purpledino

Got a quote from Pure Airconditioning's Francis recommended by one of the active forummers here... Inverter Airconditioners Toshiba 1 Toshiba 34000btu RAS-4M30YA/ RAS-M10NK x3/ RAS-M22NK x1 $ 3,670.00 ME 1 Mitsubishi 36400btu MXY-4A28VA/ MSXY-GA10Vx3/ MSXY-GA18Vx1 $ 3,720.00 Fujitsu 1 Fujitsu 36000btu AOY36VMNM4/ ASY9VM x3/ ASY18VM x1 $ 3,750.00 workmanship 1 year/ parts 1 year/ compressor 5 years is this quote reasonable? anyone else used Pure's services before? comments? Thanks!

Dear all, I am currently looking for an air con contractor, any reocmmendations on which company is the best/ most reliable? I am looking more for quality of installation/ warranty rather than the cheapest price, as i believe in paying slightly more now to have less headache later. Any one has any contacts? Can pm me/ list it on this forum? Thanks. PS: I started this thread as the 'buy aircon from...?' thread is way too long, can't find the info i want...

Hi, I'm thinking of going to Eunos Technolink tomorrow to check out their furniture shops. Anyone knows which stores are there, and what time do they usually open? Are the prices there better than say Park Mall/ Furniture Mall? Appreciate your help.

I think reload may be depalmco/bullet's first and only customer... i hope i'm wrong though.

hi, if he 'does a lot of work in the area' as he claims, he wouldn't have time to 'hang around the block approaching people'. beware. my 2 cents' worth.

looking back, like real lah - tell which company has their own painters/electricians? even the top 5 companies in this forum (intradesign, ideal hse, a+d, gplan, earnest) readily admit they outsource painting and electrical work. and frankly speaking, what's wrong with outsourcing? as long as the ID has the power to control and supervise, i have no problems with outsourced work. reload 72: laminate in general is quite thick lah (unlike veneer). and objectively speaking, the laminate design was co-chosen by u and him, so blaming him for such 'obiang' laminate holds no water. if u want to chop him back, best to follow leen's hyperlink and follow the tips there. vinlee: u very sharp, i din know can check a forummer's user trail by clicking on his name... i am sorry, i have no sympathy towards lousy contractors, since i suffered once under their hands before. this type of people who venture out on their own before being apprentices should be punished severely! how can they anyhow play with other people's hard earned money?

ya lor... now that trumpet sounding guy shut up already. dare not talk anymore else kena hantam left right centre by the forummers... he better think of how to rectify the problems! if he don't rectify the problems for reload72, dun worry, we forummers will help to make sure 'de palmco' is 'well known' in this forum!

OMG, this is like some horror story. i think u should be firm, give them like 1 week to settle everything else you write straight to forum to complain!

hmmm how i come i smell a bit of advertising... am i the only one? can post some pics?

ha these are like the 'big 5' firms in renotalk right? i approached all of them for a quotation... i actually think intradesign's design the most classy, but very very ex.... but a lot of it depends on the designer lah...

that's where they 'earn back' the money mah... give you cheap price but give you cheap stuff also. i don't think they will give you the india granite lah. if you take a closer look at the contract u signed it is probably skewed in their favour anyway so you can't use their contract against them. think the only way you can get your india granite is to threaten to complain, but i don't think that is a good idea cos it will make future communication difficult... actually frankly speaking if you have only paid a $500 deposit it MAY still be worth it if u choose to drop them and spend the next month looking for the more reliable ID firms (who don't advertise) who quote you 'as is' - without hidden cost, and everything stated clearly in black and white (e.g. XXX brand laminate at up to $yyy psf). those firms usually will usually give you less problem during reno also. yes they may be more ex, but it is because they usually have a 1-2K buffer included in the quotation so that they can give you some 'freebies' (and make you feel happy) and correct carpentry/flooring errors without complaining. your own choice lah...

in general getting the ID to make is better 1) choice of colors to suit your decor 2) full height cabinets - off-the-shelf (pun intended) shelves do not match your ceiling height exactly, thus can trap dust, etc 3) solid plywood versus chipboard (though there are exceptions) which tends to sag after a few years. also you can tell your ID to make thicker shelves for bookshelves so they don't sag. of course getting ID is more ex usu $190-$210 per foot run versus up to $120 pfr for standard shelves (of course there are like really dirt-cheap and really expensive store bought shelves as well!)

false ceilings - can generally be categorised into 1) true false ceiling - almost the entire ceiling is 'fake' - it will usually cost about $800-1000 to do up false ceiling for 5rm living and dining excluding lighting and electricity of course - about another $400-700 for master bedroom 2) L box - usually built around the perimeter of the living room hall. L box will of course be cheaper cos less material used. there are modifications some contractors do to make L box nicer, e.g. make an underhang, etc. - usually about 30% cheaper than true false ceiling height of false ceiling - 4 or 6 inches thick - while 4 inches is better in a sense that it doesn't 'shorten' your ceiling by so much, your lighting choices are very restricted (since shorter height) - do take note that HDB has a height restriction - the min floor to ceiling height is 240cm, and most hdb flats are 259cm height, so if you have a 4inch platform anywhere in your flat, you may not be able to install a 6inch false ceiling there types of lighting that can be used in false ceiling - downlights - can be halogen, energy saving, daylight, warmlight - long fluorescent lights - can be installed above the 'underhangs' to create 'hidden lighting' effect (but can trap dust/dirt/insects!) ceiling fan - not advisable to install ceiling fan on false ceiling, unless you don't value your head/hair - also structurally not sound - if you want ceiling fan, then better to install L box so your fan can be installed in the middle on the 'real ceiling' hope this helps!

hi, i am not generalising, but my comments about engaging ID firms who are usu high profile at 'home and decor' fairs are as follows 1) if they are that good why do they need to keep appearing at fairs? if you notice, most of the highly recommended firms in this forum almost never advertise at fairs (e.g. Intradesign, Earnest, Ideal House) cos they spend their time in their offices actually thinking of designs for their clients... 2) the person who sweet-talks you into signing up for their promotional package at the fair is usually a salesperson not an ID. so after you sign on the dotted line, they'll hand u over to someone else whom you have never spoken to before. i don't think that's very reassuring. 3) their packaged may be very competitive but just think, who pays for their very nicely decorated showflats, advertisements, salespeople? their customers! they just give a 'good price' at the fair, but if you are not careful they can easily make you part with more $... i feel that one is better off going to the ID firms who are lower profile but recommended (at forums, by friends) my 2 cents worth. if you are interested you can read my thread on city design... http://www.renotalk.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=10214

Hi people, I've gone to a few IDs already, and after comparing quotes, researching about them online, and speaking to a few selected 'candidates' several times, I plan to sign on the dotted line soon. However, the initial design (the perspective drawings the ID provided at the 2nd meeting), while good, is slightly different from the concept i had in mind - e.g. design of feature wall/ foyer area. I've asked the ID to requote based on additions/modifications, but I have not requested him to redraw the perspective drawings. Can I ask if it is routine that the client gets the ID to resketch the concept until it is the way he likes it before signing on the line, or is that too much to ask from them? I am asking as I am concerned that the ID will need to make price revisions (to take into account different materials used) if I change the designs after signing the contract. Appreciate your inputs!

Hi LASH, wow you must love this vincent M very much... only 2 posts in this forum and both are long , nicely crafted comments about vincent M (the other one is at http://www.renotalk.com/forum/index.php?sh...58&hl=LASH) since you idolise him so much, can show us some pictures of your 'Executive Apartment'? we like to see photos... vincent oops LASH can show us some?

yup i realised that... actually sometimes i wonder why we even bother visiting their works in progress. in the end each company has x number of tiling teams and y number of carpentry teams. you may think the carpentry work by abc company is good just by looking at 1-2 projects, but in the end if u sway sway get their worst carpentry/tiling team to do your place, there will still be problems. that's y i think the ID is more important. get reliable ID, if the carpentry/tiling !! , u can tell him straightaway and he will the carpenters until they then they will have no choice but to redo. then you will be , the ID will also be cos u keep telling other people how he is so i must find a reliable ID!

Hi, I understand most hdb flats have floor-ceiling heights ~ 259cm. If I do a 6" false ceiling and 4" platform, the new floor-ceiling height will be less than 240cm... isn't it against regulation? need advice... thanks.

yup i agree. you notice most of the recommended ID firms in this forum do not routinely place big ads in the papers, or participate in reno fairs. though the prices offered at the fairs may be cheaper, in the end you will probably end up paying more! yup. do they still do the '$500 deposit' trick? think the sales person (or 'project manager' as they call themselves - so that they can say that they are 'managing your project behind the scenes' and pass u on to someone you haven't even met before) probably gets like a $200 cut or something for every deposit secured...

ya... go to http://www.renotalk.com/forum/index.php?sh...mp;#entry209085 a lot of there, can feel it in the air...

My parents engaged them 4 years ago to do up our place... It was horrendous. First of all, the people at the exhibitions are sales people, so their aim is simply to sell u the package, and they can promise u this and that. They promised us they can do up the place in 5 weeks. So we rented a place for 5 weeks. After we signed on the contract, we were passed on to this ID, progress is as follows: Day 1: got the workers in to hack the place down in 1 day. we were so excited! Day 2: nothing happened Day 3: nothing happened Day 4: nothing happened, we called the ID who gave some excuse and said his wet works people will come Day 5: he said he managed to get us a hood/hob/oven combo for $999 thru a friend, so we wrote him a cheque (in retrospect this was a very stupid thing to do) Day 5-18: nothing happened. house situation was same state as in day 1. we called him every 2 days and he always gave some crap reason. Day 19: usually a very tolerant person, i got pissed. we called the ID, who suddenly stopped picking up our phone, and even rejected our calls. we wrote a complaint letter, i called the company, spoke to the salesperson, who got scared as we threatened to send the letter to Forum. another ID took over the job. Day 20: we found out that the ID pulled the same stunt on other customers (see Day 5) and apparently ran away with some customers' money Day 21-30: reno carried on Day 30: we were unable to extend our rent, thus we had no place to stay in. we complained, and new ID grudgingly offered us accomodation in some dingy 3 room flat (which i suspect was some customer who passed him the keys and went overseas hoping to come back to a nicely furnished place) we had to sleep on mattresses and bear with the very old and poorly maintained place Day 30-50: the new ID was very calculative. having gotten us into so much trouble, i would expect the company to be more accomodating, but this ID was trying to charge us for so many things! in retrospect, i think he was trying to make more money by making suggestions to save money, e.g. we were quoted false ceiling for entire living/dining room, but he suggested L-box so that 'the place will not look so cramped', but didn't give us a rebate (i believe there should have been a discountas our living/dining room is quite big, so cost savings from false ceiling -> L box should have been at least a few hundred dollars) in the end we paid 40+ K to do up our 5 room flat which i think is very expensive (the only things we did was homogenous flooring, toilet, kitchen, L box living dining, kitchen cabinets). they probably took the opportunity to make us 'carrot head' as we were 'newbies' to renovation... in short, i hated the experience. would have chosen another ID if given another chance. Now that I'm doing up my own place, I'm putting a lot more effort into research as I never want to have the same ridiculous experience we had with City Design ever. Apologies for this long email. But I just want to warn you guys about this company. They are very slick, all their staff wear nice black shirts, and their company is quite large. But i believe there are other smallers who can provide much, much higher standards of service and quality for a better price! just browse through this forum! my 2 (maybe 5) cents' worth...

can upload some photos for us to see? new members usually like to share their photos with the rest of us! it sounds like you spend an hour (or two) trying to craft this beautifully written ad... but it doesn't belong on this forum... go spend some $ and put it up on Classads... but i must commend the England la, quite powerful.

actually he has met it already, just that the other ID is quite good also lah, more ex, but better carpentry... so see if the other ID can requote. frankly I'm hoping that the other ID cannot meet K's quote, so I'll only have 1 choice! haha. If can meet K's quote I'll have a headache deciding who to choose...

Actually I haven't laid the laminates in my new place yet! Sorry if i sounded like I already have moved in... But I am set on using laminate flooring for my place. I've seen, felt, and stepped on various laminate brands while doing research. You must go and see the Kronotex Engineered range - looks just like real wood, and patterns repeat only every 50 planks...

Hmmm i suppose as long as you don't let the liquids sit for too long they won't damage the flooring... as long as you go for the more reputable brands... Even for homogenous floors if u let the curry sit for too long the grouting will change colour also ma... my 2 cents'w worth. i can let u know in 5 years' time (after I've lived with my laminates for 5 years) whether they are hardy enough for day to day use haha