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peachpeach

is the cost reasonable

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22 hours ago, snoozee said:

the "half above" and "half below" means that the building height is taken from the ground level and the part where the basement is exposed above ground is taken into consideration in the overall building height.

excavate 1.5m for basement and another 1.5m for foundation equals 3m don't need ERSS? taking on quite a bit of risk even though BCA allows some leeway on ERSS requirements. BCA officers go around checking on sites every day and any excavation done beyond what is allowed will mean stop work order being imposed.

excavated earth can only do top up of up to 1m. anything more than that means need to do permanent retaining wall already which means additional cost.

again, URA will approve on case by case basis. what can be done last time doesn't mean now can be done as building regulations had changed over the last few years.

Just to clarify, there is no risk involved as the perimeter of the excavated portion will have a 45 degree slope at front, side & rear. As for shoring by using steel sheet (with the project PE calculation / certification) is done on the party wall which is shared with the neighbor.

In my case, I deliberately position the wall of the basement closest to the party wall to be 3 meters away in my design. Hence reduce the amount of shoring a little.

On top of the above, I had arrange for de-watering pump  with filtration discharge system. This is monitored round the clock by my 3 workers on rotation.

As a licensed builder with my name as the registered person for my company, I have also a personal liabilities in the job. This simply means I will be held liable by the government for the building for the duration of the building's life span or my life, whichever is shorter. Hence, I will, of course, update myself with latest regulations by the authorities (URA, BCA, MOM, etc). During the course of my project, there were random inspection by the authorities with no problem at all.

In fact, I've receive a casual comment from an officer that I overdid what is required by the authority. Better to be safe than sorry & I can sleep better with no worry.

 

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20 hours ago, snoozee said:

Just want to highlight the "myth" of NO GST

GST is chargable by any companies whose turn over is more than 1M in a year. this is by law

if a builder tells you that he don't charge GST, it doesn't mean that you don't pay GST for the job. it is just that you do not see the GST component in the invoice from the builder since the builder can't charge you GST as he can't claim GST back from IRAS.

in case one doesn't know how GST works

GST registered companies need to charge customers GST for all goods and services provided. but they can also get GST refund from all goods and services purchased from their suppliers and this is contra off in the quarterly GST submission to IRAS.

for example, a GST registered contractor charges you $10K for installing say aircon. so you will need to pay $10K plus GST which in today's context equals an amount of $10.7K to the contractor. But if the contractor purchases the aircon equipment at $9K from his GST registered supplier, the contractor would have paid $9630 to the supplier. the contractor would then need to pay IRAS $70 for the GST difference since he had charged you $700 in GST but he had paid his supplier $630 in GST. so his profit from this is $1k.

now if a contractor is not GST registered, he would still need to pay $9630 to the same aircon supplier for the aircon equipment. so in order to maintain his same $1k profit, he would need to charge you at $10630 for the aircon supply and install. if the contractor charges you $10k for the supply and install, this would mean that his profit is now only $370.

so as one can see, the no GST story is a "myth" in the construction industry as one would end up paying GST either directly or indirectly.

You are right. This simply means I earn less as there are no "reimbursement" on the GST I've paid to supplier / sub-contractor.

I was involved from the start (ie: no architect, no plans), to planning (I'm the draft person preparing & physically drawing the plans at no cost to owner), to submission arrangement, to executing the job, getting all permits, insurance, etc & finally to completion all by myself.

Many person says I must be nuts doing everything with such low profit but I genuinely love to do design, drafting, construction, etc. This the only way I can compete with the big boys.

I like to clarify I do all drafting but I do engage an architect to do the checking of my drafted plans, endorsement & submission. This is also another way to save cost for the owner. As for the Professional Engineer, he is engage for every aspect throughout the job as required by law.

 

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On 1/2/2020 at 10:07 AM, snoozee said:

 

excavated earth can only do top up of up to 1m. anything more than that means need to do permanent retaining wall already which means additional cost.

 

I forgot to clarify on this as mention by snoozee.

During the submission, we were instructed by authorities & drainage department that, since the owner decide to demolish & rebuild, the ground level of the new house is to be raise about 1.5 meter. Hence, the "Half Above" basement wall double as retaining wall & no additional cost is required.

The initial day 1 idea of the owner is to have a basement. So no issue.

By this method, the owner save on extensive shoring, disposal of excavated earth, & importing of earth for raising the ground. this alone save approx #100K.

Everything was done (including permit & documentation) according to authorities requirement.

 

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