snoozee

thread starter has not logged on since Jan 2021. So those asking for information no need to place hope here and continue asking. Anyway it seems TS is more of a contractor (or working for one) rather than home owner. 😑 Photos seems to be staging photos for sales material rather than an actual home owners photos

If you are going to tear down and rebuilt, you are looking at a cost of more than 1M. Do you have budget for this? If not, then the viable option is to just do an A&A.

My builder charged me around 2K for the test. Not sure if include excavator and operator cost or not as this was a VO which I paid due to the test being repeated due to initial failures. this was before COVID so not sure if price now had gone up by how much.

Your builder should arrange for this test. It’s not only the excavator but also the company who will bring the test equipment to do the measurements. if your test fails you will need to redo until you get it passed or change the foundation design before you can start work.

no. PV panels just generate electricity in DC and needs an inverter to convert the DC to AC for usage. if you need to store the generated electricity, you will need to add on batteries into the system to store the electricity and this will add on cost, need to find space for storage as well as increase your risk of fires. We've all read in the news about PMDs catching fire while charging so do your own risk assessment.

I was considering solar water heater but ended up installing heat pump water heater instead. one problem of solar water heater is that you will need to get one with heating element as during overcast days, you will not be able to heat up the water. So you will end up using the heating element which would be like any normal water heater. Anyway the cheapest solar heater I found previously cost about 6k excluding brackets needed to mount to the roof.

overtime the panels will lose its efficiency. at new, the panels may give you more than 90% efficiency and after ten years, the efficiency may drop to 80% or lower. in a PV system, panels are just part of it. you still have the invertors and other electrical components within the system. assuming that the lifespan of the inverter lasts for 8 to 10 years, you will still be looking to change it at least another 2 times within the lifespan of the entire system which could be a few K each time. I've seen proposals from PV install companies which calculate the ROI based on perpetual increase of SP tariffs. but the reality is that the tariffs doesn't increase all the time. for SP tariff to hit 40cts, you will need oil prices to go up by at least another 40 percent. back in july 2008, electrical tariffs was about 30.5cts when global crude oil was about USD139. Today crude oil is trading at about USD75. So unless something major happens and global crude oil goes up to USD150, it is unlikely we will see SP tariffs at 40cts anytime soon.

if you really want to build 2 semi-d on your land, yoongf had already given you the suggestion on building a pair of back to back semi-d with side access already. anyway there's nothing you can do about your land size short of buying over your neighouring plots.

If your front width is 15m but your back is 17m or more, you could carve into 2 plots. One plot of regular 8m width throughout and the other plot with 7m front and 9m wide at the rear. The 2nd plot will give you an average of 8m throughout which still can meet requirements. Not sure you have a detached house or semi-d as you didn’t confirm but if you have semi-d, you need to know if your neighbour can qualify to become a detached house or not as well. anyway, do a topo survey to confirm all dimensions and you can work out from there

yes, you should be right that URA is more concerned about the building width of at least 6m wide and not the actual plot width. There are leeway given for irregular plot sizes with examples given on the URA website but URA still requires an average plot width of 8m for the plot in order to qualify as a semi-d. If TS has a regular shaped plot then he can't apply the regulations used for irregular sized plots. So the only best bet is to use your suggestion of back to back units if he still intends to sub-divide

is your house a detached house or semi-detached house? from your previous posting, you mentioned you bought a 6060sqf semi-detached house. so if you currently have a semi-detached house and you want to develop your plot into 2 semi-detached houses, apart from your own plot's conditions, you will also need to check whether your currently attached neighbour's plot is big enough to become a detached house or not. basically the frontage must be at least 10m and plot size of at least 400sqm. if your neighbour's plot can't fulfill these conditions, URA won't allow you to detach from your neighbour as well.

You can always write in to URA to ask but I don’t think they would budge. The rule of 8m frontage for semi-d and minimum 200sqm has been there for years. If you have not done a topo survey, get it done first to confirm your plot size. Just because your opposite neighbor plot can do it doesn’t mean you can because plot sizes can vary in nearby areas.

Semi-d need minimum plot size of 200sqm. So the front plot needs to be at least 20m deep if the width is 10m wide. the back unit footprint would also be small since I guess the “frontage” would be along the 43m depth and building setback line taken from there. Basically 100sqm will be wasted as driveway unless the land is being fronted by roads on front and side, then will make things much easier since can try to apply to create new access opening.

unlikely to be able to appeal. land size has nothing to do with the road outside. of cos you can always ask your neighbour if they willing to sell. assuming same sized plot then with total 30m frontage, you can build into 2 corner terrace and 2 terrace houses.

Semi detached houses need minimum frontage width of 8m. Since you have only 15m, you can’t subdivide into 2 plots for semi-d houses as you can't get the 8m width. If your plot is 16m wide then can subdivide

You better check what your ID is telling you about plumber submission fees. I don’t remember needing to pay PUB any submission fees except for when PUB connect a new incoming water pipe for me and that few was about 1k+. Internal piping would like likely be water pipes. Nowadays plumbers usually use stainless steel pipes with crimped joints. Else could use PPR pipes but this is more expensive. Copper pipes seems to be more expensive and problematic these days. My plumber mentioned the quality of copper pipes these days are not that good. are you redoing your roof? If there’s no work done on the roof then the existing lightning rods would be touched so maybe can avoid redoing the lightning protection system. If need to redo then you definitely will need to change a lot of things as the code has been updated in 2018 and taken effect in may 2019. If you not sure whether you will need to redo your lightning protection, write in to BCA to enquire.

I think the correct phrasing is that you can built as much as you want subjected to URA approval. Nowadays many new developments in 2 storey landed zones come with mezzanine floor to add on to the space within. Even though URA no longer limits the mezzanine floor GFA to 50 percent of typical floor plate, I don’t think they would approve of a design where the mezzanine floor is at 95 percent of the typical floor plate.

not applicable. quoted from article "The Electric Vehicle Common Charger Grant will be available to private developments that include residential units, except for landed properties, shophouses, hotels, hostels, serviced apartments and workers' dormitories."

3 storey then need PE to check whether can or not already.

before envelope control was introduced in 2015, a landed house has to adhere to the maximum allowed floor to floor height requirements of 4.5m for the first storey, 3.6m for the second, 3.6m for the third and 5m for the attic. so it is unlikely that the house you are viewing has a 1st storey height of more than 5m if you are looking at a 2.5 storey house. if you are looking at a 3.5 storey house with a double volume ceiling, then the challenge is for the PE to look at the building plans and see whether it is possible to add a floor slab over the double volume ceiling to create another room or not.

How high is your floor to ceiling height now. And by ceiling I’m referring to the underside of the floor slab above. if you do not have at least 5m height, no way to build a room since you require at least 2.4m height clearance for all rooms.

either leave it as bare cement screed or just tile it up with wood patterned tiles. easier to maintain compared to having decking and also less headache on materials warpping over time

If the box is on a planting strip which is between you and your neighbor’s property and this planting strip has a length of just 6m, then you won’t be able to make your driveway/gate wider also. So better check if you are able to widen your driveway/gate first before writing in to see if the box can be removed/relocated

Write to StarHub or IMDA

Well I would be concerned if the architect can be at your beck and call as this could mean that he has only your project ongoing. An architect normally would have a few concurrent jobs on hand so of cos you need to make appointment to schedule time with him. I had asked you what is stated as the scope of work between you and your architect. So if the scope doesn’t cover all the extras you are asking about then you can expect the architect to do all those thing for free right? if you have a QS for your project then the QS would be helping you and the architect to review the builders quotations. If you don’t have a QS and the architect is willing to double up as one then he has to do it. If you want someone to plan your lighting coverage there are architects who specialise in lighting. Same as there are landscape architects to design the greenery. But for a small project like a landed house you don’t need it unless you are willing to pay for these services. I’m not sure about other house owners but I was very hands on with the layout of the lighting, fan, electrical and network points for my house. Cos only I would know what I want and the architect will design the layout based on my input. If you have an M&E engineer for your project, then the M&E engineer will cover this portion of the work. again the question is what is stated in the scope of work between you and your architect.