Saturday, August 25, 2012

Path to a HDB Tai-tai: Craftstones

My Goddess has been wanting to get some brick looking/ wood planks looking wall for her place. Doesn't have to be real bricks/wood - can be tiles or wallpaper as real bricks take up too much space, are ex and tough to maintain. So she first searched around for wallpaper - a less space consuming alternative. Went to Goodrich and Asro. Goodrich have a lot of nice brick designs! Totally what my Goddess was looking for. But it also comes with a hefty price!



Asro on the other hand is so much cheaper! Like half the price. But they didn't carry any 'authentic' brick design that my Goddess was looking for. And their wood has glitter, and comes with one big piece without 'panel lines' which makes it seem so unreal.



One day while she was at Balestier buying switches for her place, she passed by a stretch of shops that sells tiles. So she decided to go in and have a look. There were really a lot of variety!


Technically these are called craft stones, and used as feature walls instead of on the floor like tiles.

Then there's wood tiles, really beautiful and looks quite real with the texture. But becuase of the length, it can't be placed on the wall, otherwise the joints are visible and it will look quite weird.


My Goddess' father-in-law then brought them to one supplier as he was going to purchase tiles for his own house too. Ended up they bought a rugged craft stone for their balcony instead of bricks for the living room.

The craft stones came in odd shapes. So it's like jigsaw puzzle to piece them together.


Lucky for my Goddess, her father is a subcon, so his workers knew about tiling and painting, and he got his workers down to help put up the balcony feature wall.

First, little holes are knocked off the wall such that the cement will stick to the walls better.


Pokka Dotted balcony
Then using cement (I think) each piece is stuck up.

To ensure that the tiles are stuck in line, the worker cleverly used a piece of wood to tie down a string.

Then the string is tied to a toothpick!

Overall, i think the job is very well done. See, the powerpoint potion is cased in nicely.

To ensure a consistent look to the wall, the sides are tiled up too.

And this was done using white cement so that the joint lines is less obvious.

And tadah! This is how the whole balcony looks like now!

It's like the cosiest place in the house now!

Latest update: my father's worker who is good at such tiling works has retired, and so he has ceased to provide such service anymore! Apologies to all unreplied email enquires!

10 comments:

Unknown said...
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crystal said...

Hello!

I'm interested in getting a quote for building a brick wall for my house. Could you email to crystal.longvacation@gmail.com?

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

My husband loves the craft brick design.. Pls email me at john_samantha@yahoo.com.sg

Unknown said...

Hey nice work,

Will you be able to fill me in on the pricing of the craftstone and perhaps workmanship costing too..


chong.nicholas@gmail.com

Thanks

Nick

Anonymous said...

Hi there,

I am a resident of The Peak and I happen to stumble upon your blog. Your balcony looks great! Do you mind passing me your father/father's worker contact? My email is sohmeiqi@hotmail.com.

Thank you and God bless.

Mei Qi

Anonymous said...

hi, pls send me the contact to install the brick veneer wall, thanks. bokehhunting@gmail.com

*woof* said...

Hi meiqi, thanks for your compliments! Regrettably my father's worker who is good at tiling has retired and so he no longer provides this service.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Ferlyn said...

hi, how much does the craft stones cost? i wonder whats the estimated price if i were to do up a 4.3m long wall. any idea? thanks!

*woof* said...

Hi Ferlyn,

We got this at a bulk purchase/friendship price, so I'm not sure what's the retail price out there. You can also check out with the tile stores the estimated number of tiles needed. Am sure they will be more than willing to help!