Builder Vs Architect

[pantieileen 2]

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Edited October 12, 2011 by pantieileen

[pantieileen 2]

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Edited October 12, 2011 by pantieileen

[iamken 0]

Hi Lee... thanks for the info on the GST. But I guess it is their way of putting it in my invoice to make it attractive (as pantieileen suggested). Since they are BCA registered, and in business for the past 20 years, they should know what they are doing.

Anyway, as the norm, this uncle will collect progressive payments after every stage of construction. Which means I will not pay anything until the first part is completed, which will be the demolition. "Pay only for the work I shown you I have done", that is what he say and in the contract too. I guess he is the one with deep pockets.

If worse scenario if they flipped or under investigate, I guess my losses will be minimal under such payment modes. For what I know, I may get things done and not paid yet... hahaha. Find another contractor loh. But then again there may be some implications which I may not know. That's why I am learning from the experienced forumners here.

Twothumbs.... yeah, lots of people told me not financially logical to get solar power. Nevermind, I will wait. My shelter will have both flat and sloped tiled rooftops. Ready for whatever solar designs what-come-may in future when the price is right.

pantieileen.... (can I call you eileen? easier to type).... noted on your advise on floorings. Maybe at the later stage I will be asked to select the floorings. Wow, you got marble floorings. I reckon your ground floor is about 2000sqft.... which translate to $4.80 psf for marble..... cheap!! But I understand that marble is quite porous, so if got spills and not cleaned up fast = stains. The reason I am concerned is that we are actually a young family (me, wife, mom and maid). First kid coming in Sept, and hopefully a couple more in the near future. So the house has to have 'strong defences' (at least for the next 10 yrs) against pesky toddlers and kids.

gong.... let me start the project first before I pass you the contact. By then I can better advise you.

[tubbie 0]

Hi iamken,

I'm in a similar situation as you. I bought a place recently in opera estate, inter-terrace, single storey. The place is currently tenanted till end-2012. Afterwhich, I intend to do some A&A or reconstruction works, but am on a limited budget. Hence, I would like to go the builder route, instead of appointing an architect, which will be quite pricey.

As cost is my main concern, I would appreciate if you could share the contacts for your builder. I've also PM-ed you in case you are not comfortable in sharing on open forum. Thanks in advance!

[pud 0]

Hi all,

After 2 mths of selection... i got myself a builder. This fella has been doing constructions for houses in the vicinity. So he has a good knowledge of the current house structure and terrain. He even brought me to view 6 already-done houses in the neighbourhood, which the owners warmly welcome him and me as their guests. Now talk about good rapport with past customers.... that is one builder I can trust.

Price $399k for A&A

Include

2000sqft to 3000sqft built up

2 sty to 2.5 sty

option of tiled (German flat tiles) or flat concrete rooftop

Airwell and super big sky light

DB to each sty

auto gate

all bedrooms, toilets and main door

chopping down of two existing trees

electrical wirings and plumbing pipings

only the staircase is retained... all other walls will be torn down

'envelope' facade walls all the way to the setback boundary

800 x 800 homo floor tiles (opt for all tiles as I dun like parquet)

Not Included

PE $18.5k (builder's partner... abit pricey, but since they got years of experience in the neighbourhood, they knew where are the problematic beams and columns... so can 'tackle' it, and submit for a-first-try-can-get-approve design.

aircon

toilet and kitchen vanity

lightings

carpentry

Will update all on my building progress.

Oh yah, to put up your construction for tender may not mean cheaper quotes. Tell you all next time.

[pud 0]

Hi all,

After 2 mths of selection... i got myself a builder. This fella has been doing constructions for houses in the vicinity. So he has a good knowledge of the current house structure and terrain. He even brought me to view 6 already-done houses in the neighbourhood, which the owners warmly welcome him and me as their guests. Now talk about good rapport with past customers.... that is one builder I can trust.

Price $399k for A&A

Include

2000sqft to 3000sqft built up

2 sty to 2.5 sty

option of tiled (German flat tiles) or flat concrete rooftop

Airwell and super big sky light

DB to each sty

auto gate

all bedrooms, toilets and main door

chopping down of two existing trees

electrical wirings and plumbing pipings

only the staircase is retained... all other walls will be torn down

'envelope' facade walls all the way to the setback boundary

800 x 800 homo floor tiles (opt for all tiles as I dun like parquet)

Not Included

PE $18.5k (builder's partner... abit pricey, but since they got years of experience in the neighbourhood, they knew where are the problematic beams and columns... so can 'tackle' it, and submit for a-first-try-can-get-approve design.

aircon

toilet and kitchen vanity

lightings

carpentry

Will update all on my building progress.

Oh yah, to put up your construction for tender may not mean cheaper quotes. Tell you all next time.

Sorry about the empty posted reply above. I am new and still figuring my way around. This thread has been useful - thanks for sharing. I am just curious why you say if you put up your construction for tender , it may not mean cheaper quotes? So if use architect to call for tender, the resulting quotes may be higher than if you have approached various builders on individual basis? Could you show us the light? Thanks v much!

[pantieileen 2]

Sorry about the empty posted reply above. I am new and still figuring my way around. This thread has been useful - thanks for sharing. I am just curious why you say if you put up your construction for tender , it may not mean cheaper quotes? So if use architect to call for tender, the resulting quotes may be higher than if you have approached various builders on individual basis? Could you show us the light? Thanks v much!

Coz when u itemize tenders, vendors will go to the lowest prices and if u didn't specify anything correct and wnat to add later, the costs starts mounting up since they won't have enough margins to absorb. And with tender, most clients tend to go with the lowest quote without understanding much on the vendors' workmanship, showmanship, after sales service etc etc.

Now i know showmanship **** important esp if u have super fussy neighbors like mine!

Oh by the way Ken, your project seems similar to mine price also sama sama.

I'm so happy with my airwell. it actually creates lighting patterns at night depending on which lights i switch on.

[DWELLER 0]

Hi iamken,

I am looking to rebuild a house in my garden (about 2900 sq.ft) and will have to knock down the 1st storey extension to the existing house. Also have a very tight budget too. Can u pls email me yr builder's contact? If it is not too inconvenient for you, you may forward the contact to me at livevac@gmail.com

Thank you very much.

Lee

[DWELLER 0]

Hi,

Can anyone kindly advise what is the cheapest cost of constructing a 3 ft X 11 ft lap pool in today's market price? Do contractor quote by per sq ft? Is 11ft considered normal or too short for a lap pool? Should depth be ideally 1.5 m to 2.00 m? Thank you.

Lee

[AnneY 0]

Hello Lee, if you are building another house next to your existing house (ie. you will have 2 houses in the plot of land), its likely you have to pay a development charge which could be quite hefty. Have you look at this item?

[leechaorui 2]

Hello Lee, if you are building another house next to your existing house (ie. you will have 2 houses in the plot of land), its likely you have to pay a development charge which could be quite hefty. Have you look at this item?

When it is a different and separate plot of land,I don't think it attracts Development Charge. It will attract Development Charge when you build two or more houses on one plot of land by sub-dividing it.

[DWELLER 0]

When it is a different and separate plot of land,I don't think it attracts Development Charge. It will attract Development Charge when you build two or more houses on one plot of land by sub-dividing it.

Hi AnneY and Lee Chao Rui,

Thank you so much for your information concerning Development Charge. When I spoke to some PEs, builders and architects, none of them mentioned development charge. Will look into it again. Is there anyway one can get around it without incurring dev. charge. How much would the development charge be for a 2,900 sq. ft land with built up of around 4,000 sq.ft? Don't understand how they do the calculations.

Does one who has bungalow land and subdivide into 2 semi-D have to pay development charge as well?

Lee

[leechaorui 2]

Hi AnneY and Lee Chao Rui,

Thank you so much for your information concerning Development Charge. When I spoke to some PEs, builders and architects, none of them mentioned development charge. Will look into it again. Is there anyway one can get around it without incurring dev. charge. How much would the development charge be for a 2,900 sq. ft land with built up of around 4,000 sq.ft? Don't understand how they do the calculations.

Does one who has bungalow land and subdivide into 2 semi-D have to pay development charge as well?

Lee

Yes, you will attract development charge when you sub divide your ONE bungalow land and build it into a pair of semi detached. See the following website for more details: http://www.ura.gov.sg/dc/brochure-devtcharge.pdf

[roxy 0]

Would like to know if there is a need to apply for approval fr ura/bca to create a loft aka mezzanine within my master bedroom?

Anyone with such experience. The house is 2.5 sty. The loft within the master bedroom has a very high sloping roof.

The loft will become a triangle when enclosed and entry to it will be fr the 3rd storey. Planning to have a skylight.

Would appreciate if you could recommend contractors familiar with such works esp skylight. I tried the Velus skylight agent who does installation,

but to my surprise they only install w/o the roofing works, which is done by the roofing contractor.... i find contractors here lacking imagination.

Would appreciate any help. Thanks.

Edited March 11, 2012 by roxy

[pantieileen 2]

Would like to know if there is a need to apply for approval fr ura/bca to create a loft aka mezzanine within my master bedroom?

Anyone with such experience. The house is 2.5 sty. The loft within the master bedroom has a very high sloping roof.

The loft will become a triangle when enclosed and entry to it will be fr the 3rd storey. Planning to have a skylight.

Would appreciate if you could recommend contractors familiar with such works esp skylight. I tried the Velus skylight agent who does installation,

but to my surprise they only install w/o the roofing works, which is done by the roofing contractor.... i find contractors here lacking imagination.

Would appreciate any help. Thanks.

You mean those skylight which you could cover during day time then comes with remote control that could retract at night to see stars?

http://skylights.veluxusa.com/consumer/galleries/residential_cases/200yr_old_renovation

My builder suggested those kind but i didn't want to spend extra 5k (each panel) since i'm not really interested in stars and i wear a eye mask to sleep so also cannot see stars when i sleep. I opted for a fixed skylight in my walk in wardrobe (1 square in the middle of the walk in walk in wardrobe) and airwell (2 squares). The airwell is the size of private lift. Each panel costs $800 or was it $800 for 3 panels (sorry can't remember) but its done by the roof contractor (uncle said very very common these days). Because it's just 1 piece of glass permanently fixed i cannot imagine paying more than 1k for it.

Those that can retract you'll need to purchase the parts from the agent and of coz get your own contractor to fix.

Oh but i also applied 3M tint to it all the skylight (scared spoil my parquet flooring)

If you want breeze and easy opening, opt for dorma windows at least idiot proof to open and it's legal.

One thing i like about skylight. the ambience of the house change according to weather and it's very pretty. I also found out that by turning on different lights at night (ground floor, 2nd floor, attic floor) the lighting effect of the entire house changes. Ok maybe i'm being niow but at night i just on 2 energy saving lights on my attic floor and the entire airwell gets illuminated (attic all the way to ground floor) so it's "safe" and there's also no need to on the staircase lights (waste my expensive staircase lighting costs

Edited March 13, 2012 by pantieileen