A Couple's Decision to DIY their Home Renovation (part 2)

  • May 10, 2016
Following up from Previous Post: A Couple's Decision to DIY their Home Renovation (part 1)  

Getting the Right Jigsaw Puzzle for Our Home

  Designing our home by ourselves is like putting a million jigsaw puzzles together to form an enormous yet beautiful picture. That ONE important piece of all is no doubt the <<Tiles>>.

Why?

Don’t you feel that tiles are like pieces of jigsaw puzzle forming your base of any home design? It plays an important role as it makes up majority of the house, eventually setting the main look and feel of your home. Any bad decision made will lead to an overhaul, and resulting in your biggest renovation hoo haa. So your decision on tiles is VERY VERY VERY IMPORTANT!! (In our context: An equivalent to choosing your life partner!)

Tips Window Shopping for tiles before seeking renovation quotations is IDEAL!

Reason:

  1. Different tile types (e.g. mosaics or homogeneous) & size (e.g. 30 x 10) determine your tiling labour cost (A major renovation cost).
  2. Initial window shopping allows you to be precise in gauging your ‘WANTS ‘to a more ACCURATE & REALISTIC renovation quotation.
  3. Knowing your ‘WANTS’ may cost you how much!? = Better Budget planning

 

Let's go!

As designing and colour combination are never our forte, we had to minimise our regret in getting the wrong tiles. Hence we visited the top 3 tile sellers in Singapore.

Our findings?: Pricing war and tiles design is very close between 3 boutiques. But of course, when there is competition, there is a WINNER.

Soon-Bee-Huat-entrance  

Why Soon Bee Huat?

 
 

1. Superbly HUGE Gallery at 3A Toh Guan Rd E, Singapore 608834

There is no other way to describe its SIZE than zooming out from their office

Soon-Bee-Huat-building

soon-bee-huat-showroom-01

 

Guaranteed MASSIVE Variety & Design of Tiles

Not impressed by our picture of the showroom size?? Check it out the variety they have.

soon-bee-huat-showroom-02

soon-bee-huat-showroom-03Feeling retro?

soon-bee-huat-showroom-04Need Honey Comb?

soon-bee-huat-showroom-05Pattern tiles are ready to amaze you

soon-bee-huat-showroom-06Our Woody tiles are ready for our selection! (1/5 of the woody sections)

soon-bee-huat-showroom-07Don’t forget about homogenous tiles!

The above pictures are just our some shots by us. (Probably cover only 10% of the showroom by us) Just free yourself for one whole day and dedicate to visit their showroom. We easily spent 2 hours just looking at toilet tiles on our 1st visit.


 

2. Great Technology to preview your Choice of Tiles

Like many home owners, we are worried about the final outlook. However, Soon Bee Huat overcomes it by bringing us Technology to preview your choice of tiles at the selected area.

sbh-technology-tiles-preview-01

So Simple: (1) Select the Area for the tiles sbh-technology-tiles-preview-02

(2) Search of the tiles model no. sbh-technology-tiles-preview-03

(3) Drag & Drop to Preview sbh-technology-tiles-preview-04

sbh-technology-tiles-preview-05

So now what’s there to worry about?


 

3. 100% committed sales consultant

Most sales consultants are committed but when it comes to Soon Bee Huat, we felt that they are exceptionally committed.

On our last visit, we have Kelly and Anand attended to us. Actually, that very day was their D&D and they had an earlier closure than usual biz hour. However, we were totally unaware until we saw that all other employees are in their D&D costumes. Even so, that doesn’t stop Kelly from advising us on our Woody café theme with a mixture of industrialised tiles.

In fact, there isn’t even a slight sense of pressure or hint for us to leave

sbh-choosing-tiles-01Level 1: Showing Kelly what are the type of design we want

sbh-choosing-tiles-02Kelly and Uncle Johnnie (our tiling contractor) helping us to match our floor tiles

sbh-choosing-tiles-03Kelly and Uncle Johnnie advising us way to overcome stain on grout for subway tiles at kitchen

sbh-choosing-tiles-04 Feeling the industrial looks

sbh-choosing-tiles-05Decision made, let’s take down order for our wall & floor tile at kitchen and toilets

sbh-choosing-tiles-06Level 2: Wood tile combination

sbh-choosing-tiles-07Explaining the grout gap difference and laying of rounded vs flat side wood tiles

sbh-choosing-tiles-08Finalising floor area & Anand finally discovered that MY is taking pictures the whole while

SAY CHEESE!


 

Our final choice of tiles:

Woody Living to Beddy

sbh-balcony-floorBalcony floor

sbh-living-room-floorLiving room floor

sbh-bedroom-floorBedroom floor

Homely Master Toilet

sbh-master-bathroom-wallMaster bedroom toilet wall

sbh-master-toilet-feature-wallMaster toilet feature wall

sbh-master-toilet-floorMaster toilet floor

Industrial Kitchen

sbh-kitchen-service-yard-wallKitchen / service yard wall

sbh-kitchen-tilesKitchen cooking area

sbh-kitchen-service-yard-floorKitchen / service yard floor

Tips Do you know that cement screed wall will get hair line cracks and cement screed floor will be very slippery in the long run? Want Industrial design, Our Advice = Get Industrial tiles

Industrial Common Toilet

sbh-toilet-wallCommon toilet wall

sbh-toilet-feature-wallCommon toilet feature wall

sbh-toilet-floorCommon toilet floor


 

Our Verdict

Rating for our experience @ Soon Bee Huat:
  1. Location - 4 Stars very easy to go, you can walk from IMM!!
  2. Customer Service - 5 Stars Based the Experience described above, it speaks for itself
  3. Range of products - 5 Stars We have entered into a World of Tiles, Just spare a whole day here
So without an ID, We would have taken a longer time to choose our tiles, But With Kelly, Anand & Uncle Johnnie

We are able to find our Jigsaw Puzzles, So Are You Ready?

Our Big Thanks to Soon Bee Huat

HUAT ARH!

  Next: A Couple’s Decision to DIY their Home Renovation (part 3.1)
Written by MYPS. Do email to us at support@renonation.sg if you wish to know more details on our renovation.

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