bad experience - home renovation!!!

[Jaslyn]

anyone share their experience about their home renovation?Our experience can be consider as the worst of its kind,

First time house owner so totally no experience in anything,including renovation.Thought got recommended to a long time friend of relative should rest relax,Ended up biggest nightmare...to the extend want to burn the house away

money spent but within a yr,everything either dropped out,chipped or not working.And everything we were to be blamed.

our story goes:.... first showed him the flat,gave him the floor plan and tell him what we wanted and budget.He came back with a drawing of ONLY the living room and kitchen. Very nice,we thought.Then paid him the 1st payment and went with him for tiles and colour selection.Everything went well for the start....

then 2nd payment dued.....and problems started to surface.The colour and the design of the kitchen cabinet was not according to the drawing.It was supposed to be darker tone of grey but he gave us the mosaic print grey.....the drawers and cabinets were supposed to be this amount but he made it into huge coffin size boxes.The handler of the drawers fall off whenever you open the drawers and he blamed us that we wanted handler in the first place.....

Living room,build in aquarium cabinet leaking.....wall uneven.....build in shelving not equal in measurement...some too broad,some too narrow....some too high....some too short.....he claimed we are too fussy.

Toilets...the bi fold doors can wake up the whole world if we are using it.....toilet leaking....he claimed we were the one who wanted bi fold doors...many of our friends and even family using bifold but theirs not like this? toilet leaking,he says the internal could have broke during instalation...our fault too?....

Last and the worst was the laminated flooring....whole master room flooded and he wanted us to redo it again.Of course on ur cost lah.Then the laminated flooring company confirmed it was the leakage from the toilet.....

sigh.....anyone has worst experience than ours?

[fishtalk1517]

Hi sis,

this case could have surface up to the CASE. Let case handle it. This contractor should be taught a lesson and be warned to all customers for such lousy workmanship and altitude.

[Jaslyn]

scare paisay lor cos its long time friend.Now we are less than a yr in this flat.Toilet leaking,always full of urine smell....bifold door sound too loud...study table chipped...kitchen cabinet's handler all dropped out...kitchen cabinet hydraulic part broke.....long list...

when we giving him the last payment,he even assured that he will come if any problems we have but when we called,he keep saying we have to pay....the heartpain comes from the many digits lost from the bank account since we didnt take loan....and to add onto the heartpain is this is our first flat and we living here to see money not worth it...

[flying carpet]

Go to case lah sis friend is friend business is business. he took so much money but then he want quality($$$) he must also give quality(service). Bring this up to case dun be scare or paiseh. It is not a public area that you go to everyday its your house.

[Jaslyn]

Paid so much for plastering and still have so many uneven walls,he says thats cos the HDB wall never even...I was asking myself,isnt that the meaning for doing plastering?After the paint job,it looks like chipping here and there.

One more thing.The re-wiring.He told us it would be less than 2k for the remaining exsisting points and we only added 5 points and he charged us another $800.

And when we complained to him about work not done properly,he yelled at us say we are not his only customer.

Just our luck lor...but will email CASE to see what they can do about it...

[ervine]

Sigh contractors... No offence but there are black sheep out there...

I've seen quite a few cases whereby you pay the last payment and their service standards simply drop to ZERO... call them they say ok will come down, wait 2 weeks still nothing...

So the thing to note is to check every single thing before handing over the last cheque... EVERYTHING!.. if something is not right, make sure it gets corrected ASAP.. that's why it's a must to supervise the whole renovation process, see if they put the right tiles (they sometimes show u expensive samples but bring in cheaper china tiles) make sure they water proof your toilet properly.. etc etc

Anyway... usually i would prefer NOT to work with relatives or friends at times... when something goes wrong harder to screw them upside down...

[Jaslyn]

ervine,

as far as we are concerned.we gave him more than enough to renovate our flat.3months! from end july to mid Oct.As we popped by occassionally to check,we will highlight things to him.Everytime asked him when is this going to be installed....what is going to be done tomorrow....he would say he let us know but never did.We had a big shock when we saw the kitchen cabinet of different colour and material.Then he apologized that he should show us the stuff before fixing it in.We tried our best to accept it if its not too out of the way...

He couldnt hand over the flat by mid oct but we in need to move by last week of oct.And the fact about some of the issue wouldnt be known till we living there.

Sigh...just bad luck,nothing can be said.

[ervine]

Everytime asked him when is this going to be installed....what is going to be done tomorrow....he would say he let us know but never did.

Yups.. that's quite often heard.. sigh..

Try to rectify the situation? Any ideas besides launching a complaint? In any case for the kitchen cabinet u should demand compensation if you ask me...

because he didn't deliever what was supposed to be delivered, either he re-do the whole thing, or he give u big discount..

[neokn]

Hi Jasyln,

1. Details on the leakage of the toilet? Where's it leaking from? How did the leakage manage to flood your master bedroom laminated wood?

2. Since you'd already paid the last payment and he make excuses to come and rectify the fault. With proper documentation and such, report them to CASE.

3. Make notes of all the fault and list it down on the email that you send to CASE. It'll be best if you can provide pictures of the faults.

[Jaslyn]

the smell from the toilet comes from the leakage of the base of the WC.All along we didnt know that was the cause of the smell but instead blaming the maid for not doing her cleaning properly or blaming my kids for not flushing.Then one day I used toilet tissue to wipe the base of the WC just to find out that the yellow stain is causing the stench in the toilet.

As for the leakage from the toilet causing the laminated flooring totally bloated up.There is a big hole between the toilet and the masterbed room.Causing the water to leak under the laminated flooring.The contractor wanted us to pay for the new laying of laminated flooring of over $800 but my husband refused.The guy from the flooring company actually tell us that most of this problem is cos of the toilet leakage from underground.Then the contractor,his worker and the guy from the flooring company came.We agreed that if the problem is his,he has to pay for it,if its us (mopping),we will bear the cost.Ended up he saw the big hole in between the toilet and the room.

[neokn]

the smell from the toilet comes from the leakage of the base of the WC. All along we didnt know that was the cause of the smell but instead blaming the maid for not doing her cleaning properly or blaming my kids for not flushing.Then one day I used toilet tissue to wipe the base of the WC just to find out that the yellow stain is causing the stench in the toilet.

I reckon the WC is the seating type from what u mentioned. Is this a resale HDB unit and you renovated the master bedroom toilet too. There's only 1 explanation for this. You contractor didn't silicon the base of the toilet bowl before he installs instead he just silicon the external ONLY. That explains the leakage

As for the leakage from the toilet causing the laminated flooring totally bloated up.There is a big hole between the toilet and the masterbed room.Causing the water to leak under the laminated flooring.The contractor wanted us to pay for the new laying of laminated flooring of over $800 but my husband refused.The guy from the flooring company actually tell us that most of this problem is cos of the toilet leakage from underground.Then the contractor,his worker and the guy from the flooring company came.We agreed that if the problem is his,he has to pay for it,if its us (mopping),we will bear the cost.Ended up he saw the big hole in between the toilet and the room.

In the issue, if you do it right. You don't even have to pay a cent and you can get the whole laminate change. Since the laminate company had already mentioned that the bloated laminated flooring was cause by the leakage from the masterbed room toilet. Just prove that the big hole in between the toilet and the MB room was a renovation fault causing water to sip underneath the flooring. Use a long slim stick with wool on 1 end and slide it into the hole and into the laminate. That will tell you whether there's any water-sipping in.

[Jaslyn]

the laminate flooring issue is solved when the guy from the flooring company insisted its the contractor's fault.The WC case is unsolved.The contractor insisted we must have dropped something in but if something was dropped in,the water wouldnt be going down so smoothly.He just simply silicon the external of the base of the WC and tell us to monitor the situation.Now the problem never solved and want him to remove the whole WC to check what the problem is,he give alot of excuses saying we have to pay and it would be messy

[neokn]

the laminate flooring issue is solved when the guy from the flooring company insisted its the contractor's fault.

Good. Then the contractor will be paying the laminate company for the uplifting and re-laminate, right?

The WC case is unsolved.The contractor insisted we must have dropped something in but if something was dropped in,the water wouldnt be going down so smoothly.He just simply silicon the external of the base of the WC and tell us to monitor the situation.Now the problem never solved and want him to remove the whole WC to check what the problem is,he give alot of excuses saying we have to pay and it would be messy

So.....!!!!!!

It's they whom cause the agony that you and your family are going thru'. They should count themselves lucky that you don't ask them to compensate for the agony and inconvenience. Do a simple test for toilet bowl choking; take a large amount of toilet paper ( Pls don't throw in the whole toilet roll ) dump into the bowl and flash. If it's choke then the toilet paper will not flow down.

[Jaslyn]

not sure whether the contractor paid the laminating company yet cos last month,the laminating company's account called me to ask if she can send me the bill...I told her to mail it to the designer's company since he says he will be responsible for it.

I already did what you suggested.Trying to flush down the toilet paper.It went down smoothly.I also tried by not using the WC for 3 days to check for leaking on the base.The base is still wet.

[neokn]

not sure whether the contractor paid the laminating company yet cos last month,the laminating company's account called me to ask if she can send me the bill...I told her to mail it to the designer's company since he says he will be responsible for it.

I already did what you suggested.Trying to flush down the toilet paper.It went down smoothly.I also tried by not using the WC for 3 days to check for leaking on the base.The base is still wet.

Ok.

So I reckon you renovate this toilet and the bowl wasn't installed properly or worst cracked bowl. B'coz of the construction of the bowl there shouldn't be any leakage unless cracked. Get the contractor to engage his plumber to resolve your problem ASAP or you'll engage your own and charge to their account.

[Jaslyn]

so you suggest I should engage another plumber to come check it out?what if the contractor refused to pay?He even says probably during installation,the internal cracked.....as if none of his business

[neokn]

so you suggest I should engage another plumber to come check it out?what if the contractor refused to pay?He even says probably during installation,the internal cracked.....as if none of his business

So the question is ~

1. Did you renovate your toilet?

2. Is it done by the same contractor?

If it's yes to both proceed with the undermentioned.

Give your contractor a deadline, by the deadline if he still didn't rectify the fault. Then you engage your own plumber. Send the contractor a letter and a photocopy of it to yourself, stating the deadline and intention. Email also can. So when the deadline is up and your problem is still not resolve or they didn't try to resolve, you can proceed with engaging the plumber and bill them.

[Jaslyn]

ok,will do.will keep you update for more guide.thanks

[Justiana Er]

Wat's d contractor's name?

10 yrs back i renovated my hse. The contractor tat i enaged also....!!!!

Y? I went 2 spot check on them, they ar not happy abt it. Somemore tell me off & litter my hse after taking meals in my hse. Wat is tis? I cannot say anything meh? It's my hse not their hse!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Service attitude LOUSY. 1 time enough!!@!!

[kelstorm]

Service attitude LOUSY. 1 time enough!!@!!

how many times u expect to renov ur place.. me also in the midst of planning my renov with the designer.. reading such stuff really worries me...

[Justiana Er]

Kersom,

em.... I will renovate in my next hse

[Jaslyn]

especially when you are living in the flat.Meaning every morning wake up seeing the same blood vomitting scene....

anyway,anyone can advice me on the windows? when we changed all windows.I mentioned to the contractor he better follow the rules that to use the aluminium rivets but he insisted that he got the approval letters from HDB.And he claims that windows not older than 5 yrs dont need to change to aluminium rivets.How true is that?I dont want to later kena fine for that.We only living here less than a yr

[jc85]

how many times u expect to renov ur place.. me also in the midst of planning my renov with the designer.. reading such stuff really worries me...

Hi Bro, u renovating ur home soon? Maybe can pop by renotalk.com. There's also a forum where many home owner share their experiences.

Cheers

JC

[flubberina13]

Yes...Jaslyn,

I go to renotalk.com more often compared to here. JC and I are members. He intro me too.

There's quite a number of stuff that is useful. nd you can pose your question on how to deal with that idiotic and obnoxious contractor.

There are experts there though not discounting neokn's contributions.

[fishtalk1517]

ervine Posted: Aug 31 2005, 01:03 PM   

Sigh contractors... No offence but there are black sheep out there...

I've seen quite a few cases whereby you pay the last payment and their service standards simply drop to ZERO... call them they say ok will come down, wait 2 weeks still nothing...

So the thing to note is to check every single thing before handing over the last cheque... EVERYTHING!.. if something is not right, make sure it gets corrected ASAP.. that's why it's a must to supervise the whole renovation process, see if they put the right tiles (they sometimes show u expensive samples but bring in cheaper china tiles) make sure they water proof your toilet properly.. etc etc

Anyway... usually i would prefer NOT to work with relatives or friends at times... when something goes wrong harder to screw them upside down... 

Me encounter too a contracter introduced by my SIL..... actually has seen the contracter's work and thought tat should be alright for this contracter to do the renovation. Somemore is also my SIL's friend.

So I went ahead and allow him to proceed. WRONG !!!! Things start to go wrong..... Cabinets which was drawn out in the layout plan or perspective drawings did not matched at all...... Many more cabinets were also wrongly done. (eg. wrong colors, wrong design, wrong measurements ) But lucky for me. I was able to squeezed out some time every day to go down to do spot checks on them, thus able to point out the fault and thru numerous arguements, were then able to get things right again.... U got to stand firm when u asked them to tear down cabinets when its not what u wanted. They will try to asked u to bear some costs. NO WAY.... Show them the perspective drawings that they themselves had drawn!!!! Make them eat their words....

Another point to note.... Never give the contracters full payments. Instead, give them in stages.....For me, I would only made partial payments when certain percent of the entire work has been done. For the final payments, only give it to them when all works had been done and with all minor touch-up been done.

U may want to take pics when the work are not done accordingly to the perspective drawings to proof when he turns around to get back at u.

Once FULL PAYMENTS been made to them....... will be quite difficult to get them back to rectify. Just my bad experiences........