Home Sweet Home (5) – Flooring and Painting

Regarding the choice of paint and colour, we are decided that we will go with one colour WHITE for the whole house. In fact, it’s more of the choices of paint, now in market, there are Nippon EasyWash and Odourless, Dulux Wash-and-Wear paints, we always thought we will go with them, but looking at what K offers on his quotation, we only have the choice of Dulux Pentailte / Wash-and-Wear! We also learnt more about PAINT after this renovation, these EasyWash/Wash-and-wear paints cannot be touched up… as touching up will give you two different tones, and during this renovation period where it’s bound have bumps and knocks here and there, so we were advised to just go for Pentalite White instead. Few years down the road, if we ever decide to refurnish the walls, we can pick EasyWash/Odourless paint then. 😉

Bathroom sanitary wares and Kitchen sink & mixer were all delivered to the house, so we also moved our lighting purchases from Taobao to the bomb shelter! It’s exciting seeing the house progressed at last….

Corners of our House-006

Ok! So… our cement screed flooring issue was resolved after I spoke to this HDB contractor’s worker. Well, my advice to all is, never go harsh with contractors. They are more of 吃軟不吃硬 type! Hehehe.. when I saw him, I remembered he was the one who did the first round of cement screed for us, but when he saw the uneven bumps on the ground, he said it couldn’t have been done by him, so I just act blur and kinda agreed and asked him will he please pleaseeeee… help us to resolve these bumpy issues…. and he said not a problem at all, no issue, will come the next day and ta~da, within a day, the issue was fixed!! Something that can be done so quickly, they dragged two weeks of our time… what can I say, sigh!

Ta-dahhhh~~~ WE HAVE FLOORING NOW! No longer raw cement floor!!

HOORAYYYY!!!

Corners of our House-007

IMG_7908

Here’s slightly more updates and information on our Evorich flooring, since I received a few queries about them.

The design we picked is High End Resilient Flooring (HERF) – Markham Oak Light, without skirting. Evorich people told us there isn’t a need to do skirting for their flooring. As for how they quote, they will first give an estimated quote based on floor plan. Upon confirmation, before starting work, they will send someone down to your unit to do an actual site measure, it shouldn’t differ much. The final quote will include an estimate of 5% wastage. Just for reference sake, a 4-room unit flooring (living room + 3 bedrooms), it’s about 727 sqft.

Based on in-laws feedback, they watched over the workers on our behalf as we had to work. The Evorich people acted efficiently, they sent someone to bring up all the required materials the day before, and on the actual day, they were very punctual too, came with 6 men, working on different areas of the house. Started around 9am, finished by 2plus in the afternoon… However, unlike tiling, they do not leave extra materials behind for us, they cleared up everything and left.

We asked Mr K to do us a favor by going up for inspection on a separate occasion, I shall ignore the fact that he wasn’t on good terms with them, but, he indeed gave us some constructive feedback!
1) The tiles near to the walls were hollow, as he knocked the flooring to show us the difference in how they sound.
2) The finishings were not gel up with silicon.
3) The kitchen tiles done by HDB, were of different height as the living room, as we have hacked the kitchen walls, it’s especially obvious. So, Evorich people added a trimming on top, the closest colour they have is still of a different shade, anyways, the point is an aluminium strip would have been better and more durable.

And so, we checked back with Evorich, we will need to top up $65 for that aluminium trimming, so we decided to leave it until it gives way then we change lah.. and they sent man on a separate occasion to re-do the hollow parts by adding more maxborne glue to secure it.

Corners of our House-009

Next up.. Carpentry (woes)!!

Comments

25 responses to “Home Sweet Home (5) – Flooring and Painting”

  1. Qing Avatar
    Qing

    Hi Ladysuki

    We are thinking of engaging Mr K for our renovation and also using Evorich HERF
    Was there any logistics or coordination issue between the contractor and Evorich.
    Are the tiles done before paintwork, craftstone walll and carpentry like shoe cabinet?
    Thanks 🙂

    1. ladysuki Avatar
      ladysuki

      Hi Qing, thanks for dropping by my blog. Coordination issues will be a long story.. you can read all my entries on renovation to see how the coordinations and sequence of works are done… 😉

  2. Grace Avatar
    Grace

    Hi there,

    Actually I am interested in installing the HERF for my new flat but saw some bad reviews on it online. Can you review on the HERF that you have installed? If you would recommend the flooring for Living area. Any smell from the moisture? Is it easily dented if i drop things on it and easily scratched by moving furniture on it? (Eg. dragging of chairs)

    Thanks..

    1. ladysuki Avatar
      ladysuki

      Hi Grace, so far, I am still loving my floor. Hehehe… I’ve done it for living room and bedrooms. No smell, no dents, no scratches. 🙂

  3. Karen Avatar
    Karen

    Hi, i will like to ask how’s ur HERF flooring at the moment? Is there smell or dents after using for a year?

    1. ladysuki Avatar
      ladysuki

      Hi Karen, the flooring is still good, no smell nor dents! 😉

      1. Karen Avatar
        Karen

        Thanks for the fast reply 🙂

  4. Angeline Avatar
    Angeline

    Hi Ladysuki

    Wld like to check with u did evorich place any stainless steel in between the herf and toilet tiles?

    And may I know when your contractor submit permit to HDB does it include evorich flooring. Apparently my contractor told me that he do not want to submit permit to HDB cause flooring is not done by him

    1. ladysuki Avatar
      ladysuki

      Hi Angeline, my toilet tiles are not in Evorich. My contractor did overlay of tiles that are wood-looking, from Hafary. Not sure about stainelss steel.. never heard of.

  5. Yuin Avatar
    Yuin

    Hi Ladysuki,

    May I ask what material did u use for the living room brick wall? Is it craftstone? Thank you 🙂

    1. ladysuki Avatar
      ladysuki

      Yes, those are craftbricks.

  6. Janice Avatar
    Janice

    Hi ladysuki!
    So glad to come by your blog! I’m currently engaging evo to also do HERF flooring for my 4rm BTO (93sqf). A couple of questions to ask u..

    1. Does your currently 4rm BTO is also at 93sqf?
    2. Because my current floor is raw (no cement screed nothing), would you know what is the height requirement to do for cement screed floor from raw flooring for HERF flooring? I am not sure if it is 45mm or 50mm..
    3. We are also not thinking of doing skirting, but so far any issues on mopping at the wall edge area? (etc. water sipping in or warping)
    4. Do u generally only start reno (no wall hackings) after the HERF flooring is installed, or before the HERF flooring is being installed?

    Many thankssss (:

    1. ladysuki Avatar
      ladysuki

      Hi! Let me try my best to ans u..

      1) Yes, but Evorich will send someone to your house and do a site measurement, the quotation will include buffer of tiles.

      2) I remember it’s 50mm, but to be safe, check with Evorich again. Note: Cement screed to be done after any wall hacking if you have any.

      3) No problems so far, fingers crossed.

      4) I would suggest to do the flooring as late as possible to prevent scratches. We did just before kitchen carpentry, and pls ensure your contractors will lay cardboards to protect your flooring. I have friends’ contractors did not do it even if they promised on the quotation, and their flooring were so badly scratched!!

      1. Janice Avatar
        Janice

        Thanks for replying suki!!
        I would better take your advise to only install HERF after all major reno done!
        We generally wont be using HERF in kitchen, tiles for now.. so mayb that’s why evo advise us 45mm cement screed for living area, and 3 bedrooms.. I just want to confirm this as I’m worried about the difference in height for toilet, kitchen and main door.. since I have a little girl running in the house too haha~

        On your last photo of this post, I realize that there is this thin strip of wood bump(not sure what is that) between your HERF and tiles from kitchen. Is that provided by evo? is there any additional top up for this? What is the name for that?

        Thanks again!! (:

        1. ladysuki Avatar
          ladysuki

          Yeah, we did it right before carpentry, coz we have a partition fixture in living room that needs to sit on the floor, so we had to do flooring before that.

          Yes, you are spot on right to worry.. the kitchen tiles done by HDB, were of different height as the living room, as we have hacked the kitchen walls, it’s especially obvious. Maybe that’s why now they advise 45mm instead of 50mm! So, Evorich people added that thin strip to cover up the height difference… plus also to make the overall look nicer. It’s called “trimming”. As for the trimming colour, we can pick from a few options, we have picked he closest colour to our flooring, tho still of a different shade. 🙂

          Hope this clarifies!

          1. Janice Avatar
            Janice

            Aww thanks suki!! That really clarifies! Guess I will have to make an appt with my evo guy to ask lots of questions now! hahah..

  7. Reina Avatar
    Reina

    Hello, would like to ask u if u have any trimming at your toilet entrances??? Mine is nt flush with the toilet tiles, so i’m wondering trimming is required..? =) TIA.

    1. ladysuki Avatar
      ladysuki

      hi sorry for the late reply, there are no trimmings.

  8. winnie Neo Avatar
    winnie Neo

    Hi, would like to ask, what do you think of overlaying existing hdb kitchen tiles with homogeneous tiles?

    1. ladysuki Avatar
      ladysuki

      Hi Winnie, no probs w that. 🙂

  9. YK Avatar
    YK

    Hi Suki,
    Can I ask if your evorich flooring is completely flat? Because after my vinyl flooring installed, I could feel the uneveness & even bumps at some places. Definitely feels different from completely flat (tiled/parquet) surface.

    1. ladysuki Avatar
      ladysuki

      Hi YK, it’s almost completely flat but certain areas we can feel a lil’ difference.. but not an issue so far..

  10. rsk Avatar
    rsk

    Hi Suki,

    Just wondering whats your update on the HERF flooring after 1 year of use. Anything you are not happy with? Moisture, scratches wear and tear, more bumps etc.

    regards
    rsk

    1. ladysuki Avatar
      ladysuki

      Hi, i’m still very happy with my flooring today. 🙂

  11. Eric Avatar
    Eric

    Hi Suki,
    Want to ask if your HERF vinyl tiles are smooth like homogenous tiles or a little rough on the surface?

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