Solid wood that cracks, and termites that are not a polish job

Last updated 31 October 2026.

Searches ask why a solid table cracks in Singapore, whether the air-conditioner did it, and how to tell termites from ordinary splits. The materials guide already says solid wood takes and gives moisture, and that we will not certify a species from a photograph. This page is what you do after the top has moved or the leg is soft. It does not repeat plywood versus MDF. It does not add a teak or oak price.

A top glued so it cannot move can split or cup when the flat is cold in the afternoon and shut and damp at night. That mechanism is ordinary. It is not a measurement of your room, and it is not a number of percent moisture we are willing to print. A hygrometer reading you took can come with the photos. A figure copied from a forum in another climate cannot. Do not drill the top to “let it breathe” before anyone has seen which way the split runs. Filling a structural split with wax and calling it finished is a cover. If the top is still one piece and the finish has only opened on the grain, say that. If the top has come apart at a joint, say that. They are not the same quote.

Air-conditioning is not a villain with a percentage. It is one half of a cycle. The other half is a closed room, a wet kitchen, or a plinth sealed to a floor that was already damp. The platform-bed page refuses to seal a solid plinth over black parquet. A localised parquet patch is S$250 to S$580 for 1 to 3 square metres when that is the floor damage. The bed is not the floor. Moving the piece off an outside wall by a small gap can be the whole remedy for a cupboard back that is cupping and is still dry to the touch by afternoon. That is condensation, which the leak pages already separate from a membrane. We will not inject a wall because a wardrobe back is damp only where the board touches it.

Termites are the stop. If a screwdriver sinks into skirting, a leg, or the bottom of a carcass, do not paint it and do not skin it. The termite page prices waterproof skirting for 10m to 30m at S$240 to S$580, a rotted lower jamb splice at S$260 to S$480, and a whole-unit skirting restoration at S$680 to S$1,350 when those sentences match. We do not claim to be the pest-control operator. Killing a colony is not a furniture visit. New boards that smell are a different sentence: a spot treatment of up to three pieces at S$180 to S$280, which is not included in assembly and is not a termite treatment. Read the row before you add them.

A crack on delivery day belongs on the delivery checklist, with a photo before the piece is accepted. A crack that appears months later is this page. Neither photo creates a warranty period. None is published. A carpenter repair of a split top is quote on inspection. Do not stretch the door veneer patch at S$160 to S$350 across a table. That patch is a door whose core is sound. A table top that has split is not that door.

Permission does not change because the timber failed. Replacing a loose table top is not an HDB renovation. Hacking a cabinet out of the wall can be. HDB’s renovation page and the fine of up to $5,000 apply to a renovation that breaches the rules. Do not screw a replacement shelf into a household shelter wall because the old one was there. BCA plan approval is not a crack. Curtains over a west-facing table are not the repair.

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. Say whether the split was there on delivery day or appeared later.
2. Photograph the end grain and any soft spot a screwdriver would enter.
3. Do not paint soft skirting.
4. Do not send a moisture percentage from another country.
5. Match the skirting band only when the length matches.

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

Do not clamp a split shut and glue it because a video said so. A top that needs to move will open beside the glue. Do not sand through the face to hide a cup. Do not oil a soft leg. Oil is not an insecticide. If you have already done one of those, say so. The quote changes when the face is gone.

Do not mix this with a peeled veneer. Peel on a sound door can be the door patch. Peel because the core is a sponge is the kitchen or cabinet page. The materials guide separates those. This page is solid wood and insects.

“Kiln dried” on a quotation means the seller says the timber was dried in a kiln. It does not say to what moisture, and it does not stop the piece moving after it arrives in a Singapore flat. We will not print a moisture target we have not measured on your top. Ask the seller for the certificate if they are selling you the timber. A line in a brochure is not that certificate.

Furniture-grade plywood is a similar label. It is not a grade we award. If the quote says solid and the edge shows veneers, you are not looking at this failure mode. You are looking at the materials guide.

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.
• Do not paint a soft skirting. If a screwdriver sinks in, stop and read the termite page.

WhatsApp the photos to +65 8561 0630.

Only the rows whose sentence matches. A split top is quote on inspection.

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
• If the crack arrived
• Skirting and door frames
• Dining tables
• Platform beds
• Peeling faces
• Custom furniture
• Handyman price list