leechaorui

You are right that I could design and build away from the sewage line. It would mean that the house would be much smaller, probably by about more than half its potential is loss. The other good thing about building a not so big house is to have a bigger backyard garden and a smaller property tax bill. Do you know how is property tax computed and what is the expected property tax for a built up GFA of about 6,000 sqft in Seletar Estate?

For trench, what are the associated cost related to submission, testing/ inspection, besides the actual construction cost? One contractor quoted me $100,000 for building the trench which is probably about 20m long that cut across the width of my house. Seems very costly. What is the difference between steel construction vs traditional construction methods? Is steel construction more prone to corrosion and rust, less stable and unable to take higher weight loading compared to traditional methods?

How do you build on footing if there is a sewage line that cut across your house? Do you know how much does it cost to do a trench and what are the limitations of building above the trench?

Thanks. The length of my house is about 43m and I am about 20m away from my neighbour's house. I heard that the soil test results can be used if it is within 50m radius. I have just started on soil test and will take a few more days to complete. Will be starting on topography survey in early November. All these works have been commisioned last week.

For the higher floor balcony fences, do you use galvanised steel or some other materials? Prefer not to use glass as it is unfriendly to birds which may crashed onto the glass and perish. There are lots of song birds that come to my garden and I would like to make it a safe environment for them. For stairways guard, do you use grills or glass? Both seems like quite a lot of work to clean and glass got the added risk of breakage. What other options are available For home lift, which is a prefered brand. Lift should be able to take at least 4 pax and wheelchair accessible. What the things to know when buying and installing a lift including lift shaft?

Will take note of the tile breakage issues on the first floor. I am quite reluctant to install marble because marble tend to soak up coffee/tea resulting in a stain. Is there any other type of tile that is durable and do not soak up liquid to cause staining? Was initally thinking of installing a glass lift. Probably concrete is still a better option as it would be a lot more durable. The standard Master bedrooms should have small fridges. I think should be ok to bring up to the rooms. For the Master bedroom at the attic, it wil be about 1200sqft. For that, I am thinking of installing a sauna room in addition to the facilities of the normal standard room. Is 60A power sufficient or I need 100A power? Will probably need to have a car charger in the backyard of the house and a charger at the front car pouch area. Not sure if there are other areas that need high electricity consumption points. What other things do you think should be installed or included in the house design.

Thanks for the tip to get early design clearance for HS. I am planning to use about 25% of the land to site the house building. Will leave a bigger space at the backyard for gardening area, car parking or a future swimming pool etc.. You triggered me to think about fire safety aspect. Do you think it is better to site the lift away from the stairways or should they be sited next to each other? Thinking about potential fire impacting the lift and people would have to use the stairs to get out. For GFA area of about 6000sqft for a small family, with mostly outdoor garden space, do you think it is necessary to install central airconditioner unit to serve all areas or each room should be fitted with its standalone airconditioner? What are the pros and cons? To design a house that is sustainable and fairly maintenance free, what other considerations should one include into the design? Thinking of designing the house as a wheelchair friendly smart home and one that hardly need maintenance such as installing micro cement to make the walls paint free, use of homogeneous tiles and man made wood instead of natural wood and stones (except for mandatory maintainence such as lift servicing and probably yearly termite treatment.) Is it good to design the ensuite rooms to be sufficiently self containing such as installing a pantry, a small living cum dining area, walk-in wardrobe, king size bed area, area for zoom or remote work, a washing area for clothes, etc.. in the bedroom? Got the idea from Presidential Suite bedrooms. Not sure if 700sqft inclusive of balcony space for each standard room is enough.

Does the QP submit the whole house design for clearance or the QP submit in parts such as HS and other part of the house design in separate tranches to URA/BCA? For the house design, is it normal to leave a bigger setback at the side and the back of the house so that cars could be driven to the backyard of the house for parking there? Understand that it is common for people to park their cars in the front car pouch of a landed house. What is an appropriate side setback and backyard setback? The house is about 14.1m in width at its narrowest point.

If Solar aircon can work during the day, it could be activated in the day when it is hot. Thinking of putting my elderly in laws and dad who have eczema at home during the day and the solar aircon can cool the living room a bit so that it is not too warm. When it is warm, they could have eczema outbreak. In the evening when the weather is cooler, they can just use the fan. I am thinking of installing the regular electricity powered aircon which can be used on warm nights and a solar aircon + fan that can operate during the day for their comfort.

Thanks snooze. Would like to check on the following questions: 1. Is there a land betterment or development charge to build a detached house from a semi detached house? 2. Is the balcony spaces created considered as part of GFA by BCA/URA? 3. Can the water tank and pump be placed on top of the home shelter? Can the home shelter be placed at the wet kitchen area? The height for first floor is expected to be about 4.3m.

Thanks. $6k to $7K for both works is about the market price.

Thank you snooze. My land is rectangular in shape. I thought that soil test is a standard test of boring 2 holes, front and back and this report is good enough for almost all kinds of design for landed house.

Thanks Esther. I am exploring to rebuild my house now.

Does anyone know how much it cost to do the pre construction soil test and topography survey fee to plot out the exact perimeter of the house?

Could the solar panels be used for solar airconditioning in the house?

Beautiful house. Mostly tile up and can avoid a lot of the painting works

Have no big need for extra space. To rebuild, will need to take up a mortgage loan. Not sure if this would be a forever home. Not intended for flipping or rental

Quite conflicted on whether to rebuild a leasehold 999 years, rectangular old semi detached two storey house of more than 6,000 sqft land with 14m frontage and about 42m depth. Currently, the house is sited on a small land plot with the majority of the land mainly grass field and shrubs/ trees. The house is painted black and white and resembles a black and white colonial house with tall privacy hedge at the front that blocks prying eyes and noise. The sideyard of the house is wide enough to drive a lorry from the frontyard to the backyard and do a U turn or just park the vehicle there. The morning air is very fresh as there is much vegetation in front and at the backyard field. Due to the abundant vegetation, the temperature within the house is mostly quite cooling with a fan and hardly need air-condition unless many guests are on site. The neighbouring house behind also planted a lot of tall trees and this makes the place a mini oasis for song birds, hornbills, parrots, humming birds, puteh, zebra dovers., spotted doves and waterhens to visit. The house is located away from the main road and the houses along both sides of the street are mostly detached and semi-detached houses. Therefore, the road for parking outside the house is not congested like those areas where rows after rows of terrace houses are located. However, this is starting to change as the neighbours who sell their house, often got the land sub-divided to build a pair of small semi-detached and those with wider frontage could potentially build 3 terrace houses in a row and this may make the road a lot more congested in future. The house has 3 bedrooms, 2 toilets, good size living/ dining area and a good size outdoor kitchen cum washing machine area and storage area. It is sufficient for 3 occupants to live in this house with a spare room. House was bought only 2.5 years ago and has been fully paid. A $120K simple renovation was done after the purchase of the house to trim the tall trees behind and at the side of the house, did termite treatment, repainted the place, refurhished the two toilets, installed new wardrobe, change the roof of the kitchen and refurbished the kitchen, installed new airconditioners for the whole house including living/dining room and changed the flooring of the bedroom to vinly flooring. The interior of the house is not spacious and is estimated to be about 1,700sqft for the two storey added together. Hence, the house is probably sited on about less than 1,000sqft out of more than 6,000 sqft of the land. As the house is old and small, the property tax imposed is quite modest. The current planning guidelines of rebuilding the house is based on 15.5m height. Typically, the house can be built up to 3 storey with attic. The soil test conducted by an opposite street neighbour confirmed that there is no need to do piling even when erecting a 3.5 storey house. According to the engineer, the house is located on a hill and the ground is sufficiently compacted and hard. Do share your views on the pros and cons of redeveloping the house given the small family size staying in the house which is currently a bit cramp but manageable. If the house is redeveloped, should the house be (1) maximised to the limit of the plot ratio of a semi-detached house? (2) build into a detached house from the current semi-detached house with maximum optimisation or sub-optimisation? (3) pay development tax to sub-divide the house into a smaller pair of semi-detached house?

Hi Snooze, for a 3.5 storey building that maximise the height permissible by building control authority, does it mean that the attic floor cannot be served by lift, given that there is an overhead requirement of between 3.4m? How much floor space is required to be set aside for the development of the lift (assuming the lift size mirrors those of HDB flats).

Not sure why the owner is reluctant to provide you with the floor plan. I think it is not all landed house owners are anal. Hope that you have taken over the house and can now renovate to your liking. Agree with you that reconstruction cost a lot now, in the millions. Do share with us pictures of your new place and how you have transformed it.

Yes, for easier maintenance, you need to have an access panel near it. I installed a casette aircon and got the contractor to install an access panel next to it.

If you have a bit more of height space, you can construct an extension upwards (like a small house sitting on the roof) and has a bigger piece of glass cover over the perimeter of the extension. In this way, you should not have an issue with water seepage. You can pm me and I can draw a simple picture for you to help with visualisation of how it looks.

Certainly the owner of the house has spent more on rebuilding given that piling can be expensive especially when micro piling is used. Some engineers have opined that Singapore's construction safety standard is very high and for most small landed properties construction, piling is not really needed. However, with the high engineering standards, many of these cases that do not require piling also end up with piling being used, with likely even higher safety requirements. The piling cost in the 1990s shouldn't be too high and if the owner wishes to charge a bit of premium in the selling price for having used piling to construct his house, I feel it should be accepable.

Hi Snoozee, followed your navigation to URA website. There is nothing on Road Reserve. Got the following info. GROSS PLOT RATIO (GPR) GPR of landed houses is resultant of the allowable building envelope BUILDING HEIGHT CONTROL Maximum 3 storey

Hi Snoozee, I am not sure of plot ratio. So far, I noticed that the houses surrounding me could build to 3.5 storey. I doubt that my house would be worth $10m. That is a lot of money. I can see your logic that even with rebuilding cost sunk in, the value of the house can still appreciate further and more than the construction cost. Thank you for your sharing.