arowana

thx for sharing.. pls continue!

the biggest learning point is do not pay too much for what has not been done yet. As long as you control the money flow, you anytime can get rid of the present ID/contractor and get another to replace him if the present ID/contractor is not performing properly. Problem is most people pay up too much, too fast, reducing incentive for ID or contractor to complete the job on time. I've seen payment plans where it's 30% downpayment, 30% upon selection of tiles. And work hasn't started! OMG!!! Of course if you have a good relationship with the contractor, can pay up abit faster and in advance. I can assure you, contractors/IDs do not pay their sub-contractors upfront in full. Some do not pay partially also, only paying in full after job is done simply because if they pay too fast or too much, their own sub-con might not work anymore. It really is that simple. Work ethics matter little in this industry. It's mostly about how much money is involved. Sad but this is the general state of our reno industry for small timers like us. If one finds a good and responsible contractor/ID, great! treat him well and pay him on time. It really is a give and take situation. Here's my payment plan, it's not the best but it's decent 10% upon contract signing 10% after hacking and upon selection of tile materials 25% after 25% of work is complete 25% after 75% of work is complete or upon starting of carpentry 15% after all carpentry is completed 15% after all cleaning, rectification of defects and handover. Of course quite a number of contractors/IDs wouldn't give this kind of payment plans out because they always want to have upper hand. But i was able to come to a good understanding with mine that we had fears of this industry and this isn't a small sum we are looking at. And since we were a referral from a previou client, my contractor was willing to go with our payment plans. Now we are starting carpentry i've paid him the next 25% and so far all has been good. Have good feeling from him right from the start so hope that everything proceeds smoothly. and no.. we didn't have to pay the sky and roof to get a good job done. budget is about 51-52k for complete reno of 5room flat. Will post details in t-blog next time

more important question is how much have you paid for how much work? If you have paid too much for work that has not been done. Then likely game over.. lppl liao. U can go home and suck thumb. ARe you those kind before work start already pay up more than half? Then there's really very little incentive for the ID/contractor to finish up.

nat, why did you cancel your original post? What's the true story? Pls don't post such things halfway, then happy happy, remove. It's not right. So is the person in wrong actually you then? What do you expect us to do? You will not be the first and the last of cases where clients complain against their ID's contractors...

i agree man.. i'm still amazed how pple can sign up here and, Ask qns like 'is 50k too much for a 4 room HDB flat?' 'is 60k too much for a 5room hdb flat?' Hello, pls provide more details man. The amount is irrelevant if there's no details provided. An 'expensive' quote might be based on using MARBLE tiles for the whole house which costs $15-20psf or even more? If possible, pls provide pictures/2D/3D plan, full quotation if possible, idea of details of the work that's going to be done.

i'm in process of ordering. Have shipped already. Didn't receive it yet. Once i get it, will test, put it up in the ceiling and if good, will recommend to you guys to use. Edlyn, actually if you sure you not going to use downlights, can build your false ceiling to be 4" thickness only, then the hookedup portion is only 2" high, can still use T5. Good thing is T5 with holder is still quite small. So can still consider it.

guys, this has been re-emphasised over and over again in many of the threads. You need to know your reference prices to know whether u are getting a good deal or not. You have to know the Per unit prices for a standard grade of work. Eg. false ceiling is $2-2.5psf, tiling labour $2.5-3.5psf, carpentry sliding door warddrobe - $200-$220pf. These are for standard grade of materials and designs. Of course more complex designs/materials will be higher charge. Going to a direct contractor doesnt mean one will get a lower price automatically. Every seller still wants to earn max profit, it's just that for the direct sub-con, he has a lower price cost to move down his price to, a general contractor needs to make the margin for coordinating the work. And don't assume contractors will definitely charge lesser than IDs. I've seen quotes from contractors which are significantly more than IDs which is ridiculous. Just calculate the per unit costs of all items and compare and the difference is so clear. No contractor/ID/sub-con wants to sell themselves cheap, always trying to make more profit, the question is where's the cost price for each party? And also how much margin each party needs to make.

thx for sharing...

hi terence, with wireless router, it should be sufficient, if you still need the wired connection, perhaps consider homeplugs instead. Unless you really need super smoother continuous connection, then go for CAT5 LAN point. All cabling in HDB has to be exposed. If you stay condo or landed can be concealed.

edlyn, must u use LED lights? This is for cove lights right? Unless you need a thinner false ceiling, it's better to go for T5 tubes. I need to use LED because my ceiling height already is quite low. Like 2.55m only. So my false ceiling, i only do for 4inches thickness (10cm). Normal false ceiling most people put 6inches (15cm) so as to accomodate different variations of downlights and also the hookup for cove lighting. My false ceiling in living room will only have cove lighting, no downlights, so i can afford to make it as slim as possible - 4inches. I have not upload any pics yet, lazy.. haha but will do so when things are complete. T5 is still cheap like a 4ft tube - philips T5 with normal OEM light holder is only $15, and T5 has much higher efficacy ratio Lumens/watts compared to LED. LED sounds sexy only. I already tried to get the cheapest but best value quality for LED lights for my living room but i still find the economics lose out to T5. My costs i found are much better than yours. But your price is like this because you are buying from Singapore. Go to www.dealextreme.com to see better deals. To give you a simple idea, I'm paying USD35/5m roll for a 300LEDs/5m 5050, IP65 waterproof. The price for the RGB with power supply and remote controller, water proof - less than half of what you got. But my prices is i buy online, so need to know the risks. Unless absolutely necessary, stick with T5 for cove lighting.

ahhaah yeah lor.. he's long gone already...

technically u all sign up with an ID/company liao, u all must hv contract integrity to follow through. You shd do your homework before signing off with any company. How can it be that only when things are in your favor then you want the contract to continue? But if things are not good, u want to cancel contract? One must be fair to the IDs/contractors. Not all of them out there are bad sheep. Let's be honest about this. You just have to be more street smart in knowing who are the good IDs/contractors. But once you sign on the dotted line, you should keep your end of the bargain and follow through. If everyone doesn't have contract integrity, then we all don't need to do business already.

carpentry is always known to be the area where IDs can make the most gravy from you. No surprises there. Another way if you still want to go via the ID route is just let the ID do those parts that's best done together by 1 person. Hacking, tiling, electrical, ceiling, painting, toilet etc. All other standalone carpentry, can get a direct carpenter to come in and do. Much cheaper. The difficulty is if you have electrical points/wires embedded in your carpentry then it makes it hard to get a standalone carpenter to come and do such kindsd of carpentry. Good luck!

actually if you guys bothered to read all of the replies in this thread, you'll see ah wei's contact..

Some packages are not low. They might seem low, but on further scrutiny, it isn't. Anyway an ID only earns normal profits through packages. So they will try to make back more on carpentry, electricals, additionals etc I suggest u spend some time really reading thru most of the threads here. You'll pick up pointers on what should be the appropriate market price for a certain item of standard quality

mine in process of reno... will upload when all ready

what's your budget looking like for reno only and fixtures/appliances?

no more already. Need to wait for next MO

www.dealextreme.com sells Sim Lim tower should have also. I know some forumers here are selling also. Do note that LED's still lose to T5 lights in terms of Efficacy ratio - Lumens/Watts. Basically how bright the light source can be based on the amount of electricity consumed. LEDs are still almost half of T5. I wrote in another thread in this same section.

If it's based on singapore pricing. It's decent. You should go dealextreme.com and see the prices there. Then you'll know the diff. There are other cheaper sites. Leds actually arent that exp.

the weakness of LED lights is one critical factor that most people overlook - The efficacy ratio, Lumens/Watt. Basically how bright a light source can be, based on the amount of wattage it has. If you thought T8s were really efficient already, T5 efficacy ratio is near 100 with some models slightly mroe than a hundred. A 5050 SMD LED - which is generally the brighter of LEDs out there. Typically it has a wattage of 0.24watts, lumens only 12L. Efficacy ratio is 50L/W, half of T5. Where LED can win, is when you just want abit of light to go over a longer distance and do not need things to be too bright. In this case, strips are used. Another way where LEDs are better, if one needs more little spot lights spread over a longer area, LEDs work great here. Using Halogen light sources would be too bright and consume too much electricity to achieve this effect. What LEDs need to improve on is not really cost, it's the Efficacy ratio, which as of now is sadly too far behind.

your picture somehow cannot maximize.. it's too tiny...

1ft is quite off... pls request for 1ft discount.. simple.

better for you to open a TBlog and start from there?

Bro, important thing is have u paid up everything for the reno contract? If u still hold the last 5 or 10% payment n he wants u to move in first, technically shd be ok. But still logic would tell u that u shd properly close this reno project, hv the defects all rectified, pay the last payment after all is completed. Unless u hv already paid up, then u think ur id will still rectify the defects after 1mth?