10 things to consider before renovate your dream house

Moving to a new home will always the best thing happen to a family,with new enviroment and new peoples around us ,it would be  good change over. BUT , you can't expect everything goes as smooth as you want,the problem starts at the begining stage itself.So, I have compiled my personal advice and few of my experience for those who are going to renovate their new house ,and its for free .
1.Choose wisely
Hiring a contractor to renovate your house is a must ,so be wise when choosing them.Choose the one who can be believe and do the work perfectly ,don't simply come into an old time saying :

Malay -Malaslah (Lazy).....

Chinese -Mahalah (Expensive)....

Indian - Tak completelah (Incomplete)....

Indon and others - Boleh percaya tak (Can trust or not) ?

Don't simply choose contactors by just looking their skin colour but their working atitude and maybe $$$.

I hired a malay contractor after looking one of his previous work which he had done at one of a house nearby.He was very humble and quicky,he had his few Indon workers under him ,he supervise them always.Sadly ,everything was fine until I made the final payment.

2.Make a survey

Try to get quotations from few contractor before settle up with one.The cheapest doesn't means the best or either way , but its just to get the current market price for renovating houses and also to get some of their idea ,just select few and try to intergrate with your dream house.

IMPORTANT : Make sure the contractor write down all your ideas ,it is better if you can write down what are the modification you wanted to do and explain to the contractor each and everything and as him to quote the price.



3.Paper Works !

Understand that we can't simply believe everyone , doing an agreement with the contractor is always the best.This is to be at the safe side.The agreement should clearly state the contractor's name ,company name , company registeration number ,address ,all the modifications IN DETAIL ,don't ever missed out anything ,contractor's name ,IC number and bank account number.And also include the payment structure and starting date and expected ending date for future references.Rememeber to do 2 copies and give a copy to the contractor.

IMPORTANT :For certain types of house renovation work , you need to get the local authorities like MPS,MPPJ,MPxx's approval ,please follow the general procedure,DO NOT allow the contractors to apply it for you ,go to the respective office and apply it ,as you can get it for cheaper price. 

The reason why I'm stressing on this matter is because ,as the house owner who is going to invest on someone who they don't know should have a written proof as for JUST-IN-CASE !

4.Scheduled payment

Don't ever make all  single payment ,it is adviced that you make a payment scedule for 4 payment as below:

1st payment - 25% of the overall payment for the start up works

2nd payment -25% of the overall payment after certain job done

3rd paymet -25% of the overall payment after certain jb done

4th payment -25% after all the task is done and no more pending works

Allways banking the cash into the contractor/company account and keep the receipt for future reference.Always request for receipt from the contractor each time payment is done.

Follow strictly on the sceduled payment ,no more no less !

5.Discuss before renovation starts

Explain clearly what you expected to see after the renovation works ,it's your money so don't just let the contractor do whatever he like !

Try to discuss with him come out with new and creative design for your future dream house. 

6.SUPERvise

Hiring a contractor doesn't mean end of it,without your proper supervision ,your dream house might turn into nightmare. Spend more time at the site ,carefully follow up all the progress ,incase you havig problem to be on site ,try to call and the updates from the contractor.

7.Don't Worry

If you have a properly done paperworks ,you can be safe since you have most of the contractor's details. In most of the cases ,its either the contractor run off or the contractor demanding more money than promised earlier.

8.Be on time

Regardless what it is wheather supervision ,payment or whatever ,make sure it s on time ,don't let them to drag your time ,make sure the contractor finishes whatever he promised before get the payment.

9. Ask for warranty

Since you are going to spend a huge amount of cash on your dream house ,ask the contractor to provide a warranty for atleast for 1 year or minimum 6 month on item like roof leakage ,electrical ,door latch ,iron and rust issues ,paint qualities and water leakage/tank and sort of things.

10.And finally ,Home Sweet Home...(click to view the entry)

P/s:Since I'm having some network problem,I couldn't post the images and the sample agreement form.Will update once the network problem is resolved.  :)