Lorong Weiwei @ Punggol

[schizogen03 0]

Like most contributors, we took a long time of passive reading before we finally kickstart this blog.

I must say the key driver for putting this up is due to the "below the mark" experience with our contractor and the important lessons we would like to hightlight in hope that fellow readers can pick up.

Im an avid reader who google almost everything...when we shortlisted our contractors, including our current, -, i did my due deligence and found very little feedback on them (only 2 negative experience sometime back). We took a leap of faith and decided to kickstart the reno with them....

As the reno is still on going, we will not reavel the name of the sales person till we have completely given up hope on him.

The Sales Pitch

- Being sales persons ourselves, I must say we were quite impress with the eagerness and sincerity our AM (Account manager) from .... have given us.

-Amongst the countless ID and contractors we met, he was the most prompt in giving quotaton and meeting us. MOst companies take a week to given come out with a quotation and a couple of days to even fix an appointment.

- After 4 meet up in less than a week, we were convince to proceed with this company despite the bad reviews as we felt the AM was sincere and gave us the confidence.

- The quote was also very competitive and reasonable.

-Timeline for completion as advised : 3 weeks (we were pleasantly suprised thou skeptical.

Scope of Works

- Entire Home's Laminated Floor

-Bomb Shelter Flush Carpentary

- Full height Shoe Cabinent

-False ceiling (Except for rooms and kitchen)

-Hacking of Bedroom 2 and MBR wall

-Kitchen wet works and carpentary

-MBR toilet ( overlay of wall tiles,dbl sink and vainity, change of WC, and showerhead, contruction of shampoo block, mirror, a seatee block, glass panel)

- comon Toilet (vainity top and mirror and glass panel)

- Windows for Service yard

- new sliding door for mbr toilet

-new door for mbr

-new glass door for kitchen

- Pantry area

-Painting of the whole house

As we much prefer to use furnishing to make our place pretty, we do not have much carpentary works

this was all 14 days ago and i must comment that at that time, we were full of confidence of what is gonna take place.

in short, as a sales person, the AM did well!

to top it off, he mentioned that he will also be the main man we liase with (positioning was that of a single point of contact)

Edited May 15, 2011 by schizogen03

[schizogen03 0]

THE BUMPY ROAD WITH ....-

We officially started our reno eve of eve of labour day.

Chose the tiles for the toilets the here is some managable experience and tell tales that we fail to detect;

- Was advise to choose tiles only from Hafary thou they also take tiles from White Horse as they claim that white horse have limited range.

- I had wanted to go to White horse got they adverttised on a sale they were having.

- So we obliged and went to Harfary. Was told the budget for tiles willl be $2,3- $2.4 (agreed when we signed), however, realised that hafary hardly have anything within that range.

- Ok, we decided to pay the top up since the quote was resonable and we wanted tiles that were out of budget. Thou i must comment we were a lil puzzled about the quote range.

-ALL in ALL, we were still happy ppl at that point

Two days later, works commence at our home. The toilet bowls and sink removed and works commence...

SHOCKER ONE - on day one

- Received a MSG from AM that he have to charge us $150 more

Reason: HDB insist that sand must be bought from HDB site office and the price was much higher than outside. Also, as we required kitchen base to be done, he mentioned that HDB tiles were very expensive as well so he have to quote us higher.

Our check with HDB: No such regulation on sand

AM response: Tiles HDB sub con sell is very expensive and cannot be found outside. unless you want a different colour

We stood firm. In the end, he gave up trying.

On our end, our reflexes were up naturally and anthennas high up!!

The works took place over 1.5days.

Results: 50% of kitchen and toilet wet works done

Edited May 15, 2011 by schizogen03

[schizogen03 0]

Experience with -

SHOCKERs>>>

29 April - Work commence one third of kitchen and mbs bathroom wet works done

30 April- No work done

1 May - Thou its public holiday, one third work done. kitchen base completed, fridge base uncompleted due to lack of tiles

2 may- no work done. no tiles delivered

3 may- no works done.no tiled delivered

4th may - Air con pipes installation. ID turn up only after two hours, my partner coordinated the works on his own.

Our tiles were spotted at our void deck and we informed ID but no action taken.

5th May- NO WORK done, TILES remained at VOID Deck

6th May- NO WORK done, TILES remained at VOID Deck.

in addition, we were informed that the specific laminate we contracted for cannot be provided for anymore.

Reason: Their company decided not to work with Kronotex as they claimed that there have been reported case of termite infection and Kronotex refused to take responsibility (we are so not convinced as this brand had always given us a good impression). In addition to that, if we do not take laminate from them, we will be penalised $400 of discount they have given us. WTH!

7th May : Tiles no longer at Void Deck . 75% of wet work done for ONE MBR toilet and kitchen. Fridge base remains untiled.

8th May: NO WORK done

9th May: contractor informed they require our lights for electrician to view lightings and requirments. NO WORK DONE.

discussion on electical points took place for 2 hours

10th May: Hacking of Wall (done and complete)

was scheduled for a joint briefing (ID and my partner) with electrician. However, ID failed to turn up.

11th may: NO work done. Again, another briefing with electrician(the boss this time). ID was late... again

electrician worker came to do ONE point at 6pm

12 May : Tiler was scheduled to appear. but did not (apparently their van broke down)

13 may:Tiler was scheduled to come but failed to (apparently due to other issues at other work site)

14 may: Tiler finally came but did not complete the works as promised by ID, False ceilng ppl did not turn up as scheduled as well.

THIS IS ULTIMATUM,,,, you can imagine and understand we are kinda close to boiling point!

to top this off... see the series of sms exchange:

us: tiler ask where is the kitchen tiles

ID: coming up already

us: your tiler says he will be leaving for another job site and will be completing our job oni tml. i wonder why our works are always done halfway

ID: i get back in a while (at 2.43pm)

us: im at site again. the works r not completed . ceiling ppl are not here yet . u tole me today confirm complete.

us: may i know whats going on

us: pls call me b4 i proceed to yr office to look for u.

ID: @5.15pm : im bz 2 e moment.call u back in 20 mins

us: you r always with other things except our house.

ok im very frustrated.

in short, the latter sms and calls were him first telling us his ppl are on their way. when we say ok we will wait, then he say they will not come.

all he do is to tell us what he told us the last few days... TML will be complete!

Edited May 15, 2011 by schizogen03

[Kobelala 8]

Sorry to hear that, so what did the ID or AM replied after caling back ? Can you try talking to his boss ?

[berry_surprise 0]

i presumed u have signed a contract and/or paid some of $.

seriously, it will be too late to back out which means losing all $ and might get penalised by them.

i guess hv to go with it and at the end of day, cut losses and find another contractor who is willing to continue with the unfinished job.

- is such a big id company n they allow such scam to go thru.

what a pity.

[CutieCat 0]

Hi schizogen03 , welcome to RT! It was indeed shocking and sad that your day1 did not went on smoothly.

Base on My knowledge in my contract with ID, i only pay for haulage (sand) $200, this is to pay to the appointed contractor by HDB.

As for the extra tiles which mine cost $192, these are pay by the ID firm not me.

[schizogen03 0]

been silent for a while since my last furiating post and thank all of you for your advices and encouragement.

in short a quick summary... after tt episode, we made a lot of noise and demanded the company to expedite and things got better.

We are now at final stage, pending carpentary to be up by this Friday hopefully and here are some images to share of our new home... .

Living Room Laminate from Krono Original:

We love the colour and the texture but there was some slight issues when we first install.

There was some cracking sound/ however they came to relay and its fine now

Laminate for Room

Pergo: So far so good. I simply love the shine!

[schizogen03 0]

Lightings:

Lady me is super into resort style lighting (table lamps / standing lamps/ mood lamps etc....) whilst the gentleman work on the lighting plan that is on the ceiling!

check it out:

We opted for track light for the house as we did not wanted false ceiling that will lower our ceiling height

Foyer lighting

Kitchen lighting

its all LED so i hope it will not emit too much heat or use too much electricity!

WIP toilet

will share more images in my next post of the 70% completed washroom and the loot we purchased.

Am so excited cos tml, our digital lock will be installed... this is something both of us always wanted! yoohoo

[footprint 0]

hmm.. track light for kitchen too?

i'm afraid wont be bright enough to do cooking or preparing of food.

unless there's other light source there?

toilet looks good though!

very resort-feel indeed!!

[schizogen03 0]

Footprint::thanks. We will have T5 lights at the cabinent area as well. the gereral mood of our home gonna be warm and cosy.

Thks for the compliment.

hmm.. track light for kitchen too?

i'm afraid wont be bright enough to do cooking or preparing of food.

unless there's other light source there?

toilet looks good though!

very resort-feel indeed!!

[schizogen03 0]

Friday and Saturday was exciting with most of our carpentry up!

Preview of our kitchen.

We have opt for two colours.

The hole in the middle is for the dishwasher. Because of the dishwasher, i had to get hob no 2 as hob no 1 was too long @ 90cm. SOb sob.

my sink and faucet... cant wait for solid top to be laid. many have advised against the square edge sink but i simply love it too much to care. look like there is gonna be a hard time trying to clean. but likw what my partner says; sometime we only do once.

and the bathroom withthe shower panel and one piece toilet bowl.

Anyone with the same shower panel? I find the sound of the water flow from this really loud and as the water pressure is really strong, my initial plan to have only a fixed panel have evolved to a shower booth. more $$

feature wall to hide the bomb shelter and a lil corner for knick knacks.

and my ful height shoe cabinent!

[strikingreality 0]

Sorry to hear your unpleasant experience.

After your SMS and call with him, did things get better? At least your reno works is close to finishing... that should be a good thing!

Do reveal the company name if it's convenient.

[Nellynutt 0]

looking forward to see your completed home pics

[idealistic 0]

Truly understand how you feel..

Guess that the reno is near completion now and nothing beats seeing your own home ready and all in shape