3 Room Long N Winding Road

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After more than half a year of searching for a suitable home, finally found a nice 3NG close to necessary amenities and transportation. 2nd appt around end Oct, but giving a month plus extension. Then start the tiring process of shortlisting contractors/ IDs. Based on recommendations and positive reviews from renotalk, we shortlisted 4. These four though all have positive reviews, our concern is what goes up comes down eventually.. Some, perhaps due to more clients, will be more busy, may inevitably have more control and quality issues. Worse of course, is the likelihood of increasing poor attitude due to popularity. But eventually, we have only the reviews and personal meetups session to gauge which to hand over our house to. Cross our fingers.

Briefly, our renovation needs are:

1. Hacking of all tiles

2. Laying of tiles on all kitchen walls

3. Laying of homo tiles on all floor

4. Changing of all windows and grille

5. L base kitchen cabinet, based on tile counter top. No top cabinets.

As you can see, its a straightforward renovation, complete overhaul of the house, but with bare carpentry required.

The four contractors/ IDs are:

Person A : Overall experience is ok, though could help us feel much more at ease if could doodle the rough layout for us to better visualize. Nevertheless. general experience is above average. Price wise, slightly on the high side

Person B : Nice and chatty, direct and frank as well. Done some rough sketches of our kitchen dimensions to help us visualize. But understands he is very busy.

Person C : First discussion session experience below average, however highly recommended in renotalk. Price wise on the high side.

Person D : General experience during discussion was good. But on con side, very busy as well.

As for who we choose eventually, to be fair, will reveal at the end of our journey, whether the process thus far good or bad, will leave it to renotalk members.

Edited December 4, 2012 by homefp

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Hacking Works Done - Mid to End Nov

Hacking works took quite some time, as our lift is currently undergoing upgrading..means the workers have to lift the materials and remove the debris down manually as well..very tiring for them..

As our unit is at the top floor, there is this ugly access panel for the rubbish.

Our plan is to get HDB/ TC to change the lock and access panel door to stainless steel..

Broken pipe on the vertical kitchen pipe found. But later our contractor said this is redundant and will be removed. Less pipes to worry.

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As for our tiles, we choose the tiles at LSH. Initially wanted to go for wood grain tile, but LSH tiles isnt that nice as compared to other places. However, was told that a new wood grain tile is coming days later. But we eventually stick to non wood grain tiles and select what is required from LSH, spending about 3 hours... The staff attending to us, rather obvious face turn black as time goes by..

But this isnt the end of our tile selection, as we made additional 2 more trips, to change tile... We are initially reluctant to change tile as we know the staff may be unfriendly, making things difficult for us, but since we are paying for it and its our house we are talking, we make our trip there still. Luckily for us, we met the boss of LSH on our second and third trip, who is very friendly and give us many good suggestions on our changes, bringing tiles down for us to compare etc. And of course, since the boss is serving us, the staff (another staff) following us is super friendly.. Thank you to Benny, of LSH.

Btw, for those who really wanted wood grain tile, we saw the new wood grain tile, one of them is very nice....ash grey tone..

As there isnt a need for aircon at all, decided to remove and not install any aircon. Will boxup the bottom part in mbr.

After about a week, hacking is done and tiling works is starting. Meanwhile, we made our first three purchase, the sink, mixer and hob. Many thanks to Tony of Hoe Kee, super friendly and helpful person.

Sink:

Mixer:

Hob:

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Our storeroom we wanted to keep, but we dont like the top ventilation panes. But problem is, the metal frame is still in good condition. Likewise for all rooms and main door, we are keeping the metal frame as still in good condition

For storeroom, we want to have a ventilation option for it, so means either have it above door or on the door (top or below) and what type of ventilation. Contractor suggests a push out window, like top-hung window. But we feel it is ugly and too eye catching.. We hope to do something like this below, but contractor says depends if the metal panes can be cut off, while preserving the door frame...

[Sygnur 0]

Congrats on ur home purchase and starting ur reno... Hope things go relatively smooth for u.

[homefp 0]

Last Week and This Week:

Last and this week have been stressful.

First is the access panel mention earlier. We went to town council to request to have it change, but are told it is under HDB. So went to HDB, log our case, and on same day, called to say need to send someone down to check first.

At the same time, we discover our laundry pole socket outside the unit really need to change..cant put cap, and previous owner use foil to stuck it to prevent breeding..

Few days later, HDB technical officer came down, and after looking at both, said these are under Town Council.. Officer said will write a letter to town council on this.

Next day, went to TC again to request that they quicken the process.. as the kitchen windows wall have to stop tiling as may changing of pole sockets will affect the area.. TC says the person in charge is on leave...

Well done HDB and TC. Ping pong game. This entire process now has been a week. Contemplating not changing pole sockets if we have to bear the costs and its too high costs..

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Second stress..

Went up unit one afternoon to check on the kitchen tiling works. Progress is now on one wall of kitchen. We discover two tiles with one tiny needle 'crack'/ rough spot.. didnt take the picture as it is not obvious.. Nevertheless, we highlight to the tiler on the spot and tiler said its a 'black spot', which is part of the firing clay process... Ok, accepted. End of day, received a call from our contractor, said tiler has informed him about our 'feedback', says will look into it when hes up the house.

Next day, saw the two tile being removed. Tiler said he realized its not a black spot, but a needle kind of crack spot...hmm ok happy it has been changed.

This weekend, we went up house to look at the tiles and we found this, took pictures and send to our contractor:

At a corner of kitchen wall:

On wall of kitchen where our future basin will be (basin not in common toilet):

On edge of wall near common wc:

Behind kitchen vertical pipe:

feel the workmanship could be better? Nevertheless, contractor said will go up house to check..

[homefp 0]

Update:

Issues regarding tiles are rectified

On access panel above rubbish chute, town council finally get contractor to change to aluminum ones, but at our own cost as original wood still consider ok condition...

As for laundry pole socket, town council has got another contractor to change, but cost is co-sharing.. On day of the change, two workers came earlier than what was mention, so when we go up our house, it was almost done. Our oversight on this part as we did not do a thorough check on the windows.. Cos next day our tilers mention he notice the windows aluminum frame and glass scratched by the drilling debris when the workers do the pole socket drilling!

Now have to get town council and contractor to come down to see... But I do not think they will be willing to compensate ... Replacing the windows and frame will cost ard 700 again...

[homefp 0]

Hi,

Urgently need advise...

Our kitchen have two drainage holes, one is a normal size hole, right beside it is another smaller hole, which connects back down to the normal size one as water flows down.

My tiler was suggesting that washing machine drainage connect to the normal size, while sink connects to the smaller one. reason being he said if two pipes both drain to the same normal size hole, the cover for the drainage hole may not be fully nicely covered up (as need to cut the round drainage cover to fit the two pipes), and he said cockroaches may climb out future.

So he suggest sink to smaller one. Disadvantage is if do heavy washing of floor, water may drain slowly. Normal usage of sink is ok though.

Do u think we should accept his suggestion?

Edited December 16, 2012 by homefp

[homefp 0]

Been a while since last update. Renovation was completed in time for chinese new year, been a month now. Time to share some pictures of the reno done and finally my overall feedback on my contractor.

Storeroom Ventilation:

Old:

New:

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Kitchen L Shaped Tiled Top:

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Kitchen cont:

Rubbish chute area:

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Rubbish Access Panel change to aluminium:

Washing Machine area:

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For storeroom, as we wanted to have ventilation vents, its a choice of either keeping the old rusted vents above the door, or having the vents on the new door itself, or replacing the rusted vents with glass panes and white aluminium frame. We choose the glass panes eventually. However for those who wanted to have glass panes on their storeroom also, bear in mind the number of glass panes you wish to have, for old hdb flats with storeroom metal vents, the number of glass panes the subcon do based on measurements is 5, which means each of the glass panes will overlap. As we wanted bigger ventilation, we changed it to 4 glass panes.

For kitchen, we choose to have tiles for the whole L structure. Less worries on future leaking and easy replacement of cabinets in future if needed. Tile is matt homo tiles. Kitchen tiles comes in two sizes, top and bottom is 60x60, the legs is 60x30. Because the kitchen top height, having 30x60 tile for legs gives a more even lines. But take note as normally two different sizes of tiles their color tone may differ slightly, so must choose a tile where both size differences is not obvious. Also, it is a good practice to check with your tiler/ contractor on the height of the kitchen top you wish to have or if you are concern about such decisions. For us, almost for everything from height of wash basins, kitchen top etc we make it point to verify. Else, normally they will do based on standard (what most houses are).

[spikedoll 2]

Nice of you to share the above details!

The rubbish access panel looks cool! Just being curious, what's the purpose of that panel since house owner has no access to it right?