snoozee

Depends on what type of roof you are looking at doing. Cantilevered roof would require the beams to be tied back to the main building’s structure somehow. for my house, the main beams of the car porch roof are welded to steel plates which are attached to L-brackets which are cast into the columns and beams of the house. My carporch roof is using steel structure and metal roof panels with calcium silicate ceiling below. my in laws place carporch roof is done just using wooden beams which are bolted to steel brackets and bolted to the main building. Roofing material is lightweight polycarbonate sheets. Ultimately, you will need to get a PE to check and design the structure for it. Cost will depend on what materials are used for the roof

most landed houses will suffice on 3 phase 63A. GCBs may require 3 phase 100A if your existing house is a single phase 63A, your options are either to upgrade to 3 phase 63A, single phase 100A or 3 phase 100A do note that for 3 phase 100A, it would require a LEW to perform a yearly inspection for your electrical installation like what pete said, it's not the size of the house but what you need to use inside the house. I can have a 10,000 sqf 10 bedroom house but with just 1 small 40w light for each room, no aircon, no oven, no electrical cooker/hood and i'll be able to get by with a single phase 63A supply. but if you plan to use a lot of energy sucking appliances concurrently in the house, then you would most likely need a 3 phase 100A supply.

if you had already started work with your builder and if your builder had indicated the supply and install of marble floor for you, you would need to talk to your builder on whether he can omit the item out from the contract should you decide to get from another supplier. getting building materials from another supplier is not like buying an electrical appliance from another shop. your builder would most likely have factored in the cost of raw materials (marble tiles, tiling adhesive/mix), labour for laying of marble floor/wall, labour for polishing of marble floor/wall into his quotation to you. so by you switching to supply your own materials, your builder would still need to charge you for the labour and materials for install and polishing. on top of that, he could also charge you for profit in attendance. also since you are supplying the materials, if there's any damage during installation and you end up not having enough tiles, you will have to fork out additional money to buy more tiles since you are now the supplier and not the builder. if you have a very big area for marble installation, supplying your own may save you some money. but do note that this amount can't be part of your construction loan (i'm assuming you have taken construction loan) and needs to be paid in cash to the marble supplier. anyway, talk to your builder on this and work out the sums should you decide to supply your own marble tiles at this stage when contract had been signed.

yes, they can build their boundary wall smaller than what their actual boundary is. but it doesn't automatically give the rights to that piece of land to you. last time (and even now in some cases), two adjacent houses are built with a common party wall in between them so the developer would save costs on building 2 sets of walls/fence. so when one house is redeveloped, the existing house would end up using the new house's party wall as their boundary wall as well. when the existing house is redeveloped, the owner would usually build a new party wall on their side and this new wall abuts the neighbour's wall. so for your case, I think you should just build a wall/fence to demarcate your own boundary at the part where the neighbour left out. if the electrical pole ended up in "no man's land" then so be it. at least you know that you are not encroaching on your neighbour's land by using it. If SP decides to access the electrical pole for maintenance, then they would be disturbing your neighbour instead of you since the pole is on their land and not yours. the worst case is if your neighbour one day decides that you are encroaching on their land with a garden and sends you a lawyer letter demanding for rental/fees over the years you have used the land. Not sure if it happened before in Singapore but I read an article online of something similar happening in USA recently.

since there is encroachment by your side, then it would be better to take this opportunity to rectify this by putting your boundary wall where it should be. else if your neighbour decides to do something to the house or it is sold later on, it would be much more troublesome for your to fix this issue.

if you feel your land has been encroached on, can always get a surveyor to perform the survey and if there is indeed an encroachment, you can send a legal letter to your neighbour to remove the encroachment. how the land is divided up is up to the authority and not the owners of the land. previously many houses have backyards which are back lanes and have lamp posts, electrical posts, drains running through these back lanes. I think the authorities decided to divide these back lanes to the houses quite some time back (I might be wrong) and hence some houses ended up having these public infrastructures within their land lot. some house owners who are lucky can extend their houses so that their boundary is at the new area. There are also cases where the back lanes are used for public walkway and no one could extend the houses as this would mean cutting off access to the public walkway. as mentioned, a proper land survey would reveal whether an encroachment has happened or not so if you haven't done so, do go and get one performed. the survey won't cost much (less than 2k) but at least you would know where your land boundaries actually are.

as long as the works does not involve structure, a PE is not required. a builder would be able to do all the things you want. things like network points, intercom and auto gate can be done by subcons of the builder. for network points, since you are pulling new ones, might as well pull a few more once and for all. if you think you need one point in a room, just pull two instead. else next time would mean pulling with exposed trunking rather than concealed. if your carporch roof is not build to be used as a balcony, you would need a PE to design a new structure for it. cost wise best is to call a few builders and get them to go on site to view and then quote.

HDB floor plans usually show columns as solid rectangles. unlikely you are able to hack away that part.

inlis cadastral map. also same price. free for land owners. this is what surveyors would ask for first before they perform actual site survey to verify. the cadastral map for my house was a hand drawn one many decades ago so the surveyor used it for reference to determine my actual land boundaries. 1 address with on 2 plots of land means the house owner has not requested to amalgamate the 2 pieces of land together as one. I've seen one GCB with a single address but on 2 plots of land. on the other hand, I've also seen a single land lot where there are a few inter-terrace houses sitting on the single plot. Basically the owners of the houses had not applied to subdivide the land into individual plots. normally land lots are all side by side so there shouldn't be the case where land lots are not joined. even public roads have land lots numbers for them and they are joined next to another land lot for a building or drain, etc. if a house is sitting on 2 land lots, the buyer can have the option of tearing down the existing house and then building 2 separate houses on the 2 plots of land. However if the land is shared with the neighbours, it becomes a more complicated issue as one can't determine the boundary unless a surveyor is called in to do the subdivision of land. strata landed houses are all under a single land lot and there's other rules and regulations for that.

it's not about checking encroachment though a survey will reveal that if any. the survey is more of determining where is your actual land boundary so that your building works can be planned based on that. if the existing owner has a certified survey plan from when the house was rebuilt, you could take that as the accurate one since technology had not evolved much since 20 years ago ( I think) to make any major changes from the land survey plan. of cos, if you wish to in the absence of any plans, you can get your own surveyor to perform a survey for you. this shouldn't cost much (about 1.5k). but you would also need to buy the cadastral plan from SLA to provide to the surveyor to do the survey. the cadastral plan would be free if you already own the land else need to pay a few tens of dollars for it.

Just get a contractor to hack away the concrete. The main problem is the disposal not the hacking. Later on you may need to amend the soil for planting depending on the soil condition

well, it's a free society with willing seller and willing buyer. I've heard of fees even lower than 5% for multi-million dollars projects as well.

well, for famous and award winning architects, the cost would be high. years of experience don't really make a difference in the pricing since the senior guys will just get the junior ones to do the work. if you are famous, you can charge high. just like how we pay more for a piece of branded clothing compared to a no brand one when the materials are similar. it's up to you whether to lodge a complaint with BOA or not. if there's no verbal, digital or physical contracts signed and you feel the architect is not being professional in this matter, just lodge a complaint against him.

It’s not daylight robbery if one is a famous architect and clients are willing to pay. My friend’s architect fees for her rebuild was about 13% of overall construction cost

according to the law on Architect's Professional Conduct and Ethics, they seem to be able to charge a fee based on my layman interpretation of the legal wordings as below. As mentioned earlier, BOA is the best party to clarify on this matter. Fees payable for registered architect’s services, etc. 6.—(1) Where a registered architect, licensed corporation or licensed partnership (referred to in this rule as a claimant) performs partial services for any reason, including the abandonment, deferment, substitution or omission of any work or part thereof, or if the claimant’s services are terminated for any reason, the claimant shall be entitled to such fees for such partial services rendered, or services performed up to the date of termination of his services as may be agreed between the parties or, in the absence of any specific agreement to that effect, the following fees: (a) fees for taking client’s instructions and preparing preliminary sketch designs to illustrate the possibilities of a site or cost of a scheme on a quantum merit basis; (b) fees for taking client’s instructions, preparing sketch designs sufficient to indicate the claimant’s interpretation of the client’s instructions, and preparing preliminary drawings and particulars sufficient to enable applications for permission under the Planning Act (Cap. 232) to be made, based on 20% of the total agreed fees; (c) fees for taking client’s instructions, preparing sketch designs sufficient to indicate the claimant’s interpretation of the client’s instructions, preparing preliminary drawings and particulars sufficient to enable applications for permission under the Planning Act (Cap. 232) to be made, and for obtaining such permission, based on 25% of the total agreed fees; (d) fees for taking client’s instructions, preparing sketch designs, making approximate estimates of cost of works by cubic measurement or otherwise, and preparing sufficient drawings for applications for approval of building plans to be made, based on 45% of the total agreed fees; (e) fees for taking client’s instructions, preparing sketch designs, making approximate estimates of cost of works by cubic measurement or otherwise, preparing sufficient drawings to enable applications for approval of building plans to be made, and for obtaining such approval, based on 50% of the total agreed fees; (f) fees for taking client’s instructions, preparing sketch designs, obtaining planning permission and approval of building plans, and preparing working drawings, specifications or such other particulars as may be necessary for — (i) the preparation of bills of quantities by an independent quantity surveyor; or (ii) for the purpose of obtaining tenders, based on 65% of the total agreed fees, and includes such proportion of the remaining 35% of the total agreed fees as the value of the completed building works bears to the total value of the building works.

it would be better if you just contact Board of Architects to clarify on this. if you've not signed anything with him and you feel you are being "exploited", can always lodge a formal complaint against him

you can place anything within that 2m setback. what is not allowed is to build a permanent structure there to form some kind of permanent roof (though many home owners does so) unless you are going to have your awning open permanently, putting your washing machine and subjecting it to our Singapore rain is not a good idea. even waterproof IP65 power sockets will fail in time and cause problems with electrical tripping. I would suggest you plan it such that it would be in the part covered with the roof eaves instead.

yes, the numbers indicate the top level and invert level. by right any excavation more than 1.5m would need ERSS. in certain cases where the excavation is for pile caps, footings, lift pits or trench where the area does not exceed 10sqm, you can dig up to 2m without needing ERSS. but if your sewer pipe is already at 2m deep, the builder would need to dig deeper as there needs to be a RC base for the trench. so the builder may need to dig up to 2.5m deep in order to cast a cement base, then put in the rebars for the base and side of the trench before putting in the formwork to cast the RC base and side walls of the trench.

the SIP will show the manhole positions as well as the top level, invert level and length between the manholes. so from the top level and invert level, you can get the depth of the sewer line

Buy the SIP. this will tell you where the sewer line is as well as the depth. Normally once quoted and accepted, the price won’t change. Unless there’s changes requested by owner or items which needs to be done but the QP didn’t include in the original tender, then the builder can claim for VO retractable awnings is allowed since it is not a fixed structure. Polycarbonate roof which covers the 1m gap is illegal

Yes. The rule is that the trench must be freely accessible. So if you decide to tile over then would need to hack if PUB needs access

the RC trench is under PUB's purview. once the trench is completed, photos would need to be taken and submitted to PUB. an officer from PUB would also go down on site to do the inspection. After the inspection and PUB approves of the trench, the trench would be backfilled with sand (again with photos taken at height intervals for record purpose) and finally filled covered with precast concrete slabs. the precast concrete slabs are removable so that PUB can remove them as and when they need to do repairs or maintenance to the sewer line within your property. but then i would think most owners would just cement over the RC trench after obtaining approval.

even for a inter terrace, a sewer line running through the width of the site would be at least 6m long. judging from the photo, it's definitely more than 2m deep. your builder is taking a big calculated risk by just using the plywood sheets to retain the soil. by right any excavation more than 1.5m deep would require ERSS to be designed by a PE and submissions to BCA for approval. and the retaining structure is certainly not constructed just by wooden planks and plywood. the 10K quoted amount is most likely just for show as the builder can recover the cost elsewhere from his contract to you.

you are lucky that your sewer line is very near the surface hence the low cost of $10k. my sewer line is almost 3m deep and it cost me almost 6 digits to build the RC trench. bulk of the cost actually went into the design and construction of the ERSS to provide stability to the ground during the construction of the RC trench

solar panels can be mounted on roof tiles. many houses have done that