The Contractor's Site Visit: What to Prepare So Your HDB Renovation Quote Holds

You have a shortlist. Two or three HDB renovation contractors, a few names from friends, maybe one from a search. The next step is the same with all of them: someone comes to the flat, walks around, and a few days later you get a quotation. Most people treat that visit as the contractor's job. It is not only his. What you show him, and what you forget to show him, decides whether the number you receive is a real price or an opening bid that grows once the hacking starts.

This is the part of hiring an HDB renovation contractor nobody explains: how to prepare for the site visit so the quote you get back actually holds.

Why the visit matters more than the floor plan

A floor plan tells a contractor the size of each room. It does not tell him what is behind the tiles, where the pipes run, or what the previous owner built in. That gap is not a small one, and we say so openly on our own tools. Our room cost calculator estimates tiling, electrical points, false ceiling, painting, flooring, doors and aircon straight from room sizes. Hacking and demolition, and plumbing, it deliberately leaves out: those are quoted as a lump sum on the free site visit, because they depend on your existing layout and condition.

Hacking is also the line our own cost guide names as the difference between a new BTO and an older resale flat. So the honest summary is: everything that can be measured off a plan can be estimated before anyone comes, and the parts that decide whether your budget survives can only be priced by someone standing in the flat.

There is a smaller example of the same thing. Our floor plan calculator works out wall tiling and painting using 2.7m, the standard HDB ceiling height. That is the right default for an HDB flat, and the page is upfront that where the walls are taller, Larry adjusts it on the site visit. The measured figure, not the assumed one, is what belongs on your quote.

Before anyone comes: get your own number first

Walk into the visit knowing roughly what your scope should cost. Not so you can argue, but so you can tell straight away if a quote is out of line in either direction.

The ranges we publish for a full renovation, from our HDB renovation contractor page:

• 3-room HDB: $18,000 – $45,000
• 4-room HDB: $25,000 – $65,000
• 5-room / executive: $35,000 – $80,000+

Whether the flat is new or old moves that number more than most people expect. On our 4-room cost guide, a new BTO needs less hacking, so we tell owners to deduct roughly $5,000–$10,000 from the resale ranges, while a resale 4-room with hacking adds $5,000–$15,000 versus the BTO equivalent, because older units need more electrical rewiring and waterproofing. If you are renovating a resale flat, expect the visit to spend most of its time on exactly those two things.

Then run your own rooms through the calculator. It is an estimate, not a quote, and we say that on the page. Its job is to give you a reference number before the first contractor ever rings the bell.

What to send ahead of the visit

A contractor who arrives already knowing the basics spends the visit on the things that matter. Send these a day or two before:

1. The floor plan. A screenshot of the HDB plan is fine. Our own WhatsApp enquiry asks for it for exactly this reason.
2. Flat type, and BTO or resale. As above, this alone shifts the likely range by thousands.
3. What you want done, room by room. Even a rough list: "kitchen redo, both bathrooms, wardrobes in two rooms, take down the kitchen wall." A list stops the visit drifting into a general chat.
4. Your key collection or move-in date. This is not a formality. It decides whether the job can be done in the order it should be done, and we will come back to why.
5. Photos of anything that worries you. A stain on the ceiling, a cracked tile, a door that sticks. It tells the contractor where to look.

On the day: show him the things a plan cannot

This is where most quotations go wrong, and it is almost never deliberate. Things get missed because nobody pointed at them. Walk the flat with the contractor and make sure each of the five areas below is looked at, not just mentioned.

Every wall you want removed

Point at each one. Only non-structural walls can be hacked in an HDB flat, and structural walls cannot be removed at all. Whether a particular wall is which is a question the contractor has to answer for your specific flat, not something you should assume from how thick it looks. On our 4-room guide we publish that hacking one non-structural wall costs $800–$1,500, with the HDB permit handled by us as part of the price. If you want three walls gone and only mentioned one, your quote is short by the other two.

The bathrooms and the kitchen

Wet areas are where hidden condition costs the most. Open the cabinet under the sink. Show him any damp patch, any tile that sounds hollow when you tap it — our guide to popped and hollow floor tiles explains how to map a hollow area with a knuckle and masking tape before anyone arrives. Tell him if you want the sink, the shower or the washing machine point moved, because relocating plumbing is exactly the lump-sum item a calculator cannot price.

For reference, our published bathroom figure is $4,000–$12,000 per bathroom, including hacking, waterproofing with a 24-hour ponding test, re-tiling and new sanitary fittings. If a bathroom line on a quote comes in far below that, ask what has been left out, and check that waterproofing and the ponding test are written in.

What the previous owner built

On a resale flat, every platform, display cabinet, old false ceiling and tile-over-tile floor is something that either stays or has to be hacked out and carted away. Decide before the visit what you are keeping, and say it out loud. If you are unsure, ask for it priced both ways; we wrote up how to make that call in what is worth keeping in an older flat.

The electrical board and the power points

Count the points you want added or moved in each room, and show him the distribution board. Modern households need more circuits than older flats were wired for — induction cooktops, air-conditioning and water heaters — which is why, on our cost guide, we say resale units in particular benefit from a full rewire. That is a large line, and it only appears on the quote if someone looks.

The two items that are not his to do

If you want new windows, that is not your renovation contractor's work at all: in an HDB flat it goes to a separately approved window contractor, as we explain in why windows are the one job your renovation contractor cannot do. And if you want the gas hob moved, that involves a licensed gas worker, covered in our post on gas pipes and kitchen renovation. Raise both at the visit anyway, because they change the order of the job even when they are not on his quote.

Watch what the contractor does

The visit is also your best look at how a contractor works before you have paid anything. A few things are worth noticing:

• Does he measure, or just look? Carpentry and tiling are priced by size. A quote for wardrobes from someone who never measured the wall is a guess.
• Does he open things — the cabinet under the sink, the DB box, the service yard?
• Does he ask about your dates? A contractor who never asks when you need to move in is not planning the job, only pricing it.
• Can he give you his HDB licence number on the spot? Ours is HB-09-5667H. Checking any number takes about ninety seconds; we show where in how to check a contractor is really HDB-registered.

Why your move-in date belongs in the conversation

Three published numbers explain it. The HDB renovation permit typically takes 1–2 weeks to process, and the contractor applies for it, not you. A full HDB renovation takes 6–10 weeks. And HDB allows a maximum renovation period of 3 months from the start date. Put those together with working hours of weekdays 9am–6pm and Saturdays 9am–1pm, with no work on Sundays or public holidays, and a date that looked comfortable can turn out to be tight.

The sequence also matters: hacking first, then masonry, plumbing and electrical, then waterproofing and tiling, then carpentry, then painting and handover. If a contractor hears your date only after the quote is agreed, you find out late whether the order still fits. Say it at the visit.

After the visit: what a proper quote should look like

After our own visits we aim to send a fully itemised cost breakdown within 3 working days. Whoever you use, when the quotes arrive, check three things before comparing totals:

1. Hacking and plumbing appear as their own lines. These are the items that could only be priced on site. If they are missing or vague, the visit did not do its job.
2. Everything you pointed at is on it. Every wall, every relocated point, every item to be removed. Tick them off against your own list.
3. Waterproofing and the ponding test are written in for every wet area being redone.

Then line the quotes up against the same scope, not just the same total. Our guide on how to read and compare renovation quotations shows how to do that line by line.

The short checklist

1. Run your rooms through a calculator and know the published range for your flat type.
2. Send the floor plan, flat type, BTO or resale, your room-by-room list and your move-in date ahead of the visit.
3. On the day, point at every wall to be removed, every plumbing point to be moved, and everything the previous owner built that is coming out.
4. Open the sink cabinets, show the damp patches, tap the tiles, show the DB box.
5. Mention windows and gas even though they are not his to do.
6. Note whether he measured, and ask for his HDB licence number.
7. When the quote comes, check that hacking, plumbing and waterproofing are itemised and that nothing you pointed at is missing.

Book a site visit with us

Send us your floor plan, your flat type and what you want done, and we will arrange a free site visit and come back with an itemised quotation. WhatsApp us on 9107 2601. Larry Contractors is an HDB Licensed Renovation Contractor, HB-09-5667H; see how we work on our HDB renovation contractor page.