I am an extremely dissatisfied customer. Would like to make this known so that others would not fall into this trap. Beware of a contractor named Ability Renovations and Engineering Works.
Terrible quality in the renovation materials. Cracks everywhere on the wall surfaces, leaking problems in roof areas, spots and grease marks on paint job that could never come off, horrible installation of fittings, plaster ceiling that is cracking etc. I regretted using Ability, spent so much from getting the drawing done and approved, buying premium paint, tiles and fittings and in the end, after 3 months of moving in, the house seems to be falling apart. Don't fall for the after-reno services given as well... recurring problems not solved. Ability has an absent site Manager and a good-for-nothing Indon supervisor. Overall spent 350k++ in this renovations and I get an eggshell house

Oh yes...now my second daikin aircond is having problems from the piping installed by them. How dissed am i?

i thought they should provide warranty for some period whereby any damage wud be repaired for free

Yes they do..but then again the how much 'repair' can you tolerate especially when new ones keep popping up?
one roof leak occurs and 'patched' up and another pops up for example. And when you re'plaster' the wall because of the cracks, it really would pretty to your eyes. Your aircond topped working properly and when you called the daikin tech guys and they come and show you how shoddy the installation was done.

I dun mind even being charged for the repairs but once you have spent close to 350k on your home reno and these things keep coming up, I am sure you'd be angry as well.
I particularly liked the way they would come and say ..oh small matter' and then do some shoddy repair work.

I am not meaning any malice, just a precaution to any good fellow out there who is thinking of appointing a contractor. Maybe my mistake was to appoint them as the umbrella contractor and they subbed certain portions of the work to others. All in all it was a gross disappointment

350k better buy new house la. did u report to police/persatuan pengguna malaysia?

better show some pictures as proof else you can be considered as defaming them

better make a police report and report to persatuaan pengguna

Wow 350k on reno?i bet your house at least is a 'BIG' double storey minimum

Thank you....would look into it.

better report to KPDNKK...

yes it is a big house

and to everyone

will do the necessary reporting to the relevant authorities. Thank you for your feedback. I started this topic to forewarn people. It will be shame if anyone else gets into this situation I am in now..especially now as we know...money is hard to come by

A sad case....

Wish you all the best...

since u pay that much for them to reno for u... just let them repair until u r satisfied... and report as being recommend by others... u deserve the defect liability period... and they have to do it for u... can i know whether u have paid the full amount to them? or still having some balance not yet settle? if still have balance better dont pay them off... >.<

Without prejudice or malice aforethought:-

The total cost stated is inclusive of my own purchases of fittings i.e tiles, security and safety doors, grille work and other kitchen and toilet fittings etc. I have not even made issue when they wrongly installed the tiles resulting into hacking the 2x2 tiles off. Not to mention the multiple times i have to go and buy the same tiles because of wrong estimation by them, they have also wrongly installed some of bathroom fittings and bent my retractable Teka kitchen tap...sighs


sadly most of the defects started showing after we have moved in which means yes we have fully paid off the contractor. True to their word though, we did call them several times to rectify these defects..but i dunno-lah...maybe dah takde hati kan...when they repair one defect, new ones will come out until we are jaded and fed up. they do more damage than good. Their supervisor hadari while rectifying one roof leak, dislodged the alarm sensor in the ceiling above our foyer which means we have to rectify separately.

Todate the defects (the ones that i can instantly recall)are:
1/ Cracks on the plaster ceiling in the main kitchen, family room and wet kitchen
2. Cracks on the family room wall, main kitchen walls
3. cracks on the outside retaining wall
4. wiring shorting and crackling sounds in some switches
5. damaged aircond piping (the daikin tech guys confirmed it..at the moment 2 airconds....6 more to go all installed by the contractor's men)
6. recurring wet patches on walls due to undercoat being painted on damp plaster..(has repainted many times..and we use Jotun paint)
7. 1 cctv camera not working
8. water leaks in the roof

all these cracks and such appeared only after we have moved in and now we have resorted to appointing specialist repairmen/contractors to rectify these individual defects. All these defects prevailed even after we had given them the approved drawings from a separate appointed architect.
I have to admit, the finished facade is absolutely fabulous to the naked eye..but all in all as I have said. it was a disappointment.

Will do the necessary as advised but would just caution fellow forum mates of this contractor. Dun fall for lip service.

Mind if i ask, how long did the renovation take? It sound like a very quick job. Did you do Skim coat?

sad to hear that u r actually move in... my new house reno also got crack, and i still not yet settle the balance... that why i still can ask the contractor to come fix the crack for me until im satisfy before i settle the balance for him...

Hmmm from what i heard from many contractor they say if wall crack they just use some putty and paste the crack and after sometime the crack will visible back and might get bigger but this is just what i heard la dont know true or not.So what the point to repair?

This post has been edited by Becabal: Oct 6 2011, 04:45 PM

Usually a cracked wall is the result of an extension that did not use footings and ground beams to avoid wall sinking. Only possible fix is to dig a footing under the wall which even then may not be possible in most cases.

post some of the renovated parts pictures here .

hi, thanks for letting us know - useful. I think this is a great place to share experiences with builders - good and bad - to help each other.
I am considering 2 builders to construct a small bungalow. I will give you all feedback (in a year and a half or two!) re. whomever i choose. Right now, has anybody had experience with:
GABUNGAN REKABINA SDN BHD (Kajang)
or Stewart Teo (Sri Kembangan)
or can anybody recommend one in Ampang area (where the site will be)?

I am not only specifying the design of the house, i am producing the draft bill of materials & suppliers list. Hopefully this will help ensure i get what i expect & pay for.
If anybody has advice, i'd be grateful......
Thanks in advance for feedback & I'll keep you posted.....

mind to share your renovation photo with us?

We have contractor alert, maybe contractor can make a topic of "House owner alert". Why I say this, because sometime is the house owner problem, and don't want to make payment and try to make things hard for the contractor. I know such things happen.

agree with JinXXX on the pics. since u are a fairly new user @ LYN, ppl might think u are defaming the contractor. Perhaps you could post some pictures as proof of the horrible works done.

This is something quite true. I happen to be having lunch with a contractor friend of mine recently when he received a phone call from his lawyer pertaining to a case that he has taken up with one of his client. BTW, this client is a famous Tan Sri. The construction of his bungalow was completed as per the instructions and specification of the Architect engaged by the house owner. The house owner is now refusing to honour payments for some of the work done and certifies by the Architect & QS. This now, going into arbitration.
Sometimes, these owners thinks that they are somebody and thinks that they can get away with what ever they wants.

Not only about rich person, some other customer some time is pain in the azz also.

After 6 months of doing renovation, I made many friends with contractor and worker, one worker when we where having tea told me they face a customer previously that hold 10% of final payment don't want to give, asking them to extra work, and end up only give 5%.

Another one even better, ask few contractor to quote, than use the lowest quote and show to the other contractors and ask for lower, and ask again few more round of contractor to lower the price using other quote. End up the house half done contractor don't want to work, and that house still not complete till now.