My rebuild journey, thus far...

[prodriver6 7]

Barely started in the process, in fact, haven't even collected my keys, so i suppose I'm probably a little kiasu compared to most.

As the journey of understanding the entire rebuild process is tedious, complicated, and till now, i would say i dont even know for sure if we are making the right choices (but this is where the fun is isnt it?)

hopefully these small little leanings we have gathered can help save you some time, i'm not sure why this forum has a tendency to not include names of vendors that folks have engaged, but i really see no harm in being transparent with whom i;'m working with - as a reader, i personally find it very irritating to keep having to PM folks and hope for their reply.

by no means am i endorsing them (considering that some of them haven't even begun work with me), just sharing who i feel can help - i will subsequently update my experiences with them.

My landsize is around 1840 so you can get context on my costing.

Here goes:

1. its almost not practical to purchase SIP/DIP/RLP before you make a 1% down-payment in today's crazy market context. By the time you figure out if your house is good to go, most likely, some one would have made an OTP. Yes, this is how mad the market is right now.

2. Links to the docs in case you need SIO/DIP and RLP. I didnt bother much with BCA as it was a rebuild, i paid $30 to BCA to search for plans, and the result came back as "no plans are found :)" no idea why, perhaps house too old (yes, even no plans you still have to pay $30 as a service for them to search):

https://www.pub.gov.sg/compliance/qualifiedpersonsportal/eservices/requestforservicesplans

https://app1.sla.gov.sg/inlis/#/

3. dont waste your time asking builders, uncles, friends, neighbors, if your house needs piling, nobody can offer you a definitive answer and everybody will give u their own version of their story, how many houses they have built and bla bla bla bla bla. besides, this is a sunken cost, you have already bought the house, and if its needed, then too bad, you just have to do it. Perform a soil test and you will have your answer. For this exercise i have engage Geospecs to do the job. Their cost is approx SGD3.7K, considered very fair.

4. Topo survey also has to be done, important for Architect to be sure on dimensions and also they need to survey the IC - for this have engaged "Lee Boon Haw" which cost around SGD1,700

5. If you are into Fengshui, do get this sorted out first as "Master" takes precedence - you can have fantastic drawings from Architect and ID, but if you Geomancer says no, you have wasted all your effort - i have engaged Way fengshui for this work, their scope consists of prebuild survey to the entire design process till house TOP. And yes, they will even ask for your Architect CAD file so their drafter can work on it. Costing was way above my expectation at a whopping SGD30K. Again, get this sorted out first cause it can be disruptive.

6. I have met at least 5- builders, the more i meet the more confused and conflicted we became. In summary, i can tell you there is almost no way to compare apples to apples, some factor in RC trench (if needed), some will tell you they will cover water tank, some exclude aircon, some whom have aircon tells you that their cost is high because they give you VrV, some even attempt to sell you the idea that they use "galvanized steel" and not coated with primer. For the uninitiated and especially most of us who are not in the construction industry, i would say forget about it, the jargons in the quote will kill you to begin with and its really very very hard to compare and normalize. Accept that there will be ambiguity and buffer sufficient $ for uncertainty. Just look out for the big ticket items, review their track records and someone whom you feel is reasonable in their pricing. Most importantly, gut feel - you must be comfortable with the builder, after all you are going to see him regularly. I'm not sure if i have made the right choice, but so far so good, i have went ahead with Three E Builder - my cost is ~SGD1M with GST (yes, do clarify carefully as some quote with GST, some dont). This cost actually means nothing much to you as the cost will vary very widely to what you want. Three E Builder made me very comfortable as he brought in Architect at a very early pre-sales stage, that gave a lot of confidence.

7. I would suggest that the person who design your house is a "REGISTERED ARCHITECT" and not a "TRAINED ARCHITECT" - they are different. Some builder design themselves inhouse and then just get an external architect to sign, nothing wrong, but just make sure the guy knows exactly what he is doing. Let me offer you an example, the Architect from Three E Builder actually highlighted 2 design violation that was proposed by 2 other builders. My architect was sure that those suggestions would be rejected by SCDF and/or BCA. Yes, the flaw would have been picked up eventually by the architect who signed against it, but imagine the time wasted.

8. I have also decided to source for my own lift supplier as my builder offer me a lift brand that i wasn't very comfortable with. He was nice enough to allow me to do this w/o any "attendance fee" (yes another jargon). I'm most likely going to go for BraunElevator Singapore. The person whom i spoke to provided a lot of confidence as he is a certified lift inspector himself. I'm still negotiating the cost with him and i will update in due course. The lift is a German brand but made in china, hence driving down the cost a bit. Lets see if this will go well after few years of operations, yet to be seen. The maintenance cost per year is fairly reasonable at about SGD1.1K. Most importantly the experience i have with him is awesome, this is one vendor that i highly recommend. 

 

Thats all folks for now. I will try and periodically update this as much as i can to share my experiences. The next 12months should be an extremely exciting time for me. Somehow reminds me of my childhood lego block and Tamiya car days to slowly see things come to fruition - wish me luck

 

Edited February 18, 2022 by prodriver6

[snoozee 97]

Interesting that BCA don’t have your old plans. My house was built around 1960 and I still managed to get the plans as the developer seemed to be a GLC at that time. 
 

I also got a 30k quote from the same fengshui company and didn’t go through with it. 
 

does the 1M include the fees for architect and structural engineer? If yes this is a very good price in today’s context. 
 

I didn’t come across Braun elevator during my search for lift vendors. make sure you confirm the specs of the lift and lift shaft fast so that the architect and PE can work in the specs to the drawings before submitting to URA and BCA

[prodriver6 7]

Yes. 1m includes architect and pe.

Yes braun lift in contact with builder already

[petetherock 13]

Nice bro

I'll suggest 

- double whatever power points you planned - trust me it's never enough..

-2 LAN points in each room

- plan for car charging and solar 32A isolater

- min of Cat 6 cabling

- fire extinguishers

- timetable for installation including Openet, landscape etc and deliveries

- wire up for home theatre first and plan for it if you are so inclined. Even if you aren't sure you'll do Atmos, wire up first..

- termite / pest control before you move in

[prodriver6 7]

Tks bro... builder says now SOP os cat7...wahaha

Oh yes... powerpoints are always a scarce... thought of having one below the dinning table but heard it wont pass TOP.

Yes. Car charging a must, was recommended to go wif three phase 100A. Cant see the ROI on solar lei... and heard solar also need regular cleaning?

[snoozee 97]

7 hours ago, prodriver6 said:

Tks bro... builder says now SOP os cat7...wahaha

Oh yes... powerpoints are always a scarce... thought of having one below the dinning table but heard it wont pass TOP.

Yes. Car charging a must, was recommended to go wif three phase 100A. Cant see the ROI on solar lei... and heard solar also need regular cleaning?

Not supposed to have power points on the floor due to concerns of short circuit from washing floor. But as long as you can hide the point from view during inspection, do it after inspection passed. 

[prodriver6 7]

Thanks for your advice @snoozee

[snoozee 97]

1 hour ago, prodriver6 said:

Thanks for your advice @snoozee

Not a lot of options for floor boxes in SG though. I bought this double socket from legrand

if you want to do it, settle on the location and floor box type first before you start doing the flooring. 

[Alkft 0]

7 hours ago, snoozee said:

Not a lot of options for floor boxes in SG though. I bought this double socket from legrand

if you want to do it, settle on the location and floor box type first before you start doing the flooring. 

Hi snoozee, is your flooring tile? 

 

[snoozee 97]

1 hour ago, Alkft said:

Hi snoozee, is your flooring tile? 

 

Marble

[shhh201 0]

I am also in the midst of building one. I was wondering if we can groupbuy items (door handles/toilet fittings/lights) together haha this way we can get it cheaper, does this make sense?

[snoozee 97]

20 minutes ago, shhh201 said:

I am also in the midst of building one. I was wondering if we can groupbuy items (door handles/toilet fittings/lights) together haha this way we can get it cheaper, does this make sense?

check with your builder if they charges a profit in attendance or not. if they do, whatever savings you may have gotten from group buy or self supply may end up going back to the builder.

for lights, you can buy online from china and have them shipped back if you have place to store them. most of the LED lights in SG are sourced from China anyway. I've seen lights which I used for my house being sold in SG at a much higher price. even the LED garden light which I bought for less than $10 is being sold for almost $80 from one online retailer.

[shhh201 0]

Thank you for the insight, I actually went to to look at the contract. Can I check, is it normal to be given only the floor plans and the detailed cost breakdown before engaging the builder(s)? The cost breakdown is quite detailed and extensive but no visuals. It tells us we can use homogeneous tiles etc, size of the tiles, vinyl flooring at this price range for staircase etc. 

[snoozee 97]

1 hour ago, shhh201 said:

Thank you for the insight, I actually went to to look at the contract. Can I check, is it normal to be given only the floor plans and the detailed cost breakdown before engaging the builder(s)? The cost breakdown is quite detailed and extensive but no visuals. It tells us we can use homogeneous tiles etc, size of the tiles, vinyl flooring at this price range for staircase etc. 

contract from D&B contactor? if yes, no visuals means the architect isn't paid enough to do 3D renderings for you.

detailed breakdown is common. normally should also specify materials to be used and how things are being done as well. eg: my architect specified what type of materials to use for my metal roof and the detailing of how the roof should be done as well. not sure if you get these details from a D&B company or not. anything my architect not familiar with will indicate as accordingly to specialist specifications and architect will work with the specialist (sourced by main con) to work out the details.

the contract will indicate the max allowed price range for the flooring according to your selection. anything more than the price range means you need to top up. eg: $3psf for homogenous tiles. but if you see something from italy or spain which you like and costs $5 psf, you need to top up the amount. $3psf most likely limits you to selecting basic tiles from china or malaysia.

[Kellhound 4]

On 5/17/2021 at 4:41 PM, shhh201 said:

I am also in the midst of building one. I was wondering if we can groupbuy items (door handles/toilet fittings/lights) together haha this way we can get it cheaper, does this make sense?

I'm also renovating and on the lookout for toilet fittings and lights. Don't mind groupbuy if it's not too much trouble. I'm supposed to provide my own fittings anyway so no issue with attendance charge