Hello guys,

Just bought a condo, and planning to fully renovate it, wondering if I want to hire own contractor for renovation for certain part after getting design from the designer.

Which part of it should i find contractor?

For example,

Tiles and plaster ceiling? because its the foundation of the renovation? because I'm not really sure first part of renovation start from where. Can I ask my ID to help me choose material and outsource it to other contractor, so, it might be cheaper?

Then other carpentry and more on design thing let ID and their contractor do it?

Is this way the best to save cost and keep the design closet to ID plan?

or I can just hire different contractor myself since most contractor also experienced, but, cost will be very big diff?


No experience in renovation, so, need help on how to plan everything out with a tight budget

Please help me and provide advice guys TQTQ

Before you start to brief your ID, have a complete listing of what you wanna do. Otherwise, your ID may propose things that are not necessary and may burst your budget.

Honestly, I dont think any ID would like the idea of you taking their design and ask another person to do unless he is willing to sell you his idea without any liability if design goes wrong.

KEK. Cheapskate wanna manage everything himself. Prepare few months job become year. Prepare for issue like "hey, i already done my part. This job scope other contractor job" "This defect is cause by other, You need to find the contractor that cause the damage" "This defect is not my specialty. I don't know how to repair it"

Conclusion. No money dont do renovation

This post has been edited by kesvani: May 30 2021, 08:30 PM

Not agree with your statement.
Everything is done within budget.
Renovation can done with RM30k, or RM300k.

U need proper planning of what u wanna do. FTPIPTF.

Suggest to put in google sheet or similar so u can see and update easily. U need to separate the must have vs nice to haves otherwise reno can be a bottomless money pit.

Its a triangle between price, quality and time tradeoffs. U need to know ur stuff well so that contractor dont take u for a ride.

Budget is normal but TS want to handle all the different contractor himself. Stress when deal with this kind of customer. Work keep delay because we done our part then wait for owner to deal with other contractor to finish their part before we can proceed. I involved in one renovation but in CCTV. Owner rich one but want to be main con himself. Now already half year pass till now cannot finish. Won't say rugi but the project took too long.

Are you a renovation contractor? What is the company name you working with? Can share with us so that we can avoid next time?

https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopic=5090236&hl=

You earning Bangla level salary RM2k+ a month want to act rich here? You can't even afford to buy a house.

This post has been edited by i am number 2: May 30 2021, 11:58 PM

I worked for security system installer Co which occasionally involve in housing renovation that have CCTV installation. There is nothing to avoid. If the owner want to be renovation himself just markup the price for expected future hassle or make sure owner understand we do only what in quotation agreement. Any deviation or additional will be charged separately

Housing project when we have a choice is always have a least priority especially those have a lot of involvement from owner. Thin margin, complicated/always changing design compare to commercial shop or factories which have standardise layout and how work is done

This post has been edited by kesvani: May 31 2021, 12:02 AM

Lol cannot have side income and because i plan to have house deposit at 50% instead of usual 10%

Hello, actually I planning to ask contractor to do tiles and plaster ceiling only, because ID charge quite expensive for this, is it okay I just separate ceiling and tiles for the renovation? because my ID charge me like 10k for changing bathroom tiles.

I'm not planning to be the main con of my renovation, I just think that tiles and plaster ceiling like not that hard to manage, and can easily see the result good or bad, because its a bare unit now. Correct me if I'm wrong

So my question here is, is it okay to separate plaster ceiling and tiles renovation to another contractor beside of my ID, I asked the price is cheaper 30% depends on material (30% for whole house is quite high already, can buy full set furniture/home appliance). Want to check with pros here before doing decision.

My plan is renovate for tiles and plaster ceiling first, then let ID do other thing, not sure is it in the correct order?

The sequencing of events is important just like how u dress up to go to work, the innerwear before outerwear then only put on accessories. Doing it terbalik or wrong sequence will make it look like superman innerwear showing. It may save a lot of rework or make good effort if you plan everything out.

Bathroom tiling as outerwear, will go after any innerwear hacking works like concealed water points or electrical points for water heater if need to be added.

Similar for plaster ceiling this is outerwear normally used to conceal horizontal runs of new power point back to DB box/Aircon IDU-ODU wiring so electrical should go first. Aircon piping also may need to run thru the ceiling if it is not already preinstalled.
Also do you have plan for CCTV, if you need CCTV have a 13A socket nearby intended locations so it can be installed very easily. Otherwise no power source then need to cut the ceiling, pull wiring from nearby point looping or DB box also will entail more work to "reverse engineer" the solution.

A lot of sequence of events planning need to be taken into consideration because of the requirement to conceal a lot of piping n wiring.
Commercial/industrial easier to do because concealing is not a major priority. Conduit runs are easier coz mostly exposed.

This post has been edited by ceo684: May 31 2021, 03:38 AM

If you are new and zero experience, best is leave it to the right people to do the job.

I also started the hard way intially by paying expensive price but along the way, I learn while the workers are doing work.

Renegotiate with your ID on the pricing or you get another two quotes to compare. Dont stick to one. Maybe the next IDs can have better ideas and pricing.

BTW, with the sluggish economy, there are many unscrupulous 'contractors' in the market trying to make quick money. If you engage the wrong contractor, you are left a mountain of problems.

wads your size & wads the budget range? i did my own renovation coordinating afew contractors, i have no experience in home reno then, but i am in construction industry so more or less familiar with some works

1. best possible way is to look around other ID works around yr condo area to get more ideas n space planning. Then go for pinterest to get more ideas
2. Sort out your budget 1st, how much would u spend on each categories (wet works, built ins, kitchen etc)
3. find quotation to fit in, re-adjust yr budget around ea category
4. usually, 1st step will be wet works (hacking for electrical points, then painting, plaster ceiling, tilings, aircond etc), followed by built-ins then loose items

my own experience tells me if u do not have enough time, negotiate a 20-30% from your budget n let professionals do, unless its yr passion or u just wan to experience the process. Its very tedious work & sometimes might take much longer. Worst off, u might need to scold the workers yrself too