Demolition Of Walls & Erection Of Walls (In-Between Bedrooms)

[edenstrauss 3]

Disclaimer:

Permission has been sought from our contractor, Ah Cheong for his renovation works at my home to be featured in this thread.

Kindly note that this thread is strictly for the purpose of sharing my humble & objective views of works and services provided by the aforesaid contractor. And not an advertising platform.

Reader's discretion is therefore sought when viewing this thread.

In view of issues pertaining to every individual's privacy, facial identities are witheld from the photographs featured in this thread.

Thank you for your kind understanding.

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Hey folks,

we finally got to the stage of reinstating both bedrooms.

Scenario:

When we first bought the flat 10 years ago, we felt that it was a marvelous concept that the previous owners brought down the wall between the MBR & the common room next door.

As such, we bought over a flat where the MBR and the common room were amalgamated to form one super huge MBR.

However, after 10 years down the road, we had aged and there was also a paradigm shift in our mentality. We felt that it was so silly & impractical of us to have bought such a flat. We paid tonnes of $ for a 5-room flat and only to be saddled with just 2 bedrooms (excluding a studyroom which had tempered glass sliding doors & couldn't be considered as a bedroom in proper). We might as well have bought a 3-room flat instead during our younger days as a newly wed couple!

Many who had were such buyers like us, had difficulty selling off flats with such layouts eventually. So we had decided to put back both rooms so that they could be used independent of each other.

Edited May 5, 2011 by edenstrauss

[edenstrauss 3]

Interviewing contractors & IDs:

We had spoken to several IDs and realised in no time that some of them do not take up such assignments because we did not require any interior designing or the job was not significant enough to beef up their profit margins.

And that all we required was just structural alteration works, which left out the presence of an ID in our equation.

So we figured out that the best bet is to approach the contractors directly and we interviewed more than 20, including those who were highly recommended over RT forum.

Finalising our selection of a cement specialist/ contractor:

Finally, we shortlisted a cement work specialist (Ah Cheong) who had been introduced to us by our network of friends.

He specialises in demolishing of walls, erection of walls, tiling works, plastering, etc i.e. any renovation works that involves cement.

Both his tiler and himself visited us sometime towards the last few months of last year - if I didn't recall wrongly, it was in October 2010. He was unable to proceed in taking on any new assignments as his hands were so full that the earliest we could get into the queue was after the Chinese New Year period in year 2011!

He had addressed ALL our concerns and had also mentioned the following which we weren't aware of:

a) the demolishing would cause the existing tiling and skirting to crack because of the impact of knocking.

b) measurements would be taken up to protect our flooring during the renovation works & to minimise tiling cracks.

c) red bricks are not allowed because our prefabricated flat would be unable to withstand the weight of having red bricks being piled ontop of hollow block walls. We were shocked because we had the idea that HDB flats were built of red bricks but he had mentioned that the exterior is but not the interior, which are built of hollow blocks, most probabbly the 2.5" type.

He gave us an option of using hollow blocks with either 2.5" or 4" thickness. We chose 4" for supposedly better accoustic properties i.e. privacy in blocking out of noise between the 2 bedrooms.

A quotation was emailed to us on a separate ocassion after he had worked out details of our assignment, which included an extension of cement platforms in our kitchen. It will cater to the DIY installation of our IKEA kitchen cabinets later on.

In view of other errands in the flat which had to be executed before the renovation e.g. fengshui audit, termination of telephone points, rewiring in both bedrooms, etc, there were delays in engaging him.

By the time we tried to get hold of him, we were almost feeling disappointed because his work schedule was so packed that... we were almost left out of the queue Not his fault because his business was so good that we could see from his appearance that he was overworked & totally worn out.

Edited May 11, 2011 by edenstrauss

[edenstrauss 3]

MBR : Its amalgamated appearance, i.e. before reno

This is an awful photograph of a section of the super-huge MBR before its reinstatement to its original HDB layout - it's too huge to be captured in the entire photograph:

The photo was taken in the afternoon and with its eastern facing, the lighting wasn't sufficient during that hour of the day; so it looked awful in the photo. Even the beautiful flooring had a "dirty" look.

So for those of you out there who had beautifully renovated designer homes, I could understand if u had a jaw breaking experience after looking at my threads with such a photograph!

hehehehehe

Obtaining the approval of the HDB permit

The approval for HDB permit for this minor renovation was delayed too because our contractor, Ah Cheong assumed that the approval would be granted within 3 working days so he submitted on a Tuesday the week before the desired week for renovation.

The renovation was scheduled to take place on the following Monday (in April 2011) but we were shocked when he told us that the permit hasn't been granted yet.

Ah Cheong wanted to ferry us down to HDB branch office but I called the HDB branch office at about 9.15 AM to find out the status. And the technical officer had gone through the stack of mailers, but there were no traces of approval for our HDB permit yet.

He had assured us that it shouldn't be an issue because the HDB Architect required time to do the necessary before approving; he also promised us that he would contact me once he received the approval.

And it was really nice of him to keep track of the status for us. He called us up on the very same day in the afternoon at about 3.30pm to inform us that the approval had been granted and that the letter to us owners would be on its way out to the post office.

Edited May 3, 2011 by edenstrauss

[edenstrauss 3]

Getting ready for the BIG day :

- Laying Protection over our existing tiling; and

- Uploading Raw Materials

While we were waiting for the HDB approval to be granted on that Monday, whereby the reno was supposed to kickstart on but didn't materialise, Ah Cheong wasted no time in sending down his staff, whom we nicknamed "Ah-Bui" (becox he was really tall & plump but very young & hardworking) and another foreign worker to lay the ground work for the BIG day - which was to take place the following morning (after the approval was given on that very same afternoon).

But both my hubby & myself were genuinely fond of him (we have many nephews of his age) because he is a very quiet worker who goes about getting things done without uttering a word. Quiet, stable and systematic was how we would describe him; and we prefer quiet, diligent workers to those talkative, lazy bones.

That's a photo of "Ah Bui" :

Corrugated paper (brand new) of a certain thickness had been laid, starting from the groove of our door step, all the way into our bedrooms. It was also extended like a red carpet that ran from the entrance all the way to the passage way where the wall is to be demolished to recreate a door entrance to the new bedroom (which used to be a common room next to the MBR from HDB's original floor plan).

Photo of a roll of corrugated paper:

Photo of one of the foreign workers putting the corrugated paper in place at the entrance of our MBR:

Photo of a long carpet of corrugated paper taken from outside out kitchen entrance

Photos of "Ah Bui" managing the taping of corrugated paper inside our MBR:

To be continued...

Edited May 11, 2011 by edenstrauss

[indira 0]

Hi Guys,

Just wanna ask, if we demolished the wall between room and merge 2 rooms become 1, is that true that when we sell back the flat the price will be below the market?

I am in hunting for HDB flats and found one in Jurong that we feel its good (airy and bright), but the owner merge the MBR with other bedroom.

THanks

[heyhoe 0]

Hi edenstrauss,

Please continue to post your account.

It'll be an interesting read for me as I'm in the same situation as you. Mine is currently MBR and Bedroom combined into one. It's nice to have a huge bedroom but the kids are growing up and they need their space.

Cheers,

Edited May 5, 2011 by heyhoe

[edenstrauss 3]

Hi Guys,

Just wanna ask, if we demolished the wall between room and merge 2 rooms become 1, is that true that when we sell back the flat the price will be below the market?

I am in hunting for HDB flats and found one in Jurong that we feel its good (airy and bright), but the owner merge the MBR with other bedroom.

THanks

Hi indira,

U'll hv 2 ask yourself if u r prepared to reinstate both rooms to its original HDB layout in the near future should the need arises. U'll never know; when we first bought this current flat 10 yrs ago, we never thought that we would put the rooms back. Regretted buying such a flat after staying in it for 10 yrs.

Different property agents tell us different things.

But in my opinion, it'll be very difficult to sell unless there are positive factors which make potential buyers overlook the downside of amalgamated rooms. e.g. the flat is located in town, central, surrounded by amenities, very accessible by transport, etc.

I believe that owners of amalgamated rooms should still be able to sell their flats but the challenge here is how much the buyers would be willing to pay for COV.

In my previous owners' case, they had to renew their valuation reports three times before they found naive buyers - like us... we felt like kicking ourselves now that we looked back on our decision to buy the flat. The COV was $11k whereas other flats were fetching COV $20-35K. Apart from the offer from us, they only had another from an Indian buyer, offering COV $2k.

The flat was move-in condition without any kitchen cabinets although the quality & workmanship of tiling & fixtures were premium. Still remains move-in condition with minimal reno done becox we have intentions to move on in the near future.

Edited May 5, 2011 by edenstrauss

[edenstrauss 3]

Hi edenstrauss,

Please continue to post your account.

It'll be an interesting read for me as I'm in the same situation as you. Mine is currently MBR and Bedroom combined into one. It's nice to have a huge bedroom but the kids are growing up and they need their space.

Cheers,

Hi heyhoe,

I would definitely be continuing with this thread. It's just that I'm taking longer to do so & upload the photos becox I'm pretty busy lately.

So stay tuned

[gimz63251073 0]

Hi Guys,

Just wanna ask, if we demolished the wall between room and merge 2 rooms become 1, is that true that when we sell back the flat the price will be below the market?

I am in hunting for HDB flats and found one in Jurong that we feel its good (airy and bright), but the owner merge the MBR with other bedroom.

THanks

i would say its highly subjective.

i came across a 3room flat - only 2 bedrooms and a storeroom in between bedrooms.

@ Clementi central, ard 5-7mins walk to mrt station. Mid floor, non-lift landing

sold at 40k COV to a family with kids.

Some people mind, but others don't mind, it really depends. They will of course take the chance to bargain, but u might meet someone willing to pay so that he/she can save on the hacking cost.

Cheers!

[edenstrauss 3]

Flats at Clementi don't come cheap. Especially if you compare that area to Jurong.

A friend of ours sold hers (just across the mrt station) at $485k for a 4-room flat & the reno done was very long time ago when she first got her flat thru HDB so the style is already outdated.

High COV.

Edited May 5, 2011 by edenstrauss

[edenstrauss 3]

Continuation of ...

Getting ready for the BIG day :

- Laying Protection over our existing tiling; and

- Uploading Raw Materials

Now you can see why we call him "Ah Bui" just by looking at this photo

And relatively thin sheets of wooden boards (brand new) were brought in and placed at the locations where cement mixture is to be prepared and where the demolishing would take place.

"Ah Bui" taping the wooden board to the MBR's floor:

Placing the wooden board where the debris would accumulate when demolishing of part of the wall takes place the following day:

[edenstrauss 3]

Then, they started bringing in the raw materials & equipment; which could be seen in the photos uploaded as below.

4" thick hollow blocks, sacks of cement, plasters, sand, etc.

Uploading the hollow blocks inside our MBR:

Photo of gunny sacks for containing debris, huge red spade and a red hammer weighing tonnes (for demolishing the wall to restore entrance to a door):

Photo of the hardworking foreign worker sweeping the corrugated carpet after uploading all the materials in our MBR:

Edited May 5, 2011 by edenstrauss

[edenstrauss 3]

All neat & fully equipped for the BIG DAY the next day!

[edenstrauss 3]

The arrival of the BIG DAY!

DAY 1

Our contractor, Ah Cheong, rushed over from another on-going project to our flat in the morning and pasted the HDB renovation permit outside our flat.

Without further delay, he started demolishing the wall with the red hammer that I couldn't even lift up!

The noise was deafening by our standards. We stood at a distance while he started knocking just above the skirting.

He was poised as if he was playing golf, but what a dangerously heavy "golf" club he was using!

And soon, a small hole was seen as the debris started falling onto the wooden board that was laid on the floor inside the common-room-to-be.

As he went on knocking the wall, the hole got bigger as more debris accumulated on the ground which was protected by thin sheets of wooden board.

The demolishing was conducted bottom up and he switched from the golfing posture to a top-hacking gear as you could see in the photos below:

Edited May 5, 2011 by edenstrauss

[edenstrauss 3]

Hacking of wall continued...

A pile of debris autographed by the "killer" hammer which I couldn't lift up, no matter how hard I tried to. I wondered how Ah Cheong managed to lift it up!

Now, both my hubby & myself knew where Ah Cheong got his gorgeous biceps from! he-he-he-he-he...

We observed Ah Cheong running to the common-room-to-be through the MBR's door throughout the demolishing exercise.

Not sure what he was looking out for. But, we saw him gathering up the pile of debris - as a buffer to more debris as the demolishing take place?? Some were thrown into the gunny sack but some were stacked onto the existing pile of debris.

We were so overwhelmed by the amount of dust fogging the living room that we could only guess what he was doing. And my hubby also reminded me to suppress my talkative genes so that Ah Cheong could conserve his energy for demolishing the wall

Jux look at the amount of dust flying in our flat by the time he completed the demolishing of the wall to create the entrance to our new common-room-to-be!!!

I hope that the photo has clearly captured the foggy atmosphere in our living room. It was a real nightmare becox we're still staying in the flat while this is happening!

Edited May 5, 2011 by edenstrauss