snoozee

my reply is still pending approval from the moderators as it contains a URL. basically new world centre along jalan berseh. note that it is jalan berSEH, not jalan bersah. jalan berSEH is a side road along the stretch of jalan bersah. at new world centre, walk from the jalan bersah side of the building to the other end of the building. there should be a shop selling all kinds of door handles and locks. just go in and ask for the type you want. ask/request to see if you can just buy the door handles without the rest of the accessories since you have no use for them. it may be cheaper without the accessories. the other "problem" is that the existing plastic handles or new metal handles may utilize a c-clip retaining clip to hold the handle in place. so you will need to use some small flat head screw drivers to pry the clip open or buy a special plier to remove and insert the retaining clips another potential issue is that the door handles have actually a square metal rod that connects to the door handle and is inserted to the latching mechanism to lock/unlock the door. the new set of metal handles will come with 1 of this rod so you should be ok if just changing a single door. but if you are changing for 2 doors, you may need to source for another piece of this metal rod. Also have a set of allen keys ready as the new metal handles will normally be secured to the metal rod by a small screw which can only be removed by an allen key.

received some PMs on where to buy the door handle. I bought it from a shop selling door knobs and such at jalan berseh. google map location https://www.google.com.sg/maps/@1.3071309,103.8577181,21z however I'm not sure if the shop is still there as of today as it was bought years ago.

normally the contractors would do a pre-construction survey on immediate neighbours' houses to protect themselves. but in the event damages does occur, the contractor would offer to rectify/repair the damages unless the owner insist on using their own contractors to perform the rectification work. painting wise, I can't comment but I guess it's normally based on how extensive is the damage and repairs. you can search online for BCA Be Good Neighbours on some guidelines from BCA.

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Add an additional storey or attic will be considered as reconstruction and no longer A&A. 300k if just construction cost maybe. But if you want everything including submission fees and professional fess then unlikely to happen.

I don't see any issues with that. if your countertop is already installed, then that will be an issue. but if it's still just having the plywood frame which is eventually going to be covered, then not a big deal actually. however since this is your house and if you don't like what you see, just tell the carpenters nicely not to do that in future

We were told that the construction loan is normally at prime lending rates which is about 5%. But DBS offer to me is at 3.4% +FHR8 which essentially is at 3.9%. the construction loan is based on 75% of the construction cost (from the contractor's quote you submit to the bank). so you don't get full 100% loan for your construction. disbursements will only happen after you have paid 25% of the construction cost to your contractor. eg: construction cost is 1M. bank will loan you 750K. you need to pay 250K to your contractor first before bank will start disbursing the construction loan directly to your contractor based on the contractor's progress claims and certified by the QP. the construction loan will be converted to home loan after TOP is obtained. rates will then be adjusted to be in sync with the home loan rates. different banks will have different loan quantum and interest rates so ask around. but if you have an existing home loan from a bank, chances are you will end up getting the construction loan from the same bank if the bank offers construction loans.

technically you are not allowed to do concealed wiring yourself by hacking the walls. unless you are doing a false ceiling or L-box where the wiring is concealed inside than is ok. the green dot location is good for the router. but do note that you will need to provide a power point for the router at that location as well unless you are getting a wireless access point which can run on POE which will mean you will need to buy a POE switch. if you want the ONT to be at the same location, then another power point there as well. if your switch for the wired points is going to be there, means another power socket as well. running Cat6 cable should be cheaper than fiber optics. it is not recommended to run network cable together with power cables due to possible electrical interference from the power cables to the network cables. but if your cat6 cables have shielding in them, then it should be ok. HDB floor plan indicates structural beams and columns. beams will only be at the ceiling area and anything below the beam will just be just normal walls. from your floor plan, can't really confirm if they are just beams or columns. either way, you can't hack the beams and columns. my suggestion is for you to just keep the ONT with the fiber termination point and have all the Cat6 cables run to that location. if you want, run another set of power point and Cat6 cable to the green dot location for your wireless router/AP.

I don’t think have anything off the shelf that can do what you want. But it is technically possible with some custom IOT hardware to interface with the gate hardware. For me, I just purchased a set of video doorbell with 4 video monitors and it also comes with electrical lock for gate with a remote controller to unlock the gate or can use the video monitor or video door bell (with access key/card) to unlock. All are hardwired from inside the house to gate. Entire setup cost me less than $500 from AliExpress.

is your backsplash from Hafary RM Calacatta or RM Statuario porcelain tiles? mind PM me the granite supplier you used so I can avoid them?

officially, pre-con CCTV is no longer needed by PUB and normally if works does not involve sewer, I think no one would want to add on this expense as well. the thing is when the site survey is done, did the topo contractors measure the invert level of the existing IC? if yes, then did someone pick up from the plans that the existing IC's invert level may be insufficient? for my house, the existing IC's invert level to FFL is only about 730mm which is below the required 750mm and I had raised this to my architect. but in the end as we are abandoning this IC, it didn't turn out to be a problem at all. since you mentioned that the new floor level needs to be raised, would the new floor level be at least 750mm from the bottom of the IC to clear PUB's requirements?

is it the glue which they used to stick the glass to the wall?

Too low or too high relative to your new finished floor level? Unless you are changing your existing finished floor level by quite a bit, usually shouldn’t be an issue. Of cos if the level difference is already marginal then no choice. The bottom of the IC must be at a certain level from the finished floor level to prevent backflow. But this level must be high enough to provide a minimum gradient for the connection to the public sewer. Unfortunately this out of scope expense is something you have no choice but to fork out else you can’t move forward in your construction

Not sure if this would work. Depending on where the broken connection is located, you could possibly build a new IC at that broken part so that this IC serves your house and also is connected to the existing IC. So the new IC will become the last IC instead.

Imzz, ask your architect or builder to get the plumber in for discussion. The plumber will be the best person to give advise as they will know the regulations for sanitary requirements better. My opinion is this. If the IC is shared by your neighbour, you cannot abandon it. If the sewer connection is broken, you will need to fix it else waste water will flow into the soil and cause issues. unless you are willing to spend $$ to build another connection to the main sewer and then possibly let your neighbour use this new sewer connection as well then you can abandon the existing IC. However this also depends on whether the neighbour behind you allows you to dig up his back yard to do the new sewer connection or not (I assume the main sewer is running through your back neighbour’s house which is common in old estates) There are quite a bit of rules and regulations on how sewers can be connected so best to get the plumber involved and this will also need submission to PUB for approval

I think you will still need to go through the entire planning process for approval from URA, BCA, SCDF, etc. I had toyed about this idea before but decided it's not worth doing it in Singapore. firstly you are restricted by the dimensions of the containers which is either 20ft, 40ft or 45ft. the height of the containers are either 8ft or 9.6ft with the width all standard at 8ft (2.43m). so if you have a inter terrace land which is about 20ft wide, you can only put in 2 containers side by side. then you need to think about how to join the containers together and where to cut holes to build the stairs to connect to the upper containers. so essentially your house design must be done around the constraints of the container size. secondly you will need to use structural steel to do any additional joints, stairs, etc for the containers and steel is expensive in Singapore. unless you have a plot of land which is for detached house, I would say it's not really worth doing it in Singapore. of cos if you decide to do it, do share your journey with us.

if your house is very old, the BCA plans may not contain the necessary information. so in order to find out the various levels of your house, you would need to engage a surveyor to perform the topo survey. from this topo survey, you can know the actual level of the 1st storey floor of your house. since you are doing a major A&A, you can see if your contractor can do the topo survey for you to get the levels of the house. of cos if any of your neighbors have rebuilt or done a reconstruction in recent years, can always ask to see their architectural plans and guage which level your house is at from the information in their plans.

government agencies have to respond within 3 working days to emails. if you write to ST forum and your letter is published, confirm will get a reply from HDB. Or can contact TNP or the Chinese news papers and see if they are interested to do an article on the issue. HDB will surely respond once the thing gets blown up.

write to BSC, write to HDB. give them 3 working days to reply. if never reply, write in to strait times forum then HDB sure will respond.

technically this still can be done as long as the existing terrain allows for this. there is a detached house in the east side which is finishing it's redevelopment and the architects has designed the house to have a basement garage where the entrance is from the side which is on a sloping road. it is lucky that this plot of land is sitting on a corner of a cross junction so technically the house have two frontages instead of one hence they are able to shift the entrance to the slope side which allows for this. of cos the other option is for you to find a house which already has done this and just buy it.

I think different banks have different requirements. DBS just asked me for the approval letter from URA(which contains the architect’s information) or BCA along with the quotation from the builder

If you look at google maps old photos of the area, this cluster housing development is actually built on a hilly terrain where the developers carved out the roads from the existing hill. as the front of the house at road level is much lower than the rear of the house they can declare the car park as a basement since the houses are built on a "sloping" ground and the basement is fully enclosed save for the entrance to the car park. so the "car porch roof" you see is technically the first storey floor stab which has some set back from the boundary. there are many factors affecting each and every house development (since each plot of land is different) and is also subjected to planning decisions by URA. URA looks at each development plan individually and also based on the existing terrain. planning decisions are made based on the guidelines of the current day. so even if some houses are developed with some "special features" years ago, you will not be able to get these "special features" today since the current planning guidelines no longer allow for them. for example, there is a huge development in ang mo kio area where landed houses are being built in phases. these landed houses which are built today have NO household shelters built in them and even the houses built in the later phases maybe 5 or 10 years down the road will NOT NEED to have household shelters built. the reason given was that the entire development was approved before the household shelter act came into place in 1997 so there's no need to these houses to comply with the current regulations of needing a HS for each house. if you want a basement for your house, it must be fully enclosed or have a max of 1 meter protrusion from the ground. unless your house is in a low lying area where the existing ground level is below the MPL then you can have an exposed basement since anything below that MPL can be declared as a basement. if your house is on a sloping terrain, then it's up to your architect to design the basement and whether URA accepts the design based on the current planning guidelines or not. edit: developer has declared a ground level at PL119.275. so anything that is below this level is considered a basement. Also the development was approved in 2014 which was before the envelop control guidelines came into place. so many things which can be done before the envelop control guidelines is not allowed to be done now.

best is check with an electrician on costing water heater utilizes 20A so will need to connect to a 20A MCB. the MCB is needed so that power supply can be cut off if a fault occurs in your water heater.

for my previous flat, immediately outside the main door is a flight of stairs. so when our block had to go through lift upgrading, the units (except top floor) had to have a lift landing built where the balcony area is. so end up the units all have another main door built at the balcony area. so if your block has the exact same staircase layout at my previous flat and has not gone through lift upgrading, you may encounter the same situation where a new door is built at your balcony.

truth and lie you can't make the cabinet exactly the same width as the opening. normally will be a bit smaller so can fit in. but from your picture. the measurements seemed to be quite off which resulted in them using a bigger piece of laminate to cover up the hole there. maybe you can look below the cabinet and see if there is indeed a gap on the right side. this is provided the contractor had not used any laminate to cover up the hole as well.