snoozee

you are looking at 2 different trades here. supply of carpentry work and supply of travertine marble. carpenters are much easier to find compared to that "perfect" piece of marble. so maybe you should look at marble slab sellers first then ask them if they have contacts for carpenters to do up your vanity unit.

can see those KDK fan rods would fit or not. search online for photos. I have 2 spare black KDK fan rods in black for sale if you want. they are 12" long

you need to ask yourself if you're buying the house for short term or long term. valuation is just another number which allows you to take loan (if needed and for tax purposes) or when you decide to sell the property. if you are planning to stay for long term (eg: more than 10 years), your focus should be on renovating the house to suit your family's needs rather than focusing on the valuation number. i'm not exactly sure how the valuers do their work, but my understanding is that they would value the house based on similar sized properties nearby as well as the condition of the house. your house would not fall under a "new" category since you are just doing A&A and not an entire new built. even if you put in a lift now, by the time you sell the house in 10 years time, the residual value of the lift itself might be very low. I can tell you that when the valuer did a valuation of my old house (more than 50 years old) before it was torn down, the value of the house itself is zero. if you are planning to sell the house in 5 years time, I would suggest you spend just the minimum required to do up the house for your own stay rather than spend 100k to put in a lift unless you absolutely need the lift.

to change the entire house aircon could set you back by 20k to 30k. if they are ok, I don't see any reason to change unless the aircon units are so old and sucks electricity like crazy. I would suggest to check the models of the aircon units and see what kind of gas they run on. some very old aircons run on R22 gas and the pipes can't be reused for the newer aircons which are running on R410 gas. But Mitsubishi has a so called technology which seems to allow for the reuse of old pipes. i'm not sure which other brands has this technology so if the existing ones are using R22, you would be "stuck" with one brand if next time you decide to change to newer models using R410 gas

I assume you are talking about a individual land title landed house and not a strata landed cluster house as for strata, there would be a MCST involved. for non-strata landed houses, the houses look the same should be because it was done by one single developer and no one had done anything since it was built. if the land and house belongs to you, you can do anything to it subjected to regulations from the relevant authorities. for 99years leasehold landed houses, few would do a rebuilt as it's not worth doing so compared to a freehold or 999years leasehold land I would say the amount of works you're looking at would constitute to a major A&A. best is to call up builders and get quotes. do note that if the house is already at the max setback limit, you can't add balconies unless you shift in the walls to make the rooms smaller are you buying the tree from a florist/garden centre/landscape company? they should be able to quote you the cost of transport when you buy the tree. if you are talking about importing in from another country, might be a bit more challenging due to import documents, clearance, etc needed.

change electrical wiring. add network cables for all rooms redo toilet water proofing since you're changing the floor tiles check the roof for leakages

take a torch light to shine on the wall. if you see the wall is perfectly smooth, then would be plaster. if you see small imperfections, would be paint due to the paint roller. usually can just paint over the existing paint since the paint is still quite new ( I assume you just got the keys for your new BTO). sealer is more for sealing skim coat or raw plaster before painting.

if this is going to be your family home for the next 20 years or more, it would be better to just bite the bullet now and do a complete rebuilt. if not, the money you sink in now for A&A or reconstruction would be wasted if you decide to do a rebuilt some 5 or 10 years down the road.

I’m sure had happened before. I saw ura info before on land being vested to government for bus stop at no cost sewer setback is 1m on each side of the sewer. So if the sewer line is 3m inside the rear boundary, the building’s setback would have to be at 4m unless the RC trench is built edited: below info from a URA WP on land vested to Government for road widening. Basically once the original house is redeveloped, the land where the reserves are would be carved out and be vested to the government FOC. Subdivision of land into 2 plots as follows: Plot 1 - verged red, to contain an existing <redacted> Plot 2 - verged red, for street reserve to be vested to the State; PLANNING CONDITIONS a) The applicant shall vest or cause to be vested Plot 2 in the State with vacant possession and free from encumbrances street reserve(s) as required by Land Transport Authority for the construction of any new street or to widen, open, enlarge or otherwise improve any existing street, without the Government or the Land Transport Authority making any payment or giving any consideration whatsoever for the same, prior to the issue of the Certificate of Statutory Completion by the Building and Construction Authority. b) There is no false or misleading information statement or particular furnished by the applicant or his agent in relation to the application referred to in Part 1. c) The certifications and/or declarations contained in the application referred to in the above are true and accurate. Where it is subsequently established that the said certifications and/or declarations are untrue or inaccurate, this permission shall be liable to be cancelled by the Competent Authority.

For sewer, your building needs to be set back from the sewer unless you build a RC trench to protect the sewer. for drainage reserve, the government can request you to vest that part of the land back to them at no cost when they need it

weather is hot so heats up the water in the pipes. I also experienced it occasionally.

I think you need to ask youself and/or your family a series of questions. 1. are the existing bedroom sizes sufficient for the planned usage? 2. are there enough toilets existing for usage? is there ensuite toilets for all bedrooms? if not, are the shared toilets acceptable for use? 3. is the kitchen sufficient in size? is there a dry kitchen? if you are into baking, do you need a big dry kitchen? if you haven't noticed, the questions are all linked to space planning which is directly impacted with the existing house's structure. if you want bigger rooms, you can knock down the walls. but if there's columns at certain areas, you can’t simply remove the columns. so your bigger rooms need to be worked around the existing columns. if you need to add/shift toilets, you are again constrained by the existing beams and columns. cos the pipes would need to be run around these structures and this could mean a lower false ceiling since the waste pipes have to be run below the beams. if you are going to tear down 50% of the house and do a reconstruction, you could be better off just doing a complete rebuilt and not be bounded by any existing constraints. you are not going to save a lot by keeping that 50% of existing house. most people do a reconstruction without very major works or to take advantage of the existing house's design which was based on old regulations. eg: a house has a deficient setback of 5m at the front so the owners keep the front part and need not follow the current regulations of 7.5m front setback. for household shelter, it is not a given that SCDF will grant a waiver for reconstructions. your architect would need to do the proper submissions with the plans, etc and seek this waiver. so there would be a chance that you would still need to build a household shelter even if you are doing reconstruction.

It’s the inconvenience of doing renovations when you are staying in the house If you need to redo the roof later. Over time, the roof tiles may have cracked and/or shifted which will result in leaks. Usually landed houses don’t have water tanks unless the house is located on a very high ground as the water pressure may not be enough. So in this case a water tank and/or booster pump is needed a&a works don’t need an architect

1. look for visible cracks or plaster/patching marks especially on the columns and beams. 2. if have the budget, might as well do it now especially if there's nothing done to the roof since the house was built. just paint the house to give it a fresh coat of paint. move into a "new" house must look new. :P 3. exterior painting is subjective. some houses I see have never been painted in ages so you see peeling paint, etc. the paint is there to provide a layer of water proofing to the house as plaster/bricks/concrete is porous. but exterior painting is a big cost for landed house since need to erect scaffoldings. I would say about 10 years once or when see peeling paint happening whichever comes first 4. can't escape pests. they can come over from your neighbour's house unless your house is surrounded by a moat. just try to keep your house clean so they won't stay and have parties. contractor/builder are same actually. for option A, a contractor/builder can do everything under his contract. some works could be subcontracted out by him eg: electrical, carpentry and fabrication of windows. your floor to ceiling window most likely need a PE to be involved due to safety issues. for option B, you need to engage a PE as you are touching the stairs which is a structural element. unless you meant hacking down the walls next to the stairs then may not need if it's just brick walls and not columns or RC wall both options are considered A&A just that B is a major A&A since there's more work to be done

haha. machiam like unwrapping present like that. you still have your steel carporch roof to be done. I see so many metal plates on your beam. mine similar design but my PE only designed using 3 steel beams so only have 3 plates.

When my QP was booking the date for TOP inspection in late August, the next available date reflected in the BCA TOP/CSC portal was 2 months later meaning late October Subsequently we managed to change to an earlier date. hope you can get lucky as well when your QP goes in to book

not much difference unless you need to do special things to the land like digging a basement

the owner of the land where the retaining wall sits on is responsible for it

brick/concrete always work as a thermal mass and stores heat. metal roof is thinner so won't absorb the heat that much. you can put a brick and metal plate of same surface area under the hot sun for one afternoon and see which one still feels hotter after the sun goes down. moreover a metal roof is constructed with the metal skin as the top layer. between the false ceiling and metal roof are a sandwich of water proofing material, heat insulation material, zinc metal sheet. wiremesh and aluminium foil. all these provides the water proofing and heat insulation. your architect should know what to spec out for the builder as this is quite standard.

even if don't do during construction, at least cater for the wiring first. I stand by a 32A isolator at my attic level for solar panels in case I install it in future. Kinda regreted not also adding a 32A isolator for my car porch area in case next time need to use electric car

Not sure how true. I just DIYed window films for some of my house windows today so see how long they would last. louver windows is still a window and heat will penetrate through the glass/aluminium. for roof, if you are doing RC roof, then solar panels would act as another layer of shade to block the direct sun from heating up the RC roof. How well it would act as insulation I'm not too sure. But if you want to really have heat insulation, get your architect to specify in roof insulation materials as part of your requirements. the insulation materials can be placed between the RC roof and your false ceiling to act as insulation. If you are doing metal roof, then the insulation material would be part of the roof's "sandwich" of materials to provide the heat insulation. I did a metal roof for my house and can't feel any heat from in my attic during the hot afternoons. Only the evening sun which shines directly into the attic rooms caused the heating effect which now is mitigated by the solar film which had cut out the most of heat effectively.

that bro hasn't logged on for ages. I PMed him on this as well but didn't get any reply

if your pool is going to be in-ground, can't buy it elsewhere. your architect would need to put in into the initial design for URA's approval and the builder construct it as part of the contract

Your pool can be whatever width you want and the upper storeys need not be die die beyond the pool width. If your pool is until 3m from the boundary, your upper storeys still can be 2m from the boundary. The PE just need to design the 2nd storey beams to be cantilevered out and problem solved. a building no need to have columns die die at each corner as long as the beams can be counter balanced or pulled back in some way

for a detached house, the maximum site coverage is 50% for non CGB areas so the maximum building footprint you can have is about 2000sqf. so based on this, a "standard" 2.5 storey house would have a built up GFA of about 5000sqf to 5200sqf. if one wants to increase the built up area, basements can be added or mezzanine added as well. your builder's quote of 1.5m if based on a max GFA of 500sqf would be about $300psf which is quite reasonable as it seems that many are quoting at $350psf even before this COVID situation. do note that construction cost does not include professional and authorities' fees. so be prepared to set aside another 100k to 200k for these fees depending on the QPs you engage. I think what is important now is for you to find an architect who can help you design up the house first. once the house is designed, then you can see how you can cut back the costs by tweaking the designs.