Edited: Resloved - Damco Fixed the problem: Problems with the design of shelving in our Corner Kitchen Cabinet - a lesson learnt.

*** Edited 27/5/14 - Damco has since fixed all the problems associated with the cabinetry. They provided, free of charge new shelve that was deeper than the original shelving. I was originally disappoint but having spoken to Szabi the project manager, he agreed to provide us with the fix. Very happy!!***


Further from the defects found during our kitchen install, we uncovered some shelving design flaws.

To be fair, we never discussed the corner cabinet shelving, as we assumed that the design would allow for maxing use of space. We were wrong to assume this.

We were never provided with information on what the corner shelving we would be provided.

This is our kitchen cabinet shelves - the large hole cut out has just wasted a heap of storage space. Damco has advise that we can change at a cost $$$$ to us. We were ever informed what the shelves would look like or consulted. I am annoyed about that, we are not kitchen specialist, and we only assume this would taken care off by Damco.

At the end of the day its a lesson learnt to find out in details/specification about everything; however, minute the detail.

 

My mum's corner cabinet is of the same dimension - her shelving design has been very well thought of by her kitchen designer. Her shelves are layered with appropriate depth maximising shelf space.

Quality issues in workmanship continues - Pending Fix.

Moving in the Kitchen and quality issues translate into the Kitchen from the bathroom. Damco told us the kitchen was their speciality, and we really had nothing to worry about.

So here is the list that I didn't have to worry about:

Kitchen Defect 1: Pantry Cabinet damaged during install. Damco has agreed to remake new panels. Every now has be removed and reinstalled.

Kitchen Defect 2: Overhead cabinet was damaged. Damco has agreed to remake new panels and fix the item.

Kitchen Defect 3: The cabinet directly behind the fridge overhead has a gap and is left exposed. You would think that the installer would have notice this defect and closed up the hole. But the resounding theme is clear now, that the Damco team's attention to detail and common sense is lacking. Damco has to date been silent on whether they will fix this.

Kitchen Defect 4: We work full time, and we are finding it hard and frustrating to have to continuously Quality check all their work. We were continuously promised by Damco that their strengths was attention to detail and quality of their workmanship, and we had nothing to worry about. To date, these claims by DAMCO has not translated into action. Overhead cabinets hinges installed are not the specified soft close hinges. Damco has agreed to fix this.

Kitchen Defect 5: Overhead cabinet was install without edging finish. the raw particle board exposed. Again there is no attention to detail. Damco has agreed to fix this.

Any confidence in Damco that I have left is quickly disappearing.

Tiling problems in our bathroom - 2 issues fixed - 2 issue NOT fixed - Diassppointed with their quality of finish.

Well we renovation work has now commenced with Damco, and things are now is in full swing.

We have encountered some major tiling issues. The tiler has started tiling our bathroom and to my disappointment the work was not of a high standard.

I had always pressed to Damco that above all the quality of their work was to be of a high standard. as a trade off I was willing to compromise the schedule of work, if they needed more time they could have it. In the beginning they promise that they would be able to deliver high quality and high attention to detail. They have failed on both accounts. And to my disappointment is quality from Damco to date (25/03/2013) has been disappointing.

First Issue: Tiling of the bathroom was defective. It was like the leaning tower of pizza. As can be seen by the photo below the tiler packed too much adhesive at the top and made the top too heavy. This force the tiling line (2nd picture below) to be mega wonky. Damco of course blamed that the wall was not square, which I agree as our house is old and corners may not be square. But the strange thing is that the walls was replastered, so I would be my expectation that they would re-square off the walls during plastering. At the end of the day, in my opinion, I would have expected that a decent tiler would have put a leveller to the wall during tiling, and corrected the wall levelling as necessary, packing or thinning the adhesive to make sure that his tiling is square and level. Damco has since corrected this, and wall is more level, and the slant is less visible.

 

 

Second Issue: Tile trim around the shower niche was in my opinion incorrectly installed, but I was told that the job was correct, and the trim was not the correct trim. I found this explanation hard to swallow, especially asking other tilers, they all agreed the tiling trim provided was correct and that the defect was due to the tiler installing the tile trim incorrectly. But you be the judge. Just to point out, that even if the tile trim was incorrect, I would expect the tiler to come back to us to let us know. Not just tell us the job is done, and done correctly. Again, disappointing. Damco has since corrected this, and new trim have been put on. The quality is just ok.

 

Tile trim was protruding out above the tile. If it was correctly installed the tile trim would sit flush and level with the tile.

 

Obviously the tile trim had to be mitred, the mitre cut extremely badly. If I wanted this amateur job quality, I would have done it myself!

 Mitre joint are shockingly cut.

 

DAMCO Fix: Better, but the quality is still not there.

 

Third Issue: Biscuit Mosaic shockingly installed.  We wanted our bathroom to have a feature, to which we bought really beautiful Biscuit Mosaic. What is described to me by an expert from Beaumont Tiles, as "a very badly installed mosaic" (mind you I did not buy these tiles from Beaumont - so it was an unbias comment). The tile is not only cut very badly, it had many tile bits missing at the ends. DAMCO has advise that they have done their best, and this will NOT be fixed. Please judge for yourselves if this work is of high standard and quality. Damco said that their resident tiler did the best he could. What shocking quality, and they expect me to just cop it on the chin.

 

It hard to accept that a tiler can not even cut straight - I am setting my expectation to high???

The are lots of bits missing at the border of the tiles. Tiles are shockingly trimmed and cut evenly. Cuts are not linear. Very low standard.

 

 

Forth Issue: Uneven tiling in the shower. Just don't understand how there can be so many mistakes, and these mistakes at just fundamental issues, which should not occur from a reputable builder. It almost seems as if they careless rushed the work, and did not bother to double check things. DAMCO has advise that they have done their best, and this will NOT be fixed.  They have said that this issue is ultimately due to the wall not square, you would think that a reputable builder would be able to provide solution? My suggestion is only use Damco if your wall are perfectly straight and square, otherwise your finish will be less than ordinary.

 

Uneven - the bottom gap between the grate and the wall is narrower from the gap at the top of the grate - Just disappointing.

 

I have really lost all confidence in Damco's abilities and promises that their work is of any quality.

 

The scary world of bathroom fixtures - A renovators journey

Sounds like a movie title? Well picking bathroom fittings might as well be liken to dramatic movie, and here I am under the assumption that picking the tiles and paint color would see the end of my tough decisions. I was sadly mistaken, and any who has gone through a bathroom renovation would more than likely agree. Enter, the brave new world of bathroom fixtures.

The styles, features, finishes, brands was utterly breathe taking. There was at least 50 different types of round shower heads... AMAZING.

All our bathroom supplies came from Tile Importer in Oakleigh south. They are extremely well priced but see Caleb for the best deals.

Products was a mixture of Belavista and ECT.


Our Picks.
Bathroom rain shower head 230mm

Hand held shower

Bathroom mixer with diverter valve

Tap ware for vanity

Basin for vanity

Toilet

Shower Screen 2000 x 1200 x 10 - We also purchase a screen channel for added stability.



Be Savy - Always shop around for trades - Bargin: $4700 to replace floors, fix, sand and 3 coats high gloss finish....

Part of my flooring in my house has no hardwood floors, instead MDF flooring exist - this has to go. So in this area, my Tassie oak floors need to be purchased and relayed.

I employed a group call LJ flooring - I will provide you details of their services at the end of the renovation blog, so stay tuned.

They are a Korean bunch, and on inspection of works done for their past clients I was impressed, and even more impressed with their price.

Their English is limited, so slowly communicating and repeating your point is a must. I also tend to confirm with a text msg as well.

We had variety of flooring quotes, and like our building quotes ranged DRAMATICALLY. From 5k to 12k.

Why we went with this bunch is because they are physically removing the MDF and re-levelling the flooring line with spacers before fitting on the new flooring. This is extremely important for a perfect levelled finish. It means a lot more work for the flooring guy, but you will get a perfect job at the end.

Most of the other flooring guys will just relay the new flooring on top of the old, and they will spin countless stories to tell why this is the best way, but this is certainly not the case. Because in my case, I am sanding and repolishing the existing timber flooring (and not relaying floors to the entire house), so it is absolutely crucial to repair and replace this area so it is perfectly level with the rest of the house. If you simply relay the flooring you will have a 18-20mm rise. To a lot of lazy flooring quacks, they will feed you rubbished to make their lives easier and to earn a quick buck from you.

Anyways, I am hoping that this will work out well, and that I will be able to recommend their services to others.

TIP: I am actually doing my flooring in two stages. Getting the required flooring areas fixed and replace first, then the flooring guy will come back with everything is completed to sand and finish. I am doing this so that the kitchen cabinetry can go in with the correct flooring level and that the tiling edging trim can be installed without distribution and flooring dowel can also be installed. Flooring finish should always be the last trade to be completed.

OLD MDF flooring removed....

New Tassie Oak Timber (108mm) purchased and ready for install....

A dramatic change: The weird kitchen layout with two openings has finally been resolved & kitchen area has been enlarged

Carpentry work has now been completed and the 2 weird openings to the old small kitchens have now been sealed to allow us make much better use of the kitchen space.

To increase the size of the kitchen we also sealed up part of the large opening into the kitchen. Some might say reducing a large entrance into your kitchen and family area is blasphemy, but I wanted to dramatically enlarge our kitchen space, as I love entertaining and kitchen space, both in terms of bench space and cabinetry is extremely important to me.


TIP: In reducing the width of our entrance space from 2 meters to 1.1 metres, I intentionally increased in height of entrance to compensate the narrowing of the entrance. This will (in theory) visually compensate for the reduction of the entrance way.

TIP: To further extend the visual aesthetics, I have requested the removal and squaring off of all the edging, entrance trims, and cornices to transform the kitchen area into a clean and modern area.

 

 

 

 

 

Final sanding to flatten will occur tomorrow.

Second Problem - Bowing in/on the stud openings.

The second part of our house has renovated in 1980's according to council plans.

There is s 2m plus opening created as part of the old renovation.

This is where the issue/problem arose from, the point in which the opening was cut out was carrying a large roof trust load and over the years has caused the wall stud to bow. As there was basically too much load on this one point.

Damco's builders recommended the solution  to which would fix this issue, by adding of a new beam to spread the load across the beam onto studs, and ultimately to the stumps. Of course this costed us additional $$$$'s. The spending breaking down will be included at the end of this blog, when the renovation has been completed. Stray tuned.

 

As this could potentially a structure issue, I went with Damco's recommendation and agreed to fixing the issue without hesitation.

I am just glad we discovered the problem now and not later.