New cabinet smell, and the board labels we will not reprint

Last updated 31 October 2026.

New wardrobes and new kitchens smell. People ask whether that smell is formaldehyde, whether an E1 board is safe for a bedroom, and how long they must wait before a child sleeps there. We have not measured your room, so we will not print a concentration, a safe hour, or a number of days. The materials guide already says those grades are labels on a certificate, not a price. This page is how to read the label without turning it into a medical claim.

E0, E1 and ENF appear on carpenter quotations because board mills print them. They are not a grade Homey Furnishing awards, and they are not a Singapore statute we are quoting as a limit. If the grade is the reason the quote is higher, ask for the mill’s certificate for the batch, not a line in the brochure. We will not confirm a grade from a photo of a finished door. The face hides the core. An edge photo still does not show a laboratory result.

A different certificate does exist, and it is not those letters. The Singapore Green Labelling Scheme is administered by the Singapore Environment Council. The scheme’s own page describes it as Singapore’s ISO 14024 Type 1 ecolabel, launched by the Ministry of the Environment in 1992 and administered by the Council since 1999. Building materials and interior products are one of its categories. A product that carries the label can be checked in the scheme’s directory. A carpenter’s sentence “we use green boards” is not that check. We do not sell a Green Label as part of a furniture quote, and we do not add a price for a label we have not seen on the product in front of us.

What we do price is narrow. New boards that smell can take a spot treatment of up to three pieces at S$180 to S$280. That treatment is not included in assembly. It is not a promise the smell will stop on a date. It is not a termite treatment and it is not a coat of paint. If the smell is a wet particle board under a sink, the job is the leak and the cabinet repair, from S$280, not a spray. Paint over a smell hides the question. Do not do that and then ask for the treatment row.

Ventilation is the step that does not need us. Open the room. A closed bedroom with a new wardrobe and the air-conditioner recirculating is the condition people notice most. We will not tell you a number of hours to leave the windows open, because we have not measured the decay. We will not tell you a child may or may not sleep there. That is not a sentence we are qualified to print. If you want the piece left unwrapped in a ventilated room before it is installed, say so in the quote. It can change the sequence. It does not create a published wait.

None of this is an HDB permit. Installing a loose wardrobe is not a renovation. Hacking a kitchen out because it smells can be. HDB’s renovation page and the fine of up to $5,000 apply when a renovation breaches the rules. Do not drill a shelter wall to “vent” a cabinet. BCA plan approval is not a board grade. Curtains hung to hide a new wardrobe do not change the air.

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. Ask for the mill certificate if a grade is why the quote costs more.
2. Do not treat a brochure line as a Singapore Green Label. Check the SEC directory if a label is claimed.
3. Do not paint over the smell.
4. Separate a wet sink cabinet from a dry new board.
5. Expect S$180 to S$280 only when the job is that spot treatment of up to three pieces.

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

We will not say a board is safe, unsafe, or safe after a number of days. We will not convert E1 into a concentration. We will not tell you to buy a meter reading from a forum and treat it as a pass mark. If a doctor has given you an instruction, follow that instruction. It is not a carpentry extra.

We will not add an air purifier, a curtain, or a blind as the remedy. Those are other products. The furniture sentence is the certificate, the wet cabinet, or the spot treatment.

The materials guide tells plywood from MDF from particle board from solid wood, and why a wet core swells. This page tells a grade printed on paper from a grade you can check. Use both. Neither adds a sheet price.

If the quotation will not name the core and will not show a certificate, you are not comparing like with like. The page on what to ask a carpenter is that conversation. Smell is not a reason to skip it.

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.
• A line that says E0 in a quotation is not the mill certificate. Ask to see the certificate if the grade is why you are paying.

WhatsApp the photos to +65 8561 0630.

One treatment row exists. A grade is not a price.

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.

• Materials
• What to ask
• Wet kitchens
• Wardrobes
• Singapore Green Labelling Scheme
• Custom furniture
• Handyman price list