Book the trades in an order that does not make you pay twice

The week before you move into a Singapore BTO, resale flat or condo has a sequence. Day 1 is carpentry touch-up and protection removal. Day 2 is the defect list and fixture prep. Day 3 is the aircon, before the rooms are clean. Day 4 is the post-renovation clean. Day 5 is formaldehyde treatment and airing. Day 6 is mattresses, sofas and move-in. Reversing day 3 and day 4 repaints the flat with coil dust.

Day 1 is still the contractor’s. Carpentry touch-up, missing screws, and the corrugated floor protection come out only when cutting has stopped. If you clean first, the last hole they drill reseeds the flat. Photograph defects in daylight before the protection comes up, because some scratches are under the sheets and some are on them. Day 2 is the independent list: doors that foul, a loose trap, a missing stopper, a heater with no hatch. Handyman prep on day 2 is Homey Furnishing. It is not a second renovation. Anything that hacks goes back to the renovation contract instead of being smuggled into a snag list.

Day 3 is the aircon chemical or steam service. Coils that ran during hacking are full of the same silica the post-reno guide describes. If you deep-clean on day 3 and service the aircon on day 4, the first hour of cooling blows that dust onto the clean floor. The order is service, then clean. Day 4 is the three-pass post-renovation clean, not a spring clean. Day 5 is the formaldehyde meter and, if the number is over 0.08 ppm, the photocatalyst or the carbon plan, plus a real airing. People sleep in the flat on day 5 because the furniture truck is booked. That undoes the airing. Day 6 is mattresses, sofa placement and curtains if you are hanging them. New indoor fabric is not our supply. The clean team can sanitise a mattress that is already yours. Day 7 is the buffer the truck always needs. If you have no buffer, you will pay a second clean.

BTO, resale and condo versions differ in who attends. A BTO may still be in defects liability, so day 2 items go to the developer as well as to a handyman. A resale has no developer, so day 2 is entirely yours. A condo needs the MCST form if day 2 becomes noisy, and the lift padding if a sofa is coming. The sequence of dust, coils and resin does not change with the tenure. Write the six days on one page before you confirm the movers.

Homey Furnishing Pte. Ltd. (ACRA UEN 202018148K), 27 Mandai Estate, #06-10 Innovation Place, Singapore 729931, carries the permit-exempt portion of this work. V On Construction Pte. Ltd. (ACRA UEN 201611708H), listed on the HDB Directory of Renovation Contractors, carries any scope that needs an HDB renovation permit. Those two invoices are not interchangeable. Defect liability is a contract with the developer. MCST deposits are the by-law. Formaldehyde uses SS 554 as the reference. None of the cleaning days is an HDB hacking permit.

Spend ten minutes with a torch, your phone camera, and a tape before you buy a product or book a hack. Write down what you see. The safe checks below do not ask you to open a live wire, cut a pressurised pipe, or lean out of a window. Count rooms, say if the aircon ran during works, and whether carpentry is new. Put the mover’s date on day 6 or day 7, not on day 4.

Stop at the red-flag column. Stop if cutting continues, if you have booked the clean before the aircon service, or if anyone will sleep there during a bake-out. The reason DIY fails is almost never a lack of effort. It is that the tool or chemical makes the next professional repair harder, or it hides a leak, a live conductor, or a deposit line until the damage is larger than The week is the sum of the trades, often S$800 to S$2,500 before furniture. Skipping a step is what doubles one of them..

This is the sequence a careful technician uses so you can tell a shortcut from a finished job. Tools stay in the van. Readings and photos go on the same worksheet as the price. Day 2 uses a snag list and handyman tools. Day 3 is the aircon trade. Day 4 is HEPA extraction. Day 5 is the meter. The tools are useless out of order.

1. Step 1. Make the area safe and confirm the symptom still matches the photos. For Book the trades in an order that does not make you pay twice, that means Stop if cutting continues, if you have booked the clean before the aircon service, or if anyone will sleep there during a bake-out.
2. Step 2. Measure before touching the finished surface. Count rooms, say if the aircon ran during works, and whether carpentry is new. Put the mover’s date on day 6 or day 7, not on day 4.
3. Step 3. Set protection and lay out the tools that belong to this material. Day 2 uses a snag list and handyman tools. Day 3 is the aircon trade. Day 4 is HEPA extraction. Day 5 is the meter. The tools are useless out of order.
4. Step 4. Carry out the repair in the order the material allows. the clean precedes the coil service, or furniture arrives before the formaldehyde reading is the failure this order is written to avoid.
5. Step 5. Test in place. Protection is gone, the defect list is either closed or submitted, the coils are clean, the third cleaning pass is done, and the formaldehyde number is written down before the bed is made.
6. Step 6. Clean, label the photographs against the invoice lines, and leave the statutory openings, weep holes, access panels and labels visible.

The order matters because the clean precedes the coil service, or furniture arrives before the formaldehyde reading is what happens when a step is rushed. Handover is a measurement, not a handshake. Protection is gone, the defect list is either closed or submitted, the coils are clean, the third cleaning pass is done, and the formaldehyde number is written down before the bed is made. If the reading or the water test fails, the visit is not closed and a second line is priced before anyone leaves. Permit work, if the diagnosis has moved into hacking, waterproofing, or a new layout, stops here and is repriced through V On Construction Pte. Ltd. UEN 201611708H.

Price each day. A bundle that hides the aircon or the meter is how one of them is skipped. Prices below are 2026 Singapore bands for the described scope. They are not a coupon and they are not a guess after an unopened door. A second trade, such as a PUB licensed plumber or an EMA licensed electrician, is named when the law requires it rather than buried inside the labour line. Compare rows by what they include. The planning-life column belongs to that row only.

2026 SGD scope bands

Brand, material and lifespan

Read the post-renovation clean guide and the formaldehyde guide for the detail inside day 4 and day 5.

Three worked jobs show how the same symptom is priced differently in a new BTO, an older resale flat, and a private condo or landed house. The totals are the lines a household actually paid, not a national average. Permit-exempt invoices are issued by Homey Furnishing Pte. Ltd. UEN 202018148K.

Case 1: 4-room BTO in Tengah

Keys, then this week. Day 2 snags were S$240 and also lodged with the developer. Aircon S$120, post-reno clean S$580, meter 0.05 ppm so no treatment. They moved on day 7. One clean, not two.

Case 2: resale in Kallang

The first cleaner had come before the aircon service. A white film returned. The second clean was S$420 extra. The rebuilt sequence put the coil wash first. That is the invoice this page exists to avoid.

Case 3: condo in Marine Parade

New wardrobes read 0.12 ppm. Treatment on day 5, airing, move on day 7. The sofa came up a padded lift. The MCST deposit was not touched because day 2 was not noisy. Total of the Homey days sat inside the week’s band, with the aircon as its own line.

Fix the mover on day 6 or 7, then book day 3 and day 4 in that order. Send the photos and the measurements from the ten-minute check. The reply prices the band on this page against what the photos actually show.

• Day 4 dust clean
• Day 5 meter
• Book the post-reno clean