HO BEE RENOVATION WORKS

Hi ladies ~

How's everyone doing today?
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Did anyone of you do a sliding door? Cos I'm wondering how's the quality of it. Still trying to decide if I should do one. Hmm....
 


Hi ladies ~

How's everyone doing today?
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Did anyone of you do a sliding door? Cos I'm wondering how's the quality of it. Still trying to decide if I should do one. Hmm....
 
hi hamster, er... i dunno where i threw his final quotation after i paid up. i think it's probably best to ask patrick for a quote that is personalised for u. not all items r necessary in our quotations r going to be what u need.

hey ssmilezz, u mean a sliding door for the kitchen or for bedrm or the bathroom?

the lifeshop is hving a sale starting fr thurs. any of u going?
 
hi hamster, er... i dunno where i threw his final quotation after i paid up. i think it's probably best to ask patrick for a quote that is personalised for u. not all items r necessary in our quotations r going to be what u need.

hey ssmilezz, u mean a sliding door for the kitchen or for bedrm or the bathroom?

the lifeshop is hving a sale starting fr thurs. any of u going?
 
Hey Och ~

For the bedroom lar..still playing around with the idea leh...*sighz*

Where is their sale at? Their things are quite expensive hor...hehe...
 
Hey Och ~

For the bedroom lar..still playing around with the idea leh...*sighz*

Where is their sale at? Their things are quite expensive hor...hehe...
 
hi pple> just my personal comments.. if anyone wants to make a sliding door for kitchen, i think dun bother.. coz i did one, thinking that i dun wan my house to get oily(cooking everyday at least a meal).
in the end, dun even bother to close the door.. sort of wasting space and $$ now.
smilezz> agreed with och.. sliding door a lot of dust.. and difficult to have mirror.
 
hi pple> just my personal comments.. if anyone wants to make a sliding door for kitchen, i think dun bother.. coz i did one, thinking that i dun wan my house to get oily(cooking everyday at least a meal).
in the end, dun even bother to close the door.. sort of wasting space and $$ now.
smilezz> agreed with och.. sliding door a lot of dust.. and difficult to have mirror.
 
Hey Och ~ Did u go to The Lifeshop sale??
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Any good buys?

Hi Nihpcac ~ U mean the grooves collect a lot of dust ah? I also know that rollers will need to be changed after wear and tear lor...

What brand cooker hobs/hoods did you get?

Decided not to proceed with the sliding door for now. Hmmmm.....
 
Hey Och ~ Did u go to The Lifeshop sale??
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Any good buys?

Hi Nihpcac ~ U mean the grooves collect a lot of dust ah? I also know that rollers will need to be changed after wear and tear lor...

What brand cooker hobs/hoods did you get?

Decided not to proceed with the sliding door for now. Hmmmm.....
 
Hi nihpcac and asylee

thanks for the advice....

Acually I have already been going ard gathering ID quotations in IMM.. Mostly I got is abt 25-27K... Heard that Ho Bee quotation oso not cheap... sekali not much diff from the one i Got from ID.. then I will have to cut down on my items le... Me quite greedy... wan almost everything... Guess most couples are like that b4 reno.... and when they realise eveything is out of budget.. then have to sacrifice some of the things..

Did anybody do laminated floorings for their bedrm... Heard so many negative feedback abt them...
 
Hi nihpcac and asylee

thanks for the advice....

Acually I have already been going ard gathering ID quotations in IMM.. Mostly I got is abt 25-27K... Heard that Ho Bee quotation oso not cheap... sekali not much diff from the one i Got from ID.. then I will have to cut down on my items le... Me quite greedy... wan almost everything... Guess most couples are like that b4 reno.... and when they realise eveything is out of budget.. then have to sacrifice some of the things..

Did anybody do laminated floorings for their bedrm... Heard so many negative feedback abt them...
 
hi ssmilezz,

yup i went, but only on the 2nd day. went during lunch time n it was quite crowded.
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i think there were some good buys in the accessories, lights n lifebaby dept. the furniture left on the second day r mainly display pieces, so they weren't in that fantastic a condition. the chips in wooden pieces were quite obvious. the metallic mesh series were all in good condition still though.

i bought a bunch of rectangular plates, an oversized bowl n a vase at 30-50% off, all decorative stuff meant to be used when there r parties. i hope that oversized bowl can hold enough almond jelly longan for 15 pple.
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my hob is fujioh stainless steel. no hood. hv u bought all ur appliances, electricals n furniture already?
 
hi ssmilezz,

yup i went, but only on the 2nd day. went during lunch time n it was quite crowded.
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i think there were some good buys in the accessories, lights n lifebaby dept. the furniture left on the second day r mainly display pieces, so they weren't in that fantastic a condition. the chips in wooden pieces were quite obvious. the metallic mesh series were all in good condition still though.

i bought a bunch of rectangular plates, an oversized bowl n a vase at 30-50% off, all decorative stuff meant to be used when there r parties. i hope that oversized bowl can hold enough almond jelly longan for 15 pple.
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my hob is fujioh stainless steel. no hood. hv u bought all ur appliances, electricals n furniture already?
 
Hi Och ~

I always thought the Lifebaby dept stuffs super duper CUTE! hehe..but ex hor... I think your oversize big bowl should be really deep ba...can lar..can feed 15 ppl. You having some house warming soon?
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Nope nope...i haven't bought my electrical and furniture yet.

You didn't get a hood? I don't intend to get one too. :P

Hi Summerala,

It's easy to set a budget but the problem is keeping to the budget. hehe..cos it's human nature to want the best for yourself. A little bit extra here and a little bit extra there..end up spend a lot more! Phew!!

I'm not doing laminated flooring..cos although the color looks really nice, i don't like the way it sounds. Very hollow. But if you really like laminated flooring and it will go well with your decor, then you may want to consider.
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Most importantly, for all the $$ spent, make sure you get what you like and not what other ppl say is nice/good. Afterall, it's your home not theirs! hehe
 
Hi Ssmilezz

Ya I agree with you..I actually prefer parquet to laminated flooring... But parquet is quite expensive leh.. and high maintanence too....

I guess for me.. most likely I will end up having homogeneous tiles for my rooms....

So how much did u spend in total for your reno....
 
Hi Summerala,

Quite true lar, if you pick nice looking homo tiles, the overall look is very clean. Quite nice too!

Not too sure what my final costs will be like. There has been some changes. :P
 
hi summerala,

are you getting polished or matt homogeneous tiles? if u r air-conditioning the bedrooms, polished tiles will feel rather cold in the mornings.
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ssmilez> my grooves still fine.. not much dust coz i haven't use yet... hehehe
summerala> my rooms are in laminate.. so far so good.. no hollow sound.. only starting few days.. have to walk on them frequently. anyway, homo tiles not very good for legs if u have aircon in room..
my living/dining is homo tiles.. though no aircon, but my place is very windy.. in morning, when walk, vey cold.. that i bought those big cushioned slippers to wear.. so think carefully..
parquet or laminate is fine.. think in long term instead.. no point spend little $$ now, but within 5 yrs, change it and waste more $$ in demolishing.
 
How is matt homogeneous tiles like?? rougher surface?

Ya, my rooms will be air conditioned.. so next time must wear shoes le.... is homogeneous tiles slippery? or they are all slippery... me quite lazy and clumsy one... cannot live in place that need high maintenance and and is very slippery.haha...

oh.. so u all just renovated your hse too??? I read thr the whole forum... seems like Ho Bee got the most supporters... heehee even in reno talk.... but of coz some of the ppl there are from here....

Did U all go to IDs for quotation before gettin Ho Bee to reno ur hse... there are quite a few IDs i came across that sound over confident and bit booastful... make me cannot stand it.. hopefully contractors will be better....
 
hi summerala,

matt homogeneous do not necessarily have rougher surface. they are just not shiny the way polished homogeneous tiles are. if you want something non-slip, some matt homo tiles have texture on them.

i have more or less finished my minor renovations. now waiting for rectifications to be completed.
 
Does Ho Bee have its own carpentry workshop? Does it sub out its work like tiling/ceiling/window/painting/elect works etc...to other sub-contractors or have its own workers do them? Since they are so popular, presuming business so good, I wonder how they can cope with their works? Will their standard drop?
 
Hi Meg,

if i am not wrong, Ho Bee hv their own carpentry workshop. I had met Patrick twice, he is pretty fast on responsing quote. And i must say that he gave pracical advise. For me, more or less i will setting my mind on Ho Bee. But my FH actually wanted to engage Impress cos the price dat they quote is really attractive.
 
Hi hi,

They do have a few teams of ppl doing the reno and they are being assigned to different projects at on different days.

Och ~ Has Patrick gone down to rectify yet? I haven't had a good week man..the tiling isn't as good as I thought. Been telling them to rectify cos the tiles are simply too crooked or gaps way too big.
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How do you find their gouting works? Cos mine wasn't done properly at all! I had grey tiles and they used light colored gouting - doesn't make any sense to me at all. Really need to get them to rectify. You know what? We already reminded them twice that we wanted darker gouting so it wouldn't look too obvious. *sighz*

See how it goes. FH's isn't too happy man....:P
 
Hi bluzcorner, has Patrick gone to your flat for site measurement? Will he give you any drawings/designs to see first or must we commit before he will show us the drawings?
 
ssmilezz> whcih team u get.. the aunt and uncle team better or the fat caprentry uncle.. the rest so-so..

my tiles also like that.. in the end the uncle and auntie team comes and did for us.. better but coz the tiles also not even.. so at least the gaps are smaller..
but they forgot to polish 4 us.. so my living got 2 colors liao..
but i got no time to settle this first(that time new yr).. now busy with AD stuff...
sigh..
 
Hi Meg,

Patrick will usually go down for a site measurement. But don't expect any drawings/designs unless you have something in mind. Cos whatever designs/drawings are all from your own ideas.
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For most of us, i think we communicated our ideas to them via drawings/sketches so that he knows what we want.

Hi Nihpcac ~ I dunno which team leh...cos I don't get to see them but I believe mostly guys (one younger and one middle age guy). And there has been a few teams coming in and out of my place.

We were quite upset actually cos the grouting was really very very badly done. And some of the tiles (esp those at eye level) were crooked. Very obvious. Already told him and he says will get it rectified. Erm..i really dunno leh..see how it goes.

FH even said to me..eh, i know their tiling works supposed to be good? How come like that? *shrugs* I also cannot answer him.

Huh? How come can forget to polish?? Gosh....must remind Malcom to get it rectifed ok?

When is your AD? Don't get too stressed hor...
 
hey ssmilezz,
tiles r impt leh. if u think it's not good, must say something immediately, else it will be a huge hassle to change later. changing tiles create a lot of dust!

by right, if u tell them ahead of time, the groutings should be in the colour of your choice leh. what colour did you want? grey? sometimes it's not possible to get exact shade lah, but they should let you know and try to find the nearest match. my tilers were consistently the auntie/uncle pair, auntie is a good tiler, uncle does the grouting. he told me he couldn't find the right grey colour for my greyish floor tiles, so my grouting was a light grey.

i think new groutings can be applied to cover the previous colour, or at least i hope so, cos the grouting on my replacement tiles r not white, like the rest of the walls, but yellowish.
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see already also want to faint.

my rectifications still ongoing. one of the items i wanted was skirting for a new false wall. patrick couldn't find the tiles i wanted for skirting
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, and he finally gave up on tues, said he will continue with the rest of rectifications while he and i continue looking for the right tiles. besides skirting, the only item left is the shower screen, which was apparently made but not delivered yet. the workers were too busy, i heard.
 
hi ppl

i always heard good comments abt Ho Bee 's tiling... how come now seems like three of u also got prob... haiz...scary.. Hope they will do a good job after retiling... I tot usu we will choose the tiles in the shop sellin tiles? How come eventually we might not get the tiles we want??

By the way what is grouting?
 
ok.. pple.. take in this way.. reno sure got problems one.. when we said is good, means the procedures and process and after service is good..compared to other pple..
heard from friends that other reno add $$$ till they fedup, never listen to house owners, did wrong stuff and insist that they are rite, etc.. but so far for HO BEE, nothing like that happens..
also, differnet pple different standards.. so what we think is not so good, others may think is fine..
though my tiles' gaps and grouting not nice, but as what they said, only pple who are into reno or is midst of reno will look, else, other pple look at other stuff..
i too got a shock when they did the tiling.. but malcolm said rect later.. what to do.. they have a schedule.. so by the time all finished, the flooring's cement very dry.. so rect also hard.. hmm.. sometimes, dunno why they do this.. *shrug*
 
hi summerala, grouting is the coloured stuff in between tiles. tiles come in batches, so the tiles in 1 batch may not exactly match the tiles in another batch. it's especially obvious in natural stones, e.g. marble n granite.

agree with nihpcac, reno sure got problems one. and as home owners, we r usually the most picky. we see flaws that others won't. when i go to other pple's home, i also dun scrutinise their tiling the same way i do mine.

i will say that patrick's tile layers r abv ave lah, not perfect. when u hv very flat smooth tiles, that's when any mistakes made r more obvious. if u find it bad, u can ask for a retile. so far, patrick had been very willing to rectify any mistakes made.

in my case, the glass shower screen guys cracked my tiles during installation, hence the need for reinstallation. as for the skirting, i din change the floor tiles in the area, only added a false wall and boy, is it difficult to find similar-looking tiles for skirting.
 
Hi nihpcac and och

thank you for your info... ya I agree ith what u all say. as the owner we will usu become more particular and naggy sometimes.....

By the way, did u all consider impress21 before.. heard also not bad.. price cheaper but workmanship incomparable to Ho bee lei
 
Hi ladies!

Yes, I already did pacify the grouting in advance lar..but maybe miscommunication or something. The color I got was light blue..it totally clashes so have to redo. I wouldn't mind light grey if they can't get a darker shade. But erm..baby blue? cannot lar...:P hehe

Hi Och -Usually he rectifies for me before he proceeds on so not a problem with that. Everytime we pointed out those we wanted to be rectified, it was done eventually. So not so bad. Phew. The plumbers came recently ~ friendly indian workers. :-) They carry even more "happening" hps compared to me. LOL!

Actually Summerala, Patrick has been responsive lar..but maybe it's the workers that get a little careless at times. They left our tap on one day and we discovered it cos we happened to go there one night. When we told Patrick, he was wasn't too happy and said will tell the workers off. Subsequently, the next day, another batch of workers can down liao....:P

I spoke to Henry before and even visited one of his completed units. :-)
 
Hi Meg,

My FH are still negotiating the quote so have not ask Patrick to do a site measurement. For me, i don't intend to get Patrick to show me the drawing first as this can be amended. I would like to get Patrick to bring me to his clients' place instead. Anybody here can let me view your love nest?

Hi Summerala,

My FH is very tempted to sign Impress 21 as their price is really low! But i had the impression that their worksmanship is not gd.. so i rather pay a little more for Ho Bee as everybody here seems to tink d worksmanship is gd.
 
hi summerala,
u r welcome.
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i asked impress for a quote, but they never came back to me.

hey ssmilezz,
glad to hear rectifications r being made. aiyo, maybe the tiler not very good with colours. baby blue with grey?!
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all the plumbers carry very happening handphones and their ringtones are also very updated!
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think i know which pair of plumbers u got. the short indian worker is very nice n responsible.

patrick just told me that if i don't start looking for tiles soon, he's going to get his painters in to paint my skirting.
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hi bluzcorner,
patrick has so many projects on his hands now, i'm sure he can show u an apt easily.

dun think my house is a good showcase. my house is like rojak, patrick only did 2 of my bathrooms, the rest r done by various pple over the yrs. think u will get very confused abt who did what n where. :P
 
hi och,
1st day of reno.So far so good. Patrick is very pro active. I was surprised that he actually remembered to install a temporary instant water heater for us to use in the lower floor bathroom.Nice touch.
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Ya,I think he has many projects on his hands.Maybe 1 near my place cos I see his workers came in and out.One chatty worker told me they left to another house but they were back in the afternoon.
 
Hi all

Mus really show me your photos when you finish your reno leh..... I cant wait to renovate my hse... but now still too early leh... Coz will oni move in at Dec.....



Do we need to meet up with patrick for the quotation?? Does he draw?? or roughly we tell him what he wan and he jus show us sketches ....??

How long did u all take before u confirm with Patrick??? Do we go down to his office to meet him or what...So u all got look at Impress21's work too?


paiseh... got a lot of question marks lah....
 
Hi Och ~

Yah, FH says perhaps the tilers are colorblind? It's so glaringly wrong but they left it as it is? hehe... Or-bi sia!

The pair of plumbers are nice friendly chaps. And I'm so jealous of their hps. hehe...Their hp kept on ringing...busy busy man. They finished up in the afternoon and said they were going to another project after taking their lunch. They should be back to continue with the remaining plumbing once the tiles are rectified.

Go look for your tiles! Don't take too long...what exactly do you have in mind?

Hi Summerala ~

Have you gotten your keys yet? :-) Patrick doesn't draw. Only Malcom does. And his carpenter (Ah Keong) does good freehand sketches.

You can meet him to discuss your quotation if not, you can always get him to email the quotation to you. Actually, since you have quite a lot of time before starting on your reno, you may want to look around and do more research. No harm actually. No need to commit so early too. Perhaps sometime in Sept (after the 7th month) would be a better time to contact him again.
 
Hi Och ~

Yah, FH says perhaps the tilers are colorblind? It's so glaringly wrong but they left it as it is? hehe... Or-bi sia!

The pair of plumbers are nice friendly chaps. And I'm so jealous of their hps. hehe...Their hp kept on ringing...busy busy man. They finished up in the afternoon and said they were going to another project after taking their lunch. They should be back to continue with the remaining plumbing once the tiles are rectified.

Go look for your tiles! Don't take too long...what exactly do you have in mind?

Hi Summerala ~

Have you gotten your keys yet? :-) Patrick doesn't draw. Only Malcom does. And his carpenter (Ah Keong) does good freehand sketches.

You can meet him to discuss your quotation if not, you can always get him to email the quotation to you. Actually, since you have quite a lot of time before starting on your reno, you may want to look around and do more research. No harm actually. No need to commit so early too. Perhaps sometime in Sept (after the 7th month) would be a better time to contact him again.
 
hi vl,
glad to hear ur reno started on time!
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patrick is quite proactive and he's experienced enough, so he can anticipate our needs. hv u confirmed ur vanity designs?

hi summerala,
i din meet patrick for quotation. we communicated over phone n email to get first couple of quotations, then patrick came for a site visit and we visited one of his client's apt. i was rushing for cny, so i confirmed quite fast, within a mth of contacting him. dun think he's in his office much. every time i call him, he's in his car or at a client's place.

i agree with ssmilezz, u still hv time, so it's good to look around.

afaik, patrick doesn't draw. ah keong will draw out the carpentry pieces u hv in mind.

hey ssmilezz,
haha, maybe the guy doing grouting was really colorblind. so the grouting was the main problem? that can be changed quite easily right? i'm hving mine changed as well, as n when i find the tiles to do the skirting.
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the tiles r for the skirting of a new false wall. it's ceramic n country-style i think. the skirting has to match the current floor tiles n the remaining skirtings, which were laid 10 yrs ago.
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very busy this week, let's hope i hv time to hunt for tiles this weekend. it's a lot of trouble finding similar-looking tiles i tell u, so order more tiles n keep them in storage.
 
Hi och,

just like to check, is Ho Bee capentry works and their quality really gd?

I had been asking Patrick to bring me to his customer apt but he say now he now do not hv any customer who is doing a lot of carpentry.

Well, this thread actually gave me some confident on him and hope he dun disappoint me...... i guess i will sign him as my contractor pretty soon.
 
hi bluzcorner,

r u doing mainly carpentry? unfortunately, i belong to the group of clients who had little carpentry from patrick, so i am not a good judge of whether his carpentry is good or not. i only hv a small vanity cabinet from him.
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the house i visited b4 i signed patrick had a lot of carpentry. i only looked at the living room n kitchen carpentry, not the bedrooms. my personal opinion then was that the carpentry is done quite well lah, above avg. the main problem i saw were in the cabinet doors, which were not aligned properly yet, ie. some hinges were loose n others too tight. but these can be tuned quite easily, so i dunno if they weren't aligned well cos it's still a work in progress or what. it's definitely not something more serious, like my carpenter leaving me holes in my cabinet.
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when do you need to move into your place? is yours new or resale?
 


bluzcorner> i can only say my neighbours who are also doing reno with other IDs came along and they commented the material and quality and the number of items done in terms of carpentry is very reasonable and they do think of future uses too..
i'm a medium cook so Malcolm suggested me to have doors to keep away the smoke though he said that most of the pp will wan doors but never use.. anywya, the doors are quite sturdy except that he had forgotten to put lock on it..so when wind blows, my doors will close by itself..
dun worry.. if they dared to give a 5 yr warranty, unlike other ID who gave a yr, things can't be that bad..else within 5 yrs they have to rectify a lot of stuff, rite?
 

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