Plaster dust is not household dust, and it kills household vacuums

A post-renovation clean in Singapore removes silica and calcium-carbonate dust that a spring clean is not built for. A 3-room HDB is from S$285 to S$700. A 4-room HDB is from S$308 to S$1,200. A 5-room HDB is from S$338 to S$1,200. A general deep clean of an occupied flat is S$180 to S$650. The 3-pass method is vacuum with the right filter, wash, then detail. A household vacuum on dry plaster dust burns the motor and redistributes the fines.

Renovation dust in Singapore is a mix of gypsum, cement, calcium carbonate from filler, and silica from tile and stone cutting. The particles are finer than skin flakes and lint. They sit in the air and settle again after a mop, which is why a flat looks clean at noon and grey at 6pm. A household vacuum is built for hair. The fines pass the bag, scour the motor, and blow a haze back into the room. That is the burnt-motor story. A post-reno machine uses filtration that holds those fines, and it is emptied as hazardous-looking dust, not shaken out on the balcony.

The three passes are the method. Pass one is a controlled vacuum of every horizontal surface, including wardrobe tops, track channels and the inside of drawers, with the aircon off so it is not sucking dust into the coil. Pass two is a wash of hard floors and a separate cloth for glass, because slurry on a squeegee scratches. Pass three is the detail after the air has settled: switches, the fridge they just installed, the inside of the hood, and a second vacuum of the floor. A spring clean of an occupied home skips pass one because the dust is ordinary. Using a spring-clean crew on a hacked flat is how you pay twice.

Man-hours follow the dust, not the sofa count. A 3-room BTO with light carpentry might be 6 to 8 hours. A 5-room with hacked bathrooms and a stone cut is 14 to 20 hours and often two visits, because the second visit catches the dust that settled overnight. A landed house with an open staircase needs the staircase in the scope or the upper floor re-seeds the lower one. The calculator asks which clean you mean. Post-renovation and general deep cleaning are different services. Book the one the site actually is.

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. Silica dust is a work health issue for the crew as well as a housekeeping issue. Cutting should already have been wet and extracted. The cleaner does not dry-sweep. No renovation permit is involved in the clean itself.

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 whether bathrooms were hacked, whether stone was cut, and whether the aircon ran during the works. Note if protection sheets are still down. Those answers pick the band.

Stop at the red-flag column. Stop if hacking is ongoing, if you are about to dry-sweep, or if the quote is a spring clean price for a flat that still has plaster in the tracks. 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 S$180 to S$1,200.

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. HEPA-class extraction, track tools, separate wash water for floors and glass, and a second visit when the dust load is heavy. Masks stay on for pass one. The household vacuum stays in the cupboard.

1. Step 1. Make the area safe and confirm the symptom still matches the photos. For Plaster dust is not household dust, and it kills household vacuums, that means Stop if hacking is ongoing, if you are about to dry-sweep, or if the quote is a spring clean price for a flat that still has plaster in the tracks.
2. Step 2. Measure before touching the finished surface. Count rooms, say whether bathrooms were hacked, whether stone was cut, and whether the aircon ran during the works. Note if protection sheets are still down. Those answers pick the band.
3. Step 3. Set protection and lay out the tools that belong to this material. HEPA-class extraction, track tools, separate wash water for floors and glass, and a second visit when the dust load is heavy. Masks stay on for pass one. The household vacuum stays in the cupboard.
4. Step 4. Carry out the repair in the order the material allows. a household vacuum is used on plaster dust, or a one-pass mop is sold as a post-reno clean is the failure this order is written to avoid.
5. Step 5. Test in place. Tracks are empty, wardrobe tops are clean, the floor is clean again after the air settles, and the aircon is only switched on after a coil clean if it ran during the works.
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 a household vacuum is used on plaster dust, or a one-pass mop is sold as a post-reno clean is what happens when a step is rushed. Handover is a measurement, not a handshake. Tracks are empty, wardrobe tops are clean, the floor is clean again after the air settles, and the aircon is only switched on after a coil clean if it ran during the works. 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.

Pay for the dust you have. A spring clean price on a hacked flat is not a bargain. It is the first of two invoices. 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

Choose the service on the post-renovation page or the spring-cleaning page, then check the calculator. They are not the same button.

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

Light carpentry, no hacking. One post-reno day at S$580, including tracks and wardrobe internals. The household vacuum was not used. They moved in the next afternoon after the dust had settled and a short third pass.

Case 2: 30-year resale in Jurong

Bathrooms hacked, aircon left on. Two visits, S$980, plus an aircon chemical wash at S$160 so the coil did not reseed the rooms. A spring-clean quote of S$350 had been refused because the tracks were full of plaster.

Case 3: terrace in Kovan

Stone cut in the kitchen only. The kitchen and the adjacent living room were priced as post-reno at S$720. Bedrooms were a normal deep clean at S$260. Splitting the scope saved a whole-house two-day rate they did not need.

If the tracks are white, book post-renovation cleaning. If the home is only tired, book the spring clean. The calculator asks which one. 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.

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