Colours Design

[andsoitgoes 0]

willy has informed us that we will be getting our toilet drawing after all, thanks to goldfisheye for mentioning it to clc. i guess as first time home owners, we're very frustrated when things keep messing up or we end up playing the who said what who said this or that game. also, as a layman, i find it extremely difficult to visualize how certain designs look hence it would be most helpful to have an accurate 3D portrayal hence i was very disappointed when told at first that no bathroom drawing would be provided.

goldfisheye, i cannot comment on their workmanship yet becos my reno hasnt started but the sample home i saw had really nice bathrooms and bedrooms design.

[YKnPearl 0]

Our Reno is planned to start mid 2012. This is the reason why we are okay when the 1st draft was way off our expectation and also agree to wait 3-4 weeks for revised 3D. Assuming they keep to their words this time, we waited for ard 7 weeks, I think we are pretty reasonable and patient till now. We really lost faith in them meeting timeline now and won't be surprise if they call us saying there will be delay due to polling and PH....

[andsoitgoes 0]

i guess clc is pretty busy right now. not sure how many projects the company is handling altogether but i think willy himself is handling 4 (excluding potential clients whom he has to meet up with). i think it would be great to consciously chase them and drop reminder sms-es now and then as I feel it helps. i heard that leslie is very tied up now.

[andsoitgoes 0]

i got to hand it to willy. he is really patient. clc making mistakes aside, willy really manages the situation well.

Edited August 28, 2011 by andsoitgoes

[kixx 0]

walkingdead, is it fine to exchange quotes for me to study? we too have gotten quotes from clc, so was wondering can you share with us the price to double confirm so prices.it was stated that inside the cabinet comes with colour to chose is this normal? And 2 app with them, we were told that they are using their in house soft doors which they can give us warranty on it. after comparing with 3 Co. the price seems to be the same yet they giving these too items. so need to confirm it it a good buy or their company have got diff price. and can we know who is in charge of your house. Is it also normal that we dont get to see leslie in person to talk about design. we are ok with them but need abit more info. please kindly fill us up soon, thank you

[lotte.world 0]

kixx can u share with me too. i have got their quotes before but that was like nearly 2 years back lol. too kan chong so they reject my project. trying to get zl new number. can you pm me .cheers

[goldfisheye 0]

hey kixx..

im currently on going with my materials selection with CLC, was please with their service so far. for myself, i choose to engage them like what u had mention... they give me inner laminate colour and soft closing hinges and also lifetime warranty to their carpentry works at the same price others were offering me with only plain normal white inner laminate and no soft closing hinges...

walkingdead, is it fine to exchange quotes for me to study? we too have gotten quotes from clc, so was wondering can you share with us the price to double confirm so prices.it was stated that inside the cabinet comes with colour to chose is this normal? And 2 app with them, we were told that they are using their in house soft doors which they can give us warranty on it. after comparing with 3 Co. the price seems to be the same yet they giving these too items. so need to confirm it it a good buy or their company have got diff price. and can we know who is in charge of your house. Is it also normal that we dont get to see leslie in person to talk about design. we are ok with them but need abit more info. please kindly fill us up soon, thank you

[goldfisheye 0]

by e way, Willy is in charge of my project with excellent service! no complaints during late meet up, bring me to buy accessories for 7hrs plus, gd creative design when i ask him to show me a few design before commence e 3d drawing. oh ya, i was told that all design from their sales designer will be vet by Leslie, before commence of drawing so that means we can ensure double assurance in term of design.

cant wait to start my project!!!!

kixx can u share with me too. i have got their quotes before but that was like nearly 2 years back lol. too kan chong so they reject my project. trying to get zl new number. can you pm me .cheers

[bigbearyong 0]

hi all, new to this forum. i would appreciate if any of you could share good ID contacts. Reliable and reasonable prices. Any info will help greatly

thanks in advance

[kixx 0]

lotte.world you got a mail.

andsoitgoes any update from your reno?

after our latest appointment with clc we have pen down on the dotted line. hope all things will run smoothly. we are impressed by their confident in their workmanship and materials which they give a lifetime warranty which we dont find it from other. like mention in other post, they are very up front and personal and more then willing to help us find cheaper soure on items like lights and window which we will deal direct to the supplier. after viewing one of their on going job, that is what really got us to pen down. their cabinet is really as per what is mention comes with soft door and all cabinet inside got colours and not just white which really makes a big different to the cabinet. somehow maybe only us, feels that cabinet inside got colour, make the cabinet looks very high-end.

[kixx 0]

by e way, Willy is in charge of my project with excellent service! no complaints during late meet up, bring me to buy accessories for 7hrs plus, gd creative design when i ask him to show me a few design before commence e 3d drawing. oh ya, i was told that all design from their sales designer will be vet by Leslie, before commence of drawing so that means we can ensure double assurance in term of design.

cant wait to start my project!!!!

Ooooo. 7hrs to buy accessories @@ . i will die from that. i hope when it is my turn, it will be alot shorter then that. can't really said that they are giving excelent service (just pen down on dotted line, have to go thru the 1 first after sales appointment then know). can't give too much comment till reno start. till now they are showing they are very up front and easy to talk to.

[kixx 0]

i was abit taken back to see post of clc, so decided to join in to do some sharing. i am on the final stage of confirming my id and clc is on our top list. having talk to them find that they are upfront and not the pushy type. they told us that they are currently busy and will not give us empty promises till they have confirm their schedule to take our job anot. which to me and my hubby we feel that they are somehow very upfront and not scare of losing us as client if we cant wait. that is why they are on our top listing. another reason or maybe the main reason for them to be at our top listing is because they did a good job for my brother's nest. so we also hope that they can help handle our nest...

->goldfisheye

i think now all ids do provide 3d drawings as long as u do up the bathroom cabinet. if not how is one going to know what it looks like before construction?

->pearl

you should talk to ur id in charge about this cause my brother did get the drawings for bathroom cabinet but only didnt get its for common bathroom because no cabinets done. and u should also rush your id since u have a deadline. chinese new year period will be coming early jan. u dont want to crush up with it.

just my 1cent advice.

*by the way anyone knows where can i find cheap and good teak furniture?

when is your reno starting why is it that clc cant take your job? we just pen down with them too. maybe you can try give them a call to check their schedule. my reno is to start sometime dec. currently clc is all pack up but if you can start later, i am sure they are ok to do it. can try call them to work out a schedule for you to see if you are able to wait.

[walkingdead 0]

Hello kixx my Reno can start any time but I need the place ready by dec. I have already contacted them now we are in the mist of arranging a workable schedule.hopes it will goes well,

[Howth 0]

Patsy_sg - my "better half" - has already given some of her thoughts on CLC Interiors. After our recent experiences, I think its time I gave mine.

We originally engaged them as 'glorified project managers/contractors' rather than interior designers. If we'd be looking for the latter we would never have hired them but they appeared to have enough of the former and a little of the latter to meet our requirements. Our plan has always been to do a lot of the work on the house ourselves and in so doing turn it into a proper home rather than the glorified showroom that so many interiors designers want to build. Their job was to get the whole process started and, if they proved themselves to be what their sales person claimed they were, we would use them over the next 12-18 months for other work we want to do.

We asked them to:

1. Undertake some demolition and basic construction work (e.g. put in partition walls)
   
2. Design & build a kitchen
   
3. Install wardrobes, a console and dressing table in the master bedtoom
   
4. Completely re-do two bathrooms
   
5. Polish/restore/stain our marble, parquet and wood floors
   
6. Paint the house
   

Patsy has talked about their failure to meet the original deadlines they gave us and described the state of the place when we moved in so, for the moment, let's start with the positives.

• The kitchen is pretty much exactly what we wanted
  
• The quality of the carpentry work is excellent throughout
  And.....
  

That's it, unless you call the 'barely adequate' something to be happy about but. The decorating work is basically complete but only after the house had to be repainted twice because the first attempt was so laughably shoddy. The floors are finally approaching acceptability but again that's only after three attempts on their part and the fact that we lowered our standards in relation to the parquet work because we've decided to replace it later in the year. Everything else is sub-standard, amateurish and completely unacceptable.

The easy option would be to be blame the quality of the workers/subcontractors employed by CLC Interiors and it is true that a number of these are incredibly poor. Their electrician, for example, managed to incorrectly install over 90% of the new plug and light sockets in the house and his solution to not being able to get a wall light to hang properly was to tie it to a beam in the roof (I'll post pictures of this together with other examples of their work). If he’d gone and looked in the next-door room he would have seen what was wrong as he’d already installed one properly there. That he didn’t was down to laziness and a lack of thought. Everything about his work said that he took the easy option no matter what. Probably the best illustration is his use of casing to ‘disguise’ the wiring in our dining room light. There are no problems with hiding the cables in the ceiling (we’ve had two independent experts review all of their work who’ve confirmed this). He just didn’t bother thinking about what the end product looked like and did the quickest, dirtiest and easiest thing he could.

I do not hold individual contractors responsible for this. Instead it is a direct consequence of CLC Interior’s lack of professionalism and inability to perform even basic project management. Our experiences tell us that:

• The work required to complete each part of the project was never properly estimated by the CLC Interior project manager.
  
• Contractors were not properly briefed on the tasks they were then asked to complete.
  
• Their work was not being supervised or monitored properly (if at all).
  
• They tended to demonstrate little interest/pride in their work (which speaks of a lack of proper management or motivation).
  
• Once problems start to occur, client communication largely focuses on avoiding incurring additional costs to CLC Interiors to resolve problems created by their own incompetency.

Our experiences with two other suppliers highlight the shortcomings in their project management. We hired a company to install electric gates. The day before installation was to take place, their project manager came to the house and looked at what work needed to be done. The next morning 3 workman arrived who had been clearly briefed about the job. The project manager arrived midmorning to see how things were going and then came back at the end of the day to evaluate the work that had been completed and let us know what needed to be done. A similar thing happened with the company we hired to do do some wood work on the house. The project was properly scoped, the people who worked on it clearly knew what they were doing and in addition to managing his staff the project manager also kept us regularly updated on what was going on.

CLC Interiors did none of these things.

Our problems with our bathrooms illustrate this perfectly. The shower fittings have not installed properly. Even though they had the fittings prior to the work being carried out, the project manager never gave them to the plumber. He also never bothered to inform him what tiles were being installed or got him to liase with the tiler to ensure they were working together. The plumber then never thought to find out any of this for himself and just started working. No checks were made on his work and then once the problem was identified CLC Interiors devoted their time to doing the quickest, dirtiest and cheapest ‘almost fix’ to a problem of their own making.

The same thing happened when cracks started to appear around the door frames and the partitions they had put up. The first time they were notified of the problem their sales person tried to look ‘knowledgeably’ at the cracks and told me it was down to the ‘house moving’. His solution was to send someone down to literally ‘plaster over the cracks’. He wasn’t a plasterer. He was the electricians assistant. The cracks had re-appeared before he even left. The next person down stuck a whole load of silicon into the cracks around one door, paid no attention to how it looked and headed off without doing the others or telling anyone what he had done.

I could go on and on but the basic issue is this. CLC Interiors did not deliver on what they were hired to do. They struggled to achieve the barely adequate on some tasks and failed miserably in others. Where things turned out ok, that was down to the professional pride of the individual sub-contractors and had nothing to do with CLC Interiors project manager or sales executive. In all instances their professional conduct remained the same; laughably amateurish. Only hire them if your standards are low. They'll meet them.

[YKnPearl 0]

Anyone with current ongoing project with Colors? Will really like to get more feedbacks on their timeliness and quality of deliveries.