How Can I... Renovate My Household Shelter?
If you have a Household Shelter in your home, you need to know what can and can't be done to it
Can you ‘renovate’ the HS?
The HS has strengthened floors, walls and ceilings and a steel door designed to protect occupants in an emergency. The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) has a list of what is and what isn’t permitted.
Design point: This HS has been ‘hidden’ behind mirrors that soften its impact in the space, and give an illusion of space.
The HS has strengthened floors, walls and ceilings and a steel door designed to protect occupants in an emergency. The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) has a list of what is and what isn’t permitted.
Design point: This HS has been ‘hidden’ behind mirrors that soften its impact in the space, and give an illusion of space.
Here are some of the things you cannot change:
- The walls, floor, ceiling and specifically designed door must not be hacked or drilled into
- Certain finishes and fixtures are not permitted as they are not easily removable and may become hazards to shelter occupants during a war emergency
- Lighting, power, telephone and MATV outlets provided in the HS so that you can stay inside and communicate with the outside world
- Laying of wall tiles or spraying of rockstone finish, cement sand finish and gypsum plastering on the internal faces of HS walls including ceiling
- Laying of floor tiles using adhesive materials
- Installing of cornices within the HS
- Installing works with fixings using power driven nails into the internal HS walls
- Tampering with, removing or covering up of the HS door notice. The HS door notice provides important information to the occupants on the proper use of the HS
- Indiscriminate hacking and drilling of the HS walls, floor slabs and ceiling slabs, other than drilling into HS walls and ceiling slabs to affix removable screws on inserts, provided the depth of the inserts shall not exceed 50 millimetres
- Hacking to both internal and external face of the Household Shelter walls to form key for tiling
- Hacking or indiscriminate drilling on external face of HS wall for mounting of feature wall panels or wall tiles installation
- Modifying, changing, removing or tampering of the HS door
- Modifying, altering or tampering with any part of the ventilation openings, plates and the mounting devices such as bolts and nuts
- Laying of a second layer of tiles on floor or skirting tiles
What can be done
While there are lots of things you can’t do, there are a few you can do for which you don’t need a permit for – but you do need to follow HDB guidelines.
Design point: The wall around this HS has been panelled in timber cladding; and the HS door has been covered with a faux timber door.
While there are lots of things you can’t do, there are a few you can do for which you don’t need a permit for – but you do need to follow HDB guidelines.
Design point: The wall around this HS has been panelled in timber cladding; and the HS door has been covered with a faux timber door.
Works that are permitted include:
- Laying of vinyl or linoleum flooring
- Power-driven nails are allowed only on external face of the HS walls to facilitate flexibility in mounting of peacetime features/fixtures by owners
- Laying of floor tiles with cement mortar
- Laying of floor skirting tiles (up to a maximum of 100 millimetres) by bonding them with wet cement mortar to HS walls
- Fixing of removable screws with non‐metallic inserts not exceeding 50 millimetres in depth for fixtures and equipment e.g. pictures, posters, cabinets, shelves, wall fan, ceiling lighting etc.
- Applying splatterdash or equivalent to the external face of HS wall only to provide a rough surface for feature wall panels or wall tiles installation
Design point: Decals over this HS door make it part of the wall mural.
Design point: The HS here is hidden behind built-in storage.
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Tip: This HS has been turned into a feature through the timber wainscotting.