Gorilla and Mushroom Renovation

Ok... from what we can see during our ID shopping...

Well, contractor now a days also cover everything... from flooring to ceiling to electrical works... unless you look for specialty shops contractor, where they specialize in a particular fixture, eg, wetworks or ceiling and cornices...etc, then there is very little difference now a days, cos contractors are also doing a little bit of design in order to clinch your deal to renovate your house.

One thing with contractor though, no sweet talk about how to layout your house, no lengthy explanation of which material over which material. They generally just take down your requirements, and tell you they will call you soon. That's it, less than half an hour of meeting.

oh, their design is also quite simple, mostly functional pieces, dun expect blow-your-mind designs. Some of them also hire undergraduate interns to do up the design on your house... so it depends largely on your luck whether you get a good design or not.

ID on the other hand, will tell you all the long and short of the designs they do, the material they used, and they will show you album after album of their pride and joy (finished houses renovated by them). They will also go on to tell you about the different things you can do, the themes you can follow, the curvatures and lines of their work and how seamless it seems when you walk in to the house....etc etc... and of course, how they will coordinate the renovation work of your house when you confirm with them.

you will know what we mean when you start to shop around for one.

One thing that puzzles me though, a very sharp contrast between a contractor quote and a ID quote is the pricing of their wetworks and carpentary.
Contractors tend to price their flooring, hacking and wetworks at least slightly more than what an ID would quote. But when it comes to carpentary, their prices only vary about 10% of those that the ID quote.

At the end of the day, the pricing of these contractor-cum-ID renovation packages are very similar to an ID’s. So, one may end up with a contractor that dun charge designer fees but item for item, may be more expensive. Bargaining at the end of the day will bring the pricing much lower than that of an ID though... so be prepared to bargain aggressively for a reasonable pricing! Thus the need to get many quotations to do a price comparison *Grinz*

At end of they day, it still boils down to whether you like the workmanship of the fella you engage or not.

Just to get you started... a summary based on my renovation research

1) Kitchen cabinet cost about $150-230 per foot run of top and bottom cabinets, depending on the material used, laminates vs veneers and whether you are using the same laminates on the inside of the cabinets or not

2) Kitchen tops --> for solid surfaces, it largely depends on the brand you select, it could range anything from $65-145 per foot run
for granite tops, it is ranging from $100 per foot run

3) Floor laminates, typically cost about $4.50-6.50 (inclusive of labor to lay it) depending on the type of laminates you use... varies from brand to brand, thickness of the laminate strips and the type of strips you use (eg, timber, parquet...)

4) Light fixtures typically ranges from $30-45 (including labor to install) depending on the lights you buy, about $40 for a single socket, $50 for a double. $70-90 for a SCV point and $30-40 for a telephone point

5) Grilles for balcony is calculated on a per square foot basis, for a typical EA, installing grilles on all the windows except for the toilets, will cost in the range of $1000.

As for false ceiling, it is also calculated on a per square foot basis, and IDs usually count them in as part of their reno packages, so unless you specifically ask for the price, they usually dun quote

Doing laminate flooring, including installation, works out to about $4.50 - $6.00 per square foot.
Doing homo for the same area, including labor and wastage, works out to about $5.00 - $6.50, depending on the price of tiles or laminates you choose... so the difference is not really a lot if you are choosing similar priced materials, or if you are only covering a small area with laminates (ie, only bedrooms or only one study room).

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