Having a house in an alley on Nguyen Van Dau Street (Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City), Mr. Le Ha (45 years old) is usually busy with work and travels to the province a lot, so he took advantage of the past few days to come back and renovate his house to welcome Tet.

This is also the time when many people want to beautify, warm up and make their home more joyful. "I chose a company specializing in home repair, located in Tan Binh district, to repaint the walls and tile the floor. They finished in 3 days," said Mr. Ha.

Renovate for a lucky new year

Although this year's income is not as expected, Mr. Ha plans to decorate and prepare the house neatly for a prosperous new year. He said: "My family will buy chrysanthemums and paper flowers to display on the porch, buy watermelons and grapefruits and paste red paper, buy colored paper to decorate the altars of our ancestors. The apricot pots on the porch will have their leaves picked on the 15th day of the 12th lunar month."

Around December 23, he will scrub the candlesticks and clean the altar. He will not forget to buy white sand to replace the incense burner, incense to make the house fragrant, and prepare a plate of betel and areca nuts to burn incense. The family will hire a cleaning service to clean the house, wipe the windows...

Owning a 40m2 house with one ground floor and one upper floor in an alley on Nguyen Quy Anh Street (Tan Phu District), Ms. Phuong Trang (44 years old) said she planned to ask her younger brother to hire a service to paint the walls and re-tile the floor. If she has time, she will renovate the upper floor to make it more modern because the house has deteriorated after a long time of renting. "The company quoted a painting price of 70,000 VND/m2. We only painted the walls and tiled the floor because it's almost Tet," she said.

In a cool alley on Nam Ky Khoi Nghia Street (District 3), two young workers are carefully scraping off the old paint and sanding it to apply new paint to the fence of a villa. Before that, they trimmed and cut off the loose bougainvillea branches, revealing a blank wall that is easy to work on.

Sanding steadily in the spring sunshine, Mr. Dung (29 years old, painter, living in Binh Chanh district) said that his team is very busy these days. Standing next to him, Mr. Nguyen Huu Trang, a contractor, said: "The fence of this house is large, so we will probably finish it in two days. Usually, we accept construction work until around December 26. More complicated projects have to be postponed until January."

With nearly 30 years of experience in the construction and home repair industry, Mr. Nguyen Van Nhieu (60 years old, living in Phu Nhuan district) said that near Tet, many people have the need to renovate and repair their homes. His team of 7 people, including painters, electricians, plumbers, tilers, door and window repairmen... always tries to complete the work on schedule and with quality so that customers can enjoy Tet with peace of mind. "Working during Tet, seeing customers satisfied makes me happy," he laughed.

Free TV and cleaning package after repair

Carrying a small bucket of paint, meticulously painting the walls next to the windows, Mr. Nhieu said he would undertake repairs and renovations to houses and shops until December 28. The house in District 3 that he and a worker are currently repairing includes knocking down the middle wall to create a large window, painting white, and decorating the walls.

"Many customers also ask for advice on paint colors and floor tiles that suit their space and budget. We often provide color charts and explain the characteristics and advantages of the materials to make it easier for customers to choose," he said. Undertaking renovations for both townhouses and apartments, he said that painting and tiling floors in apartments is often simpler than in townhouses with elaborate structures.

Providing interior and exterior painting services, flooring, and some functional design, employee Huong of VQ Company (Go Vap District) said that the workers will come to the house to survey the price after a few hours of the customer calling and agreeing on the repair plan. "For the preliminary design, we do not charge extra, using a hand-drawn sketch of what the customer wants," she said.

Mr. Le Thanh Tien (NV company, Binh Thanh district), 10 years in the industry, said the price to repaint a wall is about 125,000 - 145,000 VND/m2 depending on the type of paint. He gave an example of an 80m2 apartment that will be completed in 4 - 5 days, with a two-year warranty. "We will paint one primer coat and two top coats. Customers can rest assured because we are committed to the schedule, otherwise we will deduct 20% of the contract value from the customer," he said.

An employee of VQ Company (Go Vap District) said that demand has increased in the last months of the year. "Vietnamese people have long had the habit of renovating their houses, decorating, and cleaning to welcome fortune. Customers choose to repair before Tet with the mentality that everything is new in the new year and usually do it 30-40 days before Tet."

This unit accepts many items such as handling cracked walls, mold, tiling, wallpaper, electrical systems, room expansion... In which the price for flooring is 160,000 - 500,000 VND/m2 depending on the structure and type of tile. The labor cost of about 60,000 VND/m2 will be added to the total cost.

To attract customers, some companies launch promotional packages that give away TVs and house cleaning after completion. VQ Company said that if the contract is around 100 million, it will support a cleaning package of several million VND. NV Company gives away a cleaning package and if the contract is from 900 million to 1 billion, it will give away a refrigerator worth 15 million VND, and if the contract is over 1.5 billion, it will give away a TV worth 20 million VND.

Lots of cleaning to do when Tet comes

With no need to renovate, many families choose a house cleaning package. When it comes to cleaning a house of more than 90 square meters with two rooms, Ms. Le Thi Tu (owner of a catering establishment in Hoc Mon) said that because there is a lot of work at the end of the year, she often asks someone to clean the house.

She said: "My house has just been renovated so cleaning is easy, just mopping the floor, doors, dusting, washing curtains... I often ask an acquaintance who specializes in cooking for parties and also cleaning the house for Tet, paying 500,000 VND."

According to her, if you hire a service company or book a schedule through a house cleaning app, the cost is cheaper, but it is not as convenient as using a familiar connection. The general cleaning price includes cleaning the living room, kitchen, porch, wiping tables and chairs, vacuuming, wiping doors, arranging furniture, wiping statues, sofas, shelves, cleaning trash cans... on average 70,000 VND/hour and the one-time service fee is 200,000 VND. Thus, a 2-hour rental costs a total of 340,000 VND.

In addition to hourly cleaning, many companies offer general cleaning services for floors, ceilings, interiors, odor treatment, disinfection... calculated based on floor area (total area of ​​all floors in the house). A small house costs 1.2 million VND in total, a 100m2 floor area costs about 2.1 million VND. To retain customers, TK Company (Binh Thanh District) offers a 10-20% discount for customers who continue to use the service monthly or quarterly.

Clean and decorate early to avoid rush.

According to Mr. Le Ha’s experience and advice from home repair and cleaning services, those in need should plan to renovate from the 11th lunar month or earlier to avoid having to run around. If something is not satisfactory, customers can request for corrections in time for Tet.

With cleaning and decorating, if we do it ourselves, we should "develop" it gradually to avoid messy hair. For example, homeowners can take advantage of a few free hours in December to arrange and remove old clothes one day; clean tables and chairs one day, wash curtains the other day, and buy flowers to arrange.