iceflare

Hi all forumers, After my recent renovation, I am doing a retrospective thinking of my selection of the ID / contractors. In this world where certification qualification is as important as portfolio, I'm just wondering why there hasn't been any framework for renovation contractor to prove themselves. Through my selection process, abet a short one, I felt that I'm greatly restrained by what the IDs and contractors shows through their portfolio (usually, which is definitely bias towards the contractors/IDs themselves) and mainly their quote ($$$), but nothing of what their workers are knowledgable or capable of. To put it simply, I'm putting a blind bet on my current ID and its team of subcontractors (which I currently regreted a bit.) Looking at Building and Construction Authority as the leading agency in this work, there isn't a lack of definition in this area. But I feel that we as consumers aren't really knowledgeable about that and didn't insist that the workers should be train. This is weird as we insist that our accountants should be trained - ACCA or CPA or the likes and the IT staff should be qualified in some Microsoft certification or Cisco System certification, so why not the staff that will be working on our home; which we will live in the years to come. A look at the CoreTrade personel registration by BCA (quoted below), this seemed like a fair assessment and definitely someone with that assessment would be someone that I would trust working in the place that I would live in the years to come. By insisting on the qualifications and certification may probably drive up the costs of renovation work. But on the other hand, it will probably save us lots of time and headache to consider the right company to engage. That is definitely something I would pay for. To share my story, my renovation of my 4 room HDB that is about 95% done is almost good to live in, but the finishing touches by some of the trades just made me feel aggitated - grouting inconsistent or grouts dirty, ethernet jacks not tested, paints drips on unwanted places like window pane and toilet bowls, easily damaged powder coated locks. I feel all these can be avoided if the company is certified with good business process and well trained craftsman. The additional time that I spent not finding a company with these best business practice is costing me a lot of time and money to travel to and fro to supervise their work and to feedback the defects. Couple the above and with a use of a CASETrust contract (found here - https://www.casetrust.org.sg/Download), I'm quite sure it will facilitate everyone to have a good night sleep while dreaming of their new dreamhomes, instead of living to their worse nightmares of arguing with ID, which I'm currently doing.... >.< References https://www.bca.gov.sg/CoreTrade/registration_requirements.html

Wah, yours look too good to be under 27k only. What's the scope of work?

I recently found this on BCA website and thought it is a good guide Quality Homes: A homeowner's guide https://www.bca.gov.sg/Professionals/IQUAS/others/home.pdf