SHARE with us your worst Reno nightmares!!

[RenotalkCM 4]

Hello RenoTalkers!

Hope you're all having a good day

For those of you who have renovated your house (either recently or in the past), what are some traumatic events you experienced during the renovation process? Was it an ID from ****? Terrible contractor? Do share your thoughts with us!

[Chubbyfat2 2]

There is that time that I have experience the delay of handover of my new home. The renovator told me that it will be done by 4 to 6 weeks. However, it turns out to be a much longer timing ! 
That makes us to missed out our auspicious timing to move in the house by that month. As we go everything according to plan, but the renovator is not available to make it on time for us. So I was also wondering, why the always delay the work and stuff -,- . It have been awhile since the incident , so we also gave up on everything. Everything was perfect it was just the delay that got me pissed off . 

[Rooster 0]

3D Innovations (orig from Sin Ming Branch)

Designer’s Name: Allan Chee (self titled $2M award winning ID man)

Date of Renovation: Aug 2017

Designer 
We paid 50% of the total reno cost to get work started. The promised 3D drawings was delayed more than a week. When eventually it arrived, the drawing was totally out of dimension, distorted and simply ugly. I believed the images- copied and pasted from other projects.

Allan blamed his draftsman whom he claims was sacked. Demolition work already started and we had to proceed without any design.

 Service 
Allan Chee, was always late for appointment. And even if he turns up – he was always on the phone, chatting. I was overseeing the project more than him. We had to update Allan on the progress/mistakes of the renovation.

Mistakes and workmanship 
Tiling workmanship is good but made many mistakes because ID Allan Chee did not give proper instructions. He was never at the work site and rely on the sub con to feed back on dimensions. Two of my bedroom door frames were wrongly dismantled and when pointed out to Allan, he replaced them with a shorter frame. We had to re-redo the door frames again. Tiling at both bathroom redo several times due to no proper instructions. Infact, we were coordinating with the tiler directly

Plumber laid the pipes wrongly. No provision for pipings for Storage Heater. Had to hack off some tiles to relay the pipes again.

Conclusion

We spoke to his team leader on many occasions. When he did not even turn up for the final meeting, that we approached 3D’ management to terminate the contract. His team leader Denn Lim took over and complete the outstanding renovations as we cancelled the electrical and woodworks. Denn did a marvellous job and show much responsibility which Allan Chee has none.

 Opinion on Designer (Allan Chee)

Allan Chee, initially, strikes out to be a nice and smooth talker. During initial discussion, he was able to get quotations within 10-15mins. He showed many images of projects (I doubt it is his projects, maybe copied from other projects). Claiming to be an award wining designer. Immediately after the deposit paid, Allan showed his true character. Arrogant, boastful, irresponsible, showy and most of all, he is not knowledgeable and is not able to follow through the renovations. I doubt his qualification.

[Rooster 0]

3D Innovations (Sin Ming Branch)

Designer’s Name: Allan Chee (self titled $2M award winning ID man) 

Date of Renovation: Aug 2017

Designer 
We paid 50% of the total reno cost to get work started. The promised 3D drawings was delayed more than a week. When eventually it arrived, the drawing was totally out of dimension, distorted and simply ugly. I believed the images- copied and pasted from other projects. 

Allan blamed his draftsman whom he claims was sacked. Demolition work already started and we had to proceed with out any design. 

 Service 
Allan Chee, was always late for appointment. And even if he turns up – he was always on the phone, chatting. I was overseeing the project more than him. We had to update Allan on the progress/mistakes of the renovation. 

Mistakes and workmanship 
Tiling workmanship is good but made many mistakes because ID Allan Chee did not give proper instructions. He was never at the work site and rely on the sub con to feed back on dimensions. Two of my bedroom door frames were wrongly dismantled and when pointed out to Allan, he replaced them with a shorter frame. We had to re-redo the door frames again. Tiling at both bathroom redo several times due to no proper instructions. Infact, we were coordinating with the tiler directly

Plumber laid the pipes wrongly. No provision for pipings for Storage Heater. Had to hack off some tiles to relay the pipes again. 

Conclusion

We spoke to his team leader on many occasions. When he did not even turn up for the final meeting, that we approached 3D’ management to terminate the contract. His team leader Denn Lim took over and complete the outstanding renovations as we cancelled the electrical and woodworks. Denn did a marvellous job and show much responsibility which Allan Chee has none.

 Opinion on Designer (Allan Chee)

Allan Chee, inigtially, strikes out to be a nice and smooth talker. During initial discussion, he was able to get quotations within 10-15mins. He showed many images of projects (I doubt it is his projects, maybe copied from other projects). Claiming to be an award winning designer. Immediately after the deposit paid, Allan showed his true character. Arrogant, boastful, irresponsible, showoff and most of all, he is not knowledgeable and is not able to follow through the renovations. I doubt his qualification.

[sraa 0]

.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 29, 2017 by sraa

[changGLhome 1]

This is my personal experience with Sky Creation. They sell you everything you want to hear but please be hands-on with your renovation. My original intention is to have a go-to person who will take care of all the schedules for me since my job does not allow me to constant hang around to supervise the renovation works. Well, do not expect your ID to hand you the keys to a perfect house after all the work has been done. Once you pay up to 95%, you better be physically there to supervise everything that is done.
Let me start with the first issue: I have grave suspicions on the credentials of my painters. I have no choice but to say this as I have numerous paint drips on every single wall in my flat and uneven painting on all my doorframes (excluding all the others that i have gotten them to fix). Plus none of them wear any shirt bearing a company logo and arrive only in the late evening to start the job which leads me to suspect that they are just cheap labour hired to get the job done.
Next we go to cleaning. My contract mentions 'general cleaning'. Unfortunately, what you are not told is that the cleaner arrives with just a pail and a rag. So all the debris is left on the trunkings and window sils while anything that is above eye level is automatically ignored because no ladder what. How does that sound so far?
Moving on to the schedule. You are basically given a piece of paper for show. After paying 95%, nothing will be adhered to. Just a couple of days if you bother to chase after your ID or wait maybe 6mths if you complain to the boss and let him take charge of your project?
With so much done already, we can finally do touch ups. Gullible as I was, I actually followed the schedule and arranged for my furniture to deliver 4 days after the supposed completion. Of course my ID had to tell me the paint touch ups will be arranged after all my furniture has been delivered. If I did not insist on it happening before the delivery date, I am very likely posting pictures of my scratched tiles. During handover, i was also told that the delay for this project was due to my multiple requests for touch ups. Essentially, the problem does not lie in the workmanship and professionalism but on my 'pickiness'. Wow!
Lastly, this is probably just my bad luck but my replacement ID is not a professional. Looking at the way my texts are being answered and ignored, the manner I am treated with no basic acknowledgement of hi and bye, I can only conclude that this person did not have proper upbringing to realise that this is still the service industry. It seems like my family and I are the IDs, instead of me hiring one. We are the ones doing multiple defect checks every single trip we make to the house. I have heard nothing but excuses and blaming others, there is no sense of ownership of responsibility with not a single apology given to me at all.
Of course, this is merely my unfortunate experience and I truly believe this does not apply to all the IDs in the company but it is definitely not the first occasion that the original ID goes MIA and the replacement messes up the job. If you have all the time in the world to personally supervise
To anyone who is reading this, please feel free to share my review so that it may aid friends and family considering Sky Creation for renovation.

FYI You will never see any negative reviews on Sky Creation as they moderate it as such. And all positive reviews are bought just like the sellers on tb!

[Luckypants 0]

DC carpentry

Bad experience with them.. lots of delay since sign quotation on 29dec 2017 until now 4th of April 2018 still haven't complete..

Should have state the date of completion on the quotation however because it's recommend by few of my friends so we totally trusted the ID as all of my friends said he is a very good ID.

Will give a more detail experience after everything is complete and hope it won't delay to 6months...

[AndreaLee 3]

18 hours ago, Luckypants said:

DC carpentry

Bad experience with them.. lots of delay since sign quotation on 29dec 2017 until now 4th of April 2018 still haven't complete..

Should have state the date of completion on the quotation however because it's recommend by few of my friends so we totally trusted the ID as all of my friends said he is a very good ID.

Will give a more detail experience after everything is complete and hope it won't delay to 6months...

Waa that is very long.  but how is it now, is it almost done ?

[Luckypants 0]

On 4/5/2018 at 12:16 PM, AndreaLee said:

Waa that is very long.  but how is it now, is it almost done ?

Still haven't finish Reno. It's very clear that my quotation is too small for them.. they have to outsource other carpenter to do my house and they can't use their own carpenter for my house.. best part they arrange all my work on sat n sun which will get us into trouble with the neighbors.. meaning all the big quotation they do on Mon to Fri.

[xiong83 0]

Dear all, I'll like to warn everyone of this contractor I_Design_LLP. We engage their service and it's been close to 6 months and work hasn't started. There were multiple delays due to the inaccurate quotation which consists of several hidden costs. And several requests by us to include certain items in the work were not documented and when we question him, he acted innocent and mention he couldn't recall we ever had this conversation.

Please be very careful dealing with this company.

Name: Daniel Tay

Hp: 8482 8338

[png14ang 0]

Our ID and Contractor walked out on us, leaving unfinished jobs and damaged equipment albeit saying no need to fulfil remaining payment.

Design Consultancy firm 

First of all, all credit to their design capabilities. Our place did turn out quite nicely ON THE SURFACE. But their NONCHALANT AND ARROGANT ATTITUDE throughout the project, especially after we paid up 90% of their consultancy fee, is ATROCIOUS. They were supposed to in-charged of project management and supervision but did none of that! 

There were soooooooooooo many times my husband was the one who spotted an error / defect. When we raised it to the designer, he either

i: Refused to admit its oversight
ii: Insisted it’s no big deal but will accommodate our comment
iii: Blame it on other vendors when he didn’t put in any effort to chase
iv: Despise other vendors (sales assistant from Best Denki) saying they don’t know what they are talking about
v: Using “Industry Norm” as excuse

If not because of my hubby’s experience, we would have been shortchanged on a thousand occasions. My hubby has been the one dealing with the contractor 80% of the time. Too many examples on what happened, those interested can PM me.

All these scenario tell us the same two things about this designer:
1) He is incapable of understanding client’s need even when explicitly told.
2) He didn’t bother factoring client’s concern regarding practicality even when told multiple times.

Contractor

Since the ID is only design consultant, we needed to put up a tender to get quotes from different contractors. This “Just Build” came highly recommended by ASP, saying they have skills for the complicated stuff we are doing and responsible and honest. And turns out their quote is marginally more than the other two who gave the quote, we went for them.

When our initial problem with ASP surfaced, we thought this guy from JB is really nice, trying to mediate things between us and the designer. Agree to us that all the defects we pointed out are valid and helped us rectify most of them. We even checked with him if we have been unreasonable and being very difficult. His reply was “no, you guys are not at that level of being difficult!” I even refer friends to him even though his team’s workmanship (手工) was CRAP. We thought he is responsive and accountable.

But when we pointed out our last defect (laminate of one of the shelves was inconsistent to what was stated in the contract) and multiple installation defects [EVERYTHING in the Kitchen installed WAS WRONG, including washer and dryer. I only hope the ceiling fan is correctly installed, otherwise it’s a matter of life and death], his attitude turned 180°.

Our last conversation from him was “YOU DON’T HAVE TO MAKE THE LAST PAYMENT, WE WON’T COME BACK ANYMORE”. Even when there are so many things left undone:
i: Installation of a particular light
ii: Installation of CCTV cameras
iii: Faulty Installation of convection oven

iv: Damaged Hood (RRP of $3k+)
v: Incorrectly made shelf

Everything became apparent to us. He is trying to stop-loss. We are left with about 10% payment and fulfilling all the damage and rectification will be equivalent to the outstanding payment. Taking into account the opportunity cost and effort, terminating the contract single-sidedly is more cost effective for him.

After my hubby got into an argument with his IRRESPONSIBLE, SUB-STANDARD, PROVCATIVE carpenters, he THREATENED my hubby saying my hubby’s shouting at the carpenters can be viewed as a form of harassment!!! He is exaggerating on this point, citing safety of his carpenters (when they are well-built and there were 2 of them). Saying if there is any further form of harassment, they will go to the police. 

Well well, walking out of contract itself is a breach. Of course there needs to be a basis to cover and justify themselves. I see this as an exaggerated effort to threaten and persuade me not to take any legal action against them.

Not to mention all the delays and zero-standard workmanship we have to tolerate. The original committed deadline was first week of March and it's mid-April now. 

Edited April 17, 2018 by png14ang

[Miss cocotina 0]

Hi I had bad experience with id who run away with our money. Pay deposit but delay doing our kitchen. Even 3d drawing take so long to show but we dont even have a chance to see it. Uncontactable only thru whatsapp. Reply take so long and alot of excuse. He can silent himself more a than week whatever we ask him questions. Know this id thru carousell and believe in his word working in this line more than 18yrs. 

Be told monday he will come with his contractor to do my base but end up giving excuse his son  sick and ask his office to deal as he not around. When we pressure when will be next suddenly he said he back up and dont want to do my unit just because we dont understand his situation. Even early in the morning my husband had text him to double comfirm if he coming but when near the time of appointment last min he said his son sick as he a single parent. Why he can't tell us early in the morning he can't make if he know his son is sick. So he told that he will ask the office to refund the deposit. He have the cheek to say don't worry we are not cheat/con person and will refund the money. Firstly he ask bank acct so refund thru bank but then he said will issues cheque. 

When upon we deposit he said he will issues receipt when he come by pass as he stay near to us. But waited so long no news about the receipt even our 3d drawing but we still give a  hope for the best until we get cheated after he back out. 

When this happen I try to goggle his mobile no. When I upon check i saw negative comment and the same situation with me when deposit done but renovation not done.

ID: ZEN

CONTACT:82723913

[AndreaLee 3]

22 hours ago, Miss cocotina said:

Hi I had bad experience with id who run away with our money. Pay deposit but delay doing our kitchen. Even 3d drawing take so long to show but we dont even have a chance to see it. Uncontactable only thru whatsapp. Reply take so long and alot of excuse. He can silent himself more a than week whatever we ask him questions. Know this id thru carousell and believe in his word working in this line more than 18yrs. 

Be told monday he will come with his contractor to do my base but end up giving excuse his son  sick and ask his office to deal as he not around. When we pressure when will be next suddenly he said he back up and dont want to do my unit just because we dont understand his situation. Even early in the morning my husband had text him to double comfirm if he coming but when near the time of appointment last min he said his son sick as he a single parent. Why he can't tell us early in the morning he can't make if he know his son is sick. So he told that he will ask the office to refund the deposit. He have the cheek to say don't worry we are not cheat/con person and will refund the money. Firstly he ask bank acct so refund thru bank but then he said will issues cheque. 

When upon we deposit he said he will issues receipt when he come by pass as he stay near to us. But waited so long no news about the receipt even our 3d drawing but we still give a  hope for the best until we get cheated after he back out. 

When this happen I try to goggle his mobile no. When I upon check i saw negative comment and the same situation with me when deposit done but renovation not done.

ID: ZEN

CONTACT:82723913

Very sorry to hear your encounter, next time should research and check all the reviews first before engaging any contractors. To help us to save our hard earn moneyyy

[Jeslyn Tan 0]

I would like to share on the horrible after-sale service I had with Picket & Rail.

We purchased our wallpaper from them & had installation done by them in Jun/Jul 2015. About 1.5 year later, we found several parts of the wallpaper edges starting to curl n peel. As there was a 3 year warranty by them that covers peeling, we had called them up to get them to rectify. Their guy came to our house to assess and told us that the peeling is not severe enough to do any rectification and advised us to wait another year more for rectification since we have 1 more year left on the warranty. Now fast forward to a year later, we had inform Picket & Rail last month via their whatapps channel to get them to do the rectification on the peeling since our warranty is ending and was shock to hear that they will be charging us $50 for transportation. My hubby was peeved on hearing this as the first time they came last year, there wasn’t any transport fee charged before & their guy was the one who did not want to rectify the peeling and advised us to wait. We replied them that the charge was unreasonable and thereafter they did not bother to reply to my husband at all. Today we called them up and also wrote a whatapps message to them again and they finally replied us saying there is a term stated on the back of the invoice that there is a service charge of $120 per location for every servicing done under the warranty and they will not honour the warranty unless we pay $120. We find this very ridiculous. They are so inconsistent with their words & can change the charges as and when they like, initially said it was $50 and now it became $120! We were not told of these so called charges when we bought the wallpaper from them.

My wallpaper was only installed about a year and a half and already started to peel at the edges. So does that mean the company can actually do a lousy job of installing the wallpaper so that they can earn $120 whenever customers called up for repair under the warranty terms? That is really some good extra income! C’mon, we know times are bad, but don’t need to resort to such unscrupulous way of earning these kind of money. And our sofa, dining chair & window blinds are all purchased from Picket & Rail as well, so much for supporting this lousy company with lousy after-sale service.

So to those who are considering to purchase anything from them be it furniture or their window blinds, please think twice as u will have a lousy after-sale service after u have paid.

 

P/S : I will gladly provide screenshot proof of our whole conversation with the Picket & Rail customer service if anyone wants.

[Dove Dark Choco 0]

My worst nightmare with Blank Canvas Contractor Pte Ltd (UEN: 201525372N)...

A simple renovation which can take about 4-6 weeks to complete it took them 4mths to complete it!

Made a deal with this guy name Praveen & Vinith. 14th Feb collected 1st payment....hacking job done on 22nd Mar.. took them more than 1mth to start the major work...

8th Apr 2nd payment made...wiring & plumbing work is not even done...only waterproofing & tiling done...

After the 2nd payment made, they called telling me that the cashier order I gave them bounce...in the end it's actually their management mistake for not updating the banks their updated company name..

**** starts after the 2nd payment...job being delayed...we are getting updates from their contractor Hassan (claimed that he have more than 30yrs experience in the renovation industry)...NO FOLLOW UP & UPDATES from both Praveen & Vinith...

Wiring took them more than 6 weeks to complete it..and their contractor keep asking us money for the job done when he should be getting it from Blank Canvas...

We check the house every single week & most of the times, there's no workers or job done...

And the most wonderful part is, whenever we  bring in the furniture that we ordered, the contractor will be around doing their job causing lots of inconvenience to us...

When we moved in on the first week of June, the kitchen was not even complete...in other words...no kitchen cabinet...no cooker...

We have not choice but to eat out or order in... more unnecessary additional cost....

They promised to complete the renovation by  end of April but only complete it on 14th June with both water heaters is not working....

After the last check on 22nd June Evening, our water heaters still not working yet  Praveen kept pressing us to make the final payment...

Please do not engage renovation service from Blank Canvas Renovation Pte Ltd...they have the worst staff named Praveen (very unprofessional & rude & irresponsible), Vinith (MIA & unresponsive most of the times) & their 3rd party contractor Hassan (keep asking us money & delaying the reno works)