THE BTO EXPERT

5 Essential Tips On

Renovating Your BTO

Congratulations on getting your Build To Order (BTO) HDB flat! You are now one step closer to living in your first dream home! Before you can move in to your new BTO home, you’ll need to first go through some renovations to transform your BTO into your dream home. Here are our 5 tips on renovating your BTO!

1) Demolishing Walls
A great way to add space to your BTO home is to hack and demolish walls so that you can open up the area. This can be useful in giving your home an open kitchen. Or maybe you just want to give yourself an expanded master bedroom. Perhaps you may have ideas on shifting the placement and positioning of walls for fengshui purposes.

2) Flooring
BTO owners can decide if they want to take up the option of HDB Floor Tiles. These days, the range of flooring options is staggering. If the multiple types of flooring options available are leaving you confused, and you are not sure about which you prefer, and whether to opt in, we recommend that you opt out first. This is so that you don’t incur the additional cost and hassle of removing and redoing the flooring.

Eyeing those stylish tiles that will add character to your home? Be aware that HDB has guidelines on flooring that you’ll need to adhere to. For example, you need to use pre-packed cement screed on dry areas like the walls and floors of the living room and bedrooms.

Also, there’s a 3-year restriction period on renovation works that you can do to the floors and walls of your BTO. This is because bathrooms in new BTOs are coated with a waterproof membrane to that prevent water from seeping through the flooring and onto the ceiling of your neighbour below you. If you disregard this restriction and replace the bathroom tiles, you are putting your warranty at risk.

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3) Customised Carpentry
With the trend of condos and HDB flats becoming smaller in floor size, we are seeing more and more clients who want to increase storage by using customised carpentry for items like wardrobes, book shelves, cabinets and cupboards.

One benefit of customised carpentry is that you can specify to build it exactly to fit the dimensions of your walls so that you can really maximise the space. With loose free-standing furniture, it’ll never fit perfectly and there’ll always be gaps and wasted space.

In addition, customised furniture allow you to dictate exactly how you want your furniture to fit your needs and requirements. For example, you might have a record collection and so you can have the shelves built to perfectly fit the height of your records.

Customised furniture can also be great for building space-saving loft and mezzanine-styled beds and study areas. Our clients also get us to customise furniture such as platform beds that come with hidden storage compartments.

To get the best of both worlds, you can also mix and match built-in pieces with free-standing ones. Just make sure that the colours and designs of both complement each other and blend well with the entire theme of the house design.

BTO interior design Living TV

4) Choose a HDB-approved ID Company
You want a ID company that can handle and oversee every aspect of the entire renovation process from start to finish. Unless you have the knowledge and experience, it’s best to get yourself a good HDB-approved ID company.

All reno work must comply with HDB’s guidelines. Otherwise, HDB may consider your reno works to be unauthorised and you don’t want to waste money paying the contractor to return your BTO to its original condition.

5) Choose a ID Company with a good track record
We’ve all heard about ID companies that will promise you anything and everything just to get the job. But after you give them the job, they suddenly become uncontactable. And when problems arise and deadlines are not met, they give you nothing but excuses. These are the sort of behaviours that give our ID industry a bad name.

With Cozy Ideas, our track record speaks for itself. Check through our testimonials and reviews on our website and on our Facebook page to get the best assurance on our work.

These are very common ID practices but do note that you’ll need to get prior approval from HDB before you can hack and remove any walls. HDB will need to make sure that your wall removal will not weaken and affect the structural integrity of the entire block.

You should get your contractor to submit your renovation plans to HDB for approval before doing anything. Otherwise, the cost of rectification that you could be liable for could be very costly.

Sign up

Sign up with Cozy Ideas before the end of this month and you’ll get a free Defects Check (valued at $500!). After you’ve received the keys of your BTO, our team will help you inspect your BTO and check for defects. To qualify for our free Defects Check, you only need to sign up for a minimum renovation contract of $15,000!

Contact us now to find out more!

Cozy Ideas

The Stress-Free ID Company

Experience interior design that's thoughtful, functional and worry-free!

CONTACT US

Tel: +65 6610 4877
Cozy Ideas
8 Ubi Rd 2 #03-09
Zervex
Singapore 408538
enquiries@cozyideas.com.sg

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OUR 3 PROMISES

Price, Professional, Punctual

Heard all about the horror stories of working with ID companies in Singapore? Such as those that rip off their customers, those that charge hidden fees, those with shoddy workmanship, those that cannot be contacted and sometimes, those that are all of the above!

Well, sit back, relax and prepare to experience Interior Design the stress-free, Cozy Ideas way.

PRICE

We will never claim to be the cheapest because there'll certainly be ID companies out there who will undercut prices just to get the job. What we can promise you is that:

  • there'll be no hidden fees
  • everything is clearly spelled out in our quotation
  • you'll get the best value-for-money quotation
  • with our many years of experience in the ID industry, we have the right contacts who can help you save on your home reno costs

PROFESSIONAL

Our team comprises of experts with multiple years of experience in the ID and home renovation industry. Our team of professionals ensure that you'll always have top-notch workmanship in the work that we do for you.

With Cozy Ideas, you need not worry about missed deadlines, false promises, crap workmanship or other unprofessional practices that you often hear about. Our reputation means everything to us.

 

PUNCTUAL

There's something super annoying about vague excuses when deadlines are not kept. At Cozy Ideas, we understand that our clients just want to know when their homes can be ready. With proper planning, we ensure that we will always get the job done within the timeframe that we promise.

In order to respect our clients, we need to respect deadlines.

To learn more about our team at Cozy Ideas, please click here.

TESTIMONIALS

The best assurance on the quality of our work and our ability to keep to our promises is to look at the comments from some of our happy customers.

We are very pleased with Cozy Ideas, and especially with Loy for working closely with us to get our dream home renovated in a relatively tight timeframe. Loy was patient and consultative throughout the entire renovation process, listening closely to us on what our priorities are. She manages the timeline and the team extremely well, and we are glad to be able to move into our new place with minimal fuss. Thank you Loy and Cozy Ideas!

Mr. Kevin Pang

Bishan Clover By The Park

Belinda is a responsible and creative designer. She well accepted our requirement and respect our choices. While maintaining the overall work high standard, she is also able to give out-of-box solutions to meet our budget. Of course she also keeps a good track of the project schedule.

Qi Fan

25B Jalan Membina

Yes, I will recommend this interior designer.

Communication is important & we are able to communicate well & workmanship + timeline are excellent.

Advice to future homeowners:
Basically reno details & responsiveness & able to communicate would really help.

Brandon Sim

351A Anchorvale

To see more testimonials from our happy customers, please click here.

ACCREDITATION & PARTNERS

HDB LICENCE NO.: HB-10-4885C

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