God of war, construction industry so broad. variety of profession. what u want? the only party who earn big buck is developer.

construction is so broad. what u wanna learn? there is no "one man show" company that can perform all the trade, ha ha ha

O'Brian, this is the guide to budgeting. at the end could be low. anyway u have 2 storeys mang. substructure, ground slab, upper slab and a roof.

not really Printing U.S Dollar Dollar Dollar , supplier or trading have to give competitive credit terms like 60days 90 days 120 days or 150 days to secure a order. but most of the due payment will not be honored accordingly. profits is not the main concern for them, its "good paymaster"

Printing U.S Dollar Dollar Dollar ,there are no local council in malaysia that allow you to top up another floor of building structure on existing floor unless you demolish and rebuilt.

O'Brian,it's not advisable to do it without getting endorsement from engineer and approval from local authority. even u can over design it to ensure it's perfectly secure, sometimes unforeseen thing will just happen. if something happen and even not due to ur fault, not due to ur structural design issue, they will still pin point at u as u didn't get endorsement for the work and no approval from local authority at first place. so u lose the case b4 even it require to assess ur secured design.

anyway it ain't expensive also la. all those material is cheap. maybe u estimate about RM125/sqft for ur work. normal finishes, not expensive type. but endorsement and local authority expenses would be a lot as ur quantity is small yet the same procedure had to be go through

The ever common character of a politician..slander and make the most out of it. Whatever happened to the previous battle cry that won the guy a parliamentary seat and ministerial post. Hehehe... and the so many gullibles who were fooled, especially the idiot PH supporters who found out later that nothing comes out of the battle cry when PH became government... LOL!

Those developers make complain just because of two months not operating?

How about previous 10 years property market booming and all wear rolex and drive BMW Porsche?
How about 10 years of the poor suffer from can't even to own a flat and many paying heavy monthly installment?

They just don't want to bear loss and use their own saving to pay workers and debt.
I never seen more greedy than developer.

Exactly NancyDrewWhite!

Ordinary people of Malaysian , suffering without job and food , our PN politician looking for opportunity to make money after enter back door what kind of human .... Hope Malaysian Malay change their mind set , if still they think Malay steal money it’s ok until than Malaysia won’t go further, not a single chance that could nearby like Singapore Thailand Taiwan Korea and so On

stockjobber,wow123, olga,ahfad,cow66 anyone? Hehe

Ageson train is ongoing! choo choo! rally rally rally! Happy happy happy!

Yes, must support them, even if they are fair or partial or possess integrity when it matters. Congrats Tan Sri.

The Indonesians gave additional Aidil Fitri holidays in December in a smart move to discourage celebrations in May. It's also a move to prevent mass exodus of Muslims returning to their kampung.

Celebrate Aidil Fitri in a modest way at home and reserve the balik kampung to December during the special end of year shut down.

ha ha both of you , Abrahamic religion is only 3000-4000 years old and the god that you believe in should be the same age as well. So please don't be so zealous to backdate the knowledge to billions of years back

Larrie Chew ,it's not advisable to do it without getting endorsement from engineer and approval from local authority. even u can over design it to ensure it's perfectly secure, sometimes unforeseen thing will just happen. if something happen and even not due to ur fault, not due to ur structural design issue, they will still pin point at u as u didn't get endorsement for the work and no approval from local authority at first place. so u lose the case b4 even it require to assess ur secured design.

anyway it ain't expensive also la. all those material is cheap. maybe u estimate about RM125/sqft for ur work. normal finishes, not expensive type. but endorsement and local authority expenses would be a lot as ur quantity is small yet the same procedure had to be go through.

Umbrella Corp Great day guys, can i ask how to read the drawing plan and transfer the scale to a dimensional paper or slip sort based on SMM2?

fyi

SMM2 is guideline to form the BQ. SMM2 let u know how u categorize all the item. first u need to categorize to the drawing to categories as follow,
1. work below lowest floor
2. frame
3. upper floor
4. roof structure
5. roof covering
6. roof drainage
7. stair structure
8. stair finishes
9. stair balustrade & handrail
10. external walls
11. windows
12. external doors
13. internal wall & partition
14. internal doors
15. internal wall finishes
16. internal floor finishes
17. internal ceiling finishes
18. external finishes
19. fittings, fixtures and furniture
20. sanitary appliances
21. sundries

then from there u measure 1 by 1. it's easy but complex.

usually this work done by fresh graduate.

UraniumKing68, ya, cement render mean put cement screed then apply trowelled finish on the screed. the screed can only be lay after concrete slab cured.

powerfloat is direct finish on the concrete slab. when concrete still wet, they use the "helicopter" to spin the make it smooth finish on concrete and hence called direct finish.

Printing U.S Dollar Dollar Dollar , nice to have you here today!

1. subcontractor chosen by architect, we called that nominated subcontractor. contractor can reject if he got a good ground. this is stipulated in the standard form of contract.

2. yes, contractor should write in not because of they have to do that, but to put thing into writing and serve to architect. in future got dispute these would be the evidence.

3. yes, they can stop the work. they represent architect. however if stop wrongly then the contractor can claim for expenses due to the hindrance of regular progress

UraniumKing68, factory, car park with bear finish usually use that. heavy duty. cement screed require when u have some finishing on top such as tile, timber floor, carpet and etc.

hi UraniumKing68 powerfloat mean direct finish on concrete. power float is a machine look like helicopter but upside down 1. after u cast concrete, then u will use this "helicopter" to spin on the floor make it smooth. hence no need do additional floor screed after concrete cured.

power float + floor hardener mean u spread the floor hardener powder on the floor slab when the floor slab concrete still not yet set (not yet dry and hard mean) and then power float it. it is like a coating to concrete floor. have strong mechanical properties. hardly crack. can stand heavy duty implication. in residential and commercial building, normally it is use on car park.

power float machine aka "helicopter"

Salute Ageson and Dato liew! +9

wow mana kenot count me in, Ageson share price already rocket fly up to 53.33% today!

BUT We cannot become a developed country if we block our busy roads for cheap stalls to be erected for one month every year. Ramadan bazaars should be located in allocated public places outside shopping areas outside city centres without at all obstructing any road.

welcome yo!

good question larrie chew,

therefore main contractor is not an easy job. u got main contract (agreement between employer and main contractor) and also subcontract (agreement between main contractor and subcontractor). u have to always ensure that whatever subcontractor claim to u is claimable against employer. but this not always the case.

remember that in standard form of contract (irrespective of it is PAM form or PWD) there is 1 clause mention that the contractor have to notify architect the discrepancy of drawing and any doubt during tender stage. upon contract formed, contractor accepted that all the information is clear to him. so if during construction stage only contractor discover certain blindspot he overlook and after enquired architect on the original design intent, some additional cost have to be spent on the said changes. all the cost incurred on such changes shall be borne by contractor. those cost incurred have to pay to subcontractor because subcontractor is just construct whatever u asked for. they not bound to the mistake contractor didn't discover as they only take care 1 trade while main contractor take care everything.

so this is the logic behind ur concern. the principle is that if the discrepancy only clarified during post-construction stage, all the cost incurred to fix the discrepancy is not claimable against employer. but on the other hand the discrepancy could be a cost saving to contractor too. example contractor price in marble material in cost, but there are discrepancy on drawing on finishing and upon clarify from architect, tile is their original intent. therefore change from expensive marble to cheap tile is additional profit to contractor as no cost implication due to discrepancy.

Hi there larrie chew, Through the analysis of courts’ judgments, the meaning of “reasonable
time” when time at large occurs was determined. “Reasonable time” means
reasonable under the existing circumstances, assuming that those circumstances, in
so far as they involve delay, are not caused or attributed to by him and excluding
circumstances which were under the control of the contractor, considering what in
ordinary circumstances was a reasonable time for performance and then considering
to what extent the time for performance of the contractor was in fact extended by
extraordinary circumstances outside his control.

yo o'brian,

1. contractor is liable. because contractor have the site possession. provided the material is under contractor custody.

2. this happen always and only competent contractor can manage it well. very simple, contractor have to carry out with due diligence and expedite the work. contract term called it "regular and diligent". what exactly it mean? upon receive of instruction, u have to start to begin the necessary work. a program bar chart will always be drafted and submitted in EOT application. u have to justify the thing to Employer on reasonableness by including the program bar chart with event as below,
a) date receive of instruction and drawings
b) production of shop drawing
c) review of shop drawing by consultant
d) construction of work as per instruction

if the date fall into critical path, then there u go, u entitle for EOT. if not then it's concurrent activity and contractor have to stick to the original completion date. the "forthwith" is within the buffer zone of master program

BABIKING

grade 25/30 mostly is on floor slab and beam, internal column is grade 40. of course some case might have exception. like retaining wall grade 60. again, it is all design by conslting engineer as accordance to BS 5950. i understand that in the book it keep tell us concrete have high compressive strength and compensate the steel weak of compressive strength. but rebar have yield stress of 460N/mm2 in contrast of concrete have 40N/mm2 (depend on which concreet u use) it's depend on how u lay the rebar. if u lay the rebar horizontally and the loading in from top to bottom, then it's weak in compressive strength, but if u bend the rebar and let it bulging on top and apply the force again, it have way higher compressive strength than concrete. this is also how pre-stress reinforced concrete work came about.

DatoSeriJohnnyWalker ,contractor don't sell the house. it was developer who sell the house. developer engage a contractor to build for them. cost to build hardly determine but generally u can use this ratio to gauge the price and budget. low end use RM150/sf, high end specification use RM300/sf. again this is not accurate, best u budget urself first like RM200/sf x 2000 square feet = RM400k and u build it base on the budget. if budget burst then consider change the type of material, maybe from stainless steel to mild steel, maybe from marble to tile, maybe from timber floor to tile? maybe from MML to white horse tile? maybe from TOTO brand of sanitary wares to zaplang china made fitting?

this is depend from project to project. for a high end service apartment at KLCC area, out of 100% of GDV (Gross Development Value) got 26% is profit after tax.

Printing U.S Dollar Dollar Dollar, 1a. there are basically 2 type of breach in contract. 1 is conditional breach (can rescind the contract and claim for damages) another 1 is warranty breach (cannot rescind the contract but can claim remedy). not giving site possession is a conditional breach and the contractor can terminate the contract and claim for expenses incurred due to the breach. seems like ur case u accepted the late site possession. architect can postpone the work but it's up to contractor to accept it or not.

1b. yes, but it's has to be done at the beginning. let's say contract duration is May 2014 to June 2016, after u take the possession on July 2014, u should immediately claim for eot until August 2016. but in commercial context, u make employer unhappy especially when starting the work at beginning.

if u said claim vo due to the late sit possession, have to see whether it have direct impact to the vo work. but bear in mine VO is additional work to the project while loss and expenses claim is due to extended period of time.

Printing U.S Dollar Dollar Dollar

The common excuse for the issue of the letter is that the employer cannot wait the additional few days necessary for the preparation and execution of a formal contract. When requesting for a simple letter of acceptance of the contractor’s tender rather than a letter of intent, we suspect there is something more substantial preventing the issue of an acceptance letter with a few words and sentences. We are unsure whether it may be a delay in obtaining funding for the whole project or perhaps contractor’s tender was “still relatively high” and reduction negotiations with the Employer's in-house contractors are in progress.

I assume u are contractor

1. no need to concern on problem issue letter of intent.

2. yes, if beyond 1mil, employer still need to pay. maybe employer might via letter of intent don't wanna pay any amount beyond 1mil, but contractor can use the principle of quantum merit and force employer to pay.

3. pre-contract minutes mean the meeting that carry b4 contract form? or after, kindly elaborate more your case.

KennyDowJones, u can use abt RM175 per square feet to calculate. built up area, not land area. say 5 storey is 5000 build up area, then is 175 x 5000 equal to 875k. thus us just general guild line.

approval from authority u need get runner to do for u. Those quite competent can help u expedite the approval quickly, but u need to pay for it at higher cost. And usually is Malay runner.

Retaining wall is a structural encasement constructed to hold back soil, water, or materials. Retaining walls are used to increase the amount of level usable building area, retaining soil at a higher level, and preventing it from encroaching into the building or another useable area.

Parapet wall is a low wall usually constructed along the edge of a roof, balcony, or walkway. Commonly used to protect people against accidental falls.

DatoSeriJohnnyWalker

RC Wall is a short form of the phrase Reinforced Concrete Wall, a type of concrete shear wall in which reinforcement bars (a.k.a. rebars) have been incorporated into the concrete matrix to strengthen the tensile strength of the concrete wall that would otherwise be brittle.

Concrete withstand compressive strength while steel rebar withstand tensile strength. Together the two material used together is called Reinforced Concrete. The steel rebar helps resist bending (moment) and tensile actions/force acted upon the component (beam, column and slab), but concrete is the one holding everything together.

we called it diameter of rebar. according to structure drawing. it is the duty of structural engineer to calculate. contractor just follow the drawing. again it's depend on the structural load requirement. if they require 20mm diameter for storage room, u can do 32mm diameter. it just require 20mm diameter of rebar to withstand the load.

Marble and granite are natural stone hence look aesthetic. use on floor, wall, kitchen counter top, island. no budget then use tile.....

DatoSeriJohnnyWalker

both marble and granite is stone. extract from mountain usually. difference is marble is fragile compared to granite. but marble got vein. the vein on the surface make it so beautiful but at the same time those vein is the thing make it fragile. water might seep in, and also that is the fragile part where crack started.

granite is just one tone, it is very consistent but also boring. some architect want very natural design hence marble give them the natural look which fit their requirement well.

.......however there are additive can add depend what requirement u need. some additive meant for waterproofing, so by add that u have waterproof on the specific area u use. water very difficult to seep through. usually they apply this on ground floor which expose to weather while below is basement. then they apply 1 more waterproof layer before floor tile or stone so they have double protection.

there are other additive to increase the work-ability of concrete. normal concrete have slump test result 50mm +/- so the concrete will set very fast and can't travel long and flow not so smooth hence less mobility. use to cast the area where travel of concrete is minimal. by add the additive u achieve 75mm+/- and the concrete will not set quickly and flow well. we called it pump mix because when concrete got longer distance to travel, example from ground floor to 15th floor, u need that so concrete can flow well inside the pipe where they use the pump to pump it to higher level.

higher slump test result mean the concrete more watery

DatoSeriJohnnyWalker,

concrete is just 1 type. depend what the strength of concrete u want. eg. if u order grade 40N concrete, mean that concrete can stand the force not below 40N/mm2. like he said need send to lab for cube test. however 21 days only u will know the final result as concrete need 21days to achieve that result which is 40N/mm2. usually after u cast a level, consulting engineer not allow u to cast another floor because they want o see the result first. but then also they don't want to hinder the process of work therefore they get the 7 days result. 7th day if got achieve desired strength maybe around 30N then they allow to proceed casting of next floor.

among so many readymix concrete supplier, YTL subsidiary aka buildcon concrete sdn bhd is the smartest concrete supplier. why I said so? the concrete they supply can achieve very close to 40N for 21 days strength maybe like 40.5N or 41N while the rest of concrete supplier achieve more maybe like 44N or 45N. yeah u not heard it wrong, why I said smart that YTL achieve close to 40N which less than other? it's because in concrete, the expensive ingredient is cement. the more cement, the higher the strength. YTL just so precise enough to control the quantity of cement they use so they won't use more but at the same time still can achieve the desire strength. the other supplier will use more because they afraid that the concrete strength will fall below hence they rather spend more cement and subsequently they can't achieve the best optimum qty like YTL do.

to answer ur 2nd question, it is due to the waterproofing layer damaged. it could be many reason, poor workmanship, when owner doing renovation punch through the layer. anyway, only kitchen, toilet and balcony require waterproofing layer on floor.

usually waterproofing vendor will give like 20 years warranty 1.

BABIKING HI guys, Main Contractor profit margins. Years before 2008, Main Con still can secure a project at least with 15% profit margin

But nowaday, Main con are suffering thin line of profit margin around 5% to 10%. That if there are no excessive wastage, site corruption and LAD imposed.

Are Main Con business secured nowaday? From my opinion, 8 out of 10 Main Con firms nowaday are poorly performed.

There are no association in malaysia that will safe guard their best interest from these main con. I believe Ageson this year can get BIG PROJECT!


For your info babiking, main contractor have to be competitive to get the job. u mark up 15% how u get the job? a competent contractor that know how to plan the work well, they just mark up 3% to 4% as they already have in mind how the work would look like b4 start the work. able to foreseen what would happen during construction and hence prevent a lot of unnecessary expenses. they get additional profit through VO work.

nowadays, high end project mostly is cost overrun. why? because quality always failed. they have to spend extra cost to rectify those poor quality of works. high end project demand good quality of product. u know u spend 1 million on a unit, how fussy would u be?

YoungTycoonWILL Workmanship and quality issue.

Indonesian workers wont bulge in giving competitive rates for supply of labors. no doubt their workmanship is average satisfy but their high rates nowday are killing the industry. They are very demanding nowday, unlike old day.

If we opted with Bangla or Nepal or Vietnamese as construction workers, although their wages are much cheaper than Indon, but 80% of them are unskilled and lazy.

What would be the best way to overcome this labor issue....



for your info , u get what u pay for. cost of labourer from high to low. skill also from high to low.

1. Chinese labourer (mostly is carpenter (furniture), plasterer)
2. Indonesian labourer
3. Myanmar / Pakistani / Vietnamese
4. Bangladeshi

this u have to control yourself. I can tell u u get an Indonesian worker, ur quality might not be achieve the satisfactory u want. u have to get qaqc to control the quality of work and rectify when it is wrong at the beginning. not just about labourer. qaqc does matter too.

JessicaTan , How much cost for 1 kg of cement?


OPC (ordinary Portland cement) is control price item. RM17 / bag. 50kg per bag. minimum purchase is 400 bag la. when unload the cement from trailer they will charge abt 30 cents / bag.

if u only wanna buy 1 bag, hardware shop sell RM20++.

cement will "expired" also. mean those cement that remain unsold for long period after manufactured. so those cement will sell at control price minus RM2 or RM3. just like BLR -2% something like that.

BABIKING , all construction site wanna safe cost, hence hired PART TIME cheap safety officer just to comply the paper work to JKKP. Thats why

FYI for project like MRT, people in mmc gamuda who doing all these paper work is very high paid

NancyDrewWhite, Why are subcontractors so terrible?Causing mrt project lots of accident. Why locals dunwan to work in construction?

Not all subcon are bad.

Not only MRT, almost all construction sites got accident occurred, for MRT such huge project just 3-4 cases considered very less d. Other small project maybe ur current house got pipu died during construction period u also dont know.

Cuz will old faster and low pay. Just like Singapore construction always got vacancy for Malaysian or Indonesian engineer. Because Singaporean want work inside office.

Construction Industry is so complex and actually affect various party namely,

House buyer / Purchaser
Developer
Consultant (Architect, Engineer and etc)
Main Contractor
Subcontractor / Vendor / Supplier
Local Authority (DBKL, BOMBA, SYABAS, TNB, TELEKOM, POS, JKKP, IWK and etc.)

And it is clear that there are two groups of people with vested interest.

One comprises employers who are "bleeding to death" as income is virtually zero during the MCO and many expenses are fixed.

The other comprises employees who minimize their risk of exposure to Covid-19 by staying at home while still receiving their pay cheques. It is obvious that if employers continue to have zero income, very soon private sector employees are very unlikely to continue receiving their pay cheques. It is another story for the very lucky government servants. They literally have their cake and eat it too!! They are guaranteed to be paid their salary even though they are not working (even at home, as government departments are closed).

We should emulate South Korea's model. MASS TESTING to be carried out. Concurrently, companies can open and people can go to work while observing strict social distancing and other measures to prevent infection. In this way the people are comforted that serious effort is made by the government to detect, treat and isolate those infected people so that they are not out in the work places to infect others.

Over here in Malaysia, I will feel unsafe to go back to my office to mingle with my many colleagues knowing that the government is only doing limited (so called targeted) testing
which inevitably left many Covid-19 infected people undetected and let loose in the community.

If it is necessary to let more services and businesses to restart during the MCO period I appeal to the government to give us that feeling of comfort by introducing MASS TESTING immediately. Not to do so will mean that the MCO has to be extended indefinitely.