Hougang Parkview: Haulage and Debris Removal

I chanced upon this issue when I first started research on renovation. I remember reading some blog about how your contractor or ID will try to con you by manipulating the charges for this service. Even after reading the post multiple times I still didn’t understand what was going on, and nothing online provided a concrete answer. So I decided to get to the bottom of this myself.
I called HDB (spoke to our technical officer, Ms Chew) and AHPETC to clarify. This points I’m about to share are accurate as of the date of the post and for the flats under AHPETC. I say this because I have no idea how other town councils handle this. I shall look into it when I get a chance to 🙂

Only some town councils provide such service. I do not know the charges for the town council who do this as AHPETC does not provide the service. Instead, AHPETC has a private contractor, Mr Soh who handles this. HOWEVER, when I called him he told me he does not cover BTOs, told me to ask my own contractor to do it and hung up; I guess he isn’t interested and probably only helps out for resale flats? In cases like mine, the building company i.e. Chip Eng Seng usually would employ a private contractor (Jack/Eto) to take up this service. The contact will be pasted on your lift door.

You can get the service from other contractors other than the one pasted on your lift door. According to Ms Chew, HDB does not appoint or fix any contractors for this service. So you and your contractor or ID are free to look for your own. HOWEVER, chances are your ID or contractor will just get that private contractor (Jack/Eto) to do it. Unless they have their own contacts; convenience is the key here.

You have to pay for this service. It should either be reflected in your renovation quote or if it is not, your contractor or ID will get you to pay the private contractor (Jack/Eto) directly, either way you should pay for the service ONCE. I suspect (just an inkling) that more owners are beginning to question the cost of the service and implying that their contractor or ID is trying to over charge. So some contractors and IDs have decided to leave the cost out and ask owners to check it out themselves to avoid this situation.

The cost depends on your renovation works. Once again, I do not know the charges and what is included if your town council does provide the service. The haulage and debris removal service fee provided by the private contractor (Jack/Eto) is inclusive of:

1. labour to carry tiles, cement and sand to your flat
2. labour to clear debris accumulated during the renovation process
3. cost of sand
4. transport cost for getting sand to flat*
5. transport cost for getting debris to dump site*

*according to Ms Chew, HDB does not provide the lorry to transport the sand and debris.

For Hougang Parkview, the private contractor (Jack/Eto) charges:

• $250 if there are no tiling or hacking works. The cost covers the the labour and material to build mortar bases for your kitchen and washing machine and kerb.
• $900 if there is tiling of all bedrooms and living room. The extra cost covers more sand and additional labour to carry your tiles and cement.
• $60 additional per feet of hacked wall if there is hacking. This cost will cover the labour for hacking plus the clearing of debris from hacking.

If I am not wrong, if you are getting HDB to do cement screeding for you, all materials and services required for them to complete the cement screed will be covered by them. I shall confirm this with HDB a little later.

I hope my post will help clear some doubts on this confusing issue!