arowana

hi bro.. there are plenty of threads on 'recommended carpenter'. Pls dun create a new thread just like that.. its takes up bandwidth

plastering.. all is smooth.. no such thing as smooth or rough. My unit undergoing reno now. I plastering the kitchen, really smooth. Smoother and nicers than normal wall.. haha the painter is not going to sand down your other wall liao. Unless there's something obviously sticking out, he'll just usehis scraper to dig it out.

lian seng hin got 10% discount if you buy more certain quantity.. which is basically almost your whole house. Remember to arrange with your contractor to try to get the discount for yourself. Hafary i'm not sure how much the discount is, same for Soon BEe Huat. Hafary - go to the defu lane.. much bigger and more things to see..

another point you can negotiate for is better payment terms: I'm currently renovating my place. my terms are: 10% upon signing 10% after hacking and selection of materials 25% after 25% of work is done 25% after 50% of work is done 15% after 75% of work is done 15% after completion and handing over. My contractor is comfortable with such payment terms with us. We told him we don't feel comfortable paying before work is done and we heard alot of horror stories in the industry. So he's has so far kept his side of the bargain by performing well so we might pay faster to encourage him. Very important is the final payment after handing over it has to be minimum 10%, if can get more.. better. 5% usually is no power. If there's any disputes, contractor/ID is prepared to walk away and dun earn the last 5% as their margin is already 15-20% in some cases. If you hold more than 10%, you can be sure he'll do his best to do a good handing over. This forum has too many threads of homeowners paying too much in advance and even pay complete before handover. When you control the money flow, you can control the work process and satisfaction. Renovation is not cheap, do your homework, check. Lastly, one look at your quote and I know it's expensive by 10-15% liao. Go read up in this forum ,there's alot of discussion on market prices. BUT you must make sure you are comparing apples to apples. Materials used can make alot of diff to the price. So do compare correctly. Enjoy!

yes lighting point at $30 is market rate.. you might be able to get about $28 in some cases. But it's not much different L-box should be about $5-6/ft. L-box with cove lighting should be about $8-9/ft. False ceiling is $2.5-$3/sqf. These are the rates which contractors should be able to give you. If you go direct to the sub-contractor who does ths job himself.. it could be slightly cheaper...

yup.. one more thing to watch out for is whether the electrician will loop from each room directly back to the ECB or is each further room piggy backed from another room. Basically it's like create multiple parallel circuits from just one main parallel circuit. The former is better in that, there's less tendency to trip the whole house when overloading.

sorry i can't seem to see your pic?

if resale yes, if new.. nope. No hacking is allowed for toilets wall or floor tiles when new. If you change the door frame, you'll need to hack the wall tiles for sure. This should be for about 3yrs?

hi guys, there's already an existing thread talking about which contractor to use. Pls dun create just another new thread for this...

read through the terms. Not sure if it has been changed already since SOR loans not too good for the bank already. During my time when i signed up in Apr11, i know that: - there was no early redepemption penalty fee - Free 2,500 lawyer's fee when processing the loan. We are free to choose any lawyer. The law firm will just bill ANZ directly - If refinance/redeem the loan less than 2 or 3yrs, need to pay back the lawyers fee, that's all. - The actual interest rate is determined every quater and will be used as the interest rate for that 3mths. You need to see whether you are the kind who can take risks or not. Got kiasee singaporeans not willing to bet on such stuff so they just continue to pay HDB 2.6%, but do note that, HDB might not increase interest rates when bank rates go up. But it doesn't mean it WOULDN'T increase, there is still the potential for it to increase. Look at the US market now, how long do you think it'll take to clean up its mess? my view is 5-10yrs minimum because they have been on credit steroids for too long. And on this side of the world, Singapore has the intention to fight inflation by continuously increasing exchange rates. So one will see more money/funds moving to SG/Asia, this will be factor that keeps SOR low. It's true housing loans are 30yrs. But nothing is certain in life and cast in stone. So one should be able to make calculated risks in such matters and measure the upside and downside.

SOR is now negative.. what can i say man.. many banks have withdrawn loans pegged to SOR. As of yesterday, it's close to -0.1%.. I expect this trend of low SOR rates to stay at least for another 5yrs. Low, i mean less than 1%. The US economy is in deep **** which needs to rectify itself properly and rely on real organic growth. ANZ still having the 3mth SOR + 0.75%. You guys should get this now. ANZ is hungry for business..

keep going man!

hi bro... nice place man! My unit at telok blangah height is exactly like yours. Don't you find it funny that the MBR toilet is smaller than the common toilet? haha... But i'm only 2nd floor. How much did you pay for your COV siah? mind PM me? I bought at telok blangah heights.. pple don't want to move out at all siah.. only 1 unit on sale which was my transaction in the last 7mths for this year!

your quote is expensive. I went through your items in detail. it's exp. TS, why not you take each item and calculate the per unit price - $/ft, $/sqf etc. (where applicable) Then i'll show you for each item where the market rate should be. I initially thought your quote was cheap BUT realised the quote is mainly for toilet n kitchen mainly. chop chop cully pok... do find more quotes

your ID is one of the more creative IDs i've seen. Hope all goes well!

i looked around for flats, agent didn't even ask me to sign anything. If it being non-exclusive carries no weight, then signing or no signing really makes no diff but pple are always wary putting their signature on something, no matter how non-binding and non-official it is. If the buyer wants to DIY already and just using an agent temporarily to see units, signing also has no effect. Agents usually get buyers to sign the exclusive form when things are more confirmed and the buyer looks set to buy a flat. If one really wants to be unscrupulous, no matter of regulation can deter that.

what your project manager said has some truth to it because they will go through the defects one more time and rectify accordingly. BUT when it comes to tiling work, if a section got problem, they still have to take out all the tiles in that area and redo. You dun have to demand perfection, a little bit of unevenness here n there is expected. But if brushing your leg or hand over the uneven surface feels like u are cutting urself, that is definitely unacceptable. Get it changed now. Or you can just point out to the project manager/ID that this is an area that needs to be changed cause you definitely cannot accept that.

definitely dun need to sign. Even if it's non-exclusive, what's the purpose of signing?

I was looking at tiles at some of the shops last weekend. Hup kiong, hafary, Lian seng hin... Almost all similar range leh, somemore same product code range. And pricing quite close. But usually differs about 10-20cents. I think Hafary still has the best pricing and widest range (esp their Defu lane main showroom) Anyone has any comments on the above?

yeah some IDs favourite song is - All I have to do is Dream (Everly Brothers). Dreaming of more cuckoo customers. TS, you just need to break down the per unit prices so that you can compare against the market rate. But you need to bear in mind what kind of materials you are using and how elaborate you want the design to be. Next you also need to factor in how 'gum' you feel with the contractor/ID. You have to put a value on an ID who's able to better visualize and transform the 3D designs into reality with the closest resemblence. TS, you should be looking at 35k thereabouts if you are doing the usual normal stuff.

Hi all, Maybe i goondoo or what, but finally came to learn that the tile shops do give a rebate when buying beyond a certain qty. I know lian seng hin gives either 5% or 10% discount. 10% is for doing full flat and beyond a certain size. Did i get my facts right? Anyone knows what's the discount rates for other tile shops? Hafary, hup kiong etc?

But u paid 100% already when job not done?

Dominic, can you pm me Sebestian's number... thx

any updates on this? This is good.. anyone knows whether Mr Chan is still doing business?

actualyl why not u guys use homeplug instead of laying lan cables? Connection is almost as good and hassle free.