Chronicles Of A Simple Bathroom Without Gold Taps

[X6GT 3]

People in Glass Houses Must Not Throw Stones

Ok, continuing where I Ieft off by way of the reno story, I had actually chosen a company to do my shower screen (1 fixed, 1 sliding) and my glass swing door (as the entrance of the bathroom, apart from the above wooden door). The bathroom is an adjoining common bathroom, so the wooden door leads to my bro's room while the other door leads to the outside (lounge).

After going back and forth a few times on the phone and via SMS, this Edward guy from ACME 'confirmed' that the shower screen was $480 and the swing door was $380. I specifically gave all the measurements because my width and the door size were slightly bigger than normal ones. Just slightly, but I wanted to make sure the price took this into consideration and that there were no hidden additional charges.

Here's proof from November that I confirmed it with him:

But as with my previous experiences throughout this reno, this scummy Edward guy also did a 'belakang pusing'. I had called him and arranged for him to come to my place for the measurements on Saturday 24 Jan 2015; the night before, I asked him what time he would be able to come. He said 11am to 1pm. When I sent him my LANDED property address, he suddenly claimed that the price was $600 for the shower screen. Instead of the above $480. Can you imagine my anger? When I called him, he claimed that he didn't see the measurements [see my pictures above as proof that he noted the measurements the first time round liao].

I msgd him:

"That time you said it was $380 [in June 2014]. AFTER I told you the measurements [in Nov 2014] you said $480. Now you jacking it up some more."

And

"Please be reasonable la. I had wanted to ask you also to make swing door too, but now I'm afraid to even ask bcos you will try to jack up the price again."

But he just completely ignored me, and didn't respond.

Needless to say, he didn't even bother to turn up the following day too..

So please avoid this company at all cost. So untrustworthy. Liar.

P.S.:

If you note their ACME website, it states that their factory is in AMK and for the contact number it's a different mobile number beginning with 8. However, if you do a simple google search with the term "ACME glass Singapore", one of the top hits shows on googlemaps that this "A-ACME Design" is located in Balestier and the mobile number shown is this Edward's. So not sure what's going on there, if this Edward is still with the original ACME or not. Just be careful and avoid such snakes to save yourself the trouble

Edited March 5, 2015 by X6GT

[X6GT 3]

Choosing a Glass Company

I'm sure you all must have read about that Punggol freak accident death where the shower screen broke and the guy died being cut by it After that happened, I was even more paranoid. I mean, how and where can I get a cheap but good/safe shower screen done at such a last minute timing?

Some things you need to consider when asking for your quotation are to make sure you mentioned it's tampered. If you want laminated for extra peace of mind, ask them also (this will increase the price significantly, by about $120++). Then there's whether you want it sandblasted or not, for that frosted glass look. It will also be another $100+ extra. If you don't want to spend that money, they can advise you to go for sticker/film alternative instead, which technically is only $20-30 for the roll of film itself BUT labour charges will be $120++ if you go to a company to ask them to do it for you. Honestly, it's actually easy to do (to me) but you just need to trial and error first then you will become pro at it. Which means, depending on your ability to scale the learning curve, you could end up wasting a lot of the film on your mistakes.

I had gone to a couple of glass places before, including the famed Besglass and a few random others at the AMK Industrial Park. I was being quoted $680- $700+ for my shower screen, and $500+ for the swing door, which was simply way over my budget. When I was at the TPY Besglass, I was actually very attracted to their range of products on display... very nice, and the sales assistant was quite patient (maybe because she was bored - I was the only one there on a Saturday afternoon). But their prices were a bit steep for me, so I had to find other alternatives.

Meng Heng actually has decent prices, is a local company (that I love to support) but unfortunately it does not install. It only supplies glass pieces, which can be customised. I've gotten a few quotations from them before and the prices are indeed competitive. But because it's glass, I don't want to take the risk of installing it myself and decided to leave it to the professsionals.

So after much searching and calling around (Round 3), I found this company Nan Huat that specialises in doors.

[PricillaChua 0]

Anybody...? The door? Suggestions..?

I think if it's my bathroom, I would change it.

It might looks rugged but it looks like an almost very used door...

[X6GT 3]

I think if it's my bathroom, I would change it.

It might looks rugged but it looks like an almost very used door...

Hi Pricilla... cute cat pic! Thanks for your comments...

Unfortunately, changing the door is not an option at all. Bo lui. My only 2 options are to paint it, or to leave it as it is.

I get what you mean... lol but haha that's the point of a vintage industrial look I guess? Make it look like a bit grungy. I actually purposely sanded the door to look like that. Before this, it was just a normal looking brown door.

Heh.. but I think different ppl have different taste..

[Eventide 1]

I think your door looks very edgy and different. Can tell it's intentional, not well used per se. Try keeping it for a while and change it later on when you're bored and have settled other aspects of your bathroom that are more pressing?

Can Meng Huat recommend installers? Since they're in this business they might have contacts?

[Elfi Abdullah 1]

Hey X6GT,

You should have a blog of somekind, i throughly enjoyed reading your journey, i actually laughed quite a fair bit!

I myself am looking to redo my horrid, fugly bathroom and reading your posts makes it a real eye opener especially:

1) How easy it is to over exceed the initial budget

2) How naive we are in working with contractors who can't care less about us in the first place.

I have a few questions and i'm not sure if you have the answers:

1) For the rain shower is it just cold water coz i didn't see any posts talking about a heater of somekind.

2) For the rain shower don't you need a pump to ensure the 'rain' works at a good pressure or distribution?

I'll ask more questions again later, but do keep posting!

[ashly 3]

Hi,

Chanced upon your blog and thought you are very witty and candid. Like your style.

I rarely log in and saw that my bathroom blog is kinda lonely: http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/66255-my-throne-rooms/

I just want to say that if we meet a good contractor, life is made a little easier.

I got Dorothy to do up my bathrooms as she was sincere and followed up closely. She listens to your ideas and proposes relevant ideas. I like her easy-going style and would strongly recommend her if not for her young plumber.

A question for you: are you a guy or girl? You are able to tear down shower screen and sink yourself - that's like a guy; but you had a 'fiance' and is perfectionistic - which suggests that you are a girl.

[X6GT 3]

I think your door looks very edgy and different. Can tell it's intentional, not well used per se. Try keeping it for a while and change it later on when you're bored and have settled other aspects of your bathroom that are more pressing?

Can Meng Huat recommend installers? Since they're in this business they might have contacts?

Hihi Eventide, I would think Meng Heng can recommend people to install. But I think it may depend on who you speak to..? If it's China staff who can't be bothered, they will tell you the standard "I don't know". Try to speak to the senior management of the sales dept and develop rapport with him. That time I got the quotes from Meng Heng was kinda long ago, so I don't remember who I spoke to that mentioned they can recommend.

Unlike light or bathroom fittings shops, a pure glass supplier like Meng Heng may have very few 'direct installers' to recommend. The reason is because they actually supply to a lot of contractors and third-party type of service companies. They get a lot of business from these guys who then con us with the inflated contractor prices... so they try to avoid asking people to go direct. They don't want to offend their regular source of business ma. So just take note... if the people being recommended are those kind of freelance handymen then they should be cheap, but if the recommendation is like a company that's a contractor whose business is to supply and install these glass things then they will be not much difference in price so you might as well go to these companies. Otherwise you go through all the trouble for $10-20 savings, bo hua leh.

[X6GT 3]

I think your door looks very edgy and different. Can tell it's intentional, not well used per se. Try keeping it for a while and change it later on when you're bored and have settled other aspects of your bathroom that are more pressing?

Can Meng Huat recommend installers? Since they're in this business they might have contacts?

And thanks for the comments on the door... Yes, I am gonna do exactly that indeed!

Am keeping the door as it is for now... it's actually quite swee

[X6GT 3]

Hey X6GT,

You should have a blog of somekind, i throughly enjoyed reading your journey, i actually laughed quite a fair bit!

I myself am looking to redo my horrid, fugly bathroom and reading your posts makes it a real eye opener especially:

1) How easy it is to over exceed the initial budget

2) How naive we are in working with contractors who can't care less about us in the first place.

I have a few questions and i'm not sure if you have the answers:

1) For the rain shower is it just cold water coz i didn't see any posts talking about a heater of somekind.

2) For the rain shower don't you need a pump to ensure the 'rain' works at a good pressure or distribution?

I'll ask more questions again later, but do keep posting!

Hi Elfi,

Yeah...! I learnt so many new things from this reno. Painful lessons too

1. Rain shower - Nope, it's both hot and cold. The heater is storage heater, I kept my old one and didn't change so they didn't really touch it (in the concealed ceiling of the bathroom).

2. Rain shower pump... hmmm, don't need leh. It's perfectly fine the way it is, perhaps because the original pressure is fine in the first place

Thanks for your kind compliments, paiseh.. there are a lot of very interesting blogs and interesting forumners who write much funnier things than me IMHO. I don't know how to be naturally funny like them, my sense of humour is a bit lame and most ppl don't know when I'm joking and when I'm serious

Feel free to ask away...!

I'm still only 80% done with this blog, as I want to talk some more about the shower screen, glass door, stickers and plumbers. Just haven't had much time to get on Renotalk these days...

[X6GT 3]

Hi,

Chanced upon your blog and thought you are very witty and candid. Like your style.

I rarely log in and saw that my bathroom blog is kinda lonely: http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/66255-my-throne-rooms/

I just want to say that if we meet a good contractor, life is made a little easier.

I got Dorothy to do up my bathrooms as she was sincere and followed up closely. She listens to your ideas and proposes relevant ideas. I like her easy-going style and would strongly recommend her if not for her young plumber.

A question for you: are you a guy or girl? You are able to tear down shower screen and sink yourself - that's like a guy; but you had a 'fiance' and is perfectionistic - which suggests that you are a girl.

Hi Ashly, nice transformation of your toilet..! That's sort of what I did also to my dated 90's bathroom. Most people I showed the fugly 'before' pics could not believe how amazing it looked 'after'

My old shower screen was aluminium and acrylic, so not a problem at all. You just need an electric screwdriver and a mallet to knock it out with some force. If it were the glass shower screen, though, maybe will be more challenging and heavier la.

As for the sink... uh... we always remove it ourselves. Very easy and not at all heavy. You just need to know to turn off the pipes etc. You can save at least $200 doing all these yourself!

I also put up half of my balcony perforated metal railing. I say half because I did all the drilling and fixed all the brackets, screws and bolts onto the concrete. Then I had to call my 'manual labour friends' to help me carry the perforated sheet over the existing railing (it was heavy and over 2.4m long, required 3 men to carry) and to fix on the bolts to the brackets. I only had to pay my friend $30. Railing and engineering companies were quoting me $300+ just to do that... wtf.

Hahaaa... men cannot be perfectionist meh? Allow me introduce you to Dr Frasier Crane:

[X6GT 3]

OK here's a new update for those of you who may be stuck and bored in the ridiculous queues at the #Padang. Hope you brought enough powerbanks...!

Nan Huat Doors (glass works)

So if you have read my previous posts on how I kena Jack in the Beanstalk by our friend at ACME glass, you would know that I was left last minute to find someone else to do my glass sliding shower screen and main glass swing door.

JY was the young guy who first answered my queries when I stumbled upon their website. He was straight to the point, and after seeing the pictures sent a guy down to do the measurements. I told him that the budget was definitely a concern, and he was kind enough to give a discount to a nice auspicious number (for the total of both the shower screen and swing door).

I was anxious about them starting work and delivering before CNY, so kept asking him how to pay him the deposit. The funny thing was, I had already withdrawn cash to pay the guy when he came for measurements, but he said to pay JY directly. JY told me simply to transfer the 50% deposit when I was able to... he didn't like rush me or be paranoid that I wasn't going to pay. Oh and then when I was not able to for a couple of days due to my internet banking needing a few days to add a new transfer recipient, he was cool about it (because I didn't have my internet banking token) and let me ask my friend (who is already a transfer recipient in my internet banking) who conveniently forgot to transfer promptly. He was quite lackadaisical about the collection of the money at both points (before and after installation) so it makes for a pleasant customer experience... not to be hounded and conned by people.

Anyway, so then his men came to install the glass stuff. It was 2 people, and not one word of complaint was uttered about the bathroom being on the 3rd floor... even though they were sweating by the time they got all the glass panels up. They were very careful with the glass and took safety precautions, so I was quite relieved. Thought they were going to be bo chap cos the price was so cheap, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Initially, we did have a problem. My plumbing guys had installed the wall mounted towel rack/hook thing at the wrong position, too close to the edge of the wooden door. The shower screen support needed to be installed right where the plumbing guys had installed the towel rack/hook, so this meant it needed to be dismantled, which would leave uglyyyyy holes in the walls

At first I was LIVID. I was like, I didn't pay $8500 to have this bathroom full of holes on the walls! Then he said really no choice and I was like... omg, my worst nightmare has come true: HOLES IN THE WALLS.

So I calmed down and told him, let me think about it first. And I told him to install the swing door first.

I paced up and down, thinking and thinking. I thought maybe I could not have a shower screen after all... which would have been fine for me because the bathroom looked nice enough as it was. But then, surely, the company would not allow me to cancel the order of the shower screen because it's custom made. It would not be fair to refuse to pay for the shower screen, because it was not their fault. So I began thinking of other uses for the glass. And I got an idea, to use it on my balcony railing with a U-Channel and brackets so that I could paste on the privacy film and have the balcony I had been thinking of changing to!

Excitedly, I called JY and asked if I could get the guys to do that instead. At least I would be utilising the glass (which happened to be of a similar size to my railing. JY was nice about it and said no problem... so I went to the guys and told them. However, when I brought them to the balcony, the guys were not very confident of doing it and declined. I was like, it's easy... you can do it!

But then the Chinese guy was like, "Cannot... I scared later the glass fall how? Later my boss will scold me." I tried to convince him a few more times, but it was no go so it was back to the thinking corner for me

So after much heartbreaking thinking, I agreed for him to remove the rack. So pek chek... saw all the holes after that

But then they installed the shower screen and it looked nice. I had to force myself to not look at the bathroom for a week after that, as I felt very very upset everytime I saw the holes.

Anyway, the next day JY came and I told him about some defects that happened during installation etc. He said those were unavoidable, and I was honest with him by saying that I think it's a very fair value for the price and I was happy to work with him. Even the handle for the swing door, he actually went to look for me a matte one instead of shiny (because I don't like how shiny tends to show up fingerprints and stains very easily) at no extra cost. And he knew I was on a budget so he advised me to not go for sandblasting (about $150 more), since I can just paste the privacy film to give the door a frosted look.

I would really recommend Nan Huat for those of you looking for shower screen or doors. Even though their designs are quite limited, you'll be fine if you want just a simple design for your house or shop or office. And based on the service and quality (so far), I would give an 8 upon 10. I'll update this blog in a year and in 5yrs to share how the doors are holding up too!

So here's a tip for you:

If you have fittings, get them installed first then get them to measure where the glass has to be. Please make sure your co-ordination is correct, or at the very least if it's not then make sure your fittings installation guys can come back to help rectify their mistakes. For me, I was lucky... Clement's guys did come back (when I asked them to help me check if there was a leak) albeit after like 3weeks after CNY!

Last tip is:

Do NOT attempt to drill and install things on your own (unless you have at least 10yrs of driling experience) because you might crack your tiles. I do have some years of drilling experience, so I thought I knew how to just drill without waiting for Clement's guys to come. I mean, how hard can drilling tiles be compared to drilling normal concrete walls right? Wrong. Heng ah I tried practicing first on a leftover tile...it broke! I think I had the setting on to the hammer mode, that's why. And then I was like, ok. I shall definitely engage the pros to do this because I was so deathly afraid I would ruin my beautiful tiles.

Oh and here's a really, really final tip:

Where possible, ask your installation guys ahead of time what drill (brand, model) they will be using. And the drill bit (the measurements). Then buy a new masonry bit for them (just a few dollars) and when they come, ask them to use the new bit. I know this sounds ridiculous, but. 90% of cracked tiles happen because the drill bits are blunt and overused (makes sense right?), while 10% is just human error. So, knowing that your contractors and all these installers will not be changing drill bits for every job, just try to ensure that they use new ones you provide to reduce the risk of tiles cracking or being damaged.

Pics coming up in the next few posts... Stay tuned.

[X6GT 3]

Long weekend...! Anybody going for any reno fairs of any kind? Or got lobang for any sales???

[Ks Toh 74]

Choosing a Glass Company

I had gone to a couple of glass places before, including the famed Besglass and a few random others at the AMK Industrial Park. I was being quoted $680- $700+ for my shower screen, and $500+ for the swing door, which was simply way over my budget. When I was at the TPY Besglass, I was actually very attracted to their range of products on display... very nice, and the sales assistant was quite patient (maybe because she was bored - I was the only one there on a Saturday afternoon). But their prices were a bit steep for me, so I had to find other alternatives.

Meng Heng actually has decent prices, is a local company (that I love to support) but unfortunately it does not install. It only supplies glass pieces, which can be customised. I've gotten a few quotations from them before and the prices are indeed competitive. But because it's glass, I don't want to take the risk of installing it myself and decided to leave it to the professsionals.

So after much searching and calling around (Round 3), I found this company Nan Huat that specialises in doors.

For standard items like TV, lights, tiles, marble etc you can buy from one supplier and get another contractor to install. But for customised items like made-to-measure glass panels, I personally feel it is better to engage a supply and install contractor, or at least a supplier who can install for you. A lot of things can go wrong or be less than complete. The glass may be scratched or it does not fit properly. Or it may not be sturdy enough etc. The installer will blame the supplier. The supplier will blame the installer. The slight savings in getting the glass direct may not be worth it.

So here's a tip for you:

If you have fittings, get them installed first then get them to measure where the glass has to be. Please make sure your co-ordination is correct, or at the very least if it's not then make sure your fittings installation guys can come back to help rectify their mistakes. For me, I was lucky... Clement's guys did come back (when I asked them to help me check if there was a leak) albeit after like 3weeks after CNY!

Last tip is:

Do NOT attempt to drill and install things on your own (unless you have at least 10yrs of driling experience) because you might crack your tiles. I do have some years of drilling experience, so I thought I knew how to just drill without waiting for Clement's guys to come. I mean, how hard can drilling tiles be compared to drilling normal concrete walls right? Wrong. Heng ah I tried practicing first on a leftover tile...it broke! I think I had the setting on to the hammer mode, that's why. And then I was like, ok. I shall definitely engage the pros to do this because I was so deathly afraid I would ruin my beautiful tiles.

Oh and here's a really, really final tip:

Where possible, ask your installation guys ahead of time what drill (brand, model) they will be using. And the drill bit (the measurements). Then buy a new masonry bit for them (just a few dollars) and when they come, ask them to use the new bit. I know this sounds ridiculous, but. 90% of cracked tiles happen because the drill bits are blunt and overused (makes sense right?), while 10% is just human error. So, knowing that your contractors and all these installers will not be changing drill bits for every job, just try to ensure that they use new ones you provide to reduce the risk of tiles cracking or being damaged.

Actually, I think the correct sequence is to install the glass panels first. The fittings should be the last things to be installed in every bathroom. That has always been my practice. There are only so many locations to install the glass panels. For fittings (tower rack, soap dish, shower head etc), they can be up, down, left or right. What I do is mark out using masking tape on the wall the intended location of the fittings but I find that after installing the glass panels, I sometimes have to change the fitting location e.g. the towel rack must be shifted so that the glass door will not hit it.

No need 10 years' experience drilling lah! Just make sure (a) new masonry drill bit (b) drill NOT in hammer mode © confidence in yourself. I started after being taught by my neighbour and till this date, i have yet to break any tile. I have a step by step guide on my blog here.

Edited April 4, 2015 by Ks Toh

[MrK 2]

Hi X6GT!

Mind sharing your contact for plumbers?