yuansong78

From your list of 6 options, I only have encounter with Nic and Wes. I find that they are forthcoming in their relationship with the client and gives reasonable quotes. Has a good design team. Not too sure about their construction team and project management team though. Just my 2 cents worth. My humble opinion is that no one would be more interested in your own house than you. If you are about to fully delegate the responsibility to an architect and or builder and let them run on their own, then you might be in for a surprise when the product is delivered at the end of the day. I have seen houses built by architects that are mediocal. Some are excellent. There are also houses built by interior designers that are excellent as well. It is worth putting in the time. A really fulfilling experience for me.

Interesting. I was just replying another thread on this topic. Yes, in older estates, sewage lines actually run about 3m or so below the surface of the ground. Therefore, before purchasing a house, it is worth getting the Sewage/Drainage Interpretation Plan (SIP/DIP) from NEA to understand if there are any sewage line running below the land. Cost $40 when I bought it a year ago. Can be purchased from the NEA website. This will give you the exact location of sewage pipe and the manhole locations. It can save you a lot of money when it come to doing A&A on house without these sewage issues. If you are to construct over these sewage lines, BCA will require you to build a Reinforced Concrete (RC) trench to protect the sewage pipe before you can construct anything over it. This easily cost about $50k thereabout. Other things like pre and post construction inspection would also have to be done and cost about $5k. Also, if you choose not to build the RC trench, BCA will not allow you to do any construction within several metres from the sewage pipe. That will limit your land use quite significantly. Bottomline. do your homework before you get a house. haha.

If it is still not too late, one thing i have learnt before getting a house is that we should purchase the Sewage/Drainage Interpretation Plan (SIP / DIP) from the NEA website, lest you realise that a sewerage line actually cut through below your house and blow your A&A or rebuilding plan out of proportion. If you are serious about getting that house you are looking at, it is worth the $40 getting the SIP/DIP from NEA. From your description, adding another level is not so straight forward as playing lego. One more level means the structure below it will have to be able to sustain the weight of the additional level. Off-hand, I would think that it would warrant a rebuilding of some part of the house. New foundations would definitely be required. If the house deserves you going through that effort of rebuilding or reconstruction, then prepare yourself for a fulfilling journey or building your own house

Hi, You should manage your expectation a little. 200k is not going to be sufficient for the scope of work that you require. Staircase are structures and structural works are not simple. Same goes to extension works. Generally, A&A stipulates no more than 50% change in Gross Floor Area and overall facade. if you intend to do more than that, it will be a reconstruction or even rebuild, where setback requirements will be imposed on you. Different companies can provide you with different quotes as they might be good in certain areas and not others. For example, some are good in interior design and architectural design while others might focus a little on design but is very familiar with construction project management and will be able to manage your project really well. Do get sensing from the various builders and talk to them to understand where they are coming from and you will get a better idea of how you can match your expectations with what the builders can do for you. Then you can manage your budget accordingly. If you have not already done so, you can try those that I have approached below. All have their pros and cons. Do check them out if you are interested. 1. Eurobuilders 2. Nic n Wes 3. KLW builders 4. The carpenter's workshop

From your description, a 300k budget sounds too low for a new Annex and some A&A work on the original house. You might need to manage your expectation. you can try the list of builders that I have approached or you can PM me for it if you are interested.

Depending on the scale of work that you require, the people that you need to engage can be significantly different. My humble opinion and an important lesson that i have learnt is that no one is more interested in your own house than yourself. So you really need to understand your requirements and then source for the right people to do your job. I feel that for A&A, an architect might be an overkill. I have approached the following before: 1. Eurobuilders 2. Nic n Wes 3. KLW builders 4. The carpenter's workshop 5. Mint studio They all have their pros and cons and you can talk to them about the job you have in mind and perhaps bounce off some ideas from them too. Good thing about small builders is that they generally have a little design capability. It can help you crystalise your ideas and requirements further so you know exactly what you need before you take the step of faith.

I have gotten in touch with the following: 1. Eurobuilders 2. Nic n Wes 3. KLW builders 4. The carpenter's workshop 5. Mint studio They are not big companies and they all have their pros and cons. Might suit your requirements. You can look up their contacts on the web. It will be good to talk to people and share ideas and to also understand some technical aspects of the ideas that you have.

We have also talked to Euro builder before. They gave a reasonable quote partly because they are not really into design. They only have a junior designer/draftsman doing the so called design. Not fantastic. They are more into the construction planning and execution part. You will need a good designer or architect for help you with the design part of it if you engage Euro as your builder. Thats my opinion.

We have not found our builder yet. We have been meeting prospective builders and architects and talking through our requirements with them. Depending on the scale of A&A that you wish to do, perhaps you should do the same too. From the scale of your work, it might not require a builder after all. Just talk to some builders and they would be most glad to provide you more details and also a quotation if required. Hope this helps.

Not sure how construction loan works though. Will go do some research and ask our banker about it as well and see how things turn out. But the idea of not paying a huge lump sum upfront for the construction works is really attractive. Cash is king. No point paying so much in one go.

There is also an interesting idea that was presented to us in relation to the financing of the A&A works. It was said that we could factor the cost of the work via the housing loan that we are currently financing. Since we are going to increase the gross floor area (GFA) and also refurbishing the remaining of the house, the valuation of the house would almost certainly increase given the scale of works to be done. Therefore, we were told that we could do a re-valuation and hence factor this cost into our existing housing loan and hence be able to pay the cost of works via the monthly loan payment. Has anyone actually done this before? Any comments?

Most of the quotes given were on the high 300k side almost towards the near 400k or around there in fact, if we were to add in all the other things like carpentry works, aircon, electrical works, sanitary accessories. Also, if we were to include furnishings and landscaping, the cost would add on another sum. All in all, we are looking at about 400k. We are also more conservative on the timeline after speaking to more of these people and we thought 12 mths would be a better estimate too. Thanks to the good sharing here. Don't want to end up with lousy workmanship due to the need to rush. Well, lets see how things unfolds.

Things seem to be moving. Got our structural plans from BCA, still waiting for our SIP/DIP from NEA, also waiting for the quotations from some of the builders, and at the same time looking forward to seeing the designs from the designers too. So far, most of them have given a broad quotation of about 300k and 6mth timeline. So far so good.

I have got several options here for the moment: 1. Eurobuilders 2. Nic n Wes 3. KLW builders 4. The carpenter's workshop 5. Mint studio Anyone has any comments on any of the above? Any experiences with them if any? Do PM me if there is. Thank you so much.

We are thinking that too. perhaps we can keep the marble flooring and just deal with the rest. But not sure if it would be affected as the course of A&A works go on. Better to factor it in upfront rather than having to deal with it as additional cost along the way.

Does the surveyor do calculation for the GFA as well? Any recommended surveyors? I did some search and made some calls and they charge a range of 1800-2000 for a survey service. Reasonable a price? Or does it not matter at all in the light of the entire A&A works? Ha.

Hey powder blue, Thanks. We estimated 6 mth from the actual start of the A&A works til its completion. Not sure if that is too optimistic an estimate though. At this point in time, we have only exercised our option recently and will only get our keys in June. So we are taking this period of time to source for reliable builders, architects or engineers whichever is the appropriate persons to help with our requirements. All in all, we plan to move in Dec. haha. wishful thinking? From your experience, it seems like getting approval from the authorities is pretty tricky an issue. perhaps we have to speed things up a little and to firm up on what exactly we want to do. Have our own design and plans in mind at least? Also, I understand from friends that for A&A works, we would also be required to start off with getting a surveyor to get the exact measurements of the house done up so that the designers (be it an architect or and engineer) can get a more accurate sensing of the setback distances and to incorporate the other detailed structural elements into their design. Would the drawings from BCA suffice? or do we really need the surveyor to get the exact measurements? What these surveyors produce besides the floorplan? Do they test the soil as well?

Thanks for the prompt reply, Kardtoon. I did a rough calculation. The current GFA is about 1745 sf. We have a good idea of what we want to do and I did some calculations of the new GFA, which turned out to be about 2456 sf (which is less than 50% increase in the GFA). So I suppose A&A is an option for us. That being said, a good idea would be to max out the increase in GFA to 50% if we want to do A&A right? Of course, keeping budget and timeline in mind, we intend to spend about 200k if possible and we have 6 mths. Does it sound like a reasonable expectation? I think we have a gut feel that we would be going for A&A. Our issue here is that we are not sure of the appropriate people who can provide us with the most optimal solution in terms of space organisation and design. I thought our requirements are pretty straight forward - At level 1, a good size granny's room (ensuite), a maid's room, a storeroom, a common toilet + at level 2, 4 good sized rooms (ensuite). Of course master bedroom got to be the largest compared to the other rooms right? make sense?

Dear renovation experts, I am planning for some major renovation works at my newly bought 2-storey inter-terrace. Currently, at level 1, there is a car porch (park 1 car), small garden, living area, dining area, a small dry kitchen, a store room, 1 common toilet and a spacious backyard. At level 2, there are 3 bedrooms (1 ensuite) and a common toilet. We are thinking of doing some extension at level 1 into the backyard area to include a granny's room (ensuite) and a maid's room. We are also thinking of removing the garden to allow parking for a 2nd car. At level 2, we are thinking of doing some extension at level 2 to form 4 bedrooms (all ensuite). Also, other things like new aircon system, new windows and sliding doors or wooden doors, new floor tiles, parquet flooring, toilet accessories, etc, are also required. For such a scale of renovation, should I be looking for a builder? an architect? or a civil engineer? or are they all one and the same? Any recommendations? contacts? Please do feel free to reply or PM me. Much appreciated. Thanks.

Hi, able to PM Kenneth and/or Steven contact number? Thanks a mil!