About Hacking Away My Bedroom Walls. Pls Give Comments

[Johnathan Xavier 0]

Recently one ID call in, asking me to hack away the wall in between my main bedroom and bedroom 2. He mention that my main bedroom is consider small. After putting King size bed, there hardly space to walk ard. Therefore he recommanded to hack the wall to replace the wall with my wardrobe. I understand that he is designing my house but what i may concern is, later part if i wan see the house... by hacking the wall, ppl might not like it. I understand hacking wall is cheap but building a wall is EX..But he explain that modern family nowadays dun bother much about how many room left but instead selecting the location of the house and its design. As mine house is a BTO premium, flooring is already done. I mention that i dun desire to remove the floor as i already paid for it. New flooring why remove rite? heart pain.. if hacking the wall mean the flooring may need touch up or redo..another expenses..

Inside me thinking, if I'm the buyer in the near future, I will fight for the price of the house as the wall is begin hacked and even i dun bother much abt it, i might need the room for my future kids..by hacking a wall mean.. 3 room become 2..

Anyone can give any suggestion abt it?

[Johnathan Xavier 0]

Is there any good design my this floor plan can come out with? Cos if dun hack my bedroom wall, he mention he design STANDARD lor... mean wat? Standard mean i walk in every house in the flat look the same or the placing of the wardrobe at my main bedroom toilet?( cos i find a few IDs, all state that my wardrobe place at my main bedroom toilet there...)

There no other solution? other den STANDARD?

[Soichiro 0]

To be honest... with demand still high above supply, the internals of your unit does not make that much of an influence in decision to buy your flat in the future. But... just plan according to how long you wish to stay there. With kids? Aged parents? etc?

btw, standard doesn't mean bad. It is just the most common solution. Standard layout can't go wrong, just not unique. Sometimes there's really no benefit in being unique, how often do you go to your neighbours' flats to compare?

And standard layout doesn't mean standard design. It can still look great if your ID is good, and not given as an excuse that since you don't want to hack a wall, the design will be "standard".

Edited April 7, 2011 by Soichiro

[edenstrauss 3]

I agree with Soichiro's comments!

I might just drop the ID if I'm in your shoes becox it seems like he has difficulty containing his creative genes within the client's framework. Not sure becox I've never dealt with your ID... but he might jux errr, be having an issue with his attitude. Do not let him push you around! Afterall you r the boss in this business of interior designing.

And, amalgamation of rooms are easily done since ur flat is undergoing a major renovation. However, in the near future, chances are u will regret doing so becox in our case, we regretted purchasing a flat with such a layout now that we've stayed on for 10 years.

The previous owners did what ur ID had suggested to u: combining both bedrooms. Not only is the bedroom not cosy, it gave rise to several fengshui issues. I didn't sleep well in it for some reason or another becox the bedroom is too big.

In addition, such flats are extremely difficult to sell becox it resembled more of a 3-room concept as u r left with jux 2 bedrooms. If u were to sell off in the near future, your clientele base would be narrowed down to young, newly married couples or singles. In fact, the previous owners had to renew their valuation report 3 times before they sold their flat to us. Their neighbours' flats had been snapped up like hotcakes as far back as 6-8 months ago - no exaggeration!

Nobody wanted such flats obviously. The mentality is that why pay a 5-room price for a flat when there r only 2 bedrooms? Why don't we buy a 3 room instead & pay lesser since it has 2 bedrooms too?

That makes a lot of sense to me now becox it's simply not practical to purchase such flats.

Those with a huge family might not be interested in your flat or they would haggle with u over the COV for your flat - cannot blame them becox in order to reinstate both rooms to its original condition, $ isn't just spent but tiles & skirtings around the area where hacking of wall is done (to recreate one of the bedroom doors) would crack.

Most contractor would simply replace those damaged tiles with designs that r similar or what's readily available. It can be a nightmare looking for replacement tiles especially in our case becox 15 years had lapsed since the tiling was done for our flat. We as owners had to go from one tile shop to another to search for a closest fit. And ceramic floor tiles r tough to look for (replaced by homogenous tiles) so we ended up combing through old tile shops. Finally found one that was about 80% similar to our existing tile. Took us about 1 month; going from store to store 3-4 times a week in searching.

We will be reinstating both rooms and that's where the real nightmare stepped in when we are already living in there with all our furnitures. The entire flat would be covered with dust from the knocking of the wall to recreate the doorway which was originally there when the previous owners bought the flat from HDB.

So why create problems for yourself??

Edited April 7, 2011 by edenstrauss

[Always Happy 0]

End of the day its about what you want really.

What the ID mentioned is not wrong, as if the internal structure do not change, the reno design will be very "standard" as opposed to the all the HDB

layout/reno you have seen around. otherwise to change the layout visually, you will have to do many builtin-capentry to break the the standard look.

Ps. if I were you, based on that layout, i will built up the study room, and not hack any walls.

A bedroom should be a resting place and just that, no TV, Hifi, computors stuffs like that should be left in the living/studying room.

[gimz63251073 0]

standard - probably he means that given the small bedrooms now, there can hardly be any differences in layout.

for example, positioning of bed and wardrobe would be in standard place. as there is no additional space to play with.

As for hacking, if u take a look at the t-blogs renovations. Many house owners hack down a wall or two during their renovations. So do u still think having less one wall makes the place less "saleable"?

If the location and amenities around the place is good, it will always be selling like "hot cakes".

Have fun in your renovation!

(yes ur ID appears to lack creativity, u might want to get more opinions)

[alan26 2]

Actually Alternatively if you dun want to hack the whole wall. you can a portion then make a sliding door to the other room which make it seems like a walk in wardrobe.

[marshmallow 0]

standard - probably he means that given the small bedrooms now, there can hardly be any differences in layout.

for example, positioning of bed and wardrobe would be in standard place. as there is no additional space to play with.

As for hacking, if u take a look at the t-blogs renovations. Many house owners hack down a wall or two during their renovations. So do u still think having less one wall makes the place less "saleable"?

If the location and amenities around the place is good, it will always be selling like "hot cakes".

Have fun in your renovation!

(yes ur ID appears to lack creativity, u might want to get more opinions)

agree that flats with walls hacked can still sell like hotcakes if location is good. i personally viewed one such flat and missed it cos we decided to OTP 5 mins too late. the house was only opened for viewing for 1 day and COV was 50k. why so? becos it's at Clementi, high floor, with sea view, near amenities, MRT and many good primary schools~

the highest psf price record for 4-room flat was near Bras Basah road, that was purchased by a Taiwanese couple some time last year. that flat was hacked until left with 1 bedroom if i remember correctly.

okie back to the topic - planning to have kids? parents or in-laws coming over to take care of the kids? possibly hiring a maid while staying in this place? if yes then you will need all the rooms, no need to think about hacking liao.

[edenstrauss 3]

I would like to moderate my earlier comments. What marshmallow said about the location makes sense. But for majority of the flats, the location is relatively average & I didn't think that potential buyers would overlook the taking down of walls for such locations.

Given the prime location of the bras basah flats, the taiwanese couple might jux be using the premises for business-related purposes.

My brother inlaw is staying near a taiwanese couple who bought a jumbo 3-rm next door & took down all the rooms except for one. They used the premises for buddhist prayers & worshipping purposes. So during the prayer sessions, the open space which is the up-sized living room becomes a prayer hall for devotees.

[Johnathan Xavier 0]

Hmmm agreed with edenstrauss..

(Nobody wanted such flats obviously. The mentality is that why pay a 5-room price for a flat when there r only 2 bedrooms? Why don't we buy a 3 room instead & pay lesser since it has 2 bedrooms too?)

Dun think the best way to hack the room, comparing the Pros to the CONs, best to design the Standard way rather...As my cureent location either a good location as it is at Sengkang area..

[Johnathan Xavier 0]

And i think tat ID after knowing i prefer not hacking the wall, sound "sigh", wont call back. I guarantee that he wont as i got a feeling he wan do a big job rather den just doing a standard. By telling me: Ok i will only help u do a STANDARD design lor, den he hangup the call.

Not mentioning who and the ID from... feel disappointed in the way he do thing and act after reading this forum that actually this Firm is doing good.

[May_dream1 14]

Hmmm agreed with edenstrauss..

(Nobody wanted such flats obviously. The mentality is that why pay a 5-room price for a flat when there r only 2 bedrooms? Why don't we buy a 3 room instead & pay lesser since it has 2 bedrooms too?)

Dun think the best way to hack the room, comparing the Pros to the CONs, best to design the Standard way rather...As my cureent location either a good location as it is at Sengkang area..

I want flats that the walls have been hacked. But after looking for so many, none had the walls hacked so I have to do it myself by doing renovation. Had sone problem with hdb approval but now all done. I like it.... So don't think that hacking walls will limit buyers to your unit.

Secondly, look at your own lifestyle. It's your own flat, not your future buyer flat. If you always worry abt your future buyer wants then it's not your flat anymore. Do what you like and need, ie rooms for kids and in laws then don't hack. But if you want big master bedroom so u can put baby cot and etc in it, then you would need it to be bigger.

Hope you will find what you really want in your own flat.

[emobebe 1]

I think you need to consider a few stuff before hacking the wall (if you really wanna do that)

1) Any elderly stay with you?

2) Got baby planning or future kids room?

3) If wanna hack, make sure you have a very good design on that particular room and overall theme? Why? My agent advised me before if anything hack inside the unit, COV will drop by 20k unless you have a very good location, high floor, near famous school, amenities etc.

4) How many years you will stay there? If 5 years only, then don't bother to hack. Just make it simple will do.

I disagree with your ID that hacking will do more design. It is depends on the creativity of designer. They can play around with the colours, materials and furnishing to make it more interesting. But I do agree the placement of wardrobe should be there. And maybe you wanna consider queen size bed instead of king size bed??

Just my own view only...the rest of forumers have their valid points too....for your consideration...

Cheers:) Emobebe

[gimz63251073 0]

hacking or not hacking is largely a decision made due to lifestyle needs.

a 5 room flat is a 5 room flat, the internal size does not change. While there are people who loves totally "wall less" homes, there will be others who prefer a house with walls. As it is now, families are getting smaller, and would really need less rooms as compared to the past.

going forward, my personal view is that people have long grown accustomed to homes with less walls and bigger rooms, partly due to the much smaller flats being built by hdb.

saying that a fully hacked place would have mean lower asking price cannot be further away from truth. More and more are seeking for a totally wall less place so that they can re-design the whole place. I would be very happy if i can find one such flat.

[therat 18]

Reno base on what your need and want.

But he explain that modern family nowadays dun bother much about how many room left but instead selecting the location of the house and its design.

And I disagree on this. I look for location and min reno cost. Design is not my concern. The previous owner taste is not my taste. What is in fashion now , will be out-dated 5 yrs later.

May be I'm not a modern family.

While searching high and low for a flat or our own.

We come across a 3.5 rm - location we want but they hack 2 rm into 1 rm. We don't want to spend extra $$ to rebuild the wall especially when the COV is very high. Seller will not lower their asking price b'coz of that

Next we come across a 4 rm flat - high floor, location we want.

But they hack 2 rms into 1 rm. So instead of 3 rm, it only has 2 rms and the seller insist of 80k COV due to his so-call show-flat reno. Which is quite nice but not my design taste.

My husband say

Even it is a 4rm HDB, it only has 2 rm. So what is the different of getting a 3rm flat. If I want 2 rms only, I rather buy a 3 rm flat. Cheaper.