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Join 46,923 satisfied homeowners who used renotalk quotation service to find interior designers. Get an estimated quotation

Read a lot about Defong before we confirm choose them as our renovation contractor.

Defong was the only one who replied to my queries in much detail after we mention exactly what we wanted to renovate.

Our ID is Bryan - a very funny & straight forward guy we shall say. He manage to answer all our queries with a lot of useful tips & recommendation, we do have our own ideas over certain matter & he was very open with it & leave us with the option whether we want to carry on with the idea or not. He is very honest as well such as whether what we intend to do is necessary or we can cut cost. Furthermore what he quoted us is thankfully within our budget. :)

We are anticipating for the renovation to start & we shall share all the pros & cons then.

 

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For those who is still searching for a ID,

I will strongly recommend Arthur Lim from xxxx Interior Design like my colleague recommended it to me.

After having a long discussion with my family, we decided to do just our kitchen (3-rooms flat at Yishun). At first my thinking was 'will there be a ID who will accept this job' anyway I have called and was answered by a very polite guy name Arthur. I asked him to quote me the renovation works needed for my kitchen ( I told him directly what's my budget is). We meet up and have some discussion on how he can help brighten up my little kitchen.

The next day, he already send me the breakdown of the renovation works and prices, the prices is consider reasonable, so i have confirmed him as my contractor by mid June. And he started renovating and completed the house around in 1 month. Due to complete in 1 month, there is still some defects but after calling Arthur, the defects is rectified in a week. i was happy with his service and his patients towards his client. He is pro in his work and managed to solved few of my reno problems.

Nevertheless he can be contacted at 8501xxxx

Regards,
334

 

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My Reno (4-Rm new BTO) was done by Arthur and below are my reviews:

Positive:

Competitive Pricing

Good Carpentry (verified by my father-in-law whom works in related industry)

Decent Tiling

Responsive

Energetic

Negative:

Some slight delays

Painter fail to cover my floor and grilles (took a while for me to clean them, currently still left some)

Overall, considering the quality of carpentry and competitive pricing, i think it is still a good deal.

 

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I got my keys to my 4-room BTO in May 2014 and started renovation from mid-May to end-June (6 weeks). The review I'm about to write is long overdue and I would be strongly recommending xxx from Defong as the ID of choice. However, a late review is better than never as my entire positive experience lasted beyond the completion of my renovation works.

Selection of ID

Like most of you, I was searching for a reliable ID, someone highly recommended by reviews, here on Renotalk forum. At the same time, you would want to look for a company that is known for prices that are within your budget or value-for-money. Here's how I narrowed down to xxx: Obviously, to look for the hot company names in the industry, you would explore the top few topics/threads under "Renovation Contractors/IDs". So I did. Among all the companies, Defong stood out as a company that seemed to offer value-for-money quotations, and very few negative reviews. Of course, a good company ain't good enough. You need to find the best of the best. I took the effort to browse through all reviews under this topic of "Defong Renovation Id" posted since 2008 until early 2014. A few names kept surfacing in many of the reviews. One of them was obviously xxx. So why did I pickxxx? Very simple - I could not find a single negative feedback about him in all of these reviews here. Please don't just take my word for it, you can check it out yourself.

First Impression

Thankfully, someone posted xxx's contact no. and I arranged for a first meeting with him at Defong's office at City Plaza. There's hardly anyone in the office by the way (which is good news for the company, means that all of their IDs are busy running projects out there). The office is just a meeting place with clients. My first impression of Kevin was, well, a really friendly young chap. He's really a well-organised person: he carried a huge stationery case with all sorts of pens, pencils, markers, erasers, calculator, measuring tape, etc; and he carried an iPad with pictures and quotations of all his projects, and a huge water bottle. People say first impressions count - he has the physique of a bodybuilder (his biceps can be quite distracting even for guys). But hey, his healthy physique says alot about this person's attitude and work performane. He's young, active and driven (unlikely profile of a lazy bum who doesn't love his work) who loves what he's doing and still able to find time to workout every night. In all, you will find him a great personality to work with. However, don't expect a "Yes-Man" from this guy. If your ideas are not feasible or suitable, he will point out the pros and cons to you, and let you make the wiser choice. Overall, I was satisfied with his consultation and felt that his advice made a lot of sense and most importantly, he will advise you not to do the unnecessary things or suggest cheaper alternatives outside so that you can save $$$$. Bottomline - Kevin provides value for his clients.

Quotation

The final quotation (less the extras I added later on) was $25.4k for the following:

- Full painting and full plumbing works (installation of bathroom/kitchen fixtures and taps)

- Hacking of wall strip (1.5 x 7ft)

- False ceiling works (living room and bedroom passageway)

- Kitchen masonry works (kitchen cabinet base, fridge base and washing machine base)

- Aluminium window grilles (Living Room, 3 bedrooms and service yard windows)

- TV full height feature wall + console (7ft)

- Full height shoe cabinet (converted from the circuit breaker compartment)

- Full height master bedroom wardrobe

- Full height bedroom wardrobes (bedrooms 2 and 3)

- Kitchen cabinets (this is my most satisfactory part of the project, outstanding carpentry works)

- MBR Toilet glass shower screen

This was the lowest quotation among 3 other quotations. The choice was pretty obvious.

Renovation Process

xxx said the renovation would be completed in 6 weeks. And so it did. The entire process was seamless and hassle-free. I need not worry about his progress because man, HE IS **** FAST. The only thing I worried about was MYSELF, in deciding and buying the necessary stuff for him to work on.. There were a couple of project milestones which required my and my wife to provide inputs such as choosing paint colors and laminates, as well as delivering the kitchen, bathroom and lighting accessories for his guys to install. Thus, the only variable that potentially stalled the project was, well, myself. Lol. Fortunately, we were able to make it up to speed with xxx and provided the stuff he required. Throughout the entire process, he was super-responsive. You can whatsapp him at any time during earthly hours and he will reply you within 30min on average (unless he is meeting a client). He also on-site to check on the renovation works regularly. I felt completely secure and at ease with his coordination and updates.

Little Things Add Up

Its the little things that make the difference between a good ID and a great ID. xxx is a great expert when it comes to home deco and DIY stuff. You can ask him for advice on just about anything regarding your home. He will be glad to provide his advice. At the end of the day, he comes across as a good bro. When certain little things don't turn out what you expected, he's always willing and open to rectify. In fact, he has done quite a number of rectifications for me. A example was when I wanted to apply a frosted glass sticker to a strip of mirror on the TV feature wall, he taught me how to do it. But when I failed terribly, he arranged for his sticker expert to do it for me, providing both sticker and service FOC. There are times when he will offer to give us a lift to the nearest MRT station after a long discussion at our new flat. It was a wonderful experience working with xxx, and he's more like a friend to us now.

Pictures

http://i61.tinypic.com/rwuhyu.jpg

http://i59.tinypic.com/zkllk9.jpg

 

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We engaged xxx early this year to do up our BTO at Sengkang with the renovation itself taking approximately 8 weeks from late July to September. It was our first renovation and like most of the reviews here, I feel Kevin has done a fantastic job with the renovation.

Just some points we would like to highlight:

  • Responsiveness - he usually replied to our whatsapps within a minute no matter what time of day. We had a few of our own subcontractors working on some parts of the renovation and sometimes we had matters to clarify very quickly - thankfully he was always available to answer our queries. Of course the flip side is that sometimes when you are discussing with him, he may have to take calls from his other customers but this just goes to show his level of commitment to his projects.
  • Patience - during one of our discussions with him to decide on the carpentry laminates, what was supposed to be a 3-4 hour session ended up stretching late into the evening. Knowing that he had a personal appointment to attend, we tried to speed up our decisions but he still encouraged us to take our time - he genuinely took the time to guide us in detail and not once did he give us the feeling that we were wasting his time.
  • Speed - he is very fast! The works started immediately when we collected our keys and we were surprised to see the electricians show up on day 1. Our renovation works were quite extensive but he still got it done in a very short period of time without compromising quality.
  • Honesty - this was the real dealbreaker. When his workers were installing the kitchen sink one of the corners snapped off and was glued back on. We were not there to witness the incident, and if he had not told us what happened we would never have been able to notice. Not only did he tell us about it, he offered to reimburse the full cost of the sink if we wanted to get a replacement. Some of the other reviewers have pointed out that he is even willing to rectify problems after handover and that point has been consistent with our experience.

Note that I have not touched on anything about workmanship or quality as I feel that this should be the bare minimum for any contractor. While Kevin may not have the cheapest price, I do think what you are paying for when you engage a contractor/ID is peace of mind, and on that note he has really exceeded our expectations and we would not hesitate to recommend him to our friends and relatives.

Edited by leyenda
 

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Met up with Kevin today on preliminary discussion of renovating our 3-room BTO. We had a few ideas and he is very good to point us what is practical for use.

Summary of what was discussed:

  • hacking of wall (service yard)
  • cabinet for one side of kitchen
  • kitchen entrance door to be added
  • service yard tiles to be laid
  • shoe rack at entrance
  • toilet shower screen, cabinet, overlay of tiles
  • L shape masterbed room cabinet
  • 2+1 aircon to be installed.

What we need to do now is have a brief idea of what we want to do with the living room so he can help us see if it is do-able. Any body with ideas can certainly share, we are not looking for the standard featured wall/TV console/sofa kind of lay out.

overall the experience is pretty good.

Will update more in due time.

Cheers!

 

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My review on renovation done by Kevin of Defong - completed end of October 2014 on a resale E-flat. Renovation took about 2 months. First impression was quite good - responsive and not pushy. Was very pleased to engage him - always answering all your queries and concerns. He will always without fail answer your phone call no matter the timing. He gave us very sound opinion on our tile selection and paint colour selection - selection turned out very good. He was more than willing to rectify our kitchen cabinet when we change our mind to fix handles on all drawers. We had called him back twice to solve some issues like choke drainage in the toilets and pop wall (newly put up wall) - he didn't avoid our call but was quick to get it fix for us without delay. We were very pleased when he help us in getting the aircon guy to run the trucking in the most feasible way of not having trucking all over your master bedroom. All in all we were very happy engaging him to do our flat.

 

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Hi all,

I had my house renovated recently upon receiving my keys for new HDB flat. I have looked around for an ID and found Defong. Among the IDs that I have enquired, Defong provided the better pre-contract commitment (unlike most IDs where they just want you to sign the contract before advising you). And in terms of pricing, I would say that Defong pricing is the most consistence. After all, I chose Defong as my ID and I would say I am very pleased with them. My friends had visited my flat and we shared on our experience with our IDs (They also just renovated their flats few months back). Upon viewing my unit, my friends were all envy over how lucky I am to have engaged an ID and the person in charge (Arthur Lim) to be so committed. So it prompted me to share my experience with anyone that need helps in renovation (I know its a tremendously difficult process).

Arthur has provided responsible & practical support throughout the renovation period. His action is quick and decisive but yet at the same time, he would take the effort to ensure that it is what I want. He has provided an excellent services in all respects, in terms of technical knowledge, coordination, design, cleaning up and handing over. Even after handing over, and I found a small mistake, he is willing to get his contractor to amend it for me. Aside from how lucky my husband and I am to have met Arthur, I think that it is how we had treated each other throughout the renovation period and thereby forming the trust and commitment.

To end this off, I would like to express my gratitude towards Defong and also Arthur. It's a job well done. A big thanks to you! :)

 

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