Information For Flooring

[zzx23 0]

hi all,

those doing flooring, i would like to share some learning which I myself have gotten from my whole flooring saga.

as I am, like maybe many of you, hoping to tighten our renovation expenditure due to budget. So I hope what I have learnt, some of you may find it useful.

generally renovation contractors or tilers do a complete package, meaning, get tiles for you, materials and then labour.

Tiles - needless to say is mostly from those big players like LSH, SBH, harafi etc. Please take note, that usually, when contractors get from them, they will offer a slight discount. sometimes when you try to haggle with them, they may or might not give you the same discount, so this is an area you cant save alot. Initially my tiles was $2.90 psf including GST. after haggling, we got it at $2.70. based on our floor area, we only saved $60.

Materials - when tilers or contractors getting for you, I dont know if they will "eat" a chunk. but all i can say is I went to buy my own materials and I tell you its super cheap. for a floor area of 300sqft, i only paid $260 for my materials. so if a contractor or tiler charge you for $400 - $500 for 300sqf then you know they eat you how much already.

Labour - standard in the market so far I ask around is $2.20 (lower end) to $2.50 (upper end). at this range you can get good workmanship already. so those above $2.50, you are just paying extra for no reason. then skirtings labour is separate and standard charge is about $1.50 per foot run. anything higher, then you better hold his head to ensure the workmanship is top notch.

Haulage - this comes in if you planning to do all ala carte. hdb used to charge around $200+ region which I am not sure of the exact amount. this service must be engage if your contractor or tiler does not carry up and down your materials. so take note. my case: my contractor provides tiling service but he does not do haulage, so he got a 3rd party haulage and materials supplier to quote me, $1200 for haulage and materials! somemore the haulage person can say to my contractor, if want to find $900 service slowly wait.. because he said that, I was more determined to find my own. In the end, I went to buy my own materials and engaged my own haulage person (take note that at $400, my haulage guy already earns a decent margin), so can you imagine the haulage guy my contractor recommended was planning to earn from me $1200 - $266 materials = $934 for haulage? i also suspect that my contractor is in cahoots with him. and my contractor has abandoned his agreed flooring work for my house when he knew I have my materials and did not use his 3rd party. He has not called me since.

so in the end:

if I went with my contractor and his 3rd party rip off haulage bugger:

tiles - $940

materials + haulage = $1200

labour - $780

= $2920

I did it all ala carte:

tiles - $940

materials + haulage = $260 + $400 = $660 (vs $1200!!?)

labour - $780

= $2380

so you can see, its more than $500 saving and its from haulage and materials, lucky I did not use that bugger who quoted me $1200, I should have thanked him for being so greedy and charge me so high which made me wake up. and if you are like me whom already have tiles and materials, no wonder no tiler want to do my floor for me cos they are missing the chance to rip me off. so when they want to buy for you tiles, materials or provide haulage, don't think they are doing you a favour, because that's when they will insert some "extra" charges to your bill. Some will chop abit some will chop a **** lot of bits. Dont be taken in by the "my materials are good quality etc" . FYI the materials I bought myself I asked for all the best and its only $260. so remember and beware.

Anyway I have already found some one whom can do just flooring for me. so all in all I saved about 20% from my flooring works. Whoever interested to know where and how I got my stuff i got my materials from kai lim and my tiles from SBH. haulage person contact i got from one of the kai lim staff, so if you need it just pm me. now just pending the tiler i got see whether he is good. so far all my own contact, their service was excellent.

all these tilers here giving so called low rates and "good" service are too busy to serve you anyway, so don't waste your time and money unneccesarily already. you will end up paying more and get sh*t service from those whom advertise here. I kena until I sian liao. all business very good until they dont even bother to reply you nor give a **** attitude.

generally i know all busineses need to earn, but dont get so greedy and over chop carrot la or ya ya papaya la k.

cheers

Edited July 31, 2012 by zzx23

[dududu 0]

Hi, I just read your entry on your tiling experience. I would like to check if you managed to find a tiler to do your floors? How was the workmanship?

I will be getting my keys to my flat soon and I am looking for tiler. Would really appreciate if you can share your contacts and costs with me on this process. Thanks

[funnymatthew 1]

hi zzx23,

thanks for the information. indeed, can save a lot by handing more stuff by yourself.

[momiji 0]

May I know what does the material refer to?

[Karenamanda81 0]

Thanks for the sharing. Useful.

[Speed45 0]

This time i have to disagree with thread starter... A homeowner has the right to refuse an expensive quotation, so does a id/contractor to refuse a business that has no money to make...If theres money to make, which businessman would actually turn it down ? I suppose this is the main reason y many id/contractors turn u down or ignored you.

Anyway its all about the services they provide, if the contractor goes to buy tiles for u, they expect to earn abit... do consider the fact that they take time n effort plus transport to go down to the supplier. You saved $60 when u went down urself , but u never consider ur time taken plus transport cost. The costs are definitely more than $60 for a contractor. Thats y u save when u do things urself. The contractor needs to cover overheads plus the fact that business opportunities maybe lost during the time taken to show u around. So please show some understanding that contractors do charge slight more for lesser work done.

Materials n haulage ? This is where contractors earn their profit. Remember they dont earn much from the tiles n the labour. I agree $1200 is indeed on the high side which i believed the money is shared between the contractor n the haulage guy. Maybe the price can still be haggled.

Labour, you dont expect a contractor to earn just from labour alone. Levies & labour costs are expensive nowadays unless u are talking about those freelance tilers. They will definitely be glad to earn just $780 without much overhead on their side.

Summary, unless u have a lot of free time to go around scouting for the cheapest, that $500 u saved is just another "fee" to engage a contractor to do everything for you.