Demolition and Strip-Out Safety in Singapore: Permits, Structural Stability, Asbestos and Waste

Demolition is the part of a project that people think requires the least skill. It does not. Building something follows a design; taking it apart means working with a structure whose load paths, reinforcement and condition are only partly known, while it is being weakened on purpose. That is why Singapore’s workplace safety law treats demolition as high-risk construction work, alongside deep excavation, crane lifting, piling and tunnelling.¹

Most demolition in occupied buildings is not a tower coming down. It is a strip-out: an office returned to bare shell, a shop gutted for a new tenant, a factory cleared of plant, a few walls hacked to open a layout. Those jobs fall into a grey zone where owners assume no approvals are needed. Sometimes that is right. Often it is half right: BCA may not need to approve the plans, but the workplace safety rules on demolition, the asbestos survey duty and the waste rules still apply.

This guide sets out when BCA approval or a demolition permit is needed, what the WSH (Construction) Regulations require, what a demolition method statement should contain, how to keep a structure stable during strip-out, and how dust, noise, asbestos and waste are controlled. It draws on the fatal collapse during demolition in Tanjong Pagar in June 2023, which MOM addressed in Parliament.

Demolition, strip-out and hacking: what the law covers

The WSH (Construction) Regulations define demolition work as work incidental to or connected with the total or partial dismantling or razing of a building or other structure, and it includes removing or dismantling machinery or other equipment.¹ On that definition, a strip-out that removes partitions, ceilings, raised floors and plant is partial dismantling, and is demolition work for WSH purposes.

The Building Control Regulations take a different cut. They ask whether the works are structural, and list in the First Schedule the “insignificant building works” that need no plan approval.² A non-load-bearing wall is one that supports no load other than its own weight.² If a wall, slab or beam carries anything else, removing it is structural work.

So there are two separate questions on every strip-out:

1. Does BCA need to approve plans and issue a permit? That depends on whether structure is affected.
2. Do the WSH demolition rules apply? For most strip-outs, yes.

When BCA approval or a demolition permit is needed

The decision table

The items in the First Schedule were revised for works carried out from 1 April 2025.² Read every condition: the single-storey building exemption, for example, fails if the building is within 15 m of any residential building.²

Two points about exempt work. First, “exempt” means exempt from BCA plan approval, not from safety law, MCST or landlord approval, or the asbestos and waste rules. Second, the exemption depends on the wall actually being non-load-bearing. That is a question of fact about the building, and it is the one most often answered wrongly. See our guide on hacking walls and structural elements for how to establish it.

Structural demolition inside an A&A job

Where part of a building undergoing alteration is to be demolished, no separate demolition permit is required; the structural works permit for the A&A covers it.³ The structural works still need approved plans and a permit before work starts, applied for jointly by the developer, the QP and the builder; BCA’s stated processing time for the permit is 7 days.¹⁸ Starting without them is an offence under section 20 of the Building Control Act for anyone who carries out, permits or authorises the works, with a maximum fine of S$200,000, two years’ jail, or both.⁴

Demolishing a whole building

For demolition of a building, the Building Control Regulations require demolition works plans prepared by a QP. They consist of demolition plans and, where applicable, instrumentation and monitoring plans, and must be accompanied by an impact assessment report on neighbouring structures (including calculations for every element whose structural continuity will be cut) and calculations showing that floors can resist the debris load, or the load of the demolition machine plus debris where a machine is placed on the floor.³

Each demolition plan must show, as applicable:³

• the site plan and distances to adjacent buildings that are not being demolished;
• for each floor, the design imposed load, the demolition sequence and demolition zones, the method statement for handling and disposing of debris, the type and weight of any demolition machine, and the location of temporary ramps;
• the demolition sequence of all beams, columns, walls, slabs and edge parapets;
• shoring and temporary supports, protective hoardings, covered walkways, catch platforms, catch fans, scaffolding, screens and safety nets, the safe route of any machine, and anchorage details where a continuous beam is cut at a boundary;
• for monitoring, the instruments, frequency and duration, allowable vibration limits, and CCTV positions to monitor progress, especially for high-rise demolition.

The permit application for demolishing a building must be accompanied by a method statement detailing how the works will be carried out and an impact assessment report on surrounding buildings.³ Before demolition starts, the builder must carry out a pre-construction survey of the condition of adjacent buildings and structures and give each adjacent owner a copy of the report on their property; the investigation reports must recommend measures to prevent settlement or movement that could damage neighbouring buildings, and the builder must carry out every one of those measures.³

BCA issued a circular in 2022 titled “Enhanced requirements for ensuring the safety of demolition works”, which is cited in the 2026 revision of SS 557, the code of practice for demolition.⁶ We were not able to read the circular itself, so we do not summarise its thresholds here; your QP will apply its current requirements.

Strata buildings: what the MCST should insist on

In a 2014 advisory to management corporations, BCA said there had been cases of unauthorised demolition of structural elements during renovations, some resulting in Dangerous Building Orders on the MCST. It advised MCSTs that demolition of structural elements requires BCA plan approval, a permit and QP supervision; that renovation plans involving demolition of non-structural elements other than floor tiles should be endorsed by a PE certifying that no structural works are involved; that such demolition should be carried out by contractors with workers certified by BCA Academy; and that MCSTs should spot-check works. Whenever reinforcement bars are exposed, works should stop and a PE should be called in, with BCA notified.⁵ Our guide to MCST renovation approval covers the by-law side.

The WSH (Construction) Regulations on demolition

Permit-to-work

Part III of the WSH (Construction) Regulations lists demolition work as high-risk construction work, together with excavation and trenching deeper than 1.5 m, lifting operations with tower, mobile or crawler cranes, piling and tunnelling.¹ For these works the regulations set up a permit-to-work system:¹

No person may carry out high-risk construction work without a permit-to-work first issued by the project manager.¹ The WSH Council’s technical advisory notes that permits for demolition are typically issued floor by floor, so each floor is inspected before demolition starts on it.¹⁰

Part X: specific demolition duties

Part X places the duty on the occupier of the worksite to comply with regulations 70 to 76:¹

Source: WSH (Construction) Regulations 2007, Part X.¹

For worksites where the contract sum is under S$10 million, the occupier must also appoint a trained workplace safety and health co-ordinator; since 1 June 2024, failing to do so carries a fine of up to S$20,000, two years’ jail, or both (higher for repeat offenders).¹ Our guide on work-at-height law and occupier liability explains who counts as the occupier and principal, which matters because most of these duties sit with the occupier.

SS 557: the code of practice

SS 557 is the Singapore Standard code of practice for demolition. MOM told Parliament in July 2023 that SS 557 is an Approved Code of Practice setting standards for safe demolition.⁷ SS 557 was revised in 2026; the revision expands requirements before demolition across more structure types and methods and adds a clause on safe working zones. Its contents cover the demolition plan and stability report, temporary supports (including propping requirements when machines operate), health and safety, environmental factors, debris and waste handling, methods of demolition, stability-sensitive structures and special structures.⁶ The WSH Council’s demolition page still lists the 2010 edition,¹¹ so confirm with your PE which edition applies to your project.

The demolition method statement

The method statement is where the plan becomes a sequence of physical steps. It is required by regulation 72 whenever load-bearing elements are removed, it accompanies BCA’s permit application for demolishing a building, and debris handling must be covered in the demolition plans.¹³ After the Tanjong Pagar collapse, the WSH Council’s alert stated that a demolition method statement must be prepared by a PE and must ensure that the stability of walls, ceilings, slabs, beams and adjacent structures is determined before and during demolition, taking into account the design and internal elements of each portion.⁸

Keeping the structure stable during strip-out

Know what is load-bearing before anyone picks up a breaker

The WSH Council’s technical advisory describes a fatal case where a roof slab collapsed on a worker after the walls supporting it were largely demolished. The roof slab simply rested on brick walls; no props had been provided, and no competent person had assessed the slab and walls before demolition.¹⁰ A brick wall that looks like a partition can be carrying a slab, especially in older shophouses, extensions and buildings altered over decades. Verify against approved plans and site investigation, and where there is doubt, treat it as load-bearing until a PE says otherwise.

Prop first, then remove

Regulation 71 prohibits demolition where an adjacent structure may become unsafe unless shoring, bracing or other means keep it stable, and regulation 72 requires a PE’s method statement whenever load-bearing elements come out.¹ SS 557 includes a dedicated clause on temporary supports and a table on propping requirements during machine operation.⁶ On a strip-out, typical triggers for a PE-designed propping scheme are:

• forming a new opening in a load-bearing wall or slab;
• removing a beam, column or transfer element;
• demolishing walls that a slab or roof may be resting on;
• placing a mini-excavator or breaker on a suspended floor;
• stockpiling debris on a suspended floor.

Watch the floor loads

Debris is heavy and machines concentrate it. The Building Control Regulations require demolition plans to show that floors can resist debris loads, and machine loads where machines are used on floors.³ The WSH Council’s advisory says the safe working load, allowing for debris accumulation and machinery, should be determined by a PE, and floors must not be loaded beyond it; steel ramps and limits on debris build-up are among the precautions.¹⁰

An illustrative example shows the scale. Suppose (Illustrative) crushed concrete debris weighs about 15 kN/m³ when loose. A 0.5 m deep pile over a 4 m × 4 m patch weighs roughly 0.5 × 16 × 15 = 120 kN, or about 7.5 kN/m² over that patch. Compare that with the design imposed load for the floor, which the Building Control Regulations require demolition plans to state for each area.³ If the pile exceeds it, a single afternoon of hacking without debris removal can overload a suspended slab.

Work top-down and do not leave walls standing high

Regulation 73 requires work above each tier of floor beams to be completed before its supports are impaired, and, where hand tools are used, walls and partitions must not be left standing more than one storey above the uppermost floor where people are working.¹ The WSH Council’s alert after Tanjong Pagar recommended a top-down wall-hacking approach to reduce the chance of a large wall segment collapsing.⁸

Protect the neighbours and the people next door

Adjacent structures must be assessed before and during demolition.¹ In October 2025, answering a question on a different fatal wall collapse at a worksite in Toh Close, MOM told Parliament that existing safety requirements already require contractors to check the integrity of surrounding structures and to provide adequate shoring to prevent collapse during construction work.¹² In strip-outs inside live buildings, “neighbours” includes the tenants on the other side of a shared wall and the public in the corridor outside the hoarding; see our guide to working in live premises.

Know when to stop

BCA’s advice to MCSTs is a sound site rule anywhere: when reinforcement bars are exposed unexpectedly, stop, call a PE, and notify BCA.⁵ Other stop triggers include new cracking in slabs or walls, movement in props, unexpected services and suspected asbestos. Post-tensioned slabs need particular care, because cutting a tendon releases stored force; see our guide on hacking structural elements.

Dust, noise and the neighbours

Dust

Section 18 of the Environmental Public Health Act makes it an offence to fail to take reasonable precautions to protect people using any public place from flying dust or falling fragments during the erection, alteration, construction or demolition of any building. NEA’s code for environmental control officers lists the maximum fine as S$2,000 for a first offence, S$4,000 for a second and S$10,000 for a third and subsequent offence.¹⁵ The same code recommends water sprinklers or sprays, shielding, netting, covers and hoardings, netting or barriers on scaffolding of suitable height, prompt removal of debris, and lined debris chutes from upper floors; it also notes that open burning of construction waste is an offence.¹⁵

Occupiers of construction sites with a contract sum above S$10 million must appoint an environmental control officer: part-time up to S$50 million, full-time above that.¹⁵ Smaller strip-outs do not need one, but the dust offence applies to everyone.

Noise

Demolition is among the noisiest construction activities. NEA’s code for environmental control officers recommends restricting noisier activities such as piling, concreting and demolition to daytime, and specifies real-time noise meters for demolition and piling at the specified construction sites it covers.¹⁵ Statutory noise limits, permitted hours and building-specific rules for noisy works are set out in our guide to construction noise and working hours. In commercial buildings, the landlord’s permitted hours for hacking often decide the programme; our office reinstatement guide shows how much difference those hours make.

Asbestos before demolition

Older buildings can contain asbestos-containing materials that are harmless until they are broken up. The WSH (Asbestos) Regulations 2014 deal with them before the first wall comes down.¹³

• Survey duty. Before building works (defined to include demolition) start on a building for which no Certificate of Statutory Completion or Temporary Occupation Permit was issued on or after 1 January 1991, the employer or principal must receive a survey report from a competent person they appoint, stating whether asbestos or asbestos-containing material is fixed or installed in the building.¹³
• Conduct of the survey. The competent person must exercise care and diligence, take samples with the owner’s or occupier’s consent, and submit the report and test results within three months of appointment; the employer or principal must keep them for at least two years.¹³
• Removal before demolition. Where the survey (or the owner) indicates asbestos is present, the employer or principal must ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, that asbestos-removal work by an approved asbestos-removal contractor is completed before demolition starts.¹³
• Notification. The approved asbestos-removal contractor must notify MOM at least one week before starting, uploading the removal work plan and survey result, and afterwards submit the asbestos waste disposal certificate and an air monitoring report.¹⁴

For buildings completed later, MOM may still direct a survey where it has reason to believe asbestos may be present.¹³ Our guide on asbestos in renovation and strip-out covers identification, removal and costs in detail.

Waste disposal and licensed collectors

Demolition waste is a regulated waste stream, not general refuse.

• Licensed collection. NEA licenses general waste collectors by class, and lists construction and renovation debris under Class A, collected by licensed collectors. Check NEA’s list to confirm a collector’s licence covers the class you need.¹⁶
• Licensed destination. NEA has stated that renovation waste such as hacked concrete and tiles is industrial waste that must be sent to a licensed recycling facility and not mixed with general waste or recyclables, and that building bins are only for general waste and recyclables from the occupiers they serve.¹⁷
• Illegal dumping. In August 2021, a company director was fined S$18,000 for dumping renovation waste (hacked concrete and tiles in 231 jute bags) into bins serving premises in several areas. NEA stated that the maximum penalty for a first-time illegal dumping offence is a fine of up to S$10,000, up to 12 months’ jail, or both, rising for repeat offenders.¹⁷
• On site. NEA’s code asks that debris be stored properly, removed quickly rather than allowed to accumulate, and kept in skips accessible to waste vehicles.¹⁵
• Asbestos waste follows its own route, evidenced by the disposal certificate submitted to MOM.¹⁴

Ask your contractor for the collector’s licence details and for disposal tickets or records, and keep them with the project file. If a quotation for disposal looks too cheap, ask where the waste is going.

Owner’s checklist

Use our approval navigator for a first view of which approvals your works need. If the strip-out is the end of a lease, start with our office reinstatement guide and the late handback cost calculator.