The Right Contractor I

Finding the right ID/contractor was crazy.

A shoe-string budget of 15-20K and an infinite wish-list for renovation works does not go well -
it's like a soldier
armed with a spork
in the iraq war. How to fight?!?

Everyone else says for what I want, a budget of 20K to 25K is more realistic.... :(
But I shan't give up in my search for The Right Contractor~~! =)






At first look in the Straits Times Classified Ads, my seemingly shoestring budget seems more than enough for the advertised renovation packages, and there were so many Interior Decoration firms advertising them~!
1) Classic Ideas
2) U-HOME
3) Weiken
4) Darwin Interior
5) LWT Design
6) HomeWorkz
7) 3D Innovation
8) LegoHouse

Most of the companies have packages priced between 10-18K for budget-conscious pple like me, which seemed great at first, but not so later as I find out.

Being the relentless bargain hunter which I am, I naturally went to look through many many many ID firms and contractors.

IMM
I started off @ IMM first, as it is very near my workplace.
1) Weiken (IMM)
2) GPlan (IMM)
3) U-HOME (IMM)
4) A Win (IMM)

Analysis:
After walking through these few ID firms, the quotations they provided were starting from 12K (bare minimal comfort level) and up to 25K for all the good-to-haves. A more comfortable level medium point will cost me around 19K, which still seemed too much for my miserable spork of a budget.


TradeHub 21
Then I worked with TradeHub21
5) Weiken(TradeHub)
6) 2Form (TradeHub)
7) NorthWest (TradeHub)

Analysis:
My scout senior friend took up NorthWest's services and recommended me a visit there, and I find NorthWest quite a good buy (and I almost took it up!)

They came up a quite a spectacular package and dazzled me with fantastic throw-in offers like aircons, solid tops, hood, hub, sink, tap at cheap prices+++. Factoring in all the freebies, my final analysis on them is that they are out to price-cut their neighbouring competitors with their packages, but their additional items are quite costly (maybe that's where they earn the moola!) However, I find that the designers are quite young in the trade and very eager to clinch deals, leaving me to wonder how good they are at delivering the service. Very attractive prices, though!


Queenstown local IDs/Contractors
After that, I purposed for the local contractors around Queenstown, namely
8) Lowe Living Concept (Queenstown)
9) Pravut Construction & Trading (Queenstown)
10) Promax Homemakers (Queenstown)
11)Zhi Seng Building Construction (Pte) Ltd (or Bounty Design) (Queenstown)
thinking that they might be cheaper since they spend less on marketing.

Analysis:
Lowe was a home-based interior designer. I think he overpriced me quite a lot and works by aggaration.

Pravut operates from a hardware store and is run by an old uncle who seems very experienced. But he doesn't communicate very well and never returned my email for quotation even though he said he can give very cheap prices since he opens a hardware store and has his own equipment. Would have been very interested in seeing his quotation and work, though.

Promax seemed like an honest and reliable business, serving the community in Queensway Shopping Centre, but their prices were slightly on the higher even though I believe that's because they deliver quality service.

Zhiseng operates a nice and long established business in the commonwealth/queenstown area. I have heard many testaments about their service and quality in relation to their prices. Under my evaluation, it came in my top 3 firms. Will blog about it in the next entry.


Others
12) Lego Design (Paya Leba City Plaza)
13) Summit Design (Eunos Tecnolink)
14) 3D Innovation (Hougang)
15) Ah Soon
16) Patrick from Ho Bee

Analysis:
Lego Design is my top 3 firms as well. They charge VERY reasonable prices. Will blog about it in the next entry.

Summit Design is the ID of my very good friend, Eugene. I look at Eugene's quotation and like it a lot already. However, I think his ID quoted me slightly higher than Zhiseng and Lego Design did, so I never got back to him. Maybe I never cut price enough..

3D Innovation came a bit too late, and though the prices looked reasonable, I had no more time and energy to evaluate it further. I have already 90% lock on my final firm already (whose price was quite impossible to beat~!)

Ah Soon is a black horse and I shall blog about him in the next entry.

Patrick from Ho Bee is very much mentioned in Renotalk and Singaporebrides. I met up with him one evening at Jurong East after work, but he never did get back to me with a renovation quotation. =(


In my next post, I will zoom in on my final selections for the Right Contractor.


In recap, I went to source for quotation from at least 16 ID/contractors (I didn't include the ones I saw at Bukit Timah Plaza), including:

1) Weiken (IMM)
2) GPlan (IMM)
3) U-HOME (IMM)
4) A Win (IMM)
5) Weiken(TradeHub)
6) 2Form (TradeHub)
7) NorthWest (TradeHub)
8) Lowe Living Concept (Queenstown)
9) Pravut Construction & Trading (Queenstown)
10) Promax Homemakers (Queenstown)
11)Zhi Seng Building Construction (Pte) Ltd (or Bounty Design) (Queenstown)
12) Lego Design (Paya Leba City Plaza)
13) Summit Design (Eunos Tecnolink)
14) 3D Innovation (Hougang)
15) Ah Soon (Queenstown)
16) Patrick from Ho Bee (?)