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ac_ric

Your Help Wanted

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Hi,

I need to do some renovations to my flat.

Hoping some kind soul will lead me to the right channel/source for the following work :

Main Entrance

1. Remove Existing Main Door & Frame and replace both.

Master Room

1. Remove Master Room Toilet Door & Frame and install sliding glass door.

2. Remove existing toilet floor tiles and wall tiles and replace with new tiles both.

3. Remove old WC ( sitting & install new WC )

4. Install one unit wash basin ( no existing basin )

5. Install one unit instant water heater.

6. Remove existing Master Room Door & Frame.

7. Seal up existing Master Room entrance

8. Hack and create new Master Room Entance

7. Install new Master Room Main Door & Frame ( Sliding door )

8. Seal up with plaster / cement aircon vent underneath window in master room window.

Common Room

1. Remove existing Common Room Door & Frame.

2. Seal up existing Common Room entrance

3. Hack and create new Common Room Entance

4. Install new Common Room Main Door & Frame ( Sliding door )

Living Room

1. Hack side walls between kitchen & Living Room.

2. Hack store room.

3. Erect new side walls between living room & Kitchen ( making living room larger )

Please note that there is no issue about the flooring as it is now bare. All laminates have been removed.

Please see attached layout for before & after.

Thanks

ac

 

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Hi, you have to go visit contractors and/or IDs to get their quotations, and more importantly, you got to have a feel of the contact person and see if you are comfortable with him/her. Often, the problem is not with the works or workers, but that owners cannot communicate with the contact person.

Once you narrowed down a few, then you could update here in the forum and see if anyone had used them before and give their comments.

 

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I am quite satisfied with my ID for the work carried out on my flat. Your intended scope of work appears quite similar to mine: hack wall of bedroom, remove door frame, replace WC, tiling, etc. You can check out my blog on the workmanship and progress.

Send me a pm if you wish to contact him. !!

 

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ac_ric: pm sent as requested. :~

Thanks BlueFly :dancingqueen: ,

Your ID contact received with appreciation. Will contact him when I get a little more sorted out on my layout.

It was indeed most helpful especially after viewing the pictures in your blog. I had very similiar intentions although my intend was to demolish and move the store further into the kitchen.

We are looking more towards a dry kitchen as we have no intention to cook now or in the near future. So forgoing space in the kitchen is not really an issue ... at for the near future.

One thing I noticed was your drain pipes in your kitchen and the sewerage pipe in the toilet. Did you have them redone. Is it costly to get this replaced by a plumber? An indicative pricing would be helpful.

Btw, did HDB give you the go ahead to modify your toilet window?

What I want to do for now is just hack walls to open up the flat. I want to see the play of light ( both sun & artificial ) before deciding on the actual placement layout.

Anyone has a contact of a hacking person/company for a decent reasonable sum. ID not required for this stage surely. Once I know what I can do and what I need, then perhaps the ID can help bring forward my ideas to another level.

 

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You are welcomed. Let me know how it goes.

I had all the old cast-iron pipes in the kitchen replaced to uPVC ones. Although the uPVC pipes still look big to me, somehow they look neater. I had them replaced not because of aesthetics but for practicality, as I was afraid the cast-iron pipes may start leaking as the flat is already 29-yr old. The kitchen iron pipes leaked so badly the previous owner had them replaced and his kitchen cabinet was sacrificed to access the pipes, as you can see from the photo.

The leakage issue was important to me because I have asked my ID to box up the piping in the shower and the kitchen. Few ppl realized this, but you can additionally apply silicon around the pipe joints externally to doubly prevent leakage.

On replacement cost, my ID charged me $1200 to change the cast iron pipes and $300 to replace the squat WC to a sitting pedestal type. I felt the $1200 was on the high side but $300 was lower than what others quoted (one ID -- $480 and one plumber $520 from NTUC agency). There seems to be no "standard" pricing and everyone seems to charge pricing based on their whim and fancy (so it seems to me). I was in fact shocked when I learnt that HDB has a price checklist for changing pipes, and the indicated price range was much lower than those quoted to me.

Since I had decided to trust the ID for my renovation, I went ahead because on balance his overall quote was comparable to the others (after much pressure!).

He was also quite reasonable because some things I did not ask for, he provided without charge e.g. initially I wanted to retain the existing rubbish chute as it seemed ok to me, but he hacked it and put in a new one that you can see on my blog photo. One other ID had quoted $300 to replace the chute. But what really impressed me was that all his subs are skilled and responsible, and so far I have had no issue with any of them.

==

It is not advisable to hack the wall using a worker you get directly, with the intention to engage a contractor or ID later. Most of these contractors will "ko-tok" you when you do that (my previous experience several years ago when the tilers did not return after I had paid them fully, and had to get another contractor to finish up) because the job is piecemeal and most of them prefer to handle jobs of a certain value. In any event, hacking requires HDB permit -- that means you need to go thro a licensed contractor or ID, so might as well engage them to do the whole renovation.

It is also preferable you gather all yr thoughts and what you want to do before you start renovation. Renovation works, once started, have their own schedule and drumbeat and you will be hard-pressed to make decisions all the time if you hv not made prior planning and thinking abt what you want done.

As for my windows, the window contractor has to apply to the HDB (not the ID which is given a separate permit). They took measurements yesterday and made the application today.

Like you, I think lighting is a key ingredient in interior design, except it is hard (probably costly too) to get a good lighting consultant locally, and few provide such services, except maybe some architects and these are costly.

So I am looking forward to yr experimentation and outcome. Have you thought of using LED lighting? :dunno:

Thanks BlueFly :unsure: ,

Your ID contact received with appreciation. Will contact him when I get a little more sorted out on my layout.

It was indeed most helpful especially after viewing the pictures in your blog. I had very similar intentions although my intend was to demolish and move the store further into the kitchen.

We are looking more towards a dry kitchen as we have no intention to cook now or in the near future. So forgoing space in the kitchen is not really an issue ... at for the near future.

One thing I noticed was your drain pipes in your kitchen and the sewerage pipe in the toilet. Did you have them redone. Is it costly to get this replaced by a plumber? An indicative pricing would be helpful.

Btw, did HDB give you the go ahead to modify your toilet window?

What I want to do for now is just hack walls to open up the flat. I want to see the play of light ( both sun & artificial ) before deciding on the actual placement layout.

Anyone has a contact of a hacking person/company for a decent reasonable sum. ID not required for this stage surely. Once I know what I can do and what I need, then perhaps the ID can help bring forward my ideas to another level.

Edited by BlueFly
 

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