West-facing HDB glass: heat, glare and UV, without a fake percentage

Last updated 31 October 2026.

West-facing stacks are a Singapore planning fact, not a slogan. The living-room glass takes the sun after lunch. In towns with an open western edge the pane can be in sun until evening. The household notices three different things and often uses one search for all of them: the room feels hot, the floor or the furniture fades, and the corridor or the opposite block can see in. Those are three products. Heat-rejection film is the first. A clear or lightly tinted film is what people hope will cut heat without killing daylight. UV concern is the second, usually because a timber floor or a sofa sits in that sun. Privacy is the third, and it splits again into one-way film and frosted film. This guide does not publish a percentage of heat rejected, a UV-block figure, or a claim that the room will be a certain number of degrees cooler. Competitor pages print those figures from their own sheets. Copying them here would invent a specification we have not measured.

HDB’s window-works table is the legal boundary for the flat. Placement of film over the glass panel of existing windows or balcony doors does not need a renovation permit when the film is non-reflective or not exceeding 20% reflectance. A roll marketed as a one-way mirror for a west-facing bedroom can fail that sentence even if it would have helped the glare. The heat-rejection page and the one-way page both stop at that line. Frosted film is the usual way to get day-and-night cover without a mirror look. It does not claim to be a heat product. If the west sun and the corridor view are both true, you may need frost on the corridor pane and a low-reflectance heat film on the living-room pane. They are two quotes, not one average.

Safety sits in front of comfort. Casement rivets on a west facade and above a kitchen stove corrode. The safety guide explains SS304 replacements, sliding stoppers, and the penalty range already published for a fallen window. Film on a failing sash is refused. Interior reseal at S$180 to S$380 a window is the rain job when the stay is sound. It is not a substitute for film, and film is not a substitute for it. A child who can open the hot casement wide needs the child-safety lock page. No restrictor price is published. Dark glass does not hold a child. Cat mesh at S$120 to S$220 is a fall mesh, not a UV film.

Condos on a western elevation have the same sun and a stricter look. The MCST may refuse a film the HDB percentage would have allowed, because the stack has to match. Ask before anyone cuts a roll for a full-height balcony door. Landed houses have no HDB reflectance cap and still should not be filmed from a ladder leaned through the sash. Upper-storey west windows are done from inside. Car tint rules are irrelevant. LTA darkness is a vehicle matter. This site does not quote it, and it does not quote curtains, blinds or roller shades as the west-sun product.

Homey Furnishing Pte. Ltd. (ACRA UEN 202018148K), 27 Mandai Estate, #06-10 Innovation Place, Singapore 729931, invoices permit-exempt window work done from inside the flat. V On Construction Pte. Ltd. (ACRA UEN 201611708H), on the HDB Directory of Renovation Contractors, invoices an HDB renovation permit when the window scope needs one. The exterior rivets, friction stays, rollers and glass are done by a BCA approved window contractor registered under workhead RW01. Homey Furnishing is not that RW01 contractor.

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

Separate heat, fading and privacy before you ask for “the darkest legal tint”.

1. List the rooms that face west and the rooms that face a corridor.
2. Photograph each stay. Stop film planning if a stay is rusty.
3. Decide whether night privacy matters. If it does, frost beats one-way film.
4. Do not copy a UV percentage from a forum into the brief.
5. Expect quote on inspection for every roll.

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

A west-facing living room in a Jurong or Clementi resale, with a sound casement and a television opposite the glass, is the heat-film conversation. The household wants the view in the morning and less glare in the afternoon. The reflectance cap decides how mirror-like that film may be. No temperature drop is promised.

A bedroom that faces the common corridor in a point block is the privacy conversation. Daytime one-way film fails the test the household actually cares about if they read in bed with the light on. Frosted film is the page for that room. The living room can still take a different film.

A service-yard bathroom with a top-hung pane is frost, unless the blades move. Louvers are a poor vinyl surface. If the same window needs an exhaust fan, the acrylic panel on the window repair page is S$220 to S$420. That is ventilation, not frost.

A condo balcony door on a western elevation is the MCST conversation before it is a film conversation. If the by-law wants the original clear glass look, a strong tint is the wrong order. Interior reseal, if the door leaks, stays S$180 to S$380 a window and does not change the elevation colour.

Autocomplete mixes home film with car tint, 3M warranty prices and “how much does UV film cost”. Brand warranty years and shelf prices are not published here. Asking us to match a number from another site is how a quote becomes fiction. Send the pane count instead.

Curtains, blinds and roller shades appear beside these searches because people also furnish rooms. They are not quoted on HomeySG window pages. A film decision does not need a fabric bundle. If the stay is unsafe, neither fabric nor film is the repair.

How you're charged

A window job that already has a sentence on HomeySG uses that sentence. Nothing in this table is a fuel surcharge, and the hour is not added on top of a band unless the written scope says so.

Who is allowed to touch the window

HDB’s window-works guidelines require a BCA approved window contractor listed in HDB’s directory for installation and replacement, and an HDB renovation permit before that work starts. BCA registers that contractor under workhead RW01. Retrofitting replaces aluminium rivets in variable-geometry stays with type 304 stainless steel. Homey Furnishing does not issue that rivet.

• Interior silicone or PU reseal, at S$180 to S$380 a window, is the exempt interior job on the window repair page.
• A handle at S$60 to S$120 is that published row. A failed stay or rivet is not a handle.
• Film on intact glass is not a sash replacement. On an HDB flat, film over existing window or balcony-door glass does not need a permit when it is non-reflective or not above 20% reflectance.
• Service-yard and balcony parapet grilles need a permit. Flats handed over from 1 July 2007 use HDB’s approved grille designs. Older blocks may take an internal grille that does not protrude, without that permit.
• A condo facade is the MCST’s elevation. Reflective film, a grille and an external screen are uniformity questions before anyone sticks or drills.
• Curtains, blinds and roller shades are not quoted here.
• Nobody leans out of the casement. High glass is cleaned from inside.

Ways to keep the bill smaller

• Photograph every opening before a film roll, a mesh panel or a grille is cut. A wrong reflectance or a wrong grille design is a wasted visit.
• Put the windows in one room on the same visit. A second trip is a second booking.
• If the track is only dirty, the published clean is S$60 to S$100. That is not a new roller.
• If the stay is rusty, stop. Film and a child lock on a failing sash do not make it safe. The approved contractor comes first.
• Clean the glass first if you have not done it this year. The HDB clean is S$120 to S$240. Film on dirty glass is a poor test.

WhatsApp the photos to +65 8561 0630.

Film rows are quote on inspection. The dollar rows are the other window jobs a west facade often needs first.

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.

• Heat-rejection film
• One-way privacy film
• Frosted film
• Window film overview
• Fix the stay first
• Clean the glass before you judge it
• Window child-safety locks