, came prepared with the basement plans, all the materials that they needed and expert advice when we needed to make a decision (such as where to place the light switches or LED downlights)

The two "issues" were a snowstorm on Tuesday which meant the trades couldn't get to us out in Orillia - this was swiftly handled by Lisa, our project coordinator. She let us know at 7.30am no one would be coming and by later that afternoon, most of the schedule was updated in the app and the project was back on track. The second was the toilet was broken in the box. We were informed by Justin a new toilet would need to be brought in, and that was done the next day without any fuss. The true test is how unexpected issues are solved as they always happen, and here Penguin scored full marks.

Each team cleaned up after their work, so the basement was a safe space to explore & show our kids the progress.

Two weeks and 1 day later (including cleaning!), the basement is complete and my only "punch list item" is a $2 piece of trim that was forgotten - I am highly impressed as I've never seen ANY contractor work as precisely and cleanly as the team who completed my basement.

Our basement is beautifully finished and the process was safe, convenient and super easy for us as homeowners. I am very detail oriented and difficult to please - but I would highly recommend Penguin Basements.

The following team members deserve special mention:

Guy (GM) - for being great to deal with during contracting and close out of the project

Lisa (Project Coordinator) - for quickly responding to my every question and keeping us informed about the schedule changes due to the snowstorm

Roberto (Site Manager) - for his friendly and charming nature, creating the bubble of protection blocking off the construction zone with heavy plastic sheeting and blue protective mats.

and the Electricians (both rough in and finishing) who were both great teams putting outlets in all the right spots and designing the LED Downlighter and switch placements perfectly.

Guy was so wonderful! When Penguin responded to my call, Guy was the one who helped me. He genuinely cared about my predicament and asked me really relevant questions about my situation that no other company had. I has spoken with a number of other companies before Penguin but this was the company that was most prepared. They already knew the square footage of my residence because they had researched my MLS listing before speaking to me. They used 3D scanning technology to prepare their quotes and also offered extremely reasonable prices for their work! Guy even offered to talk to my property manager when I was going through a difficult situations! It was overall a really great experience!

We are happy with the finish product. The process despite being completed during COVID was very efficient and each of the trades were respectful about the COVID protocol
They made recommendations and provided good solutions when they saw anything that would make the final build better for us. Each day the team arrived early and stayed until needed to finish up their section of the job, to ensure the timelines were met
The process was completed in a month and everything we asked for was done to our specifications. Overall we had a good experience on our project.

We are very excited to finally have a completed basement. I was wanting to finish the basement since we moved into the house 9 years ago. We called a few other people for quotes last summer, but we weren't completely satisfied with the staff. We were impressed with the salesperson that sold us the basement specs last summer. He used a laser pointer and gave us the specs and ideas for the basement right away. We decided right then to go to with Penguin Basements for the contract. I would recommend that anyone who is interested in finishing their basement contact Penguin for a quote. You won't be disappointed. Special shout out to the project leader, Vince, for personally taking care of our needs and our issues.

I went with Penguin basements because they offered the FIY, finish it yourself. This option is great for the do it yourselfers. All the trades were fantastic. A special shout out to the electrician for all the great suggestions and Vincent the site supervisor for making everything run so smoothly and every little detail was delivered.

My project covered Oct 2019 to March 2020 (just close to lockdown). My take on this is similar as Owen Sound (review below). Everything seemed fine, The layout design was very good and that's one of the areas they really delivered, i would say Demolition, framing, painting as well. I understood that a secondary suite conversion is tougher job than simply doing some other renovation. Also, the fact that they can finance its a good thing.

At the end got a secondary suite that i can rent, but it really took me a lot of my time and my nerves to have it (and some of my work too), after having done a second renovation and comparing results, i would definitely not choose penguin basements if i had the chance to go back.

Here are the highlights:

- You'll sign a contract and get a quote before somebody goes to your place and understand what needs to be done, that was my error and i'll admit. Never allow that, ask your contractor to visit the place because a lot of things tends to be assumed and that in secondary suite projects that is not a good way to start. After this experience, i would dismiss any contractor that does that to me.
- Plumber did not re-connect an outdoor faucet that was existing to the water even though I repeatedly told him to and project manager as well. Now i have a faucet that I can't use.
- Plumber put a Tub faucet below the showerhead so close to the floor that it is practically useless, even though I asked that faucet to be places on another place (i told that to designer, project manager and when i saw the issue i told plumber, plumber said that he can't change that because that's how he normally does it).Thing is, i can't do much about it, it would cost me a ton of money to resolve and i have a tenant already.
- The size of the access door panel for main shut off valve is 8x8, you need 12x12 since the city needs to access water meter from time to time. When they cut through the drywall the size is actually he size of a cellphone when you put it in landscape, i had to remove that myself and install a 12x12 and do a bigger hole.
- I paid for a laundry installation on upper level, they put a drywall on the floor (if i were to put the laundry on that floor as is then drywall would have cracked), i told that to the project manager and he handed to me the vinyl plank for me to installation the floor (i hope you see the irony in that, i would fight this one but it seemed easier just to put it yourself).
- I don't know how many times the layout needed to be reviewed, whoever did the layout never came to the house and really nobody was there checking expect myself i guess.
- I felt like i was more project manager myself than then project manager sometimes. Some things could have been really wrong, fortunately for me i was living on the same house the renovation was taking place.
- I paid to have a faucet installed on the exterior, they did, but they forgot to properly close the hole they had to do for the pipe, i had to do that myself too (so, they literally left a faucet with a pipe hanged on a hold in which bugs could easily crawl there, not to mention water).
- I called for warranty (faucet on kitchen was with low pressure), i started an inquiry in august, ins september i was told properly how to fill a warranty claim and then in october they came (only when i mentioned that a tenant was coming and the fact that i was going to it myself and claim through "Small claims court").
- Electrician was not bad, but now i don't have electricity on one plug upstairs. I'm pretty sure i would not be covered for that bu
- There were situations in which i saw that things were not going right, i had go to all the way escalating because i was not being heard by the project manager. In those cases i thank CEO because he was able to get a solution for those issues, but it is really too exhausting having to do that all the time to get something that is not crazy. If you are with them and have this situations make sure you fight for what you believe is right for you and fight hard if you have to.
- Asbestos was removed in the basement, if you don't know asbestos is put in a separate bag since it is a hazardous material (i paid for removal). They leave it in since January on my house, when they left project manager promised he was going to have someone pick that up, he did not do that, then Covid hit and when we entered stage 3 i just though that was going t be removed but no. Followed up with project manager, his boss, no response at all. I had to call the CEO (again) and he solved the situation.

What to say ....
Everything was perfect from planning till sign off.
Chris is amazing project manager.
Guy the owner is perfect model of care person.
Moneeb the sales or Rodrigo the advisor ...
The teams came to do the work ...

Everything was more than perfect and finally price.
After study for almost 2 months, u ll not see price like this ...
You are the best guys

Penguin Basements has just completed our FIY basement and we are extremely impressed with the results. Vince, Roberto, Andrew and his team, Andres & Claudio, all were incredible. I wish I could recognize all that were involved. The professionalism, quality of work and customer service were nothing short of awesome.

We have a fair size basement and you would expect a few hurdles along the way, there were no big issues. This has definitely been our best contractor related experience!

Please pass along our gratitude to your staff and contractors on our behalf. You should be proud of the company you have built and the amazing team you have assembled.

Penguin completed the project on time and made sure to stay in communication throughout the process. Vince was a great point of contact for our project. Looking forward to finishing the rest of the project ourselves.