What to ask before you sign a carpentry quote

Last updated 31 October 2026.

People ask how to compare carpenter quotes, what a quotation should include, and why two numbers for the same flat are far apart. The distance is usually the scope. One quote replaces doors. One replaces boxes. One includes a hack. One assumes you dismantle the old unit. HomeySG will not collapse those into a single “carpentry package”. The cost guide already lists the bands that exist: a sectional sink repair at S$280 to S$700, a full kitchen replacement at S$5,000 to S$6,500 when that comparison matches, wardrobe assembly at S$100 to S$650. A carpenter sofa, table, platform, study table, console or bookshelf is quote on inspection on the piece page. If a quote you received does not say which of those it is, ask before you pay.

Ask these questions in writing. What is the core of the board, not only the face name. What hardware is specified, and what happens if the cup stamped on the old door is a different brand. Who removes the old piece, and is that dismantle included. Does the piece have to be built inside the flat because it cannot pass the lift. Is the household shelter wall being used as a fixing. Who applies for an HDB renovation permit if the work is a new layout, hacking, or a built-in strip-out. HDB’s renovation page is the rule for that renovation, including a fine of up to $5,000 when the rules are breached. Applying for approval is the permit step. V On Construction invoices that permit. Homey Furnishing invoices the exempt visit. A loose table does not open BCA plan approval. A new structural opening would.

A deposit is the question that produces invented percentages. This site does not print one. The lead-time guide already says another workshop’s contract is theirs. Confirm a printed band or an explicit quote before anyone comes. If a quotation asks for money against a foot-run we have refused to adopt, do not treat that foot-run as our price. A warranty in years is the same kind of borrowed number. We do not publish a furniture warranty period. Ask the maker who is selling you the piece what they will do if a door peels, and read their clause. Do not ask us to repeat it.

Variations are how a clear quote becomes a surprise. A scribe around an air-con trunk, a change of height after the ceiling is measured, a request to wrap the shelter bulkhead, and a new power point are not the original line. A new electrical point is an electrician. A grommet in a top is part of describing the top. Say which you want before the board is cut. The materials guide explains solid wood, veneer, laminate, plywood and MDF. It does not add a species surcharge. If the quote names teak and will not say whether the top is solid or a face on a core, that is the question to stop on.

Red flags are specific. A single price for “whole home carpentry” with no piece list. A week count copied onto a job that is only a hinge, which is S$50 to S$100 a visit when that is the job. A promise to drill the household shelter wall. A request to match a competitor’s per-foot screenshot. Curtains, blinds or roller shades folded into the carpentry total. We will not price those fabrics here. Installation of a carton is the assembly page. Installation of a carpenter piece is part of the quote for that piece, and you should ask whether it is. Who carries the old sofa out is not us: we do not publish a truck rate.

Bring photos of each piece, the lift door, and whether the carcass is screwed to the wall. The reply matches a band or says quote on inspection. That is a complete answer. Averaging two other people’s totals is not. The custom furniture page is the index of pieces. Start there if you do not yet know which page is yours.

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. List every piece as repair, carton, or carpenter-built.
2. Ask what is excluded: demolition, electrical, stone, mattress, disposal.
3. Ask whether a permit is in the sequence.
4. Reject a foot-run you want us to honour.
5. Confirm the scope before anyone cuts.

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

Write: the piece, the room, HDB or condo or landed, whether it is loose or screwed down, the clear lift-door width you measured, and whether a power point already exists. Add whether the old piece must leave first. That list is enough to say “this is the assembly band” or “this is quote on inspection”. A mood board is not.

If you already have two quotations, send both only so we can see the scope. We will not pick the lower total. We will say which lines match a printed band and which lines we will not price because they are a permit, a truck, or a fabric we do not sell.

A generic cabinet hinge is from S$38 a door. A Blum Clip Top 110 degree pair is S$90 to S$180 when the cup matches. Soft-close slides for one to three existing drawers are S$110 to S$220. Those rows are repairs. A quotation that says “soft close” without saying whether the drawer already exists is incomplete. Ask.

Gas struts at S$180 to S$380 a pair are for a storage bed that will not stay up. They are not a default on every platform. If the quote adds them to a solid plinth, ask why. The platform-bed page draws that line.

It will not name a best carpenter. It will not score reviews. It will not say a cheap quote is false or a high quote is honest. It will not tell you a deposit percentage to pay someone else. It will not turn a Chinese New Year shutdown, or any other calendar, into a lead time. The lead-time page refuses week counts.

Curtains and blinds stay out of the questions. A room can be agreed without them. Send the piece list. The answer is a band that already exists, or quote on inspection.

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.
• If two quotes cannot be lined up piece by piece, they are not comparable. Do not average them.

WhatsApp the photos to +65 8561 0630.

Use a row only when the quotation is that row. A new custom piece stays a quote.

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.

• Custom furniture
• Carpentry cost guide
• Lead time and deposits
• What to check on delivery
• Permit guide
• Carpentry
• Materials
• Handyman price list