Hippobb's House Reno

[hippobb 0]

Hi,

Have been reading Renotalk's forum thread and fellow forumer's reno blogs, this site provided wifey and I with lots of insight and ideas. Started this thread to keep a mini diary of the reno journey.

We have been staying at our current's place for more then 11yrs at Serangoon area, we has'nt moved since as we loved the neighbourhood, the amenities at the area and most important of all we liked the size of our old 5rm improved flat. We were the 2nd owner of my house and when we first shifted in, the place was in a move-in condition so we did'nt do any major reno back then just minor aircon unit replacement and white powder coating windows and windows grille replacement.

Decided to do the reno now for the following reasons -

1. HDB started upgrading our area to beautify and include lift landing on every floor of our flat. Ever since they started the major upgrading works at my block last year, my old ceramic italian design floor tiles started popping up, the side skirts also started cracking and dropping off the walls. We got a small kid and we thought since we din do any reno before maybe it will be a good time to do a major one now.

2. The original design was very outdated especially the kitchen area & the flooring, toilet area, ceiling flora design cornices.

3. Also about 2 months back, wife noticed that the kitchen ceiling has been dripping water once a while... ( will talk abt this case later )

And..... there we go, we decided to do a major reno... now we are in the process of looking for a good and reliable ID or contractor firm... have'nt sign anything yet but we are almost 85% confirmed about who we would give our reno job to.... will share with everyone our reno id visiting experience in following email to come....

[Mickey M 0]

Welcome. Have a gd stay at Renotalk.

[lilithfiend 0]

welcome to RT! look forward to seeing pictures...

[Supersimon27 2]

welcome to RT blog

[hippobb 0]

Hi All,

Thanks for the welcome message!! will start posting pics after the final design is ready...

[hippobb 0]

Ok after discussing with wifey we decided to set our reno budget to about 40k and here's what we plan to do

HACKING WORKS

Hack off existing floor tiles ****/dining , 3 bedroom & store .

Hack off existing floor & wall tiles at kitchen & 2 toilets .

Hack off existing side skirts ****/dining, 3bedrooms & store

Hack off exisiting wall tiles at balcony area

Dismantle existing top / bottom kitchen cabinet .

Dismantle existing wardrobe at master bedroom & bedroom .2

Dismantle existing t.v console **** area .

Dismantle existing aluminium sliding door between living & balcony .

Dismantle existing cornices & ceiling plaster design ****/dining, balcony and foyer area

MASONRY WORKS

Level off balcony with living area

Supply & lay 60x60 cm homogeneous floor tiles c/w skirting for living/dining , 3 bedroom , balcony & store .

Supply & lay non slip homogenous floor tiles for kitchen .

Supply & lay full height ceramic wall tiles for common + master toilet .

Supply & lay non slip homogenous floor tiles for common + toilet .

Supply & apply chemical waterproof membrane for 02 toilets flooring.

Supply & apply waterproof membrane for kitchen

Supply & construct mortar base for kitchen cabinet .

Supply & construct mortar base for washing machine with tiles finish .

Cement Creed for kitchen wall after hacking

Make good and smoothen out all hacking works

TIMBER WORKS

Supply & install solid timber door c/w lockset & stopper for 3 bedroom & store.

PLASTER CEIL WORKS

Simple design

Fabricate & construct design L box light holders for living area .

Fabricate & construct false ceiling for dining area , passageway & foyer area .

Fabricate & construct false ceiling c/w light pelmet for master bedroom .

Fabricate & construct simple L-box for balcony and bedroom 2 & 3 .

Seal up louver at 2 bedroom entrance & store .

Supply & plaster whole house internal wall & ceiling .

PLUMBING WORKS

Supply & rerun new single stainless steel piping for kitchen & 02 separate toilets.

Supply & connect inlet / outlet piping for kitchen sink and washing machine .

ELECTRICAL WORKS

Rewire & re-run whole house electrical cabling

ALUMINIUM & GLASS WORKS

Supply & install aluminium bi fold door c/w acrylic panel for 2 toilets .

FOYER AREAS

Design, fabricate & install full height cabinet using solid plywood with selected laminate finishing ( L4 ft ) .

KITCHEN

L Shape Design - kitchen cabinet

MASTER BEDROOM

build in cabinet

Appx : L 7 ft

TOILETS

Shift washing basin point for 2 toilets to make space for shower screen installation

Install shower screen for 2 toilets

install WC and washing basin

[hippobb 0]

City-design

Their so called senior ID served us... asked us to sit down and asked abt our budget... and then said "ok very simple everything is in my head... i can give u a rough breakdown right now..." ok we thought... so he started quoting us ... one thing we do appreciate is that he gave us some ideas about shifting our toilet washing basin and recreating our shower screen.... when the quote came back finally, we were shocked!!! the quote was 30% over our budget and the real thing that irked us utterly is we were served by this so called senior ID...but in the end another guy called us up and gave us the quote... I mean if you are not free and need to pass this job to another colleague at least have the courtesy to give me a call and tell me lah ....you dun just asked another guy to come and quote us... anyway renotalk forums does have some negative feedback abt them...

U-home

we went to this one the following day.... pretty professional I would say... their show room was pretty well setup and the ID was pretty ok.... they too has a standard package and also quoted us with the additional top ups.... and the price was well within our budget and we get freebies like aircon and toilet accessories.... first impression was pretty good... so wifey short listed this... we were concerned as we have a feeling that there seem to be some underlying hidden cost and also that the pretty ID might not be all too well versed with the HDB requirements and rulings... renotalk has no serious negative talk abt this one...

The interior place

This one was recommended by wifey's friend.. feedback was responsible and good ....so went down and met up with ID. Meetup was pleasant, ID knows her work, knows what we want and we feel we could communicate with her ...... the quote for our reno was not the highest but was also not that cheap... it was abit over our budget and that is after we tookout several things... wifey liked this ID so we shortlisted this one.... renotalk got no negative talks abt this one but another forum the singapore brides forum did have a couple toking abt their so so workmanship...

Some tom dick harry Contractor

Ok... by now after toking to several IDs and reno firms, we roughly know what we really one, what we really need and what can be done and what can't be achieved... so wifey has this friend's uncle who is a aircon contractor...he told us he can do the reno .... he said "reno dun go to those big ID firms, he can find contractors to do for us with simple design ideas ...cheaper and in the end ..the end product will be the same" .... so we welcomed him to our place to quote.... He came and started asking us tons and tons of questions...ie where do u want to put this, where do u want to have that, how many electrical pts you want to have, how do you want to do your rooms, how do you want to do your kitchen how do you want to do your toilet..... the final straw came when ....he asked ok where you want to positon your new aircon and how u want to run your aircon pipes - wifey thus tell him off "I thought aircon is your expertise, you should know where to put the aircon how come we need to tell u...." In the end, when we checked with him if he is hdb registered contractor...he cannot answer the question ..so we told him off nicely saying that we welcome him to quote but we would prefer a hdb registered contractor and that we din want to waste his time...

and then there were some ID/Contractor that were recommended by friends and colleagues whereby for us by now has become abit tired of looking round for one.... so I just emailed a couple of them, the floor plan, our requirements and a sketch design of where i wanted the kitchen L shape to be and my mbr cabinet...

Edited August 19, 2010 by hippobb

[SGK 0]

Cxxxxxxxn

Their so called senior ID served us... asked us to sit down and asked abt our budget... and then said "ok very simple everything is in my head... i can give u a rough breakdown right now..." ok we thought... so he started quoting us ... one thing we do appreciate is that he gave us some ideas about shifting our toilet washing basin and recreating our shower screen.... when the quote came back finally, we were shocked!!! the quote was 30% over our budget and the real thing that irked us utterly is we were served by this so called senior ID...but in the end another guy called us up and gave us the quote... I mean if you are not free and need to pass this job to another colleague at least have the courtesy to give me a call and tell me lah ....you dun just asked another guy to come and quote us... anyway renotalk forums does have some negative feedback abt them...

Uxxxx

we went to this one the following day.... pretty professional I would say... their show room was pretty well setup and the ID was pretty ok.... they too has a standard package and also quoted us with the additional top ups.... and the price was well within our budget and we get freebies like aircon and toilet accessories.... first impression was pretty good... so wifey short listed this... we were concerned as we have a feeling that there seem to be some underlying hidden cost and also that the pretty ID might not be all too well versed with the HDB requirements and rulings... renotalk has no serious negative talk abt this one...

Txxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

This one was recommended by wifey's friend.. feedback was responsible and good ....so went down and met up with ID. Meetup was pleasant, ID knows her work, knows what we want and we feel we could communicate with her ...... the quote for our reno was not the highest but was also not that cheap... it was abit over our budget and that is after we tookout several things... wifey liked this ID so we shortlisted this one.... renotalk got no negative talks abt this one but another forum the singapore brides forum did have a couple toking abt their so so workmanship...

Some tom dick harry Contractor

Ok... by now after toking to several IDs and reno firms, we roughly know what we really one, what we really need and what can be done and what can't be achieved... so wifey has this friend's uncle who is a aircon contractor...he told us he can do the reno .... he said "reno dun go to those big ID firms, he can find contractors to do for us with simple design ideas ...cheaper and in the end ..the end product will be the same" .... so we welcomed him to our place to quote.... He came and started asking us tons and tons of questions...ie where do u want to put this, where do u want to have that, how many electrical pts you want to have, how do you want to do your rooms, how do you want to do your kitchen how do you want to do your toilet..... the final straw came when ....he asked ok where you want to positon your new aircon and how u want to run your aircon pipes - wifey thus tell him off "I thought aircon is your expertise, you should know where to put the aircon how come we need to tell u...." In the end, when we checked with him if he is hdb registered contractor...he cannot answer the question ..so we told him off nicely saying that we welcome him to quote but we would prefer a hdb registered contractor and that we din want to waste his time...

and then there were some ID/Contractor that were recommended by friends and colleagues whereby for us by now has become abit tired of looking round for one.... so I just emailed a couple of them, the floor plan, our requirements and a sketch design of where i wanted the kitchen L shape to be and my mbr cabinet...

Hi, welcome to reno t-blog. Read your posts on ID search. Actually there are quite a few popular ID/contractors in this forum, like Supersiomon's contractor Henry. But my colleague just called him and he said he is superbusy and from now to June he cannot take on new jobs. Or you want to try my ID?

[therat 18]

Hi, welcome to reno t-blog. Read your posts on ID search. Actually there are quite a few popular ID/contractors in this forum, like Supersiomon's contractor Henry. But my colleague just called him and he said he is superbusy and from now to June he cannot take on new jobs. Or you want to try my ID?

update

last week , I call him.

He say Aug then can take in job.

[hippobb 0]

After I sent my emails to a several ID/Contractors recommended by friends and also followed by a voice call, only 1 called back and asked for more time to quote and is supposedly to call me back this week, 2 of the IDs/Contractor was probably so busy until they forgot about my simple request for quotation and then finally when I was about to decide on who to give the job to.........

White Knight on a Horse cameby ......

Then there is this one ..... this particular one ...who is recommended by my colleague whose current staying house is renovated by him and that his new house will also be renovated by this same ID/contractor .... emailed me and asked for a meetup at my place.... I called him back and told him "I dun want to waste his time travelling all the way down and my time and that I will prefer him to have his quotation ready" ... he replied me confidently saying dun worry lets meetup.... so I was "ok lets meet... the most I will only waste 1hr of my time to repeat all my requirements again spelling out our wants"

Ok lets call this particular ID Mr A.

We met just end of last week and both me and my wife was pleasantly surprised by what he prepared for just a simple first time meeting. First thing that made us raised our eye brows was that this jovial guy ...actually took my floorplan and did some simple coloured designing based on our floor area based on what we wanted... ie the L-shape kitchen, the mbr cabinet where its supposed to be... and then he showed us his quotation.... which after going through every items we find that it was lower compared to the rest of the ID firms (though not the cheapest) and it included electrical works and the whole quote was well within our budget..

he was then quick to identify that if we were to do an L-shape kitchen then we would probably end up with a small kitchen work space.... so he proposed to close off the existing kitchen entrance, open the entrance at another positon and then do up a U-shape kitchen.... we liked his idea.... then next he proposed to us to relocate our common toilet entrance so that a nice shower screen can be created.... again we liked his idea.... and when it comes to the masterbed room.... he was the only ID that proposed to us a walk in wardrobeconcept at my MBR cos he says my MBR is one of the biggest floor area MBR and that a walkin wardrobe will be possible if we were to shift the toilet entrance. We at first thought that all these additional stuff that requires hacking will probably cost us a bomb ..... but was again pleasantly surprised when he explained to us that all the hacking works is already included in the masonry quote... we hack more walls or hack lesser walls the price will also be the same..its only the rebuilding of the walls that he will charge... as compared to other IDs, they will charge you for any additonal hacking of the walls that you might have...

Next thing that we were again surprised is that Mr A. is extremely well versed in the HDB rulings, we mentioned abit of stuff and he is very quick to tell us that ok hdb got this ruling to do this and that ie min. height that you need to have for ceiling works, min height that you can have if you were to do a balcony level up etc.... so this prompted us to asked if his firm is HDB registered contractor and he confidently tells us his HDB reg contractor no... we suspect that he is the boss....

Finally, we asked if we could view one of his later works and he invited us for a viewing at the Dxxxxx Pxxxx this sat for a unit that he almost completed...

Like what most pple said, first impression lasts..... I was very happy that I did gave him a chance to hear him out in the first place.... and also We were very very glad to have meetup with him as he gave us a lot of confidence that he is responsible and can handle the job well.... When I got to office today, I checked with my colleague about this workmanship and he said Mr A is pretty ok.... got hiccups but he is very quick to rectify... he won't be like some that will dily daly and complain when things needs to be fixed..... also my colleague pointed out a very very important point and that is - alot of renovation contractors has a lot of bad habbits like soccer betting, gambling issues, smoking issues...which will reflect very bad on the work done if affected .... but this mr A. doesn't has this....

So now we are waiting patiently to view the unit this coming sat.... and of course by now we are 85% sure of who to pick....

Btw, dun be mistaken, I am not the contractor or ID... or that I am going to recommend him to anybody so that I will get any good out of it....

[hippobb 0]

Hi, welcome to reno t-blog. Read your posts on ID search. Actually there are quite a few popular ID/contractors in this forum, like Supersiomon's contractor Henry. But my colleague just called him and he said he is superbusy and from now to June he cannot take on new jobs. Or you want to try my ID?

Hi SGK,

Thanks!! will keep your offer in mind...

Will wait till I see 1 of the units done up by a ID recommended by a colleague this saturday....

[SGK 0]

Hi SGK,

Thanks!! will keep your offer in mind...

Will wait till I see 1 of the units done up by a ID recommended by a colleague this saturday....

No problem. Glad to hear that you have found a good potential ID already. In a way, my experience of finding my ID is similar to yours. He is the last ID we spoke to and we initially were not keen in meeting him because we have already spoken to 6 or 7 before meeting him. The ID firm was strongly recommended by our colleague and we thought should give it a try. In the end, our ID gave us the lowest quote and proposed the most interesting layout. Furthermore he is very refined and always very polite and patient and we feel comfortable working with him.

Wish you a smooth renovation ahead .

[hippobb 0]

Hi Hippobb, I am in the midst of sourcing of contractors ... planning to start reno end of June or early July ... can pm me his contacts? Thanks!

Hi Branyeo

Ok will PM u his contact once we sign and started the reno....

[rickoveron 0]

Hi Hippobb and SGK,

i appreciate it if can PM me the contacts for your respective IDs pls... many thanks.

Rick

[hippobb 0]

Hi Rickoveron

Will pm u my ID contact after we have sign and started reno... will let u know see how he's workmanship this sat.