Electrical Work in a Singapore Renovation: What Needs a Licensed Electrical Worker

On most renovation quotations the electrical works sit in one block: rewiring, so many light points, so many power points, one number. It is one of the few trades in your flat where doing it badly does not show, does not smell and does not leak. It just sits inside the wall.

It is also the one trade where the licence your renovation contractor holds is not the licence that matters. That distinction catches out a lot of homeowners, so it is worth being blunt about it.

Two licences, doing two different jobs

We are Larry Contractors Pte Ltd, an HDB Licensed Renovation Contractor, licence HB-09-5667H. That licence lets us carry out renovation works in HDB flats. It is not an electrical licence and it does not authorise anybody here to install electrical wiring.

Electrical installation work is governed separately. HDB's own renovation guidelines are direct about it: you must engage an EMA licensed electrical worker — an LEW — for electrical work in your flat. That is a licence held by a named individual, issued under the electricity regime, and it is what makes the work lawful.

So on a properly run renovation there are two parties: the renovation contractor who is coordinating and building, and a licensed electrical worker who is doing or supervising the electrical installation. Any contractor who tells you their renovation licence covers the wiring is telling you something that is not true — whether they know it or not.

What the LEW is actually for

People assume the licence is a formality. It carries three practical functions you will care about:

1. The work itself. Installation and modification of the wiring has to be carried out or supervised by the LEW.
2. The permit. HDB's guidelines note that your LEW may apply for the Electrical/Air-Conditioner Installation Permit on your behalf. If nobody has been appointed, nobody is applying.
3. The testing at the end. On completion of electrical renovation work you apply to SP Services for testing, and that application goes through your LEW. This is the step that most often gets quietly skipped, because the flat already has power and everything appears to work.

That third one is the one to hold on to. A flat where the lights come on is not evidence that the installation was tested and certified. Those are different claims and only one of them leaves a record.

The physical rules that get broken most

These come straight out of HDB's renovation guidelines and they are worth knowing because they are visible to you, unlike most of the trade:

• Wiring must be housed in metal or high-impact PVC conduit. Loose cable pulled through a void is not an installation.
• Wiring or conduit may not be embedded in reinforced concrete slabs, beams, columns or walls, nor buried in wall plaster or other finishes. This is the one people are surprised by. Chasing a channel into a structural wall to hide a cable is not a shortcut — it is not allowed, and on an RC element you are also cutting into structure.
• Power-driven nails and screws are limited to 6mm diameter and 40mm penetration depth. That number exists because of what is behind the surface.

That last rule is also a useful thing for you personally, later. When you eventually drill to hang a TV bracket or a shelf, 40mm is roughly the depth the rest of the building was allowed to assume. Go deeper into a ceiling or a structural wall and you are into territory nobody planned for.

Where it actually goes wrong

Nobody is named

The commonest failure is not dramatic. You are told "the electrician comes on Saturday", the electrician comes on Saturday, the work is done, and at no point does anybody write down who that person was or what licence they hold. Six months later you have a fault and no name.

Ask for the LEW's name and licence number in writing, before the work. A contractor working properly will produce it without any drama, because they had to appoint one anyway.

The testing never happens

The works finish, the flat is handed over, everyone is delighted, and the application to SP Services through the LEW is never made. Nothing goes bang. You simply have an installation with no completion record — which is exactly the document you want if there is ever a fire, an insurance question, or a buyer's solicitor asking.

The load was assumed, not checked

Older flats were wired for a different life. Induction hob, oven, water heaters, several aircon indoor units, an EV charger in the plan later — the total draw of a modern kitchen is not what the flat was originally set up for. Whether your supply capacity needs upgrading is a question for the LEW, in advance, and the answer determines both cost and programme. Discovering it after the kitchen carpentry is in is the expensive order to find out.

Points get added late

Every renovation grows a few extra sockets. Added during first fix, a socket is nearly free. Added after the walls are skimmed and painted, it means chasing, making good and repainting a wall you have already paid for — and, if the wall in question is structural or the run would need burying in plaster, it may mean surface trunking instead, which is not what you pictured.

Walk the flat with the electrical plan before first fix and decide where the bed actually goes, which side you charge your phone on, whether the study will have a monitor, and where the vacuum lives. Ten minutes there saves a fortnight of regret.

Sequencing, in plain terms

First fix is the conduit and cabling, done after hacking and before plastering, ceilings and tiling close everything up. Second fix is the sockets, switches, light fittings and the board, done near the end once finishes are in. Between the two, everything is buried.

The practical consequence: the last moment to change your mind cheaply is before first fix closes. Photograph every wall at the end of first fix, before it is plastered over. Those photos cost nothing and tell you where the cables run for as long as you own the flat.

What you should be holding at the end

• The name and licence number of the licensed electrical worker
• The permit, where the works required one
• Confirmation that the application to SP Services for testing was made, and its outcome
• An electrical layout showing the points as actually installed, not as originally drawn
• Your own photographs of every wall and ceiling at the end of first fix

The questions worth asking before you sign

1. Who is the licensed electrical worker on this job, and what is their licence number?
2. Does any part of these works need a permit, and who is applying for it?
3. Will the application to SP Services for testing be made on completion, and will I see the result?
4. Has anybody checked whether my existing supply capacity is enough for what is being installed?
5. How many points are included, and what is the rate for extra points during first fix?
6. Will I get an as-installed layout at handover?

None of these is an awkward question. They are the questions of somebody who has read the guidelines, and any contractor who has also read them will answer in about a minute.

If you want a straight answer about yours

Send us the electrical section of your quotation and tell us what type of property it is. We will tell you what looks normal, what is missing and what you should be asking for — including when the honest answer is that it is a perfectly ordinary quotation and there is nothing wrong with it.

Larry Contractors Pte Ltd is an HDB Licensed Renovation Contractor, licence HB-09-5667H. Always confirm the current guidelines for your own flat with HDB, because they are the authority on what applies to your property and they do change.

It is worth reading this alongside the HDB renovation permit guide, which walls you can and cannot hack — the same structural logic sits behind the conduit rules above — and the questions to ask before signing.

Message us on WhatsApp about your electrical works, or see how we work as a direct contractor.