jumbopanther

Hi your black colour counter top tile is for wet kitchen top right? What about the dry kitchen top? What do you plan to use?

Last week, there was a rain, some dampness were observed at the interface between rainwater downpipe and the existing gutter, so contractor quickly rectify. There was a heavy downpour again this afternoon, deliberately went down to site to check the rainwater pipe again as well as other roof + ceiling areas, to make sure there are no signs of leakage, thank goodness, so far no water seepage sign. Good to check on your house during a heavy rain. Also personally climb up above the false ceiling to observe, all dry, good. It is important if you have high ceiling, to allow for an access panel (600 x 600) for inspection purpose, otherwise, next time got to cut false ceiling and re-patch back. With an access panel, the false ceiling contractr will install additional aluminium support and do a standard cut-out panel design to easy push up and open, and can put back easily. No damage to ceiling. When access panel in close position

Electrician to check

Checked and realised my existing lightning protection tape was badly deterioriated and it had no more connectivity throughout, so for safety sake, decided to remove them and install new lightning protection tape for my new roof all the way down and earth to the ground, front and back, now can sleep in peace. Look again at the quality of the new German roof tile.

Hi, I have just pm a reply to you.

Your ID is right if he is referring to asbestos roof. Some old houses still used roof with asbestos insulation, and I understand that asbestos has already been banned in Singapore because prolong inhalation of asbestos fibre can cause cancer. Therefore, these old roofing have to be discarded properly. My advice, if your hse has asbestos roof, try not to be around when they are being dismantled and disposed.

Not all plumber provides, good for you if your plumber does.

My house A&A has not reached sanitary wares installation yet, but i thought just give another 'advice' in case some forumners may want to consider while doing their renovation now: I had specified installing 'mini ball-valves" for my water outlet points, eg wash basin tap, sink tap, etc. This is good practice so that in future, when there is any replacement of taps, or leaky taps etc, while waiting for repair or replacement, you can isolate this particular tap by closing the mini ball-valves and stop the leaks immediately, while the rest of the house water points can still be used and function as normal, not necessary to shut off the main gate valve at the meter for repair works. Eg of how a mini-ball valve looks (its not expensive yet useful for long term):

So many items for only $1000, that's a good deal.

It depends on user, some user use it to wash 'ahem', some use it for washing toilet in general, some use it for both purpose, like me. As I said no right and no wrong, depends on user preference, just that the owner or user need to be aware and not caught by surprise. I have heared of cases that owner only knows the bib tap is not located at their preferred side only when the bib tap is installed. By then too late already, tiles already up. To hack and change, cost time and $.

Nope, I am not a contractor.

Hi, just kaypoh a bit, from the photo, notice you have a bib tap beside the WC right? If you are sitting on the WC, the bib tap appears to be on your left side. You are aware, are't you? Some people prefer to be on the right side, some on the left, some place it on the right because they are right-hander.....depends on your own preference. No right no wrong. Whatever it is, if need to change any conceal works, do it before the contractor conceals the pipe with cement plaster and tiles. Otherwise, there will be abortive works.

That's good.

Don't mention, my pleasure to offer 'little' advice.

Hi Suyun, reason I asked whether you are doing A&A or reno is for you to note: for A&A, you usually have a PE to advise you, but for renovation, no PE, so in the course of renovation, have to remind the contractors to be careful not to hack any columns or beams without a PE's approval. It's for your own safety to have a 'safe' house.

For renovation, most of the pipes are concealed within the brickwall, and then after plastered over. So in your contract, you may want to specify that the contractors provide the 'as-built' drawings upon completion, this means giving drawings that show exactly where the electrical pipes, water pipes, sanitary pipes etc are laid and their dimension. Why is this necessary? These drawings will be useful especially when doing fitting out works, because carpenter or future reno workers can refer to them and identify their exact location so that they will not accidentally drilled into them. For me, I do it myself, before plastering,took photos of these concealed works, also measure their distances from floor or walls, from other pipes and sketch them down. Now I know exactly where all my services are routed. Example: Before plastering, see all the pipes laid within the brickwall, water pipes, electrical wirings, drain pipes: After plastering, you can't see the concealed pipes but they are hidden inside.

Hi, are you doing as A&A or renovation? Do you have a Architect or Structural PE on the job?

wow, that's a really big surprise visitor.

Actually, IC is Inspection Chamber. This is a ground pit where all the sanitary pipes from the toilets and kitchen will discharge the waste to by gravity. For landed properties, there is usually one of these located at the backyard, from this IC, it is connected to a minor sewer (a bigger pipe line) that usually runs outside and parallel to the backyard boundary, where all the ICs for individual houses connect to.

Congrats to your moving in! Enjoy your blessings! Nice kitchen. Bro, notice under the long table, there appear to be another seperate laminated support located away from the main sink support. When you sit, will your leg accidentally 'hit' this support?

Perhaps this angle of the sanitary pipes box-up will be clearer:

OK, since you are interested (impressive ladies), I will continue to blog and share the knowledge I learn. If you are doing renovation and intend to change the toilet layout on the 2nd floor and above, try to position the WC, the floor trap and shower floor waste properly so that when these pipes connect to each other, they can be in-line and near to the wall. Then you can do a box up below and create as high a ceiling below as possible. Example: can you see the (starting from left), the WC, follow by toilet floor trap and then the floor waste (hidden behind) all in-line. Before After box up, it now appears as if it is a side beam, and therefore can maintain higher ceiling at Level 1 instead of dropping the entire false ceiling. Now can only see the vertical waste pipe connecting to below ground and to the Inspection chamber. This can be covered easily with either, box up, kitchen cabinet etc. Hope I have not confused you, am trying my best to make it as easy as possible to understand.

OK, hope I don't bore you with the builder work details Preparing the front porch, notice the leveling top up? Contractor puts in the steel wires, this is necessary so that the concrete can be held together firmly by the steel and don't crack easily. Before: After:

Here is a chart from URA website: Notice the uptrend of residential prices From the rising trend, top 3 are detached, terrace then follow be semi-detach