Dream Home @ Clementi

[Smallboy 0]

We used scraper, turpentine, cif on all the tiles but the stain marks are still visible. Sad. The grout lines is quite a joke. Why do they want to waste effort and do double work? All this can be prevented using corrugated paper. Our white framed windows already bruised before using - scratches, chipped, cigarette stain. Worst off the driller chip off a fifty cent size at the tile corner while doing up our weimi stainless steel rod. This tile cannot be changed unless we dismantle the cabinet.

The way things are done are like half past six. Rods, rain shower, cable casing, downlight caring not straight. Previously, got one funny joker, install my surface mount sink with the base exposed. Huh? Thought common sense to hide that. Even a non professional know that.

Uncle said some of the workers give him problems but to be frank that's his problem in using the wrong guys and why it has to be the home that has to suffer.

Fondue, we same boat. Whole of last week, I am like a OCB person, sitting on the floor with a bottle of thinner, cif, scrubbing and scrubbing. Like Lady Macbeth, "Out you dirty spot". And it is still there, though less brown.

I agree with the corrugated paper. They didn't cover the WHOLE house.

For my kitchen grout, I dont know what to say. I want BLACK grout. Now it is cement colour.

Then my electrical got so many funny problems.

First the telephone lines. The Singtel man came and shook his head. Why our telephone lines install like that. Both socket also got no tone. The singtel man said "your electrical guy CMI"..... like that so simple also do wrongly. In the end, this Singtel guy re-do for me. So nice of him.

Now my heater in my common toilet not working.

MBR heater, leaking water.

I really think Uncle guys not doing a good job.

Edited May 18, 2009 by Smallboy

[blue_diamond 0]

Fondue, we same boat. Whole of last week, I am like a OCB person, sitting on the floor with a bottle of thinner, cif, scrubbing and scrubbing. Like Lady Macbeth, "Out you dirty spot". And it is still there, though less brown.

I agree with the corrugated paper. They didn't cover the WHOLE house.

For my kitchen grout, I dont know what to say. I want BLACK grout. Now it is cement colour.

Then my electrical got so many funny problems.

First the telephone lines. The Singtel man came and shook his head. Why our telephone lines install like that. Both socket also got no tone. The singtel man said "your electrical guy CMI"..... like that so simple also do wrongly. In the end, this Singtel guy re-do for me. So nice of him.

Now my heater in my common toilet not working.

MBR heater, leaking water.

I really think Uncle guys not doing a good job.

Sorry to hear that smallboy...seem like there alot of problem.....

sorry by to ask, did u get Ah soon to rectify all these? my confident is shaken abit after see what happen to u n fondue....sigh...

[Smallboy 0]

Sorry to hear that smallboy...seem like there alot of problem.....

sorry by to ask, did u get Ah soon to rectify all these? my confident is shaken abit after see what happen to u n fondue....sigh...

Well, I believe Uncle will eventually recify but I think Fondue and I are in a RENO fatigue... too tired in chasing to rectify.

And we have been mointoring and chasing since the time reno starts.

And some works cannot be rectify....

[familyof4 0]

upon reading all these, I called Jason and told him they die die have to cover up my place with corrugated paper. my homo tile plain white and any ciggie butt that falls on it will leave a brown mark. this I do not accept at all. also feed back to him to take good care of my parquet flooring as I am not re-doing and the sand and stones will cause an impression on the flooring if not covered well.

I am hoping to see that they really cover up. will go spot check tmr. had to resort to this...bobian.

[growler 0]

Small boy, i emphasize with you. Seriously speaking, Uncle's style of working require his customers to be in full control of everything.

To all Uncle's prospective customers: If you don't really have the time to monitor his workers, I think Uncle's style is not really for you, unless you're willing to accept some faults here and there. NO doubt his price is cheap but going by his increasing amount of business, things will either remain the same or worsen.

I'm not pouring cold water over his quality of work but it's my observation after 2 weeks of reno.

There could be good IDs out there but there's always a price to pay. As in my blog, the next lowest quote was at least 3k more than uncle's quote. I know he can do a good job because he did my friend's unit. However, as I'm committed to taking leave for at least the masonry, plumbing and electrical works, I took the risk of signing up with Uncle. At least I could take leave here and there to monitor the works ... if not, GOD Knows what will be the outcome !

[growler 0]

upon reading all these, I called Jason and told him they die die have to cover up my place with corrugated paper. my homo tile plain white and any ciggie butt that falls on it will leave a brown mark. this I do not accept at all. also feed back to him to take good care of my parquet flooring as I am not re-doing and the sand and stones will cause an impression on the flooring if not covered well.

I am hoping to see that they really cover up. will go spot check tmr. had to resort to this...bobian.

Uncle told Ah How that he's implementing a fine system and they cannot smoke in the house. If they do and he catch them, they will pay $100 each time. I think the tilers don't care, for mine, they also continue to smoke but they only limit their cigarettes to the area where there are no tiles.

As for my unit, Uncle only brought 1 roll of corrugated paper to cover my floor. Luckily I went ahead to buy the commercial grade plastic sheet to cover my unit. If not, god knows what will happen to my floor !

[familyof4 0]

oh Jason mentioned about the fine system. but then hor, they are too busy to manage the workers. I guess we just got to be on the safe side. my EM only 2 rollslor...i seriously doubt how much they can cover with that 2 rolls

[Reiki 0]

Sorry to hear about the post reno, smallboy.

These are works done by our tilers for our floor homogenous tiles, just before the handover:

01. Initially, the tilers used steel wool [which we can get it at any provision shop] to rid off any kind of stains. They used some kind of liquid [i believe most contractors will have it - probably acid]. Manually, it was too slow and tedious.

02. Because we were in a hurry to move in, the tilers used machine instead and polished the whole area.

03. For our matte black tiles [in Guest n MBR toilets], they polished with some form of 'oil' coating. Once polished, we were not allowed to use the areas. This coating must be fully dried otherwise it will give stains.

For corian top, I believe you need to polish it with Lemon Pledge. Wipe [do] it in circle.

[apples 0]

Decide to blog about the FINAL saga before the move in (Sat).

Tiling

I had 2 cracked tiles. So, Uncle said this guy to do up the tiles. Wa... hack 2 tiles and then re-tile. Takes whole day. But he is good. Very meticulous and careful. So as not to break my other tiles. After doing 2 tiles, i decided to let the 1 in MBR be. I just can't stand anymore dust. Then just do 1 last one in the common toilet. It cracks when another guy was drilling in my towel bar. SIGH.

But FULL marks for this tile guy who did the rectification works. Swee swee

Corian Top

This took 2 weeks of chasing Jason. Way before even the handover. Then finally they came in at 2.30pm Friday. I thought it will take just 1 hour. So I have sufficient time to clean up. Guess what......... they finished at 630pm. Then worse the grinding and merging of the Top send a layer of dust over the WHOLE house. Gasp! I almost died.

But I told myself, i can clean it. It can be done. Uncle came over around then and said he will send 3 guys to help me clean. I had to leave to pick up my girl from tuition so I left them there to clean. When I came back 7+pm, they said they are done. I didn't want to inspect, assuming they clean everything. After they left then I realised the windows has a layer of the Corian dust. The floor and cabinets are oily. I clean with my detergent. Cannot help. By 10pm, i am depressed, crying. Why the floor still feel so oily. I called Uncle. He said need special chemical cleaning.

Why didnt his guys do it just now?

By now, my hubby (smallboy) still in a company function, called Uncle and scolded him. Gasp!

I know... but I am in a state of emotional wreckage.. tired.. no strength to clean anymore.

Jason came with 3 men and clean around 11pm till 1240am.

At least not oily and fully cleaned up.

By Sat, I feel better for the move, ,knowing my kids can step into a reasonably clean house. Safe for them, without harmful chemicals.

Working with Uncle is sometimes frustrating cos they dont look into details.

Like grinding a Corian Top or even rectifying the surface top required extensive coverage of the entire house. Layer corrugated paper over the floor, cabinets. That's why this is done before the final clean up/handover. sigh.... mine is done 1 day before I move in.

Wallpaper:

Uncle said to change since got so many bubbles. They came on Thurs to remove. And on the same day Uncle guys came to re-plaster to make it smooth.

The wallpaper guy (Robin) came in on Friday to inspect. Said, still not smooth. Cannot put up wall paper.

Then in came Uncle guy, he said everything is smooth. Why can't Robin install the wallpaper.

This whole thing ding dong here and there. Fri, still no sign of wallpaper.

Then Sat, someone came in to install the wallpaper while we are moving.

Wa... so happy right. Then after he finished. we realised the wall paper got 2 tone.... the centre part is lighter than the right and left side. :(

Honestly dont know to laugh or cry now.

Just let them be. Till Uncle can give me a satisfactory answer.

Now I got to postponed my TV installation. SIGH

Wendy,

Sorry to hear about the saga(s) and pain you had to go through.

Thanks for sharing, I am reminded to go and cover my shelves and etc in my MBR when they are doing my corian top.

Jason told me he was cleaning someone's house till 1am, so it was yours.

The oily floor is on the ceramic tiles? My living room is a bit like that now after the guys clean it last saturday and since then I have mopped it a few times.

I can't mark the areas for grouting or filling up the holes with masking tape becos they simply won't stick!

[xvirusga76 0]

oh mine... i will learn from all your experiences. either i personally go get the industrial type of plastic sheets and maket them cover up, i, too, am a near perfectionist and will not allow such stains on my white floor neither.

i am so sorry to hear all your painful experiences, hope i will not go BERsek too, cant afford to go bersek by July, too near to wedding date, else will get emo breakdown ..

[apples 0]

upon reading all these, I called Jason and told him they die die have to cover up my place with corrugated paper. my homo tile plain white and any ciggie butt that falls on it will leave a brown mark. this I do not accept at all. also feed back to him to take good care of my parquet flooring as I am not re-doing and the sand and stones will cause an impression on the flooring if not covered well.

I am hoping to see that they really cover up. will go spot check tmr. had to resort to this...bobian.

I hope they will do it for you.

When they hacked up my kitchen, I also specifically told Ah Soon to cover my kitchen cabinets, fan, etc etc to minimize the mess and he said ok.

But end up, the workers did not do it. There were dust and debri everywhere. I can even see a lot of dust and debri inside my sliding door (sandwich inside the wall) during my cleaning last Saturday and Sunday. There is no way to clean them up and so I have to pretend they are not there.

[familyof4 0]

i hope so too! so apples have has yours been? understand that urmoving date has been postponed to sometime next week?

[preciousjam 0]

the people at Hafary told me homo tiles easy to maintain lei.... i hope the corrugated paper they provide is enough....think i saw 3 rolls.....

Fondue & smallboy : hope that you will get over the post reno blues soon and enjoy your house....afterall the designs are done by yourself guess the sense of achievement still there.... I was very impressed with both of your houses' layout, wardrobes and kitchen cabinets design....

Edited May 18, 2009 by preciousjam

[apples 0]

i hope so too! so apples have has yours been? understand that urmoving date has been postponed to sometime next week?

we have to move by this saturday, my curtains/furniture are all coming in by Friday, so die die they have to hand over to me by Thursday.

i have told Jason again and again - NO MORE EXTENSION ..

If you do see him or Ah Soon, please remind him for me

[familyof4 0]

i doubt i am seeing any of them tho i hope to see uncle tmr at my place if possible. Maybe will give him a ring tmr to see if he can meet me there for a quick discussion and get my quote from hm.