Costs to consider for landed

[fanmily 0]

Hi! I pore through the entire forum (sort of) and couldn’t find info on some stuff. Would like to gather thoughts if anyone had recently engaged someone to do measures building survey? How much is it? Thanks! 

[snoozee 98]

if you are asking about topo survey for your land/house, it should be around 2k or less. previously my house survey was done by CAK & FG

[fanmily 0]

Thanks snoozee. Yes topographical survey and measured building survey. Not sure if it’s one Topo survey or two different kinds.  I received many quotes and it ranges from 4 to 12k! 

[snoozee 98]

47 minutes ago, fanmily said:

Thanks snoozee. Yes topographical survey and measured building survey. Not sure if it’s one Topo survey or two different kinds.  I received many quotes and it ranges from 4 to 12k! 

what are you planning to do for your house? If you just need to confirm the existing land boundary, take invert levels of existing drains and IC, measure top level of party walls, existing level of 1st storey land and external road and driveways it shouldn't cost that much. All these info would be sufficient for you to get the data required for architects and PE to work on design for submission to authorities. once you get the topo survey plan, the existing building's levels, etc can be computed based on the certified plans you buy from BCA.

have you also engaged an architect or PE? if yes, can ask the QP for recommendation of a surveyor as they would have contacts which they have worked with for landed projects.

 

[fanmily 0]

Thanks snoozee. I should be getting an architect. Seems more transparent than me trying to source and compare rates with design and build on my own. Im doing reconstruction. 

[snoozee 98]

You will also need to get the existing plans from BCA as well as download the cadastral plan from SLA website. The cadastral plan will be needed by the surveyor to conduct the survey. Can also go to pub website and buy the DIP and SIP drawings as well. 
anyway surveying is usually completed in one day unless there are things which are missed out. The surveyed plan can be obtained within one month. 
once you confirm your architect, he/she will advice you more. 

[fanmily 0]

Thanks snoozee. Decided on getting ar. But can’t decide on a&a or rebuilt. I guess with my budget of 1m for everything it’s going to be a&a. Any pro tip on saving costs whilst still being luxurious like having marble floor? 

[snoozee 98]

you need to work out on your needs and wants if you want to keep your cost low but still make the house look good.

for example, you want marble flooring, but if you're going to do marble for everywhere, it's going to cost you a lot. for areas like upper storey rooms and toilets, there's no need to do marble at all especially for shower area. wet marble floor is extremely slippery and accidents can occur as well.

built in carpentry is also going to cost a lot if you are going to customise for everywhere. for my house, I saved on carpentry by just going what is required like toilet vanity cabinets, dry and wet kitchen cabinets, kitchen island and basic wardrobes for rooms. What i meant by basic wardrobes is just the wardrobe with clothes hanging bar and no built in drawers at all. For wardrobe drawers for my kids, I just bought cabinet shelves from Ikea and place them inside the custom wardrobe. Also don't spend on doing up laminates for inside the wardrobes and cabinets. No one is going to compliment you on how nice the inside of your wardrobe/cabinet is since it's going to be closed most of the time. Doing normal PVC or polykem interior will save a sum of money. For other items, there's always Ikea to buy from. Even though Ikea items don't last forever, it also gives you an opportunity to refresh the house after 10 years or so which would be quite difficult with built in furniture.

for light fixtures, you can buy them online from China to save costs. Local stores will sell similar lighting fixtures but at a much higher marked up price. The only "problem" with buying online is you need to buy them early and then need to find space to store the items until you need to install. Make use of the 11.11 sale to get the most discounts.

Normally contractors will provide items like sanitary and tiles for the project. if you want to supply your own, then you need to check with your contractor if he will be charging a profit in attendance or not. be up front with him on this aspect at the initial part during contract negotiations.

For tiles, do visit the showrooms to find the designs you like and also check when the tile suppliers would have sale. I was able to save quite a bit on tile cost as we happened to visit the showroom when there was a sale of old tiles going on. Prices were like up to 70 percent off the original price. The only thing is that you need to calculate how much tiles are needed and purchase with some spares. Also sales items are usually non-returnable unlike full priced tiles which can be returned if there are too much excess and boxes are unopened.

For sanitary ware, also do look out for sales as well. Toilet bowl is an expensive item and if you want to do concealed systems, it will cost even more. cold water only taps are cheaper than mixer taps so take this into consideration as well. items like bib taps and hoses can actually be bought online from China as well since these are not part of WELS requirements.

Usually for tiles and sanitary ware, you can purchase the items first and then ask for them to be delivered later when they are needed.

If you are redoing your staircase railings, note that doing glass railings would be more expensive than mild steel railings. Not to mention that if the glass railings shatter one day due to accident, you will need to pay for replacement.

If you are planning to install ceiling fans, don't need to spend on DC fans unless you absolutely love the design and such. the supposed cost savings from electricity usage will never cover the much higher cost difference you need to pay for DC fans.

For windows, don't need to pay extra for low emission glass. It would be cheaper to install solar films later on if needed rather than spending on low-e glass. Full height windows look nice but you also need to pay for the extra cost. If there's no need, you can just do half height windows for rooms. You also save on having to add a railing for full height windows to prevent falls.

ironmongery is another area where you can save a bit of costs by buying online

basically, draw up a list of the items you will need for the house and then work out what would be covered under the contractor's cost and what you are planning to buy yourself. Then you can start sourcing for those thing you need to buy yourself by taking advantage of sales and online discounts.

 

[fanmily 0]

Thanks snoozee! Working through these things and one of things that came up is smart home. Tried to search around in the forum? Anyone manage to connect everything together using one app? From gate to lights to switches? 

[snoozee 98]

7 minutes ago, fanmily said:

Thanks snoozee! Working through these things and one of things that came up is smart home. Tried to search around in the forum? Anyone manage to connect everything together using one app? From gate to lights to switches? 

I'm not a fan of smart switches, etc. why waste electricity (no matter how little usage is still waste) to have these devices on 24/7 when you can just take a few steps to turn on/off the switch/appliance when needed?

If you really want to have these smart switches, do tell your electrician in advanced so that neutral cables can be pulled to every switch location. Even though there are smart switches which doesn't need the neutral cable, I've seen quite a number of photos of them melting after some time. Also some smart switches require the neutral cable in order to work.

The other question is the availability of smart switches with safety mark. Without safety mark, you will definitely not pass the SP inspection prior to TOP approval for your house. So the only way to circumvent this is to change to smart switches after the inspection. But how to hide the neutral cable is another thing you need to consider since random switches/sockets may be asked to be removed during the inspection.

[petetherock 13]

I would suggest keeping it simple. 
unless you’re good at DIY and maintaining your own home as well as troubleshooting.. things will spoil 

 

[fanmily 0]

Ah didn’t know about the neutral cables. Maybe have to go back to drawing board again. I just gotten a note that psf for a&a is 400/450 now? Anybody got updated pricing? 

[fanmily 0]

Good to note! 

[fanmily 0]

Hi! Anyone with cantilever roof for car porch that’s more than 5.1m? I want to know if you have extra pillar supporting it. Thanks! 

[snoozee 98]

18 minutes ago, fanmily said:

Hi! Anyone with cantilever roof for car porch that’s more than 5.1m? I want to know if you have extra pillar supporting it. Thanks! 

your front boundary setback is min 7.5m with leading edge of car porch at least 2.4m from front boundary. this means your carporch roof can only have a max length of 5.1m if you adhere to the standard setbacks. the only way you can exceed 5.1m is you set back your building beyond 7.5m.
my carporch roof is 5.1m and cantilevered with no additional columns. using steel beams with 3 main beams tied back to the main columns of the house.