Wall Tiles in Kitchen Suddenly “Exploded” at 4am in Jurong East HDB Flat

Usually, home is the safest place to be. Well, unless you stay in Jurong East.

This month, a Jurong East resident found herself with a “newly designed” kitchen after several tiles fell off the kitchen walls.

Wall Tiles in Jurong East Resident’s Kitchen Suddenly “Exploded”

Last Saturday (10 June), 54-year-old Xu Liyu (hanyu pinyin) was rudely awakened by a loud “explosion” coming from her kitchen at 4 am.

Fortunately, it wasn’t an actual explosion. The noise was caused by the wall tiles in her kitchen falling off.

If the 54-year-old ever sells her HDB flat, located on the eighth floor of Block 287C Jurong East Street 21, she should market it as having a built-in alarm clock.

100% effectiveness guaranteed.

According to Shin Min Daily News, Ms Xu was sleeping in her living room when this happened.

A total of 40 tiles had dislodged from her kitchen walls, leaving broken tiles strewn all over her kitchen floor.

Imagine how much dust must be floating around Ms Xu’s kitchen now. Extra ingredients for whatever the 54-year-old cooks, I guess.

Ms Xu shared that before the tile “explosion”, she had noticed the wall tiles in her kitchen bulging, causing the kitchen’s sliding door to get stuck.

We wonder how she wasn’t driven up the wall (pun intended) by this incident.

The 54-year-old has since contacted the relevant authorities for assistance and intends to contact repair contractors to repair her kitchen walls.

Third Time that Wall Tiles in Jurong East Resident’s Flat Have “Exploded”

This is far from the first time the tiles in Ms Xu’s HDB flat have popped off the walls. In fact, it’s allegedly the third time this has happened in the past two years.

Fortunately, no one was injured across all three incidents.

The 54-year-old shares that she discovered eight wall tiles above her kitchen stove dislodging two years ago.

While she initially thought the tiles had dislodged due to the heat emitted by the kitchen stove, a separate incident a few days later would change her mind.

A few days after Ms Xu found the tiles above her kitchen stove falling off, she also noticed 12 tiles in the washroom walls popping off.

The lesson here? Perhaps check the wall tiles first if you want to purchase a home in Jurong East.

West side best side? Pfft. 

Another Resident at Jurong East HDB Flat Also Encountered a Similar Problem

Three storeys below Ms Xu’s home, a woman surnamed Wang, who rents a fifth-floor unit with other tenants, encountered a similar problem.

Forget about the Ethnic Integration Programme or common spaces—community bonding in Jurong East comes from complaining about wall tile “explosion” problems.

Ms Wang shared that ten tiles suddenly popped off the wall above her kitchen stove in February last year. Before this, she had already noticed many tiles behind her fridge falling off the walls.

Nice what. The HDB flat auto-renovates.

Jokes aside, while Ms Wang and the other tenants have brought this issue to their landlord’s attention, the wall tiles have yet to be repaired.

Flat Owners Encountering Similar Problem May Contact HDB to Repair Dislodged Tiles

With how often we hear reports of tiles “exploding” or popping off walls and floors in recent years, it’s almost as if tiles dislodging in HDB flats is a canon event in Singapore.

Is it the authentic HDB experience if you’ve never had issues with your tiles?

Fortunately, the gahmen is also aware of this problem. And, of course, they’re here to support Singaporeans with their tile “explosion” woes.

According to the Ministry of National Development’s (MND) parliamentary answer in 2021, flat owners encountering such a problem may contact the Housing Development Board (HDB) for assistance.

HDB will assist flat owners in repairing dislodged tiles originally provided by the board for up to 15 years.

However, if you’ve had your flat for more than 15 years, HDB will only help to inspect your flat and to remove the fallen tiles.

Bo bian lor, you’ll have to engage your own repair contractors to repair the tiles.

We hope Ms Xu hasn’t had her HDB flat for over 15 years…