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kardtoon

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Posts posted by kardtoon

  1. Posted

    Forgot to mention brand of aircon: Mitsubishi Starmex.

    why not call a few company to get quotes rather than ask in a forum where folks here don't have any idea about the condition of your house and what needs to be replaced or difficulty in replacing.

    On a separate note, I once asked my regular aircon serving guy what brand tends to fail a lot since he also does repairs. He told me to stick to Diakin and/or Mitsubishi Starmex to be safe. Hope this helps a bit.

  3. Posted

    Dear all

    i had jus bought a duplex condo..liked the space being spacious nvr thought abt anything else till my mum pointed out that both the common n master toilets have no window. Wondering anyone can advise me how i am gg to maintain both without becoming mouldy as there r no ventilation. thanks in advance!

    A toilet without window or mechanical venting (ie extractor or ventilation fan) would not have passed TOP. Your toilet probably has some type of mechanical ventilation. Look carefully for venting slates in the toilet. If really don't have, complain to BCA.

  4. Posted

    Hi guys,

    Thanks for all the kind advice. I was away on a biz trip and just got back today for National day! Happy Birthday Singapore!

    I am glad to hear that the price that my friend quoted is fair. I will be signing the contract with him on Friday.

    The contract will be prepared by my lawyer and it will basically state that 820K is inclusive of everything such as URA submission fees, pilling, interior designing fees etc. I have spoken to him and he is agreeable to it, including changes that I may make along the way during construction with no extra charge, He also agree to build it in 6 months or less from the date of pilling permit from BCA. I agree to pay him a bonus of 20k if he can achieve that. In return, he agree to pay $200/day as damage for late hand over. Lastly, he also mention that the glass lift comes from Italy and the shipping time alone needs 4 months so I will need to book it now.

    At this price, speed and promise of no extra charge for any changes.... He must be a super good friend. :-)

    Seriously it sounds so far below the market rate that I'd be careful that you pay only for works completed and get a performance bond.

  5. Posted

    What colour is your Fascina windows? So far, I hear good feedback for the standard white ones. However, I'm told that other colours, because the top layer is laminated, is not as durable? How old are your windows and what has your experience been?

    I know alum is heavier, so a good track and hinge system is needed. That's what I'm looking for.

    If you want to consider another brand. You can look at Vento. I use them and are pretty happy with it.

    http://vento.com.sg/

  7. Posted

    Hi guys,

    I have been reading this wonderful forum since last year when I am looking for my dream landed property, and I think you great folks deserve a clap for the selfless sharing of information.

    I have bought an Inter terrace and am currently in the process of selecting my builder. I will be pursuing the builder route as I know my builder from my army days. He has his own Archi + QPs in the implementation of paperwork. I have checked his company and also of his team and they are properly registered in BOA and BCA.

    My current landed is a humble 2250 sqft Inter terrace. I am looking to rebuild(not reconstruction) to 3.5 storeys with a built in area of 4900 sqft. A glass lift with glass frame will also be built. The total quoted cost is 820k inclusive of all costs, including all the professional fess+ RC pilling. No hidden cost as I have grilled him using all the points shared by all the experts here in the various threads, such as unlimited power points, etc, and he has agreed to this in that price. The only thing that is not included is the carpentry work which I will approach another friend. Works out to be around $160 psf for built-in. The type of tiles used is mostly marble + granite in living and common areas with parquet in bedrooms.

    Can any kind souls please advice if this is reasonable? I hope to use him but I am also scared that I am paying a ridiculous price as this is only an Inter terrace and I am paying about $820k.

    Thanks

    Sounds pretty cheap to me. Think you have a good deal or you need to check the quality of what you are getting.

  9. Posted

    Usually architect will stay around since you hired them. Is yours design and build? If so contractor hired architect. If one gone the other will follow. You can try contacting them directly if you need help with the submissions etc.

    For my case, my engineer was liaising with various departments for the CSC. Not sure if only the architect can do the submissions or if it can be anyone else.

    You can also check with NParks and BCA on what are the outstanding reifications on your property and once you know what else is left to do, contact contractors for quote on what it will take to rectify those areas.

  11. Posted

    Well, I dun mind having good builders who drive flashy cars. But the problem is builders with flashy cars with not-so flashy house designs/quotations.

    Pantieileen... kudos to your good builder. Sigh.... I did ask you on your construction thread who is your builder, you didn't reveal (until recently). How to wait for you to receommend this good lobang? I am targetting CNY move-in. So no choice got to find on my own loh.

    But seriously, building costs is really increasing at an alarming speed. One of the factors is the big jump in foreign worker levy.

    Yup, Thanks for the tip. My contract no GST, price include QS, RTO, termite treat, landscaping. I will try my luck on asking for air-con :notti:

    I have actually wanted to cut cost by perhaps sourcing for my own flooring tiles. But the nightmare of ending up with defective ones put me off. Rather play safe, go with the builder's. But the uncle did hint to me that we can choose a better grade flooring. We will see how it goes.

    Ok lah, reputation-wise, like I have said, this builder has built several houses in the vicinity... in fact, he is completing one before moving on to do mine. All the home owners whose homes we visited, gave thumbs-up.

    Lee.... thanks on the LED info. Appreciated. No deep pockets like you guys, so must save abit here and there.

    Will definitely welcome any tips and advises from experienced forumners.

    By the way, anyone using solar power?

    I have some LED lights in my house. Those that are "Halogen like" with limited throw range and those that are very similar to PL down lights (broad throw area). Overall will save electricity and hard to recover cost. Example, my LED throw light (From Cree) only consumes 52% of the electricity of a PL downlight of similar brightness. This works out to a savings of ~$10 per year. Price-wise, the LED light costs $180 to $200 versus $30+ for the PL light. Long time to breakeven.

    Actually, I'm considering converting more PL lights to LED because they don't attract those "flying ants" that flies around down lights after the rain. Seems that these flies are attracted to UV emitted from PL lights... interesting..

  13. Posted

    Do you guys have any strategy to reduce dust from entering landed property? Landed are at ground level and near the road, they seem to get dusty quicker than even 2nd floor flat. What are the things (other than sealing the house) or infrastructures or water features that can be install to reduce leaves from rolling into the carpark and dust from flying into the house?

    I don't sense much difference as well, except for leaves falling into my balcony and front lawn but that's due to the house being closer to a nature reserve.

  15. Posted

    My new house is almost ready and it's time for the CCTV scan of the underground drainage/sewer pipe. This is required by PUB before TOP can be granted. Problem is the manholes are a few houses away and the owners are not willing to allow access to conduct the CCTV scan. Understand it can inconvenience the neighbours but it is the only way to access the manhole.

    What can I do if access into the neighbouring houses are not granted ? Help much appreciated.

    Write to BCA. They have to grant access.

  16. Posted

    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!

    Thanks for the compliment Chaorui. Next time let me know before hand and drop in for a cup of coffee.

    BTW, you probably also saw the two houses in my row about to start rebuild...both using pretty well known architects... can't wait to see how those turns out. :yamseng:

  17. Posted

    A key learning from all this is that a large determinant factor of the price depends on how hungry a contractor is. Costs are about the same and many contractors today operate on very healthy margin given the construction boom. A hungry contractor who wants to secure work to keep this team busy will charge very different from a contractor whose team is already fully loaded with projects during the period where you want to your project done.

    Often hear comments in the forum about ABC contractor who charged low for one forummer and others asking for contact... be warned that the resultant quotes may not be similarly cheap. IMO it's best to ensure that you get several quotes and make the best decision from there.

  18. Posted

    Hi there,

    of course i can understand that each will have their own idea of how they want their individual house to be. but if the architect or builder is getting 2 jobs/project together, they might be able to offer a better deal.

    e.g. the increased amount of raw material, e.g. bricks, steel, piping etc. will get them a better price from their supplier. as for the architect,they will be earning from two project instead of one. and if we source for our own tiles and others accessories like toilet fitting, door & windows , volume will add to negotiating power, no?. just my 2 cents worth of thought.

    At present i have narrow down to 2 architect , both quoting 30-35k for architect & PE service . if yours can offer a better rate, i dont mind giving them a call. Alternatively, most buidler charges 38-45k for the same services. Sure 5,10k is not much if you consider the overall charges of rebuilding - but this saving can then be use for other stuffs.

    BTW, i got a rough est. for building a BIPV solar roof. And if someone has already installed it on their roof, can you help by letting me know how much did you pay, who is your spplier/contractor and your rating on the overall performance of the company and their product? Much appreciate it.

    BTW, i am not just looking for cheap deal but fair deal. From most of the architect & builders i talk to or contact so far, for someone out to build a simple, down to earth house - i just feel that a lot of the services & cost are overprice.i mean, building a fancy house with fancy design, window/doors, interior decoration is cheaper than a simple, down to earth house with no interior decoration?? i fail to see the logic behind this?

    Having discussed this with builders before, the savings from building a few houses together will come primarily from deployment costs and this can only be realized if the houses are within the same street from each other. Material savings from building small family homes like ours aren't very much. Even if you pool together a few house, the amount of bricks, accessories will likely not move the needle very much. Unless you are lucky and will be able to pool together with a condo sized or similar housing development.

  19. Posted

    All,

    Decided to draft out my design and pass it to the builders to show to their architects/PEs, and get back to me with the quote.

    Mine is just a small 2000sqft terrace, not a 4000sqt land where you can build external wings, water features surrounding the house, spiral stairs, real garden rooftop, lofts here and there, or a pool smacked in the middle. So I don’t really need an architect who charges daylight robbery just to insert those features into the building. All I need is someone who charges a down-to-earth fee to feed his family, and not his Ferrari.

    At the end of the day, the value of the house is based on GFA and land size. The who-and-who who designed the house counts nothing in the eyes of the evaluator, and even the buyer.

    The design options for a 2.5 sty 2000sqft terrace are limited. And we probably see them all by poking our noses into Open Houses of newly built terraces currently on sale. And get inspirations from flipping some local architecture mags. Having done that I have a good idea of how I want my house to be.

    Besides, I am adopting a minimalistic house design with double volume and glass skylight roof top. So how difficult can the designing be?

    Of course I have to practice common sense by minimising structural change and grouping all the pipings together. Anyway, I have already briefed the builders that any of the current beams or columns that gets in the way of the new design, just remove and reinforce with new ones. Just get it done or propose an alternative way, and tell me the cost. Most important is to get the interior structure fixed. Once that is done, shaping the exterior façade for an arty farty look is easy.

    Just my 1 cent worth. I may be wrong. I am just speaking from a new bird’s point of view.

    Will update all on my house building project, including names of builders. I don’t understand why forum-ers are hush hush about discussing names openly. The purpose of forum is to share.

    Bro GreenTurf, for the part of being cost-efficient by banding a few projects together sounds weird. I believe you can only be cost-efficient, if you are building a few houses of the identical design and land size. Unless if we are neighbours of a row of terraces, it is unlikely your land size and shape is the same as mine. And hence the house configurations will be different.

    Sounds like a very sensible approach given that you know what you want to do and is fairly confident about the design of your house.

  20. Posted · Edited by kardtoon

    i have approach an architect who quote me 35k (the lowest so far). but the same architect did for 22k for one of the forum writer. when ask, he says cos there were 2-3 project together. maybe if we can work together, we can cut down on the prices.

    Architecture is somewhat half art and half science so I think it's important to gauge the quality of the architect and not just the price. If budget is prioirty above all else, ie you don't really care about any interesting design or good space planning, then I suggest skip the architect route, use a builder directly.

  21. Posted

    I have bought a landed property recently & plan to rebuild it to a 2.5 storey house.

    But after searching and asking round, I found that many a architect and builders has quote the prices and fee on a higher side than i expected.(ok, i expected an increase in price, but a 60% increase within 6 months? seem kind of ridiculous.)

    I am thinking that may be we will have more negotiating strength in numbers. Anyone interested? it will also cut down a lot of sourcing time. We can share information as well as negotiate for better price.

    I am thinking of getting an architect to do the drawing, find a demolition company to do the demolition (if cheaper this way), find a builder to build the basic structure (of which the tiles etc. will be supply to them).

    this way, we can help each other - building price as well as on look out for cheap tiles (during warehouse sales), negotiate on tiles prices etc.

    P.S. if you have strong negotiating talent, I really need your help! :bow:

    You need to brace yourself with the amount of work involved if you want to tear it out piece part like that. Building process takes a long time and it can be very tough to project manage this. Can be done if you have industry knowledge of construction and a lot of time.

  22. Posted

    We noticed that the false ceiling of our common toilet has watermarks and it's peeling. Pipes are visible when the false ceiling is removed. Can someone advise what we should do in this case? Cos we want to plug this problem before it gets more serious... TIA

    eh?? In most houses, pipes can be seen when false ceiling is removed. :-) Why not just call a contractor to fix the leaks and replace the false ceiling?

  23. Posted

    Not sure how construction loan works though. Will go do some research and ask our banker about it as well and see how things turn out. But the idea of not paying a huge lump sum upfront for the construction works is really attractive. Cash is king. No point paying so much in one go.

    You basically take a construction loan at a pretty high interest rate... last I checked 18 months ago was about 6.7% or thereabouts. Loan is on draw down basis, meaning that interest only charged on amount drawn, which means it's progressive to the construction since you pay your contrator monthly. You can also opt to just pay off the interest and not the principle during the construction period.

    Once construction ends, do a revaluation and remortgage and then us can use the high equity to pay off the construction loan, which you will want to due to interest rates difference. However the risk is that the property market crash... then jialat liao.

  24. Posted

    There is also an interesting idea that was presented to us in relation to the financing of the A&A works.

    It was said that we could factor the cost of the work via the housing loan that we are currently financing. Since we are going to increase the gross floor area (GFA) and also refurbishing the remaining of the house, the valuation of the house would almost certainly increase given the scale of works to be done. Therefore, we were told that we could do a re-valuation and hence factor this cost into our existing housing loan and hence be able to pay the cost of works via the monthly loan payment.

    Has anyone actually done this before? Any comments?

    This is quite a common practice and what many do is that they take some sort of construction loan during the building period and after th building is complete, they would apply for a revaluation and remortgage of the housing loan in order to price in the construction amount. Make sure that your housing loan is not in any lock in period as it could incur penalties if you decide to reprice the mortgage. Talk to your banker and they should be able to advice what to do.

  25. Posted

    Not necessary solid bricks better than hollow bricks but they do seem to be better than the concrete ones.

    "Fired clay bricks usually have holes in them, sometimes 3 and sometimes 4 or 5 depending on size (but sometimes none) so they heat evenly during the firing process. Adobe bricks (don't use them) aren't fired, so they have no holes. They also aren't very strong and they aren't resistant to water penetration -- in winter, water can get inside and freeze to ice, causing spalling. Bricks come in modular size, queen size, and king size, in addition to specialty sizes. Most builders use king, because masons charge per brick, not by square footage covered, and also because larger bricks require less mortar per square foot of coverage -- mortar costs a lot more per square foot than does brick. Concrete brick (called crick) is better than adobe, but no brick is as good as fired clay which is rated WS for weather severe. WS brick is all I use; it's rated for Alaska freezes and for Arizona summers. By the way, rebar is sometimes run into the holes in cement block (usually 8 by 16 inches) and then filled with concrete or mortar for hurricane resistance, but I've never heard of trying to fit rebar through multiple courses of overlapping brick. Instead, we use brick ties to attach brick to the wood frame behind it."

    My builder uses the holes in the bricks to fill with concrete so that they bricks bonds better with each other and helps in better stability.

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