What to check when custom furniture arrives

Last updated 31 October 2026.

Delivery day is when a custom piece is still easy to refuse or to repair. Once it is scribed to the wall and the old unit is gone, a chip becomes an argument. Walk the piece from the lift to the room with whoever is carrying it, if you are allowed to. Note a knock on a corner before it enters the flat. We do not publish a rate of damaged deliveries, because we have not measured one. We do say what to look at. The lift and stair guide is the path. This page is the inspection at the end of that path.

Look at the edge, not only the face. Edge banding that has already lifted, a raw MDF edge in a kitchen, and a veneer that is bubbled at a corner are visible without tools. Open every door and every drawer. A door that will not close, a hinge cup that is proud of the surface, and a drawer that grinds are the hardware pages if the carcass is otherwise sound: alignment is S$50 to S$100 a visit, a generic hinge is from S$38 a door, soft-close slides for one to three drawers are S$110 to S$220. Those rows are not a promise that today’s delivery includes them. They are what a later visit costs when the photo matches. A new door skin on a swollen core is quote on inspection.

Solid wood that has already split on arrival is not “settling”. Settling is a story. A split you can see before the piece has spent a night in the room was there at delivery, or it happened on the way in. Photograph it with a tape in the frame. The cracking guide explains humidity after the piece has lived in the flat. It is a different question from a crack that arrived. Do not let anyone fill it and leave without the photo. We do not publish a warranty that says who pays. The lead-time page already refuses borrowed warranty years.

Scribe and fixing are the last look. A gap you can see past the side panel into the wall may be honest if the wall is bowed and the quote said the panel would not be scribed. Ask which it was. Screws into a household shelter wall are refused even if the piece is otherwise perfect. A tall bookcase that is not anchored into structure is not finished. Anchoring on an assembly visit is part of standing the unit up. It is not a second price unless the job is the child-gate and anti-tip bundle at S$180 to S$420, which is a preschool scope. A hollow partition that cannot hold the fixing is a stop, not a smaller screw.

Floors and lifts are not our truck. If a marble top or a long table needs the service lift, the building’s booking is theirs. Protecting a new floor is a conversation you have before the piece is tilted through the door. A parquet chip caused by a corner is the floor page when it matches a localised patch of 1 to 3 square metres at S$250 to S$580. It is not included in furniture assembly. HDB’s renovation page matters only if the delivery has turned into a hack or a strip-out. Carrying a loose piece in does not. BCA plan approval is not a delivery checklist.

Write a short note the same day: what you accepted, what you photographed, and what you asked to be repaired before the next visit. Do not sign a blank “received in good order” if you have not opened the doors. If the piece is a carton from IKEA or Taobao, the assembly page is the visit and the check is whether the fittings bag is complete before the cartons are thrown away. Missing cams are a delay, not a new carcass.

Homey Furnishing Pte. Ltd. (ACRA UEN 202018148K), 27 Mandai Estate, #06-10 Innovation Place, Singapore 729931, invoices permit-exempt furniture assembly and repair. V On Construction Pte. Ltd. (ACRA UEN 201611708H), on the HDB Directory of Renovation Contractors, invoices an HDB renovation permit when the work is a new layout, hacking, or a built-in strip-out. Homey Furnishing is not a removal company and does not publish a truck rate.

Curtains, blinds and roller shades are not part of this booking. Fabric window treatments are a different product, and these pages do not quote them.

Look at the piece in the room. Do not drag a tall wardrobe across a wet floor to test it.

1. Photograph the piece before it enters the flat if a corner is already marked.
2. Open every door and drawer. Look at edges and the hinge cup.
3. Check the shelter wall is not the fixing.
4. Write what you accept and what you do not.
5. Match a hardware row only when the photo is that row.

The building changes the permission and the disposal path. It does not invent a second price.

A snag list is only a list of what you can see that is not what was described. It is not a court document and it is not a warranty. Write the room, the piece, and the defect in plain words: “left door hits the stile”, “banding loose at the sink end”, “gap at the shelter side”. Attach the photo. Send it while the memory is the same day.

We will not invent a response time for that list. If the photo matches a printed repair, the reply uses that band. If it does not, the reply says quote on inspection. Curtains that arrived with the furniture are not on the list we price.

A flat-pack has a fittings bag and a manual. Count cams and dowels before the cardboard goes down the chute. Assembly is S$80 to S$150 for a bed frame and S$100 to S$650 for a wardrobe when the photo is that product. A missing part pauses the visit. It does not become a custom build at the assembly price.

A carpenter piece has no fittings bag. The check is the one above: edges, doors, scribe, fixing. If it was supposed to match an existing laminate and the face is a different colour in daylight, say so in the same note. The matching guide is how that colour was supposed to be agreed. Delivery day is too late to invent a sample you never approved.

How you're charged

A furniture job that already has a sentence on HomeySG uses that sentence. Nothing in this table is a fuel surcharge, and the handyman hour is not added on top of a band unless the written scope says so. IKEA publishes its own checkout fee. That percentage is not a HomeySG band.

Who is allowed to do the work

The permit guide on this site already splits hardware from a renovation. A cabinet hinge, a gas strut and a drawer runner do not need an HDB renovation permit when the layout stays. A new kitchen or bathroom layout, hacking, or removing a wall does. Fines for unauthorised work are already written there as up to S$5,000. Homey Furnishing does not sign the permit invoice.

• Flat-pack assembly uses the furniture assembly catalogue. Tall units are wall-anchored on that visit. A separate anti-tip price is not printed, except the child-gate and anti-tip bundle at S$180 to S$420 when that bundle is the job.
• A built-in that has to come off the wall can become a strip-out. That is V On Construction if the flat is HDB and the work needs a permit. A loose shelf inside a carcass is not a strip-out.
• Town councils collect some bulky loose items on their own rules. We are not the collector, and we do not publish their fee.
• A new cable inside a wardrobe is an electrician. Assembly does not include a new circuit.
• Do not anchor into a household shelter wall. The permit guide already keeps TV brackets and shelves off that wall.
• A hollow partition or a false ceiling is a poor anchor for a tall wardrobe. If the fixing cannot reach structure, the visit stops.
• Active termites are not painted over. Skirting and door-frame replacement after damage uses the termite page bands. We do not claim to be the pest-control operator.
• Curtains, blinds and roller shades are not quoted here.

Ways to keep the bill smaller

• Photograph every piece before a carpenter is booked. A hinge visit is not a new kitchen.
• Put the flat-pack in the room where it will stand. Carrying a built wardrobe down an HDB corridor is a second job.
• If the drawer only sticks, use the published slide row. A new carcass is the cabinet page, and only when the board is swollen.
• Book the town council bulky slot before you pay anyone to truck a loose sofa. Many councils collect a limited number of loose items. Built-ins are usually excluded.
• Photograph the piece in the lobby if it was already damaged on arrival. A later photo in the bedroom cannot show where the chip happened.

WhatsApp the photos to +65 8561 0630.

These rows are later repairs when the photo matches. They are not a delivery fee.

Anything not in that table is quote on inspection.

WhatsApp the photos to +65 8561 0630. The reply uses a band already printed on HomeySG, or it says quote on inspection.

• What to ask first
• Lift and stairs
• Cracks after it has lived in the room
• Hinges
• Warranties we do not publish
• Custom furniture
• Bulky disposal
• Handyman price list