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hi Chaorui

read some of your posts and you have a lot of knowledge. Dont mind advise me how much is your electrical going by per indoor lighting and power point, CAT point, 100A distribution box. Any info on electrical is useful cos we are in the process of dealing with the electrical costs

Hi twothumbs,

Already briefly replied to your above query in your other thread on air-con. You may want to design and plan your electrical (eg. power supply, broadband, telephone, air-con, solar power etc..), water works (eg water heating system, piping, water points, water pump, water tank, etc...) and sewage systems together. I visited many places to review their M&E systems, talk to their foremen, engineers at site, false ceiling contractor, water-heater installers, etc... before I finalised my own M&E plans with my contractor's engineer when I rebuilt my humble abode.

For this case, it is not so useful to speak with homeowners because, I feel that many homeowners tend to be quite ignorant of these things. I was also guilty of being extremely ignorant when I first started thinking of rebuilding my place. Very few homeowners study into this area carefully as they are mostly pre-occupied more with interior design and decor.

 

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Join 46,923 satisfied homeowners who used renotalk quotation service to find interior designers. Get an estimated quotation

Dear Chao Rui,

I read about your thread and you gave very valuable input & advice on 18th Oct which is sometime back. It gave insightful glimpse of what to expect from very ignorant home owner like myself what to look out for and what to think about honestly. I believed the forumners very appreciate alot of you guys sharing when we intend to plan for A&A or complete rebuild.

Recently bought a 20+ years singel intermediate terrace of 2006ft house and intend to demolish & complete rebuild next year. Did some findings & flipped through a couple of articles and reviews on local architect & builder.

More recently, make an initial call to a quite "famous & popular" builder cum architect all in 1 ( if not wrong) to enquire about rough ballpark quote for complete rebuild cost so to get the sums ready. I was offered able to rebuild to 4500 ~ 5000ft 3.5 storey all depends for rough $850 ~ 900K all depending what I want / compromise / agreed.

Can good soul experienced proud house owner recommend a good /reliable /trustworthy architect or builder that you guys can refer or PM me??

I just need a comparison on cost, workmanship, design ideas, experiences, reliability, etc to shortlist really good and trustworthy builders as dont like to run around like headless chickens. I also equally understand bang for bucks and need all of your guidance / references to possibly guide.

Appreciate all of your help.

 

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Hello,

I bought an inter-terrace recently and will be carrying out A&A works to the unit. My agent recommended us to B&E Group (http://www.begroup.com.sg/).

Any of you have had positive experience with B&E?

The initial quote of $450k for A&A seemed high.

was recommended to them by propnex while scouting for a property. I met them once, spent an hour briefing them what I want. I have to chase many times before I get a meeting. The gave me a presentation which wowed me. I went to see their project but not impressed by their quality. I chased again for another month for quote and finally the boss (quite young guy) called back and said they are very busy with a Sentosa tender. I leave you to evaluate if they are good.

 

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was recommended to them by propnex while scouting for a property. I met them once, spent an hour briefing them what I want. I have to chase many times before I get a meeting. The gave me a presentation which wowed me. I went to see their project but not impressed by their quality. I chased again for another month for quote and finally the boss (quite young guy) called back and said they are very busy with a Sentosa tender. I leave you to evaluate if they are good.

by the way, the wowed me with very arty art works... but guess what, none of the 1 hour briefing was taken in. Basically all my asks were not taken in. it seems like they just took a standard model and modify it.

 

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by the way, the wowed me with very arty art works... but guess what, none of the 1 hour briefing was taken in. Basically all my asks were not taken in. it seems like they just took a standard model and modify it.

In my opinion, alot of such tie up between "recommended" builder & property firm such as ERA..Propnex who refer clients and then get a cut of their commission thru agent. ( I maybe wrong)

Property agent own interests who do not have the experiences from building houses and prefer to get hefty comm is definately no-no for me.

For such, I will not get any reference from property agent on builders / architects and prefer to source and do own research or seek opinion from fellow forumners basis their experiences and reference.

Above just my views....

 

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In considering a builder, try to find one with a tried and tested record. Last year, I was so impressed with the builder that was doing up my neighbour's house. Really diligent and completed his renovations on time. Nice finishings too. But within a few months of moving in, problems kept cropping up--leaking air cons, problematic windows, cracked walls, noisy water pump etc. So it is not only the builder's newly completed houses that you should view but also those that have been built for quite some time.

 

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Actually many water pump can be quite noisy. To shut the noise substantially, homeowners can dedicate a sound proof room to house it, though it is not space efficient. For windows installation, there are techniques that reduce the risk of leakage that the contractor may not be very cognizant of as they tend ot outsource the work to the aluminium window sub contractor. The same goes for fixing the air-con piping system. There is a way to work around these problems and this should preferably form part of the M&E plan.

On the issue of cracked walls, it is quite inevitable that the surface walls will crack after about 6 months to a year. There are pre construction solutions in terms of material used and process taken to reduce cracks. All of this add to the cost and many first time house developers are not quite aware. If the materials and processes are respectable, there will be very few cracks and most can be nicely covered up without much problem through another coat of paint. :D

 

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if you need a construction loan, i strongly recommend that you use a proper architec or contructors. try not to go for those turn keys id/design firms.

as during disbursement, we need architects certification for each type of disbursement. if you use a id firm, they are not willing to provide as that will reveal their mark up differences. this will jam up the whole process and become a nightmare for you.

no offence to id firms but this is what i wish to share.

btw, always bargin hard with the contractor. cuase i know of cases when mark up differences are paid to the referrer which at times may be the architec. can be 20 to 30% of total cost.

didnot mean to break ppl rice bowl but to be share of what i know.

 

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I have a 2 storey semi-d that sits on 4000sqft land and the built-in is about 3000sqft with 4 bedrooms on 2nd storey.

As there are only 4 members in my family there was no need for more space, extension. The house went through an A&A with wiring and plumbing redone in 2001. The recent reconsuruction of my neighbour (adjacent house) to 3.5 storey caused me to look into remodelling my house such that it does not look odd beside a 3.5 storey adjacenting house.

I am considering adding either another level or to go with just an artic consisting of 2 bedrooms (each with attached bath) above existing rooms on 2nd storey within the new roof structure.

As I am at the early phase of planning. I have the following question on cost:

1 What would be the consuruction cost for a space of 1000sqft for artic and new roof w/o architect, PE & QS cost? Someone quoted me SGD$200 per sqft,...realistic?

2 Will I be looking at SGS$70k for architect cost and additional SGD$20k for PE & QS cost?

 

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2 storey to 3.5, need to determine if the existing foundation works can support the additional load.

If additional piling works required.. the cost will not be so low.

 

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