snoozee

Interesting that BCA don’t have your old plans. My house was built around 1960 and I still managed to get the plans as the developer seemed to be a GLC at that time. I also got a 30k quote from the same fengshui company and didn’t go through with it. does the 1M include the fees for architect and structural engineer? If yes this is a very good price in today’s context. I didn’t come across Braun elevator during my search for lift vendors. make sure you confirm the specs of the lift and lift shaft fast so that the architect and PE can work in the specs to the drawings before submitting to URA and BCA

cost payable to SP is $5300 for 3 phase 63A and $8800 for 3 phase 100A. prices are before GST

this will incur more cost as internal DB needs to be changed and wiring reconfigured to split the load between the 3 phases. there are electrical car chargers which can be run on a 13A supply though these will not charge as fast as a charger running on 32A

1. get an LEW to do the design of the electrical system for your house and do the submission to SP. you will need to pay SP a fee for them to dig up the public road and pull a new cable to your house. a new meter and circuit breaker will also be installed for your house as well if the existing ones can't be reused. 2. check with your LEW and SP. it is unlikely that you will be asked to relocate the existing meter box 3. it is unlikely your existing 60A cable can be reused for 100A as the current carried by 100A is much higher and your existing cable may overheat and burn. so you will need to engage a contractor to dig up the driveway to do the connection. unfortunately old houses do not have underground cable conduits/pipes like what is mandatory now so the cable is simply buried in soil underground. one option for you is to write in to SP to enquire on this so that someone could come over to your place to check on the existing cables and such. from there, you can have a better idea of what you need to do in order to get the 100A for your house.

Can la. Just have to remove the obstructions if need to access the IC. One of my neighbours sealed up the public manhole located inside his house by tiling over it which is not supposed to be done. SIP shows the manhole location and indicates that the manhole is buried. Even PUB can’t do anything (for now) about it and my contractor had to use another manhole located much further away to access the sewer to perform CCTV inspection.

Seems to be so for several years but someone verified it recently with EMA

3 phase 100A no longer need annual inspection for landed residential houses.

Hacking the floor tiles and excavating the floor for new waste pipes are different. So you would definitely incur additional cost on excavation the floor

Nothing illegal with having an IC inside the house. just get your contractor to open up to take a look during renovation to check the condition and see whether there’s any cracks. Cos if there’s cracks and sewage is leaking into the soil, owner has the responsibility to fix the issues

No harm buying as its just a few tens of dollars. With a DIP, at least you know whether your house is affected by any drainage reserves which you may need to surrender to the state if necessary in future. the SIP will let you know where the sewer line is and whether it will affect your extension plans if you have any

Normal. My in-laws place has an inspection chamber in the kitchen. my inspection chamber was shifted outside the house when I rebuilt. as long as the cover is tight, there won’t be any issues with smells etc do note that there is a difference between manhole and inspection chamber. Manhole cover is round while a inspection chamber cover is rectangle a manhole is normally for a main sewer pipe whereas an inspection chamber is for your house waste pipes to connect to it before being connected to the main public sewer pipe

if you relocate the toilet, you will need to hack your floor as well so that new waste pipes can be run to connect back to the inspection chamber. if you have no intention of redoing the flooring of the 1st storey, then better don't touch the toilet.

whether just the rear of the roof needs to be redone or the entire roof depends on how the existing structure is designed. I can't comment on this as I don't have the details. however do note that if your house currently is beyond the allowable height based on envelope control, you may have to bring the roof lower to be within the building envelope should you decide to do the roof extension as well. the facade rule is more of external walls. any changes beyond 50% will not fall under A&A. but if you already has the 1st storey back extended and that wall isn't going to be touched, then you may still fall within the 50% for your 2nd and 3rd storey extensions. it's all about calculating the area of the walls so need detail plans to calculate if you excavate the lift pit now, what are you going to do with the hole? the lift pit can be about 1.2m deep and it will pose a safety issue. no idea on the cost so this part you need to check with contractors. a window/opening above your stairs only serve to bring in light unless you design it such that air can also be vented out as well. if your house doesn't have 3 phase supply, then it would be better to upgrade. 3 phase 63A should be enough. termite treatment is normally done when the house is rebuilt from scratch or when doing reconstruction when major parts of the floor is worked on, but your house is already built. the treatment still can be done if you choose to do so.

I don’t know your current roof profile now so I can only assume that your attic roof end is touching the corner of your 3storey top corner. So if this is the case, your new 3rd storey roof could be joined to the existing roof or constructed slightly lower so that it starts under the roof edge. your option b will most likely need to redo the roof and give it a new roof profile. whether you want to touch the roof now or not is up to you. If you don’t wish to redo it, at least get the contractor to look at it and check for leaks. yes, you can’t sue the builder for delays due to COVID as they are protected by law against this for now. So even if the project was scheduled for 5 months and end up taking 1 year, you can’t sue as long as the provision in the law still exists there’s no standard size for air well. But for lift shaft, 1.5m x 1.5m is the bare minimum. You might be able to get by with smaller size for platform lifts. Do note that lifts do require a lift pit so there will be a need to excavate should you decide to put in a lift years down the road.

If it was me, i would leave the air well alone. the air well will provide additional ventilation for your house as well. an inter terrace normally has openings in front and back and that's where the air flow comes and goes from. but the air well allows another path for hot air to escape from the house. when you extend level 2 and 3, your level 3 would need a roof over it. so either you construct a roof over level 3 or you cast concreate floor to use as roof. if cast concreate floor to use as level 3 roof, you might as well use that level 3 roof as your attic floor's extension and construct the roof over the attic which joins back to the main roof. contractors will always push for more things to be done so that the contract sum goes up and they make more money off your job. so it is up to you as the owner to decide if you want to do the additional work or not. if the company has a lot of jobs, then they can afford to have an in-house architect. but normally builders will just find an architect who is willing to sign off on the plans for a fee. normally there will be a damage liability period of 12 months from handover for rectifications. the current situation is very fluid and we don't know if we will go back to CB or not. do note that construction delays due to CB and such cannot be claimed from the contractors so long as government has it down in the law. so if the contract stated 5 months and work isn't completed by then due to covid delays, you can't claim LD from the contractor as long as the law forbids you to do so. Currently this law has been extended to 30 sept 2021 and i believe the government will extend it further as and when it is necessary. old houses normally has copper water pipes installed. I think other types of water pipes like SS or PPR only became more popular in the last 10 years or so though i may be wrong about this. Which route to choose really depends on personal preference and how extensive is your job. if your job is very straight forward and you have full trust in your contractor, then you don't need an architect. if you want to make more changes to your house in terms of layouts and design elements, and also have someone to look after your interests and do project management for you, then an architect may be a better option.

additional GFA of 30sqm x 3 = 90sqm estimate construction cost of $350 psf will give you about $340K for the 90sqm extra space. So i guess a budget of about 400K might cover the costs. best is for you to call some contractors to enquire. with the current situation, costs would have gone up. even if you have money now, may not be able to find a contractor with workers to do your job

i guess cut tree needs a targeted approach. if you have a ladder and saw for wood, then can cut away the top branches first before attacking the trunk. if not if you have enough space, can always cut the trunk at a good spot so that the tree will fall back on it's own weight. but if the tree is too big, get a professional would be safer. i think most companies who does landscaping can also do this for you.

Recommend yourself? i DIY maintain my garden every week

Copper oxide is due to exposure with water and carbon dioxide. If the water pipe is filled with water, then no carbon dioxide to react how to turn to oxide?

You need special equipment to weld PPR for leaks. copper won’t corrode else it wouldn’t have been used for so long in HDB flats and old developments. It’s more to costing as prices of raw copper has exceeded that of SS. of cos unless the purity of copper pipes nowadays is questionable which leads to the corrosion reason. i suggest that if you can, go down to site often during the works and take photos of the pipes when they are installed. This is so that you have a record of where the pipes are in case you need to drill holes into the walls in future.

are you sure it is PVC and not PPR? PVC for waste pipes and temporary water pipes yes. never heard of PVC being used for fresh water pipes although it is used as electrical wire conduits. my house was done with stainless steel pipes. plumber told me that copper nowadays isn't that pure so copper pipes more problematic and prone to leaks now. but maybe also because of cost as well cos copper cost is much higher than stainless steel which is why my plumber used SS instead. my plumber also used crimped joints for the stainless steel pipes. you can't crimp copper pipes though they can be welded. PPR pipes need to be joined with heat and more troublesome. my plumber was complaining about how troublesome it is to do for his other job site. my understanding for PPR is that the pipe size is bigger so more troublesome to conceal in walls. also with plastics, there will be a limited lifespan and PPR is stated with a lifespan of about 50 years.

even with own workers, specialist sub-contractors would need to be involved in the construction/renovation and these are the variables. the main difference between having an architect vs direct with a D&B firm is that you have someone else doing the project management for your as well as looking after your interests. not to mention that a proper tender can be called by the architect for you to get the best quote rather than just signing off on a quotation from a D&B firm without knowing if you are over paying for it or not. 500-600k I would say is enough if planned properly. if the house's main waste pipes are already PVC ones, then whether to change them or not is up to you. if still cast iron pipes then best is change them. other things to change are the water pipes and electrical wirings. add sufficient network points for your rooms as well. parquet can be sanded down and varnished again to "renew" it. since you are extending the rear, you will end up needing a roof to cover the rear extension. so whether to extend your attic to cover the extension as well as to extend the main roof is up to you.

Keep the air well. Toilets always better to have natural ventilation. Redo the toilets if need to touch the waste pipes will add on to your coat. 5 months sounds very ambitious in today’s context and especially you are doing extension.

As mentioned, most of the fittings need to have the WELS rating and approved ones are listed on PUB website. So if you want to buy online, get those approved models. At lease there’s still grounds for you to argue on why you don’t have the WELS card but it is an approved model. If totally not approved then no chance. The worst part is having to replace the toilet bowl if you encounter such situation

True but also depends on your luck. you are supposed to have all the water usage ratings for all sanitary ware which can only be obtained by getting products locally. However not everything needs to have that water rating sticker/card. Some item categories are not classified under the WELS so you can get anything you want. Eg are angle valves and some shower mixers. So for other items which fall under WELS, you are likely to be asked to remove if PUB does the inspection before TOP. Why I mentioned luck is because not all projects get checked especially during this current pandemic. One legal work around is to buy online for items which have already a WELS rating. You can find the info on PUB website and then just buy the same model items online. I had done this method and bought taps from taobao. Just keep the boxes with the model numbers first just in case since overseas purchase won’t have the WELS card. basins are not regulated so you can get anything you want but toilet bowls are. anyway unless you are buying all the high end stuff and you get savings of 50% or more on the item itself, it’s still easier to buy locally. With overseas purchase, you still need to get your own freight forwarder and transporter to deliver to site so need to factor in this cost also. BTW, freight costs has increased due to the pandemic as well as Suez Canal incident. Not to mention you need to time the purchase properly else if your items get delivered too early, accidental damage may occur when stored on site. With local purchase, the shops will keep the stock and only deliver when you need them such that things get installed almost immediately. With toilet bowls you need to know what model you are getting so that you know what is the distance required for the trap to wall if you are using floor standing toilet bowls. This is so that the plumber can put in the waste pipe at the correct location in the floor before the floor slab is casted. If the location is wrong, you can’t install the toilet bowl properly. This is not a problem if you doing all wall mounted toilet bowls.