Ideal House Id

[CTN 0]

Ideal House package actually not attractive at all. Comes with restrictions like must top up for excess area and can only chose the cheaper tiles.

When I got a quote from them, my kitchen cabinet only 18 ft but no rebate( package is 20 ft), yet they want to charge $800 for extra area (100 odd sq ft) for kitchen wall tiles. Other things like tiling for corridor steps at entrance, boxing up of pipes, etc.....other Ids/contractors throw in FOC, they not only want to charge but also quoted quite high.

I feel ID house is over-rated. Out of the 5 quotes I got, Ideal House is the most expensive, with no value added services like design and cost savings ideas. Maybe it is because I did not speak to the venerable Mr K. Just walk in their shop one evening and anyhow get a quote from the person that happened to be there. Needless to say, I did not choose them.

[hobbes187 0]

Ideal House package actually not attractive at all. Comes with restrictions like must top up for excess area and can only chose the cheaper tiles.

When I got a quote from them, my kitchen cabinet only 18 ft but no rebate( package is 20 ft), yet they want to charge $800 for extra area (100 odd sq ft) for kitchen wall tiles. Other things like tiling for corridor steps at entrance, boxing up of pipes, etc.....other Ids/contractors throw in FOC, they not only want to charge but also quoted quite high.

I feel ID house is over-rated. Out of the 5 quotes I got, Ideal House is the most expensive, with no value added services like design and cost savings ideas. Maybe it is because I did not speak to the venerable Mr K. Just walk in their shop one evening and anyhow get a quote from the person that happened to be there. Needless to say, I did not choose them.

Who's ur ID? My ID gave me quite a few freebies and rebates for some of the items in the packages I didnt do...

[skywolf 0]

let you know tomorrow after i meet the ID..

mine is 3NG resale

think this are the "hidden cost"..did you ask them why you were being quoted for that?

I am intending to talk to them later on. Curious to see if anyone had gotten this before before planning my next move.

Think in their package the total bathroom size is limited to 380 sqft. Maybe urs is bigger than that??

For mine I took the resale package (though mine is new flat) and there was no additional charges cos I think my bathrooms not so big. Anyway you can try to bargain with them to waive it off...

How do we measure the area in terms of sqft? !! It could be because difference in area like as per you mentioned. But then again, how big again is the difference anyway? !! Lolz... Personally feel no difference in the sizes compared to the newer hdb flats which my friends are staying.

[jeddie 0]

hi skywolf

i was also quoted rates for excess areas.....

my package as the $15,888..

have to top up:

change laminated flooring to parquet - $2250

additional bathroom wall tiles - $280

additional kitchen wall tiles - $620

additional kitchen cabinets - 500

something like this...initially was pretty hopeful of ideal house..but now maybe not....

[kajua 1]

We were also quoted for our excess areas. In our case it was quite a bit more because we changed the laminated flooring to homogenous tiles.

For us, we were initially quite surprised by it. But my FH (since he holds the purse strings) was okay with this because he says new houses and old houses are so different in size of rooms, so he felt it was reasonable as he guess (assumes) their package was for new flat units which are really small compared to our resales of 20-30 years. He said the way they measured is by looking at your floor plan and the dimensions given by HDB on it. So he didnt think it was too unreasonable if they charge extra if our house was bigger.

For new houses and old houses the size is a whole lot more different. Our parents 4rm (official size 92) 30 year old flat appears huge compared to some we saw at Sengkang (also official size 92) or other places. 5rm in the new estate are smaller then the 4rm my parents been staying in for 36 years. Also new houses the area includes the service yard while old houses didnt have such a thing.

I dont think this can be considered hidden charges if they are shown to you in the quote. Its in plain sight so how can it be called hidden?

Hidden charges would be those not listed and then they give it to you in the final bill , things like you assume free installation and never ask, then end of the reno, they give you a bill for installation charges etc etc

But I think if you are not sure on the quote or uncomfortable with it, it might be better to either clarify or in the worse you dont like how they quote (which happen to us for a few other ID) we just totally dropped them.

As this concerns a place we been staying in and also a fair bit of our savings, I think most important gotta be comfortable with it before signing. So when in doubt, clarify or dump them, that was the practice we used when we went through quotes.

Just IMHO

Edited March 29, 2008 by kajua

[babytan 0]

same like jeddie, we were being quoted additional for homo tiling but not bathroom..maybe becos we didnt intend to have bathtub

pardon me for the poor expressing of words, english not so good leh

maybe shouldnt said hidden charges, should said extra charges..kekeke

[redknapp39 0]

Hi,

Can someone pass me Johnny's contacts? Thx

[skywolf 0]

Okok... Had spoken to Steven y'day... now waiting for re-quote.

Had anyone done platform using parquet? The cost was like WOW! After i asked then i realised they are using Indonesian 'you-mu'...

[kajua 1]

Okok... Had spoken to Steven y'day... now waiting for re-quote.

Had anyone done platform using parquet? The cost was like WOW! After i asked then i realised they are using Indonesian 'you-mu'...

Waaahh parquet! Have'nt see many people use that these days..most people using laminates...thought dont know if laminates can be used to make platform, since I guess the below is hollow. How big is your platform?

Doesnt parquet scratch easily? Or least thats the impression i get

"You-mu" sounds like teak if I am not wrong. If it is teak...whoa that be awesome

-Celest

Edited March 31, 2008 by kajua

[Casio 0]

Our rivervale house is currently under renovation and our ID is Peter Tan from Idealhouse. He gave us a very good impression when we visited idealhouse to request for quotation. He seems to be a very knowledgeable and professional. He tailored quotation according to our budget and we are very satisfied with the things that he offered in the package.

Though we gave him a short notice on when to start the renovation work, he tried his best to look for the worker and able to start the job on the given date. He has been very punctual on every appointment and very reponsive to our queries and doubts. He will provide us with his opinion if what we have choosen does not match to the overall concept and design of our house.

So far, the renovation has been progressing very well and I would say it has been ahead the planned schedule. We really look forward for completion of our house and cant wait to see the final result to share with you all.

As such, we strongly recommend him to our friends and new house owners out there who are looking for good, responsible and reliable ID.

J & J

[skywolf 0]

Waaahh parquet!!! Have'nt see many people use that these days..most people using laminates...thought dont know if laminates can be used to make platform, since I guess the below is hollow. How big is your platform?

Doesnt parquet scratch easily? Or least thats the impression i get

"You-mu" sounds like teak if I am not wrong. If it is teak...whoa that be awesome

-Celest

Sotong me used engineered wood as a comparision, because other contractors/IDs i went to quoted me Supreme/Kronotex as 'parquet' for platform. And thus i had this misconception tt they are parquet (when in fact, they are engineered wood). The difference b/w laminates and parquet was abt $500, then hubby said might as well go for parquet. But when I went back to analyse the costs, i went wow!

I think it's teak. Because i was talking to Steven in 1/2 cheena, 1/2 ang mo. =)

Oh well, waiting for Steven to get back to me... i told him got a kaki just got hse and asking me for who i chose liao. And i have ILs hse's reno to deal with in 2 yrs time. *faint*

[CTN 0]

Who's ur ID? My ID gave me quite a few freebies and rebates for some of the items in the packages I didnt do...

Not so nice to mention name and spoil people's business. Suffice to say it wasn't the popular Mr K.

[CTN 0]

Our rivervale house is currently under renovation and our ID is Peter Tan from Idealhouse. He gave us a very good impression when we visited idealhouse to request for quotation. He seems to be a very knowledgeable and professional. He tailored quotation according to our budget and we are very satisfied with the things that he offered in the package.

Though we gave him a short notice on when to start the renovation work, he tried his best to look for the worker and able to start the job on the given date. He has been very punctual on every appointment and very reponsive to our queries and doubts. He will provide us with his opinion if what we have choosen does not match to the overall concept and design of our house.

So far, the renovation has been progressing very well and I would say it has been ahead the planned schedule. We really look forward for completion of our house and cant wait to see the final result to share with you all.

As such, we strongly recommend him to our friends and new house owners out there who are looking for good, responsible and reliable ID.

J & J

1st post and such strong recommendation and undulated praise...when your reno not even completed

Hmmm...

[wireless 0]

Okok... Had spoken to Steven y'day... now waiting for re-quote.

Had anyone done platform using parquet? The cost was like WOW! After i asked then i realised they are using Indonesian 'you-mu'...

indo? hmm K told me that they onli use burmese parquet! btw which is better and how we know they r using the correct "country" as wat they promised.

[stan41 0]

Hi all,

I`ve engage an ID from ideal house to do our 5rm resales.

Hope i`ve made the rite choice.anyway have paid the 10%.PONR liao..

All I can say now is that he quote us base on the buget that we gave him and he is able to met it(slightly over)..

But I believe that we must give and take.he did not give any freebies which i hope he will but he was able to waiver off certain items.

He also gave us a good discount,we really appriciate as the xtra $ will come in handy along the way.

I`ve gone thru the forum and no one seems to know him from ideal house,nevertheless we will try him out base on the fact that he is from this reputed company.

As the renovation work has not started yet,I really cannot commend on it.

Most likely,our reno will start earli june after we collected our key.in the mean time,will source for inspiration on what kind of tiles,accessories,paint colours etc..

Will update in this forum on the progress along the way so as to share wif you guys and gals here..cheers!

Edited August 1, 2008 by stan41