IceEyez
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Posts posted by IceEyez
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30 minutes ago, Firstling said:Would there be any liability for me if they use my account? For example if something goes wrong …
Are we talking about a "renovation" scale project or are we talking about construction that requires BCA submission?
If it is the former, than either way can be done. Like the rest has said, even if they pay for it, they will factor that inside their cost submitted to you anyway.
However, if it is a project that requires BCA submission for Permit to Commence Work, then it is a regulation that the contractor has to apply for a commercial account as the place is officially considered a worksite. Residential rates are subsidized which is why they are supposed to apply for their own account. Sometimes, (note this is actually illegal), but contractors will offer you a more attractive overall price to secure the job but ask you to pay for your own electrical bills using your own account. They take this risk - if SP ever does a spot check, they will be trouble and could be fined etc. Sometimes they will smoke their way saying that they are "in the process of applying for own account, so are just temporarily using the existing electricity" 🤣. Well, rightfully they are supposed to use diesel generators before their account is active lol. -
1 hour ago, snoozee said:I don't think need to go to this extent just for a landed house. one thing you need to take note of is the size of the aircon compressors as well. For domestic systems, the compressors are usually about 800mm to 1m in height whereas compressors for commercial use and VRV/VRF systems can be more than 1m in height. During construction when windows and such are not in, it's easy to bring in big aircon compressors. But if you have a huge aircon compressor, you will have problems when you need to replace it later on if you don't have big enough openings to remove the compressor. If your aircon ledge is located at the back of the house, you will need to hire a huge crane just to reach over from the front to the back to remove the compressor. Depending on the size/capacity of the crane, the cost per hour rental can be more than 1k per hour.
URA regulations state that aircon compressors must be set more than 2m away from the boundary line to reduce noise pollution for your neighbours. So if you want to put the aircon compressors at the side, you will need to create a recess area for this purpose. Else the norm is to put them in the rear (attic) area just beyond the 2m setback. To obtain CSC, you will also need to provide a noise level report on the aircon compressors for NEA as well to get their CSC clearance.
Hi Snozee,
Just FYI, it is no longer a requirement to provide noise level reports for A/C compressions to NEA for CSC clearance since 2019. -
5 hours ago, Jack L said:Hi friends, my architect designed 2-flight stairs around lift (8 stairs + 9) as below. I heard that 3-flight will be more comfortable to walk (6 + 5 + 6), after all the green part is passageway.
What's your thoughts? @snooze @George Yeo @AWS and all the great people in the forum. Thank you in advance
Hello!
Maybe it was already resolved, but do note the implications of changing to a 3 flight thing - the position of the door at the bottom room? How are you going to access it if there are steps in front of it?
Also, the width of the remaining space for the pantry area does not look like it is sufficient. Its probably 600mm now? Need to crab walk inside? 🤣
And your tread width is actually very big @ 275mm. You could be saving space with 250mm. The min BCA standard is 225mm only. -
2 hours ago, snoozee said:If the quote is given after the structure and foundation is designed, then your contractor should have factored the plate bearing test cost in somewhere already. But reading your other thread where you mentioned that you went with design and build contractor, then you need to confirm on this already.
This is one of the drawbacks of signing a quotation before the building design is done and confirmed as you face potential VOs due to nothing being confirmed at the point of signing.hahah snozee yeah you are absolutely right. Thats how/why the initial quotes are always so attractive! 🤣
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6 hours ago, 3Cube said:Structurally speaking, all building must have foundation. The sub-catagories under foundation type are Pile Cap (for caping a pile & facilitate load transfer), Footing (mostly not capping any piles but sometime, depending on soil condition, may cap Bakau Piles). Of course things like reinforced concrete pile are part of the foundation (by definition structural element under the building embedded in earth / soil) What I'm stating here is just a simplified explaination for laymen's understanding.
Bakau pile are basically timber in nature (or Bakau tree trunks to help you understand visually). It is installed either laying horizontally (usually in the case of drains, culverts laid parallel to lenth of drain or culvert) or vertically driven into the soil. Just google to see how Bakau pile looks like.
I would strongly urge you to check with a structural Engineer on contents of my post. I maintain my content in my previous post on this thread is true, based on the numerous project I've personal involved over 20+ years. Please understand it is simplify as I don't meant the post as a lecture but more of general knowledge to help laymen's visualisation. Sort of a non-numerical statistical summary.
In your post as attached, you mention raft foundation. Basic analogy, Raft foundation is like visually the building is a boat on water (soil) where the raft foundation is like the hull (base) of the boat in direct contact with the water (soil). I speculate this is why it's named as "raft". This is design / use to ensure even settlement of building on the earth / soil.
Eh? Yup there are different types of foundations.
Just wanted to clear up the point and hope whoever reads this understands that plate load bearing test is necessary for normal shallow foundations (footings/raft foundations) and it is not for testing of piles (deep foundations). Testing of piles is through PDA/ULT and is of a different cost category. -
2 hours ago, DaddyJP said:Dear All,
Bought an interterrace house last year. As newbies to the rebuilding process, we are feeling our way through the unknowns and challenges.
At every cross road of choice, trying to make "sound" decision and move a step at a time forward through this expensive and lengthy journey. 😁😁.
Intend to share our experiences here in this forum, will find time to update as regular as I can.
So here goes...
Decision No. 1 : Rebuild or A&A
It was a rather old 2 stories house, build in 1986. Although the ex-owner had maintained it well but the build-up area was just 2000+sqft, layout and design were pretty old fashion. Upon closer inspection also found signs of water stains on wall line, terminate treatment holes on the floor and cracks. Original plan was to do A&A, but soon we decided to change plan from A&A to rebuild 😅. Another reason was to make sure we maximise the economic potential of the land so that when needed we can sell the house at a higher possible price in future.
Decision No. 2 : Architect or Design&Build Contractor
Explored both rebuilding paths. Finally decided to go with D&B contractor for the following reasons:
a. Price : On top of all the costs required to build a house, was told to pay 10 to 15% more for the architect fee... Money not enough. 😅
b. Waiting time : Visited quite a handful of houses done by both 3x Architects and 3x D&B Contractors. Although we liked the design from one of the Architects, the waiting time was very long for him to complete the design before tender, up to 6 months wait... Time too long. 😅
c. Tender process : All architects we engaged indicate that they would invite the contractors that they have worked with to come for the tender, or we could invite our contractor to bid... but we are newbies, no idea about contractors. Need to interview the participating contractors, see more houses to check for quality and workmanship.... but again, we are newbies, no idea how to differentiate between good and bad contractors. If don't like any contractor, need to start all over again. The whole tender process too troublesome for us 😅
Finally selected one of the 3 contractors whom we felt most comfortable with and has provided an acceptable balance between price vs design & service provided. Since then we have completed topo survey, soil test, and successfully obtained the demo permit and approval for the layout and structural plans from BCA/URA. Actual building work can finally start. 😁
... that's all for now... Next update... will share our Decision No 3 : D&B contractor selection; Decision No 4 : PE selection; Decision No 5 : Lift or no lift?
10-15% Architect's Fee? Perhaps only the top famous star architects can charge such rates 😅. Even then, it rather unlikely, as if you are hiring such a star architect, the expected design and construction budget would already be much higher. As a proportion of the construction cost, the percentage of the fees also won't be that high.
The realistic typical Architects fees for inter-terrace house new erection you can expect it to be 6-9% of the TOTAL construction cost.
Aside, it is also the architect's job to lead the process of calling for tender - they will be interviewing the contractors on your behalf, advising on each tenderer's workmanship when viewing the completed houses etc. Based on their professional experience, they will tell you what to look out for. Typically, 5-6 shortlisted contractors are invited to participate in the tender. The Architect will already vet their portfolios before even inviting them and based on the submitted price and client's feedback about their workmanship/vibe, they are further shortlisted. Not sure what is meant by this "don't like contractor, so need to start all over again" though. You don't restart the whole tender process.
The tender process is meant to make sure that ALL contractors are pricing for the exact same design/specifications, so that there is a fair apples to apples comparison. No guessing game as to what is included/not included inside the quotation.
Going the architect route does take a longer design period before construction as they actually come up with a finalized design and produce a full set of tender drawings before asking for construction quotes. On the flip side, it is true that D&B is a faster route, but its always a big question mark as to what exactly are you are even paying for when the contractor submits the initial quotation.
Different routes for different people with different needs though! So, wouldn't say one way is better than the other. -
On 7/30/2021 at 8:37 PM, 3Cube said:Plate Loading Test is basically stacking of huge stones on top of the pile position to be tested. The Stones is meant to simulate the designed bearing load for the particular pile to check the pile's effectiveness to bear the load.
This is usually carried out for big, tall commercial project such as production factories, skyscraper, HDB flats. Usually for landed residential such as terrace, bungalows, semi-detached house, a PDA (Pile Dynamic Analysis) test would suffice most of the time. Such Plate Loading Test would usually be required if there are some irregularity with the pile's penetration depth, PDA results, etc.
This is not entirely correct. Plate bearing test is always done for houses that utilize raft or footings as their foundation design.
Example of plate bearing test being conducted from one of my current projects. The weight used is the weight of the excavator itself. $2k for such a test is reasonable and is necessary. It is a BCA requirement to do so.
PDA - (Pile Driving Analyzer) test is actually more when piles are the foundation type. And if necessary, they will conduct the ULT (Ulitmate Load Test) using the gigantic rocks like in the photo below:
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1 hour ago, Yueyue said:I went to meet a builder today and he told me that my house can be done within 500k budget…
500k to rebuild? Rebuild back into a single storey house maybe hahahhaa 😂 Or perhaps what he meant is 500k budget + another 500k worth of variations/extra hidden costs after you sign the contract.
Harsh reality is that current construction costs for new erection you can expect minimally $325-$350/psf worth of GFA (note i'm not referring to "built-up" because that is a meaningless marketing term).
If you are saying 500k to A&A, that may be possible, but it still depends on what the scope of work is. For A&A works, expect around $275-$300/psf and above (assuming total redo of all interior+facade, and adding extra GFA). Could be lesser or could be more depending on the final scope within the A&A. -
1 hour ago, Topline said:Heard that sometimes, the contractors already mark up their pricing such that they dont need the remaining % (is it 5%?) retained to fix defects. So they dont care about fixing repairs? Is it possible to ask for more than 5% to be retained?
Typically, it is unlikely that the cost of rectifying the defect is same or more than then remaining retention sum.
For example 2.5% of a million dollar project is $25k. Unless the issue is something extremely major (e.g. entire ground slab water proofing failed resulting in ground water seeping in and say staining the entire living room/dining room marble which require them to hack away all the finishes and redo waterproofing/slab + finishes, it is unlikely a contractor will just give up on the 2.5%. After they have already spent so much time/money to construction the house, only to destroy their reputation (and thus future potential profits) to avoid doing some minor rectification work?
In the context of calling for a proper tender where there are 3-5 contractors bidding for a project, it doesn't work in their favor to "mark up their pricing so that they don't need the remaining 5%". Actually tender is a interesting game - contractors are all trying to guess the sweet spot of maintaining profit margins, while being cost competitive enough to get the job. If the tenderer enters the tender with that mindset, do you think they will be competitive?
Unless of course their intention is to just get the job first, cut as much corners as possible and build it at the extreme low price, leave the project full of problems and defects and abandon it after completion hahaha 🤣. These guys can expect to do just a single job and close down their company, destroy whatever reputation built up over the years, which doesn't make sense.
Anyway, 10% monthly retention per progress claim (up to max of 5% limit) is the standard amount recommended in the industry. Yes it is possible to increase it, especially if in lieu of performance bond etc (example to 15% per month to max 10% cap). But by increasing the retention sum, you are limiting the contractor's cash flow, which in turn they balance out by quoting you an overall higher figure to maintain profit/risk ratios. -
37 minutes ago, snoozee said: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.
Retention sum is not released upon TOP. Half is released upon issuance of Completion Certificate and the remaining half upon maintenance certificate. Just to clarify, TOP and completion certificate are completely different things. Issuance of TOP is determined by BCA while Completion is certified by the Architect. It is possible for the house is completed, but TOP not obtained and also the other way around (i.e TOP obtained but house not yet complete).
Upon issuance of completion certificate, half of retention sum has to be released to the builder. There is a stipulated time frame for owner to pay up according to the SOP (Security of Payment Act), once the Architect certifies the release of the money. It is a binding contract between owner and contractor. The bank cannot insist that contractor not be paid.
Where the money comes from, whether from your own pocket first or to be directly disbursed by the bank through the loan is a separate matter. -
It doesnt matter whether it is a full demolition or a partial demolition - you still need to declare it to IRAS and you will be charged higher property tax rates once demolition is completed and construction commences.
So it is treated the same - once the house obtains TOP and it occupied by the owner itself, remission is applicable. -
On 7/1/2021 at 1:23 PM, Topline said:Hi, just want to check how you guys check that the builders you appoint are financially sound? Even if you get their financial statements, you cannot tell how many jobs they currently are doing. Especially during these C-19 times, there could be delays in the construction eg due to manpower and hence the risk to your project stretches longer. Is there insurance for protection against the builders going bankrupt?
When calling for tender we typically advise to do the following:
1) Request for the audited financial records to see their financial health.
2) Ask them to submit their company portfolio/resume showing how many jobs they are working on and their list of completed projects.
3) Arrange for viewing of their completed projects - best is if the house owner is around. You can then speak with them to get a sense of how the contractor is like.
4) If you know what other projects they are working on - you can try calling the Architect-in-charge to get a sense of how they are. Are they endlessly delaying the project? Are they responsive?
As for what kind of protection there is. Assuming there is a standard form of building contractor (E.g SIA building contract), there should be a few things that can protect you:
1) Rentention sum. This means a certain percentage of the monthly progress claim is withheld (e.g 10%) and not paid out. Half of this retention sum is only paid out when construction is certified to be complete. The other half is released upon end of the 12 months maintenance period (a period where contractor is liable to make good any defects that surface).
2) Performance bond - this is like a insurance purchased by the contractor from insurance companies or banks. Contractors charge a cost for this which pays for the premium chaged by the insurance company. Typically the performance bond claimable amount is based on 10% of the contract sum. If the contractor defaults (terminates contract, goes bankrupt etc.), you can call the bond. This is a on-demand bond meaning that the insurance company has to cough up the cash without any questions asked upon demand by the owner. How the insurance company settles/sues the contractor it is between themselves.
If it is a design and build project/contractor where you've already paid up front a large deposit amount, without any proper building contractor then your options are limited. Make sure you select VERRYYY carefully! -
59 minutes ago, SineQuaNon said:Hi have another basement question
I understand that for detached you can build basement all the way to boundary line / how does this apply to terrace or semi D? Can build all the way to boundary lines?
According to URA guidelines yes you can build all the way to the boundary line for the basement for any type of landed typology. But in reality, due to technical and practical concerns, you will almost certainly not be able to unless you have the best neighbor in the world who actually allow you to excavate into their own private land for you to do the temporary earth retaining structures there while you construct your basement retaining walls at the boundary line 🤣.
Expect to leave minimum 1-2m away from your boundary line, depending on how deep the basement is/how high the adjacent neighbor land/ soil condition etc. -
6 hours ago, petetherock said:This is interesting, so if a house was built post 1991, it should be ok?
Yup! Asbestos was banned for usage in construction since the late 1980s. Almost certainly if the house was built after 1991 there should not be any asbestos.
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Do note that if the house last underwent any construction/revation BEFORE 1991 you will need to do an asbestos survey. Not sure what you mean by "Old house". If asbestos is discovered, no way you can stay during construction. The Asbestos will need to be completely and safety removed first.
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On 6/26/2021 at 3:09 PM, ZZEC said:Thanks! I tried to get my builder’s help but he not being very helpful. Hence checking to see if the rest have better experience. Did your builder include you in routine testing? Mine says it’s only for people in his company?
not sure why 3cube has to be so angst in his reply. nobody is suggesting to bypass, we can all share our positive experience. No need to play righteous cop here.
I'm not a house owner
I'm on the Architect side and i do help my owners register for the RRT so that they can visit site.
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On 6/27/2021 at 12:01 PM, prodriver6 said:Lol... guys, i'm totally not aware of this!
help me understand if i'm reading this correctly, as a home owner, if i want to visit my own work site, i will need to be swabbed every 2 weeks?
what if i visit the site only when the workers are gone in the evening?
Yes even as a home owner, it is BCA's directive that you will need to be both registered under approved visitors.. and swabbed every 2 weeks. the ART is not sufficient , it has to be the proper government conducted testing.
There is no way about it, even if you visit when workers are gone. The site is under the contractor's responsibility during construction and they can be issued a stop work order if it is discovered that there are visitors who have not been tested entering site. (neighbour reporting etc.) COVID-19 virus can remain on surfaces etc so its not just about "workers not present". Do so at your own risk! -
11 hours ago, ZZEC said:Hi guys the new regulation for now is that all have to be swab before we can go to construction site once every 14 days. That is kind of expensive every 2 weekly. Anyone has different experience where to get cheaper testing?
You can get your contractor or architect to register you under the RRT (Routine Rostered Testing) scheme as people required to visit site (owners are included). This is still paid for by the government so its FREE
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19 hours ago, snoozee said:"reserve a spot" is very subjective. if there is no prep done for a lift, means you need to spend money to hack the floor slabs and do excavation, etc. Since you mentioned it was just A&A, high chance is nothing much has been done in terms of building work to cater for a lift.
even if you can do the design layout yourself, you will still need a QP which is either a registered architect or professional engineer to do the submissions to the authorities.
for a reconstruction project, a PE can do submission instead of an architect. so you can design the layout, find a builder and have the builder's PE to submit for you. this would be the lowest cost solution. of cos you need to get a trustworthy builder to do it.
PE QP can only submit for A&A. Recon scale has to be done by Archi QP, unless you get a waiver (fringe cases only say you barely exceed critera like 51% increase in GFA/facade change etc).
For this case, adding a full floor (2.5 to 3.5) will constitute as a Recon and Archi QP will 100% be required. -
Hi, having a secondary staircase at the side that by passes the main spaces of the building will almost certainly not be allowed by URA. This is because they do not want the landed house to function like separate units that are easily sublet out, even if it is meant for your own multi-generation usage. The answer will be "What if you sell the house to the next buyer and they sublet it out? 🤣 Fought with URA over this for months lol.
And for a semi of that size with a basement especially, be prepared for 2m and upwards, even if you go with very basic finishes.
In today's market, expect minimally 350/psf for above ground construction and 1.5 times that for below ground construction. -
On 5/16/2021 at 12:39 AM, Alkft said:Thanks for the advice!
May i check the likely costs for A&A if extend to rear level 2,3 of 3 storey inter terrace resulting in increase gfa from 269.4 sqm to 400 sqm, with pillar in car porch area moved to the side as well and full interior renovation including electrical, toilets, also retile car.porch and backyard?
Looking to use big tiles in living room abd level 2 and 3 using vinyl tiles
From what you describe, it looks like a extremely major A&A.
Typical cost for such major A&A/Recon, we can roughly base on $200 to $250/psf of the total GFA. In this case, we are looking at $800-$1m.
Construction duration wise for this scale, expect at least 10 month to potentially 12 months and above. The entire labour market is facing a crunch that has never been seen before 😱 -
14 hours ago, David Tan HK said:I have bought a 2-storey landed terrace house (land about 1650 sqft) and plan to add a 5m extension at the back, 5m x 6m wide (ground floor and 2nd level), and the extension has an attic floor and new roof. I also plan to change the entire roof, the existing roof is 12m (L) x 6m (wide). Will also need to makeover the house (simple tiles, etc). What is the expected A&A costs or reconstruction cost? Thank you.
You are intending to build essentially 3 stories at the rear extension (1/2/attic) and renovate the entire interior for the rest of the house (new piping/wiling/finishes/bathrooms etc)?
If yes, honestly in today's construction market climate, be prepared to pay minimally 500-600k and above. We just recently conducted a tender for 2 storey extension of rear (total increase only about 20sqm) and completely revamped the entire interior + front facade. Cost was already almost 500k. Prices are really crazy right now, more than 20% increase over pre-Covid times. Only getting worse with the India/Bangladesh/Pakistan/Myanmar situations. -
22 hours ago, Alkft said:Hi yes I thought the design and build company was very ambitious in saying 5 months for construction, and when I asked how can it be possible, he says he has his own workers.
Thank you for your reply. May I then ask for advice - would such an endeavor A&A with main aim of creating 2 more bedrooms And 1 more common toilet , moving pillar at front porch for an interterrace, u would advise to go architect consultancy or with design and build firm? This is our first landed so we are very clueless.
And estimate on such A&A with full interior renovation ( we don’t need marble flooring), would it be 500-600k? Or higher?
also with the age of the inter terrace being built back in 1993, would the waste pipes, roofing all mans parquet be ok to keep as is?
The Airwell - the previous owner had made it such that water / rain doesn’t come inso far with the rainy season, I haven’t seen any leaks. The place was bought from first owner who did do regular maintenance of roof and painting.
Just to careful regarding the % elevation change too. Aside from GFA increase <50%, the facade cannot change more than 50% too. Otherwise it will be considered as "Recon".
For inter-terrace houses, since there are only 2 facades - front and back, the moment you extend the entire rear, you are looking at 50% change already.
And 5 months to do 2/3rd extension is almost impossible in today's context, unless this guy is prepared to pay for workers through the nose (which in other words charging you crazy amounts) to secure the workers. One of our projects where we just called for tender (extend 1st and 2nd storey only at the rear + redo whole of interior), we set the base duration at 7 months but quite a few of the tenderer all counter proposed a 8-9 months duration instead. -
On 4/16/2021 at 11:53 AM, Brightie said:Hi
Our preference is to engage the Architect and go through the tender process per the standard route for our newly purchased property.
After speaking to a few architects, most insist on appointing 3 independent consultants - Structural, M & E and QS. While I understand the need for structural consultant, I thought M & E could be handled by the appointed Main Con's LEW or QP. As for the QS, since there will be standard tender document and all bids have to be itemised anyway - engaging a QS is optional. The architects' stand was that engaging the M & E consultant will look after our interest and not the main con's. They also advised the cost of engaging the QS will be more than covered by the costs savings they bring in through their cost management expertise.
Does anyone have more insight or actual experience to share on this view as I am wondering if I may be missing some points?
Thanks
Hi,
As an Architect, maybe i can shed a bit more light about this topic.
Structural Engineer: Don't need to talk, if there is any structural work involved, they will be required. 😂
M&E Engineer: We only recommend having a M&E Engineer if there are more complex requirements for the project or if the client has very particular requirements about the performance of the M&E component of the house.
If the project requires water tank/pumps, has a huge swimming pool or reflective pool, complex home automation requirements, extensive solar paneling etc, the M&E Engineer will be able to advise on the size/specifications and best placement of the relevant items (pump, filtration tank, solar panel DB etc.) so that in the process of designing the architectural layout/design we can already take it into consideration. It will be very unpleasant for the owner when the whole design is finalized and about to start construction to realize that for example that there is insufficient space for the swimming pool balacing tank/filtration system at the proposed position, resulting in having to compromise on the original preferred layout.
The other case is if the client is extremely concerned about the performance of the M&E systems and want to squeeze out every little bit of performance, or want to specify the best materials to avoid any long term headaches about maintenance. For example, the Architect might have a general idea of what kind of aircon piping is the best (Armaflex versus closed cell insulation), but we will not know how exactly how to specify it when calling for tender, nor verify on site subsequently that all these have been constructed by the contractor correctly. M&E engineer will also be able to draw how all the pipes (Aircon condensate, refrigerant, electrical cabling, plumbing, sanitary) runs within the whole house and already advise how much false ceiling space is required for the Architect to coordinate the design better.
Just like the architect is the specialist in ensuring contractor builds the architectural components according to the drawings/specifications, the M&E engineer will be able to check on site that the contractor builds the M&E components correctly.
QS: We recommend having a QS for most projects, unless the scale is smaller, example A&A less than 500k, where there is not enough job scope and thus not enough potential savings to offset the cost of engaging one.
a QS has several roles:
1) Provide preliminary estimates of the house during multiple points of the design stages. This helps the owner and architect decide whether to proceed with the design or scale back the design/material specifications. It would be a huge waste of everybody's time to design something that is out of the owner's budget and having to change the design after it has been approved by the authorities and already at the tender stage. It is true that the Architect should have a rough idea of costs/budget when designing, but we will not be able to break down the costs into components like what a QS would do. For example, lets say the owner is considering between marble flooring and engineered wood flooring. QS would be able to work out the exact cost difference based on the area, prevailing market material & labour rates so that a decision can be made straight away.
2) Come up with this thing called a Schedule of works. This Schedule of works basically translates the Architect's tender drawings into "text format". Every component of the design, example doors, labour of installing tiles, is itemized so that when prices are submitted, you can easily do a item to item comparison across all tenderers. We can then who priced what items higher than usual, what are the expensive things to omit if necessary etc. Without this schedule of works, be prepared to receive quotations from each contractor in their own format. It will be itemized but for example, Contractor A might split it in such a way that the price of the aluminium doors/windows are lumped together, while Contractor B lumps price of timber doors and aluminium doors together. How to compare in this case? QS makes sure everybody submits in the same format.
3) During construction, typically contractor submits monthly progress claims based on work done on site for the previous month. QS will go down to site to verify/check the work done on site versus what the contractor claims. This is important because you don't want to overpay the contractor when work has not been done. Worse case scenario, imagine if you've already paid out for a lot of work not yet done and contractor runs away, it will be very difficult to recover the cost.
4) If there is any changes to the design during construction due to unforeseen circumstances (example rock discovered in the soil that causes change in foundation design), or if client requested changes (example decide to change to marble flooring halfway), contractor will submit a cost claim. The QS will be able to verify/challenge the amount submitted by the contractor, because they have a expertise/knowledge of market rates and quantities. Architect may only be able to advise that is "seems higher" than normal but will not be able to counter with an actual amount.
OK thats quite a bit to read, hopefully doesn't bore you but helps you have a better understanding of why the Architects you approached might have recommended you to engage all 3 consultants
Cost to hire M&E consultants
in Landed & Condo Private Properties Renovation Discussion
Posted
Cost for Architect can differ a lot - think award winning Starchitect versus your just start up Architect.
Realistically, you can expect probably expect around 4% to 9% of your total construction costs - $100k - $250k. It also depends on how fancy a design you are expecting, whether you happy with simpler house or you need an award winning design haha.
Yes snooze is right - go find an Architect first and he can advise in more detail how much the other consultants might cost based on your requirements.