snoozee

your construction must be done based on the approved plans. so there is no way for you to submit as a semi-d and built as a detached. going with architect may or may not be more expensive vs a direct builder. if your house has a 11m width, you do not need to build the house until 9m wide for the entire house (kept as semi-detached). you can opt to have certain areas to be narrower than others. the regulation states the minimum setback. but you can increase the setback as much as you want as long as it fits within the envelope that URA has demarcated. if you want to play around with your house's layouts, best is get an architect to do so. don't expect too much from builders "in-house" architects

LTA Is the main issue nowadays and very slow to response. Every submission takes 1 month to reply. I even had to call the hotline to look for the officer as she didn’t bother to reply my emails sent to her and calls to the office number isn’t answered due to WFH arrangements. I am lucky that after my chasing, I got my LTA CSC clearance after 4 months. My contractor’s other job only got clearance after 1 year as LTA kept finding new faults after each inspection.

It might be different between A&A/reconstruction and full rebuilt. i was able to apply for electricity and water before I obtained TOP for my new built. Why? TOP clearance is required from PUB. If I do not have electricity and water, SP and PUB can’t perform the necessary tests. Without these tests reports, they can’t issue me my TOP cert for submission to BCA to apply for TOP. Apply for internet service, ISP don’t even bother to check if got TOP or not. As long as fibre line is tested working, they just turn on for you. postal service also don’t care. Letters were still sent to my address when it was a piece of flat land. Postman just drop letter into the mailbox as usual. i had even gotten CSC from NEA even before the house foundation was cast as they just require lodgement from QP. IRAS is concerned about TOP date because that is the date they use to change your tax payment amount. now just waiting for overall CSC to be issued by BCA but already staying at my new place with all necessary services in place.

You will need CSC else next time will have problems selling the house. If the illegal structures are already flagged by BCA or other agencies, the only way is to remove them first then put back again later if you want. Hope your illegal structures are not too extensive else will become a big headache

Best is call SP and PUB to check. The meters does belong to the respective agencies and not you. Technically anything after the meters are yours and before belongs to the agencies. my in-laws place has the electrical meter outside but water meter inside. What I heard was my FIL didn’t want to pay for relocation of water meter hence it was left inside as it was original during their A&A 20 years ago. Anyway, extract from PUB handbook For new private landed housing developments, standard meter compartment as shown in Figure 2, shall be provided at the gate pillars. For renovation projects involving construction or reconstruction of gate pillars, customers are strongly encouraged to include this standard meter compartment at the gate pillars. so the answer is not needed unless you do a total rebuilt of the house

Seller must be laughing to the bank already so pay $100+ for the plans sup sup water la. But i agree that it is nice of the seller to get the plans.

Whoever mentioned about residential need to follow plot ratio for landed residential house does not know the regulations well enough. Like what yoongf mentioned, landed residential houses built on non-landed house zone need not follow plot ratio. As long as design is based on envelope control is ok. But basement is only up to a certain depth. Beyond that depth belongs to government. for 1.4 plot ratio land, you can build up to 3.5 storeys Based on envelope control. different Builders will quote same items differently due to the subcons they engage. For carpentry, confirm with them what would be provided. Selection of laminates max pricing. Vanity cabinets for toilets. Is countertop material provided for kitchen and vanity cabinets? if yes, what type of material? Solid surface, quartz, marble? 100k or 160k might seem high but really depends on how extensive your carpentry work is. If alot of custom work then you need to pay. If you are not willing to pay, then need to cut down on your requirements. For my house, I did not opt for very customised carpentry work and my total cost is a fraction of what you were quoted. Mine includes a walk in wardrobe for master, 3 sets of wardrobes, 4 vanity cabinets, one shoe cabinet, cabinet below stairs, a few cabinet styled ‘concealed’ doors, kitchen island and wet kitchen bottom cabinets. Countertops not included as I bought marble slabs separately. I didn’t do custom tv consoles, shelving, display cabinets, etc. I think Builders normally quote an estimated lump sum for carpentry work and if their subcons end up charging lower, they will make a bigger profit from it. Cos if the house has not been designed, it is not possible to get an accurate costing for carpentry work as one need to know how tall and wide the cabinets, wardrobe are in order to quote as carpenters quote based on per foot run. I suggest you work an architect for your job rather then going directly to builders. At least you can work with someone who knows the regulations clearly and can project manage for you.

BCA's plans ARE the structural plans if the entire set is bought. my original plans which were hand drawn from 1959 contains everything from the building facade down to the foundation plans. normally BCA will do a plan search and let the requestor view them as a draft PDF copy first. then the requestor can pick and choose what to buy and pay for and the official copies with proper watermarks will be released for download. usually they comes in sets and is paid by per set (not per plan). the entire set should include everything

manpower shortage. even got money sometimes cannot get work done as subcons are all tied up with projects. free swab test will end 31 mar 2021. after that contractors need to pay for their workers swab tests. at about $180 per worker per swab test (need to be done every 2 weeks), means about $360 increase in cost per worker per month after 31 mar 2021. vaccination will be free but don't know when the workers will be scheduled for vaccination. assuming all eligible personnel in SG will be vaccinated by end of Q3 2021, it means companies will need to foot 6 months of swab test cost for the workers which will amount to more than 2K per pax. so expect this swab test cost to be recovered from you as the project owner. also since swab test is done every 2 weeks, expect 1 man day lost per month since each time a worker need to go for swab test means half a day gone. unless the company is lucky enough to grab and book those sunday slots for swab test and/or can stagger the workers for swab test. basically expect to pay more and expect delays as well. how much more really depends on how much you can negotiate with the contractor/builder. also cross your fingers that when project start, the site don't get shutdown due to non-compliance of COVID safety measures. government agencies go around checking work sites to catch these violations and the site may get shutdown if measures are not followed

good that the legal setback has been considered. just make sure that the structure is professionally designed by an engineer. the last thing you want is to have the awning collapsing and causing injury due to poor design.

note that if you install fixed awning of 2m wide to cover the rear and sides, it is considered illegal works. the max you can go is up to 1m from the boundary line. meaning if your wall is 2m away from boundary, your awning can only be 1m wide. please also consider your neighbour as well. if your awning is 2m wide, water from rain will flow into your neighbour's house (if you have one sharing the party wall). i'm sure you wouldn't like them to complain that water is splashing into their house from your awning when it rains heavily.

tear down the whole house and leave some columns is considered reconstruction already. no longer A&A

industry marketing says ROI is about 7 to 10 years depending on size of installation. assuming a system can last 25 years, this would mean that there would be "free" electricity after 7 to10 years. However, even if the PV panels themselves could possibly last 25 years or more (with some reduction in efficiency), the invertors and other components are most likely to need replacing at least once or twice during this 25 years period. assuming that the electrical components take $2k to replace and needs to be replaced twice during the 25 year period (after 10 years warranty is over), the total cost of the system would be the initial outlay plus this $4k. taking bro cymon's quotation of about $26k as example, the total cost of the system throughout the useful lifespan would be about close to $30K. so this means that the annual cost of the system is actually about $1.2k which works out to be about $100 per month. now, if your house electrical usage is more than what the PV panels can produce, you will still need to pay for additional electricity from the grid like during days when the production is very low or at night (assuming that there is no battery storage). even if the PV system is grid tied, the rate which electricity is sold back to the grid is lower than what is being bought from the grid as SP will account for transmission costs and deduct accordingly. so even if the additional cost of paying electricity from the grid might be lower due to PV panels installation, what essentially is happening is that we are actually paying for the electricity for the next 25 years upfront and this initial lump sum cost is amortised over the next 25 years. unless oil prices shoots through the roof dramatically over the next few years and/or you use electricity like it's free (eg: aircon and lights on 24/7), the ROI of the PV system may even exceed the 7 to 10 years period. technology is always evolving and PV panel technology will definitely improve over the years and cost will come down due to production efficiencies. my personal take is that while it's good to go green now, financially it doesn't really make sense now to install a PV system. eg: a PV system which costs about 100k about 10 years ago could now be installed at a fraction of the cost with much better efficiency. So my take is to adopt a wait and see attitude first for PV system installations but at least have the infrastructure in place first such that when the time comes to want to install, it would be much easier rather than having the need to hack and drill through walls to run the main cables.

yes, within reach so easier to install wiring in future. the isolator should be IP66 rated so doesn't matter if it's indoors or outdoors

if water test passed then shouldn't be need to do the floor. by right the contractor should take photos of downstairs ceiling on before and after the 2 hour test to verify that there is no leaks. if the contractor insist on you doing the floor, request for another water test and let HDB know about this as well. There will be an officer from HDB that would be in charge of your estate so you need to let them (HDB) know about these things. Can submit the correspondence inside HDB portal.

i just standby a 32A isolator at my attic level so that in case need/want to install solar panel, this cable can be used to carry the electricity down to my DB. of cos this isolator may not be able to be used for solar panel but the wiring inside can be used. it's just a matter of changing the isolator to one which is suitable for solar panels.

best is talk to your contractor who you will be doing your renovation to do it together rather than getting a direct subcon for this. if you don't need such a big tank, can always get a smaller one. there are round units which are tall and should take up less than 1m x 1m of floor space. also if your house has a roof terrace, can always consider relocating the tank to the roof instead such that you can reclaim the floor space below.

yes. 2m at back, 2m at side and 7.5m at front is the standard setback. roof canopies can be 1m from the boundary for back and side. car porch roof in front has a 2.4m setback unless you house is in areas designated by URA to have different requirements then you would have different setback requirements. else the standard setback above will apply.

I believe trellis would be considered as permanent structure since it would be fixed and you can't move it as and when you like right?

Shift meter box usually means you need to pull new main cables from meter box to your inside DB. If don’t want to pull, can extend the wires but not really recommended. upgrade to 3 phase 63A is about 5k plus payable to SP. 3phase 100A is just under 10k. Your internal wiring cost is based on what your own electrician quote you. when you upgrade, SP will put in new smart meter for you. No additional cost as this is part of the fees you pay. pub is another cost need to pay if you intend to shift the water meter as well

Boundary wall max height is 1.8m tall so you can’t add structure. Only way is to plant plants like what you have in mind

QP fees cost depend on who you engage. the lodgement application is done when the job is very straight forward and QP is sure that all plans will comply with regulations. Basically the QP takes responsibility for the compliance rather than having URA check on the plans.

Legally no. In your DIP, PUB would have stated clearly that you are not allowed to build over the drain, etc. the most you can do is set your boundary wall up to where the public drain’s structure ends. This means the foundation of your boundary wall is abutting the drain wall. If you choose to reclaim the drain later, in the event that PUB needs to access the drain for works, you will have to hack whatever is built over the drain and reinstate at your own cost

Of cos you need to see floor plans before rebuild. Else how you know what you are paying for? normally there should be some 3D renderings so you can see how the facade of the house looks like cos it’s not easy to visualise the overall look from 2D plans i think minimum would be 360 degrees external views, meaning views of exterior from the 4 directions, front , back and 2 sides.

A&A is $3210 Reconstruction and erection of new house is $6420 you need a QP to submit for you. Either registered architect or professional engineer