A No Word Posting

Choosing The Electrician

Our ID didn't include quotation for electrical and plumbing works as he told us that he could recommend his electrician and plumber to us but we pay them directly should we decide to engage their service. We thought no harm getting a quotation from them first, so the ID brought his electrician for a site survey because we have a false ceiling, which may pose a problem when doing electrical rewiring. At first, he said it could not be done but after my ID prompted him, he replied okay. 

The quote came back with a total price of $4,662, and this price does not include any PUB testing. A 13A single and double socket outlets cost $70 and $80 respectively, installation of a lighting point is $45 and a cooker hood point costs $120. The most ridiculous price was for the cooker hood point as the market rate is about $60!!! Seriously, double the market rate? I didn't bother to think twice and drop this electrician/company immediately as I find myself being chopped like a carrot. 

Next, we got a quotation from KS Electrical at $3,163. The staff who quoted us, not the electrician, told us that we have to remove the false ceiling in order to do rewiring. A 13A single and double socket outlets cost $45 and $60 respectively, installation of a lighting point is $35 and a cooker hood point costs $60. When I asked if can do a site survey, she replied that there would be a $40 charge, if I were to sign up with them after the site survey, the $40 will be taken as deposits. Also, the quote comes with standard package with 15A socket for air-con & never quote upgrade to 20A isolator despite us telling the staff. We were also told that we have to shift our DB box down as that's new HDB regulation but it's not true, only so if you need to get PUB testing. We were also told that we need to change the wiring from our DB to the main outside but other electricians said no need. After hearing from other electricians, we decided to drop KS Electrical as we were quite skeptical about what we were being told.

My hubby got his cousin to recommend an electrician who does electrical works for HDB residential flat. At first, he said site survey was not necessary, asked my hubby to take photos of the false ceiling and whatapps the photos to him. After seeing the photos, he arranged with my hubby for a site survey. He told us that it's possible if we really want to do electrical rewiring with the false ceiling intact it but he needs to open 3-4 ~450mm by 450mm holes to access to the top of the false ceiling, which our ID would have to patch them back. He may not be able to remove old wirings/pvc casings in the false ceiling & not possible to fix new pvc casings, so he would have to use conduits instead to run through the false ceiling.

After weighing the pros and cons of keeping the false ceiling, we decided that it's time to have a change! We'll remove the false ceiling. Overall, we would spend lesser as compared to keeping it. We also decided to get the electrician recommended by hubby's cousin. His quote for a 13A double socket outlets cost $60, we didn't ask for single socket outlet as the price difference between a single and a double is about $10-$15. Installation of a lighting point is $35 and a cooker hood point costs $60. For these few items, they cost the same as KS Electrical but I guessed speaking to the electrician and a sales staff make a difference when you were clarifying your doubts with them. After making some adjustments, the cost of rewiring our 5 room flats is close to 3.2k.

Scope of Work for House Renovation

I met my secondary school pals recently for dinner and I was late for our appointment as I was still in a shop finalising the list of things to purchase and the pricing. When I reached the restaurant, they asked me why I'm doing renovation and the extent of the renovation works. Well, it's coming to 16 years and it's already quite amazing for things to last that long since things nowadays are not made to last, haha... 

In a nutshell, we have engaged ID/contractors to do the followings:

Whole House

• Electrical rewiring
• Paint ceiling, walls, bedrooms and bomb shelter doors, partition cabinet in living room and water/sewage pipings
• Install new windows and window grilles except for the toilets, and also install in the balcony area, which is currently installed with wrought iron grille
• Install new air cons for living room and all bedrooms

Living Room

• Remove existing doors between balcony and living room, lay new floor tiles and level up balcony area with living room, and box up the water pipe
• Install shoe cabinet with sitting bench at the door entrance area

All Bedrooms

• Lay new floor tiles to replace existing laminated flooring
• Install built-in wardrobe with sliding door and pull out mirror
• Install cupboard
• Install platform with storage

Kitchen

• Install new kitchen cabinets, with pull out drawers where possible
• Change the location of washing machine
• Install new sink and hob (not replacing existing hood as it was bought not too long ago)

Toilets

• Install new doors 
• Install new WCs, basin, shower mixer/bracket/head set, toilet accessories

Our considerations:

Electrical Rewiring - Since we have already been staying in our current house for coming to 16 years and our flat was actually ready at least 1 year before (we choose leftover unit), some of the electrical wires that HDB first installed were at least 17 years. We are likely to stay here for at least another 8 years, so it's time to change the existing electrical wiring. A friend told us to do it since we're going to do a major renovation, suggestion accepted!

Air Con - Our existing air cons, Mc Quay brand, have been performing well although it's not a well known brand. This brand is no longer available in Singapore but it's still selling in Malaysia. In recent months, the compressor started to get quite noisy. When we asked our servicing guy, he said there's nothing much that can be done and no point doing any repair. It's already long lasting enough, so either continue to use or change new air cons.

Laminated Flooring - It's just not as lasting as tiles. In the bedroom that my mum used to occupy, there's scratches due to dragging of furniture and even a small hole. The skirting for all the bedrooms, particularly noticeable at the bending, starts to "peel" off. Well, at least it lasted for 16 years, it's time to "retire" them. It serves its purposes when we first considered installing laminated flooring for bedrooms. It's not that cold when you step on it when air con is turned on for some time. Also, the impact when your child falls from the bed, it isn't as hard and painful as compared to tiles. This point was personally tested by my hubby! He was carrying our boy (baby then) on his laps at the edge of the bed, then he dozed off. I went in the room to check on hubby and baby as they were too quiet and I got a shock when I saw ah boy on the floor! Apparently, my hubby let go of him when he dozed off and baby fell on to the floor but he didn't cry at all. I also didn't hear any loud bang sound when baby landed on the floor. I supposed the "cushioning" under the laminated flooring helps to "break" the fall.

Wardrobes and Cupboards in Bedrooms - Well, we can't redo the flooring without removing existing ones. Anyway, the existing ones also start to show signs of "ageing", particularly the wardrobe in our bedroom, anyway that's the only built-in wardrobe now. The doors are no longer closing properly and the internal carcass often has yellowish spots (that's the problem when it's left white). The cupboards in the study room (eventually will be ah boy's room) are actually still okay except for the white internal carcass, then like I said, cannot redo flooring without removing them.

Platform with Storage - We started to think of renovation is to have more storage, besides that things are falling apart. It used to be enough when it's just 2 of us but with 2 kids, I find myself keep throwing away my things just to house kids' stuff! Hence, we're building a platform with storage in it and we just put a mattress on it, so it becomes our platform bed.

Kitchen Cabinets - Since I'm now a SAHM, I cook and bake more, so I'm buying more kitchen gadgets like my Rowenta oven, KA mixer, double boiler, etc. I need more kitchen top to put them and also more storage to put the cooking and baking stuff. As my current kitchen cabinets are using shelves, I find it's a bit tedious to take the things that are tucked further in, so I put in my requirement that I want drawers where possible.

Kitchen Island - It's not really an island as one side of it will be connected to the kitchen cabinets. This serves as a dining area for us and also gives me more preparation work space when I need to prepare for cooking or baking.

Sink - My current sink is a double bowl and it's not that deep, so now I bought a single deeper bowl so that I can "dump" more things inside if I'm cooking a storm or bake.

Does it sound like we're going to do a lot of renovation works and they're going to cost us a bomb? Well, I'm capping the budget at 70k for the entire renovation works, including buying some furnitures/furnishings. So far, glad to say that we're still within budget. :-)

Air Con Installer - Part 5

This should be the last part of my "Air Con Installer" series posting. It would be about the company that we had "re-awarded" our installation job. I would not name the company yet since works have not yet started, so I would just call it HA.

I only started to look into HA seriously after SC disappointed me. A friend introduced it to me much earlier on but I didn't really look into it as I could not find the company name when I googled it previously. When I was researching on the Internet again, I came across a rather familiar name but the company's name was spelt slightly off from the contact that my friend gave to me, with an additional letter "e" in one of the words. Hence, I decided to give it a try and whatsapp the person. I asked him if he's still in the aircon business and still with the same company. Well, he replied yes, so my friend's contact and the one I came across online were actually referring to the same company. 

Therefore, I asked him to give me a quote based on my specifications. When I saw the amount quoted, I could not believe it and asked "are you sure this is the price?" and told him that his quote was the lowest so far. He asked me if most of my quotes where somewhere just slightly under 4k or above 4k, so apparently he knows his competitors' rate, haha... He told me that they are having promotion and that's why they can quote such a price. While I'm aware that All Best or Best Tech could provide a very attractive quote, I didn't approach them to quote as I read many bad reviews about them.

Subsequently, I also asked him if he's able to do three trips at no extra cost, which he replied that it can be arranged but they would have to bring back all the old aircon stuff and I told him that I expected the installer would bring them back. If you're not aware, the old aircon stuff could be sold off for a bit of money. He said that this is to help them to recover the cost for making another trip.

A site survey was arranged to discuss about the piping route, especially we have concerns for the one that's going to be installed in the living room. Well, he may be a sales executive but he knows his stuff. He told us that the best route for the living room unit, is to install the piping through our master bedroom (MBR) toilet. Now, he's the second installer who told us this besides the one from NC. It is the shortest route with minimal bendings, so it can cool down the room faster. When NC told my hubby previously about this route, I was kind of skeptical. Toilet will have moisture and we bathe there, will there be condensation problem??? Hence, after probing this guy from HA, he told us that we have to avoid bathing in MBR toilet when the aircon is on... He explained that when aircon is on, the gas (coolant) pumped through the copper pipes is cold and when we bathe, the hot water would heat up the toilet. It's not good to have hot and cold in the same area at the same time as it would cause condensation. Now, this will pose a great challenge for me!!! Sometimes I bathe after my kids are asleep, don't tell me that I have to bring my toiletries to go to common toilet to bathe. If not, I have to off the aircon and let my kids "suana" in long wears with the fan on but it's not good that they perspire during the "suana" and cool down again in aircon environment, hot and cold don't go well for kids too! 

Well, after much discussion, we decided to install the living room unit on an alternate location. It would take a longer time to cool the room as the copper piping route is longer but still within 15m and it goes through more bendings. However, the drainage pipe is still short as it will be routed to my balcony's floor trap. We're hacking away our sliding doors and convert the balcony as part of the living room with a box up for the drainage pipe that will have a door or open access panel.

My friend told me that her aircons had been installed for coming to 2 years and there is no leaking problem so far. She was recommended to this guy/HA by her neighbour. Well, if there's no leaking problem within the first year of installation, the workmanship should be quite alright. With a real friend's testimony, not gathered from online sources, I decided to try out HA. Also, hubby is comfortable with this guy as he's able to share with us on quite a lot of things regarding aircon installation. Now, we may not know if there's any part that he's "smoking" us based on a commoner's understanding, I think it does make sense for some stuff like hot and cold don't go well together.

To summarise, we decided on HA based on the following considerations.

• They quoted the cheapest so far, which was lower than what CE and SC quoted.
• They provided a free no obligation site survey and we were satisfied with the sales executive's replies to our queries.
• They can do a third trip without any additional charge.
• They could do according to our proposed schedule for all the three trips.
• There is a real friend's testimony.

For now, I pray hard that all will go smoothly for my house renovation. I would share my reviews on HA after the installation works have completed. Hope you have enjoyed reading my blogging about my house renovation and that the 5 parts Air Con Installer series has been a helpful or interesting read for you. I'm not sure if you have counted the number of air con installers that I've approached for quotation but I did... a total of 10! It's even more than the number of IDs I've approached for quotation, which was only 6.

Meanwhile, stay tuned and see what's my next topic...

Air Con Installer - Part 4

In this second last part of my "Air Con Installer" series posting, I'm going to write about the company that we first choose to do the installation for us and why we subsequently decided to switch to another installer. Guessed which company did we choose first?

*drum rolls* It's Star Cool Air-Condition Engineering - Aron & Ah Boon! Do note that they are different from StarCool Aircon Singapore. I read many good reviews about them on online forums and even individual blogs. They quoted the same price as Cold Engine (CE) except that they only provided 1 year warranty for workmanship. I did ask Aron if they could match the warranty offer but he replied "we believe in good workmanship and materials use for the installation at the very beginning, that is why we give only a year of workmanship warranty."

While I was planning the renovation schedule with my ID, I thought perhaps it's good that the installer could remove the old piping/aircons but without installing the new piping before painting starts. I was thinking in long terms, in case, I need to remove the old piping due to unforeseen circumstance and need to install new piping via another route in the future. If there's no painting on the wall where the piping (or trunking) is going to mount against, that part of the wall would look very ugly after the piping is removed. Not forgetting that the trunking used nowadays is quite big as compared to the current trunking that was installed 16 years ago. Hence, I asked Aron if they could do three trips for me instead at no extra charge. First trip is to remove the old piping/aircons, second trip is to install new piping and third trip is to install new FCUs/compressor. He replied that they could do so without extra charge. He asked me to arrange a site survey with Ah Boon as he was not in town, which I did, and the site survey was done quite fast. Ah Boon said he would confirm with me again on the piping route when the actual installation starts.

When I met Ah Boon during site survey, I asked him when would Aron be back, he replied that he's in Malaysia as he has another business there but he would still reply to emails. To be fair, Aron was quite responsive to my emails, which he usually replied within a day. After discussing with hubby, we decided to get them to do the installation based on the following considerations. 

1. They could do three trips at no extra charge.
2. Ah Boon, the head installer, who came for the site survey, would also be the one doing the installation for us.
3. They have many good reviews.

After informing Aron that we would like to engage their service, he asked me to liaise with Ah Boon on the installation and so I did, which was when my "nightmare" began...

My correspondences with Ah Boon via iMessage:

• On a Monday 8+ am, I informed him on what Aron and I have agreed, and my proposed installation schedule, which he replied that day noon time, saying that he would check and update soon. 
• On a Wednesday 12+ am, Ah Boon finally replied me after I prompted him twice and emailed Aron that Ah Boon did not get back to me. He proposed to install piping / dismantle old unit on another date. I messaged back to tell him that I could reconfirm with my ID about removing the old piping/aircons on his proposed date. However, I wanted the installation of the new piping on another day after the painting has completed and that was why I asked Aron for three trips. Ah Boon didn't reply me. Hence, I messaged him again on that same night to let me know if he could make the necessary arrangement and could call me the next day if speaking over the phone was easier.
• On a Thursday 7+ pm, he messaged saying that he called me but could not ring me. I didn't quite understand what he meant, so I replied asking him what he meant because I had been receiving a few phone calls on my mobile that day but none from him. My phone also never recorded any missing call from him. He replied saying that he called me at 7+ pm but could not contact me, maybe due to line problem. At this point of time, I had actually started to look for another installer as I felt very uncomfortable with Ah Boon's response time. Now, I could understand that he might be busy during the day doing installation works. However, I felt that he should be able to confirm with me on the installation schedule, can do, cannot do, etc, within 3 full working days, which I think it's quite a reasonable time frame. After he failed to contact me via phone call, he did not follow up with any message to say anything about the installation schedule, even up to this point when I was blogging this post, which today is a Sunday with 2 full working days passed by. That's it, I gave up!!! Luckily we didn't place any deposit, nothing to lose on our end except for time loss but I'm glad that it happened earlier so that I still have enough time to find alternative.

For those considering to engage them, do think thrice, not just twice! I do believe that their response was much faster in the past when Aron was still doing this full time with local presence, and hence, all the past good reviews about them. No doubt Aron's response to my emails was quite fast but the lack of his presence here and leaving only Ah Boon to do the coordination works made this a sucking experience for me! It's just simply too difficult to get Ah Boon to respond. My hubby and I did try to call him as well but no one picked up the call. I didn't bother to email Aron again as I can't be going through him all the times just to get Ah Boon to contact me. After going through this experience, my guts feel telling me that they are either no longer as keen and active in keeping their bustle aircon business or they're simply too popular that they can't handle every deal that they agreed to. Should you decide to go ahead with them, I wish you have a much better experience than me when trying to get in touch with Ah Boon.

Air Con Installer - Part 3

I've also gotten quotation from a few other companies, which I would briefly share here. The quotation is based on my specifications that I mentioned in my previous post (looked at the wordings in blue) and also requested for two trips installation. 

Please note that the pricing mentioned is only for reference purpose as companies may run promotion from times to times, so you may get a better or worse deal than what I've gotten. The points that I mentioned were based on what I've found out/understood and the decision to drop them was based on our evaluation criteria and experience while dealing with the various companies.

They are listed according in alphabetical order and not in any order of dislike.

1. Aircon Citi - $4,350

• They do provide free no obligation site survey.
• Dropped this company due to pricing not really that attractive. For this price, I would rather pay a bit more to engage more established companies. 

2. Cold Engine - $3,950

• They provide 2 years warranty for workmanship. Most installers provide only 1 year warranty for workmanship, so this seems attractive to us.
• They do provide free no obligation site survey.
• Scott, who is highly recommended based on a number of online comments that I saw, is no longer doing the installation himself. He now does mostly site survey.
• We did consider them when we decided to give up on the first installer that we choose to do the installation for our house. The pricing was comparable but they could not do a third trip for us without charging additional. Also, I asked if Scott would be the one doing the installation for us but was told that he can only do the site survey. The good reviews about Scott were on his installation, so we were not sure how the workmanship would be if he's not the one doing the installation. I feel that installation is much more important than the site survey because no matter how good the person can advise during site survey, ultimately it depends on the installers' skill to do a good installation job for you to minimise possible issue from happening. Of course, the person doing the site survey has to be experienced enough to provide sound and convincing advice; if he cannot convince you, you'll probably strike his company off the list. Hence, between this company and another company in the running of our second choice, we decided to go for the other company instead. I would write on a separate post why we gave up on the first installer of our choice and why we wanted a third trip.

3. Cool Serve - $4,590.30

• Supply and install 1 no. of Normal L or opening bracket, if any - $160.50
• $60 for site survey, which can be waived off at the final bill upon confirming order.
• Dropped this company due to high price and no free no obligation site survey.

4. Cool World - $4,230 

• We can request for a site survey if we confirm that we're engaging them.
• Dropped this company due to no free no obligation site survey.

5. Dynomatic - $4,500

• It was recommended by my ID, so the person came down with my ID for a free no obligation site survey. 
• Dropped this company due to high price.

6. Natural Cool - ???

• They do provide free no obligation site survey and we arranged for one. The person doing the site survey was late and did not inform us he would be late.
• They did not follow up with a quotation. I'm not going to bother chasing after quotation because to me, if a company doesn't follow up with a quotation automatically, it means they don't really care if they get your business and if the company isn't proactive during pre-sales, it left me wondering what will happen during post-sales.

Recommended Materials for Air Con Installation

Before I moved on to share more about other air con installers, let me share about the recommended materials so that you know what I'm looking for versus what's available in the market by default without upgrading the materials. 

These are the default materials quoted by most installers (I put most as I didn't get quotation from all available installers):

• 3/8 inch Armaflex (or can be Thermaflex or other brands offered by installer) Insulation Class 1 
• G23 Copper Piping
• 3 Core 40/70 Wire Cable
• 16mm PVC Drainage Pipe

Insulation
Armaflex is a rather popular and safe/reliable brand to be used for insulation in air con installation. It is a black rubber foam, which goes around the copper pipe. 3/8 inch is usually used for the copper pipe but many people opt to upgrade it to 1/2 inch to provide better insulation against condensation. The class (class 1 and 0) refers to the fire rated properties of the insulation, so some people comment that it's not necessary to upgrade to class 0.

If you see the picture, the insulation that wraps around the pvc drainage pipe is 1/4 inch. The insulation that wraps around the gas inlet and outlet, the set in the middle next to the pvc drainage pipe, is 3/8 inch. The insulation for the extreme right set of gas inlet and outlet is 1/2 inch.

Copper Piping
Copper piping is the one that carries the coolant gas. There are 2 pipes. The bigger pipe is the one that carries the gas from the indoor unit to the outdoor unit and the smaller pipe is the one that carries the gas from the outdoor unit to the indoor unit. G (guage) 23 or 22 refers to the thickness of the copper pipes, so G23 is 0.61mm and G22 is 0.71mm. I read that copper pipes should be bent using a pipe bender so that it will a nicely bent pipe, and that if the copper pipes are not installed properly, it may cause condensation of the pipes at certain area. 

I checked with an installer and was told that they have the tool to bend the bigger pipe but there is no tool available to bend the smaller pipe, so it will be bent using hand. They cannot use the tool provided for the bigger pipe to bend the small pipe. He also shared that since the copper pipe's length is 15m, it is best to keep the running of the copper pipe within this length to avoid joining two copper pipes, this is to minimise condensation happening around the joint. Also, the longer the copper pipe runs, the longer it will take to cool the room, and if there are many bends along the piping route, it will take even longer to cool the room.

Hence, besides looking at the thickness of the copper pipe, do take note of the piping route. The shorter it is, the less bends there are, the better it is. It's not that installer wants to cut cost or do shortcut and hence, propose the shortest route.

Wire Cable
3C70 is usually used to wire up the outdoor unit to the power point while 3C40 is usually used to wire up the indoor units to the outdoor unit. Brands that people usually recommend are like Keystone and Sigma. Important thing to note for wire cable is to check if they are manufactured in Singapore, and not China.

Drainage Pipe
There are 2 sizes, 13mm and 16mm. Most installers would propose 16mm drainage pipe. Some installers (I'm not sure if all do so, it's best that you check with the installer) also install insulation for the drainage pipe, which 1/4 inch is more commonly used. 

The points that I shared here were mostly what I gathered from my online research and what I learnt from the various installers whom I spoke to (I'm not an expert in this area). I'm not sure if all the points mentioned above are 100% accurate but I've learnt a lot about installing an air con system. On the surface, it looks so simple but once you start looking into the details, you would realised that there's actually a lot of information to absorb. Based on what I've learnt so far, these are my specifications for the materials to be used for my Mitsubishi Starmex System 4.

• 1/2 inch Armaflex Insulation Class 0
• G22 Copper Piping
• 3 Core 40/70 Wire Cable (Keystone Singapore made)
• 16mm PVC Drainage Pipe with Armaflex insulation

Air Con Installer - Part 2

In part 2, I'm going to share about what I've gathered on Gain City (GC). To get similar specifications as what I asked from AD for MXY-4A28VA / MSY-GE10VA X3 + MSY-GE24VA, I would have to pay around $4,584. The price includes upgrading to 1/2 inch insulation (class 1 Armaflex) at $160, G22 copper pipe at $80 and $85 for additional trip.

Usually two trips installation is recommended as the first trip is to remove old piping/aircons and install new piping, and second trip is to install the new aircons after renovation has completed. The reason is that if you install the new aircons before renovation is completed, they may get very dusty and it won't be good for us when the aircons blow out dusty air. By default, GC only offers one trip, so you would need to top up if you need another trip.

While the 5 years extended warranty doesn't have catch like you have to buy servicing package from them, it does have other catch... We were told that the extended warranty would only cover up to a certain amount and once you reach that amount, the extended warranty would cease. If we want to have unlimited amount during the 5 years period, we would have to top up $129.

GC is one of the popular choices that many people go for but still, we decided to drop them from our consideration because

1. The price is on the high side.
2. I read quite a number of "horror stories" about GC on online forums and blogs. Example, I saw some comments talking about they pushing from one party to another party when something happened, so pointless to have warranty when you cannot get them to do the repairs. I also read how the installer damaged wardrobe/cupboard and another case whereby installer damaged the floor tile, and they cannot complain to GC to ask for compensation as the installers are the ones having to pay for any damage.

Please read my reviews/findings with a pinch of salt as your expectation and budget may be different from us. What we find expensive or not good, you may not feel so.

Upcoming next, I'll share with you about the recommended materials to use for air con installation based on what I gathered from my online research before I share more about other air con installers.

Air Con Installer - Part 1

I have been "hunting" around for a reliable and responsive air con installer to install a Mitsubishi Starmex System 4 for my house, so I started to ask shops/companies to give me a quote based on the following requirements. As my house's existing air-cons were serviced by Aircon Designs (AD), I asked my hubby to call them up to give us a quote. The company told him that they would first need to do a site survey before giving us a quote, so we arranged for a site survey. Subsequently, the sales executive quoted us the following.

MXY-4A28VA / MSY-GE10VA X2 + MSY-GE13VA + MSY-GE26VA at $4,450 nett.

To supply labour & material to install 1 set of Mit StarMEX inverter multi split wall mounted type A/C complete with 1/2" Thermaflex class "O" insulation, refrigerant G23 copper piping, diameter 16mm drainpipe, 3 core 40 Keystone control wire, 2.5mm wiring from condenser to isolator, PVC casing at expose area, vacuum system, charging in refrigerant gas, testing and commissioning

Compressor 5 yrs, Fancoil/Spare Parts 1 yr warranty by agent.
Installation workmanship 1 yr warranty.

I asked the sales executive to quote me for MXY-4A28VA / MSY-GE10VA X3 + MSY-GE24VA and the price was $4,390, which is only a savings of $60 for downsizing the 13VA to a 10VA and the 26VA to a 24VA. I also asked him if he could bundle in any free servicing since we have been their customer for so long (they installed our existing air-cons and been doing the servicing for the past many years), he told me "NO"! Oh well, so we gathered that there is no need to be loyal to any particular company.

As I've been researching quite a bit on the materials used for air-con installation, I asked the guy why G22 is not used. The reply was that it's because G22 is 0.71mm and G23 is 0.61mm, is 0.1mm thicker and for HDB, there is a lot of 90 degree bend, so G23 holds up better than G22. Well, I'm not quite sure if the reply was exactly correct... I found out from the web that G22 is harder to bend, so an installer needs to use a pipe bender to bend and the result will be a nicely bent pipe. If the installer uses hands to bend the pipe, it may result in some acute angle. Hence, are they trying to avoid using G22 so that they can do the job instead?

If we want to upgrade to G22, we would have to pay an additional $50 per set of piping. I figured it would probably end up to be around 4.5k if we were to engage them. Well, since they don't appreciate customer's loyalty, we decided to get more quotations for comparison. After comparing AD with few other companies, we decided to drop them from our consideration because

1. The price is on the high side.
2. There is no freebies to sweeten the deal for a long time customer.
3. The reply on why G22 is not used doesn't fully convinced us.

I'm revealing the company name for some of the air con installers since we have already ruled them out based on our evaluation. Up next will be Part 2 of the Air Con Installer Series, and it will be on Gain City (GC), so stay tuned...

SPSL aka PUB Testing for Electrical Rewiring

Since I've been living in my current house for coming to 16 years and very likely that I'm going to continue staying here for another 10 years, so a friend advised me to do electrical rewiring for my whole house. After discussing with hubby, we took up the friend's advice and have been hunting around for an electrician to do the work, which of course, we have found someone to do the job at a reasonable price of 3+k.

I've been lurking around in Renotalk forum searching for aircon deals, advice on where to buy kitchen sink, hob, etc, so I pondered upon a thread discussing about electrical stuff. I saw some people asking if the price quoted by the electrician is reasonable, whether PUB testing is required, etc. Hence, I replied to one of the postings saying that it is not necessary to do PUB testing based on my discussion with several electricians. Well, I was countered by another forum member saying that it's a must by the Act. Therefore, I decided to explore further on this PUB testing topic, especially I could not find much or any sharing on this on the Internet.

Based on what I gathered from various sources, it's NOT a must! 

• Hubby's cousin, who was our ID 16 years ago but is now handling only commercial renovation, told us that it's good to do the testing if doing rewiring for the whole house to safeguard yourself but there's certain requirements to follow in order to pass the testing. If you do not have testing done, you may face problem when you want to sell your HDB flat as they may ask or your insurance may not compensate you if a fire broke out. Do note that it's just MAY! 
• Our electrician told us that if you need PUB testing to be done, he told us that he needs to install an additional "black" thing for every lighting point and that would add $5 for every point. For points in carpentry works, cannot conceal it until you cannot see the casing/wiring, rationale is that one may accidentally drill into a wiring if you cannot see the casing/wiring. The DB box need to shift down to eye level (1.8m if I remembered it correctly), which means we can no longer have it installed at the current location and if the wire from our DB box to the main board outside is not long enough to connect to the new location, we would have to engage HDB to do a new wiring that would easily cost us about $400. Note that we only asked him based on our needs, so there may be more requirements to meet than what I mentioned here, such as those in the false ceiling, which we did not pursue further as we have decided to remove our existing false ceiling.
• Since installing electrical in a carpentry works pose an issue, we asked our ID. He jokingly told us that during his 9 years working experience as an ID, none of his customers staying in HDB flat had done any PUB testing, mostly those staying in private asked for it. He said guidelines are just guidelines, HDB is more concerned with works such as hacking of wall, concealing, etc.

What does HDB state on their website then? From what I read, testing of new wiring is required for "Additional lighting points/ fan points/ 13amps power points or extension of wiring/ rewiring". Strictly speaking, it means even if you just add a new electrical point, testing is required too, isn't it? It's not just rewiring that requires testing. Hence, any flat owner, be it you buy a new or resale flat, you would probably need to do the testing as most people would have installed at least a new point to cater to your needs. 

If you scroll down HDB website further, you would see a section on "Television Points". If strictly follow the guidelines, only a licensed StarHub Cable Vision (SCV) installer can alter or extend the original TV points, no electrician, not even a LEW can touch the TV points but why are there so many IDs/contractors/electricians can quote you for installation of TV points?

Singapore is a country governed by many laws, rules and regulations, and mechanisms/systems are put in placed to ensure that citizens follow them, especially if it's a die die must do. I would believe that if it's indeed a must by an ACT, probably HDB would have provisioned for this under some kind of "permit", at least that's what hubby and I think.

Well, the intention of bloging this topic is to share with people what I've found out based on my conversation with several people and read from the Internet. This is not to say that you can skip PUB testing; I don't have the authority to say that. You would have to assess for yourself, afterall it's your house that you and your family live in, not mine! Importantly, you need to find out the details from your electrician/ID/contractor on what PUB testing means to you, as in how would it affect your renovation, especially if you are going to conceal the wiring, install false ceiling, installing lighting in your carpentry, etc. Do not just sign on a contract with PUB testing listed as an item just because you are told that you need to do so and end up facing issue with your renovation when you cannot do certain things due to the requirements to pass PUB testing. It is better to clarify any doubt with the electrician/ID/contractor before signing on the dotted line to avoid any unhappy dispute later on. 

Not Naming Any Contractor Yet!

Well, if you have read my earlier posts since "Our Renovation Journey", you probably would have noticed that I didn't specifically mention the company names. However, the abbreviations I used are in a way "connected" to the company names.

I'm not naming any company name yet as the actual renovation works would only start on 30 May. It's too early to say if XXX is good or bad because companies/contractors are usually good in their pre-sales, which otherwise, people probably wouldn't have selected them in the first place. Well, IS and HA are considered good in their pre-sales and during discussions. I would have to assess when the actual works start but a good start during discussion stage is good!

For reviews, do continue to read my blog... Disclaimer: I do not get paid in any form if I do rave about any contractor. Likewise, it's my personal experience if I b*t*h about any particular contractor, which you may have a different experience, so if anything that I've written doesn't go well with you, just moved on and away from my blog. :-)

Our First Major Purchase!

Since we have confirmed on the ID, it's time to do some shopping and researching for plumber, electrician and air-con company. No idea where to start off first, I just "wandered" about in Internet, particularly Renotalk forum. By chance, I came upon a thread that discussed about kitchen sink and the much discussed sink was Kraus brand that people bought and shipped it back from Amazon US. Yup, you heard it right! 

The first few people who bought a Kraus sink actually paid for the shipping fees as it was not entitled to free shipping to Singapore, then someone shared that she managed to get the shipping fees waived! Now that's a pretty attractive deal if shipping fees (it's a whopping USD 250+!) can be waived, so many people tried to get it waived and most of them succeeded doing so. 

With all the good reviews and comments about unlikely to get such a good solid stainless steel sink at ~SGD500 locally, I decided to join the Kraus sink gang on Renotalk forum as well, haha... I wrote in, with a "story", to seek for a waiver of the shipping fees and yay, the CSO granted me an one-time exception based on that I'm a valued customer. I have been their customer for quite a long period, started my Amazon spreeing since 2007 when Jake was born.

I placed my order for a Kraus KHU100-32 32 inch Undermount Single Bowl 16 gauge Stainless Steel Kitchen Sink on 26 Apr and oh mine, they were fast! I received the sink on 3 May. The box arrived with no visible dent. We would usually see boxes with a "fragile" label if they contain fragile items. For this, you see a "heavy" label instead. 

We opened the box to check the sink itself. It took a bit of time and efforts to check as after you opened up the carton box, you see a styrofoam box, after opening it, you see a big black bag, open it up, tadah... The sink is shiny and looks real solid! As for the review on the sink, well... it has to wait, of course! For now, based on what I can see and feel, getting it for <SGD 450 is definitely a good buy!

Signing Contract with IS

We met up with IS on 10 Apr to finalise the job scopes that we were going to award to him. Due to budget consideration/constraint, we removed the followings:

• Feature wall that we wanted to cover the bomb shelter door - Initially, I thought we could do it since we have more savings now as compared to back then but after looking at the cost and our budget, we still decided to drop it. Well, we didn't have it done in 2000 and we figured we could live without it for another 16 years. Not forgetting that I'm no longer working, so to build up savings will be slow with just a single income.
• Headboards for the platform beds in all bedrooms - They were proposed by IS but we felt that a mattress on the platform storage is good enough, so we removed them to keep our budget healthy.
• Windows, window grilles and doors - We are getting a windows contractor (see previous post here) to do them to save some money to be used on other purposes.

Plumbing and electrical works were not included in the quote as we are free to choose our own plumber and electrician.

Stay tuned for more updates on our renovation journey!

Windows Contractor

As this is our second time doing house renovation, we know that ID charges a "premium" for the things that you ask the ID to do for you. Back in 2000 when we did our first renovation to current house, we already know this as my hubby's cousin is an ID (he was our ID then but he has now moved on to do commercial renovation business). Back then, we already split the pie and gotten different contractors to do works that could be done on its own.

The windows have to be replaced as some of the handles had already broken and some could no longer close properly without exerting some strength. These windows were the original ones installed by HDB; they had been in used for 16 years! Finally, I can change them to white powder coated. As the window grilles are also aluminium just like the windows, we are changing them to white powder coated too.

When I saw the first quotation provided by IS to replace the windows and window grilles for our whole house (except for the toilets), I knew I had to get a windows contractor to give me a quote for comparison. Hence, I did some research on the Internet and contacted one (to be known as HA here) that seemed to have quite good reviews. An appointment was fixed! He came, understood my requirements, did some measurements and gave me a quote on the spot. The price difference between IS's quote and HA's quote was easily more than $500. Hence, after discussing with my hubby, we decided to get HA to do the job. 

IS proposed pd door for our toilets but after searching for reviews on this, we decided not to go for it. We opted for bi-fold door instead. Since HA also sells bi-fold doors and is selling at a cheaper price than IS, we decided to get HA to do the bi-fold doors for us too.

We called up the friendly guy from HA and fixed an appointment on 9 Apr to seal the deal. We also decided to upgrade the window grilles' material to double hollow 2mm with a middle vertical rod for extra durability. Back then, we didn't know and was on a budget since we just started working for a few years, so we settled down for just hollow ones. They didn't last long and we had to replace the window grilles in a few years' time. We upgraded the window grilles to double hollow with a middle vertical rod and they lasted much longer than the previous ones. With double hollow 2mm, we can feel that the material is even more solid than double hollow. We hope that they can last at least 8 to 10 years as we probably be still staying in our current flat, haha...

We choose blue tinted glass for the windows, white door frame with blue colour in the middle (design of the door and the blue colour as per the pictures below). 

What's next? We are going to meet IS to finalise the job scopes that we are going to award to him and sign the contract.

The One!

The ID company that won us over, well, that would be IS! The reasons why we decided to go with IS.

1. Only company that took the time and efforts to come to our house to look at our house's current conditions and understand our requirements.
2. Provided a quotation that best meets our requirements.
3. The ID seems more knowledgeable than the other 2 IDs, at least based on the answers he provided to our queries.
4. The materials included in the quote seem to be better than the other 2 IDs.
5. The chemistry between the ID and us seems alright. Any ID would have their own ideas but this ID is not that pushy type, so it is not that difficult for us to arrive at a mutual agreement.
6. The ID is okay to work with our own air-con contractor, electrician and plumber.
7. The company does not have GST yet! Hence, it does save a bit of money for us, which we can use the savings elsewhere.

Upcoming next... why we choose to get a "windows" contractor to replace the windows, window grilles and toilet doors instead of doing it via IS.

Our Renovation Journey

During the millennia Y2K, we gotten our current house, registered our marriage, renovated the house and moved in. It is 2016 now, means it is coming to 16 years since Y2K, time flies! Things are starting to fall apart or have already fallen apart, and since we do not intend to shift house (no money, ha!), we decided to renovate our house. We took the opportunity to do a major revamp of our bedrooms and kitchen, aiming at building more storage space as more things built up since a family of 2 in Y2K is now a family of 4.

Hence, I started to look for an interior designer (ID) company after the Chinese New Year public holiday. I visited renotalk forum and installed Qanvast, a mobile app, on my phone. From there, I shortlisted 3 companies - FC, IS and SF. The selection was mainly based on the reviews found on these 2 platforms. I emailed them to inform that we intend to renovate our house and that we have to continue staying in the house while the renovation takes place as we do not have a place to move in temporary. Among the 3 companies, FC and IS responded to my email. Since we did not hear from SF, we assumed that this company was not interested to do our business.

I also asked friends for recommendation and gotten 3 referrals (Comp A, B and C). Comp A asked me to list out my requirements, and I did, which I sent to all 5 companies - FC, IS and the 3 referrals. Comp A looked promising at first as the ID was pretty responsive but I did not hear from her further, perhaps she was overwhelmed by our idea of continuing to stay in our existing house while the renovation takes place. Comp B did not respond to me after receiving my requirements. Comp C, FC and IS remained in the selection process.

Among the 3 remaining companies, only IS came up to our house to understand our requirements. For FC, we met up a senior ID at her office twice but never once did she offer to come up to our house. For Comp C, the ID tried to understand our requirements mainly through whatsapp; we did not meet up at all. IS came up with a quotation that best meets our requirements, not surprising, isn't it? Afterall, it's the only company that bothered to come to our house to understand our requirements. Price wise, IS may not offer the cheapest quote among the many ID companies out there but it was considered a lot affordable as compared to FC. FC's quote was equally costly as IS but it did not include many storage options that I requested for because the ID kept suggesting to us to buy off the shelves, which we have to factor in another substantial amount, and this made the quote not as attractive. Besides the costing, I also felt that the ID did not grasp our main concern, which is to have more storage space. Comp C did not give us an itemised quotation, so it was not easy to look into the details and evaluate accordingly.

Stay tuned to find out which ID won us over...