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Kellhound

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Posts posted by Kellhound

  3. Posted

    8 hours ago, snoozee said:

    Can la. Just have to remove the obstructions if need to access the IC.
    One of my neighbours sealed up the public manhole located inside his house by tiling over it which is not supposed to be done. SIP shows the manhole location and indicates that the manhole is buried. Even PUB can’t do anything (for now) about it and my contractor had to use another manhole located much further away to access the sewer to perform CCTV inspection.

    I would agree but it's low risk and not no risk😀

  5. Posted

    3 minutes ago, Alkft said:

    Yes Airwell has its positives , but the current layout on first floor is living room , few steps up and dining area with the Airwell on the right and such that the Airwell dips a few steps down. A common toilet opens into the Airwell and then a granny room. 
    after the dining room on left, is the stairways and then the kitchen behind 

     

    we would love an open concept kitchen but seems current original layout won’t allow so. Contractor suggested switching the layout over. But that would involve moving position of toilet. Wondering if such switch if layout , whereby toilet pipes etc will be involved, is it fairly commonly done or it would make the interior reno very complicated and very much higher cost involved ? 

     

    I was advised not to move toilets too far away from current location as you need to connect concealed piping/waste/drainage etc. so I'm just expanding some of my toilets. I'm focusing on doing renovations that does not require submissions to keep costs down and schedule as short as possible.

    Since you are already doing A&A, it may still be worth it to change toilet location in the overall scheme of things.

    My house is 26 years old and I am changing all the electrical wiring and water piping. Check if your power supply is already 3-phase. If not, you may want to upgrade.

     

  6. Posted

    1 hour ago, Alkft said:

    thank you once again for the info. 
     

    when you mention cast a roof over third floor extension, means join up to the pre-existing roof? So that part of the extension then do a false ceiling under the new roof. ( option A)

    versus do a concrete slab roof and then this “concrete flat roof” can become attic. With this , does it mean existing roof is removed and do up new roof or also can extend From part of existing roof? ( option B)

    Would option B then increase gfa and if over 50% becomes a recon versus an A&A?

    I think the option B is what the contractor I met meant to say that doing second and third floor extension, might as well do up to the attic with concrete slab roof for level 3 extension. 
     

    for pre existing roofing from a place built back in year ‘93, is it possible to keep the existing roof if no signs of leak? Or better to change 

    copper pipes can last for a long time? These things will be assessed by contractor during the renovation process ?

    thanks for highlighting about the liability period. 
    does it mean if they state in contract complete by 5 months and they don’t  manage to and cite it as due to covid, we can’t really fight them over it ya?

     

    for Airwell, is there a minimum size it should be? And for it to be a possible future lift - what size should it be for that possibility in the future?

    I agree that airwell is good for inter-terrace as it brings in light and airflow. In general, I would even say it is a selling point as most inter-terraces don't have it. Should keep it unless you really really need to reclaim the space.

    Provisioning for lift should be at least 1.5m x 1.5m space depending on type of lift.  

  8. Posted

    2 hours ago, snoozee said:

    You need special equipment to weld PPR for leaks. 
    copper won’t corrode else it wouldn’t have been used for so long in HDB flats and old developments. It’s more to costing as prices of raw copper has exceeded that of SS. of cos unless the purity of copper pipes nowadays is questionable which leads to the corrosion reason. 
     

    i suggest that if you can, go down to site often during the works and take photos of the pipes when they are installed. This is so that you have a record of where the pipes are in case you need to drill holes into the walls in future. 

    Copper does oxidize(turn green), right? May add metallic flavour to water?

  9. Posted

    50 minutes ago, snoozee said:

    are you sure it is PVC and not PPR? PVC for waste pipes and temporary water pipes yes. never heard of PVC being used for fresh water pipes although it is used as electrical wire conduits.

    my house was done with stainless steel pipes. plumber told me that copper nowadays isn't that pure so copper pipes more problematic and prone to leaks now. but maybe also because of cost as well cos copper cost is much higher than stainless steel which is why my plumber used SS instead.
    my plumber also used crimped joints for the stainless steel pipes. you can't crimp copper pipes though they can be welded.

    PPR pipes need to be joined with heat and more troublesome. my plumber was complaining about how troublesome it is to do for his other job site. my understanding for PPR is that the pipe size is bigger so more troublesome to conceal in walls. also with plastics, there will be a limited lifespan and PPR is stated with a lifespan of about 50 years.

    Sorry it should be PPR and not PVC.

    According to my contractor, the cost of PPR is almost the same as SS. It needs a much thicker wall for concealment and when pipe is punctured, It's very hard to repair, coz cannot be welded. Copper is more expensive and it will get corroded over time. He recommends SS as it is the most hardy, cost is cheaper and won't get corrosion. 

    So just wanted some 2nd opinions.

  10. Posted

    1 hour ago, snoozee said:

    even with own workers, specialist sub-contractors would need to be involved in the construction/renovation and these are the variables.

    the main difference between having an architect vs direct with a D&B firm is that you have someone else doing the project management for your as well as looking after your interests. not to mention that a proper tender can be called by the architect for you to get the best quote rather than just signing off on a quotation from a D&B firm without knowing if you are over paying for it or not.

    500-600k I would say is enough if planned properly.

    if the house's main waste pipes are already PVC ones, then whether to change them or not is up to you. if still cast iron pipes then best is change them. other things to change are the water pipes and electrical wirings. add sufficient network points for your rooms as well. parquet can be sanded down and varnished again to "renew" it.

    since you are extending the rear, you will end up needing a roof to cover the rear extension. so whether to extend your attic to cover the extension as well as to extend the main roof is up to you. 

    Hi Snoozee,

    I was offered options of stainless steel or copper or PVC for water piping. What are the pros and cons of each?

  12. Posted

    3 hours ago, snoozee said:

    not recommended to be keyless just in case of power failure. i'm using a video doorbell/intercom which can unlock the side gate via my video monitor from inside the house or using key card/fob from outside. but i still have a physical key in case of power failure. even though my system is hooked up to a UPS, battery will eventually run out after a couple of hours.

    Your side gate is separate from the main gate, right? What video intercom/doorbell system are you using? Is it wired and how has it been coping with sun and rain so far?

  14. Posted

    16 hours ago, snoozee said:

    I was planning to use Ubiquiti UniFi AP AC-PRO as when I started planning for my house, the prices from taobao was very attractive at less than $200 per unit. But when I wanted to buy it, the price had gone up to more expensive than SG price. I was going to just buy from SG when I found some HP access points from ebay. at $60 per AP after shipping, it was a very attractive price. But I didn't do my homework properly as the HP access points can't work as stand alone APs and need to be used in conjunction with a HP access controller. So in the end, I had to spend another $300 to buy the access controller from ebay. So all in all, I spent just under $600 for my home WIFI setup. The only thing "wasted" is that the original HP POE switch which I had purchased earlier for the POE APs is not used since the HP access controller comes is also a 24 port POE switch which.

    One reason I do not mind buying used enterprise grade equipment from HP is that they come with limited lifetime warranty. So in the event the equipment fails, HP is obliged to replace another piece of equipment for me FOC.

    I'm using a firewall router from Ubiquiti as well. I went with an off the shelf device rather than building my own firewall/router due to the power consumption considerations.

    I was interested in the enterprise APs as well but was concerned whether I would need the same brand controller or if I could use my 3rd party router to control them

  16. Posted

    8 hours ago, snoozee said:

    if your wireless access point has power over ethernet (POE), then you just need a cat 6 lan cable to connect it to the POE switch. the POE switch will then be connected to the router.

    if your access point don't have POE, then you need to pull another 13A socket near the AP to provide power to the AP. cat 6 cable is also needed.

    Yes, POE is a must. What brand/model of AP are you using? I've a friend who went all the way to using UBIQUITI UniFi Dream Machine Pro for his house wifi.

  18. Posted · Edited by Kellhound

    6 hours ago, snoozee said:

    don't waste money on coloured internal surface. white is good enough. easier to see if dirty also.

    I'm inclined to agree though I've read a comment that the white turns yellow over time

  19. Posted

    9 hours ago, AWS said:

    If you have managed switch with POE+ in your network, just buy the NVR without POE. This will save some cost. With all cameras connect to the switch, you can route the signal to a lan port (which also connected to the switch) in turn connected to the NVR to view all camera view.

    The Dahua NVR software UI is in English. I bought my full CCTV system locally where most contractors also buy to install for customers. Their price is also much cheaper from what you can find in Shopee or Lazada. PM for contact sharing. Warranty is covered for 1 year. There are many types of camera specs. From experience, night operation is more important than day. Any 4MP and above day operation is very clear already. The challenge is night operations. Full night color or IR kicks in under a certain LUX threshold. One has to decide carefully else night capture image will be blur.

    Hi, tried to PM you but you can't receive messages?

  20. Posted

    Same here. Kept seeing their ads on my FB feed. Price at $85pfr for kitchen cabinets is the lowest I've seen but take note that this price is for white internal surface. For coloured internal surface, there's an additional $20pfr to be added

  21. Posted

    3 hours ago, snoozee said:

    no need for any fixed domain/IP for the remove live view. I think the NVR sends it's public IP periodically to the dahua servers such that they keep a record of the NVR's current address and hence you can use the app to connect remotely. You will need to allow some ports to be open on your router/firewall though. Always set a strong password for the NVR such that they can't be accessed by anyone else using the default password.

    i bought those cameras with glass domes. felt that they look slightly better than the one you found. my NVR is only up to 6MP since my cameras are 6MP. just make sure that the NVR has more than enough POE ports for the number of cameras you need

    Do your cameras have upgradeable English (Global) firmware? I noticed that some of the Dahua cameras are actually meant for use only in China but Aliexpress sellers install a "hacked" English version of the firmware to sell overseas. They explicitly say that the firmware cannot be upgraded.

  22. Posted

    1 hour ago, snoozee said:

    Interface is quite ok. Not very complex. As I had never installed cctv before, I had problems getting the cameras to register with the recorder. But once I found the way to do it, it was very strait forward. Tedious part was having to run to and fro between cameras and monitor to check out the camera angle when installing as I didn’t configure the mobile app from the start. 
     

    there is a generic app which can be used to connect to view the cameras. There’s no connection to cloud servers and I can access the live view and recorded videos directly from the recorder on my mobile phone remotely.

     

    Any need to have fixed domain for remote live view?

    Are these the cameras and DVR you bought?

    Dahua 6mp camera.jpg

    dahua 8ch dvr.jpg

  23. Posted

    23 minutes ago, snoozee said:

    One of the top brands is Hikvision. I’m using the brand Dahua which reviews mentioned it is comparable to Hikvision but at a lower cost. 
    I bought 6Mega Pixel cameras which provides good enough image. There are 8MP or even 4K cameras now but these cost double the price of the 6MP ones.

    I would highly recommend to get those POE cameras with a POE network video recorder with at least 4TB of storage. 

    6MP is pretty good already 😀 The higher res you go, the more HDD space you need. How's the software interface for Dahua? Are you able to access live view remotely? Do you go through Dahua's server?

  24. Posted

    2 hours ago, snoozee said:

    if you want to have a integrator to do it for you, you must engage them early so that all the points can be marked out and cables pulled by your electrician later or by the integrator during the renovation. this is especially if the conduits needs to pass through walls and be hidden inside false ceilings.

    i planned the CCTV positions for my house. marked out on plan where the points should be so that the conduits can be laid to the locations and Cat 6 wires pulled through. My electrician's workers help me mount the CCTV brackets but I installed and configured the CCTVs myself so that I can adjust the camera angles to my liking.

    Get a POE system and it will save you headaches from needing to pull additional power points for the cameras. I had bought the cameras and recorder on aliexpress during the 11/11 sale

    Yes I am planning on getting POE cameras. Leaning towards Hikvision as they supposedly have better night vision (?). I also want to install them myself as it seems rather straightforward to me but just wanted to check if there are any potential complications or blind spots I'm missing.

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