Home cleaners serving Bukit Merah.

What Bukit Merah's housing means for home cleaning

Home cleaning in Bukit Merah: mostly HDB flats, many of them older

Most homes in Bukit Merah are HDB flats. The Census 2020 dwelling data shows that about 90% of the roughly 59,700 resident households in the Bukit Merah planning area live in HDB flats. The two largest groups are 4-room flats (about 17,400 households) and 3-room flats (about 15,700). Another 11,000 or so live in 1-room and 2-room flats, and about 9,800 in 5-room and executive flats. That is a wide spread of flat sizes, so ask for a quote based on your flat type and the scope of work. A single package price may not fit your flat.

Many of the blocks are old. HDB's property information dataset covers HDB's Bukit Merah town, which does not share the planning area's boundary. It lists 426 residential blocks with a median block completion year of 1977. About 63% of flats are in blocks completed in 1986 or earlier, and about 33% are in blocks completed in 1998 or later. In older kitchens and bathrooms, grime and grout stains tend to be deeper, so a deep clean or move-out clean can take longer than the floor area suggests. The same dataset counts 75 blocks of 30 storeys or more. Ask how the crew will bring equipment up and where they will dispose of waste.

If your precinct goes through the Home Improvement Programme, works inside each flat take about 10 working days. They can include replacing waste pipes and repairing spalling concrete, which leaves fine dust. Book the post-renovation clean for after the works are done.

A cleaner should not take on repairs. For HDB flats, HDB's renovation rules say plumbing work must be done by a PUB licensed plumber and electrical work by an EMA licensed electrical worker.

The same census table shows the minority: about 9%, or roughly 5,400 households, live in condos and apartments, and only about 190 live in landed homes. Condo residents need to follow their MCST by-laws, and BCA advises checking with the MCST before renovation. Ask about contractor access rules before you book a post-renovation clean.

Questions to ask

• Is the quote based on my flat type, and what does it include for kitchen, bathrooms and windows?
• For an older flat, how do you handle stained grout and hard water marks, and which products do you use on aged fittings?
• For post-renovation work, do you remove fine dust from tracks, ledges and the insides of cabinets?
• If you find a leak or faulty socket, will you tell me so I can hire a licensed tradesperson? EMA requires a Licensed Electrical Worker for power points and wiring.
• Do you clean only inside my unit? NEA exempts domestic cleaning of private residences from the Cleaning Business Licence, but that exemption does not cover condo common property.