Project Muji Home - of white, wood and chrome

[dietgalvon 14]

13 hours ago, hoWL said:

Can I please have the contact for vendor 1?

Thanks in advance

@hoWL PM-ed

[dietgalvon 14]

ADVICE ON HACKING OF WALL, PLEASE!

Well, this brings us to way backkkk.

Our quotation for hacking of the kitchen half-wall includes the following:

1) Hack half wall - $600
2) Clear debris - $500
3) Make good tiles - $450

(CX is certainly not the cheapest contractor but we engaged them anyway. This was the quotation we are agreeable upon for hacking of the kitchen half wall.)

After the wall was just hacked, we received a text from E asking us on which parts of the hacked wall to be screed / tiled.

My expectation would be, where it came with tiles, it would be replaced with tiles, where it came as a wall, it shall be screed i.e. to say, blue boxes are to be screed, the rest, tiles to be made good.

But E said that, the 'top and windows side' are usually screed after wall is hacked and to replace the side facing the kitchen with tiles means we need to top up $150.

Effectively, E mentioned that to replace the purple boxes with tiles, it would require a top up for manpower and materials (hence the $150 extra).

But that made me wonder, what does the 'make good tiles - $450' in the initial quotation mean - to make good the tiles for the box in red ONLY (side wall facing the kitchen only, the top of the half wall is screed).

Would appreciate those who had half their kitchen wall hacked share if it is normal to have screed wall (facing the kitchen) instead of wall tiles that it originally came with?

[Stream 4]

7 hours ago, dietgalvon said:

ADVICE ON HACKING OF WALL, PLEASE!

Well, this brings us to way backkkk.

Our quotation for hacking of the kitchen half-wall includes the following:

1) Hack half wall - $600
2) Clear debris - $500
3) Make good tiles - $450

(CX is certainly not the cheapest contractor but we engaged them anyway. This was the quotation we are agreeable upon for hacking of the kitchen half wall.)

After the wall was just hacked, we received a text from E asking us on which parts of the hacked wall to be screed / tiled.

My expectation would be, where it came with tiles, it would be replaced with tiles, where it came as a wall, it shall be screed i.e. to say, blue boxes are to be screed, the rest, tiles to be made good.

But E said that, the 'top and windows side' are usually screed after wall is hacked and to replace the side facing the kitchen with tiles means we need to top up $150.

Effectively, E mentioned that to replace the purple boxes with tiles, it would require a top up for manpower and materials (hence the $150 extra).

But that made me wonder, what does the 'make good tiles - $450' in the initial quotation mean - to make good the tiles for the box in red ONLY (side wall facing the kitchen only, the top of the half wall is screed).

Would appreciate those who had half their kitchen wall hacked share if it is normal to have screed wall (facing the kitchen) instead of wall tiles that it originally came with?

Your interpretation should be correct ie. where it came with wall tiles, it would be replaced with wall tiles, where there are no tiles,  it shall be screed. "To make good tiles" means that all the kitchen WALL tiles damaged as a result of the hacking, ie. on all three vertical perimeter sides of the "hacked hole" in the kitchen,  needs to be replaced and should be under the $450 charge. There's no excuse for them to ask for $150 more.

Edited August 29, 2017 by Stream

[ckphang 0]

Hi dietgalvon, thanks for your effort to share your amazing reno journey.  Do you mind sharing the contact information as below,

1) 5th (J&E from CX)

2) 6th (E from DX I)

3) 7th (ID- MH of LPS) 

4) Service yard windows contractor

5) Curtain/blind contractor

Thanks.

[matchalatte 16]

i agree that they should not be charging 150 more. those that were originally tiles need to be mended with tiles. its also understood that making good include the cost of tiles when you're using back the original HDB ones because they don't expect u to purchase the tiles from HDB personally right? unless you're requesting to use other designs from somewhere, then they'll put "tiles to be provided by owner/tiles not included". 

[dietgalvon 14]

On 8/29/2017 at 8:00 AM, Stream said:

Your interpretation should be correct ie. where it came with wall tiles, it would be replaced with wall tiles, where there are no tiles,  it shall be screed. "To make good tiles" means that all the kitchen WALL tiles damaged as a result of the hacking, ie. on all three vertical perimeter sides of the "hacked hole" in the kitchen,  needs to be replaced and should be under the $450 charge. There's no excuse for them to ask for $150 more.

 

On 8/29/2017 at 6:24 PM, matchalatte said:

i agree that they should not be charging 150 more. those that were originally tiles need to be mended with tiles. its also understood that making good include the cost of tiles when you're using back the original HDB ones because they don't expect u to purchase the tiles from HDB personally right? unless you're requesting to use other designs from somewhere, then they'll put "tiles to be provided by owner/tiles not included". 

@Stream @matchalatte Thanks guys for your views! We (or rather, I) ain't convinced that 'making good' does not include the tiles. It doesn't make sense to have a screed wall in the kitchen when it came with tiles. Furthermore, because I only hacked half wall, the top will end up being screed and bottom will have tiles. Who on earth would accept that kind of kitchen? Since no one would have such a kitchen,  they shouldn't quote it like that. To me, a quotation must be accordingly to the full picture e.g. after hacking the wall must be presentable and not half screed half tiled mah. If that's the case I can just quote cheaper for e.g. overlay then later VO for tiles. Not very fair eh.

I think someone highlighted my post asking for advice to my contractor.  I wanted to make sure I'm on the right track before approaching them but my contractor had came back to me saying that their quote works this way i.e. make good = screed back only. I'm really feeling very sore about this because we believe it to be included in the initial quote.

[GME32 0]

Hi, Can I have the contact of the service yard windows?

 

Thanks!

[dietgalvon 14]

On 8/29/2017 at 10:02 AM, ckphang said:

Hi dietgalvon, thanks for your effort to share your amazing reno journey.  Do you mind sharing the contact information as below,

1) 5th (J&E from CX)

2) 6th (E from DX I)

3) 7th (ID- MH of LPS) 

4) Service yard windows contractor

5) Curtain/blind contractor

Thanks.

@ckphang PM-ed

On 8/31/2017 at 2:35 PM, GME32 said:

Hi, Can I have the contact of the service yard windows?

 

Thanks!

@GME32 PM-ed

[Brybry 0]

Hi, thank you so much for sharing your renovation journey with us. Could I have the contact for your

• ID
• Electrician
• Windows installer 
• Blinds installer

Thank you once again! 

[Cher Tan Yonghwa 0]

Hi, may I ask for Electricians and windows contacts? Thanks in advance!

 

[Leonardl 0]

Hi can pm me contact of 5,6,7, window contractor and quotation if you dont mind. I just got key but havent found id\contractor!

Edited September 8, 2017 by Leonardl

[jacpat 0]

Thanks for you kind info.   Can you pm me your blind supplier and the cost incurred for those blinds ?  Many thanks

[dietgalvon 14]

On 9/7/2017 at 0:06 AM, Brybry said:

Hi, thank you so much for sharing your renovation journey with us. Could I have the contact for your

• ID
• Electrician
• Windows installer 
• Blinds installer

Thank you once again! 

 

On 9/8/2017 at 5:46 PM, Cher Tan Yonghwa said:

Hi, may I ask for Electricians and windows contacts? Thanks in advance!

 

 

On 9/8/2017 at 10:59 PM, Leonardl said:

Hi can pm me contact of 5,6,7, window contractor and quotation if you dont mind. I just got key but havent found id\contractor!

 

1 hour ago, jacpat said:

Thanks for you kind info.   Can you pm me your blind supplier and the cost incurred for those blinds ?  Many thanks

@Brybry @Cher Tan Yonghwa @Leonardl @jacpat All PM-ed.

[dietgalvon 14]

UPDATES ON RECTIFICATION WORKS

Well, following the SECOND rectification (first was during 'handover', second was after the handover as we were told we can get them to rectify what defects we find after we moved in), what's outstanding were some some small defects that we later found, and the one that was outstanding since day 1: the common toilet grouting.

Sine it was just that bit, we decided to clean the home thoroughly and move furnishings to where they belong. We also came to terms with the extra VO imposed on us even when we had to clean off the paint stains ourselves (I took 5 hours just to clean the stains on the service yard door frames and window frames) and decided to focus on our wedding that is less than 3 months away instead.

BUT things don't always go as planned.

As I stared at the kitchen shelf I put against the half hacked wall, I noticed something wrong with the wall tiles. It was already 10+pm and we were ready to leave after a whole day of cleaning. But I decided to check the whole piece of wall.

It is full of tiles laid unevenly, tiles with jagged edges, a cracked tile, and a tile with a dent in it. I literally sprawled myself on the floor in disbelief. After 3 long months of renovation, followed by 1 month of cleaning up, we really wanted to move in there already. And this bloody wall which we paid $1.7k to hack and make good in total, came with so many flaws.

We labelled everything, and when E confirmed the next date of rectification, we wrote down all the issues on the masking tape, and even numbered the tiles that are to be changed.

We also moved EVERYTHING back into the rooms because we didn't want to dirty all our furnishings which had already been cleaned, including the living room and kitchen. We just wanted this thing to end and focus on our wedding.

LO AND BEHOLD

1) All the minor defects found were rectified. Electrician remained the only redeeming factor throughout this journey.

2) Common toilet was not re-grouted. Grouting was filled with cement here and there i.e. grouting colour is still uneven. I wondered if it was done deliberately that the bottom of the white wall grouts are now stained with cement. AND I GIVE UP - told the fiance that I will re-grout the ridiculous toilet floor myself because it's pointless the toilet is just getting more hideous, and they will just say no works are done here and refuse to rectify it.

3) Only 1 tile at the kitchen wall was replaced. Uneven and cracked/dent tile ignored, jagged sided tiles were simply filled with grouting powder. When queried, E said that the cracked tile is directly next to our carpentry, so cannot be helped.

At this point, even fiance, the Mr Nice Guy also almost exploded lol. While we were very stringent with HDB, with us getting them to replace even uneven tiles, our contractor which we paid for is giving us this.

AND THEN WE MET J

Conclusion

1) We are being difficult by picking at every single crack in the wall tiles that cannot be seen from a distance. 

My reply: I spotted the crack when I was standing from my new kitchen shelf that is at least 45cm away from the wall. Proceeded to show J a chip in one of the tile that was replaced but we did not raise because it is not major (actually I wanted to raise but at that time, fiance the nice guy disallowed).

2) Accept the crack/etc and he will give us some rebate.

My reply: Rectify it. (In my mind: If money was the main consideration, we wouldn't have picked them because they ain't cheap. If money was the main consideration, we wouldn't pay $150 to replace 8 tiles in the MBR toilet.)

3) The affected tiles will be replaced. One tile that has jagged edges is not caused by them so cannot change (ok, that piece I may have missed out during HDB rectification, so give benefit of doubt).

4) Live with uneven tiles because after hacking it is not easy to lay tiles evenly. (We let this slide.)

5) J & E gave conflicting versions regarding the $150 that we had to top up for the half-hacked kitchen wall. J said it includes making good the tiles affected. But we did not pursue because we are just tired - fiance is relieved they agreed to rectify the bloody wall.

6) The frame of the windows right beside the half wall suffered some cosmetic injuries which cannot be helped because it is BSC's windows. Yup, got to live with them lor.

***I hope no one will go feedback to E about this because I am just sick of listening to any explanation that turned out to not be factual. I hardly can deal with untruths. Can't wait for this episode to end.

[Songz 132]

Everyone want their place to be perfect of cause.

There are sure to be some give and take during renovation but for me if its eye sore then I will not accept it.

If you have all have decided to close the chapter , move on and enjoy those parts of the house that was good (Just my 2 cents worth)