leechaorui

Yes, it is wise of you to install 100Am 3 Phase Power Supply. It would be enough to power up all your electrical supply needs in a house. My contractor did not charge me directly for the power supply. I paid $5400 (I think this is the figure) to Singapore Power directly. S'pore Power would send their electrician and contractor to dug up the ground and connect the power supply from the sub-station to my gate. From there, my contractor can tap the power supply into the house. I believe the government subsidize private home-owners that choose to bring in 3 Phrase Power Supply to their houses as the cost of connecting the power supply to the house is way beyond the $5400. When you are planning for power in the house, do remember to do a separate DB Box for each floor and I think it is helpful to be generous with more direct power points around the house. Not those type that loop from one to another. Preferably install power points that can supply sufficient power to a heavy duty oven/ heater, not those kachiam Puteh type of power point that is very average and weak. When I was staying in a re-sale HDB, I found that most of the powerpoints are very low power type, not really good. You may want to designate an "electrical room" where you place the DB Box, all the electrical supply to be connected to this place, all the telephone system, Opennet High Speed Broadband, switcher, router, modem, etc.. This place could also house your server and will require more powerpoints too. This needs to be planned into part of your M&E works. Useful to have a few conversations with your M&E Engineer and with owners who have designed their intelligent and Green homes to give you some ideas, when designing your house.

I think the important question is what do you want to do before you think about what course to take? Cheers!

My ceiling is more than 4 metres high and I can read with LED downlights. Just need to get one with higher power. Cheers!

That's really interesting. Hope they continue to enjoy the stairs.

Can't agree more. Bamboo is GREAT.

You may want to find out what he meant be 10% profit in attendance. When I built my place, I bought my own air-con. No problem.

I can imagine some scenarios where the pebbles in the pebble wash area dropped off. (1) There is very heavy usage (eg. drag heavy objects on pebble wash area, drive a 5 ton vehicle daily in and out of the pebble was area, throw highly corrosive acid on the pebble wash area frequently, etc..). (2) Poor workmanship (eg. didn't remove away the excess water & moisture from the cement that holds the pebbles together) (3) Tree roots penetrating into your boundary causing cracks on the floor and pebbles droped off. There could be other situations. Two solutions here. For poor workmaneship, you could apply a layer of chemical to glue the pebble wash together. This would prevent the pebble wash from dropping off further or hack and redo the pebble wash. If your usage is heavy, better change to other types of materials. For tree roots issue, you will either have to chop the tree to stop the roots from growing further and causing more damage to your house or redo the foundation. Cheers!

Hi Chzmag81, You can click on this webpage to see pebblewash close up. I found it on google. Cheers! http://www.castleroca.com/product_pw.htm

I think the problem with using steel is the concern for rust. After some time, you will find that there are lots of tiny rust dropplets dropping down from the roof. For concrete beams, it is generally very strong. One issue is its weight. This means that when you build the structure of your house, you have to take into account the load on the building. Concrete can also be porious and this could present problem of water leakage. Hence, you will need to make sure that sealant is applied on it and also preferably use high quality concrete that is water-proofed. For the rest of the supporting roof structures, you can use treated mature hard wood. Below the ground, make sure you have anti-termite treatment done.

You may want to seek help from NTUC e2i. There may be some jobs available there.

Hi Begof, As different people have different stage in life. What do you think is the net wealth (house + CPF + stocks + cash + other investment) - Total Outstanding Loan is sufficient to retire for (a) childless couple, (b) couple with young children and © couple with grown up children?

If you want better quality, use solid plywood extra. Meaning, use thicker solid plywood over and above what is normally in the market, especially for shelfs. I think having laminate inside and outside look better than plain white interior. In addition, for certain parts, you may want to consider doing chengai wood eg. on the doors, so that the wardrobe will look really great and the quality is definitely much better than plywood. Cheers!

Thats quite bad. Is it droppings from crows or pigeon. If it is crow, check out where are the crows roasting place and call NEA to cull them. One of my friend's place also suffered from the same problem. Loads of crow droppings. I helped her to identify the crows' nests on a few trees. They usually return at around 6pm. After which I called NEA to cull them at the right spot. I think NEA managed to cull about 100 crows that day. After that, the droppings were much less. Hope this helps.

Hi George, I went to my friend's place which is beside your beautiful house. Saw you and your wife in your sporty white car about to drive out this morning. Very nice house design. Agree with you that obtaining a few quotes will be helpful, especially quotes that comes with explanation of house design, materials used, construction process and the experience of the labour deployed. Cheers!

I think for $35K, the architect is unlikely to spend much time with you in terms of project management. There is a forumer who spends about $100K on the architect and she feels that it is worth the money. I think she mentioned that the architect will be helping her manage the project. If you have a generous budget for rebuilding and wishes to use the architect route, I think it is worthwhile to spend some time with the architect to run through with him the services he provides for you, what he could and will do for you, etc. One of my neighbour spent $170K on architect and professional fees. I did not choose this route because of budgetary constraints and I project manage the construction process myself. It has been quite a tedious as well as educational process.

I am using Chengai wood. ALthough, it looks good now, overtime there will be some cracks (either hairline or bigger cracks), especially when the trees are not mature enough before they are being chopped. If you use bamboo, it is stronger and more durale. Not sure of the reason, I find that suppliers usually use inferior quality varnishing on the bamboo deck. Hence the setback is the de-colouring of the bamboo decking after about 2 years. You can always re-varnish it using higher quality varnish.

One alternative is to use slate tile, though I prefer peeble wash and homogenous tile. Cheers!

Now that GE2011 is over, it is a fresh start for all. Lets hope that whatever not so nice things that was spoken/ happened can be forgiven and everyone can move on with their lives. Winning or losing this election can be very transcient when it is looked from a higher vantage point several years later. I certainly hope to see a more caring, just and capable government that can bring Singapore and Singaporeans forward in the next 5 years and beyond. Cheers!

Not sure about degree of tinting. It can be very slight tint or darker. You can check with your contractor and get him to deliver what you want. Unless you have lots of exhaust fans or powerful air-conditioner, it is not easy to get rid of the heat trapped by big glass windows or cool down the house. Alternatively, you can construct sunshades if you don't have double glazed windows. From my friends who have large glass windows for inter-terrace, at best it looks aesthetic, depending on individual taste. The flip side is the heat, unless you like the hot dessert temperature feeling. I was told that parquet can also de-colourise faster. If you are used to using the air-con whole day, I think it doesn't matter whether you do large glass or smaller glass window. Your room can be as cooling as the temperature that you set.

Go for double glazed if you are planning to intall those large glass windows. Otherwise, it would be very hot especially when yours is an inter-terrace. As for clear of tinted glass, I prefer slightly tinted. This is really individual preferance. Cheers!

Agree with Petunialee. I was also in her shoes when the construction work of my house started. Have to be at the site regularly to make small adjustments so that the place will turn out to fit you better. Lots of effort and hard work to improve the design and also to control the quality of materials. Even after I moved in, I got my contractor quite a number of times to come back to touch up and make minor adjustments for my place.

What type of roof - concrete or tile or zinc? Consider changing the roof if you are sure the roof is leaking. For concrete roof, you probably have to repair it as changing it is a tremendous job.

I think it is safer for you to wait till CSC before you do it. If possible, do those that are non fixed type where it can be dismantled easily. I have heard of cases where the neighbouring newly built-house was inspected, the inspector lodge a complaint against the house that has installed railings to fence up the car pouch balcony illegally. Cheers and good luck!

Yes, I heard from some forumers about the ABC Contractor too. I think different builders have different cost structures. Some outsource most of the work and project managed the construction process. Depending on the cost, I find the quality of construction usually quite poor. This is because the builder normally use only those who bid low for the sub-contract and the sub-contractors will usually prefer to rush through the project so that it can be completed on time and they get to collect payment aster. Some builders have a team of inhouse workers and a small factory to fabricate certain wood and metal works for the construction process. It may be less efficient because the builder is making a range of services and products in-house. However, the quality control tend to be more personal and there is more ownership and pride for the work being done. I think there are pros and cons for both approaches and it is not necessarily true that contractors experience same cost and often have high margins. Some could actually be prepared to earn less to secure the deal, some would prefer to ensure that quality is high to promote a good reputation and less issues on warranty and some are simply trying to chop the customers. Different contractors, different strokes.

Agree with Kardtoon that contractors may find it difficult to pool substantial savings from different locations of small houses construction. I built my place together with 2 of my neighbours who are just next to my house. The workers can be deployed to the three sites easily and the builder has a lot of convenience in moving goods, materials and people around. One foreman can look after three sites. The workers could wait for my cement to cure before they start working on the site further. In the meantime, they could work on the adjacent sites. In this way, I got better quality construction as the building process is not rushed and there is no wastage of either workers idling or working on the site too fast, compromising quality before the cement fully cure. My neigbour confirmed the building design and made the payment first. After which, the builder approached me and gave me a highly discounted price taking into account the materials that was used for my house construction. I think the builder basically do it at cost and partly subsidize me because my neighbour has already paid a substantial amount for professional fees, cost of piling work, soil test, etc... In fact, I basically only pay for the piles as the deployment of the piling machine has already been charged to my neighbour. In addition, my builder is bent on "stealing" the deal from his rival construction firm. I was initially planning to use the services of my current builder's rival, until my builder came along and offered what the rival construction firm called, "Impossible Price". At the end of the day, I would not have been able to afford the high cost of construction and get high quality construction materials and enjoy high quality construction process if not for the confluence of factors and circumstances. Another of my neighbour who recently rebuilt his house shared with me that his architect who has monitored my house construction work informed my neighbour that he could not deal with me for anything less than $1.2 million for the demands I placed on the construction process, workmanship and materials. Recently, my friend bought a house and he insisted that I introduce my contractor to him. Guess what? My current contractor quoted him $1.3 million. I guessed, I was lucky.