Leaderboard

In all honesty, initially when all the carpentry came in (as it is a huge bulk), there were some flaws like e.g. my walk-in-wardrobe had slight shape edges at some sides and a little bit of paint stuck on to two boards before installation of the shoe cabinet doors because apparently the painter didn't know it wasn't dried yet and stacked it together. There was also a small chip at the bottom board of the shoe cabinet but after that I realised Contractor J actually knew about all these and promptly got his workers to fix everything a couple of days later. The finishing for all the renovation is really really good, especially my kitchen and shoe cabinets. The frames for my shoe cabinets isn't easy to make and it takes a very skilled carpenter to align the black frames in synchronization and then piece them up together such that they are 'complete' - when the doors came in pieces I was still worried but after they fixed up everything and I slide my fingers through their workmanship, I realised it's so good and smooth I'm more than satisfied and delighted. I met contractor J last weekend and he told me one of my friends mentioned that the quote she received was a marginally expensive compared to other contractor. He explained the reason is because he does not 'cheat' on his materials. E.g. He told me other contractors use chipboard or ply wood for carpentry but he takes pride in his wood and only uses solid wood for carpentry so they last for many years or even decades to come. He also mentioned he uses original laminates from reputable companies however some contractors simply give the client the original laminate to choose - after the client choose the laminate, contractors match the colour of the laminate with china laminates which are exactly the same but of course different quality since client can't see the brand anyway after they put it up. One foot usually costs $78 for original brands like Lamitek but china brand one foot only cost $36 so they save they cost by half. But the problem with those china laminates is after a year or so, if you use chemicals such as CIF or detergent to clean them, the colour completely run and by then the contractor isn't liable to follow up or give any warranty for their work. So at the end of the day, is "one cent for one cent worth of quality work" (Translate chinese) I feel going via contractor already saved us almost $10,000 so what scrimp and save on a couple of hundred or a thousand comparing contractor to contractor when the quality of work is so different. Just my two cents