growler

Ah How is very nice and obliging. The other uncle is a very quick worker and he will have his way of doing things. However, both are very professional and will rectify if you're not satisfied. A good example is my mosaic which was not straight for some pieces, they actually pried out some of them and replace them. Their work is good. Hope aubrey can vouch for that when they start the tiling today.

Update: Uncle did appear at around 11.30? He told me that electrician and plumbers will come, which they did. Electrician is Ah Tan (he went to get reinforcement as he said my unit can't be completed by him alone). Plumbers - a team of 2 headed by Ah Yan. They are already doing up the pipes. Painters (supposed to be 2 malay guys) have yet to appear. Uncle said he will buy the paint and pass it to me but he disappeared. Not to be negative, but I suspect that Uncle will only turn up (almost punctually) if it's time to collect payment, which he did. He asked for 30% (which was about the amount of work completed till now). I'm not trying to make life hard for uncle but if you really need uncle to respond, hold your payment and he'll be sure to be there. The carpentry will also be delivered on 22nd (hopefully) and I hope Uncle can fix my rubbish chute by monday because i'm afraid that my boy will end up 13th floor downstairs if I just turn my head away for 1 sec ..... (THIS IS NO JOKE !) I have told Uncle about the rectification works Ashes. He said he will look into it. I've also sort of understood the relationship between him, Alan and Joseph (Bo Geh). Will post abit more on my blog. Thank you all. If you have any thing that you need to let Uncle know, you can PM me your nick and mobile. Will let him know cuz I still owe him 30% ... haha .... I think all Uncle's customers should share contact number as it's better to pass the message thru one of us. Just my thoughts.

I have a differing view. Yeak will stop accepting jobs for a certain month once he knows he cannot have his full attention. Uncle simply just hire more workers and pray for the best. At most just rectify if things go wrong. We can see that he's even subcontracting the quotation job. As a contractor, he must know that it is his responsibility to attend to owner's call. Called uncle this morning at 9am. Said he will appear at around 9.40am. Didn't appear.

Thank you ashes. I really hope i'm not the 3rd runway tomorrow ........ Have you paid the final payment? If so, there's simply no incentive for uncle to return your call or appear at your doorstep... As for the rectifications, you must insist that they are done as you've paid good money for it. If it's FOC, even if it's substandard, i'll accept. Uncle must know this fact right. We are his customers, thus we have the right to get our house done up in the agreed timing and in the manner that we want. If not, why are we paying money for ?? We might as well get some cement and start to plaster our walls ourselves and go to SL/LSH and order the tiles to be shipped directly to us and we go to some hardware shop to buy the adhesive to stick the tiles??? This is totally unacceptable ...

Asugama: I can't help but concur with your statement about having differing sets of service standards. I'm lucky that I have an understanding boss that allowed me to take leave during the time when hacking and tiling works commenced and was in progress. However, I cannot perpetually be taking leave to sit in an empty house waiting for someone who's flying me aeroplanes 9 out of 10 times. To be very honest, as I have reiterated several times, the price to me matters because I have bad experience with contractors who promise the sky and the moon but only deliver plain earth to me. If not for the price, I would have chosen another guy whom I know has better project management. If things still don't move together, I'll speak to Jason instead. Can any kind souls please PM me Jason's number? thank you so much !

I guess Ah Soon is trying to cover all grounds and thus stretching himself too thin. Mr Yeak is more organised and will allocate his work accordingly cuz he will do the inspection himself. Maybe he will earn lesser this way but at least he will have less headache and he's more contactable.

Even though I have always said objectively that Uncle's price is no where to run and I'm prepared to accept the project management responsibility, I'm getting abit pissed off because Uncle seems to be avoiding my calls. The only calls he take seemed to be from familyof4, ivy, smallboy, pinkpetter?? He even said that “你一直催我让我很难做工”... I was like ... W** ???? If Uncle was not so forgetful and require us to remind him all the time, I would not have resorted to tracking his movement like a shadow and chasing him for updates. He promised to let me shift in on thursday with the plumbing and electricity done up. He missed his deadline and his workers never appear to clear the rubbish. Both the plumber and electrician also never turned up. Ended up, I'm now staying in a flat with only 1 usable toilet with a damaged door (by his workers) with no toilet lights. I believed he would fly his aeroplane again tomorrow regarding the painting - he said he will buy the paint and put it at my unit today (friday) but he didn't. I doubt his workers will appear to complete the painting job on sat and sun. He also said that he will arrange his plumber and electrician down (again) tomorrow. Let's see if Uncle really meant what he said tomorrow ....

Are you 102 Mang Gar Kar? I suppose so yah? My group of tilers (if Uncle never change last minute) are good. The main guy is 肥仔 or ah how. He's merticulous and it would be best if you discuss with him upfront how you want the tiles. You can tell him how you would like to lay your mosaic and draw the orientation on the wall for him. Also need to add that as they are subcontractors of Ah Soon, everyday counts and they charge by the floor area that they tile, not the time. So the faster they can complete the work, the earlier they get paid. They are also not the type that work 3 days rest 2 days. For my case, the only grouse I had was they don't work on weekends. Other than that, Ah How is very nice as he will work till around 7+ to finish up what's left so that the next day will be able to have a head start. I've already PMed you my contact. The pics for the tilers are in my blog. You can do a match

Nope. He didn't turn up as usual. Probably because the main milestone had been reached and my unit is a "small fry" ... the electrician did turn up at familyof4 unit though ... I thought mine's an easy job so he should try to schedule it first. Moreoever, I'm living in the unit and i'm down to use only 1 toilet (where there are no lights) and the door is spoilt by them ....

At least Mr Yeak knows his limit and ensure that he's able to oversee all the works That's a major plus point for me

You may want to call up kelvin foo - tell him the toh yi 13 guy and "alvin" recommended. I did not get him to do my house because his quote was higher than Uncle's quote. However, his overall carpentry pricing, etc is very reasonable. Nearly signed up with him (as mentioned in my blog) if not for Uncle's appearance.

My advice to all prospective Uncle Ah Soon's customers - you must be prepared to manage and be present to inspect the progress at least for the full time when all the masonry works have been completed. As for carpentry, you must be present on the day of installation. Likewise for painting. No doubt Uncle is very Chin Chai, etc... if the cost to rectify and recover is too high (like in Gaku's case), I think he'll also 帕帕to 包到完.

Has your hacking started ? My tilers are going over to "102 Mang Gar Kar" .... and I heard that that's possibly your unit? They are quite good as they stayed at my place everyday until they finish the works.

I should have smsed you to ask uncle to look into my electrical and plumbing works .... alas i was at a meeting and i only have access now ....

The entire tiling works took 6 days. Hacking took 2 days including haulage and I have to help them do the haulage ! I'm still waiting for electrician and plumber to come. Uncle told me that electrician will come at 9am but he's no where in sight as of now. Plumber suppose to come in around noon but I guess he will fly me aeroplane as well ... I'll Pm you my mobile. Please give me an SMS if he's down there to meet you Thanks gaku !

Re: Feature wall. It would be the best if you could buy some reno magazines and take a look. Once you know what you like, you just tear out the page, scan it, etc and pass a copy to uncle to replicate it. If you've a flair in drawing, you can also do a 3D for Uncle and he'll just get his carpenter to build. Of course it would be better if you have the exact measurements to the T. Mistakes will then be easier to spot Mine's an old flat that we bought 8 years ago. Then, feature walls are expensive and we've no budget so we just ditched the idea altogether

Yes. I concur x 100. No doubt uncle is very sui bian, not calculative and has high quality standards, his workers are of varied standards because he subcontract most of the works (just like my group of tilers ... there's actually 1 group of 2 and another lone ranger). The tiling stage is very critical because once tiling starts, it's very difficult to turn back and retile. The other milestones are the lighting/ electrical and carpentry (if you're doing alot of feature walls, wardrobes, etc). Plumbing is quite standard. On hind sight, I always wonder if it's worth it to pay say 1-2k more just to ensure that the project management aspect is properly managed. The conclusion is, we'll stick with Uncle Ah Soon because his price is too good to beat.

I can see some tinting but perhaps it's not that dark. Maybe around 10%? If you want dark colours, you'll have to go up to 30% - 50%. With that, light may not pass thru and the house will be quite dark. Your windows are nice, my wife and I like blue.

If you want your reno to turn out well, you have to be on the ball especially when the tiling starts. I think it's ok to take a break once a section of the correct wall tiles and mosaics have been laid. As well, when the tiling of the floor tiles, commenced. I took leave for the entire stretch from hacking till 3 days before tiling was completed to ensure that any errors can be rectified on the spot. Especially when they lay the mosaics. 10 / 10 times, you'll definitely spot some mosaics being laid in the wrong way.

Actually, Uncle had a terrible experience with LSH previously (4 yrs ago). He kept talking about it when he met my wife to discuss the tiles. Recently, something happened thus SL and LSH became the preferred choices....

I used whirlpool (front loading) and the results are pretty good. It saves water and your clothes but the down side is that washing time can be longer than normal top loading machines.

Gaku: For the area that you've accepted the error, I agree with you that it's not right to go back on your words. What I suggest is that if possible, you take half day leave in the morning to sort out the drainage issue with the tiler. If the drainage is really in the opposite direction, they need to hack off the tiles and then level the cement so that it flows towards the other side. Regarding tiling, mine took 6 days for kitchen and 1 toilet. You can track my progress in my blog and then gauge for yourself the time that would be taken. For my unit, there were 3 tilers for 5 days and 2 tilers for the last day (today). By right, if the tilers are assigned to a unit, they have to stay there and complete the unit (because they are paid by per square foot area that they tiled). An alternative to the wrongly tiled wall, ask Uncle if it's ok to overlay the wall with new tiles. In that way, you will minimise the hacking and still get the desired results. Uncle will save on hacking costs but top up on the overlay and tiles, which would be less costly. Just a closing note, wall tiles are harder to tile because they have to be stuck vertically and in small sections. Floor tiles are faster, so don't be too upset because once it's started, it's quite fast

That's great ! Wishing you a great start tomorrow:) Btw, my group of tilers have been reassigned to 102 "Mang Gar Kar" ... wonder who's that? Update on my plumbing and electrical works: I'm still waiting for them to appear. I've taken half day leave and I'm sitting here waiting for them. Wasted my half-day ... sianz ......

I've replied to your PM. Water proofing is inclusive of toilet and kitchen floor tiles. Shelving was added at no cost as i'm only using tiles for the toilet shelves so the tiler just went ahead and cut the tiles and then join it inbetween 2 tiles. You may want to ask Uncle to quote for comparison.

It's like rain on a parched earth when you receive a call from Uncle ... felt very honoured sia ... haha .... Uncle called me during lunch to tell me the carpentry guy is coming and asked whether I'll be ready to meet with him. I immediately said yes as I was already downstairs when he called. Funny thing is that it's not Jason but a guy called Amax. He only gave me the Seng Lee laminate book to choose as he said that it's currently the most "in-thing" to choose from this company ... He sort of dissuaded me to choose other brands as his comments were either "I've not heard of this company" or "The quality not as good as Seng Lee" or "It's difficult to re-order if the laminates not enough" .... Also, when I requested him to replace for 3 glass panels instead of 2, he cannot make decision and said he must discuss with Uncle .... hope Uncle won't charge me extra for it ... Think Jason's not in the picture as my home is a small project and Jason's already got lots of projects on hand ... so no need to trouble them when you meet them tomorrow