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Kellhound

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Posts posted by Kellhound

  1. Posted

    37 minutes ago, snoozee said:

    i have a storeroom of about 2m by 1.6m on my mezzanine floor where the DB is also located. my fiber OTP is also located in the same room as well. I designed the electrical and networking components to have all cables terminated inside this room so that i can have all services inside this room for ease of maintenance. As the server rack is about 600mm wide, it took up about 1/3 of the storeroom space.

    for the server rack, it should be housed near where the fiber OTP is located. NLT terminated their fiber point at my meterbox and my electrician got a subcontractor to run the fiber from the meterbox to inside my storeroom.

    note that if your OTP inside the house is owned by NLT (with opennet logo), you are not allowed to relocate it as that doesn't belong to you. you will need to get NLT to relocate it for you for a fee. if the fiber is damaged, you will need to ay NLT to fix it for you. the worst case is that the whole fiber needs to be replaced and NLT may need to dig up the road to pull the new line in for you.

    What sort of cooling/ventilation do you have for this room?

  4. Posted · Edited by Kellhound

    7 hours ago, yoongf said:

    Use just 1 DB box. If **** happens, u run to just 1 place to troubleshoot. U maybe familar with troubleahooting, other family members may not.

    Use tracklights instead of 6inch led downlights. Downlights require testpen to change the driver. If not familar with testpen, each swap is a $40 handiman charge. Tracklights are just plug n play connection. E27 holders on tracklights even better.

    Cove lighting is mood lighting and can rarely be used as general lighting. Strip LED lumen output is abt 3x lower than fluorescent extra bright tubes. U will need multiple rows of strip to get the same fluorescent tube effect.

    Plan your wifi router location properly and wire up that location. Cat 7 cables makes a big difference if u are a gamer and 1ms latency is critical. Cat7 has a length limitation, so siting yr data Patch panel location is also crucial.

    When buying china stuff from Taobao, avoid the cheaper no brand stuff. NVC and OPPLE are  serious china brands with more selection than Philips. 

    If u use SP wholesale electric price plan, solar panels will never breakeven financially. 

    Car porch. .. put tracklights and light up your parked car as if its a motorshow event. Cater for some E27 holders and install those smart bulbs with candle flame features. Yr carporch can either be a disco or a campfire for your neighbour entertainment.

    Thanks for the lighting tips!

  5. Posted

    7 hours ago, snoozee said:

    for multi storey landed houses, one WIFI router will never be enough to cover all storeys. the best is to have wireless access points for every storey to provide the WIFI coverage. I have one access point for each upper storeys and two in my mezzanine to provide coverage for mezzanine and first storey.

    yes, SP wholesale price is way better than all other providers. the only "downside" is because there is no locked-in tariff, it is subjected to market (oil) prices compared to other providers which locks in the price for a fixed number of months.

    Just to share my home network set up with PBX, CCTV recorder, WIFI controller/POE switch all housed nicely inside a server rack. might be overkill but I prefer to have all the things housed nicely for easier maintenance.

    IMG_7353.jpg

    Hi Snoozee, where do you house your server rack? On which floor? I'm planning a central hub as well but still deciding where to put it.

  7. Posted

    21 hours ago, snoozee said:

    Don’t think the earth bonding item is same as lightning conductors.

    the DB box size will be determined by how the LEW designs the circuit layout and how many breakers are needed inside the box. Even if the box is not very big, you will still end up having a DB box on the wall which you can’t hide it. How often do you think your electricity will trip for you to need to reset it? If the trip is bad enough, you may still need to reset the main ELCB which could be in the main DB. So you end up needing to go to 2 places to reset an electrical trip.

    10+ data points not a lot. I have 20 points excluding POE points for cctv and telephone points as well. Basically 2 in each room with 3 in some rooms and points for wireless access points as well.

    an electrical cooker will need at least 28A if you are using a 4 burner cooker. If 2 or 3 burners, the amperage is lower. But if you install 20A, you can’t change to one cooker which needs 28A in future. Always good to have higher then lower. Even if you have a 32A isolator, you can still use it for a lower power rating cooker.

    if you can, take photos of the during renovation process so that you know where the conduits are being hidden inside the walls. This is so that you will not accidentally drill into any electrical or water pipes in future if you need to install any wall mount furnishings. 

    Good tip on taking photos of the wiring layout. 

    How was your experience with the lighting fixtures from China? My own experience is that it can be hit or miss and can be different from what is depicted in the photos.

  9. Posted

    17 hours ago, petetherock said:

    My three storey renovation electrical quote was 30k all in.

    New plugs, 3 DB, 6 isolaters, LAN points, many powerpoints... the nice thing was they didn't try to quote per item, so they were quite friendly towards adding stuff. Even took my old fans from my old place and installed in my new home.

    But after Covid costs will go up.

    By the way, what's with the trend of starting a new thread for every question... hmmm... 

    I guess there are pros and cons for lump sum vs itemized. For me, itemized allows me to do better apples to apples comparison between different quotes. It also allows me to adjust my costs/budget on a finer level. The con is you have to manage more figures and do more research into the cost of each individual item.

     

  10. Posted

    18 hours ago, snoozee said:

    Nope. Have sliding glass doors as well to close up at night, keep out the rain and when need to turn on aircon.

    sliding glass doors are 4 panels on 2 tracks and the grilles has its own frame outside. From the photo I posted, you can see the black tracks for the glass doors near the bottom just after the cement screed flooring 

    So just to confirm, your glass doors are sliding but your grilles are bifold? I'm still trying to visualize how your grilles can fold 180 degrees flat.........

  11. Posted

    Lump sum is about $40K. No need for any submissions, I think? Mine is just "renovation" as I've decided not to do anything that requires BCA/URA submission.

    There's an earth bonding line item so is that the lightning conductors you're referring to?

    Does DB box really take up so much space? I was under the impression that it's just a small box.......

    I've planned for 10+ data points for rooms and POE CCTVs

    Does induction cooker really need 32A? Hmmm....provisioning for car charger is something to consider.....

    Electrician also quoted me $300 each for 5m LED strip with driver which seems rather exorbitant based on what I can find online.

    Plumbing is about $21K which includes installation of fittings and laying of new SS pipes throughout the house.

  12. Posted

    Hi

    I received the following quote and would like feedback if they're reasonable? They seem high to me so wondering if this is the "landed premium" factor being added on or is it that landed is really that much more complex to do. For example, lighting points will add up significantly e.g. probably 60-80 points range for the whole house.

    New 13A socket installation - $140 each

    New lighting point - $80 each

    Lighting installation - $20 each

    New fan point - $80 each

    Fan installation - $60 each

    Cat 6 data point - $250 each

    New 13A outdoor socket - $250 each

    Split from 1 DB on ground floor to 1 DB on each floor (3 floors) - $8K+

  13. Posted

    12 hours ago, snoozee said:

     

    there's other grilles design to choose from. this particular one has an additional frame in between each panel for the pull handle hence adding to the bulk. also the bars in between is quite thick which isn't pleasing to the eye. of cos one man's meat is another man's poison.

    as the grilles are customised to each doorway, you can choose the materials and design as well as the swing directions. there's no fixed rule that all the grilles have to be bifold and open to one side. you can also split the grille into 2 such that 2 panels open to each side.

    if i was the house owner of the photo example, i would have asked for the grilles to be swung open the other side (left instead of right) and the entire panels can be swung 180 degrees such that all the panels are flat against the wall on the left. with current design, the grilles block the shoe cabinet when open which is bad design as the thought process wasn't done properly on the usage.

    just to share an example of my grilles, I had requested for a split 4 panels design so the lock is in the middle and each side has 2 panels. but I has requested for different swing directions for both sides. on the left side, it is the "normal" swing where the end position is at 90 degrees. but for the right side, i had opposite swing such that after opening, i can flush the 2 grilles flat to the wall instead of a 90 degrees protrusion. this will effectively remove the obstruction of having the grilles stuck at 90 degrees. but the downside of this design is that both panels need to be unlatched in order to swing out the grilles as opposed to just needing to unlock/unlatch one panel. also, by choosing thinner rods (with a steel rod insert), the grilles looks less intimidating and reduces the bulk.

    Also I have sliding doors instead of bifold doors so my opening is always limited to 50 percent as i only have 2 tracks (plus 1 frame for grilles). if you want to do bifold doors, my advise is to do one with bottom track and rollers as well. the bifold door is heavy and if just supported by top hung tracks, it may sag over time or rollers fail and eventually give you problems.

     

    image.png.989e216572d9f12fe21b4acd8e2b79c1.png

    Hi Snoozee,

    So you only have grilles for your ground floor? Which means you can't fully enclose for aircon?

  14. Posted

    11 hours ago, snoozee said:

    While Sg is relatively safe, one can’t be complacent. You heard about overseas gangs coming to Sg to break into landed houses?

    if you want more security, just install the grilles.

    Else you can also get services from security companies which will install motion sensors within the house and trigger alarms back at their HQ if there’s any break in. Downside is you need to activate and deactivate it daily else can’t work

    Just putting cctv in plain sight can act as a deterrent. But if the burglar manages to take away the recorder or destroy it, then it is as good as nothing.

    for me I just install grilles. Better to do it at the start rather than retrofit later which would be problematic.

    A pity that grilles significantly affect the overall aesthetic. The best option I've found for folding glass doors is folding grilles. Takes up double the space for the tracks and looks bulky when it's folded to the side. 

    Example here:

     

    whatsapp-image-2016-10-31-at-10-10-18-am_orig.jpeg

    whatsapp-image-2016-10-31-at-10-10-15-am_orig.jpeg

    whatsapp-image-2016-10-31-at-10-10-19-am_orig.jpeg

  16. Posted

    I've lived with extractor fans in my toilets for 10+ years. After this experience, all I can say is that I resolved to only buy homes with toilets that have windows😀

    Issues include: 

    1. The startup noise of the fan can be noisy as the fan gets older and may wake others in the room if it's an attached toilet.

    2. In my case (condo), there is a continuous air duct running from the master toilet to the common toilet and finally terminates at the kitchen yard. Sometimes, heavy cooking from the kitchen can cause smells to "backflow" from kitchen to the toilets and eventually the rooms. So be careful where your fan ducts go

    3. Mold is a big issue for poorly ventilated toilets.

  17. Posted

    11 hours ago, snoozee said:

    you can choose sliding gate track is an inverted semi-circle so that the rollers can roll on the track. then won't have the debris issue.

    bifold gates can also use same type of tracks or be trackless.

    if you want trackless sliding gate, you will need to make sure you have enough width so that there is enough space for the gate's counterweight at the end. these are cantilevered gates which come with/without a roller/wheel with no tracks.

    Hi Snoozee,

    I've been sourcing for gates, especially bifold ones as they are trackless. However, quite a few vendors discouraged me as they said that the bifold mechanism is a common point of failure. They added that there must be a reason why bifold gates are rather rare in Singapore. 

    How has your experience been with the bifold gate?

  19. Posted

    4 hours ago, snoozee said:

    Private houses no need to use premixed cement.

    what is the tile pricing range that is quoted? If quoted max $3psf tiles, then the labour and materials for tiling will be at $12psf.

    price will differ from laying marble/granite and porcelain/ceramic tiles.

    looking at my own house quotation, your $15psf inclusive of supply of tiles does not seem excessive. 

    Hi, I saw quite a few estimates online that peg tiling costs at $10-$12 psf (inclusive of labour which is valued at around $7 psf). Of course, COVID may have caused prices to rise since. Does premixed cement cost more than normal cement? What's the difference between the two?

  22. Posted

    Hi,

    I'm trying to modernise the exterior facade of a mid-90s 3 storey house (pitched roof) with the typical orange wavy clay tiles. I want to switch to gray flat tiles and remove the roof eaves at the top of 1st and 2nd floors to achieve a cleaner look. Research on the internet tends to indicate that the roof eaves prevent erosion/staining from rain. However, I noticed that most of the newer houses do not have roof eaves anymore so are they really necessary? So would like to invite comments and feedback on this.

  24. Posted

    On 2/26/2021 at 10:50 AM, IceEyez said:

    Are you in a tree conservation area? If not, then almost certainly you can remove the trees. It is unlikely you have some super mature rare tree outside along your kerb that Nparks will insist on keeping.

    Instead, as part of their conditional to allow to remove, Nparks may request for you to plant back some tree at another location. along the kerb.

    Should be not an issue if not in any TCA, but of course as always, you need to get a QP to submit to Nparks/LTA/PUB for actual approval before doing any works.

    I believe I'm just outside the central tree conservation area. The issue is that the current owner planted 4-5 trees within a 5-6m wide kerb space outside the house. Along with large potted plants, it looks a like a small jungle. Thus, I also want to declutter the area as well by removing some of the trees.

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