Keep or Replace the Kitchen Cabinets in an HDB Flat, Singapore: What the Basic Package Covers and Where the Standard One Starts

Pictured above: a finished HDB kitchen from our project archive. Light wood-tone cabinets run along the wall, a cream worktop sits under a marble-look splashback, and a double socket plate is set just above the worktop. It shows what a kitchen looks like when the cabinets and the worktop have been replaced. Whether yours needs that, or whether the boxes you already have can stay, is the question this guide helps you settle before anyone is asked to quote.

Most owners who ask us about a kitchen ask the same thing in different words: "my cabinets are old but not broken, do I really have to change them?" It is a fair question, because on our published numbers the cabinets are what separates one kitchen package from the next. Keep them and the kitchen costs less. Replace them and you get a different kitchen. What nobody tells you is that the decision is made on the condition of the cabinet boxes, not on how the doors look, and that it has to be made before the tiling starts.

This guide is for an HDB owner deciding between keeping and replacing. It uses only figures already published on this site, and gives no price for anything that is not.

The short answer

• Keep the cabinets if the boxes are sound and the layout works. That is the case our basic kitchen package is written for: re-tiling, painting, and a new hood and hob.
• Replace them if the boxes are damaged or the layout is wrong. New laminate cabinets and a quartz countertop are what the standard package adds.
• Judge the boxes, not the doors. Doors are the part you can see. The sides, the base and the shelves are what fail first.
• Decide before the tiler comes. Tiling is weeks 4 to 5 on our programme. What happens at the edge of every kept cabinet has to be agreed before then.
• A new worktop on old boxes is a separate, smaller decision and has its own published rate.

What our published packages say

On our 4-room HDB cost page, a kitchen renovation as a standalone package is $8,000 to $25,000, in three tiers:

• Basic, $8,000 to $12,000: re-tiling, painting, and replacing the hood and hob.
• Standard, $12,000 to $18,000: adds new laminate cabinets and a quartz countertop.
• Premium, $18,000 to $25,000: adds sintered stone, soft-close hardware and integrated appliances.

Read the wording of the basic tier closely. It names tiles, paint, a hood and a hob. It does not name cabinets. The cabinets arrive in the standard tier. So the published difference between "keep" and "replace" is exactly one thing: whether new cabinets and a new countertop are in the scope.

Notice also that the standard tier starts at $12,000, which is where the basic tier ends. A kitchen quoted near $12,000 could honestly be either one. That is why we say the scope list matters more than the total: two quotations at nearly the same figure can mean old cabinets with a lot of work around them, or new cabinets with less. Ask for the list of what is replaced and what stays, line by line.

Four checks on the cabinets you want to keep

You can do these on a Saturday morning with a torch and a flat hand. Open every door and every drawer.

1. Under the sink. Press the base panel and the sides of the sink cabinet. A panel that is soft, swollen or flaking at the edge has taken in water over the years. That is the first place to fail, and a new tap or sink will not fix a base that has already swollen.
2. Beside the hob. Heat and steam get into the side of the cabinet next to the cooker. Look for lifting edges and a surface that has bubbled away from the board.
3. Hinges and runners. Open and close each door and drawer ten times. A door that sags, or a drawer that drops at the front when it is pulled out, is a worn fitting. Worn fittings can often be replaced one by one, but if every door and drawer is tired, expect the boxes to be at the same stage.
4. The layout, not the condition. Stand where you cook. Is the sink in a place that works with the hob and the fridge? Cabinets in perfect condition are still the wrong buy if the kitchen is in the wrong order, because moving a sink or a hob means moving the plumbing and the points that were fixed in weeks 2 to 3.

If two or more of these fail, the cheaper route is no longer cheap. You would be paying to re-tile around boxes that will have to come out in a few years.

What re-tiling does to cabinets you keep

Re-tiling is in the basic tier, and it is where the "keep" route is hardest to price from a distance, because the tiler's job meets the cabinet at every edge. There are three ways it can go, and each is a different amount of work:

1. The cabinets stay put and the tiles are laid up to them. Least disturbance. The floor under and behind the boxes is not renewed.
2. The cabinets come off, the wall and floor are re-tiled, and the cabinets go back. More thorough, and it needs someone to take the boxes down and fix them again, which means the doors and drawers get handled once more.
3. The base cabinets are replaced. This is the standard route.

We do not publish a separate price for lifting and refitting existing cabinets, so none is given here. What we can tell you is the question to put in writing: which of these three is in my quotation? If the answer is the first, and your plan is to re-tile the kitchen floor, ask whether the floor under the cabinets is part of what you are paying for. If the answer is the second, ask who is responsible if a box does not survive being taken off the wall.

The worktop is the smaller decision

If the boxes are good and only the top is tired, the worktop can be treated on its own. The room cost calculator lists a tabletop or countertop at $150 per ft run, for up to 650mm depth. The standard package puts a quartz countertop on new cabinets. We do not publish a price for a quartz worktop on old cabinets, so for that combination the number comes from a site visit.

Two points about timing, both from the way we work. A worktop is measured after the base cabinets are fixed, because it has to follow what is really there. With cabinets you keep, that measuring day comes after the tiling is finished, so ask for that date and the delivery date. Our guide to when the carpenter should measure goes through the same order for new kitchens. And the sink and hob cut-outs come from the model's own installation sheet, so the sink, tap and hob are chosen before the top is cut, not after.

The hood and the hob: replaced in the basic tier

Because the basic tier replaces the hood and the hob, the points behind them become part of the job. On the room cost calculator an ordinary power point is $90, and an isolated point is $150, listed for the oven, hood or hob. If you are changing a gas hob for a different kind, or moving it, the gas pipe work is its own regulated job; our guide to gas pipe works in a kitchen renovation explains who may do it.

Where it sits in the programme

On our published 4-room programme, masonry, plumbing and electrical are weeks 2 to 3, waterproofing and tiling are weeks 4 to 5, carpentry installation is weeks 6 to 7, and painting, doors, hardware and handover are week 8. That is the order for a full renovation of a 4-room flat; the timing for your own kitchen depends on its scope.

For a kitchen where the cabinets stay, no new boxes need to be built in the factory, so the long wait for the carpentry that fills weeks 6 to 7 does not apply to them. The worktop, the hood and the paint still do, and they still come after the tiles. So "keep" shortens the carpentry, not the whole job.

Questions to put on the quotation

1. Which cabinets stay and which are replaced? Please list them by position.
2. Which of the three tiling routes above is priced, and does it include the floor under the kept cabinets?
3. Is the worktop replaced, and when is it measured relative to the tiling?
4. Which hob and hood are assumed, by model, and which points are they counted under?
5. What does the 1-year warranty cover in a kitchen where some of the cabinets are not new?
6. If a kept cabinet is damaged when it is taken off the wall, who pays to replace it?

What it costs

These are the figures we publish, and they are estimates: a kitchen renovation as a standalone package is $8,000 to $25,000, with basic at $8,000 to $12,000, standard at $12,000 to $18,000 and premium at $18,000 to $25,000. A full kitchen cabinet set of around a 4-metre run is $3,500 to $8,000. Where your kitchen falls depends on a site visit. Changing only the doors on old boxes is not one of the lines we publish, so we give no price for it here.

What to do this week

1. Run the four checks on every cabinet and write down what fails.
2. Decide whether the layout is right, before you decide whether the boxes are.
3. Photograph the sink cabinet and the cabinet beside the hob with a door open.
4. Choose the hob, hood and sink by model if you can.
5. Ask each contractor to price the tiling route in writing.

Not sure whether your cabinets can stay? WhatsApp us on 9107 2601 with your flat type, your estate and two photos of the sink cabinet, and we will arrange a site visit to look at the boxes before anything is priced. Any price depends on that visit. You can run the published rates on the room cost calculator, see the kitchen packages and the programme on the 4-room HDB renovation cost page, and read about our other work on the HDB renovation contractors page.

Related reading: when the carpenter should measure the kitchen · carpentry cost per foot run · how to compare quotations · gas pipe works in a kitchen