snoozee

No harm buying the RLP as well since you will likely need it anyway if you end up buying the house.

since your intention is to buy a landed house and redevelop it, those information should be enough. But if the target house is located along a main road (meaning not nested within a landed estate), you may want to buy the road line plan from SLA as well to see if there's any restrictions. Some houses which are situated along the main road may also need to vest portion(s) of the land for road infrastructure like bus-stops or future widening.

it is common for houses along a road to look the same since they are likely built by a developer. as long as the unit you are eyeing is a single landed title deed and not a deed where the land is shared among the houses along the street, you can do whatever you want with the building on your land. if the land title deed is shared, you may need to consult a lawyer or experts for more advice. with the shared roof, you can remove yours on your side and later on when you rebuilt the house, the neighbour roof is joined back to your house or just remained on their side but with proper water proofing done (at your cost). the shared car porch roof can also be demolished on your side. if there is no column to support their side of the car porch roof, you will likely need to see their permission to see how an additional column can be constructed to support their car porch roof on their side. again this is at your cost. For now, you should just get the property agent to check and confirm if the house is sitting on a single landed title deed by itself. the seller can download the information from SLA free of charge to proof it as well. after that, you can go to PUB website and purchase the SIP and DIP for the house to check if there's any public sewer running through the land and whether the land is subjected to drainage reserves as well. if there's sewer line running through the land, you may need to spend money to build a trench to protect the sewer when you rebuilt the house. any drainage reserves will mean you cannot built over that part of the land and it will need to be vested to the state for free as well.

if your down lights is using separate bulbs which can be removed without removing the whole enclosure then should be fine. else as mentioned, the plaster patch may break off in future when you need to change the downlight. I'm using ceramic cooker and I installed it myself without applying any silicone around the edges. Not sure why you want to add silicone around the edges. if you're concerned about the heat affecting the silicone sealant, then ask the contractor to use high temperature silicone sealant instead.

the workers messed up by cutting the hole in the ceiling board too big which is why there is a gap. by right the hole should be just big enough for the downlight to fit into it such that the frame of the light is covering the hole. silicone/culk is like a band-aid which will settle the issue now but when you need to replace the downlight, the silicone/caulk will likely come off so you will end up with the same problem unless silicone/caulk is applied again to fill the gap. stopping compound can be used to make the hole smaller but a proper backing needs to be added behind so that the stopping compound has something to adhere to. Of cos in future if the downlight is removed, this patched part may also break off and you're back to square one. more extreme solution is to cut out a bigger portion of the ceiling board and then replace it with a new piece of board and cut a new hole for the downlight. this new board should be secured at least on 2 ends with proper frame and screws to the rest of the ceiling board so that it will be stable. The downside is that if the ceiling board expands/contracts over time due to temperature change, you may end up seeing the seams of the replacement board due to the plaster cracking. Most extreme solution is just replace the entire big piece of ceiling board. of cos you can always change to another downlight with a bigger frame which can cover up the gap nicely.

I've said before that installing PV (photovoltaic) panels is basically paying for the electricity cost for the next X number of years up front and I still stand by this view as the area that is possible to use for install of PV panels in a landed house is quite limited. Anyway I've just had my grid-tied PV installation commissioned last week and officially is generating electricity off my roof and exporting excess back to the grid. Here's some of the key takeaways in my PV installation journey. 1. research, research and do more research, if you have the time and interest in it. Cos it's better to have some basic knowledge rather than relying on the contractor and believing everything they say. 2. roof profile matters as well as the direction of your house's facing. it's best to have a relatively flat roof as PV panels will have the maximum efficiency when it's almost at full flat facing to the sky. But not to say that angled roofs cannot install panels as well but really depends on your house facing direction. Do note that due to rotation of the earth, the area where the sun hits your roof will shift a bit as well through the year. If your house is north south facing (this is commonly mentioned as the ideal facing due to wind direction), you will also be able to get full sun throughout the day since the run rises from the east and sets in the west. For my house, it is facing almost east west so there's a part of my roof which does not get sun in the afternoons due to the sun getting lower as it starts to set. However I also installed panels on that part of the sloping roof since it gets sun during the mornings and the early part of the afternoon. Same for my car porch roof which I installed panels as well which will get the sun only just after around noon. While efficiency for these panels which does not get full sun throughout the day is lesser, they still generate electricity at certain times of the day so these panels increased my PV array by another 30 percent which will translate to a faster ROI period. One contractor told me they don't bother to do on sloping roofs since the efficiency is bad but to me it don't make sense since the sloping roof still gets light. While this may be true as a single panel in the array can affect the entire array's performance, I'm the paymaster so I decide where I want to have the panels installed. 3. Type of roof material matters. If you have a metal roof, it will be easier to install since the panels will be installed to a stainless steel structure which is clamped to your roof panels. But if you have tiled roof, then it will be more troublesome as drilling will be involved which is a potential for leaks. One neighbour had tiled roof and installed PV panels which led to leaks. End up they also had to replace the roof as well to sort out the leaks. For RC roof, the steel structure for the panels will need to be installed by drilling to your RC roof which will mean the waterproofing membrane will be broken and potentially lead to leaks in future. 4. Get quotations from as many contractors as you can for price comparison and then do a research on the parts they propose for your installation. Different contractors will use different parts and the specifications and warranties also vary. The panels available in the market since late 2022 ranges from about 400Wp to 435Wp (size about 1.1m by 1.8m) depending on the brand and model. Panel technology is always evolving and back in 2017/2018, another member had a proposal for panels which generates about 260Wp for similar sized panels. With this said, one can see that the panels performance improved by about 60 percent (from 260Wp to about 420Wp) just in about 5 years. This will also imply that the ROI will be shorter since the panels can generate more electricity. Also panel manufacturers give power performance warranty as well as panel workmanship warranties for up to 30 years now. For PV inverters, I used Huawei's inverter which comes with a 10 years warranty. The funny thing is that one contractor only stated a 5 year warranty for the inverter in his proposal even though other contractors indicated 10 years for the same model inverter. 5. If you're renovating/rebuilding your house now, I would suggest doing it together to avoid any inconvenience in future. If you're not sure if you want to do now but maybe in future, then provide for either the electrical conduits for pulling cables from your roof to the DB or install a 3 phase isolator (connected to DB) near your roof area and reserve a space for the PV inverter to be installed. This will avoid needing to drill holes in your house to pull cables. Also if you're doing it later, you will also need to pay for scaffoldings to be erected so that the panels and/or cabling can be installed. The scaffolding cost will be another few thousand dollars which can be saved if you're doing the panels when your house is undergoing construction since the scaffolding is already there. 6. Authorities approvals. When doing grid-tied PV installation, SP Group will need to be informed and the normal electricity meter changed to a two way meter so that any electricity export can be tracked. The meter will cost $$$ so doing it during the construction phase if you're upgrading from single phase to 3 phase power will save you some money from needing to pay for the meter twice. Also the lead time for SP to install the meter and do inspection is also quite long (about 2 months from initial submission) so if you're going to do an add on of PV panels, tell and chase your contractor to submit it early. My project was delayed by months because the contractor failed to submit the paperwork to SP early even though I had kept mentioning many times that they need to do it early to reduce the delay and wait times. If your house is a 3.5 storey or 2.5 storey with mezzanine (aka, physically has 4 or more floors), then there is a need to inform SCDF as well for fire safety clearance. During construction, this will be done by your QP. But if you're doing PV panels afterwards, then either you need to find a QP or your contractor will charge you to do the submission for you. Please do not try to avoid doing this submission as there may be issues with insurance claims in the event something happens after you install the PV panels. Even if the cause is not due to the PV panels, the insurance company may refuse the claim since you have done modifications to your house without the approval of SCDF.

look at your neighbours along your stretch who had rebuilt and see if they are rebuilt to 2.5 storey or 3.5 storey. but best is check URA master plan to confirm since houses on different sides of the road can be based on different zoning. if you checked URA master plan on landed residential zone and yours fall within 2 storey mixed landed, that means you can only built up to 2.5 storey. however based on envelope control, you can add in a mezzanine storey within hence making it a physical 4 storey building. with this said, a physical 4 storey building will mean you need to get SCDF fire clearance certificate as well for TOP. Whether can take loan or not you need to talk to a banker. Just send some enquiries to the banks and see which ones want to answer your queries. But before you can take up any loan, you are likely to need to have a quotation from a builder first since the loan quantum is based on the quotation. Today's cost for an inter-terrace rebuilt is about 1.6M based on my conversation with a contractor who is doing a project near my place. a simple way to look for architects/builders is to go ask your neighbours who had done rebuilt recently and get contacts. get a few architects contacts and then arrange for meetings to see which one you want to work with eventually. make sure the architect do a proper tender to invite builders to quote for your project.

There is no ready made ones for landed house especially if it’s integrated with the meter box. You will need to get your contractor to customize the entire thing. Easiest way for you is to just go to google maps street view for landed housing area and see which design you like. Then take photos or screenshots of those you like and talk to your contractor. note that letter box need to adhere to certain height and dimensions as well so talk to your architect as well

I suggest you remove the image of your project board for you own privacy. has your lawyer and/or architect provided you a solution on how to resolve the issue? I'm not sure when your project was first mooted and quoted for but I guess your contractor is also blindsided by COVID and the increase in construction costs and manpower issues. Not sure how much work had been done over the last 6 months but I estimate your project will take another 6 to 8 months or work before it can be fully completed. If you have already decided to change contractor, do check on whether your lift has been ordered from the supplier or not and if yes, you will need to take over that contract as well. If the lift has not been ordered then you will need to find another lift contractor who can supply the lift for you as well. The procurement of lift will take time as they are built to order so this is one of the first thing you should look into after changing the contractor. If your main roof is already completed then it's just working on the interior which will be easier and faster since you're no longer constraint by weather conditions. I guess you are not taking any bank loans to finance the construction as paying to another party other than the builder which the contract is signed with will raise a red flag with the bank's lawyers. In any case, I think it will be a good practice to pay only to the company which the contract is signed with and insist on a receipt of payment. Keep these records properly as well in case there is a need to use them one day. Don't believe what anyone tell you that you don't need to pay GST. Even though you don't see the GST component in your invoice, you are technically paying for GST in the amount already since your contractor is likely to be buying the supplies from a GST registered company hence GST is already paid. It's just that a non-GST registered entity cannot send you a TAX invoice with GST component and they cannot get GST refund from IRAS. eg: I buy a tin of paint which costs $10.80 from a hardware store which 80 cents is the GST. I resell the tin of paint to you at $12 and say no need GST since I'm not GST registered. But I'm technically making $1.20 from you as profit while you have indirectly paid for the GST to the original hardware store through my initial purchase. Hope you can get the whole situation resolved fast and maybe there could be a chance you can see the house being completed by end of 2023 and I can drive by and look at your beautiful house.

My neighbour's house has been undergoing minor A&A for close to 2 years and house hasn't been handed over yet. Similar situation as yours on workers doing bits and pieces every few weeks. Unfortunately your best course of action is to find another builder to take over. While it will cost you more, continuing on with this contractor will cost you more money in terms of loans and IRAS property tax. IRAS property tax remission is only for 2 years and you will likely be forking a 5 digit sum in property tax due to the remission expiry. Since you have a proper contract signed with the builder, consult a lawyer on the contract terms and see if you can seek legal recourse over compensation for the delay. As to how to fire/discharge your existing contractor, this should be handled by your architect whom I presume is acting as your project manager as well. Just make sure all the relevant documentations are properly handed over by the contractor as there are quite a bit of submissions needed for TOP and I think every batch of concrete delivered to site needs a test report which needs to be submitted. I don't think any government agencies will be concerned about the contractor's practice and such unless he is working on government projects. For the workers staying on your site, legally you are the one allowing them to stay on site as if you go to MOM site, you can check the particulars on foreign workers staying on your site. I think the lesson learnt is that don't trust anyone's, even the architect's recommendations. There was a previous thread which is now deleted where there was some form of "collusion" between the architect and builder and it was quite problematic as well. Anyone who is building a new house should insist on the architect doing a proper tender process where multiple parties can bid for the project. In this way, the process is transparent and client can get the best deal as opposed to hearing someone saying "trust me, he is good".

go to taobao and search. plenty of choices at much lower price. you might even want to consider having solar powered ones which can auto come on at night when the sun goes down. then don't have to worry about short circuit the house electrical network anymore.

not in the construction industry. gained the knowledge when going through the process of my own house rebuilt. If the location is correct, then I had gone to that area several times so a bit familiar with the surroundings. Haven't seen your house yet so can't comment on it.

technically your wall can be built all the way to the boundary line. but your builder may set back by about 5cm from the boundary line just in case of construction errors so that the post construction survey will still show the wall within your boundary instead of over. the shelter roof edge must be at least 1m away from the boundary line. if your wall is set back 50cm from the boundary line, your shelter must still be 1m away from the boundary line meaning the gap between the edge of your shelter and the outside edge of the wall is just 50cm as opposed to 1m. the guideline reference is the boundary line and not where your wall is. i guess i know where your house is 😁

Since this is the boundary wall, your shelter should be set back at least 1m away from the boundary line. You CANNOT have your shelter protruding over your wall due to this set back requirement. you cannot built over your boundary line as well since it is considered encroachment. If the government does a site survey in future, you will be asked to remove any encroachments and make good at your own cost as well you can get your builder to add cement to create a slope on your side of the boundary line to help redirect the rain water. btw, your place is somewhere in the east?

Write in to URA to enquiry on how much allowance they will allow for the lift core to exceed the building envelope. For PV panels, anything below 1m above the envelope is allowed. So chances are URA will allow for the lift core to exceed the envelope by maybe 500mm. Different lift suppliers have different overhead requirements. For mine, the requirement is 3.2m if I didn’t remember wrongly. HDB lifts are HUGE compared to what is needed for landed housings. Landed houses usually just need a 3 to 5 pax max lift which is big enough for a wheelchair and additional pax together. Lift core dimensions again differ between suppliers. But a safe gauge will be at least 1.6m by 1.6m INTERNAL clearance. Again check with lift supplier to confirm exact requirements. There is also the issue of lift pit as well so this is an additional depth which needs to be excavated below the ground level. Too deep a pit (more than 1.5m) and you will require ERSS which will add on to your cost.

When u have wired back haul, the mesh nodes will be more like a normal access point already

if you sell durians, would you say your durian is lousy or someone else's durians are lousy? technically the sales guy is not wrong, but it all depends on how you configure the APs. if you use the public wireless at SG at shopping malls, do you encounter needing to switch to different SSIDs while walking around? No right? It's all about how the configuration is done and most enterprise APs are configured to have seamless handovers between the APs. To have seamless handover, all the APs must be configured to a single same SSID. There are configuration settings which can be done to provide for seamless handover between the APs once you move out of range. For my own house, I can stream a show on my mobile phone while walking from my 1st level to my attic without losing connection at all. I'm using a HP Enterprise wifi setup at home. Since you are planning for wired backhaul for your wifi, then there's no need to buy mesh equipment and then use as a AP. why pay for functionalities which you are not going to use? Mesh wifi is more for big apartments where line of sight can be obtained for each node and the owners does not want the inconvenience of drilling and laying cables for wired backhaul. But for landed houses, it don't work well since each node may not see each other and the bandwidth will suffer as a result. The Singtel ONR is more convenient for basic users who don't have complex setups. It also results in a double NAT issue when user has his own router put in place. I will be jumping ship elsewhere once my contract is up with ST. ST used to configure bridge mode for their ONR so that advanced users can use the ONR as a ONT, but they have stopped doing this already. Technically their ONR can be used for a mesh setup (they provided a mesh AP when I signed up previously) and I believe should work with APs as well. But the problem is their ONR is locked down so there's no way for end users to reconfigure certain settings and in the event of the need to do troubleshooting, it's almost impossible. That's why a ONT which simply passes the internet WAN IP over to the router is better since we can configure our own router to how we want to use it within our network rather than being forced to follow what ST feels is the best configuration. Anyway if your SH contract has not expired when you move to the new place, you may or may not need to pay a relocation charge to bring the connection over to the new place. I believe officially there is a relocation charge when moving homes but SH waived it for me previously when I did my relocation of the services.

I was trying to reconcile your floor plan to your photo and couldn't. Realised that you just took the photo off the web and it's not your house. Anyway, what ISP are you getting? Singtel nowadays give ONR which is a router itself. are you planning to use wired backhaul for your Level 2 and attic? If you are not using, then you will have performance issue. Any mesh or wifi extending systems will require line of sight to work properly. Without line of sight, the wifi signal will have a big loss when passing through walls/concrete floor slabs and your mesh system will fail. It is best to use wired backhaul for all your wifi access points. Also where you are planning to place the router on the mezzanine will not work well. Wifi signals usually are cast is a certain optimal direction and not 360 degrees. So you will end up with dead spots/zones if you choose to mount the wifi there. It would be better to mount the access point on the ceiling of the mezzanine so that the signal will cast downwards and provide coverage for both mezzanine and level 1 at the same time. For best coverage, always place your wifi access points on the ceiling and facing downwards. This will enable the wifi signal to cast radially down and outwards to increase the coverage area. Looking at how much the netgear set costs online (about 1500), I think it will be cheaper that you buy 3 or 4 wireless access points from ubiquiti and another router if needed. This should give you better performance at a lower cost as well.

As mentioned, don’t pay the subcontractors directly. You are not your builder’s bank account. if subcontractors send bill to you, tell them to send back to the builder instead. Any payment you made should be based on progress claims by the builder and supported by evidence of work done on site. changing a builder is not as straightforward as you changing a renovation contractor. There are items which the builder need to certify and submit to authorities and a new builder may not want to take this risk at this late stage of works. Moreover you need the architect and PE to submit stuff to authorities as well and you are kind of stuck since these two consultants are under the builder’s payroll. I would suggest you take a look at the contract signed between you and your builder. Seek legal advice if needed on what you can compel the builder to finish and any financial penalties you can claw back from the builder. Unfortunately since this is a design and build project, I would think the contact will likely be skewed towards the builder. I hope you have also keep all the documentation of payments and receipts as you may need them to support your case.

why did the SP testing fail? Why is SP testing cannot be done again due to safety? What kind of safety issues? Has these safety issues been rectified? DO NOT pay the contractor anymore especially directly to their sub-contractors. Any outstanding amounts between the builder and their sub-contractor is between them and you shouldn't be involved. Return the invoices from the sub-contractors back to the builder and do not get involved between their issues. I also hope you have receipts from the builder for all the payments you have made to them thus far. No GST is just a myth since the sub-contractor's invoice will already have the GST factored in as their supplies is likely purchased from a GST registered company. Just that the amount will be lower since the mark up from the builder is excluded. But again I reiterate, DO NOT pay the sub-contractors directly. Did your contract with the builder come with a LD clause? If yes, you can possible use this on them to claw back some of your rental cost due to their delay. How much work is outstanding before TOP can be applied for? Do you have the direct contact of their architect? Cos the architect will need to submit for the TOP application and others as well. So this is just in case you need to get the architect to continue to see through the project should the builder decide to abandon the project. Important thing now is whether work is still being done on site so make some effort to go to the site everyday to check for progress. If there's still signs of work being done then maybe still not that bad. I'm not sure how fast the builder promised you the project can be completed but delays seems quite common nowadays likely due to lack of workers. One house near mine has been undergoing A&A works under a famous ID company and it's been 18 months since work started and work isn't finished yet as of today.

question is where are these transformers located? output is 12V but still requires 230V input. if the transformers are located somewhere outside the pool then will be safe.

your pool guy's advise doesn't make sense. "turn on the lights to keep moisture out." I would think any light fittings installed underwater should be installed in a waterproof casing and water should not be able to get in at all. If water can get into the light fitting, then your entire pool would not be safe since electricity could pass through water and you can get electrocuted inside the pool.

if water seepage would mean short circuit and the RCCB will trip unless MCB is turned off. but from photo all breakers are in the ON position.

what are the 2 breakers used for? was there any trip of the breakers? usually 20A breaker is used for power sockets and 10A breaker used for lights. your breaker labeled with L is a 20A breaker so it might not be for lights. if your lights are connected in series, then it might be a case of blown blub causing all the rest of the lights not to work.

Big supplier like choo chiang marketing will have the stuff with outlets in many areas. Price is not the cheapest though. If you can find time between 8am to 5pm on weekdays, then kelantan lane in Jalan Besar area next to DSC clinic have a supplier. Else Verasamy road nearby will have many suppliers like Kim siah or Albert Hoo including Choo Chiang. DB cover usually need to use with the same model base and sold as a set. Can’t really mix and match. So if you want to replace need to replace everything including the base which will mean you need to power down further up the line or even from the main incoming just to be safe. Neutral and live wires can cause short if touched even if the MCB is turned off. Need to shut down the main incoming breaker to cut off the neutral connection as well as the 3 phases to really cut off everything.