CyanJachoc

Hi Shibumi, Have you managed to crack this problem? I'm also trying to paint chalkboard paint over my kitchen cabinet. I don't know which material to use now: waterproof plywood, laminated surface, mdf (is this the same as laminated surface), or accplus? Are you using rustoleum brand of chalkboard paint or making your own- i'm thinking of trying this recipe: http://www.abeautifulmess.com/2012/02/how-to-mix-chalkboard-paint-in-any-color.html

I went to Poh Joo & Universal Union for quotations. Poh Joo gave a lower quotation for the sink that I wanted but their delivery cost is higher. Universal Union was a confusing experience. Different sales persons gave different prices and they can't match Poh Joo's price. In the end we went with Universal Union as we were physically at the shop already. You can email them in advance for the prices and then head to the shop to check out the sinks. Hope this helps. Usually thicker sinks costs more. I was advised to get sinks that are at least 1 mm thick. Undermount sinks should be even thicker. Mine is around 1.2mm. I have no idea why undermount sinks need to be thicker, can anyone advise so that the newbies will be more informed when they shop for their sinks.

Hi TerryTan, Would like to know if you can paint chalkboard paint on acpplus? Thanks!

Hi TITW, Your support looks great! the tiling is a lot neater than mine. Quick question: How can you tell if the structure has reinforcement bars built in? For my counter structure, we had to put in a layer of mesh as it had cracks. Contractor said that he did put in reinforcement bars but I'm worried as it still cracked. Also, he used something called W1 to fix the cracks in addition to the mesh. Crossing fingers and hoping that it will last. Also, do you know if it is standard practice that the legs supporting the structure are made of hollow blocks? Are steel rods required for the hollow blocks?

Hi ultimax, Thanks for sharing. I got my contractor to do the same thing. However, my window is dead fixed (i.e. can't be opened) after the ventilation fan was installed. Is yours the same? Also, my contractor initially promised to provide 15WHPC and then delivered 15WUD instead which is a cheaper model. Did you have any issues with 15WUD? How much did your contractor charge you for the 15WUD inclusive of window customization and fixing of the whole thing? Thanks much in advance for sharing!

Hi Hi Ashlee, I also saw it and liked it a lot. I asked my contractor to do the same. It is not as easy as it seems. Sharing some mistakes that we learnt along the way: 1) insist on having correctly sized tiles that will fit the width of your concrete structure to minimise tiler's effort in cutting tiles, we had tiles that were slanted and chipped as well as tiles that are unequal in size with jagged edges 2) ensure that contractor has steel bars to reinforce the cement slab, we are halfway through our reno and our cement structure cracked! not sure if steel bars were laid properly (or if they were even used!) to reinforce the cement slab and we are worried now. 3) ensure that the 'neck' of your tap is long enough to go through the cement support - we needed additional 'height' because we told contractor we wanted cement support with tiles and granite countertop, hence the tap's neck length became problematic. 4) ensure that contractor got the 'correct' countertop height - our contractor built the support about 2 cm lower than what we requested - we got him to rectify it and it became more problematic. So, get it right the first time- less headache later. 5) clarify with contractor if hollow brick tiles would be used as the supporting legs for the structure - ask him if that is sufficient to support the weight of your concrete structure, solid top, granite top etc. 6) ask him what he is doing to prevent cracks in the cement caused by expansion & contraction - is he laying a layer of fibre mesh to prevent cracks? You can read up more here: http://www.mosbybuildingarts.com/blog/answers/concrete-slab-fiber-mesh-wire-mesh-reinforcement/ We are still midway through renovations. Hope it can be all trashed out and everything will be ok. Good luck to you and hope this helps!

Hi all, I am mid way into my renovations and realised that my contractor will use inferior materials compared to what was promised in the quotation. E.g. We verbally requested for Nyatoh Doors, he promised nyatoh solid plywood doors in the quotation and in the end, he installed solid MDF doors instead. E.g. We had it in black and white that we wanted KDK ventilation 15 WHPC fans (we had the picture of the fan sent to us by him) and he installed the cheaper 15 WUD instead. E.g. We discovered cracks in our concrete kitchen structure and we are worried that he had cut corners again - see my post here: http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/29749-stove-and-sink-support/ These are the methods we tried to get him to fix stuff: 1) ask nicely - he will give a lot of crap answers like offer to saw the top off the doors to prove that it isn't hollow - but they key word is - we wanted nyatoh doors... 2) asked him to remove the items done, we will look for an alternative sub contractor 3) questioned why another 'product' was used instead of the promised one. 4) wife will mainly show temper as she has a shorter fuse - one person good cop, one person bad cop? 5) try to use whatsapp & email to ensure communication in black and white. We are now mid way through the renovation and still having issues with cost cutting done by contractor. Any tips on how to manage such contractors? Please share! Lastly, as a couple, we agreed not to quarrel over the contractor's works, i think it is very important. Read in the forum that contractors' bad work had caused some strife among forummers.

Hi all, I also researched quite a bit on this topic and decided to go for a concrete kitchen countertop. Unfortunately, I think my contractor is not very experienced and messed up the construction of the concrete counter top. I need an honest and experienced second opinion on my cracking concrete kitchen countertop as I'm not sure if the structure will be stable in future. The problem (see picture): We want a second opinion as we are worried that the contractor’s method of rectifying the issue may cause problems in the future. Here’s what happened: We asked our contractor to build a concrete kitchen countertop. He built the concrete support too low. Thankfully, we found out before our carpentry & granite top was installed. So we asked him to rectify it. We were surprised that he rectified it by hacking the top of the granite support off and topping up the legs of the vertical support with bricks and cement to reach the agreed height (see picture). He then patched up the joints with more cement and covered up the tiles. A week later, we noticed that the joints cracked and the tiles cracked as well. Any advice? Thanks in advance! We are really quite worried.