Workmanship: Walls & Floor

Workmanship Series
 1 Good Workmanship
 2 Workmanship: Dispute Resolution
 3 Workmanship: Walls & Floor
 4 Workmanship: Laminated Floor
 5 Workmanship: Electrical Work
 6  Workmanship: Air-Conditioner
 7 Workmanship: Doors & Architrave
 8 Workmanship: Gas Piping & Gas Dryer
 9 Workmanship: Kitchen Works
10 Workmanship: Hide Ugly Pipes
11 Workmanship: Windows
12 Workmanship: Plumbing

"Good design cannot hide poor and slipshod workmanship. On the contrary, good workmanship will make a simple design truly outstanding."

Give me good workmanship over design any time, as I cannot tolerate poor quality of work!

I was fortunate my ID had access to a pool of skillful workers and tradesmen, and heaved a sigh of relief when the tilers commenced work. Despite having visited two job sites

and having seen for myself the quality of work done, I still harbored some apprehension. Perhaps the workers assigned to my home reno may be a different group? One with not much experience?

My fears were groundless.

For once the tilers started work, it was immediately apparent these people, under Mr Yeau the team leader, took pride in their work. They used sharp knives to cut the tiles. And made effort and time to measure and ensure lines were straight and level, before they commenced tiling. They told me the team allowed only experienced workers to do the tiling. And pointed out a young man who had joined the team recently and was still learning on-the-job. His duties were to help carry the tiles, soak them in water, clean the floor, and other menial jobs. But not do the tiling nor the measurement!

You can imagine my respect for these people shot up several notches. I would be none the wiser had they simply asked the trainee to do the tiling. Of course the outcome would not be what I've seen, maybe even shoddy - as readers have complained on forums.

During the preparatory stage they pointed out my flat had several inherent defects: walls not straight, some

slanted, wall corner edges not true so that plastering had to be carried out first. And uneven floor level.

These tilers were really professional - I saluted them. See their excellent workmanship in these photos!

Beautifully tiled wall, with straight vertical edging, clean lines, thin grouting:

Clean and not jagged abutment of the tile with the wood frame:

Even the tile behind the pipe was beautifully placed:

Cleanly cut hole for unhindered water flow in toilet floor. Also, notice the red thin plastic strip sticking out near the bottom between the tiles? That's how meticulous the tiler was to ensure thin, even grouting!

Very clean and neat tiling on the kitchen wall. See the thin strip of tile carefully and cleanly cut to fit nicely with the door frame?

Excellent joint-work where the living room granite floor meets the kitchen homogeneous tiles. The granite was rounded to remove sharp edges:

Even the cement slab for the kitchen cabinet was neatly tiled:

Graceful touch to granite flooring with additional piece to outside floor:

Living room granite floor before acid wash:

To Be Continued..

Workmanship Series
 1 Good Workmanship
 2 Workmanship: Dispute Resolution
 3 Workmanship: Walls & Floor
 4 Workmanship: Laminated Floor
 5 Workmanship: Electrical Work
 6  Workmanship: Air-Conditioner
 7 Workmanship: Doors & Architrave
 8 Workmanship: Gas Piping & Gas Dryer
 9 Workmanship: Kitchen Works
10 Workmanship: Hide Ugly Pipes
11 Workmanship: Windows
12 Workmanship: Plumbing

Tiles as Wall Art

Seems large tile pieces have begun to appear locally. Some of the pieces are 30 x 90 cm in size, making them particularly appropriate as wall art. Leading tile manufacturers in Italy and Germany seem to be behind the trend, producing large beautiful pieces, some of which were commissioned to leading artists by the manufacturers.

I am positive the trend will catch on in Singapore.








I was sorely tempted to use the above copper-toned tile pieces, or the lovely "craggy" stone tile pieces below, for a feature wall. However, the existing beam in the living room -- whether left untiled or tiled will not blend in with the feature wall -- made me drop the idea subsequently.

Workmanship - Floor and Walls

QUOTE
Good design cannot hide poor and slipshod workmanship. On the contrary, good workmanship will make a simple design truly outstanding.
UNQUOTE

Give me good workmanship over design any time, as I cannot tolerate poor quality of work.

It was indeed fortunate my ID has access to a pool of really skillful workers and tradesmen. I heaved a sigh of relief when the tilers

commenced their work. Despite having visited two project job sites and seen for myself the quality of work done, I still harbored some apprehension the workers assigned for my job may be a different group, one with not much experience perhaps.

ID ScrapBook

My fears were quickly laid to rest.

For the minute the tilers started their work, it was immediately apparent to me these workers, under Mr Yeau the team leader, took pride in their work. They wielded sharp knives to cut the tiles, taking

much time to measure and check lines are straight and level before they do the tiling. I also learnt the team allowed only experienced workers to do the tiling. There was a young man who had joined the team early in the year. And he was still learning on-the-job. His duties were to carry the tiles, soak them in water, clean the floor. And other menial jobs. But not do the tiling nor the measurement!

You can imagine my respect for these people shot up several notches! Had they not told me their training method I certainly would not have known. They could simply have allowed the trainee to tile the floor, and get on with the job in a slip-shod manner. But they did not, kudos to their professionalism and sense of pride in their work.

During the preparatory stage I learnt that my flat had several inherent defects: walls not straight, some in fact slanted at an angle, corner edges of walls did not square truly, requiring plastering to be carried out, and uneven floor level!

The following photos showed the good workmanship and professionalism of the tilers:
Beautifully tiled wall, with straight vertical edging, clean lines, and thin grouting:

Clean and not jagged abutment of the tile with the wood frame:

Even the tile behind the pipe was beautifully placed:

Cleanly cut hole for unhindered water flow in toilet floor. Also, notice the red thin plastic strip sticking out near the bottom between the tiles? That's how meticulous the tiler was to ensure thin and even grouting!

Very clean and neat tiling on the kitchen wall. See the thin strip of tile carefully and cleanly cut to fit nicely with the door frame?

Excellent joint-work where the living room granite floor meets the kitchen homogeneous tiles. The granite was rounded to remove sharp edges:

Even the cement slab for the kitchen cabinet was neatly tiled:

Graceful touch to granite flooring with additional piece to outside floor:

Living room granite floor before acid wash:

23-April-2010 - Re: Comment Box
Our apologies to Kenny for being unable to respond via the Comment Box. Seems Blogger is broken, as other bloggers have trouble with Comments on their blogs too.

We've put up an Announcement on the problem.

Meanwhile, Kenny, we have corrected the problem of the missing photos. The links to Imageshack, originally hosting our earlier renovation photos, don't seem to work.

We have now shifted the affected photos to Picasaweb.

Hope you enjoy the photos, Kenny!