The Vanity Drawers & the Kitchen (Sliding) Doors were being installed last year in 2012. We hope that home owners would find this review useful.
To contact Han Fong Aluminium Pte Ltd for a site measurement, please contact Mrs Kang at the following address or contact number:
#01-1227, 5060 Ang Mo Kio Industrial Park 2
Singapore 569563
Tel : 6-382-2081
Vanity Drawers
The recess area below my windows are subject to weathering
from the exterior part of the flat and water leakages during heavy downpour are
inevitable.
As such, we had decided to opt for water-proof aluminium
cabinet doors which are also known as vanity "drawers". Even though there obviously aren't any
drawers behind those cabinet doors.
Selection Process for a Professional Installer
We have interviewed several aluminium contractors and had
eventually narrowed down to Han Fong Aluminium Pte Ltd.
The reason being that when the boss, Mr Kang himself came down
personally to take measurements and provide a quotation, we were pleasantly
surprised when he told us very honestly that he would recommend wooden doors
instead of his aluminium doors.
Additionally, he had demonstrated the depth of his knowledge
with much credibility in his technical explanations. Both my hubby and myself were pretty confident that we got the
right contractor to take up this assignment.
And now that Han Fong Aluminium Pte Ltd has completed the
installation of these vanity "drawers", we are very happy to share on
RT forum that we are glad that we found them as we were in very good hands!
We didn't have a camera at hand when Han Fong's inhouse
installers dropped by during the first trip.
So we only managed to take these photos when their staff
came down for the second installation.
Here comes the photos...
The protective film of plastic had not been peeled off yet -
so it doesn't show off any high glossy shine / sheen. It has the looks of the kitchen cabinet's concept in IKEA. It's just that their version is made of
glass whereas ours is made of PVC of
the same/ almost similar colour tone.
We intend to do the "opening ceremony" after we
are done with refurnishing our homes :
better to protect it from any accidental scratches...
This is the finished product of a dual-panel cabinet door below the window for my spare bedroom.
We were very surprised to see that they had used several
types of silicon apart from drilling the aluminium frame to the concrete parts
of the wall. And it came in several
colours for camoflouging.
The installer also explained to us that it is anti-mouldy
and even when it gets wet, we won't have any issues of seeing those
blackish-greenish mould spots staining the silicon in the near future.
Balcony
The balcony is a real headache when we got several aluminium
contractors to drop by.
Many didn't realise that there is a discrepancy in the
height from the top of the concrete part (below the window) all the way down to
the ceramic floor.
It was only when 1 of the contractors highlighted to us that
the concrete structure flanking the recess area is uneven, that we realised
what the implications would be. That
contractor turned down our assignment straight on the spot. The reason given was it's difficult to
install cabinet doors in the balcony as we would be unable to slide the doors
after installation.
When Mr Kang from Han Fong Aluminium stepped in, he too
noticed that the uneven height after taking measurement - the section on our
left hand side is shorter in height.
But he assured us that it could be done and that he might need to use an
anchor to "hold" or balance up the frame (in the middle portion). And he told us that it wouldn't look so nice
and he would try to see if we could avoid using the anchor.
This photo shows his installer fixing the frame and the sliding doors at my balcony and no anchor is required.
The use of anti-mouldy silicon to cover the gaps between the frame and the concrete flanking the frame.
Another type of silicon which is gray coloured with a different texture had also been used for the sides and bottom. For camoflouging purposes.
The finished product at my balcony - which is very messy because we are in the midst of doing a minor face-lift for my flat so it's extremely cluttered with raw materials and our "garbage".
The plastic film that you noticed dangling down from one of
the doors is the protective film. The
original PVC has a very high shine, glossy surface. Just like glass.
A close-up shot of the finished product. The reflection seen on the panels are from the huge stack of "goodies" piled up at the balcony.
(Note: The PVC panels are opaque. The colourful images which are seen on the panels are a reflection of our personal effects which were placed directly OPPOSITE these vanity drawers which are alot better looking in reality.)
Here comes the mini lockset which had been installed on the spot by their installer :
Dining room
Our dining room had the same problem on structural
discrepancies as the balcony.
But we were amazed at how he sawed the short trunkings
(sorry not sure what terminology to use) manually with a saw and the artwork
was seamless!
Applying cement to the gaps between the aluminium frame and the concrete walls at the sides:
Red carpet had been brought in by Han Fong Aluminium's staff
to minimise the cement spluttering all over the place.
We were fascinated that the staff bothered to vacuum the aluminium dust from sawing during the first trip they made to install the framing below the windows.
For this second trip down, he bothered to clean up the place where the excessive cement fell onto the floor or tracks:
After taking his lunch, he used a grayish type of plaster to smoothen out the cemented areas on both left and right sides:
The finished product after painting:
Storage for my personal effects e.g. boxes of DVDs, knick-knacks, etc - no space is too small for optimising storage
My storage motto: No
wastage allowed down to even 1 inch.
Photo of night scenary from my TV room
(managed to "white"-out his face before uploading)
He is a very humble, patient and experienced in his role as an installer.
What surprised us was how he could simply look at the hollow gap between the aluminium framework & the wall, then pick up the aluminium bar and start sawing off the right length on the spot!
We have never seen anything like that until we engaged Han Fong Aluminium's services.
It is done by another contractor earlier on but he is unable to "hide" those ugly black rubber strips on the inside of the sliding doors. :(
We wished that we had got to know about Han Fong Aluminium earlier on. *sob*
I would highly recommend that those ugly black rubber
strips be concealed on the reverse side of the sliding doors for a
"cleaner" look.
Once we've installed our IKEA kitchen concepts, we will be
reversing both doors becox those black rubbers spoiled the appearance of those
already "obiang" stove.
haiz...
Kitchen Sliding Doors (Dual-Panel)
After the breezy transaction for the vanity drawers was completed, we had decided to get our kitchen sliding doors installed by Han Fong Aluminium as this aluminium fabrication company has become our preferred choice for us as home owners.
In view of space constraints for installing a sliding mechanism, we had to opt for a dual-panel kitchen door as the wall wasn't wide enough for concealing the kitchen door when it is withdrawn & concealed.
Mr Kang had recommended a bi-fold door in lieu of sliding doors, which he was honest in warning us that sliding wouldn't be as smooth-going as that of a single panel.
However, we still went ahead & installed a dual-paneled sliding door because we felt that it would look neat when not in use.
The Installation Process
We requested for the same installer who did up our vanity drawers to install our kitchen sliding doors.
A powered driller was also mobilised to hold different parts of the door frame together.
Han Fong Aluminium's installer had also prepared an aluminium stopper which was subsequently placed at the centre of the top sliding tracks as shown in the photograph.
The gadget for beating in nails through the door frame is unknown to us. So we have decided to call it a "stapler gun" as we observed that it dispenses nails with great ease.
After the door frame had been placed such that it was flanking the entrance in the kitchen, both door panels were ready to be placed onto the twin tracks.
We were pleased to observe that Han Fong Aluminium's staff had been very thoughtful when they used autosol to polish the aluminium frame of the doors prior to mounting them on the sliding tracks of the door frame.
The photograph shows the hardworking & conscientious installer inspecting the sliding door mechanism while testing out the ease of sliding along the twin tracks.
Adjustments were made accordingly to optimize sliding along the aluminium tracks.
Silicon was then used to seal up gaps between the aluminium tracks & the ceramic groove between our living room & kitchen entrance.
These are some close-up photographs of the finished product - our dual-panel sliding doors for our kitchen.
The panels are made of PVC and not glass as it does give readers an illusion that they are glass sliding doors. We came to realise that there is a certain percentage of translucency to the PVC material as strong lighting has been filtered through from our living room during day time when it's bright & sunny on most days.
As our living room is still in a tragic mess while we embark on an arduous journey on DIY for our home, we have decided not to publish photographs when the sliding doors are fully concealed behind the wall.
Hence, we left the door partially opened as shown in the photograph instead of pushing both door panels to the extreme left of the ceramic wall.
VERDICT : SUPERB & EXCELLENT!
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Disclaimer:
Permission has been sought from Han Fong Aluminium for their
installation works at my home 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.
Reader's discretion is therefore sought when viewing this
thread.
In view of issues pertaining to every individual's privacy,
facial identities are witheld from the photographs featured in this thread.
Thank you for your kind understanding.
