Bedroom Door from Yontat Doors & Hardware Pte Ltd

After a hectic journey that entailed demolishing of wall and fabricating of hollow block walls in a bid to restore both MBR & common bedroom, we have finally reached this stage of selecting a bedroom door.

(For a review of restoration for our bedrooms, please visit the following section of my blog:

http://barbettey.blogspot.com/2012/05/demolition-fabrication-of-walls-in.html )

We have decided on Yontat Doors & Hardware Pte Ltd because this door company is supposedly reputable since it is very popular with many clients.

So we've decided to visit their workshop at Eunos so here we are!

  

When we entered their premises, both sides of their workshop were lined neatly with doors that were labelled with serial numbers.

We were later told by the sales representative (a petite & young girl, whom we address as "Shu-Ting") that they were doors which had been ordered by clients and home developers; and are pending installation.

In fact, when we entered the airconditioned office, we had to wait for our turn to be served.  So we sized up that their business must be very good.

Selection of Doors : 

Eventually, we were served by this young girl, Shu-Ting, who showed us Yontat's catelogue of doors.  We told her that we are going for decorative doors, of which she explained to us that the "Simpo door" for the design that we wanted is $260 and the "Nyatoh solid" would cost us $450.

We requested to see the difference in quality and she brought us to the showroom outside and pulled out doors which were presumably running on rollers I guessed.

As the "simpo door" was good enough since the "nyatoh solid" wasn't just expensive, it was extremely heavy and what good would it do for us if all we require was a wooden door for our bedroom?  Moreover, we had plans to shift to a new place in the near future.  So no point paying so much for a door when we're abandoning the flat for another during our old age.

Apart from the "simpo door", we also saw these other doors, namely:

Classic doors which are made of compressed wood but are simply lovely to look at becox it has a country living style to it especially when it is sprayed white in colour as shown in this photograph:

Veneer doors which according to Shuting are also made to be 100% solid wood.  However, we didn't select veneer doors even though they are probabbly in trend for the past few years; but the drawback here is that it isn't scratch resistant.

Should any "accident" take place, scratches, scuff marks & dents are not reversible.  The owners of veneer doors would simply have to live with its "scars".

We contemplated ordering a "Simpo door" but with no engraving of designs on it.  Just plain & simple.

However, since we've been using plain doors everyday, my hubby felt that it was time for us to use something different from what we had for all our bedrooms now.

After quite a lengthy discussion with my hubby, we ordered a "simpo door" with such a design that has been dated quite sometime back.

I have tried my best to adjust settings for the photograph becox the real door looked alot better than what's taken on the digi-camera.

The colour didn't look right on photo too becox the actual piece is of a reddish-brown shade.

This design isn't my hubby's favourite because he felt that it is far too complicated and selected 2 other designs, which were simple and very popular with clients even till today.  However, I'm a superstitious person & didn't agree to engravings of designs that showed the outline of a tombstone, I was adamant that we reject those designs.

Yes this is an old-fashioned design which had been in the market for many years.

However, I liked the oval shaped engraving which reminded me of looking at myself in an elegantly shaped mirror.  Old gals at my age still love fantasizing as Snow Whites!  I am quite a romantic freak myself. :)

And Shuting has also highlighted to us that becox there are many grooves for this design, we might just require more cleaning with this door when dust settles onto it over time.

Installation Fees

She had also highlighted to us that since we are only buying 1 door, installation fees of $50 would not be waived.  The waiver of the $50 installation fees is applicable only to a purchase of 3 doors & above to be installed at the same premises.

As such, we bought this "simpo door" at $310 + 7% GST.

And what shocked us next was the installation date was 1 month from the date of purchase!  Shuting has explained to me that Yontat's hands are full & the schedule couldn't accomodate to orders that require immediate installation.

However, we still bought the door from them anyway.

Door Knobs

Yontat threw in the door knob & stopper for our purchase of the "simpo door" & we chose these accessories in matt silver even though I was tempted to go for a colourful, marbled knob (have to top up $18 for it).  My hubby wasn't agreeable to those marbled knob becox he felt that it wouldn't be as durable if we were to hit it by accident with a hard object.

It was when Shuting prompted us to select our door knobs that we started to recall that 2 sets of new knobs were required for the other 2 bedrooms.

We brought down the existing door knob and showed it to Shuting.  She introduced the ACE Entrance Lock to us.  The box came with the knob & other accessories e.g. instruction leaflet, screws & keys.

The ACE Entrance Lock was categorised as an entry level door knob.  The radius of the door knob was relatively small as compared to our existing HDB door knobs.

However, my hubby explained that so long as the door could be shut & locked up nicely; and reopened again without difficulties, then any door knobs are acceptable even if they were small in size. The quality seemed to be good & it is indeed value for money. It was such a real steal becox each door knob cost us $4.50 + 7% GST only!

(DIY Installation of Door Knobs)

My hubby bought additional ACE Entrance Lock and replaced the existing faulty door knobs for our bedrooms & here are some snippets of his hands & the door knobs:

Driving nails through a metal door frame was tough so my hubby had to mobilise a driller to do the job.

A successful replacement of door knob for one of my bedrooms.

Our bedroom door has finally been delivered to us today.

More snippets on our bedroom doors - sorry if the door looks slanted because of the angle of the photo-shoot :

However, the entire process wasn't a breeze.  There were hiccups.  And for the very first time, we had uneasy thoughts that such issues which we had already faced once with another door company (see my complaint on door installation under my earlier blog entry on demolition & wall fabrication) is inherent among door companies. :(

So if we had an ID, we would definitely get him/ her to clean up this mess.  Otherwise, it's really very stressful to coordinate everything on our own especially when there are glitches along the way.

At least, when the hiccups took place, YonTat was quick to rectify immediately when I alerted them.  The sales rep in the office was very polite & apologised.  She even explained to me about matters relating to the door fabrication industry.  As such, I cooled off as an angry customer becox they bothered to explain, apologised & were willing to accomodate to my request.

Despite the less than perfect experience on the day of delivery, I have to admit that YonTat's workmanship & installation is EXCELLENT. 

Especially for the price we are paying. :)  Cannot complain already.

Door Installation

Yontat's door installer is very skillful because we observed that it requires alot of skill & precision, especially when it comes to cutting off a rectangular groove to install hinges.

If the alignment is out, then, it'll look really awful.

And he is very careful in placing thick squares of carpets below the door to prevent our tiling from being scratched (see photo attached below).  That was a kind consideration.  And I think it is also to create friction so that the door doesn't skid off & come crashing down onto the floor.

Please see the photographs below where the door installer single-handedly dealt with the door.  The door is extremely heavy according to my hubby.

After the door was mounted onto the door frame, the installer used a cutter to drill against the door and a very neat looking round hole (for the door knob) appeared.

A round wooden block with debris.

Vanishing process:

After the installer left, the vanishing was followed up by his colleague.

This last finishing stage was a real shame as it was a letdown from my perspective as a customer.

Not that the vanisher did a bad job.  However, before we could stop him, he used a electrified gadget with sandpaper attached (to be known as the "sanding machine" in this thread) to smoothen the door and very tiny particles of saw dust flew all over our bedroom and landed onto the furnishings and personal effects that were found in there!  :(

I was so upset that I gave him a huge dressing-down, reported the matter straight away to Yontat who apologised and told me that they would speak to their staff about it.

We had no choice but to mobilise the opaque drop sheets which had been previously sponsored by our contractor for demolishing & fabrication of walls (see my earlier thread) for our bedrooms.  But it was pretty useless because everything in this bedroom was already covered with saw dust.  And the exterior of the bedroom too! 

I didn't take any photographs of the vanishing process as I was fuming with anger.  All I knew was that he mixed the colour tone for the vanish for code "number 2" which we chose based on the sample of the wood stains shown by YonTat's sales rep when we bought the door.

My hubby confirmed that the colour tone was ok and he started vanishing.  However, the vanishing process was a nasty job too because after the first coat, he had to use that "sanding machine" to smoothen out the door.  This process was repeated thrice. 

It was a lot of hard work & definitely not pleasant to be inhaling such chemical solvents on the long run.

Our noses were assailed by the strong pungent odour arising from the liquids used, which smell like they were thinner-based.  However, the smell was a lot stronger.

Post Mortem

Despite this unpleasant experience with the vanisher, we would like to provide an objective review that YonTat and all their staff did a wonderful job.  :)

And we were pleasantly surprised that YonTat's boss, paid us a courtesy call to find our what happened and apologised to us for any of the inconvenience caused.  :) :)

We weren't expecting to hear from him since we have only bought one miserable bedroom door which cost only $310 (incl $50 for installation which couldn't be waived unless we bought 3 doors for the same location) + 7% GST. 

It goes to show that YonTat's management does not belittle or take slight of any customer's complaint regardless of the transacted amount.  And we knew that YonTat's clients are in good hands since they are sincere and serious about making their clients happy & to top it all, they had good aftersales service too!

The fact that they could turn around a fussy & upset customer (like myself) and make her happy, then, they are worth considering if you guys require any doors.

We are very pleased with YonTat's products and services; at the end of the day, they did such a neat job that many of my neighbours commented on how beautiful our bedroom door is.  Worth the 1 month wait.

I just have to reiterate that the installation is professionally done & the vanishing is beautiful! :P

We would definitely consider engaging them should we require doors in the near future.

So please consider using YonTat Doors & Hardware Pte Ltd should you require a replacement of doors!

Verdict :  EXCELLENT!

________________________________________________________________________

Disclaimer:

Permission has been sought from Yontat Doors & Hardware Pte Ltd for their products, namely bedroom doors & door knobs to be featured in this thread.

Kindly note that this thread is strictly for the purpose of sharing my humble & objective views of works and services provided by the aforesaid company.

I am not affliated to this company and am an existing client who bought a bedroom door ("Simpo door") for my existing bedroom.

Reader's discretion is therefore sought when viewing this thread.

For the ease of viewing and any enquiries related to their contact numbers & address, photographs of their address & telephone numbers are uploaded.

Selective photographs featuring their doors had also been water-marked in view of copyright issues pertaining to the company's products.

Thank you for your kind understanding.