sarvakti

Hi All, Finally my verdict : If you want to engage a contractor to do all the work for you (instead of sub-contracting out yourself) I would recommend them. Reasons : 1. They are one of the cheapest, again note it would be cheaper if you do sub-contracting yourself, but in case you engage a contractor they are one of the cheapest. 2. They are professional, they truly listen to your needs and complaints and try to address it at the earliest time. They did not try to cheat me any time. 3. Remember to do your home work irrespective of the contractors you choose, finally it is your house and you have to come up with all that you need for your house. A contractor only can implement your requirements and at times provide you some suggestions. Even if you engage an ID, you still have to do all the tile searching, paint selection, kitchen & bathroom accessories etc. So you any way have lots of things to do. I will post pictures when possible. Cheers

Dear Friends, Slowly things are shaping up. I moved in to one room, still carpentry is pending. Hacking : This is one place where you can save some money. I was just speaking with one of my relatives and they mentioned that they sub-contracted hacking separately. Theirs is a 5rm and two years back they paid total 1800$ for hacking. This is the total package. You can hack anything other than the beams inside the house. But you got to explain them clearly what should be broken and what not. Especially all the windows, any glasses , you have to take pictures first. Also should ask them what all can be hacked without damage. Tiling : All tiling work has been completed and first cleaning has taken place. As i mentioned a few of the tiles were uneven and the grove lines were not completely filled up (may be due to cleaning). I spoke to Tony and he agreed to do all this rectification work before handing over. I will be personally there to show the tilers all the grove lines that are not completely up to mark. So far I am happy with the tiling work done by Tony's team. They are responsive and corrected few of the mistakes that I indicated to them while doing the job. I will give my final verdict after they hand over. Tile selection was a painful process, you got to spend some personal time visiting the tile shops a few number of times. I would strongly suggest Soon Bee Hoon, but you have to be patient with yourself. First visit a smaller shop like Lian Sheng Hin (the service is quiet good), to get a overall picture. Once you are on your own you can visit Soon Bee Hoon (in Toh Guan). I did not like the service in Haffari though. Soon Bee Hoon is a huge place and there are numerable number of tiles to choose from. They also have a showroom but I am not specifically impressed with their show room. As such they have got almost all the tiles that you would see in any other shop. Atleast spend three hours each day over a weekend. Few of the staff over there are well informed and can give good suggestions. Parquet Flooring : I chose Evergreen forests (the Manager is Morgan and he usually responds in renotalk forum). After doing all the searching I finally settled down on him because his quote was the lowest. He is charging 1300 in total for a place (for 2x11 burmese parquet) which the rest of the parquet guys were easily charging (including Hau Hau parquet) 1500. The contractors will easily charge 1700 to 2000 for their parquet flooring for this area. I will pass my verdict on this team after the completion. They have lied the parquet for me now in my master bedroom. He also provides 2 years guarantee for his parquet (only thing is that he asked me to leave the parquet atleast for 2 weeks before sanding). They have lied the parquet. But I can give the final verdict only after they do the sanding. Morgan is quiet busy and he does not inspect the work while the laborers lay the parquet. I felt a little uncomfortable , because I am not sure if that needs to be monitored for any defects that only a parquet floor expect can site. Any how, I will wait for the sanding to be done and see pass the verdict on his team. Next comes electical wiring. Electrician : I am going with my relative who is an electrician and he does it only for a specific people. He does a great job and his prices are definitely lower than the market price. Since he does not do for everyone I cannot write anything more on him. Next comes plumbing Plumbing : Plumbing has been mostly done, but honestly speaking I am not completely impressed with their work. The plumbers according to me are quiet in-experienced. One good thing is Tony and the plumbers were quiet responsive and he tried rectifying the problems (like the pipes were not straightly laid in several places). I had to monitor the work their work closely. Because they were quiet responsive and willing to take my suggestions, I would rate them descent. They could have done a better job according to me. I bougth every thing from Royal Fanco. Their service is good and they also gave a much better price compared to rest of the shops. I did extensive searching and I would recommend this shop. First is Royal Fanco, they have most of the brands with them. You have to walk through the catelog and can ask them for their opinion. They are honest and they tell you the kind of quality that you can expect from the chosen product. They have good experience and have been in the business for years and from what I saw, they were quiet honest in dealing with customers and their products. I will post all the pictures after the completion.

Guys, I will keep updating this on a periodic basis. Hackingn : This is one place where you can save some money. I was just speaking with one of my relatives and they mentioned that they sub-contracted hacking separately. Theirs is a 5rm and two years back they paid total 1800$ for hacking. This is the total package. You can hack anything other than the beams inside the house. But you got to explain them clearly what should be broken and what not. Especially all the windows, any glasses , you have to take pictures first. Also should ask them what all can be hacked without damage. Tiling : All tiling work has been completed and first cleaning has taken place. As i mentioned a few of the tiles were uneven and the grove lines were not completely filled up (may be due to cleaning). I spoke to Tony and he agreed to do all this rectification work before handing over. I will be personally there to show the tilers all the grove lines that are not completely up to mark. So far I am happy with the tiling work done by Tony's team. They are responsive and corrected few of the mistakes that I indicated to them while doing the job. I will give my final verdict after they hand over. Tile selection was a painful process, you got to spend some personal time visiting the tile shops a few number of times. I would strongly suggest Soon Bee Hoon, but you have to be patient with yourself. First visit a smaller shop like Lian Sheng Hin (the service is quiet good), to get a overall picture. Once you are on your own you can visit Soon Bee Hoon (in Toh Guan). I did not like the service in Haffari though. Soon Bee Hoon is a huge place and there are numerable number of tiles to choose from. They also have a showroom but I am not specifically impressed with their show room. As such they have got almost all the tiles that you would see in any other shop. Atleast spend three hours each day over a weekend. Few of the staff over there are well informed and can give good suggestions. Parquet Flooring : I chose Evergreen forests (the Manager is Morgan and he usually responds in renotalk forum). After doing all the searching I finally settled down on him because his quote was the lowest. He is charging 1300 in total for a place (for 2x11 burmese parquet) which the rest of the parquet guys were easily charging (including Hau Hau parquet) 1500. The contractors will easily charge 1700 to 2000 for their parquet flooring for this area. I will pass my verdict on this team after the completion. They have lied the parquet for me now in my master bedroom. He also provides 2 years guarantee for his parquet (only thing is that he asked me to leave the parquet atleast for 2 weeks before sanding). They have lied the parquet. But I can give the final verdict only after they do the sanding. Morgan is quiet busy and he does not inspect the work while the laborers lay the parquet. I felt a little uncomfortable , because I am not sure if that needs to be monitored for any defects that only a parquet floor expect can site. Any how, I will wait for the sanding to be done and see pass the verdict on his team. Next comes electical wiring. Electrician : I am going with my relative who is an electrician and he does it only for a specific people. He does a great job and his prices are definitely lower than the market price. Since he does not do for everyone I cannot write anything more on him. Next comes plumbing Plumbing : Most of the plumbing work, including installing of accessories will be done next week. So I cannot write anything more about this for now. Will give clear and detailed updates after all plumbing work is done. I will write more updates tomorrow.

I finally decided to go with Henry's carpenter. I dumped my tv feature wall and console, i could not accomodate them within my expenditure. Will find an alternative for those. Other than the tv feature wall and console, his carpentry is reasonably priced. I decided to go with some one whome I can trust and have a good post installation service.

Friends, I am going to be busy this week. Next week should have enough time to write down. I will write in detail each of the process involved and what can be best done to save time , money and avoid mistakes.

Dear Friend, I would strongly suggest you to engage a sub-contractor for hacking. You will find one if you google. They charge you 40% of what the contractors generally charge. Just let them know at front that they cannot damage the window grills, bathroom window glass grill and cannot damage the doors. Ask them to guarantee that they wont damage the cornices , false ceiling if any etc. Otherwise have to pay you.

Thank You.

Hi May dream, Lukily I could find a carpenter at the last minute. My relatives place was done by him , they only did the kitchen after few years of their stay. Atleast I know someone who did one of my relatives place. No problem as such with Tony's carpenter. Just that I did some changes to the design and the price quoted for those new customizations is not agreeable to me. Tony is negotiating the deal with him. Cheers,

Thank you guys, all your posts are quiet useful for making an informed decision about contractors. So far I am finding the journey stressfull but smooth. I am spending so much time , and that is my only problem. I just want a simple google kind of life but life is demanding much from me.

Thank you guys, all your posts are quiet useful for making an informed decision about contractors. So far I am finding the journey stressfull but smooth. I am spending so much time , and that is my only problem. I just want a simple google kind of life but life is demanding much from me.

Also, I will update my shopping list next week. I am spending so much time in it that I am worried that I am getting distracted. But I have converged on most of the things and I should be able to update next week when I get time.

Guys, I finally could settle down and could write something today. Here are the updates until now. Tiling : All tiling work has been completed and first cleaning has taken place. As i mentioned a few of the tiles were uneven and the grove lines were not completely filled up (may be due to cleaning). I spoke to Tony and he agreed to do all this rectification work before handing over. I will be personally there to show the tilers all the grove lines that are not completely up to mark. So far I am happy with the tiling work done by Tony's team. They are responsive and corrected few of the mistakes that I indicated to them while doing the job. I will give my final verdict after they hand over. Tile selection was a painful process, you got to spend some personal time visiting the tile shops a few number of times. I would strongly suggest Soon Bee Hoon, but you have to be patient with yourself. First visit a smaller shop like Lian Sheng Hin (the service is quiet good), to get a overall picture. Once you are on your own you can visit Soon Bee Hoon (in Toh Guan). I did not like the service in Haffari though. Soon Bee Hoon is a huge place and there are numerable number of tiles to choose from. They also have a showroom but I am not specifically impressed with their show room. As such they have got almost all the tiles that you would see in any other shop. Atleast spend three hours each day over a weekend. Few of the staff over there are well informed and can give good suggestions. Parquet Flooring : I chose Evergreen forests (the Manager is Morgan and he usually responds in renotalk forum). After doing all the searching I finally settled down on him because his quote was the lowest. He is charging 1300 in total for a place (for 2x11 burmese parquet) which the rest of the parquet guys were easily charging (including Hau Hau parquet) 1500. The contractors will easily charge 1700 to 2000 for their parquet flooring for this area. I will pass my verdict on this team after the completion. They have lied the parquet for me now in my master bedroom. He also provides 2 years guarantee for his parquet (only thing is that he asked me to leave the parquet atleast for 2 weeks before sanding). They have lied the parquet. But I can give the final verdict only after they do the sanding. Morgan is quiet busy and he does not inspect the work while the laborers lay the parquet. I felt a little uncomfortable , because I am not sure if that needs to be monitored for any defects that only a parquet floor expect can site. Any how, I will wait for the sanding to be done and see pass the verdict on his team. Next comes electical wiring. Electrician : I am going with my relative who is an electrician and he does it only for a specific people. He does a great job and his prices are definitely lower than the market price. Since he does not do for everyone I cannot write anything more on him. Next comes plumbing Plumbing : Most of the plumbing work, including installing of accessories will be done next week. So I cannot write anything more about this for now. Will give clear and detailed updates after all plumbing work is done. I will write more updates tomorrow.

Yes, I am unable to find any other carpenters name mentioned in the forum but the one Ah Wei seems to be stealthy. I am just helpless

Any of you please can recommend a good carpenter ? I am in urgent need. Some last minute issues with carpenter and I am in search of a carpenter now. Help is greatly appreciated.

Yes. May dream, I will certainly comment. But for now, I am unable to find any time, with so many stuffs going on. I just want to post but am so busy last few days i am not able to write. Will post. Guys, any one can suggest a good carpenter please ?

Guys, I am totally busy over the last few days. I think I will find some time to write down on Wednesday. I will detail. I think I can certainly provide useful information, just that I have to write down. Cheers,

Guys, I am totally busy over the last few days. I think I will find some time to write down on Wednesday. I will detail. I think I can certainly provide useful information, just that I have to write down. Cheers,

Thanks , some one considered replying this poor soul. I greatly appreciate Cheers I am going to EDL today to take a look at bigger samples. I will update my blog after that.

Friends, I need some help and I know some enthusiast will respond to me. any body used a combination of metallic grey colour laminate along with glossy piano white (or any glossy white) in their kitchen ? When i say combination, may be the lower half you use one laminate (glossy white) and the top cabinates you use dark shade laminate. Any one ? I saw this one ( http://www.45mqdesign.com.sg/images/vipportfolio/4a5738.jpg ) , and my wife like it a lot. I dont find a similar color except this one in EDL (http://www.edleuro.com/edl_laminates_that_express.html , choose 'Lush Brush' under 'Laminate range' and see 'EGB 0025B periwinkle-B' What is your thought on this combination ? Cheers

Yes. I saw genuine intention in him and he took me to some remote place where from I chose the metallic feature wall tile for the master bathroom.

Thanks May dream. Sounds quiet true. Yes I will do so.

I got my kitchen tiles from Soon Bee Huat from Toa Guan. It looks like maple wood. I went for all 30x60 tiles for both kitchen and bathroom. I got my living room tiles from Haffari, the bathroom tiles from mix of liang Seng , Haffari and Soon Been Huat. The pictures do not provide the actual details of the tiles , looks like i will need a much higher resolution to capture the actual effect of the tiles. In reality they look a little different and the texture is more apparent and lively. I do have the sample , will take a picture and post it tomorrow. Cheers

Dear Friends, Here are my updates. Your comments are welcome. The next set of tasks : 1. Get the contractor to rectify the few homogeneous tiles that are uneven. Otherwise I am happy with the tilers job. Other than the few things tiler has done a good job grade A to him. 2. Electrician to cut holes in the L-box 3. Plumber has to rectify some of the issues and install all the sanitory items. 4. Painting 5. Construct L-shapped kitchen cabinet with black galaxy granite top and tall unit and install the kitchen accessories. 6. Install all electrical items including all the ceiling fans that I will buy 7. Varnish parquet in mbr 8. Install built in wardrobe

Hi Sylphy, Could you please provide me your carpenters number ? I am also renovating my house. Also how was his workmanshipg ?

Thanks guys. Let me talk to my contractor. I will push him to do whatever he should.