Penguin Basements

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.