Penguin Basements

Short Response:
Great contractors - everyone who came to our house was respectful, polite and professional. The basement looks wonderful!
Lack of communication with office/supervisors. Buildertrend app was not updated after first 2 weeks. Job ended up taking 8 weeks when scheduled for 4 weeks.

Long Response (if you care to read it):
Like I said above, every contractor who came to our house was wonderful! I can't say enough about them. They were polite, professional, and the basement looks incredible! The quality of workmanship is the biggest selling point for this job.
The rest was what I would call "annoyances" - nothing which impacted the quality of the work, but which made the entire process frustrating.
The first is the Buildertrend app. This app really helped to sell us on Penguin as we were told we could stay on top of the project, the schedule and who would be in our house each day. Unfortunately, right from day 1 (literally), there were problems. The first scheduled contractor was a no-show and then after the first 2 weeks the app was never being updated. When we tried to contact the supervisor we were met with a "its dynamic" response and no attempt to actually update the app. Over the next 6 weeks we never knew who was coming (if anybody) and the final 3 weeks of the job saw almost nobody show up.
Another big annoyance (and something to be ready for) is that you have to be your own foreman - if my wife didn't work from home, many things in our contract would have been missed. The electrician wasn't going to put in additional pot lights which we ordered (until we had to be the ones to show him all the work orders) and our basement was going to be finished without insulation (which we paid for), even though we contacted the supervisor about it 2 days ahead of schedule and told him it wasn't on site - he never got back to us. If my wife hadn't been home to say something, and send the guys out to the store, then we wouldn't have found out until it was too late.
There are a few more instances I can go into, but I won't bore you with every detail.
All in all, great contractors, lousy communication. You'll get a beautiful basement, but be ready for some headaches along the way.

Our experience with Penguin started out positive, we were excited to be increasing the usable area in our home and fix our previously completely uninsulated basement. However, it was frustrating when we had calls scheduled with Penguin and they would no-show with no warning. Same when I would cancel plans to be home for material delivery on a weekend that never occurred.

Construction started in May of 2022 but stopped after a day. The framers informed us that the design Penguin had provided wouldnt meet code since the entryway to the utility room was too narrow (the measurements in some of the drawings were off by FEET!). They proposed some unsatisfactory alternatives and pressured us to accept them so their work could continue on schedule but we ultimately sent the workers away while we took time to consider some other alternatives.

Once we agreed on a new design, Penguin refused to revisit the contract so even though our finished area would now be smaller, we still had to pay the original contract price. Instead they added change orders as new problems came up.

Penguins work failed in our first inspection by the City of Ottawa, but Penguin still cashed the cheque counting the milestone as completed. The drywaller they sent took 6 weeks to deliver a bumpy mess which still took a couple days for a second drywaller to fix. The tiler poured thinset down our laundry sink leaving us without working laundry for nearly a week until their plumber could come to clear out the lines.

Penguin said they can complete a basement in 2 weeks, our project took over 16 weeks to complete.

Penguin said their quotes are within 2-3% of the final project cost, ours was over by approximately $10,000 or around 20%.

Penguin said they dont use subcontractors and have all their own employees. All trades who visited us except for the framers were subcontractors who needed us home and to explain the project to them.

Hiring Penguin didnt save us any time or money and was ultimately a huge mistake.

I would recommend Penguin Basements to anyone who want superb assistance and professionalism. 5 stars!

Evan B.

We chose Penguin to renovate our basement as we were impressed with how detailed the quoting process was and felt the communication process they had between ourselves, office staff, and trades seemed well organized. Overall, we were happy with the renovation process and how our basement turned out.

All of the trades that came to our home were great to work with, from the first day with the framing team to the last day of final touch ups. We appreciated the feedback from the design consultant prior to beginning (ex. adding more pot lights, relocating some elements) that created a better product in the end. Fabio especially was great to work with and ensured any final things we wanted fixed were done properly.

One issue we ran into was the removal of a water stack, the cost of which was overlooked during the quoting process. This additional cost concerned us as the work surrounding it was discussed prior to commencement of the build. We were able to bring our concerns forward to project management and the customer care team and were happy with the way the issue was resolved.

Overall, we had a positive experience with Penguin and are enjoying our newly finished basement.

Overall, we are really happy with our basement renovation. Having the extra space for our family of 5 has made a big difference. Penguin took a very old and dirty unfinished basement, and transformed it into a beautiful space. We were really impressed with the staff and Dan especially. We were a little disappointed in having the renovation go over the timeframe by 10 weeks given how far into COVID we are at this point, however Penguin made sure to have an open and honest conversation with us and we truly appreciated it.

We were drawn to Penguin given their DIY basement reno option, which includes framing, drywall (mudding, taping sanding), electrical, and in our case the installation of a walk out door from the basement and rough in for an eventual bathroom.

Overall we were very happy with Penguin, from the design stage all the way to completion. In particular Ezra was AMAZING to work with, and ensured that any hiccups or issues that came up were dealt with. The quality of his work was also fantastic and was super friendly to deal with.

I would definitely recommend Penguin to anyone looking for a DIY basement reno option!

Thank you to the team at Penguin Basements who created out 2 bed basement suite and made my vision for the space become a reality.
With a few hiccups and an unexpected delay due to an additional permit required, the demo and build went extremely well and professional. Care was taken to ensure our space was safe and adapted quickly to inspectors ask.
There are a few people who stand out for us on this build.
Rodrigo and Stephanie listened very carefully to what our vision was and created the drawings in keeping with my vision. They where both very receptive to any questions or additional asks.
Felipe, Edgar and Fabio where the most responsive professionals and we are extremely grateful for the care they took with responding to our needs.
Thank you to Guy Solomon for creating a great team of people to work with.
We appreciate all that was done in our house to finally make it our home.
Kind Regards
Rhonda

I hunted around to find good home renovation estimates for our basement and am glad I picked using the HomeStar. I was very pleased choosing Penguin Basement Ltd because all the Penguin workers were so knowledgeable and efficient. For the excellent quality and high tech, I feel very satisfied.
Too bad though my next home project will be the front patio, not in the basement.

Penguin waited for 4 years to start and finish my basement project due to having the upstairs renovation taking precedence.
The finishing of my basement was done professionally and quickly...like advertised.
I had a breakin while waiting for it to be done and the basement window needed new glass. It was a small job but a big one to me and they helped me find a solution. I am forever grateful.
Penguin went above and beyond in helping me.
In fact, I look forward to them finishing the upstairs too!!!

After receiving multiple quotes from other contracting services, I found that Penguin provided the best value. They didn't try to gouge the price as one of the other larger contracting companies did.

I went with the FIY option where I could save a few bucks but have their crew complete the larger and more difficult services, such as framing, plumbing, electrical, drywall, mudding/taping/sanding.

There was one hiccup that was dealt with quickly and accordingly, not everything can be perfect. Penguin stands behind their work and I would recommend them to my friends and family.