House Construction Supervision

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thanks Bob, info on cars would be really good (it's not my strong point, I'm more into  property). I've got some new car prices from the Star that I'll post but if it's not relevant I'll take it off.

I'm in Penang in late June.
scott7777@myfastmail.com

regards,
Scott

Hi Scott,

I am halfway up a mountain (well a very big hill) in Chiangmai at the moment so I'll post more when on a reliable connection. Its a shame that I will be leaving Penang before you arrive. I am off to the UK to sell my house. I keep up to date with the car prices and post them as I get updates. I have been looking at some really great property in Penang but one or two tricks are needed to purchase the right place at the right price. Luckily I have a great agent who is very knowledgable and informative. I also get lots of info because our family is a local and quite well connected.

regards

Bob W

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I've been a bit quiet on this board of late & that is bacause I am also now in Chiangmai & have been for two weeks. I came down from the big hill this morning on my rent 750cc Honda Super Four, and should be back in KL mid next week. Morer anon!

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hi, fcs,

I've also been quiet for the past few days as I was travelling from Singapore to Perak, via KL. Now I'm back "home" I'll be collecting info on property purchase regs, and land purchase, and posting soonest.

regards, Scott

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Now it's my turn, we are leaving Langkawi tomorrow evening to head back to the UK for now. We have arranged for our bungalow to be built in our absence which should be finished by the time we come back for good this time in October.

Will be keeping in contact with our Architect by email.
John

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Now it's my turn, we are leaving Langkawi tomorrow evening to head back to the UK for now. We have arranged for our bungalow to be built in our absence which should be finished by the time we come back for good this time in October.

Will be keeping in contact with our Architect by email.
John

Rainbow,
I am not sure of the wisdom of leaving everything up to the builder unless you have a very good friend or relative taking care of business in your absence.
I can assure many 'short cts will be taken in your absence. You will be paying for somethign which you are not getting.
Please just talk to someone who has built there own place locally first to get an idea of some of the things that go on.

If you are not to fussy then no problem. But I am 100% sure you will have significant problems if your don't oversee the work and the quality of the materials used.

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I am absolutely agreed with Joe.If you are not there to look at those people to build your bungalow.You will be very surprise later,there will many not right or what you expected.You really have to put an eye on them everyday during the process.

Cheers,
Shirley.

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[We have arranged for our bungalow to be built in our absence which should be finished by the time we come back for good this time in October.]

Huh, Rainbow you mean Oct next year?
Like what Fizzy was saying, you do need some one a friend/relative here physically to see to the building process. Before we applied for MM2H we bought a holiday condo unit which was still in the process of construction, but needed 'renovations' as they called it when the complex was not even finished. Thinking if we hired the builder to do the  changes that's would save time. Well, much to our surprise, we wired the fees at the different the stages and even when we came over at the appointed time, the unit was constructed as in the original plan, not ours, only then they proceeded to knock walls etc. Then I flew over again 4 months later when they wrote to say it's done and nothing was done!! I ended staying on to supervise the work! And even then I had to get them to replace cracked tiles, tiles that were put on in such a sloppy way, windows that had bad hinges and handles that came off with a pull, walls that were still rough and not treated with the compound even though we paid for that and they dared to argue that was done! They did it eventually, but we didn't notice until we moved in - they only smoothed the lower 3/4 of the walls!! We had problems that took a year to get fixed and some are still left undone. Very frustrating process. We've had our house built in Canada and it's nothing like what we've experienced here.
My neighbor hired an interior design company to coordinate the 'reno' and they had to come in a couple times a week to make sure things were done accordingly and still had problems with the design co's supervisor and workers not following the plan!
Now, another couple friend from the UK is having their semi-d built and the the wife's brother-in-law is buying the other side of the semi. He's in KL and comes up to supervise the progress. Were told the 2 semis should be ready by this Dec when they signed, but last month after paying another stage making up to 65% of the costs they were told the new date, next April.

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BB's post does not surprise me.  When I come to Malaysia, I don't want that hassle. In most countries  the term "renovation" is usually construed to mean that the property, or decoration of same, is getting a bit old or tired and is in need of modernization, or shall we say sprucing up a bit, a new coat of paint, retiling, new kitchen units etc.  However, from what I have seen and read about in property in Malaysia it means that when you buy a new property in Malaysia it then needs to be finished off to the standard that a reasonable person would consider acceptable, particularly by western standards.

When I was looking at condos in Penang the bare shell new unit as sold by the developer as habitable (after all an Occupation Certificate will have been provided at this time by the local authority).  Then we were shown "renovated" units by the agent, which were, say 10% more expensive but had been fitted out by the owner to what I would describe as an acceptable live in standard.  Accordingly, I would go for a fully renovated unit, which saves on the hassle factor, and in some instances (where the owner wants a quick sale) can be ought for less than the shell unit price from the developer.  Paul

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Just to under score the points above. If you need proof of the 'hassle factor' EVEN IF YOU ARE ACTUALLY ON SITE, let me know and I can let you have the contact details of a couple of people I know who have been throught all this and I am sure they would be happy to advise you further.

Good luck

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Thanks for all your advise about the builders but i don't think i shall have much worries as the Japanese lady that i have employed to design the bungalow is also paid to watch the progress, this set of builders have been used before by the same architect lady.
I have seen their work & was pleasantly surprised. The architect herself will get paid by results, so i think i have covered all angles.
Anyway only time will tell.
John

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That's good news Rainbow.

Do keep us posted on this thread. If it all works out well for you we could be providing a lot more business for this lady

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Hi Folks

I am new to this forum and this is the first of hopefully many posts.

My wife and I are going to move to Penang around the end of July, start August although not doing MM2H. We intend to either start a business or get a job. Thinking of doing house renovations, either our own or project manage on behalf of others.

I am an engineer with 30 year experience, the last ten have been in either Kosovo, Afghanistan, Aceh with the UN or Thailand where we are now working as a private consultant. I have project managed hundreds of houses and commercial buildings. I am a pain when it comes to contractors who want to do a poor job so after years of experience I normally can write up a good specification for what they are to do, the quality that is expected and the time it should take.

My wife is Japanese so we intend to look after people in that market as well.

Point of this post is to make myself known and allow anyone to contact me if they want to discuss having a project manager look after their construction works or building renovations in Penang region.   

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Seems i completly forgot to update this thread as promised, so here goes:   Our 2 bed 2 bath bungalow was completed last Nov instead of Oct but it was monsoon most of Oct so cannot complain.
when we arrived here to veiw for the very 1st time, we were plesantly suprised........... brilliant job done as we had been promised. There was minor problems as expected but the contractor promised to alter or replace at his expense which he did over time.

Once we arrived we realised there was plenty of room for a seperate 3rd bed & bathroom with a storage room, so we had that built to a good standard in about 5 or 6 weeks, just in time for the arrival of my sister / husband & my Mother to come over for 2 weeks holiday in Jan. (We invited my Mother to stay permanently as my sister had then decided to sell up in the uk & move over here to Langkawi).

We have lived here happily ever since & do not regret moving over here from the UK. In such a short time we have made many Malay & European friends on this island that we probably have more friends now than we had in the uk.

We sometimes find the "slowly slowly" culture a bit hard to put up with but we are learning that we are now retired so we can learn to live with it no problem.
 

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Hi Folks

I am new to this forum and this is the first of hopefully many posts.

My wife and I are going to move to Penang around the end of July, start August although not doing MM2H. We intend to either start a business or get a job. Thinking of doing house renovations, either our own or project manage on behalf of others.

I am an engineer with 30 year experience, the last ten have been in either Kosovo, Afghanistan, Aceh with the UN or Thailand where we are now working as a private consultant. I have project managed hundreds of houses and commercial buildings. I am a pain when it comes to contractors who want to do a poor job so after years of experience I normally can write up a good specification for what they are to do, the quality that is expected and the time it should take.

My wife is Japanese so we intend to look after people in that market as well.

Point of this post is to make myself known and allow anyone to contact me if they want to discuss having a project manager look after their construction works or building renovations in Penang region.

Etherus,
Just curious.  I'm an engineer as well but a totally different industry, so I'm not calibrated as to costs (fees) for commercial or residential housing.  What you describe is construction management, meaning you provide cost, schedule and quality control as part of your services (as I understand it); you are not a design or design build contractor in that sense, you are acting as the Owner's agent only and do that for a fee.

So, what are reasonable fees for those kind of services (as a percent of total cost - I assume that is the usual measure), all in?
It's reasonable to expect the architect to provide material specifications as part his service fee; would it not also be reasonable to expect the architect to provide installation specs as well, that describe the construction installation quality?  Or is that normally provided by the construction manager?

What kind of fee would an architect usually ask (again, as a percent of total cost).

I ask all this because, having been in Asia for several assignments, construction quality is a real issue (I'm in China at the moment), and we are considering building or renovating as opposed to renting or buying, if and when we make our retirement move...looking to develop a budget.

Thanks and best regards.

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hi,

Etherus disappeared into the Ether.   

Check-out : Balinese House Design

Also : Architects Fees

Allow about RM120 per square foot for mid-range building. Maybe more in Penang and KL. Also allow an extra RM20 psf for things like good quality windows and doors, solarcontrol glass, roof insulation, and nailed-on roof tiles (I know it sounds odd).