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Folks,

I am looking at the Simpolo online catalog from link posted below.
http://www.simpolo.net/pdf/Simpolo%20Digital%20Art.pdf

Now want to check how they look and feel. Anyone knows if Simpolo has a showroom (like RAK one near Richmond Circle) or a dealer who has Simpolo tiles for display?

I remember my contractor saying there is one in Horamavu. Phone number he had was 9900231333. I will ask him if he has any updated address since I also rmmbr him talking about something in JP Nagar.

I think it may be available at Chhabria & Sons as indicated in their Website, http://chabsons.net/html/

Show rooms :

#71, Veerapillai Street, Kamaraj Road Cross, (Near Commercial St), Bangalore - 560 042.
Tel: 080 - 2530 3884, 4093 5490

Chhabria House
#63/50, Silver Jubilee Park Road, (Near Town Hall), Bangalore - 560 002.
Tel: 080 - 4147 5725, 6596 3481

Thanks rrprakash, simplycar. I will checkout the places you mentioned.

I have bought bathroom all fittings from Maruthi Ceramics. Got to know that they are also dealer for Simpolo tiles and have display at their Banaswadi showroom

Kindly post your opinion on Simpolo tiles after you checkout the same.

I have some query regarding item rate contract:

- Have you engaged any Architect / Civil Engineer for Plan, structural design and day to day supervision of your construction, what are their approx. charges?
- How you have drafted item rate contract, weather it has been done by Architect / Civil Engineer or you did it yourself? If possible can you share your draft contract for reference.
- What are the payment terms for the contractor? i.e. you pay after completion of each item in the contract or part payment at regular intervals.
- How you are managing purchase of items like Electrical cables, switches, wood for doors & windows, Floor & wall tiles, plumbing fixtures etc., i.e. weather it is in contractor scope or your scope?
- For a small project of 1600 sq. ft., Item rate contract is feasible or per sq. ft. contract is preferred?

Regards

Architects vs engineers; it depends on the time you have available to spend monitoring the work on a daily basis vs the cost savings.

If you give labor contract, you will save anywhere from 15-25% of the cost. Architects charge from 3-9% of the total project. The question is; do you have the knowledge and time to track this project for 1-1.5 years?

I went for an item rate contract to control the quality of materials. I did give full contract and had an architect also. Without the architect, I would not have been able to understand the various choices available at each stage of construction and the trade offs thereon. Architect was also needed for structural drawing and initial plan drafting (yes; this can be done by a structural engineer and part time architect for a much lower fee). If you are going for item rate contract, be aware that even bill verification is very time consuming as each item billed needs to be verified on the site. I did not appoint some one for day to day supervision. The engineer we chose is good and the architect verified his work during periodic (once in 2 weeks on an average) visits.

Engineer payment terms was as and when the work completed. He raised about 6-7 bills during last 1 1/2 years. Architect drafted the contract.
Contractor scope has basic brand of electrical cables, switches etc etc. In general, we would want to chose a different brand/color for these so we will end up purchasing these. in my case, I chose my own tiles and decided to go with UPVC windows (outside contractor scope) etc. We specified the brand for electrical/plumbing and the contractor handles those though I did select the commode/taps etc.

Thanks for the clarifications.

Regards