snoozee

property tax is not totally based on the size of your house. it is based on annual value. To quote IRAS, "The AV of buildings is the estimated gross annual rent of the property if it were to be rented out, excluding furniture, furnishings and maintenance fees. It is determined based on estimated market rentals of similar or comparable properties and not on the actual rental income received." To put it simply, a 50 years old run down 6000sqf house will have a much lower AV than a brand new 6000sqf house since the brand new house will definitely fetch more rent compared to the old house.

I don't recall any fees involved. If there were any, the fees would have been parked under my construction cost as there was no additional fees I had to pay for the trench. 100k for a 20m trench doesn't seem high. I had to pay 80k+ for a 8m+ long 3m deep trench which involves ERSS works. you can choose not to build the trench, just design your house smaller and set it away from the sewer line. steel construction is supposed to cut down the construction period required since bolting/welding on steel beams and columns is faster than setting up the rebars, creating formwork and concrete pour. but I've seen some projects in my estate which used steel construction and the construction time seems to be the same as traditional construction. so i don't get why need to pay more but still end up waiting the same length of time. I don't think steel construction will be more prone to corrosion issues. Else BCA would not have approved this method which is also used in many commercial buildings. weight loading shouldn't be an issue since the steel beam sizing and design will be based on what PE mandates in the structure design.

every site is different so it depends on the location of the sewer line. from SIP, there will be a rough location of where the sewer line is so the PE can determine the foundation design. in any case, my PE designed the footings such that the RC trench for the sewer line running across my plot is situated between 2 sets of footings. cost of trench will depend on length of sewer which needs to be protected and depth of the sewer pipe. for anything that requires more than 1.5m in excavation, ERSS will need to be erected to prevent soil collapse so the ERSS is a big cost. if the sewer is more than 3m deep (up to 5m), the width of the trench will be bigger as well. so instead of a 1m wide trench, a 1.5m wide trench will be needed. this means the ERSS cost will go up as well. officially, there should not be anything done above the trench as it will need to be accessible for any works required by PUB. but I think most owners will just cover over the trench after inspection is done and approved. of cos, this is done at owner's own risk since the structure/furnishings above the trench will need to be hacked away should PUB request for it,

nowadays everything seems to need piling. my house was built with huge footings but my neighbouring 2 houses are rebuilt with piling required. so the soil test report sharing thing may or may not be true today. Anyway the cost savings is very marginal so i'd rather pay for that few K for a piece of mind cos one will never know whether there's major differences in soil conditions between the plots even if quite near to each other.

my railings are all using painted mild steel. birds don't die so easily when they crash into things. I've had birds flying into my glass doors and they just bounce off and fly away. the railings are meant to protect the occupants from fall and the design and materials need to be approved by BCA since submissions are needed. house needs regular cleaning and maintenance so it's either you spend some effort to clean and maintain or take the risk of fall injuries. you could build walls instead of having staricase railings if you don't want the maintenance. There's plenty of home lifts in the market ranging from cheap chinese brands to high end eurpoean brands. Also there's option of traction lift or platform lift. home lifts are usually customoised for the project to the cabin size will be customised as per requirements as well. get your QP to source for you and then once confirmed, the lift shaft design will be based on the shop drawings the lift contractor provides. make sure you confirm your lift specifications and then have your house designed around it rather than your QP putting in a generic lift shaft size which means you will be stuck with that size and narrow your options of lifts. worse case is you will need to hack your lift shaft if the dimensions are not catered for properly and the internal dimensions cannot fit the lift which was ordered for. another potential issue with no proper specifications is your lift shaft does not have enough overheight for the chosen lift which will also mean more hacking works. When choosing the lift supplier, get all the costing including future maintenance costs. The maintenance costs can vary quite a bit between suppliers even thought the upfront cost is similar. Maintenance is something you need to pay for the entire lifespan of the lift and needs to be done at a minimal quarterly and yearly inspections (for license renewal) with load testing done every few years as well.

you can get contractor to apply sealer to the marble after polishing to mitigate the stain issue. As long as the spill is not left for a long period before wiping away, it shouldn't cause staining. For light stains, there are ways to lighten or remove the stains. But cracked floor tiles are more problematic than stains. 3 phase 100A supply should be more than enough for any house unless you are running a data center doing crypto mining 24/7. You may want to consider building a small shed to store the swimming pool pump, balancing tank, etc. It could double up as storeroom as well.

since you have space to play around with, you can locate your lift wherever you want. The lift core itself is supposed to have its own air vent at the top and if you build a concrete lift shaft, it should be able to contain any fire/smoke for a while to allow for occupants to escape. Anyway smoke alarms are mandatory for all new developments so this will serve as the early warning should any fire breaks out within the house. Whether to do central aircon or individual units is up to your own preference. Just note that for central aircon, should the condenser breaks down, all will be affected compared to having individual units. I heard that VRV central systems is more energy efficient but I can't confirm. There's no such thing as maintenance free. The keyword should be ease of maintenance. If you want to be fully accessible, then design it with ramps where there's a drop in level. Some locations will have to have a drop in level (eg: wet kitchen) to allow for washing so instead of a hard step, incorporate a ramp instead. But in order to add ramps, you need a larger space so that the gradient of the ramp is more gentle. For toilets, you can design it to be level except for the shower area where there's just a minimal drop to prevent water flowing out. Try not to use homogeneous tiles for first storey as there will be temperature variations due to proximity to actual earth and the tiles may crack. My friend's house used large format tiles in the living room and cracks had appeared in many pieces of tiles. That's why I decided to pay more for actual marble to prevent such issues from happening. if you can live with cracked lines on the walls, then you can keep the walls paint free. Even painted walls will develop cracks as the house settle down after some time but at least can use paint to cover up. 700sqf is like a HDB 3 room flat size so you can design your house in this manner if you want. There have been designs where a single house is "split" into distinct "units" for different families staying in the same house. But take into consideration how workers need to move the bulky items up to the upper levels. So either you buy smaller fridges/washers or make sure your lift is big enough and your staircase is wide enough to move up the king size beds.

your QP has to submit the entire house design to URA for approval first. BCA approval is also needed with structural designs for new house and demolition plan from the PE. Some QP don't submit the HS plans to SCDF for approval initially and while this is not wrong, if there are issues with the design rectification work will be problematic. That's why I mentioned to get the QP to submit for HS approval at the start as well. If your house is going to be physically more than 3 storeys, then need to submit plans to SCDF for fire clearance as well. Standard minimum setback for houses is 7.5m at the front and 2m for the rear and sides. For detached houses, you are allowed up to 50 percent site coverage for houses outside GCB areas which means you will have bigger setbacks in order not to exceed the allowed site coverage. The appropriate setback is based on your own needs and you are allowed to have bigger setback if you want as long as the minimum is met.

if your PV panels is generating excess electricity in the day, wouldn't your normal aircon become powered by solar energy? unless your requirement is to not to enjoy aircon during the night and can only have AC when there's clear sky and sun. for fan in living room, i would suggest to install HVLS fans which can push great volume of air to cool down the room. If you have ample space, can install 2 or 3 sets as well. I have 1 set of 84 inch HVLS ceiling fan and it does a great job of cooling down my living room. if you retain your house as a semi-d, you will have a bigger roof area to place PV panels and generate more electricity. If you convert your semi-d to a detached, you are also reducing the house's footprint (and roof size) since detached houses has a maximum allowed site coverage on top of setbacks compared to semi-d which just need to comply with setbacks.

no development charge for private dwelling if convert from semi-d to detached. but you need to ensure your neighbour's plot of land can also qualify as a detached house before you can convert yours. no GFA limit for private dwelling. not sure what kind of water tank and pump you are referring to. if your house will be above the min height requirements for water tank, normally water tank will be placed on the roof top (gravity flow) and pump on the ground floor. it doesn't make sense to have the tank in the middle of the house since you may need an additional pump to push the water from the tank to the top floor. There's specific requirements on where the HS can be located from the boundary as well as the size (height and internal volume) of the HS. height limit is between 2.4m and 3.9m based on your first floor height of 4.3m, your HS must be located more than 7m from the boundary line. your architect should know the regulations and advise you better on where the HS can be placed within the house. Don't try to push the regulations for HS as you will likely to be asked to do rectifications (whether inside or outside) to comply with the regulations as BCA will send an officer down to inspect the HS before you are even allowed to apply for TOP. Get your QP to submit the HS design for clearance at the start so you know you are safe and don't end up having to do rectification works after the inspection. The worst nightmare is you may be asked to hack down the entire HS and relocate it to another location in the house to comply with requirements.

how many holes depends on what the PE requires of which land size also plays a part. mine only did one bore hole

Go hire an architect and let them arrange for you. The soil investigation needs to have instructions from a PE on what to do and this is not what a layman can scope out. topo survey needs to have cadastral map downloaded from SLA INLIS and additional plans purchased on INLIS as well so a QP will know what needs to be purchased and provided to the surveyor and the soil investigation team. I did both together for about 5K+ some years ago. Yours would likely cost more due to inflation as well as maybe additional holes need to be bored for the soil investigation due to bigger plot of land. Anyway below are the companies I used back then. soil investigation - ABV topo survey - CAK & FG Survey

Solar aircon only works in the day when there's sun. so what happens when you need it at night? Do up a proper PV system which is tied back to grid. During the day, if you need to turn on aircon, it will consume electricity generated from the PV system and any excess electricity generated will be sold back to the grid for income. At night when you need to turn on aircon, then electricity is imported from the grid to power up your appliances.

I have no idea how is your house layout. But 10 APs for an inter terrace seems overkill. Eg: is your study so huge that you need to have two APs to provide the coverage? or is the product quality so bad that 2 APs are needed to cover the area of the study? Same as for your attic. Do you need 3 APs to provide the coverage for 2 bedrooms? Of cos the sales rep will propose a solution to you so that there will be no complaints for poor reception at certain areas and he get the flack for not proposing enough equipment. But then with additional equipment, how much are you going to pay more upfront in equipment cost and running costs to keep the equipment turned on 24/7? While the cost of having an AP run 24/7 is about 10 cents a day, if you multiple this by 5 APs, that's an additional $15 per month you need to pay in electricity. If you're planning to install APs on the ceiling, then you may not need to have 10 APs at all. You will likely need 1 AP for your mezzanine study. Whether the AP in your study can provide some coverage for you living room will depend on what material you have as the wall which overlooks your living room. So how many APs are needed in your living room will depends on the mezzanine location. eg: if you have an AP in the middle of the study at the mezzanine (which is located at the rear of the house), the AP may provide coverage for the area immediately below and around it. Then you will need another AP to provide coverage for the front living area and car porch. For your 2nd storey with 4 bedrooms, you could install 1 AP to cover 2 bedrooms so just 2 APs should be enough. For attic, 1 AP right in the middle should be able to cover both bedrooms. If later on you find that certain spots are really bad, then you could add on those wall APs which are plugged into the wall RJ45 ports to cover the areas. The router which is proposed seems overkill as well for a home use environment. You could make do with a lower cost model or even make use of the existing one you have right now. the 24 ports POE switch will be more to provide power for your APs. You need to ask yourself if 24 ports are enough? if not, then you may want to add on another 24 ports non-POE switch. Again whether to link up all your 50 LAN ports now or later is up to you.

These are grounding points. By right not supposed to cover. Of cos you can do what you want as long as you are willing to take the risk and need to hack and expose them in future