twinpisces

Thank you! I am a lucky man. No, we select quartz as the material for our kitchen top. I was explaining the properties of quartz and why we select this material.

We noticed our friends and relatives kitchen's solid top tends to discoloured and have fine line scratch after about 3-5 years usage. The deteriorating effect is more obvious for colour like while or black. Since my wifey wants a light tone kitchen (meaning white base), so our requirement for the solid top have to be durable and the colour should be lasting. We started looking at various options and happened to come across this material called quartz. Quartz clamied that they have benefits that include less chipping, cracking or discoloring and a less porous surface. In theory, you basically can do your cutting on it. However, if you have choosen this material, I would reckon you would buy a chopping board then take the risk There are about a handful of quartz manufacturer, I wouldn't rate which one is better. Maybe those who has used this material could share with us their rating. Here are some info about them which I have cut out from the websites. Silestone® (Made in Spain) Made in Spain by Cosentino, it claims that this it's technology is over 15 years old, making it the old player in the field of quartz stone surfaces. Silestone is scratch resistant, stain resistant, amd heat resistant. A unique feature is Silestone is the Microban technology that is intergraded on the product. Microban claims to continuously fights the growth of microbes that can cause stains and odors and Microban protection makes your Silestone countertops easier to clean and keeps them cleaner between cleanings. The promotion of Microban antimicrobial protection is that it is effective against most common bacteria, yeasts, molds and fungi that cause stains and odors. Microban technology is not designed to protect users from disease-causing microorganisms. Zodiaq® (Made in Canada) From the maker of Corian, comes Zodiaq®. DuPontTM Zodiaq® claims to have produced an advanced composite material made of 93% quartz with a DuPont proprietary binding polymer and pigments. If anyone has the money for R&D, DuPont does. Their stated goal was to create a new material with its own depth and character and a unique aesthetic, suggesting a sense of enlightened luxury and an attitude of bold sophistication. When you think of Zodiaq®, most people do not know that it is made by one of the largest and most sophisticated countertop maker in the world. Cambria® (Made in USA) Perhaps the smallest player in the market is Cambria quartz stone surfaces which is American owned and operated by the Davis Family. As with all the other brand names, Cambria quartz stone surfaces are also comprised of approximately 93% quartz and claim the same low maintenance advantages. CaesarStone® (Made in Israel) Quartz is one of the hardest minerals and is calculated at a hardness level of 7 on the Mohs Scale of Hardness. The company proclaims to be the originator of quartz kitchen and bath countertops, and claims to have advantages over other surfaces. Many installation professionals dispute Caesarstone's claims that it does not allow bacteria growth and cleans with just a moist cloth. It is promoted to resist damage from heat and acids such as caustic wine spills and knife scratches. These claims are also questionable. We have choosen CaesarStone (http://www.caesarstone.com/). There are too many claims by these manufacturers. To us, the properties for quartz is about the same. Our requirement is a hard surface that is non-porous. We have also choosen the colour code 2141 (snow) that will finished with square edge and come with a backsplash. The sink will be under-mount as well. Here are some pictures how the quartz surface will look like for 2141 (snow).

This revamp project cost us about S$53k. Excluding air-con systems, electrical works, light fittings, toilet accessories/fittings and blum fittings.

As we need to move out of the house for about 2 months, my wifey is staying with her parents with my princess while I go back to my parent place. As my room has been occupied by my sister, I have to sleep in the living room Seems like a stranger when I moved back to my parents' place, even though I have lived there for the past 20+ years. Yeah, will post my current look Thank you! My wifey makes most of the colour scheme decision together with the recommendation from our ID. I am engineer, thus I have to admit I am not very good with choosing the right colour scheme. I can only hope it turn out 95% the same as these 3d diagrams.

Stay tuned to my blog. I will try to post some pictures of our old home. So can give a before and after look.

In terms of producing the 3d perspective and elevation, I would rate this ID a score of 8.5 out of 10. As far as I am concern, they are not too "stingy" in giving you the 3d perspective. I personally think the autocad drawing help the home owner like us a better understanding of what we will be getting. What I have shown you is just a screen shot of the drawings. Didnt show the pdf bec it contains information I do not wish to show. The file is a dwg format. This format can be converted to pdf, which I do for my wife to view on her laptop. Therefore, you need the correct reader to view it. I like this format as it does show the professionalism of the designer.

Master bedroom

Living room Living room (another angle)

Kitchen Kitchen Island This kitchen is designed according to the requirement of my wifey as this is her territory. Even for the old kitchen she also does not like me to dirty it. For this kitchen, she "die die" also must have a "ang mo" style of island type of kitchen. So the designer try every possibilty to come up with one for her. She likes to bake and I like to eat, so I didn't object much to having this island which likely will reduce the walking space around the kitchen.

After few weeks of drilling the details, we finally have our 3D perspective of what we will be getting. Master bedroom toilet Common toilet

I shall not speak about some of the bad experience I had with the IDs. Some of them are those that are advertised on radio, TV, etc. This industry is still not so regulated and therefore, you have professional and some not so proefessional. Some black sheep is not doing much positive image for this industry. We had plenty of experience; some cannot remember we have a appointment and did not provide any quote. We had one who we were about to sign on the dotted line. But he did not turn up for the site measurement. Finally, we landed on Distinct Identify through recommendation from a friend who have completed project with them. I personally think good recommendation still is the best way to select your ID. You still need to speak with the recommended ID but at least it would save a lot of unnecessary encounters comparing to those experience that are walk in. IDs from the same company may not even have the same quality. I will provide the rating of my engaged ID based on these few categories. Capentry Workmanship Tiling Workmanship Electrical Workmanship Plumbing Workmanship Responsiveness Friendliness 3D imaging and elevation drawings Quality Control

Not sure how to start this. Have benefited much from this forum and thus decided to share my experience gain from this whole reno project. My wife, little princess and myself have been living at this place for the past 8 years. We were not so well of when we married. Therefore, could not afford any reno to our new flat we got from HDB. I remebered queuing for 3 days for this flat. Great that HDB has drop this method of first come first select. Now that I recalled, I was kinda agressive and did not think too much of potential risks and consequences. I was jobless and still decide to marry my wife and get myself a executive flat. I don't think few woman would do that these days. Thank you wifey for buying my "selling tactics"! Our humble home is a 1400 sqf executive flat at Punggol. It is a design and build flat. Floor tiles, toilet done up, kitchen wall tiles, etc are already included when we moved in. We just buy simple furniture just to stay in there. We spent about $5000 to do up the kitchen cabinet. That is the biggest sum we paid when we moved in. This is our proposed layout. We have visited many IDs over a period of 3 months. During this period, we are also material research (for instance, tiles, blum, lightings, etc).

Oh I forget to share with potential home owner. I have visited many ID. My personal opinon is that you can drop those that do not even give you 1 piece of 3d diagram before you confirm anything. For me, I cannot visualise the design just based on one sentence on the SOW. I don't want to spend tens of thousand just to buy something with have just a descrption of words and no drawings. Some companies are better, they are willing to provide more 3d drawings. They even proposed the colour scheme and theme for you. This way you can decide whether you like the designer's design.

I think I will clarify that for me I try reduce the VOs as much as possible with the ID. I don't want to have a bad relations with them in the end. How to reduce VOs? Do homework! Spend time to visit tiles suppliers, visit lightings shops, etc, talk to them. Then you will find what sort of work you required your renovator to carry out. For instance, you may require your renovator to provide installation services for your toilet. Ensure this is written in your SOW (scope of work). And trust me, there is many types of laminate, some more expensive. I personally think material research is necessary. For me, I separate the electrical works, supply of light fittings, air con, hood and hob, taps, sinks, toilet, etc from the ID SOW. So the ID SOW is purely just to design and excute reno works with installation of toilets fittings like tap, sink, hood, hob, toilet, water heater, etc. I took out those items that will certainly have variation during design phase. Those that can be fixed I will put it down on the ID SOW. This way I minmised my VOs with the ID. After all this, I still have to budget a contingency sum for VOs. You cannot be 100% sure that there will be no VOs. A good contingency sum is about 5% of your total contract sum. No hard formula , just ensure you have at least 2k to play with VOs.

Whether the quote is right or not depends on how detail you want to go into the each line item. For instance the tiles, what is the price limit you can choose. With this limit, go to those tiles supplier and see whether you are able to choose the tiles based on the limit. Personally, I prefer to minimise the VOs now then half way into the project. Becs VOs may burst your initial budget by high percentage if you did not think of these items in the first place.

Been talking to many IDs. I still have not encounter someone who quote us double of what we want. So far some quote close to budget and some abt 25% max out of our budget. I really hope those IDs that I like can meet my budget. As we have set aside a sum for the reno, budget still have to go to furniture, tv, hi-fi, air-con, lightings, toilet stuff, etc. In fact, we already choosen these items and hopefully we dont have to reduce our expectation. Have been saving for this reno. But the process is fun as planning is important. Budgetting and setting the expectation is also important. Of cos, all these have to be agreed between both husband and wife. Give and take for both party should be the recommended way to go. For instance, I like to have a reasonably good entertainment system. Budget should be around 10k including tv. But my wife feel I am spending too much on these items. Then for her, she likes the quatz (white) for the table top. So I don't usually comment much when it comes to her kitchen requirement. The process has allowed us to learn a lot on the raw material. We believe researching on the raw material so we would know what we are really getting. My wife used to be in the construction industry therefore, I got a lot of help from her in this area. As for me, what I can contribute is the planning and budgeting as this is what am doing everyday. I hope I have time to start a reno blog. Just hoping to share my experience and road map with those who might need this info.

New to this forum. Shall nick this thread as it is what I am looking for either. Wifey decided to renovate our existing house. So bo bian have to start looking for ID. She has all the ideas. I am basically the executioner, looking for the correct ID. Started sourcing about 2 months back. Still sourcing. Talk to many ID, they promise heaven but then I read the T&C, I almost faint. Maybe these owners of ID firm should read the Unfair Contract Terms Act (http://statutes.agc.gov.sg/non_version/cgi-bin/cgi_retrieve.pl?&actno=Reved-396&date=latest&method=part). In short, I will be involved in many VOs as the scope of work are not detail enough. Ok, I am on a budget. So VOs to me is definitely going to blow my budget. Problem will only surface when there is a dispute. If not, most ppl here I guess will ignore the T&C. Who actually bothers to read the T&C. I read a few threads here and these ppl just say no need to bother with the T&C. One sentence to summaries, "sure win" for reno owners if you engaged in civil case with them. But basically both side lose money. If you are rich, usually you don't bother with T&C, bec you can involved in lengthy battle with the reno owners. And they are rich too. Chance upon this forum while doing research for material. Great, I said. But like any other forum, I still have to read carefuly who are the real house owners and who are those that are doing self promote. But it is still a great place to find recommendations and share experience. If anyone got any recommendations, please do drop me a PM or post here. Don't worry, I will still do my own evaluation which I know you would surely advice as well. I personally think we are doing this reno at a wrong timing. Property is blooming so many jobs out there. It basically is a supplier world now. Take it or leave it, one reno contractor tell me. Sometimes, I feel that I am paying a large sum for something that I don't even know how it will look light. For instance, "Design, fabricate and install TV feature wall in selected laminates finish 10ft X 10ft $4,500". I am not sure is it just me thinking I am paying $4,500 for this one sentence? You want to see design, Sure, can do. Pay $2,000 non-refunable deposit and we will show you the design. Having said this, there are still good reno companies out there who still provide good service. But in general, most does not. This industry is not moderated and black sheep is making consumer like me having to go through all these hassle.