hey guys, u may ask me anything about construction industry and i'll try my best to answer all ur question.


u may join this group too
https://t.me/joinchat/GnpHTxbi4CFMfOC6SSWSgg

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.)

u can also ask me about construction law. I know a lot abt that too

This post has been edited by iwubpreve: Mar 13 2019, 01:36 PM

Recent fuel hike just kicked in for another 10% increase. Will the manufacturer and supplier increase their construction material selling price? Is the main contractor and sub contractor also demanding certain compensation due to this fuel hike?

I found out that recent quarry materials are hard to secure good grade in compliance with condition of contract. The supplier keeps throwing excused that quarry material in good grade are hard to produce due to irregular mining source or being closed down by authority, but our client not buying this excuse. What way to protect our best interest?

If you insist good grade, supplier will sell you like 30% higher rates. It is common nowaday?

Workmanship and quality issue.

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

If we opted with Bangala 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 labour issue?

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 CIDB and MBAM only interested with big player Main Con.

Still many queries in my mind, but i want to see how good is your understanding for my above stated. thanks

How much 1 kilo simen?

Why are subcontractors so terrible? Why mrt keep accident. Why locals dowan to work in construction?

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

rm25 for 50kg, u do the math

The packing is 50kg? Do they come in smaller packing? Maybe 10kg, so when can put in car boot and haul back home. (For DIY home improvement project).

thanks for your enquiries, you may look for smaller packaging at any hardware shop for DIY purpose. They do sell repackaging for any mansory product. take note mansory product shelf life span is 3 months due to local high humid.

i hv a question.. this tered here

https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/3381419

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.

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

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.

this is more on safety precaution. anyway need to differentiate what is accident and incident. some could be prevent if done proper precaution. some cannot as it is unforeseen. clearly MRT is due to negligence of all parties.

Why no hot girls working as labourer in construction industry?!

fuel hike is impact on everything. this is called domino effect. however, in order to be competitive in construction industry, u have to bid the lowest u could. however please take note that this only apply on transparent bidding process, if u know what I mean

not suitable for girl working there. there do have some girl are engineer, but very very less. but there have a lot of girls worked as QS.

generally girl is not suitable.

yes, standard package is 50kg. government control price is RM17 but will up down up down like stock market. those hardware shop repackage it into 1kg per pack also have. RM2 per kg. so u know how much they really earn. RM100 selling price when they split the 50kg pack when actual they just paid for RM17 for 50kg. but of course, minimum order is 400bag in a trailer in order to get that price. deal with trading house normally.

there are many type of contractor. like local chinaman contractor, in order to increase profit they usually spend less on preliminary cost. for Japanese and Korean contractor, they care about safety so much. they truly practice safety first profit second kind of concept.

u know what are those cost would be spent in safety issue? there are plenty
1. sufficient scaffolding
2. sufficient guard rail (on high rise building)
3. safety net (those green colour u saw usually from outside)
4. competent safety officer that do his job well
5. well maintenance on machinery especially tower crane, passenger hoist
6. daily assembly to educate those foreign worker on daily basis
7. a lot more..

I used to do civil work. lady QS and engineer seen before la... but I wondering about female general worker la

if u work as contractor, what u have to do is very simple, just be genuine and do what is right. this is because contractor just a middle person, u are in between client and supplier.

what u have to do is to get few supplier to get the specific item u want, what grade. and tell them u also get other to quote the same thing. so they will felt pressure and quote u according to market price.

eg. let say got a project demand conquas standard (mean very high quality when come to standard), and u ask a subcon to quote u for let's say plastering work. usually they will tell u "hi mr. contractor, I will give u 2 rate, 1 is conquas rate 1 is normal rate". just reply to them, "hey mr. subcontractor, just quote according to the project specification. i'll get other to do the same thing" so they will felt threaten a bit coz they can't quote high if they want to get the job.

so u just have to get few cost comparison and the market price will surface to u.

true story

Really? How come sabah only rm17? When everything is more expensive here?

I buy one bag also that price wor

This post has been edited by ah_suknat: Oct 17 2014, 05:38 PM

hot girl will get better pay in other job, so why suffer in construction work?

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.

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?

hi there, good question though irrelevant to my thread. if I were u, I will foreseen the unforeseen. i'll put myself in the shoe of interviewer and think critically what would I ask the interviewee. let's said if I wanna interview a company for a position, I will study their company background. and imagine what kind of question they will ask by pretended I'm in their shoe. maybe they will ask me what is the reason I change the job? why I want to leave current company? what are the strength I have? and etc.

when come to paperwork of course u have to let them know u are sincere. like resume have to put a picture there. will put the detailed information they wanted to know such as what kind of project u handle b4, how much the project worth, the reason u leave. this will show to them they u are genuinely want to get a job and prepared for it. this also reflect ur attitude long b4 they see u personally

This post has been edited by iwubpreve: Oct 17 2014, 05:52 PM

Yes, my company got a project with Japanese contractor, they are really discipline and put safety as their first priority, but definitely not mrt project

what ur company doing? Japanese contractor got class 1. like first tier contractor, 2nd tier contractor. first tier is like shimizu, takenaka, taisei and etc. they all listed company in Tokyo. 2nd tier are plenty.

Langat water transfer
Shimizu nisimasu joint venture (inb4 i don't know how to spell second company name)

Why your cement so expensive one ?

I see the thread very funny.

1. Iwubpreve start the thread of Q&A

2. Then pijaklu post 5 questions straight, the last one challenge TS's understanding on construction market

3. Then someone ask how much is 1 kilo cement

4. Then pijaklu answer like he is the TS. Is Iwubpreve = pijaklu ? Forgot to log out ?

Anyway, pijaklu's first answer to the question is way off mark...

Isn't the control price increased ?

And what is the rebate now ? Got to consider that also. Recently got price war ?

1. There are many types of concrete, how to order?
Malaysia have which type?
When we buy cement via the concrete truck, how to know if thye give the correct concrete we want?

2. Why always every flats, apartments, condos and high rises have leaking problems from floor above after 10 to 15 years?

So the site engineer need to do slump test.

Thanks for the respond.

How long will we know the result of the slump test?

how about the rest of the questions?

Slump test can know directly. But need do a few more cube test which required send to lab and wait for report

Regarding the leaking, I not so sure. I'm still quite fresh in this field and work not really related with building works.

about 17 plus minus. will increase decrease 1. some trading house give u rebate is because the cement keep too long already. so they sold it cheap to clear the old stock. will hardened when in humid weather if keep it long time

wrong bro, slump test to test the mobility of concrete la

This post has been edited by iwubpreve: Oct 17 2014, 07:14 PM

Slump test is for workability bro. Maybe I misund his question either, slump test to make sure it achieved the quality we wanted

This post has been edited by unequalteck: Oct 17 2014, 07:24 PM

1. There are many types of concrete, how to order?
Malaysia have which type?
When we buy cement via the concrete truck, how to know if they give the correct concrete as in Type, Quality and Quantity that we want?

2. Why always every flats, apartments, condos and high rises have leaking problems from floor above after 10 to 15 years?

Wat is the difference between marble and granite? where we use this material?

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.

Thanks, for the valuable info.
So which readymix concrete grade is better?

I also understand that there are many types/methods of waterproofing. But which ones are better or reliable?

oh ya, concrete only 1 type. 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 workability 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 la

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 1 tone and look boring. it look consistent but also boring. some architect want very natural design hence marble give them the natural look which fit their requirement well.

marble - black emperado


granite - black Galaxy

depend what u want as I said. example floor slab usually require grade 25N concrete. of course u can use grade 40N but for what wasting that money to get more strength than what it require? wall and column require grade 40N concrete. anyway the strength of concrete doesn't support ur house. the 1 which give the strength to support the entire building is the steel bar inside the concrete. concrete just give a little compressive strength and protect the steel from rusty.

waterproofing which 1 better? of course is membrane type la. abt RM90/m2

ops, forgot answer ur 2nd question. marble and granite us natural stone hence look aesthetic. use on floor, wall, kitchen counter top, island. no budget then use tile la.

What thickness or type of re bar is recommended?

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. but what for wasting that money? it just require 20mm diameter of rebar to withstand the load. right?

what is ur profession by the way?

List price is now 19.25 for KV. Other location plus minus a bit.

Then got rebate from manufacturer. Rebate due to demand and supply of market. Cement is fast moving item, so not so much of expiry issue.

Just a few weeks ago, the rebate from cmcm is up to 8+. So only about 11+ per bag. Now rebate back down to 2+.

Hai iwubpreve boss,

Recently, i got a dilemma... I want to build a holiday house at my small small land...

But you know lah, now very HING steel structure. Modern and stylish.

So I wonder,

Steel structure vs RC structure
1) what are the pro and con of each
2) if i use steel structure, will i save some cost in foundation? Any estimated cost if there is at all any saving?

Thanks in advance.

Why the side is white colour ? They tape the side ?

Bro, for your own house ? Get granite. Harder and got more color and pattern to choose. Usually more expensive. Marble is popular in the 80s and 90s now seldom people use

Now usually people use tiles. Homogenous tile is good mah. Cheap and good. But if you are building a bungalow, then use granite lah. Got class

Thanx bro.

how to become rich without govt tender ?

No la. Jz for general knowledge. Me always confused between marble and granite.

may i know what is your job? engineer? so that i can expect whether you position can answer my query.

Your understanding of structural theory is a little way off, 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.

Anyone know the difference between RC wall, Parapet Wall and Retaining Wall?

U need structural engineer to calculate for the rebar required. Anyway, I can do freelance for rc design and get the PE endorsement if u need it.

+1

hi there? asking on behalf of a friend

how much will it cost for piling and foundation in a piece of land size of 4927 sq, maybe around 60 X 95 to withstand respectively:

a) 2 storey shop
b) 3 storey shop
c) 5 storey shop

thank you...

also I heard to get the relevant authorities for approval and conversion to become commercial areas requires at least 1 year?

This post has been edited by bearbearwong: Oct 17 2014, 11:41 PM

bro, what is the cost to build this house? and market price sold by contractor?

normally how many percents a developer earns from a project? ie. soho commercial condos?


Attached thumbnail(s)

Finally, the Master Builder is here to save us.

This is a serious and meaningful thread. I have three questions related to the contractual issues.

(1) Say the Employer is pressuring the Main Contractor to start work. Is there a problem in the issue of a Letter of Intent?

(2) If a Letter of Intent is issued with a limit of RM1 million, is the employer obliged to pay a higher sum after allowing a contractor to exceed the limit?

(3) Can pre-contract minutes during the tender stage form a binding contract?

Are you a fresh Civil Engineer?

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.



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.



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.

rc structure
pros - cheaper
cons - slower, need time curing

steel structure
pros - faster, can prefabricated in factory and assemble at site without have to wait, stronger because steel have high tensile strength
cons - expensive

nothing to do with foundation. foundation is nothing to do v material, the higher the building, the stronger foundation require. if u use steel structure, cost would be higher. steel is expensive than concrete. the advantage u have is u save time, can build immediately as long as u have the steel material.

ya, and label the number so they know which piece join which piece.

if anything v construction industry very likely I can answer. relate to what ur question?

concrete have compressive strength 40N/mm2 for grade 40 concrete. a normal high tensile bar have 460N/mm2 tensile strength. more than 10 times stronger than concrete. concrete is strong in compressive strength but rebar have higher compressive strength than concrete. the tensile strength even much much higher.

sometimes when compressive strength is not enough, they add rebar to get more compressive strength. seems like ur core is not civil engineering.

how many square feet? built up area of the shop. 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. competent 1 can help u expedite the approval quickly, but u need to pay for it at higher cost. usually is Malay.

I assume u are Employer la.

1. no problem issue letter of intent. what problem u concern?

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 meruit and force employer to pay.

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

u student?

Should be the other way around — CONTRACTOR.

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.

(1a) If the Employer cannot give site possession on the due date, can the matter be resolved by the Architect giving an instruction to postpone the Works as per the Contract?

(1b) If the Architect does not grant Time Extension, and the Contractor is required to perform accelerated Works to catch up with the project’s completion schedule, can the Contractor use the Employer’s delay in giving the site possession as a reason to justify a claim for VO?

I don't think so bro, if u check back BS 8110, rebar will tend to buckle subject to compressive force therefore rebar only used to resist high tensile force.

And for most building, local practice is using grade C30 concrete which is 30N/mm2, as far as I know water retaining structure using C35A and MRT segmental box girder using C40

I do appreciate iwubpreve's initiative to help young engineers, procurement officers, and project managers. This is a meaningful thread to invite seasoned people from different engineering disciplines or professional specializations on the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) industry, with emphasis on the free exchange of information, and opinions with respect, and providing a forum, open to all users, for the discussion of problems that may affect the industry.

It remains an indisputable fact that concrete has a high compressive strength and a very low tensile strength, thus, requiring the use of tensile reinforcing. Reinforced concrete is a structure that achieves excellent chemical adhesion between the steel and the concrete, wherein the steel bars provide the tensile strength lacking in the concrete. This beautiful engineering discovery allows both materials act together as a unit in resisting compressive and tensile stresses in modern buildings. In fact, steel reinforcing is also capable of resisting compression forces and sometimes is used in columns.



This post has been edited by Critical_Fallacy: Oct 18 2014, 04:24 AM

Letter of intend vs letter of award. Any different?
Pre contract mean before la. Not post contract.

This post has been edited by CloudAtla$: Oct 18 2014, 06:43 AM

I want to know about job available !!

Bangla housekeeper.

oh built up area will be around

45 X80 (reserving some place for side and back)

if 3 floors + 1 parking facility underneath

45 X80= 3600

3600 X (3+1) = 144000 st built up total

so 144000 x RM175= 2.52 million?

RM175, inclusive of building structure till finish? is it possible to do piling for 3-4 storey first, but built 2 storey and 1 parking facility, then upgrade sumore?

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.

This post has been edited by iwubpreve: Oct 18 2014, 08:56 AM

i read a lot of court case b4, have to look into the content of what was written in letter of intent. basically when come to letter of intent, the contract is not form yet and in case at the end the work is not awarded to u, u can still claim via the principle of quantum meruit. it is well established long time ago.

what is quantum meruid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_meruit

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.

This post has been edited by iwubpreve: Oct 18 2014, 09:20 AM

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.

yes, including. but then again the correct way of doing it is set the budget first. say u consider RM175 then overall building cost is 2.52million. then from there u start to monitor. if budget likely to burst, consider do reduce some type of material.

yes, u can do foundation for 3-4 storey and then just build 2 storey and upgrade in the future. but have to consider a lot of factor. when u upgrade in future, the cost would be higher because a lot of temporary work. and somemore, when u upgrading, the house have to be vacant and is not habitable.

what job u want?

thank you very verymuch.. btw do we need any architect to raft the plan before building?

bro, can i employ u to build a bungalow as picture above? haha

All the job offered

Bookmarked. Tq for informative thread.

u can go to DBKL do yourself and they will assign a planner for u. but i don't think it's efficient. u need a runner to do that. usually some competent engineer can do everything for u, submission and design. they will submit the building plan and get it approve. my friend doing that, he is like one stop center as he got his partner who is architect and also registered planner. can do all the design and submission.

of course can. my wages just like normal /k/ standard of wages. if u know what i mean

what ur qualification? sometimes i need some flagman stand outside the site and waving the flag control traffic



This post has been edited by iwubpreve: Oct 18 2014, 02:58 PM