snoozee

if I'm not wrong, the IC in his house is connected to his neighbour's house's IC which is then connected to the sewer. so PUB wants him to build his own sewer connection from a new IC just for his house. also not all old houses have the public sewer running through their back yard. for my house, I have the public sewer running through my back yard. but the row of neighbors behind me does not has any public sewer and their IC is connected to the public sewer running through the row of houses on the same side as me.

your architect is the QP. QP can be either the architect or professional engineer. but each has their own scope of work and can't sign for each other in certain areas of work. since you already have an architect, tell your architect to get the PE to provide the scope of work for soil investigation. also, how come you are looking for SI companies when your architect should be coordinating all these for you?

if the public sewer is not within your land (LUCKY YOU), then there's no need for any RC trench so item 4 is out and the 35k would most likely be for the first 3 items and the profession fees.

the companies who does the soil investigation need to have a scope of work as well. if you don't know what needs to be done, the companies will also give you a generic quotation which may or may not be what your PE required. best is go and engage a QP first and then from there engage the soil investigation company. your PE will provide the scope of work that needs to be done for the soil investigation and the PE will also be the one to determine if the drilling/boring is sufficient.

for construction projects, there will always be items which weren't budgeted for popping up especially if you are dealing with old houses. personally, I was hit with a 20k plus cost for asbestos removal for my own project as this wasn't discovered until we started planning for the demolition. so we just have to find elsewhere to cut cost to stay within the budget. for your project, was there already a plumbing/sanitary item as part of your reconstruction quotation? if there isn't, then you need to check if the 35k consists of all other items like 1. laying new sanitary pipes for your house to connect to this IC 2. connection of this new IC to the public sewer 3. CCTV recording and submission for pre/post sewer works 4. if the public sewer is within your land lot, is there any RC trench work done to protect this sewer line item 3 isn't expensive, maybe about 2k plus. but the rest of the items requires plenty of excavation works which is costly as it means digging up the ground, laying the pipes and then covering up the ground again. item 4 especially is expensive. yes, the 35k may seem expensive just for an IC. but if all the other relevant work is put into context, the cost may seem fair. cos besides the actual construction work of building the IC, someone needs to design the new sanitary layout for your house and submit to PUB for approval. then the licensed plumber will need to certify that the works done are according to regulations and put his name in the certification. these professionals will not be doing the work for you for free.

if you planning to have fibre TV in each room, then addition network points are needed as the fibre TV cannot use the same network point as data. WIFI is for laptops or mobile devices but if using desktop, a LAN point would still be preferred. Adding another 3 or 4 network points in the whole house will maybe cost you another $500 or less. but if you don't do it now, you may face bigger headaches of pulling additional cables later on.

from PUB's code of practice, "All new developments shall be served by an internal sanitary plumbing and drainage system. This internal sanitary plumbing and drainage system shall be connected to public sewers by an internal drain-line maintained by the owner or occupier of the development " since your neighbour's IC is not public, you can't connect to theirs. how "high" is the quote given by your contractor? all new sewerage works must be designed and tested properly as mandated by PUB. you won't want the case where the sewerage backflows and floods your IC and then leaks into your house right? if you are going to save money and use your neighbour's sewer line, if the flooding occurs from your neighbor and goes into your house from the shared IC, are you going to sue your neighbor for damages? I guess the only way for you to avoid doing this is to not do a reconstruction of your house. I would say count yourself lucky that you bought this house instead of your neighbour's house. Cos if you had bought your neighbour's house, you will still have to maintain the sewer connection for this particular house until the house is redeveloped.

the actual demolition and disposal of existing house is cheap and should be just maybe 30 to 50k. problem is if the house is very old and has asbestos, then need to arrange for specialist to remove the asbestos first before the house can be demolished. I had to pay another 20k plus for asbestos removal.

reference to first picture. you can install a bifold door with mesh instead. bifold door will open and fold inside to the wall on the right side. do note that the bifold door will be installed with a new frame and sliding track as well.

I guess you are in a situation where you want to have your cake and eat it too but the reality is you can't do that. if you are going to have all the residents follow the condo's bylaws, etc. then you can't expect variations/exceptions to cases where the bylaws aren't followed. for example, if you want to put CCTV to cover blind spots and have the damages caused by residents to be billed back to them, then you can't have exceptions where flower pots and bicycles are places in prohibited areas if the bylaw states they can't be placed in these locations. if you are going to have exceptions, then you are inviting for someone to mount legal challenges on why certain rules apply to them but certain rules don't apply to others. of cos from what I know, the bylaws are voted by the share owners during AGM so if certain existing bylaws are too restrictive, they should be able to vote to have these bylaws removed. disclaimer: I DO NOT stay in a condo so I do not have a clear understanding of how condos are being managed nor am I legally trained or a lawyer by profession. the above opinion are strictly my own from my own views.

I think it would be better for you to seek advise from Lawyers who are subject matter expert in this area and seek their opinions. Don’t think any lawyers (if any) in this forum will give you advise without understanding the entire circumstances/situations of the problem(s) you are facing now

According to BCA, all common properties are co-owned by the owners who have a share value of the entire development

I don’t think so. I read the TOP application form from BCA and it also indicated no need for single landed housing and the BCA form is based on the older code of practise 2013

google for imda copif 2018 I can share the link but the forum will block the link until some moderator approves.

no need to do certification anymore as IMDA doesn't require this certification for SINGLE landed house rebuilt. reference to latest code of practice 15 dec 2018 page 145 15.9.2 The requirement for Fibre Readiness Certification is applicable to all new residential developments, with the exception of a development consisting of only 1 single landed dwelling-house.

I’m not an architect by profession so I can’t really speak for how they work. But it does make sense to do a site visit to see the existing house especially when it is a reconstruction project. Cos even with floor plan, some things may not be shown on the plans especially if the house is old. They will definitely need the existing site plans and floor plans of the existing house. It will also be useful to purchase the SIP and DIP from PUB as well. These 2 plans don’t cost much and you will need them eventually whether it’s the architect or builder you’re engaging. For site plan/cadestral plan, if you have already taken over the house, you can download them for free from SLA website. Else need to buy as well. Existing floor plans if the previous owner don’t have, you need need to buy them from BCA. BCA will charge you a search fee. After the search is done, you will be informed and then you can purchase the plans from them then download the soft copy plans. Basically from the various plans, the architect will be able to advise you on how much you can extend your existing house, assuming you want to max out the GFA. The PUB plans are needed to determine if you have a public sewer running through your land and whether your land is affected by any drainage reserve or not. If you have a public sewer running through your land, you will need to build a RC trench to protect the sewer should you decide to extend your house over the sewer. Note that if you choose not to build a trench, you are only allowed to extend the structure up to 1m away from the sewer. The trench will be additional cost so it will be a choice of pay more $$ for more GFA or save $$$ but lesser additional GFA. Of cos don’t expect an architect to provide you a full set of plans/design if you have not signed a contact with them. Most likely you will only be given a rough additional GFA calculation based on the floor plans which will then translate to an estimate construction cost.

The thing is no one can just tell you straight away based on the few line of requirements. There needs to be some calculation done based on your actual site and land information and existing building and structure information. From the existing building plans, someone need to work out how much increase in GFA you want. After which an estimated on construction cost can be given. But this estimate is will change based on how much additional structural work needs to be done on the existing house to cater for the attic. Then soil investigation needs to be done to determine if piling is needed for your extensions or not. At the end of the day, the total cost for both could be the same or going the builder route might be cheaper by a few tens of thousands. Unless you can spare the time to go to site every other day and monitor the project progress closely, I would say getting the architect to do this and update you would be better. Cos even if you have the time to monitor the progress, do you have the domain knowledge to know that what is being done by the builder is correct and according to specifications?

The works you are looking at will definitely need an architect as you are adding an additional storey. The difference is whether you are engaging the architect direct or through the builder. If you engage the architect directly, you will also have to engage a PE for your structural works as well whereas a builder will cover everything in his quotation. From this it would seem that it would be cheaper and easier to just go to a builder. Easier is definitely a yes but cheaper or not could be subjective. However by just engaging the builder directly, when there are issues or disputes on the work done or to be done, it’s iust you against the builder. Whereas if you engage an architect, the architect is supposed to resolve all these issues for you and be on your side to check all work done are in order. Of cos there will be instances where the builder is very good and things all go smoothly. But it’s whether you will be lucky to choose a builder who is good and whether your entire project doesn’t meet with any unexpected situations. Also most builders will normally have a kind of standard design on the houses as the architect is just doing the signing and submission of the builder’s design with almost no design input from the architect

If you are building new structure in an A&A or reconstruction, it would be better to do soil test just to know the soil condition. It doesn’t cost much to do but at least you will be assured that the design of the foundation of the new structure will not sink under the load

Additional storey means reconstruction will require architect to do submission. PE fees will differ from firm to firm and the scope of work. It will definitely be a 5 digit amount ranging to 10k+ onwards note that all professional fees don’t include fees for submission to authorities. So expect to put aside another 10k to 15k for submission fees

If your power consumption is high, then better upgrade to 3 phase

I guess depends on which HDB lift. maybe you can take a measuring tape to measure the internal height of the lift of your block. I remembered years ago when I bought wardrobe from IKEA, they managed to deliver the wardrobe panels and doors which are of 2.4m in height to my parents place which is on high floor.

look for a builder and tell them what you want to do and they can advise you on the costs involved.

driveway not considered. but driveway shelter is considered structure

You will need to seek permission from your neighbour to access their house to setup the scaffolding. Of cos if there’s any damaged caused, then your contractor is liable for the damages