snoozee

Actually all the specifications would have been listed down in the tender documents that the architect will do up for prospective builders to quote for the job. If the project requires an architect’s services, it would be better to engage the architect directly rather than going the builder route since this will mean the architect is protecting your interests. Going the direct builder route would mean the architect is “appointed” by the builder so if anything happens, you have no one to protect your interest esp if the documents are also not in order.

Could be the electrician had wired the switch first before terminating at the distribution box hence the short wiring. You can turn off the in coming power supply by flipping the circuit breakers to off before opening the distribution box. Then do what you need to do and close back the DB before turning on the power supply again. I suggest you use a test pen as well to check if the power is confirmed cut off before removing the switch.. If you have totally zero knowledge, then best is call for an electrician to do it for you. 230V shouldn’t kill you but will still give you a nasty shock.

Most of the shops in Singapore sells 2 sizes which are from 2 different brands. Neither would fit the pozzi tap as the size are different.

depends on what the contractor uses. some contractors use back the same laminate for the sides as trimming. some use a ABS trimming which is similar in colour as the laminate. since it is quite challenging to stick a piece of material and have it lined up at the edges perfectly, what is normally done is that a wider piece of material is glued to the surface. after the glue had set, the material is cut down to size using a router so that the edges become perfectly aligned with the edges. the rounding of the edges can also be done using the router.

I don’t have the Taobao link anymore since it was purchased years ago. It’s better to replace the entire valve as there are actually quite a number of rubber seals and o-rings in the valve assembly so it’s hard to pin-point which is the one causing the leak the valve assembly come in many sizes so make sure you measure all the dimensions like diameter, length of the main body and length of the valve stem, etc to get the correct sized one

A&A fees are cheaper relocation of meters will cost several K if I’m not wrong

go to any of the shops selling bathroom accessories should be able to find

depends on which region you are looking at. there are some old freehold ones which are still priced just below 2M. however, with the upturn of the property market last year, these below 2M houses are lesser and lesser as most sellers increased their asking price by about 10%. normally when buying freehold landed houses, one would look at the land size rather than the built up. built up area is more for strata landed housing. valuers ask for land size and built up area since they need these data to do a comparison against similar houses in the same area. I think you should be focusing on whether the 2500sqf is enough for your family's needs or not rather than focusing on how much increasing the GFA will increase the value. With A&A to increase the GFA, the returns in future value won't be as great as doing a full reconstruction or redevelopment of the house.

HS is required by law under the HS act. you are NOT allowed to made any modifications to the HS let alone knocking it down. Also, the HS forms a structural element in your unit and is directly connected to the HS above and below your unit as well.

if existing GFA is 1500sqf and planning to add another 750sqf to 1000 sqf will exceed the less than 50% additional GFA limit for A&A. this will become a reconstruction and will require architect. architect fees quoted which is 10% of construction cost seems to be the norm. some may quote higher percentage. if you feel it's expensive can always find second or third opinions.

if you want to maximize resale value, you should have bought an old single storey house, tear it down and build up to maximum possible. then stay until the MOP (when you no longer need to pay SSD) is up and then sell the house. if you are planning to do A&A then stay in the house for 10 years and sell it, whatever your put into the A&A is negligible since by then the original house would be like 20+ or 30 years old? Valuers will not put much value into the house itself and only the piece of land (assuming it's freehold) is valuable.

the URA officer in charge of your submission is very efficient. the usual time frame is 1 month from submission. the one handling my case happily took her time and only replied to us on the last day when she is due to reply. for PUB, there are actually 2 departments to submit to. one for sewer and one for drainage. Sewer will be concerned about all the waste water drainage from your house and how it connects to the existing sewer as well as whether the is a need for a RC trench to be built if there is a sewer running through your plot. Drainage will be concerned about the drainage reserve as well as how the surface water (from rain) drains through your development and to the public drains. they will also determine the minimum platform level for which your development must be at. however, MPL is also subjected to existing site topology and sometimes the development will be based on a MPL directed by URA instead of PUB. LTA side also concerned about the road side kerbs as well as how the road side drains will be connected if there is a need to create a new access opening to your house. so far my experience is that most departments take between 3 to 4 weeks to reply on the submissions. I guess you could be lucky to submit during a lull period so they replied super fast.

not sure if my understanding is correct or not as this is based on my hazy recollection from discussion with my banker > 1 year ago and what I had read in this forum. You need to get a quotation from your builder/contractor on how much the construction cost will be at. The bank will also do a valuation of your house based on the approved design and then decide how much they can loan you, subjected to TDSR. if you have an existing home loan, the construction loan repayment installments and existing loan repayment installments must be below your TDSR, else the bank cannot loan you the 70% or 80% of the construction costs. assuming that you can get a loan of up to 80% of the construction cost, this construction loan will be disbursed to you at current prime rate (which is about 5% interest). this prime rate will apply throughout the duration of your house construction process until you get TOP or CSC upon which the outstanding balance can be converted to your existing (if any) home loan at the home loan rates (currently about 2%). As TOP is usually obtained before CSC (though in cases both can be obtained at same time), it is better to get a construction loan which will allow you to do the conversion when you get TOP instead of CSC since CSC can be several months after TOP. this will allow you to save quite a bit on the interest you need to pay. Again, I stress that the above might have some incorrect information so for more accurate information, best is talk to your banker.

Professional fees will vary from project to project since each project have different requirements. Also how you negotiate the fees with each party. For architects, it can be a lump sum fee or percentage of overall construction cost. So fees can be anything from 20+k and upwards. At the lowest price, the involvement of the architect will be very minimal (ie submission of drawings and a few site visits as per what the contract covers). One of my friends paid almost 180k for her architect and she said it’s worth every penny. But I guess the norm is around the range of 40-50k for a small inter terrace job. For C&S, I guess the fees should be around 15k to 20+k again depending on scope of work needed. M&E I’m not too sure but I guess similar to C&S range? QS I guess should also be about 10k upwards. All the professional fees do not include any fees that need to be paid to the relevant authorities for submission of plans.

Normally home owners will either find a builder(contractor) or architect. If find builder first, the builder would either have their in-house architect or someone whom then normally work with for jobs to sign off on the submissions to authorities. If find architect first, the architect will normally do up all the drawings, get the necessary approvals from authorities and then invite builders/contractors to submit quotations for the job by way of tender. home owner can then decide which builder they want to award the job to. normally PSF cost does not include professional fees and submission fees to authorities. hope this helps.

go to URA website, https://www.ura.gov.sg/maps/ and change the basemap to Landed Housing Areas Plan. from there, find your house address and see what zone it lies in. if it's a 2 storey zone, then you can't do much about it anymore unless you want to tear down the roof and extend the height of the attic. however there is also a limit of how high the attic can be as well as the overall building height. for extension of attic, you might be able to get a builder to do it and have a PE to endorse on the structure plans. based on what you see as most houses are 3 storey or 2.5 storey, you are most likely to be in a 2 storey zone as some houses do look like a 3 storey house from outside but it is legally a 2 storey house with attic. however I may be wrong so check URA's plans for confirmation.

for parquet/solid timber stairs, I think need to look for those parquet/timber suppliers to buy the wood for repair. Do note that solid timber plank doesn't come cheap. I've been sourcing for teak flooring for my house project and had a shock when I found out one piece of solid teak plank for 1 step of a staircase cost about $100. Imagine paying $2K in materials for 1 flight of stairs.

single storey? if yes, better to rebuilt. named as "new development" or "erection" of new dwelling. if 2 storey, check what zone your house is in. if in 2 story zone, max only add another attic level and you can do a A&A or Reconstruction. how much can be build up depends on your land size. need to adhere to the general setbacks of 7.5m front and 2m side and rear for the new building foot print. a general estimate is about $300 psf for construction cost but depends also on your site and what finishing you choose for your house. either way, you would need a registered architect to do the drawings and submission though some builders have their "in-house" architect to do for you.

Is the 3 tone lights operating on the turning off/on of the light to change the colour? normally the wiring points in homes are not one single point directly wired to the in-coming breaker boards. instead, the wires are looped through a few points and then connected to a circuit breaker at the breaker boards. in this case, the wiring for her MBR bedroom light and the study room light is most probably on the same wiring circuit. when the bedroom light is on/off, it caused a slight fluctuation/disruption in the electrical current for the entire circuit which is enough for the LED light to sense there is a on/off "command" issued and hence change the colour. I had encountered this previously in my old house when turning on/off a light switch in the bedroom will end up causing the living room TV to turn off then on again.

Did you renovate your MBR toilet as well and replaced any waste water pipes? It may be a long shot but maybe check the waste water pipes. If the pipes were replaced and not sealed properly, water might seep through the floor into your bedroom. You may have stopped using the toilet buy waste water will still flow down from upstairs hence still contributing to the leakage

I’ve replaced the valves for pozzi taps previously. The valves can be bought from Taobao quite cheaply. The problem is to get the correct size valves as they comes in many sizes. So need to disassemble the existing valve first to take the measurements then can order. So far I’m unable to find valves of matching size at local hardware stores as the stores usually carry 2 brands of valves which don’t match the taps hence the only source is Taobao

the gate itself I feel serves more of the purpose of allowing the main door to be left open (when there's occupants in the house) to provide for ventilation while still preventing anyone from going in/out of the house freely. I guess if you really don't want the gate, can maybe add another set of dead bolt lock which can only be bolted in from inside as well as those chain latch to prevent the door from being able to be opened fully.

well, there might be cases where it had been allowed previously. But government agencies always update their regulations every now and then. So whatever happened in the past which was applied based on old regulations will no longer count based on today's regulations.

there's a type of gate which does not have both gate panels of the same size. basically the gate comprise of 1 big panel and a smaller panel. the smaller panel is normally closed unless there's a need to open it to move big items into the house. you can just install this type of gate with the smaller panel on the meter box side and solve the problem.

you do not "own" your flat. your flat "ownership" is under a 99 years (or whatever balance years there is) lease from HDB and they have the rights to allow or disallow you to do whatever your want to it. So in this case, HDB as the actual "owner" of your flat has disallowed you to relocate the main entrance.