snoozee

Semi detached houses need minimum frontage width of 8m. Since you have only 15m, you can’t subdivide into 2 plots for semi-d houses as you can't get the 8m width. If your plot is 16m wide then can subdivide

You better check what your ID is telling you about plumber submission fees. I don’t remember needing to pay PUB any submission fees except for when PUB connect a new incoming water pipe for me and that few was about 1k+. Internal piping would like likely be water pipes. Nowadays plumbers usually use stainless steel pipes with crimped joints. Else could use PPR pipes but this is more expensive. Copper pipes seems to be more expensive and problematic these days. My plumber mentioned the quality of copper pipes these days are not that good. are you redoing your roof? If there’s no work done on the roof then the existing lightning rods would be touched so maybe can avoid redoing the lightning protection system. If need to redo then you definitely will need to change a lot of things as the code has been updated in 2018 and taken effect in may 2019. If you not sure whether you will need to redo your lightning protection, write in to BCA to enquire.

I think the correct phrasing is that you can built as much as you want subjected to URA approval. Nowadays many new developments in 2 storey landed zones come with mezzanine floor to add on to the space within. Even though URA no longer limits the mezzanine floor GFA to 50 percent of typical floor plate, I don’t think they would approve of a design where the mezzanine floor is at 95 percent of the typical floor plate.

not applicable. quoted from article "The Electric Vehicle Common Charger Grant will be available to private developments that include residential units, except for landed properties, shophouses, hotels, hostels, serviced apartments and workers' dormitories."

3 storey then need PE to check whether can or not already.

before envelope control was introduced in 2015, a landed house has to adhere to the maximum allowed floor to floor height requirements of 4.5m for the first storey, 3.6m for the second, 3.6m for the third and 5m for the attic. so it is unlikely that the house you are viewing has a 1st storey height of more than 5m if you are looking at a 2.5 storey house. if you are looking at a 3.5 storey house with a double volume ceiling, then the challenge is for the PE to look at the building plans and see whether it is possible to add a floor slab over the double volume ceiling to create another room or not.

How high is your floor to ceiling height now. And by ceiling I’m referring to the underside of the floor slab above. if you do not have at least 5m height, no way to build a room since you require at least 2.4m height clearance for all rooms.

either leave it as bare cement screed or just tile it up with wood patterned tiles. easier to maintain compared to having decking and also less headache on materials warpping over time

If the box is on a planting strip which is between you and your neighbor’s property and this planting strip has a length of just 6m, then you won’t be able to make your driveway/gate wider also. So better check if you are able to widen your driveway/gate first before writing in to see if the box can be removed/relocated

Write to StarHub or IMDA

Well I would be concerned if the architect can be at your beck and call as this could mean that he has only your project ongoing. An architect normally would have a few concurrent jobs on hand so of cos you need to make appointment to schedule time with him. I had asked you what is stated as the scope of work between you and your architect. So if the scope doesn’t cover all the extras you are asking about then you can expect the architect to do all those thing for free right? if you have a QS for your project then the QS would be helping you and the architect to review the builders quotations. If you don’t have a QS and the architect is willing to double up as one then he has to do it. If you want someone to plan your lighting coverage there are architects who specialise in lighting. Same as there are landscape architects to design the greenery. But for a small project like a landed house you don’t need it unless you are willing to pay for these services. I’m not sure about other house owners but I was very hands on with the layout of the lighting, fan, electrical and network points for my house. Cos only I would know what I want and the architect will design the layout based on my input. If you have an M&E engineer for your project, then the M&E engineer will cover this portion of the work. again the question is what is stated in the scope of work between you and your architect.

It’s not the panels but how the system is set up to tie back to the national grid. You need to tell your PV panel contractor that you want to do this and they should be able to advise you further and set up for you including applying for accounts and such with SP/EMA

Since 1997 to be exact. But any approvals issued before that does not need to comply. This is confirmed by BCA as I had asked why a certain development need not have HS even though the developer is still building and selling the landed houses today

Yes that could be a possibility. But if it is a new built, there could be other reasons for such a big setback. Check where your last IC is in the house and you may also want to buy the SIP from PUB to check if there is a sewer running through your backyard or not. If there is a sewer line, the developer may have opted to setback from the sewer instead of building a trench and building over it. This will also mean you may have problems building any extension as well.

get hold of your building plans. i believe the house is older than 10 years old as owners in recent years would not just rebuilt the house and leave such a big rear set back. most likely the previous owner only did some A&A work to refresh the building and didn't do much on the structure. whether can extend or not you need to find a PE to look at the plans and then decide from there. even if the PE decide can be done, you will likely need to create new foundations for the new extended area to support the extension.

not sure about my wife's friend's family. But I spoke to my neighbour and apologised for the inconvenice caused to them.

yes it can be done and approved. not common as many will baulk at the cost of digging a basement. unless your house is in a low lying area which is below the 4m SHD, then you could excavate just a little bit and build a "basement"

what is stated in the scope of work for the contract you signed with your architect? Have your architect submitted the plans to URA for approval? Have you obtained the PP or WP from URA? If there's no submissions to URA yet, I'm not sure what you PE is submitting to BCA since your building plans has not even been approved by URA? Unless your PE is just submitting to BCA the demolition plans than your architect wouldn't have any comments on that since there's nothing much to comment on by the architect for demolition since method statement for demolition is done by PE and not architect. The builder's quotation should be based on URA and BCA approved drawings since there might be major changes required on the draft design especially if URA doesn't give approval. Building design and layout should be discussed between owner and architect. After approval of plans and start of construction, the builder has to refer back to architect on design clarifications and such. Of cos you as the owner can be involved but the clarifications of details should be between the builder and architect. When there's queries by the builder, it would normally be near to where the workers are planning to construct already so the architect should respond to these clarifications soon. If your architect is going to take 1 week to reply, then your construction may get delayed if the workers can't proceed with what is intended to be done. you still can change your architect even after submissions. you just have to pay your current architect on what has been done till date. Again it goes back to my first question on what is indicated in the contract you signed with your architect. If there's no black and white, then it's hard for you to dispute on whether your architect is doing what he is supposed to do or not.

SP wholesale price Pros - no contract - normally cheaper than other retailers cons - subject to supply demand so rate is not fixed for example when electricity prices increased this year, those home owners who have signed contract with retailers at a lower rate will benefit since they are locked in at the lower rates for the contract period. but when SP tariff drops, these home owners who have signed contracts at a higher rate will still be bound at the contractual rate though this would normally still be lower than the standard SP tariff The SP standard tariff for the last quarter is at 22.55cts per kwh. I'm was paying around 17.45cts per kwh on the wholesale rate. so basically a savings of about 5cts per kwh

just to add on for retention sum, if the owner is taking construction loan to finance the construction, the bank has a say on how much and when the retention sum can be released to the builder. so it does not mean that upon TOP, half of the retention sum will be automatically released to the builder. owners who are taking bank loans to finance the construction has to read all the terms and conditions from the bank carefully.

my view on installing PV panels is that you are essentially paying for the electricity for the next 7 to 10 years up front. PV panels don't last forever and you will need to maintain them maybe after 5 years or so with parts needing replacing. while it sounds sexy that you can get free electricity, the reality is that you need to pay for the equipment first. let's just say the entire set up costs you $21k with ROI of 7 years. so your cost per year is $3k or $250 per month. if your house electricity usage is not going to exceed $250 per month based on SP tariffs, then you are in fact paying more for electricity for the so called savings. while there are grid tied systems where you can sell back excess electricity, you need to factor in the deduction of transmission cost for this. also in order to really pay for no additional cost, your day time generation and sale must be equal or more than your night time usage when electricity can't be generated by the PV panels. so unless SP's tariffs shoot up to 40cts or 50cts per kwh, you are better off signing up for SP wholesale rates for now instead of investing in PV panels now. just provision for the wiring now and if the technology improves to much in future, you can do the installation then.

my understanding is that remission is only applicable for demolished houses and building a replacement. A&A or reconstruction is not applicable before the house is demolished, usually owners will be taxed at the residential rate. but once demolished, the property tax is computed based on land value which is much higher hence need to apply for remission. however it is best is check with IRAS on the finer details of the regulations if you want to know more.

no. it's at my contractor's own cost.

in order for solar aircon to work at night, you will need to have some sort of battery storage to store all the electricity generated during the day. are you prepared to take the risk of installing big power walls with lithium ion batteries? i'm sure you have read the news over the last few years where PMD charging caused fires in flats.

The contractor fixed back the collapsed wall and my wife’s friend’s parents are still staying in the same house now. for my case, the low party wall which collapsed was removed by my contractor and redone properly together with the wall on my side.