Home Rennovation dillimma

I am seriously considering rennovation of my 40yr flat. Since I already have all the concepts in mind IE which walls to knock down what theme I wanted, is it silly to go for a interior designer for the rennovation? I got a quoatation from a designer who is charging me 12% designer/project management fee on top of his contractor's quote which I think is rediculous as that puts the job at >1.2mil!


I feel that since the amount of designing this person is going to do for me is very minimal, I dont think its fair paying the extra 12% for things I could have done myself. But I have to admit having someone manage the whole process is going to save me a lot of headaches though, but at 12%? is this reasonable here in HK?


My flat is an old low rise roughly 1900ft in which I am completely redoing the kithcen making it western style, wiring of the flat, complete rennovation of 2 bathrooms, wooden flooring for the whole house plus knocking down 2 non structural walls. Pretty big job, does anyone with similar experience know what is a reasonable estimate? It is not going to be lavish, but rather updated to a style I want.


I have no idea what something like this will cost so any advise is needed! Thanks!


Carmine

Try design4life - they do the whole package in one price: interior design, contracting and project-management. English project manager and HK Chinese contractor and interior designer both of whom speak Cantonese, Mandarin and English. very reasonably priced and am sure they can do everything well within the 1.2m quoted. Call Chris on 6620 7522

I agree with Huggy - HK$1M for a 1900 sq ft flat seems like a decent price - especially if you are redoing most of your interior. We are in the midst of renovating an old (30-plus years) apartment of 1500 sq ft. We're basically redoing EVERYTHING, all of the rewiring, repiping, new floors, new bathrooms, kitchen, moved some walls, etc etc. While I haven't got the final amount in yet, we expect it to cost just under HK$1 million for all of the contracting, design fee plus all of the furniture and appliances. (We are getting most of the furniture custom-made as well.) To be honest, we could have spent a bit less but we decided to go for some "luxury" items like commercial concealed airconditioning units for all of the rooms (which are not only expensive but also require additional false ceiling carpentry as well)


We also chose to go with a separate designer. I think it's good value for money, if you really want to have a coherent design for your place (and 1900 is a good sized flat!). For us, our designer is able to visually conceptualize things that we - and the contractor - can't. Also, he designed a lot of our custom furniture, to go with the overall design concept of our flat. Our designer charges a flat fee, of around $55 per square foot. (But he gave us a discount b/c it was a friendly referral - some designers will charge up to around $70 per square foot).

Hi there, thanks for your advice..although I have all the concept in mind...I also think its worthwhile to hire a designer as he/she can better conceptualize things for me. IE lighting allocation and so forth. But of course, this depends on how much the charge is.

Hi Carmine, Try Total package, a English contracting company in Hong Kong. They can do everything for you and they have been in Hong Kong for over 12 years.

All the work the do is to English standards and they can also help you with the design. if you like to contact them call Adrin on 64030810, They will come and look and give free price.

With regard to dadda's input, I don't understand what that is about, most companys that are in the trade get trade price, it is the norm for them to make a small amount on the items as they have to use time getting it for you, you still save and you don't have to do all the running around. Do you think that time is FREE??????

frankly speaking, 1.2M for 1,900sq. feet is a good price. as you mentioned that it's a full renovation job.

Is it included all the materials? mason.

Dear all, just an update..my project is in 3 weeks in progress and things are going along smoothly. Project will finish on May 15. Thanks everyone for their kind help on this site, it had been extremely helpful.


Huggy-Took your advice on the extra sockets, Thanks!


Mason-Thanks for your effort, your people were the utmost professional and seemed very knowlegeable, best of luck to you business


If anyone is curious to how much I spent and what I ended up doing to my flat, or just swap stories, send me a PM. If you are rennovating a flat, I will be more then happy to help out with advices. I can share some pics with you as well.


Cheers


C