Removing a shop sign and making good

“Signage removal Singapore” and “remove shop sign reinstatement” are lease-end searches. The landlord wants the fascia blank, the glass clean and the holes filled. The outgoing tenant wants to know which of those sentences has a price. The take-down itself does not. It is quote on inspection because a lightbox, a raceway of stainless letters and a sheet of window vinyl are three different weights and three different residues. The making-good has prices only where a published row matches the photo.

The photograph shows a shopping-centre name mid-removal. It is the right kind of object, a heavy sign on a frame, and the wrong country. Use it as a reminder that the sign is unstable while it is half unbolted. It is not a quote. Support the sign, then remove the anchors. The reverse order is how signs land on a five-foot way. MOM’s occupier duty, while that lift happens, sits with the person who has the walkway. A busy pavement is a poor place to discover the tray is heavier than the two people on the ladder.

Power comes off first. An illuminated sign can hold a capacitor in a driver and can still be fed from a spur you have not found. If we cannot see an isolator and prove the tray is dead, an EMA licensed electrician isolates it. We do not cut a live flex. After the sign is down, the cable is made safe: terminated in a box, or removed back to the board if the lease says the point goes. A cable left taped in the bulkhead is the sloppy version, and it is the thing the next fitter drills into. Removing a dedicated circuit, if that is truly the work, is electrical work. It is not automatically the S$220 to S$450 installation band. That band is for putting a circuit in. Taking one out is quote on inspection unless a published sentence matches.

Curtains, blinds and roller shades are not part of this booking.

Letters on studs come off letter by letter, with the template in mind so you know how many holes to expect. A raceway comes off as one box once the lags are out. Count the lags before you release the last one. A lightbox tray is walked down on a second support, straps or a second pair of hands, not slid off a single bracket. Vinyl is the window page: plastic blade, solvent, no steel on tempered glass. A fascia panel is supported along its length. Composite sheet bends and then springs. Good removal leaves a bulkhead you can photograph for the landlord. Sloppy removal leaves half a silicone bead, a screw sheared off in the steel, and the shutter guide scarred because it was used as a step.

Holes are matched, not bundled into the dearest band. One or a few small holes in plaster or a cement panel, filled and painted to the surrounding colour as far as a small patch goes, use S$150 to S$280 when they match that sentence on the ceiling and wall page. A row of stud holes across a stone pier may not match a “small hole”. Stone is quote on inspection. Micro-reinstatement at S$1,800 to S$4,500 is the published band for holes, a short trunking run, patch paint and a usable ceiling grid when that is the lease scope, as the yield-up guide describes it. It is not the price of “we took a sign down”. About 300 square feet stripped out is S$3,000 to S$7,500 and about 800 square feet is S$8,000 to S$20,000, again only when the scope matches those reinstatement sentences. A sign removal that does not strip the shop is not those bands. JTC minor reinstatement at S$1,200 to S$4,800 is a factory unit. It is not a shophouse fascia.

The licence is a different piece of paper from the hole. BCA’s supporting page says ownership of an outdoor advertising sign or signboard licence is not transferable. The outgoing tenant who is the licensee cancels in ALS, or the sign is still licensed to them while it sits on the landlord’s fascia. Cancellation steps on that page: log in with Singpass, use cancellation request, and the UEN or NRIC must match the application. We do not log in as you. We can photograph the sign down so you have a record. We cannot click the cancellation. If the next tenant wants the same tray, they need their own consultation. BCA is explicit that the licence does not move with the sale of the shop.

Landlord standards vary. Some want paint. Some want the original blank panel refitted. Some want the raceway left because the next tenant will use it. The lease sentence wins. If the sentence is silent, we stop and ask rather than fill holes the next tenant needed or leave holes the landlord will bill. A mall that requires its own stone contractor is left to that contractor. Our patch band is not a weapon against their specification.

Photograph the sign from the front and from below so the brackets show. Say whether it is lit and where the isolator is. Quote the lease line that describes reinstatement, or say there is no line. Count what you can see: letters, trays, vinyl panes. A “whole shop strip-out” is the reinstatement page, not this one, unless the sign is the only thing leaving.

If the sign is over a public walkway, say so. The 2.5 metre clearance rules are about display, but the lift still needs the walkway managed. We do not publish a lane-closure price. If the job needs one, it is quote on inspection and it may be the landlord’s or LTA’s permission, not a handyman extra.

Separate the lift, the holes and the licence. They are three bills.

Questions a business should ask

Ask the landlord what bare means, then ask the fitter how the sign is held.

1. What must be gone: the face, the tray, the cable, the vinyl, the holes?
2. Is the sign isolated, and who isolates it if not?
3. How many holes, and are they plaster, metal or stone?
4. Which published band, if any, matches the making-good?
5. Who is the BCA licensee, and will they cancel?
6. Does the shutter still have to run the same day?
7. Is the walkway public while the tray comes down?

Landlords do not share one definition of reinstatement.

BCA’s cancellation and non-transfer rules are on the supporting page. Displaying a sign after a licence lapses is the licensee’s problem. Our job ends at the physical sign unless you have asked for something that has its own sentence. HDB and mall rules about what may be displayed do not expire just because the tenant has. A sign left up is still a sign.

Making-good prices are only the published reinstatement and patch sentences. The yield-up guide is the place those bands are explained. Electrical isolation and removal of a circuit are an EMA licensed electrician. No warranty period is published for paint over old fascia holes. Paint on a damp or oily bulkhead will fail, and we will say so.

Official pages

• BCA: outdoor advertising sign and signboard licence
• BCA Advertisement Licensing System: frequently asked questions
• BCA: building works that do not need plan approval

Homey Furnishing Pte. Ltd. (ACRA UEN 202018148K), 27 Mandai Estate, #06-10 Innovation Place, Singapore 729931, invoices the permit-exempt visit. V On Construction Pte. Ltd. (ACRA UEN 201611708H), on the HDB Directory of Renovation Contractors, invoices hacking, a new layout, and an HDB renovation permit. Homey Furnishing is not a property agency, not a CEA practice, and not a MOM-licensed employment agency.

How you're charged

A job that already has a sentence on HomeySG uses that sentence. The hour is not added on top of a band unless the written scope says so. There is no fuel surcharge and no published night premium except the mall overnight row.

Removal is quote on inspection. Do not add the S$55 call-out on top of a reinstatement band unless the written scope says the hour is extra. The charge table on this page is the same rule as the rest of the site.

Ways to keep the bill smaller

• Photograph the brackets before the last day. A raceway with visible lags is a shorter visit than a tray siliconed to the cladding.
• Cancel the licence yourself in ALS once the sign is down. A lapsed licence is still your name.
• Match holes to the patch sentence. Do not buy a strip-out because a checklist said reinstatement.
• Isolate before the day of the lift. Looking for the breaker is the delay.

WhatsApp the photos to +65 8561 0630.

The lift is not priced. The make-good is, only when it matches.

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.

• Shop signage index
• Reinstatement bands
• Yield-up guide
• Stripping window vinyl
• Licence cancellation rules
• Shop touch-ups while you are still trading