leechaorui

Hi Kelvin, Cong Xi Fa Cai, Happy CNY. I think the price you are paying to rebuild your house is competitive. What is the ceiling height for your basement? I was quoted $120K for the construction of a basement with 1000 sqft space, 2 toilets with bath, a device to suck out warm air, air-conditioner and I would be able to put the home shelter at the basement area. Decided against it. Now, I think the cost to construct a similar basement would be higher. Your price of $800K excluding 7% GST to construct 4,500 sqft of built up is fairly competitive. How do your contractor compute the built up space? Is it all areas including your balcony, bay window, planter box, RC ledge, car pouch, etc...? Increasingly, I noticed that my neighbours who are beginning to construct their houses tend to pay prices in the range of $700K upwards even for intermediate terrace with land size of less than 2000 sqft. I think it is a bit tight to budget $6 psf for marble and $3 psf for homogeneous tiles. I didn't use marble for my house construction. For homogeneous tiles, I paid about $5 psf inclusive of GST and some of the more designer type of homogeneous tiles cost me $15 psf. In addition, I used some feature wall stone for the exterior and granite for interior. Can't remember the exact price I paid, I think feature wall tile is about $28 psf and a slab of black galaxy granite is about $1000. I used about 7 slabs of black galaxy granite for vanity top in toilets, kitchen top and bar top counter. I think the granite I used for my flooring is cheaper, cost around $10 psf. I believe good quality fine marble cut from bigger slabs of marble cost much more than granite. Unless you have special lobang to get the tiles cheaply, you may want to budget extra for the purchase of tiles. Yoongf is right, you may want to budget an extra $100K for the furnishing. Carpentry works, Chengai wood features in some places, some furniture such as sofa, dining table etc.., sanitaryware, lighting, fans, air-conditioner (if this is not included), CAT6 terminals in every room and living area, extra power points so that you have more flexibility, electrical appliances, LED lighting (optional but good to have), landscaping, etc... I believe false ceiling should be included in your contract.

Hi Gong, Basement construction typically cost more than putting up another level. The cost of constructing the basement is dependent on a few factors such as whether there is any sewage pipe from your neighbours' house that run across to your house, the size of the basement, the depth of your basement and other technical specifications. I don't think it make much difference in terms of cost when constructing a basement on a ground that is slightly lower than your neighbour's house. My estimate of an additional basement construction alone can cost an additional between $120K to $250K for about 1000 sq ft of space. The total cost excluding furnishing for constructing a decently build 2.5 storey house without basement that yield about 3000 + sq ft of built up space can range from anything like $600K to $700K. If you add basement, the cost estimates could be in the region of $720K to $950K. In constructing a new house, I don't believe in going for complete basic. Certain things you can save and there are certain items that one should not cut from the wish list. Examples of items that can be save are: 1. Use Indonesian Teak Parquet instead of Burmese Teak Parquet or bamboo flooring 2. Use of lesser windows (to reduce heat in the house, one can reduce the size of windows esp if your house is a corner terrace/ semi detached) 3. Point 3 is related to point 2 - the reduced window size also mean that one will use less curtain materials. 4. Use a turnkey builder instead of engaging an architect separately to manage the project. If you have further questions, you can pm me your hp and we can chat. I have just constructed my place and my memory is still fresh on what I have done and what are the things I feel are mistakes in construction.

Did you get the penthouse unit? Can have very beautiful view of the forested area. I think this is a very well designed condo. Lots of water, fish, green areas and high security. Only setback is the distance to city. If you work at the Singapore Prison, this is probably one of the best location, save for those landed houses there.

I think this freehold condo was only build several years ago. It is sitting on a fairly large plot of land and its prices are generally attractive. I supposed this is a good value for money buy if you like condo living and don't mind the distance to the city.

Unless the engineer is trained in both architecture and civil engineering, they are normally two different persons. As long as you get an architect to design for you, he could outsource part of the work to an engineer. I had a neigbour who did a basic reconstruction (ie this is not the same as erection) for a 2 storey house a few years ago for a very attractive price. He rebuild his place from single storey to 2 storey. Basic means this in his reconstruction: 1. Uses cement hollow bricks (prone to cracking after one or two years - now there are some cracks and deeper cracks will usually appear within 5 years) 2. Uses hollow red bricks (prone to hairline cracks after about 6 to 18 months - there are lots of it in his house now) 3. Build only 2 toilets (one for the upper floor and one for the ground floor) 4. No en-suite bedroom 5. Continue to use phase 1 power (ie - limited power supply eg. cannot turn on air-conditioner for all the bedrooms in one go. He uses only stand on fans) 6. Lower ceiling height (about 2.5 m after false ceiling is installed) 7. Limited number of power points, lighting points and telephone points 8. No CAT6 cabling for opennet 9. Limited number of taps 10. Homogeneous tiles (small piece type) for whole house 11. Use Indonesian Teak wood parquet for second storey as opposed to Burmese parquet 12. Use the small piece German roof tile (don't look good as opposed to using the bigger piece) 13. Water proofing is applied to toilet flooring only as opposed to whole house 14. Use weatherbond Nippon Paint (as opposed to using higher grade external paint). After about 12 to 18 months, you will see that the house paint stain badly. Some contractor will dilute the Nippon Paint and you will see the effects of staining and thiness of the paint within 6 months. 15. Use limited rebar (meet the minimum requirement) such that the house weight bearing capacity is about the same as HDB flat (cannot place a bigger size fish tank on the second floor, otherwise floor will crack). 16. Use flimsy aluminium window frame (was told that one of the window frame got blown away when there was a heavy thumderstorm during the construction phase) 17. Limit the size of window so as to save cost on windows. 18. Use inferior quality sanitaryware. Those cheap type (basin + WC) costing less than $150. 19. No autogate - use normal wrought iron gate 20. Use lousy quality DB box (only one in the house) such that when one electrical item short-circuit, the whole house will black out. 21. Full of drains in the house. 22. A lot of pillars all over the house. 23. No piling work done. Only simple footing such that it can meet URA/ BCA minimum requirements. 25. Simple carpentry work (ie. lower grade laminate, white interior, thin plywood, etc...) 26. Use of non-stainless screws 27. Use of small water pipes (ie minimum requirements by PUB) as opposed to larger pipes that can transport more water and faster 28. Don't have water pump and water tank (ie if the ground floor turn on the tap, the top floor person will have to wait or be content with little water flow) 29. Use flourocent lights instead of LED lights. 30. Don't have termite treatment when doing the footing These are some examples of basic re-construction work on a neighbour house, but I shall not write more about it. I think the house is like a house of drains and pillars. Although the cost is attractive, I think many homeowners expect better quality. I have seen quite a number of house reconstruction/ erection/ A&A and everybody seem to have different views about basic construction. Some are really quite well done and they consider them as basic. Durability is also subjective in terms of time and usage. Durable for 6 mths, 1 yr, 5 yrs, 10yrs or 200 yrs? Durability is also thought of in terms of usage eg. Can you place a 3 ton item in the house without causing a crack in the floor or you can only place a maximum of 0.2 ton item? Is the above type of reconstruction you have in mind in terms of "basic" as different people have different expectations of basic?

Depending on the details of construction, the size of the place and furnishing required, $600K is a tight but doable figure for 2/5 storey without basement.

Welcome. Wish you a smooth reno journey. Cheers!

You can choose the shorter rod KDK V56VK and if it is still too long, you can ask the installer to saw the rod for you. Cheers!

Congrats on your new purchase. What is the land size and built up space?

Check with your condo management and probably get a recommended plumber to rectify the leakage problem.

Ya, same nick. Never change. My place is really only a humble abode. Already more or less complete the rebuilding of the place. Paisey, don't dare to showcase the construction of my little kachiam Puteh house. If you wish to see my place, you are welcome to pop by. Just let me know beforehand. Cheers!

Constructing a toilet on the second floor may involve some structural works. Best to get a civil engineer to help you.

I think many of the IKEA products used sawdust. Hence, I don't think it is comparable to plywood. My IKEA kitchen cabinet was assembled by IKEA people but collapsed after less than a year. Maybe it is just my experience that happened several years ago. Others may feel differently or the quality might have improved since then.

The bathroom tiles are so well designed.

Look forward to your factory design. Must be interesting.

Very nice view and beautiful furniture.

Congrats on getting your flat. Look forward to your reno updates.

Your flat looks spacious. Congrats on your new home.

Congrats on your new home. Wishing a smooth reno journey.

I don't think that there is any rules in reconstruction to stop you from shifting your staircase. You can send URA an email to enquire to be doubly sure.

wow.. that's quite a lot of hardwork. Most importantly, you enjoy it. Cheers!

Hi wind30, My place is a corner terrace. For my front, I do a setback of about 14 metres from the longest point so that the house will look bigger from the outside. My corner setback from the longest point is about 4.5 metres and my back setback is 2 metres. The URA guide states that the front setback should be at least 7.5 m, corner setback and rear setback at 2 metres for the first 2 levels and 3 metres from 3rd levels onwards. There is a backlane behind my neighbour's house and my house which is about 4.5 metres. Hence, the total distance between the rear of the two houses is about 8 metres. I find it a bit too near but tolerable. I agree with you that 4 metres setback which is 2 metres from each neighbour is too near for comfort. I did not build my house to the maximum allowable space so that there will be more outdoor space. If space permit, you can do a 4 metres setback and plant tall bamboo plant behind to shield yourself from neighbour's prying eyes.

Very nice and tidy. Cheers!

You are welcome. Kardtoon has given good advice to invite architect and builder to help you review the place. The prices of construction kept moving up and there are also quite a fair bit of unknown cost that is incurred along the way when one rebuild the house too Hence, like what Pantieileen said, it is safer to budget higher than what was in the original costing. In terms of engineering, I don't think it is an issue to do either A&A or erection. I am sure the architects and engineers would be able to help either way. The only limitation is finances and whether it makes better sense to do A&A or erection. In general, $500K for not too extensive A&A works is quite comfortable. If you want to do erection to 3.5 storey, $500K is a very challenging budget to work with. Cheers and good luck to your house selection!

There may be height limits in certain area which stops homeowners from constructing to 3.5 storey. A&A has a fair amount of limitations in terms of construction works and you may not be able to construct to the size you wish for. If you are keen to construct to a design that you like, best to tear down everything and start afresh, though the cost may be higher. Depending on your requirements, I think rebuilding a fairly modest 3.5 storey house (excluding interior furnishing such as carpentry works, LED lightings, sofa, bedframe, mattress, curtains, electrical appliances, etc...) will cost less than $900K. I have just rebuilt my 2,500 sq ft land size corner terrace to 3.5 storey and it cost me less than $900K In the meantime, you can check out your neighbours' houses to see if anyone build to 3.5 storey. If they are able to, it is likely that you are also able to 3.5 storey. Cheers!