Cheapest Way To Do Flooring?

[alyplwwf 0]

Thanks kastlekonfusion, yokine9a and pinkpetter for your explanation.

So the laminating thing can it be done over existing ceramic flooring ? is it just overlay ? sorry if my question sounds stupid as I really dunno anything abt reno.

[yokine9a 1]

No lah, your qtn is not stupid. We don't know, we learn & we master it

Yes, it is called overlay. Yes, laminated flooring can be overlaid on existing flooring. But make sure your ceramic flooring are of ok condition, ie. no hollow tiles. Else, if they pop up yrs later, your laminated flooring will pop up too. One of the sign of hollow tiles is big cracks.

Do note parquet cannot overlay on existing flooring.

[alyplwwf 0]

No lah, your qtn is not stupid. We don't know, we learn & we master it

Yes, it is called overlay. Yes, laminated flooring can be overlaid on existing flooring. But make sure your ceramic flooring are of ok condition, ie. no hollow tiles. Else, if they pop up yrs later, your laminated flooring will pop up too. One of the sign of hollow tiles is big cracks.

Do note parquet cannot overlay on existing flooring.

Hi yokine9a,

Thanks again for your reply. I more or less understand now.

I thought of laminating my living room and all bedrooms for my existing 3 room flat and just hack / redo the kitchen flooring / walls & cabinets, rewiring, change aircon and painting. Should I get a contractor to do all these or ID ? Also, can one contractor do all the work or I have to get different people to do kitchen and all flooring, then electrician to do rewiring & aircon and another painter to do painting ? Any idea how much would that cost to do such reno ?

[yokine9a 1]

Glad that you have learned something. Before I started the reno of my 3-room flat, I knew nothing abt renovation. I read & learned from what I can find from the Internet & many helpful forumers willing to share their knowledge in this forum

If you have an idea how you want your house to look like, ie. you provide the design ideas, you can get a contractor. If you don't want to crack your head but want your house to look the same as condo-like, get an ID

Yes, one contractor can do all the work. But you probably pay a bit more to him for covering all the co-ordination work. If you really want to save the most, get the best & have plenty of time, you can get diff people to do diff work. You must co-ordinate with each of them. Before you do this, make sure you have done your homework, ie. you must know when to start what type of work. Eg. flooring must start first & rewiring has to be before painting.

I hack the kitchen flooring/cabinets, rewiring & painting of my flat, without touching the living room flooring, kitchen walls & aircon. I spent a bit more than $10K. I engaged the laminated company to do my 2 bedrooms. You can save some $$ if you approach the laminated company directly.

[alyplwwf 0]

Hi Yokine9a,

Ya you are right ! I was doing a search for reno company and happened to find this site and I also learned alot from this forum.

Hubby and I do not intend to do much reno to our existing flat as we intend to upgrade to a bigger flat may be in 5-10 years down the road. So after some serious thoughts, have decided to just do the following :-

Hack Kitchen flooring / wall / cabinets

Rewiring

Change aircon

Painting

Change bedroom and main entrance doors

I guess I will just get one contractor to help to supervise and co-ordinate all the work. I'm lousy in co-ordinating especially with those contractors (all look like Ah Bengs to me) and my hubby is those bu-charp type, just leave everything to me to handle. Did you use ID or contractor for your reno ? Care to share with me the details / contact ? How was the workmanship ?

Btw, how much was the rewiring for your flat. I met some ID during the last exhibition at the expo and two of them quoted me totally different prices. One quote was abt $1500 and another quote was $3400 ???

[yokine9a 1]

I used a contractor to handle my reno. His name is Patrick & company name is Ho Bee, pretty famous in this forum. Workmanship wise, based on what I have found out from other forumers who used him previously, frankly speaking, his standard has dropped a bit in my personal view. Maybe I am a perfectionist who want everything to start in a swee sweee condition, especially this is my first flat & I plan to live in it for at least 10 yrs. His office # is 67885841, look for Mrs Quek. One thing good abt Ho Bee is, they won't chop you like a carrot. They are honest guy.

I spent $1700 for the rewiring. This excludes the cost for my switches & power sockets. I wanted the big button design from Legrand & paid separately for them.The diff prices could be due to wire tapping. Someone in this forum said some electricians tap wires to cut cost, ie. they don't lay a single wire from the main circuit box all the way to the switch, they can tap here & there. This is no good in the long run, might cause short circuit & overload the electrical power. Being a layman, people like us won't see the diff since wires are consealed in the trunking. So be careful if the price is too good to be true

Actually, you can forget abt getting ID from the expo exhibition. They are either too expensive or too free to sit there waiting for big fish. Look around the t-blog in this forum, you can find many good IDs/contractors based on forumers who used them for their flats.

[alyplwwf 0]

Hi, thanks again for your help. I will contact Mrs Quek for quote next week after finalising how we want the kitchen cabinet to be - L-shaped or U-shaped or straight ?

[yokine9a 1]

Hi, thanks again for your help. I will contact Mrs Quek for quote next week after finalising how we want the kitchen cabinet to be - L-shaped or U-shaped or straight ?

My kitchen cabinet is straight. I have a pretty long kitchen

But L-shaped is very common nowadays due to smaller kitchen in newer flats. Great in saving space.

[alyplwwf 0]

My kitchen cabinet is straight. I have a pretty long kitchen

But L-shaped is very common nowadays due to smaller kitchen in newer flats. Great in saving space.

My existing cabinet is also straight. I was thinking of L-shaped is because I intend to place my washing machine near the window and beside the rubbish chute.