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No renovation is without mistakes. Lapse of concentration, miscommunication, poor skills, and lack of foresight are the reasons why mistakes occur. My renovation work was no different.
Here's a partial list of the major errors made in the course of my renovation project:
Misalignment of Rain Shower Arm
When the plumber installed the rain shower fitting, he did not align vertically the shower arm with the shower tap. He probably overlooked using a plumb line to check vertical alignment.
Position of shower arm
Position of shower tap - not vertically aligned!
Lapse of concentration, laziness - whatever the reason - the misalignment mistake was unacceptable as it was painfully obvious, right?
In fact, the tiler should have alerted the ID or owner when he first noticed the misalignment, but did not. Maybe he was tired, because he had arrived late in the afternoon at about 4 pm to do the tiling. When asked by the ID, he maintained the owner saw the work and said nothing, so he thought the owner did not mind! The misalignment was not apparent because the partition wall was then not tiled yet. It became painfully obvious after the partition wall was tiled on 24-Mar-08.
Plumber came today (25-Mar-08) to hack and re-align the shower pipe, using the white grout line as a guide. Tiler will have to re-tile the affected area in subsequent days:
Luckily my ID was a responsible guy. Except on two occasions, he did not offer any excuses nor made any rebuttal when I pointed out errors made in the course of the renovation work. And he was by and large quick to resolve the problem, in that he attended to my complaint of the problems within 30 minutes of being alerted to them, though sometimes rectification took longer because the subcon were not immediately available to redo the work.
Mistake again!
After the tiler had completed the re-tiling, I noticed he had used his own initiative to further "adjust" the position of the pipe. The result was that the shower arm was now not perfectly vertically aligned with the shower tap, although the plumber had earlier already corrected the vertical alignment. Golly, what was the tiler thinking? Maybe the shower fitting is jinxed? *grin*
Slight misalignment - mistake by tiler this time!
The tiler was apologetic. I decided to let it pass as the misalignment was slight and unless one looks closely, not obvious to the casual observer. But it is a sore sight to my eyes!!!
I should have been there at the bathroom to supervise the tiler's work and never take things for granted. OK, lesson learnt!
Hole for basin pipe was mindlessly covered up by cement lump!
Owing to a lack of foresight or focus, the tiler inadvertently cemented and covered the original hole in the bathroom floor that was meant for
the hand basin discharge pipe. This was a major error, for the hand basin could not simply discharge its waste water onto the bathroom floor! The tiler lamely said re-hacking away the cement lump would damage the waterproofing layer in the bathroom floor, making it necessary to re-do the water-proofing for the entire kitchen floor! Arrggh, what to do? I grudgingly decided to let it pass.
Waste water pipe from the hand basin outside the bathroom:
Finally, a less elegant solution was to cut a hole in the plastic trap for the hand basin piping. Luckily there would be a partition wall to box up the ugly piping in the bathroom!
Bathroom and toilet door: architrave not top-aligned with each other
As a mirror would occupy the space between the two doors, the non-alignment at the top would show as the mirror top would not be in-line with the doors. Plainly unacceptable!
Wood moulding placed above both door architrave to show sloping error:
Architrave -- poorly fitted against window
Offending architrave removed, pending proper fitting:
Other issues were:
Uneven skirting
Problem was caused by the uneven wall, and tiler simply cut and tiled the granite skirting to follow the unevenness. Neither the ID nor the owner were alerted. When the problem was subsequently discovered after an inspection, tiler had to remove the skirting, then hack away part of the uneven wall, and re-tile.
Fault was due to the uneven wall. Would be appreciative if tiler had alerted owner to the issue before tiling.
Wrong positioning of double socket point
Electrician will correct the positioning in subsequent days.
Internet piping in floor
Tiler did not discuss with owner or ID how the PVC pipe will be aligned with the skirting. Not a major issue, can live with it.
One instead of two feed cable for SCV
Electrician on his own initiative laid one SCV cable instead of two from the SCV junction box outside the flat.
Probably too late to lay 2 cables now as it will spoil the nice plastic trunking laid. Will try and see what can be done.
Mistake in light switches
Not yet discussed. Probably could change design of light fixtures to accommodate the switches.
Smelly toilet
Plumber claimed silicone sealant is not normally applied to seal pan collar to the sewage hole when I asked him to apply. Should have insisted, because after installation the toilet smells! Tried self-applied silicone to the base, that reduced the smell somewhat. But bad smell still persisted.
Solution: If the smell persists after a few more days, plumber will have to remove the toilet bowl and apply sealant to the pan collar, then re-install the toilet bowl!
Completion delay
The window fabricator had already stopped taking orders when the contract was signed with the ID. That caused the delay, but the extent and severity of the delay on project completion was unforeseen. Will prepare better in future.
Poor water outflow as tiler forgot to slope floor of bathroom and toilet
Not a severe problem, as a mop could be used to clean the toilet. Nevertheless, problem should not have happened if tiler had correctly sloped the floor in the course of the tiling work.
Fridge door unable to open fully to 270 deg
Fridge depth was 80cm and tiler created cement wall with same 80cm depth. As a result the fridge door could open only to 90 deg, whereas
it must open to 150% or more to permit frdige shelving to be taken out for cleaning.
Wrong color for laminated flooring
ID asked the worker to remove the wrong color tiles and redo the laminated flooring. However the color was still too dark for owner's taste. Decided to live with it.
HDB approval delayed for hacking wall
The HDB officer claimed 10-day delay was caused by incorrect submission by the design firm. However, approval was given immediately when ID submitted correct drawings.
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3
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What Will We Do Differently?
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