renoseeker

Yeah. The picture of the hinge I put above is a room door hinge. I just use that as an illustration. The concept is the same. Two hinge, left and right, and a soft close mechanism in the middle. Ratio differs, as Defelio says. Got to see the door to know actually. 2:1 is just what porkypig uses to explain, so I use 2:1 also.

Yeah black means cannot hack. Black = solid pillar inside the concrete. If you hack, then you can see if your flat is built firmly or not.

I personally don't trust 25 year warranty. Seems a bit far fetched.

Glass door expensive leh...

Hi Wymark, Actually, why did your ID quote you in millimetres? I find it annoying. The standard is in psf for your raised platform. I suspect he or she put in millimetres so you cannot compare easily. Btw, from my calculations, you got chopped for the raised platform. Its around 50 square feet (rounded up) and you end up with around $23 psf. Which is very expensive. Still got anything in doubt?

Wah...you are a tough customer. I like your style.

From what I know, I don't believe so. RHB, OCBC and Maybank allows for renovation loan up to 6 times your monthly salary or $30,000, whichever is lower. If you want to borrow so much money, then a renovation loan would not be enough for you. In that case, then the bank most likely will ask for collateral, maybe your house in this case. Then, it depends on your house value already. I am guessing that if you are going to spend 900k to rebuild, your house value should be around 3M and above? But don't take my word for it. Each bank got their own policy. Best is to call and ask your bank.

Maybe at first, there are hair line cracks, but because of the Home Improvement Program, these cracks deepens. If this is really the case, then I am not sure if you can claim from your ID. Because hair line cracks are fairly common and is not really a fault of the ID/tiler. Some tiles crack more easily than others, especially the China $2.20 ones. Not sure what tiles you use, but your ID should have explained to you if you decide to use cheaper tiles. Just my 2 cents

Hi enrico You doing a false ceiling or simply plastering the ceiling?

They can but they don't need to. You can check from the RADAC site. http://www.radac.org.sg/arlist.asp Don't be obsessed with the certifications though. A lot still depends on the contractor you are working with.

Welcome, my neighbour. I live in Bukit Batok as well. Near to the market opposite Keming. Look forward to your finished renovation pictures.

Great wisdom from bepgof here. I am very blunt in real life too...but online, I try to hold back a little because it could be forever there. Freedom of speech, yes, but we also need to know how and when to exercise the freedom of speech. bepgof, maybe you can hold a little too? Just my humble opinion. Don't be offended.

I had maybe seen the report too...It's on The New Paper right? I really feel for all the people who are cheated, in some form or another. I am not going to debate whether sympathy needs to be earned or not....but what I think is that everyone has an internal "sensor" for what is right and what is wrong. So, I feel for you, nat0206. Money is hard to earn.... If you have already file a suit, then prepare to hang on. Litigation is long and tedious and you really need to have solid "black and white to stand a chance." I hope you get your money back and all. As for your removing of the original post, I think it is wise. Even if you give us the name of the renovator, it is probably not useful to people, since the corrupt guy can just close down the company and start another in another name, another address. In fact, this scenario has already happened. Moving on, I suggest that the next time you want to engage a renovator, please do the homework. It may sound cruel and unkind of me, but I think your chances of getting conned is much lower if you had really done your homework at the start. Please forgive me from being blunt....but this is for your own good for the long run. I am around the same age as you actually, but I have seen a lot and experienced a lot. Just take my word for it: Don't trust people explicitly, unless they show themselves to be trustworthy. Wish you all the best.

Yeah, Renotalk will auto filter some ID names out when you type them. I am not sure why either. These filtered out ones are too good or too bad? As for being highly controlled, I am personally not surprised. I operated a trading strategy forum when I was in my uni days (unfortunately it died from lack of capital) and there are a lot of tricks that a forum owner can play....that you may never know. All forums are highly controlled, let alone an advertising heavy one like Renotalk. All these boils down to the business model: All forums derive income from advertisements, and to attract advertisements, a forum owner has no choice but to do some tricks, if not the forum will go bust (just like mine, because I am too stubborn to do some things) It is definitely not the fault of Renotalk's staff. Just be careful, don't take everything at face value and know how the game is played and keep a clear head.

I beg to differ. ID and Contractor are just schematics. Just different names for the same job. More and more contractors call themselves ID. Most contractors have done a lot of jobs before, so they more or less know what designs works and what does not. People always say that contractors will be cheaper. Not true....If they sense that you are noob, they will still chop you. Some IDs have absolutely zero design sense, yet they still call themselves ID. Essentially, they are main contractors, but they charge a non existent "design premium" despite having no design sense. Job Scope of ID/Contractor is to do renovations. Bottom Line: ID = Businessman Contractor = Businessman Aim: Both wants to make the most $ out of you. (Nothing wrong with that. If you are doing this for a living, you would also act like this.) Let's look at the effect of ID and Contractor then... Effect of ID/Contractor Good ID/Contractor = No worries renovation + Cost effective Bad ID/Contractor = Nightmare renovation + Expensive Since the job scope is the same, the design (or lack of) is the same and the aim is the same, the difference between ID and Contractor is almost non existent.

Soon Bee Huat At Jurong East. See tiles until you blur blur. Like me.

Don't try aluminium foil. My mom did. It's basically useless. Still oily and everything.

Hi, Personally I admire that your perseverance. I think you have gone to more than 10 IDs? Most people will not be able to tahan the long and tiring search process and then anyhow choose an ID. And then, just got to pray nothing goes wrong. Hope everything goes well for you and you don't get "carroted"

Assuming that you are selling your house and buying a new one, you can try to negotiate with your buyer to handover your existing house later. Of course, you need to pay him a rental fee, until the renovation for your new house is over. If you are renting from someone, then talk to your landlord to see if you can extend for a few months. Not sure what is your personal circumstances. Either way, it is a lot simpler to do the above than to find a short term rental in a short while.

Well....this is Renotalk. It's a forum. Half the recommendations/complaints cannot be trusted. Even those with photos can be faked. Google Images is your best friend. Self recommendations are like everywhere. Likewise, complaints may be attacks from green-eyed rivals. It's like part of the game. No need to be angry about it. Be smart, be alert and think for yourself is what that matters.

I am quite sure this is a workmanship problem. Environmental factors would not usually cause it to crack until so badly. Are you still under warranty? So did you settle this with your renovator, or you tackle the problem yourself?

Interesting thread...I wonder who is offended in the end?

This happens to me also. It seems like the city gas guy messed up my gas supply outlet. Mine is a resale flat, so quite old already. The city gas guy came and knocked some stuff around and I guess that is why got problem. Solved by calling up and complaining... Hope this helps

LOL. Later you get him into trouble...

Cool idea. Maybe we can use storage companies like Big Orange or what to put the materials and what not. Spread around a lot of people, it should be affordable.