Posted by
vicster
16 yrs ago
Hello,
I've hired an interior designer to oversee and supervise the construction work. I've recently received a quotation from a contractor, which he has organized, and some of the prices seem excessive. He says it is fair but there is no way of checking unless I contact another contractor myself.
Some items of concern, as an example, are as follows;
1. Apparently everyone about to hire a contractor needs something called CAR insurance $5,000
2. Demolishing a kitchen (ie, cabinets, wall tiles) and carting away appliances $28,000
3. Cleaning during and after work $15,000
If the above are within reason I'll be satisfied that the rest of the itemized work will be as well. Can anyone shed some light whether or not the above costs are fair?
Regards
vicster
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Thanks ecareken . At my request he has provided another quotation from an unknown source, but although there are large price variation for all the itemized work, the end quotation is very close, which leads me to believe that there has been some fudging of numbers. I have independently contacted another contractor to verify his quotations.
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vicster,
i am about to do some design/construction work too. we contacted a designer/contractor directly:
1. Insurance: included
2. Demolishing kitchen walls, bathroom walls, maid room walls, ripping out the whole floor plus the roof top tiles plus removing the whole kitchen itself plus carting away 17k
3. Cleaning during and after work: Included
It's a 1500 sqf place for your reference.
I have no clue myself on what is a good price but this quote sounds cheaper than your offer to be honest.
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I am currently in the process of renovation, the insurance, yes, and that price is reasonable, the kitchen, I would try and haggle with them, we did, I think the problem is the expense of dumping the rubbish legally, the clean up, tell them to go jump, that should be a charge included as part of the removal and build up.
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We redid our place (completely ripped out the interiors, old flat, 1500 sq ft) about 6 mths ago and our contractor billed us HK$12000 for insurance, HK$3600 for clearing away the rubbish and another hK$3800 for cleaning the place after all the works was completed and HK$30,000 for all demolition work.
Your bill for demolition sounds pricey if all they are doing is the kitchen. (Our cost included the entire flat, and we tore down a lot!)
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Thank you for all the replies.
One more question. What is the standard rate to relocate/install new plug or switch. What if you install two double outlets at the same location, so you have four in a row. Do you get charged the full rate twice??
Cheers
vicster
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bing2
15 yrs ago
my contractor keeps rising his prices after an agreeable price. should i pay him more or just confront him? it was agreed that the budget for cabinets was 50k and now he said he couldnt finish it if i dont give him another 30k. what is this? is this even legal?
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Vic,
The going price should be around $500 each outlet, those double 13A socket should just be $50 more or not the same.
Cheers,
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bing2
15 yrs ago
i am thinking about suing my contractor who decided to walk out from the project. 1 week ago he said he can finish with the money i gave him (i gave him over his estimation) and now he wants another 30k and he is 30 days late in delivery date. i have a contract that says for each day late he must pay back 2000.
he threaten me if i dont pay he will stop working - this is after i have paid him in full according to our contract.
if i take him to the court, is it worth it? i am tired to reason with this guy!
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WKB
15 yrs ago
Hi Vicster, my partner and I operate a small interior decoration company and hire local contractors to do the work that comes in by referrals. Your contractor is charging way too much for item 3 which usually cost anything between 2-3K depending on the size of the unit. I've not heard of item 1, our contractors are fully insured themselves and the landlord should only need to pay for additional insurance if external work is needed with scaffolding. Item 2 is only slightly on the expensive side but that ultimately depends on the apartment size and amount of rubbish that needs to be taken to the landfill sites. Walk-up apartments are more expensive.
As for the sockets our going rate for a basic Clipsal is HK$520 and a double cost HK$700.
For your reference, we've recently completed a couple of jobs which included ripping out the whole flat including 2 brick walls and starting from scratch (size 690sqft, 840sqft and 1200sqft) total cost excluding hardware was 220K, 270K and 310K respectively.
Hope this helps.
WKB
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every construction company has its own insurance but we still need to buy "the third party insurance" for each project, and we need to show our client the insurance paper. If the total project cost is around 0.5M, 5000 insurance makes sense.
About demolishing charges, if your home size is about 2000 sqft, then 28000 also makes sense...otherwise it seems a big high!
The last item, 15000 is too expensive! for a 1M project we usually only charge 8000.
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