My rebuild journey, thus far...

[Kellhound 4]

11 hours ago, shhh201 said:

Thank you for the insight, I actually went to to look at the contract. Can I check, is it normal to be given only the floor plans and the detailed cost breakdown before engaging the builder(s)? The cost breakdown is quite detailed and extensive but no visuals. It tells us we can use homogeneous tiles etc, size of the tiles, vinyl flooring at this price range for staircase etc. 

If you have not committed, they will not provide you any designs as they are afraid you will bring their design to another builder.

[tatteredwing 0]

On 5/15/2021 at 9:10 AM, prodriver6 said:

Thank you for sharing mate.  Given the labour tightness now, how long did the builder mention on the build please? In the contact was there was clause that specifies the completion date ?

 

 

 

[prodriver6 7]

Yes... most are not that willing to provide floor plan design in great details during presales stage. High level still ok.

Three E builder was willing to, which i though was comforting.

3d nobody will do it till you sign i suppose.

 

My builder did provide a fairly detailed timeline. Let me share. Build is about 10 to 12 months. But dun forget to add on all the paperwork.

[shhh201 0]

thank you all for sharing! i will start a separate thread to document my journey and hopefully can help others who are looking to start theirs!

[prodriver6 7]

Update 2

I have just engaged ID. Went for Museworks.

Somehow wife and I are attracted to his works. 

Thus far a very good experience with Shawn (owner of Muse). His ideas are fantastic and very practical.

[prodriver6 7]

hi guys,

was wondering if anyone has considered or implemented a mezzanine floor before?

it will compress the height of the rooms a fair bit which i think we can still accept (living room down to 3.1m) but our only concern is car porch will be dropped to 3.1m as well which will inhibit light and lack of spaciousness feel. any thoughts?

[George Yeo 9]

27 minutes ago, prodriver6 said:

hi guys,

was wondering if anyone has considered or implemented a mezzanine floor before?

it will compress the height of the rooms a fair bit which i think we can still accept (living room down to 3.1m) but our only concern is car porch will be dropped to 3.1m as well which will inhibit light and lack of spaciousness feel. any thoughts?

I had one, but my living room height is 5.6m. My mezzanine and below it is about 2.6m. 

[prodriver6 7]

i was actually thinking of inserting a mezzanine level between level 2 and attic

[snoozee 98]

7 hours ago, prodriver6 said:

i was actually thinking of inserting a mezzanine level between level 2 and attic

You can insert the mezzanine between there. But you will end up with double volume ceiling for one of the rooms so you need to consider this. 
 

The car porch roof height need not follow the first floor ceiling height exactly even if you want it to be a car porch roof terrace. You could add steps to get out to the roof terrace if you want it to be higher. It all depends on how the architect designs the house and PE designs the structure
 

I have a mezzanine floor like George as well. This creates a double volume ceiling for my living room which helps ventilate the living room as well as make it brighter and spacious. 
 

for your 3.1m, I’m not sure is it’s floor to floor or floor to ceiling. If it is floor to floor, the actual floor to ceiling will be much lower due to the beams and any false ceilings you may end up doing. Having such low ceiling for such a big area like a living room may make it feel claustrophobic 

[prodriver6 7]

you indeed have an excellent eye for detail, yes, as my mezzanine will only be at the front half, the room behind will be massive (which calls for an idea of a small loft for the room at the back).

we prefer not to add steps to enter the balcony.

half of my lviing room is already dbl volume, its just the "other side" that will be compressed.

3.1m should be floor to ceiling.

[snoozee 98]

Depending on how big your mezzanine floor area is, you may not get approval from URA for your loft as they may count that as mezzanine floor area as well. Eg: If your mezzanine floor area is 50% of your lower floor’s GFA and your loft is 15% to 20% of lower floor’s GFA, you might still get approval. But if your mezzanine floor GFA is already at 60% and your loft GFA is 20%, it is most likely to be rejected as the overall GFA for mezzanine is too much.

from what you described, it sounds like your house has quite a bit of split levels. Definitely not ideal for older folks as lift can’t access those split levels. 

3.1m floor to ceiling would most likely mean a floor to floor height of between 3.3m to 3.6m depending on how the PE designs the structure. Assuming your attic storey is 3.5m from floor to roof, you will be left with a height of 5.2m to 4.9m for the 2nd storey and mezzanine. This is almost marginal already as BCA requires  a minimum floor to ceiling height of 2.4m for rooms. Do note that this low height will cause “problems” as well if you want to have ceiling fans for the rooms. So you need to consider this when you compress the room heights.

[prodriver6 7]

here is what i am left with:

Attic 3m

L2M 2.7m

L2 2.7m

Living room 3.1m

you are right, esp with false ceiling, wall fan etc, will be low, fairly similar to a HDB setup i suppose?

[snoozee 98]

2 hours ago, prodriver6 said:

you indeed have an excellent eye for detail, yes, as my mezzanine will only be at the front half, the room behind will be massive (which calls for an idea of a small loft for the room at the back).

we prefer not to add steps to enter the balcony.

half of my lviing room is already dbl volume, its just the "other side" that will be compressed.

3.1m should be floor to ceiling.

i am trying to imagine your layout and honestly, i'm not sure if you can achieve what you plan to do as your house is in a 2 storey zone based on your intention of inserting a mezzanine between 2nd storey and attic.

you mentioned you will have a double volume living room for half of it (at the back based on what you had mentioned so far). i assume your living room is on the 1st storey/ground floor. so with half of the living room being double volume (behind), the other half (in front) will have a floor plate. so is your architect going to declare the side where there is no double volume the mezzanine storey or 2nd storey? if the half floor (in front) next to the double volume living room is going to be declared as a mezzanine, then you can't have another mezzanine between the 2nd storey and attic. I don't think URA allows for more than 1 mezzanine floor within a single landed house.

if the half floor next to the double volume living room is going to be declared as 2nd storey, then you can't have a mezzanine floor above this because by definition, a mezzanine floor cannot be a complete floor by itself. Technically mezzanine floors can only be 50% size of the floor below but URA had relaxed their regulations for this and will approve on a case by case basis.

the only way (i think) you can insert a mezzanine between 2nd storey and attic is that you have a entire 2nd storey floor plate which is at 3.1m from the ground floor which will mean no double volume living room at all

 

[prodriver6 7]

i will pm u the floor plan

[snoozee 98]

16 minutes ago, prodriver6 said:

here is what i am left with:

Attic 3m

L2M 2.7m

L2 2.7m

Living room 3.1m

you are right, esp with false ceiling, wall fan etc, will be low, fairly similar to a HDB setup i suppose?

based on your dimensions, you have a total of 11.5m which is just short of the 12m maximum allowed.

attic 3m floor to roof will mean your floor area will be smaller since the walls need to be contained within the 45 degrees building envelope front and back. URA's regulation allows for 3.5m high attic which will also maximize the floor area there as well

2.7m floor to floor height is very very marginal. after you cater for the floor slab thickness and the 50mm drop required for the floor finishing, you will most likely end up with just 2.4m floor to ceiling height. you may not be even be able to put in false ceiling at all since the drop of the false ceiling will cause the height to be less than the required 2.4m. 2.4m ceiling height is almost like old HDB flats ceiling heights already.

just to share with you my floor to floor storeys height.

ground floor to mezzanine - 2.8m

mezzanine to 2nd storey - 2.7m

2nd storey to attic - 3m

attic to root - 3.5m

my mezzanine storey areas/rooms do not have any false ceiling as the height is just over 2.4m from floor to ceiling slab. some parts are slightly lower due to the beams running across the rooms as well. but because the rooms aren't that big and it's next to the double volume living room, i don't get the claustrophobic feeling when inside the rooms. and due to how my architect designed the rooms and how the PE designed the structure, we are also able to put in ceiling fans for the rooms as well.