My husband and I officially moved back into our condo yesterday😊.

We’ve been moving in since the first week of September, when the last of our ‘replacing-our-water-pipes-cum-renovation’ was finally completed.  

Briefly, for most of the 18 years since we moved into our condo, we’ve had to endure rust smelling, yellowish, trickling water from our taps. Mainly because they were clogged up with rust particles. And, the water formed yellow/orange rims in our shower, toilets, and wash basins. I’d hate to think what all that rust-flavoured dribble has done to our health, skin, and hair.

Why did we wait this long? Several factors – scale of work involved, professional obligations, we would’ve had to move out, procrastination etc.

Anyways, when we eventually made the decision in June 2024, what surprised or deflated us was the insurmountable difficulty we had finding contractors or builders to do the job. It turned out to be a long and arduous journey/process.

We started with our one and only main contractor who’d done work for us previously. He, however, had moved on from residential to commercial projects. Still, he provided us with contacts. We also asked friends, who had done renovations on their homes. Even our guard brought along a contractor who was working in one of the units in our condo.

From all these sources, seven contractors indicated ‘interest.’ They physically walked through the job scope my husband had prepared. They made suggestions. Measured this and that. We received a few quotations. Mostly incomplete/shoddy. The only exception was ridiculously expensive. Nothing materialised. All that happened was time wasted (our weekends/their weekends) on appointments and follow-ups via telephone calls and texts that were met with silence or half-hearted responses. 

Less enthused, we carried on searching into 2025, and gave up in April. Which was when we met a reluctant plumber named Alvin. He came along with our carpenter, and complained profusely about the massive work involved in replacing the water pipes. Already fed-up at this point, I told him to repair our kitchen tap, which was why he was there, and leave thereafter.

The following Saturday, fortunately or unfortunately, I had to call him as he was the only plumber I knew, when our toilet in the master bathroom wouldn’t flush. For some reason, he fitted us in on a weekend although he had appointments. The turning point was after he saw the fragile state of our pipes located inside our suspended ceiling. He then, sort of, agreed to take on the job. A flash of hope but it was an uphill battle.

Replacing the water pipes required running new Polypropylene Random Copolymer (PPR) pipes from the riser, located outside our condo, inside and along the suspended ceilings to both our master and guest bathrooms. To get to the bathrooms, my husband worked out the most viable routes, avoiding beams, and anything critical to the structure of the building.

The pipes had to be laid via our pantry into our balcony, kitchen, guest bedroom into our guest bathroom through the lounge then to the master bedroom to the master bathroom. Outside of the bathrooms, various access panels had to be cut in the suspended ceilings. Inside the bathrooms, the floor and wall tiles had to be hacked for the plumbing works, and retiled. Also, the fixures and fittings had to be replaced.

We needed a hacking and tiling works’ contractor. We got one. Hmm. Wong was his name. He was introduced to us as a partner by the person, who was the actual contact, for the job. My husband and I weren’t comfortable. We just knew it when we met him. Some people, you just know.

With Alvin on board, we went ahead ‘eyes-wide-open’ with Wong. Dealing with Wong and his workers bordered on the nightmarish, although the end product is admittedly alright. I’m reluctant to use workmanship because they broke our bathroom window, damaged the architrave of our bathroom door, dented our bedroom floor, smoked inside our home, were messy to a fault, and left the water running, pushing up our water bill to RM311.60 from our monthly RM6.50. No acknowledgement of responsibility or guilt.

And … without a main contractor, my husband and I coordinated between the different trade’s people/contractors. We dealt with the carpenter, who made our bathroom cabinets and her workers who installed the granite counter tops. With the shower screen installer and laminator. The shower screen installer is my favourite as he conscientiously cleaned our never-before-cleaned-filthy bathroom windows. Remember, we are on the 30th floor. 

We also dealt with the painter, the floor polisher, net curtain supplier, and the cleaners. Each had its own issues but nothing compared to Wong and his workers.    

The upside, yes, upside. I learnt a little about waterproofing, tile laying, plumbing issues, suspended ceilings and how contractors/builders are proprietorial.

After two-and-a-half months of ‘replacing-our-water-pipes-cum-renovation,’ my takeaway, never say never but never again.