Home Improvement Programme (HIP) and What You Should Do
Updated on 5 April 2022 with water heater information
If you are reading this article, you are most likely the lucky ones going to have partial upgrade to your unit. Hopefully, this article will help you to be prepared of what is coming, sourcing materials and handover.
Due to COVID-19, the HIP was delayed. It was just last month ( March ) that we received announcement of programme commencing. HDB has provided 2 letters of the announcement; 1 month in advance of programme commencing and 2 weeks in advance of programme commencing.
The “battle” with HIP will split into 5 parts; Preparing for HIP, Battle Days , Sourcing Materials & Installation, Handover & Result.
Preparing for HIP
Looking through some blog posts which is useful to know what is needed to prepare. The blog posts that I found it useful is listed below:
From there, I started sourcing for plastic drop cloth. Depending the intensity level on how much you don’t want to clean the area and buy plastic drop cloth. For my case, I bought 10 plastic drop cloth plus 2 more for standby.
You need to start planning on where you like to cover first and which you like to cover last. Of course, the finishing of covering furniture etc depending on the number of items you have at home and family members on helping out.
For my case, I used 10 drop cloth which I cut them to fit my furnitures. It was a one-man job so it took me 4 days to do the minimal. The definition of minimal is just to cover furnitures.
So for my case, I started to tape least used furnitures (e.g book shelf) and slowly head to wardrobe, storeroom, sofa, shoe rack, kitchen and TV. Remember to bear in mind that once seal, it’s best not to unseal cause you may tear the plastic cloth. Hence, remember to take out whatever is needed before sealing up.
While it is not important on the branding for plastic drop cloth, I find that finding the right masking tape is important. I had a few brands of masking tapes (Toyo, Hansman) but I find Inter brand’s masking tape able to stick to wall better. Inter’s masking tape is able to find at Giant Hypermarket with different sizes.
Battle Days
On the first day, they will verify the package you selected. It is best to clarify question if you had any before they start work. For me , the list of questions asked is listed below:
- “If removing the light and buy a new light, will you fix for me ?”
- “The ceramic toilet roll holder will it be provided by your or I have to buy new ones?”
- “Can I buy any water heater or I need to look for specific watts or voltage water heater ?”
- “If I buy toilet accessories (e.g towel rack, soak rack), would your help to install ?”
They will also verify with you what you would like to keep (and reinstall back after they finish tiling) and which you would like to throw. This is important because you need to know what you are sourcing for later on.
I would also like to highlight the importance of verifying if you are using the correct power outlet for water heater. I did not know there are people that are not aware that you should not be using a three-pin plug for water heater.
While before construction begin, they would conduct the check (including checking on water heater outlet). If you are unsure, you would like to seek clarification with them.
Being the person in charge, I have to verify before the construction starts. This means I had to stay for the first day. First day is the worst! It is a constant hacking and drilling from morning till late afternoon. The following shows the process of hacking and drilling:
While they cover the floor and furniture, do note that they reuse floor cover and drop cloth. What does that mean ? It means the accumulate of dust from previous units. I accidentally brush the drop cloth and my clothes have white dusty stain.
The rest of the days are fairly breathable as you could use electricity in the house to watch television. The inconvenience is just to left your gate open , accept different people walking into your house with shoes on and having fine white dust on items you failed to cover.
The next troubling days to worry is installation day.
Sourcing Materials & Installation
Remember the first day of verifying which item to keep and which item to throw ? The item you like to throw you would either which to replace them or you decided to opt out of not having them in your new bathroom.
For my case, I opt to leave nothing to keep and hence, this indicating I have to replace everything or risking my bathroom of having a room with toilet bowl .
Your dateline of sourcing materials will be the day before installation date. For example, if they inform that the installation date is on Saturday, you have to get ready all the installation by Friday. This is because they will come in the morning for installation and you won’t have time to scout anymore materials.
What Items you need to source?
Using my bathroom as example, the list of items I need to source will be:
- Lighting
- Tap (bib tap)
- Bidet spray
- Knob to turn on water heater (stop cock)
- Water Heater
- Toilet accessories (e.g toilet paper holder, rack)
While you able to source lighting and water heater easily, I find sourcing tap and knob harder to finder compared to the rest.
The technical term of tap and knob I am looking for is called bib tap and stop cock. Most plumbing shops do not sell a variety design for bib tap and stop cock. Hence, you could enter a shop that sell bib tap for may only have one or two designs. Otherwise, you could enter a shop that only sell one brand for the item.
There are actually many brands you can look for such as Showy, Riekirai, ADL,Husky etc.
My friend recommend me a place where I can have the option to choose different brands and different design of the items.
I managed to get most of my items from the shop.
My friend also recommended Song-Cho shop Welmi product. This is because it is made of stainless steel and never rust. I was shocked when my friend told me stainless steel that never rust as most item I bought state stainless stain but it rust over the years. He showed me the product he brought which never rust after many years of using:
You may want to look at others where they decided to buy Welmi stainless steel product:
In case you are curious, yes, I did buy Welmi stainless steel racks in the end.
Tips: I wanted to get 3 tier rack but I realised I can’t place tall bottles. Hence, if you planning to buy, maybe you want to use their sample bottles to illustrate if the rack can store those bottles you had at home. The outlet i went have some shower bottles which helps me in the purchasing. I ended up purchasing 2 tier rack instead.
Installation day
On the installation day, they will ask where would you like your water heater and bib tap to be installed etc. This is so that they could see how to map the water pipe to your destination. If you do not provide any instruction, they will just install based on their liking.
The only time they need you will be asking you on the placement of items and handbar (if there is any). Hence, It is fairly easy if you have already prepared the items in a bag for each bathroom.
Handover
Before they did a final check, it is best to inspect on your own. For example, after the installation, I realised that there is stains and marking that I can’t remove. If the permanent marker’s marking is on the tiles, I can use nail polish remover to remove. But the marking unfortunately falls at the gap between tiles (plaster). Also there are dirt from pipe after they painted which I can’t rub or wash off:
This was mentioned to them for the final check and they have re-painted and re-plastered the gap.
Result
The following shows the photo taking transformation process of the bathroom:
The end is only the beginning… and we spend a few rounds (5 rounds to be exact) to mop the floor.
Hopefully this article will find it useful for people who does not know what to do. Thanks for reading! :)
Author’s note: Do you have other recommendation for scouting plumbing supply ? If so, leave a comment to help other people who may encountered the same problem as me :)
