Mansionette Owner

[adidaem 6]

Hi Fellow EM owners,

I need some advice.

We are planning to change the orientation of our stairs. Only the bottom half to be exact. I have seen it done previously but now for my submission, I am having some problems.

The entry of the stairs is now facing my main door, and I would like to change it to face the kitchen instead. We do have a PE ready to endorse but now we are told we need to get approval from BCA? That would take 2 months and another 8k. ;(

We wanted to work around it by adding an additional flight of stairs to join the landing and covering up the original bottom half so that technically, we are not changing the structure and orientation by hacking.

Now we are stuck since adding another flight of stairs requires BCA approval.

Try contacting kooky to ask how she got hers approved?

http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/58892-ks-home/page-4

Pls let us know how it turns out and good luck!

[linglun 0]

Hi Adidaem,

You are fast! Thanks for your prompt reply!

I have PM'ed Kooky previously and anxiously waiting for her reply.

My hb had this idea previously but we were sceptical if it could be done. But after seeing Kooky's pictures, we were convinced!

[Vdubber 0]

Hi Vdubber,

Thanks for updating, will be looking forward to see the progress of your place too!

Good luck with your stair change! Cheers mate! Do keep in touch.

[Vdubber 0]

Hi Vdubber,

My unit originally came with roller shutters and I almost wanted to keep it. Until someone pointed out an important fact. I'm doing an open concept when there are no walls separating kitchen from living area and service balcony. But... My aircon compressor for level 1 has to be installed within the service balcony. Problem - if my aircon compressor is there, and its raining, I'll need to close the shutters to prevent rain from splashing in. With the roller shutters down, there is no way for the hot air from the compressor to escape. This will totally defeat me having the aircon switched on. To go around this problem, I removed the roller shutters and installed 6 panels of top hanging windows. The compressor will be installed such that the fan will be blowing out wards and the top hung window where the compressor is, will be kept open. The rest of the 5 panels will be closed. This way, I also hv sunlight coming in on raining days and it won't feel so dark. You can refer to my T-blog link below (page 5) for pics of the windows at the service balcony and page 6 for my kitchen extension into service balcony area. Just wanted to highlight this in case you are going for total open concept too.

Hi 3Dyms,

Thanks for your warm welcome and suggestions. I am also going with the very open concept with not walls separating kitchen, balcony and living. Like you I will also have an air-con compressor up in the balcony area to power the upper level rooms. For the lower level I will only be using ceiling fans. I foresee only using air-con on those very hot nights for sleeping and wont really be using the living room at those hours. Thus I am hoping to get the same roller shutter as Adidaem's as they have a setting with tiny gaps opened. I hope that will be enough to dissipate the heat generated.

Edited September 17, 2013 by Vdubber

[ferddy03 0]

Actually we keep a small gap open if we still want the aircon. No problems with this arrangement. Installing glass means some slightly dangerous cleaning or learning to adapt to dirty window panels... Not a fan of either so I will still go for shutters. With windows the effect is quite different vs opening to the sky. Anyway am not a fan of the toilet windows opening into an enclosed balcony concept.

My balcony is tiled so no problem with it getting a bit wet. In fact we chose outdoor tiles cos we expected the balcony to get wet (and so wanted less slippery tiles).

Hi Adidaem, we are planning to install roller shutters from Paul Aluminium too. May I know how it is so far? Any problems with it? Can't seem to find any other roller shutter companies. Thank you!

[fitfitchan 0]

Hi Adidaem, we are planning to install roller shutters from Paul Aluminium too. May I know how it is so far? Any problems with it? Can't seem to find any other roller shutter companies. Thank you!

try beng's Shutter

http://www.bengshutterdoors.com.sg/

[adidaem 6]

Hi Adidaem, we are planning to install roller shutters from Paul Aluminium too. May I know how it is so far? Any problems with it? Can't seem to find any other roller shutter companies. Thank you!

Ok so far, & no problems. FYI they are using Becker Motor mechanism.

[adidaem 6]

Hi 3Dyms,

Thanks for your warm welcome and suggestions. I am also going with the very open concept with not walls separating kitchen, balcony and living. Like you I will also have an air-con compressor up in the balcony area to power the upper level rooms. For the lower level I will only be using ceiling fans. I foresee only using air-con on those very hot nights for sleeping and wont really be using the living room at those hours. Thus I am hoping to get the same roller shutter as Adidaem's as they have a setting with tiny gaps opened. I hope that will be enough to dissipate the heat generated.

AC downstairs is important leh. Like when there is haze... Plus hot days of course.

[Vdubber 0]

AC downstairs is important leh. Like when there is haze... Plus hot days of course.

I agree, but I cannot afford it now. The quotations for my reno just got in and I almost fainted. haha.

Also in my case, with and open balcony and stairwell, I doubt aircon will really be feasible.

[vanessa 12]

I agree, but I cannot afford it now. The quotations for my reno just got in and I almost fainted. haha.

Also in my case, with and open balcony and stairwell, I doubt aircon will really be feasible.

Hi hi! I opted to not have air conditioning for the first level too. Mainly cos of the energy consumption and well the house is very open....i have knocked down a lot of walls. One of the pros and cons i weighed..was the worry of the haze. But then again...my current place has AC for the whole house, and when the haze hit...we didn't turn on the AC in the living...only in the bedrooms. So in the end we decided not to be rulled by the haze. At the end of the day..the haze was very bad this time round...but hey...the other few years...it was bad but not THAT bad...so didn't wanna make a rash decision. If it is really bad...hide in the room!

btw how many quotes are you getting before engaging your contractor? I think i "interviewed" five contractors before making my final decisions. Some of the quotes is crazy high! The difference between my cheapest quote and my most expensive quote was over 30K!

[kerazykat 0]

Hi Guys, i've been reading silently all of your EM blogs! Very naise!

The husband and I are looking to get one. But not sure if we should just stick to EA. Considering market now, was wondering if paying 40k for a * EM is reasonable? The home we are looking at is fully furnished but like not very modern design lah. But definitely move in condition. Any advice?

[Vdubber 0]

Hi hi! I opted to not have air conditioning for the first level too. Mainly cos of the energy consumption and well the house is very open....i have knocked down a lot of walls. One of the pros and cons i weighed..was the worry of the haze. But then again...my current place has AC for the whole house, and when the haze hit...we didn't turn on the AC in the living...only in the bedrooms. So in the end we decided not to be rulled by the haze. At the end of the day..the haze was very bad this time round...but hey...the other few years...it was bad but not THAT bad...so didn't wanna make a rash decision. If it is really bad...hide in the room!

btw how many quotes are you getting before engaging your contractor? I think i "interviewed" five contractors before making my final decisions. Some of the quotes is crazy high! The difference between my cheapest quote and my most expensive quote was over 30K!

Looks like I will have to hide in the rooms too on those hazy days.

Wow, 30k difference for the same requirement seem drastic.

I have only gotten 2 quotes for comparison. Trying to negotiate for an overall discount, hoping not to sacrifice on build quality. Or in the worst case, break the reno into 2 phase with certain cabinetry having to put on hold.

Edited September 20, 2013 by Vdubber

[potatoes 0]

I agree, but I cannot afford it now. The quotations for my reno just got in and I almost fainted. haha.

Also in my case, with and open balcony and stairwell, I doubt aircon will really be feasible.

I tend to go with adidaem's idea of have aircon for downstairs as well. My downstairs runs on a separate compressor. If I want it to coolquickly, I just have to close all bedroom doors upstairs, balcony n yard doors.

[zihui 7]

Hi hi! I opted to not have air conditioning for the first level too. Mainly cos of the energy consumption and well the house is very open....i have knocked down a lot of walls. One of the pros and cons i weighed..was the worry of the haze. But then again...my current place has AC for the whole house, and when the haze hit...we didn't turn on the AC in the living...only in the bedrooms. So in the end we decided not to be rulled by the haze. At the end of the day..the haze was very bad this time round...but hey...the other few years...it was bad but not THAT bad...so didn't wanna make a rash decision. If it is really bad...hide in the room!

btw how many quotes are you getting before engaging your contractor? I think i "interviewed" five contractors before making my final decisions. Some of the quotes is crazy high! The difference between my cheapest quote and my most expensive quote was over 30K!

I tend to go with adidaem's idea of have aircon for downstairs as well. My downstairs runs on a separate compressor. If I want it to coolquickly, I just have to close all bedroom doors upstairs, balcony n yard doors.

I guess both of you have very valid points.

The HTB and I weighed up the pros and cons (he's the type who cannot tahan the heat) but due to budget constraints as well as the fact that our unit is quite 'airy and breezy', we've decided to opt out of the air conditioning for the first level. We've gone with the ceiling fan + standing fan option for the first floor so we'll observe the situation first. But like what vanessa said - if all else fails, let's escape to the rooms!

[ju5t4fun 1]

Hi

You need to check your block whether you block is upgrade to 11amp. Currently, my EM (just brought and 2nd appointment is 1st Nov 2013) in Hougang has only 8.5amp and I wanted to use 2 compressor but my air-con contractor told me about the 8.5 amp power limitation.

So, I change to system 4 but if all 4 blowers are on, there still not enough power to cool the room. Like wise if you have two compressor and use them on the same time, the power is insufficient and will cause power trip.