Some people are wired differently
I got the electrician in the other day because I wanted to change my switch covers to the more sleek legrand brand of switch covers. So sleek that when you switch on the lights, it doesn’t have the clickity-clack sounds of old school switches.
I immediately sent my Shopee order and the switch covers arrived promptly. Of course you need to know your current switch functionality to know which switch to swop. It’s not rocket science, but call your local electrician if you know one to figure out what to buy.
I got an electrician, through a contact at the Sembawang lighting shop along Sembawang road – more about which shop later – and apparently he is not bad. Or so they say. I guess their definition of not bad is because his rates are reasonable and he gets the job done. That I my opinion is good enough.
At $25 for a lighting point, $10 per subsequent unit multiplied by the numbers of units, it turned out to be pretty reasonable. He practices good habits of not littering around his workplace showing his years of experience of handling these household jobs. Ah Shui (lit: means water in mandarin) is a lifesaver when you have a fused light fixture that needs repairing or replacing. You can reach him at +65 9820 8482. Don’t say I recommended you.
Did I say he does plumbing as well? I haven’t had any plumbing issues as yet, but I would call him also. Sometimes tells me he should be pretty good with water issues.
He helped me install my ceiling fans, four, and swop about 18-20 switches and light fixtures. I think it was slightly more than $400 for 5-6 hours of work. initially he said half a day would be suffice, haha, that’s usually just an estimation of the scope of works that need to be done not including hiccups.
Speaking of which, Ah Shui is really your true blue old school electrician. His skills are worth every dollar of experiential learning. He’s humble and willing to learn and more importantly never gives up. I had a two way switch that needed switching (pun intended). But unfortunately the two way switch wiring was a little complicated, trust me, I watched the YouTube video multiple times.
Ah Shui thought it was a textbook walk-in-the-park replacement, unfortunately he struggled at it for more than an hour. And he finally got it. Clearly he has a systematic old school way of solving electrical problems. I also realise that he is fearless when it comes to electrical sparks. So hiring him for this, is a good decision.
Thank God for choosing the right lighting shop, the one that has a lot of ladies running the shop, not the other one. If you don’t know which one to buy from just walk into both and you will know which one is the better one.
Previously I did what everyone resident would do, and that was to reach out to the town council for their electrical guys. They sent the brothers over to fix my lights. The brothers charged me $50 per point. I had two points to fix, so I asked them how much to fix two points.
The brothers looked at each other for a bit and said to me “two points $100”. I asked, so if I have more points, is it $50 per point? Their eyes shone brighter than the silvery moon on moonlight bay.
I was desperate then and said, just this one point will do. And then I watched closely how they did it. Paid them the $50, and swop all the other lights myself.
But these switch covers and fan installation is not so easy. Ah Shui didn’t over charge and for the amount of effort, I was relieved that he helped fix my lighting problem.