Survey Work Done

Today is the 5th of August 2017, Yesterday on the 4th of August 2017, I had collected my documents for the Survey work that was done.

Im very happy to say that finally, this would be the first actual document that we have in our hands for the first step forward.

Its also our first proper spend on a long list of things from start till finish.

But its got to start somewhere right ?

The Surveyors quote that we had was from this company that I had engaged with based on our kind Architects recommendation. Here is their quote :-

Surveyors Quote

The company's name is Jurukur Generasi. Their details are as follows :-

JURUKUR GENERASI SDN. BHD.

136, Jalan PUJ 3/8, 

Taman Puncak Jalil, 

43300 Seri Kembangan, 

Selangor, Malaysia

Tel : +03 8999 0808

Person in Charge : Mr. Cheah's handphone number is 0163300779

Mr. Cheah speaks very fluent English and though I had not had the privilege of meeting him, he is a nice gentleman on the phone. A pleasure to speak with. Im sure he is nice in person too.

I would recommend this company. From the time of the quote till collecting my documents, the whole process took just 1 week. 2 days of Survey work, 4 days to prepare documents. Maybe lowyatt people can get it done in 2 hours, but for me it was 1 week start till end.

This is what our plan looks like 

Survey Plan with Levels and Road and Drainage 

The Survey Plan comes with 3 copies as standard

The size of the plan is in an A1 size paper. Nice and large.

1 copy will be given to the Architect, another to the Engineer.

You should ask your Surveyor to email the Autocad drawing as well immediately to your Architect.

So this way your Architect has the layout to work with immediately. The Architect otherwise may be sipping on Chai Latte for 5 days before going on a work life balance weekend and asking this from you a week later. Mr. Sarizal, in fashionably fast working ethics, asked this immediately.

The plan above has errors to which I will clarify from our Architect Mr. Sarizal if this needs to be redone. If yes then there might be an update soon.

However the errors spotted were just 3 errors. 1 of which was a big error. I guess sometimes working with speed isnt a good thing.

I didnt want the documents couriered so I collected them myself.

This is a brief posting, this is the first step taken that shows what your Surveyors Plans look like. Shows where your boundaries are, your Road and Drainage, Levels, where the Governments Boundaries such as Lamp Posts etc are. Even tress as well. Everything has a level to it.

What are these Levels ? What do those numbers mean ? Its your terrain. How much above sea level. So if there is a point on the structure such as a tree that says +27.99 then its 27.99 meters above sea level.

I didnt have an image of the Survey work when it was carried out. 

The next step will be the Soil Investigation that will be taking place this coming week. Once its done, by Friday next week, I will have the posting up as well of what took place. 

The Soil Investigation is going to take 3 weeks to obtain a report. So it will be in 2 parts.

Awesome !

Construction Timeline With Payment Schedules

Now that we have encountered ridiculous contractors who have submitted their quotes. What do you do next ?

You look at the bottom line.

Below the bottom line are their terms. But will they be fair ?

In many cases it will be "NO".

"NO" Just like how Mr. Eric's windows are not Tempered

Mr. Eng Hoe has asked for a 30% downpayment, and ,.... well you read the rest :

Contractors are always to be paid as they go along in stages

You are only supposed to pay as your project goes along. If a contractor doesnt tell you what will be done at a 30% downpayment mark, how do you gauge what 30% of construction will be ?

Greedy contractors already eat enough steak cooked Medium Rare in Bangsar everyday while you eat home cooked meals like roti chanai and fish curry. (Yum)

So dont be foolish and agree because you were hasty to start quickly.

On the other hand, Mr. Tan the contractor had simply asked for a payment every 2 weeks. Which was not bad too. Because every 2 weeks if there is no progress, we dont have to pay anything. This was agreeable to me

So how long will or should things take from demolition to moving in ?

Well here is a Timeline / Guideline to how things would be paid.

If your contractor is talking shit, show him your timeline. Because he wouldnt have one for sure when asking for a downpayment in his terms.

This is something deemed fair and without some contractor putting things on paper by saying 30% Downpayment blindly. At what stage will the 30% Downpayment be at during construction?

Ask a contractor what gets done at their Downpayment and they wont be able to give you a clear answer but one thats cooked on the spot. 

They wouldnt even have it on paper like we have. So now this looks better for us doesnt it ? At least we know a better timeline than Contractors. We can quantify things better and fairly than contractors can. Fuck them.

So when you are discussing with a contractor especially while getting your approvals done, use this as a measurement against any advise from the contractor such as Mr. Eng Hoe's 30%.

Its important to come ready without blindly agreeing to someones terms.

If you know what it takes ? then be fair and get paid accordingly based on a timeline.

Know your shit better than what contractors are saying. Know their work better than they know theirs.

After all, you have all the facts on the table with a timeline as well instead of shooting 30% as a Downpayment. At least you have things in stages.

If they cant agree to your knowledge of doing business - walk away. However, this is what I have done in Stages as shown above


*** At this rate, Mr. Eng Hoe asked us to Pay 30% as a Downpayment. This brings things right till Stage 2. At this rate, what if he doesnt show up at all for stage 1 ? ***



IN SUMMARY


Contractors may bolt, workers may not get paid, and construction goes into a halt because your lowyatt contractor ate too many Medium Done Steaks from Bangsar or drinking Cristal's at Marini's.

These are things that may be taken as a given.

Buy in bulk, buy fast, store them away. Things like plywood, bricks, cement can be stored in my case where I work. Plus, its safer than leaving things on site.

Also, the longer contractors take, the lower their profit margins will be. In addition to this, contractors too will try to speed shit up to make profits larger.

This is where shoddy workmanship like cracked floors, cracked walls, tiles failing, alignments and stuff go very wrong. And so do things like water pipes that could cause leaks sooner.

Industrial look what ? Hor ?

Too fast, and shit goes fucked. Too slow says your contractor is fucking around. Its best to work at a medium pace.

Keep in mind, Contractors are basically Gods.

They will never be at your site working in the sun, because they need to take care of their complexion in order to look good while eating steak on Saturday for their work life balance and Sundays, brunch with avacado and toast with their chai lattes and then pretend to look broke for you on "some" days that they show up,

What contractors really do is show you an image of driving a beat up proton, faded polo shirt, and some slightly torn pants (likely deliberately stressed) to give you an impression things cost a lot and what they are quoting is humble. Bullshit

Very hard wor contractor

Because in reality, when someone like Mr. Eric who claims 350,000 is for labor and 212,000 is for raw materials will actually drive his proton to the spot where his Mercedes C Class is parked, change his shirt to a Hugo Boss with Armani Jeans, and leave work to head to Bangsar for his daily work life balance at 3 30 PM so that he is able to beat the jam and enjoy the late mid day sun with a few pints of Bright Ale made by James Squire with of course, steak made Medium Rare served in Royal Doulton plates and Italian forks and knives.

The real contractors car (Poor guys huh, you gotta give them a break working so hard)

And all things will repeat itself the very next day for his other 23 projects running the same time. When he does finally show up at your premise that 1 time every month is when he is there to meet you,....

to collect your money of course.

~ fin ~

Renovation Costings - Breakdown and Rebuild

Renovation Costings are another scary nightmare described by people " I pay ah, so much wor. Contractor fak kau me and run away wor"

Thats because he took your 30% Deposit and blew it on Cristal at Marini's.

Oh yeah, am gonna have a ball now. Show me the money Biyatch

In our case, we hear people mentioning about how ballooned things are by the time they are done with the house. Some say 50% more, some even more.

Thats because lowyatt contractors never quote you fully the full works and by the time you need to know what really is required to complete the job, your budget is blown.

If you really know your materials like me, when I got quoted for windows from Mr. Eric, I asked if the windows were tempered and the contractor said "No".

So when you start hearing more "No"s from the specifications you want in the contractors quote, thats where finishes begin to get shitty, your budget blows for quality and things start fucking up


In our case, the contingencies are very very low. We have to be very prudent in this case. We are not as fortunate as lowyatt folks who drive Myvi's, claim they are poor but have 500k in the bank.

To build essentially a Double Storey Semi Detached with the size of a a Terrace Link House, this is what things will cost.

A more detailed breakdown is available below to show I didnt pluck figures from my arese. Yes there may be some things missing, but some. The very foundation of things are there to work with.

Keep in mind, that not all things here will be given to a contractor to build from A - Z with shitty finishes. In some cases like the roof, my company will be building the roof as we do steel work.

The roof was quoted to us for RM 38,000 while using the old timber trusses and rafters of the current house. To which I said fuck off.

Greedy lowyatt fuckers. At RM 38,000 you could have a new roof with sourced materials such as C Channels at 1.6mm in thickness.

Point 6.0 "New Monier Roof" What Mr. Eric is "New" ? Its basically reusing my old roof tiles and using timber structure at RM 38,700.0 The Audacity to call it "New" . Turns out that this guy was going to outsource the job to build the roof. Cause he doesnt know how to build a roof and know what the guidelines are as well I guess in MBPJ for Roofs. Clearly another Lowyatt chap who probably deals with another Lowyatt chap who knows the truth of what Roof regulations are. - "PM me on the side"  fuckers. 

I also factored in that you could even have the roof insulated with rock wool at RM 2,000 with rockwool that has a thickness of 100 mm / 4inches.

If I was going to Build a Roof with a budget of 38,700 I would have spent

2000 on Rockwool
7,000 on 2 " x 3" C Channels for trusses (1.6mm thickness)
1000 for 4" Gutters
2000 on Flashing
8000 on Heat Shield
3000 on G.I Sheet plate of 1.2mm thickness
5000 on Labor and installation (5 staff constructing the structure in 10 days / RM 500 a day / RM 100 a worker for 8 hours work)

Thats 28,000. Thats 10,700 saved and thats just me being Generous with my figures above. Thats a roof that would give me easily 3 - 5 degress more of coolness.



How Mr. Eric would cheat will be this way

3,000 on timber
1000 on flashing
750 on 3" Gutters
3000 on labour ( 5 staff constructing the structure in 10 days / RM 300 a day / RM 60 a worker for 8 hours)

Thats RM 7,750 and with NO Rockwool, NO C Channels, NO G.I Sheet

And his earnings ?


RM 30,950.00


So you know where he's going with his other Roof Building friend, right ?

Champagne on Ice, Am on top of the world bebeh

So if you dont know your materials, you will get conned.

What is going to be re-used though are our roof tiles from the existing building as they are Monier tiles made in the early 90's. There was no such thing then as "Grade A/B/C". Just 1 Grade and that was "Good Quality" back in the day that was built to last

We are fortunate enough to be working with materials everyday such as Plywood, Chipboard, MDF, Aluminium and Steel in different sizes, profiles and thicknesses.

We have as well Electricians who we deal with, and flooring people as well who can power float, grind and polish floors, tile workers who are old fashioned skilled Chinese men still in the trade. These are the True chicken rice eating chaps.

From C Channels for your roof, to GI Plates and expanded metal sheets as well as plywood in different grades and thicknesses. These things are a daily event to me. But it really isnt that hard

So how we have divided costing within a simple budget works this way :-


DEMOLITION, LABOUR, RAW MATERIALS - BARE BUILDING BASICS

In Mr. Eric's case, leaving out the Sewage, and Raw Materials, his labor was RM 350,000. Since when do raw materials cost over 150,000 ? 

Based on my figures, the Labor includes building the Home with

Dismantling the Home
Clearing the rubble
Construction
Wet Works
Form Work
Plastering
Skimming
Bricklaying,...... Everything at a generous RM 218,000.00

*** I have left Tiling and Power Floating the floors aside, because this to me requires some special attention, which I have included in the Furniture and Fittings ***


At 429,850. for 4,055 square feet this is what it will cost for the bare basic structure of the Home to be built. This INCLUDES the

Architects
Engineers
Surveyors
Soil Investigator
MBPJ Approvals
Contractors

429,850 - This is the job of what Building the Basics will do for you.  

This is how much you can put aside to build a new home with approximately a 4,000 sq. ft built up.

Our first Contractor Mr. Alex was proposing for a 1.5 Storey for RM 500,000, by adding half a storey more on top of our existing structure.

Does this look stupid to people like me ? Yes. Because it insults my intelligence.

Now lets look at your fittings and furnishings. From your Air conditioning units to your beds.

FURNISHING AND FINISHES 

A grand total, of RM 509,633.50. Keep in mind, I will have the roof rebuilt myself,  the gate as well to our Home and even the Staircase Railings as well. This means  you could put aside another 10% and say that it will cost you perhaps around the 570,000 region. 

So with almost everything thought out, this is what the figures come. At greedy contractor rates, we would have been raped off our bank balance.

If it was left to the contractors to come up with a simple 3 page plan such as ours, I think the world would be a better place. I could really use the song Heal The World by Michael Jackson right now.

Stupid people would spend for our built up 750,000 with contractors. And you wonder where the inflation came from.

We had given ourselves an additional 10% contingency just in case. So this would bump us up to the 550,000 range.

Keep in mind that some of the prices I have used are not to have lavishes to certain fittings but modest ones. We dont need to have Grohe fittings in every single bathroom. We dont need Italian tiles. A little lavish will be alright, not everything. A little flash is okay.

Just like once in a while, you too gotta try eating steaks that your contractors eat because they have no taste for chicken rice.



 CONTRACTORS LABOUR COST

This is where you will know how greedy contractors are. They seem broke but they are rich. one even showed up in a C Class Mercedes, 2016 model of course.

What contractors REAAAALLLY drive

Plus they would not be there all the time serving you. What a contractor should cost is RM 15,000.00 a month at MAX. Even this seems greedy because the contractor will never be at site everyday as there are always other projects being taken on.

The staff earn RM 2,500.00 a month per staff. With 6 staff. So thats another 15,000 a month.

So if its 7 months for construction that makes it to 30,000 a month X 7 = RM 210,000 total for 7 moths of Construction. But to my figures I have calculated for RM 218,000

At Mr. Eric's rate of 350,000, it would mean that Mr. Eric's pocket would be more than what MO1 earns a month. Thats why Myvi driving lowyatt folks do have RM 500,000 in their bank accounts.

RM 218,000, more than enough. Any later than 7 months work would mean lesser earnings for the boss.



ELECTRICIAN

Most will quote you and say things like Looping, Wiring, Plug Point, Points, all that does not matter as long as you have good wires. Im using Mega Cables the whole way. What are you using ?

If you are using something inferior, then maybe it will be cheaper but your wires for your lights heat fast. Mega cable gives a smooth flow of current, and also doesnt heat up. In Mr. Erics quote, there was no mention of Mega Cable because he was going to give us inferior stuff.

He had quoted us for points as well, 42 of them, but forgot that we were not that stupid where we could loop things and get things cheaper.

Armour cable is also standard for your Gate, but what thickness is being used ? Ask your electrician / contractor.

Find yourself a good Electrician. We have ours

RM 30,000





FURNITURE AND FITTINGS

Our furniture and fittings once again was left partially to things we could build ourselves.

Of course, beds and mattresses, couches etc didnt have to be bought from Cheras Glamorous Kedai Perabot furniture stores, neither expensive ones.

To get an idea, just look at IKEA online and this will give you some indication.

Once again, nothing had to be expensive in our case, just modest and humble. Not cheap charlie cheap, but neither were we going to sleep on what loyatt contractors sleep on like a 25,000 bed.

Where contractors REAAALLLY lay their heads down at night. We didnt have to go for an expensive bed

Fittings such as your lights, I was going to invest in them, brightest low wattage would work for me. I wouldnt mind spending 20% more, to get 50% back as an investment. These are cheaper things.

Neither was I going to be stingy on Kitchen equipment. Decent equipment was going to be used. Not too expensive, but neither a fridge with an Ice Maker or a Dishwasher,....which doesnt sound too bad too.

We too from living outside, had the opportunity to purchase a Microwave oven, Kettle, some pots and pans, and even an Air Fryer. So these things didnt have to be added to my costings.

Am sure you too would find some things you already own.

~fin~

Steps for MBPJ Approval - Demolish and Rebuild

Some of you may want to know when to do things, how long things will take and what happens in the process.

This is where many get caught and frustrated as well due to the lack of transparency from architects, and architects not being fully aware of what the local town council guidelines are. In our case MBPJ.

With this town council, before submitting things, ensure that you have your :

1. Setbacks done correct
2. 15% greenery of a lawn
3. 1 / 3 of your water tank capacity is for rain water harvesting
4. Angle of your roof pitch is safely done at 23 degrees from Rise to Run (or at least Overhang)
5. Neighbors consent has been approved by all 4 sides

These are the major things with MBPJ that you should have at the back of your mind - complying.

The Architect, Engineer, Surveyor, Soil Investigator are a separate entity that will be submitting on your behalf the correct documents. Get this house in order to comply with the requirements of the town council correctly and both will fit hand in glove well.

Here is a summary of what to do, by when and roughly how long things would take. No ranting here, but will be a copy and paste for most lowyatt folks for sure. Here it goes, and this applies only for those who are demolishing and rebuilding

STEP 1 - ENGAGE ARCHITECT

When : I would do this anytime after signing the SPA or when you have a design you like. You could do this too as soon as you have your Loan Offer Approval.

Bring your idea(s) to your architect. Nevermind the Interior Design and theme first. Draw out the basics first. No one builds cars with Colours and Leather seats in mind, the foundation begins first and that will be your desired plans for a layout. The theme comes later.

How long will it take : Approximately 1 - 2 weeks

What will happen :

1. You will discuss your plans with your Architect.
2. The Architect will indicate costings.
3. Your Architect will inform you about the local town council
4. Your Architect will inform you one the steps to get things forward (listed below)
5. Your Architect will draw up preliminary plans for you where you will approve or make amendments based on the local town councils guidelines

STEP 2 - AMMEND & APPROVE BUILDING PLANS WITH ARCHITECT

When : Anytime between SPA Signing and Loan Approval

How long will it take : Depends on how fast you have your own plans and sit down with architect. This is where my plans came in handy. Approximately 1 month going back and forth once every week. Inclusive of the Hari Raya break of 1 week.

Back and forth correspondences for changes

What will happen : You will get emails back and forth, whatsapp chats of progress and developments of your layout. You will have possibly some changes to the layout / you may wish to add / remove / change before signing off on your building plans

STEP 3 - GET NEIGHBORS CONSENT

Be nice to all 4 neighbors. Ring their bell if you have to say Hi even.

When : Right after picking up keys / when you have appointed your architect. At least say hello to neighbors first.

How long will it take : Depending on when your neighbors are home. Give it 1 week in General. Some will sign on the spot. Approach them on a weekend, its better when things are calm and people are home. 

What will happen :  Your architect will submit to you the Owners Consent Form that is a format available from your local town council, in our case MBPJ. You will ask for their kind consent. Ensure you have a honest - friendly relationship first with them. In any case, if someone objects here,  bets may be off.

STEP 4 - SURVEYOR WITH ROAD AND DRAINAGE

Survey the land, get your levels, know your boundaries, and know where the governments land boundaries are. Beyond your front gate, its government land so get your surveyor to let you know on where the markings are.

When : Right after neighbors consent. Without neighbors consent, you cannot do ANYTHING further. So this is where doing this first is important. Then bring in the Surveyor. Dont pay first only to have it rejected later

How long will it take : 1 week to do checks with the Land Department. 2 days on site. 3 - 5 days for submission of plans. Total takes 2 weeks from the time you made the first phone call to collecting your documents.

What will happen : Surveyor will check your current Grant, do a search on your property with Land Department as well, then come to your site to do markings with a tripod and his equipment. Markings will be made on the property as well. What you will get will be

1. Levels - Elevations of the property as shown above. It will be mentioned example +27.99 which means 27.99 meters above sea level etc.

2. Boundaries - Your 4 corners of your property with Nails. Every home will have one unless its been renovated and the old corner stones / nails have been removed. To know your boundaries again, you will have to get a surveyor to remark your boundaries

3. Road and Drainage - Where your elevations of the Road and Drains are. Its important especially if your building is too high above ground and you will want to know from the building to road what the elevations are so you could readjust them in future

4. Government Boundaries - Where the Governments land lies. its passed the gate but where exactly will be mapped out

5. Government Facilities - Light posts, your trees, telephone poles, electric poles, grass where it is outside your compound where your lowyatt neighbors cars often park on etc. 

STEP 5 - SOIL TESTING 

This is where you will engage in a Soil Investigator to take a look at your soil. He will use a Mackintosh Probe that will hammer into your soil with rods hammered into the ground. Yes, lowyatt people already know this. They do soil investigations every day

When : Same time as Surveyor / right after owners consent is done / Right after Surveyor

How long will it take : Approximately 2 - 3 weeks latest

What will happen : Soil gets tested by the Soil Investigator. He will come with a Mackintosh Probe and with rods and hammer down the rods into the soil. The soil collected from the very bottom will be obtained, and then be put for lab testing. What happens in lab testing ? They will measure the moisture in the soil. They will put the soil in an oven for about a day and then,.... actually here is a proper link :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lukc6Fpx-HE

STEP 6 - FINAL ARCHITECT AND ENGINEER APPROVAL FOR SUBMISSION

When : After soil testing is done with the reports

How long will it take : 2 - 3 weeks

What will happen : Any last changes will now be made before you sign off with the Architect and Engineer who will be submitting to MBPJ or your town council the Architects Plans, Surveyors Plans, Soil Testing Report, Engineers Plans etc. They will also fill up forms by MBPJ for Planning Approval

STEP 7 - KEBENARAN MERANCANG (KM) / DEVELOPMENT ORDER

When : When the Architects, Surveyors, Engineers have compiled all information needed for submission inclusive of your neighbors consent.

How long will it take : Approval to take 3 months WITH proper BP Documents approved. 

What will happen : IF all is okay and criteria s are met by MBPJ's guidelines to how big should your footings be, how deep should your footings for the pillars be etc. MBPJ too will have an Engineering department, so all things have to check out. Its not a matter of just submit and thats it. Its not what you think. This is a crucial stage too.

MBPJ as well will do their own mock up of a 3D rendering, take images of your neighbors and your premise as well. This is where you will be allowed to put up a sign for a notice to build. They too will come to your premise to take images of your building for submission for the KM stage.

You will see signs such as "PEMBERITAHUAN PEMBANGUNAN" Which is essentially a notice to build. This is to inform your neighbors and residences that a building will take place soon and if there are any objections it may be written in etc.

Yes, this guy too is a lowyatt chap, 3 storeys. This is MPAJ's format, not MBPJ but similar. So this is where you notify neighbors of your plans.






This is what MBPJ's sign looks like. ***Updated 11 June 2018***

This occurs while awaiting for the submission for building plans to occur. Its a simple board which can be printed even on Tarpaulin and hung up for the community to see and object if they have any objections.

STEP 8 - SUBMISSION FOR BUILDING PLANS (BP) TO MBPJ

When : When Architect and Engineer receive approval from MBPJ at Step 6 - KM

How long will it take : Approval is should take 3 months WITH proper documentation. 

What will happen : This is where the Board will sit down once every 2 weeks to approve your plans. In our case, our approval should be within 6 meetings with the Board of Approval at MBPJ. DBKL is faster though, as there are more "express ways" of doing things. We should be better off because we are complying to guidelines and not exceeding in any way any boundaries or set backs that MBPJ will be looking to catch you with.

STEP 9 - APPOINTING A CONTRACTOR 

Someones gonna be drinking Cristal soon at Marini's. No Kaya and Toast here, just Avacado Toast and Medium Rare steaks now onwards. 

When : You can start looking for Contractors when you are at the Building Plan Stage (Step 7). Your contractor as well will have to register with MBPJ or your local town council. Their information WILL have to be displayed as well on the Board

How long will it take : Depends, how much your contractors costs, and what are the specs you wish to have. How long will it take you to approve or negotiate ? 

What will happen : Your contractor will be greedy and whack your money and ask for a lowyatt 30% deposit to which you will decline because you are supposed to pay in stages. Use this as a bargaining tool as well, you have the plans approved, they didnt do squat. Without your plans, they have no job. With no job, they have no demand for anything. You have the job and opportunity, not them.

This is why it never makes sense appointing a contractor to do an architects work. This stage must ONLY HAPPEN when you have submitted your approvals in for construction. We should have done this here. Your contractor will also have to register themselves with MBPJ as their name will have to appear for the Construction Board when it is put up before construction. I say this again, do not engage with a Contractor first, this stage happens later, once things are approved for building. Move with the flow, not ahead of it.

STEP 10 - SIGNAGE FOR CONSTRUCTION BOARD

*** An image is still not available from me, but will have one soon ***

When : After KM has been approved

How long will it take : 1 week once you have got the letter for approval. You will then head to a printing / signboard shop and get your Signage for construction done. 

What will happen : You will need to tell the signage company to put up a GI Steel Plate etc, (they will know this) where it says who you are, your address, your architect, engineer, surveyor, etc. You will then get your signboard delivered and then will put it up for the neighbors to see what your plans are for about 1 month before starting work. Building Plans - BP, work can commence.

This is where you will find on the signboard :-

1. Details of your property such as your address and Lot Number
2. You the owner(s) name(s)
3. Arhictects details
4. Engineers details
5. Surveyors details
6. Contractors details
7. Soil Investigators details
8. Date of commence for construction
9. Intended date of completion for construction

STEP 11 - WORK COMMENCE

When : After having your signage up for a month and appointing a contractor AND all approvals at the BP stages have been approved

How long will it take : Depends on the size of your building

What will happen : Fun

~fin~

There you have it folks. These are the steps of getting things approved by MBPJ

Next up will be Renovation Costings which many also have a nightmare when you hear stories of renovations being over ballooned by greedy lowyatt contractors.

Now Im not sure if you can find the steps needed as mine anywhere online but am doing my best to share this so that no one is in the dark without any guidelines. I hope this will help

Architect - Found the Right One !

Its now June 2017. Our ultimatum was up. We were at a road block once again. Nothing moved.

The wife had selected Mr. Eric for her choice for a contractor but knew that things will be EVEN more expensive. Perhaps Mr. Eric has a taste for Medium Rare Steaks in Bangsar that he would like to have every night together with 3 pints of Pale Ale.

We had decided that Mr. Tan, a crooked man as he may be, and a desperate one, was cheaper than everyone else. But in reality we knew he too would cost more than what he was asking for.

I was upset that the people - architects and contractors had let us down. That these were our options we had laid on the table. And while they were our friends or recommended by friends and family, nothing was satisfying enough for us.

We had picked up a home that we were not able to move forward with. This too with the wrong people. We were not getting the firm answers we wanted and information was half baked.

We hear stories from Architects, and people saying how hard it is to deal with MBPJ. How Expensive it is to renovate. Except for lowyatt people. They can get approvals in 2 days to demolish and renovate.

I even called MBPJ taking Dads advise to ask MBPJ themselves


"Do you have any architects that you prefer to work with".


The officer on the phone said he will propose this to some architects and if they are interested, they will contact us. No one had called back. This is the June 6th.

However, as I had just put down the phone with MBPJ, a tiny brain cell jolted a very good spark of memory.



FINDING THE ONE


You see, we lived in Amaya Saujana, Glenmarie before from 2012 - 2014. This is when we had just gotten married. Matter of fact the first day that we got registered was the first time I had ever moved out in my life. I was 29.

Our previous landlord was a man called Sarizal Yussof. This chap was the best landlord we have ever had.

He rented his apartment to us at a very modest price. And when he found out we got married, gave us a book on Malaysian Architecture. This man was an Architect !

The brain scrambled too fast, and had quickly searched through my phone for his number, it didnt exist anymore in my phone book contacts.

I searched him on facebook and found him. But without any contact information.

Dashed on to Google and did some search on him and found that he works in Klang, This is my town as well. Better yet, he was also a part of PAM. This helps as you would have to know your stuff well enough dealing with different town councils. MBPJ being with no exception.

This was leading up to better things and better things from here now onwards we would have.

Eventually I found him and contacted his office, but he was not in. So I left a message saying I was his old tenant and needed his number.

I had a call in return the very next day, 7th of June 2017.

In his deep and calm voice we spoke after 5 years, it was a pleasure speaking to this gentleman again.

Moving on, I told him what I wanted to do and he asked

" Have you engaged in any architect yet ? Would you like to nominate me as your architect"

to which I said

"Yes"and had a good laugh after

We set an appointment on the 8th of June and showed him my idea for plans. This is how fast now things work. Here is what I discovered from our first meeting.



MEETING 1

Now for those of you hipsters drinking chai latte at RM 35.00 a cup and demanding a RM 10,000 salary, here is what a professional architect would do during your first meeting. This is what happened on the 8th of June 2017 :

1.Showed him my plans drawn on photoshop

2. Rough costings were given for architect and engineers fee

3. Showed me what architects need to fill up before submission

4. The A1 size of architects drawings of a plan he is doing. It comes in a small note book size where each page can be openned to an A1

5. The A1 size of soil testing by engineer. It looks like a small note book again. A very thick one.

6. What will be needed for submissions to MBPJ

He tells me that because I am demolishing and rebuilding, I will have to go through 2 submissions instead of 1 :


1. Kebenaran Merancang (KM) or in English Work Order. This is where you will find homes saying "Kebenaran untuk membina sebuah rumah bla bla bla dan tetuan pemilik adalah bla bla bla". - 3 months

2. Building Plans or BP (When you submit your plans and also for demolishment) - 3 months


I asked him many times are you sure it can be done and approved in 6 months ish. And he says

"If you comply why should it take longer ?"

All this now was beginning to fall into place. I felt confident and better knowing that I was speaking to the right person.

The very next day, the 9th of June. He messages me on whatsapp and mentions who the person in charge of buildings is in my area of ss3. This is the person from MBPJ as well.

With all transparency. No lowyatt secrets or Personal messages on the side "PM Me if you want 2 know more" crap. No lowyatt shit here. (Why cant lowyatt people just share information anyway?)

1. He tells me that the KM (Kebenaran Merancang) process will take 3 months if we comply with MBPJ's requirements. Another 3 months for BP (Building Plans).

2. He tells me if you would like to avoid the KM process, you will need to renovate no more than 1000 square feet which in my case will not apply. Good knowledge though it didnt apply for me.

3. He tells me that the setback of each area and since my neighbor is a single storey semi detached and I  am building a double storey, I will need to have a recess of 2 meters for the first floor from my neighbor.

4. He tells me that the maximum height of your ceiling is 13 feet for the ground floor, 13 feet for the first floor and a maximum building height till the roofs Rise at 35 feet - Maximum Rise of 9 feet.

5. He tells me that I will also have to have a refuse bin as well. It is Mandatory. Something that you dont see all houses in Petaling Jaya incorporating or complying with, newly renovated especially.

6. He tells me what the set backs are, 20ft from the front, 10 from the side, 10 from the back


I had gained this information faster than dealing with Chai Latte drinking, eating -Medium - Done - Steaks - eating - fuckers - every - night - greedy -half -  informed - fuckers,...  FOR 9 MONTHS !  I got this information in 18 hours with a chap who was fasting.

These are the requirements of MBPJ. Clearly here lies a person who knows what is needed in order to comply and move forward fast. Here lies a person who knows how to extract correct information from the right source swiftly so you dont waste time.

The reason why you hear nightmare stories of MBPJ is because some guy has a dream of building right till the maximum of things, and an architect blindly follows without understanding first what your local town council requires. MBPJ with no exception.

Your Cheras fabulous, Puchong glamarous Architects will never know what really is required because they dont understand how things work in Petaling Jaya. This is why you get rejection, after rejection, after rejection by MBPJ.

IF YOU DONT COMPLY, your greedy architects who would be re submitting things and wasting your time because they didnt take the right effort to make a phone call to MBPJ to ask the right people what the rules are.

It is also a MANDATORY requirement that ALL TOTALLY NEW buildings in Petaling Jaya OR NEWLY RENOVATED ones to have a Rain Water Harversting System. 

Do you know how much is required to store for Rain Water ? Lowyatt knows, why dont you ask them ? I will describe these requirements in the next topic



MEETING 2

Its 11th of June. Sarizal comes over to our home on the same week on Sunday morning. 8 30 AM.

A bit too early for my hungover head to take a look at the premise. He comes to check out the premise. Luckily one of the neighbors that we met for the first time had a good chat with us and in his presence.

The usual answer was give by architects "Be nice to your neighbors". Because getting neighbors consent too, you must know, doesnt mean just 1 neighbor. Also something to discuss about soon.


On the 13th of June, we are working out plans for the staircase

13th of June, staircase and building height discussion. Well, at 13ft, I sure was not going to have a Home that midgets live in at 8 feet of a ceiling height. Maybe the air conditioning bills will be a bit higher but nothing plaster ceiling can solve. 

MEETING 3

Its the 16th of June. Ever since our first meeting, there was a lot to digest. Information not fed to me by lowyatt.

I had been drawing my own plans wrongly since May 2016. A new plan was put into place quickly, and while some things were drastic, shrinkage was needed to comply with the buildings setbacks.

I am greatful though, that someone is finally telling me what can and cannot be done. Something Eric the contractor's Architect, or fucking Mr. Justin and our friends at RM 58,000 didnt tell or warn us about.

So the basic layout was agreed upon and on the 17th of June, we received our first Autocad drawing.

We determined that the driveway based on 20feet in length was too short.

I know lowyatt folks love dealing with maximizing boundaries and parking your cars 2 inches away from the gate. Or even better, parking cars sideways to accommodate their shitty Unsers, or Hyundai Matrix, for their 15 foot length driveway.

But seriously though, not us. Neither were we going to park our cars back to back. Had enough of that by living in apartments and we were not going to get in each others way every morning by packing back to back.

Lowyatt folks love to maximize their houses in order to have more footage for resale value and for refinancing. Not us, we were building a home.

So that was an amendment there.

This image was taken when we did our test in my parents driveway and sent it to our Architect. On the 18th of June, we did a second test at 25feet and our Architect then returns with an amended drawing on the 21st of June.

Left Image : Lowyatt Style of car porch. Lowyatt folks will prefer 15ft actually

Right Image : Comfortable style of parking and allowing enough space to walk around cars for washing. Our width is also 25ft for the porch, so we can open our car doors widely instead of typical shopping mall style widths that dont even allow your car doors  first hinge to be opened up to. 

This is now 6 days to Raya, and this chap worked throughout the fasting month, and delivered faster than any architect did in 9 months. This too with the right advise.

So this is where nothing more could be done as Raya was now approaching and we would resume on the 1st week of July instead.



MEETING 4

On the 6th of July in the morning, we received the Preliminary Drawings

Our First Ground Floor Plans sent to us by the 6th of July in the morning

Our Architect surprises me with his Engineer as well in our meeting. The engineer as well explains a few things. The Engineer to says I will need a few things done before moving on with MBPJ :-

1. Surveyor
Marking out your boundaries of your land and do levels as well of the land of the current building. Surveyor will also take a look at the Governments boundaries as well as your neighbors boundaries.

2. Soil Testing
Done by engineer in order to determine the land is able to take a 2 storey building
as the current building stands as a single storey. But this will be ok because the land has matured. Plus 4 other houses on our road have a double storey conversion anyway. But MBPJ needs this anyway

3. R & D - Road and Drainage.
This is also done by the Engineer as the Engineer needs to check levels of the Road, elevations and drainage etc.

4. Neighbors Consent 
This is where many get it wrong. Including me. In any case for MBPJ you will need to get ALL Neighbors - Left, Right, Front AND Back to approve the consent form. The consent form is submitted by your architect for YOU to ask neighbors to sign. Sometimes the architect will do this if you are a lowyatt person who doesnt want to know your neighbors.

5. Rain Water Harvesting
Now on lowyatt, or ANYWHERE you WILL NOT FIND how large your Rainwater Harvesting storage tanks should be. Our engineer told us what MBPJ needs. The formula is simple. You will need 1/3rd of the capacity of your Water Tank.  This will allow you to get MBPJ's arppoval. It will also be drawn in your plans. You could use even Plastic Barrels as well. One contractor even said to use a large pot. Clearly this guy has more experience than I, because he reads lowyatt everyday and eats Avacado Toast everyday for breakfast with his Chai Latte.


I surprised our Architect and Engineer by showing them a rendering of our home. To which Sarizal laughed and said

" you are saving me time" , and the engineer said

"Its nice to see a passionate owner".

You too can draw your own plans and in 3d to get a good idea of what things would be like with planner5d. Not revealing all my plans, but here is what we were going to do. It shows you know your shit, and you can discuss easily and amend things faster with your architect faster rather than having to wait a week or so.

If you would like to build your own plans one day, use this software that any fool can master. Its online called www.planner5d.com

Its Idiot Proof. Its Free. Have this while sipping your chai latte hipsters. Planner 5d however will not allow you to build a roof or even insert a Doberman as a pet inside this rendering program unless you pay for it. Im serious, they even have 2 Dobermans in this program.

Its important to know what your premise will look like roughly in scale and proportion. It will give you a scale of things not only for yourself, but for the Architect to view too plans in 3D and what your intentions are for building a building in 3D

This too will allow you and the Architect to walk through the entire building which helps.

I didnt upgrade my software by paying for it even though to get a full version cost 15USD. So while I didnt have the roof in this rendering, my wife and I certainly had a good glimpse of what things would be like. At least to an accuracy of 85% which in most exams, scores you an A.

There you have it. During this time, I am simply awaiting for a few things to run on all fronts. Mainly the Surveyors work as well as the Engineers work to commence and be done with.

At this stage as I write this, its the 26th of July 2017. Today marked the first day where the Surveyors came. Without the surveyors plans, we wont know exactly what the real dimensions of our land is and where we slot our building in based on the boundaries. So in the next 2 days, there's nothing much we can do except wait.

I will have a summary of what needs to be done in my next post. This will have no ranting but a simple guideline of what takes place for your to understand if your are demolishing and rebuilding for MBPJ. look forward to my next post for this.

IN SUMMARY

Im glad we took our time. Though a year late, but a year wiser with the right person. I guess we are not wasting time and money with other folks who would have screwed, monkeyed and drained our funds further to have chai lattes every morning for breakfast and then only showing up once a week to view your homes progress.

Because a Head Honcho Indon will be there to supervise on that while the contractor boss takes off his pretentious poor looking clothes,

Changes from his beat up poor looking Waja into a C Class Mercedes,

Puts on his Guess jeans and Hugo Boss shirt

And heads for evening Bright Ale and Medium Done Steaks in Bangsar at 3 : 30pm (poor hard working folks, gotta beat the jam ya know ?).

Chai Latte anyone ?

If I could recommend an architect here, it would be Mr. Sarizal Yussof. Fast, modestly priced, and works to achieve what can be better with what you want.

That too with the knowledge of what needs to be done by working with town councils such as MBSA, MBPJ and shares things with transparency rather than in secrecy or half baked information.

Sometimes when things click, all of a sudden, magic happens.

~ fin ~

Whats first ? Architect or Contractor ? Together with Quotes

Its the 3rd week of November 2016, and its now been just over a month since we had picked up the keys to our home.

If I had known today much earlier, I would have started searching for an architect the moment we had our Loan Approval. This really makes a difference, because it will take a little time for things to move forward.

I like being ready when its time to move forward the moment I move to another level.

If you would want to renovate a home, anywhere in Malaysia, what should you do first ? Do you look for a Contractor ? or Architect First ? 

Contractors will have their own Architects that they can source as well. Some contractors would like working with their own architects as well. But should you take this advise and move it with ?  

This question may come into play because we ourselves were not sure doing this the first time. But the real answer to the question :

WHAT SHOULD I DO FIRST

Should I Look for a contractor first ? or look for an Architect ?

Architect first

Why ?

Because the architect firm will need to submit plans to your local town council such as MBPJ. And thats why the contractor isnt an achitect.

Working with a contractors architect will mean that some information may not be presented right. Lets face it, all contractors are mainly lowyatt folks, and with lowyatt folks, nothing is right or direct.

There are ALWAYS points being missed out. Especially with MBPJ, there is no fucking around unless you are wasting time. And wasting time is done with the wrong architect. Each time a submission is made to MBPJ, it costs money. Get it wrong, you are resubmitting again, and again and again. 

When should I do this ?

Take your time in selecting an architect but also start as soon as you have gotten your SPA signed. 

This is the simple long and short answer. Took us 8 months to figure this out. We wasted 8 months of our time after picking up the keys, but nothing began to move till about 5 weeks ago. Its July 2017 as I am writing this. More of this in the next chapter but here are some stories that we have compiled of different approaches with Contractors and Architects before finally settling on the one.

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***** Update : 10/7/2019 : When selecting an architect, please ask them if they are certified. Ask them for their company name and do a search on them. You may find search for them at the following link :

http://portal.lam.gov.my/lam/website_member_list.php?gtype=pa

Though this is a little late update above, we also found that many companies as mentioned below in entertaining way, have also not been certified using the link above. Something we are totally thankful for. Our Architect we are working with now, is a bonefide company. Always has been. Enjoy the stories below my little ones :)

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ARCHITECTS

We decided that it would be best if we took 3 quotes and decided on which architect we would go with. Basing things on a simple principle of :

1. Upmarket Architect

2. Middle Range Architect

3. Low Range Architect

4. Bastard Architect / Contractor (Bonus Story)

This was also followed then by :

CONTRACTORS

You see I work in a factory, and deal with materials such as plywood, steel, aluminium and know costings VERY well. However, contractors think that people like me are pencil pushers and dont know what things cost.

My terms were simple, Ill buy the materials, ill pay for the labor and the machinery if at the contractors expense. Meaning from every saw, grinding disc, hacking machine, scaffolding, till your buckets and pails is the contractors.

In addition, this neighborhood is also guarded at night and no Indons were allowed to stay inside. So there will be stories of :

1. Contractor 1

2. Contractor 2

3. Contractor 3

4. Contractor 4

ARCHITECT  1

 UPMARKET ARCHITECT

I received a quote from Seshan Design, RM 400.00 per square foot. I have never responded back. I like this guy, but I just couldnt afford him. This was my first choice. It would have been nice to work with this chap, but unfortunately, Im no lowyatt billionaire. 

ARCHITECT 2

 MID RANGE ARCHITECT

This fell under the category of our Friends, they quoted us 58,000 which to me was just way too much for what Friends would charge. Thrown in with progressive payments as well, I still thought that things would cost at Maximum around the 36,000 range. They were also slow, perhaps it was cause they were too busy.

So we thought fuck this. 

In addition, while they had also the fear that things would take very long with MBPJ with submissions, they themselves are a couple of around 32 - 34 years of age I guess.

So they worry a lot about stupid things like MBPJ and not knowing well enough in their profession how to advise customers like us when submitting things correctly to your local town council. 

They had mentioned as well that they think their Dad could help get things approved because their Dad knew someone who sits on the board for Building Plans in MBPJ but you know what, this is Malaysia, you can say things like that but everyone is a small fry. I too know MO1. I just know him, but Im not his friend. You know ?

They had also said they were currently renovating a house in section 17 in Petaling Jaya, but this is not just a matter of renovations in our case, its also a total demolition and rebuild.

While I had given my original plans to them, they could have corrected me on the spot on things I was missing out on, and what was also required, more importantly what I was not complying with - which they did not.

So it just shows that when you are dealing with renovations in a house in Petaling Jaya, it is very important to know what you are talking about. Which we are glad we didnt work with them in the end.

We could have gotten ourselves into some major shit that would have costed more than 58,000 anyway because they were still missing out information. 

Another thing of new hipster firms are - why do you need 7 pages of documents to send a quote ? All you need is 1. At maximum 2. Unfortunately our hipster architect friends who love coffee and avocado and toast were just way too inexperienced for me and expensive.

There was too much of technical jargon that perhaps I could not understand from a 7 page quote. It was just way too much.

While they had also done by brothers house in Bukit Damansara, it falls under DBKL which is a township that has its approvals VERY fast.

Bottom line is this, mid range does not mean you will have the best of both worlds, you would still end up spending more if you are not careful. 

ARCHITECT 3

LOW RANGE ARCHITECT

This is where the Lowyatt crowd lies. When you ask them how much things would cost, even when you have your own plans that they can easily calculate on, and they go "between 40 - 50k lor".

So what the fuck lies in between ? The Caspian Sea ?

In business you need firm answers, and when you dont have firm answers, you get nowhere. So this was the cheapest that I had got which had a lack of thorough information.

When lowyatt folks do this and are not CLEAR enough, you know the cheapest will eventually cost more, and more, and more. So if I were you, never go for the cheapest. 

ARCHITECT / CONTRACTOR 4

BASTARD OF THEM ALL

This guy, lets just call him Mr. Justin, but lets not use any last names. This guy was the best. We waited for him the longest thinking he would be the best option for us. Turn out this chap is a class A bastard. Plus this guy actually knows my Mum in Law. But here goes the story.

This guy was away, waited for him to return, we told him what our vision was, gave him references and ideas too via email while waiting for him to meet us. We gave him 1 month in hopes that when we finally met, this was the chap that we were really banking on who would understand what we wanted.

During our first meeting we speak the same kind of style, and were off to a decent 1 hour start. Talking shit and cracking jokes, basically warming up to someone. Fucking waste of time.

During our first meeting, I realised that this guy didnt have the same vision of what I was describing all along in our email correspondences. I was looking to build an old fashioned looking building.

But he came back with a ballooned idea of having a huge house in a boxy design. To which my wife and I were puzzled. This fucker was missing the mark after giving him cues of what we wanted.

When he finally got it on his head, his appearance changed and knew what we were talking about. And here was a guy who was supposed to be at some intellect.

Clearing things up, we adjourned, and told him that by the way, my wife's Mum is so and so and you worked with her on a project before. So things became a little better as well at the end of the day.

I gave him my plans, and he was supposed to return in expectation with a basic Autocad plan in a couple of weeks.

What happened was that this guy just shat on EVERYTHING we had.

This guy was supposed to give us a drawing to which his architect had not done because his architect was not free. Fine.

So he drew a layout on Excel by arranging all row heights and widths and colouring different sections of the rough drawing on excel because it was to get an idea across. Its okay, I have got points presented to me in different ways before. I can see the effort.

Nothing was in a straight line when you had to walk through the house. Nothing at all. Nothing was straight forward. It was a shitty layout that was only understandable by rats that live in a complex sewer line.

Nothing had a direct way or clean way of simple human movement through the building. He said that it would cost RM 800,000 to execute his shitty sewer line layout built for rats.

I was shat on. And I had got my time wasted. I still didnt give up. I asked him to just follow what I had asked and quote me what things would cost.

He sends me a quote

Really ? 5 airconds and 6 fans at RM 10,000 ? Digging and concrete foundation RM 60k ? 

From this time, I didnt reply to any of his messages as he was wasting time and missed the mark after receiving this quote. To which I just said thank you for the quote. 

I knew at this time, this dude didnt fucking know what things cost, and perhaps its best he wastes someone elses time by smoking weed and shooting coke and walking the streets of Melaka City.

but I could not absolutely accept, which was the biggest surprise of all, was that he wanted a fucking payment for his shitty Excel drawing,..... 

..... and charged me RM 1,500.00 for it. 

Of course I didnt work out the finances. Not for his shit

Attached is Mr. Justins Invoice :-

This is a man who has missed the mark, ignored the budget, and wasted MY time instead of his, because he did not understand English. Class A mutt. I ignored this email.

A month passed and another email to remind me was sent. To which Mr. Justin said

"I hope you are not ignoring this" To which I whatsapp-ed the dude and asked for what is this Invoice for ? To which he says

"Basically For my time, travel, etc. and drawing done"

To which I said " I will call you" and call I did

There was a good shelling on both ends. This guy is a smart guy and had threatened me and said he will get me and cause problems if I had taken his ideas.

He actually said my drawings were shit. Literally. "Your drawings were shit anyway"

He had actually threatened and said "If you  had used any my ideas I will get some guys and make your life hard"

To which I said

"What did you just say ? Do you want to say it again for the record ? Is that a threat ?"

To which he backed off, but I asked again many times

"No, tell me what did you say again for the record" to which he said "We are already moving out of this topic and you are still going at it".... some chaps have only hot air.

But I told him, I would pay you but not RM 1,500.00 for your shit work.

But if you want money for your shit work, Then re write the Invoice as Drawing in Excel and will pay. Dont just Invoice it as " Drawings ".

To which this desperate thick skinned low standards man actually did with no shame. Re Invoiced me. Here is his amended Invoice :

You want me to pay ? Sure I can, and paid I did on the spot. i didnt even take 14 days. This was worth paying for to show you all and to share 

But who would pay for his piece of shit artwork ? Me. You know why ? Because this is what you get when you want others who are in the same circle of friends and colleagues to know about this class A mutt. 

Believe it or not, before paying RM 800.00 instead of RM 1500.00 I told him

" Your drawing could have been done by any immature kid, and its unprofessional for what you are asking for. In addition we have mutual people who we know "

I actually shelled this chap and said

" Next time why dont you just draw fucking Excel sheets and shake hands with people on the street and ask them for RM 1,500.00. This will make you rich and your business grow "

However this fucker in his original Invoice had mentioned "Drawings". But drawings in what ? Autocad ?

So I own the best 800.00 Excel sheet which is now mine as a good laugh for many years to come. Because his reputation will be amongst some of the most interesting people this country has to offer.

Never pay anything that is not signed. Simple as that. But this drawing now allows me to show how incompetent this chap is among certain individuals and mutual parties. Mutt and a half.

You would think you would do better especially by knowing high caliber people and this chap had the nerve to actually threaten ? Pariah and a half.

While others had given rough drawings in Autocad, this mutt was asking for some money for HIS time and for the drawings. 

When you get a guy who quotes RM 10,000 for airconds and fans, back away. Here is a low class chap. 

And I actually served this asshole coffee too. 

Bastard.

CONTRACTOR 1

His name is Mr. Alex

Mum in laws favorite contractor. Mr. Alex actually viewed our home while we were purchasing out home. This was just before the earnest deposit. 

This guy didnt accept my offer for buying my own materials to be supplied. He gave my wife the full attention while talking instead of the both of us. So that meant that he thought I was a fool and was not interested in what the man of the house had to say.

Let me tell you folks, for just adding half a floor for half a million, does this make sense ? This guy was axed immediately of our list. 

Greedy lowyatt at heart.

When did we meet him ? 

May 2016

How much for his idea and work ?

RM 300,000 to remain single storey. RM 500,000 for 1.5 storey. Bitch please, for that amount you are eating steak everyday and wont be there to supervise anyway.

CONTRACTOR 2

His name is Mr. Chong

Recommended by Recomm's website. this Contractor was from Puchong, a lowyatt young chap, quoted 280,000 to build the whole house. However, was missing things from machinery, and mentioned the workers had to stay at our own location. So this guy didnt have his paper work done right and missed the mark too.

If you are serious about your neighbors, and care about your premise, never get Indons to stay.

When did we meet him ?

November 2016

How much to execute our idea ?

RM 280,000. And just like lowyatt folks, was missing out on things like big time

CONTRACTOR 3

His name is Mr. Eric

You will hear him a lot in my rants later on.

Recommended by wifes friend, This guy spoke decent English, bumped into him once at a chinese shop as well. However this guy harasses my wife constantly cause lets face it, times are bad and this chap hounds to know if he can start work for us. This guy gave a 4 page quote to do our home up.

These are people who will continue to add, and add, and add and say "this one is missing, this one not included, this one dont have" and still took us for a ride thinking we were fools.

These are people who will show you things are cheap first like saying architect only 5k, and then will miss out deliberately a lot more information and work you will have to pay for such as :

1. Sewage line.
2. Drain Line
3. Armor Cable
4. Septic Tanks
5. Water Tank
6. Veranda
7. Car Park

The more paper work, the more you know things are not thorough

He gave though an Autocad of what my plans were. And he had an architect as well. But knowing lowyatt folks, in the end turns out that the Arhitects fee is only RM 5000.00.

So he must have the cheapest architect ever. Turns out I was right. And his architect was very wrong to just draw based on what I wanted. Lucky this didnt happen.

When we finally found our architect, the amount of corrections that were done for us compared to our plans that this contractors architect blindly drew clearly shows that this would have continously added more, and more and more fees from re submissions to many other missing things that were not included SUCH AS

1. Surveyor (RM 6k)
2. Soil Testing & Submission (RM 5.5k)
3. Architects Fees for drawing and submission (RM 27k)
4. MBPJ Consultancy and fees for runners submission, images etc etc etc (RM 8K)
5. Engineers Fee (12k)

There came a time when I messaged and asked as well a simple question. This is when I had already knew my answer from the architect we will be working with I asked him this :

"Are you sure our plans can be approved by MBPJ"

and he said  "YES"

So I asked him knowing very well that our plans couldnt be approved

"Are you sure ? Can you check with your architect what is required and based on my plans can they certainly be approved ?" and after deep pressuring one night, this guy finally cracked.

And he said he didnt know how hard it would be. I wish I had the conversation snapshot here but wifey had changed her phone and damn now I dont have the full conversation.

So folks, dont get suckered by lowyatt people, because you have to know your shit before others.

In addition, this contractor was clearly taking us for a ride. Which I will describe in another chapter when it comes to costings and building a Home.

His terms were also a joke. 40 % upfront, and then progressive payments. Clearly lowyatt people do this everyday and its okay with them. 

The most expensive, inexperienced with MBPJ. Charming, but couldnt take me for a fool. Lowyatt people though are more experienced than me and would deal with him. 

When did we meet him

March 2017

How much to execute our idea ?

Over 562,000 for double storey. But excluded Water Tank area, sub standard materials. But all using his materials.

350,000 if I had used my materials and his labor. PFFFFFT ! So raw materials cost 212,000 TO BUILD ? This here lies another lowyatt dude. At this rate I too should become a contractor.

CONTRACTOR 4

His name is Mr. Tan.

Sourced by my Mum, but the hungriest contractor that also is just like Contractor 2, harasses to get the job moving, cause for lowyatt people times are very good right to ignore small people like me ?

But anyway. For this chap, I really liked his style of thinking, behavior, and believe in himself, however price was a different matter. The dude cant read actually in English which was a problem which is okay with me because I have staff who cant read too but if our vision is strong, it can achieve better things than Mr. Justin. 

So this guy for Petaling Jaya said RM 80.00 per square foot for the building. Smaller jobs like the water tank area, patio, driveway, veranda RM 25.00 per square foot. 

This includes, wet works, form works, painting, laying of concrete and everything. This is more a guy of my style.

I laid out in front of him a single page template, no 4 pages of terms after terms, bla bla bla. 

1 page, full price. Simple. Here it is :

The template I made for this guy. Sometimes you can just jive with someone from the start, and Mr. Tan was one of them for me.  This was a simple way of doing things. No jargon of what every single thing would cost from labor to raw materials to picking up a fucking brick or shovel will cost. 1 page, simple answer, we get to see where we stand. No missing out on shit, its just how much will the building cost start till end.  Period

A few days later I receive a call from his Son in Law, you see, Mr. Tan cant read English. So its still fine with me, we can still speak malay. So his Son in Law actually helped him to source for an architect and to ask about the MBPJ Submissions etc.

This was the conversation that looked like someone was either desperate for money, or someone who just didnt know the right way to move forward

And that other house in ss3 he was talking about taking 1 year ? Had all sorts of illegal shit building right till the boundaries of things. Obviously MBPJ wasnt going to take things easy. So once again, if I was going to lose, so will everyone else. If I was going to win, I would have to pay for the right advise from the right person, who I would find eventually

This is the house below that this guy is talking about. You know why the guy probably took almost a year to get things approved ? Look at this. Look at the size of this thing and how many things are not being complied with. This is what happens when Cheras comes to SS3

Yummy 3 storey Cheras style !

Our process is one that even contractors dont know the true magnitude of what is required. But this guy is desperate for work and tried to persuade me to actually do some basic renovations instead. This chap above, still didnt mention things that I know today that were not included in the conversation.

Sorry dude, I really like you but at the expense of your own profit, I simply cannot move on with you for your short term goals. I would have to go on finding the right people to move with. 

When did we meet him

May 2017

How much to execute our idea ?

RM 80.00 per square foot for main building. RM 25.00 per square foot, simple structures and floor work. The raw materials WE supply, machinery and equipment is his. Simple

CONTRACTOR 5 (BONUS)

His name is Mr. Hoe

Recommended by Mum in law, This dude was the slowest. Clearly not hungry at all. But was equally or slightly lesser priced than Mr. Tan.

This guy has also projects in PJ that he has done. The last I spoke to him was about 6 weeks ago, but this dude clearly doesnt want to work. Here's his quote :

Another boring quote. Its like Air Asia, they will always catch you where you were supposed to know better like you build houses everyday like lowyatt people. 

My last conversation with him was what are the steps required by MBPJ and he has yet to get back to me. Even after CC'ing emails to wifey as well whose Mum is his client. This my friends, means that this guy has enough work.

When did we meet him ?

May 2017

How much to execute our idea ?

RM 280,0000

IN CONCLUSION

So you see, folks, this is how we have been spending time. Looking at architects etc. And while we had ourselves and ultimatum that we will move with a contractor and confirm things ourselves by May 31st 2017, it never happened. Just like how our SPA had expired by the time we had got our KTN 16A done.

Im sharing this experience above because lowyatt people dont go through what I have. They dont go through this especially in PJ and working with MBPJ and dealing with architects and contractors who dont know what they are talking about.

Every contractor will say Architects cost is RM 5,000. Contractors will always miss out on information and make certain things look cheap to tempt you.

Its only YOUR fault that you should know better how information should have been compiled to start you off on the right foot. That too with the knowledge of what things will cost and how to negotiate better.

The fault is simple only yours if you are not smarter or wiser than them.

But I am glad that we as a young couple, were not hasty and had this time of now 9 months before coming to some act of moving forward

Because after not finding any solution, and not finding anyone right, things now have taken a turn. 

It may have been now 9 months since we got out keys, now approaching 10, but we finally found the right Architect. 

I will continue to share my experience in the next chapter called Architect - Found the right one. 

Where you will know what I went through, and what it actually is required by MBPJ in order to get things approved.