5-Room Resale (Light Industrial) Learn & Share

[ilkl 6]

Painting Boo-Boo and DIY

DIY 1: Painting Our Own Cement Screed Effect
A little bit of rehash – we were leaving the wall tiles in the kitchen, service yard and common bathroom untouched and had them screeded over with cement to go for a more industrial look and to save on hacking costs.

For painting, my FIL offered the services of his close friend (let’s call him Uncle X) who is in the construction business and said all we needed was to buy our own paint and pay them a token sum. I was a little reluctant as I would rather let the ID handle the painting, but my husband wanted to save a little bit more and said he will co-ordinate the painting.

Just as our ID took a break for CNY, Uncle X asked if they can start the painting works. At that point in time, the wet-works just started, and our ID said it’s too soon. We also said it’s too soon. But Uncle X said that they will paint a base coat/sealer for the ceiling because the existing colour is very dark (we’re gonna have white ceilings) and it needs a few coats anyway. My husband reasons that Uncle X’s workers were free and he wanted to better utilise his manpower. So we bought 2 cans of 5L sealer for them to paint the ceiling in the living room.

This will turn into my biggest regret for the renovation…

We only discovered the mistake 1 week later when we brought the in-laws over to have a look at the house during CNY. To my horror, I realised the painters had painted the sealer all over the cement screed in the kitchen, service yard and bathroom!!

And the best part is, because they ran out of sealer, they didn’t manage to completely paint over the dark parts of the ceiling in the living room (WHICH WAS THE WHOLE POINT IN THE FIRST PLACE).

Even talking about it now still brings pain…  Uncle X's workers sure kena scolded by my husband and my FIL. 

We had to ask the ID to re-screed the common bathroom (at additional cost, ouch!!), but we decided to paint the walls in the kitchen and service yard. And since the walls are kind of rough, we thought perhaps we should try to do some special effects paint, like Momento. This is our own version of a special effects wall…

Firstly, we had the painter paint the kitchen and service yard walls with a light grey colour:

I was very anal and pasted “DO NOT PAINT” Post-it’s on our common bathroom cement screed walls, because God forbid the painters eff up another time and I will be inclined to commit murder! 

The next step required some sea sponges which one can easily buy from Art Friend:

Using the same light grey colour which the walls have been painted to, I also mixed in some white and also a darker grey-blue colour (which we got as leftover paint from a friend who just recently renovated), and randomly sponged on the different shades of color:

 

^{My handsome husband savouring his chance to express his minimal artistic skills hahaha...!}

As fun as it was sponging, the effect was not very impressive… I decided to just paint over the embarrassment and forget it ever happened. But funnily, I had attempted to use a damp roller with some light grey paint and as I rolled over the sponge effect, it created an accidental dreamy effect which the husband really liked! Wowza! So the last step, which was an accidental finding, was to use a stiffer-than-normal roller with some water and to lightly roll over the sponge effect, essentially blurring over the previous effect. Not really the cement screed effect I was hoping for (and I think it’s mainly due to the paint I used having a bluish tone rather than cement grey) but looks alright I guess!

 

DIY 2: Spray Painting Switch Boxes
Having a HDB unit means the sockets and switches cannot be flush mounted into the wall, so they will have to be surface mounted onto plastic switch boxes that only come in a standard white colour. Since we decided to go for a darker colour for the switches, white switchboxes would be an eyesore.

^{LeGrand Mallia colour choices. What a variety!!}

I remember reading @bie18's blog about spray painting the switch boxes after it was mounted, which sounds like a lot of work, so I told my ID upfront about passing me the switch boxes first to spray paint:

I used Krylon Fusion White as a primer mainly because a lot of the DIY stuff I read online emphasized on the use of primer, so I thought no harm having it, especially since my ID warned me that scratches will remove the spray paint and it will look ugly, so I want to minimize the risk. I got Nippon’s Pylox 47 Matt Black since I recall someone recommending Nippon spray paint on RT. Seems to spray on quite nicely and has a matte, powdery finish!

 

Important things to note about spray painting:

• Don’t be impatient and don’t get too close when spraying! 20-30cm away is good.
• Keep moving the spray can up/down or left/right - don't stay at one spot.
• A nice, firm pressure on the nozzle to prevent splatter of paint drops - otherwise will form bumps on the surface
• Multiple thin coats is definitely better than one thick coat!!
• Do in a well-ventilated area! The smell is quite awful  

Edited March 23, 2017 by ilkl

[matchalatte 16]

OHHHH good idea about the boxes, i've wanted black also! will definitely spray them! i've been wanting to paint my own walls also. im hacking 4 walls and most of my windows are either full or 3/4 height so there are so much less areas to paint. and yet the charges are still exhorbitant! around $1300-1400 quoted by contractors & IDs. it will probably cost me $150 for the paint and i can save so much but we're like the opposite, my hubby is totally against it and he said hes not going to help me hmpf. so im still wondering whether i should do it or source around for cheaper services.

edit : talking about black, any idea if existing bathroom wall grouts can be painted over? not sure where to buy colored grout paint. i think for new BTO its not possible to regrout coz they will have to scrape away the existing grouting before applying new one. so the only way is to like "touch up" using a brush but not sure how to do it.

Edited March 23, 2017 by matchalatte

[bie18 3]

Oh yeay! Hello there fellow switch box spray painter. Too bad my coordination with my contractor wasnt so smooth. Yup, I did think spray painting them all before being put up would be easier. Good to see someone get to do it the right way!

Edited March 23, 2017 by bie18

[fifteenmay 40]

10 hours ago, ilkl said:

Painting Boo-Boo and DIY

DIY 1: Painting Our Own Cement Screed Effect
A little bit of rehash – we were leaving the wall tiles in the kitchen, service yard and common bathroom untouched and had them screeded over with cement to go for a more industrial look and to save on hacking costs.

For painting, my FIL offered the services of his close friend (let’s call him Uncle X) who is in the construction business and said all we needed was to buy our own paint and pay them a token sum. I was a little reluctant as I would rather let the ID handle the painting, but my husband wanted to save a little bit more and said he will co-ordinate the painting.

Just as our ID took a break for CNY, Uncle X asked if they can start the painting works. At that point in time, the wet-works just started, and our ID said it’s too soon. We also said it’s too soon. But Uncle X said that they will paint a base coat/sealer for the ceiling because the existing colour is very dark (we’re gonna have white ceilings) and it needs a few coats anyway. My husband reasons that Uncle X’s workers were free and he wanted to better utilise his manpower. So we bought 2 cans of 5L sealer for them to paint the ceiling in the living room.

This will turn into my biggest regret for the renovation…

We only discovered the mistake 1 week later when we brought the in-laws over to have a look at the house during CNY. To my horror, I realised the painters had painted the sealer all over the cement screed in the kitchen, service yard and bathroom!!

And the best part is, because they ran out of sealer, they didn’t manage to completely paint over the dark parts of the ceiling in the living room (WHICH WAS THE WHOLE POINT IN THE FIRST PLACE).

Even talking about it now still brings pain…  Uncle X's workers sure kena scolded by my husband and my FIL. 

We had to ask the ID to re-screed the common bathroom (at additional cost, ouch!!), but we decided to paint the walls in the kitchen and service yard. And since the walls are kind of rough, we thought perhaps we should try to do some special effects paint, like Momento. This is our own version of a special effects wall…

Firstly, we had the painter paint the kitchen and service yard walls with a light grey colour:

I was very anal and pasted “DO NOT PAINT” Post-it’s on our common bathroom cement screed walls, because God forbid the painters eff up another time and I will be inclined to commit murder! 

The next step required some sea sponges which one can easily buy from Art Friend:

Using the same light grey colour which the walls have been painted to, I also mixed in some white and also a darker grey-blue colour (which we got as leftover paint from a friend who just recently renovated), and randomly sponged on the different shades of color:

 

^{My handsome husband savouring his chance to express his minimal artistic skills hahaha...!}

As fun as it was sponging, the effect was not very impressive… I decided to just paint over the embarrassment and forget it ever happened. But funnily, I had attempted to use a damp roller with some light grey paint and as I rolled over the sponge effect, it created an accidental dreamy effect which the husband really liked! Wowza! So the last step, which was an accidental finding, was to use a stiffer-than-normal roller with some water and to lightly roll over the sponge effect, essentially blurring over the previous effect. Not really the cement screed effect I was hoping for (and I think it’s mainly due to the paint I used having a bluish tone rather than cement grey) but looks alright I guess!

 

DIY 2: Spray Painting Switch Boxes
Having a HDB unit means the sockets and switches cannot be flush mounted into the wall, so they will have to be surface mounted onto plastic switch boxes that only come in a standard white colour. Since we decided to go for a darker colour for the switches, white switchboxes would be an eyesore.

^{LeGrand Mallia colour choices. What a variety!!}

I remember reading @bie18's blog about spray painting the switch boxes after it was mounted, which sounds like a lot of work, so I told my ID upfront about passing me the switch boxes first to spray paint:

I used Krylon Fusion White as a primer mainly because a lot of the DIY stuff I read online emphasized on the use of primer, so I thought no harm having it, especially since my ID warned me that scratches will remove the spray paint and it will look ugly, so I want to minimize the risk. I got Nippon’s Pylox 47 Matt Black since I recall someone recommending Nippon spray paint on RT. Seems to spray on quite nicely and has a matte, powdery finish!

 

Important things to note about spray painting:

• Don’t be impatient and don’t get too close when spraying! 20-30cm away is good.
• Keep moving the spray can up/down or left/right - don't stay at one spot.
• A nice, firm pressure on the nozzle to prevent splatter of paint drops - otherwise will form bumps on the surface
• Multiple thin coats is definitely better than one thick coat!!
• Do in a well-ventilated area! The smell is quite awful  

wow.. thats alot of diy! but excellent results!

[ilkl 6]

DIY 3: More Painting!!

@matchalatte, I do think that painting yourself is very doable but need to dedicate quite some time to do it. And you have to time it such that you’re not in the way of the workers (I prefer to do it when there aren’t any workers around, feel very pai seh) and that it won’t affect the progress of the renovation.

In my case, I decided to paint some parts of my walls because I want to see the effect and have the option to change my mind if the colour doesn’t turn out well. Also, I had a situation where I wanted to change one part of the wall colour just 2 days before the gas pipes were to be installed on the very same wall, as elaborated below…

Service Yard Beam:

We had gotten it painted to a light grey colour but I felt that it needed a different colour as a contrast. So I flexed my Photoshop muscles and tweaked the 3D render (no point asking the ID because it takes AGES for the 3D artist to make changes, and even then will have errors). I overlaid 3 different colour options and asked the husband/boss:

Boss chose blue, obviously, because that’s his favourite colour. But since it was kind of last minute and the painter definitely won’t come down on a Sunday, so I decided to paint it myself using some left over Denim Drift paint, because Citygas was coming the very next day!

^{I felt very accomplished seeing the result. Great feeling!}

^{Citygas people at work}

Kitchen Backsplash:
So the previous sponging effect wasn’t that great and even though I managed to create another effect with the damp roller technique, we decided to paint the walls between the top and bottom cabinets a very dark blue-grey colour (because the boss is cheapo and don’t want to top-up for glass backsplash). We bought a small can of Darkened Puddle and painted last Sunday.

^{Handsome husband at work again. Mainly cause he don't want to pay for glass backsplash hahaha}

As you can see, our carpentry is currently being installed. Will talk more about the carpentry soon... will be a long post!

[ilkl 6]

5 hours ago, bie18 said:

Oh yeay! Hello there fellow switch box spray painter. Too bad my coordination with my contractor wasnt so smooth. Yup, I did think spray painting them all before being put up would be easier. Good to see someone get to do it the right way!

Thanks for sharing your experience though! Certainly helped us!

 

6 hours ago, matchalatte said:

edit : talking about black, any idea if existing bathroom wall grouts can be painted over? not sure where to buy colored grout paint. i think for new BTO its not possible to regrout coz they will have to scrape away the existing grouting before applying new one. so the only way is to like "touch up" using a brush but not sure how to do it.

I think you can paint over grout lines with normal paint, just need a small artist's brush and must wipe off any paint that runs onto the tile.

You know those laminate planks which simulate wooden planks? The black line in between them are all hand-painted anyway. So grout would be the same concept. You can read about that here: 

 

 

[poliwhack 3]

Great DIY! you will definitely need alot of patience!!!

[ilkl 6]

Plumbing & Citygas

Remember Uncle X? My FIL’s friend who is a subcontractor?
He did the plumbing for the in-laws’ house (where I'm still squatting at) and comes highly recommended by FIL. After the painting boo-boo, I approach this arrangement with some trepidation. The head plumber Mr N seems quite confident with his work but we think he is probably not too familiar with HDB regulations. There were some instances when he said stuff which didn’t make any sense at all!

Prime example after Citygas came and installed the gas pipes. Because of the low beams we have, the gas pipe has to be bent in a U-shape to enter the service yard where the water heater and gas hob is at.

^{Citygas people installing the gas pipe, with a U-bend because they cannot drill through the stupid fat beam.}

Mr N who came after Citygas people has left said “Cannot have U-shape la!! Later got water condensation and they never put any drainage, will leak ok?” He claims the gas pipe carries both gas and liquid nitrogen. This is my first time hearing such a thing - isn’t the thin gas pipe just that, something which carries gas? He says the liquid nitrogen will cause condensation water to pool at the bottom of the U, so by right need to have a drainage tray there. My ID was also confused and said he will call Citygas to check. Guess what? Citygas said the U-shape is no problem at all! Don’t know if anyone got hear such a thing before?? Any opinions?

Mr N also wanted to help us by installing separate valves for water inlets to separate parts of the house so that in case any water leakage, we can turn off the affected area and still have water elsewhere, rather than turning of the main valve situated outside of the unit. Sounds like a good idea right? But this is what it looked like in our common bathroom:

My husband was stunned speechless when he saw this. I just laughed out loud. After painting the taps black, will look super industrial! Can even buy these kind of hooks for the bathroom to match:

But the boss really didn’t like having too many pipes like that. And the more I look at it, the more confused I got… I’ve looked at so many photos on Q**** and RT, never seen pipes like this before! When I expressed my concerns to Mr N, he just brushed it off and refused to do anything about it.

My FIL also say it’s too much and he promptly called Uncle X. Hierarchy of authority: FIL > Uncle X > Mr N.
Mr N and his team came the next day with super black faces and reduced the number of pipes: 

Looks better now right?

[ilkl 6]

Piping Box-up and Concealed Shower

Even before we got our keys, we wanted a concealed shower set for the master bathroom for a condo-like feel. Since there is no way we can embed the concealed parts into the wall for a HDB unit, our ID suggested a box up. At the same time, boxing up can create those little niches in the wall to put shampoo etc – they are called wall shelves.

Buying a concealed shower set is super expensive though! We’ve got our eyes set on Grohe and visited Interior Affairs at Jalan Besar to have a look and the salesperson there told us to be prepared to pay 3x more for a concealed set, especially since Grohe was having promotion for their non-concealed rainshower sets. Luckily I read about insani24.de from RT (super big THANK YOU) and the website even sells all the necessary components together as a bundle – no need to be confused about which parts to buy!

I think the most important component is the Rapido E Universal which you will never ever see in showrooms (because it’s the concealed part, duh) and this baby alone retails locally for $350! Throw in the lever plate ($150 onwards) and you are already $500 poorer and still haven’t gotten the hand shower and rain shower components! But on insani, you can buy a full concealed shower set for around $650! But truth be told, I did a calculation and turns out it may be cheaper to buy each components separately!

So why am I talking about this Rapido thingy? Because installing it requires co-ordinating the box-up people, the plumber and the tiler! It’s times like these that I’m grateful we have an ID to manage this!

^{Box-up with steel frames and calcium silicate (waterproof) boards.}

^{Plumber then will dismantle the boards to install the concealed components before reassembling the boards.}

^{Tiler will then come in to stick on the tiles. The blue plastic thingy protrudes out now but will be cut off to flush with the tiles, then the lever plate will be stuck over it.}

Remember the ginormous pipes in the common bathroom? At first we had no plans to box up, but the pipes necessitated that decision, but at least we got some wall shelves too!

^{Common bathroom box-up. Cement screed looks very dark because it was freshly laid on.}

Edited March 26, 2017 by ilkl

[spooky 6]

On 24/03/2017 at 6:06 AM, matchalatte said:

edit : talking about black, any idea if existing bathroom wall grouts can be painted over? not sure where to buy colored grout paint. i think for new BTO its not possible to regrout coz they will have to scrape away the existing grouting before applying new one. so the only way is to like "touch up" using a brush but not sure how to do it.

Hi, just wanted to jump in and say that when I visited my ID's existing project, they painted the bathroom wall grout black! So I think it can be done. But I'm not too sure how it was done..

[mamit 6]

Very nice Reno! Anyway some people do put sealer over the screed but depends on the type of sealer and 功力。I thought yours look quite good actually!! 

[daryl78 0]

1 hour ago, mamit said:

Very nice Reno! Anyway some people do put sealer over the screed but depends on the type of sealer and 功力。I thought yours look quite good actually!! 

@mamit, saw on ur tblog tat u oso did a box up with wall shelves in bathroom, urs oso concealed shower set?

[ilkl 6]

2 hours ago, mamit said:

Very nice Reno! Anyway some people do put sealer over the screed but depends on the type of sealer and 功力。I thought yours look quite good actually!! 

Thanks @mamit!

Unfortunately this sealer is just paint sealer so it's whitish and can see the brush marks so doesn't look good up close at all!!
I bought a Polyurethane Varnish and was planning to paint it over the bare cement screed to make it more water repellent but then read somewhere that it will yellow over time. Now trying to research on cement screed sealer that won't impart a shiny surface and yet can resist water...

Anyone got any lobang?

[mamit 6]

2 hours ago, ilkl said:

Thanks @mamit!

Unfortunately this sealer is just paint sealer so it's whitish and can see the brush marks so doesn't look good up close at all!!
I bought a Polyurethane Varnish and was planning to paint it over the bare cement screed to make it more water repellent but then read somewhere that it will yellow over time. Now trying to research on cement screed sealer that won't impart a shiny surface and yet can resist water...

Anyone got any lobang?

We used a matte finish sealer. Don't remember the brand unfortunately. Actually some marks are good cos it constitutes as screed art rather than the generic just gray throughout. To eye of the beholder I guess 

[mamit 6]

3 hours ago, daryl78 said:

@mamit, saw on ur tblog tat u oso did a box up with wall shelves in bathroom, urs oso concealed shower set?

Sorry for hijacking this page.

no for budget reasons we went with the generic shower set. Easier for contractor also. But concealed one definitely nicer!!