Preparing The House For Renovation

[kohkoh17 0]

Hello all,

I hope I came to the right place to seek help for my concerns about renovating my dad's 5 room HDB house for future rental. Basically he's thrown this huge project for me to complete and I need some guidance on how to start. I have absolutely no experience about how to go about doing this as it's my first time doing it. Hopefully there's a few kind souls here to help me out? Thanks in advance for responding! Below is my current situation and how I plan going about doing it. This is sort of my road map with a lot of things not figured out yet which I need help with. Questions are highlighted in blue.

1st Concern: Disposal of furniture and other junk

My dad's 5 room flat is full of unwanted materials ranging from broken doors, spoilt furniture, spoilt or totally old appliances like the oily and grimey stove. These has been a bad accumulation of junk in the house and requires heavy lifting in order to be thrown away. The bulk and quantity of it is a challenge.

(a)Question is... Is there any company that would help dispose of this junk? Supplying both manpower and the vehicle to send these junk to the right place? Can anyone recommend? Or do I get the foreign workers who clean the void decks to help shift all these junk away to the respective bins?

(b)Another concern is the things that I want to keep. Do I buy boxes to box them up and keep it one area of the house in order for the renovation works to start? Or do I send them to some storage space like Singpost's S3 storage solutions. Too much of a hassle to shift there and back?

2nd Concern: Getting contractor's quotation

After storing the stuff, I guess I will need to get the contractor to quote me for the renovations I intend to do...

I figured that I ought to just do the most basic renovation just to prep it up nice enough to be rented out. And these are a few things I thought of:

1. Removing the old carpet in the living room and 3 bedrooms and replace them with tiles. What are the cheapest kind?

2. Rewiring or checking the electrical wires. Some of the sockets are not functioning and just look disgustingly old.

3. Clearing and installing a new stove.

4. Buying and installing totally new aircons.

5. Installing New locks for some of the doors.

6. Repainting the whole house.

5. Cleaning of entire house after renovation. Grime, dirt, dust and all the yucky stuff.

Any other essential stuff I need to check whether there's a need to remove or replace? My budget is quite small, a mere $20 000 or less if possible and I would like to keep it around there by doing only the essentials, not any fancy cabinets other retrofittings.

Questions regarding renovation part:

a. Other than clearing the junk, What else do I need to prepare for the contractor before calling one up? Floorplan? Permits?

b. When I call the first contractor up, will he come down to "examine" the place and advise me on what to renovate or not to? I can tell him I will think about it before deciding on him right?

c. After he quotes me, I can just call another contractor up and repeat the above?

d. Usually they will give the workplan based on what I have decided to renovate or replace right?

e. How long does a renovation usually take for a typical 5 room flat?

f. Another thing is about the cost. If let's say I wanna replace the water heater but I bought my own water heater and want the contractor to fix it up, he will just charge me for the manpower costs right?

3rd Concern: Post Renovation

Decorating the house up and renting it out.

I figured I need to buy new furniture and appliances before re-renting the whole house out again. But first a few questions.

a. Do I call up an agent straight after renovation without any appliance whatsoever and ask them about how much I can fetch for this house and what's the bare minimum furniture or appliances required to rent it out?

b. What are the kinds of appliances or furniture (bare minimum) would you recommend in order to rent out? If possible, I figured it's best to get some second hand furniture right?

These are a few things I thought about that pose as direct concerns to my planning and vision of how I need to embark on this journey of renovation. Sorry for the very amateurish approach as it is my first time doing such a huge project by myself (I am only 21 =X). My dad has good faith in me but I need some advice and confidence boost in order for this project to materialise and be a success =). It is another income stream for the both of us and I would like to Up the value of my house. I thank in advance once again to those who sincerely reply and for all the help I could get. Any other things I missed out that are important?

Regards,

Kelvin =)

[junktoclear 0]

Hi Kelvin,

I might just know the exact service that will help you to remove all the junk from your house.

Perhaps you could let me know how I could contact you to tell you more about this junk removal service. It is a business service that I run.

Please feel free to contact me at 91382285 for any inquries.

Thank you.

Regards,

Darren

Hello all,

I hope I came to the right place to seek help for my concerns about renovating my dad's 5 room HDB house for future rental. Basically he's thrown this huge project for me to complete and I need some guidance on how to start. I have absolutely no experience about how to go about doing this as it's my first time doing it. Hopefully there's a few kind souls here to help me out? Thanks in advance for responding! Below is my current situation and how I plan going about doing it. This is sort of my road map with a lot of things not figured out yet which I need help with. Questions are highlighted in blue.

1st Concern: Disposal of furniture and other junk

My dad's 5 room flat is full of unwanted materials ranging from broken doors, spoilt furniture, spoilt or totally old appliances like the oily and grimey stove. These has been a bad accumulation of junk in the house and requires heavy lifting in order to be thrown away. The bulk and quantity of it is a challenge.

(a)Question is... Is there any company that would help dispose of this junk? Supplying both manpower and the vehicle to send these junk to the right place? Can anyone recommend? Or do I get the foreign workers who clean the void decks to help shift all these junk away to the respective bins?

(b)Another concern is the things that I want to keep. Do I buy boxes to box them up and keep it one area of the house in order for the renovation works to start? Or do I send them to some storage space like Singpost's S3 storage solutions. Too much of a hassle to shift there and back?

2nd Concern: Getting contractor's quotation

After storing the stuff, I guess I will need to get the contractor to quote me for the renovations I intend to do...

I figured that I ought to just do the most basic renovation just to prep it up nice enough to be rented out. And these are a few things I thought of:

1. Removing the old carpet in the living room and 3 bedrooms and replace them with tiles. What are the cheapest kind?

2. Rewiring or checking the electrical wires. Some of the sockets are not functioning and just look disgustingly old.

3. Clearing and installing a new stove.

4. Buying and installing totally new aircons.

5. Installing New locks for some of the doors.

6. Repainting the whole house.

5. Cleaning of entire house after renovation. Grime, dirt, dust and all the yucky stuff.

Any other essential stuff I need to check whether there's a need to remove or replace? My budget is quite small, a mere $20 000 or less if possible and I would like to keep it around there by doing only the essentials, not any fancy cabinets other retrofittings.

Questions regarding renovation part:

a. Other than clearing the junk, What else do I need to prepare for the contractor before calling one up? Floorplan? Permits?

b. When I call the first contractor up, will he come down to "examine" the place and advise me on what to renovate or not to? I can tell him I will think about it before deciding on him right?

c. After he quotes me, I can just call another contractor up and repeat the above?

d. Usually they will give the workplan based on what I have decided to renovate or replace right?

e. How long does a renovation usually take for a typical 5 room flat?

f. Another thing is about the cost. If let's say I wanna replace the water heater but I bought my own water heater and want the contractor to fix it up, he will just charge me for the manpower costs right?

3rd Concern: Post Renovation

Decorating the house up and renting it out.

I figured I need to buy new furniture and appliances before re-renting the whole house out again. But first a few questions.

a. Do I call up an agent straight after renovation without any appliance whatsoever and ask them about how much I can fetch for this house and what's the bare minimum furniture or appliances required to rent it out?

b. What are the kinds of appliances or furniture (bare minimum) would you recommend in order to rent out? If possible, I figured it's best to get some second hand furniture right?

These are a few things I thought about that pose as direct concerns to my planning and vision of how I need to embark on this journey of renovation. Sorry for the very amateurish approach as it is my first time doing such a huge project by myself (I am only 21 =X). My dad has good faith in me but I need some advice and confidence boost in order for this project to materialise and be a success =). It is another income stream for the both of us and I would like to Up the value of my house. I thank in advance once again to those who sincerely reply and for all the help I could get. Any other things I missed out that are important?

Regards,

Kelvin =)

[tchinlai 0]

regarding your second concern, do consider carefully. prices aside, working attitude is very important, pre and post work.

most contractor and ID are good only pre work, when trying to close your deal.

don't end up like me.

my posting on my ID has not been published, i guess i made it too clear who my ID was although i did't mention names.