Demolition & Construction of a Home in Petaling Jaya Part 7/9 (WINDOWS, TILES, PAINTING, FLOORING)

Windows

Tiles

Painting

All the above, are experts of every online Tong Roro price specialist from your very favourite website for advise. I will share with you though my journey and what we went for. 

All the Above happen in sequence according to the above. Windows and Tiling works can happen concurrently but Paint becomes the last task. Lets start with Windows

February 2021

WINDOWS

We selected a Contractor who supplied us with our Windows and Glassworks fittings that was recommended by our Aluminium supplier LB ALUMINIUM. The Supplier is a small shop 2 man operation guy but was at best a Cherasville Lowyat kind of guy. 

We opted for windows that had a decent thickness of 1.6mm and non of that cheap flimsy 1.2ish mm thickness. The Windows didnt come with a Balakong style Green but we asked for the glass to be in a light Grey finish. In other words, it had a more neutral colour, and not some colour that a Glass Works copany supplies with a Green or Blue tint to compliment your Grey Cherasville painted walls (disgusting, and yet I think its an art form perfected and mastered when I see people building new homes with such finishes - Green / Blue glass, Grey Walls, Stainless Steel Gate) 

*** 2024 update - The part that will fail at most windows of course, its is infamous lock / handle. Regardless if you have a 2 point locking system or 1, Window locks are made of really crappy Material. Even when you invest in a company like LB Aluminium that made our locks for us, made in Malaysia stuff that costs about RM 15.00 a piece, the breaking point of any of these locks lies in its gear mechanism. 

Scrap material or Scum material that has impurities are not all wasted. Guess where it goes to ? Making small brittle parts like your gears, that will eventually have its teeth broken. Its amazing, you spend 15 ringgit to buy a whole lock, that fails at a part made of Scum. Buy at least 3 or 4 locks extra, and dont be a pencil pusher and open the locks assembly and have a view of how this works instead of being a keyboard Tong Roro warrior ***

Double Locks safety features was added for these windows so they lock in 2 places, not 1. The black tape will later be removed revealing its White powder coated finish

Mirrors, Aluminium Windows, Fixed Glass Panels, Skylights and Sliding Glass Doors. All of which were in general, very Generous in size to allow for the maximum amount of light being brought into the property. Wifey loves being a a dark room to sleep well, unfortunately, I love lots of light and brightness. 

This is our Foyer, where when you open the Front Door leading into a Home, you dont immediately feel like you are expecting a squeeze of darkness but rather light once again. When this skylight gets rain on top of it, and water ponds on it, a magical light show appears when wind blows on top of the water. Its amazing ! It was a fluke that our workers did, which we will show more of later

Clear Glass in a Light Grey tint

In the day time, there is no light that ever needs to be turned on till the evening hours. At night, for most of the time, no light is turned on in the master Bathroom thanks to the amount of light we receive from the generous amount of light coming in. 

It looks dark here, wait till you see when the tiles are fixed.

Its dark now, but it will all transform very soon

February comes to an end and all the Glass Works are done. 

TILES

This is an interesting subject. It had proved to be very challenging because we had just gone through MCO 1.0, and this caused delays to factories to manufacturers such as MML who we were really in hopes of purchasing from. Then there was NIRO Granite and yes we did go to Jalan Ipoh as well to look at tiles and we were just not doing things right. 

Our Tiles story was pretty F-ed up as all the nice tiles that we wanted from MML were either all finished, no stock available, or production had to be started and there was no answer when things would be delivered. This too bear in mind was also delays due to shipping, and shipping rates were off the charts during MCO and post lock down. Deliveries were all delayed. 

A typical conversation at MML's showroom was something like this :-

"Yang ni ada tak ?"

"Tak de"

"Yang ini pilihan 2, ada tak ?"

"Erm,...tak ade"

"Ok, yang ni ? Pilihan ketiga ?"

"Oh tak cukup, tinggal dalam 50 sq ft je"

"Ok yang ni ? Pilihan 4 ?"

"Erm,....tak tahu, tak pasti"

"So apa you ada dalam stock ?"

"Tak tahu, kene check, tak pasti ade stock ke takde"

Fuck me, you can just give the last answer as your first answer rather than having to play questions like musical chairs and waste peoples time and hopes to get things done. I really wanted to go with MML even when they were made in China, but luck as things would have it, will turn us around in the right direction. 

I wanted and we were willing to spend good money as well on the guest bathroom as a little jewel in the home that we can use from time to time and guests will have a comfortable experience. It even has a Skylight too. And even MML and Niro Granite and everyone else that we went to, wasnt hitting the spot. Not the right size, not the right colour, not the right effect etc. 

I did find though, Hoover tiles that still had likely Mosaics that were white in colour that were available in stock in white, 1 inch square, and were kept since the 90s in their little Container. As it would turn out, these are from a brand called KIMGRESS and happily paid about RM 2,000.00 and swept up all their remaining tiles for about 1,920 sq ft worth. I didnt need that much, but I took these jewels of tiles because they would be perfect. They came with a Paper backing at the Front of the tiles, NOT the back where mosaics today come in a Plastic Mesh. This was seriously, some fucking serious stuff. They were likely from the 80's, didnt get sold and they were finally bought almost 35 years later.

So with that, all we had were these tiles. I took a look at KIMGRESS website when I was looking at tiles along side MML and Niro Granites polished website, but turd brain staff and no answer to availability of stocks, and price too, really was a stressful time. 

Eventually I decided one day on my way to work. Lets just see what KIMGRESS is like. Who knows, I have been beaten because all my options and good wishes for what I wanted, have all been dashed. If I had to go to KIMGRESS, with doubt that their old un-updated website non inspiring selection was what I had to try, I had to TRY. 

Lo and behold, upon stepping in, KIMGRESS within a minute had all the right stuff that we were looking for. THE END. I called Wifey, and demanded that she come and see Kimgress. Prices were exceptionally fait, Production was not an issue because they are not made in China and the sales staff was professional and was very helpful. THE END. So not only were out old tiles from KIMGRESS, our new tiles were ALL from KIMGRESS as well. I would suggest looking at them if you are looking at tiles, and their showroom isnt but a stone throw away from MML. 

I wanst going to pay Made in China at 3 times more, but ended up with the right stuff Made in Malaysia. Plus, they had tiles that had a somewhat Terrazzo type finish in various colours. Done. Thats what we want as well.

Our luck had switched just in time, and at the right moment. It all just clicked and it was all suddenly all fast again.

For the Bathrooms, we had 3 themes. A Mosaic bathroom, a Scandinavian theme, and 2 simple French styled bathrooms. Non of that Scandi wannabe bullshit that you would have. Everything today is Scandi even when its not. Even 90's style couches are called Scandi for no reason. Even your underwear being sold is Scandi today. Everything is Scandi for no reason, when its all crap that cant sell.

This isnt a Scandinavian Bathroom. Its an envision of one American's idea over lunch one day while he was stuffing his face with a burger and Tex Mex shit of what Scandinavian styles are like. Misleading the rest of the world and especially Malaysians. Do you think VIKINGS would come up with shit like this ? and whats missing here are Candles. Worthy of any TIK TOK Influencer Interior Designer. No, Absolutely NO. If this is the Bathroom of what the founders of the New World 's current generation is, I think I would like to be stabbed now. 

This would be what a Scandinavian bathroom is like. Non of that Plants and Rugs shit here. I didnt take inspiration from this bathroom, but it came close to how we finished ours

If you would like to see what a Scandinavian bathroom really is like, take a look at our Master bathroom. Its as Scandinavian as you can get. Its like a German lavatory. Its a lot of,...emptiness and symetry, and simplicity. This was a full height bathroom at 12 feet in height worth of tiles. Non of that Love, Live, Life pieces of wood art hanging inside a bathroom with some shitty plants and rope / rattan baskets here. Theres just you, the shower, the can, and tiles. Absolutely no hanging cute shit. However, its got a beautiful view of the skies, and trees through the window.

The Guest Bathroom will have a full 13 - 15 ft to the ceiling height mosaic. This would piss the hell out of our old Chinaman who didnt have the patience on our old tiles. They had to be painstakingly applied onto the wall with precision best as possible, and with Paper being almost 40 years old, had seen many casualties of these tiles. But the end result was all worth it. Its not perfect, but thats the beauty of it. Symetrical Imperfection. Its a small bathroom with a very high ceiling. Its amazing how high the tiles went. 

The remaining 2 rooms would have a warmer French style kind of a theme. Just simple light matte beige, earthy and classy. Thats all. Here is what our tiles look like for the remaining rooms.

23rd November 2020

First Tiles arrive

24th November 2020

Bathroom 1 is the first bathroom to start works on

25th November 2020

Master Bathroom Starts work, this will be 1 persons work while the other bloke does the other 2 bathrooms

Black and Grey Terrazzo styled Tiles. Beat that MML !

This is going to be bright when its done

Subway style Wall Tiles are being installed

27th November

Master Bath is about 70% done, these tiles remember, are going all the way up to the ceiling

Grey and Black styled Terrazo tiles with Subway Tiles going all the way up 12 feet full height of the Master Bath

3rd December

Bathroom 1 is almost finished finished with a light and easy French style light earthy bathroom tones. The wall tiles here are shy of 1 foot before the ceiling in this case. Bathroom 2 has the same theme and we finished it about 3 feet below the ceiling

A netral light and easy bathroom appearance, not some dark brown or medium brown finish. We went for the lightest beige and satin white tiles for the walls. All grout used were in a dark grey finish. Something like a Slate - Graphite type colour

10th December 2020

We bought tiles for our Balconies and Verandahs, we used a particular pattern on these tiles that came in a 2 x 2 size, they were cut down to have tiles that were :

2 x 2, 1 x 2 and a 1 x 1 and were applied in a consistent pattern so that it would not look all boring. Its a pity because later, we would have to apply Pentens over it in 2024 to help our water leak issues. 

Despite us applying a water proof coating to the cement, water still made its way and damaged heavily our ground floor. Even when we had non porous tiles, shit still happens.

If you plan to put tiles on your balcony, please be ready to apply a coat of waterproofing on them. Otherwise, its better and it doesnt waste money by just having a concrete slab waterproofed instead. 

Light Grey tiles for Verandah and Balcony

28 December 2020

Guest Bathroom

Our 35 year old Kimgress Tiles likely from the late 80s for these mosaics, were a real treat. However our favourite old Chinaman really hated them as he had many challenges with them. He was tasked to take on this job as it required the most amount of skill and experience. 

Ma Chau Hai, Tiew Nia Seng and all sort of colourful words that would make any experienced food critic at a Michelin stared restaurant eating a dish with flowers on the plate, cry in joy for the soul feals nourished of such pain and effort gone into preparing such a dish. In the same context, we see our guys pain. 

Was it worth it ? This stretches up to 15 feet in the tallest place into the level of the First Floor Concrete Slab

Meet our Master. This guy is the Shiznit

Extremely difficult task of having those front paper mounted Mosaics being applied. They were delicate and brittle

Even the old boxes got the attention of being Photo Worthy by me

1 / 3rd done

Right till the Concrete Slab, where the Skylight starts. Applying delicately

Tapping them to ensure they stick and match well

Washing off the Paper that has been waiting for 35 years to receive water on them

Was it worth it ? Double the price

Well,.. what do you think ? We could have been pragmatic and gone for Jalan Ipoh or some recommended lowyaters recommendation

Its Pure perfection, of imperfection

And here is the result, with white grout. Love how some Mosaics protrude in and out. Almost Greek like in some cases

Thank you KIMGRESS

See, how happy people can be ?

All that height to dance around in a shower

Gramming 

The whole process took about 10 days, it was finished by the 9th of January 2021.

Unfortunately, this will be used mainly by the maid in 2022 - 2024, but all that is about to change again. 

5 - 8th Jan 2021

Ground floor tiles

We went for a White Terrazzo finish with a Graphite grout finish. I think the Graphite finish was a mistake, but thats on me, I should have done a white. But here it is.

It isnt all white, but it has a slight, off white look to it.

5th Jan, first tiles laid

In Progress

Maybe I should have gone for a Off White grout. Maybe next time. The remainding area will have a different set of tiles which will be for the kitchen. Downstairs Foyer, Living, Dining and Guest Room are all these tiles

Tiling works done here for now. Lets move on to PAINTING on the Interior. This will shock you on what I chose for Paint.

PAINTING

Now its time to shrow on some paint. In this case, you are all going to be shocked, but believe me, its going to pay off 3 .5 years later now when Im talking about this. 

For Paint, we didnt settle on any kind of interior paint that was meant for proper usage. Believe it or not, we used MATEX. It was the cheapest white. 

Yes, Yes, MATEX is used for short term use paint. Its more suitable if you are doing a a quick thing like a Pop Up Showroom or for Exhibition purposes. But we chose this. At that time I was Naive, but please note, that this Paint actually would help us in the long run. Why ?

Imagine paying RM 225 on some good 5 litre paint VS our RM 65 for 20 Litres of Paint, only to have the walls have the following problems that you will contact your contractor again for :-

1. CRACKS from Settlement (The building has lots of hairline cracks, but this is due to settlement of the land which takes time, not months, YEARS !!!)

2. Water issues like LEAKS

3. Water issues like DAMPNESS

All of which we had to go through. Our Skylight at the Foyers WALL had to be redone 4 - 5 times because of Leakages caused by the failed Waterproofing on our Concrete Slab. Imagine Paying many times for good paint, only to have it Fucked again. We even tried using Polyurethane Injection but it came back again. 

*** In 2024, it was solved by applying Pentens T 200 on the RC Slab and that completely solved our issues ***

So while its nice having a new building (not Renovated, this is a total Demolish and Rebuild project) find itself Settling in, and is revealing itself all its weak points, its lucky that we didnt invest in some good paint this time. Lets just have some cheap paint first. Give the building about 5 years before repainting everything again. Im glad things are working the way they do.

Moving on, I wasnt going to let the interior be painted by hand, I wanted to have a quick finish, and we painted the inside using my Graco Machine. The whole building was painted half a day for a whole coat. Ceiling and all.

It was so quick, that the Indons took the next day off to work on their passport at the Indonesian Embassy. Fuck me, when you work fast, you take the time to do other shit. This is how people work.

1st - 3rd March

We started around 10 ish AM in the morning, spraying the first walls upstairs and by the time 4pm came, a whole complete coat was done both Upstairs and Downstairs. 

The workers would come back on the 3rd of March again to do the second coat as the Flooring installers were coming in on the 4th of March.

Our company invested in this machine to paint our factory which was also due for a Paint Job, and I used it for this purpose. It would have been a long and lengthy process otherwise to finish up swiftly. I prefer this method any day as the paint shot out is consistent each time

Dude got our 2nd Bedroom which is a generous 15 x 20 foot room, walls, ceilings and all in a span of about 15 - 20 minutes

Yes its MATEX, Cheap and incorrect, but it would pay off as later, this room too would have leakages, so having a cheap coat of paint in our case had paid off so that later at another time in the future, we will invest in proper paint once all the issues of the property have revealed itself

In the Bathrooms, we applied paint by hand as was too small an area to blast paint in

By afternoon around Circa 3 PM, the downstairs was practically done. The rest of the time was spent cleaning the Machine which I will admit, takes about an hour to clean, but its worth it

The one thing you should know, is that Spray Painting requires lots of masking, and it produces a lot of Paint Dust, but its manageable with workers to clean up

The Foyer Entrance would see 4 - 5 times reworks done to this wall from 2021 - 2024. So cheap paint here was a saver. It would be more upsetting if good paint was invested in and having to redo everything all over again 

I would NOT recommend if your are Renovating your property to go on the Cheap Paint route like I did, keep in mind again, I had built this from the Ground up. Structural Settlement of the Building that would show Cracks, Water Pipe Leakages, Rain Water Leakages and Mold issues are still being looked at till today patiently in 2024.

If you are Renovating, feel free to use any Paint you want. 

11th - 18th March 2021

Exterior wise, we went with Nippons Outdoor Wall paint in White, I believe the code is 1010 or 1001

The Exterior took longer to finish because we could not risk spraying with our Graco Machine, or else it would have landed on our Neighbours car(s)

Paint Arrives

Our Gutters were Originally Cheras Grey, and we got them Painted in an interesting Beige - Grey finish. Outdoor Paint Works commence, and our Boundary Wall is all torn down now

Rear Ventilation Blocks that came with the Property get a fresh coat that lifted the Rear

A view of the front (See how we are not connected to the Common Wall ? We lots 1 foot here

How nice it looks in White, and the Roof looks Sleek in colour to the White walls. Im sure Cherasville and Kepongstown folks would have done it in Grey

And with that, the Property has practically been painted, leaving just the Boundary Wall to be made and Painted which would of course, come later as our Workers were building them. 

So as long as its not OUR Workers, work goes on fine

FLOORING

For the 1st Floor, We didnt go for anything fancy at all. Budgets would not permit for it as we have now come out from a 2nd MCO. No Merbau wood or any of that stuff. I just decided on a simple 7mm Laminate Flooring and to give the property a lighter feel, went for a traditional light yellow Oak finish. 

I have no problems with Laminate Floors. In 2024, the floors have gone through lots. Water issues, leaks, and all sorts of challenges, but its holding up well and it will do so I believe for 10 years before being able to invest in something really worth it,....if we are still living here.

4th - 6thMarch 2021

Just in time as the workers had finished their Painting Works, our Flooring comes in. Its a Swiss made floor, yes its a 7mm Floor. But I really am not fussy about thickness and to me, having it do its job for a decade is good. I have no regrets

Once again, many discussions till kingdom come can be found on your favourite online discussion forum. But to me, SPC flooring is

1. Hideous to the feel

2. Has to have perfect level of floors

3. The colours to me are Hideous

Unlike Laminate Floors that are more forgiving, I rather have the feel of fake smooth wood, than fake wood with a rubber feel. Just as how fake Grass is hideous. 

Im sure the Cherasville Package now is clear to you, a HAUS (Not House), painted in Dark Grey, comes with Blue / Green Glass, Stainless Steel Gate, Square boxy Window Sills, Dark Brown or Dark Purple Brown Bathroom Tiles, Cornices for Plaster Ceiling, Concrete Imprint Driveway in Dark Grey SPC Flooring, Fake Grass (MUST HAVE !) and kids must go to the Lowyat Academy of Online Opinions School.

Unfortunately, we are NON of that

Laminate Flooring arrives on 4th of March

The colour is sweet, its not Masculine but just right

A very quick process

Master Bedroom being done

Floors being layed out on Plastic Sheets

With some black railings to break away from the monotony. The combination looks good. The railings were made by us, and they were one of the first few things powder coated when we got our Oven back in action again

Adds a warm charm to the inside. Beautiful lighting here

Thats all for Part 7. 

Part 8  will be about the Boundary Wall, Gate, Front Door, Grass and Bathroom Fittings. A lot to cover.

Followed by Part 9 which will be about the Bathroom Fittings, Electrical Fittings and Kitchen a little, and we will be done. 

The final MCO, MCO 3.0 which would be the longest is not too far away now, MCO 3.0 arrives on the 1st of May 2021. 

Will we make it in time to finish ? Lets wait and see.