Singapore renovation terms in English and Chinese: a bilingual glossary

A bomb shelter in Chinese is 防空壕 in everyday Singapore usage, while the official English term is "household shelter" and its literal rendering is 家用避难所. SCDF and HDB publish the shelter rules and the renovation rules in English, and no official Chinese-language version of those rules could be found on scdf.gov.sg or hdb.gov.sg. Where a permit, a quotation or a dispute is involved, the English term in the HDB or SCDF document is the one that governs. The glossary below pairs each English term with the simplified-Chinese term used on Singapore sites.

Why the Chinese term is never the governing term

Renovation paperwork in Singapore is written in English, and that is a practical fact rather than a preference. The Housing and Development (Renovation Control) Rules impose the owner's obligations in English, HDB's permits and guidelines are issued in English, and SCDF's household shelter requirements exist only in English. A Chinese term that circulates on WhatsApp is a working translation; the English term on the quotation is what a tribunal would read.

The translation gap has a cost. Rule 3 of those Rules makes it an offence, punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 on conviction, for an HDB flat owner to cause renovation works to be carried out without engaging a renovation contractor registered by the Board — a duty that lands on the owner, whichever language the deal was struck in. Complaint volumes have been falling: CASE reported 787 renovation complaints in 2025, down 18.2% from 962 in 2024, with prepayment losses down 73.8% to S$190,667 (case.org.sg).

The household shelter and its parts

Household shelter (HS) — 家用避难所（俗称防空壕）— The reinforced room with a steel door required under the Civil Defence Shelter Act 1997; the term used throughout HDB and SCDF documents.

Bomb shelter — 防空壕 — Everyday name for the same room, used by almost every homeowner and contractor and by none of the regulations.

Household shelter door — 避难所钢门 — The steel door; modifying, changing, removing or tampering with the door and frame is prohibited by SCDF.

HS door notice — 门上告示（俗称"贴纸"）— The notice on the door, which SCDF says provides important information to the occupants on the use of the HS; painting over or covering it is prohibited.

Rubber gasket, "O" ring — 橡胶密封圈 — The rubber seal at the door and at each ventilation sleeve that makes the shelter air-tight when closed.

Hinge — 铰链 — The door pivot, which loosens or breaks when the door is repeatedly swung against skirting tiles.

Ventilation sleeve — 通风套管 — The two openings high on a shelter wall, each capped by a 6mm stainless steel fragmentation plate.

Rack, shelving — 置物架／层架 — Storage inside the shelter, permitted only where it can be easily dismantled and removed.

Structure, wet works and surfaces

Hacking — 拆墙／敲墙 — Demolishing masonry, tiles or finishes. HDB's renovation guide states that before hacking down or altering any walls in a flat, a permit must be obtained from HDB.

Screed — 水泥砂浆找平层 — The cement-and-sand levelling layer laid under a floor finish. Inside a household shelter, HDB's building works guidelines cap the total thickness of floor finishes and screed at 50mm.

Skim coat — 批灰 — A thin surfacing layer applied over concrete or plaster to give a smooth base for paint.

Waterproofing — 防水层 — The membrane laid under wet-area floors before screeding, and the single item worth paying full price for.

Feature wall — 造型墙／特色墙 — A decorative treatment on one wall, whether panelling, tile, stone or paint.

Vinyl flooring — 乙烯基地板（PVC 胶地板）— Plank or sheet plastic flooring, laid over the existing floor with minimal build-up.

Overlay — 覆盖铺设 — Laying new tiles onto sound existing tiles instead of hacking them off, which avoids the debris and the waterproofing risk at the cost of a few millimetres of floor height.

Ceilings, lighting and carpentry

False ceiling — 假天花（吊顶）— A suspended plasterboard ceiling that conceals air-conditioning trunking, pipes and wiring. Where a false ceiling runs outside a household shelter and below its ventilation sleeves, HDB's building works guidelines require perforated access panels of minimum size 600mm x 600mm directly below each sleeve.

Cove light — 灯槽暗藏灯带 — A concealed LED strip set in a recess so that light washes across the ceiling instead of shining down.

L-box — L 形灯槽 — An L-shaped drop built at the ceiling edge, usually to hide a light strip, a curtain track or an air-conditioning pipe run.

Carpentry — 木工／订制木作 — Built-in cabinetry made to measure on site or in a workshop, and normally the largest single line in a renovation quotation.

Quartz countertop — 石英石台面 — Engineered stone of crushed quartz bound in resin, a default kitchen surface in Singapore.

Sintered stone countertop — 岩板台面 — A compacted mineral slab fired at high temperature, harder and more heat-tolerant than quartz, and less forgiving of a bad fabricator. Compare TO FILL: current supply-and-install price band for quartz versus sintered stone kitchen countertops in Singapore before choosing.

Kitchen, yard and flat types

Wet kitchen / dry kitchen — 湿厨房／干厨房 — An enclosed area for heavy cooking, paired with an open area for preparation, coffee and serving.

Service yard — 服务阳台（洗衣晾晒区）— The utility space off the kitchen holding the washer, the drying rack and the bin.

HDB — 建屋发展局；组屋 — The Housing & Development Board, and 组屋 for the flat itself.

BTO — 预购组屋 — A Build-To-Order flat bought from HDB before construction. HDB's renovation guide states that owners of a newly built BTO flat must wait 3 years before removing any wall or floor finishes in the toilets, and need a permit to change those finishes after that period.

Resale flat — 转售组屋 — A flat bought from an existing owner on the open market, usually needing rewiring, plumbing and tile decisions that a new flat does not.

Renovation permit — 装修准证 — HDB's written approval for specific works. The flat owner is responsible for obtaining every permit required before works begin, and may authorise the renovation contractor to submit the application online.

DRC — 装修承包商名录 — HDB's Directory of Renovation Contractors, published as an open dataset that anyone can search by company name or UEN.

Terms that sound like credentials and are not

The registration rule is worth reading in the original, because its second limb is about advertising rather than building:

No person shall — (a) carry out any renovation works in an HDB flat or offer or undertake to personally carry out such works; or (b) advertise or otherwise hold himself out as a registered renovation contractor or as a person legally permitted to personally carry out renovation works in an HDB flat, unless he is a registered renovation contractor.

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— Housing and Development (Renovation Control) Rules, rule 6(1)

"HDB-approved" — 「建屋局批准」— No such status exists. HDB's page on looking for renovation contractors says of DRC-listed firms that "HDB does not endorse nor guarantee the quality of their works", and adds that engaging them is a private contract to which HDB is not privy. The Directory has teeth of a different kind: HDB delists a contractor who receives a total of at least 24 demerit points within 24 months, and rule 7(3) of the Renovation Control Rules requires each registered contractor to maintain a security deposit with the Board of $10,000, or such lesser amount as the Board may specify.

"SCDF-approved bomb shelter rack" — 「民防批准的防空壕置物架」— No approved-rack list could be found either. SCDF's Product Listing Scheme covers regulated shelter products such as the household shelter door, not shelving.

"Formaldehyde-free paint" — 无甲醛油漆 — A legal baseline rather than a selling point from this year: NEA requires interior paints supplied in Singapore to contain no formaldehyde, defined as less than 0.01% by weight, from 1 January 2026. The requirement covers paint only, not boards, laminates or adhesives.

"Deposit" — 订金 — Under the CaseTrust accreditation scheme for renovation businesses, an accredited firm may collect a deposit of no more than 20% of the total contract cost, provides a deposit performance bond, and gives a 12-month workmanship warranty. Noble Interior Design Pte. Ltd. is listed in HDB's Directory of Renovation Contractors (DRC Ref: HB-12-5230A, UEN 201722629H) and is CaseTrust-accredited.

"Anytime can work" — 「随时可以做」— Untrue on HDB's clock. General renovation works are allowed from 9am to 6pm Monday to Saturday with none on Sundays and public holidays, and noisy works such as demolishing walls or removing wall and floor finishes only from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday.

A last piece of vocabulary belongs to the ending nobody plans for. Section 2 of the Small Claims Tribunals Act 1984 sets a prescribed limit of $20,000 and a prescribed extended limit of $30,000, section 5(4) allows a tribunal to hear a claim above the lower figure only if the parties agree by a memorandum signed by them, and section 5(3)(b) bars a claim brought more than 2 years after the cause of action accrued. HDB itself points homeowners to CASE, the Singapore Mediation Centre or the Small Claims Tribunal when a renovation disagreement cannot be settled privately. Write the scope in both languages if that helps the household agree, and keep the English column as the one that binds.