A professional kitchen renovation contractor plans and coordinates every trade in your kitchen under one quotation and one warranty. That covers carpentry, plumbing, electrical points, gas, tiling and countertops. In Singapore it matters more than most places: kitchens are small, compact, and space efficient. HDB rules control some of what you can change and when, and humidity exposes poor workmanship and material choice within a year or two.
This guide is written from the installer’s side. T Se7en Alucraft has designed and installed kitchens in over 1,000+ HDB flats, condos and landed homes since 1996 under together with our parent company. Below you will find what a contractor should handle, how that compares with hiring an interior designer, the mistakes we fix most often, and a checklist for vetting anyone you hire, including us.
A kitchen job looks like cabinets and a countertop. In practice, it is five or six trades working in a fixed order, and most problems come from that order going wrong. Electrical points get chased after the backsplash is up. The sink cabinet is built before anyone confirms where the drain sits.
A contractor’s real job is sequencing and accountability:
At T Se7en Alucraft, we complete every single steps fully in-house, by our own employees that we pay directly to, not sub-contractors. which of these steps you do in-house, and which you handle through partner plumbers, electricians, gas workers or countertop fabricators]. Ask any contractor the same question. “We handle everything” usually means “we subcontract everything”, which is honestly, still fine if one party still takes responsibility for the final result.
For how the installation stage works in detail, see our kitchen cabinet installation process. For the full service scope, see our kitchen renovation services.
Few Singapore homeowners DIY a kitchen. The real choice is who you hire, and that depends on how much of the home you are changing.
Interior designer (ID) | General renovation contractor | Kitchen specialist (e.g. T Se7en) | |
Best for | Whole-home renovation with a unified design | Practical works on a clear brief | Kitchen-only or kitchen-led projects |
Design input | High, across every room | Low to moderate | High for the kitchen; limited elsewhere |
Who builds the cabinets | Always Usually outsourced to a carpentry factory | Always Usually outsourced | F[CONFIRM: fabricated in-house at our own facility and factory.?] |
Cost structure | Design and coordination fee built into the quote | Lower overhead, fewer design revisions | No designID mark-up on cabinetry, you pay purely for material and labour. |
Accountability | ID answers for all subcontractors | Contractor answers for their trades | One party answers for the kitchen |
Watch out for | Kitchen detail lost in a whole-home project | Weak design and space planning | May not handle the rest of the home |
If you are doing the whole flat, an ID or general contractor makes sense, and you can still ask them to bring in a kitchen specialist for the cabinetry. If the kitchen is the main job, going direct removes a layer of mark-up and puts the person who builds your cabinets in front of you.
See what that looks like in practice in our full list of services.
For HDB flats, the short version is this for any major works involved: your contractor must be listed in HDB’s Directory of Renovation Contractors, and some kitchen works need a permit before they start. Minor works are generally not needed.
Work in the kitchen | What applies | Who arranges it |
Any major renovation work in an HDB flat | Contractor listed in HDB’s Directory of Renovation Contractors (DRC) | Check with your contractor.heck the listing yourself before signing |
Replacing floor tiles or raising the kitchen floor level | HDB renovation permit is madatory | Contractor submits on your behalf |
Hacking or altering walls | HDB permit; some walls cannot be touched at all | Contractor checks the floor plan with HDB floor plan first before submission. |
New or moved power points, hob and oven wiring | EMA-licensed electrical worker | Contractor or their electrician |
CMoving or connecting a gas hob to HDB supplied gas inlet | Licensed gas service provider is requiredworker | Contractor or gGas supplier |
Condo kitchens | MCST approval and the condo’s own renovation hours | Contractor prepares the drawings.; Some MCST requires you to submit your plan to the management |
Replacing cabinets and the countertop alone usually needs no HDB permit. The permit question starts when tiles, floors or walls change. HDB also sets permitted working hours, with tighter limits on noisy works such as hacking. A contractor who plans around them avoids complaints and stop-work notices.
T Se7en Alucraft is a subsidiary of Concepcion Interiors Pte Ltd in HDB’s Directory of Renovation Contractors under HB-05-3488E registered company name. Electrical works is done in-house, but gas work needs to go through gas licensed companies which we will arrange on your behalf. For gas and electrical work we use licensed partners / our in-house licensed workers.
Rules change, so check the current guidelines on the HDB renovation page before you start.
Most kitchen problems we are called in to fix trace back to planning, not materials. These are the ones we see again and again in HDB and condo kitchens.
A completed project we completed in 2026 in a unit in sembawang where we did a simple repair job, by tearing out the old wooden cabinets, and replace with new aluminium cabinets.
If your kitchen is long and narrow, our guide to planning cabinets for narrow HDB kitchens covers layouts that keep the walkway clear.
The material question is really about where water reaches. Cabinet doors rarely fail first. The sink base, the area around the dishwasher, and the cabinet next to the rice cooker’s steam vent do.
Material | Moisture resistance | Look and finish options | Relative cost | Main trade-off |
Aluminium carcass | Does not swell or rot | Wide range of laminate and wood-grain door finishes | [CONFIRM: e.g. hiHgher upfront than plywood] | Can feel less “warm” than solid wood; hardware quality matters |
Marine plywood with laminate | Good if edges are sealed well | Similar to plywoodVery wide | Higher than normal plywoodModerate | Edges and cut-outs absorb water if sealing is poor, fail as early as first year |
Particle board / MDF | Poor once the surface is broken | Very wide | Lowest | Swells quickly near sinks and leaks |
Solid wood | Moves with humidity | Natural look | High | Needs regular care; not ideal near water |
We specialise in aluminium kitchen cabinets because they remove the most common failure, a swollen sink base. They are not the only good option. Well-sealed plywood still works for homeowners who prefer it, and some choose aluminium for the wet zone and plywood elsewhere to manage cost.
Go deeper with our aluminium vs wood kitchen cabinet comparison, our guide to waterproof aluminium kitchen cabinets, or our breakdown of budget kitchen cabinet materials.
A typical HDB kitchen with T Se7en takes 2-4 weeks from first site visit to handover. You are without a working kitchen for 1-2 weeks of that, during hacking and installation.
Delays usually come from two places: late decisions on finishes, and countertop lead times. Choose your countertop material before fabrication starts.
A good quotation itemises:
A quote that shows one lump sum for “kitchen package” makes it hard to compare contractors and easy to dispute later. Our payment schedule is generally 20-50% deposit on confirmation, 20-40% before installation, 60%-10% balance on handover.
These checks take about an hour and filter out most of the risk. Run them on every contractor you shortlist, including us.
Our warranty and after-sales: You may find out terms and conditions here, or speak with our sales.
A contractor who is reluctant on any of these points has told you what you need to know.
We are a kitchen specialist, not a general renovation firm. We have a strong team of dedicated tradesmen, skilled carpenters, thinkers, and proud producer of quality cabinets.Our aluminium cabinets are built at our own workshop in Woodlands, so are the the people who measure your kitchen also build it.
For layout ideas that have worked in real Singapore homes, browse our kitchen cabinet designs.
A kitchen renovation contractor plans the layout and coordinates every trade involved. That includes hacking, plumbing, electrical, gas, cabinets and countertops. They sequence the work, handle HDB permits where needed, and take responsibility for the finished kitchen under one warranty.
For an HDB kitchen, our projects typically range from $5,000 to $20,000 depending on cabinet length, materials, countertop and whether tiles or services change. Condo and landed kitchens vary more with size. See our budget kitchen cabinet materials guide for how material choice moves the price.
Replacing cabinets and the countertop on their own usually does not need a permit. Replacing floor tiles, raising the floor level or altering walls does. Your contractor must still be listed in HDB’s Directory of Renovation Contractors.
For most of our HDB projects, around 10 days, covering hacking, installation and countertop fitting. Fabrication happens off-site beforehand, though it depends sometimes that you may or may not be able to cook during this period.
For a whole-home renovation, an interior designer coordinates everything in one design. For a kitchen-only project, going direct to a kitchen specialist usually costs less and puts you in touch with the people building your cabinets directly. Though sometimes, the kitchen cabinet builders can also design too.
This can only be done under strict conditions. Not all countertop are salvageable, and some will break upon hard impact on the cabinet body.
Location: 39 Woodlands Cl, #05-21, Singapore 737856
Phone: +65 9615 9273
Email: marketing@tse7en.com
Website: https://www.tse7en.com
Follow Us on Social Media:
Speak to a professional now and get personalized consultation and guidance for your next renovation. Work with a team you can trust!
Home Blog HIP is HDB’s upgrading programme for older flats. It covers compulsory repairs such as concrete defects and ageing waste pipes at a very...
