normanho23

PM me the quotation you have received and I can check with my costs to let you know if I think it is overpriced.

50K including the below items: 1. Aircon 2. Windows + grilles 3. Painting 4. WC, Basins, taps, heaters? 5. Hood, hob, sink?

Dun need to terminate the water and electricity. Just go to SP Services online and do a change of account ownership for the address. You still need water and electricity for your reno works rite?

Tiles underneath the hacked walls confirmed gone case. Two remedies as far as I know: 1. Get back same floor tiles to replace if you are not hacking the floor. 2. Cement screed over the hacked area before laying laminates above it. I chose the 2nd option as hacked away total 3 walls but dun have time and budget to lay new floor tiles. As such, I have to cement screed the hacked area before laying laminates above it. Do remember to get your contractor to include the costs of cement screeding the hacked area if you chose option 2. Dun be like me having to fork out extra on top of what I was quoted coz my contractor told me hacking costs does not include making good. Cheers and all the best to your reno.

K is good but his price laagi better. If you can afford his pricing, go for him. So far from what I see in the forums, his projects are all completed at a short time with minimal fuss and utmost satisfaction from his clients. Cheers...

Lights can be cheap from TB but plus give yourself one month buffer time to ship by sea or else it will costs you a bomb. I just paid almost $200 for 4 lamp shades, 2 pendant light bulb holders and 10pcs of lightbulbs coz I chose to ship by DHL with takes 2 days to reach Singapore. By the way, most of the lights you see in Lush Lush or Balestier can be found at TB. Happy shopping.

It's ok Nic. You have your story and I have mine. What really pissed me off is that: 1. I seems like the one monitoring the reno schedule instead of you even though it was your company's mistake in applying for the hacking permit. 2. Why tell me that the unevenness of the overlay wall tiles are due to the unevenness of the original wall? Dun treat me like an idiot. All you need to do is to inform me that your guys will rectify it and not tell me some cock and bull story. 3. Why is it so difficult for me to ask you to come to my place when I discover any defects and hope that it can be rectified ASAP? I literally have to beg you to come down when words or pictures cannot describe the defects accurately. 4. If you are not sure about the your costs, pls go and find out more before you quote to your customers. Once you have quoted to your customer, you must have valid reasons if there are any over runs. Anyway, there is no more need for you guys to come my house for anymore rectification works. I will sort it out myself unless my toilet floor starts to leak to my neighbour downstairs coz i am very sure that your guys did not do any overnight waterbomb test before they start laying the new floor tiles to my toilets. Dun forget that I was at my place almost everyday to monitor the reno progress as there was a delay in the hacking and we were running short of time so I know basically what was going on in my house. Cheers...

算了吧。for those who are reading this thread, just keep a lookout for these points if they are going to renovate their house in the near future. Cheers...

Hi Jaykr, That 2 patches of cement on the toilet entrance was done only after I told my contractor reagrding it. He was not even aware of this defect or the uneveness of the wall tiles as he was hardly on site to monitor the reno progress or to rectify any shortcomings. Maybe this is his working style to leave the renovation completely to his workers but It is definitely not the sytle I preferred. Anyway, my painter will come in next month to do the touching up so I think they cement patches can be covered up after the painting. Haha...

Photos speak more than a thousand words. I let you all evaluate the quality of the worksmanship of the tiling and hacking works: Take note that I did not hack the kitchen floor and wall tiles. I only overlay the exposed areas. Backslash area of kitchen. Should have opted for coloured tempered glass instead of overlay. Someone actually told me the unevenness of the new tiles is due to the unevenness of the original wall tiles at the back. If I chosed to hack the wall tiles, this will not happen. What kind of bull**** is this? Common toilet entrance. Is this kind of patch up accepatble to you? It is like just one patch of cement to cover up the holes without bothering to smoothen the surface. Aftermath to the ceiling after hacking away the kitchen walls. Someone told me hack means hack only. If make good the ceiling have to pay extra. I actually assumed that the contractors will take the initiative or proactively offer to make good all hacked walls but I am wrong. Sigh...

You are right...

This is your questions: "On the side, how do you find the overall service and workmanship of Nicholas' team? We are considering to ask him for a quote as we may have a tight timeline now, maybe 5 weeks for our 3 roomer. And furthermore, the feedback we heard from the other forumers is that his quote is quite competitive..."

If you want my frank opinion, then I will say that you made a right choice. Dun ask me for the details... haha

Bluecheeze and Makanology, Are you all referring to Nicholas?

Our con? You got the same contractor as me?

My quotation includes the Legrand sockets so I also never ask for too much. Anyway, I can still live with it as long as I dun plug in the big 3 way plug. BTW, Schneider switches are very beautiful.

The contractors are here to rectify the defects. I will check with the electrician on changing the face plates for all the 13A sockets.

Mine is install aircon first before painting so that the painters can paint over the truckings. Just make sure you cover up the condenser units properly.

I think your costs will go up to $20k just for hacking and tiling if you intend to retile the entire house.

Received several PMs asking me to share my reno costs. Here you go: $11000 From Contractor A Hacking and re-tile two toilets. Overlay kitchen floor and wall tiles. Hacked both kitchen walls. Hacked and erect new masterbedroom wall. New copper piping for entire house. Hacked all old skirtings and cornices. $17000 from Carpenter + $3400 19.5ft (Caesarstone) + $1300 (Hettich and Blum systems) 15ft bottom and 15ft top kitchen cabinets. 11.5ft full height built in wardrobe. 5ft box up of aircon ledge in masterbedroom and convert to drawers. 10ft TV console 7ft full height shoe rack + storage shelf. 2ft vanity top for both toilets. 1ft toilet high cabinet for both toilets. All with same laminates and internal coloured PVC. Installation of soft closing tracks FOC. About 70ft light box. Make good existing false ceiling along the corridor to the rooms. Whole house rewiring including 3 SCV points, Legrand sockets etc. $5200 New White Powder Coated Casement Windows + Grilles. This one cannot save. $3000 New Panasonic System 3 Inverter Aircon (2*9000BTU + 12000BTU). Also cannot save. $3800 Inovar AC3 8mm Laminates for Living room + Dining room + 3 bedrooms. No time to hack floor so choose laminates. $1400 Painting including sealant for 2 toilet ceilings. Cannot save. $4000 Ikea misc stuff including childrens' bed, wardrobes, study table etc. Maybe can save about $2000 if I dun buy so many stuffs from Ikea. $1800 New fridge, washing machine, microwave oven from Courts. Cannot save. Old ones all breaking down after 10yrs of usage. $2500 Lightings from Chan Huat, Lightings.com.sg and Taobao. Considered quite cheap for whole house lightings. $2000 Cooker hob plus hood and basins, WC and instant heater from Wasser Bath. Cannot save. $1400 6pcs KDK fans from *spam. Cannot save. This is the cheapest I can find already. $750 House Moving. Cannot save. Actual reno costs is low in my opionion but once you add it other stuffs, it will start to balloon like nobody business. Total spent close to $60000. Think the common saying of $10K per room for renovation really holds. Tried to save a bit here and there but not possible. Now bank accounts all dried up already as everything is paid full in cash but at least now I have a comfy home that I look forward to rest and relax in everyday after work. Cheers...

You are right. The 3 weeks reno was a mad mad journey. Hardly have time to decide on many finer details so I suggest that all home owners who are renovating their flats to view all the available sockets before choosing one that they are comfortable with.

This is using the smallest 3 way multi plug that I have and it barely reveals the switch on the socket. This is using the normal size 3 wal multi plug and the switch is now being blocked by the plug. I need to squeeze my fat finger in from the side in order to swtich on the socket.

Too add on. These are the estimated timelines that you should cater for in doing your reno: Hacking plus tiling: Kitchen plus toilets only need 2 weeks. Hacking usually can be completed within 1 day unless you have many walls to hack. If add in all the floor tiles for the living room and bedrooms, add in another 3-4 weeks. Remember, hackers only hack and they bochap the surrounding walls and floors. It is the tiler and the painter job to make good the walls or floors. Get your contractor to quote you each and every single detail you can think off. Dun be like my contractor who tell me that I need to pay extra to make good the floor after I hacked away my kitchen walls. Painting: 3 days minimum for a 5room flat. Make sure house if empty so that your painter can do a proper job. If you are choosing enamel paint for the doors, pls give yourself another 1 day for the paint to dry completely. Floor laminates: The Inovar installer managed to lay all the laminates and skirtings in my 5room flat (living + dining + 3rooms) within 1 day. Give them 2 days to make any rectifications. Windows: 1 full day to dismantle old grilles plus windows and to install new one. Carpentry: Kitchen installation usually takes 2-3 days coz there are so many minor adjustments they need to make on the ground during the installation process. Wardrobe installation is much simpler. Usually takes less than one day. Lightbox also pretty straight forward. My lightbox guys managed to install 20M length lightbox within 4hrs with 2 guys working at the same time.

For those who have followed my T-blog, they will be aware that I managed to complete the reno for my 5I unit in Woodlands within a 3 weeks time frame. No IDs or contractors are willing to take up my reno project as they are not confident of handing over the unit to me before CNY (reno period from 16 Jan to 3 Feb). Anyway, since I was the "Main contractor" managing several contractors during the reno peroid, I have learnt several important lessons which I would like to share with you guys if you are planning to reno your house soon. VERY IMPORTANT ALWAYS ALLOW YOURSELF 6-8 WEEKS TO DO A RENO AS 3 WEEKS IS SIMPLY TOO SHORT. General 1. Never allow lump sum quotation from your contractor unless they sign on the agreement that they will absorb all the outstanding costs that are above the quoted amount. Make sure all payments are countersigned by you and your contractor with dates indicated to avoid any disputes. 2. Always keep a 10-20% balance payment until all defects are rectified or touching ups are completed. Never ever pay all in full before the works are completed. 3. Always get your masonry contractor to quote you the price for making good of the walls and floors if you intend to hack and walls, cornices or lightbox etc. My contractor actually demanded more money from me coz he told me that hacking is hacking only and does not include the costs of making good. 4. Always get an itemised quotation from your contractor for all the reno works. If you need them to hack both kitchen cabinets and wardrobes, get them to quote you the price for hacking these items individually. 5. Get your contractor to quote you the amount of tiles that he is ordering for the tiling works. Get him to include in the wastage amount and then you do your own calculation based on your floorplan to make sure that he is ordering enough tiles for you. Do not give him a chance to demand more money from you coz he under-budgeted the amount of tiles he need in the first place. Also check with him is unused tiles in original packing can be refunded or not and if cannot refund, make sure he leave them for you and not take it back and return back to the supplier for his own profit. 6. Make sure that your contractor is the one that is reporting to you on a regular basis on the reno progress. My encounter has not been good as my contractor hardly appear at my place except during payment time. He just leave it to his workers and there were several instances that I have to rectify the works of his workers as proper instructions were not given. Carpentry 7. Take out the tallest and widest pots or pans that you have and make a detailed measurement for them. Dun make a drawer that is too shallow or too narrow for them. 8. If you are using soft closing tracks from Blum or Hettich, always factor in a 3-5cm loss in height of the drawers as the soft closing tracks are mounted at the bottom of the drawers instead of the side of the drawers. 9. If you intend to install mirror storage cabinets above your vanity top, pls take into account the depth of your vanity top and the mirror cabinet. For instance, I can only have a vanity top of 40cm depth in my common toilet as I opted for drawers instead of sliding doors but when I add in a 25cm depth mirror cabinet above the vanity top, I will hit my head onto the mirror cabinet each time i raise my head after brushing my teeth or wash my face. As a result, I have to return the mirror cabinets to ikea and opt for just simple mirrors to replace it. 10. Built in full height shoe racks. Always leave some allowance for ventilating holes to be made at the back of the shoe racks or else it will smell like nobody business! Calculate the length of your shoes when you confirm the depth of the shoe cabinet with your contractor. I opted for a 45cm depth shoe rack as I wear a size 13. Those off the shelve shoe racks can never fit my shoes properly unless the shelvings are installed at an angle. 11. Always good to install lights in your wardrobe if your budget allows. It will enable you to see things clearly inside the wardrobe instead of switching on the lights in the room and wake your spouse up. I opted for T5 light tubes in my wardrobe but I think normal LED strips will be good enough. Electrical 12. Always get your electrician to show you the entire range of sockets that he will be installing for you. When my electrician showed me both MK and Legrand, I opted for Legrand thinking that it is a more prestigious brand but now I am having problems with the 13A socket as the switch is located at the top of the socket and I have problem switching on the socket once I put in a 3 way multi plug. Seems like I have to change all the 13A sockets to another design now and this will add up to my reno costs. Windows 13. If you intend to change the windows and grilles in your new place as well as to replace the tiles in your toilets plus kitchen, please arrange for the installation of the windows + grilles to be done the moment the old tiles were hacked away. I have to put my tiler on hold while waiting for the windows to be installed in the kitchen and windows. Plastering and sealant for walls 14. I will recommend all new home owners to plaster their walls and apply sealant onto the new walls if your budget and time frame allows. Walls of old HDB flats are super uneven and it can be quite awful under lights reflection if you are to use a light colour paint. Also recommended is to apply sealant onto the new walls if you can as the paint on my new walls are pretty patchy now and I will need to arrange for my painter to come in for touching up again. I did not opt for sealant or plastering due to costs and time constraints. Have to go back to work now but will add on more if I can think of any. Cheers...

Bro, Can PM me the costs for your Hommage sofa? What is the width for the sofa? 2M?