SHARE with us your worst Reno nightmares!!

[newbie999 0]

Hi All,

Just sharing a very bad experience with a self declared ID. Due to the house still under warranty period and a lot of faults still need rectification i will not post the name here. If anyone interested then PM me direct.

I did not get to see a single 3D diagram from start till end of the project. All design is just simple hand sketching and can tell is very last minutes work. They claimed they have 30 years of experience in renovation and do all sort of renovation project, the company just a simple 2 man operation and the registered business address is a HDB flat. 

At the start of the project, they are very friendly and keep meeting for discussion etc and we ask for a comfortable date which the project can be completed from them as we understand now due to covid situation work will be slower and limited number of skiledl workers. They committed a date to us and said they will well complete before the completion date. 

Initially they told us to get all the lighting, toilet, kitchen accessories etc purchase upfront so there will not be any delay to the renovation work. They even offer to bring us to purchase these items, we ask if we need to check the items when they delivered. Tell us no need, they will check for us. We purchased all these items from 3 different shop and i believe some shop they markup as we do not get the invoices and pay thru them. I am ok if they earn a cut but what come next is horror to us. All 3 shops delivery got issue. all has either missing items and they only detected when we do stocktake with the ID when the items has delivered for a few days. They did not check at all. 

The ID daily come to check the renovation progress but i am not sure what did he check.

1. We replaced the window and window grill as this was a resale flat. Quoted us 3 tracks for the window grill but when installation only do 2 track, he never realised until we tell him. After the windows was replaced, water leaking in my Masterbedroom when heavy rain, we notified him during the renovation. First time after informed, tell us will get worker come fix, water leak again the 2nd time and still no one come fix. 3rd time water leak until 25% of my masterbed room flooded then get someone to come fix. After that still water leaking even though they claim they fixed already. As i am typing now, yesterday heavy rain, water leak again. I also noticed all other window they apply cement to cover the holes/crack etc (hope i get the term right) but master bedroom they cover with silicone which is rubber like material, Not sure if this is the correct way to fix the issue? Any kind souls can advise me. 

This is not the end of the window  issue. the windows grill is so loosely fitted and the locked spring is already spoilt can feel anytime will drop out. We informed them our concern, tell us the lock spring after long usage will become lose like this, so is he telling me is a used lock they given to us? So after several discussion, they said will get worker to come in and fixed. Initially tell us morning will come, then same day informed change to afternoon. Ended the person only come at night, worst part he only come check the issue and not fixing it. Will schedule for another appointment to fix it.

The windows installation delayed very long and they claim HDB did not approve the permit even after 2 week but when i login to the HDB portal when it was approved and check. The submission and approval was within the same day. There is no delay by HDB.

2. Carpentry work tell us all door hinges will come with 4 screw and even show us picture. Ended all installed with 3 screws. The ID also never detected as usual until all the carpentry work completed and we informed him. 2 days before the initial handover date, we check and realised the kitchen bottom cabinet they used wood to level the cabinet and all the gap is never filled up at all. Imagine if we did not found out and start pour water at kitchen to do thorough cleaning all water will slip in. Again the excuse given to us is too many things not possible to check.

3. Kitchen glass door, we want to do enclose kitchen so they build up the wall and install with a glass door. Initially when everything was up, the gap on the top door frame is even bigger than the bottom one. Even elderly come to see the reno also said not acceptable. The ID offered to used some black rubber tape or some material to cover up the gap, they do not even want to offer to adjust the door frame. Only agreed to do so after we insist. The glassdoor alighnment also out when we fully close the door and they blamed is our wall issue, the Wall surround the glass door was build by them. 

4. Aircon piping, we replaced the aircon as it was faulty, again they offered to use their contractor for us and said they have work together for very long and they know the standard of the ID. We realise the pippiing that is running on top of the wall, there are so many big hole and gap not cover up, Again we  need to inform and they come check before they get someone to fix it. Imagine some gap/hope is so big that my finger can go in.

5. Flooring, we redo the whole house except the floor tile at the living and bedroom as still is quite good condition. During reno i engage my own curtain contractor to come do measurement, the curtain contractor alert us said the reno work did not protect all the tile flooring, may end up damage it. It really happen as so many place of the tile is crack and got hole. And when we speak to the ID and show pic they did not cover all the flooring area, they claimed already in such condition when they come in to do the reno. if there is so many crack and holes, we sure would have include it in our reno since we already redo almost everything. We also have other ID/contractor onsite to do the quote and check the place out, if really so much of crack/holes they would advise us to consider replace the floor tile. Ended i spend another sum of money to do vinyl as whole house is already completed, no point hack again and redo tiling. I believe the vinyl flooring is again markup as they do not give us the invoice again and they said cannot do skirting. When i check with other vinyl flooring tell me can just paste on existing tile skirting and will be slightly thicker. Not too big an issue to do vinyl skirting. Imagine the flooring was damaged by them and out of good will, they should not markup and charge us. Just charge us as the original price. They still tell us as this is last minutes additional reno task and the handover already delay, they will get more workers to come do and complete the vinyl flooring in 1 day. On the actual day only 1 person come and do the whole flooring. 

6. Wall and floor tiling work. Some of the gap in between the tile was not fill up with cement, he can claimed it was fill up and the cement sink in. For me is either you fill or no fill up, do not think got such sink in issue. This is the 1st time i heard of such reasoning, not sure any kind souls can advise me. 

7. Plumbing and toilet accessories, they installed the towel bar when i open the toilet door and the door hit the bar. Some position they install the items is at the incorrect position. Basin water leakage, vanity top drill extra hole and scratch. All just brush it off saying extra hole is good for ventilation  and such lame excuses

A lot of such issue i find is due to poor supervision and poor workmanship but the ID insist they did their part. All these are just some of the issue i encountered and not all as too many to list out. They claimed they are with 30 years of experiences and their work standard does not show me that. 

Best of all the final reno cost me 1.5 time of the original quote and this exclude the cost of the vinyl flooring. 

I also not sure if i go CASE what kind of resolution will i get? Anyone aware and shared case reported experiences?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bmak 0]

On 11/13/2020 at 4:15 PM, Bo Chan said:

Have finally moved into my humble abode recently and decided to warn anyone here who is looking for renovation contractor because I had the worst experience. I am not revealing the company name here because my problem is quite unique and I think the Contractor himself can easily identify himself. So PM me if you want to have the details, I know it is an inconvenience but I seriously do not want to invite trouble since I'd be living alone and am powerless against someone with deep pocket like him. Yes, consumers are no longer the kings these days. HDB ought to do something about these errant contractors.

Hi, can pm me the contractor name? Thanks.

[JustAcustomer 1]

Don’t engage The Local Inn interior. No communication and not professional. I order to get the job they quote the desire amt thereafter lots of additional cost. Very stressful. 

[Jasonyong 1]

Hi all, i had recently engaged Casa Interior Design for my resale 4 room flat. I went with the hacking package and abit of carpentary and it cost me 40k+ for a terrible experience. They hacked a number of holes thru my toliet wall and left behind a scar marking on the wall. Poor workmanship can be observe with damages to the original HDB carpentary. Their paintworks were terrible and i had to touchup on the whole house again due to the reckless work done. Uneven tiles and different color grout line can be seen clearly. They removed both my 2yrs system 3 and system 1 Mitsubishi aircon and intended to replace me with 10+ aircon unit. Overall a very bad experience with this ID company and all i can say is think twice before engaging them.

Edited June 5, 2021 by Jasonyong
Post pictures for reference

[greeeen 0]

• The ID I worked with has just two people (project managers) in their company. They engage various contractors for all the work done. So think of them as the main-con.

• Usually how it works is this: You either pay a project management fee and that is the price you pay for the convenience and they are then supposed to work in your interest to get the best rates for you, since they are already getting paid for that service. OR you don't pay a project management fee and they take a cut from the sub-contractors to earn. I understand that they have to make money too.

• In my case, my ID requested a project management fee of $15,000+ for the management and design of our home. (Context: The whole renovation project cost was over $100k and I stay in a private property.) Because of the fee, she said she would will not charge any mark-ups and will provide me with all the invoices. At first, she claimed it was not a practise to provide any invoices to clients. But I insisted for them. This rang some alarm bells but because they were a third-party recommendation, we still went ahead.

• Throughout our time working with her, we realised several contract amounts not tallying up, many promises to fix things always were "forgotten" and I'm not gonna go into detail but at this point, there were over 10 instances of dishonesty (that we just gave her the benefit of the doubt for) and it was getting hard to trust the things she was saying.

• We started to get suspicious when we requested for add-ons which required new quotes. I would request for 3 quotes but she always came back with just one. At first, I thought she was just lazy for always using the same expensive supplier because she didn't want to find more quotes for us and always said there was no one else.

How shady interior design firms operate in Singapore

• Our suspicions lead us to ask around and get the quotations ourselves and boy did we get a huge shock. For 3 separate additions (small issues like blinds/curtains/etc), our quotes were half the price as the quotes she was giving us.

• Turns out, one of the contractors we ended up getting the quote from was a current supplier of hers, who offered us a much lower rate. And he explained to us how her company operates, and how the ID + supplier industry works in general.

• He said they will approach the supplier and ask for the cost price that they will charge. Then, they will add their own cut to it between 20%-50% markup and ask the supplier to issue clients the invoice with the inflated amount. The more she thinks she can get away with it, the higher % she will add. Once she finds a supplier who is willing to do this with her, she will keep using that same supplier. Hence that guy giving better rates was not chosen.

• So any homeowner who receives the invoice will feel that it is legit, but actually, it is heavily inflated due to the special agreement between her and the supplier. The invoice is a clever ruse to trick homeowners.

• We ended up exceeding our renovation budget by about $30k with the provisional charges for things like electricity doubling from $10k to $20k.

• What makes us so angry is how she said she was going to charge an overall fee for project management ($15k+) so everything would be transparent. e.g same logic as hiring a main contractor. But all this while, she was getting under the table deals too, inflating the invoices and effectively charging us twice - one from the comms and one for her lump sum fee.

• Because she inflated the amount, instead of us getting our dream home we saved up years for, we had to do away with some features we really wanted because it was over our budget due to the extra money was going to her as under the table profit.

[Elena Fishchenko 0]

I agree.

[balasing 0]

- - - and Design  -- took 100% renovation fees with the promise to complete the HDB renovation in 2 months is still unable to finish the work after 5 months and stopped responding as well .... worst ever renovation company I came across ...

 

Edited April 8, 2021 by balasing

[Tarepanda00010 0]

Hi, need some advice. My HDB resale flat is currently under renovation and yesterday My ID informed me that during the hacking some of the tiles pop up and they will be charging us for the cement screed, is this very common??

 

 

[Shuli85 0]

Hi everyone pls beware of dis guy Gabriel Seng Joon Hian n his partner Jay Lee from Zenith Design Theory

They taken down their facebook page but are still scamming others simply search Gabriel Seng in reddit n read all the nightmares 

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/scamsg.com/company/201629247E/amp

https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=545962471

https://www.facebook.com/gabriel.gagala

https://www.facebook.com/gabriel.seng.9

[Yap Xiong Wei 0]

Hi everyone  , pls beware engage this Golden bricks building contractor on dec 19  very  dishonest and very poor workmanship shop the person in charge Vincent Tan and finished on Jan 20 , before the last payment make to him , he did not took initiative to conduct a joint inspection with me only just sent me a invoice and want me to pay him through Paylah ,as a first time homeowner I really do not know that I need to do so before taking over premises , then after stay for a few months I found out tiles not properly lay with chips , hollow and cracks , kitchen cabinet not sitting flat on the plinth leaving a big gap and use cement to seal up and argue that is normal as compare to the BCA renovation standard, need to call him multiple times before he came down to see all this defects , in the end he is willing to give me some compensation .below are all the defects done at my place

[Gusty 1]

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to share my terrible experience with Sg Renovations Contractors Pte Ltd. Unbelievably, I don’t know how they got so many good reviews in Carousell (more than 100x5stars review). So I contacted her (Melissa) to get a paint job done for my place. 
 

Contract was supposedly painting of interior/exterior/roof. Time frame in contract was 2 weeks. They kept dragging and said needed more time and asked for more money (only part of the exterior was painted and badly done). For 1 week it wasn’t raining (my contractors were doing other work in the house can testify) they didn’t turn up. I can share the photos, they are far from finishing their job. On the 3rd week, they came to remove the scaffold, there is no way they can finish their job (3rd floor wall unpainted shown in pic).  Their paint is peeling off only within 2 weeks. Simple works like plastering to touch up the walls(Written in the contract) were not done and cracks were everywhere. Refer to pics below for reference. Kept asking for top up of $$, eg pay more for aircon ledge as they are not considered external walls, wooden fence only painted half (claiming need neighbour’s permission but we already got it). There’s still alot more but I’ll leave it as it is here. You can see from the pics below how much exterior works needs to be done 
 

By this time, I asked how much more time they needed to finish their job (as quoted by them “Left 1 corner wall and some ceiling and balcony ledge”) and they said needed 10 more days and subject to weather conditions and requested unreasonable demands to get their job done, basically to drag and wear our patience out. The interior of the house hasn’t even started any painting yet at this point.

For a contracted 2 weeks job, turned out to be badly done and multiple lies told to us by Melissa and her supervisor (who was also a hooligan, called me and my wife and started swearing because we asked why is their paint quality so bad, threatened to cancel our job). I think it’s a company that people should avoid.
 

Just sharing my experience so others can be informed. Hopefully I am just one of the unlucky ones to have experienced their bad service. I welcome them to write their perspective and I will reply objectively to their work. 

 

[Jojokuek 0]

Hi does any one here engaged "ur reno save" company for home renovation? Any reviews?

[exquisite 0]

On 3/17/2020 at 9:55 AM, Shaun Teo said:

Engaged an ID in the Joo Chiat area. Bunch of tricksters and cheats. ?

Mine sharing what happened? Thanks

[Bo Chan 1]

Have finally moved into my humble abode recently and decided to warn anyone here who is looking for renovation contractor because I had the worst experience. I am not revealing the company name here because my problem is quite unique and I think the Contractor himself can easily identify himself. So PM me if you want to have the details, I know it is an inconvenience but I seriously do not want to invite trouble since I'd be living alone and am powerless against someone with deep pocket like him. Yes, consumers are no longer the kings these days. HDB ought to do something about these errant contractors.

[blitz8888 1]

See my bathtub done by Absolook Interior Design. This is a landed property. I’ve never seen water pipes jutting out of bathtubs before and is very disappointed when I saw this! This is not only ugly (considering the huge sum of money spent), but also dangerous for my 3 kids who may shower in the bathtub. The hot water pipe may scald them. Honestly when we pay money to engage interior designers, we don’t expect this type of ‘design’.