snoozee

was the house rebuilt 30 years ago or major A&A done? like what yoongf mentioned, the cost depends a lot on the materials you choose and how much GFA you decide to have so 1M could be possible. let me know if you want an architect as I'm also in the process of doing a corner terrace rebuilt.

how old is the existing house? you will need to purchase the existing building plans and have a professional engineer to compute whether the existing structure is able to take the load of an additional storey or not. Since the PE might not be versed in the various planning requirements, you may need to engage an architect as well to do the necessary design and submissions. anyway, i think chances of you being able to add an additional storey is quite low. even if the existing structure can be reinforced to take the additional load, it might be better to just demolish and rebuilt as there's more flexibility in the design of your dream home rather than work around the constraints of the existing building structure.

check with your town council

not sure on this. check with everyone including your property agent and MCST as well.

the question is whether the roof belongs to you or is part of the common area/infrastructure of the entire development....

plans can be purchased from BCA. but it seems that not everyone can purchase the plans. as mentioned, best is consult an architect on whether there is still available GFA for you to build the loft or not and then consult a PE on whether the existing structural can take the load of the additional 40sqm of loft area. reinforcing the columns and beams in your unit may not be enough for the columns and beams in the lower units to support the extra load.

can share which seller you bought the tiles from taobao? the rooms facing the expressway would be quite noisy at night even with the windows closed. is yours the top floor unit? normally only top floor unit will have such thick beams.

you should have a good idea of what type of appliances you want to get so your ID/contractor would know how much space to leave out and what size to cut out. if you tell your contractor to cut out a 60cm hole in your countertop, you would not be able to use a 70cm or 80cm wide cooker. or if you cater only say 80cm width for fridge, you would not be able to buy a 2 door fridge which would be 90cm in width. same for height as well. do also understand that appliances don't last forever. so if you built a space just nice to fit in a fridge which you choose now, you may not find back a fridge of the exact same size in future if you need to replace the fridge.

plot ratio can be found on URA master plan. this is free information which is available online. Since you mentioned 4th floor is the top floor, I believe the plot ratio is 1.4 which is common in Katong area. do note that if the current development GFA is already maximized, you would not be able to add on the loft. Since you need to compute the total GFA after your addition, you may need to purchase the building plans to find out the current GFA for the building. also, structural plans need to be purchased to check if the building can take the weight of the additional loft or not. simply reinforcing the beams and columns in your unit would not work since the columns of the lower units may not be able to take the additional load. I would suggest you consult an architect on your plans as not all PE, contractor/builder may have the necessary knowledge to compute the existing GFA based on the building plans. anyway, if this is a more recent development, developers would have maximized the allowed GFA in the building design so you would not be able to build your loft.

perfectly normal. hinges normally open slightly more than 90 degrees. you can buy those small transparent semi-circular rubber bumps and stick on the wall or your cupboard doors to protect the doors. for the 2 side by side doors, just open them gently if you do not want to use the rubber stoppers. I used to have the rubber stoppers stuck to the wall to protect my fridge door handle as well.

depends on what type (sunken or above ground) you are looking for and the size. my friend is doing a sunken pool for her inter-terrace rebuilt at her car porch area and the pool is costing her about 35k. she mentioned she had gotten quotes as high as 80k for the pool.

Did the previous owners change the roof before? the concern with such old houses is that there could still be asbestos in the roofing materials which is health hazardous.

WIFI and fiber are separate issues. the fiber terminates at the TP and then connected to another ONT and router to provide the internet access. if the TP and WIFI routers are on first floor, the WIFI signal would not be strong enough to penetrate up to the 3rd floor. to resolve this besides the normal drilling and running cables, you can buy those home plug and connect one end to where the router is and then the other end to the 2nd or 3rd floor. if the home plug does not come with built in WIFI, then you would need to connect another WIFI router or access point to the 2nd/3rd floor home plug to provide extended WIFI access. however, most home plug devices can only work on the same phase of power lines so if your first floor and other floors are using different power phases, you are out of luck unless you can buy those which work off different power phases. another method is to use a WIFI extender. how the extender works is that it would connect to the existing WIFI and then rebroadcast the WIFI connection. this is basically a bridging device which allows your to extend WIFI coverage without needing to pull cables. there's some performance penalty since the WIFI signal is rebroadcasted but it's hardly noticeable. for my in-law's landed house, I used a WIFI extender on the 2nd floor to connect to the WIFI router on the 1st floor and this enabled the signal to be broadcasted to the 3rd floor. without this WIFI extender, there is almost no WIFI coverage on the 3rd floor. I had explored using home plug but unfortunately the house was wired using different power phases for each floor so home plugs would not work. the most optimal solution for multi story houses would be to use enterprise access points with one on each level to provide the full WIFI coverage.

if you are into buying cheap appliances from USA, then the 1500W transformer would be a good investment since you would be able to use other appliances with the transformer as well. I had bought a polisher and 750W transformer from amazon which worked well. of cos, warranty issues will come into play so sometimes better to buy certain appliances locally when there's offer/discounts.

Actually a whole continuous length of fiber optic cable can be run but it depends on what type of cable that is being used. if using those small flimsy yellow cables that is connected from the ONT to the TP, then chances of breakage is higher. I've seen opennet/netlink trust contractors using a different type of cable to run from the riser to the TP and these are normally thicker and they do a continuous run instead of cutting and joining since the joints will cause some signal loss.

Not sure how the overlaying is done but tiling adhesive works best by sticking to rough surfaces so that there's more surface area to "grip". without the rough surface of the raw concrete for the adhesive to stick to, chances of popping will definitely be higher. overlay will definitely reduce your area since the new tiles would be laid over the existing tiles. if your toilet has an existing area of 2m x 2m currently, you will end up with an internal area of maybe 1.95m x 1.95m since the new tile and tiling adhesive will add on thickness. lets say your new tile is 8mm thick and the tillers put on 10mm of tiling adhesive, this will mean about 2cm is gone. multiply by the opposite wall and about 4cm is gone hence the reduction of area.

I haven't gotten any quotes from any local suppliers yet since the house is still in design stage. But definitely looking at those that ties back to the grid for offsetting the utilities bills. Hopefully the prices will come down a bit more next year which is most probably when I will install the panels.

Note sure if too late. You should be able to take over the account if the previous owners had not terminated it prior to the 2nd appointment. Basically SP services would have the necessary information on this and you can go directly to them in HDB hub to enquire and take over the account. If the previous owners had already terminated the services prior to 2nd appointment, you will also be able to "turn on" the services immediately one you have done the application and paid the deposit to them.

I was in the same situation as you several years ago when my previous HDB estate was undergoing HIP. I had written to HDB and ST forum about this and had also offered to have a written agreement to foot any costs involved in repairing the floor if leakages happened in future but HDB said there's no such policy. basically as long as the water test fail, meaning water seepage/marks can be seen (need not be dripping water) on the downstairs neighbor's ceiling, you WILL need to renovate the toilet even if it's just a tiny seepage. You must understand that when you "BUY" a HDB flat, you are actually leasing the flat from HDB for the balance of the 99years that is left on the flat. So as the actual "owner" of the flat which you have leased from, you are subjected to their terms and conditions of living and maintenance of the flat which includes this HIP toilet renovation. The water test is designed such to cater for situations where there is water pipe leakage/burst and also the drainage pipe choked for a period of time which will cause flooding in the toilet. Hence the 2.5cm of water for 4 hours. If you had done your renovation recently and the toilet test failed, it's up to you to see how much warranty your contractor had provided you for the toilet renovation. From my understanding, the toilet works by HIP contractors will have a 5 years warranty against leakages. Just for info, when the HIP contractors do the test, they will flood your toilet and use those blue pills for WC to colour the water so that the seepage (if any) can be seen clearly downstairs. if your toilet fails the initial test, you have several options. 1. do the toilet renovation following the HIP 2. get your contractor to renovate the toilet and after renovation, get the HIP contractors to perform water test again 3. get your contractor to waterproof/fix the leakage then do the water test again Basically you have 2 chances to prove to HDB that your toilet does not leak at all. if it leaks, you are given the option to go with HIP works or engage your own contractor (subject to water leakage tests again afterwards). for fixing of leakage, there is an option to inject some sort of sealant into the ceiling downstairs. this will cause some inconvenience to your neighbor and will also need their approval since workers would need to go into their house. Cost wise would end up about the same as doing the entire toilet under the HIP package. Luckily for me previously, the seepage was in a small area which normally would not be wet (as we had an enclosed shower area and the seepage was outside this area). After doing some waterproofing of the toilet floor by applying sealant, we managed to pass the 2nd water test and avoided renovating our toilet. Hope the above information helps. Good luck!

if your array is build within the 45 degree envelope, it should be ok. By right nothing should be outside the envelope which comprises of the various setbacks and the 45 degree attic lines. By left, follow SAF rule number 7 which many landed home owners do. But if you do get caught, the penalties doesn't come cheap. BTW, which solar panels are you looking into? I'm also exploring solar panel options for my rebuilt (still in design stage).