Most of us may think that the first quotation given to us by the contractors are for all the A-Z works (wet works, wiring, electrical, etc.). Usually the first quotation is only for the initial wet works / structural works only. That is usually 50% – 60% from the overall renovation budget. The other 40% – 50% are:
- Wiring Works
- Doors, Frames, Windows
- Tiling Works (workmanship only)
- Plaster Ceiling Works
- Electrical Works (fixings lights and air conditioners)
- Painting (workmanship only)
- Wiring + Lightings
Wiring +Electrical Works
From the list above, wiring + electrical works cost the most. The more lights and electrical points you install, the more you may have to pay. It is best that you have a planning + drawing before giving it to contractors. Otherwise there will be unnecessary costs. Only selected contractors will advise you the right amount of lighting, while the others will encourage you to have more lights. The chargers are only for workmanship, the fittings (lights, bulbs, sockets) should be provided by the owners.
We purchased our lights from a few shops. Most of the downlights, bulbs and outdoor lights are from the Houses Lightings Sdn Bhd, Bandar Puchong Utama. Recommended by a few friends and the contractor himself. We were surprised with the price. It is much cheaper compared to other shops. However if you are looking for more trendy pendant lights, you may have to look for it somewhere else. There are a number of shops in Bandar Puteri Puchong with nice collections of pendant and wall lights. When you get lighting, get a good quality one rather than ‘China-made’ lights. The cheap ones can cost from RM7-8 each, good quality ones can cost from RM17-20 each.
Doors, Frames, Windows
This depends on the type of renovations you are up to. In most cases, they won’t be able to use the same frame if we want to relocate a door / window. It is best that we let contractors handle it more than we order ourselves.
Tiling Works
Charges for tiling works depend on the type of tiles we choose. Simple square tiles without any patterns will cost less compared to tiles with patterns as they need to spend more time arranging the patterns. Tiles in different shapes (hexagon, triangle, diamond, etc) will cost more.
Purchased tiles ourselves from two companies – Guocera & Niro Granite. We had an unpleasant experience with Guocera. We were told they miscalculated the tiles 3 weeks after the purchase and we had to wait 3 more weeks for the new stock to arrive. After installing the tiles, we needed 1 carton of additional tiles, and we were told that the factor is in JB, hence we have to wait 7-10 days to receive and RM100 from delivery charges. I think they should have some stocks in Kuala Lumpur for those who want to buy additional tiles. They sent the tiles and put it outside of the property. We would rate their tiles 8.5/10 and their service 2/10.
The other place was Niro Granite, we had a good experience there. Located very near to our location and the price was really attractive. Their customer service is far better than Guocera. We would rate their tiles 8/10 and their service 8/10.
Plaster Ceiling
Most of the new houses come with a ceiling on the first floor. However, for the ground floor, owners have to do it by themselves. Cost of the plaster ceiling is very subjective. It depends on the design you prefer. The more complicated designs require more time to work on hence the charges can be quite high.
Painting Works
This depends on the contractors. Some contractors can charge very little but the quality of work is very poor. Also it depends how many layers they are painting the house. For a corner lot, it can cost from 7K – 8.5K depends on the number of colours you want to use. That is excluding paints. Paints can cause somewhere around 3k-4k depends on brand and type of paints.
We will be sharing our home owning to renovation journey of our first home. Check out the series of articles here.
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